Toys

S.H. Figuarts – Ranma (Female)

Getting Sailor Moon Figuarts was a surprise. But not a huge surprise when you consider there was a new redesigned series put out recently. Getting Ranma 1/2 Figuarts was the real surprise. For the most part the anime Figuarts I see tend to be based on newer anime and manga that I’ve never heard of. But here we are, with Ranma 1/2 in glorious highly articulated plastic form. Sadly it kind of seems like we’ll never actually get Panda Genma who was featured when these were announced.

The first release is the female version of Ranma. In case you are unfamiliar with the premise, Ranma is a harem comedy anime series and manga, which follows the various romantic relationships surrounding Ranma and his crazy pack of friends and enemies. The gimmick of the show, is that a lot of the characters carry some sort of curse, generally originating from the Jusenkyo Springs where they change into a different form and back when exposed to hot or cold water. In the case of the title character, Ranma transforms between a boy and girl due to Ranma falling into the Spring of Drowned Girl.

That’s a pretty gross oversimplification, but that’s the general idea. Originally shown in the announcement were both male and female Ranma as well as a giant Panda Genma, Ranma’s father. Ranma here is pretty awesome, probably my favorite Figuarts of all of the ones I own (though Tuxedo Mask is a close second).

A lot of what I like is just how well balanced she is, which is really essential given the martial arts nature of the series. Part of the plot of Ranma is that everyone has some sort of crazy martial arts fighting style. Being able to pose Ranma doing martial arts moves really helps sell the figure.

She also has a great selection of alternate faces. There’s a big smile, a small smile, a frowny serious face and the embarrassed face. That last one is a lot of fun since as one might imagine, a dude turning into a girl could result in a lot of embarrassing situations.

There is also a good assortment of accessories and alternative hands. The female version of Ranma also includes a hot kettle, which compliments the cold water bucket included with the male counterpart.

In case you can’t tell, I really like this figure. Probably the biggest downside is that she’s a little boring without some of the other Ranma Figuarts to go with her. Also, if you’re not a fan of the source material, there really isn’t a lot of incentive to pick her up. This is definitely the best Ranma figure available, since it both looks good and is loaded with articulation and parts, in traditional Figuarts style.

Review – Transformers – Generations – Brainstorm

Feb 16th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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If you’ve been keeping track, you might have noticed that I’ve gone through all of the original 7 Headmaster’s remakes from Titan’s Returns. You might have been expecting the last review here to cover Titan’s Return Brainstorm. Well, you’d be almost correct. The thing is, I have Generations Brainstorm already, and I don’t really need Titan’s Return Brainstorm, so instead, you’re getting Generations Brainstorm.

If you follow some of the recent lines just before Combiner Wars, it kind of felt like Hasbro was exploring and experimenting with ideas for future lines. We got Scoop with his Trigger masters, and the Minicon combiner team, and Brainstorm here, the first Headmaster in years, I believe since Transformers Energon with it’s Omega Supreme and Minicon head. Before that was Armada Sideways with his swappable headmasters.

As our first modern Headmaster, Brainstorm is pretty good. There were some early reports about issues with the neck joint on the Headmaster and body, but rumor has it that problem was fixed. He even fakes the classic power level gimmick with a flip down panel inside his chest that activates when the Headmaster is attached.

The Headmaster itself is a little iffy though, the arms are large chunks with the arm bits painted on in the appropriate areas. He looks nice for the most part for such a small figure though. He works well with his little cockpit in space ship mode.

The new headmasters though aren’t compatible at all. There is a size difference for starters, which breaks the port set up. In the broader sense though, I like the size difference here just because it makes for some nice variety from “All Deluxe scale”. I also am not huge on swapping the heads between bodies, so I don’t really mind that there is a lack of compatibility.

So I’m not saying the Titans Return Brainstorm is bad, he’s based on one of the better molds in the line, but I just really like this version of Brainstorm from a few years earlier in Generations.

Review – Marvel Legends – Juggernaut Wave – Phoenix (Jean Grey)

Feb 6th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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This may be a bit of a short one on the text. I honestly have very little to really say about Marvel Legends Phoenix. In fact, the main thing I have to say is something I really don’t say too often about anything. I think I legitimately hate almost everything about this figure.

I’m not even sure it’s an upgrade from my old Toybiz Phoenix figure. Sure that old Phoenix has some issues, and is far from perfect but this update just has so much that I don’t particularly like that makes for the perfect storm of dislike.

For starters, her sculpt is kind of nasty. The head is weirdly skinny and angular and the hair looks unnatural. This isn’t helped by how completely bland her design is. At least the old Phoenix has a few extra flourishes here and there to keep her from being so blandly green.

She also can’t stand for crap, which only really helps to push my dislike of this figure down farther. In fact the only reason I bothered at all was that she was the only figure left that I needed to complete the Juggernaut Build a Figure. There isn’t much else to say, he’s just extremely bland and kind of ugly on the paint and sculpt, which is a shame because several other figures in this wave are excellently done.

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Highbrow

Feb 2nd, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Like most of the original Headmasters, Highbrow hasn’t gotten a proper update in a while. There was a pretty neat Highbrow back in the Hunt for the Decepticons sub-line of Revenge of the Fallen, though his alt mode for that line was a Lockheed P38-Bomber style plane, and he was mostly green instead of his original blue and white. It’s a neat toy mostly for using a cool alt mode, but it’s not very Highbrow and it wasn’t a headmaster.

Like most of Titans Return, Highbrow is a much more faithful remake of his G1 iteration. He has the same colors and turns into a dual prop Cybertronian helicopter. It’s not a toy without some pretty bad flaws though, mostly due to the helicopter blades. This is one of those areas where the lessened budget of newer toys actually become a bit of a hindrance. The helicopter blades don’t have any way to lock into place in robot mode and don’t fold out of the way in any meaningful way. They just sort of flip around, which wouldn’t be a problem except they tend to get locked up in his massive helicopter cockpit backpack.

He also suffers from a severe case of “wobbly head” syndrome, which seems to plague a few of these Titans Returns figures. Part of the problem seems to be that the hook for his head sticks out from his neck a few millimeters. On the plus side, it means he can sort of look up and down a bit, but it doesn’t make things lose and floppy. Something that was most common in the Wave 1 figure Scourge, which brings up another interesting bit…

Back in my review of Chromedome, I made a comment about how Chromedome looks like he is a remold of the Combiner Wars Breakdown mold, but isn’t, he just shares a transformation. Highbrow here has a similar sort of situation going, because technically, Highbrow IS a remold of Titans Return Scourge. That said, they share almost zero actual parts and their transformations are “reversed.” Where Scourge’s front form by joining his legs together, Highbrow forms the rear of the helicopter. The tell tale bit that these are remolds lies in the pull out section on the hips/legs used during transformation. That, and that they are part of the same lines, it’s actually pretty uncommon to have a remold cross over between lines the way Chromedome and Dead End would have done.

The toys are definitely different enough to warrant owning both of them if you are interested in both. The transformation results in a pretty near little helicopter. The cockpit is functional to allow for the Titan Master to fit inside. The two guns can attach to the underside of the wings to give the chopper some artillery, though they attach via the non round pegs, which is slightly against what you commonly see but it allows for the use of the molded landing wheels. There’s a third flip out landing gear that isn’t super obvious on the under side of the cockpit.

The helicopter mode looks good and holds together very solidly. It’s definitely a good addition to the vehicles for Titan Masters. If your interest in this line lies more with the Titan Masters and their vehicles and bases, Highbrow is definitely a good addition, even if his Robot mode is a little clunky.

Review – Marvel Legends – Juggernaut Wave – Havok

Jan 30th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Someone working on this wave seems to have a hard on for Cyclops’ family, we’ve got his wife, Jean Grey (Phoenix), his son from the future, Cable, and his brother, Havok. There isn’t a Cyclops, but we got one in the first wave of X-men with Jubilee and there is one in the next wave coming in 2017. He’s Cyclops’ younger brother in the comics but older brother in the movies, though this is a decidedly comic book design.

He definitely doesn’t have the most amazing design for a super hero. There’s nothing complicated going on here, he’s a dude in spandex with a funky helmet. It’s a pretty well done figure, he’s just a little on the boring side.

He does have a pretty cool power, though not really any good way to portray it in toy form. He absorbs energy and re-releases it. As he absorbs energy he gives on energy waves, for the figure this is depicted using these attachable bubble effects. These are similar to the circular effects we’ve seen a lot lately with Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch, though it’s not the same effect piece. Also, given how his power work, I find they work best attached higher up on his arms than on his wrists, since it looks more like he’s “emanating energy”.

Considering Hasbro seems to be against including things like fireball effects with these figures, there’s not much else he could have come with to make him more exciting. Articulation is decent, though if you put the effects higher up on the arms things can get a little limited.

I do like his design though. He’s pretty basic but the effect parts work pretty well and there’s something elegant about his design despite it’s blandness.