Mar 25 2015

Star Wars Rebels: Sabine Wren and Stormtrooper (Mission Pack) and Ezra Bridger (Single-Carded) by Hasbro

The first season of Star Wars Rebels has been behind us for a little while now. It had its up and its downs, but it did manage to keep me watching and the final episodes had me in awe of what was easily some of the best Star Wars in this sort of media since The Original Trilogy. Seriously, I did not expect to like this show and I very nearly bailed on it a couple of times, but damn if it didn’t totally convert me with its charm and excitement, and really what higher praise can I give it? Hasbro, on the other hand, deserves only my scorn as they have totally dropped the ball with the distribution of the 3 3/4” figure line. I’ve yet to see a single figure on any peg anywhere and since they’re mostly only available online for scalper prices, I have to assume that distribution on these figures is pretty poor all over the place. A little while ago, I was able to pick up the Zeb and Stormtrooper Mission Pack at retail price, and I was able to get Ezra Bridger single-carded at regular retail, but I paid about five bucks over retail for the Mission Pack we’re looking at today. And yeah, I might as well check out Ezra today too, because these really are very simple figures. Let’s just go ahead and start with Ezra…

The packaging consists of a generous bubble mounted on a diecut card featuring a pretty banged up Stormtrooper helmet. The cardback is generic, but Hasbro makes use of a printed insert to denote the name of the character along with a little portrait in the lower corner. I like the presentation here, but I don’t love it. It’s a whole lot better than some of the stuff we’ve seen in the past and it’s definitely a lot more pleasing than some of the other Hasbro packaging on the shelves and pegs right now.

Out of the packet and Ezra presents as quite a solid representation of his on-screen counterpart. The character designs in the show aren’t my favorite, but they work for me a lot better than what we saw in Clone Wars and I’m to the point now where I’ve gotten used to them. Ezra features an orange jumpsuit with a sculpted vest and some sculpted armor on his lower right leg. It’s kind of a hodge-podge outfit, but seeing as how he’s an orphan on the run I guess it makes sense. The outfit certainly “fits” what we’ve seen in the Star Wars Universe as far as I’m concerned. The portrait is absolutely spot on perfect. I don’t think they could have done a better job with the likeness. The plastic quality feels good and the paint is surprisingly clean for such a small figure.

All the Rebels figures so far feature a retro-style five-points of articulation and that includes the three I’m looking at today. A lot of people hate this trend, but I’m almost ashamed to say that I’m kind of into it. I realize it’s just a ploy to cut costs, but I can’t deny a certain nostalgic feel to it, especially when it comes to the Rebels figures. There’s just something about it that really fits the style.

Ezra comes up pretty light in accessories department, and that’s disappointing. You do get his stolen Imperial helmet, which fits over Ezra’s head, but that’s it. Nothing else. No blaster, no lightsaber. Nada! Considering how small Ezra is compared to the other figures the lack of at least a gun is inexcusable to me. Ah well, I guess I’ll raid my totes and get him an E-11 Blaster.

Next up is the Sabine and Stormtrooper Mission Pack. The package deco is the same as the single-carded only with an insert featuring more pronounced character portraits. We already saw this packaging when I featured Zeb a little while back, so I’m just going to move on.

The Stormtrooper is the same figure that came with Zeb, but don’t think I’m dismissing him. I really love this mold as it manages to walk a fine line between the stylized look of the show and some fairly mainstream Stormies. The white plastic is nice and shiny and the paint is fairly sharp. Overall, I’d say it looks a lot better than the 3 3/4″ Stormtrooper that I got from the Black line. I love the idea of bundling the main characters with army builders like this and would love to see it catch on. I would have been perfectly fine if every one of the Ghost crew came with a Stormy. The usual 5-points of articulation applies and he comes with a pretty standard E-11 blaster, which he can hold in either hand.

And that brings us to Sabine. I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about this figure. On the one hand she looks great. Like Ezra, she’s a great representation of the onscreen character right down to the stylized contours of her Mandalorian helmet. The paint is pretty good and I like the way the sculpt has her ever so slightly leaning on one hip. I also really dig the fact that she comes with both her blasters and functional holsters too! Yeah, holsters aren’t usually a big deal anymore, not even in this scale, but for these retro-style figures it feels like going above and beyond.

Of course, the downside of this figure is the fact that the helmet isn’t removable and that plain sucks. Maybe they felt they couldn’t do it and keep the helmet normal sized. To be fair, Ezra’s helmet is rather large. Still, it’s going to be a crime if we don’t eventually get a figure of Sabine without her helmet on, since that’s the way we see her most often in the show.

So, slowly but surely I’m putting together this collection. I dig these figures a lot, but what I’m going through to find them at a fair price is ridiculous. It’s a shame I can’t just march into the local Big Box and grab these off the pegs for eight or nine bucks, because I would be all over them. Anyway, I now have a pair of Stormies and three of the Ghost’s crew. Kanan and The Inquisitor are both sitting in my POL over at BBTS and I’m just waiting to find a decent price on Agent Kallus and the AT-DP Driver. When Hera finally gets released, I’ll probably bite the bullet and pay through the nose, but Chopper can go f’ck right off. No way I’m paying the $25-30 that thing is selling for.

Mar 23 2015

Marvel Legends (Allfather Wave): Scarlet Witch by Hasbro

It’s Marvel, It’s Monday, it’s Marvel Monday! I know, I’m taking my sweet-ass time working my way through the Allfather Wave of Legends, but I’ve got a lot of stuff sitting here and waiting to be featured so I’m trying to spread the love around as best I can. Today’s figure of choice is Scarlet Witch, only because I’ve been watching the trailer for Age of Ultron a lot and I’m getting really interested in seeing how she’s going to make out in the movie-verse. Also, this is one of those sad examples where the previous Legends release (from Toybiz) was an atrocity cast in plastic. I can remember digging mine out of a tote a few years back and being so horrified over how bad the paint was that I literally tossed her into the garbage. Some of them Toybiz Legends just don’t hold up so well.

Here’s the packaging. It’s more or less the same as we’ve seen before, although this time instead of The Avengers logo at the top, it just says Marvel. It’s also worth noting that Scarlet Witch’s name only appears on the back of the box in rather subdued print. This is one of those variant swap-out instances where the slot, called Maidens of Might, is shared between Wanda Maximoff and Carol Danvers. I used to hate these, but now that Hasbro is releasing case assortments with both variants included, as opposed to running changes, I got no beef with them anymore. I picked up this wave in one shot and got everything I wanted. It does, however, still blow my mind that they’re selling a figure without the character’s name on the front of the box. Craziness!

Wanda comes donning her iconic (and totally sexy) red outfit, which gets by mostly with paint apps and a little bit of new sculpting. I don’t recall seeing the high-heeled boots before and there’s some original sculpting defining the edges to her top. The oogity-boogity hands, however, are the same pair we saw used for Judith Chambers from the 2013 SDCC Exclusive Thunderbolts set. They worked well there and they certainly suit Scarlet Witch perfectly. The red paint is quite vibrant and accompanied by purple paint for her stockings and the flesh tones. The paint lines are pretty sharp and there isn’t much in the way of slop or bleeding. The cape is sculpted to fall just short of her feet, but with a slightly wide stance it can be used to assist in standing, since those tiny heels don’t offer a lot of stability. And if you prefer to go sans cape, you can remove it just by popping the head.

Ms. Maximoff isn’t stunningly gorgeous, but she’s pretty and I think Hasbro did a fairly solid job with the portrait. It definitely looks a lot better from some angles. The full lips are particularly well defined and the paintwork on the face, right down to her green eyes, is neatly applied. Her tiara looks good enough to be a separate piece and I really dig what they did with her hair, both in terms of the sculpting and the paint highlights.

We’ve seen this female buck more than a few times, so the articulation should be pretty familiar by now, but I’ll run through it anyway. The arms feature a rotating hinge trifecta from her shoulders to elbows to wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and double hinged at the knees. There are swivels in the thighs and rotating hinges in the ankles. Wanda has a ball joint in her torso just below the chest and another in her neck.

Scarlet Witch comes with two magic effect parts. Many of you probably know I’ve never been a fan of Hasbro’s effect parts, but I really dig these. They’re basically like hoolahoops for her wrists. They clip on and present a nice mystical effect with translucent pinkish-purple plastic. Word is that these parts will be recycled for the Doctor Strange Legends figure and I couldn’t be more pleased to hear it.

This wit-chay woman is the third figure that I’ve opened in this wave of Legends and so far it has not disappointed. Scarlet Witch is a solid figure through and through, and with a lot of movie-goers about to get introduced to the character for the first time, it’s great to see her making an appearance in the toy aisles in her iconic comic book look. I’ll also say once again how happy I am that Hasbro is confining the whole variant thing to a single case so that these figures don’t become fodder for the scalpers. Or at least not as badly as what could have been. And speaking of variants, on the next Marvel Monday, I’ll go ahead and check out the other Maiden of Might… Captain Marvel!

Mar 19 2015

Transformers Combiner Wars: Motormaster by Hasbro

So far, I’ve only dipped my toe into the Combiner Wars line by picking up the Legends figures. I passed on the Hasbro Aerialbots in favor of the Takara versions, which should be coming my way later on in the Summer. The Stunticons, on the other hand… well, given my affinity for Decepticon cars, I just couldn’t resist these guys and even then it was after a lot of waffling because I wasn’t entirely pleased with what I was seeing in the official Hasbro photographs. Anyway, I decided to dive right in with Motormaster himself, so let’s check him out…

Hasbro really loves their black packaging! Motormaster comes in a mostly black window box which feels very un-Transformers-y to me despite the fact that it’s branded right along the right side of the front of the box. The artwork is kind of cool, though, and can’t say I’m totally hating on the deco. It does, however, have an awful lot of Autobot symbols on it for a Decepticon. Just saying! The back shows the other Stunticon figures and roughly how they combine together to form Menasor. Motormaster is packaged in his robot mode, but as you might have guessed already, I’m starting things off with his alt mode.

Motormaster is a very modern looking truck cab and not a bad one at that. I am getting flashbacks to Age of Extinction Galvatron, but then I rather liked his alt mode too. It’s not a particularly attractive vehicle, as there’s a lot of seaming on the sides and the sculpted detail is kind of soft, but I don’t need my Motormaster’s alt mode to be pretty, just so long as he’s a giant evil truck and this fits the bill. Everything locks together quite well, he rolls beautifully, and you can store his gun on his trailer hitch.

In cab mode, the paint (or lack there of) on this figure is disappointing, albeit Motormaster is helped by the fact that the gray base plastic matches his primary color. It doesn’t look nearly as bad as if, oh I don’t know, let’s say someone were to use this mold for Optimus Prime and leave unpainted gray plastic corners where red should be. That having been said, I’m still not a fan of the bare gray plastic, especially when I get a look at the little area of metallic gray paint on the back of the sides and get a sad glimmer of how good this truck could have looked. Also, the lack of purple paint on some of the windows really is inexcusable. On the flip side, there’s some nice silver paint on the grill along with a lovingly tampo a tiny Decepticon logo as a hood ornament. Also, the purple stripes on the sides help to give him a gloriously traditional Decepticon deco. All in all, I’d say the good outweighs the bad here, but I’m still going to take a hard look at Takara’s version to see if it will warrant some double-dipping.

Motormaster’s transformation isn’t ground-breaking. The legs form the back hitch area, the arms fold into the cab sides, the head flips out of the top. We’ve seen something like it countless times before with good old Optimus, albeit now with some tweaks. Let’s just say it’s a case of the same dance, different tune and it works just fine.

It’s in robot mode where I really begin to fall in love with this figure, possibly even more than he deserves. He’s a big and beefy bot and the oddly enough the proportions here don’t bother me, whereas they most definitely do on the Optimus version of the mold. With the exception of some extra packed kibble on his forearms, Motormaster sports a pretty clean robot mode and while he’s definitely a broad design, the backpack helps to give him a little depth and even things out. There’s a lot more sculpted detail to be seen in the robot mode than the cab mode, and I do like how they kept the overall shape of the torso in line with the look of the Sunbow character model.

The portrait is pretty much money. In my mind, you can’t have Motormaster without having that box around his head. The countours on the face might be a little too organic for my liking, but I’m not going to quibble about it when the reast of his noggin looks so good.

Motormaster’s coloring works much better for me in robot mode. The bare gray plastic is enhanced by some high gloss black and purple on the chest as well as a crisp Decepticon insignia. You get some more purple accents scattered about the figure and more black plastic, giving him a nice, traditional Decepticon look.

The articulation here is quite serviceable. The arms rotate and are hinged at the shoulders. The elbows are double hinged for transformation, but because of the sculpt, you can really only make use of one of those hinges for forward movement of the forearm. He legs are have universal movement at the hips and hinges at the knees. Motormaster can swivel at the waist and his neck is ball jointed. The hips feature nice ratchet joints to support the figure.

Motormaster comes with two weapons, a sword and a gun, both are complex sculpts and painted silver. They can also combine to form a larger sword, which is intended for Bruticus, but Motormaster actually looks fine wielding it himself.

I picked up Motormaster for $25, which I guess is about what Voyagers are going for these days. He’s a remarkably, and somewhat surprisingly, solid figure that’s only held back by Hasbro’s unending desire to cheap out when it comes to paint. I’ve always loved the idea of Motormaster as a character and it’s nice to see Hasbro finally give him his due again, especially when the figure turned out this good. You’ll notice I didn’t cover his torso mode, but I’m not going to bother with that until I’ve got a team of Stunticons to do it right. Not sure how long that will take, but I do know that next week on Transformers Thursday, I’ll be checking out Dragstrip!

Mar 16 2015

Marvel Legends (Allfather Wave): Hawkeye by Hasbro

I think I’m bringing back Marvel Mondays because I have a lot of these Legends figures to go through. I already checked out Thor and today I have randomly grabbed Hawkeye. We last saw Hawkeye in the Legends line back in 2013 when he was part of the Rocket Raccoon BAF Wave. Of course, that was his very modern look and this time we’re getting him in a far more classical style, so I’m not complaining about him turning up again so soon.

The package is identical to what we saw with Thor and features The Avengers logo up at the top. Hawkeye is not a big dude, and in this case that’s a good thing because the BAF torso that he’s bundled with takes up half the package and looks like it uses almost the same amount of plastic as the master archer himself. Not a lot more to say about the package except it’s totally collector friendly and I’m about to tear my way into it.

Hawkeye is built on one of the slighter bucks and relies mostly on paint and extra bits to make up his costume. His belt and harness are all sculpted in one piece that fits over his neck and snaps around his waist. The body is blue with the exception of his purple boots and his partially bare right arm. The odd thing here is the use of Winter Soldier’s artificial arm. I say it’s odd, but it still somehow works on the figure, kind of like a reinforced sleeve being used as an extension of an arm bracer. Even the extended trigger finger on the arm looks like it could be positioned to draw the string on his bow. The metallic purple paint used for the arm and his scaled chest and shoulder armor looks great.

The portrait here is serviceable, albeit rather soft. It also looks an awful lot like some of the masked Cap portrats we’ve seen in the past. I do, however, really dig the classical stylings of the helmet and mask. Clint is sporting his “H” on his head, which I always looked great alongside Cap with his “A.” I can’t hate on Hawkeye’s modern look, but I’ve always liked a little cheese in my comic book hero designs, so this is still my preference. I also like the way his mask wraps around his helmet and flares up just a bit over the ears.

Clint comes with repaints of the same quiver and arrow that Hasbro used for the last Hawkeye release. Both are painted purple to better match his classic uniform. They were nice accessories then and hey still are now. He can comfortably hold the bow in his right hand and the quiver will peg right into his back. I do wish they had included a loose arrow, that would have been a useful and inexpensive bonus.

Articulation here is pretty good, although some of the joints, particularly the elbow hinges feel rather soft. I also think they missed an opportunity by not using one of the bucks with the lateral hinges in the shoulders. Being an archer, increased arm mobility would have made a lot of sense for Hawkeye. Nonetheless, here’s the rundown… The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, swivels at the thighs and boots, and the ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. Clint can swivel at the waist, has an ab crunch hinge in his torso, and his neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

Even with that one unusual choice of parts reuse, Hawkeye is a damn cool figure and one that I’m glad to get on my Marvel shelf. He’s a great balance between the classic and modern designs and certainly one of my favorite looks for the character. Collectors who are sticklers about parts and accessory recycling may object to this guy out of principal, but I’m not going to quibble about it when the end result is this good.

Mar 12 2015

Transformers Generations: Chromia (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Last Thursday I checked out the long awaited official Hasbro release of Arcee, but she didn’t come alone. Nope, her gal pal Chromia arrived with her. I was originally going to pass on Chromia, as I wasn’t all that smitten with the official Hasbro pics that I saw on the InterTubes, but it was actually easier (and almost cheaper) for me to get these ladies as a set so I figured I might as well add the pair of them to my shelf. She’s apparently built off a heavily remolded version of TF:Prime Arcee, which is one of the few figures in that line I don’t actually own, so she’s actually going to be one hundred percent new to me.

Chromia comes in her robot mode in the usual delightfully G1-inspired IDW Comic Pack. I probably don’t have to go on any more about how much I love these things. Seriously, Hasbro, if you have any love for your fans you won’t keep these comic packs out of circulation for long. Bring them back as soon as you can!

Starting out with Chromia’s alt mode, she spends her time cruising the backstreets of Cybertron as a futuristic looking motorcycle. The analogies to a Tron Lightcycle have been done to death and for good reason because they are certainly warranted. It’s a great looking alt mode and I particularly like the translucent plastic pieces used to mount the front and back wheels. It almost creates the effect that they’re floating. I also dig the fact that while she’s got a clear “cockpit” it’s clearly not designed for an occupant, which reinforces that this is indeed a Cybertronian mode. The bike stays together quite well and it even has a little kick stand to allow it to be displayed in this mode without toppling over. I love the coloring here, but since it’s practically the same as in her robot mode, I’ll hold my gushing until then.

You also can attach Chromia’s gun to one of the sockets just behind the front wheel. It’s probably not the best looking or most strategic place for a gun, but it works OK for me.

In robot mode, Chromia is drop dead gorgeous. There’s a great blending of feminine form and great Japanese robot design. In fact, let me just get the only thing I don’t like here out of the way and that’s the back kibble. It’s not as bulky as Arcee’s, but it does look more awkward and that’s probably because it doesn’t form anything looking like a conventional backpack. I can get behind the two pieces angled over her shoulders, as I’d like to think those are thrusters for a jetpack, but the one wheel just hanging off of her puts me off. Fortunately everything else about this figure is just so beautiful that I can easily turn a blind eye to her backpack-kibbly-blemish. The bulkier aspects to her arms and lower legs feature some striking contours and they gel really nicely with the more womanly nature of her torso and thighs. She kind of reminds me of those Gundam Girl figures that I have sitting around waiting to be featured here.

The head sculpt is also great and very evocative of the G1 Autobot Femmebot aesthetic from the Sunbow cartoon. I like the complex nature of her “helmet” and while the amber light-piping in the eyes isn’t terribly pronounced, it looks mighty nice when I can get it to hit that sweet spot.

And then there’s the deco! Chromia is a mix of blue, powder blue, and white with a little red and black thrown in. She really reminds me of a female Blurr. The colors here are simply exquisite and the paint job is phenomenal. It’s not often these days that I can gush about the coloring on a Hasbro Transformer, but Chromia definitely deserves props for being one of the most strikingly colored Hasbro bots that I’ve seen in quite a while.

Chomia is slightly more articulated than her Autobot sister. She has ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, thighs, and neck. Her knees are hinged and she also has swivels up near the hips.

If there’s one place that Chromia is lacking its in the accessories. Then again she does come with a gun and that’s about what we usually get with our Deluxe Transformers. I think the only reason it seems conspicuous here is because Arcee came with so many weapons. There also isn’t as much interaction between accessories and figure, although Chromia’s one gun can clip to her lower legs for storage. The option is there, but I don’t fancy the way it looks too much.

Needless to say, Chromia is a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t terribly keen to get her, I wasn’t expecting much from her, and yet she really is a gorgeous figure and lots of fun to play with. If Hasbro could have found a way to make that back kibble work a little better for her, that could have helped. Surely, they could have turned that windshield into a shield or something? Ah, but why focus on one little flaw when the rest of the figure is so nearly perfect? I’m very glad I got her and I do hope that Hasbro takes a stab at delivering some more femmebots in the future because they certainly have a knack for it. What’s that? What about Windblade? Yeah, they can’t all be winners and I’ll get to her eventually.

Mar 9 2015

Marvel Legends (Allfather Wave): Thor by Hasbro

It was almost exactly three years ago that I featured Marvel Legends Thor from the initial wave of the line’s triumphant return. I was totally blown away by what a great figure Hasbro had built and it had me convinced that Hasbro was taking Legends in the right direction. And now here I am with dozens of these figures on my shelf and Hasbro is gracing us with another version of the Norse God of Thunder. This new Marvel NOW! Thor is heavily built on the previous Thor’s body, so you may want to take a glance at my review of Heroic Thor first, because I’m going to be doing a lot of comparisons.

The packaging sure has evolved nicely. The 2015 Legends are still coming in these wonderful window boxes with opening side flaps that allow you to remove the tray without damaging the box. The window displays the goods quite well and there’s even an extended back to the card that lets you hang it from a peg or stand it on a shelf. With Thor’s big bulk, two accessories, and BAF part, there is not a hell of a lot of room left on that tray! The back of the box shows the other figures in the wave needed to build The Allfather, or King Thor if you prefer, but nope… I’m building Odin, baby!

So, let’s start off with what’s recycled here. You get the same legs with a bit of a paint change. New Thor’s leg armor is painted black on the inside of his thighs whereas Heroic Age Thor’s were all silver. The silver paint used on the new Thor is also more vibrant. The torsos and capes are both reused from Heroic Age Thor, again with some little paint changes. NOW! Thor lacks the two extra silver disks painted near the bottom of his tunic and the sculpted disks on NOW! Thor are painted a brighter silver to match his chain mail legs. The belt buckle is now silver instead of bronze and while the sculpted piping on Heroic Age Thor’s tunic was painted bronze, This new Thor’s is left black. The biggest change below the neck is found in the arms, which are brand new sculpts. NOW! Thor casts off his chain mail sleeves from the Heroic Age outfit and goes full on bare arms with just a pair of black fingerless gloves.

And that brings us to the portrait. Both Thors seem to utilize the same face sculpt, which features a great, stern and powerful visage. That’s the face of a God that is about to smite you! The main differences lie in the helmet. Heroic Age Thor wore the more traditional skull cap with the feathered wings, which had its roots firmly set in his classic design. NOW! Thor features a more elaborate and far more modern helmet with metal wings and cheek protectors. It’s painted bright silver and it does indeed look glorious!

The articulation here is identical to what we saw with Heroic Age Thor, but let’s run through it anyway. The arms have swivel hinges at the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, and have swivels in the biceps. The legs have swivel hinges in the thighs and ankles, and double hinges in the knees. There’s a generous ball joint in the torso and another in the neck. For a bulky figure like this, the articulation is very good and there’s no mushy joints. He’s also nicely balanced even with that big cape.

As expected, Thor comes with Mjolnir and it’s just a repaint of the same accessory that came with Heroic Age Thor. The handle seems a little less bendy and it is a nice, hefty version of his trusty hammer.

You also get a sword and I really dig the sculpt on this beauty. Not sure I’m going to go the sword route when displaying him, but I’m not going to turn my nose up at such an awesome looking piece of 6-inch scale cutlery.

So, it should be no surprise that I love this figure. Sure, it’s just a variant of the Heroic Age version, but that was three years ago and I think Hasbro waited the appropriate amount of time to roll this new version out. As to which one is my favorite, well that’s a toughie. Heroic Age Thor has that more tarnished and armored up look to him that I really dig along with the classic style of the helmet. I also think that Heroic Thor totally nails the likeness to the character design of the time. Marvel NOW Thor, on the other hand is just gorgeous newness and the helmet and bare arm look nicely bridges the gap between comic and movieverse for a rather exciting look. Aw, I can’t choose which one I like more, so I’ll just be content to have them both!

Mar 5 2015

Transformers Generations: Arcee (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

It took me a while to get her, but Hasbro’s G1-style Arcee finally arrived at my doorstep last week, and only about 28 years late. It’s absolutely baffling that it took this long for the figure to be released, and don’t tell me it’s because of the whole, “boys don’t buy girl action figures” nonsense, because we’ve seen an Arcee figure many times over the decades, just never one this closely based on the G1 continuity. This gal’s the real thing!

Ah, the Generations Comic Pack. I guess we’re done seeing these for a while, at least on the pegs. I’ve still go a few of them to showcase here. There’s something so blissful about getting an action figure and comic book all in one tidy bundle and the deco of 2014’s Thrilling Thirty packages really hit my nostalgia right in the sweet spot. Granted, I wasn’t terribly keen on this comic’s story arc and it doesn’t do a great job spotlighting Arcee, but hey… free comic! I’m not going to scoff. Anyway, Arcee comes packaged in her robot mode, but as usual, I’m going to start with her alt mode.

And that alt mode is indeed a pink, white, and black Cybertronian convertible, and I’ll be damned if it ain’t great looking. The long, stylized hood is a little reminiscent of a 70’s Chevy Corvette and I love the fin protruding up from behind the seats. The driver area is pretty nicely detailed with a sculpted steering wheel and console and a translucent blue windshield. The coloring is excellent and that big, crisp Autobot emblem on her hood is pure love. All in all this is a pretty faithful recreation of Arcee’s Sunbow alt mode design. I can’t think of anything off hand that I would have improved on. Even the seaming on it isn’t bad so long as you take the time to make everything go where it’s supposed to.

Arcee comes with a plethora of weapons, I’ll look at those more closely in a bit, but all of the weapons can be attached to her car mode in one way or another. Her pink gone can clip under the back of the car plus there are two tabbing ports on the top near the trunk and two more on the sides. As is often the case, weaponinzing the alt mode can get a bit silly, but I must admit to being rather fond of just having the single cannon mounted above one of her rear wheels. It actually look like it’s designed to go there and not like a tacked on afterthought.

Moving on to transformation… are you familiar with the term “shellformer?” Hmmm? Sure you are! And that term is certainly applicable here. Now, you’ve got your shelformers that involve a whole lot of plates fitting together just right like a car-bag around a bundle of robot kibble. To me, those are the worst offenders. Arcee isn’t that bad, although she does basically wear her alt mode on her back. It folds out to form the car shell and the arms and legs fold in underneath. Normally I’d be pretty critical of this sort of thing, but lets not forget that Arcee is a toy based on a totally made up animation model and one that had to retain a certain femininity in robot mode. That’s a tall order for the engineering department and a $15 toy, and so I’ll be cutting Arcee some slack here.

Yes, that my friends is the G1 Arcee I know and love and looking at the feminine curves of her body, it’s easy to see why they had to go the shellformer root and why she wears the car on her back. Still, the way the figure is designed it really does look like Arcee wearing a backpack and I’m very much fine with that. The proportions are pretty good, although Arcee is definitely sporting some child bearing hips she still manages to have a slender waist, a curvy (almost organic looking) midriff, and a strategically placed angle in her chest plate to form them robot ta-ta’s. What’s impressive is that even with that bulky backpack, Arcee has no troubles with balance. The coloring here is more of the same, appropriately white and pink with a little blue and black trim to make things interesting.

The head sculpt is pure G1 love. I honestly wouldn’t change a thing. She has a cute little pink face, tiny painted lips, and the Princess Leia buns sculpted into her “helmet.” It’s certainly more Daniel-loving G1 Arcee than “You’re going to come home and find that I boiled your Petro-rabbit on the stove” IDW Arcee. That’s both G1 Transformers and a Glenn Close reference all rolled into one, kids… Weeee! Anyway, the head sculpt could be good or bad, depending on your personal tastes. Frankly, I never liked what IDW did with the character, so I dig it. Arcee also sports some really nice light-piping in those baby blue eyes of hers.

I don’t always bother running down all the articulation points in my Transformers, but in the case of Arcee it’s so damn impressive that I’m going to make an exception. Her arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, hinged at the elbows, and have swivels at the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, hinged at the knees and ankles, and have swivels in the thighs. There’s no articulation in the waist, but the neck is ball jointed. So Arcee isn’t loaded with a ton of points of articulation, but it’s what you can do with them that count. The joints have a great range of motion and they’re all firm and can hold poses really well.

How about those weapons? Arcee comes with a formidable little assortment of killing tools. You get a pair of blue energon swords, which I suppose can double as rifles. Or is that vice-versa? You also get a medium sized gun and a smaller pistol. She can hold any of these weapons in either hand, although the guns tend to sit rather high in her grip, making them look a little awkward when she’s wielding them. Arcee also has tab ports in her forearms and thighs so she can wear her weapons like they’re holstered or wield her blades on her arms.

Arcee is a great little figure made all the sweeter for how long we had to wait for her. Yeah, she’s a shellformer, and yeah she wears a car on her back, but she’s also happens to be a gal with plenty of charms. The sculpt and coloring are great and I was surprised at what a solid and stable figure she is to play around with. Is she enough to keep me from blowing $60 on MMC’s Azalea? Well, the jury’s still out on that one. What I will say is that for a $15 Deluxe I think Hasbro did right by us old-timer fans with this release. She looks really good hanging out with the likes of Generations Blurr and Kup, but it’s a pity she’s too undersized to hang out with her boyfriend, Springer.

Feb 27 2015

Marvel Legends: Ms Marvel, Captain America, and Radioactive Man (Target Exclusive) by Hasbro

I just got in the new Allfather Wave of Marvel Legends, but before moving on to opening those, I have unfinished business in the Legends Universe. Some time last year Hasbro rolled out this Marvel three-pack as a Target Exclusive. I saw it a couple times on the shelves, but it didn’t seem worth the fifty bones they were asking for it. As it turns out a lot of people felt the same way because the set piled up on clearance and I was eventually able to grab it off the website for about $33 shipped. Since then it’s sat in my closet waiting for just the right day to be opened. I guess today’s that day.

The figures come in a fairly impressive window box with “Collector’s Edition” across the top and the characters names on the bottom. The set itself doesn’t really have a name, which aggrevates my OCD just a bit. There’s some nice comic art on the side panels and the back of the box has pictures of the figures and blurbs about the characters. The whole ensemble is fairly collector friendly, as you can simply open the side flap and slide out the tray. Space being the valuable commodity that it is for me, I certainly won’t be keeping the box. Let’s start with Captain America…

Who’s up for a kit-bash? Collectors of the Legends line should find this figure pretty familiar as it’s just a repaint and remold of the Ultimates Cap that came out in 2013 as part of the Hit Monkey Wave. Apart from the paint, the most notable differences are his jacket being swapped out for a shoulder rig and the holstered pistol missing from his right hip. The new paint includes swapping out the gray pants for blue ones and stars painted on his shoulders. I liked the original release of this figure a lot, but this one? Mmm… not so much. The paint isn’t nearly as good as the Ultimates Cap and those stars on the shoulders were a bad idea because they’re painted right on the hinges and only line up if his arms are positioned a certain way.

Cap comes with two accessories: First you get an alternate head, which is the same one used on the Steve Rogers that was included in the initial Wave of Legends’ return back in 2012. It’s a great head sculpt and probably the best way to go when displaying this figure to at least set it apart from the Ultimates Cap. The other accessory is obviously his shield, which is the exact same one that was bundled with Ultimates Cap.

Now don’t get me wrong, the sculpt on this figure is still good and I still really dig the detail on his equipment belt. The articulation is also great and he is most definitely a fun figure to play around with. In the interest of getting through all three figures in one Feature, I won’t run down the articulation, but rather just refer you back to my look at the Ultimates Cap. If you don’t own that figure, this is a decent pick up, but I’d still recommend the predecessor.

Next up is Dr. Chen Lu, Radioactive Man, and we’ve got another figure borrowing heavily from Hasbro’s toychest. The most obvious is the reuse of the head from the 2012 comic version of Drax the Destroyer released as part of the Arnim Zola Wave. While I was all for getting a Radioactive Man in the Legends scale, when I heard about the reused noggin I did not expect to be receptive to this figure at all. Turns out I like it just fine. The green translucent plastic used for the buck makes for a nice effect and the I have to say the Drax head works surprisingly well for me. I really don’t have anything else to say, except that he comes with no accessories and features the standard Legends style articulation, which is to say it’s quite good.

In case you haven’t guessed by now, I saved the figure I was looking forward to the most for last. In fact, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that I pretty much bought this set to get Ms. Marvel. This version of Carol, in her Warbird costume, had a less than stellar Marvel Universe treatment (mostly due to terrible paint) back in 2010 and given Hasbro’s proclivity to double dip on a lot of characters in both scales, I’m surprised it took this long to get her. Was it worth the wait? Mostly.

Ms Marvel appears to be built on the female buck that I first encountered as part of the SDCC Exclusive Thunderbolts set and used for Moonstone and Judith Chambers. It’s a great body (har har) with solid articulation and no mushy hinges. From a quality standpoint, this figure exhibits a little sloppiness. There’s mold flashing hanging off her feet and some of the flesh paint on her thighs and arms manages to be uneven, chipping and gloppy all at the same time. I wouldn’t say the paint issue is terrible, but it isn’t great either. It’s one of those figures that you can look at and tell it was part of a multi-pack because the quality just doesn’t live up to the single carded figures. On the other hand, Carol makes up for some of the low points with a solid head sculpt and the paint on the face and the tampo of the gold lightning bolt on her chest is pretty crisp. She also features her trademark red scarf tied around her waist. In this case, it’s a molded piece of plastic that hangs loose on her hips.

I can’t say this set was a “must have,” but at a deep discount of about eleven bucks a figure, I’m fairly satisfied with the purchase. I think Ms Marvel would have been better had she been issued as a single carded figure, but even as she is, she gets the job done. Radioactive Man is certainly a nice addition to my Avengers Rogue Gallery and as for Cap, well I could have done without him. He’s an interesting variant, but unlike the other two figures, certainly not one that I would have purchased on his own.

Feb 26 2015

Transformers Generations: Legends Class Cosmos with Payload by Hasbro

It’s Transformers Thursday and I was going to look at Generations Arcee today, but I’m a little pressed for time. If only I had some more Legends Class figures to look at… Oh, wait. I do! I may be all out of Combiner Wars Legends, but I still have some unfinished business with the old Generations line. Today I’m looking at Cosmos and Payload. I couldn’t find this pair anywhere back when they first came out, but I was passing through the toy aisle the other day and there they were hanging on the pegs. Maybe the fine folks at WallyWorld were trying to get them out to make way for the Combiner Wars figures. Whatever the case, I’m glad to finally have him.

Ah, there’s the lovely Generations packaging. I’ve still got a few more of these two-packs to look at so we’ll see it again, but sadly not for much longer. I love the G1-inspired grid deco and the character art is great. And you can’t beat getting two Transformers for eleven bucks, even if one is a small and simple Minicon. It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Cosmos had his first Legends Class figure. I used to think that one was pretty good, but with this new one in hand, there’s hardly any comparison. Let’s start with his alt mode.

Yup, he’s still the little green saucer that we all knew and loved and I really dig the modern update. Cosmos has a pair of yellow engines in the back with a stylish tail fin. The front has a set of viewscreens on the central hub and a pair of guns peeking out from under the front of the disk. The coloring here is pretty simple. He’s mostly green with some yellow arrow decos orientating him to the front. Cosmos also features some great panel lining sculpted into the hull.

Of course, flying saucer alt modes are easy, it’s getting them to turn into decent robots… that’s the tough part. Nonetheless, Hasbro nailed this robot mode beautifully. The proportions are surprisingly good and it captures the Sunbow look of the character better than I could have possibly expected out of a figure in this scale. Some of the particularly cool touches are the way the guns are placed on his knees, the way the fin and engines form a little jetpack, and the windows landing on his chest. He’s also got sculpted guns on his forearms. The green and yellow coloring is pure Cosmos as is that marveous little head sculpt.

The articulation is quite good for such a little guy. You get ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, and hips and double hinges in the knees. Cosmos can also swivel at the waist and turn his head. Nice!

Cosmos’ little buddy, Payload, is one of my favorite of these bundled Minicons. It’s not that there’s anything particularly great about him, but I just happen to like the sculpt and the coloring and his simple little transformation, which produces a clean little robot mode. I also like the idea of having a little space shuttle to fly around with Cosmos.

Payload’s Targetmaster mode is also one of the better ones I’ve seen so far. It’s a double barreled gun which looks pretty good in Cosmos’ hand, although it does make him a little front heavy. It’s a lot of gun for a little guy, but I think it works even better when wielded by Deluxe Class figures. Damn, I really liked these Minicon Targetmasters. I wish they had carried over to the new line.

In the end I’ve got nothing but respect for this little figure. Cosmos hasn’t really been done right since his initial G1 release and I think this is the first time seeing him be all he could be. It’s all thanks to some clever engineering and that extra bit of love that Hasbro seems to have invested in these recent Legends Class figures. If I had one complaint it’s that the Legends Class scale keeps him from hanging out with the Deluxe Warpath and Bumblebee, and one day I’d still like to see all the old Mini-bots have their due as Deluxe Class toys. Still, at least he’s right at home chilling with Combiner Wars Powerglide and they do indeed look great together.

Feb 12 2015

Transformers Combiner Wars: Legends Class Thundercracker by Hasbro

It’s Transformers Thursday again and I’m spending it looking at the final figure from Wave 1 of the Combiner Wars Legends Classes. The Legends line has been a bright spot for me lately as I opted out of the Age of Extinction toys and now I’m doing the same with Robots in Disguise. So far, this Wave has been pretty solid with two excellent figures (Bombshell and Powerglide) and one that just squeaked by (Windcharger). Today’s figure is Thundercracker and it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that he’s a repaint of the Generations Legends Class Starscream. I’m a sucker for Seekers and Thundercracker was one of the first Transformers I got as a kid, so he has a special place in my heart.

I’ve said my piece about this new packaging. I don’t love it, but at least its not bland and totally black like a lot of Hasbro’s other lines of late. It looks like the art department actually spent some time on the design and ‘Cracker’s character art on the card is pretty damn sweet. This new method of securing the figures, on the other hand, well this shit has got to go. They aren’t rubber bands, they aren’t twist-ties, they’re just these insufferable little plastic wires like the ones often used to attach tags on clothes. They’re a pain in the ass and I hate them. Anyway, Thundercracker comes packaged in his robot mode, albeit a bit mis-transformed, but let’s kick it off with his alt mode first.

What was a great jet mode for Starscream is still a great one for Thundercracker. If you turn the jet over you can still see the arms and hands pretty clearly, but they aren’t obvious from the top. You still get a flip down front landing gear and there’s still a peg hole on top of the jet if you want to plug one of the Targetmaster Mini-cons into him. Starscream’s gray and light blue plastic has been replaced with dark navy blue and black and some of the red paint with silver. The cockpit is still gold and the paint on the wings is more or less the same, just a little more metallic this time around. Thundercracker’s Decepticon insignia are slightly bigger and shifted a bit closer to the main body of the jet. All in all, good stuff.

Thundercracker has the same easy transformation as Starscream, but it makes for a fantastic robot mode. The proportions are great and little touches, like the way the tail fins fold back really help streamline the design. I love the detail sculpted into the intakes on his chest and the head, which appears to be the same as Starscream’s, features an equally impressive and sharp sculpt. If I had one complaint, it would be that I wish the wing piece pegged into the back, but even without a peg, it holds in place pretty well. The deco in robot mode is very close to what we saw in jet mode only with a little more silver paint showing.

Articulation includes ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, and hips, and hinges in the knees and ankles all of which add up to a fun figure. The guns on his arms are pegged in so they can be positioned facing up or down, used as hand held guns, or removed entirely.

Hasbro did a great job with this mold the first time around, so it’s no surprise that Thundercracker makes me a happy Transfan aswell. This figure represents everything that I love about the Legends Class figures these days. He’s simple and fun and I’m mighty tempted to just carry him around in my pocket all day for when I get some down time. It really feels like Hasbro is pouring that extra love into this line and I hope it continues, because lately these little guys represent my only outlet for new Transformers outside of Masterpiece and Third Party stuff. Now, Hasbro, bust out that paint and get us a Legends Skywarp!

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: hasbro