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

[Team Jetfire]

S-56
Hasbro- G.I. Joe Classified: Dr. Mindbender.



Is it possible for G.I. Joe to have a successful live action movie? I’m sure Hasbro is trying to answer the same thing given that they have had 3 kicks at the can with no real success. I think the issue can be distilled down to understanding what G.I. Joe needs to be, or rather what they are, in order to be successful on a global scale. For example: historically the G.I. Joe figures were just 12 inch figures from all the different US military branches; these were a boy's answer to Barbie and still resonate with many people who grew up around the time of the Korean and Vietnam war. The series then shifted gears in the 80’s when A Real American Hero was introduced to capitalize on a hearty pro-america/freedom sentiment in the wake of the cold war however did not translate to other countries like Canada, the UK and Brazil given that we had no such arm’s race stand off with the USSR. Once real world political theater shifted so did G.I. Joe and even though they were still called “A Real American Hero” their focus had changed from military operations to a more sci-fi mission, but a lot of the fans did not change over hence the issue with a live action movie: do global audiences want to to see a freedom filled, “America centric” love letter to the 80’s or do American G.I. Joe fans want to see the Joe team morph to a Global Task force hence watering down / changing everything that G.I. Joe was known for?

Perhaps the answer is one that I have been pushing forever: Drop the need for a live action picture and focus on young adult animation. DC Animation does an amazing job with it and makes it seem to work for everyone; why can’t Hasbro use that make model for its IPs?

Pros: Much like Serpentor, Dr Mindbender is a spectacle of a figure and a real contender for toy of the year. Like who knew we were going to get a classic looking, shirtless Dr Mindbender toy in 2023? The sculpt was perfect to the classic look, the articulation is Classified standard and the accessories are perfectly over the top for the character.

Cons: A few minor things have propped up with this release: 1. His black cape often leaves black marks on his shoulders, but mine weren’t too bad and some type of stand for table would have been nice for all his experiments.

[Team Jetfire]

[Robimus]

Looks incredible.

I think the 80s GI Joe toyline had a deep resonance in the countries mentioned.

Canada got our own Canadian decals, our own exclusives. It was huge here.

UK had Action Force, its own popular line that combined with GI Joe. Which was reborn a few years back as competition for Classified.

Brasil, as myself and many others have discovered recently, had its own figures on top of the regular line like Glenda.

Another country where it was huge is India. I work in a very diverse neighborhood, large population from India. On occasion I've brought Joes I was selling to work for a customer to pick up.

Two different coworkers from India saw them, different occasions, commented on how they used to buy them for their kids, the funskool ones, in India. These folks have never heard of Star Wars, for real, but they knew what GI Joe was.

I admit it came as a surprise to me.

[Team Jetfire]

Originally Posted by Robimus

Looks incredible.

I think the 80s GI Joe toyline had a deep resonance in the countries mentioned.

Canada got our own Canadian decals, our own exclusives. It was huge here.

UK had Action Force, its own popular line that combined with GI Joe. Which was reborn a few years back as competition for Classified.

Brasil, as myself and many others have discovered recently, had its own figures on top of the regular line like Glenda.

Another country where it was huge is India. I work in a very diverse neighborhood, large population from India. On occasion I've brought Joes I was selling to work for a customer to pick up.

Two different coworkers from India saw them, different occasions, commented on how they used to buy them for their kids, the funskool ones, in India. These folks have never heard of Star Wars, for real, but they knew what GI Joe was.

I admit it came as a surprise to me.

It definitely supports proof of concept when so many other countries outside of the states had their own version. I didn?t realize that India was so engages with it either, but may have been because of the UK influence.

On another note, a good friend of mine who is from Columbia has no connection to anything I did from the 80s/90s and 2000?s, but LOVES Final Fantasy and Gundam because that is what played there. So crazy.

[Team Jetfire]

939-2
DC Collectables: The New Batman Adventures: Joker







Is Batman The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures set in the same universe? It?s not something that I considered given that I didn?t really watch the latter when it was released given that I could never really find it on TV and had grown up to the point where I was busy in the afternoons, but they are certainly different right? Yes, I suppose there is some consistency through the larger story (Mostly Dick Grayson?s post "Robin turned Nightwing story arch?, but most other things just seem different, and that isn?t even counting the change in design and animation style. It?s honestly a pretty bold choice for the producers given that there was zero indication that it was going to happen and zero fan fear when it did. One day it seemed that we had the traditional Batman Animated Series and the other we had one that was more stylized. If that happened out of the blue in today's day and age fans would be rioting. The funny thing is that even though the image I see in my head when I think of ?Animated Batman'' is the more traditional original version, he is likely better known for the updated look due to his other appearances in the Justice League shows that match this aesthetic. As for what I like better? Perhaps a cop-out answer, but I like them both equally and for different reasons. This initial Batman worked well in the stories that they were telling and was probably needed from a production standpoint given how they were creating the animation. The later version needed to be visually nimble enough to exist in the dark world of Gotham, but also be transplanted into the same world as Superman.

Pros: I will never not love the style of these Timm-verse animated figures and that is something that DC Collectables was always able to capture. I also love that they included his two hyenas given that they always play a big part of this Jokers personality. Lastly a gun, which may not be a big deal, but given the current issues with weapons on DC figures, it harkens back to a better time for DC figures. (I?m not a gun nut, but also think it?s stupid not to include them in toys geared to adults)

Cons: DC Collectable?s budget cuts were on FULL display with this release. Everything looks good but his articulation is pretty weak and could have been a home run with some ankle tilts.

[Team Jetfire]

[Team Jetfire]

940-2
Hasbro- Marvel Legends: Odin Son



Last Marvel Legends review I was dissecting the MCU, this is the continuation of that.

Phase 3
Movies:
Captain America: Civil War- Basically Avengers 3 and still one of the best movies in the entire MCU. However was made better with the inclusion of Black Panther and Spider-Man
Doctor Strange- A fine origin story, but left some unanswered questions that will never be solved.
GOTG 2- Nothing crazy or earth shattering here, but a fun movie only works on the goodwill earned from the first one. More James Gunn’s comedy though.
Spider-Man Homecoming- A great movie, but leans too heavy on Spider-Iron Man.
Thor- Ragnarok- I liked it, but can see a direct line from this to the PHASE 4 stuff in terms of comedy.
Black Panther- A great origin story, but again, nothing all that better from the other origin stories.
Avengers- Infinity War- A movie that was so great that it makes you forget all the mediocre movies and loose ends that predated it.
Ant-Man and the Wasp- A movie to help “get the cat out of the tree” that was put up there in Infinity War.
Captain Marvel- A movie to introduce a character needed to make Endgame work. Not a bad movie in my opinion, but motivation was tied to Endgame, rather than establishing her own story.
Avengers Endgame- Has possibly 45 min of the BEST superhero scenes in movie history, but is far from perfect.
Spider-Man Far From Home- Not a worthy successor to Endgame and squandered an IronMan legacy/post Endgame “glow”, but really on par for Sony.

TV Shows:
The Inhumans- What’s that? Don’t recall the Inhumans? Yeah nobody does and it came out, smack dab in the middle of Phase 3 and would make any Phase 4 project seem amazing.

Overall this was the best of MCU times, but only because of Infinity War and Endgame. Of 12 projects, 5 are great with the rest being ok/terrible.

To be continued…

Pros: I'm always a fan of the bigger figures given that it feels like I'm getting more value for my money; let's call it the McFarlane principle of toy collecting (ie: the more plastic the better). Thankfully while this figure is large, it's also very well sculpted, has a good amount of articulation that isn't hindered by the cape and a very cool double handed axe. Cool stuff!

Cons: Nothing to report: this is a great figure.

[Team Jetfire]

941-2
McFarlane Toys- DC Multiverse: TDKR Batman



As of the writing the new Flash movie is about to hit theaters and I have not seen this much buzz for a DC film since 1989 when the first Batman movie was released. Well, that's not entirely true given that 89 was a pop-culture moment that literally defined a generation, while this new Flash movie is basically a nostalgia bomb that is trying very hard to prep fans for a new DC movie-verse. And while that isn't exactly a bad thing, it has prompted the pop culture landscape to revisit an age old topic: Who was/is the best Batman? Understanding that everyone has their own opinions and points of view when it comes to it, I'm not sure I can say definitely which is the best, but I'll do my best over the next few DC reviews to put them in some kind of order from WORST to BEST. For this list I'm going to include all the live action from 66' Batman and up as well as most of the popular voice actors who have lent their voices to him including Batman the Animated Series, The Batman and Batman Brave and the Bold. It's going to be a difficult list for sure and will likely change with each new iteration. Stay tuned...

Pros: Out of all the Bat-Men I acquire I seem to gravitate to The Dark Knight Returns more than not, which is interesting considering that I never read the graphic novel until much later in my life. For the most part this version works well enough and certainly checks the boxes of stylized sculpt, decent articulation, a few fists and even has a Bat-a-rang rope thing.

Cons: As with some McFarlane figures the legs seem to look a bit too long given the type of knee joint they use. Also his head feels a bit small for his body.

[Team Jetfire]

28-R
Hasbro- Transformers Hunt for the Decepticons: Highbrow.
Approximate Release Date: 2010/2011




Well, it’s been a minute since the most recent live action movie “Rise of the Beasts” came out so I thought I would share some high level thoughts. I’ll probably do a “Good, Bad, Ugly” review on future Transformers posts, but for the time being I wanted to get some thoughts down on paper. Consider this your spoiler warning if you are reading this and have not seen it.

First and foremost I have to say that on the whole I liked it alot, but understand that there are a number of flaws that held this back from being a perfect Transformers movie. I liked 95% of the cast of characters and was really impressed with Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson) and Noah Diaz (played by the extremely talented Anthony Ramos) and would love to see them both in any future projects (especially Ramos as he was able to decently act in a veritable world of green screens.) The other Autobot robot cast was familiar with Prime, Bumblebee and an updated Arce, but the big draw was the addition of the Maximal of beast wars fame. This included Optimus Primal, Airazor, Cheetor and Rhinox. On the evil side of things a few new baddies were introduced including Scourge, Nightbird and Battletrap, but they weren’t Decepticons, but rather minions of Unicron who were after the Maximals for reasons.

The story was predictable, but was fun and felt like an extended episode of the cartoon (which is always a plus) and I actually appreciated the humor much more than any of the 5 previous Micheal Bay directed movies. And unlike the Bumblebee movie that preceded it, this felt like a much bigger adventure, which is something that I always appreciate. For example, the story takes the team to Peru and unless they covered it remarkably well with CGI, I think they were actually on location in South America, for some scenes at least.

Speaking of CGI, and I’ll be going into more detail on this in later posts, but why is it that Transformers movies made 15 years ago have better CGI? Now that is not to say that the CGI in this movie is bad, but for how much they lean on it to tell the story, it feels a bit like a video game at times.

Lastly I’ll say that as a fan of Beast Wars I was disappointed with how the Maximals were used. These characters are only maximals by name given that all the lore, all the history and what made them exceptional was thrown out in favor of focusing on the humans and the Autobots. Two quick examples: 1. Why are they the same size as the G1 Transformers? The only reason why Optimus is massive is because he turns into a truck as a disguise. Cheetor should not be the size of a school bus because a Cheetah is not the size of a freaking school bus. And yeah, that would have been difficult to scale / deal with, but it could have made it easier to scale with the humans. 2. What is a Maximal without a Predacon? Scourge was fine and made sense given Unicron plays a fairly large role in this movie, but where was the Predacon crew? That was the Beast Wars that live action fans wanted to see, not some random assortment of beast that could have been any Transformer character.

Overall it was a fun movie that provided a bit of Transformers lore to the masses and I hope that they continue getting made.

Pros: I picked out Highbrow from the collection to review given that his alt-mode reminded me of the old timer character “Transit” that was featured in the Transformers- Rise of the Beasts movie. I always loved this figure and wanted an excuse to fiddle around with him and I gotta say, he does not disappoint. A great unique robot mode with a head sculpt full of personality, a not-to-challenging transformation and an awesome plane mode that makes me wish Hasbro would look to the past for more inspiration.

Cons: Despite my best efforts, my rose coloured glasses cannot overlook the faults of this figure: He’s full of kibble, his vehicle mode is basically made up and he cannot twist at the waist. That said, I still think that Hunt for Decepticons was producing some of the best Transformers ever released.

[Team Jetfire]