Tag Archives: All Time Toys

#3338: Cobra B.A.T.

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

COBRA B.A.T.

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

When G.I. Joe was adapted to animation in 1983, the standards for cartoons wouldn’t allow for any actual on-screen injuries.  This made for a rather difficult time on a show that was depicting warfare, as it meant that the Joes could never do much to Cobra’s human forces.  There was a lot of bad aim and parachuting to safety.  Thankfully, by the show’s second season, Cobra’s forces had gained the Battle Android Troopers, whose robotic nature made them exempt from the censors.  As such, they got a fair bit of play in the show following their introduction, and that makes them a pretty natural choice for Super 7’s first Ultimates army builder.

THE FIGRUE ITSELF

The Cobra B.A.T. is the third of the four figures that make up the first assortment of G.I. Joe: Ultimates (the fourth being Cobra Commander, who I opted not to pick up).  Thus far, all of the assortments are a 50/50 split between Joes and Cobras, and this guy is obviously from the latter grouping.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  The B.A.T.’s articulation is honestly better than I’d expected.  His elbows in particular are the best of the three figures I’ve looked at so far, and and the neck joint is on par with Snake Eyes.  He lacks the mid-torso joint, for design reasons, but he does alright even without it.  We got a preview of most of the B.A.T. sculpt on the exclusive comic version late last year.  It’s a really clean offering, which just really, really works.  It’s true to the animation models, while also sticking to the V1 figure’s look.  The head sculpt is unique to this release, and it’s appropriately sleek and polished.  The whole sculpt is just really well put together, which is honestly impressive given how cobbled together the B.A.T. design actually is, when you really get down to it.  The only drawback to my figure is that the glue on the softer rubber parts on the bandolier and holster doesn’t quite hold the way it’s supposed to.  Thankfully, those are both very easily fixed.  The B.A.T.’s paint work is quite striking.  The mix of bright red and yellow with black and silver really gives hims some serious pop.  The application is largely pretty clean; there are some messier spots on the shoulders and belt, and one spot of black on his right forearm, but he’s otherwise solid.  The B.A.T. is quite well accessorized, featuring three sets of standard hands (in fists, trigger grip, and open gesture), drill, claw, and gun hand attachments, a back pack for the hand attachments, a pistol, a rifle, an alternate damaged head, a decapitated neck stump, a damaged left arm piece, and an effect piece for his chest.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When these figures were announced, the Classified B.A.T. still hadn’t been confirmed, so I was totally in for this one.  Then the Classified figure was announced and released before this guy finally came along.  At that point, I was planning to pass on this one, and focus purely on the Joes, but…well, as you can see, I caved.  I could blame Max, who got one first and let me mess with it, but I was honestly always a lost cause on this one.  Snake Eyes remains my favorite of the three, but this guy’s still really, really nice.  I continue to really enjoy this line.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3337: Metalhead

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

METALHEAD

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

“Designed as Krang’s ultimate weapon against the Turtles, Metalhead was re-programmed by Donatello to serve the side of good. The chrome-plated sewer servant’s eyes light up when you hold him up to the light. Always the life of the party, Metalhead can whip up a whipped cream and jelly bean pizza, serve sodas, display video games or rock the sewer with tunes from his jazzed-up juke box. When trouble’s brewing, Metalhead becomes one annoyed android and dishes out trouble with his Robo-chuks and Foot Blaster to all who dare mess with his Turtle masters.”

You know a thing that I like?  I mean, aside from the rather obvious “action figures” answer, which is sort of just all around us here.  No, I was actually thinking of “robots” in this case.  Robots are just pretty cool.  And, they make everything else just a little bit cooler.  Case in point?  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Pretty cool, right?  Robot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  Even better.  Thankfully, the TMNT have one of those on-hand, in the form of Metalhead, who I just so happen to be taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Metalhead is part of Wave 3 of Super 7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates line.  He’s based on Metalhead’s original 1989 Playmates figure, which, since he was one of the few characters to appear on the show first, means that he’s also pretty accurate to his animated counterpart.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme matches up with how the standard Turtles move, which is to say it’s a little more on the restricted side.  Obviously, it’s an improvement on the vintage figure, but it’s not quite as good as, say, the Casey Jones figure.  Metalhead’s sculpt was new to him, albeit it’s already slated for re-use on the upcoming Michelangelo Metalhead, just like in the vintage line.  It’s a pretty impressive offering.  It captures the general feel of the vintage figure, while also scaling it up and adding quite a nice selection of smaller details.  He’s also got a really cool boxy and robotic feel, just like he should.  Metalhead’s color work is generally pretty decently handled.  He skips out on the chromed parts of the original figure, which feels better for the figure’s longevity over time, and is also more consistent with the rest of the line up to this point.  There’s actually quite a bit going on with this one as well, which gives him a lot of visual interest.  Application is generally pretty clean, which is always nice for this line.  Metalhead is packed with an extra head sculpt, which features light-piping instead of painted eyes, as well as seven hands (a pair of fists, a pair of gripping, a pair of open gesture, and a right hand with a tendril extended), his Portable Party Pack, two sets of his Radical Robo-chuks (one for his hand, and one for the Pack), a radar dish for his pack, two grenades, and a vintage-style weapons tree (which, like with Casey and Ace, isn’t actually accurate to anything specific, but is still cool).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My interest in Metalhead is pretty clearly spelled out in the intro.  I mean, he’s a robot turtle; what’s not to like?  I missed out on Wave 3 of this line during its initial run, so I didn’t really expect to get this guy.  That said, in the fall of last year, All Time got an almost complete run of the Ultimates traded in loose, so that gave me another shot at this guy.  Like the rest of the line I’ve picked up, he’s just a lot of fun.  Hard to go wrong with this guy, really.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3333: Duke

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

DUKE

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Though he wouldn’t join the line until 1983 (and even that was just as a mail-in; he wasn’t in the line proper until ’84), Conrad “Duke” Hauser has nevertheless become the face of A Real American Hero (granted, that’s largely because Snake Eyes and Cobra Commander are, you know, faceless and all), and by extension, he’s gotten a lot of focus in the toys.  He was also especially prominent in Sunbow’s tie-in cartoon, and since that’s the main basis for Super 7’s new Ultimates line, Duke’s right there in the starting line-up.  I’ll be taking a look at him today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Duke is the second figure in the four-figure line-up that makes up Series 1 of G.I. Joe: Ultimates.  After Snake Eyes, he’s the second of two Joes included in this assortment.  Much like Snake Eyes, Duke is based on his animation model, though Duke only actually had the one main design in the Sunbow era, in contrast to Snake Eyes’ two.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Duke’s articulation is a touch more restricted than what we saw on Snake Eyes.  Thankfully, the elbows and knees remain about the same; it’s really just the neck and waist that are reduced.  The waist is a design thing, so I get it, but the neck’s just a bit of a bummer.  Duke is another all-new sculpt, going straight for that animated look. Duke’s cartoon is particularly sold by his head, and this figure has three of them to work with.  There’s a standard neutral expression, a shouting one, and one that’s somewhere between the two, which also features a headset.  All three are sporting an impressive likeness of the Sunbow Duke, so you can pretty much instantly tell who he’s supposed to be.  The one with the headset is my personal favorite of the three, but they’re all of equal quality.  The body sculpt doesn’t *need* to be as strong as the heads, so the fact that it’s not quite isn’t all bad.  It’s still pretty good, but the articulation’s a little obvious, especially the ab-crunch, and to my eyes, his feet look far longer than they should.  Other than that, it’s a solid sculpt, which matches up decently both with the show and the V1 figure.  The color work on Duke is a good match for his cartoon counterpart; the color scheme for Duke was pretty similar to the figure, so it’s pretty compatible.  His paint work is all pretty sharp and clean, especially on the faces of the three alternate heads.  Duke is packed with the aforementioned 3 heads, as well as four pairs of hands (in fists, trigger-finger grip, loose grip, and a flat/pointer combo), an animation style rifle (shared with Snake Eyes), a walkie talkie (also shared with Snake Eyes), a watch, and a helmet, binoculars, rifle, and back-pack all based directly on his V1 figure’s parts.  He doesn’t get any of the more episode-specific parts like Snake Eyes did, but I do feel like the V1-style parts are a decent trade-off.  I wish the binoculars were a bit more natural sitting, and he can’t really hold the walkie talkie, but otherwise everything is pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m not, classically, a Duke fan.  He falls into that grouping of main characters that I tend to find rather insufferable most of the time.  So, why buy the $50 deluxe figure of him?  Well, he’s grown on me over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the animated version in particular, and this figure that just honestly looked really, really cool.  Is he as good as Snake Eyes?  No.  But I also didn’t expect him to be.  Snake Eyes is Snake Eyes.  There are different standards.  Duke’s still a really good figure, though, and I’m still quite hype about this line.

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 and their eBay storefront.

 

#3332: Yellowjacket

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

YELLOWJACKET

MARVEL LEGENDS — MARVEL STUDIOS: THE FIRST TEN YEARS (HASBRO)

“The new lead of Pym Industries, Darren Cross, threatens to sell his highly weaponized Yellowjacket suit to the criminal organization Hydra.”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s second phase was, amongst other things, characterized by a slightly lackluster batch of antagonists.  There are a variety of reasons for this, chief amongst them being that most of them weren’t really designed for long-term use, so they were sort of designed as disposable.  Since there wasn’t much investment into them, they were largely left untapped for toy coverage.  Ant-Man was particularly light on coverage, with only a few different versions of Scott in the main suit (and even then, they were all kind of inaccurate), and nothing barring Minimates for the film’s main antagonist, Darren Cross, aka Yellowjacket.  Fortunately, he was on the short list for the the First Ten Years sub-line of Legends from 2018, so he wasn’t *totally* left out.  I’m looking at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Yellowjacket one half of the Ant-Man-themed two-pack that made up entry 8 in the Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years sub-line of Marvel Legends, with the other half being a slightly updated version of Scott Lang in the Ant-Man suit.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation on the main body, plus an additional 14 points of articulation on the backpack and its arms.  The core figure is a little bit restricted, especially by modern standards, but was fairly average for 2018, I suppose.  Given that Yellowjacket’s not a particularly agile character in the film, he’s pretty workable with what he’s been given.  Yellowjacket sports a sculpt that was all-new to him, and which has not been re-used since this figure.  It’s honestly a pretty strong one.  Yellowjacket’s entire character was completely reworked for the film, and that extended to his costume, which only kept trace elements of Hank Pym’s Yellowjacket costume from the comics, instead building something that’s a far more armored up, and a little bit more menacing.  Since this figure was released a few years after the film, he’s got the benefit of being more accurate than the basic Ant-Man had been at the time of the initial film tie-ins.  Some of the exact line-work of the suit’s design isn’t a 100% exact match, but it’s definitely very close, and the detailing is honestly pretty impressive.  They’ve included all of his hexagonal texturing on the yellow sections, and I particularly like how the helmet and its nested visor design have turned out in figure form.  The paint work on Yellowjacket’s not too terribly involved, since it’s really just doing the two-toned thing.  It generally handles it well, though, as the application’s all pretty clean, there’s no notable missing details, and I do dig the metallic yellow.  There’s a slight discrepancy in the exact shade of the yellow between a few spots, but it’s overall rather minor.  While the Ant-Man in this set got an unmasked head, Yellowjacket went without.  He did, however, get a re-used mini Yellowjacket from the 2015 Ant-Man release, so that was nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I passed on this figure when it first hit, largely because I just wasn’t feeling the need to pick up another Ant-Man just to get this one.  Given his minor nature in the overall scheme of things, I felt alright about that decision, but I did still *kinda* want one.  Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on a loose one when he came through All Time.  This figure’s a little bit dated compared to more recent releases, but he’s honestly a bit better than I was expecting him to be, and I’m glad I got the chance to grab him!

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3328: Snake Eyes

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

SNAKE EYES

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

When Super 7 first launched their Ultimates branding, they used it to continue Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Classics line, revisiting some of the core characters, but with more extras, at a slightly higher price point.  When Mattel decided to bring Masters back in-house, Super 7 decided to keep the brand going, and has been filling in with other ’80s and ’90s properties.  Up til now, perhaps one of the bigger omissions from that era has been G.I. Joe, which Hasbro has classically kept rather under wraps.  Super 7 first picked up the license for a run of ReAction figures, and now they’re adding a line of Ultimates to that as well.  It’s taken a little while for them to get out, but the first wave is finally hitting, with the second and third slated for a close follow-up.  I’m kicking things off with a look at the Joe who’s certainly the most numerous of the franchise’s leads, and who is just always the best way to kick off a new line, really, Snake Eyes!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Snake Eyes is part of the launch wave for Super 7’s G.I. Joe: Ultimates line, alongside Duke, Cobra Commander, and the B.A.T.  It’s a pretty heavy-hitter laden wave, and Snake Eyes is perhaps the heaviest hitter of the bunch.  The whole line is specifically animation based, drawing from Sunbow’s animation models for the show.  Snake Eyes notably had two models on the show, following his two main toy looks during the era.  This figure goes with his V1-inspired commando look, which was used during the first two miniseries for the show.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Articulation can be a tricky spot for Super 7, and I’ll admit I was a little concerned here.  The elbows and knees are still a little bit restricted, but they’re certainly serviceable.  On top of that, the movement on his neck and waist in particular is really impressive, and adds a lot of personality to his posing.  Snake Eyes’ sculpt is an all-new one, and, for the first time, it’s a truly animation-based Snake Eyes.  Others have at best homaged with paint, but not fully committed at a sculpt level.  It’s quite a clean look, and it matches up with the animation design really nicely.  I especially like how the mask has translated; other figures go a lot heavier on the detailing, but the simpler approach feels truer to his V1 figure.  The cartoon’s colors for Snake Eyes were one of the most distinctive parts of his look.  Interestingly, where most animation models of the era stripped down the colors for simplicity, that wasn’t the case for Snake Eyes.  His V1 figure was designed as a cost-saver for the first year, and thusly he was all black plastic with no painted details.  However, black is trick to work with in animation, so he got switched to a navy blue.  He also got some funky purple accenting, and he looses the gloves, so as to make all of his movements more visible.  The figure does a great job replicating it, and the paint application is all pretty cleanly handled.  Snake Eyes gets a decent stock of accessories.  He, of course, lacks any of his ninja stuff, since he was still just a commando at this point.  However, he does get his pet wolf Timber, who’s his own fully articulated figure.  Timber’s movement is a bit more restricted, but he’s still a lot of fun, and it’s great that he’s included at all.  Snake Eyes is also packed with four sets of hands (in fists, trigger finger, tight grip, and loose grip), a rifle, a pistol, a jetpack, and the canister from the Weather Dominator, which is perfect for pairing with Timber.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m a fan of the whole G.I. Joe franchise, in all of its aspects.  Hokey as it may be, I really do love the Sunbow cartoon, especially the first two miniseries.  Due to his lack of a speaking role, Snake Eyes was largely a minor player in the cartoon, but “Revenge of Cobra” gives him a decent little focus, which has always been one of my favorite bits.  I was quite excited when this line was announced, and this figure in particular was the one I was most looking forward to getting.  I was hoping to like him, to be sure, but exactly how much, I didn’t know.  This guy honestly blew away my expectations.  He’s just so much fun, and a really good start to the line.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’d like to see a video of this guy in action, I actually helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  And, as always, if you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3323: Mara Jade

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

MARA JADE

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Mara Jade was once Emperor Palpatine’s Hand, his most-trusted assassin. Five years later and now a successful smuggler, the last thing Mara expected was to stumble upon her former arch-enemy: Luke Skywalker.”

The post-Jedi Star Wars Expanded Universe had within it a good number of characters who rose to prominence, despite not being a direct part of any of the on-screen adventures of the franchise.  One of the more prolific examples was Mara Jade.  Introduced in Heir to Empire, Mara served as a foil to Luke, as the two eventually went from enemies to lovers.  Given her quite interwoven story with Luke, Mara was one of the first major “casualties” of Disney moving away from the Expanded Universe.  Unlike Thrawn, her compatriot from Heir, Mara has not, as of yet, made the jump to Disney’s official canon.  Her presence in the franchise as a whole has been a bit down played in more recent years, but she’s gotten her second figure since the Disney take-over, which, if you’re counting, brings her total number of figures up to a whopping four.  But hey, Black Series coverage.  That’s pretty cool.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mara Jade is part of the third round of the comics-inspired sub-line of Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Black Series.  While prior assortments have had four figures, this one’s down to three.  Hey, at least Mara finally made the cut.  She’s officially branded “Legends,” denoting her outside of canon status.  Mara is based on her appearance in Dark Force Rising, allowing her to be a direct follow-up to Luke from Heir, by virtue of being the next entry in that trilogy.  It translates to her still wearing the all-black get-up that she’s best known for, so it works fine by me.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 28 points of articulation.  Mara’s posability is a little more restricted than some more recent figures from the line, but not terribly so.  A lot of it has to do with her construction, which re-uses a good chunk of  parts from Jaina Solo (who is, entertaining, the first figure to use the “Legends” classifier).  She shares the torso and legs with that release and gets a new head and arms to differentiate things.  It all works a bit better than I’d expected; many of Mara’s prior figures have looked a bit tossed together, but this sculpt flows rather nicely.  The head sculpt doesn’t exactly have a spot-on likeness of Shannon McRandle (the model who “portrayed” Mara on book covers and trading cards in the ’90s), but it maintains enough of the traits to feel appropriately like the character.  It’s certainly closer than any prior attempt.  The only slight nit is that the hair’s maybe a tad flatter than it should be, but it’s minor.  To further differentiate Mara from Jaina, Mara gets extra add-ons for her shoulder harness, bandana, and goggles.  They can also be removed, if you want a more streamlined look.  Mara’s color work is generally on the basic side, largely relying on molded colors, especially for the bulk of her outfit.  She gets the now standard face printing, which is suitably clean and life like.  Mara is packed with her distinct purple lightsaber, as well as a small blaster pistol.  It’s a bit on the light side, but it’s standard at this point for this branch of the line.  At least both of her accessories are actually for her, which is more than could be said for Luke.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Honestly, a few years ago, I probably wouldn’t have picked up Mara at all.  I’ve not really had any direct interactions with the character.  I do have her Expanded Universe figure from ’98, but that one’s more fueled by nostalgia than anything.  That said, Rebels got me more interested in Thrawn as a character, so I wound up buying his Black Series figure.  I then got the Heir Luke figure, since I was buying others from the first comics assortment.  At that point, I was two figures deep on this set, and Mara was kind of the main missing piece.  She’s the strongest of the three, so she was certainly worth the wait.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3322 Pinky & The Brain

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

PINKY & THE BRAIN

ANIMANIACS ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

“They’re Pinky and The Brain

Yes, Pinky and The Brain

One is a genius

The other’s insane!”

First debuting as a recurring skit in Animaniacs, the wacky gene-spliced lab mice Pinky and The Brain proved to be quite a breakout pairing, and, in 1995, the duo gained their own spin-off series, with a rather impressive 65 episode run, brought to an end largely by the network’s insistence at adding a third cast member, Elmyra Duff from Tiny Toons, which kinda broke the show’s format.  Whatever the case, Pinky and The Brain is, like its parent show, quite a classic.  There was some merchandise available at the time of the show’s run, but nothing of note on the action figure front.  Last year, Super 7 picked up the larger Animaniacs license, and has launched a line under their Ultimates umbrella.  The first assortment gives us all three of the Warner siblings, as well as the titular duo from Pinky and The Brain.  I’ll be looking at the later pairing today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Pinky and The Brain are part of the first series of Super 7’s Animaniacs Ultimates line, which started arriving in February of this year.  The two are sold individually, rather than as a pair, but I’m reviewing them as one, because, you know, how could you not?

First up is Pinky, voiced in both shows by Rob Paulsen (who also voiced Yakko Warner in Animaniacs).  You might believe he’s the “insane” one, but if you actually follow the formatting of the lyrics and pay attention to Brain’s characterization on the show, might just be the genius.  Really makes you think, right?  Or, he’s just really dumb.  Could be that too.  What ever the case, he’s the taller of the two figures, standing about 6 1/2 inches tall and sporting 27 points of articulation.  Clearly, given the sizing, these two are in a different scale than the Warner siblings, since proper scaling would make it hard to justify that Ultimates pricing.  Articulation is an area where Super 7 can struggle a little bit, but Pinky’s a bit on the better end of things.  He’s not crazy posable, but most of the joints at least have a passable range of motion.  The elbows are a bit restricted, but not as terribly as some of the Ultimates have been.  His sculpt does a solid job of recreating the design from the show, which isn’t an easy feat.  There are three different heads included, and they all three nail the look of the character pretty much spot-on, and are also good at covering the basics on what you might need for Pinky’s expressions on the show.  Of the three, I think my go-to is going to be the laughing one, but I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for the one with the goofy eyes.  The body sculpt is a bit more basic and rudimentary, but it gets the basic shaping down right, and it manages to work in the articulation in a way that doesn’t look totally awful and obvious.  As far as color work goes, things are pretty basic, following the set-up of the design from the show.  The actual paint is really confined to the heads, which get a decent enough application.  As is usual with Super 7, there’s a little bit of slop and unevenness, but nothing too crazy or glaring.  In addition to the extra heads mentioned earlier, Pinky is packed with five pairs of hands (three styles of open gesture, a pair of flat grip, and a combo of round grip and pencil-holding), a photo of Pinky’s “girlfriend” Pharfignewton, a notepad, a grapple hook, some sort of scientific device with a light on the top, a beaker with a bunsen burner beneath it, and a pair of connected beakers.  He has trouble holding any of the beakers in any of his hands, but the other accessories work well with him, and provide a nice selection of posing options.

Now we’re onto The Brain, voiced on both shows by Maurice LaMarche, who described his voice for the character as somewhere between Orson Wells and Vincent Price.  The Brain is certainly the more obviously intelligent of the two, but he’s also definitely unhinged, so those descriptors in the theme song are still up for debate.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  The Brain is overall much shorter than Pinky, and his head makes up so much of his stature.  He’s appropriately smaller in scale, making him pretty decently scaled to Pinky, even if he’s not really scaled to anything else.  In terms of movement, he’s less mobile than Pinky, on a few fronts.  Most notably, the smaller size of his body means he lacks the knee joints (Brain honestly wasn’t seen moving at the knees that much on the show, again due to the shortness of his legs), and the different proportions, especially that larger head, mean that what articulation he has doesn’t quite have the same range.  Also, on my figure, one of the ankles joints is a bit loose, which makes balancing him a bit tricky.  That said, it was my only issue with any looseness on either of the figures, which is pretty good for Super 7.  Brain’s sculpt is pretty much on par with Pinky’s in terms of quality and ability to capture the show design in three dimensions.  He only gets two heads, rather than three, but they’re both pretty spot-on.  I’ll probably be sticking with the calmer one for display, but I really like the angry one.  The only thing I’m not crazy about on the heads is the rather noticeable seam where the face joins with the rest of the head.  The body sculpt is very similar to Pinky’s, but with the changed up proportions.  The tail on my Brain figure is rather loose in its socket, causing it to pop out a lot, so be mindful of that.  Brain’s paint work again matches closely to that of Pinky; it’s a bit sloppier on the faces, though.  In addition to the previously mentioned second head, Brain is packed with nine different hands (a pair of fists, a pair of relaxed, a pair of loose grip, a pair of tight grip, and a gesturing right hand), a paper clip, a pointer, a set of blueprints for a plan to take over the world, three different beakers, a globe on a keychain, and his large magnet device.  The magnet is the star piece here, with the ability to rotate, as well as a moving lever.  It’s also just really big, so it gives him this extra feeling of value.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I watched Animaniacs in passing when I was a kid, but I was a pretty religious viewer of Pinky & The Brain, which I frequently watched with my mom in particular (though she really never could get into those Elmyra episodes).  So, I’ve got a pretty deep-seated nostalgia for the pair.  While I was able to steer myself clear of getting the whole set from Super 7, there was no way I could turn down these two.  I know Super 7’s been coming under some fire as of late about the quality of their figures, but they’ve really turned things around with some of these more recent releases, and Pinky and The Brain are figures that very much play to their strengths with the Ultimates stuff.  They’re not perfect, but they’re a lot of fun, and certainly the best merch we’ve gotten based on the characters.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with these figures to review. If you’d like to see a video of these two in action, I helped out with one for All Time’s YouTube channel, so please check that out.  And, as always, if you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3321: Clone Trooper – 41st Elite Corps

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

CLONE TROOPER — 41ST ELITE CORPS

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“The clone troopers in the 41st Elite Corps are led by Clone Commander Gree and Jedi General Yoda. The troopers are equipped with specialized gear for combat on jungle worlds such as Rodia, one of the planets to which this unit is assigned during the Clone Wars.”

People love Clone Troopers, and one of the things people particularly love about Clone Troopers are all the fancy colors you can get them in.  For their first appearance in Attack of the Clones, their colors corresponded to a rank structure, which was maintained in the 2D Clone Wars series.  By the time of Revenge of the Sith, the colors were modified into being unit markings, so when it came time to do to the 3D Clone Wars, they decided to retroactively make the the Phase I colors line up to units.  And that’s the way that Commander Gree inherited the 41st Elite Corps, whose design was previously that of the Clone Sergeant.  Which means that the figure I’m looking at today isn’t a Sergeant, but rather a member of the 41st Elite Corps.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The 41st Elite Corps Clone Trooper was initially released as figure 26 in the first run of the Clone Wars tie-in line, as part of the fifth and final assortment of the original run, and numerically the second-to-last of the figures in that set (Kit Fisto was the last figure in that first numbering, something he’d repeat when he also wrapped up the Phase III Black Series run).  The 41st was the re-released early into the next run, as figure 04, in an assortment entirely populated with repacks moving to the new packaging style.  He was the line’s third generic clone in the main run, following the all-white and the 212th.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  From a structural standpoint, this figure is identical to the 212th, complete with the newer style of helmet.  It solidified the plan to keep the adjusted helmet going forward, after the Space Gear Trooper threw some things into question.  Beyond that, it’s all really down to paint.  This guy swaps out the orange markings of the 212th for a somewhat subdued green.  He’s still got a much cleaner armor set-up, as became the norm for the Clones in the line.  Unlike the 212th, this guy’s shading also remained consistent with the Commander Gree figure later down the line, so they matched.  Yay!  The figure is packed with a small blaster rifle, as well as debuting the D-6 rotary blaster in this line, complete with a launching missile.  You know, for all those missiles that the rotary blaster launched.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Though I definitely wanted one of these back in the day, the 41st was never one of those figures I was able to track down.  Thankfully, I got a second chance when All Time got a huge Clone Wars collection in a few years back, so my collection didn’t have to go 41st-less forever.  He’s a basic figure, but he does what I need him to, and I’m always game for more green!

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.

#3319: Gold Ranger

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

GOLD RANGER

POWER RANGERS: SUPER LEGENDS (BANDAI)

You know who’s pretty cool?  The Zeo Gold Ranger.  Like, just pretty top-notch, really.  At the very least, top three when it comes to Power Rangers, at least as far as I’m concerned.  It’s really him and Space Silver.  I have a draw to toy coverage for both of them, and Zeo Gold winds up being ever so slightly more prevalent, so, you know, there’s a little bit more of him, I suppose.  So, anyway, here’s one of those Zeo Gold Rangers.  Let’s check him out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Gold Ranger (who is listed as such, with no specific “Zeo” denotation or anything) was released in 2008 alongside an MMPR White Ranger as part of the second round of Power Rangers: Super Legends figures from Bandai.  The Super Legends figures were released intermixed with the Jungle Fury product as a special release for the 15 anniversary of the franchise.  They were officially designated as chases, so they weren’t super plentiful or easily found back in the day.  Because that’s definitely the best way to celebrate the franchise: by releasing its most popular characters as hard to find chases.  Oh, Bandai, you sure know how to Bandai.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation.  By current standards, the articulation scheme’s not premium or anything, but it was pretty good for the time, and matched up with the best of the line at the line.  Honestly, the only glaringly missing things are a waist joint and maybe some lateral motion for the arms.  It’s definitely workable, though.  The Gold Ranger’s sculpt was an all-new one at the time.  Like the articulation, the sculpt is a bit dated by current standards, but it was honestly a notable step forward compared to prior Zeo figures.  The biggest drawback is definitely how the articulation’s worked in, but it’s not terrible, just a little obvious.  The proportions are a little bit stilted, but generally decently balanced, again, relative to prior offerings.  The detailing on the outfit’s pretty strong, and the armor’s actually a separate piece for a change.  The paint work on the Gold Ranger is fairly basic, but it does what it needs to.  The finish on the gold is consistent and the application’s all pretty clean.  He’s packed with the removable armor, as well as his Staff of Gold, which is, ironically, totally silver for this release.  It’s not a bad piece, aside from perhaps being a little bit stubby, and, of course, the aforementioned silver coloring.  Why it wasn’t just molded in gold is something of a mystery, but there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always been a big fan of Zeo Gold, and even though I was well and truly out of Power Rangers when this line hit in ’08, this guy almost pulled me back in.  I say “almost,” of course, because the fact that I was never able to find one at retail meant that, you know, I never got one.  Well, not for a good long while, anyway.  This one wound up coming to me courtesy of a big Rangers collection that came into All Time back in the summer of 2020.  I’d just gotten the Lightning Collection version, and I was feeling rather nostalgic, so this guy struck something of a chord.  He’s an interesting half-step between modern and vintage.  I like him, but he’s definitely got a more limited audience these days.

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 and their eBay storefront.

#3318: Mekaneck & Ground Ripper

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

MEKANECK & GROUND RIPPER

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE ORIGINS (MATTEL)

The best and easiest way for me to manage not going stupidly overboard on any given toy brand is really dig myself in on just a couple of characters I really like.  That way, instead of feeling like I need to go all-in on any iteration of a brand, I can just focus on when they got to those couple of characters.  Perhaps the most successful go at this I’ve got in my arsenal is Masters of the Universe.  When it comes to any given Masters line, I really only need to concern myself with three characters: Orko, Roboto, and Mekaneck.  Mattel’s been pretty darn lax on Mekaneck recently, and we had three different running Masters lines without any coverage for him, but that’s finally changing up at least a little bit.  I already got Orko and Roboto from Mattel’s Origins line, but now I’ve got a Mekaneck.  Oh yeah.  Time for another Mekaneck!

THE TOYS THEMSELVES

Mekaneck and the Ground Ripper are a deluxe offering from Mattel’s Masters of the Universe: Origins line, bundling a standard figure with a smaller scale vehicle, following in the footsteps of the Prince Adam and Skysled pack from the line’s first year.  This set initially went up for order exclusively through one of Walmart’s collector events, but it very quickly showed up through other vendors, so it looks like it was just some sort of exclusive pre-order window deal.  Whatever the case, this is a standard release item, and that’s certainly a plus.

Mekaneck’s original figure was a 1984 release, and he’s the last figure from that year to make it to Origins, which also somewhat duplicates his late-game addition to Classics as well.  He’s, unsurprisingly, an update on his vintage counterpart.  The figure is about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  As was the case with his vintage counterpart, Mekaneck’s body is based on the standard barbarian base body, which I looked at when it was used for Clamp Champ.  It’s a nice recreation of the vintage base body proportions and design sensibilities, but with better articulation worked in.  I can definitely dig it.  Mekaneck gets a new head sculpt, patterned on his original sculpt, though definitely a bit more refined.  The helmet and what we can see of the face are two separate parts, which keeps the division between them nice and sharp. Since it’s actually just the head, Mekaneck also gets neck articulation, something that his vintage counterpart lacked.  The figure also makes use of the chest piece previously used for Stinkor, which makes sense, since the shared the part in the vintage and Classics lines.  Of course, in the vintage line, Stinkor was re-using the piece from Mekaneck, rather than the reverse that’s occurred in every line since.  For some reason, everybody’s way more into the smelly skunk guy than the guy with the extra long neck.  I don’t get it either.  Mekaneck’s color work is quite nice; it’s very bright and very colorful, and it really makes him pop.  He’s quite eye catching.  It’s largely molded colors, but they work.  In particular, I really like the mirrored lenses on the goggles; they’re so very shiny.  Since this Mekaneck is without his vintage counterpart’s built-in neck-extending feature, this version takes a page out of the Classics book, and gives him an extended neck to swap in.  It maintains the posability of the ball-jointed neck, which makes this the Mekaneck with the most posable mecha-neck of all his figures.  I wouldn’t have minded getting multiple lengths of neck like the Classics version, I suppose, but this one does at least duplicate the length of the vintage version.  Mekaneck is also packed with his usual yellow club-thing, which is as yellow and club-thing-y as ever.

The Ground Ripper, or Road Ripper as it was originally named, was also a 1984 debut.  It’s original release was a single, though it was also available in a gift set during the vintage run, albeit with a Battle Armor He-Man, rather than Mekaneck.  The vehicle is about 9 1/2 inches long, and features rolling wheels in the front and back, as well as a working seatbelt.  Yay for proper vehicular safety!   The Ground/Road Ripper does *not* have its vintage version’s rip cord for its “ripping” feature, instead just being a rather basic vehicle.  It’s okay, but not super thrilling, really.  The sculpt more or less just follows the vintage version.  The details are certainly a little crisper here, so there’s that.  It also gets an alternate “head” for the front; the standard is rather bird-like, while the replacement is more like a dragon.  They’re both pretty decent, and I like the extra customizability.  There’s not paint to speak of on the vehicle, but there’s an assortment of stickers, which do alright on the whole detailing front, as well as getting that vintage feel down pretty nicely.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Have I mentioned previously how much I like Mekaneck?  I’m just not sure if I’ve adequately conveyed that point.  As with any Masters line, the first thing I wanted out of Origins was a Mekaneck.  Unfortunately, I had a bit of a wait there, now didn’t I?  Well, that’s okay, because it just meant that I got to appreciate other figures before Mekaneck inevitably came along a blew them away.  Because, quite frankly, that’s what he did.  Sure, the other Origins I’ve gotten are cool and all, but Mekaneck is just absolutely fantastic.  Even worth the extra price for the stupid tricycle he comes with, which will be promptly handed over to Matty.  But Mekaneck?  Superb.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this set for review.  If you’d like to see a video of this guy in action, I actually helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  And, as always, if you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.