On the Cheap: Toys For Sale
Rules and FAQ answered! Read FIRST!
I am on nightshift so meetup times/places are limited to Megamall or Emerald Ave. 7:00 to 8:30pm on weeknights.
If interested, text me at [zero nine one seven nine eight three seven seven five one]. You can leave a comment here, but text inquiries will take precedence as I only have Web access at work.
GI JOE
7 Figure Cobra Paratrooper Set (loose, no filecards) - p1,000
Pilot Destro (from the Shockwave 2-pack, complete)
25th Anniversary Paratrooper (complete)
ROC Paratroopers (complete)
ROC Paratroopers (complete)
ROC Paratroopers (complete)
DVD Boxset Roadblock (with knife, stand, and vines)
ROC Viper Commando (missing dagger)
Reserved to papabear of TS till 3/17/2010
MARVEL
4 figure Marvel Universe set (4 loose figures) - p1,000
Thor & Enchantress (still have the card and comic)
Piledriver (still have the card and comic)
Blob
Marvel Legends loose set (11 figures) - p1,000
Raging Ghostrider (no chain)
Flameblast Ghostrider
Classic Captain America
Bucky
Lady Deathstrike
Baron Zemo
Dr. Strange
Classic Cyclops (Sentinel series)
Ironfist (no flame effects)
Classic Falcon
Luke Cage
Adam Warlock (loose with staff only, no BAF part) - Php 700
Moleman (loose with staff only, no BAF part) - Php 500
TRANSFORMERS
Deluxe class TFTM Bonecrusher (loose, no manual) - p500
ANIME
Kaiyodo Tenjho Tenge Gashapon Figure Part 2 (loose, missing hilt of Chiaki’s sword and the stand that belongs to Emi) - p800
Play Arts Kai FFXIII Lightning
I’m sure Final Fantasy buffs (I know several) would rant about what I’m about to say, but I hate hate hate the way most Japanese video game stories are written. Fans of the games keep telling me that the story is one of the reasons they like the series so much, expecially FF VII, but whenever I get to the end of one it’s like “what the fuck was that?”. I’ve always thought video game stories were pretty weak at best, and every time I experience those from Japan, I come away feeling unimpressed.
From the what I’ve read and seen, Japanese culture tends to glorify ambiguity. Plots often seem to be obfuscated behind a lot of unnecessary little complications. Characters often have nebulous motivations and endings tend to be open to interpretation. I’ve seen it in Japanese cinema, anime, manga, etc and it seems damned lazy. Really, what the hell was up with Evangelion?
I’m an Westerner when it comes to my storytelling sensibilities. I like closure. I like a clear beginning, with a nice action-packed middle and an end that ties up everything nicely. I want that rising action, that climax, and that little part at the end where everyone gets drunk, sleeps with the other protagonists (or surviving antagonists) and then get amnesia and forget it ever happened.
The write ups of FFXIII seem to show that it’s much the same. There’s this whole history about individuals that are chosen by mechanical gods who are created from crystals and who see visions of their dictated destiny and if they don’t fufill it they become monsters but if they do they become crystals themselves. Then there’s a story about a war between two cities and some dude in a trench coat who meets some gal with a sword and how they need to defeat some ancient enemy of someone or other who is making an ass out of himself so they get a whole gang of outlaws and exiles to do it some of whom of course need to die at the end.
I’m sure they’ll work in one of those nice Jpop slow mo montages in there somewhere.
HOWEVER… while I hate Japanese storytelling, I love Japanese video game design. I still remember how fun those early FF games were, and even though I thought the story for Crisis Core was retarded, I did have a blast playing it, easy or not. I love the look of many of the characters that have come from this series as well. Even if it’s story was all over the place Advent Children was pure eye candy. That’s the reason I collect the Play Arts FF series. Because the figures are just that good looking on your shelf. Poseble, detailed, and usually with a few decent accessories and a stand.
Lightning is the first of the set that I bought from Wasabi Toys in the Shoppesville mall at Greenhills Shopping Center.
As you can see in the picture above, the box for these new Play Arts Kai toys is bigger compared to the old FF lines. That’s because the figures themselves are bigger. There’ll be more comparison pics of her next to the older figures, but she stands about an inch higher than them. These aren’t 8″ scale figures anymore; they’re 9″. Sadly, that means I can’t really pair them with alot of the Sigma 6 GI Joes. They stand like supermodels next to figures like Destro.
The rest of the packaging is more of the same old Play Arts plastic trays. They’re big and flimsy, but they’re molded perfectly around the toy and accessories. I love this type of packaging since it’s completely reusable. Just cut some Scotch tape around the tray cover, take out the figure, then put it back when you’re done and cover it back up. Slides right back into the box. Very neat.
The only thing is, it’s hard to keep that box since it’s pretty huge and not really that sturdy. There was a time I kept the boxes from the previous FF lines, but around the time I started on Advent Children toys, I had to give it up. There’s just no space.
Out of the box, Lightning looks like a spokesmodel showing off some designer’s new collection. She’s built like the girls you see in Sports Illustrated, with long limbs, a long body, a tiny waist, and little itty-bitty hands and feet.
While that all looks good on the drawing board, it makes for a kind of annoying toy. The high center of gravity, the lack of mass, and that tiny tiny footprint make her a real chore to stand up. She comes with a stand, but it’s of little help (I’ll get into that later). If you want to get her to stay up, you really need to fiddle with her legs and body to balance her. Wide stances seem to work the best.
She has wonderful articulation. Really amazing. I would go so far as to say that she is the most well articulated toy that I have ever seen. There are a ton of joints and it’s all USEFUL.
In total, that’s 28 points of articulation.
“What?”, you ask? “28? That’s only 27″
Well she has one more joint and that’s a combination swivel/post joint on her back where that thing that looks like a scarf is connected. It allows you to do stuff like this:
More shots of her joints in action:
The only problem with the joints is that they are very very loose for a new toy. Her knees can’t hold a pose for long and the swivels will give way if you put weight on them or hit them the wrong way. It’s the same deal with her torso ball joints and this aggravates the posing difficulties.
Which brings us to the stand.
I don’t like it. It’s a pretty good stand compared to the old Marvel Legends ones, but the Play Arts lines have always had those beautifully simple black ones. They always worked well and were sturdy enough to use for some of the big Transformers.These can barely hold up a GI Joe. The small ones.
The thing shares the same problems as the figure itself, floppy joints. Even with the ratcheting built into them, they sag as soon as you put the figure in the transluscent claw at the end. To make matters worse, the base isn’t really up to the job of keeping the arm straight up in the air. The arm tends to sag sideways.
The only real help the stand gives is if you have her with one foot on the ground at all times, and sometimes not even then, since the arm tends to flop from side to side.
Fail.
She comes with 2 accessories. A sword and, what looks to be, a gun. Both fit in her hand very well and are held there by a peg on her right palm and a hole in the hilt of the weapons. it’s a very sturdy solution, but I’m worried I’ll break that post every time I pull off or put on one of the weapons.
Both of them are highly detailed. Enough so that you can see that in-game, the sword folds up and is packed away in the big-ass holster that hangs from her belt. When I saw the product photos a few months back, I was thinking that the weapon transformed, which would have been all kinds of cool. Unfortunately I was wrong. So wrong. Not that the accessories aren’t cool. They definitely are.
Despite the problems with the joints and the stand, this is a figure that is worth the Php 2,300.00 asking price at WasabiToys because of one thing; the sculpt.
It’s rare that you see a toy of this scale with this much articulation with such a detailed sculpt. Even some 1/6 scale figures don’t have the kind of detail Play Arts worked into this. These new figures have all kinds of little features that really get my geeky juices flowing. Pockets, pouches, belts and buckles, the sculpted hands (with a second pair of fists), the hair and the scarf, buttons and boot laces.
I’m glad they went with the more realistic sculpting for the face, and not the cartoony look of the Star Ocean and Full Metal Alchemist figures. I’m not really a fan of the overy stylized or deformed designs, like the upcoming Bayonetta figures either. I think this time around they really did a great job in balancing that anime aesthetic and proportion.
About the only part I have issue with is the look of the double hinged knee. It would have been nice if they gave it a more seamless look when she’s standing straight at least. Can’t have everythign I guess.
So to sum up this long review, Lightning is worth it.
Though she’s got her problems (expensive, not readily available, odd scale, loose joints, and that assinine stand), she more than makes up for it with her numerous good points. She is nicely sculpted, highly detailed, very well articulated, and has logical accessories.
You can get her HERE, but I’m not sure if Pat and Nick still have stock.
Survival Suit Bruce Wayne
I’m not a fan of Mattel’s “Movie Master” line. These are the 5″ figures Philippine collectors could see warming the back shelves of many a toy stall in Greenhills. Their sculpts are okay and they have decent articulation, but the toys themselves lack any impact.
For one, they’re only 5″. While I’m not really one to get stuck on scale, I am a guy who doesn’t want a Gimli-sized Bruce Wayne next to his DCUC Green Arrow. I’d prefer a less diminutive Bale-Batman duking it out with my Marvel Legends Daredevil. I mean, sure, he’s Batman so he’ll still kick DD’s butt, but c’mon. At this size it looks like he squeaks frustratedly instead of growling hoarsely.
It doesn’t help that Mattel gives you no other reasons to buy their product. I bought a few of the Joker’s Thugs because they are very near 6″ and I could use them as a guy in a suit, but if you were to buy it on it’s own merits, the product is just… blah. What is a deliquent criminal without a few guns and a bag of money? The figure comes with neither. The presentation? This line has about the worst packaging I’ve seen on a line. It’s like those generic brands I used to buy at wholesale stores with my mom. We got this huge tub of peanut butter, like a gallon, in a big white plastic bucket that said “1 gallon Peanut Butter” and listed the ingredients. That’s what this card-backed bubble is basically.
The reason I picked up a second figure in the line, the Survival Suit Bruce Wayne, was because I figured I could use some of the parts as custom fodder (when I eventually get around to actually starting to customize figures, that is). The webgear especially caught my eye. It’s molded as a seperate piece, and while not technically removable, it looked very good.
I say “technically” because it can be done if you’re willing to do some cutting. The belts are all attached to a rubber disc shaped piece that is sandwiched between the torso and crotch at the waist joint. You don’t see it because of the molded belt. The rubber’s soft, so it’s a simple matter to carefully slip the blade in and work it around the circumference of the figure’s waist, cutting it away from that disc. You’ll also need to pry open the leg belts and the pieces at his back which are plugged in, but it’s fairly easy (hell, I’ve got barely any experience at this and I did it). I wouldn’t recommend it though if you’re planning on keeping the Bruce figure intact because it makes him all loose.
The following photos may be the best angle to show how short this figure is, but trust me, he’s too short to play with the other DCUC heroes. Since Hasbro hasn’t been too good about keeping its figures in scale, there are a few figures like Daredevil who don’t tower over him, but he’s still the one looking up at them. I’m a slave to my imagination sometimes and I’ve always seen Batman as this big imposing figure who LOOMS.
This figure can’t LOOM.
The second reason I bought the figure was the face sculpt. Having never seen the original unmasked Batman chase figure, I’d never seen this particular sculpt before. for something at this scale, it’s damned close to Christian Bale. The expression on Bruce’s face is probably enough to give Shane Hurlbut some awful Terminator flashbacks.
Survival Suit Bruce Wayne also has some decent articulation going for him. It’s not as much as a Marvel Legends figure (no double joints here), but its acceptable. More along the lines of the DC Universe Classics line with those combination swivels at the hip instead of ball and post joints. He also has hinge elbows, knees, and ankles, and a swivel waist, thighs, arms and wrists. His neck and shoulders are ball joints.
Unfortunately, there is a problem with his wrists which isn’t an isolated case. I got mine at a stall that was selling it loose (likely a factory reject) and I got the chance to go through several examples and they all had the same problem; a locked wrist joint. I don’t know if this is from stuck paint or melted plastic or what, but it’s very annoying. Up till now, I still can’t get one of his hands moving.
Another problem is paint. None of the examples I’ve seen had really good paint applications, but that was to be expected since they were rejects, but I’ve been reading other reviews who have had similar problems. If these defects are finding their way into the ones that have been packaged and shelved, I doubt that’s a good sign.
He did come with one accessory; a ski mask made of thin rubber. I’ll admit, it’s damned fun pulling it off and putting it back on like a proper thug, but it’s like any soft rubber toy. If it’s out for anything over an hour, it’ll collect about a pound of dust that you need to clean off. If you buy the thing at retail in the package, then you’ll get a larger version of the mask, I guess meant for a display or something. It’s a gimmick that the line offers, but the apparent consensus is that these add-ins are completely useless
Is he worth it?
I paid around Php500 the factory reject one, which is about $10.00 give or take, but I hear he retails at $15.00. Even at the price I bought him at, I wouldn’t have bought him except for my need for the web gear. I spent about 10 minutes at the stall, just fiddling with him trying to decide if I wanted to shell out for him.
He’s a great looking figure in my book, but his scale, the lack of accessories, and the awful quality control means that it’s probably not one people should consider buying. If you’ve got mad customizing skills like the guys at Loose Collector he might make for some nice fodder. If not, than give hime a pass.
X-men Origins: Wolverine with Jacket
I’ve got mixed feelings about the 3.75″ scale. While I loved Hasbro’s Gigantic Battles idea, there isn’t a lot of application of scale with the Marvel Universe series. We’re looking at wave 8 and 9 this year and so far we haven’t gotten any of those playsets or vehicles everyone was so hyped about when the line was first announced. We’ll get a 19″ Galactus later this year, but if they’re thinking 1 big figure every 5 waves, that’s pretty boring. Plus who can afford to drop the cash that thing will cost? We’re looking at another Millenium Falcon here. Plus quality has been an issue for these as much as it has been for every other line. For every Iron Man figure or Hawkeye we get a 2-pack Thor. The whole thing seems mostly miss as opposed to hit. According to Hasbro, when their people started the Universe series they were all used to the 6″ scale, so things were a little off. I’m guessing this is why we got the “big head” punisher and Daredevil. However, we still had “No-Neck Grey” in wave 6 at the end of last year.
Right along side the Marvel Universe line, we got another 3.75″ scale line to coincide with the Wolverine solo movie. “What?” you ask, “Wolverine? That was MONTHS ago!”. Sure it was. I never bought any of the figures because who wants to have 20 tiny wolverine figures in his collection?
The line retailed here for Php 500.00 or so, roughly $10.00. More than a GI Joe anyway. The only ones that anyone bought were the transluscent Iceman and the Cyclops with his Astonishing X-Men costume which were almost as hard to come by as a City Strike Snake Eyes. All those Wolverine and Sabertooths have been languishing on the pegs since the day they were shelved.
Let’s face it, the movie wasn’t that great from a fan perspective, and it wasn’t something that had a whole lot of appeal to kids. Who wanted a Wolverine in his lumberjack costume from the film, complete with an axe? or a Wolverine in a covert ops suit? The yellow and brown costumes might have sold if it was easier to find one with decent paint. The supporting characters were better, with the aforementioned X-Men, a Maverick, and a couple of comic Deadpools. Those were the ones that people bought.
As a collector, I think it would have been more succesful if Hasbro had focused more on the comic series rather than just have it as a filler. I mean he’s got a rogues gallery, too. How about a Patch figure? Or some Jim Lee Hand Ninjas? Reavers? Silver Samurai? Cyber even! Make ONE Wolverine figure (or two, one in movie, one in the comic costume), make it the DEFINITIVE Wolverine figure, repaint as needed, and then have the other characters as support.
But enough ranting. I did finally buy one of the single pack figures when they finally went on clearance, the “Wolverine with Jacket” from wave 3.
The thing that really saddens me about crappy toys is that they’ll eventually go on sale and the distributors, realizing that importing certain lines is a losing game, will stop importing it. This is usually right around the time when the toy company will get it’s act together and come out with something like the Colossus that is part of wave 4. Wonderful.
The “Wolverine with Jacket” is the more “movie accurate” figure from the line that I’ve seen. We’ve got the comic Wolvies and the Logan in a wifebeater, plus the Logan-with-cowboy-hat-and-jacket-on-a-motorcycle deluxe set that came out. This one has the jacket Hugh Jackman was wearing in the film and a vague (very vague - we’re talking barely there - but then it’s 3.75″ scale) likeness to the actor.
It’s a nice figure, and it comes with two accessories. A second pair of clawed hands. Nice, Hasbro. 2 pairs of clawed hands. Here’s your facepalm. One of the pairs is open in a sort relaxed pose, one with clenched fists that are turned inward (so he looks right when he’s doing that RAWR!!! pose he always does). The relaxed pair looks like it’s supposed to hold a gun, but… no gun. Besides, he’s Wolverine. He’s got claws. It would have been better if we got gesturing hands with the sheathed claws so he could be Ordinary-joe-Logan or a cigar smoking head. Wouldn’t that be nice.
But no. We got 2 pairs of clawed hands.
The reason I got this was so that I can upgrade my old Superhero Showdown Beserker Wolverine. I like the look of his head much better. Personally, I always thought of Logan (or “James” as he’s apparently named now) as an ugly, ornery cuss. I’ve got nothing against Jackman, I enjoyed quite a few of his movies, but let’s face it, he’s a pretty, pretty man. The old head looks much more like I imagine him in the comic.
Unfortunately, the socket of the old SHS toys is too small to accomodate the newer Universe and X-Men Origins: Wolverine figures, so it was a no go from the start. I don’t have a rotary sander so I couldn’t grind out the interior of the ball to make it fit.
Luckily though, I had the Astonishing Costume Wolverine from the 2-Pack with Colossus. That head is similar to the SHS one and I hated the hunchback sculpt of the figure anyway. I promptly swapped them out and voila! A nice new non-canon-but-oh-so-ugly-and-ornery-looking-Logan-with-Jacket.
If you’re thinking of going one further and removing the jacket to get a nice wifebeater Logan, too bad. The figure sports those sculpted sleeves that so many jacketed toys do these days. It looks a lot better than that premium cloth jacketed Wolverine, but it means you can’t take off the extra layer.
To sum up, if you see this one for the Php 250.00 clearance price, I’d suggest getting it. It’s a decent figure (ignore my rants), with some great articulation. The original head isn’t really bad at all, sort of a younger version. At 50% off, that’s a pretty good deal.
You’ll need to hurry though. Of all the pegwarmers that were out there when the sale hit, this one seems to be the one dissappearing the fastest.
Playmates T-1
I’m not a fan of toy manufacturer Playmates. If you read my previous reviews of toys from this toymaker like Terminator Endoskeletons, April O’Neil or Star Trek playsets, there’s a general theme that runs through them; inferior sculpts, general low quality and overly simplistic articulation. The only reason I bought any of the above toys was that they were all in the clearance bin at a tiny fraction of the price they were released at. I heard that when Plamates heard about the success that NECA had with their first set of TMNT figures they decided that they also wanted a piece of the pie and reissued the classic TMNT figures from the 80’s. This basically sums up all that’s wrong with the company.
The reason that NECA had such success was that their figures were UPDATES of the old toys with better sculpts, better articulation, and a ton of accessories. They were perfect for us old farts who remembered (and in some cases still had) the old toys. Collectors didn’t want to buy the old toys again. They were boring and stiff and overly cartoony. If they had re-released the battle wagon, that might have been a different matter. But they didn’t.
They made similar blunders with the Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation lines. Even if the argument here is that these are meant for kids, their overall low quality and boring presentation killed any chance they could have had of capturing a bigger slice of that market pie.
In the photo above you’ll see a selection of the figures Playmates offered in their 6″ line. You basically got figures that belonged in 80’s in terms of joints and sculpt. These toys would have looked right at home next to those re-issued Ninja Turtles. The sad thing is that this is the TERMINATOR franchise we are talking about. It isn’t that hard to put out great product when you have things like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s likeness to work with. The 6″ Terminator: Salvation figures offer no real improvement on sculpt or articulation from their 3.75″ counterparts, other than the fact that Marcus is unmasked here. But then it’s not a very good likeness either. The rest of the 6″ Terminators don’t get any better.
Which brings us to the T-1. According to the tiny insert card on the front, this is the first iteration of the terminator. Basically a Roomba with Gatling guns strapped to it. This toy makes it look just like that. It comes in pieces in the bubble, so “some assembly is required” (how many of you miss that line?).
Sadly, the 6″ T1 isn’t in scale with the other 6″ toys. If you’re pitting them against Joes or Marvel Universe Worlverine, great. Then he’s pretty imposing. Otherwise…
The toy has 4 points of articulation; horizontal swivels on the guns, another ratcheted swivel on the “waist” and a turning back (or front if you want to follow the product photography which looks utterly stupid) tread. wow. That’s pathetic. The least they could have given us was a vertical tilt to the guns.
And by the way, Playmates, why a RATCHETED waist joint? It’s not like that joint will become particularly loose, and even if it did, it would not affect the toy in any way. The thing lays flat on the ground for god sake. The joint doesn’t hold any weight so what was the thinking here?
Another point against is the guns. They connect to the “arms” by attaching to discs that hang beneath them. It works, but you see the disc jutting out from the arm. It’s smacks of a rushed, half-assed design. They could have easily designed this as a ball joint at this scale like any number of Transformers, kept the pop off safety feature to avoid breakage and still increased the mobility of the toys armaments.
Then there’s the abyssmal “mud” brushed onto the treads. It’s awful. Really. I would have preferred they just have left the plasticy gray.
Looking at this thing just aggravates the hell out of me.
So why did I buy him you ask?
Because he was only Php 100.00. That’s insane for a toy that isn’t some chinese knockoff or off brand figurine. That price forgives a lot.
Besides I can still use him as a generic bad robot for what ever 3.75″ figure happens to be decorating my desk at home. And hey, if worse comes to worse, Yoda can go to town.
EDIT 2/24/2010: I forgot to mention 2 things in the above review. Someone told me that the ratcheted joint is an action feature. If you roll the figure across a table, the top portion of the robot turns in a circle. Mine doesn’t work properly (so QA issue?) and the packaging didn’t say a thing about it, so still fail, Playmates.
The second thing was the “missle” launchers. Just like the Moto-Terminators, the front portion of the T-1’s gatling guns pop out of the barrel at the touch of a button. This is idiotic. Not only does this not look like a missle, it leaves the gun without that front portion. I’m sure kids might find it neat, but what happens when they lose the projectile? Or when they forget it’s there (the projectile is black, a bit darker then the rest of the toy) and shoot themselves in the eye? They would have been better off slinging a grenade launcher underneath somewhere with a few of those brightly colored missles all the other toy companies love.
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
