Tag Archives: Hasbro

#0203: Anakin Skywalker – Hanger Duel

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ANAKIN SKYWALKER – HANGER DUEL

STAR WARS SAGA

Anakin

So, I kind of missed May the 4th, or Star Wars day as its come to be known. Yeah, I was busy over the weekend, and totally didn’t think of the date. Which meant my May 4th review was the T-1000, not something Star Wars related. For those of you that were offended by that, I am eternally sorry. I’ll try not to let it happen next year!

Today’s figure is Star Wars themed. I’d say that it was an apology, but it’s Anakin, so…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Anakin was released as part of one of the later assortments of Star Wars Saga, which was the line released around the time of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. This particular figure is the “hanger duel” version of the character, which is Anakin from his battle with Count Dooku at the end of the movie. He’s in his basic Jedi garb from the movie. The figure stands about 3 ¾ inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. The hips are rendered practically motionless by the skirt piece, plus his shoulders are on a weird diagonal, and the elbow joints are just straight cut joints, which means they do nothing. Essentially, his articulation is mostly pointless. The sculpt isn’t terrible, though he has some monkey arms, and he doesn’t look much like Hayden Christiansen. But the texture work is pretty nice. The paint is fairly basic, but is cleanly applied, with no slop or bleed over. The figure features two action features. The first is a wheel on his back that spins his left hand. The second is a removable right arm, attached via magnets (because Hasbro was obsessed with them at the time), which replicates Anakin’s injury from the duel. The figure included two lightsabers: one green, one blue.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Anakin from a trip to my local Toys R Us with my Dad. I was obsessed with Star Wars toys at the time, and I thought Attack of the Clones was a lot better than it actually was. It was truly a blissful time. Anyway, I has been looking all over the place for this figure, after seeing it online. It’s not the greatest figure, but I do actually feel a bit of sentimental attachment to it.

#0201: Scarlet Witch

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SCARLET WITCH

MARVEL UNIVERSE

ScarletWitch

I’ve mentioned before that I really like the Avengers.  In particular, I like the members that were prominent in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, who never picked up their own series outside of the team.  A great example of this is the Scarlet Witch, who joined the team a little over a year after their debut and stuck with them fairly consistently until around the early 2000s.  If you’d like to read more about her, check out her entry in the Backstories section, here.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Scarlet Witch was released in the series 19 of Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line.  The figure stands just shy of 3 ¾ inches tall and features 25 points of articulation.  She makes first use of the second female base body for the line, which I examined in my review of the more recent Wasp figure.  It’s a marked improvement over the previous body, and is pretty well proportioned overall.  In addition to the base body, she also has a brand new head, thighs (To show the edge of her boots) and cape.  The head is a really nice sculpt, easily one of the best in the line.  It captures the character very nicely.  The cape is well sculpted, but it is a bit too long, which can make standing her difficult.  The paint is the worst area of the figure.  It isn’t terrible, but there is a fair amount of noticeable slop, including a rather obvious red spot on her chin.  It’s not enough to ruin the figure, but it’s still very annoying.  Scarlet Witch’s sole accessory is a hex piece that fits over her hand.  It’s a nice piece, and it fits well on her hand, but I would have liked to get the usual display stand, especially given the figure’s difficulty standing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Scarlet Witch was an Amazon purchase.  When I first saw the prototype pictures, I was very excited, as she was easily the most essential Avenger missing at the time.  In hand, she’s not quite as good as the prototype, but paint issues aside, she’s a very well done figure. She is also a huge improvement over her Marvel Legends figure, but that’s not a hard thing to do.  I’m pretty sure smashing your head through the wall would be an improvement over that figure.

#0196: Marvel’s Wasp

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MARVEL’S WASP

AVENGERS INFINITE


Because I’m a fan of doing things in trios (this is based on no evidence. Don’t try and check that one), I’ve got one more Avengers review. This time around, it’s Janet Van Dyne, aka the Wasp, with whom even the more marginal Avengers fans are probably familiar. She’s the long-time significant other of Hank Pym, aka Ant-Man/Giant Man/ Goliath/ Yellow Jacket, and she’s a founding member of the Avengers.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wasp was part of the first series of Avengers Infinite, Hasbro’s replacement for the Marvel Universe line. Jan’s had quite a few different looks over the years, and they’ve gone with her black and gold look that she had for most of the 00s. She’s a little under 3 ¾ inches tall and has 26 points of articulation. Wasp is built on Hasbro’s most recent attempt at a base female body, I believe first introduced with Scarlet Witch. It’s an okay body, and it’s certainly an improvement on the initial offering, which we saw on Kitty Pryde. The arms a bit too short, and the legs are too long, but it’s an improvement, and progress is progress, I suppose. She has a new head and add-on wings. These prices look nice, and the head is one of the nice female head sculpts that Hasbro has offered. It’s nice to see a female head with more than the usual blank stare we seem to always get. The paint is alright. It’s not quite as off-putting as the paint on Grim Reaper, but there are a few spots of slop. Wasp includes a smaller version of herself, which is a sculpt reused from one of the Secret Wars 2-packs from the MU line. It’s been repainted in a costume that matches the main figure’s look. It’s a fair accessory, and it’s nice that she got one at all.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the previous two reviews, Wasp was purchased from Amazon. Currently, she’s the short-packed figure, which means she’s a little bit more expensive. I paid a little bit more than usual for her, but this is honestly the best figure of the character available. Not that she had much competition…

#0195: The Grim Reaper

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MARVEL’S GRIM REAPER

AVENGERS INFINITE

Continuing yesterday’s discussion of Avengers, I feel it goes without saying that I’m also a pretty big fan of most of the Avengers’ recurring villains. One of my favorites has always been The Grim Reaper! He just got a release as part of the first series of Hasbro’s Avengers Infinite, the line that is replacing their Marvel Universe line. For more info on The Grim Reaper, head over here.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Like I mentioned above, Reaper is part of the first series of Avengers Infinite. He’s based on the character’s second look, which is probably a good thing. His first costume was a bit of a mess. He stands about 3 ¾ inches tall and has 29 points of articulation. He’s on the body first seen with MU‘s Commander Rodgers figure. This is probably Hasbro’s best base body, so it’s good that they’re giving it some use. He also features a new head and lower right arm to give him his distinctive “Techno-Scythe,” plus add-on cape piece. His pieces are all well sculpted, though I think the head may be a bit under-sized. Regardless, it’s a good sculpt, and does seem to have the appropriate “menacing” look. The paint work is alright, but not without issue. The most noticeable problem is that the blue highlight is inconsistent from piece to piece, which is quite distracting, and makes the figure look odd.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Grim Reaper was purchased from Amazon at the same time as Black Knight. I really like Reaper, and he was actually the main villain of the very first issue of Avengers I ever got, so I was definitely excited to get him! I can honestly say it’s not a figure I really ever thought I’d see. Would it be too much to ask for zombie and first appearance versions?

#0194: Marvel’s Black Knight

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MARVEL’S BLACK KNIGHT

MARVEL UNIVERSE

For quite some time, I’ve felt that The Avengers was the greatest super hero team ever. Well before the team became a big hit with their recent movie, I was desperately seeking out the random trickles of Avengers characters amongst ToyBiz’s many 5 inch Marvel lines. I know lots of people don’t care for it, but Avengers: United They Stand excited me to no end because its toyline gave me access to figure versions of Falcon, Tigra, Wonderman, Vison, and Kang. Those slightly lower tier characters are what make the Avengers for me. Sure, Cap is still essential, and Iron Man and Thor are both important too (Hulk, on the other hand, really isn’t. Until recently, his status as an Avenger consisted of 3 issues. Out of 500.), but for me the Avengers were Scarlet Witch, Vision, Hawkeye, and the like. So, for quite some time, I’ve been doing my best to find the best collection of all those lesser known Avengers in one scale. Hasbro seems to be finally delivering on that, with their pretty decent roster of Avengers from their Marvel Universe line. The line has recently “ended” and was rebranded under an Avengers name, which I’m totally cool with. Before MU ended, they got out one last series of new figures, which featured today’s figure, Black Knight, one of those lesser known Avengers I discussed. For more info on him, go here.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Knight was released as part of the final series of Marvel Universe. He’s based on the Dane Whitman version of Black Knight, and is depicted in Dane’s first costume. The figure stands about 3 ¾ inches tall and has 20 points of articulation. He’s built on the medium sized male buck, which I believe first appeared on Captain Marvel, a few years ago. It’s one of Hasbro’s better pieces, so I’m not gonna complain, though I do wish the arms went down a bit further. He features a new head and hands, plus add-ons for the belt/scabbard and cape. He also reuses the “pirate boot” feet previously seen on several versions of Hawkeye. The new pieces look pretty good, especially the head, which seems pretty spot on to the classic Black Knight look. The paint work is pretty much the usual faire for a Hasbro release. Not perfect, but there’s no really noticeable instances of slop or bleed over, which is nice. Dane’s one accessory is his Ebony sword. It’s made of very soft plastic, so it comes out of the package pretty bent. It’s also a grayish-silver, which is odd, what with it being an EBONY sword and all. Oh well, guess the figure doesn’t have to be perfect, right?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like so many figures these days, I purchased Black Knight from Amazon. I’m very happy to have the figure because it’s the Black Knight figure I’ve wanted since I was a kid. Previous Black Knight figures were always a bit off, so I’m really thrilled by how well it turned out!

#0185: Iron Grenadier

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IRON GRENADIER

GI JOE 30TH ANNIVERSARY

I’ve done a fair number of reviews based around Hasbro’s 3 ¾ inch re-imagining of GI Joe under the A Real American Hero name. It’s ranged from the early 2000s re-launch as GI Joe VS Cobra, which was followed by GI Joe 25th Anniversary, which was in turn followed by the tie-in line for 2009’s GI Joe: Rise of Cobra. Following the return to the non-movie themed toys, Hasbro first introduced Pursuit of Cobra, before jumping into GI Joe 30th Anniversary. No points for guessing why they went with that name. Today, I look at an Iron Grenadier, a member of weapons supplier Destro’s personal army.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Grenadier was released as part of the first wave of GI Joe 30th Anniversary. It’s a slightly tweaked version of the same figure’s release in the Pursuit of Cobra line. Both figures are a more armored re-imagining of the classic Grenadier design. The key difference between the two is this version’s lack of camo-paint on the gray parts. The figure stands 3 ¾ inches tall and has 20 paints of articulation. The articulation is a bit hampered by some of the sculpted parts, but that’s to be expected. The Iron Grenadier is actually crated from totally reused parts, but they’re a smart re-use. The head comes from the previous 25th version of the Grenadier, and the body is from the armored up version of Destro released in the Pursuit of Cobra line. This means that the troops matched the newer version of Destro, while still fitting with the previous Grenadiers, which is definitely cool. All of the sculpted pieces are really great, and tremendously detailed. The paint work is pretty good on this figure, though he is hurt by the lack of detailing on the gray parts. Given the high quality work on the rest of the figure, he almost looks unfinished. The Grenadier includes a display stand with his name and the Cobra symbol, a backpack, a smart-gun, bullets, and a bullet case. All in all a solid figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I hadn’t really planned on getting the Grenadier, but I decided to order a full set of the first two waves of 30th from Big Bad Toy Store, so I ended up getting him with the set. I don’t regret the purchase, as it’s a pretty cool little figure, and a great addition to the Cobra ranks. It’s not quite as good as the Pursuit of Cobra version, but it’s still good on its own merits.

#0184: Precision Strike Winter Soldier

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PRECISION STRIKE WINTER SOLDIER

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

In case my last two reviews didn’t clue you in, I quite thoroughly enjoyed Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I think The Avengers still holds up as my favorite of the Marvel Studios films, just for the sheer accomplishment, but CA:TWS is a very close second.

Hasbro’s doing two separate lines of tie-in toys: one in 6 inch scale and one in 3 ¾ inch scale. Thanks to the way the characters have been laid out between the two lines, it appears I’ll be picking up both lines. Today, I’m looking at the 3 ¾ inch version of the (sub) title character, the Winter Soldier, or as he’s billed on the package “Precision Strike Winter Soldier.” Let’s see how he turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF
Winter Soldier was part of the first assortment of Captain America: The Winter Soldier figures. He’s based on Winter Soldier’s look for roughly the first half of the film, before he ditches the mask and goggles. I imagine this choice was made to hide the character’s true identity until most of the movie going public has a chance to have it revealed to them. It’s also just a cooler look. The figure stands about 3 ¾ inches tall and has 19 points of articulation. As I mentioned in my review of Cap, the figure is hurt by the lack of wrist, ankle, and waist articulation. Articulation issues aside, the sculpt on this figure is amazing. There’s lots of tiny detail work and textures, and the proportions are much better than they are on many 3 ¾ inch figures. Everything looks spot on to the character’s appearance in the film. The paint manages to live up to the sculpt, which is a rarity amongst Hasbro figures. There’s no slop or bleed over, and they even gave the torso and right arm a nice wash to bring out the details. The accessory selection ends up being the figure’s only real downside. Hasbro has given him a big dumb rocket launcher, and absolutely no guns at all (even though he’s labelled “precision strike”), and his hands are both molded to hold said non-existent guns. Guess he’ll forever be Marvel’s resident Fonzie stand-in…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had intended to only get the 6 inch scale Winter Soldier, but after finding Falcon at my local Target, I broke down and picked up the 3 ¾ version as well. I’m glad I did. Winter Soldier is easily the best of the three I picked up. Yeah, the lack of wrist joints sucks, as does the stupid rocket launcher, but the sculpt and paint on this guy are really phenomenal. Arm him with a spare GI Joe gun and he’ll be even better. If only someone at Hasbro had thought of that…

#0183: Rocket Fire Falcon

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ROCKET FIRE FALCON

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

One of my favorite things about The Winter Soldier (which is a super awesome movie, by the way. If you haven’t already, go and see it!), was Anthony Mackie’s performance as Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon. It’s a role that could end up being either boring or too hokey, and he made it neither. He offered a great sounding board to Cap’s displacement in the present day, and I really hope to see more of him in the role (Is it too late to work him into Avengers 2?).

Needless to say, I definitely wanted the action figure. Sadly, Hasbro seems to have decided to leave him out of their really cool 6 inch line, so the only way to get him was to get into the 3 ¾ inch line (Of course, there’s no Black Widow in that line, so that means I still have to get the 6 inch stuff if I want her. Damn you, Hasbro and your ability to play into my need of action figures to get me to buy two different scales!). So, I broke down and bought him. Let’s take a look at how it turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Falcon was released in the second assortment of The Winter Soldier figures, alongside “Shield Blitz Captain America.” He’s mostly based on Falcon’s look in the movie, though it’s a little bit off. He’s a little over 3 ¾ inches tall and he has 21 points of articulation. I like that he has the wrist articulation that Cap lacked, but I still think he’d be helped by ankle and waist articulation as well. The sculpt is pretty good, though it isn’t without issue. First of all, he has a bit of a pin head. Not terrible, but it’s there. Secondly, his uniform’s wrong. They’ve given him sleeves, which he definitely didn’t have in the movie at any point. Aside from that, he’s not bad. The head does actually look a bit like Anthony Mackie, which is cool to see. The paintwork kind of betrays the sculpt. It’s not atrocious, but it’s certainly sloppy, and once again, the top half of his uniform is just plain wrong. Falcon manages to get hit the least severely of Hasbro’s decision to cut actual accessories in lieu of silly rocket launchers. He still has trigger hands, to be sure, but they can be hidden by the posing, thanks to the wrist articulation. He’s got this silly bright red rocket in place of his jet pack, but Hasbro has thankfully also included a more film accurate one as well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, the fact that I have any of The Winter Soldier figures from the 3 ¾ inch line is totally Falcon’s fault. I found him at Target over the weekend and decided to pick up Cap and the Winter Soldier as well. Falcon’s not a bad figure. I wish he were a bit more accurate, but he’s a decent representation of the character in the movie, which is cool.

#0182: Shield Blitz Captain America

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SHIELD BLITZ CAPTAIN AMERICA

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

Did you guys see Captain America: The Winter Soldier? If the answer isn’t yes, go see it. Go see it now. I’ll wait. Actually, I think I may go see it myself. Yep, I’ll be back in 2 hours.

 

 

Oh, hey guys, you still here? Cool. So, yeah, that was a good movie. And you know what good superhero movies mean, right? Action figures! And thanks to Hasbro’s wonderful case pack outs and distribution, I’ve ended up buying both the 6 inch and 3 ¾ inch lines, to ensure I can get my Captain America fix. Yes, I have a problem. Anyway, there are a few versions of the sentinel of liberty himself. I picked up the “Shield Blitz” version.

THE FIGURE ITSELF
Cap was released in the second assortment of figures in the Captain America: The Winter Soldier line, along with the Falcon. This particular figure depicts Cap in his WW2 uniform seen in the first movie, though they seem to have given it a color scheme a bit more in line with the one he wears in The Winter Soldier. The figure stands about 3 ¾ inches tall and features 19 points of articulation. The figure seems a bit small, especially in comparison to other movie offerings, and he would also really benefit from wrist, ankle and waist joints. As he is currently, he seems a bit stiff. The sculpt on this figure is okay. I think it’s better than the previous movie’s take on the costume, but still not amazing. The head does bear a vague resemblance to Chris Evans, but it’s hard to tell at this scale. One of the things that does bug me a bit is the torso just seeming a bit too short, which gives him this oddly scrunched look. The paintwork is decent, with no real slop, but I do wish they had added a few more paint apps. They left his gun the same color as the holster! Also, there seemed to be quite a bit of variance in the quality of the paint work on the figures I saw, so you might want to check for the best one. The accessories, oh boy, the accessories. Hasbro is and has for quite some time been a fan of the over-sized, useless missile launchers as accessories, but they are typically in addition to one or two more sensible pieces as well. This seems to have changed with The Winter Soldier figures. Cap includes a shield launcher (because we wouldn’t want him to have to actually throw his shield…) and a shield that can be launched. No real issue, right? He still has the shield, right? Yeah, about that… To facilitate the launching feature, they kind of undersized the shield, rounded the edges, and, for some really stupid reason, replaced the usually handles meant for holding it with a single peg. Which he can’t really hold properly, since his hands have been molded in pseudo trigger fingers. Thanks Hasbro…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is kind of another example of my lack of self-control on certain action figure purchases. I pretty much bought this because I wanted a Cap to go with the Winter Soldier and Falcon figures I was buying to hold me over until the Minimates and 6 inch versions are readily available. Of the three Caps available, this one seemed to be the best option. The shield totally sucks, and the proportions are a bit off in some places, but I actually am not all that bummed by my decision. He’s not too bad, and I do feel, appearance-wise anyway, he’s an improvement over the one from The First Avenger.

#0180: Kitty Pryde

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KITTY PRYDE

MARVEL UNIVERSE (HASBRO)

When Hasbro took over the Marvel license, it was no surprise when they launched Marvel Universe, a 3 ¾ inch scale line of figures. 3 ¾ inch is Hasbro’s bread and butter, what with their long runs on both GI Joe and Star Wars. Marvel Universe has officially been replaced by Avengers Infinite, but it had a pretty decent run. Most of my Marvel Universe collection was Avengers-related, but for some odd reason, all of my Marvel Universe reviews have been X-Men figures. Guess the randomized list has a preference for those crazy mutants! Today’s review continues that with the team’s #1 girl who walks through walls, Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, aka Ariel, aka Sprite, aka holy crap, why the heck can’t these people just stick with a name?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kitty was released as part of the 8th series of Marvel Universe. She’s based on John Cassidy’s redesign of the character from his and Joss Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men. She stands about 3 ¾ inches tall and has 21 points of articulation. When Marvel Universe started out, there was one female body to go around, and that’s the one they put Kitty on. While it I still think that the female buck was the best of the initial base bodies, that ain’t saying much. The proportions aren’t terrible, but arms and legs do seem a bit stubby, the neck is most certainly too long, and she has an odd bow-legged stance. The base body is also too big for Kitty, who is generally depicted as being a fairly small person, even as an adult. The head isn’t the worst thing ever, but it’s nothing to write home about. She looks like a woman in her 40s, not her 20s as she should be, and the hair just looks strange overall. Perhaps Hasbro was attempting to recreate Kitty Pryde: The Later Years, after she and Colossus have settled down. One can only hope we’ll eventually see the complimentary Colossus with a receding hairline and beer gut (Oh, wait, he’s Russian. Is a vodka gut a thing?).  The paint work is even worse than the sculpting, with lots of fuzzy lines, and parts of the uniform that don’t match up right from piece to piece. Kitty includes a stand with her name on it and her pet dragon Lockheed, who may well be the best part of the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

If I recall correctly, Kitty was part of the large selection of Marvel Universe figures I picked up while Target was running a “buy-one-get-one-free” special. She’s not a particularly good figure, but she’s better than some of the earlier Marvel Universe offerings, so that’s good I suppose. Also, it’s not like there are a wide range of Kitty Pryde figures from which to choose, so if you want a figure of this fairly essential X-Woman, this is one of the few options available.