Thundercats Classics
Lion-O
6 Inch Scale
By: Bandai
$14.99
I am not the biggest Thundercats fan. It's a property that I liked, but didn't love. It ranks below things like Inhumanoids and Centurions for me. When Bandai announced it was doing a classic Thundercats revamp, I was so-so on the project. If the figures looked cool, I might pick a couple up. That was my philosphy. To date I've watched absolutely zero episodes of the new cartoon. When the first exclusives hit, I liked them, but not enough to pay the prices. Plus the figures were in an odd 8 inch scale, which didn't bother me much, but didn't entice me either.


A few months later, Bandai decided that 8 inch wasn't the way to go and changed the scale to 6 inch. They also gave Lion-O a new head. I still wasn't too interested, even though the figures looked pretty good. But low and behold, I keep seeing these figures in Target. Eventually, they beat down my resistance and I picked up a couple. There's just something inherently great about seeing old school toy properties reinvented in the toy aisle.


As a kid, I liked Thundercats well enough, I had a few figures and I watched the show... But there wasn't enough nostalgia to make me order these things online. Seeing them in store for a decent price is another matter entirely and that's why you're getting this review today.

Figma
Robocop
5 Inch Scale
By: Max Factory
$49.99 (price varies)
Part Man. Part Machine. ALL Cop. Paul Verhoeven's 1987 Robocop film transformed the concept of a cyborg. Robocop was a movie that had a lot of social commentary, gratuitous violence and one of the coolest looking "robots" in film history. It also instantly became a hit with kids, which is pretty amazing because the movie is actually Rated R. That didn't stop toys from being made, cartoons from being launched and Robocop becoming everything that perhaps the movie was against.


None of that matters though, because Robocop is a badass. I love Robocop, even the bad sequels and the underrated TV show. I owned a ton of the Kenner figures and I bought quite a few of the Toy Island figures, even Commander Cash! Despite a ton of attempts from McFarlane, NECA and even Hot Toys, I'm not certain we've ever had a perfect Robocop figure.


Ultimately, this figure isn't "perfect" either, but it's damn close. I'm sure Hot Toy's second attempt at Robcop will be perfect... But it will also run you $300 or so. For $60 or less, you won't find a better Robocop figure than the Figma. This guy is incredible, both in detail and design, but most importantly in articulation. This is the most poseable Robcop to date and he's an amazing figure because of it.

GI Joe: Rise of Cobra Action Battlers
Cobra Viper
6.5 Inch Scale
By: Hasbro
$12.99 (price varies on secondary market)
More crap from the vault, this time a figure that very few people seemed to want. The Action Battlers were a strange concept from Hasbro introduced during the roll-out of Rise of Cobra movie toys. While many have labeled these the bastard sons of Sigma Six, the figures honestly seem more like giant versions of something like Imaginext. Had these actually been in scale and used the Sigma Six molds, I suspect they'd been revered as great figures. Instead, I think few if anybody picked them up.


That's where I come in at. I loved this figure from the moment I saw it. The design was similar to the smaller 3 3/4 ROC Vipers, but it had a little bit of something extra to it. The stylistic chunky design, just looked awesome to me. Despite that, I, like most, balked at the price, especially considering I knew these figures were limited in articulation.

However, when the opportunity came to army build this guy for cheap, I was all over it like white on rice. One crappy figure is just that, crappy, but a small army of them? Awesome! The real question is... Is this figure crappy at all, or is it just misunderstood?

Do you like browsergames? Of course you do, it seems as though everyone does these days. There are so many great broswer games out there available right now, but it's often hard to figure out where to get the best games and it's even harder to find them in German language. That's where www.browsergame-world.de comes in. They offer tons of top quality, super fun browser games for download in German language! Es ist wunderbar!

While I wait for Mattel to send me the monthly Q&A answers, which they've already sent out to some sites, but apprently not us... It's time for some general toy news. This is a new column, where I'll give you updates on various things.

• Speaking of Mattel, today was the first on sale date for the 2012 MOTUC subscription. Do to a ton of logistics hiccups, the first figures shipping are the Star Sisters 3 pack. According to our in the field reporters, this was the first MOTUC sale in history to have no WSOD. Likewise, enthusiasm seems at an all-time low for this set of figures, especially as it arrives on the wave of various other customer service issues with Mattel. Will the Star Sisters become the worst selling MOTUC item to date? Mo-Larr sure hopes so.



• Mezco Toyz have confirmed that their Earthworm Jim figure will launch in July of 2012. You may recall that Mezco originally announced this figure way back at SDCC 2011. No word on why the figure has taken nearly a year to get to market, but Mezco promises that the 6 inch scale Earthworm Jim will feature 8 points of articulation and not only with his plasma blaster, but with an alternate “bendy” unsuited worm body as well. Several websites have erroneously posted up news that Mezco is making a 3 inch Earthworm Jim. That appears to be nothing more than an error on the part of those sites.



• The limited edition Knight Avenger Commander X which launched on Christmas Eve, is still for sale at the Capt'n Eli website. Remember that the figure normally retails for $19.95 but is on sale for $15 until the 15th of February. The sale is also good for all previous Commander X figures, such as 1950's Commander X. Be sure to tell them Infinite Hollywood sent you if you pick up one of these spiffy throwback figures.



• 3A's Ashley Wood has confirmed that the upcoming F-Legion Cyborg figure does NOT have a moustache, despite the preview pictures seemingly containing one. This will no doubt disappoint a lot of 3A fans who believed that the figure did, but likewise may please others. The moustache was the subject of much discussion and artwork during the recent 3AA membership drive (which has expired now) but the figure's full visage has yet to be seen. This exclusive is scheduled to ship in April.



• Glyos has a big sale coming up this Friday where they will unleash the new Gendrone Revolution: Shock Force figures, as well as man others. These guys tend to sell out fast, so be ready to get them on Friday or else you'll be without. Full details on all the figures being released on this mission drop can be found here.



• The Crystar inspired Backyard Legends: Action Figures of Yore are reportedly in the final stages of QC testing and are on target for a 2012 release. Those who originally invested in the project via Kickstarter will be the first to get their figures, with online retail variants to come. We first covered the legends back in December of 2010, so these figures are definitely long anticipated.

S.H. Figuarts: Tiger and Bunny
Barnaby Brooks, Jr.
5-inch-ish scale
By: Bandai
$45+ Online

All is lost. I’m stuck halfway between tokusatsu and anime and the toys. My God, the toys.

It seems the Figuarts goal is to be as accurate to the source material as possible while maintaining a high amount of articulation. When you look at the characters from Tiger and Bunny, an anime about a superhero reality show in which heroes are granted points based on heroic acts, you can see that some of the designs might pose a problem in this arena. Barnaby is one-half of the superhero duo the show focuses on, so it’s essential that they nail the figure if they plan to release all 8 heroes and other characters.

Will Bandai rise to the occasion and make a highly poseable action figure with well-hidden articulation or fall prey to its own celebrity?

Let’s find out. Bonjour, heroes.