WWE Elite Collection Royal Rumble Series (2022): Dakota Kai

 

Exclusively at Target, this year's Royal Rumble series features four figures, each with a part for the "Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart build-a-figure. The line up features two WWE hall of famers and two current wrestlers, one from SmackDown! and one from NXT. When I first saw these at Target I have to admit I was a little surprised at the inclusion of Dakota Kai, but happy none the less. NXT is probably my favorite WWE brand at the moment.

The packaging mimics the regular Elite Collection with it's angled edge window blister. The back of the packaging features a little bio of sorts for Dakota along with an image of the other figures included in the series. The Jimmy Hart build-a-figure is also prominently featured and shows you the pieces included. Kudos to Mattel for making a build-a-figure wave as such a little more affordable with just 4 figures...Hasbro should take note!

Dakota is sporting her black outfit that she wore for parts of 2021 before she mixed up her look/hair color. I like this gear and always thought her top looked like a skeleton. Her arms and top portion of her torso have been painted black to mimic her black top she wears. Her boots are standard fare, but I love that Mattel included the white knee brace she has worn lately.

Articulation is great. I believe I counted 16 points of articulation, from her neck to her ankles, she has all of the standard fare joints you'd expect out of a modern action figure. I'm also happy to report that she stands very well without any additional support. I'll be using a figure stand that I purchased from Ringside Collectibles, but it's not necessarily needed.

I've been really impressed by the head/face sculpts of most of the wrestlers in both the Basic and Elite lines, but there is just a little something off with Dakoda here. The hair is fantastic as they were able to capture the style she wears her hair. The face though...well I'm not sure what went wrong. It seems that her facial expression was meant to mimic the photo on the back of the packaging. Dakoda is known more for her heel character so the almost cocky like look isn't out of place. Perhaps its the printing of her eyes/eyebrows that throws off the face. I was able to point out these minor imperfections while in the store, but seeing what she commands on the secondary market I wasn't about to pass her up...plus she was the last figure of the series I needed to finish off Jimmy Hart.

Speaking of Jimmy Hart, Dakoda comes packaged with Jimmy's legs. I've never been a huge fan of sculpted pants as such as they look weird with the various articulation cuts, however these get the job done. I was concerned at first with the way the crotch section looked, but later learned there is a sash like piece included with another figure that covers his waist. He has nice matching black dress shoes to complete the look. Keep following the blog as Jimmy will get his own post to wrap up this series of posts.

Overall this is a good figure and worth the purchase, especially if you are trying to bolster your NXT ranks. I'm looking forward to pairing her up w/ the upcoming Raquel Gonzalez figure even though they are now enemies. Unless you must have the Jimmy Hart build-a-figure piece, try to find her loose as you'll save a good bit of money.

WWE Basic Collection Series 122: Chelsea Green (variant)

We are on the road to WrestleMania and as such expect to see a little more WWE product on the blog in the coming weeks than usual. We're going to kick things off with this figure of Chelsea Green from series 122 of the basic figures. It's been a while since I've featured a WWE basic series figure, with Kelly Kelly last showing up almost exactly 9 years ago!

Mattel's basic WWE figures may lack the articulation, paint apps and accessories that their Elite Collection counterparts have, but many times the various wrestler's first figure will be in the basic series, as is the case here with Mrs. Cardona, Chelsea Green. Part of the 122nd series of figures, she came in two varieties. The common version she sported light purple wresting gear with white boots and knee pads. The chase or variant version replaced her gear with all black. The last time I happened to place an order for some figure stands with Ringside Collectibles they just happened to have the chase version in stock, so I added it to my cart...if nothing else it helped me reach the amount to get free shipping.

Packaging for the basic figures hasn't changed much over the years. You still get a large image of the wrestler's face beside the blister bubble showcasing the figure itself. It does note that this was Chelsea's first (WWE) figure at that time of release. The back of the packaging has a large cross sell for the other figures in that particular series. 

Mattel has done a good job with capturing the likeness of the wrestler and Chelsea is no different. While I'm not sure about the large grin on her face, the paint apps that create her eyes are nicely done. The molded hair is detailed and the plastic used is soft enough to bend to allow the head to turn. Paint apps on the rest of the figure aren't bad. Black paint is used on the body, arms and legs to create her wrestling gear. The boots are tall and cover he knees for the most part, but the knees do look odd from the rear view being painted black. I count about 12 points of articulation on the figure - head/neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips/legs and knees. No ankle pivot or ab crunch. Being that I'm not the best with pulling off dynamic poses with my figures (see below) I don't mind the absence of say an ab crunch because the figure looks more aesthetically pleasing without the cut in the stomach area.

Ironically enough by the time this figure was released to retail Chelsea had already been released from her WWE contract. With the massive amount of layoffs that happened in WWE in 2021 and even early in 2022 it's no surprise that a lot of the licensed products coming out feature an outdated roster. For some this may make the figure more or less desirable. I got to know Chelsea via Matt Cordona's YouTube videos and could tell she was a character herself. I never got to see her actually wrestle much, but knew she was someone worth following regardless of which promoter she was working with. When I realized she had a figure coming out I figured it was worth grabbing and adding to my sparse collection. For a $9.98 figure it's not bad. I'd say it's on par with the last few basic WWE figures I've purchased. Knowing she won't get the Elite treatment from Mattel now that she's not with the WWE, this may be the best version collector's get for the time being.

GI Joe: Ninja Speed Cycle (Forever Clever Building Set)

When I first learned of new building block GI Joe sets I was so excited. I didn't hate Hasbro's Built to Rule sets, though they weren't quite on the level of LEGO. Fast forward to today and the license has been given to a company that I've never heard of, Forever Clever. I'm not sure if these building sets skipped regular retail or not as I've only seen them at discount stores such as Ross, TJ Maxx and Ollie's. I believe this retailed for $3.99 which is pretty cheap...just like the product itself. I went ahead and grabbed a few of the various sets, but after opening this one I may not even bother with them.

The best part of these sets by far is the packaging. The cardboard box itself is really thin so if you're thinking about grabbing a set or two for display, good luck finding one in good condition. The artwork for the front of the box is straight from the 80's, complete with the explosive background. A small product shot graces the bottom right corner of the box with a piece count above in the upper right corner. The back of the box shows a larger image of the product along with a small cross sell of some of the other sets down the left side.

At just 44 pieces the Ninja Speed Cycle is easy enough to build...if the pieces weren't crap and the set would actually hold together. I should've known this was a piece of trash...just look at the actual cycle! The "guns" on the front look silly and the rest of the proportions just look off. Turn the bike to the side and you'll really see how ridiculous it looks.

The little black bike you see underneath all the blocks is your standard LEGO sized motorcycle. The wheels are rubber, but both tires in the set had horrible flashing hanging off the tires. I had to take a razor blade to cut this excessive plastic off just so the wheels would roll. 

All of the blocks on top of the cycle barely stay together. If you look at the handlebars of the actual motorcycle you may notice a flat 6 stud block just sits on the handlebar. The gray piece that holds the guns also will barely hold onto the bike. I should also mention that Snake Eyes can't actually ride the cycle. Yes. I'm serious. 

The included Snake Eyes minifigure is probably the best part of the set. The figure is on par with dollar store building block figures. It's light weight as the plastic used isn't the greatest. The back of the legs are hollow as well, contributing to the figure's feather like weight. The deco on the chest and head is decent, but the little nub on the head for the nose is distracting. Had I not been so eager to move onto something else after opening this set, I would have grabbed a LEGO figure for a comparison shot.

I will probably open and build one of the 3 Cobra HISS Tanks that I have, but the rest of the sets I purchased will most likely stay sealed until I can find a sucker buyer to take them off my hands.

Overall this thing is just garbage. I tried to be positive, but I honestly can't find any redeeming qualities here. Maybe, just maybe you buy it for the figure...but temper your expectations because you'll probably be disappointed.

Auto World: 2019 Chevy Silverado LTZ Z71 - Release 5, Version A

 Muscle Trucks series

2019 Chevy Silverado LTZ Z71

Release 5, Version A

Limited Edition - 10,720

Premium Facts...

* This casting features a completely new front end 

and wheels to replicate the LTZ Z71 trim package.

* The 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 is built on

GM's T1 platform.

G9K 946660

Satin Steel Gray 

Transformers (Korean) Galaxy Force: Autovolt

The Transformers Unicron trilogy of Armada (Micron Densetsu), Energon (Superlink) and Cybertron (Galaxy Force) was a mixed bag for me. Just getting back into Transformers with Beast Wars, I was super excited to see vehicular toys coming back after dealing with animals for several years. Armada was (mostly) great and the addition of the Mini-Cons were fantastic. When Energon came around it just didn't have the same punch for me, but the trilogy ended on a bang (for me at least) w/ Cybertron (Galaxy Force).

During this time of my collecting, I was opting for the Takara versions of the toys as much as I could due to their superior packaging and decos. When the Galaxy Force toys started hitting Japan I was enamored by the gorgeous packaging. The differences in the decos was just the icing on the cake. I also loved that Takara included character style trading cards with their releases...which is a big reason for today's topic.

While I imported nearly the entire Galaxy Force series, I had ignored the Korean released toys. Takara had a long standing agreement with a Korean company called Sonokong to market their toys in Korea. This license lasted until 2007 when the license shifted over to another called Mocom Toy. What recently caught my eye was that it appeared these releases contained a different character card than what was packaged with the Takara issues. Sadly I missed the boat on being able to buy a majority of these toys on clearance from the likes of Big Bad Toy Store or TFSource, but I was curious enough to keep searching the web. While my searches never turned up any concrete information on the included character card, I did find an online retailer that had Autovolt in stock for a decent price...so I took the plunge if nothing else to sate my curiosity.

It only took a few days for the parcel to arrive and for me to free the toy from the shipping box. Immediately upon holding the packaging in my hand I could see the Japanese Galaxy Force inspiration. The angled box corner and especially the blue background with the yellow trim of the box top and bottom were dead on references to the Japanese packaging. The rest of the box design however was unique for the Korean market. Windows on the front of the box reveals a good portion of the figure along with the car's spoiler/gun, projectile and the Planet Key. All of the items are packaged in a form fitting plastic tray that has it's own plastic cover taped to the tray. 

The included instruction sheet is again very reminiscent of the Takara release, complete with the light faded red design and grey toy models used for the step by step transformation. Also included was a catalog that shows the other figures that Mocom Toy released. Absent from the Takara line up are the smaller blister carded figures.

I originally had Autovolt from the Galaxy Force series and as far as I can tell, there are no differences between the Japanese and this Korean release. The quality of the plastic is on par with the previous release and the paint apps/deco also seems to be the same as the Takara release. Autovolt was far from my favorite toy from this series, but since he's was the cheapest one I could find let's go ahead and take a closer look at the figure itself.

Autovolt's alt mode is that of a Bugatti EB 16.4 Veyron. If you aren't familiar with this sports car I wouldn't blame you as it's a super expensive and limited vehicle. Autobolt is cast in black with silver painted accents on the front of the vehicle. The head lights are painted a shade of orange. A red tampographed Autobot symbol adorns the center of the car's hood. On the rear of the vehicle, the main tail lights are painted red with some smaller lights underneath painted light orange. The spoiler has silver accents with a light orange stripe across the back of the tailfin. The top of the car has a small section painted silver. The windshield and side widows are a translucent blue plastic, which allows you to see the robot bits crammed together inside the vehicle.

If you're not a fan of kibble, then you may not care much for Autovolt's robot mode. The car doors/windows hang off the top of his shoulders and the windshield is attached to his left forearm. On the back of the figure are two large sections of the rear portion of the vehicle. While all of these pieces can be maneuvered (somewhat) out of the way, they are there. The door sections attach via ball & socket so they are easily removable if you wish.

Looking past the kibble, the rest of the figure has a good overall look. The car hood makes a nice, tight, robot chest. It's not so big that it juts out and throws off the rest of the robot's proportions. I do like the design of the robot head. While there isn't any light piping used, Autovolt does have a nice translucent blue visor that covers the top half of his face. The bronze portion of his head coupled with the silver used for his face meshes well with the aforementioned blue plastic. While the feet don't have ankle rockers, they do have heel spurs that fold down to give the figure great balance. 

The figure has a decent amount of articulation. The head is on a ball joint and has free movement side to side and up to down. If his shoulder missile launchers have been triggered, these will limit the movement of his head. The arms are attached with ball & socket joints, as are the elbows. The legs attach to the waist with socket joints. The knees are also ball & sockets. This allows for some dramatic poses...if you have the talent...something I lack!

All of the toys from Cybertron/Galaxy Force series feature a gimmick that is unlocked by a key. While I'm not the biggest fan of gimmicks in my toys, for the most part I didn't mind it with these toys. Autovolt's gimmick are spring loaded missile launchers activated by the insertion of the key into the port in the rear of the vehicle. These launchers can be activated in either vehicle or robot mode. The vehicle's spoiler also doubles as a hand held weapon. This will launch the included molded flame projectile, which I believe first debuted with Hot Rod in the Classics/Henkei! Henkei! series.

 

Getting back to the character card and the whole reason I was lead to purchase this Korean packaged toy, the card is in fact different from the Takara release. Autovolt's card is made of a clear plastic that features a lenticular design with 3 different images. The back of the card is similar to the original with the main difference being the language. While I've been known to buy a toy just for the included card, this time around I'm excited to not only acquire a new Transformers character card (which will eventually be added to the Transformers Bio Card Database), I'm genuinely excited about also re-acquiring some excellent Galaxy Force toys. I hope to be able to expand my search to find more of these Mocom Toy releases in the near future. As I'm able to pick more up I plan to share them here on the blog as well.