I open a toy & post it here... VOL 2!

[Team Jetfire]

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Disney Toy Box- Disney Classics: Captain Hook.




You know what is interesting to me? The fact that the Peter Pan ride in Disneyland is still one of the most popular rides throughout the park. It’s crazy that an original, opening day attraction, often has longer wait times then the more high profile rides and if you have been lucky enough to go to Disneyland you’ll often be waiting 45 to 60 minutes to board, but I think there are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it’s a low capacity ride. The pirate ship ride vehicles amount to basically a floating bench that is only built for two people. Compare this to a ride like Pirates of the Caribbean that has a ship that can fit like 15 people at one time. Secondly the ride vehicles need to come to a complete stop in order to both load and unload. This might seem like a given, but other 2 person rides, like The Haunted Mansion and The Little Mermaid, are able to cram a lot of guests in without stopping given their OMNIMOVER ride system that is always moving much like a moving walkway that you would find in an Airport. There is also the added time that the Cast Members need to wait for guests to sit down, get all their personal belongings set and get the lap bar down. I suspect this part takes the longest as the general public is terrible at this sort of thing. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the ride is awesome. It has a distinctive ride system in which the ride vehicles hang from a moving track located on the ceiling, much like a ski lift. This gives the feeling that the ship is flying through the air and gives riders the perspective of looking down over London and Neverland. It’s truly an enjoyable and unique experience and could be a bit of a thrill for those that are a bit scared of heights. Overall it’s one of my favorite rides and if I can get to the park early or stay late enough it’s worth a bit of a wait.

Pros: I’m not even kidding; Hook is one of my favorite Toybox figures to date which is weird as I almost returned him to the store. The sculpt is spot on, he has a good amount of articulation, including ankle tilts, comes with a sword, sheath and even his garish pirate captain hat that fits on his head remarkably well.

Cons: As is standard, there is some limited movement on his legs due to his long coat, but it’s not as egregious as on other figures.

[Team Jetfire]

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Hasbro- Star Wars Black Series: Death Squad Commander.




What are the chances that the actor used for the picture on the card back played a rebel soldier too? It’s so funny to think of all these random English actors/extras in the 70’s running around, playing dress up for a minimum wage, playing roles that so many super fans would love to now play; so much so that they would do it for free! I wonder if this guy even knows that his image was used to sell the figure that is based on his part. Perhaps the first round of original 3 ¾ figures, but I doubt that he is still with us to see it on these scaled up retro figures which is a shame given how these guys and not just the main cast, made the original Star Wars so special.

Pros: Is it bad that the Death Squad Commander is one of my favorite recent Black Series figures? I suppose my love for the figure can be attributed to my own personal bias as I will always give extra points to a toy that achieves what it sets out to do: be a well sculpted, fully articulated figure with nice character specific accessories that does not suffer any mobility issues or frozen joints that lead to breakages. I realize that it is a rather low bar to hit in order to be considered a favorite, but after around 700 reviews, not too many figures meet these specifications.

Cons: Not a “CON” per se on the figure, but on the costume design; like those helmet circles look hilarious. Also, and while I’m probably wrong about this, why does he come with a rebel blaster? Did both the Rebel and the Empire have the same ones?

[WhenGeeksCollide]

https://youtu.be/rudyig9yiws

MARVEL LEGENDS NOVA

[Team Jetfire]

604-2
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Yondu




I really have to hand it to Michael Rooker for giving life to the extremely odd character of Yondu. First of all he’s completely blue, which I’m sure is a painful process for an actor to go through day after day. Secondly he’s playing make believe in a crazy comic style, sci-fi flick which really doesn’t seem like his style given his filmography appearing in some personal favs including Days of Thunder and MallRats. And finally, he has an amazing character arc that really makes you like him at the end of Vol 2. Maybe if we are lucky we’ll get some more “Rooker style” Yondu in the new MCU movies, but given his perfect death sequence at the end of GOTG 2, perhaps it’s for the best that we just keep that memory.

Pros: Hasbro can really kill it when they want to and Yondu here is proof; he looks like he just walked right off the screen with this sculpt. I also love both sculpted heads and really appreciated how they incorporated his special arrow. And while the long coat SHOULD limit the articulation, it really doesn’t as there are enough cuts and breaks to make it work.

Cons: Literally my only issue is the fact that Hasbro did not provide an arrow without the energy effect. I tried to make my own, but didn’t have the tools, or actual desire to really make a real effort.

[Team Jetfire]

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Hasbro- Transformers Prime: Starscream.



Another fun little mini-figure that meets my “bring to a Mexican restaurant” test that would have delighted me as a child, however as an adult collection, I have to wonder why I picked this little guy up. I suppose at that time my collecting habits were more focused on Transformers, which has certainly changed since then, but it’s still odd given that this was not even a unique character in this smaller size class (like Cliff Jumper in G1). Ah well, at the end of the day these are fun little figures that didn’t cost much and don’t take up much room on the shelf.

Pros: Prime Starscream is a fun little mini figure that looks surprisingly accurate in robot mode, has a quick transformation and a serviceable vehicle mode. I also appreciate that he came with 2 translucent weapons that can fit on both vehicle and robot mode.

Cons: For the price, it is what it is, but good lord those feet are terrible to pose.

[Team Jetfire]

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Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Scarlet Witch and Vision




Ok, time to talk about WandaVision! At the time of this writing WandaVision has been completed for a few weeks and while I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, I’ll say this: I really enjoyed it. Maybe I’ll just get my thoughts out with the old Good, Bad and Ugly review structure.

The Good: First off, both Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are an absolute joy to watch on screen and I have enjoyed both their chemistry and characterizations of these comic heroes from the start. The existing MCU cast, including Kat Dennings as Darcy and Randall Park as Jimmy Woo, are great and I applaud Disney for further connecting the movies in this cinematic universe. The highlight of the new cast is easily Kathryn Hahn as Agatha, but the others, including the various towns’ people are good too. Secondly, the overall story, including the sitcoms through the year’s story telling device, was both phenomenal and smart, especially considering it’s something most viewers can relate too. Thirdly, it was nice to see some actual impacts from Infinity and Endgame, even if it was just limited to Wanda’s grief. The further character development of both Scarlet Witch and Vision was solid and I really cannot wait to see how they are impacted in coming movies and series. Lastly, I loved that they re-cast Quicksilver with Evan Peters from the Fox X-Men movies. I just thought it was a really great nod.

The Bad: While I don’t really blame the producers or Disney for this it was a bit of a bummer that after 18 months since the last MCU film that all we initially got was a cerebral black and while homage to old sitcoms. Sure, every week thereafter had a bit more story and MCU involvement, but wasn’t what the fans wanted after so much downtime. That said, if this was released as planned I’m not sure that it would have had the same accolades that it got. Also, I didn’t really love Monica’s part in this story. I get that they are connected to Captain Marvel 2, but it’s not exactly my favorite arm of the MCU.

The Ugly: This might be a hot take, but Wanda was the villain in this story. I know that she is suffering and I realize that she has been through a lot, but I wish they were clearer that she was either A) well out of her mind and not able to help making the HEX or B) have Agatha be in control of her actions. I’m also not sure why the director of SWORD was painted as such a bad guy. Yes he threatened to kill Wanda but she also took an entire town hostage for days. What was he supposed to do?

Pros: Scarlet Witch- I’ve reviewed her before but this one has a few good changes. 1. I like the lighter, redder coloured hair and 2. I like the different energy effects that don’t look like red cotton candy .

Vision: Sold detailed sculpt for a figure that did not see a single release until much later on, good articulation allowing for a number of cool poses and I love the look of the translucent cap.
Cons: Scarlet Witch- Nothing comes to mind that is much different than issues surrounding Marvel Legends female figures; it’s a really solid figure.

Vision- The only issue I have is that his hard plastic cape is a bit too long and interferes with lower leg poseability.

[Team Jetfire]

[Team Jetfire]

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NECA- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Movie: Leonardo.



Oh, this is a treat. This is the first time that I am doing a review on a toy that a person who is directly responsible for its existence may actually see it. For that reason I’m skipping my pros and cons (It's great but with the same issues as the others) and cross posting on Instagram. For those not aware, the movie features live action actors in extremely advanced Henson studios costumes; this was the time before CGI and motion capture and believe me when I say this, it still holds up. And while the suits look good, it’s really the actors in those suits that gave such convincing life to those characters and as luck would have it, one of those actors follows me on Instagram and is a fellow father to a gymnast! His name is Mark Caso @mark_caso and he gave life to Leonardo in some of the live action iterations as well as a stunt actor in some other notable projects. I honestly can’t imagine how anyone would be able to do “normal” movie things in those suits let alone choreographed fight sequences, but he was able to make it look easy. As someone who grew up watching those films, loving the TMNT franchise and having Leonardo as my 2nd fav (sorry) of the group I just want to say thanks for making my childhood that much more magical.

[Team Jetfire]

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McFarlane Toys- DC Multiverse: Hellbat Batman



As I started what little prep I do for these reviews, I had one of those “blast from the past” nostalgic waves that hit you when you least expect it. I was reading about the origins of the Hellbat armour and thought how funny it was that Batman had an armor for everything and then remembered a rather cool toy line that was basically made entirely up of crazy Batman suits. Two in particular come to given that my son had them as a kid: Zipline Batman who was in a standard looking suit complete with some nifty zipline action accessories, and Arctic Shield Batman who was the ever important, cold weather warrior that came with, you guessed it, an arctic shield as well as some type of anti- freeze ray. I’m not really sure why, as a toy collector at the time, I poo-pooed these toys as they were actually pretty cool: Around 6 inches, articulation comparable to the power of The Power of the Force line from 4 years prior, lots of accessories, a cloth cape and all for about $10! What an insane value! If you are interested in checking out the line, there is a database with pictures here: http://www.batmanytb.com/actionfigur...atman/series2/

Pros: McFarlane really swund for the fences on the first wave of this DC Multiverse line and for the most part, he hit it out of the park. Hellbat was a bit of a crazy choice given that it’s not really a well known iteration of Batman, but damn if it is not impressive. Just look at it; it's a thing of beauty! I was blown away by not only the fully detailed sculpt, but also the level of articulation and pose-ability, not to mention the cape that folds out to some MASSIVE wings. Oh did I mention that he was only $25? Really solid figure and honestly is in contention for toy of the year for me.

Cons: Not a darn thing. Hellbat Suit Batman is really fantastic and a great choice if you are wanting to sample the McFarlane wares.

[Team Jetfire]

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Hasbro- Transformers- Generations Thrilling 30: Rhinox




So just this last Friday of this writing the much anticipated Hasbro Pulse Fan Fast was held much to my anticipation and subsequent disappointment given that they over promised with some sizable hype and under delivered with some (IMHO) very lackluster revels across all their brands. That said, the best showing was that of the Transformers brand as there were some figures that I could actually see myself picking up. That said, I have some thoughts on the two big “surprises'' that most people are talking about.

First was the Titan Class transformable Arc figure. I suppose it's a cool idea to have the Arc in toy form and it would look cool with the other oversized Titan releases, but it’s just not for me. Space in the collection is a consideration and the toy itself just does not look that good. I’m not sure where designers got the idea that bigger equals better, but releases of this size are just not that fun and never worth the ever increasing cost. The better bet was to make a voyager sized figure to appeal to a larger audience; yes I would be WAY out of scall, but even as a Titan sized figure it's out of scale and more collectors would be able to fit him in their collection.

Second and perhaps the most egregious was the self “transforming” Robosen Optimus Prime. And when I say egregious I mean, a release that once again caters to a higher tier collector that has some serious disposable cash to burn given that it costs $700 US. And I get that this is a really special collectible, but this is on the heels of the Haslab Unicron project that again was geared to the elite; is there no room for just normal toys for collectors and kids to buy at Wal-Mart or Toys R Us anymore? Does everything need to be a Kickstarter pre-order that will get filled in 12-18 months? I dunno, this new Optimus is extremely futuristic, but I know that the regular old Optimus Prime that some kid or collector found on a toy shelf will always be more fun. And while I am a fan of Kevin Smith, I was extremely pissed off that Hasbro paid him of all people to unveil the figure. Yes, I suppose he is now the ambassador of all things geeky (oh joy) but did Hasbro not do any research on the guy and his views on the Transformers? Here’s the coles note: he never liked them. He’s said as much in his various podcasts, but made it quite clear in dialogue from Clerks 2. I won’t go into much detail, but he insinuates that Transformers fans are lame, which is fine, but don’t go shilling wares for Hasbro pretending that you are some massive fanboy of the series when it’s simply not true.

Pros: I was very excited to pick up Rhinox when he was released given that he was always one of my favorite characters in Beast Wars and while there is a lot to love, a few issues really soured me on this figure. On the PRO side, he looks great in both modes and captures the look of the character really well, the transformation is challenging, but overall not too difficult aside from some trickiness with a few of the panels and I really appreciate that they included his iconic guns (of which a friend and member here took as a namesake: chaingunsofdoom)

Cons: Not since my days getting GI Joe toys as a kid have I had an action figure this loose and floppy. I am not even kidding, there is no friction on any of the hips of knee joins and make posing all but impossible. I was able to tighten a bit using one of my old tricks, but was such a disappointment. Outside of that the Beast mode is really limited in terms of limb movement and the various panels in beast mode are frustrating to line up.