Toy Review: Jazwares’ Astroboy Action Figures

11/20/09

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.