Astroboy Action Figures
A measure of how much I liked the Astro Boy Movie was that I immediately went to Toys R’ Us and got me some plastic goodies based on the film.
Apparently the toyline isn’t very popular, here or abroad. Though I’ve been waiting for other sites to put up reviews, I haven’t heard much about them really. The action figures are made by Jazwares, which I gather isn’t too respected in the toy geek world. They apparently put out a substandard Street Fighter line several years ago that was a throwback to the old classic Toybiz days and suffered from some bad quality control. Opinion on thier stuff isn’t really good on the forums.
I’ve got to say though, based on these figures, I’m of a mind to give them the benefit of the doubt.
The toy line has several sub-sets. A 3″ line that’s about the proper scale for GI Joes (if you want a really odd crossover), a middle line that’s about 6″ or 7″ that includes bigger Astros and some monster bots, a pair of 10″ (I think) Astros with lights and sounds, and 3 vinyl figures that are cuter than a lolcat.
I decided to start with 3 versions of Astro in the 3″ set; the regular one with the feet jets, the gladiator one, and the cannon arm one. This set also has a normal Peacekeeper, a Metro City soldier, and Trash Can and the Gun Droid. The local price is p500.00 or so, about $10.00, which is insanely pricey for something that’s smaller than a GI Joe, but like I said, I enjoyed the movie.
First some general observations.
They are built solidly and don’t look like they’ll easily break. The material is not too soft and not too brittle so they’re perfect for their target market (kids). Paint applications are pretty bad all around, with color not lining up properly and not matching with the casted plastic. Articulation isn’t stellar, but adequate. Accessories are pretty minimal. They’re EXPENSIVE.
Now that that’s out of the way, I’m going to say… BUY THEM.
Or at least one of them. The toys are a great balance between sculpt and articulation (swivels for head, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, ankles), ornament and action figure. I keep them at work so that I can use them as a sort of stress ball. You can’t really judge these figures until you have them in your hand and play around with them. They don’t look too impressive by themselves on the pegs, but get them home and along side some other toys and you’re golden.
So. 3 Astro Boys. There isn’t much of a difference really, and that difference is pretty well explained by the name on the box. Arm Cannon Astro Boy has arm cannons. Battle Arena Astro Boy has the gladiator outfit and some hastily done paint smears that are supposed to be mud. And the regular Astro Boy has the pedolicious nakedness and the jets.
Which one to get depends on what you want. I prefer the gladiator one because it’s just bad ass. It comes with a little fireball accessory that fits on his fist. You’ll need to watch out for the mud streaks. They are varied and you need to find one to your liking. I got the one with a lot of streaks.
The Arm Cannon one is the one I like least. His shirt is half cast in color, half painted on his torso because of the placement of the swivel waist. It’s pretty ugly since they used a thin paint that doesn’t cover well. you can see his black pants right throught the paint. He also doesn’t have any arms. If you remove his guns he’s got nothing but stumps. Kids’ll have nightmares.
Plus he’s got 2 guns and 1 plasma blast. WTF.
The regular Astro Boy looks to be the most popular. He was the one that had disappeared from the pegs the fastest. I like him for the feet, which are swappable with the others, unlike the arm cannons.
The other toys I picked up were the 2 monsters in the next scale up; the Peacekeeper and the Buzz Saw Samurai.
Both are pretty plentiful, even at the time of this writing. They cost more of course, around p700.00, and I’m not sure their entirely worth it. Neither has much in the way of articulation, and much of that is non-functional. They are big though, and though not to scale, they’re pretty impressive next to the smaller figures.
Both of the big toys have lights; the Samurai has eyes and the Peacekeeper has the chest cracks. Jazwares screwed the pooch when they were designing these things. They forgot to include a way to lock the lights in the ON position so there’s no way to display them with the lights on. To make matters worse, they put the button to activate the Peacekeepers lights on the front of the toy. Those nice photographs you wanted are gonna come up a null set.
You’ll also notice that their articulation is ridiculously non-functional. Peacekeeper’s sculpt keeps him from having much of a range of motion in his arms, He’s got hip and knee joints, but there isn’t much they can do considering the upper body bulk. If you move the feet too much out of position, he will keel over.
The Samurai’s design means he’s pretty much immobile from the shoulders down. There are hinge joints at his “knees” but since they’re less than an inch apart and don’t look good in any other position, Jazwares could have saved themselves the trouble and lost it. His arms would benefit from another joint or two each, to help him reach around himself.
The great thing about these, and the real reason to get one is that they look excellent with the 3″ Astro Boys. Especially if you have some camera know how and a wide lens to mess with the perspective. Like the Marvel Universe Gigantic Battles, the size difference between the two lines really adds to the fun factor and makes the purchase worthwile.
Are these a must have? No probably not. They aren’t of a particularly high quality, though they are sturdier than almost any toy I own. They aren’t of a particulary sought after line, but that means that they’re an easy score. They’re aren’t particularly affordable, but then what toy is these days?
I’ll still give them a thumbs up because they’re just such a joy to play with. I’d suggest limiting it to one of the Astro Boys, a Trashcan and a Samurai, though. The rest are only for the hardcore idiots like me.
From Budjette Tan:
Hello all!
By now, copies of TRESE:MASS MURDERS should be available in National Bookstore and Fully Booked. Copies are now available at Powerbooks and Pandayan, as well as Comic Odyssey and Sputnik.
This weekend, me and Kajo will be at Mangaholix’s M3CON at the World Trade Center.
We will be there, Nov 21 & 22.There’s also going to be an UNDERPASS press con on Nov21 at the M3CON.
Skyworld will also be made available at the M3CON.
But! Wait! There’s! More!
On November 28 (sat), we’ll be squatting around Sputnik at Cubao X.
Will be there with Kajo, Ian & Mervin of SKYWORLD, and Paolo Fabregas of FILIPINO HEROES LEAGUE. Copies of our books will be available and we’ll gladly doodle on them if you give us beer. (Well, the beer is optional, just buy our books. Please.)So, there!
Hope to see you either this weekend or on the next weekend!
–budjette
*GEEKGASM* Need to get my “Trese: Mass Murders” book signed. Also need to buy extra copies for gifts… This or James Jean… hmmm…
LEGO Warehouse Toy Sale
November 20-22
December 11-13
10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Unit A23, 2nd Floor Topy Bldg IV
#3 Economia St, Bagumbayan
Libis, Quezon City
634-0658
*Credit Cards accepted
LAJ Philippines is the local distributor of LEGO. They’re having a sale. Up to 60% off. Since LEGO costs a buttload of money this is your chance to get some.
I think I need to buy a planner to keep all of these toy events straight. Starbucks anyone?
Johann Krauss & Liz Sherman
Sigh. I don’t know how it is with you guys, but as a collector I’m compulsive. While I’m not a completist, there are certain lines where I’ll get toys that aren’t necessarily great, but are needed to completete a certain lineup. The most recent example is my recent purchase of Johann Krauss & Liz Sherman from Mezco’s Hellboy II: Golden Army line.
Seeing as I have a Hellboy and an Abe, I needed a Johann and Liz to complete the team. They wouldn’t be the same without them.
If you’ve read my review of the rest of the Hellboy line or my review of Wink, then you know that the first releases in this line were pretty impressive, but the ones for the Golden Army set were pretty crappy. Somehow, Mezco, who were right up there on top with paint the first time around, went and found the one factory that could give their new toys the worst paint applications in the history of EVER.
Seriously, I didn’t want to buy this line looking at how bad the paint was on the figures. There’s no question why the Prince and Princess are rotting on the shelf now. Their paint jobs are by far the worst of the lot. Abe comes in at a close 3rd. I’ve actually seen Abe quite a few times now, but the paint is no where near as good as the first shirtless release. None of the subtle, washes are there, nor is the transluscent quality of the color. It’s just flat blue with blue stripes, lobbed on thick.
These two aren’t much better off.
You’ll have about as much trouble finding them locally as anything. They weren’t as popular as Wink, but since restocks were immediately placed in sets, it was hard to find singles. You were forced to buy the awful along with the relatively acceptable. I was fortunate enough to find a set that had recently been liberated in Toy Kingdom. They even had one of those Hellboy’s with Big Baby and an Abe.
Like I said, I couldn’t stop myself. I picked them up so that I could display the whole BPRD strike team.
Once you get over the horrible paint (REALLY! just look at the shiny, spotty wash on Johann! and the slop all over Liz!), there’s some good things about them. The sculpt is really great. Johann looks appropriately steampunky while Liz looks very feminine. Liz’s likeness to Selma Blair isn’t all that good, but the figure looks like a female. That’s more than you can say for most Marvel Legends.
Accessories is another plus. It’s not a lot… but it seems Mezco gave it some thought. Liz has two extra hands, one with a gun, and one with a flame. I don’t really like the one witht he flames because the way it comes up out of her hand doesn’t sit right with me. Instead of her hand being engulfed as it was in the movie, it looks as if the flame is just shooting out like a roman candle. The gun hand is pretty good though.
Johann has two extra hands as well, both sculpted to look as if he’s expelling himself in to the ether. The gaseous clouds look far more convincing than Liz’s flame. He’s also got a second bubble for his helmet, but with a cracked dome. I guess so you can take you’re Hellboy and reenact that locker room sequence.
No, not the one you read at www.slashfanfiction.com. The one in the movie.
Articulation is pretty good. Not great. Liz is missing a few key joints that would have put her in the top, like thigh swivels. She’s go the same hip articulation you see in GI Joes, only since she’s in a bigger scale, the crossbar that holds her legs is smaller, which means less play. She’s basically stuck in a standing position. Same with the German dude, though since he’s supposed to be stiff, I can give that a pass. Arm swivels are missing as well, so she can’t hold her gun in a Weaver position, which sucks.
The rub with Liz is that she’s LIMP. There isn’t really one pose where she looks like she’s about to kick but or singe your short and curlys. Even the hand holding the gun is like, “look I have a gun, don’t my hands look pretty? Why is Hellboy so immature? angst angst pout”. The vapid expression they gave her strenghtens that impression.
There’s also some issues with the sculpt/articulation on Johann. He shares the same lack of mid-swivels as Liz, but like I said, their not as important on him. The problem is that instead sculpting around costume elements, the designeers went and SPLIT things like kneecaps and elbow pads down the middle. So on his knee he’s got this pad that is part of his suit and the hinge joint breaks that pad in half when you bend it. It’s ugly. EDIT: It’s been pointed out to me that the design of the costume in the movie shares this same feature of split knees and elbows. *headpalm*. For someone who watches this movie all the time, I can’t believe I missed that. I am chagrined. He is the better built of the two though.
I don’t recommend getting these toys. Their price tag is much too high for the quality you’re receiving and they don’t mass as much as a Wink figure to make up for it. If Mezco had spent a little more time working on their articulation and put out a figure that was on par with a Marvel Legend or NECA figure, they might have gotten a few points, but as it is, not even the nice accesories can save it.
The only reason to get these is if you’re trying to complete your BPRD team, and if you find them as singles. Otherwise save yourself the trouble.
NECA’s Isaac Clarke of Deep Space
How can you go wrong with a character named after two of the greatest Science Fiction writers in history?
You can’t.
Unless you put that character in “nail-biting”, “visually striking” video game. Isaac Clarke is an engineer on the USG Kellion, sent to investigate a distress call from the USG Ishimura, a mining ship in orbit around the planet Aegis VII. If you’ve EVER played a horror survival game, you know the rest. The Kellion’s crew is killed off and Isaac and a few others have to find out what the heck happened. It sounds a lot like Pandorum but then all series, games, and movies in this genre follow the same formula.
To be honest, I haven’t played this game. Oh, I want to, but I’ve got enough obsessions in my life without throwing in video games into the mix. For now, I’m satisfied with the NECA version of Deep Space’s main protagonist.
If you’re interested in picking up one of these for yourself, you’re in luck. 2Rats, the local distributor of NECA, Mezco, Play Arts and a bunch of other lines has brought in quite a few of these. They’re readily available at the NECA/Mezco section in Toy Kingdom Megamall (in the Superhero section next to the DC toys) or any 2Rats branch. The regular versions cost p1,200.00 if I’m not mistaken, while the SDCC black version is p1,500.00.
The packaging for Player Select figures hasn’t changed much from the first time I encountered it, and it’s not a bad thing. NECA is one of the only companies I’ve come across that doesn’t seem to feel the need to waste copious amounts of plastic on packaging. Their clamshells are just enough to encase the figure and accessories, with some liner graphics. The clamsshells are great for MOCers since they display the figure nicely and they’re harder to mess up on the pegs. They’re also easy to store since they don’t take up a buttload of space.
They do look pretty boring though, and they’re a b*tch to open.
Once out of the clam, Isaac is impressive. He’s a 7″ figure, so if you’re Marvel Legends Iron Man is supposed to be 6 feet, this guy’s the size of that dude from “My Giant”. I’ve got a few 7″ scale figures so it’s no big deal for me, but you’re going to want to think twice if all you’ve got are DCUC toys.
Sculpt is excellent, as most of the recent NECA Player Select figures have been. All 3 variants use the same basic mold, which shows the design of Isaac’s space suit off quite nicely. The segmented armor looks just like Clarke’s been “upgrading” his armor by super-gluing stuff to it over a period of days. He’s pretty bulky, as befits an engineer wearing lots of layers that are meant to protect him from vacuum and whatever crap Deep Space engines throw out. Tachyons, Muons, Unicorns, whatever. His hands do look kind of tiny and effeminate though, and they don’t hold his weapons very securely.
Paint is kind of weird. On the two normal orange versions, it’s slopped on to simulate the rusted quality of Isaac’s suit I guess. It looks pretty good in photos, but up close it’s kind of thick and the “rusty” paint is glossy. My first thought was to get the “bloody” version of the figure since he came with a different accessory, but you’re going to want to think that through. The “blood” on this version is little more that ugly paint dabs that look like they were applied by an unartistic 4 year old. If Gil Grissom were examining this blood spatter, he’d KNOW it was planted.
The Unitology Suit version is far more impressive, done up in clean matte black and gray, with alien runes all over. I looked for bad applications here but couldn’t see anything on any thing of note on any of the examples I saw in the toy store. The sculpt on this one is a little less close to canon. Apparently, the Advanced Unitologist RIG it’s based on has 5 slats on the face plate and more armor. Still looks good.
The NECA website doesn’t mention the black version of the figure, since it was an SDCC exclusive. Luckily, 2Rats has apparently been greasing some wheels. They’ve been very good about bringing in SDCC exclusives into the country for local collectors. We got the blue April, the Hellboy Golden Army warrior, TMNT boxsets, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And it wasn’t just one or two either. So far, I haven’t had much of a problem finding any of the aforementioned items. If only Bankee could work with Mattel like this. It would be nice to see some of those convention exclusives make it over this way.
But enough about that. Back to the figue. Articulation is great, especially for something this detailed.
Isaac has effective joints in all the required places; neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles. For once, I’m not complaining about the lack of thigh swivels. This figures got two joints on the legs that accomplish what their supposed to do; the thigh cuts themselves and the ball/post knees. NECA could have done away with the thigh cuts all together and still have had the same functionality. The same goes for the left arm which has the same two redundant joints. The right arm doesn’t since it’s covered with the shoulder armor.
Together, all these joints give the figure some very nice flexibility. They opted for a DCUC T-joint for the hips, but I think it goes well with the figure. Somehow, I don’t think the ball joint they used for Ryu Hayabusa would have gone over well.
The best thing about this toy is that it lights up.
In the game, you’re health are displayed as lights along your character’s spine. It’s a 3rd person shooter, so you’re looking over the guys back. It’s a pretty novel way to show stats. The toy version is a pretty good representation of that. Inside the head (the “ball” of the joint in there is a lightbulb) and under the suit’s spine, there are LED lights, blue/green for the rusted versions and white for the Unitologist. If you press the top portion of Isaac’s spine, the light comes on. The button is pretty unobtrusive and it locks into place in case you want to take pictures. It’s really the kicker that makes this toy worthwhile.
So recap; The regular rusty RIG Isaac Clarke comes with a blue/green LED light and the plasma cutter. Bloody Clarke comes with the sane LED and a ripper (circular saw) weapon and those extra paint applications. The exclusive SDCC Unitolotgist comes with the black deco and Unitology runes, white LEDs and a plasma cutter done in appropriate paint. All share the same nice sculpt and 19 points of articulation.
All three are great figures and if you’ve got 7″ space marines lying around, they make great additions to your collection. The choice of which is yours really since they’re basically the same. If you’re a fan of the game and want the one closest to the Isaac you know, then get the orange one. If you want a badass spaceman, get the black one.
If you're looking for biased, one-sided views of toys and other assorted geekery, then you're in the right place. If you want objective, you'll need a blog written by someone who isn't an obsessive geek.
These are my views on various toys, movies, places, and things, along with assorted pictures and the the occasional link to stuff I find sufficiently geeky.
Enjoy your stay and leave a comment.
Slangards
