{"id":16028,"date":"2014-06-13T00:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T04:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/?p=16028"},"modified":"2015-07-31T23:02:39","modified_gmt":"2015-08-01T03:02:39","slug":"rustins-spoils-of-the-week-136-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2014\/06\/rustins-spoils-of-the-week-136-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rustin's Spoils of the Week #136.2"},"content":{"rendered":"

As promised<\/a>, here's part 2 of my pseudo-\"Spoils of the Month\"!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hasbro - Star Wars Mission Series: C-3P0 & R2-D2<\/b>
\n\"junk<\/a>I've been quite looking forward to this! I can NOT stand vac-metalized 3PO so I am ecstatic to get a painted one and he turned out pretty darn well. Paint detailing here is a little bizarre though. On one hand, his waist-wires are only red or charcoal (there should at least be some white in there), but on the other hand, he gets three yellow dots around the pupil of each eye which may, indeed, be the most accurate and detailed eye paint of any 3PO figure to date. R2 is just R2 and gets a swivel head and shoulders. Honestly, these are pretty close to definitive 3¾\" versions of the characters for me and all things considered are now my go-to figures for them. I'll probably get a second set.<\/p>\n

Hasbro - Star Wars Mission Series: Han Solo & Chewbacca<\/b>
\n\"garbage\"<\/a>Aaaaaand, woof. The first thing you'll notice is that every single Han has bizarrely thick eyebrows. The second thing you'll notice? Chewie is diarrhea brown. I'm all for the \"5 points of articulation revolution\" - it's 2 figures for $10! I can even accept the semi-soft sculptural details... but when you don't even try for good paint it becomes nearly impossible to defend the line. If Chewie had a proper brown wipe (yeep - no pun intended) to fill in the details and give him some depth he'd be great. Also, his bowcaster is oddly in three pieces and falls apart easily. Look, Hasbro... if I'm into 5 PoAs then I'm into simplified weapons - just make it one tool and spent that money on more paint, for the love of midichlorians! This should be a rockstar set but instead it's unfortunately one of the most compelling reasons to ditch the line.<\/p>\n

Hasbro - Star Wars Mission Series: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Darth Maul<\/b>
\n\"wasted<\/a>Here we get a pseudo Clone Wars<\/i> Obi-Wan with new, armored arms and an all-new Darth Maul based on his, I believe, non-robot legs<\/a> Clone Wars<\/i> look. It is a bummer that this figure isn't in the Clone Wars<\/i> style, but I suppose one should be happy to have a figure of it as opposed to not. I dig him in a \"concept art\" sort of way, but Darth Maul not in black...? I don't get it. Each figure comes with a lightsaber. <\/p>\n

Hasbro - Star Wars: Yavin Pilot Pack <\/b>
\n\"Yavin<\/a>So these guys were marked down finally and thus I picked them up because a) X-Wing Pilots are cool and b) Porkins. Tiree<\/b> (Gold Two) is the dude that wears the helmet with double Rebel insignias. Davish Krail<\/b> (Gold Five) is the older fella with the two circled +'s on his helmet. Jek Porkins<\/b> (Red Six) suddenly looks like Steve Sansweet and gets cool red patterns on his helmet. All three of these guys are based on the often re-used X-Wing Luke Vintage figure from 2006, though Porkins gets a new \"chubbier\" torso and upper legs. He's too slender to be actor William Hootkins (who you'd also know as Eckhardt from Batman<\/I> '89 and the \"fat\" FBI recruiter in Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/i>) but is probably as such so that he'll fit in the modern X-Wings. As such he's not really a significant improvement over the figure from 2000. R5-D8<\/b> is apparently Porkins' astromech but is indistinguishable from R5-D4. He's a repaint or reissue of the old Build-a-Droid parts. Lastly, we get yet another snazzy TIE Fighter Pilot by the name of Mauler Mithel<\/b>, who sadly has a Clone head, though the helmet quickly solves that problem. All-in-all this is a shoulder-shrug of a release. Nothing really exciting or unique. Man, I wish I'd picked up that Ewok set that was released with this.<\/p>\n

Jada - RoboCop (2013): Robocop 1.0<\/b>
\n\"Robocop\"<\/a>I did not see, and have quite limited interest in, the Robocop<\/i> remake (yes, yes, \"it's not bad,\" I've read) but I do like toys. I have approximately zero love for the all-black version of the character so I'd resolved to get this \"1.0\" version were I ever to see it, and though I'd have preferred the 6\" version this 4\" one is all that ever turned up. For a company no one's ever heard of Jada did a pretty job with this guy. He's definitely on par with the 4\" Hasbro movie releases above in terms of paint, sculpt and articulation. And he even comes with two different guns. The balljoint hips are fairly wobbly but once both feet are on the floor they don't preclude him from standing. It's a solid toy for what it is and I'm pleased to add it to the collection.<\/p>\n

Lego - Star Wars: Anakin's Jedi Starfighter Polybag<\/b>
\n\"Jedi<\/a>I hate the prequels but I have some sort of odd fascination with some of its vehicles, including this highly implausible but weirdly fun personal craft. I vastly prefer the yellow version to this \"Darth Vader\" version. The build is A #1 perfection. It can't fold down the \"I'm a TIE Fighter\" flaps but I'll survive. The only issue is the single blue 1x1 round meant to be R2's head. This would have been MUCH better if they'd used one of these 1x1 round bricks but with a hole in the top and included one of those 1x1 dome-y bricks to plug into it. This was a Toys R Us exclusive which I only ever saw the weekend of May 4th, which is a shame since it's my favorite polybag since the Tumbler one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mattel - Imaginest Blind Bag Series 2: Steampunk Explorer<\/b>
\n\"Steampunk<\/a>Huzzah!! Imaginext Series 2<\/a> is now complete! I found a rogue case of these at a Target in Minneapolis and was thus able to finally pick this guy up. I'm really bummed that the line is likely dead since Series 2 hasn't really shown up anywhere and Series 1 keeps popping up at discount. Oh well... Like any red-blooded adult male I love Steampunk so this guy is right up my alley. However, I'm not 100% sold on the design, particularly the cape seems odd, though it looks better when on him. I like the look of the gear-y stilts but they seem like an odd inclusion. He would have been infinitely far better served getting a steampunk ray gun. The stilts kind match the style of Frankenstein's backpack, so I'd like to get a second of each and possibly customize a more fully mech-ed up Explorer.<\/p>\n

NECA - Kick-Ass 2: Armored Kick-Ass <\/b>
\n\"Armored<\/a>I didn't see Kick-Ass 2<\/i> but this figure does look pretty cool and at $10 how I could not get it!? I'm not sure how or why the second series ended up being so cheap but I'm glad it was! This figure pretty impressively takes the Series 1 figure<\/a> and just adds rubber armor on top of it; no (or few) newly tooled figural pieces here! Plus he comes with the same alternate yellow hands as the first figure, his two batons and an alternate unmasked head - that's a damn good value! Sadly every figure I saw had unpainted eyebrows on the masked head, but correct versions started showing up only after I'd bought and opened this one... of course. The other very annoying thing is that the unmasked head doesn't fit on this figure as a result of its low hair and the body's high collar. I'll just have to headswap from the first figure, but Kick-Ass looks SO MUCH better masked than unmasked... oh well. <\/p>\n

NECA - Kick-Ass 2: Colonel Stars & Stripes <\/b>
\n\"Col.<\/a>I was looking forward to this figure to a surprisingly high degree. The character was the only likeable thing about the trailers and the prototype had an amazingly great likeness, so it would be very fun\/novel to have a Jim Carrey figure! Well.. unfortunately that likeness was lost in production, as was the wonderfully subtle stubble\/hair paint. The camo patterning is pretty impressive in terms of production paint and the rest of the sculpting is top-notch. Articulation is good, but the wrist balljoints are a little limited with only in\/out hinges - I would have preferred an up\/down hinge so that he could point with his stick, Betsy. Also included is a pretty damn good figure of his dog. It's not a solid piece either! There's a hinged jaw and a balljoint at the head AND neck! The bulk of the fur leaves movement limited but they're definitely better than nothing. I bought this figure the moment I found it, expecting rarity, and thus paid $22 for him... which made the $10 final price a kick in the pants. Regardless, this a pretty good figure all around - very good, when you factor out the head.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Playmobil - Pop Stars: Keyboard Player<\/b>
\n\"Keyboard<\/a>I got the idea to make a Klicky figure of myself, so this dude's black hoodie seemed to be the best on-market option for my shirt. Sadly I could not remove the head\/disassemble the figure AT ALL, so now I just have a keyboardist. At least he'll kind of work with all the musicians I have from the Fi?ures<\/i> line. He gets a neat, new, directional mic with stand and the keyboard is pretty cool too, for what it is.<\/p>\n

Playmobil - Special Plus: Pirate with Treasure Chest <\/b>
\n\"Pirate\"<\/a>This is a neat little Special Plus<\/i> release. He's a pretty plausible (if fairly unexciting) looking Pirate, AND he gets a cute little arm monkey. His \"Plus\" is a giant treasure chest, which I don't believe is new or unique (though I could be wrong) and a bunch of dubloons. He's a cool release, but nothing particularly exciting, like the Plus<\/i> Archer<\/a> was.<\/p>\n

Playmobil - Summer Fun: Family Camping Trip <\/b>
\n\"Family<\/a>Much like the Keyboardist above, I got this set solely to create a custom Klickie and was desperately after the guy's legs. This set doesn't really play into any of the lines I collect but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely impressed with it once open and in hand. The cloth tent is collapsible (or at least flattens) and has a Velcro seal on the flap. The strip of vegetation is neat and includes a power hook-up for the plug-in cooler - that's just plain, nutty fun! It's precisely those kinds of details that make me love Playmobil. The camping table and chairs are all fully collapsible too, and the set comes with so many damned accessories I just threw in a big pile for the photo. Included is a bunch of plates, cups, cans & bags, a hotplate\/grill, a pot & pan and even a flashlight. I ended being so impressed by this set I was momentarily tempted to get the whole \"Camping\" sub-theme!<\/p>\n

Playmobil - Summer Fun: Porter with Baggage Cart<\/b>
\n\"Porter\"<\/a>I've been eying this guy for a while and just couldn't help myself. The porter is neat, though the coloring is a little too... I don't know. I wish his coat and cap were a more realistic maroon instead of this magenta. The real highlight and draw for me, though, was the luggage cart. I mean come on... it's a toy of a luggage cart! How weird and cool is that! It even comes with four pieces of luggage! This thing is just novel as hell. I spend so much time in hotels that I am perpetually drawn to Playmobil's new hotel sub-theme, but it's so girl-y in coloring I just can't get excited about it. I love Playmobil most when it is realistic and this sub-theme just doesn't seem very real - at least based on any hotel I've ever stayed at.<\/p>\n

<i>And now, some more OAFEry:<\/i><\/H5>