Jun 23 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy Legends: Drax the Destroyer by Hasbro

Happy Monday, Toyhounds. Things got a little derailed last week, so I’m trying to get back on track and actually looking at what’s landed on my doorstep over the last few weeks. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been two weeks since I looked at Star-Lord and I do believe a return to the Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy figures is long overdue. Today we’re looking at Drax the Destroyer!

As expected, Drax comes in a compact window box that can also hang on the pegs. Have I noted yet how odd I think it is that the flaps on these boxes are never taped? Well, they’re not. It must make it a lot easier for toy brigands to steel figures, BAF parts, and accessories. Drax doesn’t come with nearly as many extras as Star-Lord did, but his big bulk and the Groot BAF part fill up that tray quite nicely. I’ve got a pretty good idea from the trailers how the movie is going to treat most of the characters, but Drax is still a bit of a mystery to me. I’m really excited and curious to see how they’re going to handle him.

And there’s Drax in all his movie glory. Yes, this is actually the second time we’ve seen Drax in the modern Marvel Legends line, but this is the first time we’re getting the character as part of a complete team. The first thing I need to point out on this guy is that all of his tattoos are actually part of the sculpt, and I think that is amazing. It would have been so easy for Hasbro to reuse the old Drax body and paint him up, but they are clearly going all out for this wave. The pattern that covers his torso and extends to his arms and face is crazy complex and the combination of sculpt and paint make what could have been a pretty ordinary figure into a stand out deco. The pants feature a ton of sculpted detail as well and the boots are fantastic and even feature functional sheathes for his knives.

The portrait here has a passing resemblance to wrestler Dave Bautista in the Drax makeup. Either way, it’s definitely a well fleshed out sculpt with impressive definition to the facial features and more of those awesome tats.

Drax’s articulation is pretty much perfect for this line. The arms are ball jointed in the shoulders, double-hinged at the elbows, have swivels in the biceps and swivels and hinges in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double-hinged at the knees, have swivels in the thighs, and the ankles have both hinges and rockers. Drax can swivel at the waist, he has an ab crunch hinge in the torso and the head has both a hinge and a ball joint. On the downside, my Drax’s right elbow was stuck and I had to do some boiling. The hinge on the forearm gave it up pretty easily, but I’m still working on the hinge in the bicep.

In addition to the Groot BAF part, Drax comes with his two trusty daggers and these are very cool pieces. They’re each cast in simple silver plastic with no other paint operations, but they do have ornately sculpted handles and some decorations etched into the blades.

When Hasbro suggested that the Infinite Series of Marvel Legends would be more of a premium line of figures, I sure had my doubts. I think we saw glimmers of that coming to light in the Winter Soldier Wave and not so much in the Amazing Spider-Man 2 Wave. But here, in the Guardians of the Galaxy Wave, I think it’s on full display. Drax offered Hasbro many opportunities to cheap out, but they rose to the occasion and delivered a truly excellent figure. Just because of the simple nature of the character design, I thought it would be difficult to make a Drax figure that matched Star-Lord, but they stepped up. Stuck joints aside, Drax is a fantastic addition to this wave, and I’m all the more excited to keep opening these figures and assembling the team on my shelf. I’ll swing back to this series again on Friday with a look at Gamora.

Jun 22 2014

Star Wars: Jabba the Hutt’s Musical Extravaganza, Part 3: Jabba’s Dancers!

Today I’m going to wrap up the weekend with a look at Jabba’s Dancers, but before we get to the ladies, there’s one more Special Edition band member to cover… Introducing, Rappertunie on the growdi!

Unlike the rest of the figures in these features, Rappertunie was released later on in Hasbro’s Saga line and he was single carded with his instrument. While far more cartoony than Barquin and Doda, I still like this guy a lot. I think he fits the overall Star Wars creature aesthetic a lot more than Joh Yowza does. That may be because he was an actual puppet and not an awkward CGI model. At at a time when Hasbro was dishing out a lot of sub-par figures, this guy and his elaborate instrument felt like an amazing value. He’s also pretty benign to the whole “Jedi Rocks” scene. In fact, he’s probably the lowest profile member of the band. I’d say he needs a better agent, but his career was no doubt better off not being associated with that train wreck of a performance.

The figure features the standard 5-points of articulation, although Rappertunie is designed with pretty much one thing in mind and that’s sitting on his instrument and playing it. Unless you happen to have a 3 3/4’” scale bean bag chair and rack of ribs. You could probably make something happen with that. Hasbro went all out on this Rappertunie’s sculpt and the paintwork is superb as well. The instrument looks like a glorious kind of steampunk invention and there’s a detachable hose running from the instrument to the base.

And now we can move on to the dancing girls: Rystall, Greeata, and Lyn Me. These ladies were released as part of the Power of the Force 2 line in what was commonly referred to as a Cinema Scene pack. It was window boxed with the three figures standing against an illustrated backdrop from the film. I loved these packs and I’ve owned probably three or four of this one over the years. It’s just one of those items that come and go out of my collection over and over again because it’s so damn common and cheap. Let’s look at them each in turn.

With bright red hair, purple spots, and elephant feet, Rystall is one crazy looking chick. Nonetheless, Rule 34 tells me that there is someone, somewhere whacking it to an image of her. And judging by the way Boba Fett was flirting with her in the movie, I’m guessing I just found that someone. Rystall features nice coloring and a decent sculpt. The spotting on her skin is neat and reminds me of the markings of a Trill. Wiki nonsense tells me that Rystall’s entire family was a slave owned by an official in the Black Sun organization until Lando set them free in a game of cards. Because no matter how big the Universe is and how insignificant the character, everyone in Star Wars has to be connected to another in some way, right?

Next up is Greeata, the Rodian dancer. She easily has the best and most complex sculpt of the three dancers. Not only did Hasbro give her a really cool head sculpt, but they textured her entire body with creepy Rodian skin. They also did a particularly nice job with her outfit, or at least what little there is of it. In addition to the sash and bikini top, you get her bracelets, anklets, and necklace all impressively recreated for a figure from this time. You also have to love that mohawk that runs all the way down her back. Having read her backstory, I’m genuinely surprised to find that Greeata was not Greedo’s sister. That sounds like something the Expanded Universe couldn’t help itself from doing.

Last of is Lyn Me who is the Twi’lek. This figure should have been my favorite of the bunch, because I have a thing for Twi’lek slave dancers. See above Rule 34. Unfortunately, she comes out at the bottom of the trio for me. She looks rather stocky and it’s really hard to get her to stand without bending her over a bit. I appreciate that the wraps that make up her costume are all part of the sculpt, but the paint is a little sloppy. The head sculpt is Ok, but I think it could have been better. Lyn Me had some sort of crush on Boba Fett and followed him to Tatooine. I wonder what she thought of him macking on Rystall?

All in all, these dancers are pretty cool figures, although they’re fun factor is curtailed by the fact that their all a bit pre-posed. With their arms held straight and each one tossing their hip, there’s little you can do with them other than stand them in a line in your Jabba display in the manner in which they were packaged. Even the standard 5-points of articulation and added waist swivels don’t help that much. Still they serve as some decent window dressing.

Of course, even after three days and ten figures, I’m still not done yet. Jabba was quite the patron of the arts and there are more musicians to cover. Rest assured I’ll be revisiting this series in the future, as I’ve yet to touch on the percussion section of Jabba’s orchestra and I’ll probably throw in the POTF2 Oola for good measure. I should be getting a couple of boxes of my old stuff shipped from my brother in a few weeks that may or may not contain a cornucopia of Star Wars figures. It’ll be kind of nice to see more Star Wars features around here.

Jun 21 2014

Star Wars: Jabba the Hutt’s Musical Extravaganza, Part 2: The Rest of the Band!

Yesterday, I got swept away in nostalgia looking at the POTF2 versions of The Max Rebo band. Today, I spit in the face of nostalgia with a look at the extended members of the band from that dreaded Special Edition of Return of the Jedi. A lot of people will tell you that Greedo shooting first is the worst change Lucas made to these movies. Now, I agree that change profoundly altered a scene that commented deeply on Han Solo’s character. But to be honest, I didn’t even notice the change when I first saw it. What I couldn’t help but notice was a shitty cartoon character shoved in my face in the new song and dance number added to the Jabba’s Palace scene in Jedi. The whole thing felt like an out of place gag in what was originally an incredibly tense and scary act of the movie. Nevertheless, today I present you with… Barquin D’an, Doda Bodonawieedo, and Joh Yowza.

As we saw yesterday, in the late 90’s Hasbro took a cue from The Blues Brothers and embarked on a mission to get the band back together. But rather than do it in one clean and simple three-pack like Kenner did back in the day, they split them up into three separate 2-packs. If you wanted the Rebo Band, you had to buy the Special Edition band members as well. Why? Because, f’ck you! And because money. Yes, they were also available much later as a big box set Walmart exclusive, but we’re talking POTF2 here, peeps! Star Wars figures were making a huge comeback and dammit, collectors wanted their Rebo Band even if it meant sucking down the Special Edition dudes too. The breakdown of the two-packs went like this: Max Rebo came with the Bith, Barquin D’an; Droopy McCool came with the Rodian, Doda Bodonawieedo, and Sy Snoodles came with that insufferable piece of CGI’d shit, Joh Yowza. God, I hate that I know his name. Let’s take them in order…

First off is Baquin D’an. I’ve got no problem with this guy. He’s just a Bith musician blowing on his kloo horn. I once had the entire set of Creature Cantina Bith figures from the Modal Nodes that came in a really cool collector’s tin. I often wish I still had those, so getting this figure in my collection makes me happy. Sure, he’s partly responsible for playing the intro to the shameless spectacle “Jedi Rocks” but I’m not going to blame him for that because I like him. Did you know that Bith music is called Jizz? Now you do. You’re welcome.

Baquin is a pretty simple figure but I love him because he can fit in all sorts of displays. He has the usual 5-points of articulation, plus a waist swivel, and while he is pre-posed to be playing his horn, if you remove it you can make it look like he’s just holding a drink and socializing after the gig. He just makes for great alien rabble filler in any display you want to set up. The kloo horn is a pretty cool accessory and the mouth piece fits right into Baquin’s tiny little mouth hole. Did I mention their music is called Jizz? Once again, you’re welcome!

Next up is Doda Bodonawieedo, Baquin’s co-conspirator. I ain’t gonna lie, I dig this figure a lot too. He’s a demure Rodian wearing an orange tunic and for the time, he’s a pretty good sculpt. Doda shares the same articulation as Baquin right down to the waist swivel, although his tunic prevents his hip joints from doing him any good. Also, like Baquin, Doda is pre-posed to play his instrument, the sliterhorn, and if you take it away he also looks like he could be mingling at a party with a drink in his hand. I wish I still had those Cantina sets, they came with drink glasses. God, somebody keep me off of Ebay!

And then there’s Joh Yowza. F’ck this guy. I really liked the original “Lepti Nek” tune that the Rebo band played before Lucas butchered the scene. I actually had it on vinyl. It was a forty-five and I think I recall it having the original Ewok Celebration song on the flipside. I’m not joking! I used to get all hopped up on Pixie Sticks and rock out to that. Ahh… the 80’s! And then this guy came along, pushed Sy Snoodles out of the limelight and took a shit right in our ears. Even the figure is a travesty. This guy looks out of place even in a room of puppets and freaks. Did you know that his race is called Yuzzum, they are indigenous to Endor, and they were supposed to be featured in the movie alongside the Ewoks? At least we were spared that. I guess things could have been worse.

Joh Yowza is going right into the deepest depths of one of my darkest action figure totes and then possibly buried in the back yard. He’s a crappy looking figure based on an abomination of an idea. Better yet, when I get a new Rancor, I’m going to put Yowza in its mouth. The other two, Baquin and Doda, are actually pretty cool figures and I have no problem with them chilling in the back of my Rebo Band display providing some tasteful back up for the Club Remix of Lepti Nek that will most assuredly be playing in my Jabba Palace display.

Tomorrow, I’ve got one more Special Edition band member to look at and then we’ll wrap things up with a peek at Jabba’s Dancers.

Jun 20 2014

Star Wars: Jabba the Hutt’s Musical Extravaganza, Part 1: The Max Rebo Band!

I realize that I have a lot of new stuff that I should be getting to. I’ve got Marvel Legends and Kotobukiya and even a Hot Toys figure I’ve yet to feature. But I felt like going off the reservation for the rest of the week. I promise next week will be all new releases. In the meantime, join me for a three-parter weekend that will take us through (almost) all the players in the Musical Extravaganza Show that occurs in Jabba the Hutt’s palace on any given night. These features are sponsored by a fellow collector who was giving up a lot of ten figures at a price I just couldn’t refuse. Let’s kick it off today with The Max Rebo Band.

Max Rebo, Sy Snoodles, and Droopy McCool! These are not the Kenner originals, but rather from the late 90’s Power of the Force 2 two-packs that were associated with the dreaded Special Edition release of Return of the Jedi. Nonetheless, I can still remember that day as a kid when I first saw the originals. I think it was at a Sears, but I clearly remember skittering off to the toy aisle to see what I could find on the pegs when I was confronted with one of the most a-typical Star Wars figure sets that I had ever set my little kid eyes upon. It was a window box with the entire Max Rebo band laid out inside. I couldn’t believe that there were actually figures of these guys, complete with microphones and everything. I immediately entered full-on pleading and begging mode and after promising to mow the lawn for the next three weeks straight and engage in all manners of other menial child labor, my Dad agreed to get them for me. Of course, those figures are long gone. Max Rebo was one the most prized targets of my kleptomaniac dog, and who the hell knows what become of the others. So let’s check out these POTF2 versions.

Max Rebo! How many keyboard players get the whole band named after them? Rebo does! He’s just that good! Did you know his real name is Siiruulian Phantele and that he eventually joined the Rebel Alliance because they have the best food? Wiki says it so it must be true. What difference does it make? He’s a blue elephant wearing diapers that plays keyboard for an intergalactic crime boss. This figure appears to be quite close to the original Kenner mold, but the hands are a bit different and he’s got a large ring molded onto his belt to keep his diaper up. The paint is also a lot better here. Not only is that diaper painted, but the tips of his fingers are as well. He’s a really vibrant shade of blue and he has two little beady black eyes.

I can remember how cool I thought it was that the figure came out of his keyboard, partly because you got to see what the rest of him looked like, and partly because I had him going on all sorts of adventures with my other Star Wars figures. On more than one occasion the Han Solo and The Millennium Falcon was hired to get Rebo and his band to their next gig and The Empire was determined to stop them because The Empire is evil and hates music. Amazingly enough, Rebo features the standard 5-points of articulation as most vintage Star Wars figures, although he’s definitely pre-posed with one thing in mind… jamming on that keyboard… or waving hello to people.

Speaking of the keyboard, it’s one of the coolest Star Wars figure accessories ever. I can’t believe all the work that Kenner put into this thing. There’s never been anything else quite like it and this one appears to be pretty damn close to the Kenner original right down to the individual keys that can actually be pressed in. I think the paint apps on this new one are better. I don’t remember the silver fringe being painted on the original toy, but then it’s been a long time since I owned one.

Moving on to Droopy McCool, this figure also strikes me as a nice compromise between the original Kenner release and something new and improved. He still features that same pre-pose mold for playing his chidinkalu horn. The horn is a removable accessory, but if you take it away from him, he just looks like he’s miming playing it, so there isn’t much point. I suppose you could put a rifle in his hands and make it look like he’s going to blow his own head off. Musicians sometimes do that. But that would be sad, let’s not do that to Droopy.

Despite the pre-pose, the figure also features a sixth point of articulation, which is a swivel in the waist. It comes in handy for putting him in a half turn, depending on which side of Rebo’s organ you want him standing on. The biggest departure from the original Kenner figure is Droopy’s rather heavy handed paint wash to bring out all the creases in his flesh. At first I wasn’t too keen on it, but it’s grown on me, even if it isn’t terribly screen accurate.

Last up is the lead vocalist Sy Snoodles. I like to think of her as the Debbie Harry of the Star Wars Universe. Her figure definitely got the biggest facelift from the original Kenner version and that results in some good and some bad. On the good side, her legs are more stable. I can still remember having trouble getting the Kenner figure to stand. This Sy has legit action figure legs and she stands just fine. Like Droopy, she also features the standard 5-points of articulation, plus an added waist swivel, which was a lot more than the original figure had. On the downside, she’s clearly based on the Special Edition CGI model, which gives her a more stylized and cartoony look and she’s also missing the feather from the original puppet. All in all, I still like the figure a lot, but the omission of her microphone really confuses me and pisses me off. And damn, those loose microphones go for crazy money on the Ebays. I really need someone to 3D print me one of those damn things.

As far as action figures go, this is definitely an odd bunch. Clearly my love for this trio is fueled by nothing but hardcore nostalgia, but I don’t care because it’s so damn cool to have these characters in my collection again. The Rebo Band just may have been that first step where the Universe decided… Yup, every single damn character in the Star Wars movies is going ot get a figure. There was no turning back and that long journey has culminated in getting Bespin Ice Cream Maker Guy. But that’s a Feature for another day. A little while ago, I decided to start rebuilding my Jabba display with figures from all different series and this trio will certainly be a cornerstone of that display. The last release of Jabba and his throne is one of the few Star Wars figure sets that has been on display since the day I got it, and now I can finally start adding to it. Of course, it’s important to note that each of the Max Rebo band was bundled with one of the band’s extended members from the Special Edition and those are the figures that I’m going to look at tomorrow.

Jun 19 2014

Transformers (2007 Movie): Bumblebee (Classic Camero) by Hasbro

It’s Week-something-something of Transformers Thursday held hostage by the Bayformer menace. Christ, I’m getting tired of this! Age of Extinction comes out next week, so soon this will all be over and I can get back to featuring some Transformers that I actually want to look at. I should warn y’all that I’m in a real pissy mood today. Why I’m so put off isn’t important, but because I am, I’ve decided to break the randomness factor of TFT Bayformerpaloosa and channel my anger against a particular Bayformer that is worthy of my rage. It’s the original Bumblebee Deluxe figure from the 2007 movie. Holy hell… what a piece of crap!

I’ve had this figure since it was first released, so I’ve got no packaging to show you. Instead, I thought I’d spend the time to talk about the fact that a few nights ago I re-watched the movie for the first time in a while. I’ll also point out that it is now a day later, so I’m no longer the raging bastard that I was when I wrote the rest of this feature. Consider this an oasis of positivity before I start shitting all over the figure. So, I was a little surprised that I still genuinely enjoy this movie quite a bit. The two sequels have become films that I love to hate, or hate to love, depending on my mood, but this one is pretty alright. It’s not the Transformers movie I wanted, but it’s one that I can accept. I still love the introduction of Blackout destroying the US Army base, the fight between Barricade and Bumblebee is pretty cool, and the battle for Mission City injected a lot of the Transformer-on-Transformer action that I thought was missing from much of the rest of the film. The first time Optimus Prime transforms and speaks still gives me goosebumps. Hell, I even kinda liked Frenzy. Amazing special effects aside, ‘07 Transformers feels a lot like an 80’s movie in all the good ways. Deep down inside, it has heart, and while there’s a lot in it that I wish wasn’t there, I think it did an admirable job setting up for what could have been a great series of movies. I guess you could say it was a solid origins movie. I look back on it as a missed opportunity and it’s an especially fresh experience when you go back to it after watching the clusterf’ck that is Revenge of the Fallen. Ok, I’ve said my piece and now I’m returning you all to the original bad-tempered bitch-fest that is today’s article.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, what a piece of crap! What you’re seeing is the alt mode as good as it ever looked. Don’t try to tell me, “but Fig, it’s been a while, the springs have worn down.” Bullshit! This is what Bumblebee looked like the day I took him out of the package with his droopy, broken hood. Hasbro had plenty of those little rubber bands holding this mess together. And it took me about ten minutes of tweaking to get it to look this good, because it usually looks like this.

This is clearly what Bee should look like after Sam got wasted on Mojo’s pain meds, blacked out and hit a tree. And don’t tell me I got a bad one either. This is my second Deluxe Bumblebee from the first movie. They both had the same issue. There’s a lot of reasons this crap should piss me off, but the biggest is because I genuinely wanted a decent version of his classic Camero mode. I liked Classic Camero Bumblebee and it sucks that this is the figure we got out of it. It also falls prey to my greatest of toy pet peeves… if you can’t pull off a gimmick that works, don’t do it. This droopy hood is the fault of the stupid “auto-morph” bullshit, and as we’ll soon see, it doesn’t fare much better in robot mode. Had they left that out, the toy’s alt mode would have been fine. The mold isn’t bad at all and while I’m not at all a fan of the painted windows, I see a lot of wasted potential in this car mode. Let’s transform him and see if he fares any better in robot mode. Here’s a spoiler… HE DOESN’T!

This robot mode doesn’t look anything like Bumblebee did in the movie. The chest is inaccurate, the feet are too big, and he just looks all sorts of wrong. Again, thanks to how badly the “auto-morph” gimmick fails, I still have to make all sorts of adjustments on pieces that are supposed to pop into place, so why did they even bother? Those headlights never pop out right and I usually have to dig that Autobot insignia out to get it into position. Is he at least a decent Camero Transformer? I guess. I think my biggest gripe is that it doesn’t look like any thought went into the legs at all. They’re just the back half of the car pulled apart with a few minor tweaks. And guess what? They feature “auto-morph” bullshit as well. Also, the way the windshield hangs off Bee’s back to make the door wings work feels really forced.

As long as I’m spreading the anger and hate, I’ll save a little for myself. Bumblebee came with a pair of missile launchers. I found them while going through another tote a few months ago and put a note on them and put them in a baggie. Well, instead of walking over to the closet and putting them in the drawer where the movie figures are, I wound up just tossing them back into the tote that got buried in my closet. I blame the fact that I probably had quite a few Jamesons in me at the time. Either way, as a result, I didn’t include them in any of the shots. Suffice it to say, they can be attached on his car mode by pegging them into the back wheels, and they make up a pair of shoulder launchers for his robot mode. They’re neat, but they only serve to alienate the toy design from the movie design even more.

The above pictures say it all. That’s what his chest usually looks like after I transform him and the “auto-morph” gimmick fails. One headlight nipple almost never pops out. And I can’t think of a better photo for the end of today’s feature. After beating my head over what it is about this figure that is so wrong, I came up with just a general sense of uneven complexity. It looks like all the engineering went into making the auto-morph in the chest and the rest of the figure was just given no thought at all. It’s like the entire budget was blown on the upper half and the rest was given the engineering of a Legends Class. Maybe that’s a little harsh, but then I think back to how the “auto-morph” totally ruins the car mode. Blah! I want this figure to be good and it just isn’t. Hell, that even got me thinking. If a third party out there made a decent Classic Camero Bumblebee, I might be tempted to buy it. In the meantime, screw this goddamn figure. It’s not even good enough to get sent up to my nephew in Jersey.

Jun 16 2014

Marvel Legends Infinite: Black Widow and SHIELD Mandroid by Hasbro

So, in my excitement to get to Star-Lord last Monday I failed to do the right thing and wrap up the Winter Soldier wave of Legends first. And since I didn’t want to load this week down with three Legends figures, I decided I’d look at Widow today and then get back to the next Guardians Legends figure on Friday. Sound good? Black Widow was an absolute bitch to find and I eventually wound up buying her online for $35 shipped. It’s a lot for a figure that theoretically should be available in stores for $20 or less, but I never saw her on the pegs. Anyway, Widow also gave me the last piece I needed for the SHIELD Mandroid Build-A-Figure, so we’re going to look at both of them today.

Hasbro packed a lot of stuff into this box. In addition to the figure, you get an extra pair of hands, extra head, the huge Mandroid torso and his shoulder cannon. Like I said, it’s a lot of stuff, and yet it still seems like something is missing. We’ll come back to that.

Widow comes clad in her updated SHIELD bodysuit and looks fantastic. I’m not sure they did justice to her caboose, but as for the rest of her, Hasbro obviously put a lot of effort into detailing this sculpt. You get all sorts of stitching and piping on the suit itself, along with the zipper, the Widow insignia, and her bracelets for delivering her shocking Black Widow Sting! The coloring is also quite exceptional on this figure. What could have been just a simple black outfit features a wonderful mix of matte and gloss blacks to give the costume a lot of depth. The use of fine silver paintwork also picks out the buckles and zipper quite nicely. You also get the SHIELD emblem tampo on her shoulders and her individual fingers are painted to show off her fingerless gloves. The holsters are also nicely recreated, complete with the guns sculpted into place.

Wait, what? The guns are sculpted into her holsters? Well, where’s she going to put her real guns? Not a problem, because she doesn’t come with any guns. This omission has got to be one of the greatest WTF moments in recent Hasbro history and that’s really saying something. I cannot in any way imagine where that decision came from. Could it have been a cost cutting move? It seems unlikely, since there is any number of pistols that Hasbro could have repacked with this figure. Nonetheless, that’s the only reason I can possibly come up with. Sure, I have a lot of weapons in this scale I can loan her, but that’s hardly the point. Why even give her the extra pair of gun holding hands if you aren’t including any guns? It’s madness, I say… MADNESS!

As mentioned, you get two swappable heads so that you can make Avengers Widow or Winter Soldier Widow. Yeah, it’s not the same costume she wore in Avengers, but I still give Hasbro points for letting us do this since it’s as close to an Avengers Widow as we’re going to get. Both portraits are pretty good, although I would have preferred painted faces as the plastic looks a bit too waxy for my tastes. Despite shooting most of this feature with the Winter Soldier Head, I think the Avenger’s head is a slightly better likeness. But, I’m still happy with either one.

Widow’s articulation holds no surprises. The arms are ball jointed in the shoulders and at the elbows and wrists. Sadly, there are no bicep swivels, but I’m coming to expect that omission in Hasbro’s female figures these days. The ball joints in the elbows make up for that a little. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double-hinged at the knees, and feature swivels in the thighs. The ankles have both hinges and rockers. There is no waist swivel, but you do get a ball joint in the torso and again for the neck.

The SHIELD Mandroid is a formidable looking figure that recycles the legs from the Iron Monger BAF. I love both the design and execution of the sculpting on this guy. He has all sorts of panel lines and bolts and he brandishes a nice big SHIELD emblem right on the middle of his chest. His right arm features twin gatling guns and his left arm a bladed weapon and both have cables connecting them to the figure’s biceps. There’s also a shoulder mounted weapon that is easily removable. I also dig the plastic used here. It’s not that swirly shit they’ve used in the past. It looks and feels good.

Aesthetically, I give the Mandroid high marks, but when we get down to articulation, he fails miserably. The legs are fine, but the arms are severely limited. The points are there, but the sculpting interferes to inhibit any decent range of motion. I also found that once the head was attached, it was impossible to turn it, despite it being connected on a ball joint. He’ll make a fine display piece on the back shelf, but while I remember having loads of fun playing around with the BAF Iron Monger, I was quick to retire the Mandroid from my desk.

Black Widow continues to be a scalper’s dream and I’m not just talking about Ebay. She still hovers at between $45 and $50 on Amazon because, yes Amazon has long ago joined in on the scalper trade by inflating the prices of those harder to find figures. I’d cry bullshit, but then if they didn’t they’d probably just be sold out all the time, so at least it gives collectors a chance to buy her if they want to spend all that money. Word is that she is still due to get shipped in greater numbers this summer, so anyone hunting may still want to hold out for her resurgence on the pegs.

Jun 14 2014

Transformers: Masterpiece Grimlock (MP-03) TRU Exclusive (Reissue) by Hasbro, Part 2

And I’m back to wrap up my look at the thing of beauty that is MP-03 Grimlock. Yesterday we checked out his packaging and robot mode. Today we’ll look at his accessories and his Dino Mode! I know at least one of the Takara releases came with some pretty fun stuff including an apron and serving tray, a flame effect, and even the brain transfer helmet from the Sunbow cartoon. Since this is the second Hasbro release it seemed only natural that all those goodies would be packed into this box. Well they’re not. All you get are Grimmy’s weapons and a crown.

First we have the gun. It’s a simple black double barreled affair with clear extenders on the ends of the barrels. It’s designed to work with an LED in Grimlock’s right hand to light up. I like the gun well enough, but the lighting effect is pretty underwhelming. It fits snugly into the peg hole that is figure’s right hand, but there’s also an extra fixture for securing it into the more articulated left hand. Normally I tend to prefer my giant robots to have guns rather than swords, but in this case, it’s Grimlock… He seems better suited for a sword.

Hey, look at that… a sword! Grimmy’s edged weapon features a clear blade to again make use of that LED in the right hand. It works slightly better than the gun, but I would still have opted they left the electronics out of the figure and given us a chromed out blade instead of a transparent one. The sword still looks good in his hand, although I would argue that it should have been bigger. Unlike the gun, Grimlock can actually wield the sword with his wrist claw’s down, but if you want to angle it to the right or left, you’ll have to flip it back up.

Lastly, and of no particular interest to me is the crown. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice piece with a beautiful vac-metal gold finish and it fits on Grimlock’s noggin quite securely. Is it a fun little extra? Sure! Am I ever going to display the figure with it? Nope!

The accessories really don’t have a place on dino-mode Grimlock, so let’s put them aside and get with the transforming. Transforming this figure retains the same basic ideas of the original G1 figure. Some readers may remember that one of my common complaints about modern Grimlock figures has been the designers’ insistence on over complicating things. Here, the dino head still folds up from the back, the robot chest shifts down, the wings still close together to form the neck, and the feet flip around to become the tail. Sure, it’s more complex than that, especially when unfolding the tail from the feet, but at its heart, this is the same old transformation and it works great. There’s just enough complexity here to make it feel like a “masterpiece” level figure while still keeping things fun.

I loved Grimlock’s robot mode, but holy shit do I really love his dino mode. Grimlock is one of those few Transformers that is likely to find himself displayed as much in his alt mode as in his robot mode. I dare say, there are some collectors who may display him exclusively in his dinosaur form. As a result it was doubly important that Takara/Hasbro get this mode right, and they certainly did. Grimlock’s dino mode is as majestic and iconic as ever. The toy is packed with tiny details, like the jets on his back and that beautiful translucent neck that reveals all the gold vac-metal goodness within. This is one gorgeous robot dino!

There are also some really nice improvements, most notably the longer arms with ball joints at the shoulders, hinges at the elbows, and individually articulated fingers. Thanks to these new arms, dino-mode Grimlock can be a lot more expressive. I also love the balance on this figure. He can be easily displayed standing straight up or leaning forward as if running or ready to pounce.

Grimlock’s dino mode features a gimmick where if you flip the tail the head will tilt. It’s rubbish and much like the LED gimmick in the arm, I wish they had just left it out. It’s the kind of gimmick that you might find in a $20 Voyager Class toy, and I don’t think it belongs in a pricier Masterpiece figure. Thankfully, it doesn’t intrude on the toy too badly.

A much cooler and more useful gimmick is the ability to change the color of Grimlock’s eyes. Just open up the head and make the change from toy accurate to Sunbow accurate. The choice is yours! I’ll aslo take this opportunity to point out how awesome Grimlock’s metalized teeth are and that if you open his mouth you can see the flamethrower in his gullet. Bravo! On the downside, what the hell is up with those plugs on the right side of his face? Are those to cover up screw holes? Seems like they could have done that better.

But all gimmicks aside, I’ve found Grimlock to be a remarkably fun figure to play around with. I honestly thought that I would get more out of his robot mode, but I’m having just as much fun fiddling about with his dino mode. Choosing which mode to display him in is going to be tough!

I can’t deny I take a few issues with this figure. Some of the gimmicks don’t belong here, and some of the tabbing issues and the loose hips have the engineering on the figure starting to show their age. I don’t think he’s anywhere near as elegantly designed as the MP figures that Takara is putting out now, but that’s fair enough. The packaging may be new, but the figure may just be starting to show his wrinkles. That’s not to say I don’t love him because I sure as hell do. He looks fantastic on the shelf whether standing beside the MP Datsuns, chilling out with Krank and Stax, or squaring off against MMC’s Feralcons. I even think he doesn’t scale too badly with Classics Prime, if you like your Dinobots to be on the larger side. It’s difficult to say whether I would be as impressed had I dropped the $165 to $200 that the Takara version goes for, but at eighty bucks? ME GRIMLOCK TAKE THAT DEAL ANY DAY!

Jun 13 2014

Transformers: Masterpiece Grimlock (MP-03) TRU Exclusive (Reissue) by Hasbro, Part 1

Yeah, yeah… yesterday was Transformers Thursday, but since I had to skip last week, let’s keep the spotlight on the Transformers as we head into the weekend. Today I’m looking at a figure that needs no introduction. He’s Masterpiece Grimlock and he’s a figure that’s been around the block more times than I can keep track of. Suffice it to say, he’s had at least two Takara releases and this will be his second Hasbro release. I passed on him the first couple of times because I wasn’t collecting the MP stuff back then, but after acquiring a whole shelf full of the MP figures, I was recently poised to blow a lot of money on the Takara version. Something else came up that I wanted more and so I put it off only to have this second US release come out of nowhere. Now, normally the Hasbro MP releases don’t do me any good. They’re always Toys R Us Exclusives, there are no TRUs around here, and I could never get them online. Until now. The awesome guys over at The Allspark posted a heads up early one morning that Grimlock was up for order on TRU’s website, and I just happened to be online to get in on that hot robot dinosaur action. A few days later, MP Grimlock was finally mine. Today we’ll check out the packaging and the robot mode, and tomorrow we’ll look at the dino mode.

Grimlock comes in a box that is branded in a fashion similar to the Age of Extinction packages, and that’s a shame because I don’t like these at all. The plain white and red boxes are dull, with “Transformers” running down the side in what looks like a placeholder font. In fact, the whole box design feels like a placeholder. It’s like something the art department whipped up overnight just to see what the configuration of the box would look like with the intent of adding the actual artwork later on. I know times are tough at Hasbro. Maybe they had to fire their art design department. This kind of minimalist stuff works OK for the 6-inch Star Wars Black line, but here it just looks like garbage. Hell, the Third-Party Transformers I buy come in way better looking packages than these, and those aren’t even designed to sit on a store shelf and attract buyers. Nothing about Grimlock’s package screams premium Masterpiece Transformer to me.

Anyway, there’s a massive Autobot emblem on the front that wraps around to the side. There’s also an illustrated strip that wraps around the box with pictures of the toy. It still denotes Grimlock as MP-03, despite the fact that that numbering is getting more and more confusing. The box opens from the side and there’s a clear plastic tray, very similar to the Takara releases, holding the figure in robot mode and his accessories. So, I do really like the fact that this package is collector friendly. It’s also durable enough for storage and I prefer an actual box like this one to the window box used for the first Hasbro MP-03 release. It’s just the art design that puts me off. Let’s get the figure out and put the packaging behind us.

Holy hell! Out of the box, Grimlock is one impressive and formidable robot. He stands right about in line with my MP Soundwave and while he should be taller, the height is fine with me. The Masterpiece line has evolved quite a bit since the early figures, but I think Grimlock’s aesthetics fit right in with the more recent releases on my shelf. He strikes me as more of an update to the original toy than any attempt at a comic or animated inspired homage, and that’s Ok because he looks so damn good. The design is slavishly faithful to the G1 toy and everything on this guy is right where it should be only outfitted with better proportions. Yes, the proportions are fantastic, from the large feet to the powerful raised shoulders. Grimlock is an absolute beast of a robot.

Grimlock’s deco makes use of a lot of bare grey and black plastic. Of course, he wouldn’t be a true G1 Grimlock without the bling and MP-03 features plenty of that. The entire chest is metallic gold along with the claws on his wrists, and it contrasts beautifully with his dull utilitarian grey armor. But my favorite thing is the translucent plate on his chest that exposes all the intricate detailing behind it. Fantastic! The accents on the front of his legs are a mix of paint and tinted translucent plates and the glossy red paint on his pelvic area ties the whole figure together beautifully. Even on a shelf full of Masterpiece Transformers, Grimlock stands out from the crowd!

The portrait is also a slam dunk. Grimlock’s expressionless slab of a face is beautifully recreated. It’s amazing how much personality you can pack into nothing but a mouth plate and a visor. Out of the box the visor is red, to pay homage to the G1 toy, but you can activate a lever on the back to make it Sunbow blue. I think the red visor is more striking, but I may wind up going with the blue. Isn’t it nice to have options!

Besides looking amazing, Grimlock is lots of fun to play and features a wide range of articulation. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, they have swivels in the biceps, double-hinged elbows, and swivels and hinges in the wrists. The legs have universal movement at the hips, swivels at the top of the thighs, and powerful ratcheting hinges in the knees. There’s a little bit of rocker action in the ankles, but it seems to favor moving the foot outward rather than inward, so it doesn’t help a lot on those wide stances. Then again, my figure can’t do those without collapsing anyway, so maybe it doesn’t matter. Lastly, Grimlock features a generous ball joint in his neck, giving his head a very pleasing wide range of motion.

Alas, there are some blemishes on this beauty, so let’s talk about those. First off, the hip joints are all kinds of loosy goosy. Grimlock can stand just fine, but if I try to get him into a wide stance action pose, he’s going to wind up doing the splits. I understand there’s a fix for this that involves taking him apart and cleaning the joints. Maybe I’ll try that someday. In the meantime, an $80 collectible probably shouldn’t be having this kind of problem. I’ll also note that while playing around with him, Grimlock’s torso has come untabbed a few times. It isn’t a critical design flaw, but it can get irritating from time to time.

The other issues are more minor. First, Grimlock has a gimmick that makes an Autobot symbol appear in the window in his chest when he transforms. It sort of works, but the insignia always looks like it’s not quite all the way in place. It’s very close, but not quite. Second, the dino head is supposed to tab into his back but when you look at how shallow the slot is, it’s easy to see that it was never going to hold. As a result, the dino head has a habit of flopping around when I’m posing him. Again, all of these things are a little bothersome, but even when taken together they don’t add up to enough to really spoil my enjoyment of the figure.

Ok, I’ve gone long enough. Tomorrow I’ll take a look at his accessories and then we’ll get him transformed into his dino mode!

Jun 12 2014

Transformers (2007 Movie): Dropkick by Hasbro

Last Thursday I was in the middle of a whole G.I. Joe thang and Transformers Thursday got pre-empted. I had hoped I could come back to it this week and look at some Energon figures or maybe something from Armada, but no, the Bayformer Hostage Crisis continues. I think this is Week #7 but I may have passed out and lost count somewhere along the way. Either way, I’m looking at another movie toy. And so, I dug my mitts into the Bayformer Tote and pulled out… this guy.

I have no idea who this is. I’m guessing he’s another one of those Expanded Universe figures from the 2007 Movie. Hang on, while I hit the googles… OK, it’s… Dropkick? Really?? Part of the reason I’m starting to thin out my Transformers collection is because of figures like Dropkick here. I’m being totally honest when I say that I had no idea who he was when I pulled him from the tote, and yet at some point I walked into a store, pulled him off the peg and bought him. If I can’t even remember his name and I have no meaningful connection to the character, than I have to ask myself, why do I own him? Maybe he’s just a really bitchin’ toy? If he was, I’d probably know his name, but let’s press on and find out.

As we’ve already seen Dropkick is a pick-up truck. The sculpt isn’t bad, but maybe a little plain. He does have a really suspicious sliding knob on the cap in his truck bed. What’s that all about? Well, as you can see above, it’s a giant pincer claw that comes out of the tailgate. That doesn’t seem terribly practical. Don’t tailgate Dropkick or he’ll deploy his pincer and scratch your front quarter panels! Still, if you don’t like it you can take the whole thing out, giving Dropkick just a regular empty bed. Let me also point out here that Dropkick’s truck mode does not stay together well. I think a lot of it has to do with his spring loaded head and hood parts. He wants to pop apart at the slightest inclination and it’s almost impossible for me to get the roof or the passenger side door to stay tabbed into place all the way.

The deco here is kind of ugly. First off, he has a giant Decepticon insignia that takes up the entire hood and roof of the vehicle. Hey, Dropkick, ever hear the expression, “robots in disguise?” Why don’t you just paint a giant target on yourself? Optimus Prime ain’t no touchy-feely robot of peace in these movies. When he finds you, he’s probably going to rip off your face and blow a hole in the back of your head. But it isn’t the garish faction symbol that I find so ugly here, it’s the bare grey plastic that looks like all the paint has been stripped off and we’re look at a truck’s primer. It makes the toy look unfinished. The front bumper also looks like it’s screaming for some additional paint apps. Blah. Let’s transform him and see if the robot mode is any better.

Dropkick has some cool stuff going for him. I like the way his windows angle to form his chest. It’s a lot like the movie Optimus Prime design only executed better than it was on the 2007 Prime figure. There’s also a ton of intricate sculpting to seen behind those shields. I also dig the dual blasters that fold out under each hand. And while it took me a while to warm up to them, I’ve grown to like the “chicken-leg” aesthetic that came out of the movie designs.

On the downside, look at all that truck kibble up around the shoulders. It might not be so bad if those giant chunks of truck with the front wheels didn’t flop all over. Also, those doors are inexplicably spring-loaded so they automatically stick out like that. The ability to tuck those back would have cleaned up Dropkick’s profile a lot, but they just spring right back into position. I’ll also note here that Dropkick is yet another Transformer who’s shoulders will not stay pegged in for love or money. Before every single shot, I had to repeg those suckers back into place. Lastly, the torso mode could have used some more paint apps. All that sculpted detail looks so bland in that bare grey plastic. Hasbro put some wonderful paintwork into the Revenge of the Fallen toys, but they sure skimped a lot on these 2007 Movie figures.

I do like the head sculpt on Dropkick. It’s very simple and very un-movie-like. Instead of looking like some kind of rabid space bug, he just looks more like a proper 80’s Transformer with a mouth plate and a visor. The antenna on the sides of his head are cool and I like those droopy ear things on his “helmet” it makes him look like a sad Decepticon. Awww… It’ll be Ok, Dropkick! Here, have an energon cookie.

Dropkick is by no means a terrible figure. He’s got some personality to his design that makes it impossible for me to totally hate on him. Unfortunately, he’s also got plenty of issues that hold him back from being anything better than average at best. And that’s even after I’ve bumped him up a few points for being a Decepticon truck, because I usually love Decepticon trucks. I had to consider this one carefully. Do I keep him or pack him into a box bound for my nephew in New Jersey? It was a tough call. Especially with him looking up at me with that sad face. But in the end, I decided I didn’t really need him in my collection anymore. Sorry, Dropkick, you’re headed to the Garden State. It’s been nice knowing ya!

Jun 9 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy Legends: Star-Lord by Hasbro

To say I’m excited about the Guardians of the Galaxy movie would be a galactic understatement. After two amazing trailers and a lot of time spent re-reading the comics, I am seriously pumped for this movie. I was also really excited about the associated Marvel Legends wave, so much so that I picked up the case as soon as it went up for sale at Hasbrotoyshop. Sure, it meant getting a couple of doubles (the case has two Star-Lord and two Iron Man figures), but it worked out to only be about twenty bucks more than the single figure assortment at that other retailer. Either way, it also meant that I could instantly assemble the BAF Groot instead of worrying about hunting down one last figure like I had to do with the SHIELD Mandroid. I thought about covering this whole shebang in one week, but since I’m just coming off a theme week, I decided to parse them out to a couple figures a week. Let’s go right for the intended star of the movie… Peter Quill: Star-Lord!

The packaging here is right in line with the Legends Infinite Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Winter Soldier waves. The main difference is that this assortment pulls a lot more heavily from the movie whereas the others populated with comic characters at the expense of film-based figures. Seriously, Hasbro, no movie version of Falcon? Why would you do that? Anyway, I don’t have much new to say about the packaging other than I still dig the look of these window boxes and the fact that it’s totally collector friendly. I’ll also point out that Hasbro really packed a lot of shit into this package. Between the figure, extra head, accessories, and BAF part, there’s not a lot of free space left on that tray.

Star-Lord comes packaged with his masked head on, but I’m going to start out with the alternate unmasked head. But before we get to that, check this shit out…

Yeah, we have one of those rare examples where the actual figure is better than the package photos. In this case, the package photo shows a very different figure where the top of the trench coat is part of the torso sculpt and the bottom made up like a skirt on the bottom half of the figure, with an awkward waist swivel running right across the middle. It looks terrible. Thankfully, the final figure got the trench coat cast in soft plastic and attached to the buck with the arms sculpted to look like sleeves. Yeah, it’s the old sleeveless jacket trick, but it works great and is such a vast improvement over the crappy figure they photographed for the back of the box.

For what is basically a guy in a t-shirt, trousers and trench coat, Hasbro went all out on the details. Under the coat you can see all kinds of subtly sculpted pockets and texturing to the pants and he has the little jets, the ones we see used in the second trailer, sculpted and painted onto the outsides of his boots. The coat has a great weathered wash to it and again all sorts of little details. It’s also worth noting here that his loot satchel is a separate piece and easily removable.

The two portraits consist of Star-Lord masked and unmasked. The masked head is fantastic. I really dig the movie version of the mask and Hasbro did a beautiful job recreating it here for the figure. The detail is sharp and with the exception of some minor slop on the red goggle paint, the paintwork is immaculate.

The alternate unmasked head is quite good, but I don’t know that the likeness to Chris Pratt is all that great. The eyes are painted a little too intense and the paint for the beard, while certainly tidy enough, is a little too heavy handed. That having been said, it’s still a perfectly serviceable portrait and for what it’s worth the sculpting for the hair is particularly well done. All in all it works for me.

Star-Lord features the kind of articulation we’ve come to expect from the Marvel Legends line. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, double-hinged at the elbows, swivel at the biceps, and have swivels and hinges in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs, double-hinged knees, and both hinges and rockers in the ankles. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the torso and a ball joint in the neck. I will note that Star-Lord’s joints feel very soft and mushy. Those super soft joints are usually a huge pet peeve of mine, but here it just doesn’t seem to work against the figure at all.

Accessories! In addition to the extra head, loot satchel, and BAF part Star-Lord comes with some nice extras. First off, you get that orb that is so prominently featured in the trailers. What is it? Well, apart from probably being one of the Infinity Stones, I don’t know. Unfortunately, since Star-Lord’s hands are designed to hold his guns, it’s pretty tough to get him to hold the Orb. I’d argue that an extra hand would have been in order, but there’s so much stuff in this box already, I guess I’ll let it slide.

Next up, you get his Walkman and headphones and I think it’s a hoot that Hasbro included these. Sure, the headphones are way too big and no, there’s no cord connecting them to the Walkman, but I don’t care. I just love that I can have my Peter Quill figure chilling to some Blue Swede while standing on my shelf.

Lastly, you get his guns and these are absolutely bitchin. I presume they are meant to be the Kree weapons he uses in the comics. There’s still no sign that his Element Gun will appear in the movie. Nonetheless, I love these things! The designs are great, the sculpt is great, and the little touches of gold paintwork? Great! He can hold them well and he looks like a total badass while doing it.

Hot damn, this figure is so much fun to play around with! The guns alone had me posing him on my desk long after I’ve put most figures down. This guy is going to be standing on my desk for a long time before going off to the display shelf.

With the new boxes, shiny new branding, and heftier price tag, Hasbro has been trying to pass off Marvel Legends Infinite as a premium line of action figures. I liked all of the figures from the Winter Soldier and Spider-Man waves, but most of them felt more like regular Legends figures than anything super special. Star-Lord here certainly ups the ante. I think this is one of the better 6-inch figures that I’ve opened in a while. It’s clear that Hasbro put a lot of love into this figure and I’m very interested to see whether the rest of the wave can sustain that level of excellence. Either way, I’m glad this one came two per case, because now I can display him with both heads and all his different gear.

FigureFan Zero

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