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Old 06-18-2019, 11:20 AM   #391
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Re: I open a toy & post it here... VOL 2!

218-2
Bandai- Tamashii Nations Meisho Movie Realization: Akazonae Royal Guard



Rating of worst to best of the Star Wars movies continued; see review 215-2 for the previous instalments: Star Wars Movie Rating #10- Star Wars EP2 Attack of the Clones

The Bad: As mentioned, there was some decent parts to AOTC, but it would be naive to overlook some of the glaring issues throughout the movie. Firstly, it's literally all over the place; Obi Wan is solving a weird mystery involving a clone army that was created by some random Jedi that was never mentioned before OR after, Anakin and Padme are forced to spend time together in a bid to protect her life, yet almost get killed immediately and somehow Chancellor Palpatine's plan to start a war between the Republic and the Separatists comes to a head. Secondly, I also really hate the droid factory scene as it basically amounts to a cartoon or video game sequence with some terrible CGI throughout that provides no stakes and adds nothing to the story. Lastly, I really do not like the realization that all the clones are basically all Boba Fetts. It’s almost a knee jerk reaction to EP 1 hate and Lucas simply doubled down on a character that is beloved among the fans, but instead made him an odd, blood thirsty kid. Hell, I would almost believe that Boba Fett had a better chance of turning into Darth Vader than the Jake Lloyd Anakin!

Pros: My fourth and final Movie Realization figure (not for lack of appreciation) and it certainly is a stunning addition to the group. There is just something about that Crimson Red armour that I have loved since seeing first them by the Emperor's side in Star Wars Ep 6- Return of the Jedi. It's really too bad that they never saw any on screen fighting as I would have loved to see them in action. Lucky for me, and other fan alike, we were gifted with the throne action scene in the Last Jedi, that we were missing for all those years and while those gaurds are not really the same thing, I would imagine it being pretty close.










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Old 06-19-2019, 12:51 PM   #392
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Re: I open a toy & post it here... VOL 2!

219-2
Disney Infinity 3.0- Pixar: Disgust.



Rating of worst to best of the a the Pixar movies continued; see review 205-2 for the previous instalment:

Pixar movie rating 19 of 20: Cars 3- Here’s the thing: I like the Cars franchise. I recognize that they are likely some of the less popular Pixar films to date what with being written off as more kids movies used to sell toys, but I find the characters to be endearing (I do like the new character of Cruz Ramirez), the stories to be light hearted and fun and even though I loth Nascar, the racing element is exciting and looks really nice under the Pixar prism. With that said, Cars 3 was just a bit boring, derivative of the first movie and an otherwise frivolous attempt to sell more toys. Not that I blame Disney as they are a just corporation, it’s just disappointing that time, effort and resources were put into this, when another brilliant idea was likely shelved.

Pros: As with all the other Infinity figures Disgust has a great sculpt and, quite literally, oozes with personality. So much so, that I feel like she is personally judging me for not actually playing the game.

Cons: Static figure that is part of a cancelled game.







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Old 06-20-2019, 11:08 AM   #393
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Re: I open a toy & post it here... VOL 2!

013-R
Big Blast- Graffiti Designs- Big Blast: Mike Mignola’s Hellboy.
Date Released: 2001
Current Price and availability: $119.99
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Big-Blast-Mi...0AAOSwjR5c9UTB



If for some reason I have to drastically downsize my collection and only pick a handful of figures to keep, this Hellboy would easily be one of the first chosen and given that I have thousands I would say that is pretty high praise. In fact it would be fairly difficult to say goodbye to all the Big Blast figures as I think they are all pretty fantastic and were well before their time. Consider this, a detailed, fully poseable, 6 to 8 inch toy line line of comic book characters geared to the collector market that was first released in 1998 predates Toy Biz’s Marvel legends, Hasbro’s Black series and even Mattel’s DC Multiverse line. Perhaps they were taking a que from the Spawn toys of the era, but these figures are really nothing like the super stylized, non-articulated figures that Macfarlane was known for, but as they only made 6 figures in total and quickly faded away I have to believe that they were not the success that I felt they should have been.

At any rate, my love of Hellboy can be traced back to my comic box collecting days when I happened upon and picked up the initial Dark Horse Mini-Series; Seed of Destruction; which, like the Big Blast Toys, was before its time considering this is still the heyday of Marvel, DC and the comic code ensuring squeaky clean context. Not that's Hellboy was overtly mature, but he is a literal devil, plucked out of Hell by the Nazi’s who’s job is to investigate paranormal activity; not exactly spinner rack material. I guess it was the 90s though and the world was a changing.

Unfortunately my enjoyment of the character has lessened over the years due to the the 2 big budget live action films that just fell flat with me. And by all accords I’m in the minority here, but I just don’t like how Ron Pearman played the character: he was too cocky or smug from what I imagined he should be. In any case, it was nice that Hellboy received some mainstream attention. Not sure what to think about the new movie, but the previews look promising.

Pros: Fantastic cartoonish sculpt that captures the look from the comic perfectly. Good amount of articulation for the time and comes complete with sword and token sidearm. The soft goods trench coat also works remarkably well given the size class.

Cons: He’s a bit top heavy and cannot hold a pose very well without falling over. Additionally, and this seems like a typical problem, the plastic holding the ankle joint has a tendency to snap and while this doesn’t cause a clean break of the ankle from the leg it makes the joint useless and I eventually just glued it stabilize the figure.









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Old 06-21-2019, 02:24 PM   #394
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220-2
DC Collectibles- Bombshells: Katana



My last Bombshell and she’s a bit of a bummer in my book, but that could be more of comment on my lack of appreciation of the character then the quality of the actual figure. That said she has the same less desirable body type as all the version 2 figures with inferior articulation and limited accessories, however that’s not to say that she’s a bad figure, simply a missed opportunity.

Pros: The sculpt is dynamite and features a ton of really great little details from her head sculpt, traditional geisha type costume and little uncomfortable wooden shoes. Thankfully DC Collectables still kept her with her signature Katana “Soultaker”.

Cons: It’s frustrating that DC Collectables cheaped out on these figures as the initial run maintain to be some of my favourite figures to date. I also have an issue with her back skirt as it messes up her ability to stand/ pose.









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Old 06-24-2019, 12:41 PM   #395
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221-2
Disney Toy Box- Star Wars: Boba Fett



Rating of worst to best of the Star Wars movies continued; see reviews 215-2 & 218-2 for the previous instalments: Star Wars Movie Rating #10- Star Wars EP2 Attack of the Clones

The Ugly- Yikes, where to start? Probably with what is, in my mind anyways, the biggest issue with this movie: timing within the trilogy. If I had my way I would have started the movie during the middle of the Clone Wars with Anakin already being established as a Jedi Knight/Master. Then in the second act have him join Palpatine to end the war (much like is the case in EP 3) and have him face off with the Jedi order and finally Obi Wan at the climax leaving him somewhat injured. For the most part The Republic would be destroyed and the Jedi order would be in shambles, but still would have some members left in the ranks. This would take out a good portion of fluff as well as the terrible forced love story between Anakin and Padme while simultaneously allowing for more time to properly disassemble the Republic, wipeout the Jedi without the stupid order 66 and actually see Vader's fall to the dark side and rise to power. Perhaps it's easier said than done as I now have the benefit of looking at it from the future, but I can’t help but feel that there was a missed opportunity to show a compelling emotion filled story in favor of a 2 hour CGI fest that has little story, forced character development and short sighted fan service that ultimately did not work.

Pros: Toy Box Boba Fett is a perfect example of why Toy Box figures are so great in my book. Cartoonish, yet accurate sculpt, good range of movement with a solid articulation scheme, usable accessories all for a price point that only applies to Hasbro’s shampoo bottle figures. If you have passed on these figures for whatever reason and you want to get one to check the potential out, Boba Fett is your best bet, if you can still find him.

Cons: Not everything can be perfect I suppose and Boba Fett is no exception as my figure is a bit loose in the hip joints. Surly can be fixed using the typical methods, but he can hold the desired pose, so I’m alright with it.









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Old 06-25-2019, 09:32 AM   #396
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222-2
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Gamora



Rating of worst to best of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies continued; see review 207-2 & 210-2 & 216-2 for the previous instalments.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating- #17: Iron Man 2.

This is a tough one as Iron Man 2 does a lot of good things to move the MCU forward, but suffers a bit in my mind from still being one of the early Marvel Studios releases; not really a bad thing per se, but has a different overall feel than MCU phase 2. The stand alone story is nothing more than a cliche revenge story (think Spiderman 3 with Harry Osborn) featuring a forgettable foe who’s paper thin motivation is as laughable as his inherent electrical engineering ability. Honestly, I’m not sure why someone who rivals Tony Stark’s brilliance would ever live in such squallar. I get that he was upset that his father’s reputation was ruined by Tony’s Dad, but was it ruined everywhere in the WORLD? I’m pretty sure those skills are marketable in places outside of the USA. And then there is Justin Hammer, the over-the-top contemporary of Tony Stark who, unlike Whiplash, was seemingly an idiot that has money. I’m not certain of this, but I feel Hammer was supposed to have a bigger role and later cut when the opportunity to sign Mickey Rourke came up. Perhaps that is why Iron Man 3 features another super handsome, over the top contemporary of Tony who later turns on him.
Fortunately for fans of the MCU, it’s the side stories that make this movie worthwhile. Consider that Iron Man 2 Introduced 2 major Avengers (Black Widow and War Machine), built on the Idea of SHIELD and developed the hierarchy of the MCU (Nick Fury and Agent Coulson) and even featured the first agent of Hydra hiding in plain sight. (In truth, it’s doubtful that Garry Shandling’s character was actually written as Agent of Hydra, but kudos to them for using him as such in Captain America: The Winter Soldier). So in short, as a standalone move, Iron Man 2 is forgettable, but in my opinion, worth checking out to see how the MCU truly started to form into what it is today.

Pros: To be honest, not many pros as this figure is a bit of a mess. I should mention that I was late to the party on Marvel Legends with my first female figure being Spider Woman and thought that this body style or “figure buck was the norm” for all female figures. Perhaps Hasbro was upping their offering to give us an unique figure style to match the movie character, which certainly looks decent on the surface, what with detailed pants, boots and belt.

Cons: What were they thinking with those hips? Talk about a figure killer as it all but limits basic standing poses. Also, were they going for “bored, tired and uninterested” for that head sculpt? Cause if so, they nailed it. Seriously Zoe Saldana is an amazing actor and this is the best you can do? Someone signed off on this? I also need to talk about the “sword” as is sucks. I’m not sure if it accurate to the movie, but I cannot fathom it being useful in any way. I have watched enough “Forged in Fire” to know what a finished blade looks like and if it will kill and this does not look like it should do either. Also, it doesn’t fit in her hand properly, so there is that…








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Old 06-26-2019, 06:03 PM   #397
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223-2
Hasbro- Transformers- Combiner Wars: Motormaster



Rating of worst to best of the Transformers movies continued; see review 208-2, 213-2 & 217-2 for previous instalments:

Transformers Movie Rating #6: Transformers: The Last Knight.

TF5 The Last Knight- The final (hopefully) Michael Bay movie and the film that almost killed the franchise is actually not THAT bad. There are perhaps too many stupid parts to mention in this little review, but it certainly delivered on a movie going experience.

The Good: I actually like Mark Wahlberg as the male lead in the Transformers movies, he’s believable as a hero, can act well enough for an action movie and fits the character (aside from the huge muscles). In fact, I would say that the entire human cast is pretty good and love that they were able to get Lennox and Simmons back for some minor roles as it bridges the gap from the initial three to the new ones. I also kind of wish that Shia and Megan would be invited back as, despite all the hate these movies get, they did work well together for the first movie. And even though it pretty well ruins Transformer continuity, (again) I liked the Knights of the Round Table and Merlin backstory, but maybe I’m just a sucker for historically inaccurate Medieval stories.

Pros: Motormaster is among some of the best Combiner Wars figures in terms of improvement from the G1 source material. Both modes look great, from a flat nosed 18 wheeler cab to a fully articulated robot; he looks like was modeled heavily from the G1 Cartoon, but still maintains the overall aesthetic of the G1 toy, which is a win in my book. The transformation is fairly easy (in a good way), and the figure has a decent amount of articulation. He also gets top marks for that head in a box sculpt.


Cons: Overall the figure is a bit wide, boxey and has very little depth; something that is really no better or worse than a figure with a big backpack, it's just simply an observation. Also, and this is more for the G1 pusit, it's a bit of a bummer that they could not have incorporated the trailer in the final robot design, with the main focus on the cab. Now I’m not suggesting that they should have made his feet out of the front end cab (a la G1), but it was a unique G1 transformation was dropped in favor of something a bit more simplistic.














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Old 06-27-2019, 09:28 AM   #398
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014-R
Hasbro- Star Wars Transformers: Clone Pilot / Arc 130-130 Starfighter
Date released: 2006
Current price and availability: $13.99
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Star-Wars-20...cAAOSw0n5c2axO



Ok, buckle up cause it’s about to get weird. You know how they took two great tastes like chocolate and peanut butter mixed them and made the best candy treat in the world? Yeah Star Wars Transformers was decidedly not a Reese's Peanut butter cup and boy was I disappointed. For those not aware (or perhaps you blocked it from your memory) there was a time that Hasbro, perhaps banking on the success of the Transformers brand, wanted everything to transform. Now when the concept first rolled out for Star Wars I recall being intrigued and likely a bit excited; I mean this was literally taking my 2 favourite things and combining them to give us fans the best of Star Wars (iconic vehicle designs) and Transformers (poseable robot warriors), but somewhere in the design process the wheels fell off. I will say that they are not all bad as the Star Wars aspect of these toys were actually pretty good, bordering on great in fact. What Star Wars fan wouldn’t a mini X Wing fighter, AT-AT or Jedi Starfighter? However, when you start the process to transform to robot (or rather Mech) that’s where the issues become apparent.

For starters, as mentioned before, the concept is odd. Yes I get the Star Wars vehicle, but the robot was designed to be a giant mech suit, piloted by a mini figure, which could be cool except for the fact that the Mech suit was created in the same visage as the character driving it. For example, the Luke Skywalker X Wing, transformers into a mechanized version of Luke in his X-Wing flight suit!?! Forget the fact that this completely egotistic move to create a massive robot of yourself, but also all around impractical for a single person; like let’s say that Wedge needs to commandeer Luke’s X-Wing for a mission? Does he need to control Luke the Robot then? Will the Empire get confused? At least with the Clone troopers they are likely more transferable.

Now in the real world, I think the design choice to make the robots Into specific characters grossly limited the potential for transformation as it was clear that they started with the Star Wars ship and engineered the robot from that. Admittedly no simple task given that the Robot needed to also look somewhat like pilot not to mention the fact that each vehicle needed a cockpit.

Finally, it’s not clear that Hasbro has its best Transformer designers on the job as most of these robot modes are a hot mess. Think the difference between Pre and post movie G1, yes they are similar, but also inferior.

Overall I’ll give Hasbro props for trying, but after it was all said and done the line fell short of many people’s expectations, year I decided to keep buying them… go figure. I still feel like there could have been a good product if they either dropped the requirement to look like the pilots and thereby giving more leeway on the robot design, or go the other way and develop some crazy storyline in which these robots were actually changed into these giant transforming robots; would be completely ridiculous, but could be fun to explore.

Pros: The Arc pilot was one of my favorite SWTF released and it's pretty easy to see why: the ARC 170 vehicle has a extremely nice design that just oozes prequel goodness (I’m not even kidding, the prequels do not get enough credit for the technology design elements) and this figure manages to capture the look really well. And while the robot mode is not exactly perfect, it’s serviceable what with decent articulation and possibility.

Cons: The lower section of the leg assembly has a tendency to pop off as it’s held on with small little tab. Also his guns are laughably long.













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Old 07-01-2019, 02:49 PM   #399
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224-2
Hasbro- GI Joe- The Pursuit of Cobra: Skydive.




Does anyone remember GI Joe Sky Patrol? It was a subline of Gi Joe in the early 90’s that basically took existing air based vehicles and covered them in chrome. They were released with a small group of air based Gi Joe figures that all came with their one parachute and huge backpack to store it in. In continuity the chrome was supposed to be some type of armour, but I think this was part of Hasbro’s shift to a more Sci-Fi based toy line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_4tL5wO_BY

I Never cared for the vehicles, but was lucky enough to have Static Line as I thought he was probably the best of the bunch, but would have loved more as they all looked pretty great. Skydive was actually a member or the Sky Patrol, but its not clear if this these are counted as the same guy. That said, I would hope that under this newer versions mask is a glorious 80’s mustache just like his 80’s namesake.

Pros: Skydive here ticks a lot of boxes for what I look for in a great Gi Joe figure and it is clear that I would have gravitated to him when I was a kid playing with GI Joe. He’s a Halo Jumper, (basically a high altitude paratrooper which is something that I always loved the idea of) with missiles attached to his wings that I assume can be used some level of flight during re-entry. What kid would not like that? Skydive is also packed with accessories that pretty well guarantees hours of fun for any kid wanting to playout their own little mission for him. Sadly it’s clear that current toys don’t really have the same play value anymore.

Cons: Funny to say after I just praised all his “stuff”, but he’s basically imobile when he’s geared up. And while this is asking a lot, It would have been cool if they included a parachute of some kind.










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Old 07-02-2019, 09:23 AM   #400
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Re: I open a toy & post it here... VOL 2!

225-2
DC Collectibles- Batman the Animated Series: Harley Quinn:



Since her first appearance back in 1992’s BTAS episode “Joker’s Favor” Harley Quinn became somewhat of a phenomenon, and while generally speaking, I have enjoyed her overall inclusion in the DC universe, I like this version best. Could be that I just appreciate the original design and characterization as Jokers right hand girl, but I think it has more to do that I don’t really love that she has become DC’s version of Deadpool.

Pros: Fantastic sculpt that captures her look from animated, good accessories, includings some spare hands, a fish and pop gun that she's somewhat known for. She also has a good amount of usable articulation for a number of different poses.

Cons: My only complaint is the same thing for all these animated style figures: Those stands! I’m happy that they are included, but they are just so useless…










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