Mar 13 2013

Transformers Prime: Cyberverse Star Hammer w/ Wheeljack by Hasbro

I’m still working my way through the TF: Prime lot that I got from Ross last week. Today we’ll check out the Cyberverse Star Hammer vehicle bundled with a tiny Legion Class Wheeljack. While I haven’t picked up a whole lot of Cyberverse, I generally dig the idea of making a small line of Transformers that have vehicles and playsets. It taps into the whole Action Master and Micro Master gimmicks from back in the day. The Star Hammer looks more like a ground vehicle to me, but it’s obviously patterned after Wheeljack’s spaceship, the both delightfully and ridiculously named “Jackhammer,” as seen in the episode “Loose Cannons.”

The toy comes in a window box that shows off everything you get and does a good job of showcasing the various features of the toy, even if it doesn’t tell you much about what it’s supposed to be. While the Star Hammer is the bulk of what you’re paying for here, I’m going to start off with Wheeljack.

I’m not gonna lie, this guy is kind of impressive. His vehicle mode is solid and it looks like a shrunk down version of the Deluxe toy. He’s mostly white plastic with a black windshield and he has some red and green paint apps, that we’ve all come to associate with the Wheeljack character. The transformation engineering is pretty good for such a small toy and when you’re done converting him you get a good looking little robot. Between the paint apps, quality of the plastic, and the engineering, I honestly feel like this little guy is better executed than some of the Deluxes I’ve looked at recently. The paint work alone on this tiny bot is a thousand times better than what we got on Deluxe Bumblebee. Hey, Hasbro. How come you can paint this guy’s tail lights, but you can’t do it on the $15 figure of one of your main characters? Even his articulation, which features ball joints in the shoulders and hips and hinged knees makes him a perfectly playable little figure. Wheeljack also has a pair of blue translucent energon blades, which he can hold in his hands or clip onto his roof in car mode. This little guy is fun!

The Star Hammer is basically a mobile weapons platform, with a one-seat cockpit and two configurations. One mode has the side panels perpendicular to the ground, the other angles them out more like wings and deploys the two large missile launchers forward and reveal gunner stations in the back. The first mode allows for one figure to sit in the cockpit, the second mode allows for two more to stand behind the launchers. The conversion is automatic just by sliding the lever on the top. The design is nothing special, but it is a pretty good toy version of Wheeljack’s ship as seen in the cartoon.

The electronic gimmick lights up a translucent blue energon blaster, which is attached to the toy via a big ugly cable. The idea is that you can detach it and have other figures wield it, so long as they don’t stray too far from the vehicle. The LED is extremely weak and while it’s supposed to light up the entire gun on the top of the cockpit, it barely lights up the little one. If you have any of the TF: Prime Voyager Class figures, you’ll know how little to expect from the light up gimmick. If you’re into this thing for the electronics, you might be disappointed.

I don’t think the Star Hammer is a bad toy, but I’m not really wowed by it either. The conversion is cool enough and it feels like it’s made out of better, sturdier plastic than we’ve been usually getting out of Hasbro these days. If nothing else, it is a fun way to give your little Legion Class dudes some major firepower to ride around on. I think it says a lot that I’m more impressed with the little Wheeljack figure than the Star Hammer itself. If the idea of giving your Transformers converting vehicles doesn’t already excite you, then I doubt this thing is going to win you over. On the other hand, if you’re all about the concept, than you’ll likely get some fun out of this set. All I know is if I had a little Wheeljack like this guy when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have ever left the house without dropping him into my pocket.

Mar 11 2013

Marvel Universe: Kang by Hasbro

I would understand if readers out there assumed that I stopped collecting Marvel Universe figures. The last time I looked at one was way back in November 2012 and I haven’t bought any until now. The truth is, I can’t find any on the pegs around here, and I refuse to pay a premium for them online. Here’s a novel idea, Hasbro, why don’t you sell the current figures on your website instead of listing them as sold out. Don’t you make these goddamn things? Haven’t you now missed profit goals and laid people off for the second fiscal period in a row? Don’t you want to sell them and make money for your shareholders and keep jobs for your employees? I can sort of understand the problem with retailers not having them, what with distribution issues or peg cloggers, but these are YOUR figures and YOUR website. Put enough of the current releases on your web store so people can buy them and you make money. Simple enough? Anyway, at least I’ve found that if I’m patient, Hasbro’s online shop finally gets enough of the older figures I missed out on so that I can rack up enough to get free shipping. I guess I have to be happy with crumbs. Ok, enough rant… today we’ll start with Kang.

When you drink as much as I do, you get distracted and confused rather easily, hence the empty package picture. At some point when I was heavy into the Jameson, I likely muttered something like, “c’mere Kang, you’re the only one who understands me” and ripped him open, oblivious to the fact that I hadn’t yet taken a packaged shot. Remember kids… booze makes you stupid. But it also silences your demons, lets you fall asleep, and helps you to cope with life. Forget Kang, booze, you’re the only one who understands me.

I’ve got to admit, as much as I sometimes hate to collect this line, it feels great to be holding a new figure, especially one that’s pretty far up on my Want List. The packaging is the same as we saw last time, with the jagged bubble and the “Collectible Comic Shot” which is just a tiny piece of cardboard with a comic cover printed on it. You’ll also note he’s called “Marvel’s Kang” which is Hasbro’s way around copyright issues. I question, why not just go with “Kang the Conqueror?” Surely they could copyright that and it sounds much better than the alternative. Oh well. I don’t think Kang’s character art is among the best the line has offered, but it’s still pretty cool. The back of the card has a little bio and MODOK taunting you to collect them all by reworking the acronym for his name. Fun!

Let’s break Kang down into two categories: one good, one bad. If we’re dealing with the sculpt and the paint, he does very well. Check out that head sculpt, it’s fantastic, and I really dig the way they made the cowl and helmet two pieces. Instead of just a standard, painted buck, Kang’s got a loose fitting tunic. It looks like the torso could be from Dr. Strange, but if I’m not positive at a glance, than that’s good enough for me. The bottom of the tunic is part of the new belt and he’s got some bitching thigh-high future despot boots. The coloring on the figure is just as good. His amazing future suit is green with subtle and effective wash. The boots, gauntlets, helmet, and cowl are all metallic purple, and his face is a great shade of blue. No doubt, Kang is a gorgeous little figure. Oh yeah, he comes with a gun too!

Ok, now the bad stuff… quality control! For starters, the swivel cuts in the thighs have huge caps in them. I could already see them before I took the figure out of the package. It’s bad enough that I probably would have left him on the peg if I were buying him in the store, but since he was a web order, I didn’t know until he was already in hand. Trying to screw them tighter helps a bit, but eventually they return to their natural state, leaving those annoying gaps. Next up, his legs are pretty messed up out of the package. This issue I’ve managed to fix a bit with a blow dryer, but it pisses me off that I have to. He’s not even in any kind of dynamic pose in the package. It’s just god awful cheap plastic. Hasbro, if you’re going to send out figures like this, at least start putting stands in the packages again.

In terms of articulation, Kang doesn’t disappoint. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, and wrists. He has hinged elbows and double hinged knees. There are swivels in his biceps, thighs, and just under his knees. His ankles feature regular hinges as well as lateral rockers, and he has a ball joint in his torso. Not bad!

Remember how I said that sometimes I hate collecting this line? Kang is a great example of why. Hasbro delivered an amazing looking treatment of the character, but when you get down to the QC issues, he sure doesn’t feel like a ten dollar figure. Overall, the great paint and sculpt wins the day and makes me happy to have him in my collection, but in the unlikely scenario that I actually see him on the pegs, I’ll likely try to look for an upgrade without the big gaps in the thigh cuts. I shouldn’t have to do that, but it is what it is.

Mar 9 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Weequay and Wooof by Hasbro

A couple of weeks back I promised I’d be hunting down more Vintage Collection Skiff Guards and I have indeed done just that. If I promise you I’ll take out the garbage or leave the toilet seat down, I’m probably lying, but a promise to buy new toys is a promise I always keep. The next two nefarious sand pirates to join my crew are Weequay and Wooof. Wooof? WOOOF??? This guy is Klaatu. What the hell is this Wooof nonsense all about? Well, in a flurry of Jameson-fueled irritation, I found my way to a wiki article that is telling me that he was called Klaatu but then the original production name for him was Wooof, but then it says they were two different characters, and now I’m just as confused and back to just saying screw it… I’m calling him Klaatu. It helps that I got him loose, so there’s no evidence he was ever named Wooof.

So, I’ve got no card to show you for ~~Wooof~~ Klaatu, but there’s Weequay’s card. As you can see, this isn’t the imposter, known as “Skiff Master Weequay,” that we looked at last time. No sir, this is the Weequay I grew up with and the one that will always have a special place in my fanboy heart. Look at him standing there proudly on the bow of his skiff. So noble… so magnificent… so Weequay! Since time began, Weequay figures have been sculpted with only one thing in mind… to hold their force pikes across their chests and mimic that… dare I say? Iconic pose. But now we finally have an articulated version that can do so much more. Let’s get him open and check him out…

Weequay has always had pretty good figures, and the Vintage Collection version just does some fine tuning. He’s not the most intricately sculpted of the Skiff Guards, but that’s more on his character design than anything else. Weequay sports his trademark ribbed brown leather vest with shoulder guards and a simple belt with some sculpted pouches. There’s no functional holster, but in fairness the on screen character didn’t have a holster either.

The head sculpt is fortified with all that raisin-headed goodness that I expect from my Weequay figures. He looks perpetually pissed off, as if letting us know that even an awesome job where you throw prisoners into giant sand vagina monsters can get to be a chore after a while. As with Skiff Master Weequay, I think Hasbro could have done a better job sculpting his braids, but they’re not bad. Weequay’s articulation includes ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. He has a T-crotch, swivels in the wrists and he can swivel at the waist. He comes with his pike and a hold out blaster. Well done, Hasbro.

And then there’s Klaatu. I gotta tell you, Hasbro went above and beyond on this guy. The head sculpt is fantastic. It’s as expressive as you can get from a lizard man in this scale. His vest is sculpted over an armor plate and his belt secures a softgoods skirt that looks like it’s some kind of crazy Tatooine goat hair, but I’ll concede that it’s probably not.

Klaatu features a removable hood, a removable bandolier strap, and a functional holster. Hooray for functional holsters! He comes with the same force pike (but different paint job) as Weequay and a very cool hold out blaster. Klaatu features ball joints in his neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. He has a T-crotch and he has swivel cuts in the waist and wrists.

Weequay and Klaatu are a seriously cool pair of figures. If the Vintage Collection’s aim is to produce truly definitive versions of characters, Hasbro certainly succeeded here. Granted, I’m a little biased since I love the Sarlaac sequence in RotJ so much, but it’s just great to see these guys get such amazing figures. I grabbed them for ten bucks each and now my Tatooine Skiff is just that much nearer to being fully crewed. That leaves Kithaba and Nikto and I’ll be checking them out next week.

Mar 7 2013

Transformers Prime: Sergeant Kup by Hasbro

TF: Prime has had its tenuous run in the toy aisles and now it’s time for Beast Hunters to replace it. You know what that means? All those TF: Prime figures that I couldn’t find because the pegs were clogged with Bumblebees and Cliffjumpers are now starting to show up in the Toy Graveyards better known as Marshalls and Ross. I scored quite a bit of Prime goodness on my last trip through there, and today I’m going to look at the best of my finds: Sergeant Kup. He’s a figure that I would have gladly paid $15 for if I found him at Target or Walmart, but as it turns out, I was destined to find him sitting at Ross for $6.99.

It’s been a while since we saw the TF: Prime packaging. I still dig it a lot. The extra-long card, the character art, the pleasing deco, it makes me want to buy any Prime figure that isn’t f’ing Bumblebee. This one includes a DVD with an episode of the show on it. ~~I saved the DVD, but I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet.~~ Actually, I sat down and watched it just before posting this feature. I thought Dreadwing was pretty cool, but if I had to listen to Bulkhead call Wheeljack “Jackie” one more time, I think I would have vomited. Kup comes carded in his vehicle mode, so let’s start there.

Kup’s alt mode mingles with his G1 roots by being a greenish pick-up truck, only instead of having a Cybertron design, he’s definitely an Earth style vehicle. He has four doors and two big black drums in his bed, which convert into his guns. They can also be removed and pegged into his doors to give him some firepower in alt mode. He features clear windows, some nice coppery paint for his front grill and roof lightbar, and some light green accents on his hood and doors. With a little effort, you can even open his hood while he’s in his truck mode. Changing him to robot mode is pretty easy, despite some very clever engineering.

Man, do I dig Kup’s bot mode. He’s a little stocky, but he has a clean, humanoid design that is both original and inspired. Kup looks like he can take a pounding, as his head sits protected in his recessed engine compartment with part of the front bumper making his shoulders and a clear, faked-out windshield plate on his chest. The head sculpt is excellent and fits the character well. I’m not crazy about the way the hood hangs off his back, and it’s blatantly obvious that a simple hinge would have fixed this, but this figure already has more engineering than I’ve come to expect out of modern Deluxes, so I won’t complain too much. The sculpt itself is busy with detail and he’s a good example of how when used correctly with the right sculpt, even a moderate level of paint apps can make the figure look great.

What can Hasbro possibly do to make this figure any better? Give him a pair of great weapons. Kup comes with two big hand cannons. They don’t shoot anything, they don’t convert into anything, they just look great. He can clip them onto his arms, but I prefer him holding them. You can, however, combine them together to make one big cannon, which he can wield on his arm like a Megatron-style fusion cannon. Yes, these things are very cool and they even store sensibly in Kup’s alt mode.

Kup is easily my favorite of the Prime Deluxes in my collection, and it goes to show you that even Hasbro’s downsized Deluxes can make me happy. He’s a great mix of original engineering, fun articulation, thoughtful paintwork, and a great sculpt. He’s also brimming with personality, which is always a plus for me because I haven’t been into the Prime fiction at all. It’s a shame that poor casepack ratios and pegs choked with Bumblebees prevented this figure from seeing the light of day in my local toy aisles, but I certainly won’t complain about being able to pick him up for half price.

Feb 28 2013

Transformers Fall of Cybertron: Grimlock by Hasbro

Seems like I can’t go a week without adding more Transformers to my collection, and I’m not complaining about it. The Fall of Cybertron figures have been hard to find around these parts, and I thought for sure I’d have to hunt Grimlock down online, dip into my booze fund, and pay scalper prices. Luckily, I spotted one lone Grimlock on the shelf at my local Target and scooped him up right away. Early production photos of this figure left me a little cold, but I’ve been asking for a Voyager version of Grimmy ever since the disappointing Classics release, so I had to at least give him a chance.

This is the first time I’m seeing the Generations Voyager box and at first I didn’t know what it was. The familiar G1-style grid seems darker than the cards, but I really dig the artwork and the complex die-cut pattern around the window is beaucoup stylish. I am getting weary of the pointless corner cut-outs and it seems even more awkward when it’s on the bottom of the box. None of that matters, though, because I have no room to save these boxes, so I gleefully shredded it to pieces in order to get at my figure. Grimlock is packaged in robot mode, but we’re going to start out with his dino mode.

There’s a lot of good and bad in Grimlock’s T-Rex mode. Let’s start with the good. The sculpting is impressive and the coloring is good. I don’t feel the sense of cheap cuts that Hasbro seems to be making with so many other figures in this line. Grimlock is loaded with panel lining and the red mesh paint apps on the panels scattered around his body really make the figure pop. The grey plastic Hasbro used looks fine, and while I would have preferred something a little more vibrant for the gold, it looks ok. Even Grimlock’s play gimmick is cool. Push the lever on the back of Grimlock’s neck and his mouth opens and his eyes and mouth light up with one of the most powerful LED’s I’ve ever seen in a toy. It’s so much better than the crappy light up effects in the Prime toys. All these things add up to a cool looking alt mode.

Ok, so now for the bad stuff. Grimlock’s dino mode is very hollow. Unless I’m looking at him from the top down, I can’t ignore the cavernous hole in his chest. Next up, his tail is awkwardly proportioned and has zero articulation. Finally, the upper parts of his legs are static, and this has to do with his transformation because they peg into place. You can bend his legs at the knees, but his upper legs stay locked in place, and that’s a big letdown. At least his arms are ball jointed. Any close look at his dino mode makes it clear that Hasbro favored the robot mode over all else. Grimlock probably stays in his alt mode more than almost any other Transformer, so making these kinds of sacrifices on his alt mode are rather suspect.

My biggest complaint with Classics Grimlock was that Hasbro seemed to go out of their way to change his transformation from the original G1 toy and the result was quite alienating. This version returns to the roots of the G1 transformation, but still manages to muck things up a bit. The thing about G1 Grimlock is that he worked great in both robot and dino mode because of his simple and clever transformation. In spite of being a Transformer, he was a great action figure in both modes and that was certainly a rare thing for a TF back in those days. I would argue that you could take the G1 Grimlock design, make just a few tweaks to improve proportions and articulation and come away with a perfect figure. No need to reinvent the wheel here, Hasbro. Fall of Cybertron’s Grimlock comes close, but then strays away by doing things like making the legs peg into place in dino mode and overcomplicating the conversion of the tail into the legs. Still, at least this version doesn’t have a split dino head for feet, because that was never the Grimlock that I know.

And then there’s the robot mode, and this is where the figure truly shines. He’s perfectly proportioned with a hulking upper body, beefy shoulders and sturdy legs. He hits all the points of his G1 design, with the dino head worn as a backpack and his dino feet claws protruding from his wrists. I do kind of miss the wings he had in the G1 toy, but you can still angle the dino arms up if you want to get something a little closer to that aesthetic. The head sculpt is pure Grimlock with some excellent light piping. He’s replete with panel lines and major machinery detail sculpted into his chest and around his neck. The light up gimmick still works in this mode, this time lighting up his chest.

My other big issue with Classics Grimlock was his size. Grimlock should never be a Deluxe and that problem is certainly solved with this release. Even in the G1 cartoon he was significantly taller than Optimus. This version of Grimlock scales nicely next to my War for Cybertron Prime. Some may say he’s a little too big, but I think he’s just right.

In robot mode, Grimlock features great articulation. His head is ball jointed; his arms rotate at the shoulders and have some lateral movement as well. The elbows are hinged and there are swivels in his biceps and wrists. He legs are ball jointed at the hips, his knees have solid ratchet joints, and there are swivels in his thighs. A waist swivel would have been nice, but what we got is pretty good.

Grimmy comes with two accessories. You get the energon sword and shield he used in the game. Both are extremely nice pieces. I usually prefer guns with my Transformers, but in this case, the accessories fit the character and he looks great holding them. The only downside is that they don’t store anywhere on him. With all that hollow space in his dino chest, you’d think he could have found a way to store his weapons up there.

When all is said and done, me like Fall of Cybertron Grimlock. Grimlock no bozo, Grimlock is king. Sure, there are plenty of things I’d rather Hasbro had done differently and there were sacrifices that I feel didn’t need to be made. Still, the near perfection of his bot mode makes up for a lot of the unfortunate things about his dino mode. Fans of Grimlock haven’t received a whole lot of love from Hasbro over the years, so I think this release should go a long way to scratch that itch. Plus, he never gets tired of me telling him about the petro-rabbits.

Feb 23 2013

Star Wars Power of the Force 2: Gamorrean Guard and Malakili by Hasbro

It’s the last day of this Jabba craziness and this week FigureFan has seen more Star Wars features than it has in a long time. I kind of enjoyed it, and I’m going to make a point to not ignore Star Wars quite so much in the future. Anyway, today we’re swinging back to the POTF2 line to take a look at a couple of Jabba’s husky henchmen. It’s a little known fact that yours’ truly could stand to shed a few pounds, so it’s always nice to see some portly action figures get some attention and make me feel fit by comparison. I think Jabba read in a PR magazine somewhere that if you surround yourself with heavy people, you look skinny. Sorry, Jabba, it ain’t working. To the figures!

The packaging is the same we saw with the torture droids a couple of days back. These are also part of the Freeze Frame series, so you get a pair of slides showing the characters in screen grabs from the movie. Considering Malakili is in the film so briefly, his slide is extra important as it serves as evidence that Kenner and Hasbro didn’t just make him up. Let’s go ahead and start with him.

Malakili: Once known only as “Rancor Keeper.” For the longest time, this guy was the best example of the fact that any Star Wars character was eligible for action figure honors. Sure, I had the vintage version of him as a kid, and yet I have no idea how or why. I have no recollection of actually walking into a store, being told by my parents that I could pick out a figure, and coming back with him. It’s hard to imagine that happening, and yet apparently it did. Maybe the rest of the pegs were full of Lobots. I also can’t remember ever playing with him. My ever creative kid brain summoned up all kinds of convoluted back stories for even the most obscure figures, but all Rancor Keeper ever did was stand somewhere behind Jabba’s throne and try not to be noticed. And now, I’ve gone so far as to have purchased him twice. Well played, Star Wars merchandising. Well played!

In fairness, Malakili had a few nanoseconds of screen time more than a lot of figures produced by Kenner and Hasbro. So what, if he didn’t have a speaking line? He sobbed. That was more than we ever got out of Prune Face or Squid Head. I can remember seeing RotJ with my parents and asking why that man was crying. My Mom simply answered because his pet just died. I felt sad and my young mind started questioning the very foundations of my heroes. What kind of asshole was Luke that he killed the poor fat guy’s pet? It was right at that moment that I was truly introduced to the concept that maybe morality is actually subjective. Maybe there are no rights and wrongs, and there are only grey areas. Thank you, Malakili, you taught me more than my college philosophy professor ever could. Of course, Malakili went on to Mos Eisley to open a restaurant with his friend. It’s true! I can’t make that shit up, but apparently someone else can. Either way, it’s clear to me that Malakili in all of his 60 seconds of screen time invoked more empathy in me as a character than anyone who appeared in any or all of the prequels.

So, I’ve gone on about Malakili for three paragraphs and haven’t said anything about the figure. But really, what is there to say? He’s a husky, shirtless guy in puffy pants with a hood. How many people do you know wear hoods with no jacket or shirt? He’s a trend setter. If you’re in the market for a Rancor Keeper, this one is improved over the original Kenner version and he’s actually not a bad sculpt, although Hasbro has since released a newer version in the Legacy Collection. The package on the POTF2 version says he comes with a vibro blade, but if you’re a ludicrously well informed nerd like me, then you know that’s a gaffi stick given to him by some Tusken Raiders for helping them out. And no, I didn’t really know that, I looked it up.

And then there’s the Gamorrean Guard. I don’t have nearly as much to say about these guys, save for the fact that I’ve always had an inexplicable love for them. Maybe it’s because they’re one of the first aliens we’re introduced to in RotJ and they really set the tone for the crazy creaturefest that follows. Maybe it’s because they get to wear sandals to work. I do know that I love their medieval garb and the fact that they were so bad ass that they carry axes rather than fancy laser swords or blasters. I also love that they walk around with snot running out of their noses like leaky faucets. It’s like someone scooped them off their planet and never bothered to tell them about technology like blasters… or tissues.

The vintage Kenner version of the Gamorrean Guard was a pretty good figure, but the POTF2 release has long been my Gamorrean of choice. I’ve yet to pick up a Vintage Collection version, but their pants look too furry and they’re way too expensive to army build. I can get three POTF2 Guards for every one VC version and it’s all about army building, my friends. In my mind, the POTF2 Gamorrean Guard is one of the best figures the line put out. He has a very good sculpt, which is pretty faithful to the source material, and if Hasbro meant to buff him out, you can’t tell because he was already fat. I can hate on plenty of the figures from this era, but this guy is solid enough to stand proudly in my Jabba display. I also like his axe better than the one that came with the vintage figure.

Both figures feature the same six points of articulation. Their heads rotate, their arms rotate at the shoulders, they have standard T-crotches, and they can swivel at the waist.

And that puts this week of Jabbapalooza in the bag. I’ll be back Monday with another Farscape figure and the rest of the week will be all about going through some new receivings, including some Marvel and DC figures, a Lego set, Transformers, and even a certain pair of third-party Transformers from Mech Ideas. Enjoy your Sundays, and after church, why not go take the kids to Malakili’s restaurant for a nice brunch? I’ll see ya there!

Feb 22 2013

Star Wars Saga Collection: Princess Leia in Boushh Disguise by Hasbro

I know… I just featured Slave Leia a couple of days ago. I’m a bad host. I’m double dipping on the Leia. But I wanted to get as many different lines into this week as possible and I just happened to have this Saga Collection version of her lying around too. But it’s ok. Even as a kid I never used my vintage Kenner version as Leia. I rarely ever took off the helmet and the figure was always just another bad ass bounty hunter to me. Decades later and nothing has changed. While my Boba Fett figure can keep his ongoing grudge chasing Han Solo, I consider this Boushh figure to be the original Ubese mercenary, still alive and well and earning his pay by killing Jedi stragglers for Crimson Nova. But for the purposes of this feature, I guess we’ll consider her Leia in disguise…. More than meets the eye!!! Sorry, I’ve had a few Jamesons. Let’s look at the package.

Damn, this was some fine packaging. It borrowed heavily from the vintage cards with the starfield and the old school logo, and then blows my mind by putting a scene specific printed insert into the back of the bubble. The effect is like you’re getting a mini snowglobe diorama. Leia comes carded with her helmet off and beside her. With the exception of actually reproducing the vintage cards, I think this was Hasbro’s best original package design. Unfortunately, the figures themselves were a total mixed bag. You got some great new sculpts with good articulation, and you got some straight repacks going all the way back to the POTF2 line. Leia here was the first figure released in this series, let’s see how she turned out.

She is indeed a brand new sculpt, and a mighty fine one at that. Her outfit is layered so that the cape, backpack, belt and bandolier strap are all one piece and fitted over the rest of the figure. The skirt is a second layer that hangs down over the tops of the legs. She’s also been scaled way down from the previous release to fit Leia’s tiny size. The portrait is ok, but not great. I don’t care much for the paint on her eyes, which makes her look kind of drugged out {token Carrie Fisher drug reference deleted} and the stray hair on each side of her face sort of looks more like sideburns than what it’s supposed to be. Still, all in all not bad, and I never display the figure with the helmet off anyway.

The helmet is similar to what we’ve seen before. It’s a hollow, slightly rubbery piece that fits right over the figure’s head. The sculpt is great and it looks fantastic on the figure. There’s only one problem. Leia’s ponytail hangs out the back! It’s kind of like one of those episodes of Scooby Doo, where Shaggy and Scooby are disguised and sneaking away, but Scooby’s tail is hanging out the back of the disguise. No? Just me then? Ok. It’s not terribly obvious, and you can’t see it from the front, but I have been tempted to snip it off.

While the sculpt may mingle with current Vintage Collection standards, the articulation sadly does not, but it comes frustratingly close. Leia has a ball jointed neck, as well as ball joints in the shoulders and the knees. She has swivels in the elbows and wrists and she can swivel at the waist. She has a typical T-crotch for articulation in the hips. She’s sort of pre-posed in a way to have her holding her long weapon in one hand and the thermal detonator in the other, but it’s not so obvious that you can’t get some more neutral stances out of her. The biggest shame of this figure is the lack of ball joints in the elbows. Those would have made her a lot closer to being a definitive version.

In addition to her helmet, Leia comes with her rifle, a tiny thermal detonator, a personalized figure stand, and a hologram of Obi-Wan that looks like gummy candy. Too bad it’s not candy; at least I could eat it instead of throwing it away. The detonator is just a tiny ball that I will probably lose shortly after this feature. It pegs into Leia’s left hand.

No doubt, this version of Leia/Boushh is a great figure. All this depth in the sculpt makes her look like she’s ahead of her time, especially for a 2006 assortment that retailed at $6.99. And that’s what made the Saga Collection so frustrating. If you were a seasoned Star Wars collector, you could easily spot when you were getting a cool new figure or a crappy old repack. On the other hand, the unsuspecting or those buying them by the case online, were in for quite the crap shoot. I’ve always liked the POTF2 version of Boushh, but this one has long since become my definitive figure of the character.

Feb 21 2013

Star Wars Vintage Collection: Weequay (Skiff Master) by Hasbro

I’ll refer you back to this feature for my confession of love for all things Weequay and my naive childhood notion that Weequay was the dude’s name and not his race. Yes, we’ll chalk that up to ignorance and not an early onset of racism. And while the brown vested Weequay will always be my favorite, the VC version of that figure is ~~still eluding me~~ now on order, so this week we’ll have to settle for the “Skiff Master” version. Hey, it’s all good. I prefer Coke, but offer me a Pepsi on a hot day and I’ll still accept it and thank you kindly. The Weequay figure isn’t officially Throne Room fodder, but more a part of my mission to stock my POTF2 Skiff with a Vintage Collection crew, but he’s also going to be hanging out somewhere in my Throne Room display. Hey, the guy can’t be feeding the Sarlacc all the time.

The vintage style cards are so awesome. The fact that every figure Hasbro produces isn’t slapped onto one of these cards makes me question the sanity of the persons at Hasbro responsible for that decision. Even at times when I swore off Star Wars completely, seeing these cards on the pegs was always akin to offering a recovering addict a taste of blow. But it’s the ultimate instance of not being able to have your cake and eat it too. I want to buy them, I want to keep them carded, but I don’t have the space to buy doubles and I’m an opener at heart. Plus, opening this guy hurts even more because the card doesn’t have a giant f’ing Darth Maul face sticker on it schilling a mail away for Lucas’ toenail clippings or other such crap. And so I take a belt of Jameson to steady my nerves, and I rip the bastard open.

The thing I dig so much about the skiff guards in RotJ is that they’re basically mercenary pirates that fly boats around in the desert. How is that not awesome? The Weequays are especially cool because they look like they were born mean and their heads have clearly been left out in the sun too long. Everyone knows those two things are top of the list when recruiting desert pirates. Hasbro did a fantastic job recreating this figure from his portrait. His grungy, segmented tunic looks spot on, his sculpted belt is perfect and his head is a great likeness. Weequay even has a functional holster. Damn, I love functional holsters in my 3 ¾” figures. Hey, Mattel… check this out. It’s a functional holster on a 3 ¾” figure. The gun can come out and the guy can hold it. Thought you might like to see this before you go and design those $15 Voltron pilot figures and… oh, wait that was last year… I’m way too late. Never mind. I also dig the way he wears his gun butt facing front, like he’s f’cking Lee Van Cleef. Welcome to FigureFan, where you get references to Voltron, Star Wars, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly all in the same feature. Enjoy!

If I’m going to nitpick anything on Skiff Master Weequay, it’s going to be his sculpted hair braid. It’s a bit heavy handed and it sticks out a little too far. If this were a regular release, I’d be cool with it, but I’ve come to treat a lot of these VC figures as definitive. As in, “this is it, Hasbro, this is the last version of this figure I’m ever going to buy so please for the love of god, make it perfect!” The hair braids don’t ruin the figure for me by any stretch, but a little extra care could have been invested to make it look perfect. That’s all I’m saying. If all I can do is bitch about the guy’s braids, I think he’s doing ok.

Weequay’s articulation features a ball jointed neck and shoulders. The arms have ball joints in the elbows and swivels in the wrists. He’s got ball jointed knees and swivels in his ankles. He’s got a standard T-crotch, which is somewhat restricted by his tunic, and he can also swivel at the waist. The shoulder joints in my figure feel like super tight ratchet joints. It’s kind of odd for a 3 ¾” figure, but it certainly helps him hold his poses.

Accessories? What self-respecting mercenary desert pirate would be complete without some weapons? Weequay comes with a hold out blaster, which fits nicely in his holster, and a pike. I love the design of these pikes. Next to the Dreadnok chainsaw gun, I think it’s my favorite weapon design of the 80s. While Weequay comes carded holding his blaster in his left hand, it’s actually made to fit perfectly into his right. If you want him to hold it in his off hand, you better save those clear rubber bands!

Skiff Master may not be my favorite Weequay, but I really love this figure. Everything about it is quality. In fact, I love it so much that after playing around with him for just a little while, I went and ordered the other VC Weequay along with Wooof, and I’m already eyeing VC Kithaba and Nikto. It’s a figure like this that make me weep for most of what Hasbro is turning out in the 3 ¾” scale these days. But let’s not sully Weequay’s feature by dwelling on the bad. Let’s celebrate the triumph of Weequay, for he is truly an excellent figure.

By my reckoning, I still have two more days of this Jabba madness. What’s on tap for tomorrow? I have no idea… I better start rummaging through some totes.

Feb 20 2013

Star Wars Power of the Force 2: 8D8 and EV-9D9 by Hasbro

Torture droids! Everybody loves torture droids!!! Despite being a franchise aimed at kids, every one of the three Star Wars films featured some kind of implied or explicit torture scene. Whether it was Princess Leia getting stuck with needles to give up the Rebel Base or Han Solo getting his face electrically burned off. And if that’s not creepy enough, Hasbro has delivered at least a few figures based on these scenes. But today we’re focused on a couple of the custodians of Jabba’s robot dungeon. And somehow toys based on the torture of robots seems a little less likely to offend the folks at Amnesty International. I loved the designs of these guys, and while I never owned EV-9D9 as a kid, I did have the 8D8 that came with the “Jabba’s Dungeon” playset and he was always a favorite of mine.

This pair of sadistic servoids were released as part of the Freeze Frame sub-line in POTF2. They’re on green cards and each one comes with a slide showing the character in a screen grab. This was a great gimmick, and I always regret not getting that special offer display holder and saving them all. I have bags full of various crappy coins that came with Star Wars figures over the years, but somehow, I never manage to save any of these cool slides. The back panels of the cards show a large clip-out version of the scene on the slide. You also get some shots of other POTF2 goodies.

Let’s start with 8D8. I’ll take this opportunity to point out that my favorite droid designs in the Star Wars films are the ones that couldn’t possibly support actors inside them. I was pretty fascinated with robots when I was a kid and to me having a robot in the movie that wasn’t just a guy in a suit was way cooler, even if they were more puppets than actual robots. 8D8 is one of those designs and that makes him a winner in my book.

The other cool thing about 8D8 is just how damn creepy he looks. His white coloring, exposed “ribcage,” and his thin arms and piston-driven framework legs make him look like some kind of deformed skeleton. He also kind of looks like robot Christopher Lee and he’s got that awesome hunchback configuration that makes him perfect for lurking around a dank dungeon. The sculpting here is particularly good for a POTF2 figure. He doesn’t suffer from the buffed out proportions and basically takes the original vintage Kenner figure and tweaks it in all the right places. 8D8 includes his droid branding device, which comes in two pieces and an articulated lever. It’s a nice piece to display beside him, especially if you have any unruly Gonk Droids lying around.

Next up is EV-9D9, who is another one of those cool robot designs that couldn’t support a human actor and thereby makes my Top Droids of Star Wars list. Like a lot of bit characters in the Star Wars Universe, she’s also got a somewhat involved backstory in the EU that can be traced back to Cloud City. She’s a lot taller than 8D8 and much less creepy looking, but she does feature the same thin arms and legs. She has three beady little yellow eyes, one of which she apparently installed herself to detect the pain levels in droids! My favorite thing about her design in the movie was the little articulated mouth flap. Oddly enough, the vintage Kenner figure translated that into a gimmick on the figure, but the POTF2 version doesn’t attempt it. I also dig that you can turn her head around and she looks like she’s has a new head with giant bug eyes. She also has a screw running up her back in place of a spine. EV-9D9 has a great bronze and black two-tone deco and comes with her console table.

Both droids feature the same five points of articulation. You get rotating heads, shoulders and hips. No big surprises there. Their limbs are pretty rubbery, but both figures can stand fairly well.

While not technically part of Jabba’s Throne Room entourage, these guys are still going to make it into my Jabba display when I put it together. I think I’ll likely just create a little alcove off to the side. For a couple of droids that were only in the film for a few moments, I love these guys a lot more than I have any right to and I’d love to see them given the modern treatment one of these days.

Feb 19 2013

Star Wars Legacy Collection: Princess Leia (Jabba’s Slave) by Hasbro

Alrighty, I’ve got five days ahead of me where I am committed to a regimen of features on figures from Jabba’s Palace. Let’s start with Slave Leia, because everyone loves Slave Leia… well, right up until she throttles you with her chains. There have been a few golden bikini clad Leias over the years, but today we’re looking at the one that was designed to work with the “Jabba’s Throne” set released by Hasbro right around the same time.

There’s a long and tortured story behind me finally getting this figure into my collection. I paid no attention to it when it was first released, because I wasn’t collecting a lot of Star Wars and I doubted I had much chance of finding the “Jabba’s Throne” set because it was a Walmart Exclusive, and my Walmart seems to boycott their own exclusives. Nonetheless, eventually I got it and everything changed. I remembered Hasbro released a Slave Leia with the ability to sit on Jabba’s throne, only I didn’t know what series she was released in and I couldn’t find her anywhere. I thought I hit paydirt when I found the Vintage Collection figure, only to discover that she didn’t include the swappable lower half. It wasn’t until a few weeks later, when I was trawling Ebay for nothing in particular, that I stumbled upon a listing for her and grabbed her up.

I’m pretty sure I’ve only picked up a couple of figures from this “Legacy Collection.” The packaging is so weird and so not Star Wars to me. The artsy cut edges of the card, the white background, the generic portrait of Leia, it’s no wonder I never paid much attention to this line when I saw it on the pegs. It’s not terrible, but it’s just bland and uninspired. I’d hate to see what the rejected Legacy package designs looked like. The large bubble shows off the figure and accessories pretty well, apart from the obnoxious Darth Maul head special offer sticker. It also displays the disembodied legs right next to the figure, which I thought was kind of odd. I guess since Hasbro was already hiding a Build-A-Droid part under the insert, there was no place to tastefully conceal Leia’s extra set of gams.

Let’s start with Leia as she comes on the card. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but there’s something just a tad off about her. The face isn’t a slam dunk, but it’s not bad either. It’s not really Carrie Fisher, but the figure isn’t dog faced. Considering Hasbro’s track record with the portraits on Leia figures, this one is certainly passable, but not the best. Her bikini top and torso are nicely sculpted, and they even got some of the subtle muscle definition into her stomach. One of the little nagging issues is the way the chain around her neck and the pony tail over her shoulder make her cock her head to one side. You can take the chain off and bend the pony tail to the back to fix this, but it sucks that you have to. The ball joints also make her arms look rather funky looking, but I guess that’s the price we pay for articulation.

The lower half of the figure has a sculpted belt, which secures a softgoods skirt and the figure looks fine so long as the skirt is covering her legs. If you get a good look at her legs, however, they seem short and stubby. Maybe this figure’s proportions are more accurate to Carrie Fisher, but all I know is she looked pretty damn good in that bikini, and that’s not necessarily reflected by the bottom half of this figure.

Articulation includes ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. She has standard T-style joints in the hips, another ball joint under her breasts, and she can swivel at the waist. I don’t usually mind the T-crotch, but in this case, not having the ability to do a wider stance really hurts the figure.

Of course, the main reason I got this figure is to display on Jabba’s throne. You can get some passable poses with her regular legs, but by the swappable lower half gets the job done better. The replacement legs are molded in one piece, along with her skirt and she is sitting on a pillow. The paintwork on the static legs isn’t as tight as it could be, there’s some bleeding between the flesh tones and the pillow, but the result still works really well and she certainly does look great sitting on Jabba’s throne.

In addition to her extra set of extremities, Leia comes with a goblet and some kind of staff weapon. Similar looking weapons have been around since the Kenner vintage figure days, and I’ve never known what those things are. Is it a vibro axe? A force pike? A gun? How is that even used as a weapon? Is the top part sharp? Do you just use it to push people over the railings of the barges and skiffs? Somebody help me out here.

The engineering behind this figure was a clever idea on Hasbro’s part and it certainly works well. That having been said, if we’re taking about the ass-kicking Sail Barge Slave Leia, I think I still prefer either the POTF2 or the POTJ versions of the character. I know, that sounds crazy. They are less articulated and the portrait isn’t quite as good, but they seem better proportioned to me. On the other hand, Legacy Leia works great as an accessory piece to Jabba’s Throne, and that’s what I bought her for, so it’s all good. Now I just have to decide whether Jabba’s got room for two bitches on his throne, or if Oola becomes Rancor food.

FigureFan Zero

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