Sunday, June 30, 2013

#40: Hot Wheels - Batcopter


Lately I've been keeping an eye on the Hot Wheels section because I want to get the Tim Burton style Batmobile, as well as the Enterprise. At the grocery store, I noticed a full display of Hot Wheels so I gave it a look through. Instead of finding either of the vehicles I'm looking for, I found this Batcopter. I had no idea it was available, so finding it was a nice surprise. I'm not sure if it's based on any specific media design, or just an original design from Mattel. Actually, with the color scheme of black with bright blue and yellow, it reminds me of Batgirl's original costume more than Batman. The rotor spins, and there are wheels on the bottom, so it can roll across a flat surface. This is in the HW Imagination line, with number 64/250.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

#39: Marvel Universe - Professor X


Here's another birthday gift, this time from friend of the blog James. I think this figure has been out for a while now, and I've been looking for one, but have never seen it in the wild. Fortunately, James found one at a Disney store. So, Disney's buyout of Marvel has had some positive results for me personally so far. This is one of the better Marvel Universe figures in a while, perhaps coincidentally because it is largely a G.I. Joe figure. That's right, it's a repaint of the SDCC exclusive movie Destro figure, with a new head. The G.I. Joe team does good work, so it's a well made body with better articulation than some Marvel Universe figures tend to have. The head is a good sculpt, with Professor X's crazy eyebrows, one of which is raised, and a look of concentration.


Professor X is one of the lucky MU figures to get an accessory: his crazy alien hoverchair from the 90s.  It's pretty big, and is included in the bubble in two pieces which easily plug together. If Hasbro wants to do a re-release later on, it would be a good chance to include a more standard wheelchair.


These guys go to the same tailor.

As you can see, yes, Professor X can stand. His ability to walk has been restored and taken away again a few different times in the comics, so that works.

Friday, June 28, 2013

#38: Minecraft - Foam Sword



Remember a while back when I got the foam pickaxe from Minecraft as a gift from my brother? Well, we are following that up with the foam sword from Minecraft I received as a gift from my brother. It's pretty basic, so what you see is what you get here. It's a pixelated sword that looks straight out of the game, and it's less than an inch thick. I wouldn't want to hit anything too hard with it, but it feels sturdy enough.


Ready to hunt down some zombies and skeletons. And spiders!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

#37: G.I. Joe Retaliation - Red Ninja


In preparation for the upcoming toy aisle resets, Target has begun putting various toys on clearance, including the G.I. Joe Retaliation figures. While this does not bode well for the next couple waves of the line (and now I'm really regretting not buying the Joe Colton figure the one time I saw it!), it did provide a good reason for me to pick up a figure I've been interested in for a while. The red ninjas were in one of the best parts of the movie: the cliffside ninja battle on zip lines. I'd been thinking about picking up one of these guys for a while, because it's good to have a generic ninja aside from Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow. It's a pretty cool ninja figure, mostly red with some black parts to break things up with some contrast. He's not as heavily armed as some previous G.I. Joe figures have been, including only two swords for weaponry, with no place to store them aside from holding them. Well, they can be tucked into the sash, but there are no scabbards.


The other accessory is a zip line/launcher. Normally I don't like the big goofy accessories included with some of the movie figures, but this one is actually fun to play with. The string is ridiculously long, and there are multiple attachment points, so there are options if you want to use this for display purposes.


Ninja action in my kitchen.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

#36: Kre-O Transformers - Constructicon Devastator


When Hasbro announced that it would be making its own line of LEGO-esque building block sets, I was skeptical. When they announced that the first line would feature Transformers, I was more interested in the minifigures, Kreons, than anything else. Unfortunately, the only way to get Kreons was to buy larger sets. More recently, Hasbro has realized that blindpacked individual minifigures is a good way to go, but they have also used the Kreons to market cheap versions of combiners. Devastator is the original, and my favorite of the combiners, so I figured that this version would be a good way to test the waters of Kre-O.

While originally Devastator has been formed from six different robots, this version makes do with only four, as do the rest of the Kre-O combiners. The minifigures are similar to LEGO minifigures, but have enhanced articulation. The shoulders and hips are ball joints, while the hips can swivel. The heads underneath the helmets even have slightly angular shapes for the chins. They somehow feel less solid than LEGO minifigures, but that may in part be due to my being so used to the LEGO versions that something different feels wrong. Three out of the four Constructicons has an armor chest piece which holds on pieces for the back. They're kind of plain looking, which is too bad because the actual chests have designs printed on them which aren't visible in Devastator mode either.


Because these are building toys and not regular action figures, the way to transform the figures from robot to altmode involves rebuilding to some degree. In either mode, there are pieces left over. Mixmaster turns into what is presumably meant to be a cement mixer of some sort, but he doesn't really look like anything. I think Scrapper turns into a Bulldozer, or maybe that's what Bonecrusher is meant to be. Scavenger is one of those cool giant scoopers. The altmodes aren't the greatest thing in the world, but from what I've seen, that holds true of all the Kreons so far. It is still cool that there are minifugures that can transform, though. Tiny construction vehicles aren't the reason I bought this set, though.


After basically pulling everything apart, you can build Devastator, using pieces that weren't used for any of the individual parts (much like the original), and once again leaving other parts unused. It's about the size of a 3.75 or 4 inch figure. With the largely green and purple color scheme, and the overall blockiness, it does a good job of evoking the original Devastator. I think the arms and thighs are a bit thin looking, and I know that some other people have had luck at customizing the build with a better looking result, so I'll have to give that a try. I like the design of the legs best, as it actually uses the legs and torsos of the Kreons, while the arms only incorporate the minifigure legs as its hands.


Also included is a display brick. Perfect for balancing Devastator on one foot with! Overall, I think this is fairly cool. It's a pretty decent value, since it's slightly cheaper than four LEGO minifigures, and about the same price as a standard 3.75 or 4 inch figure these days. There are three other combiners to choose from, so I may get one later on.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

#35: Man of Steel - Movie Masters Superman


The new Superman movie, Man of Steel, is opening this weekend. It's directed by Zack Snyder, so it could be a cool action movie, but it could also be kind of dumb. Trailers can be misleading, but I am looking forward to seeing the movie. I figured I would pick up the movie style Superman even before having seen the movie since I already have various Batman Movie Masters figures that it can fit in with. Granted that if the Justice League movie gets made, the Nolan Batman won't be involved, but for my toy collection, it's close enough. Surprisingly, there are no "man in business suit" figures for Man of Steel. That would make an easy Clark Kent figure!

So Movie Masters Superman fits in with the other Movie Masters figures. It's a more realistic looking figure that is slightly smaller than the comic figures from Mattel. It has all the same articulation, save the ab crunch. So Superman can't hunch over or lean back, which I think would help for flight posing. Also, the head only seems to function as a swivel joint, so he can't look up. Although I'd like for the colors of the suit to be brighter, that's an issue with the design from the movie rather than the toy. So overall it looks good, I think the chest emblem is particularly well done. Of the two figures on the peg, I picked the one with lighter five o' clock shadow on the face. Basically it's a cool figure, so I hope the movie turns out well also. Apparently a sequel has already been greenlit, so that is a good sign.


Man of Steel figures don't have a build a prop piece like last year's Dark Knight Rises figures. I'm not sure what they even could have built, the Daily Planet globe maybe, so the loss isn't a big deal. Aside from the Superman logo stand, there are no accessories.


I'm not sure if the figures are scaled up a bit from previous Movie Masters lines or if Henry Cavill is just that much taller than Christian Bale. It's not enough of a difference to make them look out of scale.


Too bad he can't look up!
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