#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.

#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.

#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!

#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.

#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.

#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!

#34: The Avengers - Hot Toys Loki

When I pre-ordered the Hot Toys Joker with my tax refund money, I used the rest of it to pre-order the Hot Toys Loki as well. I figured getting into 1:6 scale figures with the antagonists from two of the biggest comic book movies of all time would be a good way to start.

Unlike the Joker figure, Loki is not a DX, so he comes in a less fancy package. There's a nice looking slip cover over a window box. Also, he only gets one head, and no moveable eyes. And there's no giant accessory like the Joker's interrogation table, and no backdrop.

Here he is, Loki the trickster god in all his glory. Loki's costume is more ornate than the Joker's, and it looks really cool in toy form. His long coat and flowing cape help give him the regal air he is going for.  The armor pieces have a nice matte finish that make them look really good. Naturally, he includes the magical staff with a soul gem in it.

His helmet is removable, of course. It fits pretty snugly on the head, so it splits into two pieces for more ease in putting it on or taking it off. I am on record as being very much a fan of the epicness of Loki's helmet, so he will definitely be displayed wearing it. Either way, here is a closer look at the head sculpt. As you expect from Hot Toys, it looks great. It's a fairly determined expression, with the hint of a smirk. I'm glad it's not a completely neutral expression, because that would have been boring. If he had a second head, it would have been cool to get a screaming face, for action poses.

In addition to the staff, he also includes the collapsed version as well. He is also armed with a couple of small daggers. I'm not sure if they are supposed to be secretly stored somewhere in the folds of his costume, but they work well for me in the belt/strap thing across his chest.

He also includes the muzzle and handcuffs he wore in preparation for his return to Asgard. The muzzle slips on and holds itself in place. The cuffs are non-functional in that they don't open up. To place them on, you have to remove the hands then slip the cuffs over the wrists, then replace the hands. The chain on those cuffs seems negligently long.

Speaking of hands, Loki has four pairs of them, plus an additional left hand. It's a flat open hand, and I like to think of it as a supervillain speechifying gesture hand. His accessories are rounded out with a display base.

Loki triumphant!

Loki's revenge!

Here's a group shot of all my Lokis, also featuring the six inch Hasbro Loki, the 3 3/4 inch Hasbro Loki, the Minimate Loki, and LEGO Loki.

#33: Marvel Legends Iron Man - Lt. Colonel James Rhodes

Hasbro decided to take a new direction for Iron Man 3 toys. For the 3 3/4 inch scale, they went with cheap, underarticulated figures as well as figures with swappable limbs. So basically nothing I was interested in. Fortunately, there was also a Marvel Legends series affiliated with the movie's release. The first half had comic figures, while the second had movie figures. And Ultron. Friend of the blog AJ found them and bought the movie Iron Patriot for me as an early birthday gift.

I'm not sure if this is accurate to the movie or not, but this figure is a new sculpt rather than a repaint of the Iron Man 2 War Machine. It's possibly a reuse of a different suit's sculpt, but not one that I have. Because the first half of this series has the comic version of Iron Patriot, this figure is labelled as Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, although in the movie the suit is Iron Patriot. I'm not sure if that would make it more or less confusing to the kids or those shopping for kids. While War Machine was more about raw destructive power, Iron Patriot has a more PR role with less overt weaponry. As such, he has one accessory, a shoulder cannon. It folds up and swivels and can also be removed. There are two spots on his back for it to plug into, so perhaps he had a second weapon planned.

Since this is a Marvel Legends build a figure series, Rhodes includes the left arm of Iron Monger. That's the Iron Monger from the Iron Man 2 line for size comparison.

See, not just a repaint. Also, now with added height!

"Hey, Rhodey, I think I've got the patriotically themed armor angle covered already. Take ten."

#32: Transformers Prime - Beast Hunters Shockwave

Now that Transformers Prime is in its third season, Shockwave has finally shown up, and naturally gets a new toy for the toy line. I've been waiting for Shockwave to show up in stores, but so far haven't seen one. Fortunately, I managed to luck out and order one online from Hasbrotoyshop.com during a brief window of availability. There was a 20% off code active at the time, which was almost enough to balance out the shipping.

After the Fall of Cybertron's deluxe sized figure, Shockwave is back up to voyager size. It's a pretty cool robot mode, mostly purple with some grey bits. His left arm ends in a gun, rather than being a separate piece. It has an action feature where you press the button and the barrel splits and rotates. There is even a "hose" attaching his arm to his back, like the classic version. The big red eye is lightpiped, but the piping is at the base of the back of his head, so it's not the most effective use of the effect. Overall though, it's a cool robot mode and appropriately massive.

Because Transformers Prime is doing the Beast Hunters thing now, Shockwave includes some armored bits that are removable. I'm not sure what purpose they serve, as so far that look is not reflected in the cartoon. In the case of Soundwave, it was an excuse to sell a new toy, but since this is the only Shockwave in the line, it seems pointless. Maybe it will come into play somewhere down the line in the next few episodes.

Like Megatron, Shockwave has the problem that his original incarnation turned into a gun. So the new thing is for him to turn into a tank. While Megatron's tank modes have usually been decent enough, Shockwave's have usually been a bit less so. It works better on the cartoon, but the design is not too exciting. The big "arms" sticking out of the front are not a design choice I'm a big fan of on a tank.

Here's what the tank mode looks like with the armor pieces attached.

Group shot! As I've mentioned before, the official word is that the Cybertron games and Prime are in the same continuity, so those are the same character. The smaller one is the Cyberverse commander version from my roommate's collection.

#31: DC Universe Signature Collection - The Flash

What does the Universe have against Wally West? When Mattel made a Flash figure for DCUC, it was Barry Allen, because of 80s nostalgia (as far as I know). Then the DC universe gets rebooted into the New 52, and Wally West doesn't even exist any more. So of course when Mattel put out another Flash figure at retail, it is the New 52 Barry Allen version. So of course when Mattel got around to making Wally as the Flash (they did at least make a figure of him as Kid Flash for DCUC) it was as a Mattycollector exclusive. Fortunately, it was apparently a slow month, as I was able to order Wally from the website with no delay or any hint of the white screen of death. It was apparently such a slow month for the site that none of the figures available sold out for a couple days. Oddly, there was a four dollar discount on shipping, so yay.

One of the most striking differences for Wally's figure is that he is a lot shinier than the previous Flash figure. Rather than yellow, his costume accents are gold. He gets a newly sculpted head as well as new lower legs, as his boot tops don't have the wings on them. These new lower legs are longer, making him taller (also Barry has an oddly misshapen head). There aren't any accessories (not even a stand), but the Flash doesn't really need them. Overall, good figure. It's just too bad that Mattel never released him in a retail line, so anybody that wanted one had to lay out the extra cash because it was an online exclusive.

Speedsters!