Category Archives: Reviews

#4151: Clone Trooper — 501st Legion

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

CLONE TROOPER — 501st LEGION

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“The clone trooper forces are gathering together for their next mission – and they want you to join them! With your own Republic Army Identification Card, you can become a member of the most elite fighting force in the galaxy. Your destiny awaits – join today!”

Listen up, here’s the story, about a little guy who lives in a blue world, and all day and all night and everything he see’s is just blue, like him, inside and outside.  

Oh, hey there, didn’t see you guys come in, you know, here on the website.  I was just singing thematically and what not.  What about?  Today’s Star Wars review, who’s another Clone, but his gimmick?  Well, he’s blue.  Da-ba-dee, da-ba-di.  Or some such.  The original clones were blue when they were Lieutenants, but by the time of Revenge of the Sith, the colors signified Legions and Battalions, not ranks.  The blue was then shifted to Anakin’s Legion, the 501st, and The Clone Wars would retroactively make the blue markings on Phase I armor represent the 501st.  And that’s how we get where we are now, looking that this rather blue figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Clone Trooper — 501st Legion was released right around the same time as the initial Star Wars: The Clone Wars tie-in push in 2008, designed to coincide with the theatrical film’s release.  He was a Walmart exclusive, seemingly chosen by color, much like his counterpart Commander Fox.  Unlike Fox, however, the 501st Trooper didn’t suffer a price bump, instead maintaining the standard price point for the line.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  The 501st Trooper uses the exact same mold as the original basic Clone Trooper mold from the line’s launch.  While it’s not quite as show accurate, it remains my favorite standard clone sculpt for this line, so I love seeing all of its uses, even if there aren’t all that many of them.  The paint work is where this guy changes things up, of course, with the most obvious change-up being the addition of the blue markings that signify he’s from the 501st.  The exact shade of blue used was always a bit back and forth.  This one’s on the lighter side, in contrast to the much darker blue used on the Rex from the initial launch.  It’s an odd bit of inconsistency, but I don’t hate the blue chosen here, so I’m not really complaining.  In addition to the extra details, the 501st Trooper also removes the heavy wash from the original clone, so that this guy ends up looking a fair bit cleaner.  While Fox, despite his higher price point, actually had less accessories than the figure whose mold he was sharing, the 501st Trooper not only gets the medium blaster and rocket launcher included with the standard Clone, but also includes the long blaster as well.  The blasters have a slightly brighter silver wash than the main assortment counterparts, which makes them look rather unique.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve never been much of a Walmart shopper, but I was especially not one when this figure hit, especially because the one closest to my parents house had an atrocious toy section, so there was no chance I was going to find this guy.  I knew he existed, and always kind of wanted one, but it just wasn’t really meant to be, at least not until later.  The first one of these I came across actually wound up going to Max, who also really wanted one, and I was already getting a bunch of other clones at the same time, so I let it slide.  When he decided to thin out his collection a few years later, I still hadn’t gotten one, so he passed it along to me, and here he is, having been in my collection for a bit now.  Like most of the early clones from this line, he’s a pretty fantastic all around figure, and just a lot of fun.

#4150: Jetstorm

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

JETSTORM

BEAST MACHINES (McDONALD’S)

In this site’s 14 year run, there have been only two McDonald’s Happy Meal toy reviews, and only one of them was actually written by me.  These days, they don’t tend to be anything all that impressive, but back in the day, back in the ‘90s?  Well, also then they were frequently not that impressive, let’s all be honest.  But every so often you got some that went above the grade.  Offered something at the very least close to the level of quality you might actually even intentionally pay money for.  Today’s one of those.  Let’s talk about Beast Machines.  After a successful three season run with Beast Wars, Hasbro decided they wanted a sequel show, with the remaining cast of Wars returning to Cybertron after leaving prehistoric Earth, and facing Megatron and his army of Vehicons.  While Beast Wars was certainly no stranger to some pathos and serializing of the story, Machines took it even further, and the results were…well, they were mixed to say the least.  Between the two shows, two of the surviving Maximals, Silverbolt and Rhinox, found their sparks reformatted and transferred over to the bodies of two of the Vehicon generals, Jetstorm and Tankor.  Intrigue!  Silverbolt’s kinda my guy when it comes to Beast Wars, so keeping with that theme, I do also kinda like Jetstorm, and I’m looking at his Happy Meal toy today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jetstorm was released as one of the 9 available toys in McDonald’s Beast Machines promotion, which ran in August of 2000, alongside the show’s second season’s debut.  They covered pretty much the whole core cast of the show, with figures that could transform into both modes for the characters, at least to some degree.  In his robot mode, Jetstorm is about 3 1/2 inches tall (I won’t say “stands” for reasons I’ll get to shortly) and he has 7 workable points of articulation.  So, why not “stands?” Because he really doesn’t.  In the show, Jetstorm would simply hover around when in his robot mode, and as such doesn’t *really* have legs.  The Hasbro figures (which were all quite off model) just gave him legs.  This one, on the other hand…well, you can split the nose of his jet mode in two and make it sort of sit flat, so there’s I guess sort of a way to make him stand like that.  It’s not really very stable, though, and obviously not accurate.  For most of the photos, as you can see, I’ve got him on a flight stand I personally provided, but he’s otherwise not great with remaining upright.  How’s that sculpt, though?  Honestly?  Not terrible.  Sure, he’s kind of chunky and clunky and all the other “unkies,” but compared to what Hasbro put out in the main line, it’s probably the closest any Jetstorm figure gets to actually being show accurate.  He’s even kind of posable, and also pretty decently painted, again, given the market here.  He transforms into his jet-mode, as you would expect, and it’s obviously gonna be pretty simple, but it works well, and the mode is sufficiently different from the robot one, as well as being decently accurate to the show model.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I watched a *little* Beast Wars when it was on, but not much.  Beast Machines, on the other hand, I actually saw a lot of in its first run.  Fox Kids was also running Avengers: United They Stand and Digimon in ’99, so I got into pretty much watching the whole block, Machines included.  I didn’t *love* it, but I dug the Jetstorm stuff, and then some re-runs of Wars caught me up to speed on Silverbolt, and I really liked him, so that kind of stuck.  Back in 2000, my cousin Rusty got this guy, and he didn’t really care about it, so I ultimately got to keep it, and I always rather liked it.  I couldn’t tell you what happened to it over the years, but I missed it.  Seven years working at a toy store gives you a lot of access to pretty much everything, so I did eventually see this guy come through, and Max pretty much forced me to take him home.  He really had to twist my arm on that one, I swear.  He’s fun.  He’s basic and clunky, and definitely a toy that came packaged with some food, but within the confines of what he is, he’s really cool.

#4149: Dr. Mid-Nite

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

DR. MID-NITE

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“The original Doctor Mid-Nite, Dr. Charles McNider, lost his sight to a grenade, and fought crime alongside the original Justice Society of America.”

Before Matt Murdock’s debut as Daredevil in 1964, the premier visually impaired vigilante was Dr. Mid-Nite, a golden age DC hero who first appeared in 1941.  In contrast to Murdock, who was truly blind (albeit with greatly increased senses otherwise), McNider’s vision returned in the dark, allowing him to still see at night or through use of special darkened lenses.  What does that mean?  Mostly, it means that sick-ass goggles were a standard part of his costume design, and who doesn’t love that?  Toy makers certainly do, if the decent number of Dr. Mid-Nite figures out there is anything to go by.  Here’s another one!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Mid-Nite is the final figure in the 14th assortment of McFarlane’s Super Powers line, where he’s figure 72 in the overall line-up.  He’s the third of three JSA members in this set, seen here in his classic costume.  The figure stands just under 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Mid-Nite is built on the line’s original Superman base body, admittedly not one of my favorites, mostly due to the kind of oversized nature of it.  McNider was classically shown to be of a more average build, so I’d have more expected the Flash-style build.  It seems to have been largely chosen because they had the cuffed boots for it, used by Black Adam in this same assortment.  It’s worth noting that the Starman from the three pack was on the same mold, and McNider did pass himself off as Ted in-universe for a while, so there’s at least some internal consistency there.  He gets a new head sculpt and a belt add-on piece.  Sizing aside, it all fits together pretty well, and I do especially like the head sculpt, which manages to get Mid-Nite’s classic look down pretty great.  It’s all topped off with a cloth cape piece, and its honestly one of the best capes in this last run of figures.  There’s just something about the particular material that hangs really well on the figure.  The color work on this figure is appropriately bright and eye catching, which I always do like.  The paint application’s generally okay, though there’s some notable slop and bleed over around the goggles on the head, which I don’t love.  Otherwise, though, it all works out okay.  Mid-Nite includes no accessories, which isn’t all that odd for the line, but I do kind of wish they’d included his pet owl Hooty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I quite like the JSA in general, but Dr. Mid-Nite’s always been a particular favorite of mine, going back to the old DC Direct PVC collection figurine.  I’ve picked up a few of his other figures over the years, but, with the advent of adding more JSA members to the Super Powers line-up, he’s certainly been high on my list.  He was by far the figure in this set I was most looking forward to.  While I’m not crazy about the choice of base body, I do still love the final product, and he’s absolutely my favorite of the set.

#4148: Penance

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

PENANCE

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“The young woman called Penance possesses the mutant ability to internalize negative energy around her, turning her body into a diamond-hard, razor-sharp weapon. Held prisoner by the energy-stealing mutant Empath for an undetermined number of years, she escaped and was transported to the doorstep of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Now, Banshee and Emma Frost face the challenge of reaching out to help a girl who can slice apart anything she touches”

Okay, so there’s this Marvel character named Penance, and their identity is all mysterious, and they’re wrapped up in some sort of weird…bondage related gear, and their gimmick is like, pain, and being literally edgy.  Would you believe that this has happened twice, with two completely unrelated characters?  Because it has.  And one of them is objectively better than the other, but given that one of them was “let’s take Speedball, a fun lovable character and make him angsty and broody and just totally ruin him,” the other one being “better” isn’t exactly high praise, but it’s where we are here.  Introduced in Generation X #1, Penance was a big ol’ mystery character, though she was originally intended to be a random Yugoslavian girl named Yvette.  A creative team change just kind of made things more complicated, as it was revealed that Penance was in fact Monet St Croix, and that her fellow Gen X team-member who was supposedly Monet was actually Monet’s younger twin sisters Nicole and Claudette fused into one being, masquerading as their older sister.  An altercation with Emplate (who was revealed to be the eldest St Croix sibling, Marius) put Monet back in her own body, and the twins into Penance’s body, but then they got removed as well, and the body that was Penance continued on as “the Hollow” for a bit?  Are you confused?  Well, yeah, that tracks.  Me too.  Anyway, here’s this figure of Penance, from when she was secretly Monet St Croix…well, at least in continuity, if perhaps not in reality.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Penance was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Generation X tie-in line.  She’s the final team member in the set, though I suppose “team member” is at times a loose term with her.  She’s got the uniform, though, is more what I’m getting at.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation.  Penance’s sculpt has a lot of similarities to Chamber in its approach, with its even more limited articulation relative to the others in the line, the sort of softer detailing, and the decision to put her in a team uniform she was wearing on the covers, but still not in the book at this point.  The softness is odd, especially for a character like Penance, whose whole gimmick is “real sharp.”  It’s not the worst, overall, and it covers the basic details of her design alright.  I think the head, particularly the hair, seems to miss the mark a bit on how she looked in the comics.  It’s just got too much volume and roundness in its shape.  Penance has a built in slashing action feature; pushing down the lever on her back swings the arms up and down. In terms of coloring, Penance is sort of brighter than she maybe should be, I feel.  She was wearing mostly black in the comics, but here it’s a sort of mid-tone purple.  It seems…off?  I feel like the softness of the sculpt wouldn’t be as obvious if it weren’t as bright.  Penance was packed with four shackle pieces that go on her arms and legs, as well as a display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t really have much of an attachment to Penance as a character, aside from knowing this figure existed, and reading some early issues of the comics back in the day, and she’s not exactly one I really invested myself in after the fact.  She’s…you know…kinda confusing.  The figure isn’t confusing, I suppose, but she’s also not great.  It’s a design that didn’t really translate all that well, and without the attachment to the character like I had with Chamber, it’s hard to feel much about this figure.  It…is?  So, that’s what she’s got going for her.  Existence.  Well, it puts her ahead of some of the other team members.

#4147: Commander Fox

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

COMMANDER FOX

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Commander Fox heads a squad of clone troopers who accompany Padmé to the palace of Ziro the Hutt. She hopes to reopen negotiations with the Hutts, who have been tricked into believing the Jedi abducted Jabba’s son. The commander finds a hostile reception when the group arrives at Ziro’s lavish palace on Coruscant.”

The last time I was talking about Clone Wars, it was the Genndy Tartakovsky 2D-animated series, which actually aired between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, but there’s *another* Clone Wars animated series, launched with a 2008 theatrical film that served as the pilot to the show, which ran for seven seasons over the course of 12 years, and actually got a lot more toy coverage.  A lot of toy coverage that I happen to own, so behold, a new Star Wars theme for me to dive into for a good long while!  The back bone of Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in line was, unsurprisingly, the clones, and today I’m looking at one of those, Clone Commander Fox!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Commander Fox was released early on in Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars tie-in line, right around the initial launch assortment and the theatrical release of the movie in 2008.  He was an exclusive release to a retail chain that shares his taste in being primarily red.  And also his taste in just being…the worst.  And turning on the people that trusted them.  Man, maybe Fox was a better fit for an exclusive than any of us knew in 2008.  I’m getting side-tracked though, aren’t I?  Fox was a standard packaged figure stuck into a clamshell, which was used to justify charging an extra $6 for him, which didn’t go over well at the time, but then people bought him anyway, so I guess no lesson was really learned.  Fox was seen here in his Phase I armor, which was all we knew him in at the time.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  Fox was entirely built from parts re-used from other figures in the launch assortment.  He’s predominantly the first Captain Rex figure, minus the removable pauldron and with the alternate helmeted head from the first Obi-Wan.  While the parts aren’t bad at all on their own, it’s a slightly awkward combo, mostly owing to the fact that the head sits a bit too high on the neck joint, so he’s got a bit of giraffe neck going on.  Otherwise, the figure’s mostly being sold by the new paint scheme.  The red seems a bit too dark, and the application’s a bit sloppy around the edges, but he’s at the very least pretty unique.  Fox is packed with a DC-15 long blaster rifle, and a pair of DC-17 blaster pistols.  He was notably lacking in the missile launcher style accessory that prominently featured in the early line releases, despite his much higher price point.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I recall Fox being released back in ’08, but I never actually saw one at retail, so I never had a chance to debate whether he was worth the extra money or not.  2008 me probably would have caved, if I’m honest.  That said, it was actually 2019 me that ultimately did the caving, when I got the chance to snag a sealed one through work at a stretch of time where he’d actually fallen a bit in value.  It’s honestly wild that he was so much more expensive than the main line, because he feels rather behind where most of this line was.  He’s certainly not bad, mostly by virtue of working from a really good bank of parts, but he’s a little awkward in his assembly, and he just has this overwhelming feeling of being rather phoned in.  Hasbro just hadn’t quite worked out how to make these repainted exclusive clones work to their advantage just yet for the line.

#4146: Acroyear & Time Traveler

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

ACROYEAR & TIME TRAVELER

MICRONAUTS REACTION+ FIGURES (SUPER 7)

The list of current toy lines I’m actively invested in these days is a very short one.  Mostly, it’s the McFarlane Super Powers and Super 7’s Micronauts.  I’ve loved Micronauts since I was a kid, but it’s been a lot of loving from afar, because vintage pieces in good shape are tricky, and the attempts at reviving the brand can be even trickier.  But, it does seem like Super 7’s been having some success with their go at it, and I’ve been immensely enjoying that, so here I am, looking at the next two offerings in the line, an Acroyear and another Time Traveler!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Acroyear and Time Traveler make up the sixth series of Super 7’s Micronauts ReAction+ Figures line.  If you’ve been following my reviews, you might notice a skip from Series 4 to Series 6; I didn’t miss any figures, but Super 7 apparently counted the SDCC re-packs of Biotron and Karza in new boxes as a “series,” so here we are.

ACROYEAR

Hey, it’s a new mold!  Yay!  Counting the SDCC set, we’ve had two sets in a row that were re-used molds, but we finally get a new one, in the form of the Acroyear.  The Acroyear is one of the signature designs of the original line, forming the backbone of the villainous side, equivalent to the Time Traveller on the side of the heroes (though neither *really* fit those roles in the associated fiction).  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 16 points of articulation.  The original Acroyear (whose mold I looked at via the Palisades Battle Acroyear release) used a solid construction mix of plastic a die-cast, rather than the o-ring construction of others from the line.  As with all the other non-o-ring figures from this line, for this release, he’s been migrated to the o-ring construction.  That said, unlike the “trons” and magnetic figures, this figure maintains the outer appearance and scaling of the original, with one the internals and articulation scheme actually changing.  Mostly, it means he gains swivels on the upper arm and wrists, as well as movement at the waist, while removing the movement on the shins.  While I miss the shin swivels (and the transformation gimmick that accompanied them), I do really like the new joints on the arms.  He also still gets the wheels on the bottoms of the feet, which are quite a lot of fun.  As with many of the original Mego Micronauts, Acroyear was offered in multiple colors, specifically pink, green, and blue.  This release goes with the blue, which isn’t quite the standard, but is a good look, and one I rather like.  The blue chrome looks very slick, and honestly is a lot more saturated than I’d expected.  Acroyear is packed with his wing pack and a small dagger.  The wing pack is scaled down a bit from the vintage (and Palisades) counterparts, but still looks the part.  The turbines are now a removable element, if you’re into that sort of thing.  The dagger matches well with the original, and it’s fine, though I do kind of miss the Palisades-style sword.

TIME TRAVELER

The first Time Traveler release in this line did two of the original four colors at once.  The follow-up did one additional color.  It didn’t take much of a fortune teller to guess there’d be at least one more.  We got blue, yellow, and orange, so the only one missing was clear, which is the one we got here.  Honestly, the clear’s kind of the go-to look for the “main” Time Traveler, so it’s probably the most essential of the bunch.  As with the orange Traveler from Series 4, the mold here seems to be slightly degraded from the Series 3 releases, which were just a bit crisper.  It’s still not a bad mold, though.  This one gets the fourth chest-plate design, the “radio dials” piece, rounding out the set of chest-plates.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The last set of these felt a lot more like playing it safe, so I was definitely hoping for something a little more adventurous this time around.  The Time Traveler was pretty much a lock, but the Acroyear was definitely on my short list of hopes.  I was very happy to see the announcement, and it was honestly kind of crazy that they were just available and in stock with no prior announcement.  The Acroyear is very much the star here.  I love the look, and the changes work well.  I look forward to buying this in the additional two colors, presumably over the course of the next two sets.  Retread though he may be, I do really like the Time Traveler, and I’m glad to have rounded out the four core color variants.  I’m curious if they’ll do the opaque variants, but I’m honestly hoping for a break from the Travelers for a minute, because I desperately need a Space Glider update.

#4145: Wildcat

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

WILDCAT

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

“In 1941, boxer Ted Grant was framed for murder and on the run when a comic book inspired him to don a costume and track down the real killer. As Wildcat, Ted cleared his name and, loving the double life, kept going.”

Ted Grant’s adoption of the Wildcat identity wasn’t all that removed from most costumed heroes of the Golden Age.  Guy has run-in with crime, wants to solve crime, puts on mask and adopts vaguely-themed supranym.  He didn’t really have any notable gimmicks, aside from being a boxer, which did at least make more sense for the line to crime fighting career than the myriad of scientists and doctors that got into it most frequently in the Golden Age.  When Earths 1 and 2 merged following Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wildcat’s background as a boxer and as one of the old guard super heroes led to him being the guy that trained a lot of the current generation of heroes, which was a pretty good touch, and gave him a solid footing and connection to the modern heroes.  He’s remained a fan favorite, which is pretty great for a guy whose first appearance had him playing second fiddle to Wonder Woman.  Wildcat has been no stranger to action figures over the years, and his latest comes in the form of Super Powers! 

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wildcat is the second to last figure in the 14th assortment of McFarlane’s Super Powers line, where he’s figure 71 in the overall line-up.  He’s the second of the three JSA figures in this round, sort of serving as a bridge between the more modern (Black Adam) and classic (Dr. Mid-Nite) memberships.  He’s using a more classic version of his costume, pre-hand wrappings and more defined mask, which fits better with the usual Super Powers period, as well as most of the other JSA-ers featured in McFarlane’s updated line.  The figure stands just under 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Wildcat is using the modified Wave 10 version of the newer Superman mold as his base.  It’s got some plusses and minuses.  I think the general stocky build is certainly a good match for the character, and most of the costume details have been cleared, to better align with Ted’s costume.  That said, I’m not much of a fan of the gripping right hand in place of a fist, and the mold has a belt, which is also wrong for Ted.  He gets a new head sculpt, and it’s a little softer on the detailing, but I do particularly like that it’s clearly more defined than “slightly rounder ears on a Batman.”  His color work is very basic.  He’s predominantly just a very dark shade of blue, almost entirely molded plastic, with just a little bit of paint on his face and eyes.  It’s very basic, and like I said above, not really the more modern take on his costume, but it does work for the general style.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I knew Wildcat as a kid from his presence in the JLA/JSA crossovers mostly, but my first distinct memory of the character really was his original DC Direct figure from 2001.  He’s got that understated, but still very cool look, that works really well as an action figure, and fills out the JSA line-up nicely.  I’ve been loving the building up of the JSA that’s been running through McFarlane’s Super Powers, and so I’m happy to have Ted to add to the crowd there.  The figure isn’t without its flaws, but I think he sells the look well, and I’m happy to have him.

Incidentally, my daughter Aubrey, who’s been insisting on helping me open all of these Super Powers figures as they arrive, was immediately enamored with this guy, who she’s taken to calling “Kitty Cat,” and whom she pulls off of my shelf every time she sees him.

#4144: Chamber

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

CHAMBER

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“The privileged life of Jonathan Starsmore was shattered forever when his mutant ability emerged for the first time. Most of his chest and lower jaw was blown away because he couldn’t control the powerful psionic-biokinetic energy that exists within him. Chamber is the oldest of Banshee’s new pupils, but he’ll have to emerge from the shell that his injury has forced him into, before he can emerge as a leader of his fellow students.”

What’s an X-Men team without a guy with energy based powers he can’t control manifesting in a way that makes him an outcast, who also has a penchant for leather jackets? Well, like, I guess that’s maybe the New Mutants?  Generation X was having none of it, though, so when they officially made the group of youngsters that had teamed up during “The Phalanx Covenant” a proper team in Generation X #1, Jonathan “Jono” Starsmore joined the line-up, as Chamber, the guy with no lower jaw or upper chest.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Chamber was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Generation X toyline.  He’s fairly pivotal to the comic’s first few issues, especially in regards to both Emplate and Penance, who were also in Series 1, plus there was also just a big push behind the character (and a sensible one at that, since he remained perhaps the book’s most signature character even well after its ending), so it all tracked pretty well.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation.  None of the Generation X figures were very posable, but Chamber gets hit harder than most, due to his design removing the possibility of a neck joint, leaving him with just the shoulders and hips.  Chamber’s sculpt was all-new to him and remained unique.  It shows him in his team suit (which in 1995, he still wasn’t really wearing in the book, but it was showing up on the covers), with his signature leather jacket over it.  Chamber’s original prototype had a rather different sculpt, with a more visible break between the energy of his torso and his head, as well as closed fists and a zipped up jacket.  The final product is…well, it’s fine.  The jacket is a separate piece, and it’s got a nice flow about it.  The torso/head is a bit soft on the detailing, which makes it a little tricky to make out exactly what’s going on.  His hair does at least have a nice dynamic flow to it, even if it does somewhat have the consistency of a tootsie roll. Otherwise, the sculpt’s perfectly fine.  He’s a lot less pre-posed than other figures from the line, opting for a more basic standing pose, albeit one with enough flair to not be too boring.  He had a light-up feature worked into the torso, which was the same as the one used on the Fantastic Four Human Torch; pulling the string on his back would create sparks in the torso.  It has the benefit of not relying on batteries, but since it’s just a friction thing, used copies tend to be too worn down to work, and new copies tend to have seized up.  Mine’s somewhere between those two points, but still isn’t in working order.  The color work on Chamber is decent enough.  He matches up with the other team members in terms of uniform colors, and his base application is all pretty clean.  Mine’s taken a beating over the years as you can see.  Chamber is packed with a team logo display stand, and…well, that’s it.  Just the stand. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have Chamber during the original line’s run proper, but I did have him very shortly thereafter.  Sometime in the summer of 2000, I got an X-Men 2099 Meanstreak, and saw the Generation X line-up on the back of his box, and got it into my head that I wanted Chamber and Skin, and my dad did a bit of hunting and we found these two at a comic shop sort of near by.  Chamber was the one I really wanted, and he’s always stood out to me as my favorite member of the team.  The figure’s honestly kind of mediocre, upon review, but the rather cool design of the character still bleeds through, and I do still quite like him.

And I almost let this review finish without noting it, but over the weekend, the site officially made it into its 14th year.  Man, time sure does fly.  Crazy stuff.  Thanks for reading everybody!

#4143: Biker Scout

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

BIKER SCOUT

STAR WARS: THE LEGACY COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Oh, we are just rolling through different Star Wars lines around here, aren’t we?  Well, next week I’m settling into a theme that should run for a bit, but before I do that, let’s take another stab into the proverbial dark with a one-off from a line I didn’t really collect, The Legacy Collection.  But, it had a Biker Scout, and I sure do like a Biker Scout action figure, so I sure did get one of those.  So, let’s look at that Biker Scout figure, which I sure am reviewing today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Biker Scout was released in Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Legacy Collection in 2009, as figure 12 in the Build-A-Droid run, contributing a part to L8-L9.  The figure was first released as the 2006 Vintage Saga Collection Biker Scout, then again as part of the “Battle For Endor” set that same year, then in the “Shadow of the Darkside” set also in 2006, again as part of the 30th Anniversary Collection in 2007, and then finally here in 2009, with a number of re-decos and slight tweaks interspersed.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  At this point in the line, the only things that really separate him from a modern figure in terms of movement are the t-hips, something that George Lucas himself was apparently a stickler on in regards to how the joints broke up the sculpt.  I’ve actually looked at the sculpt once before through one of its repaints, the Elite Corps release from 2006.  It’s honestly really solid for its era.  It’s accurate to the source material (and in fact a but more so than some of the later Biker Scout molds) and it moves pretty well.  The structure of the wrist and elbow joints makes his hands prone to popping off from time to time when posing the elbows, but it’s not terrible, and they go right back on.  There were some minor tweaks over the years to the exact paint work on this figure, but they all kind of added up to the same general look.  This release was generally cleaner across most of the armor, confining the dirt more to the feet.  The Biker Scout was packed with his small blaster pistol, which he can hold or holster, as well as one of the legs to L8-L9.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t buy this new, but I did buy it new-ish.  2009 was the start of my senior year of high school, so my spending was a bit more restrained at times, so a lot of stuff I might have casually picked up got overlooked.  My Star Wars focus was almost entirely on Clone Wars, so the old stuff got overlooked.  By college, I was more comfortable in my collecting again, and picking up oddball stuff when I saw it.  This guy was picked up at a mall pop-up toy shop called “Toy Zam” I wanna say?  I visiting some friends in the late fall of 2011, and found this spot in the mall.  They had a bunch of close-out Hasbro stuff from ’09, mostly junk I didn’t need, but this guy was there, and I of like a good Biker Scout.  And he is that.  He’s a good Biker Scout.  Probably my favorite Biker Scout mold, honestly (though I do remain partial to the Power of the Jedi one).

#4142: Megatron

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

MEGATRON

TRANSFORMERS: MACHINE WARS (KENNER)

The success that was Transformers in the ‘80s sort of waned as they moved into the next decade, with the Generation 2 rebrand never really finding its footing in the market.  The franchise was given new life, however, in 1996 with Beast Wars, which shifted the focus to creature-based alt-modes, and found a solid fanbase, which was a mix of old and new fans.  Some of the old fans were still longing for vehicle-based Transformers, and Hasbro/Kenner gave it another try in 1997, with the KB Toys-exclusive Machine Wars line.  It wasn’t really a smash success, running only 12 figures across different sizes, all of them re-using molds from earlier runs.  It did, however, serve to get some unused and rare molds out, so I guess that was pretty nice.  And, in a weird turn of events, it got me a Megatron.  Let’s look at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Megatron was released as part of the “Basics” assortment of Transformers: Machine Wars, which was the smaller scale line of figures.  He was one of four basic Decepticons, all of them jets.  Megatron shared his mold with his “clone” Megaplex (and indeed the art of the two characters is swapped between their packaging, with the Megaplex art appearing on Megatron’s card and vice-versa), and they both served to finally release the cancelled G2 Skystriker mold.  In his robot mode, the figure stands 4 inches tall and he has 9 workable points of articulation.  The articulation on these smaller guys was pretty solid, offering a good basic assortment of joints, with a good range of motion.  The arms and legs are all balljoints, so there’s a lot to be done with them, keeping him on par with the typical Legends/Core class figure of the modern line.  His mold is a good precursor of things to come.  It feels stylistically a lot like a G1 animation based figure, with a lot of good classic robot elements at play.  Though not sculpted to *be* Megatron, the head has a certain degree of a Megatron vibe to it, especially with the helmet shape.  Megatron’s alt-mode is an F-22 Raptor fighter jet, which he transforms into with some spring assistance under the back of the figure.  The arms and legs fold up decently enough, but definitely do just hang there a bit.  He’s got some landing gear, which folds out of the legs and the nose of the cockpit.  The color scheme here is a sort of turquoise/sky blue and white set-up, which doesn’t feel very Megatron-y, and in fact feels a bit more heroic, if I’m honest.  This, coupled with his lack of any sort of faction symbol, does kind of muddy a bit who he’s meant to be.  Megatron is packed with a blaster with a removable muzzle.  It can be disassembled and stored in the backs of his legs for when he’s in jet mode, or just doesn’t feel like carrying around a gun, I guess.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Megatron was more than likely my first ever Transformer, but I didn’t know it at the time.  My grandparents on my dad’s side got the four grandchildren each one of the jets for Christmas in 1997, and Megatron was the one I got.  I tore him open at our Christmas gathering, and the packaging certainly didn’t make it home, so I didn’t know his name or the line he came from.  When I actually got into Transformers later on, this guy’s total lack of any markings led me to believe he was a knock off of some sort.  He did get a lot of use, more often than not with my Star Wars figures, where he served as a droid companion.  Over the years, he fell to pieces and I honestly don’t know where any of my original figure ended up.  A few years ago, one of the later re-decos of this mold came through All Time, which led to me realizing it was an official Transformer mold and doing a little digging, resulting in my discovery of who exactly this guy was.  And then, not terribly long after, a full run of Machine Wars came through, giving me a chance to snag this guy to replace my original.  I really quite like this one.  He still doesn’t feel like Megatron, but perhaps that’s why I like him so much.  He can just be what he was to my much younger self, which was just a cool transforming robot toy I knew very little about.