JediDefender.com Forums
Collecting => Toy Reviews => Topic started by: Matt_Fury on April 21, 2005, 11:15 PM
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I managed to finally find one of these today and figured I'd share a few thoughts on the figure/vehicle.
Driver: This has to be one of the most craptacular figures I have ever seen. The figure has 5 points of articulation, Head, Shoulders waist and right elbow....that's it. So, basically, the figure can only sit on the AT-RT. I've heard rumors that the paint on this figure is hit or miss from some earlier reports from people who found it on 2 April, but the ones I saw at Target today were just fine IMO.
Vehicle: For a small vehicle, it's pretty cool. Not a whole lot of detail in the sculpt of the parts, and not much paint, but it has it where it counts. There's a small painted display between the "handle bars" which looks pretty neat. There's also a pivoting Chin Gun and a walking feature which requires two AA batteries. The walking feature is what makes this vehicle worht having IMO. It works great on tile/wood floors or couter/desk tops, and I evenhad it walking on the carpet in my place, albiet not as well as the non-carpeted floor. Really freaked out my cat too! ;D
Overall, I'd give this figure/vehicle a 3 out of 5. There's a lot of playability with the vehicle, but the one-dimensionality of the figure brings it down. If they had made the legs articulated so the figure could be on it's own away from the vehicle, this thing would be great!
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Good review... my only compaint is that the plastic looks too shiny. But as a customizer I'll make this minor change.
:P
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I'd concur with that mostly Matt...
The walking feature's not the BEST, and actually another toy line (educational toyline) does a better job of making things walk realistically, and more stablely, but the RT does pretty good.
I'd attribute the detail's lacking not so much to the sculpt, but more to the paint aps. Give this thing a good paintjob (customizers, there's a task for ya!) and it's got some good detail. Very accurate, but they just cheaped out in paint aps probably because of the mechanics of it... still trying to keep it at $15 and all. Compared to other vehicles in the same assortment, you see a definite decline in paint applications quality compared to the Boga thing or whatnot.
The figure is the worst part, agreed. They could've done an SA-ish figure for this ala their #6 Clone, the Royal Guard or whatever, released it with the RT, and then just put it on a basic card down the road and it STILL would sell. It's a clone design after all! As it stands, it's a horrid figure with actually a rather lackluster sculpt it seemed. Looked incredibly cheap and toyish compared to other figures in the basic figure line.
Anyway, not a bad $15 purchase, just gotta get extras to paint, and hope that Hasbro puts out a basic figure of the pilot that maybe can ride the thing and look a thousand times superior.
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I've seen people put articulated figures on this item and their feet can't touch the proper resting places. I think they would have had to make a really long legged figure to fit this and be articulated at the same time.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v71/Violentfix/junglestrikesm.jpg)
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The driver on mine's feet don't even actually rest on the "pedals" or whatever you wanna call it... I put a red clone on then out of curiosity (from Saga) and he actually can ride it ok, and his feet touch. I think if Hasbro did do a poseable rider for this, the key would be the new ball/socket hips.
I think it'd look pretty cool then, and his feet would be pretty good to reach the pedals... At least as good as the pack-in does which has a little gap at each foot as it is.
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This driver looks the about the same as the TurboTank driver, they could have at least packed him in there, it would have made for a better product overall. I've heard rumors that these guys are ringing up at $20 in someplaces but i'm not sure if that is true or not.
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Nice review, Im thinking of just buying one for the Cat-Scare feature :)
These pack-in figures are really putting me off the Vehicles though, Stupid reason I know but hey.
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I love this piece! Dispite the fact that that the driver is just a hunk of plastic, the walking feature is very fun. I think Hasbro should get four stars here.