Thursday, 28 February 2013

REVIEW: Flingers Michaelangelo (TMNT 2012, Deluxe)



From: Playmates
Retail: Variable
Accessories: 10 Pizza Missile Discs 

The Turtles 2k12 line is expanding, and like with past renditions of the action figures there are the whacky variants that fill up the range quite nicely. Gimmick-based Ninja Turtles are an acquired taste, in which some are fun and some are just downright bonkers!

These new Flinger Turtles have a shooting gimmick. They launch projectiles and look like they are throwing them too. 

First off, Mikey is not really much in the actual action figure department. Most of his joints aside from the arms and head are static and don’t move. The lack of articulation is to make way for the inside mechanism activated by sideways wheels at the bottom of the feet. Anyone who did not like the static bent-knee battle poses on past TMNT figures may not like this at all, but the toy at least stands properly. The idea is to scroll the standing Turtle on a flat surface starting from left to right to make it fire.  The Flinger figures are a bit larger than the average range of TMNT.
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The Flinger Turtles are dressed up in home-made junkyard armour (like 2003’s Fightin’ Gear line), complete with ammunition dispensing backpacks. Michaelangelo’s armour is made up of Stop-Sign shoulderpads and what looks to be old baseball catcher padding.


This Michelangelo is sans-Nunchaku, but made up for with 10 rounds of mini pizza projectiles (scale-wise, like a toy version of those small, undesirable Tesco Value range pizzas *bleugh*). Out of the Flingers Mike and Leo don’t have their signature weapons, but instead 10 rounds of disc ammo, whilst Raph and Don have their Sai and Bo but only 3 of a-piece. Leonardo’s disc ammo is a selection of mini-manhole covers (I think hubcaps would have made more sense). The pizzas which slot into Mikey’s backpack fire out from his waist (akin to the classic 1994 Pizza Tossin’ gimmick) next to where his right hand is default positioned, and in turn moves in a Frisbee throwing motion when launching. 


I have produced a small video demo of the firing gimmick on Michelangelo, A random selection targets were found and used. Some of the faces may also be familiar…




The Flinger gimmick is just a gimmick at that. There is no direction, story or objective except for simply fire stuff and leave the targets to the imagination. Some cardboard enemy cutouts with stands would have added more to each Flinger Turtles. The potential is there for a pal and a second Flinger Turtle to invent some sort of 2-player shooting game shenanigans. It all revolves around finding a flat and sizable surface around the house or elsewhere.  



All in all, a fun tabletop toy to cause havoc maybe at dinnertime with, but the individual scale sets it aside and out of place from most of the TMNT 2K12 line. In addition, Flinger Michelangelo is not really a figure, but more or less a ‘missile launcher’ in the shape of one.  Like with the Ooze Turtles before, Mikey (and the others) are a gimmick and don’t go much beyond just that. Still fun though.  


Monday, 21 January 2013

Legends of Chima


Received this fine Lego set in the mail today from Phil Ayres of Doctor Who Everyday. Legends of Chima could potentially be the building block equivalent to Battle Beasts!

The snowy backdrop in the photo is a UK rarity.

Saturday, 29 December 2012

Happy Holidays 2012


Hey all. Things have been busy down here at Figured Out with Christmas season and all.

I wanted to post a lot of holiday related fun and antics, but a bereavement in the family set me back a fair bit and Christmas Day was knocked for six.

However, I've tried to enjoy this fun time of the year the best I can and make the most of the good things and look forward to the prospects ahead. I may spam this blog with Christmas stuff throughout January anyway.

'Santa Claus' left me a new camera and its a sharp DLSR that takes rather nice in-depth imagery, like the one in this post. My daughter was given a set of Alvin & The Chipmunks to play with and she loves them lots!

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Figure Review: Ghost Rider (Hasbro Marvel Legends Series 1)

As far I know, Hasbro has been recently revamping its Marvel Legends line for the sake of making their figures more comic book accurate. These figures do not include comic books like the Toy Biz Marvel Legends did, but I heard that the next wave will. Hasbro is continuing the build-a-figure tradition, though, which is cool for the collectors that wish to build Terrax. The Terrax series was released earlier this year, which I thought I'd give a try by purchasing the Ghost Rider figure from a local toy show in my area. I have a Ghost Rider figure from the '90s Toy Biz series, but I lost him and he didn't stay together very well due to his action feature, so I am glad to have picked up a more modern version of Ghost Rider.

Let's get on to the review...

Sculpting - 9/10

Ghost Rider is a very nice representation of his comic book counterpart. Nothing seems off to me in terms of the sculpt, which works because it's not bulky or skinny. I like how the shoulder pads, the forearm pads, and the knee and shin pads have their own textures, which are well-complemented by their respective spikes. Heck, even the textures on the figure's lower body look great. The flames look cool too and they're all the right size.


                                                



Paint - 9/10

There's not a lot of color on this figure, but I still think that the paint came out great. He has nice tints of blue on the front of his jacket, which I guess is sort of like a tuxedo jacket. There are also blue shades on his shoulder pad, which kind of have a cool pastel look to them. Another thing that stands out to me about the paint is the fact that the flames have a kind of white/clear steak to them on the bottom half. That affect kind of goes from bottom to top throughout the flames since there are some patches of tints and hues for variety's sake. The only problem I have to be with the paint job is that there appears to be some minor smudges on the chains.
                                         
                                      
                                 


Articulation - 8/10

From what I gather, the figure has about thirty points of articulation...

  • ball jointed neck
  • ball jointed shoulders
  • rotating biceps
  • double jointed elbows
  • ball jointed wrists
  • hinged torso
  • rotating waist
  • ball jointed legs
  • double jointed knees
  • ball jointed ankles
The articulation is a little less than a typical Toy Biz Marvel Legends figure, but it's still decent. I guess that happened as a result of Hasbro's revamp. The good part is is that the figure's jacket and pockets don't really hinder movement all that much.




Accessories - 1/10

The figure is rather lacking in the accessories department. Sure, his jacket can be unsnapped, but it would've been nice if it were easy to remove so that way an extra -- perhaps battle damaged jacket -- would've provided another option. It also would've been great if Ghost Rider's signature chain weapon was included since the figure's right hand looks like it can hold it. He does come with both of Terrax's arms and a piece of paper with information about Terrax (not pictured), but I wouldn't count those as accessories.

                                   


Overall - 8/10

Despite the fact that this figure doesn't offer much in terms of accessories, he's still a great figure that is sure to please any Ghost Rider fan. There is a variant that has red and orange flames, but from what I've seen, that one doesn't look as nice as the regular version. From what I gather, both versions are on Amazon and could probably be found on eBay. If you prefer to pick up the figure from you local comics shop or any conventions in your area, you'll probably spend between $15 and $20. Regardless of your method of purchasing the figure, you'll be happy with him since he stands out in any collection.

Friday, 14 December 2012

Cowabunga Christmas Promotion

I spent some time over August and September assembling a TMNT Christmas Promotion featuring a series of custom tree ornaments.

Cowabunga Christmas is the follow-up to Festive Fury which I produced in 2008, but a little more widespread.

These have been shipped out worldwide (especially the US) as early holiday greetings to friends, fans, and followers and have been greatly received. It is really rewarding to see my custom work displayed on Christmas trees around the globe. I hope to do something in 2013 to top this.