Toy Review: Thor Hammer Disc Shooter

05/12/11

After watching the new Thor film, I had this irresistable urge to buy something Thor related. This isn’t uncommon. My toy shelf is filled with toys I bought the day after something came out. Case in point: Thinkaway’s InterAction Wall-E and EVE. If I really like a movie or show, I tend to want to get my hands on the merchandise. If they had Sucker Punch action figures, I’d have been all over those.

Having already bought all the good Hasbro Thor toys, I was at a loss as to what else I could buy to feed my craving. Luckily, one of the guys on Plurk posted something about Jollibee’s latest Kiddie Meal freebies:

Image from www.jollibee.com.ph

The Thor Battle Gear set is a little different from the Rio Happy Meal toys I bought a while back. Instead of figurines with action features, these are more like role playing toys. Since the official Hasbro and Nerf role playing toys would cost me my left testicle, I felt it would be better to just get a Php 70.00 meal and get one of these for free.

There are 3 different toys to collect (as of this writing, all 3 were still available at the Jollibee on Emerald Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City).

Image from www.jollibee.com.ph

The first one (the one I’m reviewing today) is called the Hammer Disc Shooter and was available when the movie opened two weeks ago, which is why I got it first. The other two, the Smash Propeller and the Blazing Top Spinner have just recently arrived in stores.

It’s odd that they decided to release the Disc Shooter before the others since it kind of caused me to re-think getting the others. I would have probably released the Top Spinner first so that kids would get that while nothing was out, then when they come back the next week, release the Disc Shooter (the second best) and on the third week, release the Smash Propeller. That way, you get more out of them. But then I’m the kind of sucker who forks over Php 70.00 for a tiny hamburger, three gulps of Coke and a cheap Chinese toy.

The Hammer Disc Shooter comes in a plastic baggie with the instructions printed pretty clearly on the front. How I wish Transformer instructions were this clear. There’s an “Also Available” box on the lower right to showcase the other toys that are weren’t actually available at the time. Good going, J-Bee.

Display value is nil, so you MOC men are shit out of luck.

Once you open it, you’re greeted by the sight of a tiny Mjölnir (complete with cloth strap), and three plastic discs about 1″ in diameter. Each of the small, blue discs has a completely different design on it. None of them are particularly appealing. I tossed them in my bits box almost immediatly.

The hammer works like this:

1. You place one of the discs into the slot at the top of the hammer.
2. You orient the hammer so the trigger button (which is colored baby blue for some unfathomable reason) is facing the table.
3. You slam the hammer down so the trigger pushes the disc out the top.

This causes the disc to be flung out the top of Mjölnir to strike down some unfortunate action figure you’ve placed in front of it with the wrath of the God of Thunder. Or at least that’s what’s supposed to happen. Since there’s no real way to aim the thing, you’re lucky if you can hit the Marvel Universe Loki you’ve scheduled for execution.

He’s standing there sneering at me now.

So yeah, the action feature peters out after a few tries, but the thing is, it’s still motherfuckin’ Mjölnir.

Sure it’s not as detailed as the one from Diamond Select or Museum Replicas, but hey. Php 70.00 versus $1,499.95? What do you want?

The toy doesn’t have the iconic “Whosoever holds this hammer…” oath etched into the face, though. Instead it has a big, unabashed “THOR”. It doesn’t look bad, and hey, it looks awesome over a set of 4″ figures.

That’s good enough for me.