#2934: Captain Marvel & Rescue Armor

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

CAPTAIN MARVEL & RESCUE ARMOR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Hasbro did their best on giving us the most thorough line-ups possible when it come to the Infinity War and Endgame casts, but given the sheer size, there were of course a few that wound up slipping through the cracks.  The purpose of the Infinity Saga line seems to be equal parts getting figures out that were missed, and fixing ones that weren’t quite right the first time around.  Today’s focus goes for a bit of both, as well as serving as a nice representation of some of the film’s own internal representation of the franchise’s female heroes during the big climactic battle, all rolled into one package.  So, without further ado, and before I rack up too many pissed off commenters, let’s look at Captain Marvel and Rescue!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Captain Marvel and the Rescue Armor are the first of the two-pack portion of the 10-piece Infinity Saga sub-set of Marvel Legends.  This particular pairing is an Amazon-exclusive.  This set is one of three items from the line to be based on Endgame, which does seem like a lot, but, of course, it’s a rather jam-packed movie, isn’t it?

CAPTAIN MARVEL

“Captain Marvel uses her incredible powers to battle evil in the ultimate fight for the fate of the universe.”

Given that she had gotten her own assortment devoted to her, and that all the promo material showed her in a costume that was largely unchanged from her solo film appearance, it really wasn’t a shock that we didn’t get a proper Endgame Captain Marvel at the time of the film’s release.  That said, the inverted color scheme on the costume, as well as her fancy new hair style were both changes I really liked to her look, and ones I was hopeful to see in toy form at some point.  Here we are at some point.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Structurally, she’s largely the same figure as the one from her solo outing.  It’s generally a pretty solid starting point, it’s not terribly far off from Larson’s build when she’s playing the character, and the broad strokes details line-up with her suit from the film.  Some of the smaller details aren’t *quite* right, but given how brief this look’s appearance is, and how small those details are, they don’t generally feel too out of place.  My figure does wind up with one notable QC issue, which is that she’s got two left forearms.  Just my luck.  Regardless of QC issues, Carol gets a new head, as well as a new sash piece add-on.  The new head is a very nice piece, and definitely has Hasbro’s best Brie Larson likeness to date.  It’s a marked improvement on the solo film figures, and is just generally a pretty good match.  The sash is a pretty basic piece, but does a lot to change up the sculpt just a bit more.  The biggest change-up is the paint, which is sporting her inverted color scheme from the movie.  I find this to be a lot more appealing, and more classically “Captain Marvel” like, so I’m definitely a fan.  I also kind of dig the change to the flat colors vs metallic.  It’s not a huge shift, but I think it works.  Carol is packed with three different sets of hands (fists, flat, and relaxed) and Stark’s nanotech version of the gauntlet, this time just meant for holding.

RESCUE ARMOR

“Outfitted with repulsors and a unibeam, Pepper’s Rescue suit is ready to step into battle against Thanos.”

Pepper Potts in her Rescue armor was notably *not* absent from the Legends tie-ins for Endgame when it was released, but, similar to the War Machine from that same assortment, getting her out that close to the film’s release resulted in some inaccuracies and some stripping of more film relevant accessories.  This release serves to address some of that.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and has 31 points of articulation.  At her core, this figure’s sculpt is the same as the one from the main line release.  It wasn’t a bad sculpt at all, so re-using it feels like a pretty good call.  I liked it the first time, and I still like it now.  The first set of changes are in the form of paint.  The standard release wasn’t far off, but there were some small tweaks to the final film design, which have been reflected here.  The overall color scheme has also been toned down slightly, which looks a bit truer to what we see on screen.  The biggest changes are in the form of accessories.  She still gets both versions of the back-pack, but now she also gets two additional head sculpts, one with the face plate up, and the other with the helmet entirely removed, as well as some extra attachments for the open back pack to showcase her nano gear a little more, and also a pair of blast effects.  It’s a shame we didn’t get any extra hands mixed in with all of that, but I’m not going to be too greedy on this one.  The new parts add a lot to a figure that I already really liked.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Today’s review is a significant one for me, on two counts.  Today would have been mine and Jess’s second wedding anniversary.  It is also the first one I’m spending without her.  Jess’s encouragement of my collecting was a prominent piece of our relationship, and it was something that she maintained up to the end.  When this set dropped online, I was pretty excited, and made mention of it to her.  Then things got serious, and my mind moved onto more important matters, and I wasn’t really thinking about toys.  After Jess’s passing, I discovered that she had ordered this set for me, the very day I’d mentioned it to her.  And so, three months after her passing, its arrival marked my final gift from her.  It’s something of a bittersweet moment.  It’s a set I very much wanted, and one I’m very happy to have.  Jess absolutely adored the moment with the female heroes assembling in the film, so this set was already bound to remind me of her.  She was always so thoughtful and caring, even in her darkest moments.  And because of that, she gave me this one last gift.  But I know that it’s the last one.  And I wish it weren’t.  And I wish I could tell her how much it means to me.  But I can’t.  All I can do is take solace in the fact that she loved me, and she knew I loved her too, and that was why she worked so hard to take care of me, even after the fact.  So, now I have one last testament to just how Super Awesome of a Wife she really was.  Thank you for everything, Jess.

#2933: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Armed with Wakandan Gauntlets, Steve Rogers steps forward to defend the world from the impossible threat of Thanos and his minions.”

Okay, I’m gonna level with you guys: you better like Marvel Legends reviews.  Hasbro’s been really switching it into turbo with the line, and though they’ve been *trying* to space it out, that hasn’t so much worked out.  The result is a metric ton of them all dropping at once.  So, it’s gonna be at least a month of Legends around these parts.  I hope I can cling to my sanity.  Let’s kick things off by jumping back into Hasbro’s Infinity Saga sub-line, which is yet another throw-back to the first decade of the MCU.  It’s covering films from the beginning of the saga, up through Endgame, filling in some holes in a few of the line-ups, as well as offering some updates to figures that weren’t quite there the first time around.  Today’s figure, Captain America from Infinity War, falls into the latter category.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is the second of the 10 figures in the Infinity Saga sub-line of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends.  He’s one of five single-packed standard figures, and also one of the three exclusives in the line-up.  Yes, once again Cap is a Walmart-exclusive.  I’m going to do my best not to harp on that too much, but it continues to feel like really terrible planning for overall line performance to have one of your central pieces always wind up as an exclusive to a chain that’s really bad at handling exclusives.  Moving on.  Cap is based on his Nomad appearance from Infinity War, a design that has been done in Legends once before, but not in a particularly accurate fashion.  This one aims to fix those issues and go a little more screen accurate.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s a bit of a mix of old and new articulation styles, due to the nature of his construction.  His arms are using the pinless construction, which looks quite nice, and they’ve reworked how the bicep cuts work to make them a little more pleasant to look at when posing.  The rest of the movement more or less remains the same as it was on the first version.  A lot of that is due to most of the parts being shared between the two figures.  The head and arms are new, but everything else is re-use.  It’s sensible, since most of the old figure was pretty decent; don’t fix what’s not broken and all that.  The biggest issue with the prior Cap was the inaccuracy on the head, which this one fixes, more or less.  The hair and beard are far closer to their on-screen looks this time, which is a definite improvement.  I don’t know that the likeness is quite as spot-on as, say, the Endgame figure, but it’s certainly not un-Evans-like.  There’s a second head sculpt included, this one more expressive than the first.  It’s not a bad face sculpt, but I’m not sure the hair works as well.  He looks like he’s got some very serious helmet hair going on.  The new arms not only improve the aesthetics of the articulation, they also fix the issue of the last figure only having the one glove.  Now he’s nice and symmetrical.  In general, the new sculpt is a resounding success.  If things seem to be going too smoothly, that’s because they are.  The sculpt is great, but as with pretty much every IW Cap, there’s always a trade off.  In this case, it’s that the paint ends up making his uniform much brighter and cleaner than it should be.  The colors were one thing that the first figure did alright on, so the move to something brighter feels like an odd misstep.  It’s not terrible, but it’s definitely off.  The paint on the heads is at least up to the usual standards, so that’s good.  In addition to the previously mentioned extra head, he also gets two sets of hands (gripping and fists, both gloved this time), as well as two of the Wakandan shields.  The shields aren’t a matched pair; one is open and the other closed.  It would be nice to get two sets of each version, especially given the extra price on this round of releases.  At least they actually gave us two this time, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure fills me with mixed feelings.  I wanted an improvement on the last release, and that’s what I got, but there are once again trade offs, and I do really feel like if you’re going to force us to buy the same figure twice, you could at least go the extra mile by throwing in more accessories.  Just to spruce him up a little bit.  And that’s all without getting into the Walmart exclusive thing, which continues to be a rather stupid move on someone’s part.  Not entirely sure whose, but someone’s.  All that said, I was at least able to get mine without any major issues (apart from the one delay that pretty much everyone got), and in-hand, I do really, really like this figure.  It’s a shame we couldn’t just get him this way from the start, but then I suppose we wouldn’t appreciate this one as much.

#2932: B’omarr Monk

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

B’OMARR MONK

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

So, these days, I fear, like, nothing, but other people do fear things, and one of those things, at least pretty consistently, is spiders.  Seriously, when I bring up my lack of fears, it’s like a 50/50 chance that the next question that follows is “Even spiders?”  Why am I talking about everyone’s fear of spiders?  Well, I wanna be kind to my readers who aren’t so big on them, so I’m gonna give a little bit of a content warning on the pictures that go along with today’s review.  Enter at your own peril.

Continue reading →

#2931: Hawkeye

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

HAWKEYE

AVENGERS: UNITED THEY STAND (TOY BIZ)

“Clint Barton is the heroic marksman known as Hawkeye. A master acrobat and hand-to-hand combatant, Barton has honed his bow-and-arrow skills to near superhuman accuracy. Drawing the high-tech weapon from his back, and locking it with chest piece, this ace archer utilizes his custom-built arsenal of arrows, and laser sighting to trounce all evil powers. As one of Earth’s mightiest heroes he answers the call, ‘Avengers Assemble!'”

At the end of next month Hawkeye premiers on Disney+, finally giving Jeremy Renner’s live action version of the character a proper focus after being purely an ensemble player for five films.  Hawkeye’s got a pretty rich comics history to draw from, so it’s great to see them finally take a little more note of Clint Barton.  As a quintessential Avenger, he’s almost always included in Avengers projects, of course, including 1999’s Avengers: United They Stand, where he served as one of the show’s focal characters.  Since he was a team member not named “Scarlet Witch” he got a toy out of it, which I’ll be taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hawkeye was part of the second assortment of the United They Stand tie-in line from Toy Biz.  It was, as noted before, a purely clerical division, as they all shipped at the same time.  This marked Hawkeye’s third figure from Toy Biz, and would be one of four released during their tenure with the property.  The figure was somewhat oddly on the taller side, standing a little over 5 1/2 inches tall and sporting 10 points of articulation.  Hawkeye was a slight step down from the rest of the line on the movement front.  The legs are up to the same base level as others (though the hips are a bit more restricted by the costume design), but his arms don’t get elbow joints.  His right is already bent, and has a bicep cut joint to add some extra movement.  Maybe they though elbow joints would make the arms too weak to hold the bow properly?  Hawkeye’s sculpt was an all-new one, based on his much maligned design from the show.  Generally, I didn’t hate any of the looks the way other people did, and I don’t really hate Hawkeye’s look either, but I will say he’s probably the weakest of the main team in terms of design.  I’m very much a classic Hawkeye fan, so I hesitate when it comes to anything that doesn’t have at least the old mask design.  Also, the armor looks a little goofier on him than the others.  All that said, it fits the general aesthetic they built with the show, and I don’t hate it.  The figure’s sculpt is a reasonable match for his design as seen in the show.  Like the others, he’s been slightly tweaked in terms of stylizing in order to fit better with the rest of Toy Biz’s Marvel output at the time.  The one notable thing here is that his head was clearly sculpted based on the initial design for Hawkeye (seen in most of the show’s promotional material), which had a headband, rather than the proper mask.  Fortunately, it was an easy enough thing to change convincingly with just some paint.  Speaking of paint, his was generally okay.  Nothing amazing or anything, but he follows the show’s look pretty well, and there were no glaring issues.  Mine has taken a little bit of wear over the years, but not too much.  Hawkeye was packed with his bow, which is absolutely huge, by the way, as well as six different styles of arrows.  I’ve only got two of them left from my stock, but they’re pretty cool, and even had metal at the ends so that you could use the magnet in Hawkeye’s right hand to draw them back and fire them.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hawkeye was nearer the end of my purchases for the line, I believe.  He was never quite as hard to find as the others.  He was one of the few I actually found in the store myself, as opposed to having someone else just get it for me.  I already had the Iron Man Hawkeye, which was really always my go-to version, even after getting this one, so this guy really just tended to be auxiliary.  He’s not bad, all things considered, but he’s probably one of the weaker ones from this particular set.

#2930: Rippley

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

RIPPLEY

FORTNITE: VICTORY ROYALE SERIES (HASBRO)

Fortnite has become quite a merchandising juggernaut in the last few years, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon.  Just in the realm of action figures alone, there are no fewer than three toy companies that hold the license.  Despite still never having played the game even a single time, I’ve looked at offerings from both Jazwares and McFarlane.  Hasbro has just recently gotten in on things as well, offering up their own 6-inch-scale line of figures, dubbed the Victory Royale Series, which is just starting to show up now.  And, at this point, I’m not even gonna fight it, really.  So, let’s look at Rippley, a little blobby guy added during Chapter 2’s first season in the game.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rippley is one of the four figures that make up the first basic assortment of Hasbro’s Fortnite: Victory Royale Series.  The line just started showing up at retail in the last month or so.  Rippley’s kind of the resident “goofy” figure, in with three of the more straightforward designs.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation, which, yes, even includes a neck joint, as much as it might look like it doesn’t.  In general, Rippley’s articulation scheme follows the set-up we’ve seen on Hasbro’s Classified figures, albeit without the drop hips and butterfly shoulders.  It’s a pretty good set-up, and while he’s slightly more restricted by his design, he’s still quite posable.  As far as scaling goes, Rippley and the rest of the assortment will more or less fit right in with Jazwares own Legendary Series offerings, as well as other 6-inch-scale Hasbro lines (barring the slightly under-scaled Overwatch figures, but that line’s dead anyway).  Rippley’s sculpt is all new, and it’s pretty fun.  He’s a little bulkier than the others, and the blobby parts are very smooth and basic, but all of his gear has an impressive level of detail and texturing, which really adds a lot.  In order to facilitate proper posability in the neck joint, the top of Rippley’s blobby self is designed for removal.  It’s pretty seamless, since it connects right at the edge of his vest, and it stays nice and secure.  You could be forgiven for not even realizing it was removable, honestly.  Rippley’s color work is generally pretty basic, but it works.  I really dig the translucent blue, and the cartoony smile on the face is a nice touch.  I’m curious to see if Hasbro decides to do the other color variants, just to get more uses out of the mold.  Rippley is packed with the Sludge Hammer harvesting tool, Containment Pack back bling, and the pump shot weapon, sporting the Rippley Wrap, a string of words that mean it’s translucent blue, like he is.  I can get behind that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As stated in the intro, I’ve still not played any Fortnite, nor do I ever really intend to, so I don’t *technically* have a reason to keep buying any of the toys.  Hasbro taking over the 6-inch line didn’t feel like something I needed to try or anything, but then I saw this blob guy, and I just really found him way too nifty to pass on.  Plus, hey, I got to try out the line, so that’s cool.  At least as far as Rippley is concerned, the line doesn’t feel too terribly far removed from what Jazwares was doing, but I guess that’s not a bad thing, since those figures were pretty cool.  Rippley is a lot of fun.  I’m as unlikely to grab more of these as any of the other Fortnite lines, but I’ll still probably be grabbing them if they look cool.  And Rippley certainly looked cool.

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

#2929: Gigawatt

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

GIGAWATT

BACK TO THE FUTURE X TRANSFORMERS (HASBRO)

It’s been seven whole years since my one Back to the Future-related review, but it’s been significantly less time since my last Transformers review.  In fact, when I wrote the one BttF review, I wasn’t yet actually doing proper Transformers reviews.  So, there’s been no crossover.  Well, I guess now’s as good a time as any to do that, since, you know, there’s actually an official crossover and everything.  That sure makes my job easier, doesn’t it?  Well, let’s have a look at Gigawatt!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gigawatt is the third offering under Hasbro’s Transformers: Collaborative banner.  He was initially released as a Walmart-exclusive last summer, but has been slowly trickling his way out to other retailers starting at the tail end of last year.  He seems to have finally started hitting in larger quantities in the last month or so.  In his robot mode, Gigawatt stands about 5 inches tall and he has 20 workable points of articulation.  As with Ectotron, Gigawatt makes use of a pre-existing mold for his core starting point.  In this case, he uses the internal engineering and a good number of parts from the Siege Sideswipe figure.  Sideswipe was one of my favorite Siege molds, and is rather masterful in its simplicity relative to just how good it looks.  This figure keeps everything really good about the original mold, and re-skins it with the assorted parts needed for his updated alt-mode.  It looks very good, much like the original release.  Among the wholly new parts specifically for the robot mode is the head; it’s similar to the Sideswipe head, but now it’s got some sweet new goggles, for science purposes, of course.  I also really dig the new torso piece, which features a version of the flux capacitor, as well as the date readouts from the main console.  It really sells all the important elements of the time machine, all in one convenient robot package.  Gigawatt includes a blaster rifle (with removable “stock”) and a “whip.”  The “stock” and “whip” both come more in handy in the next section.

Gigawatt’s alt-mode is kind of the major selling point here.  As a BttF-branded tie-in, there’s really only one logical choice of vehicle mode, and that’s Doc Brown’s modified Delorian DMC-12.  As with pretty much any BttF tie-in version of the vehicle, it doesn’t actually sport any of the specific Delorian branding or markings.  It’s clearly the same car, of course, and it’s a good recreation of it at that.  The transformation sequence is effectively the same as Sideswipe’s, so it’s a fairly intuitive one, but it also looks quite convincing in vehicle mode.  The design of the car allows for the wheels to be switched into hovercar mode, and you can also use the “stock” of the gun to add the Mr. Fusion, or hook the “whip” up to be the antenna used to catch the lightning strike at the end of the first movie.  It makes it quite an inclusive selection of looks from the movie, which is certainly fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ectotron was a lot of fun, so as soon as the possibility of this one was floated, I knew I was on board, even moreso when he was shown off and confirmed to be using Sideswipe’s mold as a starting point.  It’s been a long wait to get one, but he was ultimately worth it.  I love his design, I love how he transforms, I love the extras he comes with, and I just love him in general.  A really, really nice figure, just all around.

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

#2928: Nightwing

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

NIGHTWING

BATMAN: THE CAPED CRUSADER (SPIN MASTER)

I think I’m finally hitting an okay pace when it comes to these Spin Master DC figures.  I mean, it’s at least a consistent one.  Sure, that consistent pace is, like, one figure per month, but that’s still something, right?  This year’s theme for their Batman line is Bat-Tech, which is outfitting all of the Caped Crusader’s allies and foes with new variant costumes that are all techy.  Largely, I’m picking up the actually new characters, but there are a few intriguing variants mixed in, and I’m always a sucker for a good Nightwing.  So, you know, here we are.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightwing is part of the sixth assortment of Spin Master’s Batman: The Caped Crusader line, which is the second assortment under the “Bat-Tech” banner.  This is the same assortment that included the previously reviewed Batgirl, making Nightwing a logical inclusion.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation.  Structurally, the figure is the same as the prior Spin Master Nightwing.  It’s a reasonable enough sculpt, not perfect, but certainly serviceable, and the consistency isn’t a bad thing.  In order to fit with the “tech-y” nature of the set, Nightwing’s color scheme has been tweaked.  It keeps the same basic Nightwing feel, but he’s molded in a smoky translucent plastic, which is fun, and he’s got a bunch of the tech details like we saw on Batgirl and Batman.  They’re fun little details, and I also enjoy the slight change-ups to his basic suit’s layout of details.  Nightwing is packed with the same baton pieces that the prior release included, but in sparkly blue plastic instead.  He also gets two different guns, one of which has a piece to allow for hooking it up to his back.  Guns feel a bit in contrast to Nightwing’s usual loadout, but I guess they’re not real guns, so that’s better maybe?  I’m only gonna use the batons anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting Batgirl, I found myself really liking the Bat-Tech set-up as a whole, and, I am, as noted before, a sucker for a good Nightwing.  Max wound up finding this one during one of his stops, so he was nice enough to enable me pick one up for me.  He’s not drastically different from the last one, but he’s still a lot of fun, and keeps the spirit of Spin Master’s whole set-up really going.

#2927: Orko

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

ORKO

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE ORIGINS (MATTEL)

I’m slowing down on Masters of the Universe Origins, as my focus shifts just a little bit more over to the new Revelation-related stuff in Masterverse, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna still pick up the occasional release here and there, mostly when they do one of those characters that I like to have in every style.  Still waiting on that Mechanek love, but until then, I guess I’ll just make due with one of the *other* characters I have across numerous styles, one despised by fun-haters everywhere, Orko!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Orko was released in Wave 2 of Mattel’s main Masters of the Universe Origins line.  It technically shipped to Walmarts at the tail-end of last year, but that’s a very technical thing.  It actually started showing up later in 2021, and has finally started showing up at general retail a bit more in the last few months, along with the rest of the oddly delayed Wave 2 figures.  The figure is about 4 inches tall and he has 13 points of articulation.  Obviously, he’s got no legs, so by extension there’s no leg movement, but he does get all of the standard movement in his arms, as well as a quite useful ball-joint on the neck.  While the line is largely built on re-use, Orko continues the usual Orko trend of being an entirely unique mold.  He’s clearly based on his vintage figure, especially when it comes to scaling (he’s rather one the large side), but certainly takes some inspiration from his Filmation animation design in terms of the sculpt’s specific styling.  It’s a fun, streamlined sculpt, and certainly fits the character well.  Orko’s paint work is generally pretty basic, with most of the colors being molded plastic.  What paint he does have is a little bit on the sloppy side.  There’s some errant paint on the back of the hat, as well as a couple of spots of yellow where they shouldn’t be around the eyes.  It’s also pretty messy around the edges of the ears.  From afar, it’s not terrible, but it doesn’t seem up to the same standard as the other figures I’ve gotten from the line.  Orko is packed with a display stand designed to emulate his floating from the show.  It’s a pretty impressive piece, complete with an articulated arm and everything, a great improvement over prior hover stands for the character.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t intend to get this guy at first.  I’ve got the Classics release, and, as far as I’m concerned, that’s pretty much the best version of a classic Orko we’re ever going to get.  So, this guy didn’t really feel needed.  That being said, I got to finally see him in person, and my resolve on not getting him wore down.  Ultimately, he’s a pretty good little figure.  He’s very different than the rest of the line, but he works well, even as sort of his own contained piece.

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

#2926: Alvin “Breaker” Kibbey with RAM Cycle

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

ALVIN “BREAKER” KIBBEY w/ RAM CYCLE

G.I. JOE: CLASSIFIED SERIES (HASBRO)

G.I. Joe: Classified Series has kind of slowed its pace in new releases, presumably to allow people a chance to, you know, actually find some of them.  The last two sets of the main line have been devoted to the ill-fated movie tie-in stuff, while the core line stuff is still kind of tied-up with exclusives.  Two years into the line, we’re getting a second vehicle, this time around for the Joes.  It’s another bike, though this time it’s actually an update on one of the vintage vehicles, specifically the RAM Cycle, one of the Real American Hero line’s debut vehicles.  It’s even packed with an updated version of one of the Original 13, Breaker!

THE TOYS THEMSELVES

Alvin “Breaker” Kibbey and the RAM Cycle are one of the two pieces in the latest round of Target-exclusive “Special Mission: Cobra Island” sub-set of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe: Classified Series.  They’re numbered 29 in the overall line-up, thus far the highest number we’ve seen.  Breaker with the RAM Cycle feels like a kind of an odd pairing, but it’s actually not the first time they’ve been packed together, since they did the same thing in the 25th line.

ALVIN “BREAKER” KIBBEY

Breaker was one of the handful of greenshirts that launched the ARAH line in 1982, but has largely been confined to purely recreations and anniversary stuff since then.  As such, he’s really only had the one look (we don’t talk about “Stars and Stripes Forever” guys), which is effectively one this one’s recreating, albeit in a more modernized sense.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 35 points of articulation.  In terms of articulation, Breaker is rather standard for the line, but I did note that on mine the left hip was exceptionally loose.  Structurally, Breaker’s got a lot of re-use, going on.  The torso is from Beach Head, the arms from Duke, and the legs and waist are from Snake Eyes.  He then gets a new head, chest cover, and boots in order to make him a little more unique.  I’m gonna be honest, I’m already kinda starting to get tired of seeing Duke’s arms; we really need a set with the more proper tighter roll on the sleeves sooner than later.  I’m also not entirely sold on the new head.  It’s not a bad piece, and even bears quite a resemblance to Jake Gyllenhaal, which I guess could work well if you want an unmasked head for Mysterio.  That said, it feels a little too suave and cool for Breaker.  Again, not bad, but it does seem slightly out of character.  The vest is also a little more bulked up, and with him being packed in with a vehicle, I do kinda feel like I’m getting Clutch vibes off of him more so than Breaker.  I guess this is just one of those things that comes along with how similar all of the original figures were.  Breaker’s paint work is fairly one note.  There’s a lot of olive green, which is true to his design, I suppose.  The application is a little spotty, especially on the hairline and on the edges of the wrists.  In general, he gets the job done alright, though.  Breaker is packed with an all-new helmet.  It’s got his comm piece built in, as well as an affixed visor.  The visor is totally opaque, which is kind of a bummer, and also adds to making Breaker look too cool to really be Breaker.  I’m also kind of sad we didn’t get an alternate head with his trademark bubble gum bubble; we got it for Jubilee and Boom, why not Breaker?

RAM CYCLE

Hey, we finally got a second vehicle for the line!  What’s it gonna be this time?  Another motorcycle?  Wow, what a total shock that no one could have possibly seen coming.  Look, we all know bikes are the most cost effective way of doing vehicles at this scale, so I think we can all just get comfortable with this one, right?  Unlike its predecessor, the COIL, the RAM Cycle is a classic Joe vehicle, so it’s nice to see it make a return here.  The RAM is an all-new mold, measuring 5 inches tall by 8 inches wide, and having working wheels and steering.  It’s a pretty decent recreation of the vintage RAM Cycle, scaled up to the new line size, of course.  There are some pretty cool sculpted details worked in, and it’s got a totally different feel from the COIL’s Cobra-themed aesthetic, making it clearly a Joe vehicle.  Breaker also sits on it a little better than Baroness did on the COIL, making it feel like a slightly more coherent set.  There’s a removable side car piece, designed with the included minigun in mind.  It mimics the old toy’s mounted gun, while also allowing for the gun to be used on its own, presumably for someone who’s, you know, not Breaker.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Target exclusives for this line are kind of burning me out at this point.  I’m just rather tired of the hunt, and of not finding anything, and of having to deal with all the related stupidity.  So, I made no notable attempt to get Breaker, because I just couldn’t be too bothered really.  Plus, it’s another vehicle, and I’m not really displaying those right now, so it felt like a bit of a waste.  Max wound up snagging one of these for himself, and after opening it, admitted he really only wanted the bike, so Breaker was going to just be tossed in a bin somewhere.  I admitted I really only wanted Breaker, so we opted to split the set, with me doing the full review here first.  Breaker’s fairly by the numbers, and kind of not terribly Breaker-like, but he’s a decent enough figure that I’m glad to have him.  The cycle is fun, and I’m glad I got to mess with it, but it’s not something I need to own, so this set-up really does work out for both of us.

#2925: Ultra Magnus

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

ULTRA MAGNUS

TRANSFORMERS: ROBOTS IN DISGUISE (HASBRO)

Faithful readers will probably know that today marks my eighth anniversary of this humble little toy review site.  As with all of my anniversary reviews, I like to take a look at something that’s not quite your average day’s sort of significance, but is rather a little more special to me.  I’ve covered all sorts of various lines in these posts, mostly exploring my earliest days of collecting.  Because of this focus, Transformers is kind of out in the cold, since they’re mostly a recent addition to these collecting habits.  Today, however, I give them some time in the spotlight with, unsurprisingly, an Ultra Magnus.  Look, I like what I like, alright?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultra Magnus was a Super Class scale release in Hasbro’s Transformers: Robots In Disguise line, hitting retail in 2001, alongside the similarly Super Class scale Optimus Prime (with whom he could combine to form Omega Prime).  In his robot mode, Magnus stands 10 1/2 inches tall and he has 21 workable points of articulation.  The legs are generally rather restricted, largely due to there not being any articulation until the knee, which is about 6 inches up the leg.  On the plus side, the arms get quite a bit of mobility, in classic Magnus fashion, really.  Magnus’s molds were repurposed from Takara’s Car Robots God Magnus figure, based on the animation of the same name, which was adapted into RiD‘s own cartoon equivalent here in the US.  As with the smaller scale Spy Changers version of the character, this Magnus is just all legs.  Just the absolute epitome of legs.  ZZ Tops “Legs,” but in Transformers form.  Guy’s got long legs is what I’m getting at, really.  Given his much larger scale, this release is, of course, a far more complex take on the same design, allowing for a lot more detail work, as well as the already mentioned improved articulation.  It marked a pretty radical change-up from the likes of the G1 line, where larger figures tended to be much more immobile.  At this scale, the kibble from his vehicle mode is also a lot less of an issue, making for a generally cleaner look for Magnus.  Magnus is packed with his “Blue Bolts” cannon, which can be configured into a few different layouts.  There are supposed to be two missiles for it as well, but they’re missing from mine.

Magnus’s alt-mode is an updated, more sci-fi-esque take on his G1-version’s car carrier mode.  The transformation sequence is quite involved, with a lot of moving parts, as well as some old-school partsforming, which requires the legs to be removed and reassembled as the actual car-carrier parts.  You definitely need to take some time to figure this one out, and I actually outsourced it to Max for the first transformation out of a paranoid fear of breaking the thing.  In his vehicle mode, he’s quite sizable, about 11 inches in length.  He’s large enough to hold three of the deluxe class cars from the line.  And hey, all of the wheels are actually working wheels on this version.  With proper rubber tires and everything.  All in all, it’s pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is very special to me, for a lot of intersecting reasons.  While I was never a Beast Wars kid, something about the 2001 Robots In Disguise, and especially Ultra Magnus really stuck with me.  I very much wanted this figure as a kid, but at the time, I didn’t quite have the ability to articulate that to my parents, who mostly stuck to getting me the things they knew I liked, rather than the outliers (that’s not a knock against them, by the way; they were genuinely really good at getting me gifts I really appreciated, and I was also enough of a go-with-the-flow kind of person that I probably never once mentioned to them wanting this toy).  So, I never had this has a kid.  I didn’t have any Ultra Magnuses at all, until Siege, when the use of this guy’s alt-mode as a G1-style Magnus’s Cybertronian design was enough to get me in the door and create something of a monster.  For 20 years, this guy was on the back of my mind.

During the period where he was on the back of my mind, he was, at least at some point, on the forefront of the mind of Jason, owner of All Time Toys.  When Jason fought for custody of his oldest son Chance, he wanted Chance to have his own collection of things that the two of them could bond over.  For Chance’s first Christmas, Jason made it a point to go all out and get him some of the best Transformers he could.  This Ultra Magnus was included.  When things got complicated with the custody battle, Jason couldn’t spend Christmas with Chance, and those gifts had to wait.  But Jason won that battle, and Chance got that Christmas, even if it was a little late.

Fifteen years or so later, my crappy IT job that was slowly killing me laid me off in the middle of a pandemic, and I found myself needing full time job, which Jason gave me.  A month later, Jess and I got the news of her cancer, meaning that just as I left a situation that was slowly killing me, Jess was in one of her own.  The next year was unquestionably the hardest of my life, but Jason, Max, and Chance (who was now my coworker) were all there to help me.  In the midst of all that hardship, Chance decided to part with his Ultra Magnus, and gave it to me.  If I’d gotten it all those years ago, it would have never meant this much to me.  But now it’s got so much meaning behind it.  This is my very favorite Ultra Magnus.