Well I'm back reviewing some toys, been a long time since I've done this so I may be a bit rusty which will effect what I type. For those of you who don't know I used to do reviews often on the various boards, just got tired of doing it, but the ROTS Sneak Preview toys have inspired me to do some. So here we go.
First off the figures, my rating scale has changed over time, here's what it currently stands as on a 1 to 10 scale....
10 = VOTC Stormtrooper (obvious no?)
1 = POTF2 R5-D4 (hasn't changed in 8 years)
Figure #1: General Grievous. Well I'm not fond of the character concept in general, but the design has a unique look that this figure has matched well as the details are well done but the sculpt doesnt work as my figure has a hard time standing. However the paint apps look poor and it wasn't just my figure but every figure I saw at the store (about 10 of them) had the same apps that looked like they were lightly splashed about instead of uniformily brushed on. But the worse part of this figure is the plastic used to make him, it's almost as rubbery as those used with the AOTC Super Battle Droids and thats going to lead to problems down the road. I had hoped Hasbro would have gone away from that, but that was obviously too much to hope. The plastic makes utilizing the articulation given very risky, I almost tore off the elbow joint on the left arm when trying to work it. The figure comes with 10 pts of articulation including with elbow and knee joints and ball joint shoulders. However the knee joints basically are forfeit because this guy just cant stand, I have to use the cape to keep him up. So overall this I think is a lackluster figure, i think in the end the cons outweight the pros, so on the CorranHorn figure rating scale, I'd have to give Grievous a rating of
4.
Figure #2: Tion Medon. Well while this figure seems to be of a bureaucrat (fair warning on all of these toys DON'T read the packaging they contain spoilers as I learned with the Starfighter) so this figure doesn't need to do much. But the sculpt is well done and the paint apps are smooth without any runoff. The plastic used here is much better and it seems Grievous will be the only case of rubbery plastic used on the figures. Tion comes with a lot of articulation, ball joint head, 3 pts on each arm including ball jointed shoulders, a torso joint, and even though he wears a ful length skirt, he has actual legs which move. The accessories though do have the rubbery plastic used and I can see the cane getting all messed up after a few months. Not much to do with the figure but just stand him as a background guy, but I would have to give the guy a rating of
6.
Figure #3: Wookiee Warrior. This is the best figure of the bunch and one of the better all around figures made. The bulk of this figure is outstanding, this is a total asskicker for sure. He's loaded with articulation, though I would wish he had ball jointed elbow joints rather than the angled cut ones. This guy can do all sort of poses and is ready to kill, the ball jointed shoulders and knees are a total plus. The amount of accessories are great too, the blaster is well sculpted, but the other pieces like the shin guards and helmet keep falling off my figure.
But overall I would have to give this mammoth of a figure a rating of
8, its the best of the bunch.
Figure #4: R4-G9. They did it, they finally did it!!!! Hasbro finally figured out how to properly execute the 3rd leg mechanism. By turning the droid's dome to the right, the leg will go down, turning it to the left will bring the leg up. The body is the same overall sculpt used on astromechs since the POTJ days. But there's some extra additions as there are now coils at the front of the feet and each foot has little wheels which help the play value and do not prevent R4 to stand up only on 2 legs. I got to say though the paint scheme sucks though, ugly coloring except the gold on the dome. All of the R4's has poor paint apps too, took forever to find one I wanted. And while the hologram is a nice treat, it's pointless to use cause it makes the droid either tip over on two legs or look stupid on 3 legs. Overall though its the paint scheme/apps that will hurt the figure's rating as I give it a
7, could have been more with a better paint job.
Now onto the vehicle, again a fair warning
DO NOT read the description on the back of the box if you want to remain spoiler free about a prominent plot line in ROTS. So onto my vehicle rating scale...
10 = Saga Imperial Shuttle and POTF2 F/X X-Wing Fighter
1 = POTF2 Cruisemissile Trooper
Anakin Skywalker's Jedi Starfighter: An interesting design here as it's a cross betwen the AOTC Jedi Starfighters and Darth Vader's TIE Fighter. It's a compact little fighter that has a lot of firepower to it (including two firing missiles), it has slick lines and a smooth hull, except for the damn droid socket! Not only did the designers have to stick another astromech into a starfighter, they did it in such a way where he sticks out as an eyesore. Half of the droid is visible and though it's removable (of course it's only half a droid, not even a full one) they didnt include a cover plate to hide the big gap that not having the droid in makes. The cockpit interior is well done and has a lot of room than similar ships. The action feature of this guy, is to pop open 4 panels to make the ship have angled wings similar to Vader's TIE. A interesting thing that Hasbro did was to include a large number of battle damage stickers that you can put anywhere on the ship, however they forgot to include instructions on where to put some of the actual stickers. Overall, this a fun toy to play with, but the droid socket hurts it, I'd have to give this ship a
7.
There ya have it, an overall good batch of preview figures, with a little tweaking they could be even better. Hope everyone finds my review useful, now onto the main ROTS line we go....
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), despite each once having tons of ANH figs. The 12" VOTC doesn't appear to have moved at all, as I still see stacks of those all around.