Toy Review: Activator Class Starscream & Dirge

02/11/10

Transformers Animated:
Activator Class
Starscream & Dirge

The “Activator” Class was a special size/complexity class of Transformer created for the Animated line of toys. They shared the same size as the “Scout” Class figures from previous lines (about 4 inches in height) but with an added action feature; a spring-loaded transformation. You basically pressed a button and POP! they became a robot.

This isn’t a new concept. As early as the 2nd year of the original Transformers (as much as you can say original when talking about toys that were just copies of Japanese lines) line in the 80’s, we saw the Jumpstarters. These were toys with pull-back motors that would zoom forward and at the end of their run, a catch would release and they’d pop up and flip over, landing on oversized feet in their robot mode. It was a hell of a lot of fun until the gears and things wore down.

The Activators don’t have the pull-back motors, but their spring-loaded coversions work pretty well. Some work better than others. Starscream and Dirge fall somewhere in between.

The figures come in an asymetric bubble pack that should be familiar to collectors of the Deluxe Class Animated figures. It’s not the best packaging and it’s a pain to store, but it serves it’s purpose. It’s got some nice cartoon art and some passable product photos that display how the figure transforms. It’s all very easily understood, though if you’re really thick, there are some instructions included.

The toy itself is small (there is a lot of wasted space in these packages) and there are no accesssories that aren’t already permanently connected.,That doesn’t mean it’s not a fun toy. In my view, accessories are what makes something like GI Joe fun, while the transforming process are what makes Transformers fun.

Dirge is just a repaint of Starscream. If you’ve seen the show, then you may be familiar with the episode where Starscream gets clones who each display one of his character traits brought to an absurd conclusion. In his case, the trait Dirge has is greed. There’s a third Activator seeker, Thundercracker, who was Starscream’s pride and egomania. Unfortunately, all of them are pretty hard to find. I got lucky with these two, but I haven’t seen a Thundercracker around.

The figures are boxed in their robot mode, so you’ll need to do some work getting them into their jet mode before you can enjoy the pop-up feature. It’s a lot like the conversion process of the Voyager Class Starscream in that you just need to flip his wings over and most everything else follows suit. Fix his legs in back and his nose cone out front, then make sure his arms are attached to his undercarriage and you’re done. The Jet doesn’t look all close to a real plane, with tons of kibble hanging off, but at this size, I don’t really mind.

Once you have him in the plane mode, you can then go nuts. Press the button on top and snap! The wings flip over and he’s pretty much done. All you need to do is flip over his blasters and shoulder armor, then straighten up his legs.

If you’re a Macross/Robotech fan, you’ll be happy to know that unlike the Voyager Class toy, these can easily mimic the gerwalk mode of the Veritech fighters. Because the arms don’t fold back like the bigger toys, they can hang down below the wing like they’re supposed to. If you can get a few of those transforming Revoltech Veritechs, you can have yourself a gerwalkathon.

These toys are really a joy to play with. Not only are they high quality figures, with strong plastic, breakaway parts and good paint applications (for a mass market figure at least), they are relatively well articulated. The shoulders, elbows, hips and knees are balljoints (though the knee is limited) while the head is on a hinge to let them look up and down. At this scale that’s enough to get them in a number of good poses.

Plus, if you are looking to complete an Animated Seeker army, then you’re probably going to want to buy a few of these. Since they’re small, they’ll be relatively cheaper to purchase and customize.

Value wise though, they aren’t that good a deal. Sure they’re great toys, but when they were first released, they were Php 500+ at suggested retail price. This was close to the price of a Deluxe figure. Even considering the action feature, I don’t think the price is on par with the amount of plastic used here. Towards the end of 2009, Playkit released some stock that it had found in some warehouse somewhere at Php 200. The figures flew off the shelves before the announcement even had time to spread.

You can resort to the bootlegs, but having seen and played with both, I have to say that the original really is better in terms of plastic quality, paint, casting, and the strength of the spring. These days, you’ll be lucky to find them via collectors at about Php 300-500. If you can find them at the low end of that range, I’d say buy ‘em.

Toy Review: Marvel Select Red & Green Hulks

02/4/10

Marvel Select Red & Green Hulks

The Incredible Hulk has been one of my favorite Marvel characters since I first saw him on television. Reruns of that old show with Lou Ferigno all decked out in his green body paint, flexing and grimacing like a nut… Now that was good TV.

When I started collecting comic books (I started in the library with real books and had to work my way up to comics), The Hulk was one of the titles that formed the core of my collection. I’ve since sold a bunch of the older ones, keeping mostly the ones from the Peter David, Dale Keown run. If you haven’t read Peter David’s Hulk, go out and find a trade now. It is worth the money, believe me. For that matter, go out and find his original X-factor run as well. Strong Guy. lol.

I’ve slowly been getting back into comic collecting, but having been gone from the hobby for so long, I don’t really know where to start. For one thing, there are only a few real comic book shops here, and selection of back issues is limited. I could probably order TPBs of past story arcs, but I’m a lazy bastard. Plus I’ve heard that since Loeb took over writing chores for the Hulk titles, things have gone downhill. Blatant marketing driven plots, insipid storylines, and weak characters have made the books something to avoid.

But I can’t resist this Red Hulk.

The first I heard about it was when the Red Hulk set of Marvel Legends were announced. I was like lolwhut? Red Hulk? why? Then Marvel started plugging this guy like he was their next Wolverine. We saw 2 more figures of him pop up, some other merchandise, and a ton of comic book covers on the shelf with his face growling at me. I forked over 30 pieces of silver and my right testicle to get myself an exclusive Red Hulk Legends set, then set about trying to procure his diminutive little brother from the Universe line.

The Marvel Select figure was the only one I was on the fence about. If you remember my Thor review, I’m not really a fan of Diamond’s Select line. They’re a lot like McFarlane Toys; sure they’ve got some nice sculpts, but I’m looking for toys, not statues. So when the Hulks first hit Comic Odessey, I wasn’t too excited, especially knowing how in demand they were from the hype on our local toy boards.

I changed my mind several months later when 2Rats brought in a shipment of them. I saw them at Toy Kingdom on a day when there wasn’t anything else on my radar. Figured since I don’t actually have a centerpiece for my Hulk collection (Raging Hulk where are you?), I could get them both as display pieces. They were a little more than what they had sold for at Comic Odessey (Php 1,500 for the green and Php 2,000 for the exclusive red), but at least I got SM Advantage card points. yay.

I won’t go over the packaging again since I covered it in the Thor review pretty well. Suffice to say it is one of the best boxes I’ve seen in my days as a collector, right up there with the Sigma 6 footlockers.

The two hulks are pretty much identically placed in the package. Nothing fancy, just standing there. They remembered to change the blurbs and graphics on the back, which is a plus.

The biggest difference between the two figures is the head sculpt. In fact it is the ONLY difference aside from the paint. The two bodies are made from the same mold, with the veins and bulges all in the same place.

The formost reason I didn’t want to get these two figures is the head sculpt. It’s awful. Really. Even saying that the sculptors were going for a more realistic look as opposed to the cartoony look of the Mcguinness inspired Legends figure, it’s still a fail in my book. Both of them look haggard, with sunken cheeks and eyes. Sort of like some kind of monster drug addicts, strung out and mad as hell about it. Green has the worst of it since the artisans decided to give him that old messy bowl cut.

The heads are connected to the rest of the body by a ball joint. It works pretty well; it allows both of them to look left and right,unlike their Marvel Universe counterparts.

Unfortunately, that’s about the only thing he’s got the smaller figures. The rest of his articulation is as lacking as the 3.75 scale toys. The arms are decent, with a generous range of motion at the shoulder, some at the elbow, with a swivel at the wrist. He has a waist cut that allows him to turn.

But when you go below that, things start going sideways. I don’t know why they sculpt Hulk with these bulbous legs. They aren’t really needed to sell the character are they? Hulk Smash. To do that, he needs his fist. Sure he can jump miles at a time, but does he really need thighs as big as his chest to do it?

Those sculpted muscles really block the movement of his legs, just as they do in the Universe toys. Don’t plan on getting your Select Hulks to do much of anything but stand around and grimace since those hips and knees are virtually useless.

I do, however like the sculpt of the back. The back of this figure is just awesome with big bursting muscle straining against skin. I bet he could knock someone out just by flexing his Teres Minor.

If that’s what floats your boat, you’ll want to get the green one. Paint apps on the green guy seem to be more complicated with more dry brushing. Diamond seemed to be satisfied with a subtle wash on the red one, so you don’t see a lot of the detail.

The only accessories they have is the small relatively flat plastic base. It’s sculpted as an impact crater, cast in red or green, then painted. Compared to some of the other Select stands, it just doesn’t compare, but then the mass of the figures makes the sacrifice understandable.

At the asking price these things go for and with the problems with the sculpt, I wouldn’t really recommend them for anyone other than Marvel Select completists and Hulk enthusiasts.

They’re both big figures, with some nice details, but when it comes down to it, you’re better off spending your money on a nice bust or a good sized statue of th Hulk than these not-so-much-action-as-half-hearted-activity figures.

Thanks to Cibo Marco for the shopped pic.