Micromaster Countdown
Though popular in the 1980’s The Transformers really was a creation that came out of the ideals of the previous decade. The space race, which ended 1975, was as much ideological in its motivation as it was technological in its pursuits. Borne out of a sense of competition between enemies, it sparked the idea that there was more to the universe than we thought. It was a time when science was at the forefront of the world’s mind and it was then that we saw for the first time that our world was not some immutable constant, but a fragile piece of real estate in an infinitely large suburb of space.
Therefore, it’s not surprising that The Autobots and Decepticons were an alien race, one bent on conquest, the other on peace with other civilizations. Though the cartoon was created to sell the Hasbro toy line to kids, the characters and back stories came from writers who grew up dreaming about what was out there.
The short biography found on the back of the Micromaster base, Countdown, bears out this theory:
“An intergalactic hero and space explorer. A legend to beings throughout the universe and an inspiration to his fellow Autobots. Fought 1000 battles and circled almost a million stars, defending the rights of the innocent. Transforms to lunar rover with com-link disk that enables him to control the entire defense base from up to 30,000,000 miles away. His interstellar rocket ship converts to mobile launch pad armed with two energy-zapping de-kineto cannons that freeze objects in mid-motion. Ship is also designed to use planetary orbits and gravitational pulls to “slingshot” across entire galaxies in seconds. Command base equipped with laser blasters, high-tech repair bay, interstellar communications center, space-tracking radar, and high-speed launch pad.”
Boxart from Hasbro
Countdown was part of the Micromaster line of Transformers, which was a collection of tiny little robots that that were either packaged as “teams” or as part of a vehicle/commander playset. Countdown is obviously one of the latter, and is the biggest toy released in the subline.
The name “Countdown” refers more to the robot the base, the little guy that commands the staging platform.
Boxart from Hasbro
According to TFWiki.net, Countdown was an Aerospace Commander who volunteered for the Micromaster process. This downsized him to make him more “fuel efficient”. Along with Groundshaker (another Micromaster toy from the time period), he was assigned to stop the Decepticon expansion and to find Optimus Prime and the Ark.
In case you’re wondering, no this wasn’t part of the cartoon continuity, but rather the comic books. The show had stopped aring in America by the time this sub-line came out. Don’t ask me how this crack-pot idea of “fuel efficiency” was sold to the editors. How useful can a human-sized robot be against one that is as big as a jet plane? And why do they still change into cars and trucks and tanks, anyway? Their alt modes are about as useful as that rubber shark repellant Batman used in the 1966 movie.
But to be fair, there was never going to be an easy way for the writers to fit this sub-line into the continuity, to jump from the logic of “Aliens disguised as vehicles” to shortstacked robots. Micromasters was made as an answer to the growing popularity of another toy brand at the time, Micro Machines, which were miniture versions of the die-cast metal cars like Hot Wheels. As such, market forces rather than a genuine evolution of the line were what was acting on it.
The toyline ran only from 1989 to 1990 and came in packages grouped as Patrols, Squads, Transports, Stations or Bases. Patrols were packs of 4 related action figures that stood about 5cm tall. Squads were groups of 6 bots that each formed half of a vehicle. Transports were a pack of one figure and a convertable vehicle that they could ride. Stations were a set of figure and a small playset that transformed into a battle station. The bases were larger playsets that became Transformer headquarters.
Countdown was the Autobot base.
The blue station to the left in that photo is Decepticon Greasepit, not included in the set. The set though, has it’s share of accesories:
Rocket base, rocket, platform, large ramp, helipad, short ramps x3, mechanical arm, large double laser, small double lasers x2, large laser, gunner pod, scout vehicle.
The reason that I’ve got Greasepit in the photo is because I took the photos in this review in an effort to sell off my G1 toys. I know right?! Idiot!
Despite being on the tail end of the first line, this was still undoubtedly G1. Micromasters still shared a lot with their die-cast Diaclone ancestors. For one thing, their articulation was limited to knees and shoulder swivels, and sometimes not even then. Transformations were notorious for their incomplexity. Paint was pretty much just a layer of color on the windows.
However, if you look underneath all of that, I still think that the playability of the whole Transformer line was at it’s height during this period. Because Transformers were always BIG, you could never hope for an official Ark playset, but here, you see your own small part of Little Iacon. What made it even better was that if you had several of the other bases or stations, you could connect them all to the Autobot City and have your own sprawling little ghetto.
This really was the Autobot City that Metroplex should have been. The scale of the Micromaster really brought out the fun, since they could fit into the bays, stand at the computer terminals, or drive down the ramps. When I first got Metroplex, the only ones that could fit in any of his bays were Scamper and Slammer, the two cheapeepay robots that came with him (I didn’t have a lot of the mini-bots).
By the time the sub-line had run it’s course, it was relatively expansive. Two years gave us 12 different patrols, 4 squads, 7 transports, 4 stations and 6 bases. That’s about 90 different figures to populate this city, and this is not counting the various Takara releases.
I never got close to that count for my collection though. I had maybe 20 or so of the figures, but it was enough to make the base homey.
Another thing I loved about Countdown was the different things that you could have your Transformers do with him. Either they were going up and down the ramps, joyriding, or they were taking off on the runway (short in terms of real life, but this is Transformers we’re talking about) or preparing for a shuttle launch in the control center. There was even a repair bay, and parking spaces at the rear. It’s like SM City, Cybertron.
Moreover, if you had stations like Greasepit, you could attach him to the base so that you could have a local gas station. How cool is that?
Alternately, you could transform them and have them serve as early warning anti-air stations:
Even if I sold this toy to make way for the more modern Transformers with better articulation and design, I can’t help but wish I hadn’t. There was just so much more imagination built into these old G1 toys, so much more magic.
I hope the guys who bought these are enjoying them to the fullest.
NOTE: For more great boxart from the G1 toyline, check out Botch’s Transformers Box Art Archive.
Rescue Ratchet
Remember being a kid, daydreaming about what you’d be when you grew up? Between thinking I’d be an archaeologist (Indiana Jones), an offshore oil rig worker (The Transformers), a space cowboy (Star Wars) and a G.I. Joe (well, G.I. Joe), I thought it would be pretty cool to be a doctor. You’d be up to your ears in scratch, hanging with movie stars and famous people, and flying off on the Enterprise saying cool things like, “Dammit, Jim! I’m a Doctor, not a call center agent!” (I was a stupid kid).
This was before I learned that being a doctor meant that you’d have to cut people open, hold their spleens in your hands, regularly examine the results of other people’s bowel movements and stay in school for an extra 10 years. Being the lazy bastard I am, this was something that I could not stomach.
Of course I ended up staying in the University for nearly a decade anyway, but that’s a story for another time.
My point, before I got sidetracked, was that I thought being a doctor was cool. Part of the reason for this was that one of the coolest characters on The transformers was Ratchet, the company medic. He was loads better than Lifeline, the whimpy “pacifist” G.I. Joe, and although he wasn’t seen in the fight a lot, he got some of the coolest jobs along side Wheeljack; creating the Dinobots, kit-bashing Autobot-X together and reparing everyone and their mother during the length of the series.
How can you not love a guy like that?
Of course he was then shot dead during the first 15 minutes of Transformers the Movie and then showed up as a Bayformer in 2007. Oh, the humanity!
After the first movie, he got a Voyager Class toy (which I liked), but apparently, people wanted one that was more “accurate”. Hence the release of the more marketably sized Deluxe Class figure earlier this year.
I never picked that one up because I already had a movie Ratchet I liked, and I didn’t feel like downgrading to a smaller figure. But inevitably, Hasbro came out with “Rescue Ratchet”, a white and red re-deco of the Hummer H2 rescue vehicle. In my warped logic, this translates to “brand new toy”.
I caved.
Apparently, this little guy is more “accurate” to the movie model and the actual H2 vehicle. Honestly I didn’t really see a problem with the first effort. Hasbro didn’t either, considering they repainted him four or five times over the course of 2 movies. But the Deluxe Class price point (p700) is much more saleable than that of the Voyager Class one (p1600). I think it was a good move on their part to make another toy for both their Voyager mainstays. I just can’t say I like either of them all that much.
His vehicle mode looks more like a Humvee, but I got to say that it doesn’t look all that much like an ambulance any longer. The back of the truck has a spare tire and a platform to hang gear off of, and the top has a port to hold his arm cannon, but where do the injured comrades go? I’ve got no idea. Maybe it’s something like the Doctor’s TARDIS, and opens onto another dimension.
The gun fixture can be removed and (if you have either Lockdown or Axor) can be replaced with the EMP device that the Ratchet character in the Transformers Animated continuity used to carry. In that storyline, the bounty hunter Lockdown had stolen then device, cutting it off of Ratchet’s arm. I think they just included it here to cross-market both the toys,because it doesn’t really add anything to the vehicle mode, and there’s nowhere to put it when he changes to a robot.
Ugh.
Accurate or not, that is one ugly bastard. Look at all that kibble! The Deluxe Class version is a “shellformer” in the truest sense of the word. Basically, the robot parts are all just tucked away and hidden by panels in the vehicle mode. Transformed, the panels fold up and hang off the robot’s various parts. while the core robot may look more like the computer model in the movie, it’s no where near as well integrated.
Seriously, Hasbro?
There are no word to convey my disappointment with this state of affairs. Not only does the panelling take away from the looks of the figure, it also makes posing him annoying as hell. It doesn’t really restrict him, but the fact that you have to push all of that crap out of the way constantly does get irritating.
The picture on the back of the package is also misleading, someone having switched the doors that form his shoulder panels. Unless you physically remove them and swap them out, there’s no way to get him to match that product photo. Which is sad, since he does look better that way.
The gun is another aggravation. It just doesn’t really look that great. It looks sort of like an afterthought really, like it was designed for someone else.
For the life of me, I don’t understand why they’ve use this silly gear gimmick to mount it on his arm when the good old, post and hole system they’ve been using since, what? Energon? has been great. The gun attaches by a serrated square peg at the back of the gun that fits into a square hole on his arm. The serrations push two little bits of red plastic on his arm up when you push it in. I suppose that it approximates a “locking in” mechanism, but those red pieces don’t go all the way up, and it looks retarded. The whole thing is overthought and overly complicated.
They could have saved themselves the trouble and just cut out the same port hole that Lockdown has on his arm to accomodate the EMP projector. Better yet, just give him a standard ROUND hole so you can load him up with any of the guns you have lying around from other Classics toys.
As I said, the articulation gives him a few points in his favor, with balljoints found at his shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles. His knees are double hinge joints with a swivel thrown in there somewhere, and the ankle has an extra hinge there too. He’s pretty mobile, but again, all that kibble gets in the way.
The feet also bother me. They’re painted in such a way that it looks like he’s wearing sneakers. As if they’re down a player and they asked the old fart standing on the sidelines to sub. Said fart runs to his locker and grabs a pair of the oldest, geektastic shoes and slips them on, raring to take the young guys on at their own game.
Just like in real life, it doesn’t work. Robots should not be wearing Reeboks.
The face is great if you love the Michael Bay look. I don’t.
‘Nuff said.
I really wanted to like this figure, since I was so surprised by the first one, but really, there’s nothing to recommend here. It’s an ugly toy, with a half-assed transformation, and a useless action feature, with an out of place accessory. The only thing it has going for it is the new colors and the articulation, which I’ve got to admit, is great.
Still, it’s not something that can save the figure as a whole. If they had made the various bits and pieces hanging off him removable, that may have added a fe points, but it still would have been on the edge. Right now, I’d have to recommend NOT buying this.
In hindsight, I doubt I’d even buy it from the bargain bin.
Axor
It’s been a while since I did a Transformers review. Considering all the product out these days, it’s hard to keep up. Along with the new Transformers: Generations (TFG) toys that came out a few weeks ago like Blurr and Dirge, there were a couple of Hunt for the Decepticons (HftD) toys included on shelves. I got both of Deluxe toys in the wave even if they were re-paints. In the case of Rescue Ratchet it was because I never got the green Deluxe Class Ratchet because my Transformers: The Movie (TFtM) Ratchet is the same color. At least this time, I have an excuse.
In the case of Axor, it’s just because I really really REALLY like the mold.
This is yet another case of my re-color compulsion. I have loved the Lockdown character and toy since it was introduced in the Transformers Animated (TFA) series. I have in fact bought the 3 versions that were released then, the first one, the “Blazing Lockdown” and then the “Stealth Lockdown” that came in that boxset with the Legends Class figures. When he was re-desgned to fit into the Bayverse, I was first in line to pick him up. Now that they’ve used the same mold to create Axor… well you get the idea.
The figure comes packaged in the same HFtD Deluxe Class packaging that both Tomahawk and Hailstorm came in; a yellow card with the same stylings that have been with the Transformers since Bay took over. According to the blurbs on the back, it looks like he’s another bounty hunter following Ratchet around the universe trying to collect his head… and the Electro-magnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon he carries.
We’ll start off in car modes since that’s how he is out of the package.
As you can plainly see, Axor is the spitting image of Lockdown, only cast in gray. I think this was a very bad choice for Hasbro since the tint of the plastic and it’s inherent translucency really makes it seem kind of… cheap.
It feels like it’s suffering from the same problems that toys with red and yellow (and blue) plastic sometimes have. It’s too light, and light seems to sink into it. Unlike the matte black of the Lockdown figure, which looks more solid.
It still retains most of the badassness of the original toy though, all the spikes and hard edges. It’s also got transparent plastic over it’s headlights, so big plus there. I would have preferred that they had given him a more sinister color scheme though. I guess since he’s a take on the G1 Action Masters Axer who is also gray, blue gold and red.
If they ever make a Menasor combiner out of Deluxe Class vehicles, I hope they choose to use this mold in it. He’s already great looking car, but the way his transformation works, he makes a great looking boot too. Imagine him as a redesigned Stunticon along side another re-paint. Then imagine the rest of them all fit together with the rest of the team.
I’m having a geekgasm just thinking of it.
There is some good retooling here as well, aside from the new colors. This gives collectors an excuse to by this mold again. There are two new pieces; his head and his right hand.
Lockdown has a hook on his right hand, while Axor has a… dun-dun-DUN!… an axe. Personally, I think the weapon looks awful. It looks sort of like a pistol with wings. I guess it was made this way to fit underneath him (it folds away underneath the car), but it just doesn’t look as wicked as Lockdown’s hook. There is a nice frosting of silver paint on the blue rubber though, so Hasbro gets some points there.
His head’s another odd looking thing. He’s kind of like an evil bunny, with two pinkish horns sticking out above his head. That pink is the top of his head, which gives him superb light piping (to make his eyes glow), but the shape and the color just scream PANSY!
He’s also got that same weird socket hole that both Ratchet and Lockdown have, where you plug in the EMP device that Lockdown stole. Don’t ask me how Axor got one, since it’s supposed to be unique and Lockdown still has his. I will say it’s better looking than Lockdown’s since it has some gold paint applications while the other’s just cast plastic. I promptly switched them.
If you have either of the Deluxe Class Ratchets, you can also place his arm cannon here, although it severely limits his elbow articulation.
Speaking of articulation, it’s the same as Lockdown’s, as you’d expect. He’s mostly made up of balljoints, with multiple compound joints all over his person.
These can be irritating since the ball joints of recent Transformers are notorious for popping loose. Due to his transformation, Axor’s arms ALWAYS fall off during the process. It’s annoying as hell, but I deem it a necessary evil since it really does preclude the problem of breakage.
His shoulders are a compound joint of a swivel and a balljoint. Though both sides are blocked somewhat by his shoulder armor, formed by the side panels of the car. His elbows are balljoints as well.
His wrists don’t really have any real “useful” movement. His left hand can flip up and down towards his forearm, so that it can be folded up while in vehicle mode. His right had with the axe swings forward and back so that the weapon can slide under the chassis. There’s a “Mech Alive” feature here; a piston extends when you fold the axe down. Whoop.
There’s another Mech Alive feature in his thighs, too. The interior is sculpted with all sorts of gears and pistons and buttons. When you turn his lower legs, the inside turns as well, as if they were bones connected to the knee. Pretty nice, and unobtrusive, action feature.
His legs are of the same variety as most Bayverse bots. The chicken feet. Sometimes I like it, most of the time I hate it. In this case it’s both. When he’s standing up, it’s fine, but when you need to bend his legs at the knee, it’s terrible. There’s no real way to do it that looks natural. I’m not even sure this guy could really walk in real life and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to have to animate his walk cycle.
He does have one thing in his favor that you can’t argue. Though he’s a Deluxe Class robot, he easily stands as tall as a Voyager Class figure. Because his legs are as long as the car mode, his bot mode benefits from that added size. Sure he’s skinny, but that just makes him look more creepy.
I’d like to insert a Basketball reference here, but I abhor team sports and have not idea how to write one. Just go ahead and write one for yourselves in the comments. Funniest one gets an snozzberry cookie.
Overall, I don’t think this is a great buy. While I personally love the think to death, there’s just not enough draw here to seem like a good value. Php 700.00 is a lot of money these days and spending it on a lesser toy like this is, I admit, retarded.
If you can still find him, I’d suggest just getting the Lockdown toy from the 2nd movie line. At least he doesn’t have those ridiculous ears.
Marvel Universe Thanos
Say what you want, but Thanos has always been the Marvel version of DC’s Darkseid. He’s big, and bulky and bent on destruction and death. Do the little differences still matter?
Being an admitted dilettante in the world of comics, I can tell you I was not aware of Thanos until the Infinity Gauntlet mini-series. The Infinity Gauntlet was a mini-series that rand from July to December in 1991. It was basically the story of Thanos collecting the Infinity Gems, supergluing them to his glove and then erasing half the living beings in the universe in order to impress his girlfriend.
And you thought those flowers last Valentine’s were a nice touch?
In the process of wiping out life, Thanos spent the seires beating the crap out of the superheroes of the 616 Universe. Eventually, he was defeated and the Gauntlet went to Adam Warlock (yet another character I didn’t know from Adam - pun, lol).
Everyone loves a villain, and Thanos is no different. Of the figures in Wave 11, he’s the one that people are really gunning for. Others like Iron Man 2020 and Constrictor were being sold off left and right after the release of the set a few weeks ago at the Hasbro Toy Fair, but Thanos isn’t among those being offered. Though the figure is a re-tool of the MU Juggernaut, Thanos is natural scalper bait. It’s a good thing that Playkit decided to sell the Wave 11 figures as a set. People wanted Thanos figure, and the sets sold out in a day.
How’s that for sell through?
Granted, there were only a few sets brought in, probably just as many as the Wave 10 cases (I never did see those on shelf except for the pegwarming Team X Wolverine), but the theory stands. The distributor can ensure sell-through by doing things this way. I’m hoping it continues with the next few waves. I’m sooooo looking forward to that World War Hulk!
But I digress.
As I said, the MU Thanos figure is a retool of the MU Juggernaut. Hasbro has decided that it’s more efficient to make blank bodies and just add on pieces like arms and boots and heads to make them unique. In the case of this hulking body here, they removed and replaced the aforementioned parts, adding a bib and a man-skirt to complete the Titan’s ensemble.
Because the figure’s torso is exactly the same as Juggs‘, you can pretend that the Unstoppable Juggernaut beat Thanos the Titan. Sure it’s not possible, seeing as how Thanos is, duh, a Titan, but it’s fun to pretend. IMAGINATION!
The Infinity Gauntlet is pretty nice, and it’s included as an accessory. There’s another glove in the package so that you can have Thanos pre and post omnipotence. Whatever floats your boat.
The paint isn’t perfect though (when is it EVER?). This is a mass market toy, so there’s bound to be sloppiness somewhere. Thankfully on mine, that’s on the Gauntlet. Some of the color is missing at the edges on the Infinity Gems, but you need to be really close to see it. I’ve heard that others got Thanos’ with gold paint on the blue parts, and since they were in sets, there’s no real way to pick and choose. Personally, I’d rather have one with slop than none at all.
Articulation is about what you’d expect from a big figure. His bio might say he’s got increased agility, but you can’t tell it from the figure. He’s a hulking brute with limitations galore. It can’t be helped really, and doesn’t bother me. He’s got enough for to look intimidating and LOOM over other figures. Plus his huge feet and the thigh swivels really improve his ability to stand without the wimpy MU stand that comes standard with the Hammer Files.
His face is pretty awesome considering the scale. I can’t compare it to the Marvel Select figure (I don’t have it), but he’s got a nice half sneer that looks perfectly arrogant and condescending. “Puny mortal”, indeed.
I’m hoping that they come out with more members of the Infinity Watch, like an Adam Warlock, Gamora, Drax, or dare I dream, a Pip.
It would be sweet if you could really pose the cosmic characters together. All I really have is Silver Surfer. He’s great and all, but I’d love a Magus or a Goddess figure. That might be a pipe dreams since the Infinity War and the Infinity Crusade weren’t as popular as the original and they’re about a decade old now. It’s like hoping for a Cameron Hodge Build-A-Figure.
Anyway, there’s not much to say about the MU Thanos figure you haven’t already heard. If you have the means, get one. Even if you don’t collect the MU line, it’s a fun stand alone figure that you can used at your desk at work in lieu of a stress ball.
Iron Man 2020
Arnold Stark is Tony Stark’s cousin’s son. Inheriting Tony’s company in the future, Arno decided to use the Iron Man armor for personal gain, by using it as a mercenary and to decimate his industrial rivals. He’s far from the hero that his Uncle Tony was. In fact, he’s such an ass that at one time, he was imprisoned by the Time Variance Authority for messing about with the timelines. At least he’s wearing a chastity belt for those awkward moments in those prison showers…
To be fair, having an uber-cool suit to goof around in must make it hard to keep it on the straight and narrow. How could have repulsor beams in gauntlets, epaulets, and chestpiece, super strength, and heads-up display, cloaking devices, a humongous shuriken strapped to his belt, flechette daggers, a variety of additional lethal weaponry, and rollerskates and NOT want to use them?
Wait, WHAT?
That’s right, comic canon says that this armor’s fitted with retractable roller blades, for when rocket boots aren’t quite stylish enough.
Sadly, Hasbro opted NOT to include that in the final production figure.
Like the rest of Wave 11 of the Marvel Universe figures, Ironman 2020 is another re-tooling of an old figure, this time the Marvel Universe version of the “Classic Iron Man Armor”.
The mold has been used quite a few times already; Wave 3 Classic Iron Man, Secret Wars Classic Iron Man, Gigantic Battles Iron Man (with the winged mask), Stealth Operations Iron Man, the Classic repaint from the 2-packs, and this one, Iron Man 2020.
Viewing that list, it becomes apparent why Hasbro loves Iron Man. He’s just so easy to sell to toy buyers. You give him a fresh coat of paint, some new gear, a new part, new action gimmick, and BAM! brand new figure!. Everyone knows that Tony Stary has an entire Hall of Armor to store each and every suit he’s made. From the Thorbuster to the Hulkbuster down to the one that dispenses ice cream at kiddie parties (I don’t think that’s canon, but wouldn’t it be awesome?) and the one that let’s him win hotdog eating contests (again, awesome!).
2020 is no different. Hasbro’s banking that you don’t really care that this is the same figure that they’ve fed us 5 times before, just with a new head and the addition of some shoulder pads, chestpiece, and a belt. And you know what? We don’t.
There haven’t been any fundamental structural changes to the figure’s base body. The changes are all additions really. The hand are the same as the first release, the arms, boots, even the ball joint at the neck is the same size. It’s just a firm tug and pop and you’ve switched the head on any of the figures I’ve mentioned.
The new head is slightly different, more in keeping with the model from the comics. It’s slightly bigger than the old head (though not out of proportion) and a lot frownier. I guess being a Negatron hasn’t help young Arno Stark’s morale much, has it?
Let that be a lesson to you kids! Be an Optimist Prime!
The head has the “teeth” that the original design had. At first I thought it was just bad painting, but I saw online that the original art also showed him with fangs like a jack o’ lantern. It kind of makes him look like a Count Chocula, but thankfully it’s understated on the toy. If they really bother you, you can really just paint over them relatively easily.
If it REALLY bothers you it’s an easy switch. Just buy any of the other Classic Iron Mens and pop of the head. Easy Peasy.
Articulation is pretty good, and he looks pretty great in action. I’ve always liked this mold, even though others have their problems with it. Like Constrictor, he’s from the old batch of MU figures, so you won’t see any thigh swivels here. He does have all the other necessary joints though; balljointed neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, bicep swivel, hinge elbow, swivel hand, balljointed torso, ball-socket hips (think GI Joe), double hinge knees, and swivel-hinge and ankles. He’ll need some support from a stand for some poses, but he’s fairly easy to stand up.
If we’re griping though, I’d include wrist hinges with that missing thigh swivel though. It’s ridiculous that this is the 6th figure of this mold and we still have only one of them can do a proper Repulsor blast pose.
Aside from those two missing joints, there is some things to consider before getting one of these. The first is that he is SKINNY. This is the major gripe of most people who don’t like this figure. It does not look like it’s a guy in armor, it looks like a gymnast in a leotard. If you painted it pink and gave it a tutu, it would still work.
If you can get over that fact, then you still might enjoy the toy.
The other thing is that although his articulation is good, there is a problem; he can’t stand straight. His butt gets in the way, so his thighs won’t go all the way back. He looks a little funny if you don’t pose him in an action stance. You can’t lock his knees without him leaning forward a bit, so those of you who want to pose him on his stand in line with other MU figures, be perpared to hate those stupid socket hip joints.
Despite being yet another re-purposed figure, this is still a pretty great toy. It’s the same playability as most of the MU line, with some nice tweaks to make it different. I do wish they’d do someting about those hands next time they use it, but it’ll make a great addition to the my Hall of Armor either way.
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
I may give you a half-way serious answer.
