Tag Archives: Hasbro

#1276: Shoretrooper

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

SHORETROOPER

STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE (HASBRO)

“Specialist Stormtroopers stationed at the top-secret Imperial military headquarters on Scarif, these Shoretroopers patrol the beaches and bunkers of the planetary facility.”

Okay, is it “Shoretrooper” or “Scarif Stormtrooper?”  Make up your minds already!  I mean, at least before it was a company to company thing, but now Hasbro, who have up to this point labeled every other version of this squad as “Scarif Stormtrooper,” jumping on the “Shoretrooper” bandwagon.  Why just this one figure? Why!?!  I NEED TO KNOW!!!!

Okay, actually it doesn’t really matter all that much.  It’s really neither here nor there.  Figures have names on the package, and then the package gets thrown away.  The name on the box could have been Throat Warbler Mangrove, and I’d still buy it.  Because its the Scarif Trooper, and that’s, like, my new favorite Imperial design!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Okay, so the *Shoretrooper* was released in Series 3 of the Rogue One line.  There are a number of different variations of this armor, denoting ranks and the like.  This guy here is the most basic of the bunch; he’s the real cannon fodder.  He’s also the same design as the Walmart-exclusive 6” Scarif Stormtrooper.  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and has the usual 5 points of articulation.  It appears that this figure uses the same mold as the AT-ACT Driver, which I never actually got (because $300 is a lot of money).  It’s worth noting that this mold does *not* share any parts with the Squad Leader figure.  That’s probably a good thing, because, while I like that figure, his sculpt does have some issues.  This one improves the shaping of the helmet, and adds a few details that were missing at the top.  It also adds some nice texturing to the pants, and gives the overall figure a less stiff posture.  All of those things are definite positives.  Also, we’ve flipped back to a separate attachment piece for the “skirt,” as opposed to one that’s stuck to the legs.  It’s my preferred way of handing it to be sure, but it just seems a little odd that they go back and forth.  The paint on this guy is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from this line.  All of the basic details are there, and the colors match up well enough with the on-screen stuff.  The application is mostly pretty clean, with some slight bleed here and there, especially at the edges at the pants.  He lacks the weathering on the larger figures, but that’s the difference between the two lines.  The Shoretrooper is packed with the same larger blaster rifle included with the Squad Leader, as well as…wait for it…a zipline.  Oh yeah, those ziplines!  This one’s got a retracting feature, which is different, I guess.  Yay?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I’ve noted numerous times in the past, the Shore/Scarif Trooper is a favorite design of mine, so I’m down for pretty much every figure they release of it.  Of course, like I said in yesterday’s Bodhi review, Series 3 hasn’t been very prominent much of anywhere at retail, so I didn’t really have any chances to pick this one up.  I ended up finding him at the same time as Bodhi, and certainly wasn’t going to pass him up.  He’s a decent enough figure for the basic line.  If you like this design, you could do worse than this figure.

#1275: Bodhi Rook

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

BODHI ROOK

STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE

“A former Imperial pilot, Bodhi has strong piloting and technical skills that he will put to use for the Rebellion.  Ever practical, highly anxious, Bodhi must gather his courage to bring the battle to the Empire.”

Since about November of last year, there’s been one major hole in my Rogue One collection:  Bodhi Rook.  Everybody else from the main team found their way into one of Hasbro’s two scales, but not poor Bodhi (to be fair, he did get a figure in Disney’s Elite series, but I didn’t want to get another scale just for him).  Fortunately, he’s finally gotten a small-scale figure, so yay, completed team!  Let’s see how this guy turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Bodhi Rook is part of Series 3 of Hasbro’s Star Wars: Rogue One line.  In a series of mostly variants on previous releases (even Thrawn’s gotten two figures before), Bodhi is the one wholly unique figure.  He doesn’t seem to be noticeably harder to find than any of the others in this series, but seeing as the series as a whole still hasn’t shown up a lot of places, that’s not saying a ton.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and has the standard 5 points of articulation.  He’s an all-new sculpt.  While Bodhi may be wearing an Imperial uniform, he’s not built like the typical imperial.  He’s a bit on the scrawny side (as he was in the movie), and he’s even got Bodhi’s slightly bad posture and slouched shoulders.  I like that Hasbro isn’t just going with the “stiff as a board”, “at attention” posture for all of the smaller figures.  His detailing is a little soft in some spots (it’s most noticeable on the torso, where you can only barely make out the flap for his jumpsuit), but by and large, things look pretty good.  The likeness is about as good as any of the likenesses from this line have been; the face is a little gaunt for Riz Ahmed, but you can more or less tell who it is.  The vest piece is removable, if that’s your prerogative; it’s a pretty solid sculpt, and does a good job of covering up the soft sculpt of the actual torso.  Bodhi’s paintwork is decently handled.  It’s nothing amazing, but the application’s all pretty clean.  The goggles were clear in the movie, but aside from molding the whole head in clear plastic and painting the rest of it, I’m not sure what they could have done.  The off-white they went with looks fine in person.  There’s one notable inaccuracy: the Imperial insignia on his shoulders is the inverse color scheme of what it should be.  Super minor, and only really noticeable if you go looking for it, but there it is.  There was some concern when the prototype was shown that Bodhi’s jumpsuit would be too bright a blue, but it looks like it’s been changed to the more appropriate blue-grey for the final figure.  It could perhaps be a little duller, but if I’m totally honest, I’m not one for making these figures any duller in color than they already are.  Bodhi gets a fairly standard issue blaster, as well as the requisite gimmicky thingy.  In a rather smart move, Hasbro’s actually managed to make said gimmicky thingy (which is yet another zipline gadget, by the way; they sure do love those ziplines) resemble the cable pack that Bodhi is carrying during the film’s big climactic battle.  It’s actually a pretty key piece for Bodhi, and the zipline feature isn’t really that obtrusive at all.  This is by far the most sensible gimmick accessory in the line so far.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Picking my favorite Rogue One member is a bit like picking my favorite Serenity crew member: it’s really hard.  Okay, no, it’s actually not.  In both cases, it’s the sassy pilot played by Alan Tudyk.  So, I guess it’s really picking my second favorite that’s hard.  Bodhi’s a pretty good contender for that spot, though.  So, the fact that he was the only major member of the team left unreleased when I got out of seeing the movie was really eating at me.  As of today, I have still yet to see a single Series 3 figure at any of the retail stores near me.  Fortunately, a few weeks ago, Super Awesome Girlfriend and I went up to visit her Dad, who lives in a small town in the middle of nowhere.  You know what’s cool about small towns in the middle of nowhere?  Well, most of them have at the very least a nearby Walmart, and there’s virtually no demand for Star Wars toys.  So, when they get something, it sits for a while.  Such was the case with Rogue One Series 3, allowing me to get the esteemed Mr. Rook.  Bodhi’s not going to be anyone’s figure of the year, but he’s a solid addition to the Rogue One line, and he fits right in with the rest of the team.  Now, play the waiting game on him getting a Black Series figure…

#1274: Cobra Commander

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

COBRA COMMANDER

G.I. JOE: PURSUIT OF COBRA (HASBRO)

“The deviously brilliant leader of Cobra has created the Cobra H.I.S.S. Tank, a dangerous weapon that will help him expand his empire. He is prepared for battle in a mask that uses sunlight to power his cybernetic armor. As the showdown with the G.I. Joe Team begins in the desert, he sends in his new tanks for the final attack.”

When G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra was released in 2009, the whole G.I. Joe line was reformatted to tie in with the movie, bringing an official end to the widely popular 25th Anniversary line.  When Hasbro returned back to the non-movie based stuff in 2010, the sort of merged the two, offering a modernized take on the G.I. Joe mythos that used some elements from the movies, but was largely a continuation of the same Joe story from 1982.  Quite frankly, it’s probably my favorite era of the line.  The line offered new takes on a lot of the classic characters, including Cobra’s shrill leader, Cobra Commander!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cobra Commander was part of the first series of Pursuit of Cobra.  He was officially classified as the “chase figure,” but I don’t actually know what the logistics of that were.  It may have just been that he was short packed.  Whatever the case, he’s not noticeably rarer than any of the other figures from that same assortment.  This figure actually began his life as a proposed mail-away figure for the Rise of Cobra line.  When that line was ended, Hasbro cut one of his accessories (the PoC figures were packed in smaller blisters than the RoC ones), and moved him into this line*.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  This figure is largely a parts re-use from the main RoC Commander figure, which was loosely based on his movie design.  While the movie look wasn’t my favorite thing, there’s no denying that the figure had a pretty cool sculpt.  The jacket’s probably my favorite part; there’s an air of elegance to it, which seems perfectly in character for the Commander, and between the awesome texture work and the slightly windblown look to it, it really adds a lot to the figure.  The rest of the figure is pretty solid too; the torso has some really sharp detailing on the armor, and I love that this guys got wingtips.  The figure does get a new head sculpt; it’s not too far removed from the RoC head, but it’s a solid piece this time, instead of being pseudo removable, which makes it a bit sleeker.  I’m still not as much of a fan of this design as I am the classic featureless faceplate, but it’s not awful.  The paintwork on this guy is pretty top-notch; it’s super sleek, if nothing else.  The faceplate of the mask has been vac-metalized, and there’s even some slight accenting on top of that to help bring out the details.  The chest is a deep red, a departure for the Commander, who’s usually blue.  Still, it’s a really nice, metallic red, and there’s a black wash over it to make it really pop.  This figure moves the previous Commander’s logo from just to the left of his left lapel to the back of his jacket.  It’s certainly more visible now, and looks a bit less out of place.  With that said, it’s abundantly clear that this sculpt wasn’t intended to have a logo on the jacket.  The interior of the jacket has been lined with a dark burgundy, which is easy to miss if you aren’t looking closely.  Cobra Commander is packed with a small pistol, a weird grey machine gun thing, a Gonfalon (thanks yojoe.com for helping me ID that), and a display stand with his name and the Cobra logo on it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always gone through phases of buying G.I. Joe, but despite hitting smack dab of one of those phases, I didn’t pick up this guy when he was new.  I thought about it, but his design was divorced enough from what I consider Cobra Commander to give me pause.  Then, between the Resolute version, the later (more classic Commander-inspired) PoC version, and finding the RoC figure for a discount, this guy just felt sort of redundant.  Back in February, I ended up spotting him as one of the silent auction items in Farpoint’s charity auction.  Like the previously reviewed Kaylee figure, the money going to a good cause was enough to get me to finally buy him.  I’m really happy I did.  He may not be your conventional Cobra Commander, but he’s a really, really fun figure.

*In 2011, they also offered the figure in his original packaging and with the missing mini H.I.S.S. Tank accessory, as a G.I. Joe Collectors Club exclusive.  This has probably contributed to the relative ease of acquiring the standard release.

#1272: Wolverine – Old Man Logan

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

WOLVERINE — OLD MAN LOGAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With incredible powers of strength and healing, Wolverine reveals his claws and uses them to slash down opponents.”

Okay, I know I’m trying not to critique the bios, but shouldn’t there be at least some mention of this being Old Man Logan in there?  Just seems a touch generic.  Oh well.

So, back in March, Logan was released, and met with near unanimous praise.  I gotta say, I didn’t really get it.  I mean, it was far from the worst comic movie I’ve seen, but I felt it had a lot of the same problems of the last two Wolverine films, but without Origins’ fun cameos or The Wolverine’s slightly more cohesive story to make up for it.  All it really had going for it was the R-rating, and I’ll be honest, there’s only so many times you can see people getting stabbed in the face before it loses its edge.  On the plus side, it did inspire an action figure, so that’s good.  Since Disney is discouraging licensees from releasing any direct tie-ins to the Fox movies, we didn’t get a Hugh Jackman Logan, but rather a Logan based on “Old Man Logan,” the Wolverine from the bad-future story that Logan the movie drew some inspiration from.  Yay?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wolverine is part of the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s the one figure in the set not to include a Build-A-Figure piece, taking the the loosely movie-themed figure slot from last year’s Deadpool figure.  The package just calls him “Wolverine”; no denotation of the storyline he comes from or anything.  There’s a part of me that wonders if they were initially planning for this to be a more standard civilian Wolverine figure at some point and that’s why the name and bio are more generic.  Who knows?  Anyway, the figure stands about 6 inches tall (just a smidge taller than the Juggernaut Series Wolverine), and he has 32 points of articulation.  Logan is based on OML’s look after he was integrated into the main Marvel universe.  It’s not wildly different from his prior appearances, but this way he fits in a bit better with the main X-Men figures.  He sports an all-new sculpt, which depicts him in his usual civilian garb.  I feel almost certain we’ll be seeing the body again for a 616 Logan at some point, just to get some more milage out of it.  The body is pretty solid; his general build is a pretty close match for the last Wolverine, so it looks more or less like the same guy.  The level of detail on the various bits of clothing is quite nice; not quite Star-Lord level, but given this is supposed to be a comic figure, that’s excusable.  The head is a pretty nice piece of work, and sells Logan as being as old and cranky as he should be.  Once again, the features on the face line up pretty well with his younger counterpart, or at least what we could see of his face.  He loses the wacky Wolverine hair, which makes him look a bit more average, but is also accurate to this take on the character.  The paintwork on this figure is pretty subdued; there’s a whole lot of brown going on here.  That’s pretty accurate, I guess.  The paint is all pretty cleanly done, and there’s even a touch of accent work on his face, to bring out all of those extra wrinkles.  Some of the rest of him could do with a little accenting work as well, but he’s on par with the rest of the line as of late, so I’m not really going to complain.  What I am going to complain about, however, is the complete lack of accessories.  When this figure was first shown, a lot of people were hoping there would be an extra 616 Logan head included.  Not only does he not get that, he also doesn’t even get extra non-claw bearing hands, which wouldn’t have even required any new tooling.  And on top of that, he’s the only figure in the set not to get a Build-A-Figure piece, leaving him feeling very empty for the $20 most places are charging.  Compared to last series’ Deadpool, who lacked the BAF piece but made up for it in spades with all the other extras he included, this is incredibly disappointing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Logan was the third of the figures I found from this series, alongside Sunfire.  I wasn’t sure I was going to pick him up at first, but I sort of got caught up in the thrill of the hunt, and thus he was purchased.  He’s not a bad figure, but the lack of any extras really hurts him when he’s compared to the rest of the series, which makes him the weakest in the set, in my opinion.  Still, weakest in this particular set isn’t the worst thing ever, since the Warlock Series is probably my favorite Legends line-up in recent history.  And with that, my reviews of this series come to a close!

*Want an Old Man Logan figure of your own?  He’s currently in-stock with our sponsors over at All Time Toys!  Click here to check him out!

The Blaster in Question #0002: Disruptor

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

DISRUPTOR

N-STRIKE ELITE

I don’t know what I expected when I heard the name of an upcoming Nerf blaster was the Disruptor. What I definitely did not expect was a revision of the classic 6-shot revolver, a staple in the average toy blaster arsenal, but that’s exactly what we got. It’s not uncommon for Nerf to reuse designs and make a few tweaks here and there (jolt reskins, anbody?), so if you’re a fan of the Maverick or the Strongarm, then you’ll be fine with Disruptor, I guess. So let’s take a look at it.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

The Disruptor was released in January of 2017 as part of the core N-Strike Elite line. It measures 12 1/2 inches long, 6 inches tall, and 2 1/2 inches wide. As I mentioned earlier, the blaster works in much the same way as the Strongarm, the other elite series revolver, with one main difference. The Disrtuptor’s rotating cylinder does not pop out the side of the blaster. Instead, the front of the blaster has been redesigned to be more open, allowing easier access to the cylinder for reloading. While it does make the overall blaster smaller and somewhat more solid than the Strongarm, it does sacrifice the ability to spin the cylinder by hand, Russian roulette style. It sits comfortably in the hand, although it does feel like the upper part of the grip, near the trigger, is a little wider than at the bottom. It’s not a big deal but it might make the blaster a bit more prone to slipping out of your hand if you’re a crazy person who plays Nerf in a rainstorm or something. Along the top of the blaster are a set of sights which almost certainly don’t help with aiming but are appreciated nonetheless, and an attachment rail for accessories. If you’ve read my review of the Falconfire, you’ll know that standard Nerf Elite darts are plagued by inaccuracy and that’s true of the darts packed with the Disruptor as well. The blaster shoots pretty hard, as to be expected with the Elite series, suitable for indoor and outdoor play. As with most revolvers, reliability isn’t much of a concern as jams are rare even when using slam fire. I suspect the design of the grip and the priming slide are intended to facilitate dual weilding, similar to the Firestrike, but I can’t easily test this as I only have the one blaster for now. The Disruptor comes packaged with 6 Elite darts and instructions.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I purchased the Disruptor from Target on the same visit to Ethan when I got the Falconfire. Initially I hadn’t planned on getting it but after spending enough time setting up the BIQ, I figured I should get more material to review while I was there. Never mind the fact that the action figure guy and the Nerf guy tend to wind up buying toys when we hang out. As far as the blaster goes, if you’re not a completionist Nerf collector and you already have the Strongarm, you can probably give this one a pass. On the other hand, if your arsenal is missing a trusty sidearm, this is a good candidate.

#1271: Warlock

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

WARLOCK

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

At last!  Self is complete!  Alright!  Now self can interact with all of self’s self friends, in awesome plastic form!  And now self will stop with self’s weird verbal tic, because self finds it hard to keep it up long term.

So, if the weird verbal tic didn’t make any sense to you, then you probably don’t know Warlock.  He’s a member of the Technarchy, an alien race of techno-organic beings.  He’s the son of The Magnus, the Technarch ruler.  He’s primarily a member of the X-Men spin-off team the New Mutants.  He was also the focus of the two-part opener of Season 5 of X-Men: The Animated Series, which is really how I know him.  He’s not the most prevalent character in terms of action figures, but he’s gotten a few.  And now he’s got a Marvel Legend.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Warlock is the Build-A-Figure for—big leap here—the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends, which is the second X-Men-themed series since the X-Men were brought back to the main retail line.  The figure stands about 9 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Warlock is 100% new sculpt, which is, admittedly, the only way I can really see him being handled.  There’s also not really a lot of re-use potential here, which is a little surprising for a character like Warlock in this day and age.  Of course, I’m hardly going to complain about that.  Warlock’s a character who’s design is always in flux, even just from panel to panel.  This figure seems to take a good deal of his inspiration from Art Adams’ version of Warlock seen on the cover of New Mutants Special Edition #1, with a few tweaks to make him a little more polished and symmetrical.  The sculpt on this figure is really impressive; there’s just a ton of detail work, just everywhere.  Clearly, whoever sculpted this figure had a ton of fun with it and it results in a very strong figure.  What I really like about it is how complicated it is, while still maintaining a degree of cleanness to everything.  The head is my favorite bit; like with the Cyclops figure, when I look at this sculpt, I just see Warlock pretty much exactly how I think of him in my head.  There are some minor issues with the sculp. The most notable are the tubes that run from the arms to the back; they’re just a bit on the short side, which means they pop out of place with just about any sort of posing.  Given the alienness of the design, it’s not actually that big a deal, and a few collectors have had pretty good results just gluing both sides to the arms, thus preserving the both the silhouette and articulation.  Warlock figures tend to go with a black/yellow color scheme, but this one actually does things a bit different.  He’s molded in black, with a gold wash.  It’s actually surprisingly effective in replicating how Warlock tends to be depicted in the comics.  There’s some variance from piece to piece, since there’s no real way to get them all in sequence or something, but it’s done with enough overall consistency that he doesn’t look too patchwork.  Most BAFs don’t get any extras, but Warlock actually gets one: a buzz saw attachment to swap out for his right hand.  It’s pretty cool, and a nice way of showing off his shapeshifting abilities.  There’s a part of me that was really hoping for a swappable Cypher to replicate the old Warlock figure’s removable mask feature, but maybe we’ll get a Cypher proper down the line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Growing up, I had both parts of “The Phalanx Covenant” recorded on VHS.  They’re actually two of my favorite episodes The Animated Series, and they cemented in me a love of Warlock (the old Toy Biz figure was one of my favorites back in the day).  I was super stoked when this guy was confirmed for this series’ Build-A-Figure, and I’ve been anxiously awaiting his release.  This is easily the best Build-A-Figure since the Toy Biz days, and hands down the best Warlock figure in existence.  Putting this figure together was a ton of fun, and I’m just really hyped to have him!

#1270: Marvel’s Colossus

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

MARVEL’S COLOSSUS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Colossus transforms his body into armored steel to become a nearly indestructible force in combat.”

Does he really turn into steel?  That doesn’t seem right.  Sorry, critiquing the bio again.  Gotta stop with that; it only leads to madness. Today, I’ll be continuing my look at the latest X-Men-themed series of Marvel Legends, with a look at everyone’s favorite metal skinned Russian, Piotr Rasputin, aka Colossus!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Colossus is figure 1 in the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Colossus’s third time as a Legends release, but the last one was an X3 figure, meaning there’s only one prior comic Colossus, who was released a whopping 14 years ago.  Needless to say, an update was long overdue.  Colossus is presented here in his costume from the Utopia era of X-Men, which is…well it’s hardly anyone’s first choice.  Hasbro’s released a handful of characters from this era (last series’ Kitty Pryde figure is one, technically), so it’s not like he won’t fit in, but it’s also not one of his more more memorable designs, and looks a tad more generic than some of the others.  The thing that really bugs me about it is the black chevron on the torso.  Why is it there?  As it stands, it really just looks like an arrow pointing to his crotch, which is just odd.  Without that, I think it’d be a lot better.  It’s worth noting that this is the design that got used for Avengers Alliance, which seems to be a major influence on Hasbro’s costume choices.  There’s also a good chance that we’re seeing something of a trial run with this figure, and that a more classic Colossus will show up in short order.  The figure stands just shy of 8 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Colossus is debuting a new base body, which looks to be a replacement for the Wrecking Crew body in terms of scaling.  It’s about at the mid-point between Hyperion and Terrax.  It’s a pretty decent sculpt, with a nice, solid foundation.  It feels a little lightweight to me, but it’s certainly a step-up from the bodies on either side of it.  I look forward to seeing what else it might be used for.  Colossus gets character specific arms and boots, as well as an all-new head.  The arms are really nice, and I quite like the posing on the hands.  The bracers are separate pieces, so clearly Hasbro’s made it easy to swap them out should these arms be used for one of the other Colossus designs.  The boots are a decent enough recreation of the comic design, but for me the best part of them is how flat the bottoms are; this guy is really sturdy on his feet once you get them posed the right way.  The basic head is an okay piece on it’s own, but it sits a little high on the neck for my taste.  Some people have modded it so that the socket for the neck peg is a little further in, and it definitely improves the overall appearance, but it’s a slight bummer that he isn’t quite correct right out of the box.  Fortunately, there’s also a second head included.  This one is based on Piotr’s bearded look from Extraordinary X-Men, which is suitably unique.  The beard’s a good look for him, and the head sits a lot better on the neck.  This will definitely be my go-to for this figure.  The paint on Colossus is pretty solid overall. The best work is definitely on the metallic skin, which is not only clean, but also gets some great accent work.  The costume is a bit more prone to slop here and there, though nothing too bad.  It’s nice and bright, which is good.  In addition to the previously mentioned extra head, Colossus also includes not one, but two pieces of the Build-A-Figure Warlock.  One of them is his head, which means there are three heads in the packaging.  It doesn’t quite top the last Venom figure with his four heads in one package, but still.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in my Polaris review, I called upon the help of my parents to track down the Warlock Series.  While I found a second Polaris, I’ve actually yet to see Piotr at retail, as he’s easily the set’s second most popular after Cyclops.  So, this guy got mailed to me (along with a few other awesome figures that’ll be showing up here in short order).  The Toy Biz Colossus was easily one of my favorite TB Legends, so this guy had a high bar to clear in that respect.  When the figure was first shown, I was a bit letdown by the costume choice, but I think that actually works in his favor.  With the new costume and the bearded head, this Colossus is suitably different from the last one, which means he not so much a replacement as he is just a brand new figure.  That’s sort of forced me to weigh him on his own merits.  He’s definitely a fun figure, and probably my second favorite single release in this series.  I look forward to the eventual classic version down the line, but am content with this one for as long as I need to be.

#1269: Marvel’s Cyclops

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

MARVEL’S CYCLOPS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Scott Summers wears a specially designed visor and shoots beams of energy from his eyes as the optically-gifted hero, Cyclops.”

Ooooooohhhhhh yeeeeaaaaaaahhhh!  It’s Cyclops!  And it’s not just any Cyclops.  No, no: it’s THE Cyclops.  This is the one.  From the ‘90s.  ‘90s Cyclops: tell your friends.

Cyclops is no stranger to Marvel Legends.  He’s actually had six prior Legends figures (and that’s *just* the official Legends-branded releases).  The problem?  None of them were quite right.  Both of the Toy Biz attempts were far less than stellar, and while Hasbro’s attempts have been steadily getting better, they all had something off about them.  Be it the simple misfortune of being released while Hasbro was still learning (the first Astonishing Cyclops), poor design choices (the TRU First Appearance Cyclops), or just an incredibly limited release (the Puck and Jubilee Series figures), he just seemed unlucky.  My personal favorite was the Marvel Now version from the Jubilee Series, but in addition to his (and the rest of the series’s) scarce distribution, he was also sporting a far from standard Cyclops design.  The latest series of Marvel Legends has done its best to amend this.  Let’s see if they succeeded.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is figure 5 in the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends.  Scott is one of the assortment’s two “headliners” with the other being Old Man Logan.  He’s based on Scott’s early ‘90s Jim Lee-designed costume, which is considered by a lot of people to be the definitive design for the character, thanks largely to its presence on the ‘90s X-Men cartoon.  It’s rife with ‘90s goofiness, with straps and pouches galore.  Nevertheless, there’s just something about this design that is really commanding.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Like the last three Cyclopes from Hasbro, this figure is built on the Bucky Cap body.  Lee’s Cyclops was generally a little bulkier, so I feel like something like the Spider-UK body wouldn’t have been out of place here.  Of course, the last three versions of this guy were all on the same body, so I can definitely see Hasbro’s desire to keep the character consistent, and it’s not like I dislike the Bucky Cap body.  The figure is constructed in much the same way as the Marvel Universe take on this design; all the straps and such are add-on bits.  This is the area where this figure is the weakest.  While the basic sculpts are okay, they don’t sit quite the way they should.  The wrist bits are perfectly fine, and the thigh straps are passable (they pop out of place, but not too often).  The bootstraps fall down a lot, but you can work them up the calf gradually so that they stay a bit better.  The biggest issue is definitely the belt/straps.  They’re too loose and the belt in particular sits at an odd angle.  In Hasbro’s defense, if they made the piece too tight, the torso articulation would be quite limited; apart from a dedicated torso sculpt, their options were limited.  Even with the issues, the right posing and futzing with the pieces gets the figure to the point where he looks pretty darn awesome.  Adding to the awesomeness is the head sculpt; I thought the MU sculpt for this design was pretty on point, and I was also a pretty big fan of Toy Biz’s take, but man does this sculpt blow them out of the water.  It’s clean, and every detail is really sharp.  From the shape of the visor to the flow of his hair, this is a pitch-perfect representation of Scott from the ‘90s.  Easily the strongest head sculpt Hasbro’s put out on a Legends figure.  The paint on Cyclops is really solid.  Not perfect, and he could still use some accent work here and there, but the colors are really vibrant, and this guy just pops.  It’s worth noting that the visor is done in gold, which sometimes annoys me on Cyclops figures, but they’ve matched the shade of the gold to the yellow on the rest of the figure, so it reads as the same basic color, just like it does in the comics.  Cyclops includes no accessories of his own, which is a slight letdown.  Given the prevalence of energy effects with recent Hasbro offerings, I was sort of hoping for an extra head with some sort of optic blast attachment, but alas, no luck.  On the plus side, he’s packed with the other leg of Build-A-Figure Warlock, which is one of the bigger pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Oooooh boy, was this guy illusive.  As soon as the news broke that these figures were hitting Target, I started checking for them.  This guy was by far my most wanted of the singles in this set.  Of course, like with last year’s Rogue figure, I was far from alone in that respect.  For several weeks, I arrived just after someone else in the area, seeing every other figure but this guy.  Word broke that these guys were starting to hit Walgreens a little early, so on a whim, I stopped by one while I was out with Super Awesome Girlfriend.  I wasn’t expecting to find him, but before I even made it all the way down the aisle, I saw his colors, and there he was, right at the front of the shelf.  I may or may not have skipped out of the store after paying for him….

This is my favorite Legends figure to date, which is no small feat.  He’s not a perfect figure, but he’s everything I wanted from a Cyclops Legends figure.  This is the Cyclops I’ve been waiting for since 2002, and I couldn’t be more happy to have him.

#1268: Marvel’s Polaris

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

MARVEL’S POLARIS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Magnetic, electric, and gravitic fields are no match for Polaris, a super being with the ability to control and manipulate magnetism.”

Remember how much of a “finally” figure Sunfire was?  Yeah, he’s about to be topped.  Today’s focus is Lorna Dane, aka Polaris, who may or may not be the daughter of Magneto (they’ve gone back and forth on that a few times).  She’s had only three figures in the past and two of those three were nothing more than Rogue repaints.  And, on top of that, she’s never had a Marvel Legends figure, which has been rather frustrating to me, since she and Havok are two of my favorite X-Men.  But here she is!  Let’s get this figure reviewed!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Polaris—sorry, *Marvel’s* Polaris—is figure 4 in the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends.  Polaris has had a number of rather different looks over the years.  Like Dazzler, there are some dueling opinions about which look deserved to get a figure first.  Hasbro’s opted to go with a more classic incarnation of the character, specifically the more modern take on her original design, from the period when she and Havok were galavanting around in space with the Star Jammers.  It’s a decent choice, since it can work in both modern and classic set-ups pretty well.  I do wish we had a Havok that matched up with her (I’ve become increasingly bummed that the Juggernaut Series Havok didn’t at least include an extra headband-wearing head), but she doesn’t look horribly out of place with the last one.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Polaris is built on the Phoenix body (albeit with a slightly modified upper torso to add a peg hole for the cape), which is a pretty good starting point.  She’s got a brand new head…I think.  A few people have claimed she shares her face with Scarlet Witch.  The facial structure on the two is certainly similar, but I’m not sure it’s identical.  At the very least, the head would have needed some sizable retooling, as the two hairpieces affix differently.  Regardless, the head sculpt is pretty decently handled.  It’s not my go-to look for Polaris, but she matches up pretty well with the depictions of her when she had this costume.  Lorna also gets add-on pieces for her cape and wrist bands.  The cape looks to be new.  I’m not super crazy about how it sits on the shoulders, but it’s a decent piece overall. Certainly one of Hasbro’s better capes. The bands are taken from the ‘90s Jean Grey from the Rocket Raccoon Series, and while they aren’t a 100% match for the comics design, they’re close enough to work.  As far as paint goes, Polaris is about what we’ve come to expect from the recent Legends figures.  The work is all nice and clean, and the colors are pretty vibrant.  my figure’s got a small spot of green in the middle of her left hand, which is slightly annoying, but the placement is such that it’s not super noticeable.  On the plus side, the face in particular is a lot cleaner than some of the prior Legends, and I like the accent work on the hair.  I do wish the hair was a bit brighter, just to stand out a bit more, but the shade of Lorna’s hair has shifted a lot in the comics, and this one is certainly still an accurate choice.  Polaris is packed with a pair of energy effects pieces.  These are the same ones used for both Havok and Wonder Man, and they’re starting to get a little worn, if I’m honest.  I mean, they work alright for Lorna’s power set, and the green is cool, but they feel slightly redundant here.  Maybe if the same pieces weren’t used for Havok, a character she’s pretty much guaranteed to spend all of her time with on the shelf, I’d be slightly more forgiving.  Isolated from the re-use, they’re still pretty cool, so I guess it’s fair.  Lorna also includes the right leg of the Build-A-Figure Warlock.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Technically, this is the second of this figure that I got.  When the Warlock Series first started hitting stores, I enlisted the help of my parents to try and track them down.  They ended up finding Polaris and Colossus for me at a Target nearer to them.  Of course, they live about 10 hours away, which means any figure they get for me has to be shipped down, so there was a bit of a wait involved.  In the mean time, I was looking for the other figures and came across a second Polaris, and since she was the one figure in the set that my Dad also wanted, I picked up the second and let him keep the one he grabbed for me.  Yay?  Anyway, I’m glad to have this figure.  I like Lorna a lot, and getting a Legends version of her, especially in essentially her classic costume, is really great.  Of course, I wouldn’t say no to X-Factor versions of her and Havok, if Hasbro’s feeling generous…

*Want a Polaris figure of your own?  She’s currently in-stock with our sponsors over at All Time Toys!  Click here to check her out!

#1267: Shatterstar

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

SHATTERSTAR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Armed with superhuman physical and mental abilities, Shatterstar conquers his enemies with strength and certainty.”

Can you get more ‘90s than Shatterstar?  Created by Rob Liefeld?  Check.  Name made up of two unrelated “kewl” words?  Check.  Weird head gear?  Check.  A single eye tattoo?  Check.  A hairstyle that no human who ever lived has had?  Check.  Shoulder pads and pouches?  Check and check.  All this dude needs is a leather jacket, a giant gun, and a can of Surge, and he’ll check off the whole list.  As a paragon of all things ‘90s, he was a pretty popular guy back in the day, and got a whole three action figures from Toy Biz’s ‘90s X-Force line.  However, since then, he’s sort of fallen down (well, aside from a pair of Minimates).  With that being said, there’s been a slight resurgence of some of the ‘90s stuff, leading to Shatterstar being fortunate enough to get a figure courtesy of Hasbro’s latest set of Marvel Legends.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shatterstar is figure 2 in the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends, taking the X-Force slot established by Stryfe and Cable in the last two series.  This is the first time he’s had a Legends figure, which actually seems a little surprising, given his popularity in the ‘90s.  In terms of design, he more or less goes back to the original Liefeld look.  I know there was a contingent that was hoping for his more recent X-Factor look (I myself was sort of pulling for that look), but if Shatterstar’s only going to get one Marvel Legend (which seems rather likely), you kind of *have* to do the ridiculous ‘90s monstrosity.  On the plus side, they really did make it suck a lot less than it could have.  I think that’s partly to do with them actually drawing the main influence from the Marvel: Avengers Alliance design for him, which is a nice, cleaned up version of his original design.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Bucky Cap body, specifically the Doctor Strange variation of it, which works nicely to replicate his poofy shirt.  Also aiding in the poofy shirt bit are the new arms, which are built similarly to the normal ones, but with lots of wrinkles.  I do wish his arms could sit a bit closer to the arms, but that’s a minor complaint.  He’s also got the flared glove pieces, which are bulkier than the ones seen on Zemo and Boomerang.  The lower half is mostly the basic pieces, with add-ons for the belt and thigh pouches (which are kind of a necessity), and a pair of brand new boots (which Super Awesome Girlfriend has classified as “fabulous”).  He’s topped off with an all-new head and an add-on for his scarf/halfcape/shoulderpad.  The single shoulder pad has always perplexed me.  It would make sense if he favored one arm over the other in sword fighting, but he’s pretty much always dual wielded, so, what’s the deal?  To Hasbro’s credit, the shoulder pad sports some pretty sweet detailing, so good on them for that.  The head sculpt is commendable in its ability to faithful recreate Shatterstar’s goof hair and headgear without getting too laughably bad.  They’ve gone for a calmer facial expression than Liefeld would have given him, but it’s actually one that better fits the persona Shatterstar took on after Liefeld left the book.  Shatterstar’s paint work is really solid.  The basic color work is ask nice and clean, with only minor coverage issues on the legs.  The brown bits have all been given a bit of a wash to accent the details, which once again shows how nice a Hasbro sculpt can look with the tiniest bit of extra accent work.  It’s worth noting that Hasbro did tweak Shatterstar’s colors a little bit, making the gloves and scarf a light grey instead of the straight white they were in the comics.  It’s only a minor change, and honestly, it helps to break up the colors a bit more than they otherwise would be.  Shatterstar was packed with a pair of swords; since Liefeld could never make up his mind about whether Shatterstar’s swords were two bladed or just one single blade, Hasbro’s been nice enough to give us one of each.  Aside from possibly benefiting from a little bit of paint, the swords are pretty cool, and Shatterstar has an easy time holding them.  The figure also includes the right arm of Warlock, who is shaping up to be pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I know I’m hyper-critical of the ‘90s, but I do have an appreciation for Shatterstar as a character.  When he was announced, I was actually pretty excited, especially after how well the Juggernaut Series Cable turned out.  Shatterstar was nearer the end of my discoveries of this set; I found him at the slightly further away Target near me, which had just put out a case, albeit one that was already missing Cyclops.  While I’d still like to see the X-Factor version at some point, this guy, like Cable before him, is a lot better than I’d expected.  Once again, the Rob Liefeld character is one of the stronger figures in the series.  How do they keep doing that?

*Want a Shatterstar figure of your own?  He’s currently in-stock with our sponsors over at All Time Toys!  Click here to check him out!