Monthly Archives: December 2020

#2615: Beasts of the Mesozoic – The Ceratopsian Series

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ZUNICERATOPS, MONOCLONIUS CRASSUS, TRICERATOPS — SUB-ADULT, & STYRACOSAURUS

BEASTS OF THE MESOZOIC (CREATIVE BEAST)

In the year 2014, basking in the warm light of having just gotten into the groove of things with this here site, I decided I wanted to diversify what exactly I was reviewing a bit, and backed a whole bunch of action figure related Kickstarters in a rather short span of time.  As of the end of 2017, I’d gotten all that stuff I backed, and with the shifting market and what not, I sort of fell out of it.  But, apparently, 2019 me realized that 2020 me was gonna need a nice pick-me-up, so he actually went and backed another Kickstarter.  How kind of him.  But, he didn’t do it alone!  2019 Ethan had an accomplice in the form of 2019 Tim!  And so, for the purposes of the review, 2020 Ethan is going to need an assist from 2020 Tim!

If I had known that 2020 Tim was going to be an entirely separate entity, I might’ve taken the year off.  There are already too many of me running around, and let’s be real here, just one of me is a pain.  But yes, here I am, awoken from my review cryostasis, not to talk about Nerf guns, but rather, dinosaurs.  Ah, my first love.  As in, I loved dinosaurs as a kid, not anything weird, like, I don’t — You know what?  Let’s just talk about the figures.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The four figures here are all part of Wave 1 of the Ceratopsian Series of the Beasts of the Mesozoic line.  The Ceratopsian Series is the second series, following up on 2018’s Raptor Series.  Three of these four make up the base Wave 1 set, with the Monoclonius being a Kickstarter exclusive release, and the first of many “add-on” figures that would be added during the campaign.

ZUNICERATOPS

“Living nearly 10 million years earlier than most Ceratopsians, Zuniceratops (Zuni-horned face, really helpful name there) is much smaller and more primitive than its descendants.  Supporting the theory of a North American origin for Ceratopsians, Zuniceratops may be a link between protoceratopsids and ceratopsids.”

I firmly believe the best way to start a review with a joke that you, the reader, might not have heard, but Ethan certainly has, and it pains him to relive it.  So, Zuniceratops is the smallest of the series, maxing out at just 7.5 inches from beak to tail.  He was also far less successful than his competitor, the iPodosaurus, though I guess you don’t see Star Lord rocking a shuffle, so take that how you will.  He sets the standard for the rest of the line with 19 points of articulation.  He can pull some pretty nice poses off, though his mid-section joint is just a little stiff getting past his rather jutty-out hips.  I also might have liked a little bit of side-to-side movement in the hips, but unless you’re a madman like I am and trying to make your dinosaurs do Jo-jo poses, it probably won’t bother you.  I like the paint on the little dude.  He’s got a mostly earthy color scheme with pops of orange and blue around his frill, and a bit more blue on the tail.  Looking closely at him, he’s also got some really subtle silvery dry-brushing going on which gives him a faint, yet classy sheen in some angles.  We didn’t ask for it, I didn’t know I wanted it, but it’s a nice little detail.

MONOCLONIUS

“The Monoclonius (single snout) was a medium-sized ceratopid about 20ft long and was named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1876.  It had strong limbs and a heavy build with one large nose horn for defense.  Because of these attributes, Monoclonius was more likely to use the ‘fight’ rather than the ‘flight’ defense method.  Today, Monoclonius specimens are often believed to be juveniles or subadults of other genera such as Centrosaurus”

The one proper Kickstarter-exclusive item, the Monoclonius is the second smallest of the core set, after the Zuniceratops.  He’s just over 10 inches long, which is a touch short if we’re going for the proper 1/18 scale that the figure is advertised as being.  Maybe this one was just a little smaller?  Or, it could be that, as with most scale action figures, things are just a bit fudged.  It’s notably larger than a 1/18 scale human, and that’s really the main point.  He has 19 points of articulation, which is a pretty impressive selection of movement.  Despite his stockier frame, he’s still quite mobile, and you can definitely get some decent posing out of him.  I do wish the rear hip joints had a bit more range, but that’s about it.  You can even open and close his mouth!  His sculpt is a rather scaly and rough one, which I suppose is accurate.  It’s accurate to the illustration, and who’s to say that’s wrong.  Scientists?  What do they know?  In terms of paint work and color scheme, Mono is very blue.  I am okay with this, because the blue’s a good look.  They do a respectable job of varying the colors up and making him look appropriately reptilian, so that’s certainly nice.  There’s no accessories with this guy.  The Raptors got stands from what I recall, so it’s too bad we couldn’t get any of those.  Of course, these guys don’t actually need them to stand, so that’s the trade-off we’ve got going.

TRICERATOPS

“One of the best known dinosaurs of all time, Triceratops was among the largest Ceratopsians.  Often viewed as defensive weapons, its frill and horns are now more associated with species identification, courtship, and display.”

Oh boy, it’s the guy that started it all.  The Triceratops was the figure that was shown off to confirm this whole set was in the works.  And, if you know me, he’s also kind of my main man when it comes to the whole Dinosaurs thing.  He’s about 11 ½ inches long, which would make him about 17 ¼ feet long in real life.  While the bio lists them as getting to about 29 feet long, it’s also important to note that this figure is identified as being a sub-adult Triceratops, meaning the slightly smaller size makes sense.  It’s not finished growing!  There’s actually a full adult Triceratops available in the line, but it’s got a rather hefty price tag to go along with it.  This one’s sizing is just fine by me.  This figure has the same articulation scheme as Mono, so there’s no real surprises there.  When it works, it works.  Likewise, his sculpt has a very scaly appearance, as you would expect.  This one does have a little more variation in terms of texturing, since his frill is much smoother than the rest of his body, which is a nice touch.  It makes it feel like there’s a little bit more going on.  I do wish that the joints on the two upper horns weren’t quite so obvious on the final product, but I’m still generally very happy with how the sculpt turned out on this one.  The Triceratops is not as blue as Mono, but I guess that’s okay.  Not everything can be quite that blue.  He does still have a little bit of blue, so as to not totally miss out on said blue.  Wouldn’t want to miss out on the blue.  Am I talking too much about the blue?  Probably.  There’s some other colors mixed in there as well, making him a more varied figure in terms of color than Mono.  It’s all rather subdued, though.  We wouldn’t want him getting too flamboyant, would we?  No, then he would step on the toes of…

STYRACOSAURUS

“Famous for its six frill spikes, and one long nose horn, Styracosaurus is one of the most recognizable of all the Ceratopsians.  Despite its iconic look, the similarities to Centrosaurus have caused debate in the past over which specimens belonged to each species.”

Honestly, I don’t think any witty intro I could make would be any good here.  I mean just look at the thing.  Isn’t he glorious?  I feel compelled to call him Elton, not sure why.  Anyway, Sir Elton here is one of the larger additions to the series (he’s no tiny dancer), though I do believe he is the only one of them visible from orbit, like if you were some kind of… rocket man… He measures in right around 12 inches and comes dressed to party, like some kind of crocodile rocker.  You know, cuz he’s a lizard.  He’s got probably the most detailed head sculpt of any of the dinosaurs in this series.  As the description astutely points out he’s got one big old horn up front (let’s call it Bennie), and these 6 others that really jet (*ahem*) out the back of the frill, and boy do they make a statement.  As with the others, Reginald here has 19 points of articulation which do a good job allowing him to make some flashy poses.  Even posed in a run with 2 feet off the ground, he’s still standing, after all this time.  I do have a few little gripes about the paint, which is a little surprising given how paint-forward the figure is in general.  The head and face are great, with a ton of really bright color, but let’s say goodbye yellow frill paint and talk about the legs in particular.  The upper arms have a very sharp line differentiating the light green of the interior sides with the dark blue/green of the exterior.  I don’t know what process they used so I’m not sure if it’s just a fluke on mine, but I guess they could have toned down the blues.  The back legs have almost the opposite problem, where patches of them are still white as if they didn’t receive as thorough a color wash.  Yeah he’s not perfect, but it’s my favorite of the ceratopsians by far so I got nothing but love for this figure.  Can you feel it?  Tonight.  The Love.  Never mind.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I have mentioned previously, I’m only moderately a Dino guy. I like them well enough, but I don’t *have* to have them. Well, mostly, anyway. Tim backed the Raptors, and they were cool and all, but I don’t need Raptors. Then Ceratopsians were confirmed as the next set, and they had me, because that “mostly” above is all about the Triceratops. I’m all in for that guys. When the Kickstarter was coming to a close, Tim couldn’t afford to back, so I ended up backing for the Triceratops, just so we could have a spot and add more stuff via Backerkit when that went live. And now, here we are, in 2020, needing that pick me up that only 2019 could deliver, and I’ve got these two cool Dinos. I’m cool with it. Tim?

I need more dinosaurs. I will continue buying from this line as long as they keep making them. Even hadrosaurs. I’d love an Iguanadon. I’ll admit, when I first heard about this line, I wasn’t as hyped about it as I was after seeing it in person. Ceratopsians are cool and all, but the Raptor lineup really set my standards pretty high. Are they really comparable? No, but neither are the actual dinosaurs they depict. Even so, I think these are absolutely the best figures of this type that I’ve seen, so if you love dinosaurs as much as I do, or just have a soft spot for Trikes like Ethan, these are worth checking out.

#2614: Dr. Doom

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

DR DOOM

MARVEL LEGENDS RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“Victor Von Doom is bent on complete world domination. As Doctor Doom, he applies unlimited resources to square off against his arch nemeses, the Fantastic Four!”

A few times on this site, I’ve discussed Victor Von Doom, who under the monicker of Doctor Doom, is the truly the greatest villain in comics.  He’s well-rounded, intriguing, knows how to monologue, and is just thoroughly evil, through and through.  He’s also a fantastic choice for an action figure, but thanks to the wonkiness surrounding the rights on both he and his greatest foes the Fantastic Four, he was rather absent from such things for a few years.  He returned to Marvel Legends in style earlier this year with a really strong figure as part of a wider FF assortment this year.  But, that apparently wasn’t enough for Doom.  No, he needed to outdo the cursed FF in raw numbers, so he snuck in a second figure, as part of Hasbro’s ongoing Retro Collection initiative.  I’m taking a look at that figure today!

THE FIGRUE ITSELF

Dr. Doom is a standalone Retro Collection offering for Marvel Legends, no doubt as a pre-cursor to a proper FF assortment.  Like Deadpool and Grey Hulk last year, he comes in a white shipper that goes around the retro-style card, suggesting he was at one point intended for some sort of convention release.  Given how those two were dropped even without a global pandemic going on, though, it’s also possible that Hasbro just planned him as a Fan Channel offering from the start.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s pretty much identical to the standard release Doom from early this year.  It was a pretty spot-on sculpt, and my favorite by far from that assortment, so I’m certainly not complaining.  He ditches the more modern of the two head sculpts, sticking only with the more retro one (my favorite of the two anyway), and also adds a soft goods collar to the mix to change things up just a little bit.  Also aiding in changing things up a bit is the new paint scheme.  The standard release had a more subdued palette, more in keeping with modern appearances.  This one pumps up the saturation and makes him a much brighter figure, more in line with the old ‘90s figure, which this one is of course looking to emulate.  It really works, and while I certainly didn’t dislike the prior colors, I do really think that this scheme gives the figure an extra pop, and gives him some new life.  It really works for me.  The other change-up for this guy is the accessory selection.  Obviously, he drops the head and the Build-A-Figure piece, and keeps the alternate hands and the pistol.  He gains a pair of books (using the same mold as was included with the Retro Beast figure), the Ultimate Nullifier, two magic effects, and two blast effects (which can be used on the jets on his back).   It’s a pretty killer accessories set-up.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was really happy with the prior Doom figure, and I didn’t really see myself as being in the market for another one this quickly.  When this one was shown off, I wasn’t sure if I was going to go for him.  Upon seeing him in person, though, I really couldn’t turn him down.  The changes made to this figure are really strong, and make him a sufficiently unique variation of the character.  Now I’m going to have a really hard time choosing between the two variants…

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2613: Mandalorian Super Commando

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

MANDALORIAN SUPER COMMANDO

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Darth Maul’s Mandalorians modified their armor to reflect allegiance to the Dark Lord. These super commandos wore red and black, and some even fashioned horns atop their helmet.”

The Mandalorian side of the Star Wars universe has been getting a good deal of focus these days, thanks to a show of the same name being kind of a big deal and all.  While this is certainly the most prominent focus the culture has gotten, their background has been in place for a while.  It was originally a strictly EU thing, but made its first foray into more main stream culture via The Clone Wars, whose saga of Mandalore’s fall mad up the back bone of the show’s second half, and playing a large part in the show’s multi-part finale.  Said finale serves as the inspiration for the first fully-Clone Wars-inspired assortment of Hasbro’s Black Series, with the Mandos themselves making up half of the set, one from each side of the Mando Civil War.  Today, I’m looking at one of the Mandos on Darth Maul’s side of the conflict.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Mandalorian Super Commando is figure #05 in the Clone Wars subset of the latest relaunch of Star Wars: The Black Series.  He’s the highest numbered of his four figure assortment, which is, as of right now a Walmart-exclusive set.  However, the marketing on this particular set has been very vague about the actual exclusivity of this set, and all signs point to it just being an early exclusivity deal, much like Ectotron and Gigawatt were.  Time will tell, of course.  This guy is based on one of Maul’s Super Commandos, specifically the most ornate of the bunch.  It’s armor that was initially seen on Maul-faithful leader Gar Saxon earlier in the show’s run, prior to being adopted by a few of the other Mandos in the show’s final season.  It’s a cool design to be sure, combining all of the cool elements of Maul and the Mandos into one.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation.  The Super Commando is built on the Jango Fett body, which is…I mean, I guess it’s not the worst, but it’s not the best either.  It comes from a period when the line wasn’t at its best articulation wise, so it’s a bit stiffer than more recent offerings.  On top of that, Jango was a little chunkier than how the Mandos have been portrayed elsewhere.  Now, obviously some of the difference comes from the move from animation to realistic, but it still makes the guy seem just a touch schlubier than he should.  Overall, though, it’s still not a bad sculpt, and the detailing on the armor is pretty darn sharp.  The Super Commando gets a new head, wearing the horned helmet mentioned in the bio.  By far, it’s the best piece of the figure, and is a really clean, really sharp recreation of the design from the show.  He also gets a new belt and upper legs with new holster pieces, which are now separate parts without the straps.  This does at least aid in the posability of the figure at the hips.  Lastly, there are new shoulder pads on the upper arms, with some spikes to match the helmet.  It helps to make the figure sufficiently different from Jango, so he does at least feel a little bit new.  The Super Commando also gets a brand new paint scheme to match the new parts.  It’s pretty solid, although if I have one complaint, it’s that the grey used for the body suit seems a little lighter than it should be.  Other than that, it’s a pretty striking design.  The Super Commando is packed with the same rocket pack that came with Jango, as well as a pair of the standard Mandalorian pistols, borrowed from Sabine.  It’s not a lot, but it’s enough to be workable.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While watching the last few seasons of Clone Wars, I was really hoping to get some more figures from the show’s later seasons.  When this assortment was shown off, I was super excited…until the whole “Walmart” bit got mentioned, which thoroughly killed my buzz.  Fortunately, Max was able to help me out on this guy here at the very least.  He’s definitely cool.  Not without his flaws, but cool.  Hopefully the rest of the assortment ends up showing back up in a more easily acquired fashion so that I can get the rest of them.

#2612: Ultramarines Primaris Assault Intercessor

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

ULTRAMARINES PRIMARIS ASSAULT INTERCESSOR

WARHAMMER 40,000 (MCFARLANE TOYS)

“Space Marines are the champions of the Imperium, Mankind’s most elite fighting force. The combat prowess of these heavily augmented warriors is backed up by the best weaponry and equipment the Imperium can provide. Clad in nigh-impenetrable power armor, each Space Marine combines excellent close combat skills with deadly shooting accuracy. Space Marine armies are hard-hitting, able to tactically adjust to any foe or situation. A wide range of troops and vehicles enables them to launch lightning strikes, armored spearheads, airborne assaults, or any other strategy a commander can envision. “

Have I mentioned before here that I’m a bit of a glutton for punishment?  Because I am.  Why else would I keep publicly speaking about things that I actually know nothing about?  That’s crazy.  Case in point?  Today’s review.  We’re gonna be talking about Warhammer 40,000.  I played a single small little starter game of 40K over a decade ago.  That marks my entire experience with the franchise.  Now watch me stumble my way through this toy review, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Ultramarines Primaris Assault Intercessor is part of the first series of McFarlane’s newly launched Warhammer 40,000 toyline, alongside the Necron Warrior.  There are actually two Ultramarines to be found in the assortment, the standard release and an all grey “Artist Proof” release, which  is the one-per-case variant.  I’m looking at the standard.  He’s some sort of slightly higher ranking Ultramarine, I’d guess, given the different colored helmet and the extra insignia on the shoulder, but exact rank I’ve got no clue on, because, as noted, I don’t actually know this stuff.  He’s blue and red, and big and bulky.  This guy stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  Articulation is frequently an iffy subject when it comes to McFarlane figures, but they managed to do a really good job on this guy.  Despite the rather bulked up nature of this design, they’ve not only gotten quite a few joints in there, they’ve also managed to get most of them a pretty impressive range of motion on them.  The shoulders get extra joints on the shoulder pads, allowing for cleaner motion on those joints, which works quite well, and the double ball joint set up on the neck likewise gives a surprisingly fluid and mobile set up for posing the head.  The actual sculpt is cleanly detailed, solid, and just generally appropriately chunky.  There’s a good weight to this figure, and it helps to give him the appropriate presence for the whole big armored marine thing.  He also looks like the miniatures (at least what I’ve seen of them), which is kind of an important thing.  For the paint work, he is, as I noted above, blue and red, which is fairly eye catching and bold.  There’s also a fair bit of gold and white thrown in there for good measure.  The application is generally pretty good, though there are also some slightly fuzzy edges on a few of the brighter colors.  Nothing too terrible, though, and it’s certainly cleaner than a lot of the stuff that McFarlane has done in the past.  This guy is packed with a heavy bolt pistol, Astartes Chainsword, and a small display base, which isn’t a bad set-up.  The only problem I had was getting the Chainsword into the figure’s hand; he’d really benefit from a sword that split at the hilt to more easily slide in.  That’s relatively minor, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I’m not a 40K guy, and I know effectively nothing about it.  Why do I have this figure?  Why would I buy it?  Honestly?  Because it looks real cool.  Also, Jason at All Time is super into 40K, and he was getting pretty hyped about this line and that may have somewhat rubbed off on me.  I just wanted to be a part of things, you guys!  It’s a really strong figure, and just a good fun toy, even without the background interest.  I can see myself definitely picking up the odd figure from this line depending on how far it goes.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2611: Cammy

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

CAMMY

S.H. FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

I don’t talk video games incredibly often on this site, but there’s enough cross-over between them and action figures that I do at least dabble in discussing them from time to time.  As a kid, I wasn’t much into the whole video game thing, but I did get to play the occasional game at an arcade here or there, which gave me a taste of some of the more popular arcade fighting games.  My favorite franchise out of these was definitely Street Fighter, whose colorful cast of diverse characters also happens to lend itself quite nicely to the action figure treatment.  Today, I’m taking a look at my favorite character from the games in figure form.  Let’s take a look at Cammy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cammy was released in 2017 as part of Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts line.  She followed up the releases of Ryu and Chun-Li earlier that same year, and like them served as a tie-in with the release of Street Fighter V.  She’s officially based on her character model from that game, of course, but that also makes her a more than serviceable stand-in for Cammy from Street Fighter II, which works well for me.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 39 points of articulation.  Her articulation scheme is a bit more conventional than the usual Figuarts release, with less floating pieces and just a generally tighter set of joints.  It means she’s also just a touch more restricted than the average Figuarts offering, but that’s not the end of the world.  She can still get a lot of really solid poses.  And they even articulated her hair.  How about that?  I really have only two notable complaints regarding the articulation.  The first is the movement on the neck, which I wish had some more up and down.  The second is to do with how the sculpt and the articulation interact in a very key area of the figure.  Cammy’s posterior is a rather notable part of the character, at least from a pop culture stand point.  It’s also rather prominently shown off in her win animation.  So, the fact that this figure opts to put the break for the hip joints in a rather obvious spot in such a way that it never really sits flush ends up hurting the figure’s appearance a bit.  That being said, in the grand scheme of the whole figure, it’s a more minor point, and the rest of the sculpt and articulation work quite well together.  I was actually quite impressed by the way the joints in the torso work, and the sculpt does a strong job of capturing Cammy’s design from the games.  The construction on the figure also just has a nice solid feel to hit, which gives her a little more weight than the usual Figuart, and I think that really helps her when it comes to posing and playability.  Cammy’s paintwork is clean, bright, and colorful, which are really all the things I would want out of paintwork on a Cammy figure.  There’s not a ton of work going on there, but what is there works well.  Cammy’s accessory selection is pretty decent, no surprise, given that she’s a Figuart.  She gets three different faceplates, three pairs of hands, and a three-piece effect part.  There’s a lot of threes going on here, is what I’m getting at, I guess.  The faces provide standard expression, screaming, and side-eye options, which are fun.  The sideways glance is definitely my favorite of the three, even if it’s just a minor difference.  The hands come in fists, flat, and open gesture, and are great for all sorts of poses.  The effects piece is a little bit difficult to get in place at first, but it makes for an impressive kicking effect.  It’s too bad the stands don’t come standard.  She also included two small cardboard backdrops, allowing you to build a small stage for your fighters.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first introduction to the Street Fighter characters was not through the games themselves, but rather through Toy Biz’s X-Men Vs Street Fighter toy line.  I was obviously just in it for the X-Men component, but it did give me a taste of a few of the characters.  Cammy was the second of them I got, and I always rather liked that figure.  When I finally got around to playing one of the games, she was the character I latched onto, and I’ve been hoping to get a figure of her for a while.  I always kicked myself for missing the SOTA one back in the day, and I couldn’t pull the trigger on this one when she was new.  However, she ended up getting traded into All Time, and it was hard to pass at that point.  She’s a really fun figure, and almost makes me want to track down some more of the Figuarts Street Fighter stuff.  For now, though, she’s an awesome stand alone piece.

#2610: Princess Leia – Dark Empire

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , ,

PRINCESS LEIA — DARK EMPIRE

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Six years after the destruction of the second Death Star, the galaxy is thrust into turmoil. A reborn evil threatens to enslave the galaxy, and the Republic’s closest friend – Luke Skywalker – may become their greatest enemy. Hoping to free her brother Luke from the evil of the dark side, Jedi Leia prepares to match her power against that of a reborn Emperor. Boarding his colossal warship, Leia is overwhelmed by the oppression of the dark side.”

If you’ve been following my Kenner Power of the Force II reviews as of late, you may have seen me start to get a little bit…uninspired about things?  In my defense I’m hitting a lot of the stuff from when the line was a little same-y.  I do still really love the line though, so I’m going to try to realign with something a little more exciting. Perhaps the most exciting portion of the line was its 1998 Expanded Universe spin-off.  It was our first real glimpse into toys of the world outside of the movies, and also gave Kenner some free reign to do some cool new stuff.  There were a handful of different stories covered, but by far the one to get the largest focus was Dark Empire, a rather notable continuation of the original trilogy at the time.  I’ve looked at both Luke and the Emperor from that story, and now I’m digging further into the set with an updated Princess Leia!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Princess Leia from Dark Empire was part of the first seven figures in what would eventually be a nine figure line-up of the Expanded Universe sub-line.  She, like most of the EU figures, proved a bit scarce at the time of release, and honestly hasn’t ever reached the same level of plentifulness as other PotF figures.  The figure stands 3 1/2 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  Leia is an all-new sculpt, patterned on her more action-faring design from the comics.  It’s an interesting design set-up.  She adds a Jedi-Luke-esque cape to her attire, and beneath it she’s got something that looks akin to Luke’s Bespin gear.  It’s definitely helps to solidify the more traditional protagonist role Leia falls into during the course of the story.  It’s a pretty decent sculpt overall.  It’s rather in keeping with the rest of the mid-line Leia sculpts from PotF, with a likeness that’s consistent with those other figures, making it easy to tell she’s supposed to be the same person.  The figure has a little bit of trouble standing without the cape, but with it on she keeps up just well.  And honestly, who’s not going to use the cape?  It’s so cool.  Leia’s paint work is, like the other EU figures, a touch more vibrant than the usual Star Wars fare.  Of all of them, she’s certainly less removed than others, but I do certainly enjoy the multitude of colors used on her cape.  It’s a very nice touch.  Leia is packed with a light saber (in a rather concerning red, to match her brother), and a small blaster.  And, like all of the single-carded EU figures, her card back also unfolds into a small 3D back drop for her, based on the comics.  This is consistently my favorite part of these figures.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The EU figures were a favorite piece of mine from this line, but as I noted when I looked at Kyle, the only ones I actually got as a kid were Luke and Palpatine.  I wanted the others, but they are, as noted above, not the most common PotF figures, and they’re one of the few sets I was more insistent about getting carded.  Fortunately, I happened upon a complete set of them through All Time back last year.  Leia’s perhaps not the flashiest of the set, but she’s still a fun variant of the character, and I get a real nostalgic kick from her.

#2609: X-Cutioner

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

X-CUTIONER

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Concerned about the growing menace of evil mutants, FBI agent Carl Denti assembled an arsenal of weapons obtained from the X-Men’s greatest foes. Now, in the guise of the X-Cutioner, he seeks out those mutants he deems a threat to human society, and ruthlessly eliminates them!”

Ah, yes, X-Cutioner. Guy with a name that’s so ’90s X-Men that it actually got used twice, because, if you can believe it, this guy who is named “X-Cutioner” has absolutely nothing to do the the big grand X-crossover “X-Cutioner’s Song” from ’92.  I know, I was as shocked as you.  You feel like two uses of the same really stupid misspelling would be at least a little related, right? No, that’s stupid!  What was I thinking?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

X-Cutioner was released in the “Mutant Genesis” Series, the tenth assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  He hit in 1995, just two years after the character’s debut in the comics, which is a pretty short turn around time when you get right down to it.  X-Cutioner is the last figure from his assortment that I’ve taken a look at, and, were it not for freaking Senyaka, he’d be the most obscure of a rather low tier list of characters.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  His movement scheme is up to the standard count, but isn’t really a standard set-up, thanks to the wonky set-up of the right arm and the presence of the hood piece on his head.  His sculpt is a rather stiff one, surprising for this late in the game.  By this point, the stances were getting a little looser, but X-Cutioner seemed to miss the memo.  He did get the memo on the super swoll muscles, though, so I guess that’s good.  He’s not gonna look out of place.  X-Cutioner had one of those color schemes that looked like he threw darts at the wall to decide what to use, and that’s replicated here.  The silver makes sense, but the blue and the two colors of green, plus that weird orange/brown are all rather odd looking.  X-Cutioner included his mask/hood piece, which could fit down over his head and generally improves the look of the figure.  He also had two weapons, which mine is missing.  He also had a spinning feature worked into his right arm, for spinning purposes, of course.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

X-Cutioner is a figure that I definitely remember seeing as a kid, but also one that I definitely remember not really wanting.  He’s never been much of a presence in the comics, nor is he a particularly exciting design.  But, I’m all about those ’90s Toy Biz figures, so I’m slowly but surely picking everyone up as I find them.  This guy came into All Time about 2 months ago, with a bunch of others.  Yeah, he’s missing his weapons, but honestly, is that really stopping me now?

#2608: Hubcap & Bug Bite

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

HUBCAP & BUG BITE

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON: EARTHRISE (HASBRO)

No, neither of these guys are Bumblebee.  I know.  I’m just as shocked as all of you.  Remember Cliffjumper, who is also not Bumblebee?  Well, he wasn’t the only not-Bumblebee.  Not by a long shot!  There’s so many different not-Bumblebees to choose from!  So, with that in mind, the not-Bumblebees I’m choosing are Hubcap and Bug Bite, two of Hasbro’s more recent additions to their War For Cybertron trilogy.  Marvel at their not-Bumblebee-ness!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Hubcap (aka the yellow-not-Bumblebee) and Bug Bite (aka the white-not-Bumblebee) are both part of the Generations Select component for Earthrise, and are both Deluxe Class releases.  Hubcap hit in the August time-frame, and Bug Bite followed later in the fall.  In robot mode, they’re 4 inches tall and have 22 workable points of articulation.  Both figures are built on the Cliffjumper body, and as such have the same sizing and articulation set-up as that figure.  It’s a good base body, to be sure, and definitely my favorite to come out of Earthrise.  It’s worth noting that both of these guys do get new head sculpts.  Hubcap’s is the slightly more unique of the two, matching up well with his vintage counterpart’s head.  It’s got an interesting, squared off appearance.  Bug Bite’s head is already going to be shared with Bumblebee, which makes sense, since he’s previously just been a straight Bee repaint.  Whatever the case, the new heads certainly do help them stand out.

Both of these guys share Cliffjumper’s generic sportscar alt-mode.  It makes sense for Hubcap, who has always had the same alt-mode, but for Bug Bite, it’s technically off, since he should share Bumblebee’s VW Bug alt-mode.  However, word has it that Volkswagon requires a separate license for each product, so it’s no doubt a cost-saving move here.  It’s a good alt-mode whatever the case, and the transformation’s still a pretty good one.  These two are both packed with re-decos of Cliffjumper’s modular weapon piece, in differing color schemes for both.  They could have easily kept the same one as Cliffjumper, but I dig the new colors.  That purple in particular is pretty spiffy.  And, just like Cliffjumper, it allows for that cool ski mode.  I dig it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really liked Cliffjumper, and I really liked the Cliffjumper mold, so I was really okay with picking that up in a few more colors.  That made both of these guys a pretty easy sell, and it was made even easier when they came into All time, removing any real work I would have had to do.  Neither of them is anything radically new or different, but they’re still certainly fun.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with these guys for review.  If you’re looking for Transformers, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2607: Rotorstorm

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ROTORSTORM

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON: EARTHRISE (HASBRO)

Oh, we are just keeping these Transformers hits coming, aren’t we?  Well, if you guys were hoping things might angle back into slightly more known characters as we got further into the week, you were sadly mistaken.  It’s just the oddballs from here.  A while back, I brought up the concept of region-exclusive characters, and specifically talked about Impactor, a UK-comics-exclusive Transformer who led the UK-comics-exclusive Wreckers, who also incorporated some non-exclusive characters into their ranks.  The Wreckers have subsequently become not so region-exclusive, and in 2010 IDW published “Last Stand of the Wreckers,” a mini-series focused on them.  They were envisioned as a team on a suicide mission, so they needed a lot of expendable fodder.  And wouldn’t you know it, there was old Rotorstorm, just sitting there doing nothing.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rotorstorm is Generations Select release for Earthrise.  He started showing up towards the tail end of July/beginning of August.  He’s patterned on the character’s G1 design, but also takes some very definite influence from his appearance in “Last Stand of the Wreckers.”  In his robot mode, the figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 26 workable points of articulation.  Structually, he’s mostly the same as the Siege Spinister figure.  That said, I never got a Siege Spinister, so he’s all-new to me.  The articulation on this mold in robot mode is pretty impressive, and certainly among the best I’ve gotten from this line.  Beyond that, it’s just a pretty impressive piece, albeit one that doesn’t *quite* line up with the character’s true G1 design, at least as far as the body is concerned.  His head, on the other hand, is all-new, something that Hasbro proudly advertised…before showing off a prototype that inexplicably had a repainted Spinister head.  It’s alright, though, because the final product has the proper head, and it’s a nice recreation of Nick Roche’s illustrations of the character from “Last Stand”.

With a name like “Rotorstorm”, it’s not all that hard to piece together the guy’s alt-mode.  Just like his mold-mate Spinister, he turns into a Cybertronian helicopter.  The transformation process is slightly more complicated on this guy, and definitely more than a little bit fiddly.  It’s not really one of my favorites. On the plus side, the end result is still a pretty cool helicopter mode, with a spinning rotor and everything.  Rotorstorm’s color scheme is a bit on the garish side, but it’s faithful to the original colors; what else would you expect from an early ’90s Transformer?  Rotorstorm includes two guns, which can be held in robot mode or mounted to his sides in helicopter mode.  They’re the same ones included with Spinister, which also means the layout of the molds makes them two different base colors.  They aren’t drastically different, but it’s still, you know, different.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never made up my mind as to whether I actually wanted Spinister or not.  I didn’t really care for his renders, but seeing a figure in-hand has changed my mind about such things before.  Then I never actually did see him in-hand, and that kind of took the decision out of my hands, I suppose.  When All Time got in this guy, Max was nice enough to let me take a look at him and make the decision for myself.  Ultimately, I’m happy to have missed out on Spinister, because it means I was a bit more open to getting this guy, and I actually think I like his overall design just a bit better.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure for review.  If you’re looking for Transformers, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2606: Greasepit

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

GREASEPIT

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON: EARTHRISE (HASBRO)

Siege‘s main big gimmick was cross line compatibility, a concept best exemplified in its Weaponizers sub-set of figures, a whole type of figure designed with augmenting other figures in mind.  For the follow up in Earthrise, the Weaponizers haven’t been kept, but their general modular nature has been, and has been funneled into a new sub-set of modular figures called “Modulators.”  I know, crazy naming scheme there.   I have as of yet avoided the Modulators here, but I’m jumping into the concept today with Greasepit.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Greasepit was released as part of the Generations Select component of the Earthrise line this year.  He hit right at the same time as Decepticon Exhaust, right around July (unless, of course, you got one earlier from overseas).  As with all of the Modulators so far, Greasepit takes the name of a G1 Micromaster, and makes a deluxe class figure out of the Micromaster Station that said Micromaster came included with.  In this case, it’s Decepticon Micromaster Greasepit and his gas station base.  In his robot mode, Greasepit stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 19 workable points of articulation.  The Greasepit base never had a robot mode, much like the rest of the modulators, and some of the Weaponizers as well.  This means that the robot mode here is all-new…ish.  Okay, it’s not all-new at all, because he’s actually mostly a repaint of the main line’s Ironworks release.  But, I never got that one, so it’s new to me, and it’s also new to Greasepit, so I wasn’t entirely wrong. It’s overall a pretty decent sculpt; the only thing I’m not big on is the lack of a proper waist joint, though it’s worth noting this was also an issue on Weaponizer Cog.  I do like that this guy doesn’t have as many visible gaps as Cog did, and I also just generally like how his robot mode worked out.  It’s rather boxy and utilitarian.

Greasepit has a handful of possible alt-modes, and like the Weaponizers, the way you arrive at them isn’t through the typical transformation process, but rather through some serious parts forming.  By this point, it’s expected, and it does certainly allow for some more out there alt-modes.  The primary one for this guy is his more squared off gas station mode.  This replicates the original G1 base configuration the most closely of the ones offered up by Hasbro.  It’s not a perfect match, since it’s got to contend with a sculpt that was original meant for Ironworks’ oil rig set-up, but it’s still pretty close, and it gets the idea across.  The other two listed modes are a sort of a tower thing, and a longer stretch of road sort of thing…I don’t really know what that second one’s supposed to be.  The tower looks a bit like the G1 toy’s alt-mode, so that’s a cool touch, but ultimately, neither of these two modes is gonna bet much use from me.  The color scheme on this guy is rather on the bright and colorful side, which I definitely dig.  He’s actually got some decals for a few of his more intricate details, which is something that’s been absent from the line for a bit.  They look fine, but you always have to wonder about long term viability with such things.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Modulators are a far enough reach from core Transformers that I didn’t really have much draw to them, but I did think the Ironworks mold looked kind of cool.  He ended up being the only Wave 1 Deluxe not to show up at All Time, so I didn’t end up snagging him, but in contrast Greasepit came in before most other places, allowing me another chance at the mold.  He’s a lot of fun, and I certainly dig that first alt-mode.  I may not know much about these bases, but this one’s cool.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure for review.  If you’re looking for Transformers, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.