Hammer Bro.

So this is what happens when a Koopa Troopa is worthy of picking up Mjolnir! For the most part, when you play a videogame, everybody plays the same game: characters jump the same height, run the same speed, have the same health, all that. You're not going to play Tetris at your house, then go over to your friend's house and find out that their copy of Tetris has different shapes and different gravity, you know? But, that said, we all really play a different game, because a gameplay element that might be easy for you can be insanely difficult for someone else. We all have some enemy we just can't seem to wrap our minds around, and thus hate more than any other. For me, in the original Super Mario Bros., that enemy was (were?) the Hammer Brothers. They huck a seemingly ceaseless cascade of projectiles while pacing back and forth and hopping, meaning you can't predict a safe place to stand; they can jump up and down between platforms at random; and they way they tend to hop into the air means even hitting them from below is not a guaranteed way to kill them. Oh, and if you try to wait them out and find a pattern to their attacks? They start coming toward you. Unless you had an invincibility star or a fire flower, the only way past them was luck. There was a Hammer Brother in the Figuarts line (specifically, in Diorama Playset E), but now there's one available at mass retail, thanks to Jakks' World of Nintendo line. As with previous figures, like Wario and Waluigi or the Bowser family, the figure's size and sculpt are just right for integrating with the imported figures. The Hammer Bros. were bipedal even back when the normal Koopas were walking on all fours, so this one stands approximately 3¾" tall, depending on the pose. The lines on the Hammer Brother's belly are sculpted in lightly, and the gaps between his scutes are filled in with white. This figure represents the modern rendering of the character, so he's wearing chunky green boots with yellow soles. And because standing inside a waterfall made of hammers could be dangerous, he's wearing a helmet that straps under his chin and matches the style of his shell. Also, different from the other troops, he's got an actual beak, not just a big nose. Unlike the Bandai Tamashii Nations figure, this one has articulation! Seriously, you want to know why we haven't reviewed the two Super Mario Diorama Playsets that come with enemies? Because those enemies are unarticulated lumps. This little guy moves at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. It's mostly good stuff, lots of swivel/hinge joints, but the knees are just swivels. Huh? That... really doesn't work. We're not saying solid legs would be better, but this falls way, way short of normal hinges. Still, it beats being a statuary lump. The World of Nintendo figures usually include an accessory, and you get no points for guessing what that is here. The back of the packaging is done in both English and French, which shows us something interesting: the English text is "Hammer Bro. with Hammer Accessory!", while en français c'est "Frère Marto avec accessoire Hammer!" Like, if he's Frère Marto, then why is his accessory not un marteau? Weird choice, isn't it? Whatevs, the hammer can be held in the right hand, and is sculpted to look like string is tying the head to the handle, just as in the modern game renders. The Hammer Bro. isn't the first Mario army-builder to appear in this toyline, but they're always pretty rare. If you want someone to menace your Mario and Luigi, and you can find this toy, he's a fun one. -- 09/01/18

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