Jul 15 2013

Marvel (Iron Man) Legends: Ultron by Hasbro

If you’re keeping score at home, Marvel Monday is usually reserved for Marvel Universe figures, but I’m using July to catch up on some of my Legends figures, specifically the second half of Hasbro’s Iron Man themed wave. Today’s figure is Ultron… wait, Ultron? In an Iron Man themed wave? Well, I guess he’s an Avengers villain and considering that Marvel recently had a little something called Age of Ultron going on, I can forgive them for squeezing Ultron into here. Truth be told, I was really looking forward to getting a Legends scale Ultron in my collection. And then I got him… aaaand… ok, lovely Jameson… help me through this one with your alcoholy goodness.

There’s the packaging for this isolated little stand-alone wave of Iron Man Legends. It is also the “Iron Monger Series,” which means we get another Build-A-Figure part for Monger. This time it’s the head. I’ve said all there is to say about this packaging in the past four looks at this wave, so let’s move on.

Ok, where to begin? Let’s get my biggest (and really only major) issue with this figure out of the way first. It’s the plastic. I don’t like it. The bulk of this figure is cast from this awful-looking swirly silver plastic that just screams “cheap” to me. It’s also inconsistent in that some parts have a subtle blue hue to them while others have a slightly gold or tan hue, and still others are dead silver. Ultron is a figure that uses hardly any paint apps whatsoever, so it’s kind of important that they get the quality and look of the plastic right and I’m sorry to say, this stuff just doesn’t cut it for me. I can understand not wanting to paint the entire figure in metallic silver, paint is expensive, but if you’re not going to paint him, Hasbro, use better looking plastic.

And that’s a shame, because the sculpting on this figure is pretty incredible. Ok, the boots put me off a tad, as they seem rather chunky, but everything else is impressive. I like the segmented sections of his arms and legs, as well as the slight bulk to his chest and shoulder armor. Turn the figure around and he’s got a really cool spine sculpted into his back. The head, however, is what really ties the figure together for me. They really nailed the ant-like homage in Pym’s design, the red paint apps on the eyes and mouth really make the head pop. There’s a lot right with this figure, and that’s what ultimately makes him rather disappointing.

Ultron sports a ton of useful articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips. The arms feature swivels in the biceps, double hinges in the elbows, and hinges and swivels in the wrists. The legs swivel at the hips, have double hinged knees, and swivels and hinges in the ankles. He can also swivel at the waist and he has an ab crunch hinge in the torso. Poseability is not one of this figure’s problems.

It could be that I’m making the look of the bare plastic on this figure into too big of an issue and I’m rather interested to see what other collectors thing of him. It could also be that I was so excited to get this Ultron in hand that my expectations were set pretty high. But in fairness, those expectations were based on Hasbro’s own preliminary photos where it looked like Ultron had a much nicer silver sheen rather than swirly cheap-looking plastic. I don’t mind so much when they use this stuff sparingly, but when it’s used on practically the whole figure it just doesn’t look right to me. Next Monday, we’ll take a look at the last figure in this wave… Iron Man’s Mark 42 armor!

Jul 8 2013

Marvel (Iron Man) Legends: Iron Patriot (Rhodey) by Hasbro

It’s time once again for Marvel ~~Universe~~ Legends Monday! This has been a polarizing summer of movies. Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, Into Darkness… battle lines have been drawn in the Interweb forums and fanboys have been having at each other over these films. I quite enjoyed Iron Man 3, although I’ll admit one of the sticking points for me about the movie early on was the use of the Iron Patriot armor. It took me a little while to come around and concede that copyrights being what they are, there was no way we were ever going to get Norman Osborne and The Dark Avengers, so having War Machine don the paintjob and the name only made sense. I can (begrudgingly) see that now and have accepted it. Debates over the use of the character aside, I love the aesthetics of the War Machine armor in the movies, and I must admit it certainly looks sexy decked out in the Iron Patriot colors.

We’ve already looked at the three figures that make up the first half of this Iron Man Legends wave. There’s not much new here. The character art looks fine and the figure is mounted on his tray beside the Iron Monger BAF part.

Iron Man 2 had its own line of Legends scale figures, and I’m guessing that this release is based off that War Machine mold, but I don’t own it and the Jameson is making me too fuzzy to do proper research, so I’m only guessing. Either way, I confess that I really love this sculpt. It’s both curvy and angular in all the right places and there are plenty of little panel lines to spruce things up. What I’m not as keen on are some of the plastics being used here, particularly the bare red plastic used for the hands and arms. It’s a little swirly, and it doesn’t hold up to the beautiful metallic blue and silver used for the rest of the figure. The quality also doesn’t feel quite up to par. It’s hard to put my finger on what it is exactly. The seams are a bit uglier than usual as well.

And speaking of paint, it’s worth noting that my figure has some stray paint on the face mask. If I was buying this guy off the pegs, I probably would have passed and tried to find a better one, but I got him sight unseen online. In retrospect, it sort of looks a little battle damage-y, so I can live with it. I am, however, really happy with the way the little tampo marks came out, particularly the Lt. Col. James Rhodes on the breast plate. It’s just a nice cool touch.

Patriot comes with a detachable shoulder mounted gun. There are two peg holes in the back so it can be positioned over either shoulder, but it really only looks right to me over his left shoulder. The gun features a swivel, as well as a hinge so that it can fold up or retract entirely behind his back. Of course, you can also just pull the whole thing out if you prefer.

Let’s roll out the articulation… The head is ball jointed and hinged as well, which gives it that little extra bit of movement that I love. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double-hinges in the elbows, and hinges and swivels in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double-hinges in the knees, and hinges and swivels in the ankles. There’s also a ball joint in the torso that features a really nice range of motion. It’s also worth mentioning that the shoulder armor is soft, rubbery plastic so as not to impede the range of arm movement. What does bother me is that the sculpted armor on the wrists won’t let the left hand bend back to bring his palm repulsor to the ready unless you cock the arm at the elbow.

Despite my issues with the plastic and a couple of paint flubs, I still really like this figure. He’s far from perfect, and that’s a shame because he could have been a homerun if not for some of the niggling little issues. That having been said, he looks damn fine on the shelf and he really is fun to play around with. It’s too bad the QC guys were asleep on the job and let this one slip out the way it did. Not a terrible figure, but he doesn’t live up to some of the better work we’ve been getting out of the Marvel Legends line.

Jul 1 2013

Marvel Universe: Blastaar by Hasbro

While Hasbro seems to be dropping the ball on their movie properties, they have certainly upped the ante on Marvel Universe. I’m not just talking about the overall quality of the figures, but also the character selection. MU is a line that I was seriously considering abandoning last year, but I’m glad I didn’t because I would have missed out on a lot of cool figures. This Marvel Monday’s entry is a prime example of that. Oh yes, folks… it’s Blastaar!

Oops, my bad… it’s MARVEL’S Blastaar, because somebody at Hasbro was sleeping on the job in the copyright department. In package, Blastaar just warms the cockles of my Fantastic Four Fanboy heart. The character art has him leaping right out at you and he’s a big boy that certainly fills up the bubble. This is one of those MU figures that offers up a satisfying heft when you pull him off the peg. He was the only one I’ve seen so far in the wild, and I probably would have punched anyone in the throat that tried to get to him before I did.

The back of the card shows the figure, as well as the other two figures in this wave, and a little bio blurb of this big boy. Once again, Dazzler decks out the bottom of the card with some collecting advice. Can, I dig it you ask? Oh yeah, Dazzler. I can dig it.

Blastaar is a fine example of the logical reuse of parts. The legs, torso and forearms are all recycled directly from Juggernaut (and various other MU big boys) and given a fresh coat of paint. He has a simple grey and blue deco, with the grey being very similar to the type used for Apocalypse, while the blue is slightly darker and features less of a sheen. The bracers on his wrists are new to the sculpt, as is the circlet around his neck. It all works quite well and ensures that Blastaar is a beefy enough figure to hang with the likes of Apocalypse and Thanos. Yeah, he’s a little generic, but it suits the character design.

While Blastaar’s body is somewhat generic, the head sculpt makes up for that in spades. This guy’s ugly noggin is packed with detail and personality. He’s got the one buggy eye, a mouthful of carefully sculpted and painted teeth, even something as simple as the ears are worthy of note. I’m also really pleased with the way his wild mane of hair came out. He looks like he’s about to start stroking out with rage. Fantastic!

The articulation here is the same we’ve seen with most of the husky MU figures. There are ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, and torso. The arms have swivels in the biceps and and forearm, and the elbows are hinged. The legs have swivels in the thighs and just above the boots, the knees are double hinged and the ankles have single hinges. The characteristics of the buff sculpt impede some of the points of articulation, but he can still do a lot more than just stand there and look menacing.

No accessories, but Blastaar does come with the super wonderful tiny piece of printed cardboard that Hasbro suggests is a cool collectible. If I cared at all about the Comic Shot, I would at this point say that I would have preferred a Fantastic Four cover over The Avengers one. But either way, these get thrown out with the packaging, so I care not!

Sure, Blastaar is basically a kitbash with a new head, but I have no issues with these when they’re done right and this guy is done right. Yes, Hasbro could have made the costume a little more distinctive, but on the other hand the fact that I can walk into a big box toy aisle and buy a Blastaar figure kind of blows my mind. If this is what they needed to do to make that happen, I’m cool with that. I was already a fan of this buck and the head sculpt drives the whole figure home perfectly.

And… once again, I’m caught up on my Marvel Universe Collection features, so for the next four weeks, Marvel Monday will be changing over to features for the Legends scale figures. Unless, of course, I happen to stumble upon a boon of MU figures that I need. After that… well, we’ll see!

Jun 28 2013

Star Wars Expanded Universe: Kyle Katarn by Hasbro

I’m opening some Star Wars figures this week, so I should be getting some related features up throughout the course of July, and I decided to kick it off with one of my favorite unsung heroes of the Expanded Universe… Mr. Kyle Katarn! The first half of the 90’s presented us PC gamers with all sorts of great outlets for our Star Wars love. I shudder to think how much time I spent, fingers gripping a flightstick, playing the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games. But when LucasArts took the first-person shooter gameplay of hits like Doom and Duke Nukem and interjected it into a brand new narrative set in the Star Wars universe, I was in heaven. If you wanted to know what a mid-90’s era Star Wars fanboy orgasm on the PC looked like, here it is…

Yup, it’s a pixelated mess… but it was the shit! I can still hear the glorious midi soundtrack building to a crescendo as I take out Stormtroopers with my E-11 Blaster. Yeah! Take that, bitches! Getting my hands on this game was a HUGE deal to me and I played it like crazy… over and over again. You know those hardcore Korean gamers that have to be ripped away from Starcraft to save them from dehydration? Well, that’s crazy… this wasn’t anything like that… forget that… I just really loved Dark Forces and played it a lot. And while sadly Dark Forces has yet to get the action figure attention of Shadows of the Empire, it wasn’t left out completely.

Vader looks so damn cute on the POTF2 cards. He looks like a pug wearing a helmet. While it doesn’t say so on the package, Katarn is basically part of the Power of the Force 2 line. Instead, the figure gets the “Expanded Universe” moniker, and while the package also suggests Kyle is from Dark Forces, I’m pretty sure he didn’t sport the beard until appearing in the subsequent pseudo-sequel Jedi Knight. I would have preferred a clean-shaven Kyle. Jedi Knight was a fine game and all, but I always liked the blaster-toting, space pirate mercenary aspect of Star Wars better than the mystical Jedi Knight bullshit, hence my love for Dark Forces. It was a shooter with no mystic bullshit. As much as I liked seeing Kyle come back, did he really need to become a Jedi? DOES EVERYONE NEED TO BE A JEDI??? Anyway, you’ll also note the package proclaims it can be converted into a 3-D diorama! We’ll get to that in bit!

Kyle himself is a decent looking figure for the period. He isn’t nearly as ridiculously buff as some of the POTF2 figures and the sculpt really strides that line between vintage and modern. I dig Kyle’s outfit a lot. It definitely has a little Han Solo smuggler vibe to it, particularly in the belt and holsters, but the rest of the design is rather distinctive. He’s got an armor vest, kneepads, and some chunky boots. It’s an original looking ensemble, but one that definitely fits the Star Wars universe. There’s some unfortunate paint splatter on the back of my figure, and I’m not a fan of the spray used on his boots, but all in all, not bad!

The likeness is good enough for a character that is based off a computer drawing, although later Katarn would be depicted in the flesh through FMV and the figure is even passable for the actor. The paintwork on the eyes and beard is all quite solid too. Granted, you don’t see a whole lot of Kyle in Dark Forces, as it’s a POV shooter, but the character has had plenty of face time since, and this figure does him proud. In the context of POTF2 figures, this is a pretty fantastic head sculpt.

Kyle features only six points of articulation. You get the usual head, shoulders and hips of the vintage figures, with an additional swivel in the waist. He’s a tad pre-posed with a wide stance. It makes him look great on the shelf, like he’s ready for action, but sadly it also makes him rather incompatible with most vehicle cockpits. But hey, it’s not like Hasbro ever gave us a Moldy Crow for him to ride in. By the way, Moldy Crow is the worst name for a spaceship ever. If Shipwreck from GI JOE had a spaceship, I’m pretty sure that’s what he would name it.

Weapons! Dark Forces was all about weapons, but Kyle only comes with two. First, you get his modified Bryar blaster pistol. It’s somewhat close to the pistol in the game, but it doesn’t have the magazine on the side. In terms of default FPS weapons, this one was pretty nice and accurate. The other weapon is either the Imperial Repeater or the Packered Mortar Gun? It doesn’t look much like either weapon model, as I remember them. Of course, my favorite weapon in the game was the E-11 Rifle. It’s understandable he doesn’t come with one and only fitting that he should have to kill one of my Stormtrooper figures and take theirs.

And then there’s the 3-D Play Scene! Yes, if you carefully follow the instructions, the cardback will fold out into this little display area with a landing bay and an Imperial Shuttle. Look, it’s a cool concept and pretty ambitious for a package that is just a cardback. It’s also a concept that Hasbro has made better use of since with boxed figures and vehicles. In practice, it’s not all that impressive, but I give Hasbro major points for the effort.

I picked up Kyle a couple months back at a toy show for a fiver, along with some other POTF2 era EU figures, all of which I’ll try to get to over the course of the coming weeks. Katarn later got an updated figure as part of a Comic Pack, which I probably would have picked up if it paired him with Jan Ors, as opposed to comic book adversary, Yuuzhan Vong. In hindsight, I probably let my bitterness over the lack of a Jan Ors figure overwhelm me on that decision, and I wouldn’t mind having a better version of Katarn in my collection. I’ll have to keep an eye open for him on the Ebays. But seriously, Hasbro, where the hell is Jan Ors?

Jun 25 2013

Transformers Classics: Optimus Prime by Hasbro

A couple of weeks ago, I looked at Classics Jetfire and realized that there were still quite a few Classics in my collection that have escaped being featured here on FFZ. Most notable of all is the big cheese himself, Optimus Prime. However, in Prime’s case, I think the omission may have been by design. I was hooked on the Classics line from day one, but I was never entirely smitten with this version of Prime. Let’s see if he’s grown on me any after all these years…

The packaging has been gone for a long time, so let’s jump right into Prime’s alt mode. Yep, he’s still a red semi-truck cab which offers a solid homage to the original character toy, but Hasbro certainly went off the reservation on a few significant points. He’s less boxy and more rounded at the edges, and his windows in particular are pretty stylized. It’s a slightly sexier and modern look and I’m cool with that. If I had to pick one thing that bothered me the most, it would be the windows. They just don’t seem to fit with the rest of the design and it’s obvious the discrepancy has to do with the transformation engineering. We’ll come back to that in a little bit.

Initially, I wasn’t a big fan of the cap on the roof, but that’s grown on me a little bit. My main issue with the cap is that it’s basically there to hide the head and create an extra gun. I think the head could have been hidden with something a lot less cumbersome, and as we’ll see the gun that it forms isn’t a great pay off.

I do like the deco used here quite a bit, as it’s fairly faithful to the original toy colors. He’s mostly red and blue, with some added silver. The grey used for the bumper and grill is a little jarring to me. I think it should have been painted closer to the side striping with a little metallic silver finish. My only other gripe here is the lack of a regular Autobot insignia. Prime does have a rub sign sticker, but I’ve never been a big fan of these. Still, combine this deco with the new design and I can appreciate Prime’s cab mode well enough. There are no miss steps to the reimagined design that I can’t forgive. Let’s transform him and see if the same holds true for his robot mode.

Prime in robot mode is a damn frustrating figure. He’s got so much great stuff going for him, but a couple points of lazy design detracts from him a lot. The first thing worth mentioning is that his transformation relies on a bit of fakery. The lower part of his torso is meant to look like his truck grill, but the real truck grill winds up on his back. I’m not a big fan of that kind of hocus-pocus in my Transformers engineering, but it isn’t a deal breaker for me if it’s done right. If we’re talking about Prime’s torso and legs… he’s done very right. There’s a great stylized design to him that makes the fakery well worthwhile. He looks fantastic and very much like the Prime toy that I’ve always wanted. The head sculpt isn’t among my favorite Prime heads, but it’s not at all bad. So what’s the problem?

First off, the horrible truck shell pieces that hang off his arms. They hang there, they flop around and get in the way. Basically, they’re ugly and awkward. An extra hinge to help them wrap around the arm may have helped. Maybe if they actually looked like armor and not just truck pieces hanging off of him. But whatever the case, he always looks like he’s mis-transformed or missing a step somewhere. It looks like the designers kept thinking, “Yeah, the arms… we’ll worry about them later” only later never came. I’m not a fan of parts-formers, but in this case, I would have been perfectly fine if you could have just pulled these pieces off, because they practically destroy the figure by being there.

Less of a problem is his backpack. It’s awkward and ugly, but I’m far more forgiving of a cumbersome backpack on a Transformer than the god-awful hideous limb kibble. Of course, you can also pull the backpack off, which brings me to Prime’s two transforming weapons…

Prime’s main weapon comes out of his smokestacks. It’s not his traditional looking rifle, but I do like it a lot. It’s a clever use of the smokestack part and I think he looks pretty good holding it. The cap/backpack gun is slightly more complex in transformation. It’s an ok gun, but rather unwieldy and I don’t like that it’s the same deco as Prime himself. Like I mentioned above, it isn’t worth the payoff of having the big cap on the truck cab.

Classics Prime is a fun toy, and he’s definitely one of the better Prime figures that Hasbro has put out since. I’ll concede that’s a bit of a loaded compliment, but I do think he deserves more kudos than scorn. That having been said, it’s hard to overlook the truck kibble on his arms. I can remember the first time I transformed him, I kept looking back at the instructions to see what I was doing wrong, only to find out that there was nothing wrong, that’s what his arms look like. If I’m blowing them out of proportion, I think the problem here was that I was so excited about Hasbro doing updates to G1 characters, my expectations were too high. In the end, I’m far more willing to dismiss a terrible figure than forgive one that mingles with greatness but falls flat because of one or two major flaws. Prime is sadly one of those figures that could have been close to perfect, but missed the mark because of some lazy design elements.

Jun 24 2013

Marvel Universe: Jubilee by Hasbro

Ah, Jubilee… I don’t like her. I’ve always thought she was an annoying character with lame powers. I wasn’t reading X-Men at the time of her debut, and for a while, I actually thought she was created for the X-Men animated series to replace Rogue as someone the audience of kids could relate to. Why is it every time a film or series creates a character for the audience to relate to, they suck? Jubilee Fans, attach your hate mail to the comments section below! Later, when I got back into comics hardcore and spent a lot of time in back issues, I obviously learned otherwise. Anyway, like her or not, I can’t help myself from buying any X-Men figures Hasbro puts out in the Marvel Universe line, and so here we are… welcome to Marvel Monday!

There’s the packaging. I do dig the character art and despite her rather demure size, Jubilee fills out her bubble fairly well with her effect part beside her on the tray. You get the usual “Comic Shot” which is an issue of X-Factor featuring Jubilee in a completely different costume. Excellent! Great job, Hasbro! At this point you might as well just grind up the Comic Shot into dust and pour it into my eyes.

The back of the card has a little bio blurb and a shot of the other figures in this wave. I haven’t found Professor X yet, but next week, we’ll be looking at Blastaar. The collecting message of the wave comes from Dazzler. I would dig me a Dazzler figure, but if that ever happens, I’m sure she’ll wind up in some overpriced exclusive set. Boo!

With Jubilee out of the package, I continue to be impressed with the current crop of MU figures that Hasbro is churning out. Obviously, the most distinctive thing about her is the soft plastic yellow trenchcoat. The coat is executed in traditional Hasbro style by making it a vest with figure’s arms sculpted to look like the sleeves. It works fine for me, especially in this scale. Her body and legs are free of any sculpted detail and painted completely black. Her belt is a separate piece, but it’s glued into place instead of just hanging on her hips. I would have preferred her red top and blue shorts under the coat, but maybe that will be a quick-and-dirty variant later on down the road. Hasbro did a nice job with the head sculpt. Yes, she’s a bit wall-eyed, but that’s mostly thanks to the paint. The rest of the face is great, the hair is fantastic, and she has her sunglasses nestled into her hair and a pair of earrings.

Jubilee’s articulation is pretty solid. Her neck has a ball joint in addition to a hinge, which gives her head a lot of movement. Her arms have ball joints in the shoulders and elbows and swivels in her wrists. Unfortunately, the sculpted sleeves works against the range of motion in her arms. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, swivels in the thighs and boots, and double hinges in the knees. Her ankles have hinges and rockers too! The torso has a ball joint just under her chest.

In addition to the crappy Comic Shot, Jubilee comes with a purple effect part for her hand. It looks like the same piece that came with Scarlet Witch. Either way, it’s already gone straight into the Bin of Forgotten Effect Parts, never to be seen again.

So, Jubilee may not be one of my favorite characters, but Hasbro did her proud with this figure. They managed to take a very ~~crappy 90’s~~ distinctive character design and translate it into plastic perfectly. I’ve only seen her a few times on the pegs, and one of those times two middle aged guys were fighting over her. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice what little self-respect I have by jumping into that fray, and my patience paid off because she showed up again a few weeks later. Considering the abysmal Hasbro distribution in my area, finding any Marvel Universe figure in the wild is a rare treat, let alone one from a recent wave.

Jun 17 2013

Marvel Legends: Ultimates Captain America by Hasbro

It’s Marvel Monday again! I’ve got some new MU figures on their way to me, but until then, I’ll just have to substitute a Marvel Legends figure for today: The Ultimates version of Cap! Captain America has already had his share of love from the new Legends line, with Steve Rogers and Bucky Cap, but I’m not complaining, because I do love Captain America, and as it turns out this figure is pretty fantastic.

There are no real changes to the packaging since the last wave. It’s still as delightfully obnoxious and in-your-face as a comic book figure package should be. The character art is a little wanting, but that’s ok because the huge bubble displays the figure well, and draws in the eye. Cap comes with his shield beside him, and despite the package exclaiming that Cap is part of the “Hit Monkey Series” there is no BAF part included with this one. My guess is that Hasbro knew this guy would sell by himself, and in my case they were absolutely right.

Out of the package and oh, shit, this guy is all sorts of awesome. I’m not a big fan of the Ultimates books. I tend to turn to them when I have nothing else to read. That having been said, I do tend to like the character designs a lot, and Cap here is a perfect example of why I do. It’s the magnificently rugged, battlefield look that I love so much. It made perfect sense that the movie costume drew so heavy from the Ultimates design, because this looks like proper WWII Cap, thanks to all the added gear.

He’s got a softer plastic vest with pouches and a painted buckle, and his belt has sculpted ammo pouches, grenades, a combat knife, and canteen. It all looks outstanding! It’s a shame his gun is not removable, but it’s sculpted and painted well enough that I thought it might be. All of the gear is cast in soft brown plastic with some bright silver paint apps.

All that gear is placed onto an excellent body. The gloves and boots are slightly oversized to keep the chunky Ultimates aesthetic going, and the head sculpt conveys a delightfully self-righteous and pissed-off Rogers. The paint on the figure is also executed quite well. Yes, there’s a little chipping and bleeding on the white, which is clearly not intentional, but I think it adds to the weathered look of the character design.

Naturally, Cap comes with his trusty shield, which is the same sculpt as the one that came with last year’s Steve Rogers. It does, however, have a fresh coat of paint, which includes a slightly more metallic finish to the front and the back is painted grey now, instead of red. The shield can clip onto his arm, or peg into the hole on his back.

POA Roll Call! There’s nothing new here in articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, and ankles. The arms feature swivels in the biceps and gloves, and double hinges in the elbows. The legs have swivels in the thighs and boots, and double hinges in the knees. The torso swivels at the waist and has an ab crunch hinge. Apart from the usual annoying qualities of those Hasbro hip joints, the articulation is fab.

Hasbro has delivered a number of 5-star figures in the new Legends line. Well, for my money, this version of Cap certainly takes his place alongside the likes of Thor, Punisher, and the first Steve Rogers figure, as one of them. He looks fantastic and he’s so much fun to play with, he’s probably going to land on my desk for a week or so before getting put up on the Legends shelves. Yes, a removable gun would have really sealed the deal, but even still, this figure has nothing to apologize for. He’s a fine example of everything I want out of this line… aside from good retail distribution. That still sucks.

Ok, with Marvel Monday out of the way, it’s going to be a DC theme up through to the end of the week. I may deviate Saturday for something different… we’ll see!

Jun 13 2013

Transformers Generations: Springer by Hasbro

I know, I just did two days of Transformers, but I wanted to get to Springer this week, so I decided to just make it a TF Trifecta and toss him in now…

Of Hasbro’s new Triple-changers, I was far more excited to get Blitzwing over Springer. Well, we all know how that turned out… but let’s not dwell on that any longer. It’s not that I have anything against Springer, but my interest in Transformers began to wane a bit after the movie, I never owned Springer’s original toy, and so I don’t have the same nostalgia toward his character as I do Blitzwing. Granted, IDW’s comics have done their part to make him a stand out character in my eyes. But either way, you don’t need to have a strong attachment to the character when his toy is as amazing as this one is.

There’s the Generations packaging with an added 30^th Anniversary logo. I do dig the presentation here. The window is large and shows off the figure in his robot form alongside a very nice piece of character art. The box also points out that Springer is a Triple-changer! There’s a bio on the back as well. As with Blitzwing, I’m going to break tradition and look at Springer’s robot mode first.

Springer’s bot mode is nothing short of glorious. Both the head sculpt and the general design of the body are both perfect for the character. I love the proportions on this guy. When I first saw pictures, I thought his hips were too narrow making his legs look funny, but now that I have the figure in hand, I find that not to be the case at all. There’s so many cool little things about his design, like the way the wheels end up on his shoulders and legs, the armor plates that fold down over his shoulder wheels, the front of the car/helicopter makes a perfect chest, the angle of the armor plates coming up from behind his shoulder, the fins that make up his knees. Even the head sculpt is perfect… I wouldn’t change a thing. I could go on and on gushing, but suffice it to say Hasbro hit a homerun here. It’s all the more impressive to say that a robot this beautiful is also a Triple-changer.

Springer sticks fairly close to the G1 Springer deco. You get a pleasing mix of green, yellow, light grey and dark grey. Springer uses very few paint apps and makes use of colored plastic, which serves the figure very well. The yellow plastic is particularly beautiful and looks great alongside the green. He has an Autobot emblem stamped toward the bottom of his chest.

Springer comes with two weapons. You get a sword and a rather large double barreled gun/missile launcher. Both weapons have places on his alt modes. The sword becomes the rotor blades for his helicopter form, and the gun can mount on top of his car mode or under the chin of his helicopter mode. Either one of the weapons can also peg into his back in robot mode for storage. Both weapons are excellent. The gun is appropriately oversized for a Wrecker and I have to admit the way his sword converts from the rotors is rather genius.

Let’s move on to Springer’s armored car mode next. The package lists him as only a “2” in terms of difficulty, which surprised me, but it certainly turns out to be true. Springer is quite easy to convert. His car mode is pure bad ass with some sleek and sexy contouring matched with some rugged-looking armored sides and spoilers hanging off the back. I’ll concede that there are some issues getting everything locked together just right, but he does hold together quite well and rolls along great. This mode would be totally acceptable to me for a regular Transformer, so it’s all the more impressive from a Triple-changer.

And then there’s the helicopter mode, which to me is the weaker of the three, but still acceptable. I love helicopters! I have stacks of books and magazines about them. I can easily lose myself in reading about their stats and designs. There are some butt-ugly real-word helicopters out there, so the fact that Springer’s chopper mode isn’t all that easy on the eye doesn’t bother me so much. It does a fairly good job of concealing the tires, and I do like the way the hood of the car splits to become the outriggers. It’s a perfectly passable helicopter, but this is the mode that screams Triple-changer to me.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Springer is one of the best Transformers that Hasbro has put out in a while. He’s the perfect update to the character, he’s well designed and thankfully his engineering doesn’t suffer from any of the problems we saw with Blitzwing. I’d also point out that the careful use of colored plastic shows that Hasbro can cut back on paint apps without detracting from the figure at all. This figure is fun to transform, but more importantly he’s hard to put down in robot mode because he’s such a solid and highly poseable figure.

It’s worth mentioning that Springer was one of the first characters created by the now prolific third-party not-Transformer toy companies. Fansproject’s Warbot Defender was created because there was a large demand for the character and yet Hasbro seemed unwilling to deliver. Well, now they have, and it’s almost like Hasbro had something to prove. If there is an undeclared war going on between Hasbro and the third-party companies, I’d say Springer is a major victory for the home team. He was a long time coming, but having him in hand, this $22 figure sure makes me happy I didn’t spend the $100 on Warbot Defender.

Jun 12 2013

Transformers Kre-O: Optimus Prime by Hasbro, Part 2

And we’re back for the second half of a Kre-O Optimus Prime feature that is rapidly wearing on my patience. I say “second half” but this is going to go a lot quicker than yesterday. Having built Prime into his truck and trailer mode and shooting some pictures, last night I poured myself a generous glass of Jameson and set about to pulling him apart. I took the time to separate the parts by color, poured another glass, and dove in to rebuilding him as robot and battlestation. Having the parts separated was a huge help and overall this build went smoother and faster, but there were a lot more parts left over, so that might explain why. With a little perseverance, and two more glasses of Jamie, I was able to wrap up the build before turning in for the night. It would have been helpful to use the box as a tray for the parts, but after two days the cat has still not relinquished it.

Ok, so let’s start with Prime’s robot mode.

I like it a lot! I do wish I still had my Kre-O Bumblebee built so that I could compare the two in size, but after two days of wrestling with Kre-O, I would rather scrape my tongue with a cheese grater than build another one. So, sorry, but no comparison pictures. Prime strikes me as being about the same size, but a little less beefy and less complex. There are some really cool design features to him, like the way his chest is constructed, his smokestack backpack is neat, and oddly enough I really dig the construction of his feet. He’s very well proportioned and the head sculpt is particularly nice and a lot more evocative of G1 Prime than the Bayformer version. Only six of his wheels actually transfer to his robot mode, this may bother some people, but I’m ok with it. Still, he does look a tad skimpy in the arms and legs. Not bad, mind you, just like he could have used a little extra oomf.

Prime features ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles, and his fists rotate. He has pretty good poseability and he holds together fairly well while I’m fiddling about with him. I know some people complain Kre-O doesn’t hold together, but that hasn’t been my experience.

The other part of this build is the “battlestation” which is really more of a little base for the human Kreons to hang out and do maintenance on their motorcycles. There aren’t any guns or anything else to suggest it is a station for battle. Keep in mind, I tried to use as many parts as I could to build this, so mine’s a bit of an enhanced custom job over the suggested model. It’s not bad for what it is. You get a control center, a maintenance area with a rack for the tools. I added a place for them to keep their helmets, and both bikes can fit in the base. You also get a pair of barricades. The whole ensemble sort of looks like something that Prime’s trailer can transform into. I’m vaguely reminded of other trailer base modes. I’m fairly certain, the base is built only from parts using the trailer, but since I already pulled everything apart, I won’t swear on that.

And that’s Kre-O Optimus Prime. He’s a cool set, but he definitely taxed my enthusiasm for building these things. All the modes are fairly well designed, and everything fit together pretty well, but building it still made me appreciate Lego all the more. Even the most complex Lego sets are still fun to build, because they’re carefully thought out with that purpose in mind. This Kre-O set felt like it was working against me and at times it plunged below my tolerances. It was originally around $60, which isn’t too bad considering all the parts and the play potential, but I picked up mine a while back on clearance for about $25, which is certainly a more appetizing price. Now, he’ll stand on a shelf for a couple of days before I can get the nerve up to break him down again and file him away with my other Kre-O, Lego, and Megabloks sets. I do know, that unless I can find some of the GI JOE sets, I’m going to be done with Kre-O for a while.

Jun 11 2013

Transformers Kre-O: Optimus Prime by Hasbro, Part 1

I’ve had this beauty sitting in my closet for months waiting for the right time to build it, well I was on vacation last week and it seemed like a good time. While I have been more or less impressed with the three or four Transformers Kre-O kits that I have built, Prime here was the last one that I plan to pick up. The direction the new stuff has taken doesn’t interest me as much and I just think my brick-monies are better spent if I kept channeling them into Lego. Anyway, this thing is a beast of a set and, like all Kre-O Transformers, it needs to be built twice, so I’m doing this guy in two parts because considering the amount of time I had to spend on him, I’m damn well going to get two features out of him. Today I’ll kick it off with the packaging, Kreons, and the vehicle mode, and tomorrow I’ll be back to check out the robot and the battle station!

Holy hell, this box is HUGE. I guess that’s to be expected since I’m pretty sure this set is the largest Transformers Kre-O kit to date. Prime comes in the same briefcase style case that is designed to close up and store the pieces. The front shows off an illustration of the toy, while the back shows actual pictures of what you’re building. Keep in mind, if you want to put the stickers on as they are in the picture, you won’t be able to take the cab apart. Also, I’m not sure how their “3-in-1” math works out. You can build it as a vehicle or as the robot and battlestation. That’s more like “2-in1” in my book. Anyway, I’ve kept the boxes for all my other Kre-O sets, but I doubt I’ll keep this one. It’s been leaning up against the wall in one of my toy closets for a while now and I’m kind of anxious to get rid of it. Besides, once I break this set down again and put the pieces into baggies, it’ll take up a lot less space.

On second thought, I may have to keep it, as the cat has adopted it as his new bed… right in the middle of my attempt to build it. Here’s another illustration of why cats and Lego (or even imitation Lego) don’t mix. He may have thought he was helping because he did actually chew some of the parts off their sprues.

Inside the box (cat not included) you get two large color instruction books and like a thousand baggies of bricks. Ok, it’s probably not a thousand bags. It’s probably more like six or seven bags. They weren’t numbered so I can’t be sure. And therein is the true fun or torture of this set. Since the bags aren’t numbered, or even grouped in any special way, you have to dump them all together and that leads to a ton of sorting and searching and hunting. I actually kind of enjoyed the added challenge on the 200-300 piece sets, but Optimus is nearly 550 pieces and to be honest, it got to be a real pain in the ass after a while. The color coding in the instructions is also a bitch. It’s tough to tell what’s supposed to be black, grey, dark grey, or metallic grey, and since a lot of times you’re dealing with the same piece in multiple colors, you need to just go with your gut and hope for the best. There were times when I realized I probably used a dark grey 2×2 when I was supposed to use a light grey 2×2, because that’s all I had left. Most of the time it doesn’t matter, but it’s worth pointing out that building this was more challenging than any Lego set I’ve ever done. The recommended age group is 8 to 14, which I believe actually means that if an 8 year old starts it, he can be expected to finish it by the time he hits 14. Anyway, when you’re all done with the first build, you get five Kreons, two motorcycles, and Prime’s cab and trailer. Let’s start with the Kreons…

The set includes three Transformer Kreons and two human Kreons. The Transformers are the ones I really care about. They’re the original kind that are just cute little collectible figures and cannot transform. I adore these stupid little things and I think they lost a lot of their charm when Hasbro started making them with crappy alt modes. The set has Optimus Prime, Smokescreen, and Skywarp. It’s an eclectic mix, but I love them all. They’re all excellent, but I think Skywarp is my favorite. I like the way they did the wings and the doors on him and Smokescreen. Prime also has little clip-on smokestacks on his arms. All three of these little guys are excellent.

The humans are the same Kreon with their colors changed around. You get motorcycle helmets and hats for each, so they can be used to work in the battle station or drive the motorcycles. They’re ok. I’ll confess while I’m not a big fan of the human Kreon styles, it is nice to have some human figures in scale with the robots. The motorcycles are kind of shitty. They’re each made up of two ill-fitting halves with wheels popped on. I guess they’re ok for what they are, but I don’t have much use for them.

Generally, I find the vehicle modes of the past Kre-O sets I built to be a bit wanting. Prime’s cab, on the other hand, is excellent and took me the bulk of the time to build. It’s very involved and the end result is well worth the effort. The instructions get rather silly with the placement of Autobot stickers, suggesting that I put two on the hood and three on the roof. I opted for just one on the roof. For a Lego-style vehicle, I think this thing looks great.

The doors open and there’s room for one Kreon to sit at the wheel and yes, if you’re feeling wacky you can actually have Prime drive himself. The back portion of the cab can pull off to reveal a little workstation for the Kreons. I actually thought this would be part of the battlestation, so I didn’t shoot any pictures and then found that I had to cannibalize it for the second build. Oops!

The trailer is scaled just a little shorter than I would have liked, but it still looks really nice when hitched up to the cab. It holds together pretty well for what is basically a shell. The Autobot symbols and striping on the sides are printed on, which is a welcome treat since the Kre-O stickers don’t stay on for shit. The back door can drop down to form a ramp and you can put both motorcycles inside. You can also break it apart at the top and swing both halves apart to give you access inside. There’s not much going on in there and it seems like Hasbro could have delivered a little more, but it’s cool nonetheless. I’m tempted to cannibalize my Lego City Police Mobile Crime Lab for parts and load this thing out with equipment.

So far, this Kre-O Prime doesn’t disappoint. Yes, the build got on my nerves, and I definitely recommend doing a proper color-coded sort of the parts before tackling his build. It won’t eradicate all the frustration, because you’ll still spend some time guessing which color part to use next, but it will help. Once built, however, Prime is the best looking Kre-O vehicle I own, and I can’t deny that getting Kreons of Prime, Smokescreen, and Skywarp makes me very happy. Tomorrow, we’ll tear this bastard down and start all over again with his robot mode and his battlestation!

FigureFan Zero

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