Action Figure #705: JADA Toys Robocop 3.0

 Jesus Christ... JADA used to be GARBAGE!

 This Robocop 3.0 figure is so terrible I actually threw it into the trash. After waking up tonight, I had some regrets and fished out the figure, the guns, the screwdrivers(more on this later) and picked him up again to finish the surgery I started on him last night. I thought that Jada had come out of nowhere with action figures, I was wrong... but their starting point was so poor that the quality of their current figures is nothing short of miraculous. Aside from that, I got through the entire Robocop franchise this year, all movies and all TV series, and so I wanted a Robocop in my collection, but NECA's was too large... so I looked up if the 2014 movie, which wasn't half bad mind you, had any figures made. It had. And here we are.

 The figure has a very detailed sculpt, I'll give it that. He has a very angularly mechanical look to him that is pretty neat, although being molded in black with minimal paint apps means that most of the detail is lost. The most striking feature about the figure is that he has no mouth. The mouth isn't sculpted, and it's not even painted on, the part of his face that shows below the helmet is just a blob of flesh with nothing. He does come with two guns, and those get some silver paint apps.

 You can press his chest to have his visor turn on. Know what would've been better? Proper red paint to add some life into the figure.

 Articulation is terrible. Elbows and knees are single jointed, and this is as far as they bend. That's right, neither reaches a 90 degree bend. Pathetic. Arms and legs can move up and down, and you can raise either to the sides, but the leg split is also pathetic. No waist or ab articulation at all, but even worse, no wrist articulation, so he can only aim his guns straight if his arms are straight. They even messed up the head, as he can move his head to either side only a little bit.

 And then I realized something. If you rotate the arms and then bend them backwards... you do get a 90 degree bend. Could it be? Could my copy have been messed up at the assembly? No. I looked up videos of people reviewing the figure, every copy is the same. Maybe they messed up at the assembly line? I look up the character himself, and no, they didn't, the details on the front of the biceps matches how he looks in the movie, so it's just bad engineering.

 He has no mouth, and he definitely must scream. So yesterday... Yesterday I tried to heat up his arms and pull them out, since they were single jointed it shouldn't have been an issue. It was, no luck. I got frustrated, so I moved on to un-screwing his back... and after getting two out of the three screws out... the final screw wouldn't give in. The head of the screw started warping too. So I got angry and threw him into the trash. Well... Mama didn't raise no quitter, so I woke up, fished all the pieces out of the trash, and this time I used a larger screwdriver and managed to pull apart this freak. Then instead of using mere hot water, I actually boiled it... and, after MUCH struggling... managed to take apart the arms. Sapping the pieces of one of the arms was simple enough, but the other one just refused to go back in, so I had to cut a bit of the peg... but hey! Against all odds....

 I gave this crummy figure a 90 degree bend on his arms. He is on the very lower end of the six inch scale, so he'll probably look better next to some Star Wars figures.

 This might possibly be the worst action figure in my collection. Easily. Horribly designed, it's worse than a kid's toy, because at least those get mouths.

0.5

Action Figure #704: Power Rangers Lightning Collection Dino Thunder Yellow Ranger

 Hopefully you didn't think I was done with Dinosaur rangers...

 On this latest round of entries we've seen a Dinosaur themed ranger and a yellow ranger, so to end up this latest haul of figures... a Dinosaur Yellow Ranger, namely the Dino Thunder Yellow Ranger !

 After getting the AbareKiller and the Dino Thunder Black Ranger I started looking into them, particularly the Japanese version and... they looked dope. Well, this yellow ranger looks as great as any of them. Bright yellow and white might not be the most pleasing combo for the eyes, but between her weapons and her helmet, she looks very aerodynamic. So, yeah, I like the figure, although I would've used a less vibrant yellow. She comes with two Ptero-guns, a blue blaster and an effect piece for it, two grabby hands and two open hands, as well as an unmasked headsculpt.

 Articulation hits all the beats, double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on the biceps, thighs and boots, with a ball jointed ab crunch and a hinged waist. Unlike the previously mentioned RPM Yellow Ranger, this one's skirt doesn't limit her movement at all. She is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Overall? A great yellow ranger. The color scheme could've been done a bit more pleasing, but I like the sculpt and the design, so there's that.

7.5

Action Figure #703: Power Rangers Lightning Collection Dino Charge Green Ranger

  Finally! Another Green Ranger in my collection!

 Well, it seems my priority is to finish the Dino Charge team now, and up net is the Dino Charge Green Ranger which finally adds another green into my Rangers.

 Pretty much same sculpt as the Blue Dino Charge guy, but with a different helmet and paint job. I do think the green and yellow look fantastic on him, so I'll take it. He comes with two grabby hands, a really neat pointing hand, a fist, an unmasked head, a sword, a blaster and a effect piece for the sword. The grabby hands are kinda lame, I mean, the trigger finger works well for the gun, but the other grabby hand has two fingers with a slightly more extended grip than the other two, so getting a good grip on the sword was a bit challenging.

 Articulation is on brand for the brand. Double jointed elbows and knees, butterfly joints, swivels on his biceps, thighs and boots, with a hinged waist and a ball jointed ab crunch. He also features the dreadful drop down hips. That said... his right shoulder was very stiff, which was stressing the peg, so I shaved off some of the plastic so that it could better rotate into the torso. His left ankle was very stiff too, so I had to loosen it up with some hot water, and it's still not perfect, and I can see that the peg is a bit stressed. He is ever so slightly shorter than Bucky Cap.

 While I'd happily tell you that the color scheme makes me like him more than the Blue Ranger... the QC issues with the joints left a sour taste on my mouth. Hopefully he won't break with the fixed I applied.

6.0

Action Figure #702: Power Rangers Lightning Collection RPM Yellow Ranger

 A one-woman team.

 I think RPM was a bit beloved, which is surprising since Hasbro only got around doing the RPM Yellow Ranger before putting the line on an indefinite hiatus. I don't mind too much, Shinkenger was incredible, and coming right out of it into Go-Onger... I hated it. I hated Go-Onger and I haven't watch a single Sentai show again... until this year, in which I'm watching Gozyuger as it comes out... and boy oh boy, at the time of writing this, they are going after the controversy of having to fire Maya/Sumino and having to reshoot the next episodes!

 Back to the figure, well, while I didn't like Go-Onger, I think the designs are fine. The belt-looking  straps up front, the wheels on the gloves and boots, as well as the car-like helmet... it's a decent looking design, and it translated well into plastic. She comes with two grabby hands, two open hands, a sword, a gun, an unmasked head and a effect piece...

 That you can't possibly use on her sword as is because her blade ends on a round tip, but the slot on the effect is squared. This is beyond lazy, Hasbro!

 Articulation... it would be up to the standards of the line, butterfly joints, double jointed elbows and knees, swivels on her biceps, thighs and boots, with a hinged waist and a ball jointed ab crunch, however... This figure's skirt is the hardest I've come across on the line, it pretty much kills all the articulation from her hips, which is very disappointing. Lightning Collection's articulation is usually very good, so this is very lame. She is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 Design wise she is fine... but between the skirt that limits her legs and the effect piece that won't work on her weapons... she is very disappointing.

5.0

Action Figure #701: G. I. Joe Classified Series Ralph 'Nunchuck' Baducci

 Ninjas make everything better.

 As much as I want to like G I Joe, at the end of the day, I only like it for the ninjas, so I've been eyeing Ralph 'Nunchuck' Baducci for a while now. Finally, the timed seemed right, so I finally got him!

 Absolute banger of a design. He mixed Ninja with military green camo, making him, quite probably, the most G.I. Joe Ninja ever. While I tend not to like the Ninja designs with towels on their heads, I think it works for Ralph. He comes with a tiny knife, be careful as I almost threw away the plastic bag with it on it, two Kukri-looking swords, two nunchucks and two claws for his hands. Around his body he has holsters for everything but the claws. That said, getting the 'chucks into the holsters is a bit of a nightmare.

 He has double jointed elbows and knees, with swivels on his boots, thighs, waist and biceps. He has butterfly joints and a hinged ab-crunch. Sadly, he also has drop-down hips, and one of them is much stiffer than the other. The armguards on his shoulders do sometimes get in the way of his shoulder movement, and I'd be careful, because I'm already seeing some stressing on the shoulder pegs because of it. It's a shame that the Marvel Legends plastic is getting to the Joes. He is pretty much as tall as Bucky Cap.

 Ralph is a fantastic figure, I love all his weapons, I love his looks and the articulation is great. I'm just a bit scared about the shoulder pegs, and I'm not much of a fan of all the loose holsters over his body, like, does he really need a belt over a sculpted belt?

8.0

Action Figure #700: NECA Jason (Freddy VS Jason)

 Oh boy, oh boy! My first NECA!

 Despite my never-ending love for all things Horror I've been avoiding NECA because I've heard the break easily and that they make their figures in the seven inch scale. That ends today, I love horror too much, and having monsters tower over the rest of my collection won't look out of place. Jason (Freddy VS Jason) wasn't my first choice for entry #700 or my first NECA, but... well, the other figure will have to wait until I can ship it over from Miami. Spoilers!

 I had a hard time deciding between Part 7's Jason and Freddy VS Jason's Jason. I feel like this is his best all-around design, but something I love about the first seven Friday 13th's flicks is how Jason just keeps accumulating wounds over and over and over, culminating in his incredible Part VII design. But, ah well, I went with this one. The detail on this guy is nothing short of incredible, his coat looks all torn and worn down, with a beautiful black wash that highlights all the details. His pants are full of folds and everything comes together all so perfectly well. He comes with a Machete, a bloody Machete, three masks(Clean, Scratched(By good ol' Fred and bloody), as well as a pretty cool flame effect for his machete and a teddy bear. I can't stress enough how great I think this guy looks, I've been playing with him a lot this past week.

 The thing I dislike the most about this Jason is the head sculpt. This is the newest rerelease which painted the head grey instead of flesh-toned. Believe it or not, grey is how he actually looks in the single blink-and-you-miss-it frame in which he appears unmasked in the film. That said, as accurate as he is to the film, this is the head I like the least because he looks nothing like previous Jasons and kept none of the wounds and rotting that his head accumulated through the films.

 The articulation is passable. Elbows and knees are single jointed, the arms barely reach a 90 degree bend, and the legs don't even get that far. And while you can rotate the legs and forearms at the joints, due to the sculp, they might lose some range if bent to either side. The shoulders and hips are much better, having a full range of movement, and he has a hidden ball-jointed waist for some extra bend. I'll admit, after hearing so many things about how fragile these figures are... Jason feels very solid. Even the more stiff articulations don't make me feel as if I'm stressing the plastic, unlike with Hasbro's offerings, so I've been having fun just posing him around. He towers over Bucky Cap, very appropriate!

 My first NECA and I love the guy. While he is not the most possable guy ever, you can get some mean poses out of him, and the sculpt is just beautiful. Now I'm excited about getting a few more NECA horror icons!

9.0

Action Figure #699: Power Rangers Beast Morphers Silver Ranger

 Not an off-brand Ranger, but a toy's kid Ranger!

 Since Hasbro didn't get to finish the Beast Morphers Team I had to rely on Hasbro to get the Silver Ranger that was missing. That didn't make much sense, but, simply put, this is the kiddy version of the Lightning Collection Brand, but these figures were made on the same scale, some with some luck, I could finagle him into the LC team.... Maybe.

 I actually used to own this guy, and I didn't think I'd be getting him again, but here we are. For a Children's toy, the detail and paint application isn't half bad. He is not as thick as the LC rangers, so he is missing some musculature, but it's not half bad, not at all. I only managed to snag him loose, because the price for a new-in-box copy was just not something I was willing to pay for, so I'm missing his weapon accessories. Too bad!

 Knees and elbows are single jointed, the do reach 90 degrees, which is serviceable. Legs and arms can move up and down in all 360 degrees which is rather nice, and the head is on a ball joint. The one big issue is that he has no waist or ab articulation of any kind, which kills a lot of the possibly cool poses he could hit. His is shorter than Bucky Cap, and maybe just a tough shorter than a Lightning Collection Figure.

 Looking at him side to side with the other Beast Morphers, albeit the Lightning Collection counterparts, well... he fits pretty well. It's not a perfect match, since he looks much more scrawny, but if you are desperate to complete the team, as I was, he gets the job done.

5.0