Tag Archives: Jazwares

#3313: ODST Rookie (with Drop Pod)

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

ODST ROOKIE (with DROP POD)

WORLD OF HALO (JAZWARES)

I’m a sucker for side characters, and that’s no more true than the Halo franchise’s plucky group of not-quite-Spartans, the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, better known as the ODSTs, who got their own focus in Halo 3: ODST, a spin-off released in 2009.  It follows a squad of them through events bridging Halo 2 and Halo 3, and it’s a rather unique game within the context of the franchise.  The ODSTs are not without their own merchandising coverage, though they’ve been a little bit absent from the toy coverage in the last couple of years.  But, hey, it looks like things might just be changing.  And here’s a look at our favorite silent protagonist, the Rookie!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The ODST Rookie is part of Jazwares’ World of Halo line, the smaller scale of their two lines.  He’s a deluxe-sized item, and appears to be part of Jazwares’ new product for 2023.  Distribution’s been a bit iffy on the line, so it’s tricky to tell.  He’s technically the second ODST in the line, though, again, with the distribution, it’s been hard to track.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 27 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this figure is fairly similar to Jazwares’ Fortnite line of the same scale and style.  With the exception of the elbows, which are a bit restricted, the movement’s all pretty good.  The Rookie’s sculpt is a pretty solid one.  It doesn’t quite have the crispness of some of the McFarlane ODST sculpts, but it still gets all of the details of note, capturing all of the little tacked-on elements of his design quite well.  His build is just a bit bulkier than other ODST figures, keeping in line with the other Jazwares sculpts, much like the Fortnite figures.  Some of the proportions aren’t an exact match for the game models, and I’m not 100% sold on the exact shaping on the helmet (it took McFarlane a few tries to get that one right, too), but the overall structure of the figure really works.  The Rookie’s paint work is generally pretty decent.  His colors in the game are all rather subdued, and that’s true of the figure as well.  The differences between the greys and black are a bit more pronounced here than in the actual game, but I don’t mind that so much, especially given the general stylings of how Jazwares has been handling the line.  The general layout of the colors mostly matches up; the chest plate’s supposed to be a lighter color, but other than that, it works.  The application is mostly pretty good; the only thing I’m not too keen on is how the fingers have been painted on the hands.  They go too far up, past the knuckles, which doesn’t match up with the design, or even the sculpt, and just generally looks rather sloppy.  For the figure proper, the set includes the Rookie’s signature silenced SMG, his handgun, and his backpack.  The biggest part of the set, though, is the Rookie’s Drop Pod.  It’s a key piece, what with being the thing that gives the ODSTs their name and all.  It looks to be decently scaled to the figure, and gets an impressive amount of detailing, including a fully detailed interior, complete with his seat and controls.  It’s a little bit basic in exactly how it works; there’s a sort of a spring-loaded feature for the hatch, but no actual way to trigger it from the outside, meaning it…well, it doesn’t seem to actually do much of anything.  There’s a locking system on the inside, which also doesn’t really do much, as whether it’s locked or not, you still have to manually pop the hatch off.  It feels like there was meant to be more to this mechanism, but it was cut at some point to save costs.  As it stands, it’s still a nice display piece, even if it doesn’t really do anything.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m unabashedly a huge ODST fan, so I’m always eager for more toy coverage from the game.  I’ve enjoyed what I’ve gotten to mess with from Jazwares’ Halo offerings, but the lack of anything ODST has definitely been a bit of a bummer.  This one actually caught me by surprise.  I had no clue it was coming out, and only happened to find the set while doing a quick wander through the Target toy aisle during some quick errands.  It was certainly a pleasant surprise.  The Rookie is a pretty straight forward, but nevertheless quite fun figure.  The Drop Pod is a rather basic piece, which doesn’t quite land the features it reaches for, but given the price point for the whole set, it’s still hits the marks it really needs to.  Hopefully this set signifies some more cool ODST stuff for the line!

#3172: Jun-A266

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

JUN-A266

HALO: THE SPARTAN COLLECTION (JAZWARES)

In early 2021, after a five year break, I wrote a Halo review…and the proceeded to take a break again. Look, you guys, this is what happens when none of your products are focused on ODSTs. I lose interest. I just can’t help it. But, I’ve got at least one more of these reviews in me, even if it’s not an ODST. No, instead, it’s another Spartan, but this time it’s actually a named one. So, let’s have a look at the only surviving member of Team Noble, Jun-A266!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jun-A266 is part of the fourth assortment for Jazwares’ Halo: The Spartan Collection.  He continues with the line’s overall heavy emphasis on Reach, and is the fourth member of Team Noble to be added to the line.  He’s one of the two named Spartans in the assortment, with the other being the Halo 2 version of Chief.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  In terms of build and articulation, he’s very similar to the Spartan Mark V I already looked at from the line.  He’s a little bit more restricted in terms of movement on a few spots, just due to how the armor is laid out, but beyond that, he’s still pretty posable, with a very solid range of motion for most of his joints.  He struggles a little bit getting his rifle held properly, but is otherwise alright.  Jun’s sculpt, which appears to be all-new, is again about on par with the Mark V figure.  The detailing is generally pretty sharp, and a good match for the in-game models.  The legs are still a little bit tube shaped, and there are some spots where the details get a little soft, but it’s an overall decent set-up.  He’s still got the cool gimmick with the flip-out panel for mounting his side-arm on his leg, which is still cool.  He’s also got some fun, more character specific pieces, which help to dress the armor up just a little bit more.  Jun’s color work isn’t bad.  The base colors are all molded, and they match well with the in-game stuff.  He’s got a little bit of accenting, including some wear and tear, which works well at the scale.  He’s also got that really cool chromed visor piece, which is just super slick.  It was dropped from a few of the named Spartans, so I’m glad to see it’s still turning up at this point.  Jun is packed with his sniper rifle, a Magnum, 7 different hands, and an unhelmeted head.  The rifle features moving legs, and is generally just a cool piece, even if he struggles a little bit to hold it properly.  The Magnum is the same one seen with the Mark V, and the hands are all pretty similar.  While it’s nice to get the unmasked head (especially after McFarlane versions made them wholly separate releases), the sculpt is definitely much softer, and the paint much thicker, making it look somewhat out of place on the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Jun isn’t a character I really have much attachment to, since he’s not an ODST, and, even within the context of his own game, he’s not even Jorge, objectively the best member of Team Noble. But, I can’t really say I dislike Jun, which does at least put him above Carter and Kat, making him sort of this middle ground. Why do I have this figure? Well, my son Matthew really wanted to get me an action figure for my birthday, and he dragged my mom down the action figure aisle at Target to get me something. We’ve been playing a little bit of Halo together, so he jumped on these figures. He knows the ODSTs are my favorite, but without any of them to choose from, he opted to get me Jun, who he felt looked the coolest of the options present. I do have to admit, he certainly makes for a cool figure.

#2713: Spartan Mark V [B] – White

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

SPARTAN MARK V [B] — WHITE

HALO: THE SPARTAN COLLECTION (JAZWARES)

Oh man, a Halo review?  What is it, 2015?  Or, I guess 2016?  It’s gotta be one of those two, because that’s where they all fell.  What’s that?  Something new?  From Halo?  Are you sure?  Can that be right?  I guess it is.  Yes, it would seem that Microsoft is set on at least *trying* to get people to care about Halo again, and part of that drive is new toys.  Previously, both McFarlane and Mattel had thrown their hats in the ring on that front, but this time around, Jazwares is taking advantage of their general upward trend to put out their own offerings.  As with Fortnite, they’ve got two scales at play, both dedicated to the franchise as a whole.  I’m looking at an offering from the larger scale line today, with a look at the Spartan Mark V [B].

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Spartan Mark V [B] is part of the first assortment of Jazwares’ Halo: The Spartan Collection.  As a Halo: Reach design, he fits with line’s overall emphasis on Reach-related product, hitting right alongside the Kat figure in the same assortment.  He’s just meant to be a generic Spartan, of course, as opposed to one of the named characters from the main game content.  I suppose, technically, you could consider him to be Noble-6, but, of course, he doesn’t fit the “default” Noble-6 configuration that we usually see.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  His sizing makes him technically just a little too small to fit in with 6 inch lines like Legends or Classified, but given the variable sizing on the Spartans, especially the Spartan-IIIs, you can easily fudge it a bit.  I personally don’t find them to be too out of place.  B’s articulation scheme is a pretty impressive set up, with a solid range of motion, and is certainly an improvement over McFarlane and Mattel’s offerings.  Notably, he can actually hold his rifle two handed, and also manages to get a reasonable range on both the hip and knee joints.  In general, the joints a quite nicely implemented, and he’s a lot of fun to mess around with.  I have heard that the tolerancing on the joints can vary a bit from figure to figure, but on mine, they’re really in that “just right” territory.  The sculpt itself is pretty solid for the most part.  It’s not quite on the same level as, say, a Hasbro sculpt, so there are definitely some parts that are a little more basic or rudimentary.  In particular, the upper legs do seem a little more tube-shaped than they should be.  Additionally, the armor is definitely much cleaner than Spartan armor tends to be in the games, which brings him a little more in line with Jazwares’ usual offerings.  The actual armor details are still nice and sharp, though, which is certainly a plus.  There’s also a rather clever piece of design innovation worked into the legs.  Att first glance, there’s no where to place the side-arms on the figure’s legs, which is a bit of a bummer.  But, you can pop out part of the thigh panel on each leg and flip it around, there’s a peg on the underside.  It’s quite sleek, and stays in place well, creating a rather ingenious way of simulating the games’ holster-less storage.The color scheme on this guy is the most notable bit on this particular figure, since differently colored Spartans are kind of a thing for the franchise.  This one is white, which is a fairly nice first color scheme, I suppose.  It’s pretty neutral, but distinctly different from the named characters.  The paint work is largely pretty basic, but there’s some nice accenting for wear on the lower arms and legs.  The coolest part by far, however, is the visor, which is a separate, vac-metalized piece.  It looks really slick.  The B’s accessory selection is pretty strong, with seven different hands (in pairs of gripping, firsts, and relaxed, as well as a flat left hand), plus a VK78 Commando Rifle (which is, rather oddly, an Infinite design, not Reach), and a plasma pistol.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve fallen out of Halo in the last few years, so I haven’t really been keeping up with the toys.  It’s not like there was much to keep up with, of course.  Jazwares really impressed me with their Fortnite stuff, so when they were announced to have the Halo license, I was certainly intrigued.  I was admittedly a little sad that that there weren’t any ODSTs in the first round, because they’re my favorites, but I like the Mark V pretty well too, so when I saw him in person, I figured he was a good figure to try out the line with.  I’m really impressed by this first figure, and I’m definitely going to be paying attention to upcoming releases.

#2258: Crackshot

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

CRACKSHOT

FORTNITE: LEGENDARY SERIES (JAZWARES)

Remember when I was reviewing all of those Fortnite toys…wait, I did this yesterday, didn’t I?  Sorry, I got confused in all of the holiday chaos.  Did I say holiday chaos?  Obviously, I must mean holiday joy, for these holidays are a joyous time, are they not?  Where am I going with this?  Truth be told, I don’t really know.  I’m gonna level with you guys, this is actually the second review I wrote for today, because I just decided that the last one wasn’t good enough…for this year.  Odds are good on it being good enough for next year, because I foresee future Ethan being really down for not having to write another review.  To celebrate Christmas this year, I’m taking a look at something of an old-standing Christmas tradition.  No, not Fortnite; we’re not there quite yet.  No, I’m talking about Nutcrackers, a German symbol of goodluck originating in Germany in the 17th Century, and popularized by ETA Hoffman’s story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” and its subsequent Tchaikovsky-composed ballet adaptation “The Nutcracker.”  They have now become quite the American tradition, but we Americans managed to do our comically missing the point thing, which is why most nutcrackers nowadays don’t actually function as nutcrackers.  Today’s offering really isn’t much different.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Crackshot is his own solo release in the Fortnite: Legendary Series line-up, available exclusively at Walmart.  He started hitting shelves just before Black Friday, which seems pretty timely.  I imagine he won’t stick around for long past December, but time will tell.  The figure is based on the similarly holiday-themed skin from the game, which was available during the Christmas season in 2017.  Like the two prior Legendary Series figures I’ve looked at, Crackshot was also added to the smaller scale line around the same time as his larger figure, however, somewhat amusingly, this figure is actually the cheaper option of the two.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and has 40 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is pretty much the same as the other two, which is a definite plus.  Keeping the positives of the Toy Biz Legends without the laundry list of negatives is alright by me.  Crackshot’s sculpt appears to be a fairly accurate recreation of his game model, for better or for worse.  That means that he ends up sharing a number of parts with this line’s version of Jonesy, upon whom most of the skins are built.  This means that he’s got the plates on his shins, plus some of the wrappings, and the patch on the pants, which do take you out of the nutcracker appearance a little bit.  That said, I was surprised to see that he actually got uniquely sculpted elements for his shoulders, given that they really are just painted on the skin in the game.  It gives him a nice extra bit of pop.  The star piece of this figure, of course, is the head, which manages to get that classic nutcracker design down pretty darn nicely.  Like the others in the line, has has multiple faceplates, three of them in this case, each displaying a different expression.  There’s angry, happy, and neutral.  Neutral’s destined to get the most use, but all three are fun, and I appreciate that they actually sculpted three different expressions for the eyebrows.  I got a lot more fun out of the angry one than I expected to.  The paintwork on Crackshot is pretty respectable.  He’s colorful and eye-catching, and gets those proper holiday colors down right.  Everything is applied cleanly, and he’s even got those signature rosy cheeks airbrushed on, consistently across the three faces, no less.  In addition to those three faces, Crackshot also includes the Hunting Rifle, the Bird Shot back bling, the Candy Axe pick axe, a bundle of dynamite, and a balloon.  It’s a pretty fun selection of extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I fully intended to run a different review today.  I really did.  I took the photos, and wrote it, and everything.  Then I found this guy at Walmart, and he jumped the queue.  I’ve always had something of a soft spot for nutcrackers, so the idea of actually making a proper action figure based on one is right up my alley.  This guy’s a great seasonal piece, and it definitely getting added to my holiday decorations, no doubt.

#2257: The Visitor

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

THE VISITOR

FORTNITE LEGENDARY SERIES (JAZWARES)

Remember how I keep picking up Fortnite toys despite not having ever played the game?  Well…uhh, I did it again.  At this point, I guess no one can say they’re surprised, though.  I’m back with Jazwares’ 6-inch line of figures The Legendary Series, this time around taking a look at The Visitor, a robotic entity from space who was first introduced into the game during Season 4, and who may or may not have a passing resemblance to a certain bounty hunter from the galaxy far, far away.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Visitor was listed alongside the Series 1 line-up of Jazwares’ Fortnite: The Legendary Series, but he seemed to arrive at stores about a month behind the rest of the figures.  Like the previously reviewed Havoc, The Visitor hit shelves right around the same time as the character being added to Jazwares’ smaller line.  The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and he has 40 points of articulation.  He uses the same articulation style as Havoc did, so he’s still pushing those Toy Biz Legends vibes pretty hard, what with the hinged fingers and toes and everything.  He feels a little more polished than a TB Legends, which I certainly count as a plus.  Some areas of the articulation, notably the elbows, are slightly more restricted on this figure than they were on Havoc, but this is more due to the character’s design than anything about the figure itself.  His sculpt is a unique offering, it’s polished, clean, and sharp, and just generally captures the design of the character from the game pretty well.  His armor is a lot of fun, and he’s got a bit of Boba Fett mixed with some Tron vibe going for him.  The stylization of the rest of the line is still present with this figure, but with the fully armored appearance, he’s going to have a pretty easy time mixing with similarly scaled lines.  I myself think he makes for a nifty Star Wars addition.  The Visitor’s paintwork is very nice.  The metallics of the armor really pop, and he’s got a ton of smaller work that adds a lot to the figure.  I quite like the slight wear on the edges of the armor.  These figures are all pretty decently packed in terms of accessories, and the Visitor isn’t an exception.  Like Havoc, he’s got swappable face plates.  They’re all the same sculpt this time, but there are four of the, each with a different printout on them.  Of note: these plates do not use the same method of connecting as the others in the line, which is a slight bummer, but not the end of the world.  He also includes his signature back bling, the Legendary Assault Rifle, the Cliffhanger harvesting too, a grenade, and a med pack.  Not a bad assortment at all.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Visitor and Havoc were the two figures from this line that piqued my interest, so after enjoying Havoc as much as I did, I set out trying to find this guy.  He was definitely the most tricky to track down, but I was eventually able to get one at an out of town Target while on a weekend trip with my dad.  I don’t have a ton to say about the figure, because I honestly am hitting my cap of things I can know about Fortnite without playing the game, but that doesn’t change the fact that this line is really, really good, and I look forward to seeing Jazwares continue this upward trend.

#2112: Havoc

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

HAVOC

FORTNITE: LEGENDARY SERIES (JAZWARES)

Hey, remember Fortnite, that video game that I have no attachment to, and yet from which I still managed to pick up five action figures?  Yeah…now it’s six.  In my defense, Fortnite merch is kind of unavoidable at this point.  We already had the 3 3/4-inch Jazwares offerings (which were my main focus), plus some Pops, and even Hasbro getting in on things under their Nerf banner.  More directly competing with Jazwares in the action figure department was McFarlane, who have a line of 7-inch figures that have been running since right around the same time.  Jazwares have decided to up the ante, and get in with some 6-inch figures, undercutting McFarlane a bit, if you will.  I still don’t care about Fortnite, but I do care about good toys, so let’s see how Jazwares fares, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Havoc is part of the first series of Jazwares’ Fortnite: Legendary Series.  Rather amusingly, he and the rest of the assortment started hitting right as Havoc joined the smaller scale line from Jazwares as well.  Not knowing much about the game, I can’t speak to Havoc’s relevance in the line, or how he relates to his assortment-mates, but I do know that in the game’s lore, he’s the brother of Raptor, which I guess explains their similar designs.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and sports 40 points of articulation, a fact that the package proudly states, much like the Toy Biz Marvel Legends of old.  Speaking of the Toy Biz Legends, remember how I mentioned the smaller scale line feeling like a successor to the 25th Anniversary G.I. Joes?  Well, this line does the same thing for Toy Biz’s Legends.  Hasbro’s figures have become their own breed, but this guy genuinely feels like he could have been a late-run Toy Biz product, albeit with some slight adjustments to fix some of the issues those figures have suffered from hindsight.  This figure brings back things that aren’t as common place these days, notably hinged fingers and toes.  The fingers worried me a bit, as a good number of the old Toy Biz figures had some major troubles holding accessories due to the joints, and these guys kind of need to be able to hold their accessories.  Fortunately, it seems like Jazwares was aware of the potential issues, and sculpted the hands to hold the accessories first, and added the joints after.  This means Havoc still maintains a decent grip on his weapons, while having a little more freedom of posability when not holding anything.  Additionally, no wrenching open of the fingers is needed to get the accessories in place, which I’d call a plus.  Havoc also makes use of butterfly shoulder joints, well hidden by his gear, plus pretty much every joint you would consider standard for a Legend.  His sculpt stays true to the animation models (meaning he’s got easy re-use potential for Jazwares to do Raptor), while still maintaining a decent level of detailing.  There’s a slight stylization to him, but not enough that he can’t fit in with more realistic lines.  In order to keep things fresh, one of the gimmicks of this line is swappable faceplates for differing expressions and the like.  Havoc includes three, one fairly standard, one surprised, and one with the mask pulled up to reveal the face beneath.  The three faces swap out relatively easy, but stay in place securely once clicked in, and the seam where they join is pretty well hidden.  Havoc’s paintwork is pretty solid stuff.  It’s mostly pretty basic work, but there’s a decent amount of accenting as well.  Additionally, unlike the small-scale Raptor, his eyes have been placed and sized correctly, so he doesn’t look wonky either.  In addition to the previously mentioned faceplates, Havoc is packed with a scoped assault rifle, a harvesting tool, his back bling, a chug jug, and a grenade.  It’s a nice assortment of extras, especially when compared to the basic smaller figures.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in!  Seriously, I thought I’d kicked the Fortnite habit, and then Jazwares went and announced this line, and boy did they look cool.  I singled this guy out as the one I wanted to grab to try out the line because his name is “Havoc” and I’m a creature of habit.  As luck would have it, there was a single Havoc left at a Walmart I swung by on my way home from work, giving me the opportunity to give the line a try.  I was very impressed with the small scale line, and I’m even more impressed with Havoc here.  I will definitely be grabbing a few other figures from this line.  Darn it.

#1929: Omega

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

OMEGA

FORTNITE (JAZWARES)

Oh boy.  More Fortnite.  Remember Fortnite?  That thing I said I had no attachment to, but for which I have now written four reviews? Yeah.  That’s the one.  For what it’s worth, this us my last Fortnite review, at least for the foreseeable future.  Somewhat appropriately for my last review of this set, I’m going to be taking a look at Omega!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Omega was released in the “Early Game Survival Kit”, a slightly more deluxe offering from Jazwares’ Fortnite line, which falls right between the “Solo Mode” and “Drama Llama” offerings.  The figure stands 4 inches tall and he has 28 points of articulation.  In the game, Omega is a progressive skin, meaning he starts out rather basic, and gains new armor as the player progresses.  The Omega seen here is a fully kitted-out version, which I suppose is a sensible choice.  His construction is the same styling as the other Fortnite figures, so he’s a pretty solid little toy with a decent spread of articulation.  The only slight downstep from others is this figure’s more restricted elbow movement, but he’s still getting more than 45 degrees, so we’re not quite at Mattel levels.  The sculpt does a solid job of recreating the in-game design, though like the others, the detailing can be a little soft in some spots.  He’s certainly helped by the design’s more simplistic nature, which just makes for a clean overall figure.  The paintwork is decent, if perhaps not anything amazing.  I like the metallic finish, and the application is overall pretty good.  There’s a little bit of slop, especially on the red lines, but given the scale and the price point, he’s certainly passable.  The more deluxe nature of this release means that he’s a little better accessorized than Raptor was, but not *quite* as accessory heavy as Rust Lord.  He gets a Legendary Assault Rifle, the Onslaught harvesting tool, Precision back pack, Wet Paint Glider, and a foot-peg-bearing building plate.  It’s a nice little taste of all the differing accessory types.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Despite being my last of the reviews, Omega was actually the second Fortnite item I acquired.  Super Awesome Fiancee’s store had gotten him in, and after I was so happy with Rust-Lord, she asked me if I might also like this guy.  I’m hardly one to turn down someone buying me a cool action figure, so I of course took her up on it.  Omega is another solid toy from this line, and I definitely dig it.

#1915: Turbo Builder Set

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

TURBO BUILDER SET (W/ JONESY & RAVEN)

FORTNITE (JAZWARES)

Well, with another week of Post-Christmas reviews under my belt, and a theme thoroughly exhausted, let’s go back to the beginning.  Yep, I started this year’s round of gift reviews off with a Fortnite item, and here I am with another.  I know, I’m as surprised as all of you.  With my last Fortnite review being on the smaller side, I’m jumping over the other end of the spectrum, and taking a look at one of the largest offerings in the line, the Turbo Builder Set, featuring Jonesy and Raven!

THE SET ITSELF

The Turbo Builder Set is the largest offering so far from Jazwares’ Fortnite line.  It’s made up of the two figures, the AC/DC and standard pickaxe harvesting tools, the hunting rifle, revolver, submachine gun, tactical shotgun, and, of course, the main focus, a whopping 81 building plates, evenly divided between wooden planks, sheet metal, and brick and mortar.  There are a lot of building options with the plates, and they are of course completely inter-compatible with the ones included with Rust Lord and Raptor.  They can be a little tricky to assemble and take back apart multiple times, which led to a few broken connectors on mine, but with the sheer quantity offered here, I don’t foresee it being too much of an issue.

JONESY

Jonesy is another character that seems to be leaning heavily on the G.I. Joe end of the spectrum, and also being about as standard issue as you can get.  There are a lot of potential variants of Jonesy, but this one seems to be based on his “Survival” variant, which again looks to be using some pretty standard issue looks.  The figure stands 4 inches tall and has 28 points of articulation.  He’s built in the same fashion as the last two figures I looked at, meaning there are a number of similarities to the 25th Anniversary Joes.  Jonesy has the first parts re-use I’ve seen in the line, with a small handful of parts being shared with the Rust Lord figures.  It’s just the lower arms, lower legs, and pelvis, which appear to be pretty similar elements in game as well.  I was surprised by how few of those parts were actually re-used, given that some of the uniquely sculpted parts are just small tweaks away from being the same.  Hey, I’m not going to knock the attention to detail, though.  Jonesy’s head is further on the cartoony side of things than some of the line’s other offerings, which I’m not huge on, because it’ll make slotting him in with Joes a little harder.  That said, it’s still a decent enough sculpt, and it’s pretty accurate to the game design.  His paintwork is pretty decently handled.  Application is clean, and there don’t appear to be any missing applications.  I was also quite impressed by the tattoo on his right arm; that’s a nice attention to detail.

RAVEN

Definitely the most unique of the figures I’ve looked at from this line, Raven moves away from the knock-off G.I. Joe bit that the others possess.  Raven’s design is one of the ones that’s a bit more dependent on the game’s animation style to sell it, which makes its translation to toy form a little more difficult.  The end result is okay, but not quite as impressive as I’d hoped.  The biggest letdown is the implementation of his head; in the game, he’s got a hood that obscures is face, so that all you can see are his eyes peering out.  I was expecting something along the lines of a Moon Knight figure, with a featureless black head underneath of a sculpted hood.  Instead, the figure has an empty head with some eyes sculpted on it.  It’s pretty shallow, so it never seems to look quite right, especially when directly lit.  The design of the body also ends up limiting the articulation a bit more than usual, especially in the arms.  Beyond that, there are still some nice details worked throughout, and he’s still a generally enjoyable figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I touched on in my Black Series reviews, there was some slight worry about those figures not arriving in time for Christmas.  Since they were going to be my main gift, Super Awesome Fiancee wanted to make sure I had *something* and since I’d mentioned this set in passing when I got Rust Lord, she tracked one down for me.  Of course the Black Series figures ended up arriving on time, so I guess it just worked out well for me.  Jonesy’s another for my “augmenting my Joes” venture, Raven’s a flawed but entertaining figure, and the building plates are certainly going to make for some fun diorama building.  All in all, another winning piece from this line.  I hope that Jazwares can keep it up!

#1901: Raptor

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

RAPTOR

FORTNITE (JAZWARES)

And let the gift reviews commence.  Yes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year!  The post-Christmas season, when I have a ton of new toys to review here.  As per usual, I’ll be kicking off the post-Christmas reviews with sort of a Day 0 kind of a review, with my one non-Christmas gift of the season.

Remember a few weeks ago when I reviewed one of them there Fortfighters?  Crap, I mean Fortnite.  Yeah, that’s the one.  Despite my very obvious lack of prior knowledge of the source material, I was enamored by the toys.  I kind of foresee a good number of reviews from this line forthcoming.  Today, I’m keeping things pretty basic, and looking at Raptor, Royal Air Force Test Pilot!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Raptor is part of the first series of the basic “Solo Mode” figures from Jazwares’ Fortnite line.  He doesn’t come in the impressive packaging that Rust Lord did, nor does he feature quite as many fancy parts, but he’s also less than half the retail price.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 28 points of articulation.  His construction is very similar to the previously reviewed Rust Lord figure, though his actual sculpt is completely unique.  While I think the general assembly of Rust Lord is a little more solid and better fit together, I certainly can’t fault this guy’s sculpt.  It helps that, like Rust Lord, his design lends itself pretty nicely to a toy translation.  I mean, the guy is perhaps the most blatant G.I. Joe rip-off of the bunch.  That’s pretty basic toy stuff right there.  Raptor is a bit more simple than Rust Lord when it comes to actual detailing, with the main exception being his ski mask, which does actually get some solid work.  I was sort of hoping for a bit more to his bomber jacket, but this is, admittedly, fairly true to the game design.  Raptor’s paint is a little bit of a mixed bag.  There’s a lot I like, especially the things like the insignias on his shoulders.  However, the thing that bugs me the most about the figure is completely to do with the paint, and that’s the eyes.  They’re not *terrible*, but they’re definitely too big, especially relative to what’s sculpted.  Eyes are, admittedly, hard to do, especially at this scale, but as his only visible facial feature, it’s unfortunate they aren’t more on the mark.  Raptor is a lighter release, in contrast to the more heavily armed Rust Lord.  He gets a pick axe and a building plate with a foot peg on it.  I like the variety among the plates, and I can definitely appreciate the inclusion of a melee weapon this time around, especially after getting so many guns with Rust Lord.  They’re really encouraging the play pattern here, and I can get behind that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Raptor here was an anniversary gift from Super Awesome Fiancee, exchanged on Christmas Eve, as is our tradition.  After I raved so much about how cool Rust Lord was, she kept an eye out for the rest of the line, and thought I’d like this one.  Slight flaws aside, I really do like this figure, and he continues the “augmenting G.I. Joe” thing I started with Rust Lord.

#1888: Rust Lord

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

RUST LORD

FORTNITE (JAZWARES)

Oh man, let me tell you guys, today’s review?  It’s totally lit.  Like, it’s at peak levels of on-fleek-ness.  This review here?  It’s cool AF.  This is about the dankest review you’re ever gonna read.  I’m finna about to review this boi, which, I assure you, is not empty.  Yeet.  Stick with me fam, things are about to get hella turnt! …am I doing this right?  Is this how we talk about the Fortfight?  I’m sorry, I don’t have the 411 on what’s hip these days.  But, in an effort to get home with the downies, I got one of these here Fortniters to review.  Swag.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So, homeslice here is Rust Lord, an absolute unite, who is one of the many available skins in Fortnite.  He’s a part of Jazwares Fortnite line, available exclusively in the “Llama Drama Loot Piñata” pack, which was the first item available from Jazwares’ line, first showing up on shelves at the beginning of the month.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 28 points of articulation.  Stylistically, Rust Lord is very similar to Hasbro’s 25th Anniversary GI Joes, though perhaps a bit heftier.  He’ll fit in pretty well, though.  What surprised me most about this figure, though, was the articulation, which honestly is a bit of a step-up from the Joes, and even rivals the likes of Marvel Legends, but at a smaller scale.  Despite all of this articulation, the construction of the figure is still really solid, and he’s not flimsy at all.  Rust Lord’s design is definitely one that lends itself pretty well to a toy.  The figure changes up a few proportional elements, in order to make for a better translation to toy, but he’s actually pretty close.  The sculpt is clean and pretty sharp, which is honestly a fair bit better than I’m used to seeing with figures at this scale, even from the likes of Hasbro.  The paintwork for Rust Lord is fairly cleanly handled.  It’s pretty striking, and, like the sculpt, it will help him to match alright with Joes.  There are a handful of unpainted details here and there, but for the most part, he gets the job done.  Rust Lord himself only makes up a small piece of what’s included in the Loot Piñata.  There are also a whopping ten weapons*, four backpacks, and eight building plates.  For weapons, he has an assault rifle, bolt-action sniper rifle, drum gun, grenade launcher, legendary assault rifle, legendary burst assault rifle, light machine gun, pump shotgun, rocket launcher, and suppressed submachine gun.  Some of the sculpts are a little cartoony for my taste, but they’re mostly pretty solid pieces, and, like the main figure, they should do well arming your Joes and the like.  For the backpacks, he has the Bright Bag, Cuddle Bow, Satchel, and Scaly.  The satchel’s the only one that really matches up with the figure, but the options are nice nevertheless.  Lastly, there are the building plates.  Two sets of four line-up for some graffiti, and can be configured into all manner of different structures.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is all Max from All Time’s fault.  A couple weeks ago, he told me about this set, showed me a few pictures of his and said “it’s kind of like G.I. Joe,” which was enough to sell me.  I’m an easy mark, I guess.  As someone with absolutely no experience with Fortnite, these figures weren’t even on my radar.  Doubly so when I found out they were produced by Jazwares, a company that I generally find to be the toy world’s equivalent of a yawn.  This figure has no right to be anywhere near as cool as it is, but I’ll be damned if this isn’t one of the coolest, most solidly crafted figures I’ve picked up as of late.  I’ve still got no attachment to Fortnite, but I’ll definitely be finding a spot for this guy with my Joes.

*My set actually had 11 weapons, thanks to me getting an extra drum gun in my set.  One of those few times an error totally worked out in my favor.