Tag Archives: thundercats

Feb 22 2012

Thundercats: 4-inch Series: Claudus by Ban Dai

It’s been years since the Walmarts in my area have opened up the books and allowed in a new non “movie-of-the-month” toyline into their action figure aisles. And yet here they are… Thundercats. So during my last excursion for alcohol groceries, I picked up one of the newer releases in the 4-inch line. Yep, its Lion-O’s dead father, King Claudus. Why’d he get a figure? Well, he did come back for a flashback episode, and honestly I’m about five episodes behind so maybe he was in the show again? Either way, I was pretty glad to see Ban Dai gave him the figure treatment, so let’s check him out.

There’s the modern Thundercats packaging. I love almost everything about these cards. The slightly modernized logo is awesome as is the fact that they actually personalize the cards with character artwork, rather than just go cheap and use a generic card with a printed insert under the bubble. Claudus is a big dude and he fills out his bubble quite nicely and there’s a small insert that reminds you about this line’s forgettable and overall poorly implemented action gimmick: The ThunderLynx. So what’s not to like about the packaging? The tri-lingual cards. I hate that shit.
Thus far, the 4-inch line has turned out some really great representations of their animated counterparts and Claudus here is no exception. The head sculpt is pretty awesome, complete with his insanely thick mane of hair and beard. The various layers of his outfit and shoulder armor are all sculpted too and sports just the right amount of detail to retain the animated look. His cape is soft, rubbery plastic that covers his ThunderLinx port, which is cool since I try to pretend those don’t exist anyway. I also really dig the way each figure in this line features a different build and body style. As already mentioned, Claudus is a pretty big and beefy dude that even makes Grune look like a tad wimpy by comparison.
Claudus features a respectable amount of articulation, and I was happy to see that his rubbery cape and skirt doesn’t really inhibit any of it. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders and hips. He has hinged knees and elbows, and he has swivels in his wrists. He doesn’t have any articulation in his torso or ankles.

You don’t get a lot of accessories with Claudus. In fact all you get is the Sword of Omens and its the same one that came with the Basic 4-inch Lion-O figure. Honestly, I can’t think of anything else he should have come with, so I’m not going to complain. Plus, if you happened to lose Lion-O’s sword now you have a backup!
Claudus ran me $7.99 at Walmart and while he doesn’t quite measure up in terms of poseability and accessories, he’s still a pretty cool addition to this line of figures. He’s probably not a “must own” figure, but I’m trying to support this line as best I can, so he was a definite buy for me. Besides which, he’s friggin Lion-O’s dad and that right there means I had to have him in my collection.
Feb 12 2012

Thundercats: Classic 6-inch Mumm-Ra by Ban Dai

No offense to Tygra, but this is probably what the first pairing of figures should have looked like in the 8-inch line: The chief good guy and the chief baddie. In fact, as long as Ban Dai is commited to producing all the Thundercats in this scale, I think it would be cool if each wave included a Thundercat and a Mutant or some other bad guy. But then I’m getting ahead of myself. Hello, all, and welcome to today’s feature: 6-inch Mumm-Ra, The Ever Living!!!

Yuppers, the package is the same as Lion-O and basically a shrunk down version of the ones used for the 8-inch Classics. Mumm-Ra is displayed nicely in the package, although you don’t get the full effect since his bandages are all crumpled up at the top. The side panels feature some nice art with Mumm-Ra’s ugly mug and damn was he ugly. Jeesus. Once again, this packaging is very collector friendly, although I don’t suspect I could ever get his bandages back in just right without going insane.
And there he is. Ban Dai did a great job bringing Mumm-Ra’s 80’s animated goodness to action figure form, although in fairness he isn’t an overly complex character design. He’s mostly all greyish-blue skin and muscles. The head sculpt is quite good and they really managed to capture that hideous visage that really creeped me the fuck out back when I was a kid. No kidding, when he turned to Mumm-Ra and started screaming like a banshee on crack, I used to get pretty disturbed. His ceremonial helmet is nicely detailed and the streamers coming off the back are sculpted as if they’re blowing all over the place. If you never saw the classic Thundercats, Mumm-Ra always looked as if he had a high powered fan blowing straight at him from off screen. Apart from his headdress, he’s got a skirt and some lower leg armor, all nicely done.
And then there’s those bandages. Ban Dai got really creative here and included two sets of bendy bandages that plug into his back to simulate the look of them whipping all over the place when he makes his change. Whatever you do, don’t lose the instruction sheet in the package as it shows you how to fit them on just right. There’s a little bit of room for a custom look here, but honestly, these things were meant to go on a certain way and it isn’t all that easy to figure it out without seeing pictures. Oddly enough, there are no pictures of the figure wearing the bandages on the back of the package. Mumm-Ra also comes with an extra pair of hands, which are pretty unnecessary as far as I’m concerned.
As for articulation, Mumm-Ra has decent poseability, but he’s nowhere near as agile as his nemesis, the Lord of the Thundercats. His neck is ball jointed, but there’s limited movement apart from going side to side. His arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, swivels in the bicep and ball jointed wrists. His legs are also ball jointed in the hips, but his skirt limits a lot of the upper leg articulation. You also get hinges in the knees and ankles. Mumm-Ra is ball jointed at the waist, but he lacks the extra joint in the upper torso.
And that’s all I’ve got to say about Mumm-Ra. He retails for around fifteen bucks, which seems about right to me. Ban Dai seems to have really great distribution with this line, as I’ve seen these guys on the pegs all over the place. I really do wish we got Mumm-Ra in the 8-inch scale, only because I think the larger version would have displayed better next to the 6-inch Lion-O. While the LJN figures were roughly the same size, Mumm-Ra always seemed bigger in the cartoon. That having been said, I think Ban Dai did a great job with him. The more restrained level of articulation is likely to irk some, but we already saw a drop between 8-inch Lion-O and Tygra, so I don’t think its the fault of the smaller scale. He’s a great figure, but I can’t say I’m not disappointed he didn’t come with a little Ma-Mutt.
Feb 11 2012

Thundercats: Classic 6-inch Lion-O by Ban Dai

So, let’s deal with the elephant in the room. After releasing only two Classic Thundercats figures in the 8-inch scale, Ban Dai decided to go back to the drawing board and start over with a 6-inch line. I don’t have any inside information as to why they would do this, particularly since the 8-inch Lion was easily my favorite figure released in 2011, but it might have had something to do with the fact that a lot of collectors were bitching that the 8-inch format was an oddball scale and you couldn’t swing a cyber-cat around most toy forums without hearing the lament that they didn’t fit into scale with the Masters of the Universe Classics line.

Honestly, I don’t care so much about the scale, or even having to buy Lion-O a second time. If starting over in 6-inch is what we need to do for Ban Dai to get us all the Classic Thundercats and hopefully the Mutants too, then I’m fine with that. If they go ahead and release some more in the 8-inch scale, I’m fine with that too. What I’m kind of pissed about is the idea that Ban Dai’s Thundercats figures need to conform to the scale of Mattel’s MOTUC line, as if the later has become some holy industry standard and must be obeyed. Look, I make no bones about the fact that I love the MOTUC line and I’ve certainly bought my share of the figures. But last time I checked, Thundercats was the line that’s actually being sold in stores and MOTUC is the one hiding out through a particularly crappy online-only retail service. My point is that Ban Dai doesn’t owe any homage to MOTUC when devising the scale of their Thundercats figures. But if bending to the will of a bunch of He-Man collector fanboys is what we need to do to get Classics Thundercats figures, then so be it. Just bring them on. Ok, rant over, let’s look at the figure…
It may be a whole new scale, but Ban Dai didn’t mess with the design of the packages. Lion-O comes in a sort of box-card hybrid that looks almost exactly like the one his 8-inch cousin came in. Its even almost exactly the same size too.  I’m fine with this packaging, particularly because it is so collector friendly, and it does a fine job of showing off the figure and accessories you’re getting. The figure comes nestled in a tray with a nice colorful cardboard backdrop that can easily be slid out the bottom and easily returned.
In a lot of ways 6-inch Lion-O is just a scaled down version of the 8-inch figure. He seemed rather small to me when I first got him out of the package, but that’s probably because despite being scaled down to the MOTUC size, he’s still not all bulked up and ‘roided out like the MOTUC figures are. As a result even after all the fuss, Lion-O here still isn’t going to look at home standing next to He-Man. So take that, bitches! But as far as the body is concerned, you’ll see very few differences between this guy and his slightly larger predecessor. Its still an amazingly cool, and delightfully toyish, looking sculpt with the same excellent paintwork, sans painted ankle joints. The only major difference is that this smaller Lion-O has some rather unsightly exposed screw heads on the back of the figure, which did not show on the larger one.
Plenty of cyber-ink has been spilled over Lion-O’s new head sculpt and the fact that he’s sculpted into a perpetual angry scream. I certainly don’t like it anywhere near as much as the 8-inch head sculpt, but honestly its grown on me to the point where I don’t dislike it. I’ve also heard some gripes about the windblown look to his hair, but I find it to be a nice homage to the way his hair looked on the vintage LJN figure.
6-inch Lion-O features almost the exact same articulation as the 8-inch version. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps, and ball jointed wrists. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, feature swivels in the thighs and just above the boots, have double-hinged knees, and hinged ankles. Lion-O also features a ball joint in his waist and another ab joint just below his chest. The only real difference that I see is smaller Lion-O seems to be missing that extra up-down hinge in the neck and simply features a ball joint there. Still, not too shabby in the poseability department.
Surprise! 6-inch Lion-O also comes with the same accessories as larger Lion-O. You get the same swappable hands, The Sword of Omens in large and small versions, the Claw Shield, and that awsomely clever little hook that can attach it to his waist. The swords are both very nicely sculpted, but this larger Sword of Omens is a lot more bendy than the 8-inch Lion’s sword. Once again, the smaller Sword of Omens can be stored in the Claw Shield.
So if you have 8-inch Lion-O do you need 6-inch? Well, that depends on whether you’re banking on getting a whole set. While Ban Dai claims they will continue to support the 8-inch line, I don’t see this happening. I’ll be happy to eat my words if I’m wrong, but I just don’t see it happening. This new 6-inch scale is the one that will likely see the release of the complete Thundercats and hopefully many more figures. Plus, Mumm-Ra is already available and that’s cooler than Tygra. Make no mistake, the 8-inch Lion-O is a superior figure in every way and still stands as my favorite figure released by anyone in 2011, but this smaller Lion-O is pretty sweet too. I’m not at all bitter at having to buy a second, as I’m willing to purchase every Classic Thundercats toy that Ban Dai puts out just to support the line and see it go as far as possible.
Tomorrow… Mumm-Ra!!!
Jan 19 2012

Thundercats: 6-inch Series: Cheetara by Ban Dai

As promised, I’m back with a look at the last of the three 6-inch Thundercats I picked up this week. Cheetara’s the newest release of the bunch and while I thought she was going to be really tough to find, just like her 4-inch counterpart, I stumbled upon a whopping three of them hanging on the peg at once. While Panthro and Lion-O are more or less just larger versions of their 4-inch cousins, Cheetara comes with a major, and much needed, overhaul in the articulation department. Let’s see what we’ve got.

And there’s the packaging. Once again, the printed insert has some nice character art to give the package some individuality. Unfortunately, Cheetara’s package is also a filthy liar with the whole”18 points” of articulation nonsense, but we’ll get to that later. Cheetara is carded with a bit more of an action pose than the other figures, and holding her staff. There’s a wee bit of warpage to her knee joints when she comes out of the package, but they seem to straighten out pretty well.
I’m really happy with Cheetara’s sculpt. It’s pretty close to what we saw in the smaller 4-inch version. BD did a great job with her long hair and this time you don’t have a ThunderLynx magnet sticking out of her back and through her hair. Her face sculpt is a bit soft, like Lion-O’s, but her being a female it works a lot better on this figure. In fact, it’s more of an asset than a liability. I think they amped up her boobs a bit over the 4-inch figure too, but let’s face it, she’s pretty well endowed in the cartoon. She’s also got the bangles sculpted onto her ankles and wrists. All in all, BD did a fine job capturing her animated counterpart in figure form.
The paintwork on this figure is pretty tight. Yes, we still have those unpainted joints, and honestly they’re pretty obnoxious here against the yellowish flesh(fur?)tones of her shoulders, elbows, and knees. They don’t ruin the figure for me, but you can’t help but notice them. I’m particularly happy with the little spots on her shoulders and hair, as well as the pink coloring around her eyes and on her lips. Nice.
Ok, so let’s deal with the articulation. The 4-inch Cheetara was a major departure from the articulation on the rest of the figures and as such somewhat disappointing. 6-inch Cheetara is so much better, but she is still lacking a few of the points that 6-inch Lion-O and Panthro have. The head is still ball jointed, although her hair really does create problems there. I’ll still concede that the joint is there. Her arms feature the same pin and hinge ball joints as the other figures and swivel wrists, but her elbows are only single hinged and she’s missing the swivel cut in the bicep. Her legs feature the same ball joints in the hips and swivels in the thighs, but her knees are only single hinged. Her ankles are hinged and still have the rocker joints. She doesn’t have the swivel in the waist, but her torso does swivel just under her chest. Her articulation is pretty good, but it’s not quite up to par with the others, and I don’t come up with the 18 separate points claimed by the packaging.
Cheetara comes with just one accessory, but it’s exactly what we needed to get with her: The iconic staff. There’s not much to say about it, it’s brown and has some wood graining sculpted into it. So, the accessory count here isn’t all that impressive, but I can’t really think of what else she would come with, so no complaints here. I suppose BD could have included a smaller version that clipped onto her somewhere, but honestly, I don’t feel that I needed it.
If it sounds like I’m a little down on Cheetara, I certainly don’t mean to be. She really is a nice figure. Obviously the extra articulation would have been nice, particularly the swivels in the biceps and I would have really liked the extra hinges in the knees. It’s just kind of odd that the super agile acrobat of the litter has less articulation than the hulking tank, Panthro. Still, she’s very poseable and she looks absolutely fantastic.
Jan 18 2012

Thundercats: 6-inch Series: Panthro by Ban Dai

Here comes the second installment of my 6-inch Thundercats Trifecta and this time we’re looking at the bruiser of the Thundercats, Panthro. He’s a big hunk of plastic, but does he live up to the awesomeness of Lion-O?

The packaging is pretty much the same as what we saw yesterday. It’s a huge bubble on a generic card, but the printed insert with Panthro’s character art adds a lot to the individuality of the presentation. While Lion-O looked pretty comfy inside his roomy bubble, Panthro’s looking a bit more crampt. He fills out the package nicely. He’s carded in a fairly prone position with his two accessories flanking him on either side. I thought it odd that he wasn’t carded holding his nunchuks, but we’ll see the possible reason for that in a few ticks.
Out of the package, Panthro is one satisfyingly large figure for this scale. One of my favorite things about the 4-inch line of BD’s Thundercats is the way each character is scaled accurately to each other, and that carries over to the 6-inch line as well. Panthro’s got a lot of bulk to him and he’s about a head taller than Lion-O. His proportions are awseome with huge fists and a big upper body. I’m absolutely loving the sculpting at work on this figure. Lion-O had a soft face sculpt, but Panthro’s is clear and full of character. I like the detail of the scarring on his shoulders and his face and I’m really digging the spikes on his bracers and chest straps.
Panthro’s paintwork is excellent and while he still has those pesky unpainted pegs in his joints, they aren’t nearly as offensive as the ones on Lion-O. He doesn’t have any exposed pegs in the front of his shoulders and the others don’t look so bad against the purple and brown of his darker color scheme. I like the mix of matte and glossy finish and once again, the Eye of Thunderra emblem on his belt looks crisp and beautiful.
Panthro features almost the same 18 points of articulation as Lion-O, so let’s run through them again. You get a ball jointed neck; His arms have ball joints in the shoulders, double-hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and forearms. His legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double-hinges in the knees, hinged ankles, and his ankles have the cool rocker joints to keep his feet flat on the ground. Panthro has a ball joint in the waist and that same ab joint that is there, but doesn’t seem to really do anything. What’s the difference between Panthro and Lion-O? Panthro’s wrists aren’t really hinged, they only swivel.
Panthro only comes with two accessories, and they’re sort of the same accessory. You get his folded nunchuks and his unfolded nunchucks. The folded nunchuks can be pegged onto his back for him to carry, and I like this idea. The unfolded chuks are molded in one piece and the chain is flexible. I would have really preferred a piece of grey string connecting two pieces, but I’m sure this style was cheaper. The big problem here is that it is almost impossible to get the chucks into Panthro’s tight grips. Your best bet is sliding them into his grip at the chain and trying to slide it down to the batons and even then it’s really difficult. BD really needed to make his grip a little more flexible or give us a little more room to work with. Still, if this is the biggest gripe I can come up with, I suppose I can live with it.
As with Lion-O, I totally dig this figure and I’m having loads of fun messing around with him. Technically he’s a bit better executed than Lion-O since he has the sharper face sculpt and lacks the unpainted pins in the shoulders, but apart from that you get the same great looking and ridiculously fun type of figure. Sure, Panthro doesn’t come with as many goodies as Lion-O, but you do get his signature weapon in two forms and let’s face it, he uses a lot more plastic for his build.
Tomorrow I’ll be back to finish off this trifecta of thunderous kitties with Cheetara.
Jan 17 2012

Thundercats: 6-inch Series: Lion-O by Ban Dai

As some of you may know the Walmarts in my town are pretty sucky for toy hunting. Unless you’re looking for Star Wars, Transformers or toys from whatever the Marvel or DC movie of the week is, they really don’t carry anything else worthwhile in the Boys Action aisles. In fact, in the last couple of years the Boys Action aisles have gone from three down to two and now it’s one and a half as one of them shares with Nerf and all three of the ones in the city where I live are the same way. So imagine my surprise today when I actually found Thundercats on the pegs. There were no 4-inch cats, but two flexed pegs of the 6-inchers, along with the newly released Cheetara. I happily grabbed up Lion-O, Panthro and Cheetara. Sadly no Tygra or Mumm-Ra. Today, we’ll kick it off with Lion-O.

The packaging is pretty utilitarian in design, but it certainly gets the job done. Y ou get a huge bubble with just a bit of the cardback peeking up on the top with the neo Thundercats logo. Lion is carded in a fairly neutral stance, but holding the extended Sword of Omens and with his accesories around him. There’s a nice printed insert with some pretty cool character art and some stickers in tri-lingual nonsense. The back panel shows the figure as well as some of the other Thundercats toys available. These aren’t collector friendly packages like Ban Dai’s 8-inch Classics Thundercats, but that’s ok, I don’t mind shredding a package to get at my toys.
Once I got this guy out of the package in in my hands, I knew that I loved him. That’s not to say he doesn’t have some issues, so let me get those out of the way first. The face sculpt is very soft, especially when compared to Panthro. It might have something to do with the flesh colored plastic BD used, I’m not sure. It still looks good, it still looks exactly like Lion-O from the modern cartoon, but at first, I kept thinking I wished it was crisper and more defined. The rest of the sculpt is really good, albeit simplified to keep that animated style of the character design.
Secondly, yeah those unpainted pegs in the joints. The only one that really bothers me are the ones on his flesh colored wrists, and one of those isn’t even a problem since I have him wearing the Claw Shield while on display, but they are a bit of an eyesore, especially since the rest of the figure’s paintwork is really first rate. I love the contrast between the glossy blue on the armor and the matte finish on the silver shoulder pauldron. The paintwork on the face is clean and the Eye of Thunderra on his belt is crisp and beautiful. Ok, the straps on the back of his leg armor aren’t painted, but I didn’t even really notice that at first.
Lion-O sports 18-points of articulation, making him a difficult figure to put down. Like my 8-inch Classics Lion-O, he’s just so darn fun to play around with. You get a ball jointed neck; Arms with ball joints in the shoulders, double-hinged elbows, hinged wrists, and swivels in the biceps and forearms; His legs feature ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double-hinged knees, hinged ankles, and his ankles even have rocker joints to keep his feet flat when assuming a wide stance. Lion-O also has a ball jointed waist, and while it looks like he has a ball joint in the chest, mine doesn’t seem to want to move at all. The level of poseability here approaches what I come to expect in a higher end import, not a 6-inch American mass market release figure. My only concern here is that the joints feel like they may loosen up pretty quick. Especially when I can’t stop playing with him.
Lion-O comes with all the necessary accessories. You get two versions of The Sword of Omens, both extended and dorment. You get two versions of the Claw Shield, one with the claws out, and one with them retracted. The swords are fantastically done, and I’m particularly impressed that the extended sword, while obviously soft for safety purposes is perfectly straight and not prone to warping. The Eye of Thunderra is maticulously painted on the hilt of the extended version and closed on the dorment version. Both Claw Shields can be used to sheathe the dorment sword and can be worn by popping off Lion-O’s left hand and popping the Claw on in its place. He also has a plastic strap hanging off his belt so he can wear it as a sheathe. I couldn’t ask for anything more in the accessories department.
It’s unfortunate that popular opinion seems to characterize this figure by two of its faults, a soft face sculpt and unpainted peg joints, because everything else about him is amazing. I am absolutely thrilled to finally own this figure and he definitely ranks up there as one of my favorite recent purchases, and I’ve been buying a hell of a lot of toys lately. I suppose you could argue that that BD is sort of marketing these 6-inchers at the collectors grade end of the spectrum, and he certainly doesn’t appoach the glory of the 8-inch Classics Lion-O, but he is still a fantastic toy that still looks just fine displayed on the shelf. I’ll also note that it’s cool how the awkwardly large Snarf that came with the Thundertank is actually perfectly scaled for these 6-inch figures. He retails for anywhere between $15-17, which I honestly think is a decent price point for all that you get. And now, I’m going to go play with him some more!
Sep 17 2011

Thundercats: Classic Tygra 8-inch Collector Figure by Ban Dai

So, yesterday I did a lot of unabashed gushing over Ban Dai’s Classic Lion-O figure. Lest you were afraid that my Thundercats love and nostalgia was motivating me into giving this Classic 8-inch figures a free pass, I’ll tell you right now that Tygra does not quite live up to the standards set by Lion-O. Let’s check him out.

You get the same packaging seen with Lion-O. Once again, I like the collector friendly nature of it, but the deco is a little bland. Ban Dai pretty much gives you a huge window with a clear shot of the figure, and that ain’t a bad thing. The back shows off the figure and accessories as well as some other figures in Ban Dai’s collection.
Everything I said about Lion-O’s glorious toyishness certainly holds true for Tygra. He’s got that same great plastic glossy look and feel. The sculpt features a ton of little detail work in Tygra’s head, but other than his muscules, there’s not a lot of original sculpt on Tygra’s body. I’m also not at all crazy about the way Ban Dai sculpted his lower legs. The calfs are pronounced and it makes his leg structure look strange. I’m not sure if this was intentional or not, but doesn’t quite look right. Apart from that, Tygra features a piece of armor over his left shoulder, some sculpting to his boots, and his clawed feet are exposed.
Tygra’s paintwork is mostly great, except for one glaring problem on mine. His left eye is applied a little too high. In passing, it looks a little pecuiliar, but on close inspection you can really see what happened. I haven’t decided yet whether or not it warrants me picking up a second Tygra. Other than the eye flub, the paintwork on his head is pretty impressive. The orange and black stripes are pretty striking, especially against the blues of his outfit. As with Lion, his Thundercats emblem is very sharp and crisp.
Tygra has almost the same articulation as Lion-O. He’s actually missing one point, despite the package still claiming 18 points. Let’s recap: The head is ball jointed, but the neck is also hinged where it meets the shoulder to give him more of an up and down motion to his head. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps, and ball jointed wrists. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, feature swivels in the thighs and just above the boots, feature double hinged knees, and hinged ankles. Tygra also has a ball joint in his waist. What’s he missing? The second ab joint. He’s still a damn poseable figure though.
Tygra comes with two versions of his bolo whip. One is the collapsed version, the other is the whip fully extended. The extended one comes in two halves in the package. It’s nice and flexible and really lends itself well to a bunch of different action poses. Tygra also comes with an extra right hand to better grip the whip at the handle. Just like with Lion-O, I’m not sure why anyone would want the prone hand, but I try not to complain about extra accessories.
Tygra’s a perfectly fine figure with great articulation. On his own, he looks great, but compared to Lion-O he looks like he’s a little lacking. Part of it might be the simpler character design, but it just feels like Ban Dai might have put in a little less effort with this one when compared to Lion-O. At the $17.99 to $20 retail, I still think he’s a great deal. He’s a super fun toy to play with and I still wholly recommend him. And that’s the first wave of the Thundercats Classic figures. Here’s hoping Ban Dai hurries the next wave along quickly. It may take me a little bit, but the next time I revisit the Thundercats toys, we’ll be looking at the 6-inch figuers based off of the new series.
Sep 16 2011

Thundercats: Classic Lion-O 8-inch Collector Figure by Ban Dai

It was a long struggle to finally get this figure. I had it pre-ordered, had to cancel the pre-order because I bought way too much other stuff that month. Re pre-ordered it at another site. Canceled that pre-order because the figures turned up at another site first. Had to pass on them at TRU because my order already shipped and now I finally have him. So, don’t take it lightly when I say that after finally getting this figure in hand, he was worth every spot of bother and frustration along the way. I’d like to think its rare that I completely lose my shit and gush like crazy over a figure, but put on your hip boots, folks, because it’s about to get deep in here. Lion-O is freaking awesome.

At first glance, I liked the packaging, but didn’t love it. I think I was just expecting something a bit more vintage looking. Instead you get something like a small window box with an extended card on the back to make it peg friendly. The familiar Thundercats logo is on the top and there’s very little about the package that blocks your view of the figure inside. Ban Dai obviously wanted to let these toys speak for themselves. And I think it was a good call. The back panel shows off the figure and some of the other Thundercats toys, both new and classic, and the package still features that annoying tri-lingual writing. Ultimately, the packaging won me over because with a quick snip of some tape on the bottom flap, it proves to be totally collector friendly, and I can keep my figures and their extra accessories displayed in the package when I’m not fiddling about with them. Cool!
Once out of the package, Lion-O is glorious. Let me try to do my best here, because words are failing me. If you’re expecting a collector grade figure, you will likely be disappointed. There’s stuff here that the snooty collector type will want to scoff at. Lion-O feels like a toy, and I’m not meaning that as a slight, in fact, quite the contrary. He has that great shiny plastic look and feel that makes the nostalgia just pour out of him. It’s like Ban Dai somehow managed to preserve the essence of the vintage toy aspect of the old LJN Lion-O figure and yet completely update it with super articulation and better proportions. Usually when I get a new figure that I love, I can’t wait to display him on the shelf. With Lion-O here, it’s like I want to take him around the house and fight battles with him. He’s just that much fun.
The head sculpt might as well be perfect, because I can’t find anything to even nit pick about it. It captures the character beautifully and still features that great windblown sculpt to his hair that the vintage toy had. The rest of his iconic outfit is wonderfully reproduced here and the sculpting on his muscles balances just the right amount of detail between realism and cartoon. I’m particularly thrilled with the way the Claw Shield came out. It has a great metallic gold sheen with the bright red crystals in the knuckles, and includes a slot to sheath the smaller Sword of Omens. Lion-O even has a removable strap hanging off his hip that can be used to secure the Claw Shield when he’s not wearing it.
Lion-O’s paintwork is solid, and here’s a great example of less being more. Thankfully, Ban Dai didn’t do something silly like use an ugly wash on his muscles or anything like that. [Oh wait, they did and then charged double for it in San Diego! -FF] The paintwork on his face is immaculate as is the Thundercats logo on his belt. I’m also happy to report that the discs and pins in his shoulder joints are cast in flesh colored plastic, so you don’t get the unsightly black joints that we see in the new series figures. On the downside, the pins in his ankles are also cast in flesh colored plastic. But that’s one of those reasons I pointed out that he’s more toy than collectible.
Ok, let’s talk articulation, because the package boasts 18 points. The head is ball jointed, but the neck is also hinged where it meets the shoulder to give him more of an up and down motion to his head. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps, and ball jointed wrists. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, feature swivels in the thighs and just above the boots, feature double hinged knees, and hinged ankles. Lion-O also has a ball joint in his waist and another ab joint just below his chest. There’s few poses you can’t get this guy into!
Accessories include a long Sword of Omens, a short Sword of Omens, and the Claw Shield. Ok, here’s where you made out better if you picked up the SDCC version. Not that there’s anything wrong with this figure’s accessories, but I can’t deny that the vac-metalized swords of the SDCC Exclusive look so much better. Still, the sculpting on the swords is quite nice and they aren’t as rubbery as I was afraid they were going to be. You also get an extra pair of hands. The left one replaces the Claw Shield and the right one is designed to better grip the Sword of Omens. Why you would want the less grippy right hand is beyond me. But hey… free hand!
Lion-O runs anywhere from between $17.99 and $20. Considering he probably has about the same collector appeal as Mattel’s MOTU Classics figures, I think this is a great price. It’s probably even more so, since you can theoretically buy him at a retail store, rather than have to go online and pay an extra ten bucks to have him shipped. It’s certainly worth saying that right now Lion-O here is one of my favorite figures in my entire, not so humble, collection. Having this toy in hand, I’m actually shamed to think that I was disappointed when Ban Dai got the license to do Classic Thundercats figures. Clearly they knew what they were doing all along. Next time we’ll check out Tygra, but let me say here and now that if Ban Dai doesn’t at the very least release all the Thundercats in this format, I’m going to go apeshit. But the thought that we might also get the Mutants and Mumm-Ra has got me really excited. Oh yeah, we also now know that Ban Dai has the rights to the Silverhawks license and have even established a bit of a tie-in with the new cartoon series. 8-inch Classic Silverhawk figures? Probably not, but just saying, is all.
Sep 4 2011

Thundercats: 4-inch Panthro by Ban Dai

It took me a little longer than I thought, but I’ve finally completed my collection of the 4-inch Basic Thundercats figures. Now I can finally stop recriminating myself for cancelling my case pre-order just to get some of the figures a week earlier. Sure I paid more than I should have for Cheetara, but Panthro here was pretty easy to get at retail and now I’m all set. It seems only fitting that the last one to complete my collection should be Panthro, since he just turned up in the series recently.

There’s that Basic Thundercats card that I love so much and it still looks great. Panthro’s character art isn’t the best, but it’s ok. He’s a big guy, the biggest figure in this Basic assortment, and he certainly fills out the bubble very nicely.
Out of the package, Panthro looks great. The sculpt really matches his animated counterpart pretty well. His bulk seems fine, although I’ll concede he maybe should have been a bit taller. There’s plenty of cool detail work on him, including the studs on his suspenders and wrist armor, and a nasty looking scar on his chest. His face scar is present too, although Ban Dai opted not to discolor his wounded eye like it is in the cartoon. Even his sculpted mutton chops look great.
Once again, I love the coloring on these figures, particularly the glossy finish that really goes well with the animated designs. The paintwork on Panthro’s face is outstanding, particularly the sharpness of the eyes and the Thundercats emblem on his belt is crisp and gorgeous. As with all the figures in this line, the pins and hinges in Panthro’s joints aren’t painted. I know this continues to irk some collectors, but for whatever reason, it really doesn’t bother me at all.
Panthro comes with two accessories, or more accurately two versions of the same accessory: His nunchuks. You get one set with the chain stretched out and another with the nunchuks folded together, which can peg into a hole on the back of his waist. The open nunchuk is sculpted in one piece and is pretty bendy in the middle to let him hold it in both hands for various action poses. Unfortunately, the weapon is left completely gray, which is really disappointing considering it should be red and blue. The monochrome accessories were bad enough with the Grune figure, but in this case the colors of Panthro’s nunchuks are pretty iconic, so leaving it unpainted is unforgiveable. I do believe I’ll be taking some paint to these myself to remedy the oversight.

When it comes to articulation, Panthro thankfully follows the trend set by Lion-O and Tygra, rather than Cheetara or the Kittens. His head rotates side to side; He has ball joints in his shoulders and hips; There are hinges in his elbows, knees, and ankles; And he has swivels in his wrists. I certainly have no complaints here.
Oh, and to answer the burning question that has been in my mind since I got Panthro. Will a big guy like this fit in the cockpit of his trusty Thundertank? Oh yes. In fact, it looks like Ban Dai engineered the control panel specifically so it could fit Panthro’s huge, meaty paws. He fits and the canopy closes just fine.
With the last of the 4-inch Basics in my collection, I have to say once again that I think Ban Dai did a great job with these figures and Panthro is just another example of that. He looks great and features fun articulation. Sure there are little things that I would have improved upon, most notably painting his nunchuks and the joints, but then I remind myself that these 4-inchers are designed for kids to play with and not for middle aged kids to display on their shelf. Nonetheless, I think they serve both purposes pretty well. I’ll be back to look at more Thundercats soon, once I start snagging some of the larger size figures.
Aug 21 2011

Thundercats: Deluxe 4-inch Grune the Warrior by Ban Dai

We had a little mix up on the old FigureFan hard drive this morning and I lost the entire feature on Grune, so I was forced to do a quick re-edit on Deluxe Mumm-Ra, remove all the references to this feature, and kick that one out the door to stay on schedule yesterday. So let’s try this again. Today we’re looking at that  dirty Thundercat traitor Grune the Warrior in the Deluxe class 4-inch figure assortment.

As with Mumm-Ra, Grune comes in the somewhat more elaborate half-cylinder mounted on a card with his accessories spread around him. Its decent looking packaging, but like I said yesterday, I think all the writing on the insert makes it look really busy and congested. The tri-lingual card may be in part to blame, but I just think the Basic carded figures look simpler and more attractive. Mumm-Ra also filled out his card a lot better, whereas Grune relies on his passel of accessories arranged around him to tempt would be toyhunters to pick him off the peg for $15.
One of the things I love about this Thundercats line is the way Ban Dai made the figures different sizes, rather than just one uniform body type. Like Mumm-Ra, Grune is a big, beefy and powerful looking figure that really fits his animated counterpart perfectly. The sculpt is a little more simpler than some of the other figures, but I think that’s more to suit the character design than to skimp out on details. Grune’s massive head has a lot of personality, right down to his single mammoth fang. He’s also got huge arms that would make the X-Men’s Juggernaut proud. The armor plates that hang down from his waist are flexible so as not to inhibit his leg articulation, but his bushy black mane of hair renders his neck articulation all but useless.
Grune features a pretty drab paint scheme, especially compared to the colorful Thundercats. His armor is an ugly pea soup green, which is unfortunate, as I think the animated version is more of a coppery color. Otherwise, the paintwork on the figure is very clean and well executed. I’m particularly impressed with the Plundarr emblem on his chest, which is far better than the one painted on Mumm-Ra.
While Mumm-Ra’s ThunderLynx gimmick was on the figure itself, Grune’s is located on his massive battle maul. Pass the weapon across the magnet in his back and it splits open to form three segments. Ok, it isn’t the most exciting gimmick, but it does nicely replicate the way the weapon powered up on the show, and that’s pretty cool. Besides the battle maul, Grune comes with a bow, an arrow, and a quiver, and they’re all pretty much crap. Each one is cast in the same gold plastic and really remind me of the monochromatic accessories that Playmates used to package with their Next Generation figures back in the 90s. I may actually try to paint these some day, because I think it would improve them immeasureably and the bow does actually have holes so you can string it if you have some thread handy.
Grune is certainly a nice figure, but I don’t know that he’s $15 Deluxe assortment kind of nice. Granted, the battle maul is bigger than a lot of the Basic figures and does have a ThunderLynx gimmick built in, but when you consider that Ban Dai is selling a the ThunderRacers with a figure for the same price, Grune comes up a little short in the value department. Nonetheless, he’s a pretty important character in the series, so I’m certainly glad to have a figure of him for my collection.

And that wraps up my first batch of Thundercats toy reviews. I have to say, Ban Dai did a really nice job with this line, despite a few missteps along the way. I had really high expectations and on the whole I haven’t really been disappointed. I should have a 4-inch Cheetara in a couple of days, so be sure to look for that. I’ll eventually be getting to the larger scale figures, both classic and new series, as well as some of the roleplay items.