With there being so few quality prolific toy lines available to U.S. retail this year, the acceleration of my collecting dollars being spent on foreign action figures has increased dramatically. Having purchased next to no American action figures this year, my attentions is firmly set upon some of the amazing stuff coming out of Japan. And one of the highlights of this year’s slate of Japanese imports is Bandai’s line of highly-articulated, incredibly-authentic Pokemon D-Arts figures. The first two of which–Charizard and Mewtwo–are available now. They cost some serious cash at $60+ each. Is it really worth catching ‘em all at that kind of money?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Leatherhead Figure Review 2013
Earlier this week I reviewed the first of the trio of new Spring 2013 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures–Baxter Stockman–and today I’m back with the second entry. Baxter Stockman was pretty unremarkable, and earned an average, ho-hum grade. Today I’ve got a figure that I have much higher hopes for, as it just may be the most-anticipated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2013 figure: Leatherhead! Unfortunately, Leatherhead also turns out to be the most disappointing Ninja Turtles action figure so far…
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2013 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Baxter Stockman Figure Review
If there’s one character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles mythos I truly hate, it’s Baxter Stockman. I didn’t like the human-fly Baxter Stockman when I was a kid, and the less I talk about the “eye and spinal cord in a jar” Baxter Stockman from the 2003 TMNT cartoon series the better. So I wasn’t exactly thrilled when Baxter showed up almost immediately in the new Nickelodeon cartoon, nor when he was one of the first new figures announced for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2013 toy line. But, well… there hasn’t been much I’ve wanted at retail lately (at all), so home the new Ninja Turtles Baxter Stockman figure came…
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Ninja Turtles Leatherhead, Snakeweed & Baxter Stockman Released!
It feels like about a million years since I got a new action figure from the Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line, but, well… it’s actually been about half a year. I bought the first wave of Nickelodeon TMNT figures at release last fall, but then Playmates Toys failed to release any new characters for many months to capitalize on the popularity of the line. But finally, finally, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures collectors have some new characters to be on the lookout for: Snakeweed, Baxter Stockman, and Leatherhead!
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Diamond Select Toys Classic Venom and Modern Venom Figure Reviews
Maybe I’m just stuck in the stone ages, but up until a couple weeks ago I still looked down on the Marvel Select figure line by Diamond Select Toys as being a mediocre toy line. See, when the Marvel Select line started out back in 2002, the figures were pretty “meh”. So it was, and so I assumed the figures continued to be. But my local Newbury Comics I had a sale earlier this month, and I ended up bringing home a classic Eddie Brock Venom Marvel Select figure that looked promising. And it was. A few days later, I visited every Disney Store in town because the Marvel Select Venom was so good that I wanted the modern Venom Flash Thompson figure as well…
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Randy Orton WWE Mattel Best of PPV Figure Review BOPPV
Continuing on in my series of action figure reviews of wrestlers I detest, today I’ve got the Mattel WWE Best of PPV Randy Orton figure! If you asked me when the last time I was that I enjoyed a Randy Orton match, I could honestly say “Never”. But I had to buy this Randy Orton Mattel action figure to get the severed lower-body of Theodore Long, so I was hoping the Orton would at least be good. Unfortunately, unlike the excellent Brock Lesnar and Dolph Ziggler figures I reviewed a couple weeks back, this Orton action figure is pretty awful…
Bandai One Piece Figuarts Zero Straw Hat Pirates Figure Reviews!
While there’s been a relative dearth of action figures I want to buy at American retail stores recently, it’s been giving me the opportunity to expand my import anime figure collection exponentially! This week, I busted open and reviewed another trio of Bandai Figuarts Zero One Piece figures! In the One Piece anime and manga, the weakest trio of Straw Hat Pirates is Usopp, Nami, and Chopper. It seems that real life may actually imitate art, because the Figuarts Zero New World Ver. figures of those characters are also some of the weakest in the line…
Kyrie Irving NBA 22 Sports Picks Figure Review (McFarlane Toys)
There are some days when I just can’t hold myself back from spewing a venomous diatribe about Lebron James. See, I hate Lebron James. I’m from Cleveland. (I wonder how many people have said those last two sentences over the last three years?) So, in honor of the less-than-”historic” streak of the Miami Heat ending last night, today’s review will feature a rare McFarlane Sports Pick figure that comes from the team Lebron spurned: the Cleveland Cavaliers. Representing the #1 draft pick from 2011, it’s the McFarlane NBA 22 Sports Picks Kyrie Irving figure…
Mattel WWE Best of PPV Brock Lesnar Figure Review BOPPV 2012
Brock Lesnar’s catch-phrase: “Here Comes The Pain!”, could be appropriated for my feelings about having to buy a ~$17 action figure of a wrestler I hate just to get the chunk of the Teddy Long Build-A-Figure he comes with. No, I don’t like Brock Lesnar–never have, never will. And I’ve never owned a Brock Lesnar wrestling figure either: until now. Like I said, I really want that build-a-figure Theodore Long, so I brought home the Mattel WWE Best of PPV 2012 Brock Lesnar figure…
Mattel WWE Dolph Ziggler Figure Review Best of PPV 2013 BOPPV
It’s been so long since I bought a Mattel WWE Wrestling figure I seriously had no idea when the last time I bought one was. In fact, I had to check my own archives here on Toy Review Daily to find out that it was Elite 16 Heath Slater back in August–a good seven months ago. I would’ve extended that streak to eight months without issue if Mattel hadn’t exploited my weakness: Build-A-Figures. When Mattel announced a Build-A-Figure Teddy Long WWE figure for this year, I knew they had me right where they wanted me. It took a few weeks to track them down, but I completed the set, and I’ll begin the reviews with the Mattel WWE Best of PPV Dolph Ziggler figure…
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Transformers Fall of Cybertron Voyager Autobot Blaster Review (2013)
It’s been so long since I picked up a Classics-type Transformer, I honestly can’t remember what the last one I bought before today was! I think it might have been Wreck-Gar and Perceptor from a Marshall’s discount store, but needless to say, it’s been a while. When I heard Transformers Generations (otherwise known as “Transformers Classics” was getting a big push in 2013, I was excited until I found out it was mostly going to be toys from the Transformers Fall of Cybertron video game. Then I lost my enthusiasm, right up until I came across this Transformers Generations Fall of Cybertron Autobot Blaster Voyager at my local Target–then I got some of my earlier excitement back…
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GI Joe Kre-O Jinx Kim Arashikage Series 1 Figure Blind Bag Review
You might say I was weird, but I had two favorite G.I. Joes as a kid–both inspired by the much-reviled 1986 GI Joe The Movie animated film. No, I didn’t particularly like Golubulus, but the movie did make me fall in love with the two G.I. Joes who, to this day, are always my favorite characters in any incarnation of the team (Yes, even Sigma Six): Tunnel Rat and Jinx. I’m a little surprised that Tunnel Rat didn’t show up in GI Joe Kre-O Series 1, but Jinx did make an appearance, and she’s the first figure that I picked up for review…
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LEGO Star Wars Planets Series 3 Kamino & Jedi Starfighter Review
I could’ve probably gone my entire life without ever owning a miniature replica of a Star Wars planet and been perfectly happy about it. But LEGO had other ideas, and unfortunately, those other ideas included releasing a LEGO Star Wars Planet Kamino with my most-wanted LEGO Star Wars figure ever…
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Halo Mega Bloks 2013 Set Reviews: Mantis, Prometheans, and More!
While the start of every new year inevitably brings with it a drought for most toy lines, the beginning of 2013 has brought Halo Mega Bloks collectors a veritable flood (sorry, no pun intended) of new products. And these are no trivial sets–these are some of the best and most anticipated Halo Mega Bloks sets ever, including the all-new Forerunner Prometheans figures and the UNSC Mantis battle mech from Halo 4…
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2013 LEGO Sets Reviews: LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Legends of Chima!
2012 has come and gone, and while it was a decent year toy-wise, it’s time to welcome 2013! And for LEGO, a new year means literally tons of new sets! Over on my LEGO Blog, BricksAndBloks.com, I’ve been reviewing some of the early LEGO 2013 sets.
While the main love of my LEGO life has always been LEGO Star Wars, I’ve more than a passing interest in LEGO’s new original theme for 2013: Legends of Chima. Anyone who ever loved Battle Beasts as a kid can understand the appeal of anthropomorphic animal tribes duking it out, and I’m definitely in for at least a handful of Legends of Chima Series 1 sets.
LEGO is solidly behind Legends of Chima, and as such they’re promoting the theme with a free LEGO polybag set throughout the month of January: Ewar’s Acro Fighter! The, uh, “jet” is about as basic as you can get, but the Ewar minifigure is beautifully decorated and a fine example of the kind of cool animal tribe minifigures I’m hoping for in this theme.
You can check out the rest of my LEGO Legends of Chima Ewar’s Acro Fighter review right here.
On the Star Wars front, I picked up two Expanded Universe sets to kick off a new year of LEGO Star Wars sets! First up is the LEGO Republic Troopers vs. Sith Troopers battle pack, based off “The Old Republic” computer game. Technically, we’ve had both Republic Troopers and Sith Troopers minifigures before, but all four figures in this set have something that make them new and improved over their 2012 releases. The Sith Speeder is pretty “whatever”, but for a set with four awesome army-builder minifigures, this LEGO Star Wars set is well-worth my $12.
You can read the full-text of my LEGO Star Wars Republic Troopers vs. Sith Troopers set over here.
Finally, from my favorite Star Wars media, Clone Wars (don’t hate me), I’ve got the LEGO AT-RT 501st Legion version from the Umbara arc of Clone Wars! This set is a little weird, as the headline minifigure is Yoda–who doesn’t even appear in the Umbara arc of Clone Wars–but I was surprised by how charmed I was by the blue and grey AT-RT. And hey, it will astound many collectors, but this set includes the first blue-and-white 501st Legion Clone Trooper minifigure in LEGO history! With a great-looking variant of the AT-RT and a handful of superb minifigures, what could have been a throwaway rehash of a LEGO Star Wars set ended up a surprise hit with me.
I’ll be reviewing a flood of new LEGO 2013 sets over the next few weeks (including LEGO Minifigures Series 9), so stay tuned if you’re a LEGO fan!
Mists of Pandaria World of Warcraft Mega Bloks Pandaren Reviews
Although I enjoyed collecting the first series of World of Warcraft Mega Bloks, I always felt a little bit out of place with the Azeroth characters. Yes, many of the races looked very cool, but there really wasn’t one I felt like I could relate to. But then the Pandaren appeared, a race of drunken kung-fu panda people, and I found the place where I truly belonged.
It was a pretty agonizing two-month wait between when I first saw the Mists of Pandaria Mega Bloks sets debut at New York Comic Con 2012 and their release at retail, but my (sort of) patience was rewarded when I picked up and reviewed the first two Pandaren WoW Mega Bloks sets over the last few weeks…
The Dragon Turtle with Pandaren Monk Windpaw sounds pretty dull on paper. A religious panda-man figure and a turtle? But as it turns out, both the Pandaren figure and the Dragon Turtle he rides atop are extremely cool. Windpaw has some highly ornate removable armor that really sets him apart from other figures, as well as my favorite weapon in the whole Mega Bloks WoW line so far. Meanwhile, the Dragon Turtle looks more like he wants to eat your face than a few leaves of lettuce…
Continue Reading the Review of the Dragon Turtle and Pandaren Monk —–>
And for more Pandaria goodness, I reviewed the latest Warcraft Mega Bloks Faction Pack: Rojo the Pandaren Hunter of the Horde! (He wears an all-red jumpsuit and his name is Rojo, which is Spanish for “red”. Get it?) Rojo shares the same basic mold as Windpaw did, but with all of the removable armor each figure is wearing and the vastly different paint schemes, you’d almost think they were totally different figures. Rojo has by far the most elaborate and clever buildable terrain base of any of the Warcraft Factions sets released thus far, but he also suffers from some paint deco and quality control issues that have been very rare in the Warcraft Mega Bloks line to date…
Halo 4 Series 1 Wave 2 Action Figures Reviews (McFarlane Toys)
While I’ve been neglecting this main hub site, ironically I’ve been cranking out reviews almost every other day on my other blogs! One series that I’ve totally cleaned out is McFarlane Toys’ Halo 4 Series 1 Wave 2 (known in some circles as “Halo 4 Wave 1 Extended”). Here’s my thoughts on the series, as well as links to the full reviews of each figure over on Halo Toy News…
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Toy Review: Golden Lion Shiki — One Piece Grandline Men (Banpresto)
It’s taking me a little longer than I expected to work through reviews of the huge cache of One Piece toys that I’ve been buying for my new One Piece blog, but tonight I’ve got my first-ever review of a figure from Banpresto’s One Piece DX Grandline Men line of figures. I wasn’t really sure that I wanted to invest in a third series of figures beyond the masterful MegaHouse One Piece Portrait of Pirates line and the somewhat decent Bandai Figuarts Zero figures. But then Banpresto hit me where it hurts-with a figure that hadn’t been released or even announced by Bandai or MegaHouse: Golden Lion Shiki.
Ordinarily I’m not an anime movie guy. In general, I feel like all anime movies from long-running shonen series like Naruto, Inuyasha, and Bleach are contrived filler garbage. But the “One Piece: Strong World” film, well… that’s different. The antagonist of the film, Gold Lion Shiki, fits so seamlessly into the One Piece mythos and has such a unique personality that I was instantly a huge fan of him. So when I saw that only Banpresto was releasing a Shiki figure (and a really nice one at that), I was helpless to resist.
Considering the number of figures I’ve purchased from Banpresto before Shiki was exactly zero, I wasn’t sure exactly what the quality of their “Grandline Men” line of One Piece DX figures was going to be. As things turn out, the Shiki figure I got from Banpresto is not only adequate–it’s pretty great! And while I don’t think I’ll be abandoning the Bandai One Piece Figuarts Zero line for it anytime soon, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m quickly breaking down and feeling the need to order more characters not covered in other One Piece toy lines from Banpresto…
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Toy Review: Tashigi — Figuarts Zero One Piece Figure
My second One Piece Figuarts Zero Review of One Piece week is the popular female Marine, Tashigi! The second-in-command of Logia-type Devil Fruit user Captain Smoker, Tashigi is an unparalleled Swordswoman in the One Piece world, earning her a loyal fan following. It took a couple years, but she’s finally jointed Bandai’s Figuarts Zero line (along with Captain Smoker himself).
There have been quite a few incidents of poor quality-control in the Figuarts Zero line, so I wasn’t confident at all that Tashigi was going to come out of the factory looking half as good as she did in prototype form. But to my delight, the factory did a gorgeous job with what they were given. The paint deco on this Tashigi is downright perfect, and the sculpting job done is equally impressive.
What fails to impress me about this figure, however, is the defining characteristic of any “action” figure with zero points of articulation: its pose…
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Toy Review: One Piece POP Kyupin Tony Tony Chopper Variant Figure
It’s ironic that when American companies produce figures with extremely minor differences as an “all-new figure” I get irritated, but when Japanese company MegaHouse does it, I can’t wait to plunk down my money (and a lot of it!). For the second review of One Piece week–and first-ever review of a One Piece Portrait of Pirates figure–I’m reviewing the “Kyupin” Tony Tony Chopper variant figure that was only available at a handful of shows in Japan this summer.
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