Beachhead
So, thanks to Bim of Comicology, I went out and bought a Hall of Heroes Beachead. “Wait,” you ask, “you went out and dropped p800 on this thing just because some dude who reads your blog went and asked you to review it?
Yes.
I am THAT prone to suggestion. I regularly find myself buying p150 worth of McDonald’s food just so I can get an itty-bitty ice cream cone, or paying p100 for a bottle of coke to get a “free” pizza at Pizza Hut. I am a the consumer that marketing department heads have wet dreams about.
So here he is. An HOH Beachhead. To tell you the truth, I’m glad Bim asked me to review him because this figure is a hell of a lot of fun. If you want to hear about the packaging, read one of my other GI Joe reviews. It’s basically the same except it has an illustration of Beachead. duh. I’ve said it before in my other 3.75″ figure reviews, but accessories are the entire point of this scale and Beachhead has a ton of them. Here’s the list:
I like how he can carry everything listed above on him. He’s got a holster for the pistol on his leg, a slot for the extra magazine on the satchel, and the crossbow plugs right into the backpack. There are a few issues with these things though. One, his pistol doesn’t really slide all the way down into the holster, so tends to fall out. I’m not sure if it’s a quality control issue or a mismatch between the mold of the pistol and the figure, but it is very annoying. Two, the crossbow is very loose on the backpack and since it breaksdown, it tends to fall apart at the slightest touch. I’ve taken to leaving the little clear rubber band on it to keep it in place. I’m glad to say that the magazines are snug in either the gray rifle or the satchel.
The flak vest is removable, but it takes some work and you may end up stretching or tearing it if you’re not careful. If you remove his head it makes things easier. Underneath, his sweater is sculpted with the little ribs you see on his arms. It really is amazing that they gave him this amount of detail. You don’t see this kind of work in this scale really, as evidenced by the new Marvel Universe toys. I wish they had given us a seperate unmasked head as they did in the Beachhead/Dail Tone comic pack. That would have made this a must have. As it is, I’m thinking of getting that pack just for the head, even if the colors are slightly lighter than this release.
The rest of his sculpt is very well done. His balaclava is sculpted as two pieces unlike Shockwave’s (Shockblast?). He’s got a ton more ammo on his flak jacket aside from the ones in his satchel(this guy must be a really bad shot if he carries this many mags), a couple of nice pockets and a coil of red rope on his shoulder. He’s also got somemore red rope on his backpack. Neither is removable, but it’s a nice touch, and points for painting it rather than leaving it black. There is one sculpt detail I didn’t like and that’s the knife he has in his right boot. It’s about the ugliest piece of work I’ve seen and totally unexpected. I don’t have a proper picture of it, but it’s wide and flat and looks like something you’d see on those cheap soldier playsets with the guns that don’t fit them.
Articulation is the norm for Joes that are based on the first round of 25th anniversary figures. He’s got the double-hinge knees that joint-junkies love, but he’s also got the horrible Hasbro elbow (a combination ball and post joint that takes the place of a bicep cut and a elbow hinge) and no frigging thigh cut. The lack of that swivel on the thigh is a serious oversight in the GI Joe line and limits the number of poses you can give them.
But those are little things that most collectors won’t even notice, especially if you don’t goof with them as much as I do. For a display collector, these guys are perfect. For anyone that wants a couple of good 1/18th scale guns, this is a good buy; a great figure and several weapons. For Mint On Card guys, the Hall of Heroes is just beautiful; sturdy packaging with gold foil and a nice window.
Is he worth the p800 that this line costs? Not unless you’re very picky. You can get the aforementioned comic pack (which is relatively abundant in retail toy stores), with an almost identical figure plus an extra head (just lighter and with fewer guns) and a second figure for the same price. I chose to get this one because the darker uniform matches better with my commando Snake Eyes and I needed the extra guns. There was also a single pack, though those have dissappeared from shelves rather quickly after the Revenge of Cobra toy line launch.
And one last pic, just because that rifle looks so damned, good…
Icons Colossus
Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin is what a comic book superhero should be. Period. All you Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Wolverine lovers can eat my shorts. All of them suck. Colossus is what a hero is supposed to be. Idealistic, noble, self-scarificing; a rock that his teammates can lean against and a sheild that protects them from harm. I literally cried after reading Uncanny X-Men #390. Granted the psuedo-science was worse than an episode of Fringe (just discovered cure to Stryfe’s Legacy virus requires a catalyst to start the process; the life of a mutant), the issue left a lasting impression with me and I haven’t enjoyed the X-men the same way since.
In hindsight, having divorced myself from comics for the past few years, I can see why Lobdell and company would choose this route. Although Colossus was a mainstay of the team in Claremont’s day, writers during the late 90’s didn’t really know what to do with him. Despite a great role in “Age of Apocalypse” (his entire team is decimated AND he steps on Kitty), his arcs were pretty lame. After the whole death of his parents, Illyana, his brother, they kind of went, “who’s left to kill?”. Of course the answer was, “Piotr”.
Of course, this being comics, they decided to bring him back a few years later in an even more preposterous sequence of events. Something about an alien stealing his body shortly after his death and leaving a double for the X-Men to cremate so that he could secretly use Piotr’s blood as a basis for a mutant “cure” that would eradicate the species from the face of the Earth.
You read that right.
Idiotic retcons aside, I am still elated when another Colossus figure arrives on the shelf. Unlike some of his teammates, Colossus isn’t one of those characters that get a lot of plastic love from the toy companies. He’s a big guy, which requires a lot of material and non-standard packaging, and he’s silver, which requires paint. If you pick up say a Daredevil Icon and Colossus, you can feel the differnce in weight. However, the size and heft of this guy is about all that’s in the plus column. I expected a lot from this figure, based on all the hype around the Icons line and the premium collectors were willing to shell out for toys in this scale, I thought it would be a very good figure to add to my meager Silver Slavic Stud collection.
I was dead wrong. Like the last time I ventured into toys this height (see my Masterpiece Ultra Magnus review), I found that size doesn’t always matter.
First off, what you’ll see on the shelf. The Hasbro Icons line has some really nice packaging, which sucker that I am, is one of the things that sold me. It’s sort of a card encased in a plastic box, which means the “box” is one big window. You can easily see the figure you’re getting through the plastic. If this guy was easily available, that might be a plus since his paint applications aren’t the greatest. As it is, you’ll be lucky if you find him in a specialty shop, let alone retail. The box is relatively easy to open and you can place the figure back for storage which makes Mint-On-Card/Mint-In-Box collectors happy.
Once he’s out of the box, then the problems with him become more apparent. First off is his paint. Hasbro is notorious for it’s lack of paint washes in the collecting community, and while I understand the need to cut costs at the mass produced 6″ and 3.75″ lines, the Icons line is supposed to be more of a collector friendly line, hence a higher standard is expected. We don’t get that here. Colossus; torso is cast in yellow plastic, and then painted a flat silver or red as required, while his arms are red plastic with a silver coat. His thighs are gray in silver and his boots are cast red. Though the overall silver coat gives him an even shade, it’s very one-dimensional. There is also a lot of paint slop over the lines of his costume which is obvious once you can get closer. I find myself wanting to paint him so bad.
Sculpt is ok, but a little to much on the realistic side for me. His feet for example, seem tiny. It also severely limits his range of motion. Unlike his Marvel Legend sized counterparts, he can’t do much of anything. His forearms will only move about 15 degrees which is good to get it from the straight, locked arm, to a relaxed state. There won’t be any flexing of biceps for this strongman. Similarly, he can’t bend down or crouch if his life depend on it. His ball and post hips are limited by his briefs and the tiny feet don’t offer enough support for his mass. I regularly find him on the floor in the morning after he’s fallen from my desk.
So yes, you have a great big Colossus figure at a relatively good price (p1,600.00 retail), but you can’t do much of anything with him besides this:
If you’re planning on getting into the Icons line or 1/6th scale figures, I’d suggest you start with the Daredevil/Nightcrawler figure, or shell out for a Hot Toys piece. The Icons Colossus really is a waste of money to anyone looking for anything but a display piece. Here’s hoping that once Hot Toys has churned out a few Wolverines and Hulks, they’ll give us a version of Colossus worthy of the name.
Marvel Legends Poll
Drop what you’re doing right this second! This is more important! Click the following link and VOTE FOR THE NEXT MARVEL LEGENDS!
Picture from www.actionfigurepics.com
So let’s re-cap. I want you all to go to the first link and check the following, mmmkay? Then click on VOTE. It doesn’t matter if you collect Marvel Legends or not. This is important. The fate of the world hangs in the balance here.
Black Widow
Constrictor
Bi-Beast
Skids & Mudflap
If there was one thing I hated more than anything about the new Transformers franchise it’s the leg-humping RC Truck. The second thing would be their apparently low IQ and their propensity toward flatulence. The Twins as portrayed in the movie come in at a close third.
Michael Bay’s humor is broad and juvenille. It’s the kind of humor that spawns Vicodin-addicted canines in casts, and largely consists of toilet humor (hence the fart jokes), sexual innuendo (hence the humping transformer), and racial stereotypes (hence the Twins). While all of these have their place - well except racial stereotypes, cause you know, there was the Holocaust, and Slavery, and all that bad shit - it is nonetheless moronic. I loved the big-robots-do-battle-and-smash-itty-bitty-people scenes but cringed at almost every joke (except that wheel one - that was classic).
This included EVERY SINGLE SCENE with the Twins. Every time they opened their mouths or popped one of those gansta poses, I could feel the hate-on rising inside my gut. I don’t care if it was intentional or not, it’s was plain stupid. It’s like Lucas’ decision to have all those Neimodians talking in the stereotypical English-speaking Chinese accents. Now my sensibilities may be tainted by the hundreds of anti-harassment training videos I have to watch, but those kind of character decisions smack of a cop out. Instead of trying to come up with a real character PERSONALITY, they just give it some cookie-cutter one.
Thankfully, one can just calldork age, discontinuity, or adaptation distillation on the whole thing and just enjoy the toys. Being a geek rocks.
Both Skids and Mudflap are reasonably good representations of their 3D CGI models, with various little parts sticking out and the general ad-hoc look of the Bayformers. Their faces look just as ugly as they do in the movie, complete with big ears, droopy/crazy eyes and gold teeth. It’s like they’re the failed result of a Cybertronian inbreeding experiment.
Their bodies are as misshapen and unsymetrical as their faces. Each has an overgrown arm with some kind of action gimmick. Skids’ right arm has a great little “SUPER-PUNCH!” feature where his fist pops out when you press a button. It’s almost as fun as the old “KUNG-FU ACTION” features on vintage toys that let you karate chop enemies (you may now flame me with “but those are cultural stereotypes, too!” posts). Mudflap’s gimmick is more mundane. It’s basically just a little spring-loaded rocket launcher. whoo. hoo.
Both of them have the included “Mech-alive” feature; when you press a button on their chest… well… they do next to nothing. Parts move. A bit. I’m sure there’s one or two kids in the world going “oooo…”
Articulation is actually very good. They share the same basic joint scheme, though their shoulder transformation varies a bit. They both still retain a great range of motion that allows them to get into positions most other Transformer toys can’t.
The fact that they are largely shellformers helps a lot. Most of their robot parts fold up and are hidden under the cars’ chassis. Because of this, they actually enjoy things like double hinge elbows and knees.
Because they are shellformers, they naturally have alot of kibble. Most of theirs is on their backs, which makes them look like hunchbacks, which is great and in keeping with their disfigured my-mom-dropped-me-and-im-special look.
Their car modes look really nice… IF you can get them back. The first time I tried to re-transform Skids, I spent an hour, literally, just trying to get all his parts to match up correctly. I’ve since concluded that his parts exist in seperate dimensions that are slightly out of synch and will never match up. Like magnets with identical electrical charges. This was a great relief since I thought I was going crazy.
Mudflap was a little easier, but since I got him about a month after Skids, it may have gained superpowers in the interim. Honestly, his design is simpler so parts match up without too much trouble. There is one thing I wonder about: what the hell are those little thingies that stick out of his chest across his shoulders? They’re just begging to be broken off.
Both are little compacts, like the kind you pack popes or clowns in. It’s only a matter of time before one of the master customizers takes a pair and makes a Runabout and Runamuck. You’ll also want to decide if you want one with a vanity plate. There was a running change on the Mudflap toy since the early runs had “Trax” printed on it (the character changes into a Chevy Trax car) and later versions had the movie accurate “Mudflap”. It’s not really that big unless you’re an idiot like me who felt the need to run around Metro Manila to score the “correct” version.
So to sum up, these are fun toys IF you can get over the Jar Jar Binks syndrome their part in the Revenge of the Fallen movie gives you AND if you can find them at a fair price. Suggested retail price is p700.00 (about $12-$14). When I was looking for Mudflap, the pair was going for p2000.00 - p2500.00 from scalpers. Specialty stores are bound to have around the same now since demand was high and supply was low at the time of release.
You could also wait for the event on August 1st at Megamall and try for an Ice Cream truck version of the pair. They’re smaller and turn into an ICE CREAM TRUCK, but at p700.00 for the pair of them, it’s a pretty good deal.
Of course, I doubt they’ll have “Decepticons suck my popsicle” printed down the side, but you can probably scratch that in with a magic marker.
Scout Class Reverb
Reverb is another of those lovable re-paints that fills out Hasbro’s summer offerings this year. What’s funny that it’s a repaint of a figure that was released not two months back, Knock Out. Seems Hasbro is stepping up the re-paint roll call with several of them coming up in the Revenge of the Fallen line, including Swerve (Sideswipe), Gears (Stockade), Hoist (Longarm), Thrust (Breakaway), Grindor (Blackout), Scorponok (Scorponok), Mixmaster (Mixmaster), Gathering at The Nemesis boxset (Soundwave, Fallen, and Megatron), and a Target exclusive orange Fallen (Fallen) to name a “few”. This doesn’t even include the Cybertron repaints they’ll be repackaging to fill out the Transformer Universe line while we wait for the Revenge line to wan.
According to his blurb in the back of the card, Reverb’s a fun guy when he’s not shooting holes in Autobots.
Read my [url=http://slangards.i.ph/blogs/slangards/2009/06/02/toy-review-rotf-scout-class-toys/]review of the first Revenge of the Fallen Scout wave[/url] if you’d like to see what the articulation and/or sculpt are like. It’s exactly the same level of articulation, which is superb. Or if you’re too lazy to click the link, you can look at the pretty pictures below. He’s the red one.
Paint wise, I’ve got to say I prefer the color scheme Knock Out. The shade of red plastic they casted Reverb in looks awful cheap. I looks… pink. Or salmon? It doesn’t help that the rest of him is an awful looking grey. He has more applications that Knock Out, but they aren’t really that aesthetically pleasing. I would have preferred a deeper red and an ominous Decepticon faction symbol.
When he transforms, there’s not much of an improvement. The weird red is still prominent and his racing colors don’t really add anything. They look more like an afterthought. For some reason, Hasbro felt it necessary to add some paint to his face, and it wasn’t all that successful. They chose a weird bluish silver that looks like he’s wearing a mask to Mardi Gras.
The only reason I bought this is that I liked how the 1/18 scale figures looked on Knock Out, and having a pair of mini-bikes was better than one. At p650.00, This is one Scout Transformer I would NOT recommend. You’re better off getting the first version of the mold. His color scheme looks far more interesting and he’s easier to find since the Philippines got tons of stocks during the initial launch of the toys. Knock Out and his wavemates are still warming pegs at your nearest Toy Kingdom, while the newer wave 2 toys pop up a set at a time.
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
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