Tag Archives: Trendmasters

#3364: Rocket Launcher Robot

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

ROCKET LAUNCHER ROBOT

LOST IN SPACE (TRENDMASTERS)

I’ve talked exactly once before here on the site about the 1998 Lost in Space movie.  It’s got quite a reputation of being quite bad.  It’s a well-earned reputation, I’ll tell you that.  There’s a very short list of things about the movie that don’t totally suck.  Amongst them is the handling of the Robinson family’s companion the Robot. Voiced once more by his original series voice actor Dick Tufeld, the Robot got a radical redesign for the film, but one that was still pretty solid.  He also stuck pretty closely to his original characterization.  Unsurprisingly for any adaptation of Lost in Space, the Robot was also the most heavily merchandised member of the cast, forming the backbone of Trendmasters’ tie-in toyline for the movie.  He was available in all manner of styles and sizes, and I’m looking at one of the smaller ones today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Rocket Launcher Robot was one of two smaller-scale Robots released in 1998 to go with the main 5-inch scale Lost in Space line of tie-in figures.  This was the more standard of the two Robots at this scale, meant to serve as the Robot in his basic configuration from the first half of the movie.  The figure stands about 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation, as well as the same spring-loaded pop-up legs feature and rolling wheels seen on the Battle Ravaged version of this guy.  He’s also got a grabbing feature for the pincers on his hands, and his head extends outward on his “neck.”  The Robot’s sculpt is one of the best offerings Trendmasters had from its output for the movie.  It’s got a couple of parts in common with the Battle Ravaged release, though not as many as you might expect.  Obviously, the most of the upper half is unique, since the design is different, and all.  All of the arms are shared with the other release (though, the other figure only used one of the larger ones), as are the legs and outer treads.  The inner portion of the treads is different, so as to allow for rocket storage.  Everything makes for a solid recreation of the Robot’s updated design from the movie.  Some of the technical details are a little bit on the soft side, but it’s not out of line given the era, the price point, and the general style.  Since the figure gets “Rocket Launcher” as his descriptor, he understandably works in the shoulder launcher he has in the movie.  It’s a more complex mechanism in the movie, actually folding out and all.  While the larger Robot from Trendmasters did it more like the movie, this one goes more rudimentary.  The launcher is held to the back with a single peg.  You pull it out and re-orient it and boom: rocket launcher.  The paint work on this figure is generally pretty solid.  He’s more basic in his color work, but that’s more appropriate for this particular design.  He still gets all of the proper details he needs to.  Some of the application is a little sloppy around the edges, but it’s overall pretty good.  The Robot is packed with two rockets for his rocket launcher, which he can store in his treads.  He also got a sound feature.  When the button on his base is pressed, he alternates between “Weapons systems armed!” and a blasting sound effect.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m quite nostalgic for this movie, regardless of its quality.  I saw it in the theatre when I was 6, and I had a bunch of the toys.  This was the one main Robot release from this movie that I never had as a kid, and one I’ve been low-key keeping an eye out for in recent years.  Cosmic Comix got a run of Trendmasters Lost in Space figures in a little while back, and this guy was there for $5, and at that price, he was an easy grab.  He’s a fun figure.  Nothing fancy.  Just fun.

#1355: Captain Keith

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

CAPTAIN KEITH – STEALTH VOLTRON FORCE

VOLTRON: THE THIRD DIMENSION (TRENDMASTERS)

“Strength, lion-like reflexes, the cool confidence of a leader.  These are the qualities that propelled Keith to the helm of the Voltron Force – the most ferocious fighting force in the universe.  Sitting within the head of Voltron, Keith boldly dispatches commands to his team – commands that shred Robeasts, blast space pirates, and light up the universe with firepower!”

Today, I’m reviewing this here Voltron figure.  This here Voltron figure was very hard to prove the existence of, by the way.  Apparently, I’m the only person on the planet who owns this figure.  Or, at the very least one of the only two people who have both this figure *and* an internet connection.  Maybe we were all supposed to chose one or the other and I just showed up late that day?  I don’t know.  Anyway, without further ado, here’s Captain Keith!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain Keith was released as part of Trendmasters’ tie-in line for Voltron: The Third Dimension, the CGI relaunch of Voltron from the ’90s.  This particular figure was part of the “Stealth Voltron Force” sub-set of the line, from around 1999 or so.  The figure was available both with the Black Stealth Cycle and on his own.  Going by what I’ve seen on line, the single release is a lot rarer, but that’s the one I have.  So there.  The figure stands about 4 1/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  His sculpt was largely unique to him, though he shares his head with the regular Keith, which is fair enough.  The sculpt doesn’t really look much like the character from the show, but that’s okay.  The show designs were…less than stellar.  Not that this figure’s anything amazing himself.  This guy’s sculpt feels rather on the clunky side for something of this vintage.  The proportions are really odd: he’s, like, 93% legs, his head’s super small, and his hands are only vaguely hand-like.  He’s also rather on the stiff side in terms of stance, but also has this weird, partial squat thing going on.  And, to top it off, most of the articulation isn’t worked into the sculpt at all, which definitely looks wonky.  On the plus side, there’s some nice work on the head, especially on the face, which looks nice and determined.  One of the cooler things about this particular set of figures was the paint; the armored sections are all vac-metallized.  Why the “stealth” variants were made extra shiny is beyond me, but the end result certainly looks cool.  The only downside is that the process makes his paint more prone to chipping, but it’s far from the worst case of this I’ve run into.  Keith is packed with a giant missile-launching cannon and a removable helmet, which are both pretty fun extras.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve never seen an actual episode of Voltron: The Third Dimension, but I did catch the original show while it was still in syndication, which meant I was very much familiar with the characters.  Of course, the only toys around were these ones from Third Dimension, so this was the best I was gonna do.  I’m not 100% why I got Keith (since I never got any of the others), but I recall really wanting him and being very excited when I finally got him.  He’s not the greatest figure out there, and is in fact quite deeply flawed, but he’s entertaining enough, I suppose.

#0677: Battle Ravaged Robot

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

BATTLE-RAVAGED ROBOT

LOST IN SPACE

RobotBR1

You know when you hear about a bad movie, for like a long time, and it just builds up this reputation of being so bad, and you think to yourself “it can’t really be that bad”? And then you watch it and it is indeed that bad? Yeah, that’s the Lost In Space movie from the 90s. To be fair, the movie isn’t completely without its merits. Among the positives are the end credits (and no, I’m not just saying that because they meant the movie was over. I actually like the end credits. They soothe me.) and the film’s take on the distinctive Lost In Space Robot. There were also some toys, which always excites me. Most of them were garbage, but some of the Robot toys didn’t suck. Let’s look at one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

RobotBR2So, this is the Battle Ravaged Robot, from Trendmaster’s movie-based Lost In Space line. He was one of the two versions of the Robot released to go with the 5-inch scale human figures. The Robot is based on two separate looks from the film, all rolled up into one figure. As the name notes, he represents the Robot after he’s damaged while fighting the spider-things on the derelict ship, but that’s actually more of an alt look for the more show-inspired, second half of the movie look that is the figure’s default form. In his default set-up, the figure is about 4 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation. He also had wheels on the underside of his base, allowing him to roll, as well as legs that have weird spring-loaded feature to them. Also, the pincers on the larger arm are supposed to move via the very obvious lever on the side, but they really don’t. The main base of the figure, the legs, and the lower arms were all shared between this figure and the other Robot in the series, which seems sensible enough. They’re actually pretty well sculpted parts for the time. They have plenty of detailing, and they match up pretty well with the designs from the film. The figure also gets a unique “torso” piece, which features the joint for his more classically show-inspired head, as well as a socket to plug in his larger third arm. The head and arm are both just as nicely sculpted as the re-used parts and match up pretty well, so that’s good. Paint-wise, the figure is a little on the simple side, at least for the source material, but he’s not terribly handled. There’s a nice mix of greys and browns, with the occasional blue cropping up as well. The paint works reasonably well for the second iteration of the Robot. The figure is packed with a two-piece shell, allowing him to be “transformed” into the Battle Ravaged version of the Robot’s first iteration. This is a cool idea, but the execution ends up being a little off, mostly due to the color schemes of the two designs being different. It doesn’t look terrible, and, to their credit, they’ve added some brown damaged parts to the torso shell, so as to make it look like the brown-colored parts of the second Robot are just additional damage, but it doesn’t quite work. The figure also had a sound feature, but the batteries are long dead on mine, so I have no idea what sounds it would have made.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually went and saw Lost In Space opening day. My dad and uncle had been big fans of the show growing up, so they took me and my cousin to see it. Truth be told, as a 6 year old, I didn’t mind the movie all that much. I really liked the Robot, so I ended up having a few of the toys of him, this one included. However, my original Battle Ravage Robot went missing, so I ended up getting this replacement from Yesterday’s Fun. He was the only LIS figure they had and I felt sort of bad for him. This figure definitely has some issues, and he comes from a pretty bad line, but he himself is actually a lot of fun. I’ve owned far worse.

RobotBR3