Toy Review: Star Wars Black Series: Sandtrooper 6"

Toy Review: Star Wars Black Series: Sandtrooper 6"

Going back two years for this guy who has been making his rounds through my shelves and storage.  This was from the very first run of the Fairly recent Star Wars black series 6" inch deluxe figures.  The Sandtrooper was THE figure to get and was nearly impossible to find at retailers.  He was notoriously missing from online sellers or going for nearly double the retail cost.  I myself found him at Target and only saw him one other time in the whole span.  He was one of four figures consisting of R2-D2, Luke in X-Wing gear and Darth Maul...a pretty random set of figures to start off a line but lets give it till wave 5/6 are out (if ever) and we have a nice cross section of both trilogies to look at.  Some of the upcoming stuff looks great and I very much like the focus on the OT but am surprised that there is yet to be a Grievous or New Hope Princess Leia...the Slave Leia choice just baffled my mind as these are extremely articulated figures and it doesn't work very well on a flesh clad mold...I know they cannot do Phicen but since that is they case, any clothed Leia would have worked better for me...(Apparently they are going to release a Ceremonial New Hope Leia in a future wave packed with a TIE pilot we will have to sell our souls to find on shelves)

Anyway, here he is.  One of the first troopers from the Original Trilogy and he looks great.  They really did a great job nailing the specific identifying features that differentiate him from the normal Stormtrooper...the knee pad, the helmet paint, the belt. Everything is very accurate. The desert wear on him is convincing but not over the top just like the Scout Trooper and his extra blaster and rifles are nice.  There is really nothing I would add to this guy and am happy he didn't get a Scout Droid packed in with him although I would understand if special edition fans might be a bit bummed at the loss.

 

He stands well on his own and is pretty sturdy with a removable oxygen backpack and shoulder ammo pouch that attaches to the backpack.  His orange paulderon also can come off if you pop his head off.  His articulation is very nice and he can hold his rifle and weaponry in many nice various poses.  The paint is very nice with a cool sheen that shows through the dirt.  Something about this series does a great job emulating various textures.  Armor looks plastic-like, as does vinyl, cloth, rubber etc.  Gloss touches in all the right places and dirt and wear looks strikingly convincing.  In the world were Hot Toys and Revoltech take the very expensive cake, it's good to know Hasbro can and sometimes will step up the plate and make high quality yet still affordable merchandise.

If you can still find him, go for it.  Otherwise a repaint of him with a black paulderon is right around the corner!

See ya!

Toy Review: Star Wars Black Series - 6" Speeder Bike with Biker Scout

Toy Review: Star Wars Black Series 6" Speeder Bike with Biker Scout.

 

 

 

 

This review will be simple and to the point.  Hands down, the best Star Wars item I own.  Absolute nicest version of the Imperial Speeder Bike and Scout I've seen in any action figure format. Every detail has been hit with perfect detail, the articulation is spot on, the paint apps are great (for mine) and there's honestly nothing closer to a perfect figure.  I cannot tell you how happy I am to look at this guy on my desk.  

With all the good there are still some very small gripes particularly with the bike.  Wish the handlebars and foot pedals could move and the shifter handlebar switches could adjust as well as the controls on the paneling.  Strange they didn't mold separate break line cables separate from the handlebars instead of into them like they decided.   It would have been a great touch for the cover/poncho to be removable or God-willing it to be a soft goods item and  I noticed the exhaust flaps only partially open which was a surprise.

 

 

 As for the Scout, I like him a lot.  Only things I'd add was a little more articulation in the waist and neck so he would be able to really hunch over those handlebars.  I also would have likes a flip up visor but that never happened in the film so they get a pass.   Now this seems like a lot of criticism but I noticed these things because I like the item so much.  They are small disappointments only because the black series touted itself to be the ultimate in detail/realism yadda yadda and I feel without these features it makes this cross the realm into a stature not meant to be played with.  Even collectors like features, you know?

The positives though are plentiful.  This guy is super articulated and I cannot say how much I love having a Scout who can mount and dismount without looking bow-legged, awkward or goofy-waisted.  The paint on him is absolutely great with mild combat wear yet still a cleaner appearance.  The boot blaster is a great small size and way more accurate than these magnum sized weapons previous scout received in toy form.  His helmet is greatly proportioned and detailed, as well as his backpack, armor and pads.  The sculpt is great and his armor looks like armor while his pouches, boots, pads and undersuit all look like actually different maters be it vinyl, leather, mesh, plastic etc.  The bike is perfectly suited for him with nice weathering in well spotted places.  The front comes off with fine engine details on the underside and the undercarriage in general is beautiful.  The exhaust fans on the rear look superb with each rivet and bolt looking highly realistic.  The stand is sturdy and can hold him from any three of the supports.  The back flaps open slightly, the cannon rotates and the foot pedals are removable to better position the rider for posing.  Hasbro did a whole lot right with this set and I cannot wait for the Tauntaun. 

 

Toy Review: Transformers Classics / Generations - Thundercracker (Deluxe class)

Transformers Classics / Generations : Thundercracker (Deluxe Class)

Up for review is the Transformers Classics reboot Thundercracker.  He is an all around update to the awesome G1 seeker for Starscream's original jet squadron and my personal favorite of the original jets.  He is truly a sight to see.

 

This is a perfect update to an already great and iconic figure (whom I own but am yet to review...it's coming I swear).  He has updated articulation to all the right places, additional details, molding and anything you could find issue with seems to have been addressed and fixed from design, to transformation to paint application.

His alt-mode is a great representation of an F-15 Eagle and has perfected grooves, etching, engine ridges, exhaust fans, missiles and anything you could hope for.  He has a yellow/orange tinted opening cockpit and a painted on set of red and white stripes to give him a striking look over his vibrant blue paint job.  His nose has a rubberized black pointed tip and he has two firing missile pods that fit on the underside of his wings.  The Decepticon logo is nicely displayed on the overside of the wings as well.

Transformation is smooth and fixed the nagging issue I had with the G1 rendering of having to physically take off his wings and stabilizers and reposition them between alt and bot modes.  Everything is connected and transitions into place nicely.  The only thing that comes off are the rocket launchers which can either be positioned on his forearms or in his hands as blasters to add some variety.  He has nice extended legs that bend at the knee and has pivoting arms with bendable elbows which add for some nice poses as shown.

As a bot, he is amazing.  Beautiful face mold although his head doesn't move nor does he have light-piping.  He's got a nice paint scheme on the chest with two exhaust fans for breastplates which are a great touch.  They even included the two red triangles on his shoulder guards like the G1 model.  Articulation is very satisfactory and as I'm repeatedly talking about touches and paint on the wings and body, yes, it is all paint now.  No stickers anywhere and the application of the paint is welcome and extremely well placed.

 

Presentation-wise, he's a slick update of one of the most popular original characters from the Transformers Universe.  If you can only decide on (or afford) one seeker, go with this guy.  He certainly will not disappoint and (next to Dirge) he seems to be one of the least expensive Classics you can still score.  Skywarp, on the other hand, is through the roof and Starscream...I dunno doesn't do it for me as an update like Thundercracker manages to do.

Toy Review: Transformers: Reveal the Shield - Lugnut (Voyager Class)

Transformers: Lugnut (Reveal the Shield - Hunt for the Decepticons - Voyager Class)

 

 

Here's a nice bit of straight up, 100 percent praise.  It goes without saying, hand's down that this is my all time favorite Transformer figure.  I hunted this guy for months and managed to score him new in box for about 35.00.  The story behind this guy's figure in general is rather disappointing considering what an absolutely awesome all around figure he truly is.   He is a pure example of someone in the design department really caring for their work and is an answer to a request most collectors didn't even know they wanted.  He is a much more fleshed out and "realistic" version of the mindlessly loyal to Megatron henchman from the Transformers: Animated Series. He's not really, to my knowledge, from any other TF canon besides the animated series so I find it remarkable that someone went ahead and gave this figure a much needed upgrade.

 

 

Unfortunately, for me, because this guy was a relative unknown to those who didn't watch or collect the animated line and thus his sales were poor.  So poor that most collectors who did find him ended up scoring him in the bargain clearance bins at T.J. Maxx, Marshall's and Ollie's.  (The one I got on ebay still had a 10.00 clearance sticker on him and there's a review on youtube where the seller stated the actually got him for 2 freaking dollars!!!!) While apparently everyone who was on board from the start was scooping this puppy up for literal dirt cheap prices, those of us late to the party have been paying upwards of 50 bucks on the after-ebay-market.  Yikes!   He's so worth it, I have no regrets whatsoever.

 

Figure-wise, he's a great sculpt that could easily fill in as a chest piece for the Combaticons as his vehicle mode is modeled after the likes of a B-17 Flying Fortress with WWII canopy and belly guns along with a nice little dual molded tail gun in the rear.  It has two wing mounted engines sans propellors and has a flip back pilots compartment and the gimmick consists of a deployable missile cannon that is hidden by the tailgunner which can be positioned down to front and fire a spring loaded missile.  

 

Where this guy shines is in his bot mode.  He takes everything that made the animated version cool and takes it all to the next level for the sculpt, paint, color and just hulking nature of the figure.  He is a big Lugnut to say the least. He is bulky and weighty with lumbering arms, a nice gorilla-like physique, shoulders of a bruiser with the hands down funnest transformation I've seen in a long time.  The paint is great with nice detailing on the nose art in true WWII fashion and he is a nice army green with purple highlights and read transparent plastic and I love every bit of it.  His call sign is labeled on his tail and wings with LU-6 NU-7...clever.   You can also get upgrades from reprolabels which add bomb compartment graphics, your choice of custom nose art and decals for the wings.

 

His face is centered with a monocular cycloptic eye which is teeming with personality and includes an articulated jaw with two bucktooth-like squares on the lower mandibles.  He has a lot of nice light-piping on the canopy and eyepiece and everything is ball-jointed and poseable...hell, his fingers are on their own joints which is great for a voyager figure and you can even play with his feet which are jointed between the heel and toe portions!

 

If you missed him, get him.  If you have him, take him out and play with him.  If he's on your shelf already, move him to the front!

Toy Review: Transformers Onslaught (Ultra Class: Universe Classics 2.0)

Transformers: Universe Classics 2.0/ Onslaught (Ultra Class)

Here, we are looking at 2008's Ultra Class Onslaught.  He was fashioned into a larger commander bot with serious armament and intimidating size after a smaller version of him was created for the combiner Combaticon set of Bruticus Maximus also in the Universe toy line.

Instead of being a flatbed military truck with mobile artillery gun, he is now an armored tactical S.W.A.T. vehicle.  The translation works pretty well as he retains major qualities like big tires, a double barreled cannon, similar headsculpt and color scheme.  He works very well for me and I wish they released his buddies on this scale to make an Ultra Combiner based on these molds.  I would love to see a Ultra class Swindle, Brawl or Vortex.  The stuff coming from Warbotron in this department is leaving little to be desired...seriously check out Heavy Noisy or Sly Strike and tell me those aren't dead on G1 faces.  (Is it possible for something in 2014 to look more "G1" than the original G1?)

 

He combines fairly easy with a fold out read section of wheels that converge to his feet with armor plating with bendable knees and hip joints.  He has electronic features that make a blaster noise, a crushing noise and a siren noise. I scored an early version that had a bug in the sound that only lets it play in 1 second bursts so there is no prolonged sounds of machine gun or sirens as was intended and later released in the U.S and Japanese versions.  Point of note, the Takara version also had colors that directly matched the original G1 toy while these seem a bit darker.

He's got a nice headsculpt with light up eyes on a battery jointed arms and shoulders with a flip out cannon on his right wrist and a flip out holder on his left to hold a detachable S.W.A.T. shield. (A feature I absolutely love)  It makes him look like a freaking gladiator in my opinion and it seriously rules.  His cannon is essentially not functioning on his back and only really works if you make him bend over.  I tried and he really cannot do it without looking totally stupid and needing a hand to prop him up.  In his vehicle mode, he is meant to look armored and bulky and it works well.  His wrist gun is belly mounted and he has two flip down spiked battering devices hinged on the helm of the vehicle.  While the shield can be positioned onto the top for an armored roof, it doesn't feel like it belongs there if they are trying to make this look realistic.  I find with a nice suspension of disbelief put into place, you can make the design work.

This guy truly reinvents Onslaught and lives up to his name....Just wish his main cannon could be better utilized in bot mode.

Toy Review: Transformers - Generations: Cosmos and Payload (Legends Class)... and Hasbro minirant

Transformers Generations: Cosmos and Payload (Legends Class)


I picked this small set up a few weeks back at my local Target and have been meaning to do something with these guys.  I originally wanted to pick up Swerve, Tailgate and Shrapnel...oh right, Skrapnel (whatever).  So far, this has been a bit hard.

 

Sufficed to say, the newer generations legends class figures are rare as hell to find.  I actually HELD a Swerve and Flanker in my hand and put it back on the shelf thinking...ah, well the fact that he's sitting in Target means we're done with the Starscream, Megatron, Bumblebee, Optimus waves that have been pegwarming for a year now...to my chagrin only discovered on my next visit with intent to buy that not only Swerve was long gone but THREE racks were filled with Optimus Legends figures....which have sat now for about a month.

Seriosuly (mini-rant) but again, Hasbro, why do you have this ball-itching quality to compulsively clog your toy lines with pegwarmers at every turn while refusing to properly distribute lines of figures people want...first of all...NOBODY wants a tiny Optimus Prime that's Bumblebee sized! Let alone three racks of him.  What are you thinking? Even from a little kid's perspective..."Hmmm...do I want a tiny little OP or this nice sized chromed out one with a full sized Grimlock for fifteen extra dollars or a nice foot tall AoE figure for 5 bucks more?"  So you do this...while you develop an honestly great run of original sculpts with great paint and package art which coincide with a great IDW series and just refuse to distribute them and not carry them on your own website...but to add insult to injury state you plan to offer repaints of the exact same pegwarmers! (a la Nemesis Prime and Cliffjumper which I can only hope are ways to pawn off the overstock of wave 1 figures which would be smart but probably is incorrect)...This is on top of offering stupid "exclusive" TRU Masterpiece variants like Acid Storm who sat for a whole year and is on clearance now or (now upcoming) Sunfire.   We still haven't gotten a MP Thrust, Dirge or Ramjet which I would jump at for any of them.  Or how about the garish and tacky Gold and Transparent "year of the horse" Optimus Prime...Why not just re-releasing MP-01 that everyone is dying to get another shot at since even the KO without the trailer is going for 110.00 on ioffer.com?  Nah, let's clog the stores with a giant expensive shelf jammers while short supplying desired products like MP Soundwave and super-undersupplying MP Grimlock...honestly, did he even make it to some stores after his whole half hour that he was posted on TRU.com for sale.  TRU just pulled this shit with preorders for leader class Jetfire who was on the site for a whole 3 days before they removed the sale.  If the figure isn't even released yet, why can't the sellers just take indefinite preorders and send the numbers to the supplier for fulfillment... does Hasbro and Toy's  R Us just NOT like making money???

OK, I'm done.

The figure is a great, albeit, super hard to find Legends Class figure. The Universe line also put out a remake of this cool minibot but I just never felt like shelling the 20 plus on him on ebay.  This little guy is a perfect update of the original G1 version that really left much to be desired.  I know Takara and Hasbro were working with what undiscerning buyers deemed acceptable back in the 80's hence such an awkward little original figure but this guy is truly an Action figure meaning you can pose him and he has positionable arms, legs and waist!  The first guy as with many of the G1 line could do just about one thing in bot mode...stand up straight and/or point a gun if he was packed with on and has a peghole in his hand which wasn't always the case.

This version of Cosmos has an added bonus, he's also a very small targetmaster as he is packed with a cannon Targetmaster named Payload who transforms into a space shuttle which is an awesome touch I love with this new line of Legends.  He's simple but detailed and makes for a nice extra addition with an almost too simple transformation between weapon, bot and ship but nothing out of the ordinary for a mini-con or micromaster.  

 

Figure-wise, Cosmos is a great build with a lot of articulation for a figure his size, great paint detailing and tons of grooves, engine detailing, and paneling on his ship mold.  The ship has some cool grey cannons on the bottom, three windows on the front, a tail rudder with tow yellow engines.  Snazzy. 

 In Bot-mode, he has nice sturdy hands and feet with ball jointed legs, a rotating waist and articulation at the elbows and knees.  For a little guy, he looks like he can pack a punch.  His paint is very nice with bright yellows and greens with some extra care put into his face. (as expressionless as it is)  Even payload has a couple colors in there with nice attention to detail, especially on his ships front window paneling.

If you can find this pair, grab them up or prepare to get fleeced on Evil-bay.