Announcement: We’re MOVING!!!

06/3/11

Hi, guys!

From  now on, I’ll be posting new content to the other blog, Joint Junkie at:

http://jointjunkie.blogspot.com/

I’ll be also re-posting content from  the beginning of time there occasionally, so don’t freak out if you see reviews you’ve already read. In the long run, I think it’ll be easier for me to manage if all the stuff is on one sit.

Please update your bookmarks and keep on reading!

Toy Review: Warriors Three

06/2/11

Warriors Three

 

So I’ve done the reviews for Marvel’s Frost Giants, Battle Hammer Thor, and Secret Strike Loki. What’s left from the Thor movie toy line?

Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg of course.

The three are recurring characters in Marvel’s tales of the Norse god of thunder. They are Asgardian warriors that accompany Thor on many adventures in the comics. Despite their Wikipedia article, my impression of them is the same as the part usually reserved for scantily clad females in barbarian genre films.

Thor: Let’s pick a fight!
Warriors Three: YEAH!
Thor (brushing off enemy attack): Is that all you’ve got?
Enemies: No! We saved a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal just for this occasion!
Warriors Three: Thor, save us!

Which is exactly how it went in the movie.

 

The packaging of Wave 2 of the line isn’t any different from Wave 1. Card backed plastic bubble, with a heat molded plastic tray to hold the figure in place.

I really wish they’d put some graphic on the top instead of Thor’s face. It was a chore sorting through pegs and pegs of Thor figures to find these guys. A portrait on the top that showed which figure was what, or a description on the side would have been super. They do it with the Marvel Universe cards right?

This second wave of basic figures seems to be under ordered locally, with only a few cases making to shelves. Even Megamall, which gets the bulk of stock since it is the main branch of Toy Kingdom, only got a few pieces of the three figures. Most other branches only got one set.

I can’t blame Playkit since the Thor line doesn’t seem to be doing too well, and historically, the second wave of a toy line doesn’t really hold up sales after the hype of the movie has died down. Plus, interest in this line wasn’t all that strong to begin with. I’m hoping that they at least ordered a few of Wave 4 since that includes the Sif figure which I need to complete my movie line up.

That’s why I finally decided to pick these up when I saw a complete set at Megamall, despite my reservations. I didn’t think we’ll see restocks of the line in the future and since I loved the Thor movie, I want something from it in my collection.

My impressions of the three figures are about the same as my impressions of the Secret Strike Loki figure. If you’ve read that one, you can probably just skim and look at the pictures, because it’s going to be roughly the same.

 

Harpoon Blade Fandral was the one that I was most ambivalent about. I’d seen the figure several times in other branches, but I’d always passed. The way his scabbard is positioned really made it look as if it locked his entire leg in that position. It was also mis-proportioned and looked unbelievably ugly.

When I got it out of the package, I was pleasantly surprised that it was not as restricting as I’d thought it would be, and with a little work, you could even remove the ring that attaches to his thigh, giving him more range. I wish I could remove it altogether, but you need to pop his chest apart, or pull off his legs to do it, and I’m afraid I might mess him up. I’m thinking of just cutting the thing off completely…

Other than that, the articulation is excellent.

 

Of all the Thor figures, I love Fandrall’s face sculpt the best. All the other toys have a blank look to them, but his has a tiny smirk. It’s a perfect expression and makes him look so smug you want to smack him. He reminds me of Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride.

Dread Pirate Roberts custom anyone?

 

The rest of his sculpt is great. The armor is decorative and flashy, just like most of the Asgardians in the film. I love the way the cape is done. I’m not sure if it is the same in the movie, but the cape is designed to simulate two lengths of cloth that are attached to a piece that fits over his shoulders. The middle area of his back is exposed. I find it more appealing than the plain, full cape that Odin and Thor have. I do wish they’d used real cloth rather than the rubberized plastic that Marvel figures always do.

 

Aside from his cape and scabbard, he’s also got his sword. It’s a nice looking thing, properly sized, and well fit for his fist. The basket on the hilt is a great touch. Sadly, they added a little too much softener in the plastic and it’s REALLY floppy. It’s like he’s holding a wet noodle.

Like all the rest of the Thor figures, Fandral has an accessory that includes an action feature. In this case it’s a LAUNCHING “HARPOON!”. Frankly, I doubt this thing could “harpoon” anything. Its projectile looks like a hammer. I’d fly about a foot in real life and fall on your foot. Launch it into the trash and just enjoy the figure.

 

The biggest problem with Volstagg is his scale.

Played by Ray Stevenson (Punisher: War Zone) in the film, he should tower over the smaller warriors, but the toy version is about the same size, maybe smaller. Where did all the plastic go? Around his gut.

 

Since Volstagg is supposed to be a voracious eater, he naturally has a belly. The toy does a good job of giving him one while not restricting his movement to much. Sadly, it apparently means that Hasbro subtracted that extra plastic and made him smaller than he should be. It looks like each wave can support only one “big” figure, and that’s already taken by the Fire Blast Destroyer.

His articulation is just as good as Fandral’s, if not better. He doesn’t have a cape or cloak to hamper his range like the other two, but his beard does get in the way of his neck joint. There’s enough clearance to get him to look up and down slightly (they all have ball-jointed necks instead of the swivel hinges recently designed figures have sported).

 

Ram Smash Volstagg comes with two accessories, again one in scale and one with an action feature. The action feature one is a SPINNING AXE RAM! with spinning… Well, I don’t know what they are. They don’t really look like blades, and don’t seem to be oriented in a way that would increase the efficacy of the implement. I can only guess at what the designers were thinking when they conceived these things.

Toss it.

 

The axe he carries looks a bit small, but it fits nicely in his hands and is ornate enough for me not to care. It’s a little weird, though. It’s got four blades, two double-bladed plates sandwiched together. What?

Nevermind that, though. It’s a great accessory.

And did I mention the beard? He’s got a beard. I wish I had a beard like that. I’d stroke the shit out of that beard and drink ale like a mother fucking Valhalla-bound Viking.

 

 

 

The last of the set, Blade Battle Marvel’s Hogun, was the hardest to find. Before I saw this thing in Megamall I had only ever seen Fandral and Volstagg. People seem to want him and not the set, which is understandable. This toy is gorgeous looking.

Unlike the rest of the line, he’s got a distinctly Eastern flavor to him. His armor looks like it’s got more of a Japanese Samurai influence more than a Lord of the Rings or Eaters of the Dead vibe. The addition of the rubbery cloak gives him even more presence.

 

It’s a little restricting, but you can move it up like I did in the photos and you’re golden. You can also remove it as well by popping off his head.

The second accessory he has is his signature mace. Like Fandrall’s sword, it’s absolutely frightening how limp this thing is. I’m not sure if I’m in favor of it. Less likely to break, but I feel like it’s going to melt. You can easily bend it in half. It fits well enough in his hand, though.

The last accessory (or accessories) is the AXE “BLADES” BECOME FIST “BLADES!”.

It’s a three part weapon that isn’t so dis-proportionate. It would go well in the hands of Volstagg. It looks too Chinese for him, though. The gimmick is that the blades of the axe come off and Hogun can carry them in his fists. They’re not too big to look totally off, but I still prefer his mace. The haft portion actually looks better, sort of like a spear.

 

Overall, I feel very positive about these toys. They still have the same problem as the rest of the line; they’re colors are relatively drab and they don’t pop on the shelf, but once you get them out and in hand, they’re a lot of fun. Especially with the rest of the line to pose them with.

They’re hard to come by locally, and it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting restocks, but there’s always eBay. Php 500.00 may be a little pricey for 3rd tier characters, but these are the first modern toys of any of them that we’ve gotten of any of them, so it’s hard to argue with it.

Highly recommended.

 

 

 

 

Toy Review: Secret Strike Loki

06/1/11

Secret Strike Loki is one of those figures that surprises you.

It doesn’t look like much on the shelf. Being a 3.75″ figure means that there are limits to the amount that a sculptor can fit onto the canvas of the figure. The filigree and wrinkles of his costume aren’t going to be as sharp as something from Sideshow or Hot toys, or even Marvel Select. There isn’t going to be much in the way of tonal graduation or washes in his paint applications, either. His accessories are going to be few and won’t be as impressive.

Despite that, Secret Strike Loki turns out to be one of the better figures in the new Thor Movie line.

At first, I passed on Loki when I first saw him at the launch of the Thor Movie toy line. He just didn’t seem like a toy that I really needed. But after seeing a few reviews of the figure and seeing Tom Hiddleston’s excellent performance in the movie, I found myself wanting one.

You can imagine how happy I was that my girlfriend got one for me *insert beaming smile here*

Like the rest of Hasbro’s Marvel 3.75” figures, the toy comes packaged in a carded bubble pack, with boring product shots on the back and the same generic Thor portrait in front. The design is obviously phoned in and does nothing to enhance the figure’s attractiveness on the pegs (which is sad since this line needs any attention it can get).

It’s easy to remove from the card. If you’re the kind of guy who keeps packages, then you might want to cut between the plastic and cardboard with a knife. The figure is housed in a plastic tray that fits into the bubble. There aren’t any twist ties (thank you, Hasbro), but I’ve found one or two of those clear rubber bands holding a few of the figures in position; you can just quickly slice right through those.

This version of Loki isn’t much to look at if he’s just standing there. Without Odin’s Gungir and his horned helmet, he’s basically that weird guy who wears leather pants and a skirt. Once you get to posing him, though, that’s when the fun begins.

All of his joints are of the useful sort and every one of them has great range. He’s got double-hinged elbows and knees, a swivel-hinge neck, a nice torso crunch that doubles as a twist to replace the missing waist. The best thing about his joints is the hips, which feature the double swivel-hinge joints that Marvel Legends used to such great effect. There’s a difference, however; the ball portions are smaller, giving the thighs better clearance.

The smaller ball portions in his hip joints might have been unsightly (if you remember the 6” Movie Ghostrider line, you’ll remember what they looked like) but the figure’s rubbery skirt effectively hides the worst of it. The skirt also acts as a kind of cheat when posing the figure. Since the foot print is small, it can be difficult to balance him properly. However, with the skirt acting as a third leg, you can get him into wide stances even without a stand.

The sculpt is, as expected, not stellar. At 3.75”, it’s hard to get the likeness of a real life actor right. Most try too hard and we get awful looking stuff like Rise of Cobra’s Cover Girl or the unbelievably bad Tron line. This effort, though, looks sufficiently close to the source material. Or at least close enough to not look like a mutant. I would have loved it if he had more of a smirk, though.

His suit is basically what he wore through the first portion of the film, until he got his crown. He doesn’t have a whole lot going on in the detail department here. The olive green tends to blot out any other color in his costume. On film, it looks great, but at this scale, you can’t really see the texture of the costume or all the stitching that we saw on the big screen. A wash might have made it more acceptable.

We also have to talk about his accessories.

First, let’s get his ridiculous BLADES COMBINE TO FORM GIANT SWORD! weapon out of the way.

You know what… never mind. Just look at the pictures. They’re self explanatory.

The Thor movie line figures usually have one accessory with the action feature for the kids, and one for the adult collectors in the proper scale. Loki’s 1/18th scale weapons are a pair of tiny throwing daggers.

The proportions of these two knives may look silly, with their giant pommels and tiny blades, but they fit perfectly into his hands and don’t fall out easily. This makes it very easy to get him into a variety of positions. I’ve got a feeling they’re reserving other accessories for the upcoming “King Loki” in the next wave of figures, which is fine with me, since I’m getting that anyway for the horned helmet.

So all in all, this is an excellent figure to have in your collection. Though he doesn’t look like much at first glance, he’s a lot of fun to play around with and pose, especially if you got the Battle Hammer Thor to pit him against. If you have the Warriors Three and Sif, along with several dozen Frost Giants, you can even re-enact that Jotunheim action set piece from the film.

What Loki lacks in presence, he makes up for in playability. The toy is just undeniably fun to fiddle with. Like the Battle Hammer Thor, he is of sturdier stuff than the Marvel Universe Loki with better articulation all around. His accessories, while few, are perfectly made for him and fit the character nicely.

Definitely a thumbs up.

 

 

 

Toy Review: Battle Hammer Thor

Back during the Thor Movie Toy Launch, I only bought 2 Thor figures, the rotocast Destroyer and Odin. I only had so much to spend and I wanted to prioritize the other lines since it looked like there were more than ample stocks available of the movie line. With each of the three Thor toys packaged 3 to a case, you just knew there were going to be a lot of leftovers after that first frenzy.

What made the decision even easier was that no one seemed to be rushing to buy the new Thor toys, and the Thor version I preferred was the LEAST favored by collectors; Battle Hammer Thor.

The Thor Movie line is a 3.75″ line consisting of maybe 6 or 7 figures per wave. The packaging is on par with the packaging of the Marvel Universe and Iron Man 2 Movie line. It’s a card-backed bubble with movie photos on the front, photography, blurb, copyright info and the “now-at-a-toy-store-near-you!” reel. That’s a lot of junk to smooshed into the limited space.

The whole thing is functional, if not pretty.

It took me awhile for me to put my finger on what bothered me about the movie line and I didn’t figure it out until I bought the Warriors Three a couple of weeks ago; none of the figures in the line really POP.

It’s been the norm for comics characters to dress as if they were headlining a gay parade, but the new Thor line is based on the movie designs which try to be more “realistic”. They toss that old trope out the window; No brightly colored banana hammocks for these godly men.

As a result, the line looks rather dull in your display. The browns and blacks and olive drab all look painfully mundane next to Captain America or Iron Man. And since it’s a smaller line, the details can’t carry the figure as much as say, the Marvel Select line.

End rant.

The Battle Hammer Thor comes with two accessories; his hammer, Mjolnir, and the line’s equivalent of the G.I. Joe’s Big F*cking Gun, the SWORD BECOMES HAMMER!.

Of the gimmicky accessories that come with the Thor figures I’ve bought so far, this is perhaps the least sucky, second only to Blade Battle Marvel’s Hogun’s AXE “BLADES” BECOME FIST “BLADES”!. The thing looks sort of like a sword, and sort of like a hammer, but doesn’t quite pull off either.

At first, I thought you were suppose to slide up the hilt, but you need to disassemble it (it splits in half) and re-attache it to the top of the blade. Then those poseable tips move down to form the top half of the “hammer”. It still looks fairly ridiculous, but not as bad as Loki’s BLADES COMBINE TO FORM GIANT SWORD!.

Kid’s may like it, but I fooled with it for about two minutes and then promptly lost it.

What I really like about this figure is that it’s a nicely sculpted piece with extremely good articulation.

The likeness is fairly good. I’m not convinced that you would be able to say “That’s Chris Hemsworth!” if you didn’t already see the movie and know that he was playing Thor, but details are strong, the beard is sculpted, and he’s got a fair range even with the hair.

The rest of the costume is nice. Like I said, the dark, bland colors are a problem, but the nice red highlights really make him stand out against Loki and Odin. I love the silver accents on the chest and the slightly bluer bits in the middle.

The best thing is the tassels on his belt. Neither the Sword Strike Thor nor the Mighty Thor versions have them. They add a greater sense of motion to the figure than the cape that the other variations sport and look great when photographing him in action poses.

The joints on this figure are also superb. Unlike the Marvel Universe figures like the Ages of Thunder Thor or the Comic Pack Thor, this one can actually raise his hammer above his head and look natural. He can even look up to a certain degree.

The rest of his joints are pretty standard; ball-jointed neck, swivel/hinges at the shoulders, another at the elbows, swivel wrists, a torso swivel/pivot, double swivel/hinges at the hips, double hinges at the knees, and swivel/hinges at his ankles - all with a decent range.

This makes for a very fun toy, especially when paired up with other toys from the line (which have equally impressive articulation).

Paint wise, you’re going to have to be careful. While he’s very sturdy and not likely to break with normal play (a welcome change from the Marvel Universe figures which fall apart if you look at them wrong), the paint applications can be terrible. You’ll have to really check out available figures to find the one with the least number of spillages or sloppy areas.

Another warning; those of you with scale issues should probably avoid this line as well. The Thors in the movie line are much shorter than they ought to be. From what I remember, Thor’s supposed to tower over mortals. He did it in the comics and in the movie, but this figure is kind of puny compared to the older Marvel Universe figures.

The good news is that these are still pretty much available wherever Toy Kingdom stocked them. Megamall still has shelves and shelves of this figure left over from that first delivery after the launch and the subsequent wave 2. Even after the movie came out and got great reviews all around, it seems that the Thor brand just doesn’t cut it when it comes to selling merchandise.

Personally, I’m not going to wait until this line goes on sale to get the ones I want. I’ve already picked up the Thor, Loki, Odin, Frost Giants, and the Warriors Three, and I’ll get Heimdall as soon as I can scrape together some cash. I’m worried that Sif will be a bitch to acquire since the second wave of figures was seemed under ordered, which means the third wave is likely to be even worse.

Despite the boring colors, the line is relatively well made, and fun. At Php 500.00 (between $11 and $12 US), it still feels expensive, but as that is the going rate for 3.75″ Hasbro figures, and with Mattel 3.75″ figures priced substantially higher, I can’t really complain.

I recommend you pick at least one of the movie Thors and get a Thunder God to lord it over your desktop today.

 

 

 

Toy Reviews: POC Cycle Armor

05/24/11

G.I. Joe Cycle Armor

 

Any one here remember Robotech: The New Generation?

You guys who grew up here might know it as Genesis Climber MOSPEADA, the original title. In the States, they took that cartoon, as well as Superdimensional Fortress: Macross and Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and smooshed them together to form a 3 season cartoon series called Robotech. The three stories really had nothing to do with each other and the only thing they had in common were the robots, which were prolific throughout the 3 seasons.

MOSPEADA was an acronym that stood for “Military Operation Soldier Protection Emergency Aviation Dive Armor”, which referred to the transformable motorcycles that featured heavily in that portion of the cartoon. The vehicles could be converted to powered jumpsuits, exoskeletons that would protect the rider, allow him or her to fly short distances, and had firepower up the wazoo.

This was, suffice it to say, cool as all get out.

The mecha designer for the series, Shinji Aramaki, got the idea while he was working on the Diaclone series (also anglicized as The Transformers for American consumption). I had always wanted one of the Robotech toys back in the 80’s. I remember going down to the toystore and finding these awesomely heavy, die-cast monstrosities packaged with a big figure that could actually wear the armor. I bought a Scott Bernard figure from a yard sale once, but it only had a few pieces of the bike it had once come with, which wasn’t as fun.

Fast forward to 20 years later and I get a second chance. Sort of.

 

This is the G.I. Joe Cycle Armor, a G.I. Joe Alpha Class vehicle that was just released at the recent Captain America Toy Launch. The set was announced way back in one of the conventions in 2009 (I think it was the Joecon). That’s a long wait.

The figure comes in a seriously sturdy package with a thin printed outer box over a heavy-duty, corrugated skeleton. This sucker means business. Sadly, there’s not a lot else going on here. The front is dedicated to a large clear window to see the vehicle and the figure. The interior is printed with a matte painting of a devastated industrial complex.

The back of the box has a single photo of the bike and the figure again with text in four or five languages detailing the features of the toy. There are also several copies of Ashiko’s file card around the sides of the box, each in meant for a different nationality. This particular toy was apparently meant for international markets.

 

When I first picked it up, I wondered why there weren’t any photos of the armor mode. The reason became obvious to me later on, but lets start at the beginning.

The set includes one G.I. Joe 3.75″ figure and one Motorcycle. I was surprised to find that below the main compartment that held the figure and vehicle was another section that held a small baggie of goodies. There were several rifles, sub-machine guns, blades, and a pistol.

Ashiko can use any of these weapons, but there’s no way he can store any of it on his person. He’s got a knife with a sheath, but no way to plug the sheath into his suit. Likewise with the SMGs and their hooks. No way to latch them onto his armor. Not the biggest of deals, but definitely evidence that this wasn’t a review that would end well.

 

The figure itself is another kitbash from parts of that Snake Eyes that was used for Wraith and for the Alley Viper. You can see the tiny hole on his chest where the Snake Eye’s knives were supposed to go. The biggest diferences from the original mold was the huge ports glued onto his thighs and the fact that he’s sporting the head of the Rise of Cobra Flash figure.

Most of the armor pieces are removable, though; gauntlets, chestplate and helmet all come right off easily and are just as easily replaced.

 

Though he can’t store any of the weapons (well except the sword which has a scabbard with the standard back post), he still looks great with them. These are mostly the same guns we saw scattered around the Pursuit of Cobra line. See my Pursuit of Cobra Snake Eyes review for more info on some of them. If you have a Pursuit of Cobra Beachhead, you’ve also seen some of the others.

 

The figure doesn’t really float my boat, though. It doesn’t feel like anything more than it is, a rehash. He looks neither like a ninja, nor a motorcyclist so the blurbs on his filecard are baloney. At least the Ninja Armor Snake Eyes from the Sigma 6 line looked like cohesive effort.

The haphazard way Ashiko was put together also affects the potential of the set as well, not just the figure, but we’ll get to that.

Detail on the bike is pretty awesome though. The engine block is really just a facade, but it looks decent, as if there might actually be moving parts underneath. The handle bars have been changed from the initial prototype (which you can see illustrated on the instruction sheet) to allow the figure to actually grasp them while sitting on the vehicle. The front has a pair of machine guns sculpted into the spot near the head light, complete with sculpted ammunition belts. The tires are HUGE and wide.

The set also comes with a small sheet of stickers (be careful you don’t lose this when you open the box). There are directions on where to put them included on the instruction sheet, as well. They really do wonders to make it pop, but I wish they included more, especially those old ones that said “CAUTION!” and “DANGER!” and “NO STEP!”.

Taken by itself, the bike is a great piece and reminds me a lot of the Hardy Daytona.

 

The Ashiko figure fits nicely on the bike, though because of the chest piece, his shoulder movement is somewhat limited so he looks like he’s always holding his elbows too close to his sides. Still, you don’t really have to force him to fit into the seat, so that’s something. The bike is MUCH bigger that the Rip Attack Jet Storm Cycle or the Moto-Terminators but not disturbingly so. It looks something like a two-wheeled tank, which is good.

 

The Cycle Armor is mostly a “parts-former” which means in order to transform it from bike to exoskeleton, you need to take it apart first, and then re-assemble it. Honestly, this is the point where Hasbro lost me. Parts-formers feel like a cop-out to me and are hardly ever fun.

Case in point.

 

The wheels and fuel tank become his backpack and those machine guns up front and the seat become his arms. The only part that doesn’t need re-assembly is his legs, which come from the bike’s engine block, split in half.

Remember those huge posts that were welded onto his legs when they re-worked the Snake Eyes mold? Well they serve as anchors for the armor’s legs. There’s a posts on the inside of the pieces that plug into the holes found on his legs. It’s an in-elegant solution that doesn’t work very well. For one thing, the posts on his legs come straight out from the front. When you plug in the armor, the resulting toy looks bow-legged. And because G.I. Joes don’t have thigh swivels, it doesn’t have the necessary articulation to remedy the problem.

Plus, Ashiko is the ONLY Joe that can wear this armor, since the anchor points are necessary to keep it on. So you won’t be giving Snake Eyes his own custom ride.

The arms are similarly problematic. Well, what passes for arms here, anyway. The seat portion of the bike splits in two and then again, plugs into a post on the removable gauntlet that Ashiko comes with. This is bad for 2 reasons. It means that only Ashiko, or a figure that can use his gauntlets can use the armor, and second, the “arm” tends to spin around because the gauntlet is not secure.

Plus they’re puny. Like a T-Rex’s hands.

 

There is no headpiece to the armor, since the designers apparently thought the motorcyle helmet would be enough. The backpak instead has straps that fit over the head and help hold up the weight of the massive jet pack.

You’ll also have to display it facing foward since he doesn’t actually have a back. Turn him around and you can see that the figure kind of just hangs there.

 

To sum up, the armor mode for this set really blows. Poor articulation, lazy engineering, and ugly proportions all combine to give us an awful looking toy. This vehicle doesn’t hold a candle to the MOSPEADA bikes I loved as a kid. Guess that means I’ll have to buy one of the actual items at Great Toys instead.

 

If I had to do it over, I probably would have passed on this purchase and just gotten one or two of the Captain America figures. While as a bike the Cycle Armor looks awesome, I still prefer my Moto-Terminators.

Plus, I’m not sure about the price. P1000.00 is kind of pricey. I guess you could think about it like you’re getting a vehicle for the price of another 3.75″ figure, but it still doesn’t sit right.

If your just looking for an escort for your Rhino or ROCC, this thing isn’t so bad. If you were, like me, looking for an ass-kicking mechanized assualt exoskeleton, you’re shit out of luck.