March, 2017:

Review – Marvel Legends – Juggernaut Wave – Wolverine

Wolverine is arguably the most popular Marvel comics character. Spider-man is pretty up there and Deadpool seems to be doing pretty well, but Wolverine is, or at least was at one point, pretty up there. It’s a shame he doesn’t’ get more Marvel Legends figures really. I mean I know I complain about all of the dozens of Captain Americas, but Wolverine is way more popular then Cap. Maybe we just already hit Wolverine Saturation years ago and don’t need more Wolverines? Who knows.

While wolverine has had a few looks over the years, and some slight redesigns, mostly in how big his head fins are or how large his shoulder pauldrons get, he has had two basic looks, there is the classic Blue and Yellow design, which appeared in the previous X-men themed wave of Marvel Legends, and there is this Brown and Dirty Yellow design.

I’m kind of mixed on this figure. It’s a good figure. It’s got a good sculpt and paint. He is appropriately short as Wolverine should be. He even has swappable hands for claws in and claws out. I really wish Marvel Legends would do swappable hands more often. I’ve been spoiled lately by import figures.

What he really needs though is a swappable head. Wolverine can make some nice poses, but his head is just so…. Boring. A raging grimacing or open mouthed head would be a welcome addition to make him seem more dynamic. I like having the neutral head, I just wish eh also had an angry head. Wolverine is pretty known for being a raging animal after all.

The claws are also interesting. They aren’t the often used rubbery plastic that deforms and looks ugly. They are nice and crisp and solid. They tend to wobble a bit in their pegs though, making them hard to keep in alignment. I also worry about breaking them off a bit, since this sort of hard plastic tends to snap more than give under pressure.

Aside from the bland facial expression, this is a really nice Wolverine figure. Here’s hoping that the new Logan film will give us some slightly more action oriented Wolverine designs but given the track record of the X-men films getting ignored for toys, I doubt it will happen.

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Scourge

Mar 2nd, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Scourge, along with Blurr, is part of the first wave of Titans Returns figures that were not originally Headmasters. Scourge is a bit of a funny character in terms of picking up “new versions”, because his character’s ability allows him to make clones of himself. Or maybe it’s just that he commands clones of himself, whatever the case, there is a justifiable reason to have many Scourge toys.

Unlike Blurr, who is kind of the star of the wave, Scourge is possibly the worst figure of the first wave. The problems are less with the basic design however. This Scourge, like Blurr is a nice update to the original design, as basic as it is. Scourge is the classic example of a Shell Former. He is essentially a robot wrapped in the shell of the parts of his space boat mode. Both modes are accurate representation of the G1 Scourge, but his transformation is pretty simplistic.

The real problems are with the basic design of the figure itself. Specifically there are a lot of reports of looseness in the head connection of the Headmaster giving him a bobble head. He also has a pop up head crest similar to Blurr, though it is also prone to being lose and doesn’t stay up very well.

One minor little nitpick on my part, his pretty sleek Space Boat mode is broken up a bit by odd panels on the bottom of the front. These panels only serve to fill in the gap on his legs, and just sort of hang off the vehicle. It really feels like this could have easily been engineered better to remove the panel kibble hanging off an otherwise clean vehicle.

That aside, he’s also just sort of boring. The vehicle is just a wedge with a bit of kibble on top, it’s accurate, but it’s not particularly exciting.

Titans Return Scourge isn’t an awful toy, he’s just not particularly exciting, and is prone to some issue that can be irritating. With exciting animal options in the Decepticons, or the really well done Blurr, I wouldn’t make Scourge my first choice of the line.

S.H. Figuarts – Yoshi

Mar 1st, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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While he wasn’t part of the original Super Mario Brothers, in fact, he didn’t come around until much later in the series during the 4th full game, Super Mario World, Yoshi is as iconic to the Mario series as any of the main cast. The popular Dino has even gotten several of his own spin off games. He certainly makes sense as an addition to the Mario Figuarts lineup.

Yoshi is quite a different little figure than Mario and Luigi, for the obvious reasons that, he’s a Dinosaur and not a plumber. He’s actually a quite a bit more dynamic in some ways as a result. His skinnier arms give him a lot more flexibility for outward motion than the Mario Brothers. While his hips can rotate outward as well, he doesn’t have any knees. I’m not sure where they would put the knees considering how short his legs are, not to mention the addition of knees would probably hurt his major gimmick.

That major gimmick? Mario can ride Yoshi.

Included among Yoshi’s accessories are two alternate shell pieces each with a clear saddle attached to hold Figuarts Mario or Luigi. It’s a bit tricky to get Mario’s weight to balance on Yoshi without the use of a stand however. Mario is a pretty heavy figure and sticking all that weight on the back of poor little Yoshi really sets things off balance. It’s still a really nice touch to have it as an option given 90% of Yoshi’s function is carrying Mario around on his back.

Yoshi’s other accessories are all based on alternate configurations for Yoshi. He doesn’t have any power ups or blocks, likely because Yoshi is a bit larger than either of the Mario Brothers and he has parts like the saddle shell pieces, all of which already drive the price up. One of the driving forces of these Mario Figuarts seems to be keeping them fairly affordable ($20-$40 vs the $50-$100 price of some Figuarts).

Yoshi includes an extra set of eyes so he can look off to the side, an alternate mouth insert with an extended tongue, and an alternate set of hands. He also includes a stand. He doesn’t need the stand at all to hold himself up under normal power, and the hole for the stand is directly on the bottom of Yoshi anyway, the stand is meant to allow Yoshi to jump or hover like he does in the games.

The hands are slightly disappointing. Yoshi has two fists and two open hands, but one of the open hands has an egg permanently attached to it. It doesn’t come off, you’ll only break it trying. Considering the Mario Brothers already gave us a method to attach objects to open palm hands with the turtle shells, it’s kind of disappointing that the egg can’t be removed in this same manner. The egg would have made a great accessory for use with the other figures and having two bare open hands for Yoshi would have been a great plus.

The tongue is a bit disappointing as well, though it may just be a problem on mine. Basically, it doesn’t stay attached very well at all. It’s not even a problem due to weight or balance, the pegs on the underside of the mouth piece simply don’t properly peg into the pegs in his mouth. The real benefit that the tongue piece provides is that it means the mouth can open and close, something that I imagine wouldn’t have been a feature if it hadn’t been a necessity to allow for the tongue piece to work.

While it’s still probably the best Yoshi Figure available, and it’s a good figure to be sure, There are a few little issue that keep it from being completely amazing. Specifically the egg hand and the finicky-ness of how some of the accessories attach. The riding feature really helps push the figure up an extra notch if you have Mario or Luigi to go with him however.