Marvel Legends Legendary Riders Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze) review

Last year, I already took a look at a version of Ghost Rider in the form of the retro-carded release, which was alright for its time yet it could be better than it already was. It didn't come with a bike since Hasbro doesn't want to splurge out the budget for a $20 release, so I had to look for a spare bike or wait for the perfect version of the character to pop up on my shelf. Also, for anyone wondering: the Ghost Rider, aka Johnny Blaze, was given a deal by Mephisto to serve him while saving his surrogate father. Now the stunt biker must fulfill the tasks of an antihero while bound by Zarathos, the Spirit of Vengeance. Ghost Rider, at least the Johnny Blaze version, would later appear as part of the Avengers of the Supernatural as well as represent the Heroes for Hire and Midnight Suns while also having successors such as Daniel Ketch and Robbie Reyes. With all that said, let's take a look at this blue and red penance starer is worth getting or not.

Here we have Ghost Rider in-hand. He reuses the Vulcan body as expected, and while the blue itself is a little light, it is fairly accurate to the old Johnny Blaze version of the character. Not much for deco is used beyond the rectangle on the torso and the trim used for the collar as well as the stripes for the sides of the arms and legs, but very little variety is included. Some shading would help since the figure could pop even better. Not much else to say about this figure since it's a mashup of reuse and standard effort, but I will say that the figure isn't all shiny plastic. Even the boots look mostly fine and are not black like I expected. So far from rad but not too bad.

Head sculpt looks great with the translucent flame piece molded on the skull with a wash applied. The eye holes could use more black paint while the jaw needs to articulate. Speaking of, articulation consists of a ball and hinge combo, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, double jointed elbows, wrist rotation and hinges (either in and out or up and down depending on the hand), butterfly joints, ab crunch, waist rotation, ball jointed hips, thigh rotation, double jointed knees, boot rotation, and ankles that hinge as well as pivot. In addition to coming with the same flaming chain whip found on many Hasbro Ghost Riders, we also have an alternate flaming head with the skull colored black, which almost makes me want to see if this glows in some UV blacklight. In addition to the weapon holding hands, he has a left hand moreso for holding the skull, which looks even better than the one on his face in terms of detailing yet is nowhere near as frightening...

...and that segways us into the motorcycle he comes with. It's in two shades of red with some deco for the headlight as well as the speedometer and license plate, and while they may not seem noticeable at first, the tires are clear plastic which makes me wish more of that was used for the Hell Cycle. A wash would also help accentuate the sculpt since it could pop even better. The skull I showed you earlier can be stored on the back via the fork attached to the rear fender.

Removing it lets you use the five fire effect parts, which look cool on him but could stay on better, honestly. The renders show the fifth fire piece sitting behind Ghost Rider while the fork is attached, but it's not possible to do that so it may be a rendering error. He can ride on it no problem though it could be a little bit bigger. Maybe increasing the size could raise the price up to $80 and that's as bad as paying for Mephisto himself! So where do I stand with Ghost Rider? For the most part, I think he turned out fine, but he is far from perfect like some figures Hasbro put out of late that are able to tick a check without issue on a wishlist. He's very classic-inspired, so anyone more familiar with the leather black and rust will find this look unusual, but you can do much worse. Just pay lower than the MSRP and you should be fine. Hell, as needless as this will be to some, I'm happier with this than I would be with the Maximum line, and on a positive note, the joints are not gummy as hell!

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Yolopark AMK Pro Transformers Age of Extinction Drift review

It's that time again, as we have yet another Yolopark AMK PRO review to look at! We've seen a couple of characters from Rise of the Beasts with one design from The Last Knight and another from Revenge of the Fallen, and we have some Age of Extinction rep to go over. I'm sure you've already heard the usual complaints about the designs of the robots, which I could understand more coming from OG Bayverse trilogy fans than I would already disgruntled Geewunners, but I'd argue that the decrease in budget for Transformers as a whole, combined with rising prices, made the AOE line so unsatisfying to revisit compared to any other movie line, and it doesn't help that Hasbro made the kiddy line more of a priority. That said, non-transforming versions of figures are always a great thing to have when modern Hasbro can only do them in Studio Series (or not, because a new Drift was canceled, thanks clowns); while I would love to have seen a Human Alliance-quality Drift without needing to go 3P, Yolopark hasn't disappointed me with their figures, and getting a Drift as nice as ROTB Mirage is always a win. With all that said, we don't need to stall any further, so let's talk about another AMK PRO I missed out on!

Here we have Drift fully assembled, and while the smaller size makes attaching some parts a little more difficult to work with than I had with the similarly scaled Mirage, the assembly isn't as difficult or complex as with either TLK Optimus Prime or any of the Action Edition Blokees sets. Do keep in mind that Drift not only has asymmetrical arms, but he also has certain pieces that are meant to articulate for better range (such as the thigh panels or the faux wheel pieces on the ankles). I have to warn that the pegs for the legs and the ball sockets for the arms are much tighter than I'm comfortable with, and you'll see what later down the review. That said, the accuracy one should expect with the line is all present, nothing major missing other than the Bugatti logo (which is a tacky DRIFT text which would be better left blank). Unlike most toys of Drift, the figure is neither a normal shade of blue or black; he's a metallic navy blue dark enough so that it helps the blue highlights pop better while matching the car's paint in the film. We even get a few mesh-like paint apps to accentuate the robot mode in addition to some katakana fitting for a robot influenced by Japanese history. Of the five AOE Autobots (and by extension, Lockdown), this is the the second most "human" looking design from the movie; if not for the front of the Veyron on his chest and the wheels, he could easily pass off as a greebly Shogunzord with how sleek and kibble-free he is. I don't mind it for someone like him, though a lot of transforming toys are stuck with the proportions not matching the CG model or having the car shell folded up on a backpack. Speaking of backpack, the swords are stored on the back with a thin enough sheath that won't keep the figure from having the aesthetics compromised or ditching pegs that would ruin the swords' appearances. They rely on the weight of the blades to keep them from flopping around, though the friction could be a little tighter. Helps complete the signature blade backpack silhouette (bladepack?), especially without the swords relying on easy-to-miss tabs or 5mm pegs with varying degrees of tightness. 

Head sculpt is just as stoic and wise as the character in the movie, and I love that the helmet and the headgear are all painted intricately so nothing looks too solid or cheap. I'm sure people whined about the gold face on Drift because of the AsIaN sTeReOtYpEs, yet by their logic, Armada Demolishor having either a black or brown face (depending on the media) is also bad. Or how about the way their precious G1 Arcee having a white face like most of her looks like bare skin with a bikini and it leaves her half naked? Anyways, kudos to the goatee being painted. Articulation consists of a ball jointed neck, ball joints for moving the arms around, butterfly joints, outward arm hinges, bicep rotation, double jointed elbows, ball jointed wrists, diaphragm articulation, waist rotation, double-jointed hips, outward leg movement, thigh rotation, double jointed knees, and ankles that hinge, pivot (if you move the wheels out of the way), and toe-ticulation. The swords can either be held in the articulated hands or the molded weapon-holding hands, which may be more secure.

We have a plethora of alternate hands to go over, with the options you have including ones with finger articulation, full fists, weapon-holding hands, and splayed open hands. The latter pair is great for citing haikus or meditating. At first, I thought the alternate hands were a bit unneeded since Mirage didn't come with them, but them I remember Drift needed a few more accessories since he has no cannons. Maybe making the daggers as weapons would be cool like a toy throwback?

For some size comparisons, here he is next to Mirage from Rise of the Beasts and his sensei, Optimus Prime. While the Transformers were briefly smaller than their latter-day counterparts, if the scale of the prequel robots were in-line with the main Bayverse movies, then this would be accurate between the two. That said, maybe the Porsche 964 was smaller than the Veyron? While we're here, Mirage's design fits in well with the AOE/TLK designs more than I expected, between the lack of noticeable vehicle parts beyond the wheels and the overall humanoid proportions. I bet reboot truthers would be triggered if the bot mode was the same while being tweaked to be Jazz. And of course, with Optimus Prime, he looks spectacular if out of scale (Drift should be a head shorter more or less).

That said, I need to spread the word regarding a design flaw that affected my copy: the shoulder joint broke on the right arm. How it broke was due to the front of the shoulder piece being molded on the part attached to the bicep swivel joint, rather than having the shoulder halves use equal real estate for the joint before sandwiching over the swivel. I know why they designed it the way they did for the shoulder pads to articulate on hinges, but it's a huge issue when all of the pressure is applied on the front side. Not helping is that the joints are much tighter than they should be, almost as if some WD-40 or filing the ball joints and potentially the peg for the outward shoulder movement is needed. Also, my copy's right arm has a random silver screw used instead of the black ones commonly found on this figure. Maybe it was a poor batch? In any case, I hope I can get the piece replaced soon, because I know this is so-far the only report of the shoulders breaking. I also hope I can find a way to modify the shoulders so moving just the arm won't require having to hold it by the shoulder (because sometimes one would have the habit of posing it by grabbing the forearm). So while Drift is great in general, be weary if this issue is actually widespread.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (if this breakage isn't widespread)

Transformers Studio Series Titan Class Grimlock review

The Studio Series line finally has its first ever Titan Class figure, and it is thankfully an Age of Extinction Dinobot instead of a smaller HasLab Unicron. Yes, after nearly a decade since the Leader Class Grimlock was left without his own team of Legendary Warriors, Hasbro is redeeming themselves by making the next four Titan spots moving forward as larger scale versions of these beasts. For over a decade, their scale was only of the standard Deluxe and Voyager affair, with Grimlock at least having 2 Leaders that still weren't big enough unless you had a Legends or Core scale figure. Even then, the attempts of gift sets featuring either the AOE molds with Titan Master sized Optimus and Bumblebee or the old Legends repaints Walmart included with random Dino molds didn't do much. Now that we have a big Grimlock to not only make the most out of the size class, but to also stall plans for a smaller Unicron, knowing Hasbro really wanted to prevent the HasLab from losing value while also resisting the urge to add to the 1986 circlejerk tour. Let's see if the year long wait is worth every penny!

Here we have Grimlock in his dinosaur mode. The beast mode generally matches the CG model though we have a couple of oddities specific to the figure: firstly, the jaw doesn't close all the way due to the engineering. You can kind of pose it where it's closed just vaguely, but you won't get it as well as either Leader we got in the past. On the flip side, he has a tongue visible, though I wish the horns were able to stick out a little more since they appear to be undersized and almost feel like a response to when Bayverse haters whined that Grimlock had horns despite this being an alien robot thus not needing to comply with paleontology accuracy. Other than the jaw, the arms are on ball joints while the forearms can rotate, bend at the elbows, and the little claws swivel. The legs can only move at the legs and at the ankles. I get the hips are locked in place during transformation, but we have a much larger size for this figure, so why do we have this thing with less articulation than the other figures we got in the past of this character? As for the tail, I know that it is meant to turn into the weapon while the spikeball is stuck within the rear, but was it hard to have the tail work a different way where it didn't turn into the weapon and instead helped make the armor flaps on the back? Maybe that way it can integrate some articulation, at least tail wagging since the only other figure with that feature is the Masterpiece version from nearly 20 years ago. I know some will say "it's a mainline release, were you expecting it to be like third party quality?", and at the size class as well as demographic we are going for, YES. Something more than just his current range of articulation considering the real estate on this canvas is much larger than either Leader figure. Hell, even Titans Return Trypticon had more articulation than this in the legs, and at least the tail can hinge. That's not me hating on a Bayverse figure; Trypticon came out a decade ago and had more going on in dino mode! So as it stands, the beast mode mostly looks good, but functionality could be better than what's already present. Even a fire effect could help with display options, and I wouldn't mind if they reused the TLK Leader Megatron one.

For a size comparison, the old Leader is so dwarved by the Titan that it blends in so easily with the sheer size. I appreciate that the Titan isn't an upscale of the Leader, yet I feel like the deco between the two isn't that much of an upgrade. We have the same teal patina weathering on the Titan, yet there isn't much else to accentuate the sculpt further since the addition of silver or gunmetal paint could help even further. I mean, they added some bronze around the ankles, but that barely helps as much as the lighter grey feet and teeth do. 

Optimus Prime can ride on Grimlock, and while you will have to pull the truck nose kibble further away to make room, it is at least in scale this time than with the old Leader next to this new Optimus (who was shorter then the old Voyager from TLK). There is a peg for the flight stand port to tab into, making this much more secure than it normally would with just sitting him on there. 

Transformation is a whole lot more involved than I expected, but once again, most of the work goes to the upper body. The Dino head splits in two so we can get a generally symmetrical design for the shoulder pads, and while we have a few similarities with the old Leader from the head and leg transformation, the Titan thankfully has a few more steps so it's more than just "straighten the legs out". However, the tail contributes in the form of partsforming. The robot mode is just as massive and bulky as Grimlock should be, but maybe the upper body looks undersized? It's almost like they prioritized the dino mode proportions that the robot mode is partially altered, making the legs appear larger while most of the upper body mass was to make the dino mode more proportionate. It makes the waist area appear blockier when it really isn't. That said, the design is at least translated well from the front, because the proportions being slightly off doesn't bother me as much as the back kibble execution. I get they were trying to mimic the back flaps reminiscent of some skirt armor some knights would have, but the result looks more like he is mistransformed from the back, with the bottom piece looking like it should be placed over the back while the other pieces look more like overly spread out ass cheeks. So the robot mode is able to live up to the size we should expect from the leader of the legendary warriors, but the kibble management should be better handled. At the very least, the dino feet can somewhat pass as robot feet by folding the toes and bringing the spikes out, but it's another case of the old Voyager having the most accurate feet out of the normal transforming Grimlocks Hasbro made.

Articulation consists of a seemingly ball jointed neck, though he mostly stays looking down, ratchets used for the shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. Swivels are used for the biceps, thighs, and wrists, and the fingers are on a single hinge for the base knuckles. Considering the budget of a Titan figure meaning more room to add things smaller figures wouldn't normally have, it it hard for him to have as much finger articulation as some Commanders and Leaders? Then again, some of those figures are inconsistent with their finger articulation anyhow, and that's not to mention Voyagers either including it or not. That said, the mace and wrecking ball are able to tab into the pals and cover the hand completely, respectively. The ball lacking paint sucks and takes points away, but the mace's handle is not only split in a few parts, but there are metal pins running through them for better durability. 

The mace can be held with both hands provided the tabs align with the position of each arm since you can't rotate each piece on the pegs. Both weapons can peg on the backs without issue, though. 

Here we have Grimlock towering over his 2018 Leader counterpart and Optimus Prime. Whole we already know how the scale should be for a Titan, yet he appears a little undersized if the scale charts dictate that Optimus should be at the middle of the knee spikes. And maybe that would explain why Grimlock is shorter than Star Convoy, the first Titan to be shorter than what we already got with the likes of Tidal Wave and everyone before him. I don't have Devastator and Predaking, but I believe they are also known for shorter than the likes of Metroplex and Trypticon also from a decade ago.

Overall, I really want to say that this Grimlock is a slam dunk for our first and long overdue Bayverse Titan, but I can't do that when there are a handful of issues keeping me from fully recommending it. The size is already one checkmark, and the articulation in bot mode is already good, and I like that the transformation is generally different from the Leader, but there was so much wasted with the dino mode articulation, the deco is barely an improvement and in some areas sorely needs paint, and the kibble management is pretty underwhelming from the back. The worst issue comes in the form of the price. Titan prices have fluctuated over the years, starting with $125 for Metroplex back in 2013 all the way up to $200 for Tidal Wave in 2024. The price decrease for Star Convoy was okay, even if it's because of Hasbro shrinking the figure even more. To tell you the truth, I was hoping Grimlock would be $150, and I understand he is also engineered differently from Star Convoy, but he goes for more than what SC did last year. Hasbro can use things like Paramount licensing and the state of the economy or tariffs, but it's all an excuse for people to blame everyone else for the issues of the budget but themselves. I still want to get the other Dinobots, and having Scorn for next year sounds awesome, but I will have to be cautious with the final result. Until then, get Grimlock on sale or wait for a bootleg to do even better than this. I don't know if Titans ever got bootlegs in the past, but I know some other figures in the third party market are better than this.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Titans Return Six Shot review

Six Shot's one of those characters who may be mostly remembered best for the way his gimmick or toy works rather than his character, let's be honest. That said, for as faulty as the Japanese G1 trilogy was (and moreso than the original G1 cartoon), I can at least say that the character development for him was fairly deep. He was known as a ninja consultant Decepticon Dinobase Ninja Commander (Dinobase referring to Trypticon, though Shout Factory called him a Phase Six Decepticon Officer), and while he may come across as the seemingly difficult villain to kill before the series ends, his interaction with Daniel Witwicky changed his viewpoints on the war, with the eventual decision to change sides coming through before going in self exile at the end of the series. It's typical for some Japanese kids' media to have a side villain eventually redeem himself or herself, but the headcanon idea that he was reformed as Greatshot wouldn't be official until the Legends manga. After all, the toy was retooled heavily, the character was said to right wrongs of the past, and we still have the word -shot in there. Even before it was canonized, it always makes more sense than the lousy wishful thinking Bayverse haters had towards wanting Scourge to be a corrupted Optimus Prime. Anyways, let's take a look and see how well Six Shot holds up a decade later! 

Here we have Six Shot in his armored car mode. It's an okay mode, but clearly blocky and almost comparable to one of the builds you would get in a Lego set. I like that the car is half purple and half green with the white in the middle, though the black does also take up most of the purple anyhow. The windows are opaque, but that's fine since Titan Masters can sit on top. No idea what purpose the middle piece on the top is meant to represent, some kind of weird Arcee antenna thing? On the flip side, it rolls alright, but it's pretty boxy on the whole.

Turning him into his tank mode is pretty straightforward, as you rotate the front wheels around so they can serve as something similar to hover pieces while what was the front of the car mode now turns into a tank turret. The feet vaguely resemble cannons, but you will need the assistance of the guns to make it look more convincing. The tank mode is a little more effective at resembling a sci-fi military vehicle, almost like something the Clone Army would have used (either the standard fighter tank mostly seen in the CWMMP-related games or the stun tank used in the Filoni Clone Wars show). Wold mode is a case of turning him into robot mode but on all fours, with the wings somewhat present and the beast mode head in place. The more I look at this mode, the more it resembles the beast modes from the Decepticon Clone duo Pounce and Wingspan. Almost like they're related, yet he knocked them out in the show.

As for the totally-not-an-upside-down-gun-mode, Hasbro claims that this is a submarine. It looks more like a poor attempt at trying to be a Star Destroyer, the Republic version from the Prequel Trilogy, to be exact, because the bridge and the front are designed differently from the OT counterpart. What could have made this altmode work better is if it were labeled as a cannon since it's already in the shape of that mode, and while you have no trigger to roleplay with, at least it's better than looking at what's basically a car wreck.

The spaceship mode has a cool trick where the guns are tabbed on the wings, and we have a decent wedge to represent the nosecone, but this and the gunmarine mode are the worst of the altmodes Six Shot comes with. Here, he looks more like a robot folded up, like that McDonald's Animated Starscream toy. I get that this is trying to be accurate to the old toy, and I guess there isn't much you can do if this was the first time SS got a toy since the 80s, but I know there could have been more effort.

Transformation is mostly a case of straightening the limbs out as well as bringing out the robot head and the chest fins. Nothing to write home about considering what we're dealing with, and while the toy mostly has a basic transformation, I can at least say the toy is focused more on the 6 modes as a play feature specific to this character. As for the robot mode, it's pretty much a parallelogram type of design. He's fully straight up and down, with the designs of the limbs combined with his blocky torso, and it doesn't help that the wings point upwards. You could argue that it fits someone who's pretty attentive before going into the ninja attacks, but it does have an issue I brought up in the past with some Titans Return and Power of the Primes figures being G1-With-Knees. On one hand, that still rings true with how close he is to the old toy without being a full-on Missing Link (though I would be fine with the old toy getting the Missing Link treatment since we need Decepticons), but on the other hand, I think of one of the third party Six Shot figures that looks far more dynamic, and it was made by Mastermind Creations (Terminus Hexagon?). Regardless, Six Shot's one of those designs that looks fine; it's just that maybe the torso could be more refined. I will say this: for all of the G1 toy influences used throughout the Titans Return line, we don't have the stickers for the chest fins.

Head sculpt is at least accurate to the character design, and I am fine with the white plastic on the head being unpainted since there isn't enough detailing that gets washed out. At the very least, the Titan Master is painted to stand out from the rest of the helmet. Articulation consists of a neck swivel, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, hinged elbows, ratcheted hips moving front and back, loose outward leg movement, thigh rotation, even looser knees, and ankles that are on pretty heavy indents, making them only good for standing still, posing them at full splits, and in-between. If there is something I will agree with other fans on, we should expect better for the articulation of this figure, especially for a Leader Class, as well as the tolerances.

The Titan Master gimmick works a little differently for this Leader specifically; while Optimus Prime/Ginrai and Godbomber have helmets that go over the heads, the Titan Master named Revolver, who is not only designed after Chromedome's old friend, Jack, but there is a bandana that matches up with the ninja theming of Six Shot with a kanji appropriately standing for "six". Not to mention the whole approach with a name like "Revolver" making sense given they shoot six times. You can keep the head inside the helmet at all times, but keep in mind that the wolf head will need to be filled in.

There is a bonus mode dubbed "Wingwolf", which was first seen in the Japanese media, as one would expect, and it's basically the jet mode reversed with the wolf head pointing forwards. It's about as goofy as you can get, but to its credit, this was another reminder of the many fan modes that were possible with a toy like this. After all, we know Japan likes going for the mid-tier or base modes that don't always look as good on some toys.

As far as prior reuses are concerned, the Legends version goes for a Headmasters-accurate deco, meaning the sea green is closer to a teal, the stickers are ditched in favor of paint apps, and the Titan Master is better painted than the Hasbro version (aka superior color break-up). The best part is the rims being painted.

Up next, we have Quickswitch, who is the Autobot son of Six Shot, but being a retool instead of a new mold does lead to a couple of things: while the jet, puma, and not-an-upside-down-gun submarine were the same with the old toy, there should be a hovercraft instead of a car, and the tank needs a drill. At least the robot mode has better proportions from being as fit as his dad. Also, no Sixknight retool was made. 

And finally, we have Greatshot, who is not just retooled with a new face, helmet, chest, beast head (a rhino instead of a wolf), but he has a much more heroic color scheme that feels like a patriotic cowboy. I would not be surprised if this were given a retool for the New Legends line if Six Shot received a later, modern figure in a later line.

For a robot mode size comparison, here he is next to the bot he killed: Ultra Magnus. It's wild to see how much of a Leader Class figure from 2016 is as tall as a Commander Class figure made in 2023. I don't mind them having a similar height; I just find it wild that despite this fact, one cost far less than the other. 

Overall, while I am happy to get a version of Six Shot without waiting for another update (hell, the size alone next to Magnus makes me happy enough with him), that doesn't mean he is a flawless toy. The modes being whack, I can be fine with, because at least it's in his character to make multiple modes without worrying too much about how some of the execution turned out on each. The tolerances for some of the joints, however, are annoying as hell for a larger toy, especially at the knees. I would rather have seen some ratchets used for the knee joints, but on the whole, he's a figure that I think is good but could be better. Let's see how well a new version would turn out, but I'll probably be done collecting by that point.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐