Jan 29 2014

Star Wars Black: Han Solo by Hasbro

Well, it sure took me a while, but today I’m finally wrapping up my look at Wave 2 of Hasbro’s Star Wars Black 6-inch series. In this case, I’m starting and ending with my two favorite figures in the wave. As amazing as Boba Fett is, I think Han here is an equally fantastic figure. But enough with the introductions… boring conversation anyway… let’s dive right in! Yup, Han comes in the same black window box we’ve been seeing since Wave 1. With a collection of seven of these figures (don’t forget I skipped Maul!) I’m still keeping these in their collector friendly boxes on one of my bookshelves. As the collection grows, I may eventually have to deep six the packaging in favor of a tote or possibly give them their own shelf, but for now the boxes work great to display the figure as well as give me someplace to store the extra bits. And in the case of Han, there are indeed a fair number of extra bits. Han comes wearing his Stormtrooper belt, but we’re starting out with just the regular base figure. Obviously, this is “A New Hope” Han, which straightaway makes me a happy camper. I’m looking forward to completing an “The Original 12” in this line and Han brings me one step closer to that. But besides that, I really think Hasbro needs to be focusing on the most iconic characters from the Original Trilogy and once again Han fits that bill perfectly. He comes sculpted in his original smugglers outfit, complete with rumpled shirt, soft plastic vest, and high boots. You also get a choice of belts to change him from Cantina dwelling Han to Death Star escape Han, but we’ll get to those in a moment. First, let’s talk likeness… Harrison Ford must be a tough actor to sculpt correctly because companies have been trying it for decades and few ever seem to get it quite right. Hasbro has had their wins and opps in the 3 ¾” scale, but even companies like Sideshow and Hot Toys have had their issues getting it just right on far more expensive figures. I can still remember having to pass on Hot Toys’ Indiana Jones, a figure I desperately wanted. In the end I couldn’t justify spending the money because the likeness just wasn’t where it needed to be for a figure in that price range. With all that having been said, I think the portrait on Black’s Han Solo is pretty solid for the scale and price range. A lot depends on which way you’re looking at him. It’s like all of the key features are in place, but at some angles it doesn’t always add up to Ford’s likeness. It’s not bad, though, and I’m pretty content with it. In terms of articulation, Han comes equipped with all the poseability I need in my outer space action hero. You get ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, and hips. The knees are double-hinged and the ankles are both hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the chest that is really far down and close to his waist, and yet still provides a good degree of movement for the torso. Lastly, the neck is ball jointed and includes an extra hinge. And that brings us to the accessories. With two belts, two weapons, and an extra pair of hands, you get almost all you need to create Han at various points along “A New Hope.” Let’s start with his smuggler’s belt. Y’all know by now that I have a fetish for working holsters with my figures and this belt is a thing of beauty. It’s a bit tough to get on, as you need to point Han’s toe pretty sharply and work the thigh strap up his leg. The belt itself fastens with a peg in the back and there’s an extra strap that secures his pistol in place with another peg. It looks absolutely fantastic on the figure. My only concern is that the soft plastic is rather thin at some points and I worry a bit about it’s durability over time. Han is a repack in Wave 3 and I may wind up getting a case assortment just to have a spare Han in case the belt malfunctions.

Along with the belt Han comes with his trusty and iconic DL-44 Heavy Blaster. It’s a great looking piece and it fits perfectly in his right hand as well as in the holster. There’s not a lot else to say about it, other than I couldn’t stop taking pictures of him with it out and ready for action!

Next up is the Stormtrooper belt, which comes with a functional holster for the E-11 Blaster. This belt is a lot simpler than his smuggler’s rig, but certainly no less welcome. It fastens with a simple peg and the Blaster fits perfectly into the holster on the back. The Blaster itself is just one sculpted piece, which is odd since the 3 3/4″ Star Wars Black Stormtrooper got one with an articulated stock. Still, I’d rather have one solid good looking piece than a wobbly one with soft moving parts, so I’m cool with that. The only thing left to mention are the extra hands, which are sculpted with Han’s fingerless gloves. I won’t scoff at extra hands, but I doubt I’ll ever even bother to put them on the figure.

Ultimately Han Solo here is exactly what I hoped this line would be, and he nudges out Boba Fett as my favorite SWB figure released so far. The figure definitely benefits from the scale change and you get a lot of cool gear and even the ability to create your own subtle variant. Han and Boba make for some nice bookends for what was a pretty solid wave for Star Wars Black. If Hasbro can keep populating waves with figures like Boba Fett, Han, and Greedo, they’ll get no complaints from me. Had Hasbro gone with “A New Hope” Leia over Slave Leia, this assortment would have been a perfect home run for me, but even that Leia was decent enough, and a triple play is nothing to sneeze at. And now that I’m current on the 6-inch Black series, next week I can start swinging back to the 3 ¾” Black figures that I have yet to open.

Jan 23 2014

Transformers Energon: Mirage by Hasbro

It’s Transformers Thursday again and as promised last week I’m back with a look at the Commander of my Sharkticons, Mirage. If you missed last week’s TFT, I gassed on about how I army built Energon Sharkticon and gave them to this guy as his own private armada. Basically, the Energon Sharkticons are the Sweeps to Mirage’s Scourge! But wait… Mirage? Mirage??? I’m usually fine with Hasbro recycling names of Transformers for the various series, but this instance just bugs me. To me, Mirage will forever be an Autobot Formula-1 racecar and taking that name for a Decepticon attack ship is something that I just can’t wrap my G1 head around. It’s too much of a leap. He was repainted later on as Dreadwing and that’s the name I tend to use for him. Anyway, let’s jump right in and check out his alt mode.

Mirage is a vicious looking warship. I don’t know what you’d classify him as, but he strikes me as a swift moving hit-and-run attack craft. Amidst the countless numbers of cars and jets, there aren’t a hell of a lot of seafaring Transformers so I’m always nice to get a new one. Mirage features an enclosed cockpit area and blade-like fins coming off the front and back of his hull. The front fins each hold two bombs (or maybe torpedoes?), which can detach. For additional firepower, he has two missile launchers mounted toward the back and two more on the front deck. The back launchers can fold out on wings and the front ones can pop up on a clear spring-loaded framework. I like to think that the folding rear wings make Mirage pretty suitable for use as a space faring ship as well as a sea craft.

The deco here is all over the place. There’s dark blue, light blue, orange, gold, grey, it’s just a crazy mix of colors that compliments the equally crazy colored Sharkticons fairly well. In terms of overall aesthetics, Dreadwing has a much better and more uniform paint job, but as the commander of my Sharkticon army, Mirage’s deco works just fine.

Mirage’s transformation can be a bit of a pill. It’s fairly complex and there are a lot of moving plates on ball jointed arms that have to be positioned just right. Things tend to flop around all over the place and if you don’t know what you’re doing it can be a disaster. The two halves of his hull also tend to get in the way and a lot of times I’ll just pop them out of the ball joints and set them aside until I’m done. If I haven’t picked this figure up in a while, it’s not uncommon for me to become frustrated with nothing but a half-transformed mess in my hands. It takes some fiddling, but eventually I get there.

Mirage’s robot mode is 100% Cybertron-Grade-A bad ass. The cockpit area of the ship forms a broad, boxy chest with a socket for an Energon chip dead center. It contrasts nicely with the sculpted organic contours of his legs. It’s a hybrid style aesthetic that reminds me a lot of the original G1 Transformers movie and I really dig it. The proportions are excellent, so much so that even his sizeable backpack doesn’t feel out of place or weigh him down. The side panels that make up his alt mode’s hull are left on double ball jointed arms so there’s a lot you can do with them to customize their look. I have seen some collectors that like to display him with these panels up, but I prefer to sweep them back like wings. That keeps them fairly out of the way and it also stabilizes him really well when standing.

Mirage’s head sculpt is mighty distinctive and definitely not very humanoid. I do get a vague nautical vibe off of it and while the helmet is completely different, he still reminds me a bit of Beast Wars Depth Charge. In retrospect, that would have made a better name for him than Mirage. Either way, this guy’s portrait ranks up there as one of my favorite Energon head sculpts. It also features some very effective light piping too!

The only real issues I have with this guy are the large panels that make up his arm launchers. From certain angles they look just fine, but it’s still hard to ignore the major kibble hanging off his arms. I think what frustrates me the most about these is that they could have probably been fixed with the addition of one extra hinge on each plate. It almost looks like that was the original design plan but it didn’t cost out at the end. Ah well, it’s not a deal breaker for me and I suppose he can use them as shields. The deck launchers that now reside on Mirage’s backpack can still be deployed by the push of a button and they angle straight over his head and shoulders. It’s cool that the design enables them to be used in robot mode, but they don’t rest evenly so they don’t look all that great. The one on his left is rather droopy.

I think Mirage’s deco improves a lot in his robot mode. The blue and orange parts are mostly confined to his back giving him a more cohesive black, purple and gold motif with the grey bits landing mostly on his limbs. Again, I think it makes for a pretty nice match with the Sharkticons. Also, that sculpted Decepticon emblem on his chest is pure money. I was going to dig out Dreadwing and take a look at his deco, but sadly I ran out of time, so I’ll have to save him for another Thursday.

Mirage and Dreadwing represent many of the things that I loved about the Energon line. The mold has an imaginative and unusual alt mode and an absolutely bitchin’ robot mode. Above all, it’s a well-designed toy that only stumbles a bit in the floppy and confusing nature of the transformation along with some shell-former shenanigans. Nonetheless, this is a figure that represents Hasbro designers willing to think outside the box and the result is a truly unique figure that stands out as something very cool and very different. I still hate the name, but he’ll always have a place on my Transformers display shelves.

Next Thursday I’ll keep the nautical Decepticon theme rolling for one more week with a look at Cybertron Thunderblast!

Jan 21 2014

Star Wars Black: Princess Leia (Slave Outfit) by Hasbro

I’ve looked at Greedo and The Fett, and now it’s on to the third figure in Wave 2 of the Star Wars Back 6-inch line, today we’re looking at Slave Leia. As most have already pointed out, this was a really strange choice for such an early wave and certainly a peculiar choice to be the first version of Leia released in this line. I was certainly hoping for a Tantive IV version of her and I’m still really looking forward to that figure. It could be that Hasbro was betting that sci-fi’s favorite pin-up girl would be irresistible to Star Wars fans and collectors. Whatever the reason, we have Princess Leia making her debut in the 6-inch scale showing a lot of plastic skin… let’s take a look!

Here’s the packaging and there’s not much new to say. Leia comes on her tray with her two staff weapons beside her. The back panel has a monochrome image of her kicking ass and taking names on top of Jabba’s sail barge. As always, the packaging is totally collector friendly and I appreciate how compact these boxes are. I still have all my SWB figures stored in them and I’m considering hanging them on a wall in the back of one of my Toy Closets.

And here she is out of the package. I’ve watched and read a few tepid reviews of this figure before getting mine, so I was rather worried about what to expect. Even the Vintage Collection 3 ¾” Slave Leia wasn’t what I would call a homerun. Would the larger scale accentuate the problems or give Hasbro’s sculptors more room to work their magic? In the end, I think it’s a little of both. Let’s start with the portrait…

Hasbro has had their history of flubs when it comes to female head sculpts. You need only look at their recent 3 ¾” Mara Jade for an example of that. Oh, wait, I haven’t gotten around to reviewing her yet, so forget I said that. Is this a great likeness of Carrie Fisher? Nope. Can I see her in there somewhere? Yeah. It looks as much like any of the hundreds of “Slave Leias” you might see at a Comic Con than the genuine article. On the other hand, I was expecting f’ugly, and this sculpt certainly isn’t that, although I’ll admit it does not photograph well at all. The face is attractive and the crisp paintwork, particularly on the eyes, helps to sell it. The hair is very well sculpted and the soft ponytail is executed flawlessly. She has her ubiquitous neck chain, which is cast in soft plastic and can be removed by popping off her head. All in all there’s room for improvement, but there’s also a lot for me to like here.

The same can be said for Leia’s body. It’s tough to do a figure showing this much skin and still feature an acceptable amount of articulation. By using ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, Hasbro kept the ugly jointing down to minimum. They also managed to conceal her torso ball joint just under the bikini top. Even the double hinges in the knees and swivels in the thighs aren’t that off-putting. The proportions are also nicely done. Naturally there’s not a lot to her costume, but the boots and bikini look good and I applaud the use of softgoods for the skirt. Hasbro opted to cast the bulk of the figure in flesh tone plastic, which was a gamble. On the one hand it tends to come out looking waxy, but painted flesh tones often come away looking dirty. Here the compromise paid off because the skin tone looks good and they did a nice job matching the painted face to the rest of the body.

Leia comes with two weapons, which was honestly something of a surprise for me. I knew she was coming with the force-pike, but I didn’t know about the other one. The force-pike is one of my favorite weapons of the Star Wars Universe, which is a ridiculous thing to admit, but it probably stems from the Sarlaac execution being my favorite scene from any of the movies. I’m sure I’ve gone on and on about it in my various Skiff Guard figure reviews, so I’ll just leave it at that. I have absolutely no idea what the other thing is supposed to be. Is it some kind of rifle? I’ve been getting those things with Skiff Guard figures for decades now and they still leave me bewildered. I’m sure I’ve gone off about that issue in the past as well.

In the end, Slave Leia was a pleasant surprise. Based on early reactions I expected her to be a pretty poor offering, but I think she turned out quite good. I’ll concede that she is still the weakest of all the 6-inch offerings so far, but that says more about how exceptional this line has been than it does about the flaws of this figure. I’m willing to forgive the slightly unsightly jointing because, well there’s just no way around that unless you’re going to cover the figure with a rubber skin and we all know that wasn’t going to happen in this scale and price point. The head sculpt could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse too. I suspect, she’ll be an odd-figure-out for a while as I don’t see a lot of Return of the Jedi figures coming out in the line anytime soon, although Hasbro has been hinting about a 6-inch scale Jabba the Hutt, which would make this figure a very nice companion piece what would be a mighty epic display.

Jan 16 2014

Transformers Energon: Sharkticon by Hasbro

It’s Transformers Thursday and today I’m turning the dial back to 2004 with a look at one of my favorite Deluxe figures from the Energon line. He’s Sharkticon, and while he was a single character on the show, the show’s fiction never meant much to me and I used this guy as an army builder. It seemed logical to me since the Sharkticons were Quintesson foot soldiers in the G1 continuity, but I actually paired these guys up with Energon Mirage to serve as his equivalent of The Sweeps. It may sound convoluted, but as a collector of the Unicron Trilogy toys that didn’t watch the shows, I was always looking to fill in the backstory for the new figures I got. I don’t have a packaged shot of this guy, but he was available in both the regular Energon card as well as the red Powerlinx packaging. Let’s start with his alt mode.

Sharkticon is a battle ship with some shark influences in his design. While I believe the intent was that he’s an ocean-going craft, I imagined these guys would be just as happy as a space-faring armada. I love so much about this toy’s design it’s hard to know where to begin. I think the elements of traditional battleship design are what appeals to me the most, particularly the rotating gun stations on top. He also has a bridge tower and two rotating gun turrets on the sides. The shark elements aren’t overdone and I think the fins on the back make him more credible to me as an air or space ship. Either way, it’s exactly this kind of wild imagination and creativity that makes me love so much of the Energon line.

The deco is quite striking. The hull is mostly black with silver paint apps used to accentuate some of the intricate sculpted detail. The purple accents work for me as does the giant Decepticon insignia plastered on the bow of the ship. I freaking love that! On the other hand, I could have probably done without the orange, it’s distinctive, but feels out of place. I also would have left the bridge tower black instead of the odd choice of white. But even a few questionable color choices can’t wreck this toy for me!

Ah, but just when you thought we’d seen it all and it was time to move on to the robot mode, Sharkticon has two little surprises. You can pull out the side panels on his hull to reveal a pair of hidden missile launchers. Cool!

The transformation here is nothing too complex and yet fairly clever for a Deluxe. The back of the ship unfolds into his arms, the legs are obviously part of the undercarriage and the bulk of the battleship folds onto his back. Everything locks together wonderfully making him a fun figure to play about with. Sharkticon’s robot mode is pretty slick looking. There’s a nice blend of boxy design with a little bit of curvy organic feel thrown in. It’s the kind of aesthetic that I associate a lot with the G1 movie and I love it. The torso is brimming with sculpted detail and he has an Energon port right in the center of his chest so you can give him an Energon chip. He maintains a lot of his shark motif in robot mode with fins coming of his arms and legs and even the head sculpt is a bit evocative of the underwater predator. Even Sharkticon’s balance is well engineered. He’s wearing half the battleship on his back and yet he’s still easy to stand.

The deco in this mode shows off less black and more orange and purple, plus there are silver and red accents. For the love of God, just look at how many paint apps are on this guy! And he’s a Deluxe! Nowadays you wouldn’t find this many paint operations on a Voyager. Surprisingly the orange doesn’t bother me as much in robot mode even though there’s more of it. He’s just gorgeous!

The best compliment I can pay this figure is that I just kept buying him whenever I saw him on the pegs. At one point I had six or seven loose and even a couple carded. But after some trades and sell-offs I’ve paired that down to a simple squad of three now. There aren’t a lot of figures in the Transformers Universe that lend themselves to army building, so this was a case where I just invented my own opportunity. Of course, Energon also gave us the Terrorcons, and I don’t even want to tell you how many of those I have laying around. Next Thursday I’ll be checking out Mirage, the Decepticon who commands these guys in my own crazy homebrew Transformers fiction.

Jan 15 2014

Star Wars Black: Greedo by Hasbro

I’m moving my way through Wave 2 of 6-inch Star Wars Black and our next stop is Greedo. I was a little surprised to see this character turn up so soon, but I’m all but guaranteed to buy any of the Original Trilogy characters that Hasbro deems worthy of this format. I was already pretty excited to get him, and the fact that he came in the same wave as “A New Hope” Han Solo definitely bumped up my interest even more. It also made me wish I had a 6-inch scale Cantina booth. Anyway, I was tempted to look at both Han and Greedo in the same feature, but I’ll have plenty to say about Han when he gets his turn, and as it turns out once I got Greedo out of the package, I thought was deserving of his own feature too.

Speaking of packaging… here it is again: The Star Wars Black window box. I still love it, but I’ve got nothing new to say, so instead let me just take a moment to wax nostalgic about this guy. Greedo action figures and I go way back. I got my first one as part of the Kenner’s cardboard Creature Cantina set and I’m pretty sure I got a single carded version of him one Christmas because my parents bought a whole set of the figures that were at the store. Once “Empire Strikes Back” came out and bounty hunters were all the rage, I used my two Greedos as twin bounty hunters piling on in the search for Han. Later, I would use him as one of Jabba’s crooked accountants who embezzled money and was seeking asylum with the Rebel Alliance. I was a weird kid. I’m sure I’ve owned just about every subsequent version of him after that, including three or four of the POFT2 Greedos because there seemed to almost always be one of those thrown into every lot of Star Wars figures I ever bought off of Ebay. Hell, I bet if I dug through enough totes, I could still find one of those carded.

And so, behold 6-inch Greedo. The first thing that strikes me about this figure is that Hasbro didn’t half-ass him. The sculpt is quite striking and detailed, whether you’re talking about the rumpling in his outfit, the lines of stitching in his vest, or the intricate little bumps on his Rodian head. The vest is made of soft plastic and is removable. He also sports a separate gun belt with a low slung functional holster on his right hip. The pastel colors of Greedo’s outfit appear to be pretty accurate, although the Cantina was so poorly lit it’s hard to tell for sure. I’ll give Hasbro the benefit of the doubt here. Everything here is just beautifully done, but if I had to find something to pick at, I’d say that Greedo’s vest could have used some weathering.

The portrait is absolutely brilliant. The Rodians are among my favorite Star Wars aliens and this 6-inch scale really does him Greedo justice. Are the eyes the right color? Again, it’s hard to tell because of the Cantina lighting, but they look fine to me. The familiar contours of the Rodian face are superbly represented here and it’s all the tiny little bumps and bristles that really makes this guy stand out for me. This is a head sculpt that really benefits from the up-scaling of the line.

Greedo’s articulation features all the goodies I’ve come to expect from this line. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and feature hinges and swivels in both the elbows and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles feature ball joints as well as lateral rockers. The torso has a ball joint just above the waist and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. There’s plenty of useful articulation here making Greedo a damn fun figure to fiddle about with.

You get one accessory with Greedo and as you might have guessed it’s the pistol that he used to not shoot first. It’s a little snub nosed gun with a metallic finish. He can hold it comfortably in his right hand and naturally it fits in the holster.

Even after opening a wave and a half, it still feels weird (in a good way!) to have these figures in this scale. That’s especially true for Greedo because, despite the fact that he actually had lines in the movie, we’re coming close to dabbling in back bench character selection. Not that I mind, because like I said… I freaking love Greedo and I freaking love this figure. Plus, every slot that’s filled by a minor Original Trilogy character over a major Prequel character makes my heart swell with happiness.

Jan 9 2014

Transformers Generations: Rhinox by Hasbro

Hey, it’s the first Transformers Thursday of 2014! As promised last time, I’m going to start mixing it up on TFT with both modern and older stuff and today we’re continuing with the modern. Rhinox was one of the last Transformers to ship in 2013 and he was a nice surprise because he’s a Beast Wars Voyager! Holy crap! As a fan and collector I’ve always had an undying love for the Beast Wars TV series, but that love never carried over to the toys. Oh, I had quite the collection of Beast Wars figures, but they never really captured the magic of what came before and what has come since. I ended up unloading that collection (except for Megatron) during one of the Great Toy Purges and I can’t say as I regret it. Needless to say, I was excited to get a modern Rhinox in hopes that he could help me find some affection for a Beast Wars figure.

The package consists of a familiar window-style box similar to what we got for the other Generations Voyagers. This one still keeps some of the G1 inspired grid pattern, but also embraces the white granite look of the Generations comic packs. The box retains the “Thrilling 30” moniker, but it’s labeled as a 2014 figure and brandishes the Maximal insignia in several places. The wrap-around character artwork is absolutely killer and Rhinox himself is packaged beside it in his robot mode. I really can’t wait to get this guy out and transform him, so let’s start out with his beast mode.

Yup, Rhinox is a rhino, and a mighty fine looking one at that. Sure, there’s seaming situated all around him, but the plates all lock together quite well, minimizing any unsightly gaps that advertise him as a shell-former. The sculpt here is quite good and consists of leathery looking skin and a very convincing rhino head. There is some obvious, green robot kibble visible on the backs of his legs, but apart from that you’d need to pick this guy up and look underneath to see that anything really funky was going on. The rhino covering is mostly made up of hard plastic, although softer stuff is used for his hinder, ears, and horn. There isn’t a lot of paintwork on this aspect of Rhinox, but he doesn’t really need it. Overall, it’s a pretty good rhino disguise.

If you’re looking for a super-articulated rhino, however, you will be disappointed. Rhinox’s beast mode sports very limited articulation. His legs can move forward and backward a bit, but it isn’t really a natural movement and the more you move them the more you risk knocking the plates out of whack. He can, however, open his mouth and bite things. Honestly, I’m not terribly upset about the limited articulation in beast mode because this guy is going to spend very little time as a rhino. I’m mostly happy that he locks together so well and stands well and he does indeed capture Rhinox’s hilariously grumpy animal visage.

Of course, I didn’t buy this ticket for the Rhino Show. The rhino is just the warm-up band. No, I got this guy for loveable Rhinox in robot mode and let me tell you this is a glorious treatment of the character. The transformation felt a tad intimidating at first, but after going through it only once, it seemed really easy when I was done. In fact, it’s all rather obvious. Everything unfolds from Rhino mode in a logical manner, but even going back into Rhino mode is rather intuitive. Shell-formers have a habit of being frustrating, but Rhinox avoids falling into that trap. And it’s hard to argue with the resulting figure.

Rhinox is a fantastic representation of his animated counterpart. The proportions are great and the sculpt is gloriously complex, particularly in the chest and shoulder area where the mechanical hinges and gears mesh beautifully with the smooth rhino parts to create that amazing bio-mechanical aesthetic. I love the way the rhino mouth unfolds to form not only his chest plaste, but the plate over his pelvis as well. The subtle shift that positions the two plates that flank the chest piece is really cool too. The shoulders give the figure a properly hulking appearance and also allow for a wide range of movement in the arms. And the head? Hasbro really nailed Rhinox’s head sculpt. There’s a bit of mold flashing over my figure’s left eye, but I can probably clean that up with a razor.

The rhino head and rhino butt lock together on Rhinox’s back very similar to the way the nosecone and tail lock together on TFC’s Uranos jets. Maybe a coincidence, or maybe someone at Hasbro is paying attention? Either way it’s cool and effective. The only gripe I have about Rhinox is he his a tad back heavy and the hip joints are rather loose. It is possible to get him standing fully erect, but it helps to lean him forward a bit. Have I mentioned the paintwork? The gold and green look amazing and contrast beautifully with the drab grey rhino parts.

Naturally, Rhinox comes with his spinning hand cannons. The pieces clip together and serve to fill out his belly cavity when he’s in rhino mode and in robot mode he can wield them in each hand. There’s even a button on each one to make them spin. The sculpting on these guns is great, but the fronts are cast in the same grey rhino skin plastic, which is rather a bummer. Some silver would have made them look amazing. I’m guessing Hasbro ran out of budget for additional paint operations, which is understandable considering how amazing a figure this is.

After some dubious modern efforts at Classics-style Dinobot and Cheetor, I’m happy to say that Hasbro’s third time was the charm. This figure does for Rhinox exactly what many of the best Classics/Generations figures have done for G1 characters. The rhino mode may not be the most exciting thing around, but it looks good and it gets the job done. Rhinox’s bot mode on the other hand is as sexy as a giant robot-rhino can possibly be. The sculpt, the proportions, the coloring (mostly)… everything about this figure just gels beautifully for me. He was a wonderful surprise for the Generations line and a great first addition to my Transformer collection for 2014. The fact that I got him at half price with free shipping on Hasbrotoyshop was just the icing on the energon cake. Now I really need to find me a Waspinator.

Jan 6 2014

Star Wars Black: Boba Fett by Hasbro

All the Holiday nonsense is finally over and I’m thrilled to be back in the saddle for a brand new year. While I’ll still be pretty busy with work for the next couple of weeks, my schedule has loosened up enough so that I can start digging into some of the figures I’ve been holding off on during the crazier times of last month. I’ve been itching to open up Wave 2 of Star Wars Black ever since they landed on my stoop last month and now I’ve finally got some time to relax for a moment and do just that. Today, I’m kicking it off with a full-on six inches of rock hard Fett. LET’S DO THIS!!!

After a few weeks of seeing the SWB deco misused on the smaller carded (and mostly shitty) figures, it’s nice to see it again used on the more appropriate collector style window boxes. Wave 1 left me with a real love for this packaging and I’m still displaying those figures packaged for the time being. Needless to say these boxes are totally collector friendly and are just the right size to show off the figure without taking up too much room. Boba is displayed in his tray with his weapons and jetpack spread out beside him. The back of the package has a monochrome shot of Boba talking to Vader and Lando. Man, I can’t wait until Vader and Lando get the 6-inch treatment! Ok, enough about the packaging, it’s time to whip out my Boba.

Ok, so… WOW! We actually have a 6-inch Boba Fett figure from Hasbro. It’s still taking time for this to properly sink in. Boba Fett is a character that has seen some pretty exceptional 3 ¾” figures over the years, so I had little doubt that his 6-inch treatment would be amazing. And you know what? It is. Yes, when you consider the scale upgrade there are a few missed opportunities here, and I’ll point those out, but it’s important to remember that Hasbro is still working within the confines of a $20 retail budget. There was certainly a give and take with 6-inch Fett’s design, but I think the end result balanced out quite well!

With that having been said, I think the first thing that strikes me about this guy is the intricacy of the sculpt. The jumpsuit is beautifully rumpled in all the right places and the armor plating is pretty convincing as separate pieces even though they are part of the same sculpt.The pouches all look great and even he even has the tiny sculpted tools peeking out of the pockets on his pants. The waist belt is a separate piece but it blends seemlessly with the figure. It has pouches and a functional holster for his pistol. I’ll get to the pistol in a bit, but suffice it to say it was a cool surprise. I love functional holsters on my figures so getting one incorporated into a Boba Fett figure really rings my bell. I’m also very pleased with the detailing on his left arm bracer where you can see his dart as well as the keypad. I’m not fanatical with my knowlege of Fett’s design and I’m sure the hardcore could pick apart all kinds of little details on this guy, but he certainly does just fine by me.

Following hot on the heels of the beautiful sculpt is the deco. I’m not just talking about the coloring of the armor, but rather the weathering. Fett’s armor is dinged and scraped in all the right places and the dry brush abrasions look fantastic. Finally, the whole deco is punctuated with some great tampos like the Mandalorean symbol on his shoulder to the insignia on his chest armor. The figure fits beautifully into the “used future” design that makes the Original Trilogy Star Wars Universe such an interesting place to me.

Hasbro packed some really useful articulation into this figure. The head is both ball jointed and hinged, so you get a nice wide range of motion there. His arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, elbows and wrists, and he has swivel cuts in the biceps. His legs are ball jointed at the hips and double hinged at the knees. His ankles feature hinges and rockers. Lastly, Fett is ball jointed at the waist, just above the belt. It’s a well hidden joint that lets him swivel as well as giving him a little range of forward and backward motion in the torso. Nicely done!

Is Fett perfect? Nope. And here’s where that give and take comes in. The wookie braids are a little chunky and unconvincing. It seems like they should have been fashioned from softgoods like the cape. At the very least one of them shouldn’t have been left the same color plastic as his jumpsuit. I know what they’re supposed to be, but they look like they’re tacked on like an afterthought. I’ll also throw out there that it would have been cool if his rangefinder had been hinged. Sure, it looks fine as it is, but that seems like it would have been a good opportunity going from the 3 ¾” to the 6-inch scale. Finally, while the double joints in the knees are welcome, taking advantage of them makes the figure’s legs look unnatural, especially the way the knee caps just float. None of these nitpicks seriously detract from the figure, but since Boba Fett has had some truly excellent 3 ¾” figures, I think it’s worth pointing out some areas for improvement on this 6-incher.

Boba comes with three accessories. First off, you get his trusty jetpack, which pegs into his back. It’s just a solid molded piece of plastic that pegs into a hole on his back. There are sculpted straps to make it look like it’s held on with a harness. I suppose you could argue that Hasbro could have done a little more with it, particularly in this scale. It doesn’t fire a rocket and the little thrusters aren’t articulated, but it looks fine and I’m very happy that it is removable. Somewhere in the delusion center of my brain I am reasoning out that Hasbro made it removable to accommodate the 6-inch scale Slave-1 which is surely coming any day now. Right? RIGHT??? Ok, maybe not.

Next up is the pistol. Again, this was a total surprise for me because I don’t ever recall any previous Boba Fett (and I’ve owned most of them) coming with a pistol. Did he even use one? Is it one of his dad’s? I really don’t know, but I’m not going to turn my nose up at a pistol with a functional holster. It’s a simple enough piece, but he looks damn cool holding it and when I see my Boba Fett quick-drawing his pistol and wearing the poncho-like cape, I can’t help but get a wonderful “Man With No Name” vibe off of him from the Sergio Leone westerns.

Lastly is Fett’s iconinc carbine. It’s made of bendy plastic which helps get the stock positioned into the crook of his arm. You can also just about get his trigger finger into the trigger guard. The carbine has some exceptionally cool weathering and I like the sculpted detail in the stock, but the barrel doesn’t seem quite right. It seems like it should be thicker, at least that’s based on the prop replicas that I’ve seen.

This Boba Fett was a hotly anticipated figure for me and now that I have finally opened him I can confidently say he’s a great piece. Yes, some might argue (myself included) that Hasbro could have done more with him to take advantage of the scale change, but I keep reminding myself that this is not a $50 Figma or an $75 Play Arts figure. For a $20 figure off the peg at Target or Walmart, he’s just a great figure and pretty hard for me to put down. Boba will definitely be spending some quality time on my desk before getting relegated to the display shelf in the other room. It’s worth noting that he’s the very first figure I’m looking at in 2014 and I can already tell he’s going to be a strong contender for my Favorites list at the end of the year. Even if you aren’t collecting this line, Boba Fett is the first release that I would recommend people pick up as a stand-alone figure. After all, you can never have too many Fetts.

Dec 27 2013

Star Wars Black: Padme Amidala (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

I know what you’re thinking. “What? More of those shitty little Star Wars Black figures? Why don’t you review the 6-inch figures, you sonofabitch?” Woah, there! I promise that this is the last of the 3 ¾” Black figures that I’m going to look at before moving on to cover Wave 2 of the 6-inchers. The name of the game this week has been doing quick features that I can squeeze in between my busy schedule. I’ve been intentionally putting the 6-inch Black figures off until January so that I could give them their proper due once things have calmed down for me. I’ve already featured two of these 3 ¾” figures and it’s safe to say that the line has not been kind to me, nor I to it. Let’s see if Natalie Portman can turn the tides!

There’s the SWB 3 ¾” card and I’m still not digging it. I will say that at least this figure’s bubble hasn’t prematurely separated from the card, so that’s something. Contained within the miraculously still attached bubble is Padme Amidala in her strategically torn clothing from ~~Thor: The Dark World~~ “Attack of the Clones.” Hey, Hasbro, if you’re going to do an update to an Amidala figure you certainly picked the right one. Although if you do another, you might want to release her in that little black outfit from that scene where she’s telling Anakin she’s a Senator with only business on her mind while wearing an S&M inspired negligee. Anyway, I tend to think of this release as “Arena Battle Padme” and I’m pretty sure the last time this version was done was way back as part of the original AotC series and that’s when Hasbro was incorporating a lot of pre-posed sculpts and action gimmicks, which meant that the figures often sucked.

No action gimmicks here! In fact… I’m almost shocked to say it, but… holy crap this is actually a really nice figure. No, strike that… this is an EXCELLENT figure! The detail in the outfit is fantastic, right down to the little sculpted piping in the top and the leggings. The boots are intricately detailed, her belt features some little pouches and a working holster and even her bicep rings are neatly painted. Now this is how to properly do a figure in 2013, Hasbro!

Flip her around and she has some rather gruesome scratches across her back as well as tears in her top from one of those arena creatures. The scars are not only part of the sculpt, but also painted in with laser precision. Honestly, I could have done without them, as they are rather gross and off-putting, but I can’t help but respect how beautifully they were executed. Hasbro also did a pretty nice job sculpting Ms. Portman’s derriere. I’ll confess, I’ve grown a new appreciation for her butt after seeing “Your Hignesss.”

The portrait is also quite good for a 3 ¾” sculpt. I’d definitely say this figure features a better likeness to Ms. Portman than Diamond’s recent Marvel Select version from their Thor 2 line (Woof!), and that’s a twenty dollar 6-inch scale collector piece. The likeness here is just superb and the paintwork on the face is crisp and clean!

The articulation here is pretty good, with the only thing holding it back being the T-crotch for the hips. Proper ball jointed hips would have really made this figure perfect and the old style jointing feels dated alongside the rest of the figure’s articulation. The legs feature ball joints in the knees and ankles. The arms have ball joints in the shoulders and elbows and swivels in the wrists. Padme has a ball joint in the torso, which is cleverly hidden under her torn shirt, and her head is ball jointed. Not bad!

Padme comes with two weapons. You get her Naboo-style blaster, which fits comfortably in her hip holster. You also get a larger blaster rifle, which I believe is one she salvaged from a downed Battle Droid, but I could be wrong about that. “AotC” is not exactly one of my “go-to” movies and it’s been ages since I’ve seen it. Her right hand is sculpted to hold the pistol and her left to hold the larger blaster, but I’ve been able to make it work the other way around as well.

After doing two Star Wars Black features with two shitty re-hashes of figures that have been done so much better, it’s refreshing to finally hit a payoff here. Padme is a superb figure and an updated version of the character that was long overdue. I’d go so far as to say she’s one of the best Star Wars figures I’ve picked up in a while. I got her for $5 during Amazon’s sale, but I would have been perfectly happy laying down ten bucks for this kind of quality. This is a figure that would have been right at home released alongside the other Vintage Collection figures. I believe she was planned for another line that was to coincide with the aborted theatrical re-release of “Attack of the Clones” in 3D and if that’s the case I’m very happy that Hasbro eventually got her to the pegs because she’s a must-have for any collection.

Dec 26 2013

Transformers Generations: Rewind and Sunder by Hasbro

I hope everyone had a great holiday. Today I’m giving the gift of a quick and dirty Feature because I am back at work today cleaning up the aftermath and then I’ll be sinking into a hot bath with a bottle of Jameson for the remainder of the night. Hopefully I won’t pass out and drown. Today is indeed Transformers Thursday and while TFT was originally designed to look at past releases, for the time being I’ll be mixing some current Transformers into the mix and today is one of those instances. Let’s check out a couple of Blasters’ ~~tape~~ disc minions.

While I liked Generations Blaster a lot, I wasn’t too keen on the Steeljaw disc that came with him, so I had no intention of buying any of the discs. Low and behold, someone gave me a set of these for Christmas and I was surprised at how happy I was to receive them. It was one of those situations where I would never have bought these for myself, so this was a convenient way for me involuntarily to give them a try. I don’t have a lot to say about the packaging, other than they come on a Generations-style card, packed in their robot modes alongside a couple of disc cases.

The discs come with two translucent plastic cases with nice gold Autobot emblems stamped on their lids. It’s a cool nod back to the tape cases included with some of the recent releases of Soundwave’s cassettes. I’m still not entirely sold on these chunky discs as a credible medium for advanced robots to store data. Why couldn’t Hasbro have printed similar circuitry patterns on rectangular cassette-shaped devices and just called them Memory Chips? Am I over anaylzing the concept? Probably. Both discs feature an auto-transform gimmick where if you drop them just right they will spring into their robot forms. It works pretty well, so long as you drop them hard enough and the fall strikes the trigger button on the bottom of the disc.

Sunder is the bird, which is obviously a repaint of Soundwave’s Laserbeak disc. Unless there’s a huge gap in my G1 Transformers memory, I’m pretty sure he’s a brand new character. I certainly don’t remember the old Blaster having a bird cassette. But I get it, it’s another way for Hasbro to get a little more money out of the mold and that’s cool. Sunder actually looks pretty good, although his wings are super chunky. He’s nowhere near as cool a design as the vintage Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, but he’s not terrible either. As far as robot animals that auto-transform from big fat discs go, he’s certainly better than Steeljaw.

Next up we have Rewind and I have mixed feelings about him. On the one hand, he’s a pretty primitive figure since the only articulation he has is rotation in the shoulders. He also doesn’t completely auto-transform, as you have to put his arms down and fold his feet out. On the other hand, considering he’s supposd to be a humanoid robot that changes into a disc, I’m trying to give him some slack. Truth be told, for what he is, I think he looks pretty impressive. The sculpt is good and I like the paint deco, you jsut can’t do a whole lot with him. He’ll display just fine next to Blaster, but he’s not a very exciting toy.

In the end there’s nothing here that convinces me that I should have run out and bought these little figures, but they are much better than I expected them to be. Most people are afraid to get me toys for Christmas because they have no idea what I have, so it’s kind of a cool novelty to actually get these guys as a gift. I think Blaster would have been better served if he got bundled with one of these two figures instead of Steeljaw. Then again, maybe Hasbro thought nobody would pay for Steeljaw in a separate pack.

Dec 24 2013

Star Wars Black: Biker Scout (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

The first figure I looked at in the Black 3 ¾” scale series was the Stormtrooper and it was pretty disappointing. Nonetheless, thanks to Amazon selling these things for ridiculously cheap I couldn’t resist picking up a bunch of different figures in the line. Case in point, they were handing out Biker Scouts for less than $3 each so I gambled and picked up four of them to add to my already sizeable Imperial Forces. Could I possibly go wrong buying Biker Scouts for $3 a pop? Let’s find out!

I love the minimalist and artsy deco used for Star Wars Black’s 6-inch window boxes, but I do not care for it all that much on the 3 ¾” carded packages. These figures look like the same kind of stuff we’ve been getting on the pegs for a long while and wrapping them in collector-style art house packages doesn’t really do them any favors. It’s kind of just bizarre and confusing. Now I don’t care one way or the other because I’m tearing these bitches open, but even the MOC collectors may have issues here since the matte finish on the cards don’t wear well and three of the four Biker Scouts I got have issues with the bubbles separating from the card. In fact, one bubble was completely off the card and rattling around in the shipping box. Also, there are no pictures of other figures on the back of the package. It goes against ages of Star Wars figure packaging tradition. It’s just wrong.

Ok, so there he is. I picked one of the four I got at random for most of these shots. I wouldn’t say he’s the best or the worst, as they all have their share of problems. If you were gracious enough to read my SWB Stormtrooper feature than you know I’m not keen on scrutinizing and comparing different versions of figures. I find it boring and tedious. That having been said, quick research tells me that this figure is a repack of the one that came with the updated Speeder Bike released not too long ago. I never did pick up one of those, but most of my Biker Scouts are from the Legacy Collection, which in turn were repacks of the Vintage Collection figures… I think. I’ve always been very happy with the sculpting and articulation on those figures and so I bought them whenever I saw them on the pegs.

From the waist down, this new Black release appears to be a repaint of the Legacy figures I own. The pic above shows the two figures side by side. The sculpting on the Black figure strikes me as being much softer in some areas, and the plastic doesn’t feel as good a quality. Happily the ankle holster is still there for him to stow his pistol and most of the detailing has transferred over. But the real problem with this figure lies in the paint job or specifically the lack of painted hinges in the shoulder joints. Yes, the shoulder hinges are left black giving him huge black stripes running down his shoulder plates. Blah! The hinges in the ankles are also left black, but with the shoulders being so obvious, it’s kind of hard to get upset about the ankles too. I suppose I could try to convince myself that the shoulder hinges are a paint stripe to denote a special squad of these guys, but I’m really reaching for an excuse. I am usually extremely forgiving about unpainted pins and hinges, but here the oversight is just too obvious and the fact that they were left unpainted in what is supposed to be a 3 3/4″ collector line is just bullshit. The rest of the paint on this figure’s body is give and take, with a fair amount of slop and bleeding between the black and white. The one notable improvement in the paint is the lack of mud on the boots. I prefer my Biker Scouts to be clean, although it was never a major sticking point for me on the Legacy Scouts.

The head on the Black figure is the one thing about the sculpt that varies from the older release. Besides the detail being a lot softer on the Black release, the paint isn’t applied as well and the visor is notably bowed. Of the four figurs I have, the visor varies from being totally rounded to just somewhat bowed, but none of them are as straight as they should be. I definitely prefer the straighter visor and crisper detail on the older figure.

I’ve never featured the Legacy Scout on FFZ before so let’s run down the articulation. The head rests on a generous ball joint, which is nice because he can look up when riding a Speeder Bike. The shoulders are ball jointed with a pin and hinge and the arms feature ball joints in the shoulders and swivels in the forearms. The legs have ball joints in the hips, knees, and ankles. There is no waist swivel, but there is a pretty flexible ball joint in the torso that gets the job done.

In the end, I’d say the Biker Scout is only slightly better than the Stormtrooper and still quite a disappointment. With the cheap plastic, soft sculpt, and spotty paint it literally looks and feels like a knock-off. At $10 he is a huge step back from the previous released versions and the people at Hasbro should be ashamed of themselves for putting these on the pegs. It’s one thing to repack an old figure and sell it as new, but for the love of God, why make the figure worse? Granted, at less than three bucks a pop, I can’t get too upset about buying these. There’s always room in the back of my AT-AT for these guys to chill out and just buff up the numbers of my Imperial cannon fodder, but it’s no secret why Amazon is practically giving these things away as “Ad On Items.” So, that makes Strike Two for the 3 ¾” Star Wars Black line, Hasbro. We’ll come back to the line again in a couple of days and see if the next one is any better.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: hasbro