Tag Archives: All Time Toys

#2623: Spiral

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

SPIRAL

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Any place the other dimensional sorceress known as Spiral chooses to dance her spells of mayhem, is not a good place to be. A humanoid creation of the slave driving television personality Mojo, Spiral’s six arms lend themselves as adeptly to combat skills and swordplay as they do to the casting of spells. Of fleeting allegiance and no apparent agenda, Spiral teleports herself across dimensions searching for ways to satisfy her disorderly whim.”

The denizen’s of X-Foe Mojo’s Mojoverse first appeared in the comics as part of 1985’s Longshot miniseries.  Appearing in issue #1 along side the title character was Mojo’s right-hand woman, Spiral, a character whose backstory is just as convoluted and dependent on time travel shenanigans as any other Mojoverse resident.  She and the rest of the Mojoverse characters made their way into the main stream universe shortly after, and have all been bouncing around the background of the Marvel Universe since.  Spiral’s got a pretty unique look, which has graced her with a small handful of figures over the years, including today’s figure, her very first offering.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spiral was released as part of the Invasion Series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line in 1995, a decade after her debut in the comics.  She joined the previously released Longshot, but was rather curiously separated from her boss, who wound up in the X-Force line instead.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation.  Though she’s got all those extra arms, it doesn’t do anything to bump up her articulation count, since only the upper-most arms get elbow movement, and they have just a single cut joint running across all three shoulders.  It’s odd that she didn’t get at least the elbows, since 6-Arm Spider-Man got those, but I guess they weren’t willing to throw Spider-Man level money at Spiral.  Her sculpt was an all-new offering, and never got any re-use, no doubt due to its more unique nature.  It’s not too bad.  It’s perhaps a little stiff, and the unmoving splayed arms are some what limiting when it comes to posing, but she’s at least a good recreation of Spiral’s comics design.  The only weird part is how far her arms jut out to the sides.  It’s a side effect of the lack of joints in those arms, since they’d be liable to bash into her legs and sides otherwise.  It’s not the worst, I guess, and fits with the general aesthetic of these figures when you get down to it.  Spiral’s paint work was generally pretty on point for the character.  It’s not one of the more colorful designs of the era, but it also doesn’t make your eyes bleed either, so that’s generally a plus.  The application is decent overall, with minimal slop or bleed over.  Spiral’s accessories were pretty straight to the point.  She had two of the same sword.  Only two, despite the four open hands.  I know.  Seems a little light.  She also had an arm-spinning action feature, which was engaged when her legs were squeezed.  It’s not actually that bad for a swordswoman, so I’m alright with it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spiral was a bit of a pegwarmer back in the day, at least according to my dad.  Apparently, we saw her a lot, but I wasn’t interested at the time.  She was kind of minor on the show, I suppose, which probably contributed.  Ultimately, I only just recently got her, because she’s not quite as prevalent as she once was.  She came out of a rather large lot of 5 inch Marvel that came in at All Time, most of which ended up coming home with me.  She’s not a bad figure, but she does seem a little bit limited by some of Toy Biz’s design choices.  Still, I’m glad to have her, and I’ll never say no to another Invasion Series figure.

IF YOU’RE READING THIS ON TOYNEWZ, THAT MEANS IT WAS STOLEN FROM THEFIGUREINQUESTION.COM.  THAT’S NOT VERY NICE, IS IT?

#2619: Wolverine

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

WOLVERINE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Weapon X infused Wolverine with adamantium to make him a powerful mutant with superhuman healing ability.”

Hugh Jackman’s turn as Wolverine was one of the constants of Fox’s X-Men movies, appearing in all but one of the films (Dark Phoenix, for those curious), and just generally being as much of a pop culture icon as the character’s comics incarnation.  He’s been no stranger to action figures, since he’s, you know, Wolverine and all.  The fall out between Fox and Disney meant we went a good gap of time between releases, of course, but he’s back in full force, with three different variants in Hasbro’s Legends assortment devoted to the movies.  I’m looking at the one standard release in the bunch today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wolverine is the last of the three standard release single-packed figures in the X-Men Movie sub-line of Marvel Legends, following Domino and Mystique.  It’s an interesting selection of characters to say the least.  This Wolverine is based on his jacketed appearance, which is certainly a distinct look for the character.  That said, they’ve opted to specifically base him on Origins: Wolverine, which seems like a slightly odd choice.  I mean, the look doesn’t shift much between the films, but it feels weird to specifically base him on a far less regarded film.  Could be worse, I suppose.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 33 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this guy is pretty impressive.  The butterfly joints on the shoulders add some nice extra posability to him, and the ball joint on the neck is great for adding a bit more expression to the figure when posing.  Wolverine’s sculpt is another all-new offering (although the legs are shared with the Amazon-exclusive Wolverine variant).  The body sculpt does a good job of capturing Jackman’s build from the movies, as well as translating all of the textures and layers of his clothing.  This guy includes two different head sculpts, giving us differing expressions.  The one he comes wearing is an intense, screaming head, which is kind of a weak offering.  The expression’s certainly got an intensity to it, but it ends up looking goofy, and the Jackman likeness really isn’t there.  The second head is a more neutral expression, and this one is definitely the stronger of the two.  The Jackman likeness isn’t spot on, but it’s still close enough for recognizability.  The paint work on this guy is a bit of a mixed bag.  The head works out well enough, and the weathering on the pants isn’t *terrible*, but it’s not great either.  The wear on the jacket isn’t really that great.  It just kind of looks like a bird pooped on him to be honest.  Not exactly the most imposing look.  In addition to the previously mentioned extra head, he also includes hands with both claws and without.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m still recovering a bit from some serious Wolverine exhaustion from last year, so this guy being the first of the movie figures shown off didn’t exactly thrill me.  I mean, he looked cool and all, but he’s Wolverine.  I have a lot of Wolverine.  He benefits from the fact that I got the rest of the set first, so as to cushion the whole “it’s another Wolverine” bit.  He’s a pretty solid figure on his own, and I look forward to having more figures to go with him.

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

#2618: Magneto & Professor X

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

MAGNETO & PROFESSOR X

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Magneto and Professor X clash in a struggle that will impact the future of all mankind.”

This year, the X-Men movie franchise turned 20.  It may have been easy to miss, what with the world falling apart and time being an illusion for most of the year.  Also, the movie franchise having died a kind of whimpering death in the last two years.  That may have somewhat contributed.  With Fox purchased by Disney, and all of the rights for the movies back under the main Marvel branding again, we’re finally getting to see proper merchandising (outside of Minimates) for the first time since…gosh…Origins?  Yikes, that’s a sad one to leave off on.  Hasbro’s got a whole sub-set of figures devoted to the films, picking and choosing a bit from the whole of the franchise.  They’ve tried to stick with some of the broadest characters at the start, opting for characters who stuck it out the whole time, and really, whose broader than Magneto and Professor X, whose turbulent relationship has formed the back bone of most of the films?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Magneto and Professor X are one of the pair of two-packs in the X-Men Movie sub-line of Marvel Legends.  Unlike the rest of the stuff we’ve gotten, where there’s been a single movie focus, these two are meant to cover multiple films, and indeed multiple actors.  It gets…well, it gets a little wonky, but it’s best to bring it up in the figure’s respective sections.

MAGNETO

As Ian McKellen, Magneto was decently served by prior X-Men movie toys, getting coverage from both the first film and X2, but as Michael Fassbender, he’s only gotten Minimates up until now.  This figure is actually pretty targeted in terms of design, at least at his core, being based on Magneto’s fully geared up appearance from the ’70s portion of Days of Future Past.  It’s not just a good look, it’s arguably Magneto’s best look in the movies, and one of my favorite designs spawned from the whole of the X-films.  It’s also very toy friendly, so that’s always a good starting point.  The figure is 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  The articulation on this guy is a little bit stiff compared to other recent Legends figures, notably in the shoulder and elbow area.  It’s not terrible, but I did have a little difficulty getting him into some poses.  The sculpt on this guy is all new, and makes use of the new “pinless” style joints for the elbows and knees, which certainly do make it look more cohesive.  Generally, I quite like how this sculpt turned out.  The costume is well-crafted, and replicates the various layers and textures of the costume from the movie, and translates them pretty well into plastic form.  The actual build on the body under said costume isn’t quite as spot-on.  The body’s generally just a bit bulkier than Fassbender in Days, which makes the arms look a little bit stubbier than they should.  The head also sits a touch higher on the neck than it should, as well, which requires some more careful posing to not look goofy.  All that’s pretty minor, though.  My biggest issue with the figure lies with the primary, helmeted Fassbender head.  The helmet’s great, and the Fassbender likeness on the head beneath it’s not bad either, but for some reason, they opted to give him a weird teeth baring expression, which doesn’t really feel right for Fassbender’s take on the character.  It’s not terrible, but it’s not quite what I want.  In terms of paint, the figure’s actually pretty solid.  There’s not a ton going on, but what’s there is a good replication of the film design.  Magneto includes two sets of hands in open in closed poses, as well as an alternate un-helmeted head.  The second head is a nice piece, with a strong Fassbender likeness, and a much calmer expression.  I kind of wish the helmeted head matched, and I’m tempted to try and find extras of the two heads to kitbash my own.  This set’s big claim to fame when Hasbro showed it off at Toy Fair this year was its ability to double as multiple versions of the two characters, across their multiple actors.  To facilitate this, there are also two Ian McKellen heads included, one helmeted and one not.  And, would you look at that?  They both have the same expression, unlike the Fassbender heads.  Why couldn’t they just keep that consistency across the board?  In general, the McKellen heads are a bit of a cheat, of course, since he never wore anything remotely like Fassbender’s costume in the movies.  That said, what he did wear is rather easy to approximate on your own, so just getting the heads is still a nice touch.

PROFESSOR X

Much like the McKellen/Fassbender split on figures above, Patrick Stewart’s Xavier got some toy coverage early on in the X-Men movie run, but James McAvoy’s take wasn’t quite so lucky.  Unlike Magneto, this figure’s a far less targeted offering when it comes to the design.  In fact, it’s…well, it’s a bit of a mess.  I’ll get into the “why” in a moment.  The figure is 6 1/4 inches tall standing (obviously less sitting, of course) and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Coulson-style suit body, with a new jacket piece that’s got the vest underneath.  There are also two heads included, one of McAvoy and one of Stewart.  Both likenesses are pretty strong, so I’ve definitely got to give Hasbro credit on that.  McAvoy’s is bald, indicating that this figure is supposed to be post Apocalypse version of him.  The blue suit set up of the figure supports that, and is also sensible given that it’s the same style of suit that Stewart’s version of the character typically wore.  It’s a little weird from the perspective of it meaning that he doesn’t at all match the Magneto he’s packed with, but if we’re going for iconic looks, I guess this makes more sense.  The new jacket/vest piece is pretty nice, and is actually sculpted to allow a more proper seated position as well, which is a nice touch.  In terms of paint work, he’s again pretty basic, but also pretty good.  Both heads look pretty life like, and I can certainly get behind them.  Okay, now let’s tackle the rough stuff: the accessories.  So, remember how I mentioned the whole thing about this being a post-Apocalypse McAvoy?  Or even a movies 1-3 Stewart?  You know what completely wrecks that set-up?  The chair.  Stewart has the same chair in the first three movies, and the same chair is used by McAvoy in First Class and Days of Future Past, and then again at the tail end of Apocalypse when he’s got the fully classic Xavier look again.  That’s not the chair included here.  Instead, we get a more generic wheel chair, which is in fact shared with the Old Man version of Charles from the Logan two-pack.  Logan is the only time that Stewart’s Xavier used such a chair, and he’s obviously not in the full suit and tie.  McAvoy’s Xavier uses such a chair in the climax of Days, but he’s wearing a tweed jacket and sweater, and is also still sporting the hair and beard.  So, this chair matches nothing about the figure.  I also found it interesting that, while the Magneto gets four different heads, Xavier only gets the two.  If we got a McAvoy head with the hair and beard, we could at least sort of approximate Xavier from the climax of Days (which would also help him match Magneto), thereby making the chair less inaccurate.  Generally, the lack of McAvoy heads covering his evolving hair styles from the films kind of takes the wind out of the sails of this whole “cross movie” thing this set was sold on.  At least the chair is a nice chair, I guess, even if it’s inaccurate.  He also gets a selection of extra hands, which do make for some good posing options.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set is by far the piece I was most looking forward to out of all of the X-Men movie stuff.  Days‘ take on Magneto is, as noted above, a favorite of mine, and I’ve been wanting a proper figure of it for a while.  This one’s not without his flaws, and I’m definitely not big on that helmeted facial expression, but the overall figure is still pretty cool, and certainly better than not having him at all.  The McKellen heads aren’t really meant for this body, but they do look really cool, and make for an easier time building your own.  Xavier’s shakier than Magneto for sure.  The core body’s fine, and both heads are pretty nice, but that chair’s just wrong, and the fact that he doesn’t line-up with the Magneto at all in terms of looks makes the whole two-pack aspect of this pair seem slightly forced.  Still, it’s not a bad pair, and there’s certainly a lot more good than bad in this set.  Overall, it’s still my favorite piece out of the bunch, so I can’t really complain.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this set for review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2614: Dr. Doom

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

DR DOOM

MARVEL LEGENDS RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“Victor Von Doom is bent on complete world domination. As Doctor Doom, he applies unlimited resources to square off against his arch nemeses, the Fantastic Four!”

A few times on this site, I’ve discussed Victor Von Doom, who under the monicker of Doctor Doom, is the truly the greatest villain in comics.  He’s well-rounded, intriguing, knows how to monologue, and is just thoroughly evil, through and through.  He’s also a fantastic choice for an action figure, but thanks to the wonkiness surrounding the rights on both he and his greatest foes the Fantastic Four, he was rather absent from such things for a few years.  He returned to Marvel Legends in style earlier this year with a really strong figure as part of a wider FF assortment this year.  But, that apparently wasn’t enough for Doom.  No, he needed to outdo the cursed FF in raw numbers, so he snuck in a second figure, as part of Hasbro’s ongoing Retro Collection initiative.  I’m taking a look at that figure today!

THE FIGRUE ITSELF

Dr. Doom is a standalone Retro Collection offering for Marvel Legends, no doubt as a pre-cursor to a proper FF assortment.  Like Deadpool and Grey Hulk last year, he comes in a white shipper that goes around the retro-style card, suggesting he was at one point intended for some sort of convention release.  Given how those two were dropped even without a global pandemic going on, though, it’s also possible that Hasbro just planned him as a Fan Channel offering from the start.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s pretty much identical to the standard release Doom from early this year.  It was a pretty spot-on sculpt, and my favorite by far from that assortment, so I’m certainly not complaining.  He ditches the more modern of the two head sculpts, sticking only with the more retro one (my favorite of the two anyway), and also adds a soft goods collar to the mix to change things up just a little bit.  Also aiding in changing things up a bit is the new paint scheme.  The standard release had a more subdued palette, more in keeping with modern appearances.  This one pumps up the saturation and makes him a much brighter figure, more in line with the old ‘90s figure, which this one is of course looking to emulate.  It really works, and while I certainly didn’t dislike the prior colors, I do really think that this scheme gives the figure an extra pop, and gives him some new life.  It really works for me.  The other change-up for this guy is the accessory selection.  Obviously, he drops the head and the Build-A-Figure piece, and keeps the alternate hands and the pistol.  He gains a pair of books (using the same mold as was included with the Retro Beast figure), the Ultimate Nullifier, two magic effects, and two blast effects (which can be used on the jets on his back).   It’s a pretty killer accessories set-up.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was really happy with the prior Doom figure, and I didn’t really see myself as being in the market for another one this quickly.  When this one was shown off, I wasn’t sure if I was going to go for him.  Upon seeing him in person, though, I really couldn’t turn him down.  The changes made to this figure are really strong, and make him a sufficiently unique variation of the character.  Now I’m going to have a really hard time choosing between the two variants…

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

#2612: Ultramarines Primaris Assault Intercessor

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

ULTRAMARINES PRIMARIS ASSAULT INTERCESSOR

WARHAMMER 40,000 (MCFARLANE TOYS)

“Space Marines are the champions of the Imperium, Mankind’s most elite fighting force. The combat prowess of these heavily augmented warriors is backed up by the best weaponry and equipment the Imperium can provide. Clad in nigh-impenetrable power armor, each Space Marine combines excellent close combat skills with deadly shooting accuracy. Space Marine armies are hard-hitting, able to tactically adjust to any foe or situation. A wide range of troops and vehicles enables them to launch lightning strikes, armored spearheads, airborne assaults, or any other strategy a commander can envision. “

Have I mentioned before here that I’m a bit of a glutton for punishment?  Because I am.  Why else would I keep publicly speaking about things that I actually know nothing about?  That’s crazy.  Case in point?  Today’s review.  We’re gonna be talking about Warhammer 40,000.  I played a single small little starter game of 40K over a decade ago.  That marks my entire experience with the franchise.  Now watch me stumble my way through this toy review, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Ultramarines Primaris Assault Intercessor is part of the first series of McFarlane’s newly launched Warhammer 40,000 toyline, alongside the Necron Warrior.  There are actually two Ultramarines to be found in the assortment, the standard release and an all grey “Artist Proof” release, which  is the one-per-case variant.  I’m looking at the standard.  He’s some sort of slightly higher ranking Ultramarine, I’d guess, given the different colored helmet and the extra insignia on the shoulder, but exact rank I’ve got no clue on, because, as noted, I don’t actually know this stuff.  He’s blue and red, and big and bulky.  This guy stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  Articulation is frequently an iffy subject when it comes to McFarlane figures, but they managed to do a really good job on this guy.  Despite the rather bulked up nature of this design, they’ve not only gotten quite a few joints in there, they’ve also managed to get most of them a pretty impressive range of motion on them.  The shoulders get extra joints on the shoulder pads, allowing for cleaner motion on those joints, which works quite well, and the double ball joint set up on the neck likewise gives a surprisingly fluid and mobile set up for posing the head.  The actual sculpt is cleanly detailed, solid, and just generally appropriately chunky.  There’s a good weight to this figure, and it helps to give him the appropriate presence for the whole big armored marine thing.  He also looks like the miniatures (at least what I’ve seen of them), which is kind of an important thing.  For the paint work, he is, as I noted above, blue and red, which is fairly eye catching and bold.  There’s also a fair bit of gold and white thrown in there for good measure.  The application is generally pretty good, though there are also some slightly fuzzy edges on a few of the brighter colors.  Nothing too terrible, though, and it’s certainly cleaner than a lot of the stuff that McFarlane has done in the past.  This guy is packed with a heavy bolt pistol, Astartes Chainsword, and a small display base, which isn’t a bad set-up.  The only problem I had was getting the Chainsword into the figure’s hand; he’d really benefit from a sword that split at the hilt to more easily slide in.  That’s relatively minor, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I’m not a 40K guy, and I know effectively nothing about it.  Why do I have this figure?  Why would I buy it?  Honestly?  Because it looks real cool.  Also, Jason at All Time is super into 40K, and he was getting pretty hyped about this line and that may have somewhat rubbed off on me.  I just wanted to be a part of things, you guys!  It’s a really strong figure, and just a good fun toy, even without the background interest.  I can see myself definitely picking up the odd figure from this line depending on how far it goes.

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

#2611: Cammy

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

CAMMY

S.H. FIGUARTS (BANDAI)

I don’t talk video games incredibly often on this site, but there’s enough cross-over between them and action figures that I do at least dabble in discussing them from time to time.  As a kid, I wasn’t much into the whole video game thing, but I did get to play the occasional game at an arcade here or there, which gave me a taste of some of the more popular arcade fighting games.  My favorite franchise out of these was definitely Street Fighter, whose colorful cast of diverse characters also happens to lend itself quite nicely to the action figure treatment.  Today, I’m taking a look at my favorite character from the games in figure form.  Let’s take a look at Cammy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cammy was released in 2017 as part of Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts line.  She followed up the releases of Ryu and Chun-Li earlier that same year, and like them served as a tie-in with the release of Street Fighter V.  She’s officially based on her character model from that game, of course, but that also makes her a more than serviceable stand-in for Cammy from Street Fighter II, which works well for me.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 39 points of articulation.  Her articulation scheme is a bit more conventional than the usual Figuarts release, with less floating pieces and just a generally tighter set of joints.  It means she’s also just a touch more restricted than the average Figuarts offering, but that’s not the end of the world.  She can still get a lot of really solid poses.  And they even articulated her hair.  How about that?  I really have only two notable complaints regarding the articulation.  The first is the movement on the neck, which I wish had some more up and down.  The second is to do with how the sculpt and the articulation interact in a very key area of the figure.  Cammy’s posterior is a rather notable part of the character, at least from a pop culture stand point.  It’s also rather prominently shown off in her win animation.  So, the fact that this figure opts to put the break for the hip joints in a rather obvious spot in such a way that it never really sits flush ends up hurting the figure’s appearance a bit.  That being said, in the grand scheme of the whole figure, it’s a more minor point, and the rest of the sculpt and articulation work quite well together.  I was actually quite impressed by the way the joints in the torso work, and the sculpt does a strong job of capturing Cammy’s design from the games.  The construction on the figure also just has a nice solid feel to hit, which gives her a little more weight than the usual Figuart, and I think that really helps her when it comes to posing and playability.  Cammy’s paintwork is clean, bright, and colorful, which are really all the things I would want out of paintwork on a Cammy figure.  There’s not a ton of work going on there, but what is there works well.  Cammy’s accessory selection is pretty decent, no surprise, given that she’s a Figuart.  She gets three different faceplates, three pairs of hands, and a three-piece effect part.  There’s a lot of threes going on here, is what I’m getting at, I guess.  The faces provide standard expression, screaming, and side-eye options, which are fun.  The sideways glance is definitely my favorite of the three, even if it’s just a minor difference.  The hands come in fists, flat, and open gesture, and are great for all sorts of poses.  The effects piece is a little bit difficult to get in place at first, but it makes for an impressive kicking effect.  It’s too bad the stands don’t come standard.  She also included two small cardboard backdrops, allowing you to build a small stage for your fighters.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first introduction to the Street Fighter characters was not through the games themselves, but rather through Toy Biz’s X-Men Vs Street Fighter toy line.  I was obviously just in it for the X-Men component, but it did give me a taste of a few of the characters.  Cammy was the second of them I got, and I always rather liked that figure.  When I finally got around to playing one of the games, she was the character I latched onto, and I’ve been hoping to get a figure of her for a while.  I always kicked myself for missing the SOTA one back in the day, and I couldn’t pull the trigger on this one when she was new.  However, she ended up getting traded into All Time, and it was hard to pass at that point.  She’s a really fun figure, and almost makes me want to track down some more of the Figuarts Street Fighter stuff.  For now, though, she’s an awesome stand alone piece.

#2610: Princess Leia – Dark Empire

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

PRINCESS LEIA — DARK EMPIRE

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Six years after the destruction of the second Death Star, the galaxy is thrust into turmoil. A reborn evil threatens to enslave the galaxy, and the Republic’s closest friend – Luke Skywalker – may become their greatest enemy. Hoping to free her brother Luke from the evil of the dark side, Jedi Leia prepares to match her power against that of a reborn Emperor. Boarding his colossal warship, Leia is overwhelmed by the oppression of the dark side.”

If you’ve been following my Kenner Power of the Force II reviews as of late, you may have seen me start to get a little bit…uninspired about things?  In my defense I’m hitting a lot of the stuff from when the line was a little same-y.  I do still really love the line though, so I’m going to try to realign with something a little more exciting. Perhaps the most exciting portion of the line was its 1998 Expanded Universe spin-off.  It was our first real glimpse into toys of the world outside of the movies, and also gave Kenner some free reign to do some cool new stuff.  There were a handful of different stories covered, but by far the one to get the largest focus was Dark Empire, a rather notable continuation of the original trilogy at the time.  I’ve looked at both Luke and the Emperor from that story, and now I’m digging further into the set with an updated Princess Leia!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Princess Leia from Dark Empire was part of the first seven figures in what would eventually be a nine figure line-up of the Expanded Universe sub-line.  She, like most of the EU figures, proved a bit scarce at the time of release, and honestly hasn’t ever reached the same level of plentifulness as other PotF figures.  The figure stands 3 1/2 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  Leia is an all-new sculpt, patterned on her more action-faring design from the comics.  It’s an interesting design set-up.  She adds a Jedi-Luke-esque cape to her attire, and beneath it she’s got something that looks akin to Luke’s Bespin gear.  It’s definitely helps to solidify the more traditional protagonist role Leia falls into during the course of the story.  It’s a pretty decent sculpt overall.  It’s rather in keeping with the rest of the mid-line Leia sculpts from PotF, with a likeness that’s consistent with those other figures, making it easy to tell she’s supposed to be the same person.  The figure has a little bit of trouble standing without the cape, but with it on she keeps up just well.  And honestly, who’s not going to use the cape?  It’s so cool.  Leia’s paint work is, like the other EU figures, a touch more vibrant than the usual Star Wars fare.  Of all of them, she’s certainly less removed than others, but I do certainly enjoy the multitude of colors used on her cape.  It’s a very nice touch.  Leia is packed with a light saber (in a rather concerning red, to match her brother), and a small blaster.  And, like all of the single-carded EU figures, her card back also unfolds into a small 3D back drop for her, based on the comics.  This is consistently my favorite part of these figures.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The EU figures were a favorite piece of mine from this line, but as I noted when I looked at Kyle, the only ones I actually got as a kid were Luke and Palpatine.  I wanted the others, but they are, as noted above, not the most common PotF figures, and they’re one of the few sets I was more insistent about getting carded.  Fortunately, I happened upon a complete set of them through All Time back last year.  Leia’s perhaps not the flashiest of the set, but she’s still a fun variant of the character, and I get a real nostalgic kick from her.

#2608: Hubcap & Bug Bite

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

HUBCAP & BUG BITE

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON: EARTHRISE (HASBRO)

No, neither of these guys are Bumblebee.  I know.  I’m just as shocked as all of you.  Remember Cliffjumper, who is also not Bumblebee?  Well, he wasn’t the only not-Bumblebee.  Not by a long shot!  There’s so many different not-Bumblebees to choose from!  So, with that in mind, the not-Bumblebees I’m choosing are Hubcap and Bug Bite, two of Hasbro’s more recent additions to their War For Cybertron trilogy.  Marvel at their not-Bumblebee-ness!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Hubcap (aka the yellow-not-Bumblebee) and Bug Bite (aka the white-not-Bumblebee) are both part of the Generations Select component for Earthrise, and are both Deluxe Class releases.  Hubcap hit in the August time-frame, and Bug Bite followed later in the fall.  In robot mode, they’re 4 inches tall and have 22 workable points of articulation.  Both figures are built on the Cliffjumper body, and as such have the same sizing and articulation set-up as that figure.  It’s a good base body, to be sure, and definitely my favorite to come out of Earthrise.  It’s worth noting that both of these guys do get new head sculpts.  Hubcap’s is the slightly more unique of the two, matching up well with his vintage counterpart’s head.  It’s got an interesting, squared off appearance.  Bug Bite’s head is already going to be shared with Bumblebee, which makes sense, since he’s previously just been a straight Bee repaint.  Whatever the case, the new heads certainly do help them stand out.

Both of these guys share Cliffjumper’s generic sportscar alt-mode.  It makes sense for Hubcap, who has always had the same alt-mode, but for Bug Bite, it’s technically off, since he should share Bumblebee’s VW Bug alt-mode.  However, word has it that Volkswagon requires a separate license for each product, so it’s no doubt a cost-saving move here.  It’s a good alt-mode whatever the case, and the transformation’s still a pretty good one.  These two are both packed with re-decos of Cliffjumper’s modular weapon piece, in differing color schemes for both.  They could have easily kept the same one as Cliffjumper, but I dig the new colors.  That purple in particular is pretty spiffy.  And, just like Cliffjumper, it allows for that cool ski mode.  I dig it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really liked Cliffjumper, and I really liked the Cliffjumper mold, so I was really okay with picking that up in a few more colors.  That made both of these guys a pretty easy sell, and it was made even easier when they came into All time, removing any real work I would have had to do.  Neither of them is anything radically new or different, but they’re still certainly fun.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with these guys for review.  If you’re looking for Transformers, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2607: Rotorstorm

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

ROTORSTORM

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON: EARTHRISE (HASBRO)

Oh, we are just keeping these Transformers hits coming, aren’t we?  Well, if you guys were hoping things might angle back into slightly more known characters as we got further into the week, you were sadly mistaken.  It’s just the oddballs from here.  A while back, I brought up the concept of region-exclusive characters, and specifically talked about Impactor, a UK-comics-exclusive Transformer who led the UK-comics-exclusive Wreckers, who also incorporated some non-exclusive characters into their ranks.  The Wreckers have subsequently become not so region-exclusive, and in 2010 IDW published “Last Stand of the Wreckers,” a mini-series focused on them.  They were envisioned as a team on a suicide mission, so they needed a lot of expendable fodder.  And wouldn’t you know it, there was old Rotorstorm, just sitting there doing nothing.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rotorstorm is Generations Select release for Earthrise.  He started showing up towards the tail end of July/beginning of August.  He’s patterned on the character’s G1 design, but also takes some very definite influence from his appearance in “Last Stand of the Wreckers.”  In his robot mode, the figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 26 workable points of articulation.  Structually, he’s mostly the same as the Siege Spinister figure.  That said, I never got a Siege Spinister, so he’s all-new to me.  The articulation on this mold in robot mode is pretty impressive, and certainly among the best I’ve gotten from this line.  Beyond that, it’s just a pretty impressive piece, albeit one that doesn’t *quite* line up with the character’s true G1 design, at least as far as the body is concerned.  His head, on the other hand, is all-new, something that Hasbro proudly advertised…before showing off a prototype that inexplicably had a repainted Spinister head.  It’s alright, though, because the final product has the proper head, and it’s a nice recreation of Nick Roche’s illustrations of the character from “Last Stand”.

With a name like “Rotorstorm”, it’s not all that hard to piece together the guy’s alt-mode.  Just like his mold-mate Spinister, he turns into a Cybertronian helicopter.  The transformation process is slightly more complicated on this guy, and definitely more than a little bit fiddly.  It’s not really one of my favorites. On the plus side, the end result is still a pretty cool helicopter mode, with a spinning rotor and everything.  Rotorstorm’s color scheme is a bit on the garish side, but it’s faithful to the original colors; what else would you expect from an early ’90s Transformer?  Rotorstorm includes two guns, which can be held in robot mode or mounted to his sides in helicopter mode.  They’re the same ones included with Spinister, which also means the layout of the molds makes them two different base colors.  They aren’t drastically different, but it’s still, you know, different.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never made up my mind as to whether I actually wanted Spinister or not.  I didn’t really care for his renders, but seeing a figure in-hand has changed my mind about such things before.  Then I never actually did see him in-hand, and that kind of took the decision out of my hands, I suppose.  When All Time got in this guy, Max was nice enough to let me take a look at him and make the decision for myself.  Ultimately, I’m happy to have missed out on Spinister, because it means I was a bit more open to getting this guy, and I actually think I like his overall design just a bit better.

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

#2606: Greasepit

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

GREASEPIT

TRANSFORMERS WAR FOR CYBERTRON: EARTHRISE (HASBRO)

Siege‘s main big gimmick was cross line compatibility, a concept best exemplified in its Weaponizers sub-set of figures, a whole type of figure designed with augmenting other figures in mind.  For the follow up in Earthrise, the Weaponizers haven’t been kept, but their general modular nature has been, and has been funneled into a new sub-set of modular figures called “Modulators.”  I know, crazy naming scheme there.   I have as of yet avoided the Modulators here, but I’m jumping into the concept today with Greasepit.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Greasepit was released as part of the Generations Select component of the Earthrise line this year.  He hit right at the same time as Decepticon Exhaust, right around July (unless, of course, you got one earlier from overseas).  As with all of the Modulators so far, Greasepit takes the name of a G1 Micromaster, and makes a deluxe class figure out of the Micromaster Station that said Micromaster came included with.  In this case, it’s Decepticon Micromaster Greasepit and his gas station base.  In his robot mode, Greasepit stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 19 workable points of articulation.  The Greasepit base never had a robot mode, much like the rest of the modulators, and some of the Weaponizers as well.  This means that the robot mode here is all-new…ish.  Okay, it’s not all-new at all, because he’s actually mostly a repaint of the main line’s Ironworks release.  But, I never got that one, so it’s new to me, and it’s also new to Greasepit, so I wasn’t entirely wrong. It’s overall a pretty decent sculpt; the only thing I’m not big on is the lack of a proper waist joint, though it’s worth noting this was also an issue on Weaponizer Cog.  I do like that this guy doesn’t have as many visible gaps as Cog did, and I also just generally like how his robot mode worked out.  It’s rather boxy and utilitarian.

Greasepit has a handful of possible alt-modes, and like the Weaponizers, the way you arrive at them isn’t through the typical transformation process, but rather through some serious parts forming.  By this point, it’s expected, and it does certainly allow for some more out there alt-modes.  The primary one for this guy is his more squared off gas station mode.  This replicates the original G1 base configuration the most closely of the ones offered up by Hasbro.  It’s not a perfect match, since it’s got to contend with a sculpt that was original meant for Ironworks’ oil rig set-up, but it’s still pretty close, and it gets the idea across.  The other two listed modes are a sort of a tower thing, and a longer stretch of road sort of thing…I don’t really know what that second one’s supposed to be.  The tower looks a bit like the G1 toy’s alt-mode, so that’s a cool touch, but ultimately, neither of these two modes is gonna bet much use from me.  The color scheme on this guy is rather on the bright and colorful side, which I definitely dig.  He’s actually got some decals for a few of his more intricate details, which is something that’s been absent from the line for a bit.  They look fine, but you always have to wonder about long term viability with such things.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Modulators are a far enough reach from core Transformers that I didn’t really have much draw to them, but I did think the Ironworks mold looked kind of cool.  He ended up being the only Wave 1 Deluxe not to show up at All Time, so I didn’t end up snagging him, but in contrast Greasepit came in before most other places, allowing me another chance at the mold.  He’s a lot of fun, and I certainly dig that first alt-mode.  I may not know much about these bases, but this one’s cool.

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