Toy Review: The Blue Spirit

08/19/10

The Last Airbender’s Blue Spirit

Let me confess something before we start. I loved several of M. Night Shymalan’s movies. Everyone loved The Sixth Sense, that’s given. However I loved Unbreakable and The Village, and thought that Signs, The Happening and Lady in the Water, while not great, were all worthy efforts and have watched them repeatedly since they were released. Though he has a style that is not mainstream, I felt that it worked well with the material he was using. I was an unrepentant fan.

That changed with The Last Airbender. The film is a complete mess, utterly devoid of any heart, or the warmth and humor that filled the animated series and made it resonate with it’s audience. I wanted to like this movie so bad because of the source material and the fact that Shymalan has been one of the director’s who’s career I’ve followed, but after sitting through just one viewing of this movie I had to admit that the man is delusional.

Sadly, not even the toys could redeem the franchise. They’re manufactured by Spin Master, a fledgling toy company that got it’s start in 1994. Spin Master is best known for it’s Bakugan line, a collectible game that looks like a cross between Magic, Transformers, and marbles, but it’s coming up in the industry, securing the licenses for Airbender, How to Train Your Dragon, and the upcoming Tron 4″ and 7″ figures. Pretty good for a company that was only making things like silly putty knockoffs, Mighty Beanz and Tech Deck skateboard toys a few years ago.

I’ve seen the prototype photos of the Tron toys that Spin Master had on display at the SDCC recently and it looks like they’ve got a handle on what it takes to be competitive in the action figure market, but personally I think it came to late to save The Last Airbender line. They did a pretty good job on the How to Train Your Dragon line, but since that was geared toward a very young demographic, the problems with sculpt and articulation weren’t as topical. In this case, they were working from real life actors and a more serious fictional world. The toys however don’t really reflect that and still have that half cartoon, half trying-too-hard-to-capture-the-actors-likeness look to them.

The package is par for course. It’s an oversized blister pack with the same movie graphics on the posters you see in the theaters. It’s easily 50% too big for the figures inside, with a lot of air inside the bubble. Inside that bubble is a plastic tray that holds the figure in place with the aid of holes in the plastic and clear rubber bands.

There is no diffrentiation in the packaging from figure to figure, all of them having the same backing card with the same photos of the other figures in the 4″ sub line. On the pegs it’s hard to tell what the figures hanging in the back are since they all look the same and are the same size.

You can tell that these were made for international release, the cards being multilingual. They were probably intended for release in Canada as well as our region. All those translations leave little room for any word about the figure itself or the background of the characters inside.

There are 5 characters in the line, 2 Aangs, a Sokka figure, a Zuko one and this toy; the Blue Spirit.

The reason I picked up this one is because it’s the only one that isn’t saddled with the imposible feat of caputuring an actor’s likeness in the 4″ scale. Sure, a competent sculptor could probably do it if he took the time to hand craft a prototype, but as these are mass produced figures, something gets lost in the translation from the prototype to the manufacturing molds at the factory. Figures always end up looking soft and kind of vapid. Since the Blue Spirit is just a dude in a mask, then there’s no need to force it and you can come up with a much more convincing figure.

The toy is based on the movie version of the character so it looks far more demonic than the one in the cartoon. It’s also far more BLUE than the original, which was mostly bordering on black with just a blue mask. It comes with 1 accessorie (or 2 depending on how you look at it); a sword that splits into 2. He can hold both the combined weapon and the split pair fairly well in either hand, which is a plus.

The articulation is fair, but not spectacular. Having come up as a Marvel toy collector, I’m partial to my figures having the same level of articulation as the Marvel Legends (ML) line. While Spin Master gives it a good effort, there are things lacking that a play and display hobbyist will miss.

For instance, his lack of thigh and bicep swivels.

Though he has great shoulder and hip articulation (even if it is a little loose out of the box), he lacks those swivel joints that would allow him to cross his arms in front of his chest or sit indian style. I admit this may be nitpicking, but as someone who poses toys A LOT, these are important for getting more dynamic looks.

His knee and elbow joints are simple 45 degree hinges. Not the best, but better than some of Hasbro’s swivel-hinge combinations that only allow a 20 degree or less range.

He also has hinges at his ankles and swivels at his wrists. His neck is a classic ball and socket joint.

The balljoint at his head is slightly disappointing. I know this is not a Hasbro product and I should not expect compatibility between it and Hasbro’s 4″ toys, but I was hoping I could make this into a Samurai Wolverine or something.

No such luck.

The ball at the neck of the Blue Devil is far to small to allow Marvel Universe (MU) figures’ heads to fit and stay on. You can pose them with the heads swapped, but they’ll fall off if you move it.

Also, the figure is not EXACTLY in scale with the MU figures. It’s body is slightly wide and short compared to the taller, lankier Marvel line. They fit together in a line up, but when you switch parts, it’s easy to see the discrepancy in their proportions.

But enough of that. This is still a good figure to get. The sculpt is good as a standalone toy, with good detail, solid build and it’s close to the movie model. The paint (what there is of it) is also very well done. Since it’s mostly blue anyway, any sloppy applications are hard to spot.

At the lower price point of Php 300.00 at Toy Kingdom, it’s a pretty good deal. Let’s consider the recent A-Team figures from Jazwares. They are similar in scale, style, articulation, and accessory count to The Last Airbender toys yet The A-Team figures were of lower quality, with very noticable paint mistakes. They also cost about 50% MORE.

Really, if you’re open to including a non-essential, but well done figure in your collection, you could do worse than this guy.

I’d skip the rest of the line though.

Toy Review: Fiercest Foes Doctor Octopus

08/18/10

Fiercest Foes Doctor Octopus

There are two stories about Doctor Octopus that I really remember from the time I collected comics. The first was the story arc in the Spider-Man comic where Erik Larsen decided to bring back the Sinister Six. Doc Ock planned to invade an alternate dimension with the help of Mysterio, The Vulture, Sandman, Hobgoblin and one more dude whose name I can’t be bothered to look up at the moment and steal a butt load of advanced weaponry in a bid to take over the world.

You got to love those evil schemes.

The second one was an Incredible Hulk story by Peter David and Dale Keown (the BEST creative team that has EVER done the Hulk) where Hulk went back to Vegas to investigate the death of someone who had befriended him when he was Mr. Fixit. Between battles with the Punisher and various mobsters, Hulk found Octavius in a casino (after being attacked by an irrate Sandman at the end of the aforementioned Revenge of the Sinister Six) making a scene after being asked to leave. What ensued was hilarious.

So after getting my SDCC Spider-Man, I decided to pick up the Doctor Octopus figure from the new Spider-Man Fiercest Foes line that’s currently warming pegs at your local Toy Kingdom.

The Fiercest Foes (FF) line is one of Hasbro’s 4″ lines that run parallel to it’s main Marvel Universe (MU) line. Others include the Iron Man 2 (IM2) line and the upcoming Thor and the inevitable Captain America and Avengers lines. As opposed to the IM2 line, the FF one is geared more towards a younger audience, much like the other Spider-man lines were in the past.

What that means in laymans terms is that there are a buttload of Spider-man versions, most of which will never be seen in the comics. After all, Scuba Gear Spidey or Samurai Spidey or Summer Vacation Spidey in board shorts with “Surf’s Up” Surfboard! are NOT things that would fit into the 40 plus years of continuity. It also means that this line has cut back on articulation and features some really crazy accessories and/or action features.

The back of the card shows you some of the other toys in the lineup. You can see that there are some weird attachable armors that Hasbro has cooked up, stuff you’d never catch the normally fashionable Web Head wearing. For a toy line called “Fiercest Foes”, there seems to be an overabundance of Mr. Peter Parker figures in the assortment.

But I’ll cut Hasbro some slack, because among all these odd alternate univerese Spider-Men, they’ve included some really great examples from Spidey’s rogue gallery. There’s the very nice Carnage figure (rare), a well done, if flawed, Venom (rarer), and an unbelivably cool looking Rhino (absolutely, cut-your-wrists unobtainable). There’s also this figure I’m reviewing today, the “Power Armor Doc Ock.”

It’s unfortunate that this isn’t one of Doctor Octopus’ better known looks. It’s a partly green jumpsuit, but it’s not the classic set of tights that displayed his manly gut so perfectly. Neither is it the beautiful, white pimp suit he wore in the Revenge of the Sinister Six (now THAT would be an awesome figure to have!). This is something that the toy designers seem to have come up with themselves. Which is not to say that it’s bad. It’s a green and yellow clown suit that looks more advanced than the plain spandex pajamas he normally wears.

The sculpt of the figure is pretty good, but there’s just one glaring oddity here. He’s NOT the short, pudgy fellow we all know and love to hate. This guy’s all ripped and burly. He’s got a six pack for crying oout loud.

This all looks good, but the nerd in me is screaming that it’s not canon.

Even the face is less awkward than it should be. I always imagined that Otto Octavius is a nerd gone bad. He’s the social inept kid that got the atomic wedgies in the hallway, or swirlies in the bathroom. The kid who got his lunch money stolen constantly. As such, Otto should be totally without any sense of what other people would accept as “style”.

Yet this guy’s got sporting a goatee and some nice looking specs. He gives off a more of a hipster vibe than “dork”.

He is rocking a bowl cut and looks to be balding. I’m not sure if the bald spots were meant to be there of if it was a missed application or something.

Articulation is better than I expected. The word on this line is that Hasbro dumped several key joints since it was a line for younger customers. I guess the thinking here is that since they’re not displaying these toys, and holding them in their hands most of the time, pretending, then they don’t need a whole lot of articulation. Hence we get toys like the FF Venom with balljointed hips, but no knees or ankles. The Hobgolin/Green Goblin in the line share the lack of ankles, as do most of the Spider-Man versions.

Thankfully, Otto here has both knees, and ankles. Sadly, his hips are just swivels, but that still translate to much more useful movement than Venom.

Sadly, his arms are where Hasbro skimped. They took his elbows away. “I am Otto’s melancholy coronoid process”. He still has a wrist swivel and a balljointed shoulder, but those sweet, double-hinged elbows that the the Marvel Universe Goblins have are missing here.

Luckily, the missing joints aren’t really missed, since this is Doctor Octopus. Who needs elbows when you have several more hyperarticulated, massively armed, super strong, metal appendages to do all your heavy lifting?

Hasbro sculpted Ock’s arms as a seperate piece this time, so you can remove the harness as you like. There’s a small clip on the side you can undo rather easily so you can slide the figure out. Y’know, when old Octavious needs time to admire that new ripped body of his.

There are 8 limbs on the harness. Don’t ask me why there are 8… from what I know from the comics and movies, he’s supposed to have only 4. This toy has a total of 12 limbs. Kind of silly, but meh.

There are 2 arms that root him to the ground:

3 arms tipped with non-articulated gripping claws:

and 3 more arms with implements that are open to interpretation. 1 of those is a spinning saw blade with some itty bitty teeth and another looks like a vacuum cleaner (for all that hair he’s losing I, guess). The last of them looks like a plug. I suppose even Doctor Octopus needs to recharge his batteries now and then.

Together, the toy is surprisingly fun. Even if the arms are not articulated (except for the free-spinning saw blade), it’s fairly poseble. The way the arms are positioned are dynamic enough to give you plenty of options when displaying the thing.

The toy also comes with 3 “Fiercest Foes Cards”. They’re part of a cockamamie game that Hasbro has cooked up. I suppose it’s another one of their diabolical marketing gimmicks, but I’m not sure how suggessful it’ll be. The art on the things isn’t very attractive and the whole process of the game (explained in the instruction sheet) seems tedious.

And considering the endless versions of the web-head, the scarcity of the villains (which is retarded for a line called “Fiercest Foes”), and a price of Php 450.00 each, I doubt people are going to buy enough of them to actually PLAY this game.

Luckily, “Power Armor Doc Ock” is one of those figures that seems to be warming pegs at Toy Kingdom and Toys “R” Us branches around Ortigas.

Relatively, anyway.

Even with the missing articulation, and the odd transluscent orange plastic they chose to cast the arms in (the most likely reason no one’s buying it), the toy is a good buy. It’s got a very high fun factor, good poseability, and a nice sculpt. So far, this one’s even nicer than the Superhero Showdown Octopus, which seems to have limited posing possibilities due to the limp arms.

If you’re a wiz at painting, you could even redo the arms and costume to give him a classic look.

Toy Review: Green Goblin & Hobgoblin

08/13/10

Green Goblin & Hobgoblin

I’d seen both the Marvel Universe (MU) Green Goblin early last year (it was released in March of 2009 with wave 2) and then Hobgoblin later (May with wave 4). I hadn’t paid them any attention because I was still iffy about the 4″ scale and I was more interested in the Green, Grey, and Red Hulks that were released in the same waves as these two. THOSE where a bitch to find.

I then got the Spider-Friends Boxset with the repainted MU Spider-Man figure that had been already been re-painted and released 4 times before the Fury Files became the H.A.M.M.E.R. Files. Normally, once I had the main characters of a comic, movie, or TV series, an obsessive compulsion would take over and I’d need to get the others. It didn’t happen here because the MU Spider-Man is BUTT-UGLY. It’s pin-headed and awkward and not at all super-heroy.

Then I got the exclusive San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC) Movie Spider-Man and that little voice began nagging me; How can I have a 4″ Spider-Man in my collection and have no 4″ bad guys for him to play with? What’s a Spider Sense with no danger? What’s a web-line with no one to swing circles around? What’s a web-shield if you have no projectiles or energy beams or unwanted sexual advances to deflect?

If Mysterio were around, I’d make the perfect patsy; I’m such a weakwilled putz.

So my next visit to the toy store ended in me bringing home a Doctor Octopus and these two bad boys.

Packaging is the same as always; polygon blister on card, Frank Cho art on the front, boring product photo on the back, pics of other toys in the line and Fury’s mug telling you you should visit the www.furyfiles.com website to view exclusive content (which is usually pretty boring).

There’s also the character description that tells you that Norman Osborne and Roderick Kingsley are some very evil dudes. But you already knew that.

Both have the same standard Fury Files MU articulation (meaning no thigh swivels). It’s sufficient, but there are some poses that you just can’t achieve and the legs tend to fall off if you push them too far. The two figures are pretty much identical from the neck down, except for colors. There aren’t any variations in the body of the figures, both using the same scaly skin and the same gobliny boots and the same gobliny gloves.

The differences only become apparent when you look at the head and accessories.

As you can see, the sculpts of the heads are 2 different pieces of art. Though the scale is small, you can see the detail that went into these. Because they’re not required to look human, the artist was able to play around a bit with them and make them far more twisted looking.

Articulation on the head and neck is the same as both; a balljoint that’s basically locked as a swivel. There isn’t any looking up or down here. Sorry, folks. Hobby’s cape limits his range a smidge more than Gobby’s, but it’s not really noticeable.

The pumpkin bombs are nice too. Unlike my Marvel Legends (ML) Green Goblin, they aren’t glued to the figures’ hands so you can pose them with or without the weapons. I’m thinking of gluing them permanantly to their hands though. They’re just too small and easy to lose, and they don’t fit all that securely to their perches. If one of them falls from your shelf, you’re bound to spend several hours searching for the bomb, which will fly right off on impact and roll under one of some indescribably heavy piece of furniture.

The satchels are identical as well, a completely re-used mold that simply used another color of plastic. One tan, the other brown. It’s a good piece and fits the figures well (since both were designed together), without affecting the range of motion. It is a little odd that the size is so at odds with the pumpkin bomb, unless he’s got some kind of zero space generator inside there that dumps everything into another dimension. Then maybe it’d work. There could also be some kind of shrink ray in there that reduces all the bombs to the size of a chocnut so that he can fit hundreds in there at a time. Either way, the Goblins should market the shit out of that technology. Imagine being able to fit your car in your pocket!

The Goblin Glider remains the same as well. The only improvement made to the piece between the two figures was that it was given a black wash that gave it a slightly dirtier look. No big deal, and not quite an improvement. You can take it or leave it, and it doesn’t really matter if I can’t remember which glider goes to which figure. They look the same. I’d like to have seen a more gobliny glider for Hobby, one that looked more demony than roboty.

It’s too bad that they used that bendy rubbery plastic for it, though. The stuff doesn’t hold up well at all. If you try to pose him by the wings of the glider for example, hanging it off the edge of a table or something, the thing will slowly bend under the weight of the figure. You have to support it by the fuselage, but Hasbro has provided nothing to help there. There’s no hole, no clip, no suction cup. Sure you can make one from wire or something, but at least the ML Goblin had a way to make it look like they guy was flying over the Webhead’s head rather than sitting on the ground. A clear stand and a hole in the back would have been awesome.

But really, these are great figures, especially now that they’re down to the current price of Php 450.00 per figure (when they were released, they were Php 550.00). If you’re lucky enough to get the SDCC Spider-Man, then I would suggest you invest in getting these to fill in your rogues gallery.

Toy Review: Fastlane 3-pack

08/12/10

Toys R’ Us Fastlane 3 pack

When wave 10 of the Marvel Universe (MU) figures was announced with the classic Johnny Blaze jumpsuit, I immediately knew I wanted to buy this set of 1:18 scale motorcycles from Toys R’ Us (TRU).

I’ll admit though, that I’m not really a big fan of scale models and generally only want motorcycles that have that classic cruiser styling from the 30s-60s as opposed to the more popular sport bikes from Ducati that seem to be the thing that Diecast collectors are buying (from the evidence on the toyshelf anyway). I always keep an eye out for Maisto bikes on sale for only Php 100.00 and since I converted to the 1:18 scale, I’ve got a few models to go with my Logan and some Joes.

I’d seen the 3-pack in the local branch of and was waffling about buying it for ages. It was only Php 420.00 for 3 figures, but I really only wanted the one with the long forks. Even when I first saw it I said, “that’d make a great bike for a 1:18 scale Johnny Blaze…” It really is too bad I wasn’t able to score an MU Ghostrider, but I’m glad I was able to pick this one up before it was gone for good. I couldn’t find it in the Galleria Department store where I first saw it, but did a little digging in the main Toys R’ Us branch and came up with a few severely dinged up boxes.

Fastlane is a proprietary brand of Toys R’ Us made by a factory in Hong Kong called Motormax. It’s obvious from the multi-lingual features on back of the box that these toys were made for kids 3 and above in Canada and other countries.

The box boasts that the figures have “Working Rear Suspension!” and “Working Kick Stands!” and bears the logos of 3 big motorcycle companies; Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha.

Unfortunately though, the box isn’t really collector friendly. It’s big, it’s ugly, it’s loud, and very delicate. It’s open in the front instead of being closed with a window. It’s basically just a blister pack.

I threw it away as soon as I ripped it open.

The bikes are pretty varied. There’s the two cruisers, one with short forks colored black, and one with the long forks with flames going down the side. The other is a yellow sport bike.

blah.

The yellow bike is pretty big, and I’m not entirely sure that the scale is perfect. It seems a little too tall and wide to fit my 4″ Scarlett/Agent Helix figure.

I was hoping for some diecast parts here, but it looks like Php 420.00 doesn’t buy a lot. The bikes are mostly just plastic. It’s not the end of the world, but with these kinds of toys, I prefer the metal. There’s a nice heft to diecast that makes a replica feel more… legit.

The black one is more my speed. I just love the look of Harleys and other motorcycles of this type. I know kids these days are into racing and custom high-performance parts, but there’s a certain ideal that is associated with cruisers; a man and the open road. It’s why you don’t put Logan on a Ducati, ’cause he is and always has been a loner.

This one suffers from the lack of dicast the most. It feels light and delicate, like you have to be very careful with it or that “Working Rear Suspension!” will fall off.

Last but very best is the one I bought the set for. It looks like the custom jobs you see from Jesse James (he’s the dude who got beat up by his porn star wife and then cheated on Sandra Bullock - what a douche) on TV and definitely befits the carnie roots of the original Ghostrider. And what do you know, it’s got flames!

It looks great on this, it was dumb on Optimus Prime.

It’s a little hard to get my Marvel Superhero Showdown Ghostrider to stay on the bike. Having no experience with these things in real life, I could be doing it wrong, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that it’s a little too small for 1:18. It still looks pretty good.

Overall, despite the cheap feel of the plastic parts, I think Php 420.00 is a pretty good price for 3 different motorcylces. It’s not much more than I paid for the Maisto bikes that I bought on sale, and not being a hard core collector of these things, I can’t really complain.

I’m not entirely sure what to do with the rest of the bikes though. There are only so many characters that really need them. I figure Punisher would look good on a dirtbike and I saw another Fastlane 3-pack with one. Maybe I’ll get that and paint it black…

Toy Review: Commando Snake Eyes

08/10/10

Sigma 6 Commando Snake Eyes

2005 to 2007 was a great time in toy collecting, especially if you were into GI Joe, but weren’t fixated on the old 3.75″ scale. This was the time that Hasbro’s 8″ GI Joe line called Sigma 6 was on the shelves of toystores.

It’s not surprising that the new collectors don’t know anything about this line. It’s dead; cancelled when Hasbro realized how popular the 3.75″ (actually 4″ now that they’re slightly taller) scale still was with collectors. The great response to the release of the 25th Anniversary line of Joes (figures that were based on the old toys, but redesigned to look more realistic and with better articulation) practically sounded the death knell for this bigger scale.

It wasn’t that surprising. The cartoon that supported the line wasn’t a hit (it wasn’t even aired here) and buyer interest in the line didn’t support its continued importation. I understand that reception in the States was just as lukewarm. The last few waves we got locally languished on shelves for a long time before sell through. We basically got the last wave of 2005 and two in 2006. We didn’t even see the 2007 waves.

I’d heard about the smaller 2.5″ scale figures from my collecting mentor who told me that they had insanely high cost/fun ratios. For about the cost of a Marvel Legends figure, I could get a vehicle and 2 small figures with limited articulation. Then I heard about the 8″ line from another friend who told me about all the accessories that they had. I was hooked. Unfortunately, I jumped on the bandwagon late in the game, towards the butt end of 2006 when Zartan and Lt. Stone were just being released at retail. I got most of the figures that were availably locally, but that was it.

The next wave to be released was the new (or old depending on how you look at it) “Kung-Fu Grip!” series. These had spring-loaded right hands and new red foot lockers instead of the old gray ones. I never got a chance at these since the only source I knew at the time was selling the first wave as a set and I didn’t have the income to drop Php 10,000 at one time.

After the announcement of the line’s cancellation however, collectors were selling the figures to make room for newer toys. So, with the help of several of them, I was able to get most of the Sigma 6 figures from the earlier series and I’m working on the ones from the Kung-Fu Grip! line.

Picture found on actionfigure.guidestobuy.com

The Commando Snake Eyes is one of those figures from the Kung-Fu Grip! line. Like my Ninja Armor Snake Eyes figure, I got him loose, which is why I’ve borrowed a photo of the packaging from actionfigure.guidestobuy.com. I’ve talked about how great the packaging is on these figures before on my Adventure Team review, but this one is a little different. Instead of the gray, vaguely futuristic box of the first waves, the Kung-Fu Grip! line came with curvy, red foot lockers. The basic concept of the packaging is still there, but I prefer the old ones better. They feel more military and they stack better. These are a little too garish.

He’s a little different from previous Snake Eyes that were released. Most of those focused on the idea that Snake was a ninja trained by the infamous Arashikage clan. They played with the concept of him and Storm Shadow as adoptive brothers who were at odds which was apparent in the Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow figures of that first 2005 wave.

But if you go back to the original 1982 “straight arm” Snake Eyes figure, you’ll see that he started out as a commando. He didn’t even get a sword until his 3rd toy in 1985. This “Commando” Snake Eyes is a nod to that origin, so all his gear is good old soldiery sweetness.

He comes with a lot of gear, and he can carry most of it on his person. His main firearm looks like a variation on his classic sub-machine gun (SMG), the israeli Uzi (or maybe a Mac-10?). It breaks down into the gun itself, a magazine, a scope, and a surpressor. The different components can slide off the firearm so that you can have different looks for him. It also has a second grip for extra control.

The gun fits into a squarish hole at his hip. At first I thought I was missing something that was supposed to go here (the instructions were missing when I bought it), but it turns out that the SMG goes in here grip first instead of barrel. It’s an odd design and I have to say not all that successful or pretty, but it works.

Snake Eyes also comes with 2 “smoke grenades” that are accented with blue. Fashionable.

They can fit into both his hands and in the big circles that can be found on his chest. I don’t really like how they did the webgear this time. The elastic and cloth webgear of the Wave 1 Snake Eyes was much nicer in terms of look, as well as design. The little “ports” in the old Sigma Suits and accesories acted as a better and less bulky way of storing these little parts on the figures. The bandolier he has here, with its holster and built in cup holders looks way too obvious.

The tonfa is a new weapon in Snake Eyes armory (I don’t remember him having it in the vintage line, nor in the new 25th Anniversary figures), introduced at the beginning of the Sigma 6 line with Wave 1 Snake. The first releases had tonfa handles built into the figures’ swords. This one has sword blades built into the batons. I prefer the old versions better.

You can hang the tonfas on his back off his webgear, but since they’ve each got the post on the same side of the weapons, one points up while the other points down. It’s not really a very integrated look when he stores them, but I do like posing him holding the two.

Another thing that was (re-)introduced with the Sigma 6 line was the BFG (Big F*@#ing Gun), or the missle launcher that you now see with all the Joe figures in the movie line. It’s something that’s for the kids I suppose, but I for one really don’t like it.

This time around it’s a huge two barrelled crossbow. The crossbow doesn’t fit anywhere, he can’t really hold it upright without support, and it’s an odd color. I honestly took a one look at it and threw it in my miscellaneous Sigma 6 accessories along with Firefly’s “trap” and Temple Tracker Spirit’s “snaring device”.

I do like his “listening device” though.

The accessory is essentially a suction cup with a short, plastic hose connecting it to a headset. He can hold the thing out and against a window as if he’s eavesdropping on Cobra leaders behind a wall. Now if that isn’t a creatively re-purposed accessory I don’t know what is.

I will have to warn you though that the headset doesn’t seem to stay on his head very easily. I would have liked them to at least have re-tooled that to fit perfectly and securely.

In terms of sculpt, I’d have to say he’s so so. Although if you read thorugh my other Sigma 6 reviews, you can hear my love of this line, I have to admit that the design aesthetic isn’t for everyone. The Sigma 6 characters all have a cartoony look to them, that is leaning very close to the anime. They’ve all got huge eyes, exaggerated extremeties, and some over the top gear. The general look of the figures is very blocky, with lots of angles and flat planes. If you’re one of those guys who love 1/6 scale figures for their realistic miniture weapons, then this line isn’t for you.

If however, you’re a collector who really just wants toys that you can play with and display in different get ups, then this is a great line to start. They’re essentially heterosexual barbie dolls. Ken dolls with guns instead of ascots.

I also like the fact that they can integrate relatively well with the 7″ Play Arts Final Fantasy figures like Reimi Saionji, Ashe, Tifa and Lightning. Lets face it, the Sigma 6 line is kind of a sausage fest.