Tag Archives: Star Wars

#1418: General Hux

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

GENERAL HUX

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

While I generally liked the tie-in line of figures from The Force Awakens, there were definitely some figures that just didn’t turn out as well as they could have.  In this respect, it’s somewhat fortunate that a number of characters have the same (or at least very similar) designs in The Last Jedi, thus giving us a second shot a few of those characters.  For me, one of the biggest disappointments from the basic TFA line was General Hux, an entertaining character with a sub-par figure.  Now he’s got a new figure, and hopefully this one’s a bit better.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

General Hux is another of the 11 basic figures in the first series of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.  He’s from the Teal assortment, which houses some of the more secondary characters.  Definitely appropriate for Hux.  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  This Hux has more or less the same design as the last figure, albeit minus the hat.  Hux only had the hat sparingly in TFA, so I can’t say I mind its removal for this figure (in fact, I’m quite pleased to have him un-hatted; I was a little annoyed that both of his TFA figures had it permanently attached).  Despite the largely unchanged design, this figure sports an all-new sculpt.  And boy is that for the best.  Perhaps my biggest complaint about the original Hux was how his greatcoat had been handled; sculpted to the figure and worked into the legs just looked really goofy.  This figure instead gives him a separate jacket piece, which not only makes him more consistent with the other figures in this line (since short-jacketed characters such as Poe, Finn, and Han all had separate pieces for their jackets), but also just looks a ton better.  As an added bonus, since the jacket is a separate piece and can be relatively easily removed, you can also get a pretty respectable sans-jacket look out of this figure.  That’ll definitely come in handy should people want to put together a few First Order officers.  Moving past the coat, the rest of the sculpt is pretty solid work as well.  As with Kylo, I feel the skirt piece would look a tiny bit better if it were also a separate piece, but it looks decent enough separated onto the legs the way it is.  The head sports a respectable likeness of Domhnall Gleeson, which is also fairly consistent with the face on the last Hux.  The paint on Hux is all nice and clean.  There’s not a ton of details, but there are enough.  I definitely prefer the molded skin tone seen here to the painted face of the last figure, and I like the more clear-cut black of his uniform.  Hux includes the same blaster as last time, but this time he also comes with a mouse droid, which is really fun.  It even has working wheels!  Also, like the others in this series, Hux has the new ForceLink feature, for those that are interested in such things.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was rather excited to get the first Hux and was ultimately let down, so when this new Hux was announced, I was skeptical. I’d been burned before.  When I found the figures early, I got a chance to look at him up close, and I was rather impressed by what I saw, so I definitely knew I’d be grabbing him on Force Friday.  Hux is the sort of figure that’s easy to overlook in the chaos of all the new figures, but he’s a surprisingly strong addition to the line.  Definitely worth checking out.

#1417: Resistance Ski Speeder (w/ Captain Poe Dameron)

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

RESISTANCE SKI SPEEDER (w/ CAPTAIN POE DAMERON)

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

“An older design predating those of the Rebel Alliance, these low-altitude, high-power ski speeders use a stabilizer strut to keep balance when zipping across alien terrain.”

The Star Wars franchise has a history of introducing fun new vehicles with just about every installment.  The Force Awakens didn’t do this as much, preferring to stick with variations of some old favorites, as a call-back to the older films (I didn’t mind).  The Last Jedi looks to be meeting somewhere in the middle, giving us both old favorites and some new designs.  I’ll be looking at one of the newer creations (though, if the bio’s any indication, that’s not the case “in universe”), the Ski Speeder, which looks to be the standard Resistance transportation following the trailer’s ominous hints at the destruction of their old fleet sometime during The Last Jedi’s runtime.  Hasbro’s offering a small-scale version of the vehicle, packed with ace Resistance pilot, Poe Dameron!

THE VEHICLE ITSELF

The Resistance Ski Speeder was one of the launch items for The Last Jedi’s Force Friday II event.  It’s a C-Class-sized vehicle, and is the only one of its size at launch time.  Time will tell if that’ll change later.  In terms of assembly, this vehicle’s a bit easier than the last few vehicles.  Pop on the right wing, the stabilizer strut, and a  blaster cannon and you’re good to go.  When fully assembled, the vehicle measures an impressive 18 inches long and stands about 5 inches tall when sitting and about 8 inches when the strut is fully extended.  In terms of moving parts, there’s the landing gear, which drops out of either wing, as well as a very small rotating gun on the left underside of the cockpit.  There is *not* an opening cockpit hatch; it’s open-topped, which does appear to be accurate to the film.  The Ski Speeder is sporting all-new tooling, based on its film design. Though they may be a new design, the Ski Speeders definitely take influence from earlier ships, most notably the Rebel B-Wing, which it should be noted is one of my favorite OT ships.  I tend to like this design, as impractical as it would be in real life.  From what we’ve seen of the Ski Speeder, this toy does a respectable job of translating it into plastic.  Like a most recent SW vehicles, the Speeder looks to have been scaled down a little bit from its on-screen counterpart.  It doesn’t look to be as expensive as the AT-ACT or even the Resistance X-Wing, which is likely due to the ship’s more feasible size.  The details have also been slightly simplified, so as to better fit the line’s overall aesthetic, but once again, it seems to be a less drastic change than we’ve seen previously.  There’s still quite a bit of detail on this thing.  Paintwork on this vehicle is a step up from recent vehicles.  It’s still not quite up to the level it used to be from Hasbro, but there’s a bit of weathering and such, which keeps it from being too dull.  There’s a few action features built into this ship, though nothing particularly obtrusive.  The most obvious is are the two missiles which can be launched from the central engine.  The stabilizer strut serves as a handle, and there’s a trigger at the top of it.  It’s essentially a big gun.  Shame that they went back to hard plastic missiles; this would have been a perfect place for Hasbro to work in some Nerf.  It would literally just be a Nerf gun.  The second feature is a detaching wing.  When you press the turbine at the top of the engine, the right wing springs off, in a similar fashion to the wings on the TIE Fighter.  I’m guessing at least one of these ships is losing a wing in the movie.  The final feature is the ForceLink feature, which looks to be the same basic concept as with the figures.

CAPTAIN POE DAMERON

Oh, he’s a captain now, is he?  That’s new.  I think.  I mean, I don’t know what his rank was before, if there was one.  I’m assuming this is a promotion.  Good for Poe.  This figure gives us Poe in his casual gear from The Last Jedi.  Since he gave his awesome leather jacket to Finn in the last film, he was in the market for a new one.  Now he’s got this snazzy dark brown jacket, which makes him look not unlike Han from the last film.  Or the Fonz.  I guess cool guys have a consistent look.  I’m not complaining.  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The sculpt is all-new to this guy; nothing re-used from any of the prior Poes.  The proportions are all well-balanced, and the detail work is all quite sharp.  I dig the texture on the jacket.  We’ve gotten yet another stab at an Oscar Isaac likeness on this new head sculpt.  It’s not awful.  It’s closer than earlier attempts, I think.  His cheeks are definitely too pronounced, which makes him look ever so slightly like a young Al Pachino, but his not terribly far off.  Maybe they’ll get it by Episode 9.  One thing I think is probably helping this figure is the paint, which is a step-up from the last few figures.  I did have to pick through a few sets to find the one with the best work, but they did seem a bit sharper in general this time.  There’s still a bit of slop around the wrists, but that’s a minor issue.  Poe’s packed with his blaster pistol (the same one included with several Poe figures), as well a headset, or as a like to call them: “Beats by Rey.”  Yeah, I went there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It’s no secret that I’m a pretty big Poe fan. Ever since the first images of this set leaked, I knew it was going to be at the top of my list.  It was actually one of the few items I didn’t find the week prior to Force Friday, which bummed me out initially, but less so in the end, since I wasn’t able to buy anything then anyway.  This set was the very first item I grabbed on Force Friday.  I almost got stepped on to get it, but them’s the risks you take, right?  The ship’s pretty fun and I look forward to seeing it in action.  Honestly, I kind of bought this for the new Poe figure, and he didn’t disappoint.  Now, knowing my luck, he’ll end up released on his own in like a month.  Still, this is one of my favorite items I picked up this time around.

#1416: Kylo Ren

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

KYLO REN

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Pouty, brooding, and prone to temper tantrums, with a scarred face and a taste for pretty sick looking masks.  No, I’m not talking about Darth Vader, or even my top dude Doctor Doom; today, I’m looking at the Star Wars universe’s newest black-clad-dude-with-attitude, Kylo Ben — sorry, Solo Ren — crap, I mean Kylo Ren!  That’s the one!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kylo is part of the Orange Assortment of the first wave of Star Wars: The Last Jedi figures.  This figure debuts Kylo’s new The Last Jedi look.  It’s not terribly far removed from his prior design.  He’s ditched the outer skirt piece and the hood/scarf, in favor of a cape draped over his shoulders.  Also, in a nice little subversion of expectations, rather than hiding his scarred face behind his mask, he’s got his scar out there for the whole world to see.  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and has the usual 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is all-new to this figure, and it’s some pretty solid work overall.  The head sports a pretty solid Adam Driver likeness.  He’s sporting the scar he got from Rey during TFA’s final battle…in theory, anyway.  The scar’s changed placement a little bit, because director Rian Johnson thought it looked better that way.  More power to him on that.  It’s not like scar placement’s really going to have a negative impact on the movie.  The rest of the sculpt is pretty great.  His clothes continue the trend of impressive texture work in these figures.  His skirt piece is split for leg articulation.  I’m iffy about it.  It’s fine on characters like Luke or the Guard, who have longer skirt pieces, but for Kylo, I feel like a separate piece like we saw on Rey would make more sense.  It’s minor, but a slight annoyance. One thing I quite like about this figure is how well they’ve recreated the slight hunch the Ren has.  Prior figures have lacked this, and it hurt the resemblance a bit, but this figure’s got it down.  Similar to Luke, Kylo has a removable cape included.  It’s a pretty nice piece, and helps to add to his intimidation factor.  He can’t really hold the saber while wearing it, though, so there’s a bit of compromise going on.  Kylo’s paint is pretty basic; mostly it’s just variations of black.  Everything’s pretty clean, though, and he’s accurate to the source, which is what’s important.  In addition to the removable cape, Kylo also includes his trusty lightsaber, which looks to be the same as last time.  Kylo is also ForceLink compatible, like the other figures in this line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I skipped out on the initial small-scale Kylos last time, and ended up regretting it in the end.  I definitely wasn’t planning to do that again this time.  I got this guy from TRU at the midnight opening, without too much trouble (well, apart from him being flung at me).  He’s got a few minor issues, but this is definitely a solid figure overall.  Another win.

Guest Review #0044: Sabine Wren

Posted by hodgeppodge42 in Guest Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

SABINE WREN

FORCES OF DESTINY

Heyo! Welcome back everyone. Wow, two reviews in one week−I’m on a roll! Anyways, today is another review for a figure that I got on Force Friday (2017), but has actually been out for a while.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

“You know what I do in hopeless situations…Blow stuff up!” –Sabine Wren

Sabine Wren is a character from Disney’s Star Wars: Rebels. A young Mandalorian warrior, Sabine kicks butt in the most creative ways and takes names…if they survive.

This figure stands at about 11 inches tall with 22 points of articulation, though again like the other figures in this line one of these points is in her waist and is slightly restricted. It’s safe to say that all of the figure’s pieces are unique. Most of the figure is made of plastic, except for her pants, gun holster, and boots.

The hair is colored after the second costume design for Sabine, with the two very different shades of blue, but I don’t think the figure has done the style quite right. Her hair always looked like it was dyed with the lighter blue at the ends, while at the base of it was the darker color. However, with this figure the top layer of the hair is dark blue and the under hair is the lighter color. While perfectly reasonably, a lot of women do similar dye jobs, it doesn’t quite fit the character design. Sabine’s torso is all hard plastic, with her collar plates, armbraces, and chest plate part of the molding. Below the armor is a under armor-like shirt that have fabric lines and seams built into the mold as well. Next, her legs a brown plastic to match her face and she is wearing simple Velcro pants, which have some printed seams, a camo pattern, and various other designs. Her boots are made of a flexible rubber-plasticy material and they appear to be slip-ons. The boots have leather creases and her ankle plates built into the mold. The rest of her armor (shoulder, elbow, and knee pads, and her helmet) is more removable than the others, and made of hard plastic with various creases to show scratches in the armor.

The paint job on the figure is okay. I really wished that they didn’t scale down the detailing on her armor, because Sabine’s armor was almost completely covered in various designs. I know it would’ve been a pain to do it, but I feel like the design of her armor suffered without it. Again, the paint job is alright. There are places where it splattered a little or smeared on the edges. The detailing on the helmet and chest plate are pretty nice though, which is the important part.

Her only two accessories are her guns. They’re identical in design and have a little detailing in the molding, but nothing with paint. They fit perfectly in their holster and she can duel wield them as well. The holster is a little disappointing because it’s a little scaled down from the original character design, in the show Sabine pretty much has her own Batman utility belt. This figure also has an action feature. If you squeeze her legs together and twist her waist her arm moves up and down.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ethan and I started watching Rebels sometime earlier in the year and we really enjoyed it, but we haven’t had the chance to catch up with the series and the episodes have been a little hard to find. I really like Sabine because she’s a cool character that loves to change her hair color, which is something I can really relate to. I got this figure on Force Friday because Ethan was getting a bunch of stuff and I’d been looking for an excuse to get more from the Forces of Destiny line. Overall, I really like having this figure. It’s a cool character design with accurate body proportions, and I will die screaming that to the moon and back. Who wouldn’t want a kickass Mandalorian female warrior?

#1415: Chewbacca

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

CHEWBACCA

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

For The Force Awakens, Disney had some restrictions on which characters were allowed to be released before the film, which almost completely relegated the original trilogy’s returning heroes to post-film assortments.  One major exception to this was the franchise’s premier walking carpet, Chewbacca, who made several appearances at the first Force Friday.  I didn’t get any of them, but the option was there, and that’s the important thing.  Chewie’s returning yet again for The Last Jedi, and given that he accompanied Rey to meet Luke at the end of the last film, it’s likely he’ll be receiving a more prominent role to boot.  He’s taking it slow on the action figures this time, with just the one figure to start with.  That’s better than nothing, though.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Chewbacca is another of the 11 launch figures for the Star Wars: The Last Jedi line.  He comes from the Teal assortment, and gets to fight with C-3PO over which one of them’s the more known quantity in the set.  Chewbacca is based on his ever so slightly tweaked look from the new trilogy. It’s not much different from the prior design; the big change is the new bandolier.  The figure’s a big one, standing almost 5 inches tall.  He’s got the standard 5 points of articulation, though the neck movement is rather limited by the design.  The sculpt looks to re-use the torso and left arm from the TFA Millennium Falcon Chewie, albeit with some slightly sharper mold-lines.  The rest is new, or at the very least tweaked. The head and bandolier remove the elements of the Falcon headset, and the head gets an open mouthed expression in contrast to the closed mouths of the last two Chewies.  The bandolier is a separate piece, but thanks to the slight divot on the torso, it actually stays in place, which I’m a fan of.  The legs now have the slightest bend at the knees, making him appear to be mid-stride, and the right arm is bent at the elbow, so he can hold his bowcaster at least a little better than the prior figures.  There’s a nice heft to this figure, which I think has been missing from some of the more recent Chewbaccas (the Black Series version in particular felt far too scrawny to me).  Getting the paint right on a Chewbacca figure is always a little difficult.  Fur’s not easy to handle, especially at a mass-production scale.  This figure does okay.  Some of the transitions could stand to be a little more subtle, but I’ve seen far worse.  The work on the eyes and mouth is very sharp, and the bandolier is pretty decent, too.  Chewie is packed with his bowcaster, which is a new, three-piece mold.  It’s a cool idea, but ends up falling apart a lot, especially when you try getting him to hold it.  Chewie also includes the newest Star Wars-sensation, the Porg!  I have no clue how prominent these little guys will end up being, but it’s nice to get at least one small-scale version in the initial launch, and especially nice that it’s not in a huge set (like poor BB-8 was for TFA).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t pick up a single Chewbacca from the Force Awakens product.  In fact, I haven’t actually bought a small-scale Chewbacca figure since the Star Wars Saga release from 2003.  I guess getting a new one was a bit overdue.  I wasn’t 100% sold on getting this guy, but when I saw the figure in person during my pre-Force Friday find, I liked him enough to put him on my list for the actual event.  He’s a nice figure, definitely one of the better versions of him I own.

#1414: Rey – Jedi Training & Elite Praetorian Guard

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

REY – JEDI TRAINING & ELITE PRAETORIAN GUARD

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Another Rey review? In the same day, even?

Back when I was looking at the stuff from the very first Force Friday, I had no clue who the heck this Rey person was.  I didn’t even know she was the main character (I mean, neither did anyone else not involved in the film at that point, but still).  Things are rather different now, of course, since she’s undoubtedly the central character of this new trilogy, and privy to all the action figures that entails.  Hasbro is doing their darnedest to make sure the standard Rey is available as many ways as possible, in much the the same way that they handled the standard Jyn figure for Rogue One.  At launch, the Jedi Training variant of Rey is available both on her own and packed with one of Supreme Leader Snoke’s fancy new guards.  Since I’m a sucker for cool faceless minions, I, of course, went for the two-pack option.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These guys are on of the pair of two-packs in the Star Wars: The Last Jedi line at launch.  This one’s the only announced two-pack so far to be TLJ-based, but I’m sure that’ll change.  As noted above, the Rey figure here is the same as the version included in the Wave 1 Orange assortment, with one extra accessory thrown in.

REY – JEDI TRAINING

It looks like Rey will be wearing her cool Resistance togs from the end of The Force Awakens for at least some segment of the new movie, but this figure depicts her in her brand new Jedi training outfit.  The design actually isn’t too far removed from her Jakku look, albeit in grey and black instead of the tan and white, as well as boots that go further up her calves and a holster for the blaster she got from Han in TFA.  It’s definitely a strong look.  I think I still like the Resistance look a little more, but I do find this to be an improvement on the scavenger look.  This figure stands a little under 3 3/4 inches tall and has the standard 5 points of articulation.  Rey’s all-new sculpt is a definite improvement over her inaugural figure, which I always found to be the weakest of the initial batch of figures.  This figure’s proportions are far more balanced, she feels much less frail, and the likeness to Daisy Ridley definitely feels like an improvement over prior attempts.  Still not spot-on, but closer.  Rather than the robes sculpted onto the legs schtick of the last sever Rey figures, this one opts for an add-on piece instead, which works far better for her shorter cut style of garment.  As with Luke, the texturing on this figure is nothing short of amazing, and just phenomenal for the scale.  In terms of paint, Rey is generally pretty well handled.  The application’s all pretty sharp, and the colors appear to match pretty well with what we’ve seen so far from the movie.  Both versions of Rey are packed with her staff, blaster, and Anakin’s lightsaber, which is a very impressive selection.  The two-pack version adds in a…weird-back-pack-shoulder-blaster thingy… I kinda thought we were done with these.  I mean, it looks like one of the Rebel packs from Endor, so that’s at least kind of cool, but it’s still not a piece I see myself using ever.  Both the figure and the backpack are ForceLink compatible, so there’s that.

ELITE PRAETORIAN GUARD

First we had the Imperial Royal Guards, now we have the Elite Praetorian Guard.  Always gotta have those regal looking dudes in red, right?  These guys were kept und wraps for a while in the lead-up to the product launch, but now they’re all over the place.  Here’s hoping they don’t end up as glorified cameos like the Guavian Enforcers.  There are three different helmet variations for the Guards; the one seen here has what appears to be a hat of some sort.  Maybe he’s trying to keep the sun out of his eyes?  Anyway, the figure stands about 4 inches tall and has the standard 5 points of articulation.  Like yesterday’s Luke figure, this guy’s got the skirt cut into legs thing going on.  It works okay with this design, fortunately enough, so I can’t really complain.  The sculpt is all-new, and generally pretty decent.  The work on the armored parts is nice and crisp, and he’s even got some great texture work on the skirt to denote it as a separate material.  The Guard’s paintwork is actually quite minimal, with the only real work being the small blue dot near the top of his torso, and a little bit of black on his inner thighs.  It’s accurate to what we’ve seen so far of these guys, and they did go to the effort of giving the armor and the skirt two different finishes, which is nice.  He’s packed with a pair of axes, which can be dual wielded or snapped together to form one larger weapon, which is pretty nifty.  Like Rey, he’s also ForceLink compatible.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Luke, this set was pretty high on my Force Friday list.  I had initially planned to just grab the standard Rey, but I really couldn’t pass up the sweet looking Guard.  I found this set early as well, but was still unable to purchase it until the actual event.  This set didn’t prove too difficult to grab on Friday morning; I ended up picking it up off the floor after the guy mentioned yesterday flung it from its peg.  Rey’s probably my favorite small-scale figure of her yet (though the Resistance version is still a very reputable contender).  The Guard is a lot of fun and I can’t wait to pick up the other two variants down the line.

Guest Review #0043: Rey & BB-8

Posted by hodgeppodge42 in Guest Reviews and tagged with , , ,

REY & BB8

FORCES OF DESTINY

Heyo! Welcome back to Super Awesome Girlfriend Tries to Review Action Figures! Today, I’ll be reviewing one of the figures from one of the new toy lines from Hasbro.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This Rey and BB8 combo figure pack is modelled after the costume design at the end of The Force Awakens. After doing some research, I found out that this line is paired up with the web series Forces of Destiny on Disney’s youtube channel. I haven’t heard much about the series, but each episode is only a couple minutes and they focus on one character from the line at a time. So I guess I’ll have to check it out at some point. On another note, Rey does show up in the first two episodes but not in the costume of this figure here.

Rey stands tall at about 11 inches with 22 points of articulation, though I have to note that one of those points is in her waist joint that has slight restricted motion. I feel it safe to say that most of her parts are unique to this figure, the only thing I think she might share is her head sculpt with the other Rey figure in the line. Her pants and linen tunic are the only pieces of clothing that are actually apart of the figure’s mold. The rest of the outfit is made of either cloth, for the jacket and arm sleeves, or rubber, for her gun holster, the bottom of her tunic, and shoes.  The hair style is still her signature triple bun, which I still can’t replicate for myself, made with realistic hair that is tied with like colored rubber bands. Most of the hair in the buns and hanging loose are stiff to try and keep the hair all together, though my figure still got some hair pulled out from the style. Her tunic has a nice rough texture to stimulate the roughness of the material, and the bottom part is made of flexible rubber to allow the legs some free movement. Also, if you look closely enough you can see some slight creases in the top part of the tunic to indicate folds. Her jacket is made of a weird, smooth cloth material that is stitched together in some places and looks to have the jacket’s detailing printed onto the material. The end of the jacket is a little moldable, so that you can give the bottom of it a slight flare if need be. Her arm sleeves are made of two different cloth materials; the top is a striped gauzy fabric that is sown to and disappears under the second material which is the same as the jacket, including different printed designs. Rey’s pants are all plastic with simulated folds and texture in the mold and crafted knee/shin pads. Lastly, her shoes are made of a similar rubber as her gun holster, a different color of course, with texture and boot straps included in the mold. Her shoes aren’t fully attached to the figure, and they kind of remind me of a larger, rougher, and harder version of the little Polly Pocket boots.

The figure’s paint/print job is pretty good! I really like the printed detailing in the jack and arm bands. Her face is absolutely fantastic. The detailing in her eyes and brows are meticulous, including dark individual slashes in her eyebrows.  Her freckles are there but not overpowering, and it looks like there’s a slight pink tint to her cheeks that is also very subtle.

This Rey comes with a few accessories and an action feature. She has her (or rather Luke’s) lightsaber which has a simple, but decent paint job in the hilt with the blade made of clear blue plastic. Her other weapon is the pistol Han gives her, it’s made of plastic and has ridges and other detailing included in the mold of the gun. Her gun can either be held or stay in the holster. The action feature is quite simple and involves her lightsaber, but don’t let me foul you because it took me several tries to figure out how to get her to swing. Basically, you cock her right arm back until you hear a click, then you bring her legs together and twist her waist. It’s not a fantastic action feature, but it allows her to swing her lightsaber.

Then there’s BB8. I don’t know if I should count him separate or as an accessory, so I’ll do the former. BB8 is only a couple of inches tall with one point of articulation, ladies and gents he can spin his head around (wooooooo). He’s made of hard plastic with lots of grooves and ridges included in the mold to help make him look more realistic. His paint job is ok, it’s rather simple with a few mistakes here and there; not everyone can paint within the lines. Also, his antennae are made of a thinner and slightly shinier plastic, with some ridges.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been a Star Wars fan for as long as I can remember, apparently my favorite character when I was two was Yoda when he was still a puppet. Ethan showed me these figures a while ago and I was really excited for this new line from Hasbro. I had Barbies growing up, but I was never satisfied with them. And now that I have this Rey figure I feel like I just gained something I was missing when I was a little girl: a kick-butt female doll with realistic body proportions! One of my favorite things about this figure is that she looks so real, not like she hasn’t eaten in days and is about to snap at the waist. Yes, she’s really pretty but that’s because Daisy Ridley is super pretty. This figure can be marketed to girls and boys and it makes me so happy to own her! It’s a pain in the rear to get her to stand because of her infuriating Ugg-boot-thingies, but once I get it right she looks so killer on my shelf and I love it! BB8 is cute too, but he’s nothing special.

#1413: Luke Skywalker – Jedi Master

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

LUKE SKYWALKER – JEDI MASTER

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Okay, you guys read this morning’s post.  You know what that means.  That’s right, it’s time for my Force Friday II reviews!  Oh yeah!  Let’s do this, homebiscuits!

Perhaps the most anticipated of the new products are those based on Luke Skywalker.  Apart from a few re-released OT figures, Luke was almost completely absent from the Force Awakens and Rogue One products.  In Hasbro’s defense, their original plan for TFA’s small-scale line was to have Luke offered as a mail-away figure, which would have been a super nifty way of handling things, but it was ultimately nixed by someone higher up.  Anyway, I’ve been patiently awaiting a new trilogy Luke.  Now I have him.  Yay!  Onto the review!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jedi Master Luke is one of the 11 basic figures Star Wars: The Last Jedi released on Force Friday II.  The figures were divided into two different assortments: orange and teal.  Luke was part of the Orange assortment, which was the assortment devoted to the more central characters.  Luke’s sporting at least two looks in The Last Jedi.  This figure is based on the look he was sporting in The Force Awakens’ final moments, which he will no doubt be keeping for at least a decent chunk of the new movie.  I like this look a lot; it sort of merges the aesthetics of Obi-Wan’s look in A New Hope with Luke’s Jedi Knight garb from Return of the Jedi.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  His sculpt is all-new to him, and it’s stylistically consistent with the stuff from both TFA and Rogue One, so the leg joints, for instance are cut right through his robes, rather than the robes being a separate add-on piece.  The figure’s stance is simple and straight, but it’s not too stiff; it looks fairly natural.  The level of detail on the sculpt is a step up from the two previous lines, which is quite impressive on such a small figure.  The head sports a pretty spot-on Hamill likeness, and the texture work on the clothing is just top-notch.  The wrinkles and everything really sell that “hermit” look quite nicely.  His belt is a separate piece, affixed in place, which offers some nice depth to the figure.  Interestingly, he’s got a loop to hang his lightsaber hilt from, but there’s no saber included.  It’s good forward thinking, I suppose.  Luke also has a soft plastic removable cloak.  It’s certainly similar to the one from the old PotF2 Jedi Luke, but the execution is quite a bit more precise, the details are sharper, and the overall appearance is far less goofy.  Paint’s always been an issue with Hasbro figures, Star Wars figures especially.  While Luke has a little bit of slop in one spot on his back, the overall application is a marked improvement over the TFA and RO figures.  Apart from the cloak, Luke has no extras.  What?  No weird gimmicky accessory to be thrown straight into my box of weird gimmicky accessories?  Indeed, this time around, Hasbro’s put the gimmick inside the figure itself, with the CommTech 2.0 ForceLink feature.  There’s a chip inside the figure, which, when brought within close proximity of the ForceLink Reader will play character relevant sounds.  I don;t have a reader yet, so I’m not sure how well it works, but it does mean that all the figures get this nifty little symbol on their left foot.  And now I have less excess plastic to worry about dealing with when I open these guys.  Yay!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ever since the end of The Force Awakens, I’ve been wanting this figure, so he was at the very top of my list of wants for this Force Friday.  I actually found him and most of the other Last Jedi product a week early, when I stopped by the Walmart nearest my brother’s college after moving him in.  Unfortunately, they were all restricted at the register, with a code claiming they’d been recalled for lead paint, so I wasn’t able to buy them then.  When Force Friday rolled around, Luke was #1 on my priority list.  When I actually got to the action figure aisle, the Lukes seemed to be missing, but they were just hiding at the back of the pegs.  Of course, I discovered this when the guy next to me in the aisle flung literally ever figure on the peg in front of the two Lukes at me, but at least I got one of those two Lukes, right?  I’m really happy I found this guy.  He’s one of my favorites released in this style, and one of my favorite small-scale Star Wars figures in general.

Action Figures, Bleach, & Protective Headgear: A Force Friday Story

Posted by Ethan Wilson in General and tagged with , ,

Last Friday was Force Friday II, the big product launch for all of the cool stuff coming out to tie-in with this December’s The Last Jedi.  There were a number of midnight openings for various retail stores, with Toys R Us really leading the charge.  This is my third attendance of such an event, and each time I’ve had a rather different experience.  If I had written this right at midnight on Thursday, it would have been a rather angry, distraught, and disappointed screed about everything wrong with fandom.  There’s still a piece of that in this writing, but it’s really just an involved set-up for the much better part of the story.  Let me ‘splain.

I arrived at my local Toys R Us at about 9:15, with both Tim and Super Awesome Girlfriend in tow.  There were five people lined up outside the store.  The first four looked to be long-term Star Wars fans; the sort of people you’d expect to see at an event like this.  The fifth was an older woman with bleach-blonde, dressed in a pink t-shirt, spandex pants, and adidas flip-flops; she seemed out of place.  She informed us that her purse next to her was saving a spot for her daughter; perhaps the daughter was the Star Wars fan and this woman was just being a supportive parent?  Her first utterance of what would go on to be about a hundred 40 Year Old Virgin jokes aimed at the fans in attendance served as an indicator that the “supportive parent” guess was incorrect.

By 10:00, another five people had joined this woman in front of us in line.  They all wore the same basic attire, with the same hair, and, apparently, none of them were this woman’s daughter, who she was still saving a spot for.  They were all happy to take a spot ahead of us in line, and more than happy to join in on the first woman’s bashing of everyone attending.  The phrase “wouldn’t usually be caught dead at something like this” came up many times.  Eventually, the daughter arrived, another entry in the bleach-blonde brigade.  She too joined in on the mocking of the fans.  Oh joy.

With their whole cult in place, they began quizzing everyone what would be the hot items this year.  It’s a pretty standard tactic for speculators who are looking for a quick buck; something most of the fans in attendance had dealt with before.  We mostly responded with something along the lines of “well, I have a list.”  When they received no satisfactory answer from direct questioning, they instead took to listening in on everyone’s conversations.  Tim and I actually had quite a bit of fun with this, and began having a fake conversation about how important it was that we get a number of items that any fan would know are complete shelf-warmers.  Despite this brief respite of fun, but 11:30, after two hours of listening to them insult my fellow fans and just be generally ugly people, I was about ready to call it quits and just head home.  Fortunately, Tim and Jess were able to talk me down a bit, and we ended staying through.

By the time the doors opened a little after midnight, each of the seven people in this group had grabbed their own shopping cart, and despite the very polite TRU employee’s instructions to enter single file, not shove, and not run, they proceeded to barrel through the doors in rows of two, using the carts to push others out of the way, while making a mad dash for the main aisle.  When I got back to the aisle, the group had gone straight to work scooping the entire contents of shelves right into their carts.  I almost gave up again, but then I took a closer look at exactly what was being scooped into their carts: Funko Pops.*  They hadn’t found their way to the actual figures at all. 

I made my way through the chaos of the aisle, and managed to piece together a more or less complete set of the small-scale figures, along with the one vehicle I really wanted.  No sign of any new Black Series figures, but I was content with what I had, so I made my way to the front of the store, on the way passing the cult of bleach-blonde speculators, who now had three shopping carts absolutely overflowing with merchandise.  And then I started laughing to myself.  The content sort of laugh that comes from seeing someone so ugly, so repulsive, and so reprehensible come face to face with karmic justice.  You see, in addition to the cart overflowing with an entire rack of Pops, there were also two full carts of Black Series figures.  Not the new, desirable ones; oh no.  Two full carts of the Jyns and Cassians and Poes and Finns and Zuvios that have been rotting on the pegs for almost a year.  The ones that Target was just clearing out for $3 a piece a week ago.  And they paid full price for every single one.  Best of luck unloading those, ladies.

Now, if at this moment, you’re thinking this karmic justice is the “better part” of my story, let me stop you there.  My joy doesn’t come from someone else’s misfortune, as just and satisfying as it may be.  My joy comes from about 20 minutes later, after a good portion of the crowd from the TRU made their way over to the Target across the street. 

When I got there, the store was mostly cleared out, but there were still a few items to chose from.  Shortly after I got there, a family with a young son, no older than 4, who had been near the end of the TRU line, came into the main aisle.  An older fan held the replica Poe Dameron helmet.  The father of the boy quickly dashed over and asked where this man found the helmet and were there anymore.  The fan pointed them in the direction and said there was one left last he checked.  Of course, by the time the family got to the spot, everything was gone.  The father came back to the helmet-wielding fan and began asking what other stores might be open and might still have this item in stock, explaining that this was the one item that his son had really been looking forward to getting.  The older fan paused for a moment, before outstretching his arms: “You can have mine.”

This guy got it.  He understood the importance of this moment.  He understood that this was more than a business; that sometimes, the most satisfying thing is just being nice to someone else.  Before departing, the boy’s father stopped, turned to the fan and said: “Sir, I need you to understand the importance of this moment.  What you just did?  Giving this up to my son?  Across the street someone else did the opposite.  My son and I will remember this.  Thank you, sir.”

I don’t have anyway of getting a message to this person, but if I did I like to tell him this: sir, I don’t know your name, or anything about you beyond the one hobby we share in common, but last Friday, you were my hero.  You salvaged my night from being utterly miserable, and you reminded me that there are still good people out there.  Thank you for that.

*No offense to anyone who collects Pops.  I have been known to enjoy them myself, but in a week’s time, the Last Jedi Pops will be available from practically every retail store in the country.  They may be popular, but they’re unlikely to be scarce anytime soon.

The Blaster In Question #0022: Imperial Death Trooper Blaster

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

IMPERIAL DEATH TROOPER BLASTER

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

Alright guys, this is your warning: the Star Wars reviews are coming.  Lots of them.  You might be aware that recently, the “Force Friday” promotional event took place.  Well, I went to the midnight opening of the local TRU to help Ethan snag at least some of the new arrivals and boy did he snag.  Now that that’s out of the way, I figured today would be an appropriate time to take a look at one of Nerf’s offerings from the previous Force Friday.  So let’s take a look at the signature weapon of one of the most over-hyped class of trooper from Rogue One, the Imperial Death Trooper Blaster.

THE BLASTER ITSELF

The Death Trooper Blaster was released in 2016 as a promotion for the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  The blaster uses a 3-barrel smart AR with a pump action prime.  The shell of the blaster is completely original tooling and does a good job conveying the look of the E-11D blaster rifle seen in the film.  This particular series of Star Wars tie-in blasters were the first to incorporate the “Glowstrike” feature which would activate lights inside the blaster to shine on special Glowstrike darts with glow in the dark bodies.  The end result of this was having the darts themselves glow as they were fired, producing a laser blast kind of effect.  In the case of the DTB, the lights are activated when the priming slide is pulled back, and deactivated following the trigger pull.  We’ve seen similar gimmicks implemented before going all the way back to the N-Strike Firefly REV-8 but this version seems to be the best iteration we’ve had so far.  Also, new to the Star Wars branded products, starting with this line, was the added lights and sounds when the trigger is pulled, adding further to the feeling of firing a laser blaster.  Pulling the trigger of the DTB plays the sound clip of a laser blast and causes a couple red LEDs along the top of the barrel to flash in succession.  It’s nothing terribly special and I was extremely skeptical when I found out it was a feature that couldn’t be turned off, but having played with it thoroughly enough, it does add a bit of enjoyment having a blaster that makes its own sound effects instead of making them myself.  I do still make them myself from time to time, though.  The lights and sounds as well as the Glowstrike feature require 3 AAA batteries to work, which, conveniently, come installed in the blaster.  Actually firing the blaster can be done entirely without batteries, but at that point it just becomes like any other Nerf blaster.  The DTB has an attachment rail on the top of the blaster and a stock attachment in the rear.  It should be noted that mine is the standard red version, but the TRU exclusive comes with a bright green color scheme as well as matching scope and stock accessories.  As just the blaster, it has a nice compact feel, almost like it could pass as an oversized pistol.  Everything feels comfortable and solid in the hand.  Admittedly, it is still a rather large blaster for only 3 shots, and like with many tie-in products, performance is a hair below par for more core Nerf lines.  This is definitely an indoor blaster, and while it doesn’t shoot quite as far or hard as blasters from the Elite series, the flashing lights and laser sound effects leave quite an impression when bursting into your sibling’s room to dispense Imperial justice.  The red version of the Imperial Death Trooper Blaster comes with 3 Glowstrike Star Wars branded darts and 3 AAA batteries installed.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I think this particular release of Star Wars Nerf is the best example of how my opinion of something in theory can be completely different from my opinion of it in practice.  Like I said, I was expecting to hate the blasters given that they all made pew pew noises and there was no off switch for it.  Having had them for a year at this point, I can say they are some of the easiest and most fun to just pick up and pew pew around my house with.