Toys

Game of Thrones – Jon Snow (McFarlane)

So, now that Game of Thrones is almost over, McFarlane Toys has decided to make some action figures for it. I imagine that part of the last minute feel is that Funko previously held the license, preventing anyone else from making figures. I mean there are a lot of properties that get toys after the fact, but this feels like odd timing.

This is also the first McFarlane toy I have bought in a long time. I’m talking possibly close to like 15 years or more long time. Last time I even thought about McFarlane, they made a lot of Spawn figures, and they made a lot of oddball stuff like, KISS or random Anime figures. Also, “figures” was a very operative term, since most of their stuff were basically “statues with joints”. They tended to be a kind of brittle on the plastic quality.

They apparently caught up over the years though at some point. The plastic on Jon Snow here is comparable to any other mainline US toy line, maybe a little stiffer than your average Marvel Legends, but it doesn’t feel like I’m going to snap apart the joints just by looking at it, the way a lot of older McFarlane toys (and modern NECA) toys feel.

The articulation is also pretty good. He doesn’t have any double joints on elbows or knees but otherwise everything is nice universal joints all around. This is definitely a nice pleasant surprise since it means he can actually make more than 1 pose and one sort of pose.

The sculpt and paint are also pretty good. The head looks like Kit Harrington, albeit a squinty brooding Kit Harrington, but it does look like him. The quilted armor overcoat he is wearing has all sorts of little nicks and dings detailing to it and there are all sorts of nice little silver buckles details on his belt and other parts. He also is a few different shades of black and dark brown in his armor, and not all just one color. The beard also looks pretty good, a point that is often easily screwed up on some figures where it looks too painted on.

This figure, and the other figures in the wave seem to more closely follow the Season 7 look vs the current Season 8 look, though most of the character don’t really change their look a while lot throughout the show. Jon has two accessories, one is Longclaw, his sword, with a little wolf head sculpted on the hilt, and the other is a dragonglass dagger, useful for stabbing white walkers.

One last thing to mention, this figure is definitely better than the previous Funko figures. I only have a few of the older line but I can say these are definitely a better likeness on the heads. That said, the two lines go together pretty well. The style is very similar and mixing them together shouldn’t be a problem, especially if McFarlane doesn’t release more, since the Funko line could help fill in some of the gaps in characters.

Figma – Reaper

May 1st, 2019

by Ramen Junkie.

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I have to admit, I am super behind in talking about these various Overwatch figures, and a lot of figures in general. There’s various factors, but mostly I just, haven’t done it. Instead of catching up on Genji and Widowmaker and various Nendoroids, I’m going to just jump ahead here with Figma Reaper.

Reaper is quite a different toy than the previous Overwatch Figmas. Tracer, Genji and Widowmaker are all considerably more mobile in their overall look and design. Reaper is quite a bit bulkier than the previously released characters. He also has a lot more greebley detail going on on his body. Genji has a fair amount of this but Widowmaker and Tracer are basically wearing body suits.

All of this detailing is nice and crisp. His spikes are pretty sharp, for example. His coat has some articulated segmented parts to it so it can be posed draping or more flowing. His design unfortunately doesn’t lend itself to much posing though. The coat does hinder his hips a bit and his belts and straps hinder things a bit more. His armored lower legs kind of get int he way of his feet articulation as well and his shoulders are kind of bulky as well. Reaper isn’t really a ninja though, so not being able to do a ton of super dynamic poses isn’t really a huge loss and he makes up for it with detail.

Probably the biggest issue with articulation involves his head. The head itself is fine, but the hood piece attaches to the body in the front and back. This limits how much you can have him look side to side a lot. With the hood attached, his face is obscured. Or, you can detach the hood, but it then will just rest on his head, and it will reveal the huge peg holes and pegs. I kind of wish the hood were simply attached to the head itself.

He also feels a little light on accessories, but I think part of this is because both Genji and Widowmaker were pretty good for accessories. I mean, count wise, it probably has just as many extra pieces, and I m not sure what else they could have given him side from maybe some wraith form legs, but that would have probably doubled the price. What he has are an assortment of hands, a transparent effect that can sort of be used for any of his abilities (Wraith form, teleport, or Death Blossom), his two shotguns and some effect parts for his shotguns.

Speaking of his shotguns. They look right, and good, but man, having a physical version of this character kind of makes it obvious how ridiculous his design is. Dual wielding these two HUGE guns is kind of silly looking.

Don’t misunderstand me here, this is a good representation overall of Reaper. It just sort of makes the design flaws of Reaper really obvious when you have a little 3D version of him on a table in front of you.

Nendoroid – Junkrat

Mar 13th, 2019

by Ramen Junkie.

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I have, so far, picked up every one of the Overwatch Nendoroid figures released so far. They all have some ups and downs, but on the whole they are pretty good. Today, I want to talk a bit about Nendoroid Junkrat.

Of all of the figures released in this series so far, Junkrat is definitely one of the most unique. Honestly he seems fairly unique compared to all Nendos, not just the Overwatch releases. Maybe there is some vague hope that there might be some Tank characters released in this line after all, with how much Junkrat has going on that’s special. First off, he is a fair amount larger than the previous releases. I honestly never really realized it in game since Junkrat is always hunched over, but if you look at a pure size chart, he’s one of the taller characters in the game. His Nendo, even with its goofy short proportions, is taller than the previous releases.

Part of this comes from his huge head and hair. These are also a bit unique in design, though Sombra who came out at the same time shares the uniqueness. On the previous figures, generally the bangs of the hair are removable, and the face plates swap out underneath the hair. The face plates are pretty interchangeable, that is, you can easily put Tracer’s face on Mercy, if you want. Junkrat’s entire front half of his head makes up his face plates, instead of just the bottom half like other Nendoroids. The hair bits also have to be removed and reattached in chunks, to make the swap. It’s a little clunky to do quickly, but the end result looks better. with his partially bald head, a plate styled like other Nendos would have left a visible seam across his forehead.

Speaking of the face plates, he also has a swapable mouth piece to give him a “tongue hanging out” look. As a side note, the eyes and mouth on the second head LOOK like they could be removable/swapable, but I didn’t really want to test the limits of the plastic and couldn’t get mine to come out. There isn’t really any noticeable difference in the base face anyway, so swapping the eyes around wouldn’t really do anything useful.

Additionally, he has his peg leg. This is also fairly unique to Junkrat. Between the peg leg and his huge head unfortunately, it also means he’s not going to be standing without a stand anytime ever. Though most Nendos have small enough feet that you’re going to have a hard time getting them to stand up independently anyway.

All these unique bits though help give him a lot of neat character to his design. He definitely comes off as “Junkrat,” goofy and crazy looking.

He doesn’t stop at his basic design though. He has a slew of really neat accessories. All of the weapons he wields in the game are represented here, he has his sticky bomb, his grenade launcher, his trap, and his Rip-Tire. The launcher and sticky bomb are fairly boring, the sticky bomb isn’t even painted, but the trap and tire are both great.

The trap can be laid out open or closed, and had a hand designed to hold it up to emulate his in game emote where he uses it like a puppet. The Tire is nicely detailed and can be mounted to his back, or to a extra articulated arm piece as if it’s being launched and rolling away.

You can add in on top of this that MSRP for Junkrat isn’t more than the previous releases, it makes him feel like a pretty good bang for your buck figure. All in all, I think he’s definitely one of the cooler Overwatch Nendoroids so far.

Sentinel – Roll Caskett (AmiAmi Exclusive Ver)

Jan 9th, 2019

by Ramen Junkie.

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I’m pretty picky anymore, so it’s not super often that I end up slightly disappointed with a figure, especially one that is expensive that I didn’t randomly pick up because it was marked down to nothing at Wal-Mart. Unfortunately, the 4 Inch Nel Roll Casket gets the pleasure of being slightly disappointing.

So, the figure itself is pretty decent, and I really like the Classic Megaman that I have. The real insult of this figure is the price and the dual release. The version I have is the AmiAmi.com exclusive version. It includes a hatless head and a mini figure of Data, the little save monkey from Mega Man Legends (Rockman Dash). The regular version has a hand holding a wrench and a head with Roll’s giant hat. The thing is, this figure is roughly $70 USD, and there really isn’t any reason that these two figures shouldn’t have just been “one release”.

What makes this really stand out is that in the same order, I received Figma Widowmaker, which is like twice as much figure and a ton of extra parts, for less cost. I mean, I realize these are different companies, and Figma is a lot bigger than Sentinel in terms of everything, but it really makes it obvious how much Roll is really price gouging it.

The figure itself looks good, all of the colors are nice and the sculpt looks really great for the most part. She holds together pretty well, in fact, I had a little bit of trouble getting her head apart to swap the faces it holds together so well. The joints though are a little ugly. Sentinel’s joint system works great on robots where everything is hidden by armor, it works a little less well on Roll, who is more human looking in appearance. She also has a little trouble with balance, primarily due to her skinny body and huge head. There is a stand to help hold her up, but it’s the huge claw style and kind of looks rediculous when wrapped around her.

Aside from the previous complaint of “the second figure should have just been accessories”, she really is kind of anemic on accessories. She has open hands and fist hands, though the open hands are very straight fingered and look a little weird looking. There are two face plates, one smiling, and one winking, a few more would have been nice given the cost of this figure. Then of course there’s Data, who has an articulated neck but not a lot else to do.

I don’t have a lot else to say. I hope she does all right because I would love to get Tron Bonne eventually, but I hope they have the sense not to split her up needlessly across two expensive releases. Another unrelated side note, I kind of wish Megaman Volnut would get a re-release, he’s pretty expensive on the secondary market these days, so my Roll is a little lonely. I have an old as the hills model kid but it looks pretty awful.

Studio Series – Bumblebee (VW)

Dec 20th, 2018

by Ramen Junkie.

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The latest Transformers Movie, Bumblebee, takes things back more to the original roots of Transformers. It features G1 versions of a lot of the characters and the main character, Bumblebee, takes the form of a Volkswagen Beetle like he had in the original 80s cartoon. The movie isn’t getting it’s own toyline but is instead being looped in with the Studio Series line. The first figure from the new films is Bumblebee himself though in many cases, Dropkick from the followup wave is also showing up with him.

The new Bee reminds me a lot of Studio Series Jazz in that he is really tiny in both modes. This feels a lot more appropriate given it’s Bumblebee, who was one of the smallest Autobots in the original G1 series. It does make the $20 price point for deluxe Transformers a little hard to swallow but he has a few little parts that help make it feel more worthwhile. The robot is pretty nice, though he has a huge backpack that feels like it should collapse on itself a bit more, but doesn’t really seem to without pushing the plastic beyond what feels comfortable. The legs also are a little funny in that they feel like they should peg together better but don’t seem to.

The design itself is very reminiscent of the old Camero Bumblebee design from the last few Michael Bay Transformers movies. The way the layered chest lays and the panels fall on his legs and the door wings sit on his back, these elements are all very Movie Bumblebee. The Door wings aren’t very accurate to the film though, where the doors seem to do some mass shifting and point downward instead of becoming wings.

I mentioned he comes with some extras to help offset his cost. Specifically, he has an alternative face plate for his “Battle Mask” look and a swap-able arm piece for his arm cannon. There’s also a blade weapon which can attach to the side of any of the three forearm pieces. These sort of swap out parts aren’t a real common things for Transformers. Having them, it’s kind of clear why. The canon arm falls off a lot more easily than the standard hand arm and the Mask face falls off if you look at it funny. These are definitely parts which will become lost over time by some.

The transformation is pretty straightforward in it’s execution, though fairly complex. Its a pain to get everything to massage together properly, partially I think because it’s such a small figure. The legs and back piece are particularly problematic and I can’t see anything obviously out of place like the hidden peg on the underside of Jazz’s roof that just made everything sit right in place once engaged.

The VW Beetle looks alright aside from things not quite sitting together properly. The vehicle does feel a little funny because the G1 Bumblebee, was very much a stylized chibified VW. This Bee feels too long, though I’m sure he’s not for a real Beetle.

Cutting to the chase here, I think that Studio Series Bumblebee is alright, but I kind of wonder what the wider audience is for him. He’s too complex and finicky for kids, and there are plenty of simpler options out there. He doesn’t really mesh well for collectors. I don’t have it but I suspect the pricier Masterpiece Movie Bee does everything slightly better and he probably looks better. I suppose if you’re in the middle like me and don’t really need a super classy Bee but don’t want something overly simplified this version does the job, but if you want a perfect VW Movie Bee, you’re probably better off looking elsewhere.