Apr 11 2013

Transformers Prime: Thundertron by Hasbro

I’ve been through all the TF: Prime Deluxe figures that I picked up at Ross, but I saved the one Voyager figure that I got for last. He’s Thundertron and I know absolutely nothing about him apart from what’s on the back of the box and that he was only twelve bucks. Was he even in the show? All I know is that he represents a new faction called “Star Seekers” that apparently blames the Cybertronians for the destruction of their planet. Oh yeah, he’s also A GIANT ROBOT SPACE PIRATE THAT TURNS INTO A F’CKING LION!!! I mean… how can that not be awesome? Well, we’re about to find out because truth be told, I’m pretty torn on this guy. I’m also hitting the Johnnie Walker pretty hard today, so you’ve been warned.

We’ve seen the TF: Prime Voyager packaging here before. I still dig it a lot, but for some reason Thundertron’s box seems extra cluttered and busy to me. Maybe it’s the huge Ross price sticker. The figure comes in a window box and is packaged in robot mode. Good choice, Hasbro, you don’t want the kids to get a good look at this guy’s alt mode before buying it. The window has the usual “Try Me” cut out so that you can check out his crappy weapon. Hey, what do you think about that, Grumpy Cat?

Thought so. I’m going to break with tradition and start with Thundertron’s robot mode, because it’s the one thing that I love about this figure.

The head sculpt looks like a call back to G1 Alpha Trion from the Sunbow cartoon. I can’t imagine why that would be intentional, but I calls it likes I sees it. The lion head landing on Thundertron’s chest seems to be an obvious choice for a lion-former, but it still looks pretty good, although I’m not a fan of the way the beard drops behind the lion’s head. What’s the point of being a robot with a beard if you can’t show it off? The sculpted texture on the shoulder armor looks great, as do the spikes that rise up from those pieces. I’ll also shamefully admit that I’m in love with the fact that you can pull off his foot, turn it into a claw weapon, which leaves him with a peg leg. It’s ridiculous and it makes absolutely no sense on any level and yet I still think it’s both hilarious and cool.

Thundertron’s deco walks a very strange line between looking either really amazing or really cheap. The white and blue color scheme is quite striking, particularly when you toss in the little bits of gold. I think the combination of regular blue and clear blue plastic looks amazing. While it’s totally a coincidence that I just looked at MOTUC Frosta yesterday, the truth is if she were a Transformer, this is what her deco would probably look like. I’m also really digging the Star Seeker emblem. If a Transformer Pirate were to have a faction symbol, that is exactly what it should look like! What I don’t like is the quality of the white plastic used here, particularly on the head. It just looks cheap.

I find transforming Thundertron to be a pain in the ass, not because of any kind of complex engineering, but because it’s such a horrible and abstract lion mode that it’s unclear where anything is supposed to go. You’ve got as good a chance of making this thing look like a lion on your own as you do following the instructions. When you’re done you get this kind of mechanical lion-cricket looking thingy. Wait… is this a FUZOR??? HAVE THE FUZORS RETURNED??? No, it’s just a bad design. Besides, if he were a lion-cricket Fuzor his name would be ROARCHIRP. The name Roarchirp is a trademark of FigureFan Zero LTD. All rights reserved. Call, me Hasbro… we’ll do lunch.

Even if you can find it in your heart to love something that looks like the progeny of a robot lion and a grasshopper, his beast mode just isn’t fun to play with. You can’t do anything with his front paws without them coming unpegged. Ironically, the ridiculous oversized weapon attaches to the beast mode’s back and would actually be kind of cool if it would stay deployed without holding it. But it doesn’t, so even that glimmer of hope vanishes.

As a Transformer, I don’t really hold Thundertron in high regard. He doesn’t really look like he belongs on my Transformers display, unless it’s with that hodge-podge shelf of toys from the first Robots in Disguise (1999) series where basically anything goes. He might even fit in with some of the Beast Machine toys, but with the exception of my glorious army of Tankors, I dumped my Beast Machines toys long ago. On the other hand, if I take him as just some crazy Japanese robot figure, I kind of dig him. He’s imaginative, he looks cool enough, and he’s reasonably fun to play around with, so long as I forget he changes into anything. I never would have picked him up for full price, and even at Ross’ deep discount, he was still a take-it-or-leave-it kind of purchase.

Apr 9 2013

Star Wars Unleashed: Boba Fett (Target Exclusive) by Hasbro

I’m mostly up to date on my new receivings and that means I can start digging into some Toy Closet Finds for the next couple of weeks. It’s something I should have been doing all along, but sometimes I do get caught up trying to be topical by featuring new releases. Anyway, today we’re going to check out one of Hasbro’s Star Wars Unleashed series. I loved the idea of bringing affordable collectible statues to mass market retail, and so naturally I was a big fan of this line, at least I was before it became all about miniatures. I owned quite a few of these statues at one point, but most of them were sold off in my Great Star Wars Purge of 2008. We’ll start out with the man himself, Boba Fett.

This is the Target Exclusive version of the statue, which was offered around Christmas of 2006. Originally, these statues came carded and required some assembly, but Walmart and Target secured the rights to reissue four of the statues fully assembled and in these super cool plastic drums. If memory serves, Walmart got Jedi Luke and Darth Vader from their showdown in Return of the Jedi, whereas Target got Boba here and General Grievous. Shortly after they came out, Target had an entire endcap of these guys and they were clearance down to about $6.98. How could I resist?

The presentation here is crazy awesome. It’s not the most storage friendly package, as it’s really easy to get dings or creases in the plastic. I attribute mine surviving to the fact that it’s sat up on a shelf and has been virtually untouched since the day I bought it. The drum is graced with a very vintage style deco and it offers a nice look at the statue inside. The package deco is only marred by the giant “Only at Target” emblem, which is unfortunately not something that can be removed. The back of the drum has a blurb about The Fett and the inside has a really nice piece of artwork designed as a backdrop for the statue. Hasbro went out of their way to make this statue fully displayable in the package, but you really can’t get all the nuances of this great piece without removing him. The drum is collector friendly and you can lift the statue out and clip away the heavy twisty ties, which secure him to the plastic tray.

By God, this statue is awesome! Granted, it’s a far cry from being true to Boba’s final moments, screaming like a girl as a blind man pushed him into the maw of a giant sand-vagina-monster, but then Unleashed was always about putting Star Wars characters into outlandishly stupendous poses. What we have here is more like a statue of Fett’s demise as commissioned by his Fan Club. He’s depicted going down fighting in a blaze of glory, jetpack firing on full power and rifle blasting away into the Sarlaac with defiance. It is, nonetheless, a majestic display and the pose perfectly conveys a ridiculous amount of energy and excitement for a static piece.

The detail on Fett himself is striking. There’s subtle texture work over every part of his jumpsuit, right down to the stitching, and even some distressed areas. The armor is recreated with all the familiar dings and dents, and there are even a few extra nicks and scratches on his chest plate that aren’t familiar to me. Even his sash, while blown a bit out of proportion for dramatic effect, is fully textured and features fraying at the edges and some holes. Hasbro obviously designed this piece to stand up under close scrutiny and it does that well.

As great as the sculpt is, the paintwork also rises to the occasion. Besides recreating all the familiar green and ochre of Fett’s armor, it’s the distressing that impresses me the most. The rubbed steel is present on the jetpack and the various gashes and dings on his armor are all painted in silver. Yes, some of the silver paint is a little heavy handed, but I don’t it’s enough to detractfrom the overall aesthetic.

About the only place this statue falters is in the base. The Sarlaac tentacles are excellent, and positioned very well with one wrapped around his leg and the other two snaking up for a better grasp. Even, the clear orange plastic used for the blast from the jetpack works wonderfully to hold Fett aloft. No, the problem I have with the base is the Sarlaac itself. Sure, it’s undersized but that doesn’t bother me. What does is the way the orange plastic from the blast fills it up and makes it look like some kind of gelatin desert… with teeth.

While this piece has a nice heft to it, you statue collectors out there may find the plastic a bit wanting in some areas. There’s still some unfortunate bendy quality going on in a few places. Many Unleashed statues were notorious for this and at least a couple of mine didn’t survive storage because of warping plastic. Indeed, the rocket on Fett’s jetpack seems to warp a bit to the side and only a little bit, but otherwise, this is a nice solid hunk of plastic.

A lot of Star Wars Unleashed statues have come and gone out of my collection, but this one has always been one of my favorites. Once again, I really applaud Hasbro’s development of the entire Unleashed line, and looking at this piece it’s hard to believe that it was sold off the shelf of a big box toy retailer and for around twenty bucks. Sure, we aren’t talking about Gentle Giant of Sideshow here, but this statue is an excellent piece of work and for the price, it just couldn’t be beat. At some point next week, I’ll swing around and check out the Unleashed version of General Grievous and see how he stacks up.

Apr 8 2013

Iron Man 2: Whiplash (Ivan Vanko) by Hasbro

No Marvel Universe today, but it is still Marvel Monday and with my anticipation growing for Iron Man 3, I thought we’d mix it up a bit. Hasbro is crapping out on the toys for Tony’s third box office outing, and so I’m forced to look elsewhere to express my excitement for the film in plastic form. Today we’re turning the clock back to 2010. It was a time when Hasbro was supporting the Marvel Movieverse by producing some excellent 3 ¾” Iron Man figures. In fact, the only problem with the Iron Man 2 line was that the pegs were clogged with dubious variations of Stark’s armor, making it hard to find some of the figures I really wanted. Case in point: I never saw Whiplash on the pegs. That is until a few days ago when he was hiding at Target behind some Avengers figures. Let’s check him out…

Holy hell, it’s the Iron Man 2 packaging! The last time we saw this on FigureFan Zero was over a year ago, but hey if Walmart can fill their pegs with Rise of Cobra figures, why can’t Target sneak a little Iron Man 2 behind their Avengers? I usually buy my figures when I’m going grocery shopping so it isn’t as apparent, but on this day the young lady running the register was faced with a 40 year old dude buying nothing but a single Iron Man figure. She looked at the figure and said, “Wow he’s an ugly guy!” I simply replied, “That is Mickey Rourke, my dear!” then I took my purchase and walked off whistling a jaunty tune. I’d like to think it was a transaction she would long remember. Anyway, seeing these cards again is a real blast from the past. I love the presentation here and Hasbro really packed these bubbles with goodness.

This version of Whiplash is from the scene in the film where Ivan tried to get all up in Tony’s shit at the race. He’s wearing his own version of the arc reactor rig and wielding two energy whips. The rig is one seriously complex design and I was dubious as to whether it could be pulled off effectively in a 3 ¾” scale figure. I’ve got to say, Hasbro did a pretty good job with it. The metal framework is sculpted right onto the figure and carefully painted silver. Hasbro even did their best to replicate all of Ivan’s crazy tats. Most of these are just drizzles of black paint, but it’s a nice attempt all the same.

The lower half of the figure features Ivan’s rumpled jumpsuit with the top half of it draped down around his waist and behind his legs. There is some wonderful sculpted detail at work here as well, with all the wrinkles and tearing. Unfortunately, Hasbro went off the reservation on the coloring. They used brown for the jumpsuit when it should have been orange.

As for the portrait, well, he’s got long hair and a mustache so you can kind of see who it’s supposed to be. Truthfully, the face gives off some kind of creepy baby vibe for me. I think it’s the large forehead. There are some paint apps for scars and wrinkles in his forehead. It’s certainly not one of Hasbro’s better likenesses, but getting all the “character” of Mickey Rourke’s face into this scale would have been all but impossible. I’m going to give Hasbro a pass on this one.

Whiplash has just about all the articulation you could want in this scale. There are ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, and ankles. The arms feature swivels in the biceps, hinged elbows, and swivels at the wrists. The legs feature swivels at the thighs, and double-hinged knees. He also has a ball joint in the torso. The only issue with articulation on my figure is the top hinges in the knees don’t want to work and with the hinges being soft plastic, I don’t want to try to force them. At least I can still bend his knees using the bottom hinges.

Naturally, Whiplash comes with his whips. These are cast in sculpted bendy plastic and can be posed in a variety of ways. They are rather heavy and don’t fit rather loosely in Whiplash’s hands. If you have an extra pair of those tiny clear rubber bands kicking around, this would be a good opportunity to make some use of them.

One thing I miss about the Iron Man 2 figures were these awesome stands and illustrated card overlays. I think these were a great idea and really do a lot to add to the presentation of the figure. Here, Hasbro wasn’t just giving us a stand, but a cool little display backdrop as well. I can’t recall anyone else doing anything like this in this scale and it only serves to remind me how much we’ve lost in only two years. Blame the cost of plastic or profit-mongering, but we just don’t expect to see this kind of thing these days.

I dig Whiplash a lot and I’m really glad I stumbled upon him hanging on the pegs, especially since I doubt I ever would have gone out of my way to hunt him down online. He couldn’t have been an easy figure to tackle, but Hasbro brought their “A-game” and rose to the occasion. Best of all, I can finally close the lid on my Iron Man 2 collection, as this guy was the only figure I was missing, apart from some of the more wild and undesirable versions of Tony’s armor.

Apr 4 2013

Transformers Prime: Wheeljack by Hasbro

A few weeks back I hit the mother lode of Transformers: Prime figures at Ross and I’m still making my way through them. I think Wheeljack here is the second to the last that I have yet to feature. I did pick up an extra Vehicon, which I couldn’t resist for $5.99, but I already looked at the Vehicon quite a while ago so there’s no need to revisit him. Tonight, I have ~~to go out with friends and get shitfaced~~ a social obligation, so let’s get right to the good stuff…

It’s quite possible that this will be the last time we look at the Transformers: Prime Deluxe packaging here on FigureFan Zero. I liked it a lot. While I never would have guessed that a white card could have conveyed the Transformers brand all that well, Hasbro knew what they were doing here because they’re very attractive cards. Every time I walked into the toy aisle and saw the pegs full of this packaging, my eyes would be drawn to them… and then I would wish they weren’t all goddamn Bumblebees. Wheeljack’s character art is ok, but nothing exceptional. The back of the card shows some shots of the toy and has Wheeljack’s little bio blurb. As with all the Deluxes that I picked up at Ross, this figure comes with an episode of the series on DVD and they have all been the same one: “Loose Cannons.” Still, the DVD can easily be re-purposed into something useful.

I will admit, that it’s an appropriate episode to include with this figure since it was the one which introduced Wheeljack to the show. I didn’t care much for his character in Prime. I would rather they wrote Wheeljack as some kind of eccentric science nerd hanging out with Ratchet than be a former Wrecker ass-kicker. Nevertheless, there’s enough of a G1 homage in the design to make me want the figure. Anyway, Wheeljack comes carded in his vehicle mode, and that is where we will start!

Hells yeah! That’s an awesome car mode. Wheeljack’s alt form is a dead sexy sports car with curves in all the right places. He locks together well and rolls along great. My only complaint here is it almost looks as if Wheeljack is missing his front bumper. The reason is so that you can attach his twin swords to the front of the car, which I’ll admit is a cool gimmick. You can also attach his swords to the peg holes on the back sides of the car. They don’t seem like they would be very effective weapons when pegged back there, but they do look cool there. I’m also happy to report that the plastic here feels so much better than some of the other TF: Prime Deluxes in my collection.

Wheeljack’s deco shows just how far these TF:Prime Deluxes have come since Bumblebee. The bare white plastic looks great as do the crisp red and green paint apps. He’s also got a clear blue tinted windshield. Even his tail lights are painted, which may sound like a simple thing, but it’s practically a high-end perk when it comes to these TF: Prime Deluxes. Everything about this car mode really evokes the G1 character to me.

Transforming Wheeljack is pretty straight forward, although there are a few clever things going on with his arms and legs. It actually took me a few moments to figure out how to do his lower legs and once I realized what was going on I had one of those great “gee whiz” moments when you discover how the engineering works for the first time.

In robot mode, the G1 Wheeljack homage continues along quite well. The head sculpt is the Wheeljack I know and love only with a little bit of a stylized twist. In the cartoon he has a regular mouth and a face plate for battle and I’m very glad that Hasbro sculpted the figure with the face plate deployed. The curvy car panels look great on his arms and legs and I’m digging the addition of the two panels that rise up from behind his head. Yeah, his proportions are a little off, he’s got a case of the monkey arms, and the windshield kibble hanging off his arms is a little awkward, but the figure still looks great. Wheeljack can hold his swords in both hands.

Wheeljack is some kind of bad-ass Wrecker, so you’d expect him to have decent articulation and his figure delivers. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, and ankles. The arms have hinges just below the shoulder and again at the elbows. The wrists have both swivels and hinges. The knees have ratcheting hinges.

The deco in robot mode is more or less the same as his car mode. Again, the base white plastic looks great, as does the red and green paint apps. I was a little upset that he didn’t come with a faction symbol. I know that Hasbro has left them out of some other recent figures while they’re present on the package figure shots. In this case, however, he doesn’t have any on the package pics and I’m thinking there’s some reason in the series that he doesn’t have one? Either way, I dipped into my file of repro labels and gave him an Autobot insignia anyway.

Wheeljack is a great figure and everything about him shows how far the TF: Prime line has come since the beginning. There’s nothing about this toy that feels it was a victim of Hasbro’s cost-cutting cutbacks. The plastic looks and feels great, the paint apps are good, and the engineering is clever and delivers a satisfying transformation. He feels like the quality of figure we used to get a few years back before all this “holy shit, plastic is expensive” nonsense. If you’re a fan of the show or just love G1 Wheeljack, I think there’s something to love about this figure for everyone. The joke is for every five visits I make to Ross, I probably only find something worthwhile a couple of times. But, if Wheeljack hadn’t turned up there I probably never would have owned him and that makes me want to keep checking. At least there’s a Five Guys Hamburgers next door, so it’s never a wasted trip.

Apr 1 2013

Marvel Universe: Steve Rogers by Hasbro

It’s Marvel Monday and as usual I’m recovering from a weekend of bacchian debauchery mixed with working a lot. I’ve accordingly selected an MU figure that will not require a lot of my time so that I can crawl back under the covers and try to wish reality away to the cornfield. Today we’re looking at Steve Rogers. He’s one of those figures that have been given both the Universe and Legends treatment, and while I’m not usually one to double-dip between scales, it tickled me to have a Steve Rogers that can hang out with my GI Joes and show them how to take care of business. Besides, the Legends version of Steve Rogers was one of my favorite action figures of 2012, so I was curious to see how the 3 ¾” version turned out.

It’s the MU packaging! Steve here is actually from one of the older waves, before Hasbro replaced a useful, value-added figure stand with a stupid little piece of cardboard printed to look like a comic cover. Great idea! The package has the SHIELD emblem on the front and the back shows three other figures in the wave. I purchased none of these! I didn’t feel the need to own Sub-Mariner in a speedo, I already have the Ultron from the Secret Wars pack, and Darkhawk… seriously, Hasbro? Darkhawk??? Actually, the joke’s on me because if I had actually seen him on the pegs, I would probably have picked him up. Anyway, I’m not a big fan of the character art used here, but the figure sure looks great under the bubble with his stand behind him and a pair of guns. Even from just seeing him in the package, I knew this was a figure I had to buy. Still, it seems like there’s something missing, but I can’t quite put my finger on it… oh well… it’ll come to me.

Straight away, this figure reminds me of a shrunken down version of the Legends figure, and that is very high praise. In fact, I have only two negative things to say about Rogers, so let me get them out of the way first. The quality of plastic doesn’t feel as good as the better single-carded figures. This feels like the gritty, softer stuff Hasbro liked to use in some of the older comic packs. It’s not bad enough to ruin the figure, by any means, but it does keep this figure from achieving a status of near perfection in my eyes. Fortunately, none of the joints on my figure are warped, which is usually the case with this softer plastic. The other negative point is that Rogers is missing a socket in his back. I can’t quite remember why that omission is important… oh well… I’m sure it’ll come to me.

So, first off Steve’s portrait is excellent. It doesn’t have all the personality that the Legends figure had, but I’m giving Hasbro a break for the smaller scale and because the head sculpt is just really clean and looks great. Even the hair is impressively done. The bulk of the figure uses a very nicely articulated, muscular buck with a mix of paintwork and added parts to customize the outfit. The shoulder harness and belt are new, separate pieces and fit the figure really well, as do the belted wraps on his lower legs. Even the hands on this guy are impressive, with uniquely sculpted fingerless gloves and wonderful paint.

In fact, all the paintwork on this figure is solid. Sure, there are a few stray marks here and there, but the white printed emblems on his shirt and shoulders looks bright and crisp, as do the stripes running down his trousers. Even the tiny silver buckles on his gear and gloves are lovingly dressed with a little metallic silver paint. I’m not always a fan of the paint wash Hasbro uses for the MU figures, but here I think it does more good then harm.

In addition to his personalized stand, Steve comes with a handgun and an assault rifle and… oh yeah, that’s what I was forgetting… WHERE IS HIS SHIELD??? Ok, so I agree that it isn’t a necessity for this appearance of the character, but since Hasbro included it with the Legends version, it seems conspicuous by its absence here. In fairness this guy has already won the Marvel Universe accessory jackpot since two weapons and a stand is better than the usual NOTHING AT ALL! Not a huge deal, as I have plenty of 3 ¾” scale shields lying around, but then the absence of a hole in his back to peg it is kind of annoying too. As for the guns, I’m pretty sure we’ve seen this rifle a half dozen times already and the pistol… my cat batted it off a desk and into his litter box. I’m not going in after it. My cat is an asshole.

All quibbles aside, Steve Rogers is a fantastic figure. He’s got a solid sculpt, great paintwork, and lots of cool little attention to detail. Best of all, this is the version of Cap that I’ve always envisioned as being perfect for my most coveted of all fanboy-fueled Marvel-GI Joe crossovers. Watch out, Cobra!

Mar 30 2013

Walmart is Trolling GI Joe Retaliation…

Yeah they are! They set the pegs for the new Retaliation figures and then filled them with Rise of Cobra figures. I made sure to get the Iron Man 3 and Dark Knight Rises figures in the shot to prove this isn’t an old photo. These things should have been clearanced out a year ago, but they obviously held on to them for just this occasion. And they’re $10 each.

Maybe it’s a little hostility over getting tricked into buying all that Retaliation product last year only to have the movie get pushed back. Maybe they just wanted to take the opportunity to chip away at that pallet of ROC figures they still have in the backroom. Or, yes, maybe they’re just trolling Joe fans with this shit. I’ll go with the last one. I think this is a big middle finger to Hasbro.

Mar 25 2013

Marvel Universe: She-Hulk by Hasbro

I know, I know. I ended last week with Marvel. That was bad planning on my part knowing that I was starting this week with Marvel Monday. But in my defense, Saturday was Marvel Legends and today is Marvel Universe. And I do still have several of these MU figures to get through, so the show must go on. Besides, I have a bit of a hangover so I’m looking for something easy. Speaking of easy, today we’re checking out She-Hulk… oh, snap! Many of you know, I’m not a big fan of Hulk’s solo books, but I have read my share of She-Hulk, because I dig the snappy wit and since I’m 40 going on 16 a little T&A is still all it takes to get me to read a funnybook. Let’s check out this figure…

Marvel Universe packaging! It hasn’t changed much since the last two MU figures I featured. I am definitely digging Shulkie’s card art and the figure itself looks mighty nice in the package. Am I the only one wishing that Hasbro would have done a variant She-Hulk in her lawyer attire with a briefcase? Seriously, I’m sure they could have reworked the sculpt into a Pepper Pots or something. Ah, but that’s ok, I’m still happy with this version. Plus, I’m pretty sure we’ll be getting a Fantastic Four variant somewhere down the line. The back of the card has a little bio blurb and a photo of other figure’s in this wave and MODOK commanding me to “Collect Them All!” I’d love to collect them all, MODOK, but I can’t find Scarlet Witch anywhere, except online for ridiculous scalper mark-ups plus shipping. Ah, but I’m sure that evil sonvabitch already knows that.

The last MU figure we looked at, Kraven, blew me away with some truly amazing sculpting and paintwork. But MU being what it is, you never know what you’re going to get, and She-Hulk is a return to a painted basic buck. I know, it’s not really fair to compare a dude who wears an elaborate lion-head costume with a green chick in a one-piece. And besides, She-Hulk turned out really nice.

So yeah, there’s not much in the way of original sculpting here apart from the head, but I am quite happy with the way the head turned out. The portrait is pretty simple, but attractive and Hasbro’s sculptors did a particularly nice job with her rich mane of hair. The paintwork is very solid too. They even painted on a teeny coat of glossy green lipstick.

She-Hulk’s painted one-piece uses a nice, metallic purple for the side panels. There’s a little bit of slop around the edges, but nothing too bad. The same purple is used to paint on her fingerless gloves.

I’m also really pleased with the articulation and quality on this figure. Shulkie utilizes one of the more articulated female bucks. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, ankles, and chest. She has double hinges in both her elbows and her knees. She has swivels in her biceps, wrists, thighs, and at the tops of her boots. And lastly, she has that marvelous extra hinge in her neck, a nice thought even if her sculpted hair renders it almost useless. But the best thing is that the quality on her joints is all excellent. There are no big gaps in the thigh swivels and no misshapen hinges. Everything is really tight and solid.

She-Hulk isn’t one of the most exceptional figures to come out of Marvel Universe, but she is a very solid effort and a character that I was very much looking forward to adding to my collection. You get a very good head sculpt, excellent articulation, and I’m happy to say there were no QC issues on my figure to speak of. I could gripe about a lack of accessories, but I can’t really think of anything essential that Hasbro could have included. You’ve been on a roll with these figures, Hasbro… keep it up.

[And by the way, congratulations, Shulkie, you were the 900th Feature on FigureFan Zero! It wasn’t planned this way. I actually didn’t even realize it until I had uploaded it. But, hey, it could have worked out a lot worse. Now we start the home stretch to 1,000. -FF]

Mar 23 2013

Marvel (Iron Man) Legends: Iron Patriot by Hasbro

In honor of the forthcoming Iron Man 3 movie, Hasbro has hijacked a wave of Marvel Legends to produce six Iron Man themed figures. Actually, they’re coming out in two small waves of three figures each, but collecting all of them will give you the parts needed to construct a comic version Iron Monger BAF. I was quick to roll my eyes at the thought of more Iron Man figures in the Marvel Legends line, but then I saw the actual Iron Man 3 figures that Hasbro released. Yeah. Considering how unbelievably shitty they look, getting some Iron Man loving in Marvel Legends seems like a nice bone to throw to the collectors. I haven’t committed myself to buying all of these yet, but I couldn’t resist grabbing Iron Patriot when I saw him in the toy aisle the other day.

The packaging is a hybrid of Marvel Legends and Iron Man 3. Although it still retains the “Legends” moniker on the bubble insert, the top of the cards read “Iron Man” and it features an illustration of that terrible new Mark 42 Armor. It also includes the “Avengers Initiative” emblem, which suggests a tie in to the movie-verse despite the comic book nature of this figure. The back of the card shows the figure in photo and in illustration and has shots of the other two figures from the first half of the wave with the final three blacked out. All in all, I think the presentation here is good, even if the BAF part overshadows the actual figure. Let’s bust him open and check him out…

But wait? Haven’t we seen this figure before? Yes, he’s a repaint of Extremis Iron Man from the initial wave of the Marvel Legends relaunch with a slight resculpt to the chest. That was a figure that underwhelmed me enough to make my Biggest Disappointments of 2012 list. Why buy him again? Well, partly because I do love me some Norman Osborne and Dark Reign, and partly because… well, it’s amazing the difference that a nice paint job can make. The quality of the paintwork was one of my issues with the original figure, while the size and articulation were the others. At least this figure corrects one of those problems.

I’m still underwhelmed by the lack of panel lines and detail in the sculpt. I like the overall contours of the figure, but it still seems rather bland for a 6-inch scale piece. Besides the resculpted star on the chest, Iron Patriot also features swapped hands from the Extremis figure, where the right hand is now opened to show the repulsor in the palm and the left hand is now partially closed into a fist.

Obviously, the big difference here is the paint. I’m always a sucker for the Iron Patriot deco, and Hasbro has done a fairly good job with it here. The metallic blue used on this figure is gorgeous, and I’m also pretty fond of the pearlescent white. The red is a little inconsistent. It has a nice metallic finish on the lower legs and upper chest, while the effect on the forearms and shoulder armor isn’t quite as brilliant. Still, I’m nitpicking here, overall the paintwork is a solid effort and I’d say an overall improvement in quality over the original.

Despite fresh paint and a little tweaking to the mold, Iron Patriot has the same articulation as Extremis Iron Man. It’s important because one of my major issues with this mold is the hip joints. I’m generally not a huge fan of Hasbro’s ball jointed hips, but they’d be welcome compared to what this guy’s packing. While you can still achieve a fairly wide stance, the forward and backward movement of the legs is inhibited by the sculpt. And the wide stance doesn’t help a lot with no ankle rockers. Granted everything else is pretty good. There are ball joints in the neck, shoulders, wrists, and chest. The elbows and knees are double hinged, there are swivels in the biceps, thighs, and ankles, and the neck has an extra hinge to look up. I would have added a waist swivel too, but nobody asked me.

Iron Patriot doesn’t come with any accessories, but you do get the big torso for Iron Monger. I wasn’t really chomping at the bit to build this guy, but I have to say I’m impressed with the paintwork and sculpt on the torso. Maybe just enough to change my mind.

I picked up this guy for around $15 and it certainly beats the inflated priced I’ve had to pay when hunting down some of the other Marvel Legends figures. I still have issues with his articulation, and I still think he’s undersized. That having been said, I’m still happy to have him on my shelf. As mentioned earlier, I haven’t decided on whether or not I’m going for this whole wave in order to build Iron Monger. I guess that’s going to depend on how many I can find on the pegs or whether I would need to hunt them down. Either way, this is a solid, albeit not spectacular figure.

Mar 20 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Kithaba and Nikto by Hasbro

It’s the final leg of my quest to assemble a crew of Vintage Collection Skiff Guards for my Tatooine Skiff. The last two I needed were Kithaba and Nikto. Yeah, these guys are definitely back-benchers, but hey, they can’t all be Weequay, right? You’ve got to have some less popular dudes to fall into the Sarlaac when the plan to execute the Jedi and his buddies goes tits up, and in my universe it sure ain’t going to be Weequay or Klaatu.

Normally I shed a tear when I have to rip open Vintage Collection packaging, but this time around it didn’t bother me so much because I’m not particularly fond of either of these cards. The deco is still awesome, but the pictures of the characters are rubbish. Kithaba looks like he’s posing for a vacation photo. “Here I am in front of Jabba’s Sail Barge. I got everyone t-shirts at the gift shop.” Nikto looks like he’s about to push a reporter’s camera out of his face. “Nikto… Nikto… Is it true? You let the Jedi and his friends escape?” “What do you want me to say? We did the best we could. Just leave me alone.” Naturally, both cards are ruined anyway by giant stickers of Darth Maul’s face telling me I could win a life sized statue of him signed by Lucas. Honestly, I’d rather have an Ewok shit on my carpet then have that in my house. But enough preamble, let’s bust these guys open and we’ll start with Kithaba. Wait, wasn’t this guy Barada? Oh sweet Jesus, it’s a different guy??? I’m not going to become embroiled in another Klaatu vs Wooof debate. If you’re interested, you can check out particulars at SKIFFGUARDS.COM, which I might add is probably one of the greatest sites I’ve ever seen and quite probably the reason the Internet was created. Where was I? Oh yeah… Kithaba.

Once again, Hasbro, you are blowing me away with these figures, particularly in your attention to the sculpted detail. Kithaba’s shirt and vest are wonderfully recreated here and the shoulder strap and pouches are actually sculpted as a different piece. Damn, that’s cool! He also has a functional holster for his hold out blaster, and you all know by now how much I love those functional holsters. Kithaba’s portrait is pretty accurate to his on screen appearance. A lot more so than the crappy photo-shopped image used on the card, for example the error in his bandana color is correct on the figure. The face sculpt is pretty spot on for a Klatooinian, as he kind of looks like a cross between a lizard and a very ugly bulldog. The paintwork is excellent, particularly on his little row of bottom teeth.

Besides the aforementioned hold out blaster, Kithaba also comes with one of those weird, long gun-pole things. It’s a damn ambiguous weapon, and if I was a Skiff Guard and got one of those instead of the much cooler and functional force pike, I would have been mighty pissed off.

Moving on to Nikto, he too is an amazing little sculpt that really captures all the fine points of the character. Nikto was a well-known fashionista as is evidenced by his fancy puffed out shirt and his metrosexual front-laced turquoise tunic. He’s got quilted pants with a stylish yellow stripe running down each leg. Of course, he also has a piece of armor over his chest, because looking good at the cost of getting stabbed in the throat isn’t a worthwhile trade off. I’m not sure about the hat, though. It looks like he’s wearing a dog bed on his head, which leads me to the other amazing point about this figure… HOLY CRAP, YOU CAN TAKE HIS HAT OFF!

Yes, you could also take off Wooof’s hat, but for some reason the fact that Nikto’s hat comes off is a lot more impressive to me. I’m not saying that as a kid I used to stare at my vintage Nikto figure and curse Kenner for not making his hat removable, but I literally had to pause and take a breath before finally being able to take a peek at Nikto’s bare noggin. My reaction? Huh, his head’s smaller than I thought it would be. It was a little anti-climactic.

Nikto comes with the same pole-gun-thingy as Kithaba and a silver painted hold out blaster, which can fit in his functional holster. Yay!

Both figures feature the same articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. They have swivels in their waists and wrists, and their hip joints are the traditional t-crotch.

So, there ya have it. Two more excellent Skiff Guards from the Vintage Collection. And while this pair technically completes my Skiff Guard collection, I’m still going to go after the Deleted Sandstorm versions of Lando, Han, and Luke just because they were there too and I need them to round out the display. I should note, that buying these figures has made me take a second look at some of the other Vintage Collection figures out there. I’m trying not to go nuts, because after all I don’t collect Star Wars anymore, right? But I will have another Vintage Collection figure to look at next week.

Mar 18 2013

Marvel Universe: Kraven The Hunter by Hasbro

It’s Marvel Monday. It’s been a rough working weekend. Today’s going to be kind of quick and to the point. Keeping all that in mind, I decided to go with a look at Kraven today, because despite really enjoying me some Spider-Man, I’ve never been a big fan of Kraven. He’s a very cool character design, he has an ok backstory, but I’ve never really bought his paring with Spidey as making a whole lot of sense. Nonetheless, I’m all about building up my Spider-Man Rogue Gallery in 3 ¾”, so adding Kraven to my collection was only natural.

Kraven comes on the typical MU card, although he does require an extra deep bubble because his costume is a tad bulky. He’s carded with his accessories around him and he really fills out the bubble nicely. The character art isn’t up to some of the line’s better work, although the more I look at the illustration, the more I feel that Kraven is staring out from the card and directly into my soul and trying to mesmerize me long enough to stick his spear in my throat. Flip the card around and you have Kraven’s bio along with the adorable and deadly Rocket Raccoon telling you that you better buy every damn MU figure you can find or else he’s going to tip your garbage cans, and then bite you and give you the intergalactic rabies.

Actually he just says, “Never doubt a raccoon.” I can’t believe we’re going to see him in a feature film soon. These are truly amazing times we live in. Let’s rip this guy open…

So, I may not be the biggest Kraven fan around, but holy hell, this is one amazing figure. I mean, damn Hasbro, you guys went all out for this guy. What we have here is definitely one of the best sculpts in my MU collection and probably one of the better sculpts of any 3 3/4″ figure I own. That’s not hyperbole, folks, that’s just me being really impressed. The head sculpt is top notch for a figure in this scale and the buck used is replete with sculpted muscles. The arms are achieved with painted armbands and wrist and hand wraps, but the paintwork is spectacular. The lower legs are new sculpts with skull knee guards, fur fringe and wrapped boots.

The rest of the figure showcases the unbelievably awesome lion head vest. It’s gorgeously sculpted and painted. The mane, which makes up the shoulders and the back makes for a wonderful effect and the paintwork on the lion’s face is immaculate. Kraven also has a belt of pouches with front and back sashes. The outfit is tied together with a little necklace, which you need to pop off his head to put back on.

Kraven isn’t based on the most articulated of the MU bodies, but he does have some great poseability. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, ankles, and torso. His arms have hinged elbows, and swivel wrists. His knees are double-hinged. He’s missing the thigh swivels, but after how crappy those joints were in my Kang figure, I’m perfectly fine if Hasbro starts leaving them out. Which leads me to point out that the quality of plastic Hasbro used for this figure is very good.

Besides his necklace, you get two accessories with Kraven: His spear and his knife. The knife can be held in either hand and can also be trust into his belt for storage. The spear is a nice looking piece, but it’s a little bendy. He can also hold it in either hand or both.

In case you haven’t guessed, I am completely blown away by Kraven. I have little love for the character, but I have to give kudos to Hasbro for putting some unprecedented work into this figure. One of the many reasons I hate to collect Marvel Universe, is that few of the figures seem to justify their price tag, but Kraven’s superior sculpt and paintwork and his accessories make him feel like a great deal. In fact, he’s almost on par with something I might get in an exclusive set. I’m thinking this guy might split his time with my GI JOE collection, because I think he would fit in pretty well as some kind of insane Cobra. Either way, Kraven is one outstanding figure.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

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