Tag Archives: The Force Awakens

#0836: Finn (Jakku)

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

FINN (JAKKU)

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

FinnWM1

“A trained warrior desperate to escape his past, Finn is plunged into adventure as his conscience drives him down a heroic, but dangerous, path.”

One can hardly have Poe without Finn. Those two have to stick together! So, let’s look at a Finn figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

FinnWM2Finn is another figure in the third series of the Walmart-exclusive Star Wars: The Black Series figures. As with Poe, the main draw of this figure is the higher detailing and higher articulation count than the regular 3 ¾ inch figures. The figure is about 3 ¾ inches tall and has 26 points of articulation. The articulation is much the same as Poe’s, which is to say it’s mostly good, apart from the slightly outdated hip joints (though they’re less of an issue here, since being able to sit easily isn’t essential for Finn). As the name notes, this is the Jakku version of Finn (though his Jakku look ends up being his main look for the movie). At first glance it looks like this figure might share a few parts (namely the head and coat) with the regular release Finn, but a closer look shows that all of these figure’s pieces are new to this release. The detail work on the sculpt is absolutely superb, and there’s tons of fine detail work that really makes this figure stand out. The level of texturing on the clothing, especially the incredibly subtle detailing on the shirt, are really impressive. The two previous Finn’s had a pretty decent John Boyega likeness, but I think this one beats both. While Poe’s figure was hampered by sub-par paint, Finn ends up a bit more lucky on that front. The base paint is all very clean, and the work on the face is some of the cleanest I’ve seen from Hasbro in some time. The jacket and the lower portion of his pants also get some nice accent work, which adds a touch of realism. The pants could stand to be a touch more subtle, but the overall look is good. Finn is packed with a blaster, the same one all the other Finn figures have had. He doesn’t really use it much in the movie, but it’s a unique looking gun. What’s more, the level of painted detail on this version is astoundingly good. If only Hasbro could handle all of the accessory paint this well!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After finding Poe, I was eager to pick up the rest of the Force Awakens characters from this line. Finn here was purchased for me by my Super Awesome Girlfriend, at a slightly out of the way Walmart. Poe had a few issues that held him back, but Finn isn’t in the same boat, and ends up being the best version of the character we’ve gotten so far. Definitely glad I got him!

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#0835: Poe Dameron

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

POE DAMERON

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

PoeDamWM1

So, a slight aside: I do my very best to keep this site light and fun. Action figures are kind of my one outlet of pure enjoyment, and I like to pass that enjoyment on to others as best I can. Sometimes, the real world gets to me a bit, but I try my best not to let it influence my writing, but it gets really hard. Back in December, The Force Awakens was by far my favorite thing of the moment, and more than anything, I wanted to review Star Wars toys. So, I bought a whole bunch, took the pictures, and put them on the schedule. But, before I could get around to actually reviewing them, several outside forces cropped up, and managed to suck just about all the excitement I had for Star Wars toys right out of me. There’s a whole lot of fighting going on in the community, and I’m just not a fighter. I really just want to enjoy my toys. So, in the next five days, I’m going to do my best to review some figures I was really excited about, without letting the outside stuff get me down. As an advance warning, that probably means minimal introductory comments from me for a few days.

Anyway, sorry if I brought people down; let’s move onto today’s figure. It’s Poe Dameron, number one pilot in the Resistance.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

PoeDamWM2Poe is part of the third series of Walmart-exclusive Star Wars: The Black Series figures. Prior to the Force Awakens branding, Hasbro was running The Black Series in both 6-inch and 3 ¾-inch scales, but the rebranding led to the 3 ¾-inch line being nixed, in favor of a more expansive selection of the lower-end 3 ¾ inch figures. Fortunately, Walmart decided to carry the higher-end 3 ¾-inch figures as exclusives, giving collectors a chance at some better articulated versions of The Force Awakens’ main characters. Poe stands 3 ¾ inches tall and has 26 points of articulation. Articulation is one of the main selling points on these guys, and most of Poe’s joints are pretty well-handled. The only real problem areas are the hips, which use a somewhat outdated style of joint and are a bit of a pain to work with. Poe gets an all-new sculpt, which depicts him in his pilot gear, which, after seeing the film a few times, really feels like his definitive look. The sculpt of this figure has a fair bit in common with the 6-inch version of Poe, but a close examination of the two shows that it’s not just a shrunk down version of that one. The sculpt has a ton of great texture work, and it’s top-notch for the scale. Poe’s likeness seems to be the toughest one to crack for Hasbro. It’s hard to accurately judge the sculpt on this one, since it’s under some iffy paint, but it does appear to be Hasbro’s closest effort so far. Unfortunately, it’s under the aforementioned iffy paint. Most of the paint on this figure really isn’t that bad, but the face just doesn’t look right. It’s definitely the eyes and eyebrows. The pupils of the eyes are too low-set, and the brows are just too thin to properly capture Oscar Isaac. I’d love to say the eye issues are a one-off, but every version of this figure I’ve seen looked about the same. Poe includes his helmet and a small blaster. The helmet is a great piece, and it’s the first one not to look oversized, and the blaster fits nicely both in Poe’s hand and the holster on his belt.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was surprised by these figures, truth be told. I’d heard rumblings of them happening, but I hadn’t seen any actual confirmation. Then I caught pictures of Series 3 over the holiday, and knew I’d have to try and track them down. Poe was the first one I found; he was the only figure left at my local Walmart. None of the Poe figures so far have been quite right, and this one continues that trend. Were the paint on his face a bit better, he’d be the best version of the character, but as it stands, I still like my mash-up of the two 6-inch figures the best. Still, this guy’s not a terrible figure, and he’s probably the best small-scale Poe out there.

PoeDamWM3

#0829: Guavian Enforcer

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

GUAVIAN ENFORCER

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

GuavianEn1

It feels like forever since I’ve done a Star Wars review. <Checks previous reviews> Okay, it’s only been two weeks. Well, that’s still too long! It’s time for another! Plus, I’ve still got to catch up on reviewing things I got before the holiday season came and threw everything out of whack. Anyway, here’s another Force Awakens-based review. Let’s have another look at the Guavian Enforcer, but this time with more of me knowing what the heck he is!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GuavianEn2The Guavian Enforcer is part of the smaller-scale Star Wars: The Force Awakens line. He’s from the second assortment of the “Space” subset of the line (the same one as General Hux). The figure is 3 ¾ inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation. The Guavian’s sculpt is new to this particular figure, but it in many ways feels like a simple scale-down of the Black Series version of the character. It’s not, obviously, since that figure had a totally different articulation scheme, and the details were just the slightest bit different, but they’re pretty close. Which is good really, since it’s supposed to be the same design. The sculpt is definitely high-quality. The proportions are pretty great, and there’s a ton of texture and small detail work. The separate parts of the costume could perhaps stand to be a little more defined, but at this scale, the work is acceptable. The Guavian’s paint work is fairly straightforward; he’s molded in red, with paint for the black and silver bits. The application is passable, if not anything amazing. He lacks a lot of the more subtle work from the larger scale figure, which is a shame, but reasonable at the smaller scale, I suppose. The figure is packed with one of the two guns packed with the larger Enforcer (the shotgun looking one), as well as a piece the Build-A-Thingy for this subset. On the plus side, this one’s a giant gun, so it can actually be used as an extra piece for the figure, if you don’t plan to finish building the whatever it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Guavian Enforcer was purchased from a nearby Walmart, while I was out and about with my brother. He’s the very last TFA figure I picked up prior to seeing the movie, so therefore the last one I bought with no idea of his role in the film. Fortunately, I found the Guavians in the film enjoyable enough, and I do really like their design. So, I’d consider this figure a win.

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#0812: Poe Dameron

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

POE DAMERON

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

PoePilot1

For day 11 of the Post-Christmas gift reviews, I’ll be taking one more venture into the far, far away galaxy of Star Wars. I really, really enjoyed The Force Awakens. More so than most movies I can remember, at least of those released in the last few years. I really can’t think of anything from the movie that I really disliked. Back before the film was released, when I was reviewing a bunch of figures I knew absolutely nothing about, I was somewhat intrigued by Poe Dameron, despite having next to nothing to go on as far as what the character would be like. Upon seeing the film, Poe quickly became my favorite of the new characters. All of the sudden, the two action figures I had just didn’t seem like enough. As luck would have it, I didn’t have to suffer through only having the two figures for very long, as Christmas brought me both the smaller scale Poe’s X-Wing Fighter set and the other of the two 6-inch scale Poes, which I’ll be reviewing today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

PoePilot2Poe was released as part of the second series of the Force Awakens-branded Star Wars: The Black Series figures. He’s figure #07, which makes him numerically the second figure in this series, after Captain Phasma. The figure stands about 6 inches tall and has 25 points of articulation. The articulation is mostly pretty good, but the lack of back and forth movement on the wrists is more than a little frustrating. The last Black Series Poe I looked at was based on his jacketed look from towards the beginning of the movie, whereas this figure is based on his pilot look from the film’s second half. He’s a mostly unique sculpt, though I have seen the head before, by nature of getting the two-pack version of the character first. It is because of owning that figure that I can correctly diagnose that it is not the sculpt of the figure’s head that is to blame for it looking as hideous as it does. There is in fact a halfway decent Oscar Isaac sculpt hiding under the paint. The rest of the sculpt is pretty good, with lots of great texture work on the jumpsuit, especially the ribbing on the sides of the arms, and there’s also some very nice work on the layering of the PoePilot3various pieces of his outfit. The build of the figure feels perhaps a bit on the stocky side for Poe, but the flightsuit was somewhat bulky in the film, so it isn’t far off. When discussing the paint, one can’t exactly ignore the elephant in the room that is his head. I have no clue what happened here, but man is that face paint horrid. It’s proof positive that it doesn’t matter how good the sculpt is, a lousy paint job will kill it every time. Seriously, did Hasbro hand out pictures of Peter Falk as Columbo instead of Oscar Isaac as Poe? Because, when I see this guy, I expect him to say “oh, and there’s just one more thing…” and then solve a murder. The rest of the paint is actually quite good, with a number of washes to help bring out some of the sculpt’s finer details. Poe is packed with his helmet, a blaster pistol, and a spare set of ungloved hands. The extra hands are interesting, because they give the figure an extra four points of articulation, making the missing movement from the gloves all the more curious.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Poe was another gift from my parents. He’s actually a figure I’d seen once or twice before the movie’s release, only to pass on him, due to the face paint. After seeing the movie, and discovering just how awesome Poe is, I realized that was a mistake, so I was very happy to unwrap this figure on Christmas morning. No excuses can be made for that head, but, on the plus side, it can easily be swapped with the two-pack version with relative ease, making a decent figure downright amazing.

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#0809: First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter

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

FIRST ORDER SPECIAL FORCES TIE FIGHTER (w/ FIRST ORDER TIE FIGHTER PILOT)

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

TIEFighterFO1

It’s day 8 of the Post-Christmas gift reviews. I’ll be continuing off of yesterday’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens-themed review, by taking a look at another of the franchise’s thrilling space ships. I can’t very well let the Resistance have all the fun, so let’s have a look at the First Order’s own TIE Fighter.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

TIEFighterFO2Since their inception, the TIE fighters have had their own specific branch of Troopers assigned to them, unsurprisingly titled “TIE Fighter Pilots.” Who could have seen that one coming? Pretty much everybody, that’s who. The TIE Pilot is a little on the short side (a common trait for TIE Pilot figures) coming in at a little under 3 ¾ inches tall.  He’s got the standard 5 points of articulation as well, in case you were wondering. The TIE Fighter Pilot appears to have an all-new sculpt, or at least a heavily tweaked version of the single-carded figure’s body sculpt. The TIE Fighter Pilot’s design hasn’t changed drastically since the Original Trilogy, but they appear to be a bit more armored and overall more streamlined than their predecessors. The sculpt is pretty decent overall, with lots of nice small detail work. The figure sports a removable helmet, which is a little bit on the bulky side and is a little soft on details, but is otherwise a pretty well executed piece. Underneath the helmet is a somewhat generic head, which works. Mine has this weird formation running down his forehead, but looking at pictures of other figures online, this appears to just be a malformation of the sculpt. So, I guess my TIE Fighter Pilot’s just got an awesome face scar that no one else’s has! Paint on the TIE Pilot is rather minimal. He’s mostly just molded in black, but he does have a few extra details here and there, such as the First Order insignia on his shoulders. His face also has a bit of paintwork, which actually looks a bit better than some of the other figures in the line. In addition to the removable helmet, the Tie Fighter Pilot also includes a small blaster pistol.

THE VEHICLE ITSELF

TIEFighterFO4The main focus here, is, of course, the First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter. Which is quite a long name, isn’t it? Like Poe’s X-Wing, the TIE Fighter requires a bit of assembly when removed from the box. The lower cannons need to be popped into place (which is just the slightest bit unnerving), as do the wings. Once put together, the TIE Fighter stands 11 ½ inches tall, 10 inches wide, and is 9 inches deep. It has an opening cockpit hatch, as well as a rotating cannon on the bottom. Over the course of the Original Trilogy, the design of the TIE Fighter slowly evolved. By the time of The Force Awakens, it has gone back to something not too far removed from the design in A New Hope. According to J.J. Abrams, there was originally a far more advanced TIE Fighter design, but it was ultimately decided to go with a slightly more retro look, to make the connection between the two more clear. The sculpt of the TIE Fighter is actually quite impressive, especially when compared to the X-Wing. It’s still a little under-scaled for the 3 ¾ inch figures, but the generally larger size of the cockpit means that getting the pilot in place is a fair bit easier here than it was with the X-Wing. Of course, the TIE Fighter in the film was built for two. This fighter has two seats, but they aren’t quite oriented like they are in the film, in part due to the size of the fighter and also due to the slightly limited articulation of the figures. Getting two figures in place is definitely tricky; Stormtroopers are too large to fit, so you’ll need to actually have one of the single carded TIE Pilots to make it work. The sculpted details on this are quite nicely handled. They’re still a bit simplified compared to the actual movie design, but all the important details are there and the ship as a whole looks pretty sharp. Also, small bonus: the top of the hatch has a spot to stow the pilot’s blaster, which is pretty cool.  The TIE Fighter is, fortunately, not plagued by as many construction issues as the X-Wing, but you will want to keep an eye on the wings. One of mine is TIEFighterFO3just the slightest bit warped. It’s really not noticeable unless you’re looking for it, but it’s annoying nonetheless. Like Poe’s X-Wing, paint is a key piece in why this is a “special forces” TIE Fighter. It’s denoted by the red stripe, on the fighter’s left side. The red is pretty consistent, though there are a few missed spots at some of the connecting points. The rest of the ship is more or less molded in the proper varieties of grey, so very little paint is used. I like this, because it makes for a sharper overall design. The TIE Fighter has two spring loaded feature. The first is a missile launching feature, activated by a button at the bottom, just below the cannon. The two missiles at the front launch, though the mechanism doesn’t appear to be as strong as the one on the X-Wing. The second feature is the wing-launching feature, which replicates what happens to the TIE Fighters when they’re shot in a space battle. There’s a button at the base of each wing, which pops them off. It’s a fair feature, but it does mean the wings will occasionally just pop off on their own.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The TIE Fighter was another Christmas gift from my parents, just like the X-Wing. I really like this one a lot, and it’s better put together than the X-Wing. Of course, it’s not the X-Wing, which is a slight strike against it, but it is still fun. And when I opened this one, my brother may or may not have picked it up and chased me around the house while I played with my X-Wing.

TIEFighterFO5

#0808: Poe’s X-Wing Fighter

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

POE’S X-WING FIGHTER (w/ POE DAMERON)

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

PoeXwing1

For day 7 of the Post-Christmas gift reviews, I’ll be venturing back into that galaxy far, far away. However, this time I’ll actually be looking at something from the new movie.

Back when Kenner had just gotten the Star Wars license, and they were deciding on scale, George Lucas was adamant that the figures be small enough that in-scale ships were still a possibility, which led to the decision to use the 3 ¾ inch scale, and ultimately had an undying impact on the action figure industry as a whole. See, the ships were a key piece of the story, since you can’t very have those titular “Star Wars” without them. One of the more distinctive ships was the X-Wing fighter, the main ship of all our favorite Rebel pilots. The X-Wings have made a triumphant return in The Force Awakens, and a triumphant return to the toy aisles with today’s focus, Poe’s X-Wing Fighter.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

PoeXwing2Seeing as the name of this set is “Poe’s X-Wing Fighter,” it’s not really a huge shock that the included pilot is Poe Dameron. The figure is 3 ¾ inches tall and has the same 5 points of articulation as all the other 3 ¾ inch Force Awakens figures. Poe’s body looks to be the same one that was used on the single release Poe, though I don’t actually have one to compare. It’s a decent enough sculpt. The jumpsuit has a reasonable amount of texturing and there’s some nice layering to the sculpt. The vest seems a little soft in some areas, but not terribly so. The head sculpt is shared with the “Armor Up” version of the character. I liked it well enough when I reviewed that figure, and I like it well enough here. It’s not a perfect match for Oscar Isaac, but it isn’t terrible either. At the very least, it’s got a slightly better paint job (though the skin tone is definitely too pale). The rest of the paint is passable, but nothing tremendous. There’s a fair bit of bleed over in several areas, and the edges of the vest are fairly fuzzy. Poe includes a helmet and a small blaster. The helmet is actually really cool, if perhaps slightly oversized, and the gun looks to be the same piece included with Goss Toowers.

THE VEHICLE ITSELF

Let’s be honest here, nobody was really buying this set for the figure, were they? No, the selling point is the awesome X-Wing fighter he’s meant to fly! Out of the box, there’s a tiny bit of required assembly. The cannons and the nose of the fighter are packed separately from the main vehicle, so they have to be attached, and there are also a few small decals to be placed inside the cockpit. Once assembled, the main body of the vehicle is 15 ½ inches  in length and it has a 13 inch wingspan. The X-Wing has 2 points of “articulation” for the cockpit and the landing gear. The cockpit could stand to open just a bit more, but other than that, the basic movement is pretty smooth. The X-Wing fighters in The Force Awakens got an all-new design (officially dubbed the T-70), inspired by Ralph McQuarrie’s original concept drawings from the first movie. It’s a slightly more svelte, less cobbled together look than the prior T-65. The toy gets a new sculpt designed to replicate the design from the film. Some changes have definitely been made for the sake of a slightly easier to produce toy. Chief among them is the decision to scale the whole thing down just a bit. It’s really not that evident, except for poor Poe having to do some serious slouching to fit in the cockpit with the top shut. In addition, some of the more intricate details of the craft have been made less intricate, which gives the whole thing a slightly more simplified look. Given that this ship is designed to go with the 5 POA 3 ¾ inch figures, these changes are reasonable, and make it so the ship fits in with the rest of those offerings.

PoeXwing3

The ship has a non-removable BB-8 built in, much like the R2-D2s built into the X-Wing toys of old. I was happy to see he got a fully detailed sculpt, which matches up pretty well to the single release figure. The construction of the X-Wing isn’t without its issues, though. The most glaring ones are pretty much all related to the parts that were separate in the box. The first, and by far the most minor issue for me, is the softer rubber material used for the nose. This is clearly a safety standards thing, so I can understand why it was done. It really doesn’t look that bad, and my only real concern is how it will hold up over time. The big issue is the level of warping present on the wing cannons. They come like that out of the box, and look a bit on the silly side. Fortunately, there are a few fixes that can be applied, or, if you don’t want to fix them yourself, you can just shoot Hasbro an email and they’ll send you a replacement set for free. Other than that, all the other nits are fairly minor. There are a few exposed screws, but they’re all in fairly out of the way places. The general construction of this ship really isn’t horrible. Paint is something of a key piece on this one, since it’s the color scheme that denotes the fighter as Poe’s. The grey/orange scheme is pretty striking here, and it works nicely with the mold. The actual paint is fairly basic, with just solid color work. There are some areas with some slightly uneven coverage, but the overall look is quite good. BB-8’s head gets some nice work, but his body is left completely unpainted, which is just a tad jarring. The X-Wing has two action features. The main one is the wing feature. When BB-8 is pressed, the wings pop open into the signature X formation. When the button behind him is pushed, they go back to their normal positioning. The mechanism isn’t particularly strong, so the wings won’t stay open if you set the ship down, which is a tiny bit of a letdown (and it also made taking pictures rather hard). The other feature is a more simple missile launching one. Pressing a button on the underside of the fighter launches the included missile. It’s actually surprisingly powerful, so try not to shoot your eye out.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Poe’s X-Wing Fighter was another Christmas gift from my incredibly supportive parents. It’s not a perfect item. I can make a list of the issues, I can say it’s a step back after the more advanced X-Wings we’ve gotten in the past. It’s under-sized, and the cannons are warped, and maybe the paint could be better. But when I opened this thing up and put it together? Pure joy. I think it might just be my favorite item I received for Christmas. Seriously, I was so excited that I may or may not have run through the house with it making flying sounds…

PoeXwing4

#0799: First Order General Hux

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

FIRST ORDER GENERAL HUX

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

Hux1

Man, that new Star Wars movie sure was a good movie. Like, really good. To be fair, large elements of the film’s plot and certain characters were somewhat recycled from the original trilogy, but I really didn’t care.  What I do care about are the toys! And hey, now I get to actually write a Force Awakens review with actual, real knowledge of the characters! What a novel concept!

I noted in my full review of the movie that Domhnall Gleeson, who portrays General Hux, was the only new addition to the cast with whom I was already familiar. I was actually kind of pumped that he was in the film, and I really enjoyed his performance and the character of Hux in general. He makes for a good bad guy. But, does he make for a good action figure? Let’s find out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hux2General Hux is part of Hasbro’s smaller scale Star Wars: The Force Awakens line of figures. He comes from the “Space” subset of the line, which makes sense (well, more sense than some of the other subsets). The figure stands 3 ¾ inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation. Standard stuff for the line. Hux’s sculpt appears to be unique to him. He’s presented in his fully dressed up uniform, with his hat and overcoat. He’s only seen a few times with the full get-up, but it’s striking, so I can understand why Hasbro went for it. I suppose that in theory we might see this sculpt reused for some of the other First Order officers, at least if the line runs that far. The overall look of Hux’s sculpt is decent enough, but I have one major issue with it. For other jacketed characters, such as Finn and Poe, there is a basic body with the underlying shirt and then an overlay piece for the coat. For Hux, however, the coat is just sculpted strait onto the body. It’s not really an issue on the torso, but it looks rather ridiculous when it has to break for the leg articulation. An add-on piece would have been much preferred here, and I really don’t know why Hasbro opted not to go for it, apart from a desire to cut costs. In addition, the bulk of this figure’s sculpt is a lot more simplistic than the other figures in the line. The coat and uniform are mostly devoid of any sort of texturing or any real small detail work, which only makes the cuts for the joints even more jarring. At the very least, the figure’s face looks like Gleeson, which is perhaps the one truly nice piece of the sculpt. Adding to the rather simple sculpt, Hux’s paint isn’t the most exciting thing. I guess it’s nice that the shirt and coat are different shades. And, the basic application isn’t bad. He’s just a bit drab. For accessories, Hux includes a small pistol, as well as a piece to yet another build-a-thing. I actually kind of like this build-a-thing piece, though, because it can work like a jetpack, which makes Hux a small bit more interesting.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up Hux from my local Target. I was actually out with my brother picking up the new Battlefront game, and happened to find this guy. I had been somewhat excited to get him, and I was happy to find him, but the figure’s definitely not one of the stronger entries in this line. I mean, he’s not terrible, but he’s not super fun either. The character is also getting a Black Series figure, so perhaps that one will be better.

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Star Wars – The Force Awakens: A (Pseudo) Movie Review

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Movie Reviews and tagged with ,

TFAPoster

Hey look! Another movie review!

I’m sure that everyone and their mother will be weighing in on the latest Star Wars film in the next week or so. I mean, there are already several hundred reviews out there by now. There’s a lot of buzz about this new movie, especially after the poor showing of the last three Star Wars films. Could the franchise reclaim the magic? The short answer? Yes.

I saw the film last Thursday night, and I really, really liked it. Now, as I said, there’s no shortage of reviews covering tons of different angles of the film, and all its various merits.  So, to set myself apart from all the other reviews, I’m gonna handle things a little differently. I’m going to examine the film through the lens of how it impacts all those action figures I bought. This is, after all, and action figure review site, is it not?

IN BRIEF

All in all, I really loved this movie. Sure, it didn’t top the original trilogy, but it was very definitely a worthy successor. It was a fantastic experience, from start to finish, and the whole “event” around it has really done a bang up job of reigniting my excitement for the franchise.

The general plot is very similar in structure to that of A New Hope (with a little Empire thrown in for good measure).  A lot of the story beats are going to feel very familiar, but not in a bad way.  The similarities are important to the story, and are key to recapturing the feel of the older movies.

Now, let’s look at some specifics:

 

 

 

—-THERE BE SPOILERS BELOW!—-

Continue reading →

#0787: Poe Dameron & Riot Control First Order Stormtrooper

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

POE DAMERON & RIOT CONTROL FIRST ORDER STORMTROOPER

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

Poe&Trooper1

By the time you guys read this review, I’ll have already seen the new Star Wars movie. Lucky me! Unless it’s terrible, in which case, un-lucky me! Of course this review was written beforehand, since I had to, you know, go see the movie, so I can’t offer any actual thoughts on the movie. I also still don’t have any real information on any of the new characters, so, hey, enjoy one more review of me talking about stuff I don’t know! That’s the best, right? Let’s have a look at resistance pilot Poe Dameron and a Stormtrooper variant!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released as part of a two-pack of figures from the new Force Awakens-branded Star Wars: The Black Series line. The set is a Target exclusive (in the US, anyway).

POE DAMERON

Poe&Trooper2“An ace pilot, Poe Dameron is a leader in the Resistance’s fight against the evil First Order. He soars into battle behind the controls of a modern X-Wing fighter.” So, yeah, that’s kind of the same bio we’ve gotten on every Poe figure so far. Hey, at least they’re consistent! This figure is based on Poe in his
“casual” look (the same look used for his “Armor Up” figure in the smaller scale). Poe is 6 inches tall and has 25 points of articulation. When this figure was first announced, the assumption was that he’d be making use of a lot of re-used parts, especially given that he and Finn have the same jacket. However, it appears that the only piece to actually be re-used is Poe’s head, which is the same piece as his single release figure (though you can be forgiven for not realizing, for reasons I’ll touch on in a bit). The likeness is decent enough, though not quite as good as some of the other figures. The rest of the sculpt is all-new, and quite well handled too. As with the smaller scale figures, Poe and Finn’s jackets have enough minor differences to give each of the figures a bit of uniqueness. Poe’s jacket is much sharper detailed in general, which makes it look a bit better. Poe’s paintwork is generally pretty good, though it is not without its drawbacks. The base color work is all pretty good, and there’s Poe&Trooper3not too much slop or bleed over. The clothing, especially the coat, have some nice accent work to help bring out some of the sculpt’s details. The head’s paint is easily the sloppiest, with the same wonky hairline that’s plagued all of the Poe figures so far, as well as a slightly messy attempt at giving him 5 o’clock shadow, which just looks a bit goofy. However, it’s leaps and bounds above the regular release Poe, who’s paint was, to quote Shaun of the Dead’s TV edit, “funk ugly.” Poe is packed with a rifle (which is the same model as his smaller scale figure), and a helmet.

RIOT CONTROL FIRST ORDER STORMTROOPER

Poe&Trooper4“Armed with specialized batons, the First Order’s Riot Control Stormtroopers are trained to subdue crowds in the most ruthlessly efficient manner possible.” Yeah, so here’s another Stormtrooper. But he’s got a new hat—I mean baton and shield! He’s the same figure as the regular First Order Stormtrooper from the first series of Force Awakens The Black Series figures.  It’s still a good sculpt, and you really can’t have too many Stormtroopers, so no complaints there. The main difference is the accessories. He gets the same pair of blasters as the regular release, plus a shield and baton, which make him an official “Riot Control” Stormtrooper. They’re both quite nicely sculpted, though he has a bit of trouble actually holding the baton.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I ended up finding this set at one of my two local Targets, without too much trouble. The main appeal of this set (for me anyway) was definitely Poe, since I hadn’t yet gotten him in this scale. I don’t have his other figure to compare, but this one looks to be the better of the two. The Riot Trooper doesn’t offer much new, but the new accessories are pretty cool, and I won’t say no to another Black Series Stormtrooper!

Poe&Trooper5

#0785: C-3PO & R2-D2

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

C-3PO & R2-D2

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

C3P0&R2a

A lot of the merchandise for The Force Awakens has focused on the film’s newest characters. This has been met with some apprehension by a portion of the fanbase, who don’t want to invest a lot of money on characters they know nothing about. Fortunately, not everything is based on the new characters, so classic fans have a number of “safer” options, such as today’s focus figures, C-3PO and R2-D2.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

C-3PO and R2 are part of the first series of two-packs from Hasbro’s current Star Wars: The Force Awakens line. They’re one of two sets of figures in this particular assortment to actually come from The Force Awakens, though even they only just barely qualify.

C-3PO

C3P0&R2bFirst up is the panicky, overly emotional golden boy of the franchise, C-3PO, human-cyborg relations. The figure stands 3 ¾ inches tall and has the now standard 5 points of articulation. To be fair, the reduced articulation is actually a lot less of an issue on someone like 3PO, since he’s not the most agile character to begin with. 3PO shares his sculpt with the recently released Mission Series Tantive IV Two-Pack version of the character, which seems reasonable enough, since his design hasn’t really changed. It’s a pretty good representation of the character, and it has some nice detail work, especially on the arms and the one open section of wiring on his midsection. So, old sculpt, old design, old character. What makes this figure The Force Awakens-inspired? Paint. For the most part, he’s just the usual gold, but now he’s got a funky red left arm. Why? I have no idea, but there it is. On the plus side, it looks like he finally got his silver leg replaced with a proper gold one, so he’s not too patchwork. The paint is fairly decent overall, though the eyes are a little wonky. If you have the option, you might want to look through a few sets to find the one with the least wonky eyes.

R2-D2

C3P0&R2cAnd here’s R2, the one single character in the entire franchise whose look never changes. But he really needed another figure, I guess. Plus, it’s not like you can release a 3PO figure without him. That’s insane. R2 is about 2 ½ inches tall and has 3 points of articulation. That’s kind of lackluster for R2, since it means he can’t even properly do one of his signature poses. Not that it matters, since he doesn’t have his third leg. Like 3PO, R2 also shares his sculpt with the Mission Series version. It’s a reasonable enough, I suppose. The details on the legs are a little soft, but not terribly so. In general, he looks like R2, which is the main point here. Unlike 3PO, the paint doesn’t really do much to set R2 apart from the previous figure to use the mold. It’s just fairly basic R2 paint. It’s fairly cleanly applied, so that’s good, but it would definitely help the figure if he had some sort of wash to help bring out the details of the sculpt. As is, he feels a little bland. This R2 is different from the last one is one way: accessories. Yep, this guy comes with a pair of missile launcher that can be attached to the top of his legs. Something tells me these won’t actually be showing up in the movie, but at the very least they do match R2’s overall aesthetic, and the missiles are actually kinda neat.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t really set out to find this pack or anything, but I saw it a few times at my local Target, and thought it was vaguely interesting. Then I realized I hadn’t actually bought a C-3PO figure since the POTF2 version from the 90s, and felt kinda bad, so I grabbed this set the next time I saw it. It’s certainly not the most exciting thing to come out of the new movie. 3PO’s got some merit, being slightly different from previous figures and being pretty well put together all around. R2 on the other hand, doesn’t really have much to offer, and is a “meh” figure at best. I’m kind of assuming most people will be getting this set for 3PO.