Lord knows there’s been no shortage of complaining online over the Rise of COBRA film and everything surrounding it, but by and large, folks seem to at least be relatively happy with the toys we’ve gotten. Sure, there are people who have some issues with the design or the concept of figures, but for pure sculpting talent and design accumin, I just can’t conceive at how anyone could argue that Hasbro’s art team is the best in the business on a 3 3/4″ scale…and man, it’s not even close.
ToyArk.com just posted some loose images of upcoming Avatar toys. And while the film promises to totally revolutionize the medium, the action figures…well…in my mind, they look terrible. The vehicles rock pretty hard, but from a sculpting and detail standpoint, those figures just aren’t even in Hasbro’s league. I mean, let’s look at this…I’ve posted a comparison gallery below.
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I mean, is it even a close comparison? Sculpting detail, scale, design…it’s miles better with the Joe stuff than it is with Mattel’s Avatar line. It’s a world of difference. No bulky, ugly hips to conceal wonky articulation points, much fewer blatantly obvious cut-lines for movement, and a much more well-blended articulation and musculature style.
Like I said, though, the vehicles are very nice (even if the Mech and Dropship are direct rip offs of Sigma 6 :shifty: ) but those figures? Bleeech.
And yeesh, I didn’t even touch on the Terminator: Salvation travesties…those were some butt ugly toys, too. It just gets more and more obvious to me that aside from rampant collector complaints, Hasbro absolutely rules the boys toys aisle, and it’s not even close.
I would agree, although I don’t think you did Hasbro any favors by posting that Heavy Duty figure…sorry, that figure looks overweight, not muscular.
Still, I’d actually buy those figures (depending on price). If nothing else, because they have a much more plain look to them and can blend well into a diostory.
But, yeah…unless you pine for the days of the original Star Wars action figures, the sculpting on those Avtar figures isn’t anything to get excited about.
I’d have to agree with respect to the Heavy Duty image you used. I’m partial to the reactive armor version myself though :-p
As far as the Avatar toys, I didn’t mind the 1st and 4th ones posted. Not GI Joe quality but not that bad, kind of remind me of PTE figures but with a tad more detail. Might make ok cannon fodder troops. I’ll have to google the vehicles, I haven’t seen any of these till now.
Yep I was just thinking the same thought tonight as I stopped at Walmart on the way home to check out their new layout in the action figure department. The Star Trek figures are stuck in the 1990s, the Corps figures are lame like 1988 knock off toys and there is just so much of that going down the boys action figure section. I cannot believe the difference in Hasbro’s ability to get a figure looking good and still come in under $10. It is honestly as if a lot of those other companies are not really trying to play their best in this game.
An action figure should be sturdy, function to facilitate play and be reasonably exciting or interesting enough to warrant an instant impulse purchase. Hasbro is knocking home runs with the likes of Star Wars, G.I. Joe and Transformers, though I do have to admit that I am partial to that G.I. Joe stuff. They are tops if I may be so bold.
I mentioned this is an earlier story here. Playmates is laughing ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK. The retailers will be stuck with the Star Trek and Terminator lines for quite some time. I will admit, I did like the endoskeleton, but for the human counterparts, there were no comparisons. I’ve spoken to more than one local SW collector and one of the reason they have picked up the Joe line is because of the superior tooling and articulation. The only other line that comes close is the Marvel Universe line. You will hear no complaints out of me concerning the Joe line, because we really do have it that good.
A couple of those vehicles look ok, but you better believe I’m going to wait for someone ELSE to try and stick a Joe figure in one before I shell out anything.
And yeah, those Avatar figures are garbage.
I’m not sold on the movie revolutionizing the medium, either. The story appears entirely unoriginal and the CGI looked like a cutscene from a really well-made videogame, at least in the trailers I watched. Not impressed.
I thought it was well known that everything Mattel makes was utter crap. Yes, Hasbro does make some of the finest toys you can purchase domestically, but I do not feel I am taking anything for granted if I criticized sculpting details in the movie line. Heavy Duty, Cover Girl, and the first Scarlet figure all have horrific head sculpts, and Mattel’s crappy toys won’t change that unfortunately.
Shoot. This stuff is gold compared to the shit that’s Dragonball Z and the crapola Freedom Force figures… BARF.
…I’ll probably try to review one of them, at least 🙂
meh, not all those avatar figures are horrible, not all those joe figures are great.
also, saying the vehicles are a direct rip off of sigma 6? ehhhhhh i kinda hope you were being sarcastic, considering sigma 6 was kind of a direct rip off of just about everything. and i’d say james cameron’s mainly ripping off himself in ALIENS with the mechs and drop ship designs.
No question that Hasbro’s Joes are better than Mattel’s attempts at 3 3/4″. I haven’t seen any Joe fan say the contrary.
However, I do wish there was more consistency within 3 3/4″ figures at Hasbro. Star Wars figures need ball-jointed hips. Wolverine Origins figures need better ball-jointed hips. Marvel Universe figures need to stop being so freaking hunchbacked. Wolverine And The X-Men figures just need extreme improvements in both the sculpting and articulation departments, plus they really need to do something better with Wolverine’s claws there.
I wish Hasbro had gotten the DC line too. I would love to have Hasbro articulated Green Lantern Corps instead of the t-crotch crap Mattel puts out.
Yeah, some of those Avatar figs are kinda crappy. They definitely can’t do a feminine figure. But they’re not the worst I’ve seen, and for a fledgling toy line from an unproven film, I think they’re alright. I do (DO!) wanna get a pair of the vehicles, that’s for sure.
Plus, the guns and equipment look cool. And the giant blue dude can be my Joe-La Trooper, the ancient race of Jungle dwellers who inspired the US Army to create a counter-terrorist team of specialists through Dreams and Peyote visions to combat the insidious forces of their ancient nemesis, Golobulous and his Cobra-La empire…
I’ll call him “Pickles”.
Meh, while those figures do look pretty bad they’re much better then those abominations that Mattel calls DCIH.
It’s all about what you think of a toy yourself. I liked several of the Terminator figures.