Nov 25 2014

Star Wars Black: Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight) by Hasbro

We all know that Luke Skywalker is an important character in the Star Wars Universe. Hell, he was certainly arguably the most important character until Lucas retconned Vader into that position. But it still feels like Hasbro is really over-pimping the hell out of Luke in the 6-inch Black line. The series of figures is still relatively young and yet here I am looking at the third version of the character and we’ve already seen pictures of the fourth (Hoth) Luke arriving soon in the next Deluxe Wave. I get it, Hasbro, but how about spacing out the Lukes and getting us a Lando? Or maybe a Princess Leia with her clothes on? The glut of Lukes is kind of getting out of hand, especially in the absense of so many other important characters, or even not so important characters that I’d still like to get figures of. Now, with all that having been said, I do have to admit that this version of “Jedi Luke” makes for a nice companion figure to the “Return of the Jedi” Vader that also shipped in this wave. Let’s take a look at Luke #3…

The package is a little worse for wear because I left it on the floor and the cat tried to open it. Actually it turned out that he just wanted the box to play with and not the figure inside. Well, there’s no accounting for taste. Anyway, the window box is exactly what we’ve seen for the last couple of figures in the wave. It’s a black box with a black tray and a mostly black figure inside and it’s called Black… that’s a lot of black!

So speaking of black, that’s really one of the few things worth mentioning about the figure. His Jedi Knight outfit is almost void of any notable detail apart from some sculpted wrinkles and seams. Seriously, this is one of the most nondescript figures I’ve seen in a while. To help things along, Hasbro included a removable piece for his tunic, which can be replaced with another piece that makes it look as if his flap is folded down.

I call it the Captain Kirk “Wrath of Khan” look. All it’s missing is a bloody handprint. I guess the extra tunic part is a nice touch, but you know what would have also been a nice touch? A FREAKING SOFT GOODS JEDI ROBE!!! Even the god damn original Kenner 3 3/4” version of this figure came with that! Seriously, there’s no excuse for leaving it out this time. I’m beginning to think we may not even see one with the “A New Hope” Obi-Wan when he comes out.

The head sculpt is OK, but it’s not great. It’s very gaunt and sickly looking, so maybe this is supposed to be Luke after he got the shit zapped out of him by Palpatine. The likeness is sort of there, they certainly got the chin dimple right, but it strikes me more as a caricature than anything else. It’s definitely my least favorite of all three Luke portraits in this line. In fact, I think the X-Wing Luke is the best, so I’d argue they’ve been getting progressively worse. Seems like it should be the other way around.

Anyway, the only other thing worth mentioning about Luke’s outfit is it has a separate belt with a hook that you can hang the lightsaber hilt on. Hey, at least that’s better than Darth Vader got. In fact, all the Luke figures in this line so far have had ways to carry the hilts on their belts, so that’s cool. Naturally the blade can come out of the hilt and Luke’s articulation allows him to wield the saber in both hands.

Speaking of articulation, Luke’s poseability is right in line with what we’ve been seeing all along. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. There is also a ball joint just above the waist and the neck has both a ball joint and a hinge. Luke is a pretty fun figure to pose and I’m happy to report no soft or mushy joints.

So, how does Jedi Luke fare against my 6-inch Black Litmus Test? He fails, because there’s virtually nothing about this figure that couldn’t have or hasn’t been done better in the smaller 3 3/4” scale. The lack of a soft goods Jedi robe is frankly inexcusable, especially for a figure that required so little sculpting and paintwork. Plus, I don’t see why Luke’s head sculpts are getting worse and not better. Both Luke and Vader are both similar in that they are not bad figures, just decidedly average. They strike me as missed opportunities and fine examples of how this 6-inch Black series continues to be wildly inconsistent.

Nov 20 2014

Transformers (2007 Movie): Ratchet by Hasbro

Well, we had a nice interlude with some new Generations figures and some Masterpiece offerings and now it’s back to dredging the toy totes in search of new fodder for Transformers Thursday. I’ve got a bunch of Bayformers that I’m getting rid of via Ebay and, like Scavenger here, you may see some of them turn up on what Thursdays we have remaining until the end of the year. Why? Because this will be my last chance to feature them before they’re gone. I usually send my unwanted Transformers to my nephew, but I don’t want to inflict these things on that poor kid, so maybe I can get some comic book money from them. Anyway, today we’re looking at Ratchet.

I’ve gone on record as liking the 2007 movie. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t what I wanted, but looking back at it, it actually seems like a quaint movie from a simpler time. A time before I realized that the franchise would be spun into three more terrible movies and that I would eventually give up and walk out of the last one. I didn’t even ask for my money back. I knew what hell I was walking into and I had no one to blame but myself. One of the few things the movies got right was keeping Ratchet as a doctor even if they did inexplicably change his alt mode from an ambulance to a Fire & Rescue vehicle. And to make matters worse, they made him puke green because… screw you Gwunners! Poor Ratchet’s character arc came full circle by the fourth movie in which he was horrifically murdered for no good reason other than to provide the final cause that drives Optimus Prime over the edge in his journey from hero to tragic war vet driven homicidal and insane by PTSD.

The 2007 Movie release of Ratchet is a Voyager sized figure and apart from being the color of regurgitated pea soup, it’s not a bad alt mode. I still don’t see the point of making him a Fire & Rescue truck over an ambulance since it’s pretty much the same vehicle just with different markings. The markings are red and look terrible against the green plastic. The detailing on it is pretty realistic and while the sculpt is rather soft in areas you can still make out neat little touches like the tools bracketed to the roof and the cabinets on the sides for life saving equipment. The wire frame guards on the front, back, and roof add some nice complexity to the design and you get a big spare tire near the back of the roof. All in all, this is a chunky and solid vehicle mode and it rolls along great. It’s worth noting that Ratchet was repainted as Rescue Ratchet, with G1 themed colors.

Transforming Ratchet isn’t terribly complex. The seaming on the sides of his truck mode suggest he’s a shell-former, but he isn’t at all. You do have to take the roof rack and spare tire off, but it can become a claw weapon or just attach to his back. The figure features some auto-morphing in the legs, but it’s hardly even noticeable. There’s also some clever stuff going on here, like the way his chest is formed by the upside down front of the car and the way his windshields split and travel to his back. There’s also some damn annoying stuff like the way the parts on the back of his thighs like to explode off of the figure when changing him. Those same pieces also do a lot to limit Ratchet’s leg articulation and in all honestly, I find Ratchet is better off if they’re just removed for robot mode.

One of the things I like about some of the 2007 toys was their inability to mimic the complexities of the movie designs. Instead we got some chunkier and more boxy robots that looked like a more sensible blending of the old school figures and the crazy new designs. Ratchet is definitely one of those toys. I actually really dig the way he looks. He’s stocky and powerful looking and actually resembles something we might have seen in the Unicron Trilogy rather than a statue made out of broken scissors and car parts.

The head sculpt is still a monstrosity, but in fairness it does resemble the character’s on screen portrait fairly well. Even the coloring doesn’t bother me as much in robot mode. What does bother me are those damn exposed screws on his shoulders. I hate when Hasbro does this with Transformers. Was there no way you could have put those screws in from the other side or plug them or do something with them?

Ratchet’s claw weapon doesn’t impress me, but it’s a serviceable use for the roof rack, I suppose. I’m glad you can just hang it off his back, though.

I’m still on the fence over whether or not Ratchet is getting dumped. I like the figure well enough, but with me unloading most of my Bayformers he won’t really have a place in my collection. I know I’m keeping Revenge of the Fallen Leader Optimus because I love that figure. If I can convince myself to just keep Ironhide, Bumblebee and Jazz, maybe it would be worthwhile just keeping the core Autobot team from the first movie. Maybe next time I’ll check out 2007 Movie Ironhide and see if it’s something I want to do.

And now for a couple of administrative notes… Next Thursday is Thanksgiving and as much as I am thankful for Transformers, I’m also thankful for a day off, so Transformers Thursday will return the following week. Hopefully I’ll have some new figures to look at by then, but if not it’ll be another trip to the Tote of Bayformers… and nobody is thankful for that!

There will also most likely be no new feature tomorrow as I have my studio torn apart for renovations. If the work is completed early, I may get to squeeze some work in, but if not I should definitely be back with content on Saturday.

Nov 18 2014

Marvel Universe Infinite: Hyperion by Hasbro

Yesterday I served up some DC Comics action figure loving so we might as well flip the coin today and look at Marvel. I still have a few Marvel Infinite figures hanging around and waiting to be opened and today’s offering goes all the way back to the initial wave of this curious re-branding of the 3 ¾-inch Marvel Universe line. It’s Hyperion and it’s a crazy coincidence that last year at this time I was looking at the Marvel Legends version of this character. Folks, I gotta be honest, I’m really pressed for time so today’s feature is mostly filler… Sorry, Hyperion… no offense. But yeah, mostly filler.

There’s the packaging. It’s been a couple of weeks since we looked at anything from Marvel Infinite so in case you forgot, I don’t like this packaging at all. About the only thing this has going for it is that it shows the figure off pretty well and it does indeed scream MARVEL! at you. Hyperion is not a character that I have a great affinity for. He turns up in my reading from time to time, I dig him well enough, but I don’t seek him out. I will say that it’s cool to get a figure of him in his more classic style costume, as we did with his Legends version, but at the same time I wish Hasbro had taken the opportunity to give us his darker and grittier Marvel NOW! costume.

If you’re familiar with the character than you should know what to expect here. If not, well Hyperion a pretty generic looking caped crusader. Oh wait, that’s the other guy. Hyperion always reminds me of Captain Marvel. Not Marvel’s Captain Marvel… DC’s Captain Marvel. You know, SHAZAM! Anyway, it’s obviously the red and yellow color pallet of his costume that causes my mind to make the connection. Hyperion is built on a very muscular buck and unlike the Legends figure, this one is sporting a little gold in the costume, particularly on the midriff. I dig it a lot. It just makes for a more visually interesting costume to me. Also, Hyperion’s cape is only attached by two pegs and is removable.

The portrait is very similar to the Legends head sculpt giving Hyperion a rather severe and somewhat pissed off visage. It’s possibly not quite as harsh as the larger figure, but he definitely looks displeased. I like it. There’s a lot of personality packed into this little head sculpt.

You get the same great articulation we’ve been seeing in most of the Infinite bodies. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, there swivels at the thighs and tops of the boots, and the ankles have both hinges and rockers. The torso features a ball joint just below the chest and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. My only gripe here is that there are some gaps in the swivels between the boots and his legs and they really bug me. I had this curious jointing phenomenon occur on one other Marvel Universe figure, but I can’t remember which one. Maybe Kang?

Yeah, like I said, today was mostly filler and I apologize. Hyperion is not a bad figure by any means, but I just can’t get terribly excited about the character. The figure tagged along as part of Wave 1 when I bought the assortment case and I’m cool with that. For me the 3 3/4″ Marvel line is all about universe building so any time I can add another character to my shelves, I’m happy, even if it is a character I don’t care all that much about. I’ll make up for phoning in today’s feature tomorrow with a look at something special…

Nov 15 2014

Star Wars Black: Darth Vader (Return of the Jedi) by Hasbro

Alrighty, It’s Saturday and I’m running into overtime, but I promised to end this week with another Star Wars Black figure and so here we are to take a look at Darth Vader. Obviously, the Dark Lord of the Sith was on a lot of collectors’ 6-inch scale want lists and Hasbro didn’t take too long to deliver him. However, they did go the somewhat controversial route of giving us a Return of the Jedi version with a removable mask. Was it a good call or will I be crying for a do-over? Let’s find out together!

There’s Vader in his box. As noted last time, Hasbro has done some tweaking to the SWB packaging, but it’s mostly just cosmetic. You still get a collector friendly window box that is happy standing on the shelf or hanging on the peg. To be honest, Vader doesn’t look all that impressive in his box, but I think that’s because he’s kind of all smooshed in there.

With Lord Vader out of the box and properly fluffed, I’m digging him a little more. The first thing that strikes me about the figure is how well the soft goods are executed. I remember back when the line was first announced the use of soft goods was one of the selling points for me. How’s that been working out so far? Not so great. We didn’t even get proper Jedi cloaks with Obi-Wan or Anakin… just skirts. Vader here, features a cloth inner garment, which wraps around his torso, flows under his belt and forms a skirt plus a nice flowing cape. The cape secured around the neck with an actual chain and also secured to the shoulder armor. The soft goods are far from perfect, but it is pretty much the selling point for me with this figure. Maybe it’s just because I’m so desperate to see mixed media used in this line to some advantage.

The sculpted detail on the rest of the figure’s body is fairly good. The suit has that great quilted leather texture and I dig the way the shoulder piece looks. Plus… oh, hell… I can’t do this anymore. How many Darth Vader figures have I owned over the years? I don’t even have a large Star Wars collection any longer and I’d still bet I have two dozen. The body sculpt here is passable, but is it better than some of the better 3 3/4” Vader’s. Not really. Regular readers should know my litmus test with the 6-inch Black line by now. Is the figure improved by the larger scale? Again, not really. The truth is there’s nothing here about the sculpt that really stands out as anything we haven’t seen before, but it’s certainly good work. Let’s move on to the portrait.

So, when I heard Hasbro was going with a removable helmet, I expected a soft and squishy train wreck of a sculpt. We did not get that, but there’s still something seriously off about it and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Granted, I’m not a Vader helmet expert and I can’t tell you all the little differences between the costumes. The red eyes are certainly off putting, because whatever the truth is about the costume, they always looked black on screen to me. Overall, I was expecting worse, but that doesn’t make it particularly great either.

Pop off the helmet and you get Anakin unmasked. Here again, I’m going to throw out a “meh.” It’s not bad, it’s not great, it just is. I think the sculpt on the face is actually pretty decent but it’s let down by the paint job. I’m particularly put off by the cartoony look of his eyes. What I do think is fairly impressive is the work they put into the little controls and doo-dads on the tray in front of his mouth.

Generally speaking, I don’t require a lot of articulation out of my Vader figures, but this guy features some competent poseability. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, but alas no bicep swivels. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, hinges in the ankles and we even get some lateral rockers in those ankles too! There’s a ball joint in the waist and a ball joint in the neck. On the downside, those hip joints are pretty loose and sometimes Vader can’t support his own weight when doing those wider stances.

Vader comes with his lightsaber and the blade is detachable so you can go for a lit or unlit look. The problem? There’s no way to attach the hilt to his belt. Seriously, Hasbro? How hard is it to put a peg and a peg hole on the figure? This kind of oversight really pisses me off, especially when they’ve released three Luke figures and all of them have had a lightsaber hilt that could attach to the belt. Grrr…

Armed with the knowledge that Hasbro went for the removable mask, I was expecting this figure to be pretty damn terrible. Now that it’s in hand, I wouldn’t call it terrible, but rather pretty average. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that going for the removable helmet on the first Vader in the line shows poor judgement on Hasbro’s part. Granted, I’m not sure if my issues with the helmet are caused by the fact that it’s removable or if this is the sculpt Hasbro would have went with otherwise, but either way it isn’t all it could have been and that really sums up the figure as a whole. It’s far from the worst figure we’ve got in the line, but a character as important as Vader deserved better than this. Still, it certainly won’t be the last Vader we get in this line, so better luck next time, Hasbro!

Nov 14 2014

Transformers: Masterpiece Optimus Prime (MP-10) by Takara-Hasbro, Part 2

Yes, folks, Transformers Thursday is bleeding over into Friday as I’m back to conclude my look at the Asian Market Reissue of MP-10. Yesterday we looked at the packaging, the bonus incentive, and Prime’s robot mode, today we’ll check out the alt mode, but before I get Prime transformed, let’s take a quick look at his trailer’s repair bay mode.

By opening the trailer and standing it on its end you get a repair bay for Prime’s robot mode. It’s funny, but the original G1 toy did this too and I never had any use for it or interest in it. But here, I think it looks so cool, I could easily see myself displaying the figure like this from time to time. There’s so much sculpted detail in the inside of the trailer! It’s also a little reminiscent of that Soul of Chogokin Mazinger Repair Bay that I wish I had the scratch to buy. There’s room for Prime’s weapons at the top corner of each side panel, but I prefer to keep his rifle in his back when not in use, and what sense does it make to put the energon ax up there when it just forms from his arm?

Take note of the teeny tiny Spike figure that comes with the set. He’s very simple, there isn’t even any paint on his creepy blank face, but a great little pack in, nonetheless. I love standing him on the shelf beside Prime because it gives such an awesome sense of scale. He can also sit inside the repair module, which I always called Teletran-1 when I was a kid. In addition to the opening canopy, Teletran has an articulated repair arm and a little rotating radar dish. I think the reason I love this set up so much is because I get a warm and fuzzy Micronaut vibe out of this whole thing, which makes sense because of the ties between that line and the original incarnations of the Transformers.

Transforming Prime into his cab mode is not nearly as difficult as I expected. Yeah, it gets a bit fiddly, but like all good Masterpiece Transformers, the engineering starts with the transformation of the original figure and then just tweaks it to make up for the better proportions and articulation of the figure. In this case, Prime’s grill is faked out, but everything else works in a manner very similar to the original toy with the complexity beefed up a lot. I consulted the instructions the first time to make sure I wasn’t going to break anything, but after that I was able to do it just fine on my own, which certainly points to a very intuitive transformation. There are a few scary parts, mainly where I’m extra careful about not scratching the chrome, but otherwise, it’s all good!

The resulting cab mode looks fantastic and makes the 20th Anniversary Prime’s alt mode look like a piece of crap by comparison. If you do everything correctly, the panels all line up and lock together perfectly and Prime can roll along on his wheels beautifully. The combination of chromed parts and silver paint looks just as fantastic here as it does on Prime’s chest. Also, I can’t help but keep appreciating the extended smokestacks. It may sound like a stupid little detail, but I’ve been deprived of those on my Prime toys for so long. They’re glorious!

You can also open one of the windshield panels on Prime’s cab and put the Spike figure inside and I’ll also refer back to the feature that allows Prime to carry his collapsed rifle in his back compartment while in truck mode. Neat!

The trailer hooks up to the cab via a couple of tabs set on a rotating platform so that the cab can turn independently of the trailer. The trailer is just a glorious love letter to the G1 toy only bigger and beefier. I love the detailed railings added to the two supports that fold out from underneath. The sculpted Autobot insignia on each side are fantastic and all the little detailing that I remember from my G1 toy are present. The result it a big truck that scales beautifully with the Autobot cars.

Speaking of which, the back of the trailer opens and there’s a ramp that pulls out and drops down. You can drive an Autobot car right up into there and close it up. I love this feature so much and it easily makes up for my quibbles about Prime being too tall in robot mode.

Before opening up the trailer, I’ll take the opportunity to point out that X-Transbots Krank (Not-Huffer) is fitted with notches so that he can link up with Prime’s trailer and pull it. Krank looks appropriately undersized compared to the trailer, but he can still pull it just fine! It’s a feature I’ve been wanting to try out ever since I got Krank and it’s a lot of fun to finally be able to do it.

I’ve already shown the trailer open as the repair bay, but here we are with it open as the horizontal base mode. You get all that same great sculpted goodness on the interior of the shell and a ramp so Autobot cars can drive up onto it and get a tune-up. Displaying the trailer this way also features two work stations where you can sit Spike. I think there’s something I’m forgetting… what is it?

Ah, Roller, the unsung Autobot! There’s really not a hell of a lot to say about this toy, other than it has a driver seat for the Spike figure and it rolls along on six wheels. He’s blue, which is at odds with the Sunbow animated appearance and for the life of me I can’t remember what color my old G1 Prime’s Roller was. Ah well…

You can mount Prime’s rifle on top of Roller and he can also pull Prime’s trailer. Well, take that, Huffer, I guess you’re not so special after all!

So, it’s been a long road to getting this guy into my collection and there’s no doubt that all that all that waiting was worthwhile… which is sort of a loaded compliment. While I was never prepared to pay the $300 this guy peaked at (I say peaked, but last I looked there were some jabronies actually asking $500+ for him on Amazon Marketplace) I did come close to paying $200 for him at one point and I’m very glad I didn’t. I’m not just saying that because I eventually got him for less, but because as amazing a toy as he is, he’s not worth it. Honestly, I’m not sure he’s worth the $160 I ended up paying, other than to finally get him in my collection and be done with it. I think the $100 MSRP on the TRU version was right on the money. I would have been comfortable walking into the store and paying that, but I wasn’t about to drive an hour one way to take a chance that they had one. Anywho, the bottom line is I love this figure and I had to have him. MP-10 is such an important figure for TranFans. It helped reboot the Masterpiece endeavor into a more cohesive line and it fixed a lot of mistakes made with MP-01. But ultimately, it’s undoubtedly the best version of the character on my shelf, and that’s saying something because I own a lot of Primes.

Nov 13 2014

Transformers: Masterpiece Optimus Prime (MP-10) by Takara-Hasbro, Part 1

Holy shit, Toyhounds, this acquisition has been a long time coming. I didn’t get in on the original release of MP-10 because I convinced myself I wasn’t going to collect the Masterpiece line. When I could finally hold out no more MP-10 was sold out everywhere and going for in excess of three bills on the secondary market. The Hasbro release of the figure granted me no better opportunities as there are no more TRU’s within my happy hunting grounds and even that version was getting scalped for ridiculous prices online. It seemed like owning MP-10 just wasn’t in the stars for me. Thankfully the tables turned in a most bizarre way…

Behold the Asian Exclusive MP-10 reissue based off the US Hasbro release. Say whaaaaat? Yeah, this is an odd duck. It’s the Hasbro version of MP-10 in the Hasbro packaging, but it was released for the Asian Marketplace. It was made readily available at all the usual collector-orientated online toy retailers and with a $159 price tag it may cost more than the TRU Exclusive, but it’s also a far sight better than the $200-300+ secondary market price that just about any version of the figure was selling for. At the time of this post it should still be available at many e-tailers.

I thought I was going to bemoan the fact that I was getting the figure in Hasbro packaging, rather than a box that matched all my other Takara MP figures, but once I removed this behemoth from the shipping box, I was simply in awe. The box is massive and the presentation is absolutely fantastic. I’m not crazy about the fact that the deco is reminiscent of some of the movie packaging, but there isn’t much of it as this box is mostly a giant window. It certainly isn’t as collector friendly as the straight up boxes that Takara uses, but with a little care and patience, I was able to preserve the packaging through the unboxing process. I originally thought it was going to go into the trash, but it looks so good that I’ve decided to save it and use it to hold the trailer and other goodies while Prime is displayed in robot mode. It also juuuust barely fits on the top shelf behind him and some of my other MP’s and will make a great backdrop.

This release of MP-10 also includes the bonus item, The Key to Vector Sigma, packaged separately in a little cardboard trapezoid box. This is a cool bonus, so long as you aren’t expecting anything amazing out of it. It’s basically a gold-plated diecast key stuck in a plastic orb. In my days as a much younger and more carefree nerd I could see myself wearing this on a chain around my neck and representing my G1 love to the world. My Cyber-Bling! Now, I have no idea what I’ll do with it. The truth is that if you’re pissed about already owning MP-10 and missing out on this incentive, don’t worry about it, you aren’t really missing much. Still, I think it’s certainly better than those collector coins that have come with some of my other MP figures. But enough about the packaging and extras… let’s get to the figure. Today I’m going to talk about Prime’s robot mode and tomorrow I’ll circle back and check out the trailer and alt mode.

So, for starters, I’ll say that the robot mode is pure money. I love the proportions and I’m so happy to see that the stacks haven’t been snipped as they were on my 20th Anniversary Prime. The sculpted panel lines, rivets, and other details look great, but they don’t overpower the figure’s somewhat animated aesthetic and to me that’s a very good thing. I like the mix of chrome and grey plastic and the red and blue both look gorgeous. The translucent yellow plastic in the pelvis is a nice touch too. The wheels in the legs aren’t completely concealed, but they are shrouded from view from the front. I thought the exposed connecting rods in the shoulders would bother me, but I was pleased to find you can close the gap and conceal them when Prime isn’t posing his arms too wildly. If I had one gripe about the overall look of the robot mode it would be that the doors on his chest don’t always close up properly, but I’ll get back to that in a bit.

After seeing the initial pictures of MP-10, I wasn’t too pleased with the scaling, but now that I have him standing beside my myriad of MP cars, I’m pretty OK with it. Some comparison pics will follow both parts of this feature. Suffice it to say, I would have liked a little less disparity between their heights. To me, characters like Prowl and Wheeljack should come up to at least the middle of Prime’s chest, but I appreciate that Takara wanted to keep the vehicle modes in scale and in the end I think they’ve won me over on this decision. Yeah, he is also a smidge taller than MP Grimlock, but let’s blame that on Grimlock and not Prime here.

The portrait here is very stylized and I like it a lot, but I don’t know that I prefer it over the head on my 20th Prime. It’s not so much a question of one being better than the other, but two very different versions of the head. That having been said, I find the head on MP-10 to be clean and beautifully painted. I particularly love the paint they used for the eyes and the fact that the antenna rotate. It’s definitely some great work and a great rendition of iconic Prime.

One thing that surprised me about this figure is how toyish some aspects of it seems. I’ve seen a lot of pictures of him, but didn’t know a lot about what to expect when I got him in hand. He feels a lot more like a toy than my 20th Prime and that’s in a lot of ways a good thing. I don’t have to worry about him taking a shelf dive because of diecast making him so poorly balanced. The joints are much easier to work with, making him so much more fun to play with. Anyone who’s tried to work with those ratchet joints in 20th Prime’s hips probably knows what I’m talking about. On the other side, there are some things about MP-10 that are disappointing for a figure at this price point. Seeing all those ugly exposed screws from the back is certainly one of them. It makes him feel like he isn’t quite in the same league as the MP Autobot cars.

As hinted at earlier, Prime’s chest opens up to reveal the Matrix of Leadership and damn, it looks spectacular when opened and on display. I’ve never been a huge fan of this gimmick in my Prime toys, but I think this figure just nails it almost perfectly. The Matrix itself is diecast and while it’s a little hard to dig out, it’s a great looking piece. Unfortunately, I find that the best way to get Prime’s chest to close up perfectly is to leave the Matrix out, which is not at all a big deal, although I may find myself occasionally displaying him with the chamber open and the Matrix exposed.

Naturally Prime comes with his trusty rifle and he can hold it quite comfortably in either hand thanks to the combination of a tab and hinged fingers. It’s a pretty light piece, so Prime has no trouble supporting it in pretty much any pose. And then there was this cool surprise…

The rifle can fold up and store in the compartment in Primes’ back. Nice!

You also get Prime’s energon ax, which is cast in translucent orange plastic and fits over the right fist. It’s a snug fit that makes me a little nervous pushing it on, especially with how fragile Prime’s fingers can be. His hinged index fingers have a habit of popping off, although they will pop right back on again. All in all, this weapon is not a bad looking effect, but I like the way the 20th Prime did this ax much better.

I’ll point out that if it sounds like I’m nit picking MP-10, you have to keep in mind that I’ve been waiting to get this figure for a long time and my expectations have been building like crazy, especially considering the insane prices I’ve considered paying for him. The truth is, I really do think this is an amazing figure and I’ve had loads of of fun playing with him since the day I unboxed him. As much as I still enjoy looking at my 20th Prime, I can’t say the same for that figure. Anyway, I’m running out of time and I’ve gone pretty long already, so I’m going to break here and pick it up tomorrow with a look at some of the trailer’s features and then Prime’s transformation and alt mode.

Nov 10 2014

Star Wars Black: Chewbacca by Hasbro

I’ve had the most recent wave of Star Wars Black 6-inch sitting on my receivings pile for a while now so I’m going to bookend this week with two of the figures from this assortment. No doubt, Hasbro has made some erratic character choices for the initial waves of the series. Three versions of Luke and where the hell is my C-3PO? Well, R2 may be waiting for his prissy counterpart, but at least this last wave has finally reunited Han Solo with his trusty shaggy chum, Chewbacca. I’ve been looking forward to this release ever since I opened Han, so let’s get to it…

Hasbro has made some tweaks to the packaging for this new wave, but the changes are mostly superficial. Chewy still comes in a black window box, which is designed to stand on the shelf or hang on a peg. The figure comes on a clear plastic tray and the packaging is still totally collector friendly. His bowcaster is mounted, partially disassembled, at his side. Of course, the changes are bound to piss off collectors who have been keeping their figures boxed and like to line them up on the shelf. Ah, but I pitch the boxes, so I care not!

So straightaway, I really dig the sculpt on this Wookie. Just looking at the figure and taking it all in, I think it looks great. Is it a huge improvement over any of the 3 3/4” Chewie offerings? Yeah, I think he is! I love the way his sculpted hair looks appropriately shaggy, particularly around his wrists and ankles and Hasbro did a nice job using that sculpted shag to conceal some of the jointing. I also dig the way they actually sculpted his hands and feet under all that hair. Look… Wookie Feet! (Remember that password, Kyle Katarn, it might come in handy later!) The bandolier strap and satchel are sculpted in a separate piece and if you want to remove it, you need only pop off Chewie’s head to do so. Oh yeah, did I mention he’s really freaking tall? Han barely comes up to his shoulders. Nice!

This figure has caught a lot of criticism over the head sculpt, most particularly the open mouth mid roar. Fans seem to have preferred Hasbro went with a more neutral expression. I’m actually quite pleased with the way the expression came out. It’s not quite a full roar, more like Chewie’s just talking. Whether I decide to pose him just standing next to Han or repelling a squad of Stormtroopers, I think the expression can work for either. In the end, I suppose it comes down to just a matter of taste.

The paint on the figure isn’t terribly complex. You get a couple shades to the fur which gives him a combination milk chocolate and dark chocolate look. Maybe the dark is a little too much on the upper legs, but it’s nothing I’m going to really complain about. There’s also some grey on his fingers and toes, which is something I’ve never noticed on any previous Chewie figures, but I like it. The only drastic departure from the fur is the metalic silver paint used for the cartridges and fixtures on his bandolier.

If I have one issue with Chewie it’s in the articulation, but before I get to that let’s run down the points. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and have swivel cuts in the thighs. Chewie features two sets of ball joints in the torso and a ball joint in the neck. What, no swivel cuts in the biceps? Yup, that’s disappointing. As I expected the sculpted hair certainly interferes with how much some of the joints will move, but you can still get a good amount of poses out of him. The head includes a generous triangle of hair that runs down his front and back. You can get a little movement left or right, but much more then that and his head will pop off. I think this was an issue of sculpt over articulation, and in hindsight Hasbro probably made the right choice.

In addition to his bandolier strap and pouch, Chewie comes with his trusty bowcaster. Hasbro has had its share of troubles recreating this weapon in the 3 3/4” scale but they did a pretty nice job on this larger one. It comes in two pieces with the bow pegging into the weapon. Some have reported problems with getting them to stay joined, but mine connects pretty firmly and seems to stay put unless I drop it. It’s a little tough to get Chewie’s right hand to grip it, but he can do it.

I absolutely love this figure! While there were a few compromises between sculpt and articulation, I think Hasbro hit all the right points and delivered an incredibly fun and great looking version of the big walking carpet. I found myself playing with him on my desk a lot longer than I have some of the other figures in this line and that’s always the best compliment I can give. In fact, he’s probably in my top four figures released in this line so far. What’s more he looks absolutely amazing when posed besides Han or crushing loads of Stormtroopers with his bare hands. I only hope that we eventually get a break apart C-3PO with a net so Chewie can carry him around on his back.

Saturday I’ll swing back to more Black with a look at The Dark Lord of the Sith himself!

Nov 8 2014

Star Wars Rebels: Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios and Stormtrooper Mission Pack by Hasbro

Hey, it’s a Saturday bonus feature! Why? Because I’m getting buried in new stuff and I really need to start getting caught up… so let’s talk some Star Wars…

Even after countless attempts I could never really get into The Clone Wars series, so I didn’t expect much from the new series, Rebels. Maybe low expectations were a good thing, because I’ve managed to stick with it through all five episodes and while the show has been hit and miss, I overall think it’s a fun and mostly harmless expansion to the Star Wars Universe. I think the best thing I can say about it is I genuinely like the characters and if you’re trying to get me to watch a show, that right there is more than half the battle. You know what else is half the battle? Actually getting the figures out on the pegs when the show premiers. Unfortunately, Hasbro seemed to miss that memo, but more on that in a minute.

If you aren’t familiar with the Mission Packs, they’re basically two packs of figures that feature the retro style 5-points of articulation. Hasbro has been producing these figures alongside the regular Star Wars lines, but it looks like this will be the only style of 3 3/4” Rebels figures for now, although some of the characters will be available single carded. This pair comes carded on a Stormtrooper style card with an insert showing character art for each of the figures and the new Star Wars Rebels logo up at the top of the card.

The back has a very brief blurb about the characters as well as a picture of most of the crew of The Ghost. Where’s Hera? Maybe she stayed on the ship when that photo was taken. Anyway, you’ll notice the bottom of the card shows other Mission Packs and all of them are characters from the Star Wars films and not Rebels and that’s because even after half a dozen episodes of the show, nobody seems to know when the line will hit the toy aisles. I know some people have found the vehicles at TRU as well as a three-pack including Kanan and Ezra, but I’ve yet to see them anywhere and this pack came from Amazon. And now rumors are percolating that most of the figures won’t be out until next year. Whaaaa? Anyway, enough about toy politics, let’s rip this pair open and check them out, starting with Zeb.

Zeb is a new species of alien from the Star Wars Universe called a Lasat, and I took a liking to his character after just a couple of episodes. If he looks familiar that’s because he’s based off Ralph McQuarrie’s original concept art for Chewbacca. A good deal of the Rebels art design is coming from unused and re-purposed McQuarrie designs and I like that a lot. You want to know something else I like a lot? This figure!

The animated style of the show transfers really well to action figure format and that’s especially the case with Zeb here. The sculpt is really well done, especially the portrait. There isn’t as much sculpted detail in the body, but that’s keeping in line with the animated look. The paint is also quite good. There’s not a lot of slop and the “shark” style logo on his shoulder armor is particularly sharp and clean. My only gripe about the quality is that there’s a good deal of mold flashing on my figure’s left foot. I had to clean that up with a razor.

Zeb comes with his weapon in its rifle mode. The weapon can convert to a few different configurations in the show and yeah it would have been nice to get all three in the pack, but maybe we’ll see those later on down the line.

And then there’s the Stormtrooper. I absolutely love the idea of releasing Mission Packs with one main character and one army builder. I know that Sabine will be coming in a similar pack. If Hasbro released the whole crew like this, I would happily by them to get myself an instant squad of these Stormtroopers. While the helmet is stylized to fit the show, the body looks pretty normal and the retro Kenner vibe that I’m getting off of this figure is palpable. Not palpatine… just palpable. Obviously there’s not a lot of paint on this guy, but what’s here is nice and sharp. In fact, the paint is a lot cleaner than what I saw on my Star Wars Black 3 3/4” Stormtrooper.

Naturally, the Stormtrooper comes with his E-11 blaster!

Articulation is exactly what I said earlier, you get five points on each. The arms rotate at the shoulders, the legs move forward and back at the hips and the heads turn. I can see this for what it is… cost cutting, and yet I have to say I kind of dig the retro feel on these and some of the other Mission Pack Star Wars figures. They may not be as fun to play with, but they do display great when lined up on the shelf and are probably less prone to avalanching than the more articulated figures.

I really dig these figures a lot and I hope Hasbro can get their act together and get more on the pegs soon, because I’m in for the whole crew. It’s too bad that they couldn’t have Street Dated the line for the launch of the cartoon. I also have to say that the way Hasbro is distributing these figures has me all sorts of confused. Some are in Mission Packs, some are bundled with ships, some are single carded. Are they all the same figures? Will a Kanan that I get in a two-pack be the same as a single carded? Will Zeb here be available as a single carded? The whole push behind these figures feels like a convalesced mess. C’mon, Hasbro, you’ve been marketing Star Wars figures for decades now. How did you drop the ball on this launch so badly?

Ok, time for me to go enjoy the rest of the weekend. I’ll be back Monday to keep the Star Wars goodness rolling along with a look at Star Wars Black 6-inch Scale Chewbacca!

Nov 3 2014

Marvel Infinite Series: Captain America and Iron Man by Hasbro

I try to work something Marvel into each week, but last week it just didn’t happen. As a result, I’m double dipping today and giving you two figures for the price of one feature. Ok, it’s not really about a sense of value and fairplay, it’s more because these are two pegwarmers from the first wave of Marvel Infinite and I’m not sure each is really worthy of his own feature. Today we’ll check out Captain America and Iron Man…

Wave 1 consisted of some really solid figures like Wasp, Hulk, Executioner, and then you had these guys. I can understand the need to keep main characters on the pegs, and this is an Avengers based series after all, but Cap and Iron Man figure fatigue was in full swing by the time these figures hit the pegs. This pair was quickly turning into the Bumblebee of the Hasbro Marvel line. Everywhere I went these were the only two I ever saw. Yeah, I still hate this packaging, so I’ll pass on ripping it apart figuratively and jump right it into doing so literally. Let’s start with Cap…

So, straight away I’m a little confused as to the context here. Logically I would have expected this one to be either a Marvel NOW! or Heroic Age Cap, but he’s clearly neither. Instead what we have seems to be fairly general “use him for whatever you want Cap.” The belt, boot cuffs and raised wings all make him feel like a more traditional appearance of the costume, but he lacks the texturing to the upper body that I usually associate with a Secret Wars era Cap. It’s also worth noting that he’s strapped into that tray so tight that my figure came out a little warped.

Now that’s not to say he’s a bad figure. In fact, the only thing I’m not terribly keen on are the protruding wings on his mask. They look more like tiny horns than wings. It’s like Rogers borrowed one of Daredevil’s masks and customized it. The coloring on the figure is particularly bright and the paintwork is clean. He also has all the great articulation of the more modern 3 3/4” Marvel bucks, which includes the swivels in the biceps as well as both at the thighs and the boots and the added hinge in the ball jointed neck. He even has lateral rockers in the ankles. Yup, Cap has got loads of poseability and he is damn fun to play with.

The shield is of the clip-on variety although I haven’t seen this particular one before. It’s dated 2011, but it has four sculpted squares inside the back of it. There’s no peg on it to secure to Cap’s back and no peghole there either, which is a disappointment. On the other hand, the paint on the front of the shield is immaculate.

Moving on to Iron Man, there’s no mistaking this version, as he’s donning the Heroic Age armor. I’m a big fan of this suit and I absolutely loved the Marvel Legends version from a little while back, so getting to add it to my 3 3/4” collection was a big deal for me. The figure feels like it should be a little bulkier, but otherwise it’s a really nice recreation of this suit in the smaller scale. The red and gold deco is gorgeous and he has the white and blue power points on his legs and hips as well as the Arc Reactor on his chest. You even get painted repulsors on the soles of his boots! He’s not quite as good as a scaled down version of the 6-inch figure, but he still looks great.

The articulation on Iron Man is a bit more limited than what we saw on Cap. There’s no waist swivel and no swivels in the lower legs. You do, however, still get the ankle rockers, which is always impressive to me when offered in this small scale. His left hand is sculpted flat as if firing off a repulsor blast, but because the wrists have only swivels and no hinges, it’s tough to get him into the firing position, at least not with his arm held straight out. His other hand is balled into a fist.

Iron Man comes with that ridiculous cone of energy effect part that we’ve seen time and time again. I can’t put into words how much I hate this thing and wish it would go away. It’s supposed to clip onto his wrist, but it doesn’t look like anything. I used to save these, now I just throw them away with the packaging.

If you’re new to collecting the Marvel 3 3/4” figures this pair can fill a couple of important slots and can be found clearanced at many online retailers for about $5 each. It’s a cheap and easy way to get the characters. They’re both certainly good figures, but long time collectors may find the Cap a little generic and redundant, whereas the Iron Man is certainly worth hunting down and picking up if you want a wide variety of Stark Tech armors in this scale. I picked these up as part of the entire wave a while back and I only now got around to opening them, so that should tell you something.

Oct 30 2014

Transformers Generations: Dreadwing (IDW Comic Pack) by Hasbro

Yes, it is indeed Transformers Thursday again and today I’m checking out the last figure I have from the Skids/Goldfire/Waspinator/Dreadwing wave. Dreadwing is a repaint of Stealth Bomber Megatron from what I believe was the last wave of comic packs. It’s a figure that I thought was pretty neat, but I was never sold on it as being Megatron. Nope, not even after having read the comic. If you want to start out in the proper context you can find that review HERE. And, holy shit, has it really been over a year since that figure came out??? Where does the time go? Anyway, I’m hoping that a new name, a fresh coat of paint, and some tweaks to the mold might make this release go down easier.

As always the concept behind these IDW Comic Pack’s is a thing of beauty. The figure comes packaged in his robot mode with a G1 inspired card and a reprint comic book serving as the character art. I can sum up this whole idea in one word: Yum! Besides being based off the IDW portrayal of the character, Dreadwing is also an homage to the Generation 2 toy, a tactical bomber bundled with a smaller jet named Smokescreen. I never did own that G2 toy, but at one point I owned the sexy black Japanese Beast Wars repaint of BB with Starscream, and I still own the Universe repaint of Dreadwing and Smokejumper, which is a far less interesting deco, but still a wonderful set of toys. Anyway, let’s kick things off with Dreadwing’s alt mode.

This stealth bomber alt mode looked good great before and still looks great here. If it’s your first time with the mold, you may find that getting all the panels to line up properly can be a bit of a chore as some of the tabs are prone to popping out unless you have everything positioned absolutely perfectly. Yes, there are a lot of seams running through the aircraft’s hull, but I find that it works well as panel lining and isn’t as terribly unsightly as it would be if it were on a car alt mode. There’s a tiny flip down landing gear on the front, but the aircraft really doesn’t need it to stand up properly.

While I think the black deco on the Megatron looked really good and certainly more appropriate, I can’t help but favor the purple and silver of this G2-inspired deco. It’s actually not as garish as some of the G2 decos, for that was a time when I’m convinced Hasbro design teams were getting high by huffing the fumes of neon highlighter markers. The deco is further enhanced by the bright red paint on the windows and the awesome G2-style Decepticon insignia neatly printed on either side of the cockpit area. Even the tips of the wings, where the translucent red plastic shows through the cracks, looks cool to me. It’s like this guy is pulsating with Energon.

I find transforming this mold to be a fidgety affair, thanks mostly to the flipping involved with the torso hings, but he’s much easier going into robot mode than the other way around. Parts-former alert! You do have to detach his wing tips, as they become the two halves of his arm cannon. His robot mode features a wide upper body with really broad shoulders and not much of a waist. Nonetheless, I think he looks great as long as he’s posed with a wide stance. I really dig the jet intakes on his shoulders and the way the cockpit splits to form his torso. Hasbro also graced this guy with a brand new head sculpt that is a perfect love letter to the original G2 toy. The high gloss paint on his new noggin looks great, I only wish that plate behind his head didn’t inhibit the light piping for his red visor. I did manage to get it to pop in few photos, but it wasn’t as easy as it could have been. Oh well, it’s still a fabulous portrait.

In robot mode, Dreadwing’s deco pays an even stronger homage to the G2 toy’s coloring. You get the same purple, silver, and red only now with an extra dose of mint blue-green in the limbs. The crazy decos of the 90’s are usually love it or hate it affairs. Personally, I have a lot of fondness for the Transformers decos, but not so much when they applied this sort of thing to the GI Joe line. Either way, I think this figure’s colors are gorgeous.

Dreadwing features some great articulation. The shoulders are ball jointed, the elbows are hinged, and he has swivels in the biceps. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. He also has a ball joint in the neck. The only thing I find conspicuously absent is a swivel at the waist. I should also note that the joints on my figure are unusually tight, which makes for a pleasant surprise.

I’m still on the fence over this mold’s arm cannon. Sometimes I dig it a lot and sometimes I think it looks like a forced use of kibble and takes away from the symmetry of the figure. I will say that I like it better on this figure because it isn’t trying to be a misguided homage to Megatron’s fusion cannon. In the end, I wish there was a way you could peg the two halves on his back just to get it out of the way when not using it as a cannon. Nonetheless, I will likely end up displaying the figure with the arm cannon attached.

If I were buying these IDW Comic Packs individually, instead of as entire waves, I certainly would have been happy to pass on the Megatron in favor of Dreadwing. I think it’s a great mold and while I think both figures look good, I’m much happier seeing this figure characterized as Dreadwing rather than Megatron. But hey, that’s just me. I don’t think you can really go wrong picking up either version and I’m certainly not sorry about having the Megatron in my collection.

And that wraps up what has been a pretty solid wave of Deluxes with two great original figures (Waspinator and Skids), a damn fine repaint (Dreadwing) and a mediocre repaint (Goldfire) that at least improved on the original release. On a side note, I am once again fresh out of new Transformers and you know what that means? Yup, next week I’ll be digging my sweaty mitts into a storage tote and feeling around for an older figure to review. Actually, it might not be random this time, as I’m thinking of sending another box of Transformers to my nephew so I may dig out some figures that I’m read to let go and give them a proper send off on FFZ before I pack them up. But fear not, I should have the current wave of IDW Deluxes in a couple of weeks, along with MP-14 Red Alert, so the interlude shouldn’t last too long.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

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