Tag Archives: mattel

Jan 8 2012

Masters of the Universe Classics: Wind Raider by Mattel

None of the figures offered up by Matty Collector last month really grabbed my interest, but I couldn’t resist the first vehicle released in the MOTUC line. The Wind Raider was pretty much a no-brainer as a choice for the first vehicle since its relatively small and apart from the Sky Sled is probably the most iconic vehicle from the Filmation cartoon and the comics. I was almost positive this thing was going to sell out in under ten minutes, but it actually hung around for at least a couple of days, making grabbing one a pretty painless affair. Of course, as usual shipping was less than painless. $15 to ship and it takes over two fucking weeks to get here. That’s why I’m checking this thing out so late. It actually didn’t arrive until a few days after New Year’s. I realize this is a tough time of year for shipping, but it seemed like everything I ordered from everyone else got to me pretty fast and its not like Matty doesn’t have a track record for slow, expensive shipping.  Matty, you have some of the worst customer service on the planet.

The toys on the other hand….
Just like the figures, the Wind Raider comes in a white mailer box. Sliding it off reveals the actual toy’s box underneith, which is all kinds of cool since it really recreates that vintage boxed toy feel of the 80’s, complete with exciting illustrations and not a single photo of the actual toy on the box anywhere. The last time I can remember getting this nostalgic feeling from a boxed toy was when I got Bandai’s new Thundertank earlier this year. The box art is indeed nice, and I especially like the antiquated looking schematics sketched onto the back. Its also kind of exciting to see those spinning hover vehicles pictured on the front illustration. I know Mattel said there would be no vehicles in 2012, but if another one is coming, that one looks like it would be pretty easy and cost effective to produce. Plus, it seems only fair that the next vehicle go to the bad guys. Anyway, the box is a little bigger than the boxes for Hasbro’s $20-30 Star Wars vehicles. The vehicle requires a little bit of assembly. You need to pop on the rear tailfin and the wings.
Before I get to the toy itself, I just want to say: Holy crap, it comes with that display stand!!! I genuinely had no idea this was coming in the box. I saw it sitting on the stand at the various conventions and expos, but I always assumed it was just something Mattel was using to show it off. Getting the stand with the toy was an amazing surprise and just impressed the hell out of me. It’s a nice big disc with the Masters of the Universe logo etched into it, front and back. It has a curved stand with a ratcheting sphere that pegs into the bottom of the Wind Raider. The result is you can position the ship at all sorts of angles. It’s an amazing bonus for what is already an amazing toy.
My first thought as I was taking the Wind Raider out of the box and snapping it together was about how big this thing is. It’s a nice, hefty toy with a huge wingspan and when  you put a figure in it, it looks wonderfully scaled to the figure, whereas the vintage one always seemed too small. I was expecting a lot of stickers, particularly in the cockpit, but that wasn’t the case. The striping and artwork on the body and rear wing are actually expertly applied decals, but apart from them every little detail, and there’s a ton of detail, is sculpted and beautifully painted. The detail work on this thing is just breathtaking. The panel lines, the little wires and cables, the cushions on the pilot seat, and most incredibly all the controls on the console… it’s all sculpted and painted and absolutely gorgeous. It may be a toy, but it really does look more like a highend display piece when perched on its stand. I’ll note here that the decals on the sides scare me a bit, as they will be prone to chip over time, so if I ever put this baby into storage, I’ll probably have to wrap really well in something.
The Wind Raider actually does have a few play features. there are two opening compartments that reveal sculpted and painted missiles inside, the wings pivot and lock into various position, like flaps on an airplane, and the front harpoon fires, albeit not very far. You can lift the large dragon disc on the Wind Raider’s hood and crank it to retract the harpoon and cable.
The Wind Raider is priced at $45, which feels like a pretty great value for what you get. Unfortunately, with the only way to get this thing being online and through Matty, you really need to factor the shipping into the retail price, and that brings it up to $60. Nonetheless, even at sixty bucks, I think this thing was well worth it, maybe not a great value, but definitely worth it. It really is just an amazing looking piece and extremely well constructed. I haven’t decided where I’m going to display it yet, so right now, I just have it sitting on my coffee table with He-Man at the controls. I’ll probably leave it there a while because every time I walk past it, it puts a huge smile on my face.
Jan 7 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 19: Lord Naga by Mattel

I should be trying to space out some of these posts so I don’t spend all my material at the beginning of the month, but truth be told, I have a shit ton of figures coming in over the next week or so. As a result, I’m back to look at the last of the Wave 19 DC Universe Classics figures I currently have and that’s Lord Naga the head of Kobra. He’s another one of the figures in this assortment that I was pretty excited to get and he’s definitely one of the more unique looking additions to the DCUC collection.

And… there we go again, the standard DCUC packaging. I’ve got to say Naga looks amazing inside that bubble. He really fills the card out well and the artwork on the cardback really frames this figure beautifully. I’m not sure about his icon on the bottom insert, though. It’s supposed to be the emblem on his hood, but what’s that supposed to be? A snake scale? Either way, this was one figure that made me a little sad to rip open because he looks so good packaged. Lord Naga comes with the torso for the C&C STRIPE figure, which is barely contained under the insert on the bottom of the bubble.
So, to the uninitiated Lord Naga kind of looks like Zartan cosplaying Serpentor at a Comic Con. But anyone familiar with the character should be pleased at how well the figure nails the character’s design. He may reuse some parts here and there, but the figure is so well put together that he looks one hundred percent new. The scaled green buck really meshes beautifully with the gold sash, gauntlets, boots and shoulder plates. The sculpted hood is a separate piece, which allows the head to take full advantage of the ball jointed neck.
Articulation roll call. Neck? Ball joint. Arms? Ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. Legs? Universal hip movement, swivels in the thighs, hinges in the ankles and knees. Torso? Standard funky DCUC ab crunch. Yep, even with all that awesome sculpting, Lord Naga doesn’t miss a beat of the standard DCUC poseability.

In addition to the Collect & Connect piece, Lord Naga comes with a golden cobra staff that would make Cobra Commander proud. Yep, the Joe references practically write themselves with this guy. Hell, he even feels everything his former conjoined twin brother feels. Crimson Guard Commander twins, anyone? His hands are sculpted so that he can hold it in either hand or wield it in both.
Lord Naga was an awesome surprise for this wave, as at this point I really didn’t expect him to show up in the line at all. Well, at least not until the early production shots started leaking out. Once again, I think he was a great choice for a figure and another reason why Wave 19 has been one of my favorites in a while. As far as villains go, Lord Naga didn’t really play favorites with any one hero, so he’s a great compliment to any number figures in your DCUC collection, and he just looks damn great on the shelf.

I’m going to take a little break from DCUC for a bit, but I have just put in an order for the last two figures I need in Wave 19: Hawkman and Magog. I’ll move on to some other goodies and probably be back to cover those figures and the C&C figure, STRIPE, toward the end of next week. Afterall, Wave 20 is now hitting retail, and I’m pretty anxious to get my hands on those figures too.
Jan 6 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 19: Sandman by Mattel

Pushing forward on Wave 19 of DC Universe Classics, today I’m checking out another member of the Justice Society, Sandman. He’s a great character, but I’ve heard my share of grumblings about the way the figure turned out. Personally, I’m extremely happy with him. Once again, I’m a bit short on time, so this one is going to be another quickie. Let’s see what we got…

Yuppers. DCUC packaging. I dont’t have a lot left to say here, although I do really dig the gasmask logo they cooked up for him on the bottom insert. It looks cool and gives a nice personalized quality to the packaged figure. Sandman comes with one of C&C STRIPE’s legs, mostly concealed behind the insert.
                             
So, right out of the gate, its pretty easy to tell that Sandman features a fair amount of reused sculpting from The Question. The legs and arms are identical, as is the hat. The shirt and tie appear to be the same too, and while at first glance I thought the suit jacket was the same, there are significant differences. At the very least there’s been some resculpting, although I’m thinking it might be entirely new. Sandman’s costume includes a purple cape that clashes with the green suit enough to make The Joker envious. He also has a clever little hook on his jacket that you can use to hang his gas gun. It was pretty tough for me to get a good look at Sandman’s head sculpt, since most of the production pictures were smaller and his face just looked like a yellow blob. As it turns out I’m really happy with the way the gasmask came out. It’s just a little bit creepy.
Sandman shares the same articulation as The Question, which is pretty common with most DCUC figures. The neck is ball jointed; The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the wrists and biceps, and hinged elbows. The legs feature universal movement at the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinged knees and ankles. The only common articulation missing is the ab crunch in the chest. It may be there, but its buried under all that sculpted clothing. Unfortunately, I’ve got a pretty loose joint on Sandman’s right bicep swivel.
                               
Sandman turned out to be one of my favorites of Wave 19. He’s a simple figure, and yes he borrows a lot from The Question, but both figures have a great pulp style to them and both are more than a little bit creepy, especially for heroes. Again, some collectors might argue whether he deserved a slot with only two waves left in the line, but I for one am glad Mattel produced him.
Jan 6 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 19: The Atom by Mattel

There’s more Doctor Who stuff to come next week, so I’m going to try to run through as much as I can of the 19th Wave of DC Universe Classics before then. We kicked off the Wave last week with a look at Stargirl. Today we’ll check out The Atom. He’s a pretty straight forward figure, so I’m going to go through this one real quick.

Same trusty old DCUC packaging, consisting of a huge bubble on a slab-o-cardback. Atom comes packaged in a fairly simple pose with a wide stance and arms up. He fills out the bubble nicely. It’s hard to tell from the package shot, but he does come with pieces for the C&C figure STRIPE. The head and pelvis are snugly concealed uner the insert at the bottom. Amazingly enough, even though The Atom is packaged in a fairly neutral position from the waist down, my figure still came out of the package with some joint issues. In this case the hinge on his left hip joint is all loosey-goosey. It’s the first time I’ve had that problem with a DCUC figure, but sadly not the last time I will have joint issues with figures in this wave.
                                                                        
Of all the figures in Wave 19, The Atom features the least amount of unique sculpting. He’s basically a standard buck with most of his detail achieved through paintwork. He does, however, sport some sculpted arm bracers and a simple blue cape, which is permanently anchored to his back between the shoulder blades. The paint apps are pretty good, with a little bit of grunge here and there. This version of The Atom’s design has an admittedly strange color ensemble with brown, yellow, red and blue, but it is certainly faithful to the comic art. Them JSA members had some odd ideas of fashion.                                                       
The Atom features standard DCUC articulation which includes: A ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. His legs feature universal movement in the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. He has the standard ab crunch in the torso. Even with the bum hip hinge, my Atom can stand ok, but it doesn’t take much to send him toppling. Hopefully this is an isolated issue and not one that’s going to plague the entire run of Atomseses.
If your an old school Justice Society fan than you are probably already sold on picking up Atom here. I am not so much, but I certainly didn’t mind having to buy him in order to get the C&C parts for STRIPE. He’s a solid treatment of the character and a nice addition to my DC shelves. I’ll keep the DCUC train rolling along tomorrow with a looksy at The Sandman.
Jan 1 2012

DC Universe Classics Wave 19: Stargirl by Mattel

I’m really trying to get caught up with my DC Universe Classics figures before the line goes away and Matty starts shipping me the Infinite Earths subscription figures later this year. Sure, it seems like plenty of time, but I’ve got about three Waves to catch up on, and that’s not counting the forthcoming Wave 20 and some older figures that I missed along the way. Since I’m still kind of lukewarm on some of the figures in Wave 17 and 18, I thought I’d jump ahead to Wave 19. It’s one of those uncommon assortments where I’m actually excited to own each and every figure, (well, maybe not so much Golden Age Hawkman, but definitely all the rest) as well as building the Collect & Connect STRIPE. Normally, I would just grab a whole case to complete the Wave in one shot, but Tis the Season to be short on money, so I started out by just buying Stargirl and Kobra. Today we’ll check out Stargirl.

Standard DCUC packaging. The last figure in this line I looked at was from Wave 17, but the packaging hasn’t really changed much. I chose to buy Stargirl first because I really dig the Ted and Jack Knight Starman figures. Plus, I decided that having Stargirl in my collection would make me extra anxious to finish the Wave and build STRIPE. Uh oh… look at that action pose! Amazingly, my Stargirl came out of the package with no warping or mangling to the joints, which is more than can be said for many of my female DCUC figures.
Stargirl uses a pretty standard version of the DCUC female buck, which seems to irk some collectors to no end. Me? I’m fine with it. The arms are admittedly very skinny, but I still think they look appropriately scaled and they don’t appear fragile or prone to warpage. Mattel nailed Stargirl’s look pretty well here, with new sculpting for her calf-high boots and mid-riff exposing top and those wonderful boxing shorts. Most of the deco for her star-spangled top are executed with paint apps, as with the striping on her shorts, but the belt is actually sculpted. I’ve got no complaints about the paintwork on the figure. Even the red laces on her boots are executed without much slop and I really dig the slightly metallic sheen to the blue for her costume.
And then there’s the head sculpt. Courtney here is obviously brainwashed by the same cult as Mary Batson, because both figures have that same vacant, maniacal grin that just creeps me the hell out. Still, the cheese factor kind of works with the costume and the character, so I won’t go so far as to say I’m hating on it. It’s a solid sculpt and the hair is maneuvered a bit away from the shoulders to allow some functionality to her neck joint.
And speaking of joints, Stargirl provides the usual points of articulation we come to expect from the DCUC line. You get a ball jointed neck; The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. The legs feature universal hip movment, swivel cuts in both the thighs and just above the boots, and hinges in the ankles and knees. The torso features the ab crunch hinge and a swivel at the waist.
Stargirl comes with the Cosmic Rod. It’s the same sculpt used for the Rod that was included with Jack Knight Starman back in Wave 15, but this time its cast in a yellow translucent plastic. I’m not terribly keen on the translucent plastic used, but I’ll concede that its better than getting a straight repack of the older accessory. She also comes with the torso piece for the C&C STRIPE figure. The huge torso was an obvious choice, since Stargirl is a lot smaller than the rest of Wave 19’s roster, leaving plenty of room for all that extra plastic in the bubble.

With only two Waves left, there’s bound to be some nitpicking about which characters are filling those precious last slots. There’s no doubt I’ll be taking issue with a figure or two, but Stargirl here isn’t one of them. Getting her in just before the curtain fell was a good idea and getting her out in a Wave with a C&C STRIPE figure was an even better one.
Dec 18 2011

Masters of the Universe Classics: Icarius by Mattel

[See! Told ya, I’d be back. I’m not going to bother with a big preamble about how long its been. I’ve dropped in with a couple of posts to do that. Instead let me jump right in and see if I remembered how to do this nonsense…]

Icarius was one of the figures from October’s Matty Sale Day, so yeah, he’s been out for a while. I probably shouldn’t complain about people doing things in a timely manner, since it took me almost two months to do this review, but I’m going to continue to gripe about Matty’s shipping. October’s sale happened on the 17th, my Icarus figure didn’t ship out until three days later, and didn’t finally arrive on my doorstep until a full ten days after that. I wouldn’t mind so much if they didn’t charge almost ten dollars. It just seems like I’m paying a lot for the slowest possible shipping. But, with that little rant out of the way let me preface our look at this figure by pointing out that I’ve never seen more than a few minutes of The New Adventures of He-Man, which is where Icarius (aka Flipshot) is from. The MOTUC line has been pretty good at getting me to pony up for figures when I don’t have a lot of love or familiarity for the character. Optikk (also from New Adventures) and Chief Carnivous (from the MYP series) were others. Icarius just looked like a really cool toy that I needed to check out for myself.

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There’s the MOTUC packaging. We’ve seen it dozens of times, although it’s been a while since I last saw it, as I didn’t buy any MOTUC figures last month. I did open Icarius back when I first got him, and it was a bit of a pill to try to find out what I did with the in-package photo, but low and behold I managed to track it down on one of my harddrives. I know at least one collector-friend who remains pissed that Mattel is even including the New Adventures characters in this line, but I can’t see the reasoning behind getting upset about it. If you don’t like them, don’t buy them. Simple as that. Personally, I’m actually stoked to see these characters appear streamlined into a series of figures that is all inclusive to all aspects of the Masters Universe. Just like with the Princess of Power figures, this guy has a sticker on the front pointing out he’s part of a subline, in this case it’s one of the “Galactic Protectors.” Unfortunately, I didn’t save Icarius’ bio card from the back of the package, and now its been so long since I opened him, I can’t remember anything about him. So, let’s just move on to the figure itself.
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A big part of what makes Icarius such a cool figure is his gear, but we’re going to start off looking at the base figure, and that means not only setting his gear aside, but also popping on his alternate, unhelmeted head. He’s a somewhat generic looking guy in a two-tone blue suit. His soft plastic blue vest, complete with sculpted hoses and components is removable to reveal a plain blue painted torso. His silver boots are designed to go with his flight gear, so they do look a little out of place when Icarius isn’t wearing all his stuff. I should also note that for some reason Icarius’ arms look rather short to me. It’s odd, since I haven’t had an issue with the arms on any other MOTUC figure. Maybe its the little bit of bulk added by the vest. Either way, it’s not a dealbreaker for the figure, just something that irks me a bit. Icarius’ alternate head has a flattop haircut and a chizzled face that looks like a lot like Arnold Schwartzenaggar to me. Whether the likeness was intentional or not, I believe this is one of the lines better head sculpts, as its very detailed and sports a lot of realism.
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Icarius weapon consists of a metal sleeve for his arm onto which are mounted two missiles. Holy shit, this guy doesn’t mess around with guns. Guns are for pansies. Nope, he just fires a pair of stinger missiles right off of his arm and into your face. He escalates things quickly. If just a couple of missiles makes him seem light on the accessories, don’t worry because his flight gear more than makes up for it. I do have two minor quibbles about the missile rack. One, it doesn’t seem to fit his arm very well. If you move the arm around it’s likely to fall off. Second, I wish the missiles had been sculpted separately so you can display him having fired one off.
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The flight gear consists of his helmeted head with flip down visor and his glorious winged jetpack. The visor on the helmet simply clips onto the dimples on the side of the helmet and you can remove it entirely if you want. It’s also cleverly designed so that when you flip it up it looks like it’s just part of the helmet.
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The jet pack on the other hand is an amazingly cool piece. It pegs right onto Icarius’ vest and stays in place very securely. The sculpt features a ton of detail, right down to the fan vents on the tops of the engines and the various panel lines and fins. The tubes at the end of the wings hold the missiles, which just drop in, and while they do stay put, you can flick them to fire them, sort of like the flick-fire missiles featured in a lot of Lego sets. The wings are hinged, so that you can angle them back a bit. The whole ensemble is easily one of the most impressive accessories in the line so far. On the downside, Icarius is a bit back heavy when wearing his flight gear, so you may want to display him in the back of the shelf, using the wall as support.
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I can wholly understand how some of the more diehard MOTU fans might feel that Icarius here doesn’t fit in with the other figures. I can see that. I’ll even concede that a lot of my love for this figure comes from seeing him as a stand alone piece. He reminds me a lot of some of the cool forgotten lines of the 80’s like the Centurions. So even if he doesn’t fit in all that well with his fellow MOTUC figures, I still think he’s an awesome figure, with just a few minor flubs here and there, and I’m mighty glad to have him in my collection. Either way he’ll still look fine on the shelf as he waits for some of the other Galactic Defenders to arrive.
Oct 17 2011

Green Lantern Classics Wave 2: Skallox and Nite-Lik by Mattel

[So, I wound up having to take a little impromtu vacation-slash-break this past weekend. A few things came up and it couldn’t be helped. I’m going to do my best to get back on track for the rest of the week. -FF]

If you stopped by a coupla days ago, you know that I wasn’t exactly impressed by the Medphyll and Naut Kei Loi combo. It’s a passable figure and it certainly serves to fill out my Green Lantern Corps quite nicely, but I don’t think it lived up to the first wave’s similarly gimmicked Low and Maash, and it certainly doesn’t live up to today’s featured figure: Skallox and Nite-Lik, our first figures from the Red Lanterns.
Here’s the Green Lantern Classics packaging again. Just like last time, you can buy this figure packaged as either Skallox or Nite-Lik. If you buy him as Skallox, you’ll note that half the bubble is dominated by parts for the conversion to Nite-Lik and that this isn’t some simple head swap. The back of the card is the same no matter what and only the name printed on the insert is different. Great looking stuff.
Unlike the last pair where I could just describe both incarnations of the figure in one go, these guys really each deserve their own treatment. So let’s start with the simpler of the two, and that’s Skallox. Skallox features a simple Red Lantern colored buck that is pretty close in line with the ones used for the Sinestro Corps combo-figure. The only new pieces of sculpting worth mentioning are the arm bracers. I would have liked a bit more of a vibrant red for the uniform, but the current paint job still looks good. Skallox’s head looks like a goat skull with a terrifying rictus and his hands are both balled up into fists. So, yes, this is a simple figure, but the sculpt on the head is excellent and the whole ensemble looks great.
To change him to Nite-Lik, you pop off the head and hands. Next, pop on the new hands, place the cowl over his shoulders, pop on the new head, wrap the skeletal trophies around his chest, and you’re good to go. Wow, what a difference! Nite-Lik’s got a face even a mother wouldn’t love. It’s like a wad of chewed gum with beady eyes and a big set of choppers. The left side of his face is spattered with what I’m guessing is green blood. Two pink tendrils come out from the back of his head and wrap around his torso, displaying his collection of alien bones. His blue claw hands have smaller tongue-like tendrils protrudring from his palms and ending in forked pincers. Awesome.
Skallox and Nite-Lik comes with one of the legs needed to build the Collect & Connect Stel figure.
I really felt no inclination to pick up doubles of Low/Maash or Medphyll/Naut Kei Loi in order to display them together. These Red Lanterns, on the other hand, are a different matter. The transformation uses a lot more pieces and thus makes for two far more distinctive looking figures, both of which are absolutely badass. I’ll definitely be grabbing up another one so both of them can be displayed on my shelf. Besides, with my Infinite Earth’s Club Subscription, I know that I’ll be getting Atrocitous sometime next year, and I need to start building his troops. Either way, between Stel’s leg and all the Nite-Lik parts, it really fees like you’re getting your money’s worth on this figure.
Oct 13 2011

Green Lantern Classics Wave 2: Medphyll and Naut Kei Loi by Mattel

I’m a little short on time today as I’m building some furniture for my den and seeing as how I’ll probably be putting it together while drunk, it’ll likely take me most of the evening. So I’m stopping by with a real quickie today. I made an excursion to TRU today and picked up a bag of goodies, and I’m going to start with one of the figures that I can do justice without having to spill too much electronic ink. Is it Medphyll? Is it Naut Kei Loi? It’s both!!!

Green Lantern Classics package. It’s been a little while since I’ve seen this. I picked up the first wave in one shot and I’ve been dragging my feet on picking up this second wave. I love the packaging, as its basically the DC Universe Classics dipped in a lime slushee. The back panel has the ubiquitous bio blurb and the publication stats for the characters. I consider myself pretty up on my DC Comics trivia, but I was actually surprised to learn that these guys went back so far. Anyway, you’ll note that the package says Medphyll on it and that’s the head that comes attached to the figure. You could also buy this figure with the Naut Kei Loi head attached and with his name on the insert. Yep, just like Low & Maash from the first wave.
The body used here is an absolutely standard and generic Green Lantern buck, with the exception of the forked toes on his feet. The paint is ok and his power ring is sculpted onto his finger. Medphyll’s head is basically a brown cyclopoid stalk of broccoli. Wow, I’m pretty sure I’ve never typed those words in one sentence before! It’s goofy, but it really shows the crazy and creative concepts that DC tries to drum up to convey the diversity of the Green Lantern Corps. Naut Kei Loi’s head is far more complex as you get the head, the cowl and the dome, all of which are three separate pieces. It looks great, and is my favorite of the two, but I have been unable to actually get the head to peg in, which is really disappointing. I’m actually tempted to try to buy the figure packaged to get one with the head already attached.
Unless you count the extra head, the only other thing you get in the package is one of the leg pieces to build the Collect & Connect figure Stel.

Unlike Low and Maash, which had swappable hands as well as heads, Medphyll and Naut Kei Loi’s only have the swappable heads. It still works, but it’s not as impressive or dramatic a change as we saw with Low and Maash. If you’re one of those collectors that wasn’t crazy about this two-figures-in-one concept to begin with I don’t think this one is going to make you any happier about the idea. Next time we’ll check out another one of these combo-style figures that really takes this conceptual gimmick to the next level.
Oct 7 2011

The Real Ghostbusters: Retro-Action Janine Melnitz and Samhain 2-pack by Mattel, Part 2

Ok, we mulled about with the packaging on this set long enough. Let’s get to the goods inside and we’ll kick it off with Janine Melnitz.

As a Mego-style figure, we’re mainly concerned here with the head sculpt and the outfit. Overall, I’m fairly happy with the head sculpt. I don’t think she quite stands up to the likenesses achieved by the rest of the Ghostbusters, but there’s no doubt who this is supposed to be. The glasses are similar to Egons, in that they are soft plastic and permanently attached to her head behind the ears. Some folks have been reporting issues of the paint on her hair rubbing against the package, but mine seems to have weathered it ok. The body is what it is and while loose joints are often a concern with these style figures, Janine can stand fine on her own. I think what upsets me the most is that the hands aren’t sculpted to work well with her accessories. In fact, she can barely hold her proton stream properly. If you have any of those clear rubber bands left lying around, you may want to avail yourself of them.
Janine comes in a completely new orange jumpsuit. It’s close to the jumpsuits worn by the guys, but there are some subtle differences. There aren’t any cuffs on the legs of her pants. She still has the foamy elbow pads and the Ghostbusters emblem on her shoulder. It fits the figure quite well and looks good when displayed with the rest of the team.
And then there’s Samhain. If you’re not familiar, he’s a dude with a jack-o-lantern for a head. He sports a typical Mego-style body with flowing purple robes over it. The pumpkin head is large and decently sculpted, but it still feels kind of cheap. There’s not a heck of a lot else to say about him. His joints are a lot looser than Janine’s, but he can still stand up pretty well. Don’t get me wrong, I do like him a lot and it’s very cool to have a ghost in this style for the team to fight, especially one as popular as Samhain.
In addition to the figures, this set comes with every piece of busting equipment that was issued with the other figures. You get Janine’s proton pack, a ghost trap, a PKE meter, and the ghost sniffer. There’s nothing new here, and it’s a lot of gear for Janine on her own, but it’s great to have to hand out to the rest of the team and it certainly pads out the set nicely. And then there’s Slimer. He’s a cool little sculpt with some arm articulation and pretty faithful to the animation design, but he’s way too small to be of any use with these figures.
This 2-pack rounds out my Real Ghostbusters collection really nicely. I’m glad we finally got a Janine figure, especially since she was pictured on the back of the carded figures and it’s certainly nice to have at least one baddie for the Real Ghostbusters to fight. Now the bad news. The set is a TRU exclusive and retails for $50. Now, I’m not prepared to call that highway robbery, since the other figures sold for $20 each and the extra $10 for this set can easily be tallied up to include all the extra accessories, Slimer, and the Firehouse backdrop. There’s certainly a sense of sticker shock, but I can’t say I feel ripped off with the set in hand. I wanted to make sure to get it, so I jumped at it pretty quickly, but some may be better served waiting for sales or clearance prices.
Oct 6 2011

The Real Ghostbusters: Retro-Action Janine Melnitz and Samhain 2-pack by Mattel, Part 1

Mattel really gave Ghostbusters fans the shaft last month. The 2012 Ecto-1 subscription has been cancelled, and noone seemed to even know it was in danger. Nonetheless, fans of the Retro-Action line got a nice little bone with the release of this special TRU exclusive 2-pack of Janine Melnitz and Samhain. Maybe it’s really a 2 1/4 pack since it also includes Slimer. I’ll confess it’s been a while since I picked up any Ghostbusters figures, but the moment I came across this set I knew that I had to have it. Today we’re just going to look at the packaging and the something special the packaging turns into. I’ll get to the actual figures tomorrow in Part 2.

Now, I haven’t seen The Real Ghostbusters cartoon since I was a kid, but I certainly remember Samhain as being one of the better baddies, and I can even vaguely remember the episode where Janine insists she wants to go bust ghosts and dons the jumpsuit and proton pack. I didn’t think both were part of the same episode, but the package seems to suggest they were.
The set comes in a nice, big window box that does a great job of showing off everything that you get inside. The top corner proclaims it to be a “Retro-Action” set, along with The Real Ghosbusters logo. The bottom edge has the animated portraits of both characters as well as Slimer and the firehouse backdrop. But wait, what’s this? There’s some kind of snowflake pattern running along the edge of the window as if to suggest this set is some kind of Christmas release. And here I was just thinking Mattel was clever to get this set out for Halloween. Not sure where Christmas fits in. But… anywho… the back panel shows more illustrations of the characters and the Retro-Action Ray and Egon figures standing by the “GIANT” 22-inch Firehouse display. All in all, I think the packaging suits the line pretty well.

The Firehouse backdrop will likely delight some and disappoint others. It really depends on what you were expecting out of it. I didn’t give it much thought until I got it out of the package, so it was a rather nice surprise for me.
On the plus side, it’s really tall, well illustrated, and even has a bit of depth to it. When assembled, it’s just an inch or so thick, but the ledges pop out of the front as does the Ghostbusters sign, all to give it depth. The front doors also open to show the Ecto-1 parked inside. On the downside, it is rather flimsy and you can easily see that it doesn’t want to stay erect in the middle, even when it’s propped up against a wall. The middle ledges also came out of the box a little smooshed.
If I were planning on keeping the Firehouse on display, I’d likely wrap it around a piece of styrofoam board, and I think that would make for a pretty nice and sturdy piece, but chances are I’ll be folding it up and putting it back in the box for storage. Also worth noting, despite being an impressive 22-inches tall, it’s still way too small for The Real Ghostbusters figures. The regular 5-inch movie figures work a lot better, and if I were keeping this thing on display, I would definitely use it as a backdrop for these guys.

Cool stuff, so far. Tomorrow I’ll be back with Part 2 to look at the figures and the other goodies in the package.