Tag Archives: Hasbro

The Blaster In Question #0049: Stark Strike Blaster

Posted by Tim Marron in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

BlasterInQuestion1

STARK STRIKE BLASTER

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (NERF)

starkstrike1Another week, another late review. One of these days I’m going to get the hang of this. And what’s that? April 1st? Time for jokes and pranks and whatnot. Well, kinda, I don’t have quite the same elaborate gag-posts Ethan pulls off, but this week’s blaster is a joke in and of itself in a way. That’s me saying it’s bad. It’s a bad… you know what? Nevermind. On to the review.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

starkstrike2It’s the Marvel Captain America: Civil War Iron Man Stark Strike Gauntlet Blaster… from Hasbro. At least, that’s what the friendly marketing guy in the video ad for this product told me. It’s the longest name for a Nerf blaster I can think of since the Nerf N-Strike Accu-Zombie Elite Strike Fire Mega Fury Strike Rapid Modulus Strike Fire Strike Strike… from Hasbro. The MCA:CWIMSSGB… fH was released in 2016 as a tie-in product for the Captain America: Civil War film. The blaster uses spring power to launch the dart, but instead of using it to push a plunger into a cylinder to create air pressure, the spring just impacts the dart directly. I’ve mentioned this system a couple times I the past, largely in reference to how terrible it is, and that assessment holds true here as well. The body of the blaster is pretty good, actually, the main feature being that the actual blaster part pops up from the rest of the platform before allowing you to fire. The construction feels solid and the sculpt is all new with starkstrike3some painted gold accent work here and there. The only controls on the blaster are the two buttons on the back, one causes the blaster to pop up, the other fires. Interestingly, due to the nature of the firing mechanism, even if the blaster is primed, it can’t be fired without a dart in the barrel, I assume to prevent the spring from beating the crap out of the internals of the blaster. The strap is small but I can still get it around my adult-sized wrist without too much trouble. Unfortunately, the problem with arm-mounted blasters is that aiming is pretty much out of the question. They say you can’t lick your own elbow, and it seems just about as impossible getting a sight-picture with it too, not that aiming would improve your chances of hitting anything with this blaster. As said before, calling the ranges on this blaster “disappointing” would be the understatement of the month, that is, if it fires at all. More often than not, the shock of the top part snapping up into position is enough to shake the dart forward in the barrel to where it no longer presses on the firing lock, meaning you have to re-seat the dart before the blaster will fire. If it does work, then you can watch the dart go flying up to about 10 or 15 feet. Woo… So unless you have some really emotionally fragile siblings, this blaster won’t help much when you decide to bust into their room and light them up. It’s probably best to leave it back in your room. The Marvel Captain America: Civil War Iron Man Stark Strike Gauntlet Blaster… from Hasbro comes with 2 Eilte darts in red and black but I seem to have lost mine, oh well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I think It really says something about a blaster when the most enjoyment I’ve gotten from it is hearing the guy in the ad say the full product name and almost forget to mention it’s from Hasbro. Sure I like gimmicky blasters, but that’s predicated on them being blasters first, and this one is pretty awful. Heyyyy jokes! But seriously, though, I wouldn’t recommend this blaster.

 

#1622: Darth Vader – Vantablack

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

VANTABLACK DARTH VADER

STAR WARS: THE VANTABLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Once a heroic Vantablack Jedi Knight, Vantablack Darth Vader was seduced by the Vantablack side of the Force, became a Sith Vantablack Lord, and led the Vantablack Empire’s eradication of the Vantablack Jedi Order. He remained in service of the Vantablack Emperor for decades, enforcing his Vantablack Master’s will and seeking to crush the fledgling Vantablack Rebel Alliance.  Vantablackly.”

Have you ever looked at something and thought it could use some more light devouring, piercing, soul-sucking absolute blackness?  No?  Well, that’s ’cause you’re silly.  The obvious answer was “vanta-yes!”  Enter Hasbro with their brand new product line, combining all of the coolness of their Star Wars: The Black Series line with the absolute blackness that is Vantablack.  Behold, Star Wars: The Vantablack Series.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Vantablack Darth Vader is the inaugural figure in Star Wars: The Vantablack Series‘s first assortment, alongside Vantablack TIE Pilot, Vantablack Death Trooper, and the ultra-secret-mega-chase-one-per-case-completely-theoretical Vantablack Panther.  Why’s there a Marvel figure in there?  Disney, that’s why.  All of those are all well and good, but today’s the main event, the main man, Vantablack Darth Vader, representing Darth Vader as he’d be if he were more Vantablack-y.  This figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has…points of articulation?  I think there’s like around 30?  I don’t know, it’s hard to tell.  Absolute blackness and all.  You try to get an accurate count on something you can’t see!  Vader’s sculpt is..uhh, well there’s…I mean, uhh, it’s new, I think?  It feels new.  Or maybe it’s old.  I suppose it could be the same as the last one.  I’m not used to reviewing my figures by touch.  The quality is good, though.  I think.  There’s probably tons of details there.  It sure feels like it.  I think it’s accurate to the movies, but having never touched any of the Vader suits from the movies, I can’t quite give an accurate reading.  If my fingers don’t deceive me, this is an ANH Vader.  Good choice, guys, that one’s the best feeling one.  The paint on this guy is all Vantablack all the time.  It’s obviously got consistent coverage, since I can’t see any reflection at all.  Vantablack Vader is packed with his usual lightsaber, but with the hilt also in Vantablack.  It’s cool, but I’ve already dropped it on the floor, and what with the Vantablack…I mean, do you know how hard it is to find an item that doesn’t reflect?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I stumbled on this guy at my Toys R Us.  I mean that literally.  The box is *also* in Vantablack, and, as I noted, that stuff doesn’t reflect, so it’s kind of hard to see, especially since TRU’s literally just stacking this stuff on the floors now.  Since I’d already left a sizable shoe-print on the box, I figured I should probably pay for it.  I greatly look forward to having more of these figures that I can’t really see.  Maybe I’ll put them in a dark corner of the room.

FiQ Friday Fab Five at 5 #0003: Top 5 Princess Leia Figures

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Friday Fab 5 and tagged with , , ,

Hey FiQ-fans!  It’s the final Friday of another month, and that means it’s time for another FiQ Friday Fab Five @ 5!  For today’s list, I’m jumping over to that galaxy far, far away, looking at the top 5 Princess Leia Organa action figures!

#5:     Leia as Boushh – Shadows of the Empire (Kenner)

Leia’s disguised look from the beginning of Return of the Jedi is one of her coolest looks from the whole franchise.  It’s had a lot of good figures, and it gave us the best version of Leia in the ’90s Power of the Force II re-launch.

#4:     Princes Leia – Star Wars (1978 – Kenner)

It’s hard to beat the original, right?  Well, I mean, not *that* hard, since she’s fourth on the list, but still.  This Leia is a bit dated, but like all of the vintage figures, she’s just got a lot of charm.

#3:     General Leia Organa – The Last Jedi (Hasbro)

After the less than stellar offering from The Force Awakens, this version of the late Carrie Fisher as she was seen in The Last Jedi is one of the best Hasbro’s put out.  What she lacks in poseability, she more than makes up for in sculpting.

#2:     Hoth Leia – The Vintage Collection (Hasbro)

Leia’s Hoth look is a good middle ground between her regal attire and her more action-oriented personality.  The vintage collection’s version of the costume from 2010 is to date the best version of the costume in action figure form.

#1:     ANH Leia – Star Wars: The Black Series (Hasbro)

Remember what I said about it being hard to beat the original?  Well, it wasn’t that far off.  Plain and simple, this is the look most people associate with Leia, and Hasbro delivered a truly awesome figure, albeit on their second go at it.  The initial release had a lackluster head sculpt, but the improved sculpt from the 40th Anniversary line is top-notch.

#1619: Mr. Fantastic

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

MR FANTASTIC

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A master inventor and impressive shape-shifter, Reed Richards uses intelligence and flexibility to protect the universe as Mr. Fantastic.”

Where would Marvel Legends be without Walgreens?  The humble drugstore chain started offering exclusive figures back in 2014, but only at a pace of about one per year.  However, they’ve really stepped things up in the last year, with a whole sub-set of Fantastic Four-inspired figures.  We’ve already gotten two members of the team (Invisible Woman and Human Torch), as well as a pair of frequent guest stars (Sub Mariner and Medusa).  The third member, Mr. Fantastic, just started hitting stores in the last month.  I’ll be looking at him today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Fantastic is the first Walgreens-exclusive Marvel Legends figure of 2018.   The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Believe it or not, this guy’s on a mostly new body.  I’d really been expecting a Bucky Cap re-use here, especially after Johnny cropped up on in, but Hasbro had other ideas.  This new base looks to use the legs from the Pizza Spidey body with a new torso, pelvis, and arms.  It’s a good build for someone like Reed, who shouldn’t exactly have Captain America proportions.  I look forward to seeing the other applications of this particular base body.  Reed also gets an new head sculpt, which isn’t inspired by any one artist, but fits quite well with the other two FF members and definitely captures Reed’s essence very well.  The arched eyebrow and slight self-assured grin are just spot-on for the character.  Reed’s paintwork is pretty solid stuff.  His uniform is a pretty close match to Sue’s, which is definitely a good thing, and helps with selling that whole “team” thing.  The work on the face and hair is nice and clean.  I might have liked maybe a bit more subtlety on the greying temples, but it’s not awful, and I prefer this to the too slight greying we saw on most of the Toy Biz figures.  Reed is packed with a spare set of elongated arms (re-used from the first Hasbro Mr. Fantastic) which swap out at the shoulders.  They’re rubber with a wire armature, and make for a solid recreation of Reed’s abilities.  Reed is also packed with the Ultimate Nullifier, the weapon given to him by the Watcher in order to defeat Galactus.  It’s a fun little piece, and shows that Hasbro is willing to go the extra mile on these figures.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had pretty much no trouble finding Reed.  I found him at a Walgreens I’d stopped at on my way home from work and was quite happy to find him. I loved the Sue figure, but Johnny was a slight letdown for me, so I wasn’t sure about how Reed would turn out.  I’m happy to report that he’s by far my favorite Mr. Fantastic figure, and is my favorite member of the team in this little sub-set (so far; Ben still has the chance to top him).  I now anxiously await the arrival of the last team member.

#1617: Black Widow & Motorcycle

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

BLACK WIDOW & MOTORCYCLE

MARVEL LEGENDS: LEGENDARY RIDERS (HASBRO)

“A sleek agent with the wheels to match, Natasha Romanov cruises into action as Black Widow.”

When it comes to collector-based lines, vehicles can be something of an issue.  Heck, just in general these days vehicles can be an issue.  Toy makers have enough of a hard time keeping the prices of the basic figures down, without throwing these massive hunks of plastic into it.  Unfortunately, there are some characters who sort of need a vehicle in order to be totally relevant.  Ghost Rider’s at the top of that list, what with “rider” being  in the name and all.  And yet, how many motorcycle-less Ghost Rider’s do we have?  Too many.  Why am I talking about Ghost Rider in a Black Widow review, you may ask?  It’s quite simple: Hasbro’s giving vehicles a try in Marvel Legends, and the first series is Ghost Rider and Black Widow.  In needed an intro to discuss the topic of necessary vehicles, and that makes way more sense for Ghost Rider than it does Black Widow.  But, since I don’t *actually* have Ghost Rider, it’s Black Widow who gets the intro.  Isn’t she special?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

She’s gone seven years with no comic-based Legends, but then, just like that, Natasha’s back in, with two of ‘em, right back to back.  Well, okay, a couple of months apart.  But, for someone who’s not Iron Man, that’s actually pretty impressive.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation.  Where the last Widow Legend was undeniably a classic ‘70s Widow, this figure takes a decidedly more modern approach.  A lot of elements of this figure’s design have been taken from Chris Samnee’s version of the character from her 2016 solo series.  It’s been made a little more generalized to a basic modern Widow  (she doesn’t have the shoulder holster, and her collar is more pronounced), but the overall feel is very much the same, right down to the shorter hair style.  As a fan of Samnee’s work, I’m very happy with the design choice.  As far as the sculpt goes, the hands are the same as the prior Widow.  Aside from that, this one’s all-new.  I like the detailing on the catsuit a lot.  The wrinkles and the piping on the sides really sells it as an actual item of clothing, rather than just glorified paint.  I also like the new widow’s stingers; the more geometric nature sells the modern design sensibilities in contrast to the Vintage figure.  I have two slight complaints.  The first is the seam that runs down the center of her neck, which looks rather strange.  The second is the belt, which is purely paint.  It’s rather obvious that it’s just painted on, and it looks slightly goofy.  I’d hazard a guess that it was painted on to preserve the re-useablilty of this sculpt.  Aside from the belt, the paint’s pretty light, actually.  Her head has decent work on the face, and the wash helps bring out the detail in her hair.  Beyond that, there really isn’t any paint, but the figure’s not really hurt by that.  Despite her trigger finger-ed hands, Black Widow includes no guns.  What she *does* have is an extra head.  It’s the same face, but the hair is longer, allowing for a less Samnee-specific look.  Well, that is, if you put it on this figure.  But mine never went on this figure.  Instead, it went straight on the Vintage Widow, thereby making the already great Vintage Widow even better.

THE VEHICLE ITSELF

Okay, so Black Widow’s hardly defined by having a motorcycle.  That does make the inclusion of this cycle a bit strange.  That said, it’s not unheard of for Widow to be seen riding around on a motorcycle, and she’s even on one on Samnee’s cover of Black Widow #1, so it makes a degree of sense in context.  There are certainly worse characters to choose to give this motorcycle to.  The motorcycle is 7 1/2 inches long by 4 1/4 inches tall, and has working wheels and even has suspension on the back wheel.  It doesn’t look like this bike is modeled directly on the one from Black Widow #1, but I’d guess that, like with the jumpsuit body, this mold has been designed with re-purposing in mind.  I’ve been a little spoiled by Bandai’s Cyclone and McFarlane’s Chopper, but this bike’s actually not half bad.  The tires are actually rubber, and there’s a working kickstand, and a decent amount of detail work.  It’s a bit unsightly on the left side, with all the screws and everything, and it’s perhaps a little wide for Widow to sit on properly, but by and large, I’m pleased with it.  If nothing else, it’s a decent display piece to go next to her, right?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Despite Ghost Rider being the more obvious choice for this line-up, I actually didn’t have much interest in him.  I mean, I’m super happy he got released, especially for the people that really wanted him, but I’m pretty happy with my Rhino Series figure on the old Toy Biz bike.  Widow, on the other hand, was the one I was really looking forward to.  I was kind of thinking she would be pretty easy to find, but that didn’t prove to be the case.  I stopped at three TRUs, all of them chock full of Ghost Riders, with no Widow in sight.  I eventually got her at Walmart, which made me feel a little dirty, but hey, I gave TRU their shot.  Being totally honest, the bike doesn’t do a whole lot for me.  It’s not bad, but I really didn’t get this set for the bike.  So, Widow really just ended up being an extra expensive figure.  Fortunately, I really like her, and thanks to the extra head that’s now on my Vintage figure, it’s like I got two figures instead off just one.

*Want a Black Widow figure of your own (to say nothing of that fancy bike that goes with it)?  She’s currently in-stock with our sponsors over at All Time Toys!  Click here to check her out!

The Blaster In Question #0048: Quadrant

Posted by Tim Marron in Nerf Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

BlasterInQuestion1

QUADRANT

ACCUSTRIKE

quad1If there’s one staple of Nerf blasters that always comes back, it’s revolvers, ok, revolvers and jolts, but let’s stick with the revolvers for today. All things considered, it’s a good design. There’ve been so many iterations that pretty much any issues have already been ironed out, but if you look at Nerf Revolvers over time, they have this odd trend of steadily getting smaller and smaller cylinders, and in turn, lower capacity. Today’s blaster is the first example of a 4-shot revolver I can think of, but as we’ve seen from Toy Fair last month, it won’t be the last.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

quad2Ok, first things first, I know I give Nerf a decent amount of ribbing over the naming conventions for their blasters, but when the other 3 blasters in a line have names containing “falcon”, ”hawk”, and “raptor”, there’s a pretty clear theme that they’re going for. With that in mind, what the double deuce kind of name is Quadrant? I get the name references the 4 barrels in the cylinder, but it throws off the whole bird-of-prey thing they set up. Anyway, the Quadchickadee was released in 2018 as part of the Accustrike series. As mentioned before, it is a 4-shot revolver that works more or less like any other revolver at this point. The construction is all new and pretty solid, like you’d expect from a Nerf blaster of this size, and the ergonomics are good. The proportions are kind of weird, what with the top half of the blaster being rather large and bulky. quad3At the very least, it’s not terribly top heavy which is a concern I had before it was released. What I don’t quite get is why the barrels are so far apart in the cylinder. Typically, the benefit of lower capacity in a revolver is a lower profile, but the cylinder for the Quadbearded-tit is barely smaller than the one in the Hammershot, which holds 5 rounds normally. But in addition, modders have shown it can handle 7 rounds in the same space quite handily. It just feels needlessly limiting to cap the capacity at 4, especially when it doesn’t even enable some other gimmick or function in the blaster. The performance is on par with other Nerf pistols. It doesn’t have the most power or range ever, but no one expects it to. Being in the Accustrike series, there’s nothing mechanical that separates this from any other blaster, all that means is it’s orange and comes with Accustrike darts as opposed to standard Elites. The darts do actually make it a little easier to hit targets from further away, so they’re good for surprise pot-shots at your younger siblings, with or without busting into their room first. The QuadAndean Cock of the Rock (it’s a real bird, look it up) comes packaged with 4 Accustrike darts.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Once again, I feel it’s important to make the point that I do actually like this blaster. I’ve gotten my money’s worth of fun out of it. Are there some issues? Sure, but I can be critical while still enjoying something. My primary complaints are that I wish it had more capacity or that it had some other gimmick going on. Maybe next time we’ll get one of those things, and you know there’s going to be a next time. There’s always another Nerf Revolver.

 

#1609: Wolverine

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

WOLVERINE

MARVEL LEGENDS – 12-INCH (HASBRO)

Did you know that wolverines are also known as “quickhatch”?  That’s your fun FiQ fact for the day!  Sorry, the last time I looked at a tiger-stripe Wolverine, I went with this gag, so I’m doing it again.  Aren’t I so clever?

Wolverine hasn’t ever had a true break from Marvel Legends, but he was certainly less of a focus for a few years (being dead might have contributed to that).  But, things seem to be normalizing a bit, and he’s finally re-appearing with fairly regular frequency.  Good for him?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wolverine is a 2018 release for the 12-inch Marvel Legends line.  He’s done up in Wolverine’s classic blue and yellow tiger-stripe costume, which actually doesn’t have a Legends release in the scale (since the Toy Biz Icons figure was in his Astonishing costume), so it’s a pleasant choice.  It’s also worth noting that it predates the release of the same design in the regular Legends scale for this iteration of Legends, though that’ll be amended later this year.  The figure stands just shy of 12 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  Wolverine is rocking an all-new sculpt, albeit one that is at least a little bit inspired by the smaller scale brown costume Wolverine.  It’s pretty solid overall.  The texture work on his arms, his boots, and his gloves is very impressive, and while the proportions aren’t exactly lifelike, they do match up pretty well with how Logan is usually depicted.  While I like the head sculpt overall (especially the sheer amount of character in the small section of his face we can see), I do feel that the ears of his mask are shaped a little bit oddly.  It’s possible this was caused by some slight warping from the packaging.  Whatever the case, it’s not awful, and it certainly doesn’t ruin the figure.  Interestingly, despite how most figures in this line have been handled, Wolverine’s design is actually unchanged from his comics appearance.  That’s certainly a bold move.  The paint continues this, presenting his costume in all it’s bright, primary colored glory.  It actually works really well with the sculpt, and it’s applied quite nicely.  I particularly like the accent work on the yellow, which helps to prevent it from looking too bland and void of detail.  Wolverine includes an unmasked head and pulled back mask, a set of un-clawed hands, and an extra head and shoulder pads depicting battle damage.  My favorite parts are definitely the damaged bits, as they make for quite a dynamic look for the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Wolverine was a gift from Super Awesome Girlfriend, picked up from the GameStop where she works.  They had gotten this guy in, and I expressed a slight interest, which, as we all know, is really all it takes for her to buy me something.  He adds to my ever-growing 12-Inch Marvel Legends collection, and he continues the trend of them being very, very cool figures.  This is definitely one of the best Wolverines out there.

The Blaster In Question #0047: Tennis Ball Blaster

Posted by Tim Marron in Nerf Reviews and tagged with , , ,

BlasterInQuestion1TENNIS BALL BLASTER

NERF DOG

dog1

I’m not dead! I swear! Turns out my sister having a sleepover can be almost as disruptive to Nerf reviews as having my world exploded. Almost. Not only that, but have a bit of a weird one for you this week. It turns out Nerf makes a whole line of dog toys which mainly consist of the standard chewy footballs and lengths of rope, but also, as it turns out, a blaster. My family does own a dog but she’s not really the playing type, but that hardly stopped me from picking one of these up.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

dog2It’s a little hard to track down the relevant information, but it seems like the Nerf Dog Tennis Ball Blaster was released in 2015 as part of the Nerf Dog line. The mechanism seems to be unique to this particular blaster as it doesn’t use the traditional air pressure to launch the projectile, in this case a tennis ball, but rather just uses the power of the spring inside the blaster to kick the ball out directly. There aren’t any fancy gimmicks or controls, you just load the ball in the barrel, pull the top handle back to prime it and then pull the trigger. The outer shell is completely original too, which isn’t surprising given the rather purpose-built nature of the blaster. The overall feel of the blaster is that its built so that even a non-Nerf savvy person couldn’t mess it up too badly. The construction is hefty and solid and the grip has plenty of surface to hold onto. I get the feeling it’s meant to be fired one handed like a pistol because the front end is very wide to accommodate the ammo type, but this means it’s a bit awkward trying to hold it as you would a rifle type blaster. There is a ball holder on the underside of the blaster for storing the tennis ball when not dog3loaded into the barrel. While the ball included is Nerf branded, it is dimensionally the same as a regular tennis ball, so you could use any brand you like. Now, obviously, I can’t tell you to go harass any younger siblings you might have with this blaster. That would actually be abuse. But I can tell you that in the amount of range testing I did, I honestly found the performance pretty disappointing. I’m not athletic, like, at all, but I could easily throw a tennis ball farther than this can launch one. Some of you may be thinking that it’s not meant to be better than a functioning human arm, but it will let people who can’t throw (age, injury, etc.) play with their dog. But then I’d say, if you don’t have the physical faculty to throw a ball by hand, priming back the spring in this blaster is likely to be as much if not more of a challenge. Really, it seems like this blaster is meant for people who like gadgets or are fans of Nerf who also like playing with their dog, that or college kids who want to modify it into a big shotgun for HvZ, but that’s a different story altogether. The Nerf Dog Tennis Ball Blaster comes with an orange and blue Nerf Dog branded tennis ball.

Now, I feel I should take the time to introduce Nerf Dog. Not the product line, the tennis ball. ND will be filling in for Penn for the time being while he’s away on holiday, that is to say, until I figure out where the heck Penn even went. But fear not, for I have it on good authority that ND is exactly the same size and therefore will do a fine job as a stand-in. Who knows, if he does a good job, there might be a more permanent position opening.dog4

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wasn’t planning to buy a Nerf blaster when I walked into the local grocery store with my girlfriend. I didn’t even expect to see any aside from the usual array of Jolt reskins. I had seen this blaster online before and thought it looked fun, even if I didn’t have the recommended dog with which to play, but I never bought it until I saw it in person for a substantially reduced price. Most people have impulse grocery purchases like a pack of Oreos or a cake or something. I walked out with an impulse Nerf blaster, because of course I did.

#1607: Han Solo – Cantina

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

HAN SOLO – CANTINA

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (HASBRO)

“Inside Mos Eisley’s cantina, Han Solo just negotiated a lucrative deal to transport two men to Alderaan – enough to pay off his debt to crimelord Jabba the Hutt. But it’s too late: bounty hunter Greedo has come to collect – though all the Rodian gets is a shot to the chest from Solo’s blaster.”

Towards the end of their run with Power of the Force II Hasbro officially started putting their name on the line, and also used this as sort of an excuse to circle back around and give us new and improved standard versions of the main characters.  After going a whole year with no Han Solo figures (which seems downright crazy if you ask me), they offered up a brand new figure of him in his classic smuggler’s outfit from A New Hope.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cantina Han Solo was released in the 1999 assortment of Power of the Force II figures.  He was designed specifically to go with a new version of Greedo, and is meant to directly recreate Han from the encounter with Greedo in the Mos Eisley Cantina.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  He had knee joints!  You can’t begin to imagine how big a deal that was back in ’99.  It was all so that he could sit at a booth at the cantina.  A non-existent booth, but hey, that’s not the point.  Han’s sculpt is one of the finest the POTF2 line had to offer.  His proportions are actually pretty realistic, he’s slightly pre-posed but not extremely so, and he’s even got a pretty decent Harrison Ford likeness.  The detail work on his clothing, the shirt in particular, is quite impressively handled.  I also really like the posturing of his hands; it adds a lot of life and character to the figure.  Han’s paintwork is all pretty standard fare, but it’s still pretty good.  It’s all pretty cleanly applied, and matches up pretty well with the movie.  Han is packed with his usual blaster (which was notably less over-scaled than prior versions).  Also, as a 1999 release, he was part of the whole CommTech venture, so he comes with a CommTech stand.  I never actually got the reader, but it still works well as a somewhat unique looking stand, so there’s that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember getting this guy with some money I’d gotten for my 7th birthday.  My parents took me out to Toys R Us to use the money, and this guy was amongst the figures I bought.  I’m not entirely sure why, but I just liked him for whatever reason.  To this day, he remains perhaps my favorite Han Solo figure in my collection, and definitely one of my favorite Power of the Force II figures.  He holds up quite well!

#1601: Puss ‘n Boots

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

PUSS ’N BOOTS

SHREK 2 (HASBRO)

“The fairy tale continues as everyone’s favorite ogre faces his greatest challenge of all — the in-laws in Shrek 2.  Shrek and Princess Fiona return from their honeymoon to find an invitation to visit Fiona’s parents, the King and Queen of the Kingdom of Far Far Away.  With Donkey along for the ride, the happy couple ventures off on a whirlwind of new adventures with a host of new fairy tale characters to lampoon along the way.”

Man, remember when the Shrek franchise *wasn’t* totally overplayed?  What a time that was.  Seriously, the summer that Shrek 2 hit theaters, I don’t think any of us could have foreseen the juggernaut on the horizon.  But, in retrospect, perhaps we should have.  The first film, being a somewhat sarcastic twisted fairy tale, was initially aimed at a slightly older audience.  As such, the action figures were produced by the more collector-oriented McFarlane Toys.  For the second go-round, the sights had definitely shifted, and the license was handed to the more kid-friendly Hasbro.  They were actually pretty sensible about it, and gave their best shot at creating a line that was at least somewhat compatible with McFarlane’s stuff, just adding in some of the second film’s newly added characters.  As undoubtedly the breakout hit of the film, Puss ’n Boots was of course amongst those figures released.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Puss ’n Boots was released in the first series of Shrek 2 figures from Hasbro.  He and Dragon were the two shortpacks, at least initially, which did make them hard to find for a bit there.  The figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation.  Yeah, not a lot of mobility there, but to be fair, that was more or less consistent with McFarlane’s offerings.  He’s really only good for the one pose, but it’s a pretty decently chosen one, so that works out alright.  Also, he’s rather on the large side in terms of relative scale with the rest of the figures.  He should really be about half the size.  As far as his sculpt goes, Puss isn’t awful, but he’s definitely a little more anthropomorphized than his animated counterpart.  The “arms” in particular seem to take a much more human shape than they really should have.  His boots also seem a bit downplayed in their scale relative to the rest of the figure.  While they should look clearly oversized, they don’t so much look that way here.  I’d wager this is a symptom of Hasbro having to work from slightly earlier versions of the character model.  Making matters worse, there’s the head, which has been split at the jaw in order to make way for Puss’s “hair ball shooting” action feature.  Unfortunately, I never much found this particular feature to be of much merit, so all it really ends up doing is making his head look kind of weird.  It also causes his torso to be a bit elongated, so as to house the mechanism for the feature.  All-in-all, it was a very odd choice.  Puss included his hat and cape, which were both removable.  My figure lost his cape somewhere along the way.  The hat’s better than you might expect, though.  It’s a little bulky and oversized, but not terribly so, and it manages to say in place in his head pretty securely.  The paint on Puss ’n Boots is actually not awful.  The colors are generally a good match for the animation model, and they even got the proper variations to his fur.  Puss was packed with his sword (seen here), as well as Gingy and the three blind mice (not seen here).  Presumably, all of the various extra characters were there to make up for his slightly diminished size, but, like Puss, the other four are definitely way too large to actually fit with the rest of the figures in the line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Puss ’n Boots at a Costco of all places.  My family had a membership there for maybe a year, and we were stopping there in preparation for a road trip we were going on over the summer.  Costco’s toy selection was never much good, but they had like a single case of the Shrek 2 figures, and just so happened to have both of the short packs.  Antonio Banderas’ turn as Puss ’n Boots was my favorite part of the sequel, so I was definitely down for getting him.  And, by nature of when I picked him up, he was one of a small handful of figures that ended up going on the trip with me.  He’s a little worse for wear these days, and perhaps not the greatest figure, but he’s certainly got a bit of a charm about him.