Tag Archives: Super 7

#3338: Cobra B.A.T.

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

COBRA B.A.T.

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

When G.I. Joe was adapted to animation in 1983, the standards for cartoons wouldn’t allow for any actual on-screen injuries.  This made for a rather difficult time on a show that was depicting warfare, as it meant that the Joes could never do much to Cobra’s human forces.  There was a lot of bad aim and parachuting to safety.  Thankfully, by the show’s second season, Cobra’s forces had gained the Battle Android Troopers, whose robotic nature made them exempt from the censors.  As such, they got a fair bit of play in the show following their introduction, and that makes them a pretty natural choice for Super 7’s first Ultimates army builder.

THE FIGRUE ITSELF

The Cobra B.A.T. is the third of the four figures that make up the first assortment of G.I. Joe: Ultimates (the fourth being Cobra Commander, who I opted not to pick up).  Thus far, all of the assortments are a 50/50 split between Joes and Cobras, and this guy is obviously from the latter grouping.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  The B.A.T.’s articulation is honestly better than I’d expected.  His elbows in particular are the best of the three figures I’ve looked at so far, and and the neck joint is on par with Snake Eyes.  He lacks the mid-torso joint, for design reasons, but he does alright even without it.  We got a preview of most of the B.A.T. sculpt on the exclusive comic version late last year.  It’s a really clean offering, which just really, really works.  It’s true to the animation models, while also sticking to the V1 figure’s look.  The head sculpt is unique to this release, and it’s appropriately sleek and polished.  The whole sculpt is just really well put together, which is honestly impressive given how cobbled together the B.A.T. design actually is, when you really get down to it.  The only drawback to my figure is that the glue on the softer rubber parts on the bandolier and holster doesn’t quite hold the way it’s supposed to.  Thankfully, those are both very easily fixed.  The B.A.T.’s paint work is quite striking.  The mix of bright red and yellow with black and silver really gives hims some serious pop.  The application is largely pretty clean; there are some messier spots on the shoulders and belt, and one spot of black on his right forearm, but he’s otherwise solid.  The B.A.T. is quite well accessorized, featuring three sets of standard hands (in fists, trigger grip, and open gesture), drill, claw, and gun hand attachments, a back pack for the hand attachments, a pistol, a rifle, an alternate damaged head, a decapitated neck stump, a damaged left arm piece, and an effect piece for his chest.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When these figures were announced, the Classified B.A.T. still hadn’t been confirmed, so I was totally in for this one.  Then the Classified figure was announced and released before this guy finally came along.  At that point, I was planning to pass on this one, and focus purely on the Joes, but…well, as you can see, I caved.  I could blame Max, who got one first and let me mess with it, but I was honestly always a lost cause on this one.  Snake Eyes remains my favorite of the three, but this guy’s still really, really nice.  I continue to really enjoy this line.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3337: Metalhead

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

METALHEAD

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

“Designed as Krang’s ultimate weapon against the Turtles, Metalhead was re-programmed by Donatello to serve the side of good. The chrome-plated sewer servant’s eyes light up when you hold him up to the light. Always the life of the party, Metalhead can whip up a whipped cream and jelly bean pizza, serve sodas, display video games or rock the sewer with tunes from his jazzed-up juke box. When trouble’s brewing, Metalhead becomes one annoyed android and dishes out trouble with his Robo-chuks and Foot Blaster to all who dare mess with his Turtle masters.”

You know a thing that I like?  I mean, aside from the rather obvious “action figures” answer, which is sort of just all around us here.  No, I was actually thinking of “robots” in this case.  Robots are just pretty cool.  And, they make everything else just a little bit cooler.  Case in point?  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Pretty cool, right?  Robot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  Even better.  Thankfully, the TMNT have one of those on-hand, in the form of Metalhead, who I just so happen to be taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Metalhead is part of Wave 3 of Super 7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates line.  He’s based on Metalhead’s original 1989 Playmates figure, which, since he was one of the few characters to appear on the show first, means that he’s also pretty accurate to his animated counterpart.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme matches up with how the standard Turtles move, which is to say it’s a little more on the restricted side.  Obviously, it’s an improvement on the vintage figure, but it’s not quite as good as, say, the Casey Jones figure.  Metalhead’s sculpt was new to him, albeit it’s already slated for re-use on the upcoming Michelangelo Metalhead, just like in the vintage line.  It’s a pretty impressive offering.  It captures the general feel of the vintage figure, while also scaling it up and adding quite a nice selection of smaller details.  He’s also got a really cool boxy and robotic feel, just like he should.  Metalhead’s color work is generally pretty decently handled.  He skips out on the chromed parts of the original figure, which feels better for the figure’s longevity over time, and is also more consistent with the rest of the line up to this point.  There’s actually quite a bit going on with this one as well, which gives him a lot of visual interest.  Application is generally pretty clean, which is always nice for this line.  Metalhead is packed with an extra head sculpt, which features light-piping instead of painted eyes, as well as seven hands (a pair of fists, a pair of gripping, a pair of open gesture, and a right hand with a tendril extended), his Portable Party Pack, two sets of his Radical Robo-chuks (one for his hand, and one for the Pack), a radar dish for his pack, two grenades, and a vintage-style weapons tree (which, like with Casey and Ace, isn’t actually accurate to anything specific, but is still cool).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My interest in Metalhead is pretty clearly spelled out in the intro.  I mean, he’s a robot turtle; what’s not to like?  I missed out on Wave 3 of this line during its initial run, so I didn’t really expect to get this guy.  That said, in the fall of last year, All Time got an almost complete run of the Ultimates traded in loose, so that gave me another shot at this guy.  Like the rest of the line I’ve picked up, he’s just a lot of fun.  Hard to go wrong with this guy, really.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3333: Duke

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

DUKE

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Though he wouldn’t join the line until 1983 (and even that was just as a mail-in; he wasn’t in the line proper until ’84), Conrad “Duke” Hauser has nevertheless become the face of A Real American Hero (granted, that’s largely because Snake Eyes and Cobra Commander are, you know, faceless and all), and by extension, he’s gotten a lot of focus in the toys.  He was also especially prominent in Sunbow’s tie-in cartoon, and since that’s the main basis for Super 7’s new Ultimates line, Duke’s right there in the starting line-up.  I’ll be taking a look at him today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Duke is the second figure in the four-figure line-up that makes up Series 1 of G.I. Joe: Ultimates.  After Snake Eyes, he’s the second of two Joes included in this assortment.  Much like Snake Eyes, Duke is based on his animation model, though Duke only actually had the one main design in the Sunbow era, in contrast to Snake Eyes’ two.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Duke’s articulation is a touch more restricted than what we saw on Snake Eyes.  Thankfully, the elbows and knees remain about the same; it’s really just the neck and waist that are reduced.  The waist is a design thing, so I get it, but the neck’s just a bit of a bummer.  Duke is another all-new sculpt, going straight for that animated look. Duke’s cartoon is particularly sold by his head, and this figure has three of them to work with.  There’s a standard neutral expression, a shouting one, and one that’s somewhere between the two, which also features a headset.  All three are sporting an impressive likeness of the Sunbow Duke, so you can pretty much instantly tell who he’s supposed to be.  The one with the headset is my personal favorite of the three, but they’re all of equal quality.  The body sculpt doesn’t *need* to be as strong as the heads, so the fact that it’s not quite isn’t all bad.  It’s still pretty good, but the articulation’s a little obvious, especially the ab-crunch, and to my eyes, his feet look far longer than they should.  Other than that, it’s a solid sculpt, which matches up decently both with the show and the V1 figure.  The color work on Duke is a good match for his cartoon counterpart; the color scheme for Duke was pretty similar to the figure, so it’s pretty compatible.  His paint work is all pretty sharp and clean, especially on the faces of the three alternate heads.  Duke is packed with the aforementioned 3 heads, as well as four pairs of hands (in fists, trigger-finger grip, loose grip, and a flat/pointer combo), an animation style rifle (shared with Snake Eyes), a walkie talkie (also shared with Snake Eyes), a watch, and a helmet, binoculars, rifle, and back-pack all based directly on his V1 figure’s parts.  He doesn’t get any of the more episode-specific parts like Snake Eyes did, but I do feel like the V1-style parts are a decent trade-off.  I wish the binoculars were a bit more natural sitting, and he can’t really hold the walkie talkie, but otherwise everything is pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m not, classically, a Duke fan.  He falls into that grouping of main characters that I tend to find rather insufferable most of the time.  So, why buy the $50 deluxe figure of him?  Well, he’s grown on me over the years, I’ve come to appreciate the animated version in particular, and this figure that just honestly looked really, really cool.  Is he as good as Snake Eyes?  No.  But I also didn’t expect him to be.  Snake Eyes is Snake Eyes.  There are different standards.  Duke’s still a really good figure, though, and I’m still quite hype about this line.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

 

#3328: Snake Eyes

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

SNAKE EYES

G.I. JOE: ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

When Super 7 first launched their Ultimates branding, they used it to continue Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Classics line, revisiting some of the core characters, but with more extras, at a slightly higher price point.  When Mattel decided to bring Masters back in-house, Super 7 decided to keep the brand going, and has been filling in with other ’80s and ’90s properties.  Up til now, perhaps one of the bigger omissions from that era has been G.I. Joe, which Hasbro has classically kept rather under wraps.  Super 7 first picked up the license for a run of ReAction figures, and now they’re adding a line of Ultimates to that as well.  It’s taken a little while for them to get out, but the first wave is finally hitting, with the second and third slated for a close follow-up.  I’m kicking things off with a look at the Joe who’s certainly the most numerous of the franchise’s leads, and who is just always the best way to kick off a new line, really, Snake Eyes!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Snake Eyes is part of the launch wave for Super 7’s G.I. Joe: Ultimates line, alongside Duke, Cobra Commander, and the B.A.T.  It’s a pretty heavy-hitter laden wave, and Snake Eyes is perhaps the heaviest hitter of the bunch.  The whole line is specifically animation based, drawing from Sunbow’s animation models for the show.  Snake Eyes notably had two models on the show, following his two main toy looks during the era.  This figure goes with his V1-inspired commando look, which was used during the first two miniseries for the show.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Articulation can be a tricky spot for Super 7, and I’ll admit I was a little concerned here.  The elbows and knees are still a little bit restricted, but they’re certainly serviceable.  On top of that, the movement on his neck and waist in particular is really impressive, and adds a lot of personality to his posing.  Snake Eyes’ sculpt is an all-new one, and, for the first time, it’s a truly animation-based Snake Eyes.  Others have at best homaged with paint, but not fully committed at a sculpt level.  It’s quite a clean look, and it matches up with the animation design really nicely.  I especially like how the mask has translated; other figures go a lot heavier on the detailing, but the simpler approach feels truer to his V1 figure.  The cartoon’s colors for Snake Eyes were one of the most distinctive parts of his look.  Interestingly, where most animation models of the era stripped down the colors for simplicity, that wasn’t the case for Snake Eyes.  His V1 figure was designed as a cost-saver for the first year, and thusly he was all black plastic with no painted details.  However, black is trick to work with in animation, so he got switched to a navy blue.  He also got some funky purple accenting, and he looses the gloves, so as to make all of his movements more visible.  The figure does a great job replicating it, and the paint application is all pretty cleanly handled.  Snake Eyes gets a decent stock of accessories.  He, of course, lacks any of his ninja stuff, since he was still just a commando at this point.  However, he does get his pet wolf Timber, who’s his own fully articulated figure.  Timber’s movement is a bit more restricted, but he’s still a lot of fun, and it’s great that he’s included at all.  Snake Eyes is also packed with four sets of hands (in fists, trigger finger, tight grip, and loose grip), a rifle, a pistol, a jetpack, and the canister from the Weather Dominator, which is perfect for pairing with Timber.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m a fan of the whole G.I. Joe franchise, in all of its aspects.  Hokey as it may be, I really do love the Sunbow cartoon, especially the first two miniseries.  Due to his lack of a speaking role, Snake Eyes was largely a minor player in the cartoon, but “Revenge of Cobra” gives him a decent little focus, which has always been one of my favorite bits.  I was quite excited when this line was announced, and this figure in particular was the one I was most looking forward to getting.  I was hoping to like him, to be sure, but exactly how much, I didn’t know.  This guy honestly blew away my expectations.  He’s just so much fun, and a really good start to the line.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’d like to see a video of this guy in action, I actually helped out with one for their YouTube channel, so check that out.  And, as always, if you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3327: April O’Neil

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

APRIL O’NEIL

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Over the years, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have gathered quite an entourage of allies and other associates, but the very first was April O’Neil.  Originally a computer programmer working for Baxter Stockman, April would later be re-worked into a news reporter for the first cartoon, with the live-action movies following suit.  She’s been a number of things in the various re-works over the years, but she’s always been a fixture of the franchise, no matter the form (unless it’s The Next Mutation, but I don’t wanna talk about that).  Unsurprisingly, she’s part of most of the toy coverage as well, including Super 7’s Ultimates.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

April O’Neil is part of Wave 3 of Super 7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates line.  The line-up also included the standard Mikey, Metalhead, and Rocksteady.  April is seen here in her classic yellow jumpsuit, patterned after her vintage Playmates counterpart (who was in turn pretty consistent with April’s original animated incarnation).  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 28 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme for this line is pretty consistent across the board, so April’s movement is generally pretty similar to both Casey and Ace.  The neck movement’s kind of restricted by the hair, and the elbows aren’t able to do a full 90 degrees due to the construction of the sleeves.  April’s sculpt is unique to her thus far (though repaints probably wouldn’t be the craziest concept, especially if they want to follow the vintage line’s lead), and it, like the rest of the figures I’ve looked at up to now, is taking the Playmates figure and up-scaling and adding a little more detail to it.  It’s a pretty decent sculpt; she definitely looks a fair bit like the old toy, albeit with some slightly tweaked proportions.  There are actually two different styles of head included, one based on April’s original 1988 figure, and the other based on the 1990 release, which was a little more glammed up and in-line with the original cartoon look.  They’re internally consistent enough to look like the same person, with just tweaks to the hair for the most part.  I can definitely dig the option, and I like aspects of both sculpts.  April’s color scheme is more closely patterned after the 1988 figure, since she lacks the extra orange accents of the 1990 release.  She’s got the blue striping on the jumpsuit, as well as the Turtles logo on her back, which is pretty cool.  The two heads get two slightly different color schemes for the hair, but more or less the same detailing for the face.  The cheeks are a little bit heavy on the red accenting, but otherwise the paint work’s pretty solid.  April gets a rather impressive selection of accessories, including four pairs of hands (fists, open gesture, grip, and trigger finger), a hand gun, three throwing stars, a flashlight, a microphone, two versions of the shell phone,  an opening brief case, a camera (with articulated legs and a spot for hiding her gun, just like the vintage one), a third head (patterned on the ’88 style sculpt) with a headset, and a weapons tree like her original release included.  The extra head actually winds up being my favorite of the three included; I just really dig how the headset looks.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been desperately trying to get an April and a Casey in one consistent style since this whole collector-oriented Turtles lines thing started.  I struck out with NECA in both styles, and by the time I’d finally settled on the Super 7 version of Casey, April had kind of come and gone from most places.  Fortunately, back in the fall of last year, All Time got an almost complete run of the Super 7 Turtles, loose, which gave me easy access to an April to go along with Casey.  She’s not quite as much fun as Casey, but I like her more than I’d expected.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3322 Pinky & The Brain

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

PINKY & THE BRAIN

ANIMANIACS ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

“They’re Pinky and The Brain

Yes, Pinky and The Brain

One is a genius

The other’s insane!”

First debuting as a recurring skit in Animaniacs, the wacky gene-spliced lab mice Pinky and The Brain proved to be quite a breakout pairing, and, in 1995, the duo gained their own spin-off series, with a rather impressive 65 episode run, brought to an end largely by the network’s insistence at adding a third cast member, Elmyra Duff from Tiny Toons, which kinda broke the show’s format.  Whatever the case, Pinky and The Brain is, like its parent show, quite a classic.  There was some merchandise available at the time of the show’s run, but nothing of note on the action figure front.  Last year, Super 7 picked up the larger Animaniacs license, and has launched a line under their Ultimates umbrella.  The first assortment gives us all three of the Warner siblings, as well as the titular duo from Pinky and The Brain.  I’ll be looking at the later pairing today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Pinky and The Brain are part of the first series of Super 7’s Animaniacs Ultimates line, which started arriving in February of this year.  The two are sold individually, rather than as a pair, but I’m reviewing them as one, because, you know, how could you not?

First up is Pinky, voiced in both shows by Rob Paulsen (who also voiced Yakko Warner in Animaniacs).  You might believe he’s the “insane” one, but if you actually follow the formatting of the lyrics and pay attention to Brain’s characterization on the show, might just be the genius.  Really makes you think, right?  Or, he’s just really dumb.  Could be that too.  What ever the case, he’s the taller of the two figures, standing about 6 1/2 inches tall and sporting 27 points of articulation.  Clearly, given the sizing, these two are in a different scale than the Warner siblings, since proper scaling would make it hard to justify that Ultimates pricing.  Articulation is an area where Super 7 can struggle a little bit, but Pinky’s a bit on the better end of things.  He’s not crazy posable, but most of the joints at least have a passable range of motion.  The elbows are a bit restricted, but not as terribly as some of the Ultimates have been.  His sculpt does a solid job of recreating the design from the show, which isn’t an easy feat.  There are three different heads included, and they all three nail the look of the character pretty much spot-on, and are also good at covering the basics on what you might need for Pinky’s expressions on the show.  Of the three, I think my go-to is going to be the laughing one, but I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for the one with the goofy eyes.  The body sculpt is a bit more basic and rudimentary, but it gets the basic shaping down right, and it manages to work in the articulation in a way that doesn’t look totally awful and obvious.  As far as color work goes, things are pretty basic, following the set-up of the design from the show.  The actual paint is really confined to the heads, which get a decent enough application.  As is usual with Super 7, there’s a little bit of slop and unevenness, but nothing too crazy or glaring.  In addition to the extra heads mentioned earlier, Pinky is packed with five pairs of hands (three styles of open gesture, a pair of flat grip, and a combo of round grip and pencil-holding), a photo of Pinky’s “girlfriend” Pharfignewton, a notepad, a grapple hook, some sort of scientific device with a light on the top, a beaker with a bunsen burner beneath it, and a pair of connected beakers.  He has trouble holding any of the beakers in any of his hands, but the other accessories work well with him, and provide a nice selection of posing options.

Now we’re onto The Brain, voiced on both shows by Maurice LaMarche, who described his voice for the character as somewhere between Orson Wells and Vincent Price.  The Brain is certainly the more obviously intelligent of the two, but he’s also definitely unhinged, so those descriptors in the theme song are still up for debate.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation.  The Brain is overall much shorter than Pinky, and his head makes up so much of his stature.  He’s appropriately smaller in scale, making him pretty decently scaled to Pinky, even if he’s not really scaled to anything else.  In terms of movement, he’s less mobile than Pinky, on a few fronts.  Most notably, the smaller size of his body means he lacks the knee joints (Brain honestly wasn’t seen moving at the knees that much on the show, again due to the shortness of his legs), and the different proportions, especially that larger head, mean that what articulation he has doesn’t quite have the same range.  Also, on my figure, one of the ankles joints is a bit loose, which makes balancing him a bit tricky.  That said, it was my only issue with any looseness on either of the figures, which is pretty good for Super 7.  Brain’s sculpt is pretty much on par with Pinky’s in terms of quality and ability to capture the show design in three dimensions.  He only gets two heads, rather than three, but they’re both pretty spot-on.  I’ll probably be sticking with the calmer one for display, but I really like the angry one.  The only thing I’m not crazy about on the heads is the rather noticeable seam where the face joins with the rest of the head.  The body sculpt is very similar to Pinky’s, but with the changed up proportions.  The tail on my Brain figure is rather loose in its socket, causing it to pop out a lot, so be mindful of that.  Brain’s paint work again matches closely to that of Pinky; it’s a bit sloppier on the faces, though.  In addition to the previously mentioned second head, Brain is packed with nine different hands (a pair of fists, a pair of relaxed, a pair of loose grip, a pair of tight grip, and a gesturing right hand), a paper clip, a pointer, a set of blueprints for a plan to take over the world, three different beakers, a globe on a keychain, and his large magnet device.  The magnet is the star piece here, with the ability to rotate, as well as a moving lever.  It’s also just really big, so it gives him this extra feeling of value.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I watched Animaniacs in passing when I was a kid, but I was a pretty religious viewer of Pinky & The Brain, which I frequently watched with my mom in particular (though she really never could get into those Elmyra episodes).  So, I’ve got a pretty deep-seated nostalgia for the pair.  While I was able to steer myself clear of getting the whole set from Super 7, there was no way I could turn down these two.  I know Super 7’s been coming under some fire as of late about the quality of their figures, but they’ve really turned things around with some of these more recent releases, and Pinky and The Brain are figures that very much play to their strengths with the Ultimates stuff.  They’re not perfect, but they’re a lot of fun, and certainly the best merch we’ve gotten based on the characters.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with these figures to review. If you’d like to see a video of these two in action, I helped out with one for All Time’s YouTube channel, so please check that out.  And, as always, if you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3292: Ron Swanson

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

RON SWANSON

PARKS & RECREATION REACTION FIGURES (SUPER 7)

At the very beginning of the year, I discussed Parks & Recreation and how it’s the superior workplace comedy when compared to The Office.  Why do I bring this up again?  Well, for one to remind you all that I said it.  I said it and I stand by it.  I’m not backing down on it.  So there.  But, also, it’s because, at the time, I only looked at five figures out of the six figure assortment of figures that Super 7 put out under their ReAction umbrella.  The one figure missing was a character that, if he’s not one of the best characters in the history of TV, is at the very least one of the most distinctive.  That’s right, it’s Ron ****ing Swanson.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ron Swanson is the sixth and final figure in the first series of Super 7’s Parks & Recreation ReAction Figures line.  He’s seen here in his usual attire from Season 2 and on, after they’d nailed down the long sleeved polo and khakis look which would become his definitive outfit.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Of the six figures in the set, I think Ron may just have the best likeness.  There’s little mistaking who this guy is supposed to be, right down to his somewhat surly expression.  That’s definitely Nick Offerman, and he’s definitely playing Ron Swanson.  The body sculpt is far more basic, of course, but matches well with the rest of the line.  He’s a little stockier than the other men in the set, which is appropriate for Ron, and he’s again just got the rather standard pose.  Ron’s paint work is rather straight forward.  On mine, it’s a little cleaner than the others I’ve gotten from the line.  I did, however, notice one in the case that I pulled mine from that was, rather amusingly, missing his eyebrows.  Guess he was a Season 3 Ron, huh?  Ron is packed with a plate of breakfast meat, which seems about right for a guy that has a framed picture of breakfast meat on his wall.  Also, it means he pairs off well with Leslie and her waffles.  He still can’t really hold the plate, but at this point that’s expected.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I found the rest of the set, Ron was the only one not present, and I haven’t seen him anywhere since either.  He looks to be the first one to sell out everywhere, which I guess makes some sense.  Thankfully, I was able to get one through work, so my set is complete.  I’m glad I did, because Ron’s honestly the best of the first batch of figures.  He just really nails the character.  I’m hopeful that this set does well enough to justify more, because I really would love to get the whole main cast, and maybe a few of the recurring characters.  But, if it doesn’t, I’m happy that we at least got what we did.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure for review.  If you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#3262: Parks & Recreation ReAction Figures

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

LESLIE KNOPE, BEN WYATT, DONNA MEAGLE, APRIL LUDGATE, & BURT MACKLIN

PARKS & RECREATION REACTION FIGURES (SUPER 7)

“Ba ba badadada ba badadada ba badadada ba badabada….”

Parks & Recreation Theme Song (Paraphrased)

The Office gets, like, a lot of attention.  So much attention.  Absurd amounts of attention.  And, the thing is, honestly?  It’s kind of overplayed.  Don’t get me wrong, there are some very funny bits on The Office.  But, for the most part, they can just be boiled down to quippy clips that make just as much sense, if not more, when chopped up and thrown into compilations as when shown in actual context.  For my money, the superior workplace comedy by a wide berth is Parks & Recreation, a show that’s also just one of my favorite shows in general.  As a show with a lot of pretty normal looking people, there’s not a *ton* in the way of merchandising for Parks & Rec, but there’s more than you might think.  Funko of course grabbed the license for Pops a while back, and last year Super 7 also got the license for the purposes of doing a set of ReAction Figures, most of which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Leslie Knope, Ben Wyatt, Donna Meagle, April Ludgate, and Burt Macklin are five of the six figures (the other being Ron Swanson) that make up the first series of Super 7’s Parks & Recreation ReAction Figures line, which started hitting retail in the fall of last year.

You can’t very well have a line of Parks & Rec figures and not include the main character, so Leslie was always along for the ride.  Leslie gets quite a number of looks over the course of the show, but this figure settles on one of her office attire blazer and skirt looks, which feels pretty appropriate for the character.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  The movement on her neck is a little restricted by the hair, but otherwise it’s a decent basic set-up for movement.  Leslie’s sculpt is obviously stylized to be a bit more basic.  It’s gets the important details, while dialing back a bit on some of the specifics.  The head’s got a passable likeness of Amy Pohler; it’s not spot-on, but at this scale and in this style, it’s hardly expected to be.  I’d say she’s probably the best of the likenesses present in the initial line-up.  The paint work is, like the sculpt, pretty basic.  It does what it needs to, and it looks the part.  Leslie is packed with a plate with a waffle on it, undoubtedly one made by JJ’s Diner.  There’s honestly nothing more on-brand for Leslie, so it’s definitely nifty.  She can’t really hold it, though, which is a shame.  Still cool.

Though absent until the end of the show’s second season, Ben’s still very much a signature character for the show.  Gonna be honest, there are few fictional characters I identify with more than Ben Wyatt.  His absence from the first two rounds of Pops kind of soured me on those, so I’m very excited that he’s here.  Ben’s sporting his more dressed-down, getting things solved look, which definitely works well.  The figure’s sculpt is one that works better in context than on its own.  The head’s an okay Adam Scott, but it could honestly just as easily be Jason Bateman or Jason Sudekis.  I don’t hate the smile, but it’s also not quite a quintessential Ben expression.  The body doesn’t seem quite skinny enough for Scott’s build; he’s too doughy in the middle, I think.  It’s definitely a little bit of a stylistic thing, though.  The paint work on Ben is pretty basic, and fairly drab, but that’s all about right.  Ben’s packed with a small recreation of the Cones of Dunshire, Ben’s absurdly complicated strategy game he invented.  As with Leslie’s waffle, this is a very on-brand piece, so it’s a lot of fun.  He does have a little bit more luck actually holding it, so that’s a plus.

Donna may have been in the show from the beginning, but she’s a character who very much grew as the show progressed, going from a glorified extra in the first season to a prominent series regular by the end.  Donna also has a lot of looks over the course of the show, but this one goes for her more casual attire.  Donna’s sculpt is a little more immediately obvious as to who it’s supposed to be, but it’s still not quite as on the mark as Leslie.  The likeness to Rhetta’s not overly there, but at the same time, it’s not like the figure looks *unlike* her.  As with Ben, the context of the rest of the figures fills it in pretty quickly.  Her sculpt is pretty basic, as expected, but her proportions seem a little more on the mark than Ben’s were.  Her paint work adds a little more color to the set, with a nice splash of bright pink, which works well for the set.  Donna is packed with a box of baked goods, marked “Treat Yo Self”, which is another very appropriate extra, since the Treat Yo Self antics really helped to cement her character.  We’re back to the figure not being able to hold the accessory, unfortunately, but it’s still nifty to have it.

April’s one of the few characters that comes out of the gate more or less fully formed on the show, albeit in a way that still very much allows her to grow as the series progresses.  For her figure, she’s another casual attire look, which is again pretty on-the-mark for her character.  April’s sculpt winds up being the weakest of the bunch, I find.  Something about the head just misses the mark.  The hair seems to sit too far back, making her forehead seem far too large, and the proportions on the body seem a bit off.  None of it’s terrible, but it’s not super great either.  Her paint work is at least pretty bright, so she’s got that going for her.  April is packed with a small minifigure of her and Andy’s three-legged dog Champion, which isn’t quite as spot-on for the character as some of the others, but is still a pretty solid inclusion.

Burt Macklin, FBI!  Yes, while everyone else in the assortment is just their normal selves, our first version of Chris Pratt’s Andy Dwyer is him using his Burt Macklin persona, which he’d whip out whenever things got “serious.”  It makes him the most targeted of these figures in terms of appearance, and also marks him as someone they’re probably looking to do multiple variants on, should the line progress.  “Burt” is a pretty decent sculpt as well.  The likeness is a little harder to place, since he’s got the glasses sculpted in place, but it seems to land the look pretty alright, and the body gets Pratt’s slightly huskier build down well.  “Burt” has a slightly sloppier paint scheme than the others in the set, especially on the hair and beard.  Given the scale and style, though, it’s not that bad, and the rest of the figure’s all pretty clean.  There are no accessories for this guy, which is a bit of a bummer, but I suppose they’re holding out on the more fun stuff for another Andy variant.  Still feels a bit light.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

With Parks & Rec being very high on my list of favorite TV shows, it’s hard for me to justify passing up the chance to own the cast in action figure form.  Of course, given the price point on these things, I was initially thinking I might just grab Ben.  I wound up being swayed into getting the five of these when my wife Rachel and I found them at Target, and she insisted on buying them for me as an early Christmas gift.  They’re definitely expensive for what they are, and they’re not perfect, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be down to pick up whatever else they want to do from the line.

#3247: Ace Duck

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

ACE DUCK

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

What’s this?  Another TMNT-centered review?  But I just did one of these in February!  Certainly it’s too soon!  Okay, I’ll lay off my usual lead-in for TMNT reviews now.  Back in February, when I looked at my last TMNT item, I took my first look at Super 7’s Ultimates umbrella of figures, of which they’re TMNT line makes up quite a hefty portion.  While I’m not one for getting all of the Turtles over and over again, I do quite like some of their allies.  I’ve already looked at my favorite of the bunch, Casey Jones, but now I’m following up with something of an under-dog character, in the form of Ace Duck.  While Casey is a fixture of most incarnations of the franchise, Ace Duck is a far less explored character, with only a handful of rather brief appearances, most of them not even that closely related to his original toy.  But, he’s a duck in a bomber jacket, and it’s hard not to find that cool, right?  Right.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ace Duck is part of Wave 6 of Super 7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates line, which also includes Sewer Surfer Mike, Slash, Scratch, and a Mousers pack.  This is actually Ace’s second figure this year, quickly following up on NECA’s toon-based version.  This one, like the rest of the line, is specifically based on Ace’s vintage toy, albeit upgraded to a more modernized detailing and articulation scheme.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is pretty similar to Casey’s, which makes sense.  The waist is still kind of restricted, but the neck’s a little better on this figure.  The rest of the joints have a decent range of motion, and he’s quite stable on his feet.  He’s sporting an all-new sculpt, which takes the original figure’s sculpt and upscales and adds a little bit more to it.  In a similar fashion to Casey, the nature of Ace’s toy design relative to his very brief animation appearance makes him more comparable to NECA’s offering, though his adherence to the toy design results in this particular figure having a lot more in-depth detail work, especially when it comes to his exposed feathering.  The head sculpt sticks pretty close to the vintage head, keeping the general expression and detailing, just larger and with a little more going on.  He’s got that same goofy, crazed look going on.  Ace Duck’s color work is rather on the basic side, which is kind of expected.  Most of it’s molded colors, and that works out alright.  There was some concern brought up that the brown for his jacket was a bit too light, and I can see that.  It’s perhaps a touch too light, but not as bad in person as I’d feared based on early reports.  The rest of the molded colors are pretty spot on, though, so it works out alright.  The paint work is lighter, with some work on the face and jacket, as well as some accenting on the feathered areas of the figure.  As with most Super 7 Ultimates, Ace is packed with an impressive selection of accessories.  Like the vintage figure, Ace is packed with his pilot’s cap, his wings and tail (which in this release are now three separate parts, rather than one), a bandolier with removable grenades (six of them for this one, rather than the four from the vintage figure), and a small pistol.  In addition to the strictly vintage inspired items, the figure also gets five sets of hands (fists, gripping, trigger finger, open gesture, and relaxed), a Tommy gun, an alternate head with an aviator cap and a cigar, a pair of goggles, and an alternate jacket piece without the holes in hit for the wings.  It’s all topped off with one of those simulated weapons trees that all of the figures in the line have been getting.  Ace, much like Casey, didn’t have a tree on his vintage figure, so Super 7’s had a little more fun with it, making the excess look like a plane’s landing gear.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It’s actually Ace Duck that really sold me on the Super 7 Ultimates as a whole.  I’ve just always wanted an Ace Duck; the duck in the bomber jacket’s just a cool look.  Same reason I love Launchpad McQuack.  Whatever the case, I was weighing my options on Casey Jones figures, and Ace Duck got shown off around that time, and I just really liked the look of this guy.  As with Casey, this figure comes with a hefty price point, but one that really feels worthwhile.  He’s a lot of fun, and I love all the extra stuff they included.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#3202: Dr. Dave Bowman

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

DR. DAVE BOWMAN

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

“Mission commander of the Discovery One spacecraft and lone survivor of the five astronauts on board.  After being led out of the spacecraft by HAL 9000 in an attempt to leave him behind, Dr. Bowman manages to improvise his way back onto the ship and shuts off HAL 9000, continuing his journey to Jupiter.”

As someone whose main focus of writing is for a website that deals entirely with toys, it’s very rare that I really get to flex that deeper meaning, human existence, really makes you think, cerebral side of myself.  I mean, sure, sometimes I wax on seriously about things within the absurd, but it’s rare.  So, today, I’m switching things up, and discussing a Stanley Kubrick movie of all things.  I know.  I’m surprised about this development, too.  I promise to not let all this high art stuff go to my head, though.  Kubrick, and in turn Kubrick’s estate, was always sort of odd about merchandise in regards to his film work.  Something about true artistry or something like that.  By and large, it’s not a big deal, since many of his works don’t exactly lend themselves to easy toy coverage.  Over the years, some of the barriers have been broken on some of the more figure-friendly things.  A Clockwork Orange in particular has become easier to work with, and clearly Funko’s doing something right, because we’ve also gotten an assortment of Pops.  For some reason, 2001: A Space Odyssey has been a particularly tricky one for licensing over the years.  Companies will try to get something off of the ground, only for it to be ultimately cancelled before going into production. For something that’s probably *the* definitive science fiction film, it’s honestly a bummer that there’s been such an uphill battle on doing something for it toy-wise.  When Super 7 announced they were adding 2001 to their Ultimates banner last year, I was excited, but also worried.  I’ve been misled before.  However, it’s not the case this time around!  The figures are actually here!  How about that?  So, in honor of the things actually getting produced and all, I’m taking a look at the closest thing the movie’s got to a main character, Dr. Dave Bowman, today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Dave Bowman is part of the first, and presumably the only, wave of 2001: A Space Odyssey Ultimates figures from Super 7.  Dave is seen here in his space gear, the most sensible and most distinctive of his looks in the movie, and also the look he’s got for a good chunk of his screen time.  It’s also a quite distinctive and a rather signature design for the genre as a whole.  The figure stands 6 3/4 inches (sans helmet; he gets an extra half inch with the helmet in place) and he has 26 points of articulation.  The first Super 7 Ultimates figure I looked was Casey from their TMNT line, and his articulation scheme was pretty solid.  These figures are a little different, and the end result is definitely a lot more limited, especially when it comes to the elbows and knees.  A degree of this is certainly due to the design of the suit; you can clearly see in the film that there’s some definite restricting.  That said, it doesn’t quite get to this level.  It’s not like Dave gets into many action poses or anything in the movie, but I’d have liked just a touch more motion on the elbows at the very least.  Dave’s sculpt is new to this line, albeit mostly shared with Frank and Heywood, since they all had variants of the same space suits.  It’s a generally sensible sculpt.  Some of the details are a little on the softer side, but, for the most part, it’s quite a nice recreation of the suits seen in the film, especially in its fully-assembled set-up. Once the helmet’s off, though, things do get a bit rougher.  Firstly, the join between the helmet and the suit is off; the silver part should stay on the suit, but here it’s on the helmet; it winds up making his neck look very long and wonky with the helmet off.  Secondly, the head beneath the helmet’s definitely the weakest part of the overall sculpt.  He doesn’t look entirely unlike Keir Dullea…but it’s not super close either.  His hair is parted the opposite direction, his forehead’s too short, and his jaw’s too pronounced.  He also just generally looks too old for Dullea in 2001.  All that said, there’s a sort of a caricature effect going on, and the head looks decent beneath the helmet, which is really what’s most important.  Dave’s paint work is generally okay.  It’s a lot of base color work, but there’s some really nice work on the smaller details of the suit, especially it’s insignias.  The head under the helmet is again the weak spot; the paint’s a bit on the thick side, and, in the case of my figure, there’s a slight imperfection on the right cheek, which looks like he’s gotten a bruise or something.  Thankfully, it’s mostly hidden by the helmet.  Dave makes out with a pretty solid accessory selection here.  There’s a second helmet in green, three sets of hands in gripping, relaxed, and open gesture, his sketchbook, an alternate older head, and a whole separate character in the form of HAL-9000, Discovery‘s on-board AI-turned antagonist.  The green helmet allows for Dave’s look after his airlock jump, which is cool.  Technically, he should have a set of gloves in green to complete the look, but it’s still a nice gesture.  The sketchbook shows one of his drawings of the sleeping crew members, which is fun.  The alternate head actually has a slightly better likeness of Dullea than the standard head, so that’s cool.  HAL’s the star extra here, of course.  He’s based on his smaller console appearance from the pod bay, which is notably the console he uses to read Dave and Frank’s lips, and thus find out their plan to shut him down.  It’s also a far more easily packaged version of him than the larger version from the bridge.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first exposure to 2001 was when it was still technically in the future, though not by much.  I was about 7 at the time, so I didn’t really understand it, but it’s designs certainly stuck with me, as did HAL in particular.  Hey, us ’92 kids gotta stick together, am I right?  As I’ve gotten older, I’ve grown to appreciate the movie as a whole.  When Super 7 announced these, I was already drawn to Dave, just on the basis of wanting one of the space suits.  Seeing that HAL was included just clinched the whole thing.  Yes, I bought a $50 figure for the small hunk of plastic that came with him.  Okay, no, not really.  I did want the whole figure.  This is a figure that’s definitely got some flaws, but at the same time, there’s so much cool going on here that it all winds up actually working pretty well.  And also there’s a HAL!  Did you see the HAL?

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.