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

[Team Jetfire]

047-2
Hasbro- G.I Joe Retaliation: Roadblock.



It's a bit disappointing to me that the G.I. Joe movies were not successful box office smashes like their Hasbro linemates: The Transformers and it's somewhat difficult as to why that was the case. Both are huge beloved 80’s cartoon franchise, both have massively successful toy lines spanning years and both have a built in mythology complete with a wide range of characters.

Perhaps it's because while G.I. Joe has a strong domestic fan base, being the real American hero that it is, internationally it might not play as well, but I would suggest that a good movie can stand on its own regardless and that is why I blame the director and the script. Sure Stephen Sommers was a fairly major director with some hits under his belt, but I never cared for the Mummy franchise and I really dislike Brendan Fraser (realize that he only had a cameo, but even that scene pissed me off).

As for the script, well that’s a bit more tricky as I do agree that overall it felt like a story from right out of the cartoon, but the character subplots is where it lost me. Who’s idea was it that Cobra Commander and the Baroness would be brother and sister? Who thought it would be a great idea that Duke was Cobra Commander’s best friend and the Baronesses boyfriend / fiance? And perhaps most egregious; who thought it was a good idea to give Snake Eyes a molded face with lips? There is way more to hate about this movie, but thankfully Hasbro decided to roll the dice again and release a pseudo sequel; that is, in my opinion, head and shoulders above the first one. If you have not seen it, it's worth a watch, if only for the 30 min Ninja battle unfold on the side of a mountain, but also does a few things right and fixes some issues from the previous one.

One of the major inclusions was casting the Rock as G.I. Joe Alumni Roadblock; looking back this is a total no-brainer, but the Rock was not the star that he is today and this was a bit of a risky decision however proved to be a good leading man. Unfortunately this did not help much with the success of the movie, but perhaps it planted seeds for what his career would eventually become.

So this release is called “Ultimate” Roadblock and one look at the accessories it is easy to see why; he has a buttload of stuff. I can’t recall when I picked him up, nor how much I paid, but I have to think it was around the $10 range which is BANANAS when you consider how much they are charging now for figures with way less stuff included. Looking back, I feel as though that was the golden years of toy collecting, but that is a whole other conversation.

While I don’t want to look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth, there is perhaps a bit too much stuff included? I get the guns, knives and ammo, but the zipline backpack and foot brackets(?) are a bit of a mystery to me and there is no instructions to help me understand how it works. If you are familiar with my reviews, you may recall that I am not the most proficient in transforming Transformers and perhaps that is another case of this, but let's not forget that this is a children's toy and some thought should be given to its operation to make clear how it works for maximum play value.

Pros: The figure totally ROCKS (pun very much intended). Great likeness, good articulation and enough usable accessories to keep any kid (or me if I was an 8 year old again) happy for hours. It’s a testament to Hasbro designer’s ability to make amazing figures, ment for children, appeal to adult collectors; very well done.

Cons: Movie line and random accessories.



















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[Team Jetfire]

049-2
Disney Infinity 3.0: Kanan Jarrus



Star Wars Rebels has certainly become a nice part of the Star Wars universe and seems to have tied itself to the recent Rogue Squadron movie that really makes me want more of the non-mainline storyline. Unfortunately I’m a bit behind on the episodes, but I really enjoyed the series as a whole. Kanan, while not my favorite character of the series (sorry), serves as a nice link to the Jedi from the Prequel universe and has a unique arch, what with having to train Ezra, even when he is not yet a Jedi Master himself.

Pros: Great Sculpt and likeness.

Cons: Cancelled Infinity line.

[Team Jetfire]

050-2
Bandai- The Thundercats: Lion-O



When I was growing up The Thundercats never really had the same impact on me as GIJoe, Transformers or hell, even Visionaries did. I always equated it to He-Man with Cats and decidedly not my thing. However I wasn't surprised when I saw that a reboot for the franchise was in the works in 2011 giving all the nostalgic fans of The Thundercats a new cartoon; after all, everything from the 80s was fair game after Transformers faired so well. What did surprise me was how frickin amazing the Cartoon was; great characters, great mature type storylines (not unlike The Legend of Korra) and nice cell type animation with an anime flair. Unfortunately, If Wikipedia is to be believed, the series was cut short by Cartoon Network (big surprise) after only 26 episodes out of a possible 56, but I’m just thankful for the ones we got. I cannot stress this enough, it is worth your time to find this series and watch it.

In conjunction with the show Bandai released an assortment of figures based on both the old and new series in 4” and 6” sizes. Perhaps it was the sign of the times (It was a different collectors market back in 2011), but it was nice to see both size options as I know a lot of collectors prefer the smaller size class. As for myself, I have come to embrace the larger 6”, if only out of necessity because articulated 4” figures have been replaced by 5 POA garbage, but also because I appreciate the detail that comes with the bigger size. In any case it was nice that there was a time when toy companies released both in good quantities.

Those familiar with the 80’s series know Lion-O to be the “Optimus Prime” of the Thundercats and had a very iconic look. This version of Lion-O has all the trappings of his namesake, but is much younger (as part of the coming of age story arc) and really captures the anime style from the cartoon.

Accessories wise he comes with 2 swords (mini and full size) and a removable “Cat” gauntlet that is probably important to the story (just can't remember why) and looks a bit oversized/goofy for the smaller character. Apparently there was a magnetic gimmick that would work with the vehicles somehow, but as I don’t have the vehicles I suppose it is my loss.

Articulation is basic, but acceptable for a figure this size and works for a decent range due to ball joint shoulders and hips; ankle joints would have been a bonus, but on a figure this size it is understandably difficult to incorporate.

Pros: Nice look, good accessories, good amount of usable articulation.

Cons: Oversized gauntlet looks sort of silly.

[Team Jetfire]

051-2
Hasbro- Titans Return: Seaspray



The 80’ were a great time for many things: music, television and movies come to mind, but nothing tops the quintessential 80’s more like the idea of a hovercraft. Infact, as a kid I thought for sure that Hovercrafts were the future vehicle of choice for anyone would wanted to seamlessly travel over land and water on a literal bed of air. Thankfully the designers at Hasbro share my interest in traversing multiple land types using this life changing technology and created possibly the most famous water/land based vehicle/robot with slight speech impediment- Seaspray!

Does anyone remember the Hunt for the Decepticons Seaspray released around 2010? I still have him, and it's actually a pretty nice toy, but decidedly not Seaspray as we know him. That said, this figure is based from the original G1 figure and looks AMAZING. I have had many opinions about the direction that Hasbro is going (most are not good) but they do need to be commended when they do something great, and this figure is great. I love that they have taken some of these minibots and gave them some, dare I say, Masterpiece level detail? High bar indeed, but what else could you ask for? Both modes are solid and look cartoon accurate, a fun transformation that does not require two and a half years competion of an engineering degree to convert between modes and all for under $15. It’s a bit bittersweet as it serves of a reminder as to what Hasbro is capable of, but just unwilling to do consecutively, with new figures.

Pros: Solid look, fun transformation and good price point make Seaspray one of the best Transformers that I have opened in the last 3 years.

Cons: Doesn’t tab together very well in vehicle mode, but could just be mine.

[Team Jetfire]

052-2
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Iron Fist.



Not really much to say about Iron Fist as I have no connection whatsoever to the character. I understand that he is trained in martial arts, hangs around with Luke Cage and has some type of enhanced ‘iron fists’, but that's the extent of my knowledge.

The figure itself is pretty sharp, but I'm not entirely sure why this version is different from his traditional green and yellow suit; the flowing gold belt is a nice touch though. I'm also not convinced that this figure ‘buck’ is the best one for the very lean looking character.

Hasbro did well to include 3 pairs of extra martial arts type hands to allow for a variety of different poses and made for taking action shots very enjoyable. I'm not sure it if would be feasible, but it would be awesome if Hasbro released an accessory pack full of different molded hands and fists for all their characters.

Articulation wise, Iron Fist has all the joints (including the stupid ball joint hips) that you would come to expect on Marvel Legends and allows for some pretty decent poses, but unfortuantly is also somewhat hindered by all the muscles.

Pros: Great looking costume, awesome selection of hands, good articulation.

Cons: those damn hips at the bane of my existence.

[turtle power eh]

I grabbed this iron fist awhile back at winners with full intentions of using it for a custom Netflix/home made suited Daredevil...thanks for reminding me that he's buried in a bin somewhere in my basement.

[Team Jetfire]

Originally Posted by turtle power eh

I grabbed this iron fist awhile back at winners with full intentions of using it for a custom Netflix/home made suited Daredevil...thanks for reminding me that he's buried in a bin somewhere in my basement.

Yeah, for me this was a total winners pick up too. I could also imagine that many people have him buried in a bin somewhere!

Also, would be a great figure for a custom.

[Team Jetfire]

053-2
Disney Infinity 3.0- Marvel: Ultron.



Is Avengers- Age of Ultron a bad movie? I liked it well enough and it seemed to have done well from a financial perspective, but I get the feeling that it’s not as well received by the fan base. I had some great moments and introduced some great characters including Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver (RIP), the Claw (or whatever) and of course Ultron.

Perhaps it’s because I have seen the fabled robot uprising and looming possibility of the singularity too many times in popular media, but I've never been a big Ultron fan as he tends to fit that mould as the evergreen unbeatable adversary; how do you beat something that can exist in multiple places at once simultaneously? It would be like trying to beat a online video game by breaking your PS4 with a hammer. As for this iteration, it’s clear that his existence is a plot device to push the MCU forward and I certainly don’t have an issue with how it was handled, but he is just somewhat forgettable in the grand scheme of things.

Infinity once again nails the cute and cartoonish sculpt of this figure and almost makes you forget that he wanted to eliminate all human existence from the earth.

Pros: Great sculpt and pose captures the character well.

Cons: Static figure from a cancelled interactive game.

[Team Jetfire]

054-2
Hasbro- G.I. Joe: Low-Light.



Full disclosure: I never liked the character but I’ll just come out and say it; this figure seriously rocks. Sure, i had some high praise for movie Roadblock, but Low-Light exceeds that level in spades.

Firstly he's an updated version of the 80’s RAH figure and even though I was never much of a fan, (likely due to the fact that he had blond curly hair; I'm not even joking as that would have been enough to not like a character. I suppose it didn't help that he had zero personality in the show, but still, I'm not proud of my hair discrimination and I assure you that I have turned over a new leaf.) it is always nice to get an updated version of something from my youth.

Secondly, he comes complete with so many great accessories; guns, attachments, scopes, a radio, a hard case for his rifle, a cell phone, removable goggles, a box of ammo and a single bullet (YES, one single bullet!) and a useable backpack that opens to hold it all. In my books a good toy will have lots of cool accessories, but a great toy will have the ability to carry it all and Low-Light may have just set a new standard for great toy.

Lastly, and I touched on this with Roadblock, it's just a nice reminder as to how great toys can be when someone really puts some thought and care into the final product. I'm not saying that the new stuff isn't good, but it's clear that there has been a wholesale shift in the industry and we are now consistently given less product for more money. As I open my figures released 7-8 years ago I'm sure I'll see this more and more, so I'll just have to get over it.

Pros: Great update of a classic figure with amazing accessories and space to hold it all, even the single bullet.

Cons: He can't really bend his neck back to properly pose with his sniper rifle.

[Team Jetfire]

055-2
Bandai- Thundercats: Panthro



If I had to choose Panthro would be my favorite of the Thundercats team. It is typical that I gravitate to the ‘big guy” of the group and Pathro certainly has that going for him; but he also plays the mentor and mechanic role which I think is pretty great too. Also helps that in the cartoon he is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson; a voice actor who lends his voice to hundreds of popular shows, but ones you may recognize as The Joker from the Batman, The Shredder from Nick Turtles and my fav Bulkhead from Transformers Prime

Panthro is part of the 6” Thundercats line by Bandai and certainly amps up the possibility and articulation that you may expect for a figure this size as compared to the 4” versions. He is sculpted nicely and looks like he came right out of the cartoon. Additionally he comes with his signature nunchuck weapon with one set moulded together that fits on a little tab on his belt.

If I were to complain about anything on this figure it would be that his fists are not very malleable and it is somewhat of a struggle for him to hold his weapon.

Pros: nice sculpt and good articulation make this solid 6” figure extremely fun to fiddle with.

Cons: His accessories are a little weak and has a difficult time in getting them to fit in his hands.