Category Archives: figure review

SpartanNerd Review…G.I. Joe figures from Dollar General…Snake Eyes and Cobra Commander

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Here at the edge of the world, we don’t have too many stores.  At one time, there were more, and then the apocalypse happened, and almost everything moved out.  And then Dollar General Market came in and filled the void.

I visit this store almost everyday, and saw these on the pegs right around Thanksgiving.  But I refrained from purchasing them.  I don’t collect G.I. Joes, and the SpartanSmurf’s have a history of owning them but not playing with them.  I admit that I was tempted, though.  I have never owned as awesome a Cobra Commander as they had on the shelf.  Furthermore, the figures seem to be painted in 1980’s generation 1 cartoon colors, and they were on sale for only $6.00.  (The cheapskate in me screams…”What a deal!  G.I. Joes are running almost as much as $15.00 at department stores!”)

So after Christmas, these were still hanging on the shelf…And the SpartanSmurfs had some money they were itching to spend…so where did I kind of point them???

Only one taker.  SpartanSmurf #2.  He is fond of Snake Eyes (and Ninjas in general), and thought Cobra Commander was cool also.  They also had a Duke, who looked nothing like Duke.  So neither one of us was interested.  (See…He takes after his old man!)

Here are some pics and a review, followed by some comments and a rating!  (I promise I took a pic of the box.  But somehow that is nowhere to be found?  The box is a window, prominently featuring the G.I. Joe branding, and on the back showcases six total figures from the line, but all painted in different colors than seen at the Dollar General Market.  You’ll just have to take my word for it I suppose. The only figures we saw were the ones mentioned here.)
Snake Eyes.  CLASSIC!
Cobra Commander.  CLASSIC!  This staff is also a sword.
Cobra Commander and his accessories.

Snake eyes and his accessories.
He’s holding a pistol.

A battle pose, by SparnanSmurf #2!

Thoughts on these figures.

“‘Ow Be-zar!”  (Spoken in that dreadnok voice).  The marketing strategy here is…..I guess maybe some kid will come through with his weekly allowance, or maybe will come through with his mom and ask for this, and it is certainly reasonable as an impulse buy.  On the other hand, it seems it should appeal to people like me, more nostalgic types who have that 1980’s childhood aesthetic sense about them, who would see them and recognize them on account of their paint job.
These figures are excellent.  Cobra Commander especially.  (I am more fond of the all black suited Snake Eyes rather than the early versions.)  Cobra Commander’s eyes could be shoddily done, but they are not.  The work is clearly good.  And you get a stand!  (I am not sure, but don’t most Joes come with a stand nowadays?)
The only difference in these and what I might find at say, Target, are the accessories.  They seem a little scant.  But hey.  It’s a $6.00 G.I. Joe!  So I guess the corners had to be cut somewhere!

My rating?  I am going to say 4.5/5, taking off a point only because there aren’t many accessories.  Other figures at Dollar General seem to have the same trend though, for instance the Marvel characters they have on the pegs have no accessories.  So I guess these guys are better than them!  But still, it isn’t a full on G.I. Joe experience without the backpacks, extra guns, knives, swords, etc.   And I also wish the back of the box had a bio of the characters, (like in the old days!)  Anyone disagree with my 4.5, let me know!

Masters of the Universe Classics Unboxing and Review….The Griffin!

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Remember my review of Megator?
Well I think I have an even more impressive figure to review, now!  The GRIFFIN!
The Griffin is AMAZING!  Who would have thought we could get this?  And it seems very calculated as well, being an amalgamation of Battle Cat and Swift Wind.
In the Mike Young cartoon, griffins were the bad guy’s main mode of escape.  They would start to lose, and the griffins would swoop in and grab the villains and take them to safety.
This creature absolutely fits in my nerd closet with the Magic cards and other stuff like that.  I’d bet I have several dozen Griffin Magic cards…
When I first saw the Griffin, I thought, “Do I really want that?”  Then I got Vikor, and thought, “The Griffin would be a great ride for Vikor.”  It didn’t take too long for me to figure out, Vikor isn’t riding any steed, with that loincloth.  But it was worth a try.
I got the Griffin as a part of the Cyber Monday sale, as mentioned on the Groovy Dork List.  And am I glad I did!  This figure is the most impressive figure I may own!
He came in this big box.  It is so big, I decided to use it as a background!

Here he is in his ugliness!  Awesome ugliness at that!

When you take him out of the box, you see that you have to assemble the wings to his body.

Here he is, ready to fly!

Don’t call him four-eyes!

He has a double tail…the kind of thing that was favored on the MYP show.

I don’t own a Beast-Man, so Spikor will have to do.  Ugly riding Ugly!

I dreamed of putting Vikor on the Griffin.  Alas, his loincloth was too much.
Even with the saddle off.  This was the best I could do.  It kind of looks like
Vikor is going to slay him in this picture…

You can see that he has a cool mane.  His backside is just the Battle-Cat buck, with chicken feet.

What do Griffin’s eat?  Temple of Darkness Zoar!  (not included of course)

Here is an overhead shot.  This figure is HUGE!

I give the Griffin a 5/5!  He is solid.  Huge.  Fits in most contexts.  Ugly in a beautiful way.  He is one of the best figures I own as far as sculpt, displayability, playability, and on and on!

Figure Review…The Walking Dead "Governor" by McFarlane Toys

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I have quite a long history with Image comics, mostly just Spawn, but I am sort of aware of other properties from them.  And if you have been reading my blog awhile…(someone has, don’t know who), you know that Todd McFarlane is my favorite comic artist.

Over the years I have seen a few McFarlane Toys as well, but never owned one.  But aside from Spawn toys, which were largely sculpted by the Four Horsemen, the other toys are liscenced images.  Sports figures, rock stars, The Simpsons, even Where the Wild Things Are.  But the toys are always perfect likenesses.

Which is one reason why this Walking Dead figure is sort of…lacking.

Here is my review, with pictures.  Incidentally, this isn’t my figure, it is SpartanSmurf #1’s figure…

Here he is, in box on the Magic Card Table at the Tangled Web.

Here is the back of the box…showing other figures from the line.  Notice that this figure is billed as an AMC figure….you know, from the show.

Here he is at home, on my review table.  He doesn’t look like the actor to me…
I have been known to have poor sight, though

Here he is with his famous eye patch.  It should be noted that
in order to change heads, it took a ton of effort.  And SpartanSmurf #1 told me
it was so hard that it scared him he would break it.  In fact, when I removed his other head
the entire torso popped apart!

This blurry pic is trying to show you that the ball joint is on the head, rather than on a next peg.

Here is the governor’s weapons.  He uses all of these in the show, and more.  Wish there were more included.

But this is the worst thing about the figure.  This hand WILL NOT STAY ON.  It came off right out of the box.
Seriously, this thing is worse than a Star Wars figure when it comes to his right hand.

Here is an evil pose…His hand fell off right after I snapped the photo.
Guess that Machete was pretty heavy!

Here is my summary and score.

This figure has a loose sculpt that vaguely resembles the actor.  But the articulation is pretty good, with joints everywhere you would expect.  However, he loses some playability because his hand falls off repeatedly.  His included extra head is too hard to swap out.  And he should have came with more accessories.

So my score…2 out of 5.  This figure gets a 40.  F.  The Governor is far more evil a character than the walkers in the show, and he deserved a better figure.  I mean, he could have been worse…

Figure Review…Sonic The Hedgehog Superpack by Jazwares

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I have limited knowledge of Sonic and his universe…I have always been known as “THE Mario Master,” and proudly announce to the world right now that I have beaten every Super Mario game up to Mario 64 WITHOUT WARPING!  (And I have beaten Super Mario Bros. 1 countless times without even dying once.  Take that, SEGA.)  Oh, and I beat Super Mario Bros. Wii by myself!  (Also with my sons on multiplayer)

Oh.  A Tangent.  Sorry!

Not that I am completely devoid of experience with Sonic.  I had the first Sonic games on iPod…And maybe I also have the free version on my iPhone today.  In the SpartanNerd household we have Sonic: The Black Knight and Sonic Colors on our Nintendo Wii.

So, because I am such a Sonic NOOB, SpartanSmurf #2 is going to help me with this review!

I am told that these three figures are the Super versions of Sonic, Silver, and Shadow.  And the Gems are called Chaos Gems.

When we picked this set up, we were not entirely clueless as to what we were getting.  SpartanSmurf #2 has a regular Sonic Figure, and I must say it is masterfully articulated.  These appeared to have the same joints and all as that figure.  And those are…

Swivel Ankles
Knee joints that swivel and bend
Hip joints that swivel and bend, certain ways.
Waist Swivel
The same joints on elbows and shoulders as on knees and hips.
Swivel Wrists
Head Swivel

SpartanSmurf #2 tells me that Sonic can even kick his own butt!

This is impressive, considering that they are figures in scale pretty much with  California Raisins!

I just wish they could move their heads up and down, and move their fingers.

The Chaos Gems are a nice touch.  SpartanSmurf #2 tells me that these are required for the character to transform into their Super Selves.  These are all translucent, and about the size of a super-ball, and shaped like a classic diamond.  I wish there was a stand or something that came with them to prop them up, because they must lay on their side.  I guess the person playing with the figures have to get creative!

Here are some pictures!  Today, SpartanSmurf #2 did all of the posing!  Enjoy!

This was what they looked like in package from Toys R Us

We get this artwork on the back of the box.  SpartanSmurf #2 did not see fit to keep it.

This is our favorite picture that we took of the set!

Sonic, the main character looks cool as he gathers the gems.

I was unaware of Silver the Hedgehog…He is apparently the Sonic of the future or something.
This is SpartanSmurf #2 ‘s favorite.

And here is Shadow the Hedgehog.  All of these super hedgehogs remind me, the SpartanNerd of Super Sayans.  How about you, oh Hub City Geeks?

My Score…4/5.  The point was taken off because the head can’t look up on either figure.  But other than that, perfect!

MOTUC Figure Review….Count Marzo

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Count Marzo is one of those Big Lots deals….I scored him for only $10, and promptly gave him to SpartanSmurf #1.  He is a figure I had contemplated purchasing before….but somethng always held me back.  But at $10, he was an instant nab.  And I didn’t think twice about giving him to one of my children, so that they can love Masters of the Universe as I do.

The Four Horsemen have said that they received criticism from Mattel about the design of the figure.  He resembled the anime style too much.  That is definitely here….At the time he was released, there Mattel did not have the rights to Filmation, and could not design him to look like that version…So they punted and went with the more Russian version from the Mike Young cartoon, which took its design cues from anime…..and so on.

But I like anime.  See my previous posts!  And I wouldn’t want a Filmation Marzo, who appears to be a “frumpy old man.”  (Yes I said “frumpy,” and meant it.)

Marzo is one of the few characters to get his own torso sculpt.  He’s totally ripped!  His head has big hair, that does hinder the movement of his head.  His cape is very cool, made of rubber that looks like cloth!  It is very nice, and is removeable if you take off Marzo’s head.  One of the first things I did with the cape was try it out on Skeletor!

With this cape, and the powered up staff fro The Faceless One, Skeletor, looks like an anime character!

Marzo comes with an awesome spear-tipped sword.  You could really do some damage with that!

And he comes with the amulet he used in the cartoon to transform him from an old peddler into the powerful wizard!  The Amulet is made of translucent plastic.   Nice touch!  He was the first figure to come with a gripping hand, and holds the amulet nicely with that grip hand.

You will both learn to share…OR ELSE!

I have nothing bad to say about Count Marzo.  He’s boss.  I DO wish we would get the old man version of Marzo, that is the version that transforms with an amulet.  But this figure is certainly welcome as he is.  He gets a 5/5. What is your rating?  I’m waiting to give out some prizes!