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

[Team Jetfire]

893-2
McFarlane Toys- DC Multiverse: Green Lantern- John Stewart.




It has been a long while since I was reviewing the DC animated movies and I probably should start back up again because as far as I am concerned, it’s the only media created by DC that I currently actively consume. I don’t read comics, I’ve stopped any live action TV shows and let's not even talk about the movies (just yet anyways), but the animation department is KILLING IT. Seriously, while Warner is cutting new live action projects left and right and James Gunn is killing franchises, the little engine that is DC Animation is releasing new projects almost quarterly like clockwork and it’s mostly good! Most recently I was able to watch Green Lantern: Beware My Power, which featured a John Stewart Green Lantern and it was GREAT and gave me a new appreciation for the character as I was never much a fan of him from the Justice League cartoon days. Imagine for just a second: a Green Lantern that audiences actually liked? Well, this is the one for you.

Pros: This could be one of my favorite McFarlane figures from recent memory. He has a great overall sculpt with lots of suit details and a good amount of McFarlane “:standard” articulation, but he really shines in the accessory department with a very cool “construct” minigun, armor and backpack combo that looks amazing. Seriously makes me so frustrated given that DC will still not allow guns with their collectables.

Cons: A flight stand and a Lantern accessory would have been a great addition to this figure.

[Team Jetfire]

S-42
Diamond Select- The Muppets: Animal.





I just remembered that in my last few Muppets reviews I never mentioned either their band name or the band names of the two I once played in. Of course we all know the importance of a good band name and I had often brainstormed a number of cool ones over the years and while they may not have been as memorable as “The Electric Mayhem”, which is a perfect name considering the members, they did stick for both bands. I found the first name in the back of an old National Geographic magazine when looking for stuff to cut out for an art project. The ad was for an all boys military school in Virginia that still exists today called Fork Union. I’m not sure why it caught my attention or why the other guys liked it, but I suppose it was unique, somewhat ironic given that as a group we were the furthest from what could be considered acceptable students for a military academy and the name/initials could be shortened to simply FU. If I can find it I will post a picture of the sticker we produced with a 5 tooth fork flipping the bird.

The second band’s name came from an old TV game show called Press Your Luck. The contestants would press a button that would randomize a light on a game board that would either light up a prize amount or a “Whammie”; a little furry gremlin thing that would make them lose their turn. Invariably the contestants would always yellout “No Whammies, no whammies, BIG MONEY, NO WHAMMIES!?!?” and it just kind of stuck with me: No Whammies”. I suppose that it was a bit derivative of other groups that we were into at the time (NOFX and No Use For A Name) but Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery right? Apparently it had a second meaning that I didn’t really love, which was that we didn’t use whammy bars in our sound. For me this was a bit on the nose as yes, we didn’t use them, but this wasn’t some line we drew in the sand saying we didn’t like them or anything. Outside of an indie CD I don’t have much kicking around for merch and for some reason we didn’t even design a symbol to plaster on a T Shirt or sticker.

Pros: Of the Muppets series, I knew that Animal was going to be the most difficult to track down, but thankfully one of my local comic stores had one in stock which was completely shocking given that I NEVER find anything at that particular store. I think of the band, Animal could be my favorite. He has a great sculpt, a lot of decent articulation and ability to pose along with an entire drum kit. Pretty cool stuff.

Cons: I kind of wish that the drum kit was a bit more stable as its difficult to set everything up without knocking other stuff over.

[Team Jetfire]

[Team Jetfire]

894-2
Hasbro- Transformers Generations: Chromia




Not much to say about Chromia or the current state of Transformers in general, but will say that it is funny to see the continued discourse on places like Facebook surrounding dated opinions on what constitutes G1, If Beast Wars is good and of course wither Bayformers are good or not and I got to say it is legit exhausting. I’ve been in the online fandom for a long time and am starting to understand one thing very well: people have strong opinions of things and are not willing to let things go. Don’t get me wrong, I have opinions too, everyone does, but can we collectively just understand that some people are going to like things that we don’t and vise-versa? There is very little in this world, especially in the world of art, that is objectively bad and we need to start supporting the things we like and ignoring the stuff we don’t: live and let live baby. That said, I would really love Hasbro to move on from the same recipe for the Transformers: not every new iteration needs to have Red Truck, Yellow Sports Car and Grey Tank.

Pros: Overall Chromia is a very sleek looking figure in both modes that adequately screams futuristic/Cybertron, has a fun yet challenging transformation scheme and a good amount of articulation for some dynamic poses.

Cons: Lots of back kibble in robot mode which makes her a bit top heavy.

[Team Jetfire]

[Team Jetfire]

895-2
Hasbro- Star Wars Black Series: DJ Rex.




Back in review 857-2 Hondo Ohnaka, I mentioned that I would share some thoughts about my recent (?) visit to Star Wars Galaxy Edge located at Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World and why not start with a character that owes its creation to Disney Imagineers. I’m going to split my thoughts and experiences into Great, Good and Bad categories, but note that we only spent 2-3 hours at that particular part of the park and missed out on a lot so this is an incomplete list at best.

Because I want to get it out of the way I’m going to start with the Bad:

Two main things come to mind when I think about my bad experience at Galaxy’s Edge:
1. Layout: This can be attributed to user error and being unfamiliar with a new land that I had yet to experience, but navigating Star Wars land was very difficult. I seemed to have gone around in circles multiple times and could not locate key shops and attractions that I wanted to experience. Yes there is a map and yes there are Cast Members that can help, but Disney is known for achievements in civic planning and should understand how to create a land that is both easy to get around yet fun to experience. For the record I have the same issue with Universal Studios Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but I digress. It seems as though designers have opted for a confusing layout to keep guests engaged but it's just annoying when you really do not know where everything is. I also missed out on a few shops that had some extremely cool theming elements including a toy shop (Toydarian Toymaker), the Cantina (where DJ Rex has a residency apparently) and Dok Ondars Den of Antiquities which features a life sized animatronic of a Ithorian (Hammer Head) which is my favorite Star Wars alien and was bummed that I could not see it.
2. Paid Experiences: Look I get it, Disney is a for profit enterprise that can (and does) charge an arm and a leg for its product, but as far as I could tell, they never up-charged for experiences. That is, once you were in the park you had the same access to see parades, shows and fireworks as the rich people, but that seems to have changed with Savi’s Workshop. For those not aware, Savi’s Workshop is where Star Wars fans can build (and purchase) their very own lightsaber. This is a pretty typical thing to buy at a Disney park and my own son has built a few in his day, which is not the problem. The issue is that Disney has upgraded the process and the price. See before the process was simple and affordable. Located at the Star Wars gift shop was a lightsaber building station where you could choose between various unique parts and blades that when combined would form a collapsible toy lightsaber for about $50 bucks. Now the process is an intimate ceremony led by a “Jedi” cast member that features lights, effects and a message from Yoda himself. Once done you will have a collectable piece of moderate quality and experience that will set you back over $100 bucks depending what features you wanted to incorporate into your saber. So what’s the issue? Well imagine you had a kid that was really into Star Was and would love to build their own Lightsaber. Well first problem is that because this is an intimate experience, availability to do this is limited and you have to sign up and hope to get a place. The second problem is that you need to buy a Lightsaber to experience the show. Why should I need to drop $150 bucks to experience a neat little show? And what if there were multiple members of your party who want to experience this show; Disney really thinks that families can afford $150 per kid? Lastly, you can’t even have your Lightsaber out in the park. Like the one place that you would want to have a Lightsaber out is the one place it is banned. Now I get the appeal and some Star Wars/Disney fans will happily shell out the money for this, but it really just doesn’t make any sense to me.

Pros: DJ Rex is an amazing addition to The Black Series for me personally because I have such a connection to both Disney and Star Wars. See, before Rex was a DJ, he was a loveable pilot in training for the Star Tours ride. Unfortunately Rex got booted from his post when Star Tours was upgraded, but his memory never faded and he was repurposed as a DJ at the Cantina location in Star Wars land. Sculpt is simple, yet completely satisfying with a ton of detail and moving parts.

Cons: Nothing to note: Rex is exactly as I would have wanted.

[Team Jetfire]

896-2
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Death’s Head II




Ok, here’s the thing: I used to collect comics in the 90’s, but nothing really ever of importance or value. I was never into picking up X-Men, Spider-Man or even Batman because they were all too popular (X-Men and Spider-Man) or so far into the run that starting my collection at issue #458 was all that appealing to the completionist in me. For that reason I typically gravitated to “new releases” of monthly books that were early on in their initial run. This is how I ended up with so many random comics based on underappreciated charters (like Sleepwalker and The MAXX). Anyways, that is all to say that I was aware of Death's Head II a long time ago and may even own his first appearance? I’d have to check the short box in storage, but there was a time, back in the 90’s, where Marvel UK was releasing books in Canada that definitely featured Death's Head II, along with a few other Marvel UK favorites. I was pretty keen on these from the jump, but either did not continue buying them or they went out of production as was typical for many books back then. I’ll have a look and report back with my findings on a future Marvel Legends review.

Pros: I’ve been a long time fan, or rather a long time admirer, of Death's Head II and even though I know little about the character I love the design and was very keen to pick him up. The figure does not disappoint with its detailed sculpt (just look at that beautiful head), unique right arm cannon weapon and imposing stature. All that and they still included a spare hand I think is meant to emulate a “come here” gesture that I did pick up until after I was done taking pictures.

Cons: I did realize until after I had opened him, but there is no BAF included with him. I guess his size makes up for the missing part, but it just seems like I’m missing out due to paying the same price.

[Team Jetfire]

897-2
Hasbro- Power Rangers Lighting Collection: Tenga Warrior




You might be thinking “Well this is out of left field.” But if you have followed my reviews you know that while I am loyal to certain series, I am also a fan of cool toys, no matter what piece of pop culture they are from. This is also my third Power Rangers figure so its also not too far out of the realm of possibility that I would pick up a few more given how unique they are. At any rate I’m going to put the blame for this purchase on Dan from The Toy Galaxy YouTube channel given that his inclusion of this figure on his best of the year list basically made me pre-order it on the spot and I’m glad I did as the Tenga Warrior is one of the best toys, for the price I paid, that I’ve opened in recent months.

Pros: One of the best toys, for the price I paid, that I’ve opened in recent months is high praise, especially for relatively unknown Power Rangers character, but hear me out. The sculpt is unique and extremely detailed with both fur and feathers sculpted all over the figure, It has a very robust articulation scheme with very few limitations and it comes with a selection of accessories including 2 sets of wings (big and small) that fit into the arms without issue, a second set of hands, an energy effect and an egg (that I assume is important to the character) and all for the price of a typical 6” action figure. This doesn’t even compare this to the last Marvel Legends Spider-Man repaint yet somehow they are the same cost and made by the same company. Crazy.

Cons: The only CON I have for this figure is how the pictures turned out and not the fault of the toy. I’m not sure my photos did the figure justice, but it happens sometimes.

[Team Jetfire]

S-43
Mattel- Masters of the Universe: New Eternia: Jitsu.





Ok few things on Jitsu:

I had the original Jitsu as a kid (my brother got Fisto) so I was going to like this figure from the jump and also why I’m reviewing him as part of my “special series” as I could not wait to open him um despite having a ton of Masters of the Universe backlog.
I was surprised that Jitsu was released in both the Retro and 6” line for obvious reasons of cultural sensitivity. That is not to say that I think Jitsu was inherently racist, but the villain of asian descent with karate chop action is a bit on the nose as far as problematic goes. For what it’s worth I’m white as snow and liked the toy a great deal as a kid.
True fans and eagle eye readers will notice that Jitsu was released not under the “Revelations” (Netflix Series) banner, but rather under a new banner called “New Eternia”. I’m going to have more figures to come and delve into what New Eternia is in the coming reviews, but in truth I’m just learning myself. As I understand it will be a new revamped story told via the comics, but I’m not 100% certain on that.
A big give away on the “New Eterina” story is provided on the Short bio for Jitsu that you can see here:

Basically they are changing up his backstory a bit and gives me some very Storm Shadow kind of vibes. I guess time will tell.

Pros: I’ve been a Jitsu fan from the start so I was really excited for this release and let me tell you, he did not disappoint. Great bulky Mattel sculpt, solid articulation and ability to pose, A sword AND sheath to carry it in and of course a nice shiny gold hand. I also love the new face mask, especially given the current post pandemic climate.

Cons: This is going to sound funny, but the gold chopping hand could be the worst part of this figure. It's just molded kind of awkwardly and looks funny.

[Team Jetfire]

898-2
Hasbro- G.I. Joe Classified: Baroness





*Hot Take Warning*

I hate when people over sexualize the Baroness. I get it: she’s hot, wears a skin tight uniform and uses her feminine charm to get what she wants, but she’s not a sex worker or a stripper. Can we please stop drawing her with her boobs out and cosplaying her like some off duty stripper?

On a completely different rant, can we also stop making vehicles for 6” figures? I don’t have the space and don’t want to pay the inflated prices. This is especially egregious for a lame, nondescript motor bike such as this. Like, if you are going to produce a vehicle and make us buy it to get a very popular character, at least base it off of an existing G.I. Joe/Cobra vehicle.

Pros: The real star of this set is the Baroness herself, which is how it should be. Nicely detailed sculpt, a head sculpt that sticks the landing with glasses (traditionally difficult to do) and some really fantastic weapons / accessories that all have storage on her belts. Also, big props for NOT giving her high heels.

Cons: I’m just going to say it: the bike is unnecessary. It’s generic, looks gaudy and only adds cost to a figure that should have been released on her own. Please no more hunks of plastic.