The Right:

From the classic Ninja Turtles comics to the vintage and 2003 TMNT cartoon series, Leatherhead has always been a fan-favorite character (though interpretations of Leatherhead over the years have varied quite a bit). So I was really pleased that Playmates Toys chose to make Leatherhead available in the first few series of the new Nickelodeon Ninja Turtles figure line. Great choice.

Leatherhead has some of the very best sculpting of any modern Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure. The leathery scale texture covering Leatherhead’s body is outstanding, and the wraps around his feet and forearms look great as well. The scales running down Leatherhead’s back look equally detailed and impressive.

But my favorite part of this Leatherhead figure is the head sculpt–the piercing eyes and crooked, asymmetrical teeth on Leatherhead are tremendous. Leatherhead’s head looks exactly the way I remember it from the Ninja Turtles 2012 cartoon, which is just the way it should be.

The Wrong:

They had two Leatherheads at my local Target store where I picked these new figures up. Both of them had poor quality-control on the paint apps. I picked the one with a big green splotch on his chest because the other one was painted even worse. Quality-control hasn’t been a big problem on the Nickelodeon TMNT figures line so far, but I suspect the paint wash on this production of Leatherhead figures is going to be a problem.

The articulation on Leatherhead is some of the worst in the entire Nick Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure line. He has just six points of articulation: a swivel head, a swivel tail, ball-jointed shoudlers, and ball-jointed hips. That’s it. With that limited amount of articulation, there’s not many cool poses you can get Leatherhead into and have him stand stably, and to be frank, there’s not many different poses you can get Leatherhead into at all. This clearly isn’t Playmates Toys’ best effort.

The Ridiculous:

The scale on this TMNT 2013 Leatherhead figure is so off that it’s downright ludicrous. I understand that there’s no deluxe figure line to include a larger Leatherhead in, but the Leatherhead action figure that Playmates is selling us here is so undersized it’s pathetic. You can’t have April O’ Neil and Master Splinter towering over this iteration of Leatherhead. You just can’t. Wonky scale is one thing, but this Leatherhead looks totally out of place amongst my other Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

The 2013 Leatherhead Ninja Turtles figure has just been released to store in the last week or so. Right now he’s available for under 20 bucks including shipping from Amazon, which is a pretty decent price. Or if you want, you can hunt for a deal for Leatherhead on ebay.

Overall: Any way you look at it, this Leatherhead figure is a train wreck. From spotty paint applications and being completely and utterly out of scale to having some of the weakest articulation in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2013 figures line, this Leatherhead is a massive disappointment. About the only thing going for this TMNT Leatherhead action figure is some nice sculpting work and the fact that he’s Leatherhead. If I knew this 2013 Leatherhead Ninja Turtles action figure was going to be as poor as he is, I honestly don’t think I’d have plunked down 10 bucks for him.

GRADE: D

The Right:

This figure is infinitely better than the mechanical head Baxter Stockman figure from the Ninja Turtles 2003 line, but oddly enough, all we see of Baxter’s body is a head once again! Baxter is wearing the technological robot suit that he donned in his first appearance in the Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, complete with robot claw hands.

Some of the likenesses in this Nickelodeon TMNT line have been questionable, but I’m very pleased with the Baxter Stockman head–it looks just like Baxter does in the new cartoon (though Baxter is not a handsome man). I love the doofy, totally uncool expression on the Baxter Stockman figure’s face.

The suit is reasonably authentic to its cartoon appearance as well, but what really surprised me about Baxter’s robot suit is that it’s fairly well-articulated. It doesn’t look it, but the large “shoulders” of the suit can swivel, and Baxter’s robot arms are ball-jointed inside of the shoulders.

Baxter has a swivel head, a swivel waist, swivel “wrists”, ball-jointed hips, hinge elbows, and hinge knees. This Baxter Stockman action figure is no Marvel Legends figure or anything, but the articulation is vastly better than the statuesque block I expected Baxter to be.

The Wrong:

There’s absolutely no way around it–this Baxter Stockman figure is way, way too small. Baxter was never going to be able to tower over the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in this suit as he does in the cartoon, but the suits looks downright dinky and silly being the size it is.

Seriously, this Baxter Stockman action figure legitimately isn’t even bigger than a school girl (April O’ Neil, thanks). This figure would have worked far better as a build-a-figure, an inclusion in a box set, or any other type of release that would have let it be even a tiny bit bigger.

As nice as the Baxter head is, it’s still a tiny little pin head, particularly compared to the giant noggins on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themselves. What’s also strange about Baxter’s head is that it’s so small that he literally shouldn’t be able to look in any direction but straight forward without having his vision completely obscured by the sides of the robot suit. This is a flaw inherent in the design from the cartoon, but it’s still baffling and aesthetically jarring.

Finally, I was disappointed to see that Baxter’s claw hands have zero articulation. Zippo. That means that any cool poses this TMNT Baxter Stockman figure could have had trapping turtles by the heads or hoisting them aloft are all out the window. Not including articulation on these claws strikes me far more as laziness than any kind of cost-cutting necessity.

Overall: I don’t hate this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2013 Baxter Stockman figure, but I also don’t love it. The figure is beyond-a-doubt out-of-scale, and has a pin head to match. I’m not real pleased with the lack of articulation in his claws or feet either. Even so, I’m surprised how articulated Baxter’s suit of armor actually is, and the figure is surprisingly sturdy and stable. The armor itself is authentic enough, and I thought Playmates did a nice job with the Baxter Stockman head sculpt, which is only the second unmasked human head sculpt in this Ninja Turtles figure line. Overall, I’d say this Baxter Stockman 2013 figure is average. If you’ve been dying for a new TMNT figure (or a Baxter figure for some reason), you might as well pick him up.

GRADE: C

While concept art for the Leatherhead, Snakeweed, and Baxter Stockman figures was shown as far back as the New York Toy Fair in February 2012 (yes, 2012), it’s taken well over a year for these figures to finally hit stores. Auction listings for these figures first appeared online a week or so ago where they’re now fairly plentiful to purchase, and now some local retail stores also seem to be starting to receive stock.

Two of these names will sound familiar to longtime Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans, while one is likely only known to viewers of the new TMNT Nickelodeon cartoon series. This iteration of Leatherhead is the brilliant but brute-like ally of the Ninja Turtles (just like in the TMNT 2003 cartoon), and not the 1980s bayou-stomping villainous version. Baxter Stockman is the evil techno glacial scientist version and not the human fly version fans remember fondly (or not fondly). And Snakeweed is a newly-created mutant seen only in the new Nick Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon that debuted last year.

I purchased all three of these new 2013 Ninja Turtles figures, and will post reviews and photo galleries of Baxter Stockman, Snakeweed, and Leatherhead individually over the next few days. If you can’t wait for these new Ninja Turtles toys to hit your stores, they’re available online now at Amazon at a bit of a mark-up.

The brain-eating, tongue-flicking “classic” Venom from the 1990′s was never my thing. Yes, I know as a teenager in those years I was supposed to think Venom was the coolest thing ever. But, well… I thought he was ridiculous and I hated him. Oh, I read his comics–including “Venom: The Madness”, but I was just not a real fan. However, when I saw the brand-new Marvel Select Venom on sale one-day-only for 15 bucks at a local store, I decided to give him a try. And oh man, am I glad I did.

First off, the number of alternate parts and accessories this figure comes with is crazy. I hate the Venom design from “The Madness”, but the add-on “backpack” of extra Venom heads and arms is downright insane. Each of the heads and arms has articulation and can be moved all over the place, making the Toybiz version from a decade-plus ago look like a silly antique by comparison. Plus there are alternate open hands, fist hands, and super-sharp claw hands. And oh yeah–two bonus extra heads, including a classic “no-tongue” head and a half-Eddie Brock head. To be frank, I can’t imagine what more anyone could realistically ask for from a classic Venom figure…

Continue Reading the Marvel Select Classic Venom Eddie Brock Figure Review —–>

Now, while I have never liked the classic 1990′s Venom, I am in love with the modern-era Flash Thompson iteration of Venom. So once I realized I actually liked Marvel Select figures, I was hellbent on bringing home a Marvel Select Flash Thompson.

Once I got my hands on the modern Venom figure, though, well… he wasn’t as good as classic Venom. Don’t get me wrong–I love this figure–love it. But there’s no question that it’s just not as good as the Eddie Brock Venom. There’s no Flash Thompson head–in fact, no alternate heads at all. And no alternate hands or change-o parts. Really, the figure is a bit spartan. The articulation is also sub-par in comparison to the regular Diamond Select Toys Venom–while there’s the same number of points, Flash requires more athletic and finesse-based poses than Eddie Brock does. And as much as I like Flash’s guns, he can’t hold them very well.

Where this modern Venom figure by Marvel Select excels is in the paint and sculpting departments. I love the textures and intricate details on this Flash Thompson Venom action figure, and his base is well-done (if unnecessary). It sounds like there’s so many problems with this figure, but at its core this is just a fantastic representation of the character. It’s not even close to perfect, but it definitely earns my recommendation.

Continue Reading the Marvel Select Modern Venom Figure Review —–>

The Right:

At first glance this BOPPV Randy Orton figure is a very simple action figure. At least, from the front it is. But once you turn him around, you realize that Orton has a ton of tattoos and a reasonably complex tights design for Mattel to try to pull off.

And for the most part, they’re highly successful at replicating these details. There’s a couple spots where the designs are missing a couple dots of paint or aren’t applied absolutely perfectly, but for the most part they’ve been very well-executed.

Often I feel that the articulation that Mattel’s “basic” WWE figures sport isn’t enough, but in Randy Orton’s case I think the limited articulation works out just fine. Orton has never had the most athletic repertoire of moves (no offense, Orton fans), so his T-crotch lower-body articulation really only hinders the figure from having moves applied to him by other wrestlers. Would I prefer this Orton be an Elite? If all costs were equal, then yes. But for the ~$6 more it would cost for the WWE Elite articulation scheme, this Orton figure is more than sufficient.

The Wrong:

I don’t know what Over the Limit 2012 Pay-Per-View Mattel watched, but I saw that show and Randy Orton didn’t wear this attire at it. Orton did indeed wrestle at last year’s Over the Limit in black trunks, but the detailing on his attire at that PPV was silvery-white. As an alleged attempt to replicate the attire worn at the specific Over the Limit 2012 PPV, this Best of PPV Randy Orton figure is a complete failure.

The Ridiculous:

Randy didn’t sport a full beard by the time Over the Limit 2012 rolled around, so you would expect Mattel to give this figure a clean-shaven head sculpt with some shading for Orton’s stubble on it. Nope! Not Mattel! Instead, they used the full beard Randy Orton head mold and simply chose not to paint the beard at all.

That’s right, this Mattel Randy Orton BOPPV figure is sporting a flesh-colored beard. It looks like he’s gotten some terrible disease and has a big, bumpy fungal growth on his face. This is pure laziness making an already inauthentic action figure look even worse. Ridiculous.

Overall: The most important part of an action figure that based upon a real person is the head, and this figure’s head looks like Randy Orton’s face is swollen up from being stung by over 9,000 bees. And as ludicrous as the head looks with the faux-beard, the attire on this Best of PPV Randy Orton figure isn’t even authentic–these aren’t the tights that Orton allegedly wore at the Over the Limit 2012 Pay-Per-View (good try, Mattel). If I hadn’t been obligated to buy this figure to get a Build-A-Figure piece for the Mattel Teddy Long figure I absolutely would not have bought it, and I can’t recommend the figure to anyone else either. Terrible effort by Mattel here.

GRADE: D

I saved the worst for first: New World Ver. Usopp. I admit it–I hate Usopp. The moment Usopp showed up in the One Piece anime, I hated his guts. And I’ve continued to hate him for the following 580 episodes since he’s been around. Even so, I needed him to complete my Straw Hat Pirates crew, and since I paid for him, I wanted his figure to be great.

It’s not.

The overall sculpt for Usopp is acceptable (although his straps are too thin and his poofy hem on his pants are too large), but the figure just falls apart completely when it comes to the paint. Seriously, Bandai got almost every shade of paint on this figure wrong. His pants are tinted far too dark, Usopp’s skin tone isn’t pale enough, the fluffy bits on his pants have an awful-looking blue wash on them… it’s a train wreck. Even more blatantly messed-up is Usopp’s slingshot, the Black Kabuto. Someone at Bandai must be color-blind, because somehow the Black Kabuto turned out green…

Continue Reading My Full Review of One Piece Figuarts Zero New World Usopp——->

The poor “pet” of the Straw Hat Pirates, Tony Tony Chopper, has similar paint issues that hold back what’s an otherwise adorable figure. Chopper’s fatal flaw is that somehow Bandai painted his fur the wrong shade. Instead of look light brown, he looks like this orange cream color. Not exactly the color you’d expect a reindeer to be.

Furthermore, Chopper suffers from some sloppy paint applications, particularly on his hat, where paint bleeds onto other colors and there are uneven lines all over the place. When you’re making “action” figures that are actually just little plastic statues with no articulation, there’s a responsibility to do the paintwork perfect, and Bandai missed the mark with Chopper.

Continue Reading My Full Review of One Piece Figuarts Zero New World Version Tony Tony Chopper——->

Finally, we have Nami, the bombshell of Luffy’s Pirate crew (both in looks and in violent temper). The New World Ver Nami figure actually has some qualities that are superior to those of the ~$85 MegaHouse P.O.P Nami figure, which is saying a lot. This Nami Bandai figure can stand up unassisted without a hitch despite wearing high heels, doesn’t have magical semi-transparent hair like the Sailing Again Nami did (no, really–somehow that got past MegaHouse’s quality-control), and isn’t posed like a hooker like the POP Nami.

Unfortunately, New World Nami still has problems. Nami has a coloration issue as well (her hair isn’t the right shade), her pose is still largely uninspired, I hate the personality-less “smile” on her face, and she’s just overall not a lot of fun.

Continue Reading My Full Review of One Piece Figuarts Zero Nami New World Version Figure——->

Overall: I can’t recommend any of these Figuarts Zero Bandai One Piece figures to anyone who isn’t intent on building the whole Straw Hat Pirate crew. Bandai has gotten far better since they produced these One Piece figures in 2011, and it’s a shame that such iconic versions of main characters were wasted while Bandai was going through their learning curve. None of these are outright trash or anything, but all of them are flawed in ways that I find unacceptable for such expensive non-poseable anime figurines.

GRADE: C-

The Right:

The Cleveland Cavs don’t get a lot of McFarlane Sports Picks NBA figures. In fact, since Lebron James betrayed the team, there’s been a grand total of zero–until now. I’ve always felt that McFarlane Toys didn’t “spread the wealth” enough–so to speak–making players from teams beyond the absolute most popular and profitable. So to see a figure turn up–even of a #1 draft pick–from a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in three years is definitely encouraging.

But let’s talking about the Kyrie Irving Sports Picks figure itself. This is (obviously) the NBA Sports Picks figure debut for Kyrie Irving, and it’s also the first time we’ve seen this modern Cleveland Cavaliers uniform in action figure form. And I have to say–I love the look of the maroon and gold paint on this figure. It sounds like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how often toy companies botch matching the paint to the actual color that a realistic figure should be. That’s not the case here–the maroon and gold paints were chosen masterfully and look totally authentic to real-life.

I’m always a little wary of McFarlane NBA player head sculpts after the god-awful “neanderthal” Blake Griffin head on last year’s Griffin figure, but this Kyrie Irving likeness is terrific. From the creases on Irving’s brow to the level of shading for his beard and hair, McFarlane Toys have knocked this Kyrie Irving’s head sculpt and paint out of the ballpark (I know, wrong sport).

The pose chosen for the Kyrie Irving NBA 22 Sports Picks is taking a jump shot, and I am quite grateful for that. McFarlane Toys just puts out so many figures of players doing dunks that I’m more than a little burned out on that. Irving looks dynamic and natural taking to the air for a carefully-aimed jump shot, and I can honestly say this is the pose I would have chosen for the Kyrie Irving Sports Pick debut figure.

The miniscule NBA logos on the Irving figure’s shorts and jersey look perfect (as always), and I’m still quite in love with the texture, sculpting, and paint apps on the Spaulding basketball (which can be rotated around in Irving’s hand or removed entirely). Also, as I’ve been staring at his black shoes with maroon bottoms while writing this review, now I kind of want a pair.

Also, it’s an intangible, but I thought it was worth mentioning that the Sports Picks Gold Collector Level chase figure for this McFarlane NBA 22 series is Kyrie Irving wearing a white jersey, which further throws the spotlight on Irving and makes his Sports Pick debut feel pretty special. I can’t afford said figure, but it’s nice to know that it exists.

The Wrong:

I hate to sound like a McFarlane kissass, but there’s really very little to dislike about this NBA 22 Kyrie Irving figure. There’s a couple centimeters on the back of Irving’s shorts where the factory missed applying the gold paint for the stripes at the bottom of his shorts, and it’s pretty annoying. I’m never going to have him facing backwards anyway, but it sets off my OCD and is making me a little crazy.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

The Kyrie Irving figure has been one of the fastest sellers from the McFarlane Toys NBA 22 Sports Picks series, but I got mine for $12.99 with free shipping from Amazon. I suspect Kyrie Irving will be the first figure from this assortment to sell out online, however. There’s also an ultra-rare chase figure of Kyrie Irving that only 250 were produced of, but the prices for that figure are starting to get pretty out-of-hand online.

Overall: Aside from my squirming about a little bit of missed paint on the shorts on the inside of the back of Irving’s leg, this McFarlane Kyrie Irving NBA 22 Sports Picks figure is pretty much perfect. The paint colors chosen are ideal, I love the pose, and the Kyrie Irving head sculpt is one of McFarlane Toys’ best. Really, I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a McFarlane Sports Picks figure this much. For Cleveland Cavaliers and/or Kyrie Irving fans, this figure is outstanding and highly recommended.

GRADE: A

The Right:

As much as I loathe Brock Lesnar, the Mattel WWE Best of PPV Brock Lesnar is a really good Brock Lesnar wrestling figure. Not only does his red and black attire look striking, but it’s also accurate to his in-ring appearance in 2012. The paint has been applied masterfully all over the sculpt, and even Brock’s tattoos on his chest, shoulders, and back came out looking terrific.The true test of this figure is facial sculpt, but Mattel did a great job scanning Brock Lesnar’s face for this figure. Brock looks both serious and intimidating, and the head sculpt is unmistakably Brock Lesnar. Bad paint can ruin a sculpt, but the paintwork here is top-notch and the Best of PPV Brock Lesnar figure prospers as a result.

BOPPV Brock Lesnar is a basic WWE figure, but he doesn’t suffer very much from it. Brock Lesnar’s moveset is more power-based and doesn’t feature a ton of moves that requires ball-jointed hips, so the lack of extremely flexible legs doesn’t hurt a wrestling figure like Brock nearly as much as it does basic figures of Dolph Ziggler, Rey Mysterio, and so forth.

The Wrong:

The main thing that irritates me about this figure is an intangible–the fact that many people already bought this same, exact Brock Lesnar figure in the Mattel WWE Basic Series 26 lineup, and are now being forced to buy it again if they want to build Teddy Long. I realize Mattel had limited options to work with for Lesnar PPV attires in 2012, but if that’s the case, they should have used a different wrestler in this series.

It’s pretty lame to force hardcore WWE collectors who already bought this Brock a couple months ago to buy him again for about 17 bucks more just to get the Theodore Long Build-A-Figure Arms.

Overall: Other than the fact that I had to buy him to complete another figure, I really can’t find anything to complain about with this WWE Mattel BOPPV Brock Lesnar figure. The sculpt is all-around great (including the head), the paintwork is well-done, and the articulation is perfectly suitable for Brock to perform almost all of his power moves. If you’re a huge Lesnar fan you may want to spring for the Elite Lesnar so that he can use more of his MMA move set, but for the casual Brock Lesnar fan (and people who are forced to buy this figure to complete Teddy Long), this Brock Lesnar Best of PPV 2012 figure is about as good as we could have hoped for.

GRADE: A-

The Right:

Ordinarily I don’t buy basic WWE figures. While I usually don’t care about accessories, I can’t stand the lack of articulation in basic figures. But then Mattel realized they could capitalize on hardcore WWE fans by integrating the brilliant Build-A-Figure scheme within their WWE lines, and suddenly people–like me–began buying figures they’d otherwise never want. Moreover, I was excited to find figures like Dolph Ziggler I wasn’t even going to buy! As such, the clever marketing principles used in this series fall into the right.

Dolph looks very nice packaged, and I love the white background-style packaging Mattel began using for their WWE line last year. The Theodore Long gimmick is very prominent in the packaging, you can see the photo of Dolph Ziggler wearing the (wrong) blue tights well, the stripe on the side lets you know which PPV this Best of Pay-Per-View 2012 figure is meant to represent, and the figure is clear and easy to see. From a packaging standpoint, this is tops. No complaints.

As far as authenticity goes, let’s take a look at a photo of Dolph Ziggler as he actually appeared at WWE No Way Out 2012:

Very fun attire and a cool choice to produce in action figure form, for certain. The pattern on the back of Dolph’s tights looks a bit abstract, though–could Mattel accurately deco it on this Ziggler figure?

As it turns out, Mattel succeeded almost perfectly in recreating the pattern of Dolph Ziggler’s tights for this action figure. Sparkly paint may have worked better, but I wouldn’t expect to see that on a basic WWE Wrestling figure. Props to Mattel for getting the black straps on Dolph’s boots correct as well!

It’s worth noting that Matte didn’t get the blue of Dolph’s trunks right, however–Mattel opted for a sky blue while the tights Dolph actually wore when he wrestled at WWE No Way Out 2012 were more of an aqua. I’m categorizing this as “Right”, however, because I think that the sky blue tights on this toy look much better than the aqua-blue tights looked in reality.

The Wrong:

Let’s face facts: this Dolph Ziggler figure? He looks kind of dopey and more than a little cross-eyed. I know that Dolph Ziggler has never succeeded in being a “badass” character or anything like that, but I feel like this head scan Mattel has done looks just a bit too goofy for me to take Ziggler seriously.

The other glaring problem with this figure is, of course, the articulation. While certain wrestlers who use strictly power-based movesets like Mark Henry and The Great Khali do alright with the restricted flexibility of WWE basics, Dolph Ziggler is a highly technical, sometimes high-flying wrestler. Best of PPV Ziggler can sort of perform the Zig-Zag, but forget about any kind of exciting superkicks or anything of that nature.

Overall: The Mattel WWE Dolph Ziggler Best of PPV (BOPPV) figure turns out to be pretty “okay”. He’s not perfect–his head sculpt looks a bit too “guh-huh!” and his articulation won’t allow the figure to perform many of the moves in Dolph Ziggler’s repertoire. Even so, the attire is almost entirely accurate, and I’m impressed with how well Mattel captured the trunks Dolph wore at No Way Out 2012. I was planning on selling all four figures that came with the Theodore Long parts, but now I think I’m going to keep Ziggler for myself. This isn’t an amazing figure, but if you’re trying to build Teddy Long or you’re a Dolph Ziggler fan, he’s worth picking up for your collection.

GRADE: B-

To be completely honest, I didn’t exactly love Blaster in the 80′s. Oh, I had all the Autobot cassettes and loved them to death (particularly Steeljaw and Ramhorn), but Blaster himself struck me as being a bit over-the-top. I felt that way my whole life until I was an adult and saw what may be the greatest Transformers fan video of all time: “The Rude Awakening of Optimus Prime”.

Yeah, after I saw that video, I loved Blaster (and Kup) forever. I always wanted a modern Blaster toy after seeing “The Rude Awakening of Optimus Prime”, but Hasbro never made another good one until now (and yes, I am aware of that freakish Blaster from the Transformers Universe line). And that’s just what I think this Fall of Cybertron Blaster is–”good”.

The colors, the head, the opening chest, the gun, the fact that he can carry his “cassettes” around again (in data disc form)–there’s enough here to satisfy fans who’ve been waiting patiently for a Blaster toy that looks and feels like, well… Blaster. On the downside, he has crazy arms that are super-lanky and gorilla-like, and his legs are similarly disproportionate.

And then there’s Steeljaw. The less said about this Steeljaw–the better. Generations Steeljaw looks far more like the Pokémon Jolteon than he does Blaster’s lion cassette from the 80′s, and has a half-broken auto-transformation gimmick that sets off constantly and destroys any chance of having fun with this flimsy, ridiculous-looking Steeljaw. It’s pretty pathetic that the Hasbro design team couldn’t make a toy 29 years later that was even at the same level of quality as the 1984 Steeljaw.

Overall, I think that Blaster is a good Voyager who was worth my 22 bucks, while Steeljaw is an utter piece of crap that will fit better in the trash bin than inside Blaster’s chest.

You can read the full review of Blaster and check out the photo gallery over on my new blog just for anime toys, AnimeToyNews.com. (And yes, I’m considering Transformers to be an anime. Deal with it.)