Category Archives: Reviews

#2176: Crazylegs

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

CRAZYLEGS

G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO (HASBRO)

“Crazylegs could have been the greatest organist in the world if his fingers hadn’t been too short. The Airborne Rangers don’t care how perfectly you can play Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, they’re only concerned with your willingness to jump out of a helicopter into a hot LZ* with nothing but a rifle, a couple of grenades and the best wishes of your commanding officer. Crazylegs is of course, Airborne Ranger qualified and has been cross-trained as a forward artillery observer.”

Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy Leeeeeeeeeeeeegs!  This guy’s got some Crazy Legs!  That sounds a bit like a Rick and Morty bit or something, doesn’t it?  Like the natural third partner to Baby Legs and Regular Legs.  He’s the loose cannon!  He’s Crazylegs!  ….What was I doing? Oh, right, toy review.  So, we’re back to the G.I. Joe reviews today, with a look at one of the less-remembered members of the team, one Crazylegs.  This guy’s crazy…or at least his legs are.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Crazylegs was released in the 1987 assortment of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line.  He’s one of the less fortunate members of that year’s assortment, given that ’87 was the year the movie came out, and several of that year’s characters got staring roles.  But not ‘ol Crazylegs.  Nope, there was no space for him.  Had to make room for Big Lob!  Everyone’s favorite!  Crazylegs stands 3 3/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation, though his hips are somewhat restricted by the design of his harness.  The figure sported a unique sculpt when he was new, though it would also be re-used for the v2 Crazylegs the following year.  It’s actually a pretty impressive sculpt.  He’s got one of the most expressive faces of all the Joes, with this big goofy grin on his face.  This is a man who enjoys his legs being all crazy.  His uniform is also pretty darn cool; there’s a quilted pattern on the red sections of the uniform, which seems pretty appropriate for someone doing high-altitude jumps.  Crazylegs’ ensemble is completed by his parachute and harness, which actually connect under the legs, rather than pegging into the back like most of the line’s back gear.  Crazylegs’ paint is a decent offering.  It’s different from the usual greens we tended to see with the Joes, instead going for a red and grey combo.  It actually looks pretty decent, and keeps him rather unique (although it does end up being rather similar to his assortment-mate Sneak Peek).  Crazylegs is packed with a sub-machine gun with a folding stock, which is honestly one of the cooler standard weapons from the line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first introduction to Crazylegs was actually his Pursuit of Cobra figure, which was one of the line’s more oddball choices.  I liked that figure quite a bit, despite not knowing a ton about him.  When I was piecing together a large collection of Joes for All Time, Crazylegs was included and was one of the earlier figures to be pieced together.  As one of the cheaper complete figures, it was pretty easy to throw him on the growing pile of far more expensive figures in the set.  He’s honestly quite a nice figure, with a ton of fun little details.  He’s got that unique expression, the nifty quilted details, a sweet gun, and just the craziest of legs.  There’s really nothing about him I don’t like.

As touched on above, Crazylegs came from All Time Toys, who got in a rather sizable vintage Joe collection, the remnants of which can be checked out the Joe section of their eBay page here.  If you’re looking for other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2175: Thundercracker

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

THUNDERCRACKER

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON: SIEGE (HASBRO)

What up my diddly dudes, this is NOT ETHAN reporting for review duty. Today we’re gonna review this bitchin transformer that looks like every other transformer thats not Optimus prime or bumblebee but here we go. I don’t know anything really about this history of transformers other than it was an opportunity for hasbro to make money off robots that they turned into a tv show to get kids to dish out their weekend allowance. BUT here we go, welcome to Chey and Jess’s fun time review. 

Yea, Ethan is feeling under the weather and it worked out sooooooo well when I reviewed transformers last time, right Max? This time we actually have the figure in front of us and we won’t be writing this off just one photo. Don’t worry, I’ve had less to drink this time so it won’t be so awful but still terribly funny! 

Thundercracker is a seeker, or so I’ve been told. This one in particular can turn into a jet so that’s pretty neat. Thundercracker was originally a part of the toy line before being introduced into the show, I’m assuming, at sometime in probably the 90s. Ethan just me no, so, I’m going to google it. OH so apparently he’s a decepti-boi and introduced in the GEN-1 cartoon phase in 1984. Dope, so this has generations like MLP thats cool. So what I learned in boating school is that this is actually one of the important transformers from gen 1, who is on team Decepticon, can turn into a jet, and fights flightless beings for the hell of it. 

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So ThunderBoi™ here is from the 4th series of the Voyager Class series and was released with Big Baddy Megatron, but not with the others from the Storm Brigade. Which is unfortunate because he’d be lonely in those shipments without the rest of the Storm Squad to keep him company! Anyways, he shares the same body as the other Seekers, but he has a different head. Wanna know what’s different about the head? He’s smirking cuz he knows what’s up and that he has cheeks that just won’t stop till they drop! He even has the same silver detailing on his robot shins and wings that I mistook for mud last time. He has like 72 points of articulation or something, I gave up on counting them. Actually, after looking up the Star Cream review that Ethan wrote eons ago, I’ve deduced that ThunderBoi™ has 28 points of articulation and is 6 1/4 inches tall. Also, fun fact he looks exactly like Creamy except for different color choices.  

Let’s talk about color scheme! The boi is a deep cerulean blue, with black, grey, and firetruck red accents. Not brick, not blood, not scarlet, no FIRETRUCK RED. The false cockpit is a translucent orange as well as what I can only assume is the real cockpit. The forearms, hands, and heeled boots are black, and the entire figure is spattered with a metallic silver paint. And last but not least there are two barney purple Deceptiboi logos on the inner most middle portions of his wings. The silver paint is an interesting choice, I can’t tell if its been splattered across the body to give it a vintage look, or to look like wear and tear, or if transformers actually bleed silver and that’s just the blood of his enemies. Either way, in certain lighting it somewhat looks like the paint has come up from the figure instead of being intentionally put on there. However, the other colors that make up the figure are vibrant and consistent so thats pretty neat.

When I reviewed the Stormie Roadies I might’ve complained that they had all the prime colors but blue. But now we have blue and our prime color scheme is complete with a side order of acid green! 

LAST BUT NOT LEAST he transforms into a jet, but ya’ll knew that, I guarantee it. Most importantly he’s a tetrajet (sp?) which is NOT a fighter jet, I learned, but looks like this picture below this, of which will be placed in here by the time the review goes up. The transformation process looks relatively simple when Ethan did it, but could be difficult if done with a migrane, so be weary friends.

I think he looks like one of those jet toys you get in like happy meals. You know, the bulky ones that had the wheels at the bottom of the toy so that when you pulled them back and let it go the toy would roll or ‘fly’ forward? I think they did transformer toys in happy and big kids meals. BUt the ones that I remember stayed as either the firgure or the vehicle, they couldn’t switch between them. So ThunderBoi™ is pretty cool because despite what I think is a goofy looking plane, he has nice articulation and functionality as a jet and a person.

What else is there to talk about? We talked about articulation, paint, color scheme, and the jet. We’ve even covered the cheeks that won’t stop till they drop. Oh! I can talk about his smirking face! As mentioned before, ThunderBoi™ has the same body as the other Storm Chasers but a very different head. His smirk is nice but kinda funny to me because it’s kinda cartoony looking. In fact, his head looks like they were gonna go for the same design as the other Seekers but one of the interns got a little excited with the sculpting knife and his face was the unlikely victim. But since it looked so nice they didn’t fire the intern, gave him a little extra money for coffee, and decided to keep the smirk to make him stand out from the Stormy McDaddies. There, I think that’s everything I can think of!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ethan came home from All Time Toys with ThunderBoi™ a few weeks ago. In fact, it’s been an increasing occurrence of him coming home with transformers, but that’s okay because it makes him really happy! I have no real attachment to transformers because I wasn’t really into robots when I was growing up so they were never really my thing. Instead I had Barbies, but they often met untimely ends like getting stuck in a pine tree for years and getting covered in sap, or getting their heads ripped off when I’d swing them from the ceiling fans. And according to Ethan I’ve been lying, but not to you guys I’d never lie to you! Nah, I told him that I’d put the photos in the review properly, but shhhhhh! I’m not gonna! He’s not gonna be looking at this until after it’s posted and by then it’ll be too late. Mwhahahahahahahahaha! ;-D

Though my knowledge of transformers extends as far as the 2000 something shia lebouf movie, I enjoy taking my time learning about new things so this is PRETTY NEAT. I’d tried to give as honest and entertaining of a review as possible so if you liked this be sure to like and subscribe for more content. This has been FUN TIME REVIEW with Chey and Jess, hope to see you in the future. 

 

 

#2174: Big Time Spider-Man

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

BIG TIME SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“After losing his spider-sense, Peter Parker builds new Spider-Armor to protect himself.”

So….like….that bio doesn’t really have anything at all to do with the figure the box contains, but hey, let’s not dwell, right?  Though only a moderate fan, I became a regular reader of the book with issue #648, which was the beginning of Dan Slott’s 250-odd issue run.  I’ve been a fan of Slott’s since his work on She-Hulk, and that was enough to get me on-board.  Slott’s first story line was “Big Time,” which began Peter Parker’s time with Horizon Labs, injecting all sorts of new tech-based stuff into the book.  That translated to quite a few new suits for Spidey, the first of which was his Tron-esque stealth suit, a distinctive design for the character.  It’s cropped up on a number of figures before, including a Legends figure that we all prefer not to talk about.  But now it’s also a Legends figure that we can all be okay with talking about!  Yay!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Big Time Spider-Man is our second “Fan Channel” Marvel Legends release.  Essentially, the “Fan Channel” releases are an assortment of figures largely constructed out of re-used parts, all offered up one at a time only through non-big-box stores (although Amazon is also carrying them).  The set was kicked off by a Wolverine variant, with Spidey following his lead.  As I touched on in the intro, this figure is Spidey’s first suit from “Big Time,” which has been offered up as a Legends figure one time before, but that particular was on the receiving end of all sorts of really messy issues, resulting in a rather disappointing release.  This one moves the design to the Pizza Spidey body, which has become the new gold-standard for Spider-Men.  Structurally, this figure is identical to the Black Costume Spidey also built on this body.  It’s sensible, given that the two designs really aren’t far removed from each other.  There’s no real call for new parts, and this way you know it’s all going to be pretty solid.  The main distinguishing factor is of course the paint.  Firstly, as you may note, he’s green, meaning that the suit is in its camo mode.  There were other chromatic settings as well, but green is always the one we get as a toy.  You’ll hear no complaints about that from me.  Since the lines are technically meant to be glowing, the prior release attempted to do sort of a painted haze, which unfortunately backfired horrifically.  For this one, Hasbro has wisely chosen to play it safe, and just gone for a straight flat green color.  It’s a striking appearance, as this design should be.  Big Time Spidey is accessorized with the full complement of extra hands for this body, as well as a webline piece.  It’s nice to see the hands return fully here, given the absence of the full set from all of the Pizza-based figures in the last year, and it gives me hope that Hasbro realizes how silly it is to not include them.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I love this design, like a whole lot.  It’s quite possibly my favorite Spider-Man costume ever.  So, I’m all about it in toy form…well, except for that previous Legends figure.  That thing was so hideous that I just couldn’t ever bring myself to own it, which made me kinda sad, honestly.  Since the introduction of the Pizza Spidey body, I’ve been hoping to see an updated version, and I was thrilled to see him show up here.  There’s not really much new to this figure, but he’s still a ton of fun, and a good showcase of what you can do with a solid selection of re-used parts and a good paint job.

Big Time Spidey came from my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2173: Iron Man

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

IRON MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Genius industrialist and inventor Tony Stark creates a suit of armor for himself, powered by the arc reactor in his chest, becoming the hero, Iron Man.”

When I opened up my last 6-inch-scaled Classic Iron Man review of the year, back in February, I remarked that a re-do of Tony’s classic armor hadn’t crossed Hasbro’s list for Marvel Legends just yet.  Well…I was wrong as you can see.  A week later, they unveiled the figure I’m looking at today, which just makes me look good and foolish, doesn’t it?  Well, if looking good and foolish means that I get a cool new Iron Man figure, I guess I won’t complain so much about it.  Best not to look a gift horse in the mouth and all that.  So, hey, let’s look at this here Iron Man, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iron Man is the second of the two single-packed “80 Years of Marvel” Legends figures. Like Thor, he’s available at mass retail and ships in a case all to himself.  He’s based on Tony’s classic armor, which is the one he wore for the better part of 20 years, making it a natural choice for a celebration of Marvel’s history.  It’s a look that’s never too far from the line.  Toy Biz, of course, kicked off the line with their take on it, which was kind of the gold standard for a while.  Hasbro themselves have tackled this design before, with a two-pack release in ’07, and then a repaint of that sculpt in ’13.  Both of those sculpts are definitely products of their times, though, and another go seems appropriate.  This figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Iron Man is an all-new sculpt, and oh boy is it a nice one.  This one takes the general larger size of the original Toy Biz figure, and gives it the slightly better proportions of the first Hasbro attempt, and the end result is something that looks a fair bit more human, but also still looks like it could conceivably house a human being.  It’s also our first comics Iron Man in a bit that’s not completely dwarfed by all of the Captain America figures Hasbro’s offering.  While there’s a bit of a theme to the trinity of Avengers released here being based on the art of Alex Ross, Iron Man takes a bit of a deviation, at least in regards to how he is straight out of the box.  The head he comes wearing doesn’t actually follow Ross’s take (which is itself a bit of a deviation from usual illustrations), and instead goes for a more standard “classic” Iron Man head, representing his helmet post horns and rivets, going for that nice, sleek 70s style.  I’d hasten to say it’s the best rendition of this helmet we’ve gotten on an action figure.  There’s a second helmeted head, which is more directly based on Ross’s illustrations, which draw a little more inspiration from the time when Tony added a nose to the helmet in the mid-70s, all because Stan Lee made some one off remark about some of the art coming back.  While I certainly appreciate the aim to more closely capture the Ross art, and I like Ross’s work on the page, I don’t really know that the helmet translates all that well into an action figure.  Iron Man’s paintwork continues the trend we saw with Thor and Cap, where it’s a little more subdued in its coloring than other figures from the main line.  It’s a little less noticeable with Iron Man, since metallic colors aren’t too out of the ordinary for him, even on a classic-inspired figure.  It certainly looks clean and sleek, which is always what you want with this particular design.  Iron Man is packed with one more head, this time unmasked.  It again follows the Ross stylings, which means that it’s a Tony Stark that’s heavily modeled on Timothy Dalton.  Honestly, it’s something of a Legends tradition, so I’m all about it.  It’s technically a little large to properly fit within the helmeted head, but I don’t mind too much, because it’s really just so nice.  Iron Man is also packed with two sets of hands in fists and repulser hand poses, as well as two repulser effects pieces, which take a page out of the Siege playbook and can be broken down into three separate pieces each.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I love me some classic Iron Man, and I really wanted a solid version for my Legends shelf, enough so that I was willing to go outside of Legends for the Mezco version.  As it turns out, that one was more of a place holder for this guy.  I honestly didn’t expect Hasbro to turn him around so quickly, but I’m really glad they did.  I dug the Mezco version for what it was, I dug the Toy Biz version for being as cool as it was for the time, but this is my definitive Iron Man.  There’s just so much I like about this figure, and he’s got to be one of Hasbro’s most cleanly put together sculpts.  I hope we can at least see a Stealth variant, because I love this sculpt so much.  Definitely the highlight of the three 80th singles, and that’s coming from someone who loved Cap and Thor a lot as well.

I picked up Iron Man from my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2172: Thor

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

THOR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Back in the early days of Marvel Legends, Thor figures weren’t the most common things to crop up.  He did manage to get two figures over the course of the Toy Biz days, but the early run of Hasbro only added one more, due to him being dead for a while at the time.  Since the return of Legends, his figures have been more of the modern persuasion; our last classic Thor was 12 years ago.  Fortunately, Hasbro’s paying tribute to a lot of classic designs, courtesy of their celebration of Marvel’s 80th anniversary, and Thor got in on some of that classic love.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Thor is one of the two widely released single-packed “80 Years of Marvel” Legends figures, shipped in solid cases of himself.  As noted above, this Thor is the classic version of the character, and is designed to match up with the Walmart-Exclusive Cap from earlier this year, being loosely patterned on Alex Ross’s illustrations of the main trio of Avengers.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Thor is sporting an all-new sculpt, and it’s a sculpt that, more than anything Hasbro has done in this line, feels like it’s specifically designed to replace the Toy Biz Giant Man Series Thor, which was the pinnacle of Toy Biz Thors.  It makes sense, I suppose, since for most collectors, that’s the figure this one’s going to be directly competing with anyway, given just how long it’s been since our last classic Thor.  Whatever the case, this sculpt is very, very nice.  It’s clean, and bold, and captures the appropriate aesthetic of the classic comics design, while still managing to work in some smaller details on the costume to help sell it as an actual cloth costume, and not just something that’s painted on.  In particular, I really like the seam running down the center of his tunic, as well as the wrinkles in his tights on his legs.  Those add some nice realism to the figure.  Unlike every comic Thor since the ROML release, this one doesn’t feel oversized when compared to his compatriots.  He’s still got some bulk on him, but he’s not inhuman in scale.  Thor’s got a sculpted cape, which Hasbro’s gone with a dynamic flow for.  It continues the pleasant trend of Hasbro turning in some really solid capes; it’s got enough pose to it to be fun with action poses, but not enough to look too weird when he’s just standing at attention.  It’s also not too overly heavy, so he can stand alright on his own.  Thor’s paintwork is very similar in styling to the Cap figure, as you might well expect.  Application is clean and crisp, and all of the important details are covered, but it’s worth noting that the colors are ever so slightly subdued when compared to other “classic” figures.  It’s certainly not a bad look, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Hasbro had a more classically hued re-release in mind somewhere down the line.  Thor is packed with Mjolnir, which like its user is an all-new, far less ridiculously sized sculpt.  The length of the handle surprised me at first, because I’ve become accustomed to the longer handles we’ve been getting, but this actually works pretty well, and I love how “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.” looks on the face of it. In addition to the hammer, Thor also has two different left hands, one in a fist and one in open gesture.  It’s definitely a lighter selection than I’d expected based on the other two he pairs with and his higher price point, but I suppose it’s the sizing that’s supposed to make up for that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As beautiful as he was, I never found the old Walmart Thor, nor was I much of a fan of the version that preceded it.  My Legends Thor was the armored one from the Blob Series, until he was replaced by the Marvel Now variant a few years ago.  I liked that figure a lot, but he wasn’t a classic Thor, and my Avengers have been skewing more and more classic all the time.  This figure finally makes classic Thor readily available again, and I have to say, he’s a very nicely rendered version.  Definitely the nicest Legends Thor out there, possibly just the best Thor figure you can get.  I do wish he wasn’t so light on accessories, but that’s the only thing I can hold against him.

I picked up Thor from my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2171: Luminara Unduli

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

LUMINARA UNDULI

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Jedi Master Luminara Unduli encounters dangerous enemies while bringing a notorious Separatist leader to stannd trial. Battle droids attack the Jedi cruiser transporting Nute Gunray, and the assassin Asajj Ventress secretly boards the ship. Luminara faces battles and betrayals as she fights to retain custody of her important prisoner.”

The clones weren’t the only ones to benefit from the increased time for characterization offered by the Clone Wars cartoon.  After being little more than set dressing for the prequel trilogy proper, many of the Jedi introduced over the course of the films finally got their chance to shine via the cartoon.  Jedi Master Luminara Unduli and her padawan Barriss Offee fell into that category, and both wound up with pretty decent arcs over the course of the show, as well as better toys to boot.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luminara was released in the 2009 assortment of Clone Wars figures.  She was part of the fifth wave of figures and was numbered CW30.  The figure stands 3 1/2 inches tall and she has 22 points of articulation.  Fortunately, by this time in the line, the Jedi were getting fully articulated; while Luminara’s not quite as mobile as the clones, she can still get a decent number of poses out of her.  It’s further aided by the cloth robes on the bottom, another newly-implemented idea when this figure hit, which allows her legs to pretty much have full mobility.  Her sculpt is a pretty respectable recreation of her design on the show.  It’s maybe not quite as impressive as some others in the line, but it’s decent, if maybe a little frail feeling.  To be fair, though, her design is very skinny on the show and there’s only so much you can do with that.  Luminara’s paint is certainly accurate, which means it’s lots of brown and green.  Not incredibly eye catching, or even all that unique for Star Wars, but it’s again true to the character and the application is pretty solidly handed.  Luminara includes her lightsaber both ignited and turned off, depending on your desired set-up.  It feels a little light, but honestly it’s probably better than getting a missile launcher or something.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t remember specifically when I got this figure, but I know it was when she was relatively new.  While Luminara wasn’t necessarily a favorite of mine, I liked Barriss a lot, and with her figure coming out later, Luminara held me over for a little while I suppose.  It’s a pretty decent figure, which I guess isn’t a huge shock, since Clone Wars figures were all pretty great once the line hit its stride.

#2170: Tigra

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

TIGRA

AVENGERS: UNITED THEY STAND (TOY BIZ)

“Greer Nelson was subjected to treatments meant to enhance her physical prowess and make her the greatest female athlete in the world – but something else happened. She was transformed into a fur-covered cat woman, and gifted with all the graces of a feline – heightened speed and agility, enhanced senses, and dangerously sharp claws. As Tigra, she can be as playful as a kitten, but when trouble arises she becomes a savage warrior. The symbol on her belt joins Tigra with Earth’s mightiest heroes, and she heeds the call, ‘Avengers Assemble!'”

Back before the Avengers had a whole bank of movies to make them a household name, Marvel had tried their hand at expanding their outreach via animation.  Hoping to capture some of the success of X-Men: The Animated Series, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and the Marvel Action Hour, they launched Avengers: United They Stand.  It was…not a success.  It lasted just one 13-episode season and never had much of a following to speak of.  Me?  Well, I loved it, and the toyline it spawned, which provided figures for the team’s more obscure members, like today’s focus Tigra!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tigra was part of the second series of Toy Biz’s Avengers: United They Stand tie-in line, though as I always note with these guys, the numbering was really just clerical; both series shipped to stores at the same time.  This figure would mark Tigra’s second figure ever, and her first that wasn’t just a straight repaint of someone else.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and has 13 points of articulation.  The UTS figures were by and large notable for their inclusion of a decent amount of articulation for the scale, and Tigra is the first figure I’ve looked at to truly showcase this.  It’s not perfect, as she misses out on things like elbows and is still saddled with those dreaded v-hips that Toy Biz was so fond of for female figures,but the inclusion of wrists, and more than just cut shoulders was downright revolutionary at the time.  Tigra sculpt is sort of an interesting concept; they were clearly going for something dynamic, as is dictated by the sway to the hair and the slight twist to her waist and legs.  It doesn’t quite work out for a dynamic pose and also means she’s stuck in a wonky pose when just standing.  It’s not terrible, though, and honestly isn’t any worse than some of the really stiff poses from earlier in Toy Biz’s run.  The detailing on the sculpt follows the styling of the cartoon, but does inject some more realism into it, with some solid texturing on the hair and fur.  It’s definitely solid for the time.  Also pretty solid for the time is the paintwork, which gives Tigra her distinctive stripes and is generally pretty cleanly applied. She’s got an Avengers insignia on her shorts…and also on the backs of her hands?  Guess she really wanted to be on brand.  Tigra was packed with a base with a training robot attached.  The robot had magnets in its hands which matched with the ones in Tigra’s hands, allowing for her to “spar” with it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When these figures first started hitting shelves, they were a little scarce.  Tigra had the honor of being the first of them added to my collection, alongside Falcon.  It’s always given me a special appreciation for the character, given I had her longer than any of the others, and I’d been so desperately searching at that point.  She’s perhaps not the greatest figure the line had to offer, but she’s still pretty decent, and certainly not bad when compared to the other figures in Tigra’s limited run of toys.

#2169: Magna Defender

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

MAGNA DEFENDER

POWER RANGERS: THE LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Upon its release, Power Rangers in Space was meant to serve as the franchise’s swan song.  The days of Mighty Morphin’ were behind them, and the likes of Turbo were quickly bleeding any remaining fanbase they may have had, so they decided to do one last series to wrap up the five years worth of running stories and give things a nice ending.  Unfortunately, it was a little too nice, and the end result was one of the most successful seasons of the show…with pretty much no set way for continuation.  Interestingly, while the first five years of Power Rangers had been one continuing narrative, the same was not true of the original Japanese material, where each season was a completely different show, unrelated to the prior season.  For In Space‘s followup Lost Galaxy, Saban decided to start following that model.  Seijuu Sentai Gingaman, the show which Lost Galaxy was adapting, was a nature-based series, while Saban was hoping to stick closer to the sci-fi success of In Space, leading to a bit of retooling.  Whatever the case, Lost Galaxy was a decent success in its own right.  It also had one of the franchise’s coolest sixth rangers, the Magna Defender!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Magna Defender is part of the second series of Hasbro’s Power Rangers: The Lightning Collection, alongside Beast Morphers Red and Gold, and Mighty Morphin’ Pink.  He’s the first Lost Galaxy figure in the line, but was very quickly followed by Galaxy Red, who is in a two-pack that’s hitting shelves now.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 34 points of articulation.  Magna Defender’s articulation and construction is pretty much the same as the rest of the figures we’ve gotten so far from this line, which I’d call a definite plus, seeing as the articulation design has a little bit more of a natural flow to it than The Black Series and Legends.  That said, while the other figures I’ve gotten from this line have made use of an underlying body with various overlay pieces, Magna Defender is a solid construction figure; all of his armor and such is sculpted right onto the body.  Ultimately, this works better for this particular design, so I really don’t mind that particular change-up.  Magna Defender’s sculpt is nicely rendered, and captures his distinctive knight-inspired armor from the show quite well.  I like the very slight texturing on the armored parts, as well as the clean, defined line-work.  It’s a shame that the cape isn’t actually removable, but I do rather like it myself.  Magna Defender’s paintwork is probably the most complex I’ve seen yet from this line, and it does it pretty well.  There’s not anything crazy going on, but they did get all of the different sections painted correctly, with little-to-no slop and no noticeably missing apps.  Magna Defender is packed with his Magna blaster in both sword/sheath mode and blaster mode, plus two different sets for working with both modes, and an effect piece for the blaster mode.  It’s a shame that with all of the extra heads we’ve been getting we didn’t also get an unmasked Mike head, but given that there were two Magna Defenders on the show and one of them was never seen unmasked, I guess I can let it slide.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When Hasbro said that their Lightning Collection line would be focusing on sixth rangers, Magna was on the short list of characters I was hoping to see.  I was ecstatic to see him announced at SDCC, and thrilled that he arrived as quickly as he did.  He’s got a killer design and it translated into a killer figure.  This guy more than any other figure in the line has really sold me on these things, and I look forward to getting more kick-ass sixth rangers as we go along.

I got this guy from my friends All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2168: Red Stripe Cylon

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

RED STRIPE CYLON

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (DST)

“After siding with the Cylon Rebels and joining the Colonial Fleet, these newly-liberated and independent Cylon Centurions were a crucial weapon against Cavil’s retro-era forces.  Their distinct markings earned them the nickname ‘Red Stripes.'”

Battlestar Galactica…now that’s a name I haven’t heard in quite some time…or written about, at least.  While I was pretty into the rebooted BSG when it was airing (or at the very least for the back half of its airing), I’ve written a grand total of six BSG-related reviews for this site, the last of which was almost two years ago.  My first two BSG reviews, way back in my first month running this here site, dealt with Diamond Select Toys’ line of 7-inch figures based on the property.  While two of the three figures I reviewed were Cylons, there were no proper Cyclon Centurions to be had.  I intend to fix that today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Red Stripe Cylon was released as a Toys R Us-exclusive figure in 2009.  As his bio touches on, this particular Centurion hails from the series finale “Daybreak,” where the “heroic” Cyclon rebels bring with them what remain of the liberated modern-style Centurions.  In order to avoid any potential confusion from Colonial forces in the heat of battle, these guys get marked with their distinct red stripes.  Which really begs the question of just where did the Colonial fleet found so much red paint?  And who took the time to paint the stripes on these guys?  Did they use their new-found independence to paint themselves, thereby showing a capacity to learn and be creative, and by extension making the whole fleet flying into the sun at the end of the show even more depressing and oh gosh I gotta get off this train of thought.  Maybe they found a special happy farm on the other side of the sun.  Yeah, that’s it.  Or perhaps someone in the fleet was just a really big fan of Jamaican beer.  Hooray beer.  But what of the figure of which this is ostensibly a review?  He stands just shy of 8 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation.  His sculpt was shared with the several other variants of this particular design, and it’s a pretty good one.  Honestly, the Cylon Centurion sculpt is really the crown jewel of this entire line.  Without a questionably-implemented likeness to hold it back, the Centurion is free to just be pretty darn accurate recreation of the design from the show.  The details are crisp and clean, and even the articulation’s not bad, and that was something DST was still struggling with at this point.  There’s still something of a learning curve to getting decent poses out of him, and he’s not the sturdiest figure I’ve ever owned, but I can definitely dig the sculpt DST turned in here.  In terms of paint, the Centurion is a slightly cleaner model than we tended to see on the show, but virtue of the Red Stripes having spent a lot of their time on the base ships prior to “Daybreak” pulling them into battle.  It further highlights the cleanness of the sculpt, and really looks sleek.  The stripe is just a solid stripe of red, but I appreciate that it actually looks like someone quickly painted it on, as it did in the show.  The Centurion is packed with two different sets of hands: one set open, one set in fists.  There aren’t as frightening to swap back and forth as I was expecting, which I count as a definite plus.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a slow burn on getting into the modern BSG and an even slower burn on warming up to the modern version of the Cylons.  In my defense, they actively improved how the design was implemented as the show progressed, meaning that they were at the top of their game when it came time for “Daybreak.”  Additionally, I’m a sucker for the “formerly evil robot minion works with the good guys” idea, so the Red Stripe Cylons have long been one of my favorite parts of the finale.  That said, I never had much luck with the TRU-exclusive figures from this line, so I never saw this guy new.  Fortunately for me, I work at a toy store, and that nets you all sorts of things that you don’t see otherwise.  All Time got in a collection a few months ago that included every variant of the Cylon from the line, Red Stripe included, thus allowing me to finally add this guy to my collection!

As touched on above, I got this guy from my friends All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2167: Mikey as Batman

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

MIKEY AS BATMAN

BATMAN VS. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (DC COLLECTIBLES)

Apparently, it’s about time for somebody *else* to get into the business of making Ninja Turtles toys, because Playmates, NECA, and Mondo having the license just wasn’t quite enough.  DC Collectibles, who, you know, usually make, um, DC collectibles, have gotten in on this thing, but in their defense, they’ve got a good reason.  That reason is Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, an animated film based on a comic that goes for the rather straight forward premise in the title.  To be fair, it’s a marketer’s dream, so toys seem natural.  DCC is planning on offering up a selection of five two-packs as Gamestop exclusives over the next few months, but to kick things off they offered up a true crossover figure: Michelangelo dressed as the caped crusader!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mikey as Batman was a summer con exclusive item, with follow-up distribution through Gamestop, who will be carrying the rest of the Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line.  He’s inspired by the animated designs of the movie, which are yet another new stylization of the turtles.  Oh, and he’s also wearing a Batman cowl and cape, of course.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 28 points of articulation.  His sculpt is an all-new one, though no doubt he’ll be sharing most of his parts with the standard Mikey that’s coming packed with Alfred later down the line.  It’s a pretty solid piece of work.  It’s very clean and animation friendly, and I definitely dig the huge smile on his face. What I like most of all about it his how well the articulation works.  It’s not perfect, but given that it’s DCC we’re dealing with, it’s actually suprisingly good.  The range is solid, the movement is relatively smooth, the joints do okay holding the poses, and there aren’t any obviously missing joints.  The plastic’s a little harder than I might like, but that comes with the DCC territory.  The cape is a cloth piece, and while I’m iffy on cloth capes, I actually really, really like this one.  It’s about on par with the cape on the Mezco DKR Batman in terms of quality, and that’s a very big compliment.  Mikey’s paintwork is fairly reasonable; I like how they’ve simulated the linework of the animation style in a way that looks good from pretty much any angle.  That’s quite hard to do properly.  Mikey is a fairly decently accessorized figure.  While he has nothing to go in the empty holsters on his belt (I’m confident the standard release will be keeping his nunchucks there), he does include three sets of hands (in griping, flat palm, and thumbs up), a slice of pizza, and a NYC manhole cover painted up like a whole pizza.  It’s kind of an eclectic collection of parts, but a pretty fun set of extras nonetheless.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is Max’s fault.  I know, what are the odds?  It’s not even a Transformers thing.  So how’d it work out that way?  Well, he found this figure and asked if I wanted it, and here we are.  I know, I fought so valiantly against getting it.  Honestly, I was curious about the quality of the line, and wasn’t sure I wanted to drop a whole $50 to find out.  This figure ended up being a very pleasant surprise for me, and in fact convinced me I probably wanted to pick up at least the main four Turtles and their counterparts.  Not a bad figure at all.