Tag Archives: toys

August 25, 2021

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Metalhead

By Joe

This post marks number 800 for this blog! Now, when I hit a nice, round, number like that I usually try to find a special topic of some kind, but also one representative of the content on this blog. Well, we certainly look at a lot of toys on this space, and there have definitely been a lot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles posts, and I do consider myself a metalhead so why not do a figure review of Super7’s TMNT Ultimates! Wave 3 Metalhead? Now, I’m taking a bit of a gamble in making such a milestone post a figure review. This thing could suck for all I know, but I’ve handled enough figures from this line that I’m reasonably confident that it won’t. Plus, it’s Metalhead, one of my favorite figures from the original Playmates line and one I wish I had held onto (sorry, no comparison shot).

There’s a lot going on with this sculpt.

When it comes to this line, it’s interesting to see the choices Super7 makes in regards to how faithful they want to be to the vintage toy and what they want to change. With Bebop, we saw they elected to pump him up quite a bit so that he towers over the turtles. Metalhead is a robot turtle, and across other mediums he tends to be on the larger side. Super7 though, saw him as a robotic duplicate of the turtles akin to the fifth turtle, so they decided to make him the same size. He’s not the same sculpt as his body is loaded with tiny, technical, bits, but he is the same height, width, and obeys the same proportions. This puts Metalhead at about six inches which means that, despite this being a 7″ scale line, he’s actually shorter than NECA’s cartoon version of the character by nearly an inch. Obviously, these two are not meant to be exactly the same as they’re the same character from two different sources, but it is an interesting comparison.

I had to bring out the flash for this shell.

Metalhead was one of the more detailed sculpts released by Playmates in the original toy line, and the same is true for this version as well. His entire body is covered with grooves, buttons, vents, wires, and rivets. It’s an impressive mold and it also means Super7 had to use a lot more paint than they usually do. The base color for the figure is gray, so every bit of red, black, yellow, silver, and green is painted on. And a lot of the details are quite familiar to me as I look this guy over, especially the little lightning bolts on the forearms and shins. Those were sculpted on the original toy, but unpainted and it’s nice to see them brought to life here. The head still features the light piping which is to say that his eyes and brain are cast in a red, transparent, plastic and the rest of the head is molded around it. Shine a light into the top of his brain and it should filter through the eyes. If you don’t care for this though, Metalhead’s alternate head is exactly the same, but with that feature removed in favor of red paint. Super7 seems to have taken some small liberties with the figure’s legs as there are now tubes connecting the back of the knee to the thigh. I don’t recall how these looked on the old figure, I’m guessing they were there, but part of the sculpt. Here it looks cool, but is a little concerning when it comes to articulation, but we’ll get to that in due time.

Of course, the elephant in the room concerns Metalhead’s torso. The original figure was vac metal, a process by which a layer of reflective, metallic, paint is placed over a hard plastic to create a finish akin to chrome. The vac metal is less a paint, and more like a heavy, duty, coating. The problem is, it only adheres to harder plastics like ABS (most toys are a type of PVC) and it’s prone to chipping as it does not possess any sort of give. Super7 opted not to do the chest or shell in vac metal for these reasons. I think, with a little creativity, they could have made it happen if they had really wanted to. The front of the figure’s “shell” is a separate piece so they could have made that removable and given people a vac metal plate to put over it if they so desired. Instead, they just went with a super, metallic, paint job for the torso that’s a very lustrous gold. I am personally not that into vac metal, so I don’t really care. I think this paint job is pretty flashy and I quite like it. Something about how the light rolls across the rear of the shell is very pleasing. It’s so pleasing that I kind of don’t want to put the backpack on him.

Light piping in action! The other head just has red-painted eyes.

If there’s anything to nitpick about the figure’s appearance, beyond the size (I get it, but I do think of Metalhead as being bigger than the turtles), is mainly in just some of the finer details. So much of the character’s sculpt has been painted and brought to life, but the belt is just three colors and most of that is black. The oil can, funnel, and bolts affixed to the belt are unpainted while the grenades are just green. It would have been cool to see some added embellishment there. There’s also the unsightly holes in this figure, one on the rear and two on the chest. They’re to accommodate his backpack accessory, but when that’s not in use you get the holes. Some plugs would have been cool to fill them, or they could have used magnets to hold the pack on. It’s not the end of the world, and I suspect most will use the pack anyway, but it’s just neat when companies go that extra mile.

Robo-chuks and grenades. You can see how the stuck thigh swivels impact how the left kneed is positioned. It’s irksome.

In terms of articulation, Metalhead is basically the same as his organic allies, though the execution is not. Metalhead has a head that sits on the same ball joint and he can pivot up, down, and to the side. The range isn’t spectacular since he has a sculpted neck with no lower neck articulation, but it works all right. At the shoulders, we have ball hinges, but the shape of the shoulder means he really can’t lift his arms out to the side much. He won’t be serving as a “T” for any cheer squads. The elbows are single-hinged, and like the other turtles, the elbow pad won’t let him achieve a 90 degree bend. The wrists rotate and have horizontal hinges. At the hips, he can pivot a bit, but the shell won’t let him spin all the way around or anything. The legs connect via these small, skinny, pegs and below them should be a thigh swivel, but my figure is totally stuck on both legs. I’ve tried heating it, then freezing, to see if that will get it moving, but to no avail. It really stinks because the left leg is rotated inwards a little so his knee isn’t facing forward. He has a swivel at the knee, but you have to be mindful of those hoses on the back because they link the upper and lower leg which really isn’t a smart design. I wish the thigh cut had been repositioned to just above the yellow knee indicator as there is a natural place for it in the sculpt. The other swivel is just too close to the hip and it’s hard to get any real torque without putting pressure on the peg connecting the hip. Below the knee is the standard ankle rocker which works well.

Metalhead ends up not being the best articulated figure, but he’d have enough if it just worked better. To make up for it though, he has stuff. Like every figure in this line, Metalhead comes with extra hands. He has gripping hands in the package plus a pair of fists and wide gripping hands. I’m not really sure what the wide hands are needed for, but he has them. He also has another right hand which features a tentacle like extension popping out of his index finger. It’s pretty cool looking and something the original toy did not feature. He also has some mechanical nunchuks that clip into his wrist in place of a hand (like the original figure, which I think was the first figure I ever had with swap-able hands). The actual ‘chuks portion can rotate, but not freely like a propeller so it’s more for positioning. Swapping parts is easy, and if anything too easy as they sometimes pop off when just positioning the figure. He also has his pizza oven backpack, since this guy is a party robot. It snaps into his back and the straps plug into the chest. There’s a mini satellite dish that plugs into the top, or you can use the second nunchuk attachment which makes it function like a helicopter. I think this resulted in someone on staff at Super7 saying they mistook the nunchuk that came with the original Playmates toy for a propeller as a kid and wanted to give anyone else who did the same that option with the new toy. Lastly, we have a pair of grenades that Metalhead can toss at his foes. They look just like the ones molded into his belt, so that’s a nice touch, but I wish they could affix to the belt in some way. Or if the backpack could open, now that would have been cool!

You can see how the backpack causes him to lurch forward to stand.

I guess the primary function of this pack is to supply pizza and soda, but according to the bio it has the features of a jukebox, arcade, and can blast Foot Soldiers. That’s quite a bit better than my backpack.

The accessory assortment is solid, though I wish Super7 took more time in painting them. The vintage line was all uniform, so I get that they want to match it, but they provide an unpainted weapons rack with every figure, Metalhead included. Why not add more paint to the rest? The backpack especially could use a little flair on the rear as could the innards of the nunchuk. The grenades don’t even have silver on the handles or pin. They provide these nice, painted, weapons for the turtles, but it seems Super7 shorts every other figure in the line in this area. There’s also the issue of the backpack being quite heavy. Metalhead’s hips aren’t flimsy like Raph’s, but they’re also not strong. His torso might also weigh more than the other turtles because he’s prone to falling backward. Add the backpack and the problem is exacerbated. This is one you’ll need to keep an eye on and you shouldn’t get too ambitious with the posing. It would be a shame if that shell were to scuff or worse. I’m not sure why they didn’t make the backpack hollow, and therefore lighter, but I have a conundrum where I want to display the figure with it on, but it would be a great deal more stable to go without.

These issues with the figure may seem like a classic case of nitpicking, but they all add up to be more problematic than expected. Getting Metalhead to stand is more challenging then it should be, add the backpack and it really becomes an issue. Then when you take away something like a thigh swivel, you’re forced to rely on the other joints to create a strong base. And when you find yourself constantly tinkering with the figure to get him to stand, you end up grabbing the lower leg and forgetting there are hoses behind it and that’s how you end up with a broken toy. Yup, those hoses I pointed out as a potential problem turned out to be just that. The right leg ended up breaking on me, and not from twisting the lower leg too far, but just by my finger wrapping around the leg in just the right (wrong) way, apparently. It’s a very thin, soft, plastic and it won’t take much to break. I have a feeling in ten years when we’re looking back on this line that Metalhead’s tubes will be akin to the old Playmates Krang and the antenna on top of the head that always broke. I ordered this figure through Big Bad Toy Store so I reached out to them (because Super7 asked me to do that first with my Michelangelo issue) to see about an exchange. The stuck thighs already had me frustrated and contemplating an exchange, and the broken coil became the tipping point.

I can’t believe this design choice made it into the final figure.

Metalhead ended up being a more frustrating experience than I expected. He had become the one I was looking forward to the most from Wave 3 of Super7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of Ultimates!, and now he’s my most disappointing. It has not been a great start to this wave as I had the ankle issue with Michelangelo so hopefully the last figure I look at (Rocksteady) won’t be more of the same. This follows really no issues with waves 1 and 2 for me beyond stiff or loose joints, and it’s not causing me to rethink all of the open preorders I have with Super7, but it has taken some of the wind out of my sails.

Hooking the tentacle on a more stable figure has the hidden benefit of helping Metalhead stand.

In the end, maybe Metalhead wasn’t the best choice for my 800th post, but it’s a decision I’ll have to live with. I’ll come back and update this post if I have any success on getting a better Metalhead. Right now, the figure is available in a few places to order, but he won’t last forever since Super7’s model is made-to-order. They’ve relaxed their one and done strategy for this line for both of the first waves, but I wouldn’t count on that going forward. Especially as factory availability remains challenging and shipping from Asia continues to be a problem. I can’t give my full endorsement to this figure as-is, but if you like the look and are okay with the limitations, then you should have enough information to make an informed decision that works for you. I do like the look of this one, and no matter how my interactions with customer service goes, I’m not about to toss him in the trash or anything, but he definitely feels like a “set it and forget it” action figure which is a shame since he has enough stuff that a variety of display options are present. His base just won’t cooperate though, so he gets to be a shiny, golden, idol instead.

UPDATE: I reached out to Big Bad Toy Store, where I bought my Metalhead, about the issues I had with it and they replaced it at no cost to me and without any additional questions. They also let me keep the first one. My new Metalhead arrived a few days later and he’s much better in some ways, and not in others. First of all, all of the joints are free and usable and obviously the wire/hose/coil behind the knee is fine. On the negative side, the hips on the new one seem even more loose than my first one so he’s still no fun to stand. I’m guessing that’s just going to be the reality of this figure where some are tighter than others. There was also some yellow paint slop on the black portion of the knee which was unfortunate. At any rate, he at least looks better because his knee isn’t constantly twisted and I went over the paint slop with a black marker. Because of the performance issues though, I do think Rocksteady is the superior figure in this third wave and I’m still a little disappointed in Metalhead, but I feel better about this one at least. And hats off to Big Bad, I’ll definitely continue to turn to them for my action figure needs.

1 Comment | tags: action figures, metalhead, playmates, super7, super7 ultimates!, teenage mutant ninja turtles, toys | posted in toys

August 19, 2021

Super7 is Heading to Springfield!

By Joe

Wednesday, August 18th, ended up being quite an eventful little day in the world of toy collecting. There were some reveals from major toy companies, leaks, and even those long neglected Street Sharks fans got something to get excited about late in the day. Personally, it was a good day for me too as I finally got to click “ship” on a Big Bad Toy Store Pile of Loot that includes my Super7 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Wave 3. However, nothing prepared me for what Super7 had in-store for us (or technically didn’t) come the evening.

It started in the afternoon when Super7 posted a tease for a new license: an image of a glowing, green, rod with the vastness of space behind it. To the uninitiated, this may have been cryptic or even confusing. A glowstick? What could that be a reference to? For diehard fans of The Simpsons though, the image was unmistakable: an inanimate carbon rod! This rather plain looking object was the punchline to the episode “Deep Space Homer” where the show allegedly “jumped the shark” by sending Homer to outer space. It’s a ridiculous concept, but like a lot of classic era episodes of The Simpsons, there’s plenty of jokes to make it worthwhile.

Speculation was then running wild on social media about what Super7 had planned for The Simpsons. Most, including myself, assumed a wave of ReAction figures was forthcoming. If you’re unfamiliar with ReAction, that’s Super7’s retro, five points of articulation, throwback line of figures that are sold on elaborate cardbacks and can be found everywhere. They’re not my cup of tea as I have no nostalgic attachment to the Star Wars figure line from the 70s and 80s. They’re just ugly figures to me, but sometimes Super7 creates some interesting figures in this line so I wasn’t ready to dismiss the idea. The Nicktoons figures have turned out pretty well, so maybe The Simpsons could be pulled off just as well.

What I was hoping for though, was that Super7 would give The Simpsons the Ultimates treatment. We’ve talked about the Ultimates figure line a lot here, but for those just popping in, Super7’s Ultimates line is a 7″ scale action figure line that’s made to order. These are the figures that are decidedly modern in their approach to sculpting, articulation, etc. The Simpsons isn’t a brand that screams “Ultimates” since we’re not talking about sword-wielding ninjas and such, but I’m interested in figures that capture the likeness best and come packed with tons of accessories and facial expressions. Still, I assumed that would be far off, and if Super7 did want to do Simpsons in that style that they would start small (like they did with Ren and Stimpy) and maybe just offer a Homer or Bart or a one-off character.

And I was wrong! Later in the evening, the Twitter account @preterniadotcom tweeted an image of a Google search result for a Super7 Ultimates Deep Space Homer. The link went to a 404 error, but it’s mere existence was encouraging. The same account then dug a little further and was able to find a solicitation image that all but confirmed the existence of a Deep Space Homer action figure. As the name suggests, it’s Homer in his astronaut suit and he indeed comes packaged with our beloved carbon rod. He has extra hands and three different facial expressions. He also has a bag of chips and the colony of ants. It’s just a digital render, but it sure looks promising.

The fun didn’t stop there. Soon many people were messing around with the Super7 store URL and it wasn’t long before an image of the entire first wave of Simpsons Ultimates was uncovered. A user at thefwoosh.com was the first person I saw to uncover the image, but soon every social media account connected with toys was sharing it. The day began rather ordinarily, and then we got a Simpsons tease, then we got confirmation of an Ultimates figure, and when we all went to sleep we had an entire first wave. And it wasn’t just two figures, it wasn’t even the standard four, but five figures! Super7 clearly appears to be all-in when it comes to The Simpsons and I am here for it!

Wow! It looks great! And you get a Homer accessory with your rod!

So who all is joining Homer in this inaugural first wave? Well, in true Super7 fashion, it’s a surprising collection of characters intended to appeal to the diehard Simpsons fan. Disney fans were confused when Super7 launched a Disney line last year consisting of Sorcerer Mickey, Pinocchio, and Prince Jon from Robin Hood because there was no Robin Hood. Super7’s approach is both strategic and also by the seat of their pants. They like to produce the figures that they simply want, and Super7’s Brian Flynn loves Prince Jon so he gets to be in Wave One. To them, that suggests to the consumer that “Of course Robin Hood will be in Wave Two,” but for fans unfamiliar with the company it’s just confusing. With The Simpsons, I’m pretty sure the same thing will happen because Wave One is Deep Space Homer, Moe, Poochie, and robot versions of Itchy and Scratchy from the episode “Itchy and Scratchy Land.” I don’t want to speak for Super7, but my guess is these are just favorite characters, episodes, and gags for the people at Super7. It’s also a tell to the Simpsons fanbase that they’re going to go deep. It’s a foregone conclusion that you’re going to get a Bart, Lisa, Krusty, etc. at some point, so they’re going to give you some of those deep cuts upfront so you don’t have to worry about Super7 not getting to them.

Should I spend hundreds of dollars to amass an army of Itchy and Scratchy robots?!

Of course, since everything except the initial tease is basically a leak (or a cleverly disguised reveal to get people talking) we don’t necessarily know what the plan is or what direction they’re going in. Maybe Super7 isn’t interested in doing a base Homer? I kind of doubt it, but we’ll have to wait and see. They’ll probably want to get someone out there soon to talk about the license and give fans a head’s up, but for now we at least know about five figures. And from what I see, they look terrific. I don’t know that I need Homer in a space suit, but I do like what Super7 is showing here so it’s not something I’m going to pass on. Moe looks as Moe should. He comes with his apron, rag, a Flaming Moe, and a bright red phone for prank calls. He even has an angry, screaming, face that should pair well with that phone. He also has a panda in a crate, because Moe gets his hands into some questionable business practices. Poochie also looks great and comes with his surfboard, skateboard, and all of the stuff he needs to take things “To the extreme!” The stars of the inaugural first wave though might be those robotic Itchy and Scratchy figures. They just look fun with Itchy featuring a removable skull top to expose his robotic innards and Scratchy possessing a removable face to do the same. They have various implements of destruction as well as items to feature in a parade. And, not to be missed, is the Bort license plate that comes with Scratchy (chef’s kiss).

Even though I get what Super7 is doing here, that doesn’t change the fact that this is a rather bold selection of characters for the first wave of a new IP. Is there a market for high end Simpsons action figures out there? I guess we’ll find out. Many are used to paying 10 bucks or so for the Playmates figures of 20 years ago. These will retail for $55 a piece so there’s likely to be some sticker shock. I’m familiar with Super7 so I know what to expect. I’m also used to paying that kind of money for a toy in 2021 so it should go without saying that I’m all in. And then there’s also the delay in actually getting these. Simpsons fans who have been out of the collector game for a long time will be surprised at the price, and then further surprised when they find out they won’t even get their figures for a year. Super7’s made-to-order model is basically designed in such a way that they almost can’t lose money on a figure offering, but if this wave underperforms it might mean a smaller Wave Two. I suspect they have a list of figures they really want to make and it’s possible nothing will stop them unless sales are truly abysmal, but it will be interesting to see the response to these. As for me, I have a long list of characters that I’d love to see, and I expect a lot of the figures to come will be episode specific. Surely there will be a Bart in Wave Two, but I’m also really hopefully for a Skinner and Chalmers pairing full of Steamed Ham references. Such a thing would surely get the social media a-buzzing!

Update 8/20/2021: The entire first wave is now available through Super7 at https://preorder.super7store.com/. If you want to order from a place that doesn’t charge upfront, more options should become available later in the day. I recommend at least heading on over to Super7’s store for more high-res images of the line including a look at the sleek packaging!

Leave a comment | tags: action figures, deep space homer, flaming moe's, itchy and scratchy, moe, poochie, super7, super7 ultimates!, the simpsons, toys | posted in Television, toys

August 13, 2021

What I Want from Super7’s TMNT Ultimates! Line

By Joe

The year 2020 will forever be linked with the COVID-19 pandemic, a pandemic that has stretched on into 2021 and may very well continue into 2022 at this point. The greatest tragedy of the pandemic is obviously the millions of lives lost to the virus, and I don’t want anyone to forget that the lives lost far surpasses the inconveniences we’re currently dealing with. One of those inconveniences just happens to be a global shipping crisis. When the virus first ravaged China, it causes factories and ports to shut down. Since many consumer goods are manufactured in China, that lead to shortages across the world and things have been slow to come back. Now, many factories are at least operational, but the ports have a huge backlog. Some companies are pointing the finger at the few shipping companies in operation and accusing them of unfair practices and price gouging as the cost to ship a container across the Pacific has exploded. This doesn’t figure to be something that will resolve itself anytime soon either, and some are already cautioning the American public that the holiday shopping season won’t look like seasons from years past.

One industry affected by all of this is the toy industry. Most plastic toys are manufactured in China or Hong Kong and have been affected by the factory closings and shipping situation. Release dates in 2021 have practically lost all meaning as a result and a March release became an April release, became a Q3 release, and so on. One company hit by all of this has been Super7. Super7’s business model is essentially to put a line of action figures up on their site for a one month preorder. When that month concludes, the company places a factory order for the amount of presales (plus extra for quality control and to sell at their physical store) and eventually consumers have something in their hands in roughly 8-10 months. The idea is to put a wave for their various lines up for sale every 4 months, so that by the time the first wave is shipping the third wave is available for pre-order. This model has been blown up though, and one line affected has been Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The first wave of TMNT figures from Super7 started rolling out last August and into September. Wave 2 followed in December/January and Wave 3 was expected around May. Well, delays pushed things back further into Q2 2021 and then the shipping industry struck. Up until just last week, Super7 was still waiting for the container holding some of the figures for this line to be unloaded at the port. They had the turtle from this wave, Michelangelo, in their warehouse nearly two months ago, but not the rest. It’s something that likely frustrates all parties involved since the product is there, ready to go, but still out of reach. Some retailers, like Big Bad Toy Store, managed to get some of their stock before Super7, which is unheard of. They didn’t get everything though, and many collectors are still waiting. It was actually last night that I finally saw someone post that Super7 is shipping their set of figures so at least the long wait for some is about to end.

As for me, I’m still waiting with no end in sight. I only ordered 3 of the 4 figures in the wave and I ordered them from Big Bad Toy Store. The store prioritized complete sets of orders before fulfilling a handful of singles and has now stopped fulfilling orders leading me to believe they’re waiting on more. Since I can’t tell you what I think about the likes of Michelangelo and Rocksteady right now, I’ll pivot and do a post I’ve been kicking around in my head for awhile.

If you’re unfamiliar with the line, Super7’s take on TMNT is to recreate the toys made famous by Playmates and realize them with a modern aesthetic and in a 7″ scale. As a result, it’s pretty easy to make a wish list since the figures the company produces will mirror those, for the most part. The company has said it intends to do at least a few figures in the line that Playmates never did (maybe more of the Punk Frogs?), and there are some that are off-limits due to licensing issues. For the most part though, I’m expecting we’ll get most, if not all, of the unique characters from the vintage line and some of the turtle variants. The company has already unveiled 5 waves of figures which cover all of the original 10 figures and a bunch of the later figures. They’re clearly not focusing on one year over another, so anything is fair game.

So what would I like to see next? Well, I have some thoughts. I’m not all-in on this line as I’m mostly cherry-picking my favorites, but if Super7 were to release any of the following I’d probably buy it.

Slash

If you polled collectors about what character they want to see next it would not surprise me in the least if Slash finished in first. The evil, mutant, turtle from Dimension X was taken from the Archie companion comic Mighty Mutanimals where he was actually a good guy. In what quickly became a trend, Playmates and the cartoon would take a Mutanimal and make him evil which apparently annoyed creators Ryan Brown and Stephen Murphy. When the cartoon wanted to make Ray Fillet a villain, they put their foot down which is why we ended up with just Ray, a weird, composite, fish, mutant.

I certainly respect the views of the creators, but unfortunately, evil Slash is my preferred take. Even the good guy version looks like a bad guy, and this guy is begging to be realized in a modern style. Super7 plays fast and loose with the scale so I’m curious how they’ll approach Slash. The vintage figure was quite squat and actually shorter than the hero turtles, but I’d prefer Super7 make him just a touch taller than the good guys. He certainly should be chunkier, and I’m curious if they’ll give him a proper neck or just stick with the vintage approach. I’m also quite curious to see how the company approaches the figure’s spiked nunchaku. They probably can’t do an actual, spiked, chain, so I suspect it will be bendy, molded, plastic, but maybe they surprise me with something more elaborate. I’m also curious if they stick with the solid purple blades on his hands, or do something more metallic. When the company did Shredder, they basically just stuck with the Playmates colors which is partly why I passed so I suspect they’ll treat Slash in a similar fashion. Mostly though, I hope they take their time with the headsculpt and really bring out those teeth. It would be a shame if they stay too true to the original and produce something soft instead.

Triceraton

I forgot about the rat hanging off of his belt, a snack for later? photo: tmnt-ninjaturtles.com

When I was a kid, I had no idea this guy was part of a race of space dinosaurs called Triceratons, and just thought his name was Triceraton. When the cartoon finally got to him I was forced to admit my head-canon was off. I don’t care though as this guy was pretty bad ass looking. And he was a character I frequently paired with Slash as they had a similar aesthetic with their bumpy skin and all together evil appearance. The cartoon Triceratons NECA gave us are pretty cool and true to the source material, but this guy is different. He’s still an orange, bipedal, triceratops with big guns, but he just looks all together meaner and more formidable. I’m also hopeful that Super7 makes this guy big! I’m talking Bebop size! He’d just have a ton of shelf presence with his bright, orange, skin if made at that size. I just hope they give him some more expressive hands as my only gripe with the Bebop figure rests in the static nature of his posture. At least the Triceraton has a snarling facial expression which will help give him a more dynamic feel all by itself.

Monty Moose

Oh Monty, how I pine for thee. Photo: hollywoodheroes.com

I talked about this guy in my Toys that Got Away feature as he was a figure I saw at the store, but couldn’t buy at the time, and then never saw again. I don’t know what it was about Monty Moose that appealed to me. Maybe it was because I grew up in New Hampshire where a moose sighting wasn’t terribly uncommon? Or maybe it was the Canadian Mountie inspired attire that just looked cool to me. Whatever the case, I still think he looks rather unique and this is another figure that would be huge. The newly released Rocksteady has that long snout of a face that forced Super7 to package him him looking off to the side. Monty Moose has a similar visage, but also packs those massive antlers. Turn him to the side and you just create a new problem. He might need special, oversized, packaging to get the job done and I do feel like he’d come in pretty close in size to Bebop and Rocksteady since he is a freakin’ moose!

Space Usagi

Earlier in this post I mentioned that some figures from the vintage line were off-limits due to licensing issues, and unfortunately that happens to affect Usagi Yojimbo. It wasn’t that long ago that Super7 founder Brian Flynn mentioned in an episode of The Fwooshcast that Usagi was coming and the contract was already signed, but since then things have apparently changed. Either Flynn got a little ahead of himself, or that agreement became null and void thanks to a new Netflix series featuring the samurai rabbit. Basically, anything Usagi is on pause right now which affects both Super7 and NECA who also have not featured the character in their TMNT line. I’m reasonably optimistic that things will get worked out, but there’s no guarantee.

And if they do get worked out, I suspect we’ll see a standard version of Usagi before we see the space one, even though if I had it my way I’d go with the radical space variant first. I guess some folks in the 90s just found space rabbits appealing because I have no idea why Usagi ever needed to go to space. It was pretty gnarly though and I used to pair him with Space Cadet Raph (who is all but assured to be released in Wave 6, 7, or 8) for intergalactic adventures in my bedroom. He had this neat mask molded to his face that kind of made him look like a Star Trek villain, plus a cape and and dome that fit around his ears. He got to pack a gun instead of his boring old katana, and it’s just the type of wacky character the line was known for and one I’d like to see get another shot at life.

Walkabout

The old Playmates line is incredibly nostalgic for me, and for various reasons. One reason is when I happen to remember getting a specific figure. Even though my grandmother bought me lots of TMNT stuff when I was a kid, I associate her with Walkabout because she and my grandfather gave him to me when they got back from a vacation. Normally, they’d vacation in a place like Mexico and bring me back a sombrero or t-shirt that probably advertised alcohol, but this time I got a turtle toy and I was pretty surprised and excited. The orange kangaroo Walkabout just looked different to me than many of the other toys in the line and there was just something about him that I really liked. Maybe it’s because a kangaroo was just an exotic creature to someone living in the US, maybe I was really enamored with Crocodile Dundee, or maybe I just liked that he had a tail and articulated knees? I don’t know, but if Super7 makes him I’m buying him!

Rat King

There’s a lot of stuff going on with that sculpt. Photo: dallasvintagetoys.com

When I talked about Slash I said I felt he was the character most fans were looking forward to seeing the most. Well, if he has a rival it’s probably Rat King as he’s another classic figure of a now classic character begging to be realized by Super7. Not much distinguishes Rat King from his cartoon appearance, he’s just more detailed and a little more gross. And speaking of gross, how will Super7 sculpt and paint Rat King’s dead cat belt?! There isn’t much Super7 will need to do with this figure, sort of like how it really didn’t have to do too much to Baxter Stockman. Just make him bigger, add some articulation, and paint every last detail that was in that old sculpt. And please, paint the damn accessories! If I have one, lingering, complaint with this line as a whole it’s that the turtles get their weapons painted up all nice and pretty while everyone else largely gets monochrome accessories that aren’t nearly as flashy.

Hothead

Hey Super7, looks like he’d pair well with Samurai Leo… photo: dallasvintagetoys.com

Hothead is a figure I never had as a kid and I don’t ever recall playing with him either. He was a late comer to the line when I was getting pulled in different directions and would eventually devote my meager resources to X-Men. However, I do feel like I missed out on a cool figure in Hothead. I mean, he’s a mutant dragon – what’s cooler than that?! Or should I say what’s hotter than that? Regardless, he has a killer look and a neat feature that allowed his neck to extend. I suspect Super7 would have to include two necks with this guy, which kind of messes things up for them as they like to make the neck just part of the torso sculpt, but would they do this figure any other way? I guess they refrained from making Mutagen Man water-tight so maybe they’d ignore the extending neck feature and just settle on a middle-ground. Honestly, as long as he comes out looking good I’ll be interested, but I hope they come up with something interesting. A fully articulated neck, or bendy neck, would probably be the most extravagant way to go as he’d look so awesome if he could be positioned looking around and such. Ah, I shouldn’t get my hopes up though.

Scale Tail

This guy is just insane, check out his “tail” gunner. Photo: transformerland.com

Another one I never had as a kid is Scale Tail, but I at least had friends who had this guy. He’s just another bonkers sculpt from Playmates and Varner Studios, who handled a lot of the figures in the line. He’s a mutant cobra, but one arm is composed entirely out of snakes while his forked tongue has been outfitted with a forked gun. He’s just ridiculous, and that’s really the only reason why I want to see Super7 tackle him. They’d definitely make him fairly large, not so much in height, but length, and it’s hard to imagine someone coming into a room and seeing that thing on a shelf and not immediately asking about it.

Rock’n Rollin’ Turtles

One of the few left from my personal collection.

Super7 started with the main turtles with each figure anchoring one of the four waves. For the fifth wave, Sewer Samurai Leonardo is the anchor turtle leading most to believe that Super7 will do the rest of the “disguised” turtles across the next 3 waves. Recently, Super7 designer Kyle Wlodyga, during an appearance on The Fwooshcast, indicated that we will eventually see an entire wave of four turtles and my hope is they’ll be the Rock’n Rollin’ Turtles! One of the few figures to survive my purge many years ago is my Classic Rock Leonardo. He looks like Leonardo doing a Springsteen cos-play, and despite my not having any particular affection for the music of Bruce Springsteen, I just happen to like the figure. The leather vest, denim pants, turtle guitar – all solid gold as far as I’m concerned. The rest of the wave was a Rappin’ Mike, Punk Rock Don, and Heavy Metal Raph (more like Hair Metal Raph) which I do not currently own. I think I used to have Mike, but never Don or Raph. If Super7 did all four, I’d at have to consider getting them all, but I’d definitely get Leo to pair with my vintage one. There aren’t many turtle variants that I need to see updated, but these are pretty close.

Sports Turtles

Mikey was the star of the sports series. Photo: Rad Plastic

Behind the Rock’n Rollin’ Turtles in terms of importance to me are the sports turtles. These included the likes of Michelangelo as a pro wrestler, Raph as a baseball player, and Leonardo as a quarterback, among others. I would not need to get all of these guys, but I really liked my vintage baseball Raph for some reason, and Mikey as a wrestler is just a lot of fun. Some of the others included a soccer Raph, basketball Donatello, and hockey Leonardo. Some of them are fairly charming, but definitely not essential (especially at $55 a piece if prices remain steady). Most of the other wacky turtle variants are things I don’t need. I have some nostalgic attachment to a few here and there (like Raph the Magnificent), but even as a kid they were figures I’d be excited to get, play with for a weekend, then retire. Unless they’re interesting visually, they have no appeal for me in a collector line.

That’s about it for me though. If Super7 gets to all of these figures then great, and if not, I guess I’ll have to live without them. I’m not saying I wouldn’t buy figures not listed above, but the rest aren’t figures I’m really rooting for. Some of that has to do with NECA as their cartoon Scumbug and Groundchuck are pretty close to that Playmates aesthetic, and since I’m all in on their toon line, it makes me less likely to get the Super7 offering. Had Super7 got to those characters first, then yeah, I probably end up with them similar to how I ended up with Baxter Stockman. That’s fine though. These things aren’t cheap and I have only so much room in my house to dedicate to toys.

Hopefully, retailers start getting their stock of TMNT Ultimates! Wave 3 and I can tell you how much I love the figures from that line. And hopefully Wave 4 remains on-track for Q4 2021. And hey, maybe some day I’ll be able to tell you what I think of Super7’s Disney Ultimates! which I ordered roughly a year ago. It’s 2021, baby, and release dates don’t mean a thing!

Leave a comment | tags: action figures, playmates, super7, teenage mutant ninja turtles, TMNT, toys | posted in toys

July 23, 2021

Another Comic Con Season is Over and it was Expensive!

By Joe

San Diego Comic Con has come to be a convention that means a lot of things. It only vaguely has anything to do with comic books and instead is more a celebration of, and I hate to use the term, “geek” culture: video games, movies, comics, toys, etc. It’s also a huge commercial event with many companies exhibiting wares like a trade show and also hawking rare, convention, exclusives to hungry patrons looking to get their hands on something unique. The problem is, these convention exclusives were once novelties, but in the toy industry, they’ve become practical necessities for fans of certain products and it creates a hyper-competitive environment full of broken websites, tapped-out wallets, and frustrated fans.

For the second year in a row, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the event to be done remotely. At least with this year, companies had plenty of time to plan for that and many crafted special videos or hosted live panels to show off to fans what’s expected to come later this year and into next. Unfortunately, a global shipping crisis could not be foreseen so a lot of product that would have been sold at physical booths this year are still in transit. It certainly takes a damper out of things when, as a consumer, you fight scalpers and busted websites only to secure an order for something that won’t even ship for 6 to 8 months. In that case though, at least the consumer can be happy to have secured a coveted item and the waiting is just what it is.

It’s been an interesting season. I was musing on Twitter how this time of year that purports to celebrate the collector, toy, industry instead brings out the worst in the industry. As one would say though, it is what it is. I spent a lot of time, and money, going after the stuff I personally wanted and watched from afar as plenty of other fellow collectors tried to get the things they wanted. Some experiences went better than others, but I can at least say that I did get everything I really wanted, and the things I didn’t I passed on because it just wasn’t worth it to me.

The company always in my sights this time of year is NECA. I have been collecting NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles products ever since they started making the stuff back in 2008. NECA chose to use this time of year to only highlight items expected to arrive in stores between now and October, so while there weren’t a ton of reveals, there was certainly plenty to get excited about. On the film front, they had a new Casey Jones to feature that now comes with an unmasked portrait as NECA was able to get the likeness rights to actor Elias Koteas (with some help from April actress Judith Hoag) around the time the original figure was released. It looks great, though considering it’s basically the same figure I already have just with a new head and elbows means I may pass on it. Complicating the matter is Walmart posting a preorder just last night for a mystery two-pack claiming to be April and Casey from the farm portion of the film. There was no image to go with it, but being a TMNT product, it sold out. It’s dated for November so I suppose it’s not a surprise it was withheld from the show. Also from the movies is Shredder from the sequel, The Secret of the Ooze. He’s largely the same figure as the first film except he’s purple and has a new cape and helmet. Still, he looks pretty awesome and would pair quite well with Tokka and Rahzar.

From the cartoons, NECA had some two-packs that we knew were coming thanks to a Target leak, but had yet to see. Groundchuck and Dirtbag will be arriving together which makes sense since they debuted together in the same episode of the show. Dirtbag even has a nifty feature where he can separate at the torso and be placed in a sculpted pile of rubble like he came up from out of the ground (since he’s a mutated miner or something). The other big two-pack shown was Wingnut and Screwloose who too looked quite impressive. Screwloose in the cartoon was a much larger character than someone like Joe Eyeball so he gets a full figure this time around, which is awesome. He looks to be roughly the same size as Baxter. Those were the only new reveals, but they did show additional shots of some of the figures NECA put up for preorder earlier in the year and also teased a cartoon Tokka and Rahzar two-pack. For the comics, they only had a teaser for Fugitoid and nothing for the video game line was shown or teased which was expected as the comic line is intended to replace it.

I don’t know if the kid version of me would be excited for this group, but the adult version certainly is!

As expected, NECA did have an exclusive set to sell this year as they have every year going back several years now. And for TMNT, they actually had two. The first is an exclusive Super Shredder that will be sold at Walmart stores. It’s another paint variant meant to resemble a European version of the old Playmates toy, similar to how the Shadow Master variant was an homage to a mail order exclusive of the same toy. This one is basically hot pink with metallic blue shoulder pads and spikes. It’s fine, though most fans were more interested in the cartoon 4-pack that went on sale at NECA’s webstore yesterday. Titled The Catwoman from Channel 6, the set contains four figures: Mutated Cat April, Irma, Vernon, and Burne as well as a bunch of unique Channel 6 themed accessories like cameras and little mutated versions of Vernon and Burne as turtles. It’s a pretty cool looking set as the box is done up like the deluxe releases with f.h.e. inspired artwork, but mostly it’s the first chance at an Irma and Burne. They may not be heroes or villains, but they were in a lot of episodes of the cartoon and it’s hard to have a display that doesn’t include them. Many were disappointed that the Cat April doesn’t come with a new, non-mutated, April head, but her skin tone is different as a cat and it wouldn’t have made sense. Irma comes with rat parts, like Vernon, while the cowardly cameraman has two new portraits to differentiate him from his prior release: a scared version and a blindfolded one. The set was sold with some “swag” like last year’s Musical Mutagen Tour and set collectors back $175. A version without the swag will arrive at Target in the coming months and retail for $150. I was able to place an order yesterday as the set remained in stock for awhile relative to other NECA exclusives, which means about 15 minutes. International versions are still available, and really the only downer is NECA has not provided a release window so I have no idea when this thing will ship.

In non-turtle news, NECA had some horror stuff to show based on Halloween and Gremlins II. I’m not really into that aspect of their business, but I am very interested in one of their newest intellectual properties: Gargoyles. Despite boasting that they have around six or seven sculpts already completed, NECA was content to just show two characters: Demona and Thailog. Demona had been teased already so this was just a chance to get a closer look at her, and predictably, she looks terrific. Thailog, being a clone of Goliath, was a bit underwhelming as he’s basically a Goliath variant. He has a new portrait that’s rather smug looking, and I like it, but I would have preferred to see another new sculpt. Demona was confirmed as the second release, and I believe Thailog was confirmed as the third, but no release window was given. Since Goliath still hasn’t shipped, it would probably be generous to expect both to arrive before October is through, but hopefully Demona can at least make it out before Halloween. Goliath is my most anticipated action figure release this year and I can’t wait to go hands-on with this line!

After the NECA hysteria died down, my focus turned to Bandai. I am a casual collector of Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts line and it’s Dragon Ball figures, but one of their exclusives this year caught my eye. An anime accurate Nappa was going on sale following the manga-inspired version that was released a couple of years ago. I had seen that figure on display several times at a local comic shop and came close to pulling the trigger, but ultimately passed. I decided I would not do the same this time, but Bandai seemed to have other ideas. The sale started at 9 EST last night and it was doomed from the start. The website crashed and no one could check out. Twitter was flooded with complaints while the social media accounts for Bandai and Bluefin Brands tried to push patience. It was a repeat of last year, and despite promises to do better, Bandai came up short. After an hour of constant refreshing and baby steps, I finally got through, but others weren’t as lucky. It helped I was only going after one of the four Dragon Ball exclusives, the others being Goku, Whis, and Beerus. I would have liked to have grabbed Beerus as I enjoy that character, but I just didn’t feel like spending more money. Same for the special stands that were on sale which featured a custom base. At least with Nappa, I have an expected delivery window of August, so the wait for this exclusive should be fairly quick.

The longest wait though is reserved for Mondo. I am a first-time buyer of Monda, though I’ve seen their stuff before. They did a line of Mirage-inspired Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that were pretty cool and also have tackled Batman: The Animated Series. Their figures are 1/6th scale, so they’re around 12″ usually and quite expensive. Last November though, the company unveiled a figure in a new line: Wolverine. Not just any Wolverine though, Wolverine from X-Men the animated series. I was immediately interested despite the scale and cost and I only became more interested when the company teased it earlier this week. This thing comes with the photo frame of Scott and Jean that Wolverine broods over and has become a popular meme over the past few years. And to top it off, he comes packaged in a window box that simulates Wolverine laying on his bed pining for Jean. It’s ridiculous, and also ridiculously expensive at $200. A standard version should arrive sometime next year that will certainly be cheaper. How much cheaper I’m unsure of as the world of action figures continues to get hammered by shipping price hikes. This figure comes with a sad Wolverine head and we know that’s exclusive to this set, but is the picture? Or the alternate Morph head? The turkey leg?! Yes, he comes with a turkey leg.

I wish I didn’t have to wait until 2022 to get it!

Mostly, I just felt the need to show my support for anything X-Men animated as that has become my new grail toyline. NECA has crafted the TMNT lines of my dreams and are now going to dip their toes into Gargoyles. X-Men though was my biggest love as a kid and I’ve talked about my desire to see that cartoon get dedicated action figures based on it. Some will wave the retro-carded line by Hasbro in my face and say “This is X-Men animated,” but it’s not. Doing figures based on the designs of Jim Lee is not the same as doing an actual cartoon line. This figure from Mondo appears to get that right based on the paint deco which uses two shades of yellow, two shades of blue, and doesn’t have over-the-top detailing like stubble on Wolverine’s face or individually sculpted teeth. Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait until January (if not longer) to find out just how good this thing is as that’s the current expected ship date. Apparently, this wouldn’t have been ready to sell at a physical booth had the convention happened.

It was quite a week though, and it followed a week of reveals by Super7 the prior week which got G.I. Joe fans talking. The state of the shipping industry makes it hard to say how many of the products shown off this week will actually reach collector hands this year, but it’s fun to know what’s coming. Right now there’s a lot of waiting going on which is rarely fun, but often necessary. And I’m an adult capable of being patient when it comes to my toy hobby. Still, waiting on the chance to try and buy these exclusives was anxiety-inducing when it doesn’t have to be. It’s great companies are creating products people want, but why the artificial scarcity? And with so many of them not even shipping for months, why not just open preorders for most of them? I get it if you’re selling some goofy, expensive, variant that not everyone needs, but a character like Nappa from Dragon Ball Z in his show accurate colors should be something every DBZ collector has a chance at. NECA appeared to meet demand with its set, and they have more shipping to stores as well, so I give them high marks this con season. Plus, I think the exclusive figures in that set, namely Irma and Burne, will see release in the main line at some point too. Even the mutated April might get a re-release and if that happens the only truly exclusive things in that set will be the large cameras and alternate Vernon portraits. And that’s fine! I want to get the toys that I like and I want everyone else to as well. I don’t need these things to be hyper exclusive to have value for me. Some people see things differently, but I’m confident in saying they’re the minority in this day and age. It’s a time of year I both look forward to a lot and also dread. It’s over now though and I’m largely feeling good so…mission accomplished?

1 Comment | tags: action figures, bandai, convention exclusives, dragon ball, mondo, neca, san diego comic con, the catwoman of channel 6, toys, wolverine, x-men | posted in toys

June 2, 2021

Dragon Stars World Martial Arts Tournament Play Set

By Joe

One of the main draws for me in getting the NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles diorama was that it was going to open up some more space for me. The diorama allowed me to move my TMNT collection from a shelf to a new place since now my display had a vertical component. This was necessary since that prior shelf featured my TMNT collection basically jammed together with my Bandai SH Figuarts Dragon Ball collection. I know some people out there like mixing their collections, but I am not some people. I prefer to keep my intellectual property separate and only display different IPs beside each other when I just have no other alternative or my collection in a certain IP is relatively small (which is why D&D’s Drizzt is standing next to Batman on a shelf).

The Dragon Stars line has certainly grown over the years.

It was several months ago that I grabbed a Bandai Dragon Stars World Martial Arts Tournament play set from a sale at GameStop. It was so long ago, that it was in the same order as the Capsule Corp motorcycle I reviewed. I had been eyeing this particular play set for a couple of months because it looked like something that would work well as a backdrop for my modest Dragon Ball collection. Normally, this isn’t the type of thing I buy since this is really more of a true toy intended for kids as they act out battles from the show and take advantage of the built-in play features the set comes with. However, I liked how it looked and when the price came down to a point that made sense to me, I jumped on it.

I’d say it looks the part. Could use a ring announcer though.

If you’re not into Dragon Ball collecting, basically what you need to know is Bandai has two, distinct, main, figure lines: SH Figuarts and Dragon Stars. SH Figuarts is the collector line and figures range from around $50 to over $100. Dragon Stars is the more general audience line aimed at kids and casual fans. That doesn’t mean collectors don’t or can’t collect the line, it’s just a line not specifically courting that market. The Dragon Stars figures are usually around $25, so not exactly cheap, but a far cry from the SHF product. Bandai is also able to pump them out quicker and the character roster is quite robust at this point. It started as a line focused on the latest iteration of Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Super, but it also includes most, if not all, of the main characters from Dragon Ball Z at this point. And it’s that line that this play set is from.

The scaling is a bit wonky, especially when you introduce an actual Dragon Stars figure like Future Trunks.

Now, even though this is a Dragon Stars release, I would say the play set is not exactly to scale with that figure line. It would have to be positively massive to properly scale with any line, but I don’t know that it would appeal to collectors looking to pit Goku vs Piccolo or whatever. I only have one Dragon Star figure, Future Trunks, and he looks a bit silly standing on it. However, I grabbed this for my Dragon Ball display specifically eyeing it for Kid Goku and Krillin. It’s still not perfect, but as a backdrop and platform to draw attention it gets the job done. The set itself measures about 12 1/2 inches tall and 11 1/2 inches deep. The platform is about 15 1/4″ wide, and the backdrop extends about a half inch off either side. It’s not small, but not as big as it should be. How small is too small will be a bit subjective, but for what I want to do with it I think it works fine.

Introduce a figure like King Piccolo and the set really starts to look silly.

The set is essentially three parts: the ring surface, the rear wall, and the rear building. There’s a small gap between the rear wall and building, but not big enough to do much of anything with. If you had some paper cut outs of characters I suppose you could try slipping them in as spectators, but you’re not going to fit any figures in there. The main attraction of the set is its play features. Just as the ring and building tended to get beat up over the course of a tournament, so too can your set. The wall comes apart, mostly on its right side (the left side if you’re standing in front of it) to simulate damage as if something was thrown into it or a wayward energy blast smashed into it. The marquee is removable so you can display it ajar in a dilapidated state and a center panel in the ring can be lifted out. In its place you have a crater formation to swap-in which is pretty fun. These are all features I’m not going to get much use out of, but it’s cool to have should I want to change-up my display at all and that gap between the wall and backdrop can at least accommodate the wall fragments. There’s sadly no real way to store the optional crater though. I thought maybe I could get away with storing it underneath the platform, since it’s hollow, but there’s just enough stuff on the underside to make that problematic. I suppose the flat panel is easily stored though.

The set itself is just largely comprised of molded plastic. There’s some nice detail on the various ugly heads that adorn the structure, but no added paint effects to bring them out. A confident collector would take this and probably dry brush it to bring out some of that detail, but I am not confident in my abilities in that regard. In terms of accessories, there isn’t much to speak of. There’s just the bits of wall, the marquee or sign that goes over the entry way, and another sign that you can position wherever to go along with the crater piece. It would have been nice if Bandai tossed in an exclusive figure like the ring announcer, who likely would never see a retail release as a stand-alone figure, but not having one at least keeps the cost down. The only letdown for me is the tine, or point, alongside the entryway on my set is warped and bent. It’s made of a flexible material, maybe as a safety measure since it’s pointy, and I was able to fix it with some hot water.

In short, this set does what I need it to do. I think it looks great as a little battleground for Kid Goku and Krillin. Should Bandai ever do a Dragon Ball Tien then that could get interesting. Would he look too silly being that he’d be a bigger character? Possibly, but maybe not enough to bother me. I passed on the Jackie Chun release, and now I’m kind of rethinking that as I think he would look okay battling Goku. Should Bandai ever get to end of Dragon Ball Goku and Piccolo Jr. then I probably would keep them off of this thing, but since Bandai doesn’t have any plans to release either of those figures I’m not going to worry about it. For now, this is a solid, eye-catching, item that adds a little prestige to my humble Dragon Ball display. Hopefully, it’s a display that will continue to grow!

The new display! More figures coming soon too!

1 Comment | tags: action figures, bandai, dragon ball, dragon ball super, dragon ball z, dragon stars, tenkaichi boudokai, toys, world martial arts tournament | posted in Television, toys

August 3, 2020

NECA TMNT Cartoon Casey Jones and Slashed Foot Soldier

By Joe

It’s never a good day to be a Foot Soldier.

Something that is likely common to most of humanity is a desire to be successful. We all measure success differently, be it professional, financial, or something else, but we all strive for it. And sometimes success can feel like a burden. Take NECA’s line of action figures based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property. Since these toys hit retail over a year ago they’ve been a challenge to get hold of. Exclusive arrangements with big box retailers, who definitely do not specialize in collectible toys, can make simply tracking them down difficult. And when anything is hot, it attracts the attention of re-sellers, or scalpers, as they are often referred to as. With unemployment at record highs, the temptation to make a quick buck off of a toy might be even more tempting than it normally would be. Collectors who simply want a hunk of plastic that resembles a cartoon they watched 30 years ago are forced to fight a system not designed for them in addition to the scalpers, bots, and other collectors. Not to mention a global pandemic.

As such, tempers have been running a bit hot lately on social media. Follow NECA on Twitter and likely any tweet will be met with a reply, usually several replies, about folks complaining about their inability to find TMNT product. The most cheeky and overused response is usually something like “Check out this eBay exclusive!” but sometimes things can get downright abusive. NECA’s Creative Director, Randy Falk, even went on the Pixel Dan show recently just to talk about TMNT and the difficulties in getting product to fans. It’s one part rant, one part informational, with a little room for announcements and optimism towards the end (and I encourage you to check it out if you have any interest in NECA’s Tokka and Rahzar set). It has become a rather insane situation, and collectors come out looking the worse for it based on the reactions of a few, but NECA is at least acknowledging that some change is needed so hopefully things can improve.

NECA has recently been permitted to use the classic logo on its packaging. This set is the second of the two-packs to use it after the re-issue Shredder and Krang two-pack.

One way to combat this scarcity is simply to buddy-up! I have had no luck finding the newly released Target exclusives in my area, but a fellow collector out in Illinois has hooked me up with one of the releases: the Casey Jones and Slashed Foot Soldier Two-Pack. This two-pack is the first two-pack in Wave 3 of NECA’s line of figures based on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series from 1987. In an attempt to get more product on shelves, NECA has opted to release this wave in a staggered fashion. This Casey two-pack arrived first alongside the single figure release of Metalhead. Later this week, the second two-pack is scheduled to start rolling out and the third will follow two weeks later. That next two-pack might be even more hard to get as it features the villainous duo of Slash and Leatherhead. This third will feature April O’Neil and a “bashed” Foot Soldier. Fans in the UK had the whole wave dropped all at once so you may see fans from across the pond with all three sets already. What hasn’t been clarified is if Metalhead will continue to ship with the other two-packs. I sure hope so, because he’s been difficult to find with most stores apparently only receiving two per shipment. As a result, he is going for roughly triple the MSRP on eBay at the moment, which is a shame because he looks like a contender for toy of the year and one that deserves to be in the hands of collectors as opposed to scalpers.

This two-pack marks the second such two-pack headlined by Casey Jones this summer, the first being the movie version of Casey Jones with Raphael in disguise. It’s kind of amusing that both versions of Casey have arrived bundled with a variant of a previously released figure, but maybe that speaks to the popularity of the Casey Jones character that NECA thinks he can carry a two-pack with a variant alongside him. Casey Jones is definitely one of the most memorable allies of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the old show and action figure line. He had a strong presence in the comics and obviously the first film. The hockey mask look is striking, and in the cartoon he was voiced by Pat Fraley doing an obvious Dirty Harry impersonation. He only appeared in five episodes and was basically just some crazed vigilante whom the Turtles had to hold in check, but he definitely left an impression. He didn’t form any real personal connections with anyone which is a distinction between this Casey and the others.

NECA’s action figure of Casey is based off of his first appearance in the show. His costume and weapons are quite screen accurate as he has the cut-off shirt and sweatpants look. He carries a golf bag over one shoulder that you have to pop the head off of the figure to slip on and the bag can hold all of his included weapons. He stands a little over six inches making him taller than the Turtles, but shorter than the villains. He is fully articulated,as one would expect, with articulation in the following places: ball-jointed neck, ball-jointed shoulders, bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, wrist swivel, waist swivel, ball-jointed diaphragm, ball-jointed legs, double-jointed knees, and ankle joints on a hinge with some pivot motion from side to side. This is fairly standard of NECA which tries to avoid things like cut thighs and ab crunches so as not to take away from the look of the figure. The only consistent complaint I see for this figures is the lack of hinges in the wrist area that allow the hands to move in four directions as opposed to just in and out.

The sculpt work on Casey is pretty damn fantastic. He looks like he’s pulled right from the show. NECA did a great job adding subtle detail to the mask, which is non-removable as he never took it off in the old cartoon, to really allow the character’s personality to shine through. He’s also a rather fit dude, but the sculpt doesn’t go overboard with the muscles. A lot of Casey’s attire is done with a separate piece of soft plastic which gives the figure a nice feel and texture. The little strings on his sweatpants are in this soft plastic so they have some play as is his shirt and shoulder pad. The pliability of the plastic allows for some movement in the diaphragm area, though the shirt does hinder it as well. The shoulder pad also limits some of the range of motion on his left arm. The only articulation I personally miss is a butterfly joint in the shoulder area which would have allowed him to do more forceful looking, two-handed, weapon swings. My figure was quite loose and ready to rock out of the box, so no heat was needed to get things working. His elbow and knee hinges though have a very rubbery feel to them. I worry about durability down the line. Hopefully my fears are unfounded.

Casey seems to scale rather well with the other figures in the line.

The paint job should seem familiar to fans of this line. You either like it or don’t when it comes to NECA’s shading. They apply a darker shade of paint to the backside of their figures to mimic the shading from the show. Sometimes this looks fine, and sometimes it comes across as overdone. With Casey, I think it mostly works on his clothing, but looks a bit silly on his arms. Natural lighting should take care of this without the need for the added paint, but it appears this tactic is here to stay at this point. The paint itself though is rather cleanly applied with little slop. NECA did a great job matching the plastic arms to the paint on the exposed knees. NECA also likes to use a lot of black lines to give the figures added pop. I’ve seen some complaints of this online, but it’s something I’m a fan of.

You can see where the paint is missing or has flaked off on the boot.

The only area I see for criticism is just in the amount of paint and choice of plastic. There’s a lot of paint on this guy and I worry about it flaking off down the road. It’s already an issue on the ankle joints and wrist hinges where NECA used a flesh-toned plastic and then painted green to match the boots and brown for the gloves. This paint has a tendency to flake off (or the entire hinge was never painted to begin with) leaving an exposed area of flesh tone in the middle of the boot and at the base of the glove. Casey’s wristbands do hide the hinge on the hand fairly well, so it’s more of an issue with the boot. NECA would do well to have the factory match the color of the foot with the plastic rather than paint in future releases. The paint also has a tendency to rub off when it comes to the hands. This is particularly an issue on the bone-white hockey stick which already has a brown smudge from inserting and removing it into Casey’s hands.

Casey is known for having a small arsenal on his person at all times, and NECA doesn’t disappoint here. In addition to the golf bag he uses for storage, Casey has the following weapons: a hockey stick, a goalie stick, a baseball bat, a metal bat-like rod, and a mallet. All feature a lot of black linework giving them a real toon appearance. I think my favorite is the traditional hockey stick, but that mallet is certainly fearsome looking. In addition to the weapons, he also has a few extra hands. He comes packaged with closed fists for when weapons aren’t needed and has a set of gripping hands. He also has an optional right hand with a pointing gesture, and a left hand giving a thumb’s up. The gripping hands seem to work just fine with all of the accessories. Some probably wished for an open hand or double thumb’s up hands, but this allotment certainly gets the job done.

I’m pretty sure if it could talk it would only be able to say, “existence is pain.”

And of course, Casey is not alone! Joining him in this two-pack is the Slashed Foot Soldier. Initially, many fans simply assumed that Casey and April would be packed together since they were first unveiled side-by-side and the two characters have an established relationship outside of the cartoon universe. That didn’t come to pass though and instead both come with a battle damaged Foot Soldier. I was initially disappointed with this development as I’m not the army builder type, but I will say this particular Foot Soldier is pretty cool.

The detail on the battle damage is top-notch.

The majority of the figure is the same as the previously released Foot Soldier. The only difference is in the torso which features the battle damage. The clothing has been ripped away exposing some of the robotic parts inside. All of this is sculpted really well and you can see where parts were severed and intended to match up and so forth. There’s one thick wire that’s still connected and it holds the two halves together. It’s bendable, though coated with plastic so you will want to go easy with it to avoid cracking that plastic coating. This allows the figure to be displayed as he’s in the process of being torn in half. He could be doubled-over, in mid-slash, or even pulled apart entirely. It’s a very descriptive figure and one toy photographers might actually want multiples of. It wouldn’t shock me if down the road we get a refresher wave that bundles the two battle-damaged Foot together if there’s a demand for it, and maybe then Casey and April will be bundled together as well.

This guy was practically made to be diced-up by Leonardo.

The Foot looks great and his battle damage is quite possibly the best application of that concept I’ve ever seen. He also comes with accessories though so he’s more than just a prop. He has the same hands and rifle as the previously released Foot, plus he has a new, more bulbous, gun that undoubtedly showed up in the show at some point. He also has the same communicator released with several figures previously, only this one has a sticker of Rocksteady on it. If you’ve been collecting everything, that means you should have a communicator with Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady now which is a fun little touch.

The Casey Jones and Slashed Foot two-pack is a worthy addition to NECA’s cartoon line of TMNT product. Casey is a fan-favorite and I think fans will be very pleased with how he turned out. While the Slashed Foot may not be something fans were crying out for, it’s a fun, gimmicky, figure that works well in a display especially considering he comes with a figure who’s a big fan of slashing, as is. There will be a handful only interested in Casey, but I’m sure if that’s the case they won’t have much trouble unloading this extra figure considering how in-demand this line is. This set is sold exclusively at Target in the US and at various specialty shops outside of the country. Since NECA stocks its own product at these stores they won’t show up on the website or on inventory tracking sites like Brick Seek except for under rare circumstances so get out there, make some phone calls, and good luck!

The collection is growing! And if you’re wondering why all of the glassware is present, it’s because the best place to display these in my house happens to be behind my bar.

I need to send out a special “Thanks” to the fellow poster over at thefwoosh.com for hooking me up with this figure at cost. Without him, I may have never encountered it in the wild. And that’s the thing I want to stress in this review – help each other out! If you’re a collector, get onto social media or a forum and find fellow collectors that can help you and that you can in turn help out. I see too many selfish collectors who buy up stock with the intention of keeping one for them and flipping the others to in effect “pay” for the one they kept. That’s just using the rest of the collecting community to fund your hobby and it’s a dick move. So if you happen upon these things don’t be shy about buying two and selling one at cost to a collector in need. Some don’t live near a Target, or might be immunocompromised and shouldn’t be out in public places right now. If there’s another collector at the store then by all means don’t take one out of their hands, but we should do what we can to try and make sure these don’t fall into the hands of scalpers. And it should go without saying, but don’t buy from scalpers. If people weren’t paying 80 bucks on eBay for this set, then no one would bother trying to sell them. It’s tough out there, but you don’t have to go it alone.

4 Comments | tags: action figures, casey jones, foot soldier, neca, target, teenage mutant ninja turtles, TMNT, toys | posted in Television, toys

June 30, 2020

Bandai Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Megazord

By Joe

It was now a couple of weeks ago I posted about some toys I always wanted as a kid, but never got. Shortly after, I rectified some of those decades old injustices by purchasing the Dragonzord with Green Ranger from Bandai’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers line of action figures from 1993. The Dragonzord was my number 2 miss, but number 1 had always been the Deluxe Megazord from that same line. Well, predictably, I have now made peace with the two biggest toy omissions from my youth by securing my own set of Dinozords!

The Megazord was always appealing to me because it was essentially five separate toys that could combine into two additional toys. That’s basically seven toys in one box, and the fact that it was pretty screen accurate made it appeal to me even more. I was just a casual fan of the television show, but those toys were just too awesome to ignore. The demand for the toys was something I couldn’t overcome though, so I learned to go without. As an adult though, I don’t have to.

I purchased a Megazord secondhand. Unlike the Dragonzord set I acquired, this one did not come with a box, but it did come with all of the parts. In my search for an authentic early 90s Megazord I found it was common to find some missing the sword, shield, and especially the canons that double as feet for the pterodactyl zord. Some also would feature a broken gun on the triceratops zord or missing horns. I assume most of these that were acquired in 1993 were played with and not kept on a shelf so it’s not a surprise that it’s hard to find a fully intact Megazord. It’s also why these things end up being quite expensive. I don’t feel as good about the price I paid for this set as I did the Dragonzord, but it is what it is. I’m actually relieved the seller no longer had the box or else I probably would have had to spend more!

Like the Dragonzord, I had some options when it came to buying a Megazord in 2020. Bandai released two different versions of the Megazord in 2010 as part of the Legacy line of figures. That one, from what I can tell based on video reviews, is very similar to this one. The functionality is virtually identical as both basically transform as it did on television. The standard 2010 version has a pretty ugly sword, but there was an updated version with some diecast parts and a much nicer looking sword. Overall, the 2010 Megazord appears to be a touch smaller, but the thing that bugged me about it is the triceratops zord lost the gun articulation on its tail. It’s a really minor thing, but it irritated me because it’s a clear downgrade. The 2010 version should have been superior in every way to a toy released in 1993! Also like the Dragonzord, there’s a Soul of Chogokin version from Tamashii Nations. It’s fantastic looking and easily the superior Megazord, but it’s also upwards of $300 at this point. There was also a model kit, Mini-Pla, version that’s almost adorably small and still retains the five zords into one (unlike the Build-A-Figure version from the Legacy Collection line that’s just an action figure) that I would have loved to consider, but it’s long since sold out and now fetches around 200 bucks on the secondary market. Ultimately, it was the 93 Megazord that vexed me as a kid so it was the 93 Megazord that I should acquire.

On their own, they’re merely okay, but put them together…

In case you’re not familiar with the Megazord concept, please allow me to present this refresher. The Megazord is the combination of the five Dinozords. Each of the five original Power Rangers was aligned with a prehistoric beast and each Ranger controlled what is essentially a giant robotic representation for each beast. They are: Tyranosaurus, Pterodactyl, Triceratops, Sabre-toothed Tiger (sic), and Mastodon. In nearly every episode, the monster of the day the Power Rangers are fighting grows to roughly the size of a skyscraper, so the Rangers attack via their zords. They can attack separately, though rarely do. Instead, they combine their beasts into one massive robot: the Megazord.

Tank Mode is a bit goofy, but I have an affection for it for some reason.

The Megazord actually has two forms: tank mode and battle mode. Tank mode is the less elegant version as it’s basically just the Megazord, but sitting down without a head. The T-Rex serves as the body, and the sabre-toothed tiger and triceratops form the right and left legs respecitively. The mastodon zord loses its head and wraps around the T-Rex to form the arms of the Megazord while the pterodactyl zord just sort of rides on the thing. The feet of the pterodactyl become the canons which attach to the mastodon arms, while the mastodon head sits on the T-Rex chest and the whole thing rolls similar to a tank.

When the Power Rangers want to switch to the more memorable battle mode, the tank basically just stands up. The mastodon head is removed and the pterodactyl becomes a chest plate. The T-Rex head folds down and into its chest revealing the Megazord’s head and hands pop out of the arms. The canons from before are affixed to the Megazord’s back and look like boosters or something. The Megazord can attack with its fists, or rely on the power sword. The mastodon head can also be utilized as a shield, though it rarely was used in the show in this fashion.

Both transformations are essentially identical in how they occur with the toy as they do on television. This is probably due to the designer of the Megazord having to account for future toys down the road. At least, that’s what I assume. The show really only takes liberties in that once the models combine on the show, they’re swapped out with a costumed actor and the proportions change slightly. The most notable being the head of the costumed performer is much larger than what ends up on the toy. The only other aspect of the toy that isn’t entirely screen accurate is the T-Rex tail, which kind of just disappears on TV but is folded up the back of the toy. And the actor is able to move in a far more graceful manner than the toy. The Megazord is basically only articulated at the shoulders and hips and they’re just hinge joints. The lack of ball-jointed shoulders and basic elbow articulation really limit the available poses for the toy as it basically can only assume one position on your shelf.

This version of the Megazord is composed almost exclusively of colored plastic. This means there’s less opportunity for paint-slop and chipping over the years. The graphics and highlights are all done with stickers so when buying secondhand you’re at the mercy of whomever originally put these stickers on. Like the Dragonzord, the stickers aren’t 100% screen accurate, but it’s really only noticeable when doing a direct comparison. It doesn’t look like the original toy asked too much of parents and kids when it came to applying them and my unit looks as good as one could expect of a toy from 1993. It was clearly loved and enjoyed by a kid long ago and it shows. The sword is quite attractive as it has a shiny paint-app and is probably the portion of the figure that would be most likely to show ware. Same for the similar chrome portions of the other zords, namely the mastodon tusks and triceratops horns.

Whether you have instructions or not, transforming the Megazord is rather easy since you can basically just watch the show. The individual zords offer limited play. The mastodon and triceratops basically just sit there, though the triceratops has wheels. The pterodactyl also doesn’t do much, but since it’s a flier it doesn’t have to. The little canons can clip to it like feet, but they look stupid and I don’t recall seeing them in the show. The saber-toothed tiger has solid articulation though and it can emulate a running motion while also featuring moveable fangs. It’s a shame Bandai didn’t go the extra step of putting a hinged jaw on this one. The tyranosaurus has about as much function as you would expect, though it’s a little disappointing that it’s mouth has a big, red, wad, of plastic for the throat that makes it look odd. The connections are easy to utilize and pull apart just as easily, but they also won’t just fall off. The only complicated part is the mastodon which basically splits down the middle and clips around the T-Rex. Both of the leg zords are super simple, especially the triceratops which just has to fold its tail in and bend its neck, and even kids should be able to handle it.

In hand, the Megazord has some nice weight to it. It stands about ten and a half inches tall and is noticably larger than the Dragonzord, which is about nine and a quarter inches to the top of the head. Since it’s all plastic, it does get a bit creaky. The joints on mine are still fairly tight and I have no issues getting the Megazord to hold its arms out forward, basically it’s lone pose. On the individual zords, the tails of the triceratops and saber-tooth tiger are loose and getting them to stand in a blasting pose is a balancing act. The T-Rex tail is also a bit loose and doesn’t stay locked in place for very long. That’s also partly due to the toy needing to be bent forward at a pretty extreme angle so the legs don’t interfere with the tail. The little flaps that are the pterodactyl’s wings are also fairly loose, but they also don’t have to do much. All of the connections though are really satisfying and it’s a lot of fun to plug and play. It makes a nice clicking sound when things are put together and it’s really impressive what Bandai achieved since it seems like there’s little chance of forcing something into place at the risk of breaking it.

Of course, the fun doesn’t end here. If you have the Dragonzord, you can take advantage of that as well. The Dragonzord has a battle mode in which it basically assumed the role of the T-Rex zord in the Megazord construction. The mastodon becomes the arms as the chest piece is removed and the Dragonzord arms fold in to make a new chest piece. A face can then fall down from the Dragonzord head while the legs of the Megazord serve the same purpose here. The T-Rex and pterodactyl are free to do whatever they wish, and in the show the T-Rex would often fight alongside the Dragonzord in this battle mode, though in toy form the scale is way off. The Dragonzord’s tail also combines with the former chest piece and the included shaft to make the Power Lance, or Power Lazer Drill (as the box refers to it as). It’s pretty neat to behold, and like the Megazord the transformation process is really satisfying. The only thing I don’t like about it is the drop-down face on the Dragonzord has nothing behind it so it kind of just swings there. And while the lance is pretty cool looking, it’s functionally useless since it’s so huge. It has a handle that basically just rests in the hand of the zord, but the zord itself can’t actually wield the thing. Modern iterations make this aspect work better by fudging with the scale just like the show does by including an extra lance for play purposes.

The Mega-Dragonzord is a bit cumbersome and messy looking, and yet somehow still kind of cool. I don’t think the drill and chest piece were ever displaying like that in the show, but for the toy it at least gives you something to do with them.

If you wish to leave your Megazord intact though, you can still combine it with the Dragonzord to from the Mega-Dragonzord. This one is a bit less interesting as it’s basically the Dragonzord with the chest and tail removed and draped over the top of the Megazord. The tail can clip onto one of the sides, as can the discarded chest piece of the Dragonzord, though it basically just looks cool. This version of the character was deployed more like a tank in the show as it would just shoot a giant laser at the enemy as opposed to battling with fists and sword or whatever. It’s also this version that can combine with the unfortunately named carrier zord, Titanus, to form the Ultrazord. It’s another tank-like mode and the only change is the chest of Titanus is clipped onto the chest of the Mega-Dragonzord as it’s placed inside the carrier zord. I never really cared for the Ultrazord as a kid, so I have little compulsion to go after a Titanus so you probably shouldn’t expect a review of that one to come.

I don’t see myself getting a Titanus to form the Ultrazord.

There’s no doubt in my mind that had I been able to collect this line as a kid I would have loved the hell out of it. These are some of the best toys of the early 90s and it’s no surprise they ended up being incredibly popular. I could see myself transforming and de-transforming these things constantly and swapping in all manner of other action figures I had laying around as bad guys, maybe even big stuffed animals. I was also the type of kid that could busy himself for long stretches of time just playing with my action figures so imagination was never an issue. Not that these toys even require much since they’re so similar to what was presented in the show.

Acquiring both the Megazord and the Dragonzord has certainly scratched an itch for me. I don’t think it’s going to lead to much more from me where Power Rangers are concerned, but who knows? My kids have really taken to it, and I read Hasbro is looking to release a Megazord later this year so I may need to keep an eye out for that if my kids remain interested. In looking at the other iterations that have come, I’m certainly tempted to by the Soul of Chogokin version, but I likely won’t be able to justify the expense and take on another line of collecting. That’s fine though, because I have what I always wanted. It may have taken nearly three decades, but I finally have a Megazord!

1 Comment | tags: 90s tv, action figures, bandai, dragonzord, fox kids, mega-dragonzord, megazord, mighty morphin power rangers, saban, toys, ultrazord | posted in Television, toys

January 2, 2020

Lego 71044 – Disney Train and Station

By Joe

71044_Box4_v39 Earlier this year I did a post wondering what happened to the Lego/Disney relationship that seemed so fruitful just three years prior. It was a post born out of some frustration, but mostly just disappointment. Following the release of an entire line of minifigures devoted to the Disney brand as well as the massive Cinderella’s Castle from Disney World, it seemed like we were primed for more minifigures and more sets based on theme park attractions and icons. A set featuring Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle felt inevitable and my mind was racing to conjure up mental images of what other popular attractions might work and make sense in Lego form.

Nothing happened though. Disney still had a presence with Lego, but it was all themed sets based on the latest movie hitting theaters. This surprised me because that initial wave of figures seemed to sell out quickly around me. I had to hunt them down and eventually wound up paying almost twice the MSRP at a specialty shop with hideous mark-ups on everything. The castle set seemed to do well since Lego has kept up with production on it and I’ve never seen it discounted (it’s possible Disney has an agreement with Lego that prevents it from going on clearance) leading me to believe it’s a solid seller. If the cast members who work the crystal shop in Epcot can be trusted, they usually sell one of those $37K crystal depictions of the castle per day so Lego selling a bunch of $300 castles seems plausible.

Of course, my post either had good timing or poor as not long after a bunch of news broke. A new wave of figures, a Mickey-themed set based on Steamboat Willie, and finally the big one, a set based on Disneyland’s railroad and station. I was able to secure a set of minifigures after hunting around my area while the Steamboat Willie set was a simple purchase at a local Lego Store. The Disneyland railroad had to wait a bit as it came with a rather steep cost. The MSRP on the set came in at a tick under $330 not including tax. With less than 3,000 pieces and only five minifigures, this felt like a pretty significant mark-up. For comparison, Cinderella’s Castle had the same amount of figures, but over 4,000 pieces for a more reasonable $350. Disney always equates to significant mark-up when it comes to licensed merchandise, but this was more than I expected. The actual building is fairly small and not nearly as eye-catching as the castle. This felt more like a $250 set as a result, and I had a hard time convincing myself to foot the bill for it.

Maybe I wasn’t alone, as Black Friday arrived and with it came discounted Lego sets. To my surprise, this set was one of the ones to get marked down. It was roughly $100 off for a weekend and that was enough to get me to jump on it, along with many other shoppers. The set even sold out while I was trying to check-out online, but Lego accepted backorders with a guarantee to deliver before Christmas. This made this a suitable joint gift for myself and my wife, essentially our gift to each other, this year.

For starters, it should be pointed out that the set likely retailed for more than expected partly due to the tech baked in. This set is part of Lego’s app-enabled products. The Powered-Up Motor is Lego’s latest inclusion for making sets go. It requires you download an app and use a tablet or phone to control the train. It has sound effects as well and if you’re against pushing the train then you have this as well to make it go. It’s pretty neat, and if I didn’t already have a Disney World Monorail set to ring my Christmas tree I’d probably consider using this. It does add more of a toy quality to the set as well, which may be a bad thing if you’re like me and have small kids at home that want to play with your expensive Lego sets.

Like the castle, this one comes with five minifigures. And like the castle, most are essentially re-releases of prior figures. Minnie Mouse is the least interesting as she appears here in her red polka-dotted dress once again with the only difference being she’s traded the hard plastic skirt piece for a fabric one (to make it easier to position her in a seated position for riding the train). Three of the other figures just re-use existing head sculpts. You have Mickey as an engineer in blue overalls with a red bandana around his neck. He looks good, but where’s his hat? Engineer Mickey at the park is always sporting a hat and it would have been simple to just reuse the Steamboat Willie hat with a new paint scheme, but Lego opted not to do so apparently. Chip and Dale are here as conductors and they have new bodies as well. It’s a classy addition, but like Mickey they have no hats. At least with these two it’s more understandable as a hat is probably trickier to sculpt and add to them whereas Mickey had already been released to fit a hat. The fifth figure is the only all new one, but it’s a much welcomed one. Goofy finally gets to make his proper Lego debut and he’s in his contemporary orange shirt with blue pants. He looks great and since we had yet to receive a Goofy I am glad he’s not in train-attire. He probably should have been released as part of the minifigure wave as it kind of stinks he’s trapped in this set (for now), but I’m glad he’s here. Now we just need a Pluto to finish off the Fab 5.

All right, let’s talk about the main event now. The train station presented here is just referred to as the Disney Train and Station by Lego, but it’s a replica of the station at Disneyland. As basically the first thing one sees when entering that park, it’s one of the most iconic Disney-related visuals that exists in the real world. And since we already received a Disney World set, this makes quite a bit of sense to be the next release. I initially expected Sleeping Beauty Castle, but since that is so much smaller than Cinderella’s Castle it might not have felt as iconic when compared with that set. This one invites fewer comparisons to Disney World. Yes, Disney World’s Magic Kingdom has a train station as well, but it’s just a slightly different design that’s neither better or worse than what Disneyland has. It’s a bit bigger, but the main difference is the clock tower portion is centered whereas this one is off-center and placed on the right if you’re facing it from the front. I suppose fans hopeful that Cinderella’s Castle meant that one day a Disney World in Lego would be achievable are disappointed, but I don’t mind inter-mingling Disney World and Disneyland sets in my display.

Like the castle, the station is essentially a façade with an open back. Lego could have set it up on a hinge, but it opted not to. It’s fine and actually makes it easier to place on a shelf or something. I suppose if you have this on a large surface with the track going around the station it might bug you that it doesn’t have a back, but if it did you wouldn’t be able to see the lovely interior. Since the building itself isn’t particularly large, there isn’t nearly as much “fun” inside as there was with the castle, but what’s there looks nice. There’s a ticket counter with a bench in the main section and a luggage scale tucked away as well. There’s a pair of scaled-down replicas of the locomotive and a little lounge on the second floor. The clock tower is the only area on what is basically the third floor. An architect might complain there’s no way for the characters to physically move from floor to floor, but I like that they didn’t cram stairs into this thing. The windows in the hall look nice and I like the red curtains. Having never been inside the actual station, I can’t really attest to the authenticity, but this looks fine. The only thing missing is a bunch of fun easter eggs referencing past Disney films and cartoons like the castle possessed. There’s a cute replica of the Lego Cinderella’s Castle and box for the third floor and a pink umbrella that might be a reference to Mary Poppins, but otherwise I didn’t notice anything obvious.

ck_holiday_lego The locomotive itself is a replica of the CK Holiday from Disneyland, which itself was based on a replica train Walt Disney owned and drove around his backyard. As the first train constructed for Disneyland, it was an obvious choice. Unfortunately, it doesn’t contain the CK Holiday branding and instead opts for a generic Disney Train. I don’t know why Lego seemed resistant to affirm that this is based off of Disneyland’s train and station, but it’s not a huge deal. The second car is basically just a housing for the motor, while the third car is for park guests and the fourth is the caboose, once again, modeled after the actual train. The passenger car has a nice design where the top flips open for easy access while the caboose has a more luxurious interior. You can fit a lot of minifigures on this thing and I can see some people stocking it with custom minifigures that look like park patrons. Or you could simply just cram it full of some of the previously released Disney figures, especially the ones that are solid stand-ins for Disney cast members in costume.

The build for the train was pretty painless, though the locomotive presents some minor challenge. It’s more that the locomotive is fairly fragile once completed. To make sure it bends on the tracks it has a lot of floating parts such as the rear of the engine. There’s a little piece too underneath the cabin that has a tendency to pop off when handling it which did become annoying. The interior also doesn’t feature any details at all, which surprised me. My guess is the quarters are already tight and there just wasn’t enough room to work with. I think they could have slipped in a few handles or something, but oh well. The top flips up to make it easy to place Mickey or another figure inside and the windows make it easy to see who’s driving.

Past the engine is the coal cart, which also houses the power motor. It’s by far the simplest and quickest build and it does its job. The passenger car is an interesting build as well since it has a very open design. It’s a quick build as well and it’s fairly sturdy which is necessary since you’ll be inserting many figures into this car. The caboose is the longest build, but it’s also pretty simple. It has a closed design with one side being removable to insert characters. The only thing holding that side on is essentially two bricks, one on each end of the marquee, making it both easily accessible and hidden. I do enjoy the interior of this car, which creates a dilemma as I’m torn on how to display this one. Any figure you place in here with the panel in place probably won’t be readily visible to anyone looking at the train. At this point, I have so many Mickey and Minnie figures though so maybe I’ll just stash some in there for display.

Easily, the largest shortcoming for the train in both the build and display is related to stickers. I hate stickers, and this set is loaded with them. The train in particular has a lot of small stickers that are challenging to place. The caboose, for instance, has the Disney Railroad label broken up across three stickers which is practically torture. It should be a rule for Lego that any set over $250, especially one like this aiming to be more of a display piece than toy, opt for as many printed pieces as possible, but evidently Lego disagrees.

The set comes with enough track to make an oval of modest length. It’s essentially large enough to comfortably go around the station, but if you want to ring a Christmas tree or something you’ll need to buy more. Getting the train lined up is a little tricky, but not frustrating for an adult. Connecting the device to the app (I did via an iPhone) is also really simple and I had zero issues there. The train moves at a nice clip and I did not have any derailments. It can go forward and in reverse and there’s some sound effects as well. I don’t know if this is necessarily an improvement over the old setup, but it does work as intended. My only fear would be in a decade will this app still function? Lego does sell remotes, though that will obviously set you back further.

The build for the station is the longest part of the set and composes it’s own much thicker book. It’s a methodical build, and while some may resent the redundancy of constructing a brick building, I tend to find my Zen in these things. The instructions break up the construction of the outer walls reasonably well by mixing in other tasks before returning to it. By far, the most interesting part of the finished product is the metalwork on the roof. To simulate wrought iron, Lego went with black handcuffs. Admittedly, it looks a bit odd during the build since it’s hard to ignore the fact that the pieces are handcuffs, but once complete it looks pretty nice. I’ve seen other reviewers praise this creativity and probably an equal amount criticize it. Lego could have created a unique piece to do the job, but this does work so I can’t really fault the company for going in this direction.

I hate these stickers.

Like the train, the station contains numerous stickers. In general, they aren’t as bad as the train since many are just for signs on the wall, but they’re still frustrating in places. In particular, the carpet on the second floor is comprised of three pieces and three stickers. The only way to not have gaps in the carpet is to lay the pieces and then place the stickers over them ignoring where the actual pieces begin and end. The instructions would have you do the opposite, but this gives you brown gaps in the image which looks stupid. From an aesthetic standpoint, that one part is my biggest peeve with the set.

The rest of the interior is plenty fun to both build and look at. In particular are the little model trains which consist of a clever build on their own. They don’t really resemble a train until completed which leads to a “Eureka!” moment. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot to do with the figures once done. You can cram one behind the counter and there’s a bench and chair, but that’s about it. Both seats also lack pegs so the characters just rest on them and will flail around if you move the set. The finished station also surprised me with its size. While it is certainly small compared to the castle, it stands just over a foot in height when done. Add those flagpoles and the set ends up reaching roughly 16″. This has created some challenge for me as the places in my home I had earmarked for this thing have proven too small. Right now it’s on a hutch, but I think I may end up making some shelves and displaying it that way.

Ultimately, I think this is a set that will please Disney fans who purchase it. My initial criticism of the price of the set still stands and had I purchased this at that MSRP I probably would be less enthused by it. As a $230 set, it’s far more palatable. It’s more of a display piece than toy as the station doesn’t do much or present many opportunities for play. It looks the part though and will bring as much class to your display as any Lego can. The train though is about as fun as any other toy train. My kids ask to play with it and I oblige despite the anxiety that creates. If I didn’t already have a toy monorail to ring my Christmas tree I’d probably be in the market for more track to do the same with this.

Mickey pondering if we may see a Disney World version someday.

This set also naturally lends me to wonder what’s next for Lego and Disney. Considering all of the time that elapsed between the castle and this set, I am certainly not holding my breath or even crafting any expectations on what’s to come. The existence of this probably makes some hope for a Disney World version, but I don’t see Lego double-dipping on trains, but it probably would be cost-effective for the company so never say never. I do wonder if Lego has any appetite for a monorail set, but that doesn’t have an obvious companion like the train station to go with it as the monorail platforms are fairly boring, aside from the ones attached to hotels. Does Lego want to create a replica of Disney’s Contemporary Resort? Probably not. I’ll continue to hold out hope for fun, attraction-based, sets. My ultimate dream would be Spaceship Earth, but numerous others would be fun as well. If this is it though, that won’t leave me too defeated. Just at least give me a Pluto, Lego! He’s such a good boy and sorely missed.

1 Comment | tags: Chip and Dale, disney, disney train, disneyland, goofy, lego, mickey mouse, minnie mouse, toys | posted in toys

October 21, 2019

Take My Money, Hasbro, Give Me X-Men Animated Series Legends!

By Joe

Let’s talk some X-Men!

It’s been probably 13 or 14 years since I’ve purchased a Marvel-branded action figure. This is somewhat shocking to me because from the age of 7 to around 25 I spent who knows how much money on Marvel action figures. I was there for the inaugural Toy Biz line of Marvel Superheroes and X-Men action figures and I continued buying Toy Biz figures well past the age of when it was considered “appropriate” by my peers. And even after I stopped actually playing with my toys I still kept them on display in my room. Two pieces of old countertop on milk crates served as my makeshift shelves. Good guys on one side, bad guys on the other. As characters changed allegiance in the comics, so did their placement on my shelf. Aside from that, I didn’t like to mess with them and the dust would grow thicker and thicker and probably contributed to my constant sneezing. I didn’t care though, because I really loved my toys.

When action figures grew up with me I grew extremely excited. There were a few dedicated collector lines, most memorably one based on the Onslaught mini series, but things really changed with Marvel Legends. I was a bit tepid at first with them, mostly due to the absence of X-Men, but eventually I got into it. I started with just a figure here and there, and soon enough I found myself buying entire waves. I also added the occasional Diamond Select figure which at the time prioritized sculpt over articulation making some of the toys little more than glorified statues. I even got into Mini Mates for a period, since they initially focused on the Ultimate X-Men which was a comic I grew attached to pretty quickly.

Eventually, I stopped collecting. Part of that coincided with the dissolving of Toy Biz by Marvel which chose to instead license its properties to Hasbro. Those first few Hasbro waves weren’t very strong, and with the build-a-figure shrinking down to more normal proportions it failed to really motivate me. I think the last wave I bought to completion was whichever one featured The Blob. And even with that, I think I had to buy some figures based on X-Men: The Last Stand which did not sit well with me. That also happened to coincide with me moving out on my own trading the confines of my old bedroom for a small apartment. I didn’t want to have to lug a bunch of toys around with me every time I moved, and once I got settled into my own home that I purchased the itch had passed. I had moved onto other hobbies and comics just didn’t appeal to me like they once did. Sure, there have been a few figures over the years that tempted me, but the rising cost in standard toys makes it pretty easy to just focus on the things that really bring me joy.

That could change though, and if Hasbro wanted me back (and who wouldn’t?) there is one thing the company could do that would guarantee it many of my dollars and it has to do with my favorite show as a child: X-Men.

This recent action figure three-pack is what put my brain into this mode. These almost work as animated versions, but they’re different just enough to not be perfect. And I’m not just referring to Wolverine’s bone claws.

Nostalgia currently has me hooked via NECA’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys based on the old cartoon series. That show may not be particularly good, but I loved it as a kid and it’s something I can’t let go of. Similarly, I have a huge amount of affection still for X-Men. That show was my life for a few years and unlike TMNT, the show is still watchable today even if it doesn’t hold up as well as Batman or possibly even Gargoyles. And I know I am not alone. There is a lot of love out there for that show and that has been preyed upon via action figures based on the costume designs of the Jim Lee era X-Men from the comics. There was a recently announced three-pack featuring Wolverine, Jean Grey, and Cyclops which is what really got my juices flowing. Those characters bare a strong resemblance to their animated counterparts, but the figures are also clearly aiming to capture the look of the comics and not a cartoon.

What gives me hope that such a line could work is because animated versions of these characters are not far off what is already out there. Take your standard Wolverine action figure, for instance. To make him better resemble the cartoon, Hasbro basically just needs to reduce detail. No stubble on his face, not much hair on the arms, and less muscle definition. DC has done a great job bringing Batman: The Animated Series to plastic form in terms of aesthetics, so why not do the same, Hasbro?

Because I’m such a generous guy, I’m even going to provide a road map for Hasbro. I envision six figures per wave with a build-a-figure bringing the total to seven. Adhering to modern times, the extra buildable figure is not some titanic character, but something closer to a standard sized figure. It would be a good fit for those figures that would need to be 7 or 8 inches as opposed to 5-6, which is what I imagine most figures would fall into. They could be done, and really should be, in scale with Marvel Legends and I would prioritize characters from the first two seasons. If the line’s a success, then sure go for more. If the series happened and worked out as outlined below, then I would definitely buy every figure and really annoy my wife as I hunted for more space to display them.

Series 1

Wolverine
Cyclops
Rogue
Morph
Mystique
Magneto
Build-a-Figure: Sabretooth

This mix would get some fan-favorite good guys out early and also a few villains to pose them against. Wolverine is an obvious must for the first series as he was the most popular character. He should come in his standard uniform and additional hands, some with claws in and some with claws out. A second, unmasked, head would complete the look. Cyclops should also just have his normal look. If a removable flight jacket could be added without harming the sculpt, then all the better, but not necessary. Similar to modern Cyclops figures, he should have a second head with a blast effect and probably an extra set of hands including one with two fingers extended on his right hand to activate his “X” communicator. Morph, on the other hand, should have his flight jacket since he was most often depicted wearing it. He should also have black hair as he did in seasons one and two and an alternate “evil” head. Mystique would need few additional accessories, making her the likely landing spot for a larger piece of the build-a-figure. Magneto would need a helmeted and un-helmeted head to properly capture his long hair. A nice, heavy, fabric cape would also look great, but soft plastic wouldn’t be bad either. Sabretooth, being featured in episode one, makes for a good choice as the first build-a-figure given his size relative to the other characters.

X-Men (FOX) [1992-1997]Shown from left: Wolverine, Morph, Beast

That’s how I want my Wolverine to look, bub.

Series 2

Gambit
Bishop
Storm
Cable
Pyro
Avalanche
BAF: The Blob

Wave Two would be anchored by the next most popular character after Wolverine, Gambit. He’d just need various hands and his bo staff to be authentic. Storm would be the other character from the team, and in the interest of “keeping them wanting,” would be the only other from the main team. Bishop and Cable both played large roles as guest characters and lend themselves well to action figure form. Cable should probably have his season two look which featured a metallic left arm, a more common look than the season one version. Bishop should also feature a removable time bracelet to go along with his really big gun. Pyro and Avalanche would serve as the villains with the BAF being their comrade Blob. A desire to assemble Mystique’s troop would hopefully help drive sales.

Everyone can relax, Gambit is in series two.

Series 3

Beast
Jean Grey
Archangel
Civilian Wolverine
Graydon Creed
Mr. Sinister
BAF: Apocalypse

Series 3 would be the one that nearly completes the main team. Beast, unlike most figures based on the character, should have a cheerful disposition as opposed to an angry one. Jean Grey would need her cartoon-accurate costume, something Toy Biz never delivered on when the show was popular, which was blue and orange as opposed to blue and yellow. She should also probably come with a Cerebro helmet. This would also be a good time for a second Wolverine figure. Since he was so often featured in plain clothes (yellow flannel with a brown jacket), a figure based on that look makes sense. He should have two pairs of clawless hands, ones that look like normal fists and ones that have the steel ports on his hands as he was incorrectly portrayed in season one. Diehard fans of the show, such as myself, really appreciate little details like that. Creed was a big player in season two, and he warrants a figure as a result. Of course, Sinister was the main big, bad, guy of that season and series three feels like a good spot for him. Lastly, Archangel should be included (with a masked head and unmasked head) to pair with the BAF Apocalypse who would be depicted in his animated purple and blue color scheme.

I don’t know why they made him purple, but the toy better follow in the same footsteps!

Series 4

Jubilee
Colossus
Omega Red
Forge
Civilian Cyclops
Professor X
BAF: Juggernaut

Series 4 would finish the main squad by including Jubilee and Professor X. Xavier would be the tough one to include as he would need his hover chair. Recently, Hasbro did a Professor X that I think retails for more than a standard Legend. The company could save money by retooling it and if it has to retail for more then so be it. Colossus guested a couple of times and is deserving of a figure himself. He should be clad in his blue pants and white tank top to match his appearance in the show. If a second, non-transformed, upper torso could be done then that would be really neat. Omega Red is a villain with a great, 90s, design, and even though he’s a bit bigger than other characters, I don’t think he’s so large that he would need to be a BAF. Cyclops had enough non-costumed appearances to be the second main cast member worthy of a civilian look. And Forge had multiple appearances as well. He should come with an alternate head so he could be depicted as main timeline Forge and future Forge. The Juggernaut is the last character that serves as an obvious choice for a BAF and would be a sought after one helping to make sure fans buy the entire wave. That only challenge with him is I think he would need two heads as well, one masked and one unmasked, because it’s hard to make a good-looking Juggernaut figure that features a removable helmet.

Colossus proved you didn’t need a real costume to be a hero.

Series 5 and 6

Phoenix
Gladiator
Nightcrawler
Dazzler
White Queen
Sebastian Shaw
Henry Gyrich
Bolivar Trask
Dark Phoenix
Banshee
Fabian Cortez
Empress Lilandra
BAF: Sentinel

I’m grouping these two together because I have a radical idea for the BAF. It would be a sentinel and the pieces spread between both waves. The piece loadout would be like Giant Man from the Toy Biz days which did an oversized wave of Marvel Legends as a Wal-Mart exclusive. This would allow Hasbro to do a bigger figure to do the sentinel justice, because we need a sentinel for such a series since they were so important in that first season. The desire to have a cartoon sentinel would help move some of the less exciting, but still essential, characters contained in this wave. Trask and Gyrich, specifically, would be unsexy figures, but they had such a large presence over the first season that it feels wrong to exclude them. Much of these waves would also be devoted to the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix Sagas. Doing both regular Phoenix and Dark Phoenix would also save Hasbro money since they’d basically be the same figure, different head. For Lilandra, I’d also go with the Empress version of the character as that would just make for a more striking visual. Cortez is the only character from a later season, but I see more opportunity for villains and I just happen to like him more than someone like Erik the Red or D’Ken.

I don’t see how you could have a toy-line dedicated to the X-Men cartoon and not feature a sentinel somehow.

If the line was a success, it wouldn’t have to end there. I completely ignored Sinister’s Nasty Boys and all of the mutates from the Savage Land. They would really help to bolster the ranks of the villains, but it might be hard to convince people they’re more deserving of plastic than some of the others. An entire Savage Land wave could even be done, though I don’t know if that would be a big seller. Another big bad guy I left out is Mojo who would probably work best as a BAF. If he was done, then he would need to be paired with a Longshot.

As for heroes, there are alternate versions of other characters that could pad things out. Civilian versions of Storm, Rogue, Jean and Jubilee (or her in a flight suit) could be added. Beast and Gambit had other looks as well, but nothing really drastic (though Beast with his Howard the Duck shirt is pretty tempting). Archangel also briefly appeared as Angel in season one and returned in season four sporting his white and blue Angel costume. Wolverine had other looks as well, though my personal favorite would probably be the alternate timeline Wolverine from “One Man’s Worth” which also featured a mohawked Storm. Other guest heroes included Iceman, Psylocke, Alpha Flight and X-Factor so there are certainly more characters to mine from, I’m just not sure any really need a dedicated figure based on their look in the cartoon.

Hasbro missed its chance to honor the cartoon with a line of figures to celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary. There’s still time though to recognize the 30th in 2022 and a toy-line near then would be an appropriate way to do so. If 2022 seems too far away right now it could be timed to end that year. The show is also about to gain new exposure via Disney+ where it and other X-Men cartoons will be available day one. And with Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox it stands to reason that the X-Men will soon join Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe bringing even more of a spotlight to the brand. The time is right, Hasbro, make it happen!

5 Comments | tags: action figures, apocalypse, cyclops, disney, fox kids, gambit, hasbro, magneto, marvel, morph, phoenix, superhero cartoons, toy biz, toys, wolverine, x-men, x-men 92 | posted in Comics, Television, toys

October 2, 2019

Funko Pop! Halloween Huey, Dewey, and Louie

By Joe

There’s a scourge taking over our local record stores, clothing outlets, and gaming boutiques. It comes in mass quantities dominating its chosen territory at the expense of other merch. It swears no allegiance to anyone and will even place mortal enemies side by side as it amasses an army of licensed property of yesterday and today. I am, of course, speaking of Funko Pop! vinyl figurines. Where I once had a local record store, I now see what is practically a dedicated Pop! outlet. Gamestop devotes considerable shelf space to them and they even show up in drug stores. It’s hard to find a licensed property that isn’t in Pop! form these days and since they keep on coming it leads me to believe they’ll be around for some time to come.

And considering the brand’s scope, it’s obvious people are into these things. Funko sells special cases to keep your Pop! mint-in-box and I do see people get legitimately excited for new releases, even though every time I’m at a store that features these things prominently I rarely see someone actually pick one up and head for the register. I don’t think they’ve reached the level of Beanie Baby popularity from the 90s, but they must be doing well for them to persist.

The source material for today’s subject.

If you’re not familiar with Pop! figurines then you’re probably not human, but I’ll indulge you anyway. They’re essentially little plastic statues that adhere to a standard form. They all feature an oversized, oval, head with a tiny body. They’re either non-articulated or just the head swivels. The eyes are always circles and one color, typically black. Most characters don’t have a mouth, but as the line has persisted I’ve noticed more unique head-sculpts that do indeed feature a mouth. It’s a simple, identifiable, style that can be applied to virtually anything depending on how much effort Funko puts into the sculpt. It seems to work well for cartoon characters, especially anthropomorphic characters, but it’s not universal. For one, I think the ones based on The Simpsons look awful, but I’ve encountered many that look fine. Live-action personalities can also be adapted and they typically turn out all right. It’s a brand, and it’s obviously successful. I would rather purchase a Kid Robot mini-figure, but at least these ones don’t come in blind boxes.

When it comes to my own interaction with Funko Pop! I am merely a casual participant. I wouldn’t even call myself a casual fan or collector, I’ve just somehow managed to end up with some here and there. I used to buy the Frozen ones for my wife as she expressed a fondness for them and I’ve picked up other Disney ones here and there. I currently have a Remy from Ratatouille in my kitchen because he looks cute and fits in with the setting. Mostly, they end up being the occasional thing I’ll buy for my desk at work, but I’ve mostly reached my limit there. I don’t seek out any particular license, it’s more just a case-by-case thing where if I really like how something turned out then I may buy it. That’s how I ended up with Rocko, Scrooge McDuck, and Stimpy. Rocko in particular works well in this style, and I liked the personality on display of the other two. I considered getting Ren to pair with Stimpy, but I just didn’t like how he turned out. Normally I can’t leave a character all by itself, especially from a famous duo, but with Pop! I just don’t have much of a collector’s impulse.

What I do have a weakness for though is Donald Duck, especially limited merchandise based on him or one of his cartoons. I am especially fond of the classic shorts, and there isn’t many better than 1952’s Trick or Treat. That’s the cartoon where Huey, Dewey, and Louie team up with a new character, Witch Hazel, to get back at Donald for refusing to treat on Halloween. In that cartoon, the nephews are depicted in Halloween costumes and they’re quite adorable. The designs are so popular and beloved that they were reprised for the 2017 Mickey Mouse special The Scariest Story Ever.

In celebration of that short, Funko did a special release of Huey, Dewey, and Louie in costume as Pop! figurines. This isn’t their first Pop! exposure as they were part of the DuckTales wave as well. They were sold exclusively on Funko’s website as a three pack and I just couldn’t resist.

A little defect on Dewey’s broom.

The trio are each packaged separately in a box under the Mickey Mouse and Friends banner. I wish they had come in a special box together, but that adds cost and companies are usually loathe to do that. It also would have been nice to see some artwork from the sour material, but oh well. Since their costumes are quite different, Funko wasn’t able to do the usual of creating one figure and painting them different colors. The likenesses are quite good, though obviously they’re in that Pop! style. It helps for Louie in particular that his character was pupil-less in the cartoon so the Pop! dead eyes aren’t as noticeable here. The paint applications are mostly clean and I like that they included Louie’s pumpkin on his head. Only Dewey appears to have any defects as he has some slop on his hat and feet plus an odd mark on his broom handle (pictured).

Even though Pop! figurines are sold at toy stores, I wouldn’t call these toys. My kids certainly like the aesthetic of the figures and were pretty excited when they came in the mail, but there isn’t anything they can really do with them. These guys are destined for a shelf, and I was even tempted to leave them in their boxes, but found they didn’t display as nice. These will be a part of my annual Halloween décor like the Grinch Pop! figures I own and display at Christmas. One thing I appreciate about these figurines is the packaging is easy to utilize for storage. There’s a plastic, molded, tray inside the box that is easy to remove and reinsert. There’s no tape on the top flap so you don’t even need to bust out a razor blade to get into these things.

I had to include a picture with their Uncle Donald.

If you’re interested in acquiring these yourself, they’re currently for sale on Funko’s website. They’re sold together for $45 plus shipping and taxes which is pretty close to the retail price most Funko figures sell for. If you don’t like Pop! figures then these aren’t going to change your mind. For Pop! figures, I think these are well done and there is enough of the classic design of these characters contained in the figures while conforming them to Funko’s brand. And they’re fun, decorative, seasonal figures that aren’t horribly priced. I do wish they were closer to the 10 dollar range as opposed to 15 as the current price point is basically the maximum Funko can charge without really turning folks off. It’s especially attractive for people who like to acquire merchandise related to the Trick or Treat short, as the Walt Disney Classic Collection of ceramics are way beyond my price range.

Leave a comment | tags: disney, donald duck, funko, funko pop!, huey dewey and louie, toys, trick or treat | posted in Film, toys

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