Jun 10 2013

Marvel Universe: Hercules by Hasbro

Argh… it’s Monday and that means I’ve only got one more day of vacation left. It’s been a relaxing week, and I’m going to pick up a special bottle tonight and get properly legless in a final act of vacation-ending defiance. But getting back on track… if it’s Monday, it must be time for a Marvel Universe feature. Let’s check out my man, Hercules!

Herc is from one of the more recent waves. Not that recent, mind you, but the fact that I’m excited to have him should tell you what MU distribution is like around here. I really dig the character art on the card and as you might expect, Hercules fills out his bubble impressively with his bulky, manliness… er, godliness. And let’s not forget the magnificent “Comic Shot” which is surely worth the ten bucks all by itself. I joke, but 20 years from now the irony will be that MU figures with the Comic Shots will be worth hundreds of dollars, just because most people, like me, just throw them away. The back of the card has a bio blurb and shows the other figures in the wave. I’m rather anxious to pick up Nova and Angel, but I can take or leave Puck. Oh yeah, Sasquatch takes over from the likes of Deadpool, MODOK, and Rocket Raccoon, to offer the humorous collecting quip.

Hasbro could have easily crapped out on this guy, but check him out! I think they did a fine job, considering he’s just a nearly naked dude. This is definitely one of the coolest muscled bucks I’ve seen in the 3 ¾” scale. The muscle definition is meticulously sculpted throughout and it does indeed look impressive. Herc’s “outfit” consists of a metallic green harness, which is a separate piece, brown leather bracers on his arms, sandals, and a green pair of briefs with his trademark giant “H” on his belt. Begin you’re 3 3/4″ He-Man customs now! It all looks great and the paintwork is excellent. Thankfully, Hasbro resisted the urge to use a paint wash and went with just a clean, bright flesh tone of the plastic. The sculpt stands out fine on its own without the help of the wash and Hasbro isn’t very good at doing them anyway. Yes, Hasbro, sometimes less is more!

Equally impressive is the head sculpt. The hair, beard and headgear is all reproduced wonderfully and there’s a lot of personality in this tiny, little head sculpt. Herc is sporting a great, mischievous smile betraying how much he revels in action. Yup, when he kicks your ass, he’s going to enjoy it. Again, the paintwork is nice and sharp, particularly the eyes.

Hercules comes with his trusty mace. It’s a nice looking piece with a shiny gold finish and a sculpted lanyard at the handle. And of course… The Comic Shot!

You get all the articulation we’ve come to expect from the current crop of MU figures. Herc’s arms have ball joints at the shoulders, swivels at the biceps, hinges in the knees, and hinges and swivels at the wrists. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, hinges at the ankles, and swivels at the thighs and the tops of his sandals. There are also ball joints at the torso and neck. The plastic for the joints all feels really nice and strong and there’s no warping to speak of.

I’ll confess, as much as I love Hercules’ character in Marvel’s funnybooks, his figure wasn’t high on my list. I guess I just didn’t think Hasbro could produce a stand-out figure of such a simple character design. In this case, it’s nice to be wrong. As soon as I had him in hand, I was thrilled with the way he turned out. And with Hercules, I am now completely caught up with features on my current Marvel Universe collection. I’ve been saving a Marvel Legends figure for next week’s Marvel Monday and I should have some new MU figures to look at in a couple of weeks.

Jun 7 2013

Transformers Generations: Blitzwing by Hasbro.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

That sums up my feelings for this figure. Thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget to like me on Facebook. Please contribute to my Kickstarter Project to support my Blitzwing and Springer hardcore Slash Fic Novel, Tanks for the Reach Around. See y’all tomorrow…

Oh… ok, I’ll elaborate. If a figure sucks, it’s not a big deal to me. I can either not buy it or if I did buy it, just toss it into a bin and be done with it. It sucks, why should I bother with it? I move on. But when a figure shows glimmerings of greatness… when a figure teases with potential and yet stumbles because of stupid, easily fixed design flaws, it really cheeses me off. That’s especially the case when it’s a figure based on a character I love and have strong nostalgic feelings for. I love Blitzwing for a lot of reasons. One, he was the only Triple-changer that I owned as a kid and I loved playing with him. Two, “Triple Takeover” is one of my favorite episodes of the Sunbow series. In it, Blitzwing has that one classic line of dialogue where he says to a human, “Tell me what’s on your mind or I’ll splatter it on the wall and see for myself” It’s so bewilderingly and inappropriately brutal for a children’s cartoon that it makes me smile every time I hear it. And finally, Blitzwing is a jet that turns into a tank. He dominates in both land and air. Oh yeah, and his name is Blitzwing… that’s awesome. Hasbro finally gives him a greatly needed update and they stumble on some of the stupidest little things.

I’ve got a lot to say, so I’m not going to waste time on the packaging. I’ll cover the packaging more when I do my feature on Springer next week. Let’s just dive in. And I’m going to break tradition here and start with Blitzwing’s robot mode…

…I think it’s fantastic. Look at him. He’s everything I would want in an update to Blitzwing. He’s well-proportioned, the treads look fine on his legs, and the sculpting and painted detail that flanks the cockpit on his chest resembles the stickers on the old toy. You also get some display options, like whether or not to point his shoulder wings out or fold them back (I prefer the later) and you can choose to display him with his tank barrel up or back. I think both look fine, but my old G1 toy was so loose from play that it usually defaulted to the down position. Blitzwing comes with a sword and a gun, both of which can be utilized in his alt modes. I’m not often a fan of swords with my Transformers, but I really like the sculpt on Blitzwing’s sword.

Yes, Blitzwing has a controversial face change gimmick. I don’t care about the extra faces. It’s an unnecessary fanwank back to the TF: Animated figure in a figure that should be a nod back to the original G1 character. The faces are too difficult to change anyway. I did it once and I thought I was going to scrape the rubbery faces off with my thumb nail. Seriously, I’m not even going to photograph them. Forget about them. Some have groused over the default G1 style face, but I’m fine with it.

Of course, Blitzwing’s robot mode has one really shitty flaw. The shoulders do not stay pegged in. If I so much as touch his arms, they unpeg and flop around. I’ve tried fiddling with them. I’ve tried Peaugh’s trick, which sadly doesn’t work on my figure. I’ve even tried gumming them up with blue tack. Nothing works. If you squeeze the shoulders while manipulating his arms, they stay in place, but anything else and the entire shoulder assembly just crumbles apart. A simple tab that actually snapped into place would have fixed this whole fatal issue.

Let’s do Blitzwing’s jet mode next, because next to the problem shoulders, it’s here where I find the figure stumbles the most. For a Triple-changer, I think the jet mode looks pretty good, It was really tough for me to get everything to peg in the way it’s supposed to, but after a couple of times, I finally got it down. If you don’t do it exactly right the arms that make up the back of the aircraft constantly want to pop out and the instructions aren’t a whole lot of help. I’m also not really keen on the way his feet and rear wings just hang off the back on ball joints. You constantly have to adjust them to keep them looking right. I do, however, like the way you can clip his sword to his back to fill up what would otherwise be an unsightly hollow area, and you can even plug his gun on top of that to give him some extra firepower. Like I said, this is not a bad jet mode for a Triple-changer. So what’s the problem?

The f’cking rubbery nosecone. It simply will not close up over his giant spring-loaded head no matter what I do. It never closes completely and given a little time it will default to the mess you see above. Fortunately, there’s a cheap fix for this…

Yup, take off Blitzwing’s head. It slides right out. So, yeah… I have to decapitate him in order to transform him, and even then the nosecone doesn’t really lock up all that well. Here’s where I think Hasbro ‘s intrepid band of designers should have reasoned: “It’s very probable that the fans would rather have a robot with a head small enough to transform properly over one with a terribly executed face change gimmick.” Seriously, I don’t mind the gimmick being there, but obviously if they had omitted it, the head could have been downsized enough to make the transformation work. And why make the entire nosecone out of that shitty rubber and not just the tip like on other Transformer jets? Ok, let’s move on to the tank mode.

I’ve heard people ragging on Blitzwing’s tank mode, but honestly, I think it works Ok. Again, he’s a Triple-changer and I’m willing to forgive certain design flaws. It pegs together fairly well and since the nosecone is concealed under the tank’s body, it tends to work for me a little better than the jet mode. The turret will turn, although it pivots awkwardly toward the front. You can plug his gun into the top and the barrel will fire a missile if you slide it back. There are peg holes on the side if you want to just plug his sword in there rather than have it loose.

And so, my beloved Blitzwing… one of my most anticipated Transformers figures in a long while, turned out to be a bitter disappointment. Still, I am not in any way sorry I bought him. He looks AMAZING standing on the shelf in robot mode, and to be honest, that’s what he’ll spend most of his time doing anyway. In robot mode, he looks like everything I wanted in an update of the character. But I hate to look at a toy on my shelf and have to think about how poorly designed it is and what a bother it is to transform and know that if I pick him up and play with him his shoulders will fall apart. I’m tempted to buy another and just glue his shoulders in place. It’ll cripple his transformation, but at least I can play around with him in robot mode. Then again, I really don’t want to reward Hasbro for such shitty engineering. I think the saddest thing about Blitzwing is that there’s nothing wrong with this figure that couldn’t have been easily fixed had he spent a little more time on the drawing board.

Jun 5 2013

Transformers Classics: Jetfire by Hasbro

I had a lot of fun checking out TF:U King Atlas last week, so I thought I’d pull out another Autobot jet that I haven’t featured yet on FFZ… It’s Jetfire! How is it possible that in over three years of doing this toy nonsense, I never looked at Jetfire here? I loved Jetfire in the Sunbow cartoon and while I’m not going to sit here and say I didn’t love the Macross style G1 toy, I always wanted something a little closer to the animated counterpart. Was this Classics release it? No, not really. There are some obvious homages here and there, but in the end Classics Jetfire is more a reimagining of the character then a direct update. I’ve had this guy in my collection for a while and the package is long gone, so we’re going to get right to the figure. As always, let’s start with his alt mode!

Like the original G1 toy, Jetfire has removable booster rockets, giving him the ability to be displayed in a basic jet mode. To be honest, I usually display him with the boosters on, but I love having the option to outfit him the way I want, especially since his vanilla jet mode looks so bitchin. The design borrows from both the Sunbow and the original toy designs, but I see more of the old Valkyrie style here than anything else. You get the same swept back wings, which can be positioned forward, the same dual rear fins, and even the folded feet thrusters all nod back to the old Macross style. The bulk of the toy is bare white plastic, which looks so much better than the stuff that Hasbro uses today. It’s detailed with beautiful red paintwork all very reminiscent of the G1 figure.

From the Sunbow side of things, we get a squared off nose and a blue cockpit. Compromise isn’t always a good thing, as collectors looking for a jet design that is accurate to either the G1 toy or the G1 cartoon will both be disappointed. I’d still like to see a straight Sunbow version of him at some point, but I still think this toy has a great looking jet mode that hits all the right points.

If you turn Jetfire over, you can see his arms and fists as clear as day. That doesn’t bother me so much as you’re almost always going to have some robo-kibble on jets in this size of toy. Plus the two missile launchers that peg onto the arms under the wings do their part to conceal it from the sides. Jetfire also features three working landing gear and a very nicely detailed cockpit.

Jetfire’s booster rocket pack simply pegs right onto his back in one big assembly. All you need to do is fold down his rear fins. It matches the iconic look of the old Valkyrie-style jet beautifully. He looks totally bad ass, and this is my favorite way to display him when he’s parked in jet mode. By sliding back the rear of the red frame you can deploy two spring loaded cannon.

Transforming Jetfire is fairly simple, although there are a few clever things at work. As already mentioned, the arms are practically complete even when in jet mode. You can remove his missile launchers, but it isn’t necessary for transformation as they wind up right where they should, mounted onto his arms and ready to fire at Decepticon fools. His feet and legs fold out just as I remember the old toy did. The chest and torso uses some cool new engineering, like swinging the arms up to the shoulders, and splitting the nosecone to beef out the chest.

In robot mode, Jetfire sheds most of his G1 toy roots, and while he skews a bit more toward his Sunbow animated design, this toy’s bot mode is mostly his own. Any disappointment I ever had about him not being more Sunbow accurate quickly washed away because he’s such a glorious looking figure, and there’s certainly no doubt who he supposed to be. He manages to still look iconic, while still representing a significant departure from the original designs.

The cockpit looks great on his chest even if it is derivative of almost all the other jet Transformers out there. I’m old school. I think jet Transformers should have their cockpits on their chests and car transformers should have their front bumpers on their chests. Not really all the time, but it’s the quintessential look for me. No pun intended. Quintesson? Ahem… moving on. I thought I’d really miss the way old school Jetfire’s back wings crossed his back, but I do dig the way this toy’s wings sweep down his back like a cape. The missile launchers on his arms invoke the G1 Seekers weaponry, which is always a great thing in my book. He’s a nice, sturdy and fun figure to play around with.

Jetfire’s stock head is fairly close to the Skyfire we all know and love, and he actually comes with a more G1 style head that fits over it like a helmet. I really don’t like the helmeted look and mine is rattling in the bottom of a tote somewhere anyway, but if I ever find it, I’ll have to do an update. I will note that the regular head looks a tad small, mainly because the cockpit juts pretty far out of his chest. The helmeted head seems to be scaled better, as it’s a tad bigger, but I still don’t like the way it looks as much. UPDATE… I FOUND HIS HELMET!!! My toy filing system is obviously better than I thought!

Yep, Classics Jetfire is one of my favorite figures in the line. That’s saying a lot, because generally speaking the Classics series figures could do no wrong by me. Sure you had a couple bombs like Tankor, and Grimlock was kind of disappointing, but Jetfire is a great figure among many great figures and he looks amazing standing in the back among the rest of the re-imagined G1 Autobots. I’ll grant you that he should have been bigger, but scale issues are a common problem in Transformers toys, so I’m not going to come down too hard on him for that. As much as I adore Classics, even I have to admit some of the toys are starting to look rather dated now, but I think Jetfire holds his own. And I just realized when shooting him besides Classics Optimus, that I haven’t featured him here before either, so I’ll have to swing back and look at him sometime next week.

Jun 3 2013

Marvel Universe: West Coast Avengers 3-pack by Hasbro

It’s a Marvel Monday triple-play today with a look at one of the fairly recent Marvel Universe 3-packs. Since I spent this past weekend reading Moon Knight’s exploits on the West Coast, I thought it would be timely to check out this West Coast Avengers set. It contains Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and War Machine. It seems like they could have come up with someone other than Hawkeye, someone more West Coast Avengers exclusive, but given he’s the main reason I bought this set, I won’t complain too much.

If you’ve seen any of the previous multi-packs, you should know exactly what to expect here in terms of packaging. It’s the same style of window box we saw with the Fantastic Four and the Guardians of the Galaxy. There’s some nice character artwork and the figures come spread out on a tray in various action poses. The package is quite collector friendly, if you’re inclined to keep it for storage or display. Let’s start off with Hawkeye…

Hawkeye’s been available twice before in the Marvel Universe line: Originally in a Secret Wars comic pack and again as Dark Avengers Hawkeye, which was really Bullseye in costume. Ok, I guess technically that’s only once. This version is a slight repaint of the Secret Wars release with some resculpting to the arms. He’s a pretty complex figure for the MU line in that he includes a harness and tunic sort of thing over the regular MU buck and a removable quiver of arrows that slings over his shoulder. I like the head sculpt well enough, although it is a tad soft. There’s some slop around the face, but otherwise the paintwork is nice and clean, presenting him in his iconic purple and blue deco. All in all, this is a solid representation of comic Hawkeye in figure form and I’m pretty pleased to finally have a comic accurate Hawkeye on my shelf. In addition to the quiver, you also get a bow and arrow.

Because Hawkeye is based off an older figure, there’s a little less articulation than what we’re seeing now. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips. The arms have swivels in the biceps and wrists, and the elbows are hinged. The legs feature double hinges in the knees, swivels above the boots, and hinges in the ankles. There’s also a ball joint in the torso. It’s not a bad degree of poseability, although it’s frustrating that you can’t really get his arms down.

Next up is Mockingbird and she is not a bad pick up for the MU roster. She uses a very standard female buck, so she does feel a little dated. The only original sculpting on the body is in the tops of her boots. Still, Hasbro makes up for that with a really great head sculpt. Her mask looks terrific and her long hair is sculpted to fall both in front of and behind her shoulders, and doesn’t inhibit her neck movement too badly. Her costume is painted on with a simple black and white deco. There’s a little bit of slop along the lines. It’s definitely not the cleanest paint job in my MU collection, but I’ve seen a lot worse… I’m looking at you Ms. Marvel! She comes with her fighting stick, which can separate into two and I’m pretty sure it’s just a repaint of the weapon that came with Daredevil.

Mockingbird features the older style female MU articulation, which means no swivels in the biceps or thighs. You do get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips. The arms have hinges in the elbows and swivels in the wrists. The legs have double-hinges in the knees and hinges and swivels in the ankles. She can swivel at the waist and has an additional ball joint just under her chest. Honestly, the dated articulation bothers me the most on this figure because I’d like my Mockingbird to be able to pull off some cooler moves than she’s capable of.

And last up is War Machine. I’ve saved him for last because he is a straight repaint of the Iron Man 2 figure, which I have in my collection and featured waaaay back in March last year. Hey, I’m not complaining, because this is a great sculpt and I adore this new paint job. Rhodes is done up in his black and white deco and holy crap it looks awesome. The black has a subtle metallic finish and the white parts are a beautiful pearlescent white. I’m not big on double-dipping on repaints, but this one was well worth it… he’s gorgeous! War Machine comes with the same two effects parts as the Iron Man 2 release, which fit over his weapons to simulate firing. As is often the case with MU effects parts, I can take them or leave them. I’ll concede, however, that these are better than the usual translucent blob that goes over the hands or that terrible energy funnel that has come with most of the Iron Man figures.

War Machine features ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, and hips. His wrists have hinges, but there’s no bicep swivels. The legs have double hinges in the knees and swivels and hinges in the ankles. There’s some kind of ball joint or swivel in the torso, but it barely moves. In addition to the regular articulation, War Machine’s shoulder weapons are hinged to angle onto his back and his shoulder armor pieces are hinged to allow for greater arm movement.

Yes, this set features some classic double-dipping and the figures feel rather dated compared to the current MU single carded offerings. But these sets are all about value so a lot of this is to be expected. I got mine for $20 and that’s not bad for three MU figures these days. Both Hawkeye and Mockingbird fill some holes on my MU shelves and the War Machine repaint is just bad ass enough to have warranted a purchase, even if he was alone. Granted, if you already own Secret Wars Hawkeye, this set might give you pause, but even then it’s probably worth it if you can get it for an Andy Jack. It’s definitely the most accessable and least expensive among the current crop of these multi-packs. I’m still hunting for the others at a more reasonable price than what I’m seeing.

May 30 2013

Transformers Universe: King Atlas by Hasbro

I’m really trying to commit to featuring at least one Toy Closet Find each week, but I don’t want to confine it to one specific day. So today’s bit of random rummaging will take us into the realm of Transformers. It’s actually not so random, as I was thinking about how badly I want the rest of my TFC Uranos figures and that got me hankering to do a feature an Autobot jet. Before Transformers Universe became part of the Classics/Generations continuity, it existed as a weird composite line of toys that promised to draw from all corners of the Transformers mythos and introduce us to new versions of characters. In theory, it sounded promising, as Hasbro suggested that it would reintroduce old and uncommon molds to the toy shelves. In practice, it was more about awful repaints of toys we were already tired of seeing on the pegs and shelves. There were, however, some bright spots to the line. Is the subject of today’s feature is one of them? Well, that’s debatable.

Once upon a time I had a huge collection of G1 Transformers. It all eventually went out the door to help bankroll the startup costs of my business. It was a pretty standard collection, although it did occasionally stray into some uncommon corners of the Transformers world. One of those more uncommon pieces I had was a boxed Dai Atlas from Transformers: The Zone. I only bring it up now, because of how amazed and impressed I was that Hasbro actually released an homage to a toy that few mainstream TF collectors would even know about. And that brings us to today’s look at King Atlas, a repaint of the Starscream toy featured in Machine Wars, which in turn was a repaint of Skyquake. I can’t decide whether I hate this toy or love it. Maybe by the end of the feature, I’ll have worked it out.

Atlas’ alt mode is a gloriously huge bomber jet. It’s a friggin epic toy of an aircraft that looks like it’s designed solely to fly over your country and seriously f’ck your shit up. I don’t imagine it’s based on any real world aircraft, as it looks like a patchwork monstrosity of flying military hardware… but in a good way! Seriously, this thing looks like hate with wings… and bombs. One of the things I dig most about the aircraft mode is that it blurs the line of realism just enough that I could probably believe this is some kind of old Cybertronian mode. King Atlas comes with six yellow bombs that peg in around the aircraft. This mold was always a cool looking toy, even back in the Machine Wars era, but to see it released as an Autobot gives me a strange sense or ironic satisfaction. No part of this warplane looks like it should be a traditional Autobot, so I’ve always counted him among my Wreckers.

While it’s hard to argue with the black Decepticon coloring of the original Starscream toy, I really like what Hasbro did to this when rebranding it as an Autobot. The bulk of the aircraft is white, but there’s a very cool paint wash that gives it a grungy grey finish. When Hasbro attempts paint washes, they usually fail horribly, but this is a case where it really worked out amazingly well. He’s got yellow stripes on the sides that give him a bit of a Y-Wing vibe, red striping on the wings, and blue rear wings. Toss in some black and you’ve got a distinctive looking deco. The Autobot emblems on the wings are painted on and they look nice and sharp.

Besides just looking cool while parked on my shelf, King Atlas’ jet mode has a couple of interesting play features. One is the range finder in the back. You can flip a switch and put the rear thruster up to your eyeball and the mirror gives you an image of what’s below the toy, so you can target your bombing runs! You can also load the bombs into the cylinders in his wings and rotate the lever so Atlas can carpet bomb Decepticon fools below him. Finally, there’s a lever on his back that can open all the black hatches on his dorsal side to reveal translucent red panels. I never knew what the purpose of this feature was, but it’s still kind of cool. Ok, enough gushing about Atlas’ jet mode… let’s transform him and see what his bot mode is all about.

Wow! If you haven’t been around vintage Transformers in a while, this guy will come as a bit of a shock. Sure, as a 90’s toy he’s not exactly vintage, but he has a lot more in common with that era than the modern toys. It’s a perfect example of just how much the subsequent Beast Wars era revolutionized Transformers toys with their introduction of ball joints and actual articulation. King Atlas features a pretty simple transformation and the end result is a brick of a toy (his only articulation is in his shoulders) with a ton of kibble, not least of which is the huge range finder hanging off his back!

He’s also an unbelievably Japanese looking robot. I know, all Transformers are Japanese, but this guy seriously looks like he’s got more in common with a Chogokin or Gundam… particularly in the head sculpt, which is straight off the original Skyquake release. I think it’s a combination of the large horns, the crest, and the weird mouth plate. The asymmetrical split of the nosecone on the legs bugs me (did I mention I’m borderline OCD?), and look at those tiny feet! Why even bother? Also noteworthy is that he has two heel spurs that fold out the back to keep that huge range finder on his back from dragging him backwards. Is this the first example of a Transformer with heel spurs? Probably not, but it’s the earliest one I can think of. Oh yeah, you can also open up his chest and store his bombs in there. That’s pretty cool.

Every now and again, I cull some Transformers out of my collection. The ones I sell or trade off are usually recolors of duplicate molds, or just figures that I bought back when I was a completest and don’t want anymore. It’s always surprising to me that King Atlas here survives the cut every time. A lot of it probably has to do with his bitchin’ jet mode, but there’s also something about his robot mode that makes me keep him around. He’s just such a weird and unique looking piece that I can’t help but hang on to him.

May 27 2013

Marvel Universe: World War Hulk by Hasbro

No sirs, I am not the biggest Hulk fan in the world. I dig him well enough as a supporting character, but I’ve rarely ever made any of his books part of my regular reading habits. In fact, it wasn’t until Planet Hulk and World War Hulk that the big green rage machine’s books actually found their way to my shelves, but boy did I love them. Surely a Hulk book good enough to draw me in deserves an action figure in my collection. And that brings us to today’s Marvel Monday…

Today’s entry is a bit of an older figure, so we’re back to the days of the SHIELD logo, as opposed to those crappy little “Comic Shots.” Apart from that the packaging hasn’t changed a lot. I can’t say as I’m a big fan of the character art used here, but I don’t really need superb card art when I see how well Hulk fills up the bubble. My eyes are pretty much drawn right to the behemoth of a figure. In fact, this has got to be one of the heaviest MU figures released to date on a single card.

The back of the card shows the other figures available in this assortment. I have Spider-Woman, but I missed out on Spider-Man 2099 and that Heroic Age Iron Man. I may need to swing back and pick them up. Anyway, Hulk looks angry and ready to bust out, so let’s not keep him waiting.

Where to begin with this thing of beauty? I guess with the base sculpt. Marvel Universe has had its share of ups and downs with The Hulk. The Secret Wars version is solid enough and remains my standard Hulk, although he’s starting to look rather dated. The next single carded release suffered from a terrible pinhead. The last one released was a big improvement, but one I didn’t deem necessary to buy. This Hulk is absolutely fantastic. The portrait is excellent, with a broad, grim expression and a sculpted headband. The rest of the body is suitably muscled and features armor sculpted onto the left arm, sculpted leg straps, and sandals. What’s more he has all sorts of little texturing and hash marks on his skin. Serious love went into this sculpt. The coloring is perfect. I adore this deep shade of green, and here’s an example of a paint wash that actually enhances the figure rather than detracting from it. And speaking of paint, the patina of rust on his arm armor is executed flawlessly.

The belt, loincloth, shoulder rigging, and shoulder armor are all sculpted in separate pieces and fit the figure well. I really dig when figures have separate parts like these, not so much because they can theoretically be removed, but because it adds a lot of depth and credibility to the sculpt and don’t tend to interfere as much with articulation. The rigging features a functional scabbard. All the exceptional detail on this guy makes him feel like Hasbro took a Legends figure and shrunk it down to the Universe scale.

Articulation? Oh, Hulk’s got articulation! You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips and upper torso. His arms feature swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the elbows. The legs have double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and swivels and hinges in the ankles. Hulk can also swivel at the waist. That’s some damn fine poseability for a character that isn’t known for his ninja-like prowess.

I don’t know what feels stranger, getting a Marvel Universe figure with this many accessories, or seeing The Hulk with this many accessories. Let’s just agree that both are pretty atypical. Still, the Planet/WW Hulk scenario that puts weapons into Hulk’s already-capable-of-mass-destruction-mitts makes me smile and I’m so happy to get a figure of Hulk in this guise. You get a two-handed broadsword, a battle axe and a shield. Both the sword and axe are nicely sculpted with pitting and nicks from wear in battle. The only downside is that neither fit tightly into his hand. He can hold them, but they rattle around a bit. Hey, I had to come up with something to nit pick here! The iron studded, wooden shield is also beautifully sculpted with scrapes and cuts and it clips securely onto the figure’s wrist. Hulk can carry all his gear on his back. The sword fits into the scabbard, the shield clips onto the scabbard and you can tuck the axe through the straps in his rigging. Very cool! Hulk also comes with a standard MU style figure stand. The kind we used to get before Hasbro cheaped out on us. It’s ironic because this figure has no need of it. He’s too big and he stands just fine on his own.

If you’ve been reading my Marvel Monday features, you will no doubt have noted that I’ve become more and more impressed with Hasbro’s efforts with this line. Back when it first started and the novelty of 3 ¾” Marvel figures began to wane, I seriously questioned whether many of the figures were good enough to keep me collecting them. Needless to say, MU has come a long way with the recent waves. Hulk here is an older figure and he was probably one of their great breakaway releases. Compare this dude to most of the previous offerings and he seems way too good to be an MU figure. He set a new standard for the line, a standard that I’ve been seeing reflected more and more in the recent releases. The sculpt, the coloring, the gear, the accessories, the articulation… it’s all perfect. And that’s not a word I like to toss around all willy-nilly. And it’s not a word I use to placate Hulk so he won’t smash me. No, this is quite simply a gorgeous and amazing figure, and unlike a lot of MU releases, he’s a great value at ten bucks. Who would have thought that I could love a Hulk figure as much as I love this guy. Hulk… you will not be going into the Marvel Universe display case right away. No sir, you have earned a place of honor on my desk, so I can play with you on my down time.

May 20 2013

Marvel Universe: Scarlet Witch by Hasbro

Holy crap, is it Monday again already? That means it’s time for some Marvel Universe. I finally gave up on finding Scarlet Witch on the pegs. Actually, I gave up on that a while ago, it was just a matter of resigning myself to spending scalper prices on her via The Interwebs. Let’s see if Wanda was worth the extra dollars… her brother Quicksilver says she is… Oh snap! Incest jokes… do they ever get old?

Speaking of getting old… package shot! We see it every Monday, so let’s not dwell on it. The character art is quite excellent and Scarlet Witch fills out the bubble surprisingly well for a female type. I think it’s partly the pose, partly the cape, and partly the effects part. As usual, the “Comic Shot” offends me.

The back of the package has a really odd shot of the figure that is actually missing one of the swivel cuts in the left leg. Weird. She also has a rather lengthy bio describing her powers. It could have been summed up in just five words: “Chick can f’ck with reality.” I’m stunned to see that I actually have all the figures pictured on the back. Kang, Punisher and She-Hulk… they’re all pretty excellent. MODOK is doing his thing on the bottom of the card, sucking at Hasbro’s corporate teat. I love you MODOK and I long for the day when you will appear in a Marvel major motion picture. Let’s see the “average Joe popcorn munchers” try to wrap their brains around you! Actually, once Rocket Raccoon hits the big screen, your debut will probably be somewhat anti-climactic. Ok, enough with the jibba-jabba… let’s bust this witch out.

The portrait is easily the best thing about this figure. The head sculpt gives Wanda a pretty face and the way her tiara (or whatever you want to call that thing) is sculpted looks mighty good for a figure in this scale. One of the top corners on my figure’s tiara is bent a little. I almost thought that was part of the sculpt, but it’s not pictured that way on the back. The hair sculpt is fantastic, particularly the way it looks from behind and the way some strands overlap the tiara. I’m also happy that the added hinge in the neck post means she avoids that whole hunched shoulder look that Jean Grey suffered from. It’s obvious Hasbro put some time and effort into the head.

Unfortunately, the rest of the figure is pretty average. The torso looks too plain. There’s no sculpted muscle tone or anything in her stomach, making it look really basic. I like that the tops of her thigh boots are sculpted, and the high-heeled boots are ok, but she’s got some serious cankles going on. CANKLES!!! Her feet are also kind of stubby and crushed. There’s also something off about her legs. It’s really tough to make them look natural. I like the way her hands are sculpted so you can give her a nice hocus-pocus style pose. The cape is a little longer than it needs to be, but I’m guessing that might be so you can pose her slightly levitating. You can also just pull the cape back a bit so she can stand with both feet on the ground. Unfortunately, Wanda is huge when posed next to my Secret Wars Magneto. On the other hand, the paintwork on my figure is quite good. I absolutely love the shade of red they used. It’s vibrant and shiny and it suits the character very well. The purple is also a nice shade and matches up with the red to produce a very pleasing and accurate deco.

Besides the crappy “comic shot,” Scarlet Witch comes with an energy blast effects part that fits over her hand. I’ve never been a big fan of MU’s effects part. This one will likely go into a baggie and be forgotten.

Wanda’s articulation includes ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles. She has swivels in her wrists, thighs, and again in her lower legs, just below the knees. The knees are double-hinged, and she has an additional hinge in her neck. There’s no waist swivel, but she is ball jointed in the upper torso. The big things missing are bicep swivels. I would much rather have had bicep swivels than the extra pair of swivel cuts in the lower legs.

Scarlet Witch and I have a bad relationship when it comes to action figures. I’ve purchased the old Toy Biz Marvel Legends version of her twice now and each time I wound up with paintwork that looked worse than a botched custom job. I’m glad to finally have a decent figure of her, even if it is in the smaller scale. She’s not one of the best figures to come out of this wave, but she is a solid enough effort. I was ultimately able to get her for $15. Call me Mr. Unreasonable, but that’s more than I like to pay for my 3 ¾” figures. Nonetheless, living in one of the dark pockets of the country that gets zero Marvel Universe distribution, sometimes you just got to bite the bullet.

May 14 2013

Transformers Beast Hunters: Smokescreen by Hasbro

Folks, I am not going to be big into Beast Hunters. No, really. I’m not. I know I’ve said that before about TF: Animated and TF: Prime and in the end I bought a lot of them. I really don’t see that happening here. There are a few figures that may tempt me just because it’s such a rare treat to go to a store and actually buy a toy off the pegs these days, but I’m going to be mighty picky about any of the figures in this line that I buy. That having been said, Smokescreen was a no-brainer. He’s one of a pair of figures (the other being Shockwave) that seemed like they were planned for Prime release and so their spikey Beast Hunters rubbish are just extra bits that can be taken off and thrown away in order to give you a regular old Prime figure.

I’m not going to get into my thoughts about the direction Beast Hunters is taking the show. I haven’t watched it regularly anyway, so I don’t really feel entitled to discuss it. With the exception of Transformers comics, I’m only about the toys these days. I’ll just say that I’m sure Hasbro is trying to come up with fresh new ideas to sell the figures and, to be honest, if I were a kid I’d probably be all over this concept. Anyway, I’m not a big fan of the new packaging. TRANSFORMERS PRIME BEAST HUNTERS is quite a mouthful and the new deco just doesn’t do anything for me. Smokescreen is carded in his robot mode and there’s a sticker on the bubble advertising The Hub, which I’m frankly surprised still exists.

The back of the card shows pictures of both modes and it looks like Hasbro has really cut down their bio-writing staff because Smokescreen just gets a single line. Ok, I’m done with the packaging. As usual, I’m going to start out with Smokescreen’s alt mode.

As expected, that alt mode is a sports car and overall I think it’s pretty good. He’s got a sexy, curvy look to him. The bulk of the toy is cast in an off-white plastic with some nice red and blue paint apps and “38” on the doors to provide me with a cool little G1 fanwank. I like the tinted clear windshield and the tinted yellow headlamps. Yes, it feels like it’s missing some paint apps on the bumper and tail lights, but all in all, this is a pretty solid little car mode. I’ve got no complaints.

There are peg holes on the roof and sides of the spoiler to plug in Smokescreen’s weapon, which is a net launcher. Blah! Fortunately, you can remove the rubbery net and turn it into a perfectly serviceable little gun-slash-missile launcher.

Smokescreen also comes with his “Shadow Quill Armor.” It’s a rubbery piece of armor that fits over the front of the car kind of like an automotive bra. I gotta say, I’m not hating the way it looks on the car mode. It feels a tad out of place on a car with this kind of sporty paint job, but it gives him some nice ramming spikes, and I’m certainly down with that.

Transforming Smokescreen is a wee bit fidgety, but it’s also rather fresh and clever, and the end result is a robot with a lot of interesting stuff going on. You’ve got some really cool shoulder armor, doors that hang off his sides and kind of remind me of the holster/scabbards on Generations Drift and Blurr. The chest plate is kind of a fake out, as it’s obviously intended to be a crunched down version of the front of the car. I know some people don’t dig the whole fake out thing on Transformers, but it doesn’t bother me so much here. About the only downside to this guy is that he’s best viewed from the front because from the back he looks rather hollow and unfinished. Oh, and yes, you can put his “Shadow Quill Armor” on when he’s in robot mode, but it looks like ass, so I won’t be doing that.

Smokescreen’s coloring in bot form is pretty close to his alt mode deco. He’s still mostly off-white, although he does feature some nice red and blue paintwork on his arms and legs, a blue stripe down the front of his chest, and yellow paint to simulate his headlights in his chest. I don’t know if it’s the design of his robot mode or the deco or a little of both, but I do get a little bit of a Gundam vibe off of him. I think the only gripe I have is the paint apps on the head could have been executed a little better. It’s not bad, just a little bland. It might not just be the paint. To be honest, a lot of the Prime styled head sculpts look a little too much alike to me.

Articulation has not been a problem with the TF: Prime figures, and it isn’t here either. Smokescreen’s got a lot of poseability, making for a very fun figure. His shoulder armor can angle up so as not to inhibit his arm movement. His shoulders are hinged on a little post and then ball jointed, and his arms have swivels in the biceps and hinges in the elbows. His legs are ball jointed at the hips and then hinged at the knees and ankles. He can swivel at the waist and his head can turn side to side.

I haven’t been paying much attention to the Beast Hunter pegs, so I’m really glad I happened to spot Smokescreen on my last trip through the toy aisle. Whether or not I choose to get any more Beast Hunters figures, he makes a nice addition to my TF: Prime Autobot lineup. And that’s pretty cool, because I was all but certain I was done adding to that collection. To sweeten the deal he was only about $13, which is a couple bucks less than most of the Deluxe TFs have been as of late. I was rather tempted to pick up Ripclaw as well, but I decided to save him for another time. Now if only I could stumble across Shockwave, I’ll be a very happy camper.

May 13 2013

Marvel Universe: Beta-Ray Bill by Hasbro

Welcome to Marvel Monday, my continuing journey to get through all my Marvel Universe figures… and today is all about Beta-Ray Bill. I’ve always found Bill to be a very cool character, even though I’ve only occasionally encountered him in my funnybook readings. That having been said, he wasn’t really on my “must have” list for action figures, but he’s still a welcome addition to my collection. Hey, if you’re one of the few worthy enough to wield Mjolnir, then you’ve got the chops to hang out on my Marvel shelf. Let’s take a look!

Yep, that’s the current incarnation of the Marvel Universe packaging. Bill really fills out the card nicely and I totally dig his character art. Also present is the wonderful “Comic Shot,” and by “wonderful” I mean, I’m about to flick it at my cat so at least he might get some use out of it. Wait for it… nope. He’s not interested in it either. Anyway, I was in the middle of tearing Beta-Ray Bill open when I screamed out the revelation, “Oh shit, I didn’t take the package shot yet!” and that’s why it looks a little worse for wear. Usually when that happens, there’s alcohol involved. In this case, I was just really excited to get the figure out.

The back of the card has one of the more lengthy bios I’ve seen on an MU package. I’m guessing Hasbro thought a lot of people might not know who poor Bill is and thus his background needed an explanation. Hey, he got an episode in “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” so the kids should at least recognize him. You also get another little quip from Rocket Raccoon… Ha ha… “free of clowns” Ahh…Wait… I don’t get it. Getting Bill out the package is a project and a half. Between all the invisible rubber bands and his cape passing through a slit in the tray, I almost had to chew him out.

Since he wears what is essentially a set of Thor’s Asgardian armor, one might expect Bill to be a quick kitbash from previous Thor figures. In the early days of MU, I would have expected Secret Wars Comic Pack Thor with a horse head thrown on him. But no. I’ll hand it to Hasbro. They didn’t take the low road here. In the tradition of most of the recent MU figures, they stepped up and went all out on this guy. Beginning with the portrait, the head sculpt is excellent. The Asgardian helmet looks amazing and while the wings are a little soft, they aren’t warped at all. I totally dig the eyes, and the head has a special treat which we’ll touch on when we get to talking articulation… aw, hell, I’ll just ruin it now… HE HAS AN ARTICULATED JAW!!!

If the torso is recycled from a previous Thor figure, I sure can’t tell. In truth, it looks too lean, so I’m guessing it’s new. Either way, the discs on the armor are all actually part of the sculpt and he has a belt that hangs loose around on his waist. The legs appear to be new sculpts as well, with armor plates on the thighs and knees. The cape is a brand new piece and it has two pegs to secure it to the pair of sockets in Bill’s back. This is easily one of the better executions of the Thor style cape as it fits snugly on the figure, but it can easily be removed for when Bill needs that extra room to take care of business. I’ll also note here that the quality of Bill’s plastic is really excellent. There’s no warping or sense of soft joints.

As great as the sculpt is, it’s the coloring on this figure that impresses me the most. Bill is sporting one of the better paint jobs I’ve seen in this line, and that’s not intended as a loaded compliment. He’s gorgeous! The black and light metallic blue used for his torso looks amazing and when combined with the metallic gold of his belt and boots, the figure really pops. Toss in the darker metallic blue for the leg and shoulder armor and the bright white of his gauntlets, and this figure’s color palate screams comic book beauty! Even better, the quality of the paint is immaculate.

Naturally, Bill comes with his trusty hammer, Stormbreaker. It’s a relatively simple accessory stamped out in gold plastic, but it really completes his ensemble nicely. He can wield it in his right hand and his left hand is left clenched in a fist for punching fools.

Bill features all the articulation we’ve come to expect from the current crop of Marvel Universe figures. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, have swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and ankles, have swivels in the thighs, and double hinges in the knees. He has a ball joint in the torso and can swivel at the waist. Technically, Bill has a ball jointed neck, but he can really only turn his head from side to side. The reason? Because he has a goddamn hinged jaw, that’s why! A hinged jaw!!!! Well played, Hasbro.

Even if you have zero interest in Beta-Ray Bill as a character, you should buy this figure. Why? Because every bit of him is gorgeous! Hasbro really has been delivering the goods with the latest waves of Marvel Universe and Bill here is a perfect example of the added quality that Hasbro has been investing into the line. A year or so back I was wondering why I was paying $10 a pop for these figures, but in Bill’s case he’s worth every penny. It does my heart good to see Hasbro turning this line around over the course of the last year, but it also thrills me to no end when they invest this kind of effort into a character that is, well… let’s just say not an A-lister. In fact, I’ll go one better, Bill is probably in my Top 10 MU figures so far. He really is that good!

May 9 2013

Transformers Unleashed: Optimus Prime by Hasbro

In the last month or so, I’ve checked a few of Hasbro’s very cool Star Wars Unleashed statues. Hasbro had a good thing going on with this line and in an effort to make lightning strike twice, they tried the same thing with Transformers. The difference? The Star Wars statues seemed like a genuine attempt to bring attractive display pieces to collectors on a budget. The Transformers statues seemed more like a quick and dirty cash grab amidst a sea of other movie related merchandise. I should be able to wrap this one up mighty quick and we can all go on with our business.

I don’t have the packaging for this wonderful object d’art any longer, but I seem to recall it coming in some sort of window box. I also need not confess to actually buying it, as it was a present from the former Mrs. FigureFan. I’m tempted to say it was well-intentioned, but unfortunately she turned out to be quite a vindictive headcase, so it could have just as easily been gifted out of spite. Anyway, the idea here is that in the true nature of the Transformers, this is actually two-Two-TWO statues in one! On one side, it’s Prime in his truck mode, but turn it around and there he is in his robot mode. You see? It’s like a Transfromer but it’s a statue!

The alt mode portion of the statue depicts Prime in his movie truck form, launching himself off a cliff against a backdrop of terrible looking translucent plastic flames. The cliff looks like it’s carved out of chocolate and there’s a huge Autobot insignia sculpted into the side. Only part of the truck is actually here because it’s partly obscured in the so-called fire. I never minded Prime being an extended front cab, but I was never a fan of this coloring. There’s way too much blue, and this statue seems to add even more. Apart from that, there are some stray splotches of paint. All in all, this looks Ok, I guess, but it’s nothing spectacular. Maybe the flipside will be better?

Nah, not really. The pose isn’t bad. Prime is bent down on one knee with a fist held out in defiance and his other arm converted into his gun. Giving Prime an arm that converts into a gun never seemed right to me. It just doesn’t fit the character. But then again, before Revenge of the Fallen I wasn’t used to seeing my childhood hero rip people’s faces off either, so I guess I need to get with the times. Either way, the statue is just being faithful to the source material, so I can’t blame it for that. In fairness, there’s a lot of sculpted detail on this guy, but it’s still not enough to effectively convey the crazy complex “bag of scissors” aesthetic of the Bayformer designs. There’s also way too much bland grey plastic here and not enough painted detail. The head is pretty unspectacular as well. The sculpt is really soft and you can’t really even see his eyes.

It’s hard to put my finger on exactly where Hasbro went wrong with this piece. Sure, aesthetically this is far from my favorite version of Prime, but I was still able to appreciate his Leader Class movie toys. Ultimately, I think most of the blame lies in the super soft sculpt not being able to capture the intricate design. Had this been a statue of old school G1 Sunbow Prime, I think it could have been spectacular. In concept, the whole turnaround gimmick showing off both modes may not have been inherently bad, but the execution just doesn’t result in a piece that I’m all that keen on displaying. And so, Prime here resides on the tip top shelf of display case in the corner. Mostly out of sight and out of mind.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: hasbro