Category Archives: Reviews

#4067: DJ R-3X

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

DJ R-3X

DROID DEPOT (DISNEY)

“All different types of droids populate the Star Wars galaxy. Each droid is different and has their own unique personality and colors. Rex, a former pilot of a Starspeeder 3000 for Star Tours, was recently reprogrammed to be a DJ in Oga’s Cantina. Join DJ R-3X on their adventures throughout the galaxy. May the Force be with you… and your droids!”

The beats are about to get riggity-Rexed!  I’m sorry, was that bad?  Well, I’m standing by it.  While I haven’t discussed the Disney Parks attraction Star Tours much here on the site, I did talk a little bit about it, way back in 2020, when I discussed its original star, pilot droid RX-24, the original “Captain Rex.”  Rex was of course removed from the ride in its 2011 reworking, which made R2-D2 and C-3PO the main focuses of the ride.  Rex was sidelined for the better part of a decade, but finally resurfaced as part of Galaxy’s Edge, now as “DJ R-3X.”  He’s gotten a couple of figures, the latest of which is part of Disney’s in-house parks merch, which I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

DJ R-3X was a November 2025 offering from Disney’s Droid Depot line, the Parks and website exclusive line which replaced the Droid Factory build-a-droids.  This is Rex’s second figure since he became a DJ, the first being his 2020 Black Series figure (though I guess that was technically released twice.)  The figure stands just over 3 inches tall and he has 18 points of articulation.  He’s actually not much smaller than the Black Series figure, and thus doesn’t really look *drastically* different.  His movement is mostly the same as well, though he’s actually got some extra utility thanks to the headphones and visor’s articulation, which was missing from the Black Series release. I do miss the spinning sections of the torso, and I’ve found that the joints on the arms are a bit looser than I’d like, but overall, he’s got a respectable set-up.  The sculpt is a good match for the prop from the parks, and the detailing is all pretty sharp.  His color work is actually a bit of an improvement over the Hasbro version, which was fine, but certainly more on the basic side of things.  This one, on the other hand, is quite remarkably weathered, which is certainly fitting of the very lived-in aesthetic of Star Wars as a whole, but specifically the Galaxy’s Edge  area.  Like the last Rex, this guy is without accessories, but he’s involved enough on his own that it doesn’t feel so light.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m not much of a Disney parks guy, and in fact hadn’t been to Disney World since going on a trip with my parents back in 2007, meaning the last time I was there, Disney hadn’t yet acquired Star Wars, and therefore didn’t have anything apart from Star Tours for the license.  I hadn’t gotten to see any of the Galaxy’s Edge stuff, including Rex’s revamped placement.  My son Matty turned 10 this year, so for his spring break, we all flew down to Disney, and we got to spend some time in Galaxy’s Edge, which was super fun.  While there, I found this guy, and I absolutely couldn’t pass him up, because, well, it’s Rex.  He’s got some quirks for sure, but I like him for different reasons than the Black Series.  They’re both good for different reasons, though, so I’m glad to have them both.

#4066: Force Commander & Microtron

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

FORCE COMMANDER & MICROTRON

MICRONAUTS REACTION+ FIGRURES (SUPER 7)

Back in December of last year, I got to take my first look at Super 7’s revival of Micronauts, a brand with a history of really struggling, not just at retail, but also behind the scenes.  Despite all that, it seems like Super 7’s had at least a little more luck than others, and they’ve even managed to get through multiple rounds of follow-ups.  I’ve finally pulled myself together and jumped on board for those, so today, I’m taking a look at the second round of figures, Force Commander and Microtron!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Force Commander and Microtron are Series 2 of Super 7’s Micronauts ReAction+ Figures, which like the first series, is an o-ring construction based line.  And, much like the first series, both figures included were larger scale, non-o-ring figures in the vintage line, in a sort of reversal of things.

FORCE COMMANDER

“Force Commander, ruler of Homeworld, the Capitol of the Microverse under the rule of Baron Karza.  Captured and merged with his horse Oberon in the Body Banks, he temporarily became a centaur-like being.  As Force Commander, he was a leader of the rebellion against Baron Karza.”

Karza’s opposite number (at least in the toyline; the fiction never really treated him as such, more often treating him as somewhat misguided and out of touch), Force Commander’s original figure jointed the vintage line in its second year, alongside the Baron.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  Force Commander and Karza have classically shared most of their parts, and this release is no exception.  From the neck down, he’s identical to the Series 1 Karza, which is accurate, and also not a bad thing, since the Karza sculpt is really quite nice.  He has a new head sculpt.  There are two head variants on the original figure, and Super 7’s gone with Hong Kong-produced version with larger eyes and rebreather.  It’s the generally more “on-model” of the two, and looks a bit better, so it’s the right choice.  The sculpt is clean and sharp and fits well with the rest of the mold.  Force Commander’s color work is pretty much the same set-up as Karza, just swapping out white plastic for the black plastic.  I think it ends up rather striking.  Force Commander has a backpack piece, modeled on his original rocket pack, now as a simple plug-in back pack.

MICROTRON

“Microtron has been Princess Mari’s diminutive roboid attendant since her birth.  He is equipped with an interlingual translator.  He never abandons her while she joins the underground and the Micronauts fighting Baron Karza.”

As with Biotron from Series 1, the original Microtron was less a figure himself and more a vehicle/accessory to the main figures from the line. He was much larger in scale, and had features like a seat that flipped out of the top of his head.  Just like Biotron, the comics would shrink him down significantly to better interact with the other characters, which the toys never really replicated.  The figure stands 2 1/2 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  While the original figure had no real movement below the shoulders, this figure uses the o-ring construction to give him movement at the waist, and he’s also got swivels at the “hips” on the tops of the treads, so there’s some more room for tweaking his posing there.  The sculpt is a pretty respectable recreation of the original, just shrunk down and made more posable.  His color scheme is particularly eye-catching, and like Biotron, he gets to dabble in the signature Mircronauts chrome a bit, albeit not for the head, but rather his visor and arms.  It’s quite a fun look, and it gives him a lot of pop that might get lost if he were just relying on painted silver.  The original Microtron had a number of swappable parts, but this release just grants him his drill piece.  It’s chromed as well, and you can still place it in its original (somewhat unfortunate) spot on the front of the pelvis, or in any of the 5mm sockets on the front or back of the torso.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the first series, I kind of dragged my feet on getting these, and I don’t really know why exactly I did that, but I finally bought them, and now here they are.  Back in the Palisades days, I really wanted a Force Commander, but was never able to get one, so I’m happy to finally have the chance here.  Karza was neat, but I like Force Commander just a little bit better.  Microtron is just a cool little robot guy, and I can never really complain about getting one of those.  Despite the delay in getting them, I think this one’s a bit more exciting for me than the first.

#4065: Battle Gear Bruce Wayne

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

BATTLE GEAR BRUCE WAYNE

BATMAN & ROBIN (KENNER)

After a quick look back at prior reviews, it seems my only reviews for Batman & Robin are from 2020, when I was focussed on pulling some more items out of the back catalogue during the shutdown.  At that point, I looked at both Ice Board Robin and the standard Batgirl.  And then a whole lot of nothing.  Notably, not a single Batman.  So, I guess I’ll sort of address that here.  Kind of.  It’s not *technically* Batman, it’s Bruce Wayne, but I’ve got it on pretty good authority they *might* be the same guy.  I mean, have you ever seen them both in my collection at the same time?  Well, yes, but still!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Battle Gear Bruce Wayne is part of the initial assortment of Kenner’s tie-in line for Batman & Robin.  He’s one of the three Batman variants in the initial drop, though he’s not officially labeled as such.  Interestingly, there are quick change secret identity variants of both Batman and Robin in this first assortment, but while Dick is labeled “Robin,” Bruce uses his real name.  Why?  Who knows.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  In his core look, he’s a George Clooney Bruce Wayne…sort of.  I mean, he looks more or less like Clooney, but not especially like Clooney from Batman & Robin, and he’s not really wearing anything much like what Bruce wears in the movie.  But, it’s certainly far from the worst look we’ve gotten on one of these Bruce-to-Batman figures.  The coloring is fine; honestly, it’s surprisingly subdued given the source material’s neon color scheme.  To facilitate the transformation to Batman, Bruce includes five clip-on armor pieces.  The chest plate has a head and cape on it, which slip over the main figure, who, much like the Val Kilmer Bruce from the prior movie line, has a spring-loaded head, which depresses so that the Batman head can take its place.  The final appearance is…well, it’s a Batman, I guess.  Not really a standard Batman, or anything close to the look seen in the movie but, I guess it’s…fine?  I do rather like the inclusion of the skates on the bottoms of the leg pieces.  That’s fun.  He’s also got this odd sort of claw-missile thing that goes into one of the armor pieces, and it gives our one bit of neon for the figure, which feels appropriate.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My whole Batman & Robin collection is made up of figures I actually got back when they were new, and the vast majority of them were gifts, mostly for my birthday the year the movie came out.  This guy’s from that latter category…or at least he was.  I got one for my birthday (with the corresponding Robin), but, while I kept all the armor, I lost the actual Bruce figure (which also happened with my Val Kilmer Bruce, for that matter).  I found a replacement Bruce later, and boom, here we are.  He’s goofy and silly, and not movie accurate, but for a toy from a toy commercial movie, he’s pretty fun.

#4064: Cable – 2nd Edition

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

CABLE — 2ND EDITION

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“The mysterious warrior called Cable stands ready to battle evil wherever it appears-even in the cold void of space! Armed with a high-tech suit of space armor and weapons that won’t be invented for hundreds of years, Cable seeks out the extraterrestrial enemies of mankind-and exterminates them with extreme prejudice.”

Back at the beginning of the year, a whole six months ago, I reviewed my first Toy Biz Cable figure, which I noted was weird, given how many variations were produced of him during the run.  So, you know, I guess it’s time to go back to that well, with a specific focus on environment-specific variants.  Oh yeah, let’s go ahead and take this guy out into deep space!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cable — 2nd Edition was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s X-Force line.  He’s the second Cable, and the first of two included in the assortment.  This one was specifically sporting his “Deep Space Armor,” which, as far as I can tell, isn’t actually based on a specific comics design.  But I’m getting ahead of myself there.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  His sculpt was totally unique to him, and, as noted above, sees to be a wholesale Toy Biz creation.  While the first series of X-Force followed the same style as the early X-Men figures, the second series started introducing more updated sculpts, and this Cable is included in that batch.  You can hardly tell he’s supposed to be the same person as the first Cable figure.  In general, I think it’s mostly an improvement, in terms of build and detailing, but I’ll admit the head is a bit less on the mark for specifically Liefeld’s version of Cable.  All that being said, it’s certainly not a bad sculpt at all. There’s a lot of neat detail work, and it feels pretty accurate to the character.  The head dome part is removable, albeit after a fashion, allowing a better view of the head sculpt.  The head’s a separate piece, but the neck doesn’t budge on my figure, and I know better than to force it on these guys.  His paint work is pretty nice.  The orange and blue feels rather unique.  The first release of this has a fair bit of detailing, which they’d incrementally strip from him on later releases.  Cable is packed with a rather large gun, to the great surprise of everyone, I’m sure.  Parts of it slide, I suppose to simulate some sort of firing?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I avoided most of the Cables as a kid, because I just didn’t feel the need to have more than one.  I do recall seeing them all on the back of the various boxes, and this one always kind of caught my eye as a counterpart to the Space Suit Wolverine.  Though certainly a departure from the first figure, he sets the standard for the rest of the line’s Cables going forward, and it’s not really a bad standard to set.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#4063: Mace Windu

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

MACE WINDU

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“In the days before Palpatine’s Empire began its reign of terror, the Galactic Republic governed the affairs of the galaxy from the capital of Couruscant. In addition, the city-planet was also the seat of the legendary 12-member Jedi Council. Wisdom and experience were equally as important as abilities in the Force among the Jedi Council members. For this reason, Mace Windu, a senior member of the Jedi Council, was especially honored and revered throughout the Galactic Republic.”

Hey, remember last week, when I discussed the “Sneak Preview” offerings from Power of the Force to give people a taste of the then-upcoming Episode I line?  Well, there were two items offered.  The STAP and Battle Droid were offered up at standard retail, but promoted on the back of the box and available via a mail-away promotion was Samuel L Jackson’s senior Jedi Council member himself, Mace Windu!  Yes, this is from the before movie times when we were all like “this Mace Windu guy is clearly gonna *do stuff* in this movie” rather than “wow, that Mace Windu guy really didn’t *do anything* in that movie.”  Look, whatever the case, let’s look at the novelty that is the very first Mace Windu action figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mace Windu was offered up as a mail-away promotion for Star Wars: Power of the Force II in 1998.  He required a whopping six proofs of purchase from standard figures, largely because he was really operating as a covert way of clearing excess stock off of retail shelves in preparation of all that hot new Episode I product that was definitely going to be a long-term investment, right?  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Mace was sporting what was an all-new sculpt at the time, though he wound up sharing his head, torso, and legs with the standard Episode I Mace.  This one was unique in offering up Mace just sort of casually wearing his robe, rather than with the hood up, or without the robe entirely, which makes it a nice sort of straight forward figure.  The head has a serviceable likeness of Jackson, given it’s the only one before they started scanning likenesses with the Attack of the Clones figures.  It’s got a nice, neutral expression, which fits Mace pretty well.  The body sculpt gets a surprising amount of texture detailing, which works really well to sell all the different fabrics.  The sculpted outer robe is similar to that of the Flashback Anakin figure, though it’s distinctly different.  His paint work is decent, mostly just base work, but it’s clean.  He does get the tiniest little bit of mud splatter on his boots, which is actually a pretty cool touch.  Mace is packed with a lightsaber.  It’s hard to call it *his* lightsaber, since it’s very much blue, but that was the case for all his Episode I merch, since it was supposed to be that color, before Jackson requested a different color in Attack so that he could more easily find himself in fight scenes.  Since Mace never powers up his saber in Phantom Menace, maybe it was just a different color then?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I honestly don’t recall this promotion at all, which is strange, since I was very much collecting the line at the time.  I vaguely recall the final figure, mostly seen at toy shows and comic shops around the time, always for far more than a seven-year-old would be looking to pay.  For whatever reason, even later, I just never got one, perhaps because he quickly became comically cheap.  As it stands, Mace gets the significance of being the very final Power of the Force figure I needed to round out my full run of all the figures.  Not on purpose or anything, mostly just because he happened to be the last one.  He’s also the last one I’m reviewing here on the site.  He’s a fitting, I suppose, as something of a transitional figure.  And, after almost exactly 30 years, my Power of the Force collection that started with a comedically muscled Dagobah Fatigues Luke is complete. Weird.

#4062: Commander Ford

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

COMMANDER FORD

SEAQUEST DSV (PLAYMATES)

“Name: Jonathan Devin Ford

Rank: Commander

Assignment: Executive Officer, seaQuest DSV 4600

UEO Military ID#: CT366-9917-JG2

Security Access: AIA

Date of Birth: June 10, 1989

Character Profile: Driven and highly disciplined. Cool under pressure. Fiercely loyal. A serious by-the-book sailor. Above average intelligence reinforced by tireless work. Excellent command instincts.

Personal History: Was a positive role model in tough East Chicago neighborhood. Enrolled in academy at age 18. Graduated top of cadet class. Received record scores in diverse subjects. Earned Distinguished Service Citation for relieving Capt. Marilyn Stark of command during Livingston Trench Incident, 2017. Youngest ship’s Executive Officer in the fleet, serving as second in command of seaQuest.

Mission Specialty: Responsible for seaQuest’s 88 member Navy crew operations and all undersea Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) Missions.”

At the end of its first season SeaQuest DSV discarded about half of its main cast, which was certainly a disappointing direction for a lot of their stories.  But, perhaps more disappointing was the direction of one of the few characters to remain with the show for its whole run, Don Franklin’s Commander Jonathan Ford.  As the SeaQuest’s Executive Officer, he gets a lot of focus during the first year, as he is naturally grown into the kind of character that could replace Bridger as the commanding officer.  Then, in the second season, they just sort of introduce another guy with the same general role, without getting rid of Ford, meaning that Ford is increasingly side-lined, which was as much a bummer as it was to watch the others depart.  But, there’s no denying that he gets a lot of cool stuff to do in the first season, and he was also lucky enough to get action figure coverage too!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Commander Ford was released in the only series of Playmates’ SeaQuest DSV tie-in line from during the show’s first season.  He’s the last of the crew members included in the line-up, but certainly a very natural one, given his heavy focus, especially in the show’s earlier episodes.  As with Hitchcock, it’s a shame he doesn’t have a Krieg to trade jabs with, but at least he got made at all.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  His construction is very much the same as we’ve seen with all the others up to this point, and it continues to be a solid set-up.  Ford’s uniform is a bit more neat and tidy than the others, which suits his more straight and narrow personality on the show, with Playmates again using variations on details for the standard uniform to inject a little more character into the figures.  The head sculpt is decent; I don’t know that it’s quite as strong a likeness as some of the others in the line, but it’s not to say it looks *unlike* Franklin.  I’d still put it above most of the Trek likenesses.  Ford’s color work is much like the rest of the standard uniformed officers, with mostly basic work, but some quite nice smaller detail work on the insignias and markings.  Ford is packed with a Stun Gun, SeaPoc, Personal Audio Link, Away Team Launcher, display stand, and a small rubber manta ray.  His accessories are a lot less unique than the last few, but that isn’t all that out of place for Ford, and they did at least make sure he had a decent volume of parts.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Ford at the same time as the Hitchcock figure I reviewed two weeks ago.  My parents had gotten me O’Neill and told me there were others, so I went out myself and decided to finish out my crew…to the extent that the line allowed me to, anyway.  There’s not a ton to say about Ford, I suppose, since he leans pretty heavily on what the rest of the line was already doing, but there’s no denying that he’s just as nice a figure as the rest of them, and it’s cool that he got to be an action figure.  It’s okay, Ford, in my mind Brody got left on the island and you’re still the cool one.

#4061: Parademon

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

PARADEMON

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

“Although the Parademons of Apokolips wear protective armor and can fly, their true strength is in their numbers.  There are literally thousands of them, and, the acting together, they can overcome even the most powerful heroes.”

After the first year was really focused in on the heavy hitters, in terms of both heroes and their antagonists, subsequent years of Kenner’s Super Powers run would dial in a bit more on the weirder side of DC.  Jack Kirby was brought in to do some work on the line, and a focus was placed on his creations the New Gods, who would serve as a notable backbone for the antagonistic side of the line.  It also gave us I believe our earliest instance of an army builder in a super hero line, in the form of the Parademon!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Parademon was released in the second series of Super Powers, as one of the six Fourth World figures added to the line-up that year.  The figure stands a little over 4 1/2 inches tall and it has 7 points of articulation.  Most of the Fourth World characters got some degree of redesign for the line (only Darkseid and Mr. Miracle kept their originals), and the Parademon is pretty much the most divergent design of the bunch.  Steppenwolf and Mantis both got pretty hefty re-works, but the Parademon winds up sharing no elements with its original comics look.  Perhaps there was a feeling that there was too much green amongst the villains?  Or maybe that the proper Parademon look, with its more ogre-ish features, might not be as kid friendly?  It’s hard to say.  I’m hard-pressed to say this is a bad design, mind you.  It’s actually pretty decent, and feels like a respectable take on a retro-inspired alien design.  It just doesn’t really read as a Parademon.  That said, the sculpt is fun.  It’s more cartoony than the rest of the line, but maintains the same level of detailing and general stylizing, so it doesn’t feel out of place with the rest of them.  The color scheme, heavy on reds and oranges, feels a bit more like Firestorm than anything else from the line, but it’s generally unique, and certainly stands out on the shelf.  The Parademon was packed with a yellow blaster pistol, which is easily lost (especially since the hands don’t really grip it all that tightly), so there’s reproductions available.  The Parademon also featured a wing-flapping action feature, triggered by squeezing the legs.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I purchased the Parademon for myself, more than two decades ago.  I’d gotten $20 to Cosmic Comix for Christmas, and used $15 of that to buy an Elongated Man, so I had $5 left, and that ended up going towards this guy, mostly because I didn’t have it.  He lacked his accessory, bit in more recent years I’ve “completed” it with a replacement gun from Made Like Old.  It’s a kind of weird figure, in that it’s got pretty much no connection to the comics, but it’s certainly not a bad toy, and it’s memorable for it’s sort of out there nature.

#4060: Viper

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

VIPER

MARVEL HALL OF FAME (TOY BIZ)

“Bursting onto the scene are the most powerful heroes and villains. Leading the pack against evil is the gamma-powered savage She-Hulk and the she-devil of the Savage Land — Shanna! Keeping to the shadows is the enigmatic ninja, Elektra, while Silver Fox relies on her training as a top secret government operative. But it is the Viper, who uses her powers and abilities for personal gain, no matter what she must destroy to get it.”

Okay, so here we are at Day 12 of the ever growing “Day of the Vipers,” where I look at every version of the—what’s that?  Oh, I’m getting word it’s not one of *those* Vipers.  It’s a totally different, completely unrelated Viper who works for a serpent-themed terrorist organization.  My mistake.  So, let’s look at this here figure of Viper, also known as Madame Hydra, though not for this particular figure.  She’s neat.  Maybe not as neat as a Cobra Viper, but still neat.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Viper is part of the seventh series of the Puzzle Zoo-exclusive Marvel Hall of Fame line, also the third and final to use the “She-Force” branding, as well as the final assortment of the line as a whole.  While the whole of this series is pretty heavy on kind of morally grey characters, Viper is kind of the most emphatically “bad” of the bunch, so I guess she’s the defacto “villain” of the bunch.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation.  As with the rest of the line, Viper is a total parts re-use figure.  Like Elektra, she’s using Light-Up Psylocke’s body, complete with the now non-functioning battery compartment.  It’s now topped off by the head from White Queen, which is…fine?  It doesn’t at all do Viper’s usual covering the eye look, and seems very short.  But, I guess it’s decently menacing.  The base body is fine, though, as the costume details match up closely enough to work.  She gets a soft-goods belt and…yeah, that part’s not great.  It just kind of looks like someone tied a green ribbon around her waist.  Which, I guess, isn’t inaccurate.  Her color work has a lot of green, which is nice, since it differentiates her pretty well from the other uses of the molds.  Some of the application’s a little sloppy, but it’s not awful for the most part.  Viper includes two black pistols, which are re-used from older molds, and are kind of silly.  She also included a card, which for my figure was Professor X.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember pretty much nothing about this figure.  My interactions with Viper in general have been minimal.  I liked her in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and I *didn’t* like her in The Wolverine, and her comics appearances have never much inspired me.  But, she had this Toy Biz figure, and I do like those.  I think I got her at the same time as Elektra from last week.  She was certainly part of a larger batch of figures, I know that.  She’s fine.  Nothing fancy, but also nothing truly bad.  Well, maybe the belt, but it’s minor.  And, honestly, I don’t even think this is her worst figure (that would be the first Hasbro Legends release).

#4059: STAP & Battle Droid

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

STAP & BATTLE DROID

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“The STAP is a small, one-pilot, repulsorlift vehicle outfitted with two laser cannons. It is extremely maneuvarable, making perfect for patrol, reconnaissance and battle. STAPs are operated by battle droids who function as the infantry of the Trade Federation army.”

In 1998, the world anticipated the first film in the long-anticipated Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. Kenner (or rather Hasbro, who owned Kenner and were preparing to move operations in house and dissolve the Kenner brand), then quite deep into Power of the Force II, a decidedly OT-based line, was working on a dedicated line of figures for this as of yet unnamed Star Wars: Episode I, but before getting there, they injected a little bit of product into the currently running line.  In what became a standard practice for the Prequel era, a small selection of “Sneak Preview” items were dropped in advance, in order to help drum up interest.  For Episode I, the focus at retail was on a single item, a small vehicle and pack-in figure in the form of the STAP and Battle Droid, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE TOYS THEMSELVES

The STAP and Battle Droid were a standalone “Sneak Preview” release from Kenner’s Star Wars: Power of the Force II.  The set was dropped with a decent amount of fanfare (including an honest to god TV commercial) in 1998.  It’s a uniquely sized item for the line, not really occupying the same footprint as other small vehicle and rider set-ups from PotF.  It was definitely built more for display in package, which does me zero good, since I totally ripped that sucker open!

The Single Trooper Aerial Platform, or STAP, was a pretty solid choice for the first official prequel offering, since they remained a recurring element pretty much all the way through the end of Clone Wars.  This one was obviously an all-new mold at the time, but would see quite a bit of re-use over the years, again, up through Clone Wars.  It’s not hard to see why; it’s pretty accurate to the source material, fairly sturdy, and even has a pretty cool flight stand.  There’s a feature where the missiles launch when you push up on the foot plate, which is gimmicky, but still pretty fun.  The color work is pretty respectable, matching the movie’s tones pretty closely, and also offering up a nice amount of accenting, wear, and texturing.

Our first trooper from the new movies was the Battle Droid.  We got a whole lot of them over the years, but this one was the first, and he was designed specifically with the STAP in mind.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Since he was specifically designed to pilot, that means he actually gets working knee and elbow joints, which are surprisingly uncommon for small scale Battle Droids, given how easily they work into the design.  That said, he’s really not designed for standing on his own; his ankles are tilted back, and his toes are pointed inward, which makes him a bit precarious.  Also, his shoulder and elbow joints are very loose, in order to not hinder the action features on the STAP, so he just sort of flings them about when he’s not on the vehicle.  It’s kinda goofy.  He’s just a basic Battle Droid, with no command markings.  He’s got some shading, as well as a little bit of “wear,” and looks pretty much like all the other Droids from the movie, which is hardly a bad thing.  As essentially an accessory to the vehicle, he works well to do what he needs to.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t recall *exactly* when I got this one, largely because it’s an exceedingly common piece.  A lot of speculators bought it, and pretty much no one opened it, so it’s everywhere.  It got traded in at work, like, a lot, so I had my pick of offerings.  One of the times it came in, I decided that was specifically the time, and thus, one came home with me.  You know, and then it sat, sealed, on my shelf, for a few years.  Yeah.  Look, I finally got to it, and that’s the most important thing, right?  Right.  I do like this set.  It’s basic and there’s some definite gimmicks, but I think it did a good job of selling hype for the movie, and it’s a pretty nice little piece.  If you want a neat little Battle Droid toy, you can’t really go wrong with this one.  And, thus, for the last time, I feel like I put off opening a Power of the Force figure for longer than I should have, because, at their heart, they really were pretty fun, right?

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#4058: Mekaneck

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

MEKANECK — HEROIC HUMAN PERISCOPE

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (MATTEL)

Did you guys hear that the Masters of the Universe movie bombed at the box office?  Isn’t that crazy, what with it not being out in theaters for another two weeks and all?  Feels like actually letting the movie come out in theaters *might* be an essential part of how it does in said theaters, but what do I know; I’m just a guy who writes about toys.  While the last Masters movie was pretty sparse on the colorful denizens of Eternia it included, this one seems to be going more in depth (hardly a surprise, given director Travis Knight’s Bumblebee did a similar thing with the Transformers in its Cybertron sequences), which means that they’ve also included my personal favorite Master, Mekaneck, heroic human periscope!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mekaneck is part of the second series of the basic movie tie-in Masters of the Universe line from Mattel, released in preparation for the movie’s drop in June.  He’s a one-per-case release, so he’s a little rarer, but he’s also Mekaneck, so I can kind of get it.  Honestly, I’m surprised he made out as quickly as he did at all.  The figure stands 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 20 points of articulation.  In terms of articulation, the line’s pretty closely following the Origins set-up, which is a solid selection of movement.  Style-wise, it’s a lot like the “core” lines Hasbro was doing for some of their movie tie-ins, like GI Joe or the Marvel movies.  I think Mattel’s implementation here is working a bit better, though.  Mekaneck has a sculpt that, as far as I know, is unique to him.  It’s possible he might share limbs with others, but I haven’t picked up any others from the line, so I can’t say for sure.  I can say it’s a pretty decent sculpt.  It looks pretty accurate to his appearance in the movie, at least based on what we’ve seen thus far, and it’s also a pretty respectable adaptation of Mekaneck’s usual look.  A little more rounded off, and most notably missing the furry shorts on the outside of his pants, but it certainly reads as Mekaneck.  His color work is on the basic side, mostly just getting the broadest of the colors.  This leaves a lot of details, especially on the arms and legs, just totally unpainted.  That said, it’s not a terrible look, as those are sections that can believably be all one color, and it’s well within what’s expected for this scale and style.  What application is there is cleanly handled, with minimal bleedover and no slop to speak of.  Mekaneck is packed with a small blaster pistol, which is rather a departure from his usual club, but let’s go with it, as well as two extended neck segments, which are similar to the Masterverse version in how they work.  I really do like the modular idea on the neck segments, and they add a lot of posing variety.  My only complaint is that I might like to have a few more of them, but the two included still offer a lot of options.

 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When Mekaneck was announced as being in the new movie, I was kind of expecting him to be one of those “hey, here’s a crowd of people in one shot and they look vaguely like some guys from the toyline” things, and not really in any sort of focus.  I definitely wasn’t thinking of new toys.  So, I was a bit surprised when this guy just kind of started showing up places.  I had a handful of things I was putting off ordering from Entertainment Earth, so I got myself a nice little shipment of new stuff, and it’s this guy’s fault.  And honestly?  I’m okay with that.  He’s great for the price, and just a resoundingly fun little Mekaneck figure.  I’m a sucker for a resoundingly fun Mekaneck figure.