Star Wars The Black Series Anakin Skywalker & Padme Amidala review

If you were to ask people who the hottest Star Wars couple is, you might think the answer is Han Solo and Princess Leia. And while Leia does check the mark with her slave attire, Han being a scruffy nerf herder probably doesn't do him favors. And while the death of Padme and the fall of Anakin Skywalker may be tragic, at least they didn't get involved in the same embarrassment of Sequel Trilogy treatment that included mediocre farewells to the OG cast. Plus, Anakin got to bang a hot senator while his daughter kissed her brother! Anyways, let's review the hottest Star Wars couple!

Let's first cover the Chosen One himself, Anakin Skywalker. Based on his appearance in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin wears his iconic attire of black and dark brown Jedi robes, an elegant combo that helps him stand out from the other Jedi in addition to his right hand having the glove covering his robot hand. The sculptwork adds a nice layer of realism to the outfit, making it look appropriately proportioned on him with elements kike the sleeves on him and the skirt that adds kind of makes the clothes Jedi wear look badass. The outfit is broken up by both the different parts that make up the robes and the colors they're associated with, and I appreciate it that the figure's got a few paint apps like the belt buckle.

Head sculpt looks pretty close to Hayden Christensen, though it varies on the image's angle. Maybe the hair could use a little more naturalistic color or a little more dry brushing to make it look more realistic. Otherwise, it does the job done as far as Hasbro's photo-realistic actor faces can get in the Archive line. His articulation consists a ball and neck hinge, shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out, elbows that swivel as well as hinge (but not past 90 degrees somehow), hands that swivel as well as hinge in and out, a diaphragm joint that feels somewhat limited with waist rotation and ab-crunch movement, hips move front and back, in and out, thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, and feet that can hinge up and down as well as pivot side to side. With his lightsaber in his hand, he can do a few good poses, but not enough that look awesome. His alternate head is his Darth Vader likeness best-commonly known for being in Mustufar. I think it looks a little closer to Hayden than it does to the normal one, and both heads have that iconic scar at the eye.

Here he is with his brother in arms, his master, his best friend, and his fellow Prequel chad, Obi-Wan Kenobi. They may look great together, but I can't say for certain that they have issues with their articulation, especially at the arms. Though I was able to somewhat recreate the poses they did for the ROTS poster that had them fight on Mustafar. Overall, Anakin Skywalker is a pricey figure all around, and while I recommend you get him, I still wish he had better arm articulation and slightly better torso articulation.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Up next, it's Padme Amidala, based on her appearance from Attack of the Clones! She has her signature jumpsuit worn during their and Anakin's rescue in Geonosis. There's not much in terms of detail, but there are some silver armbands, and gray boots to break up the white. Meanwhile, the belt is a separate vinyl piece that holsters her pistol. Her cloak is a beige-white color that, while resembles a Mexican blanket, it works for an attire like this...even if it really isn't suited for sneaking through a factory and is moreso meant to be a callback to her future daughter, Princess Leia. I do wish the cloak had a wash.

Head sculpt has a good likeness to Natalie Portman, even down to the birthmark. I like that Padme is as beautiful as she is no-nonsense, even when it comes to aggressive negotiations. The paint apps for the hair could be a little better, though. Her articulation is mostly the same, but there was one sin that Hasbro committed: giving her Y-jointed hips! I don't get why Hasbro made that decision if they could have retained the same joints Anakin does, especially since no other figure does that to my knowledge. Setting that aside, you can have one hand hold her smaller pistol, which is nicely painted and makes me think of that iconic sound effect her pistol makes. Alternatively,   you can swap her right hand so she can be posed holding the blaster of a Battle Droid. As for her cloak/cape being removable, you can do that, but know that it was likely never meant to come off since getting it back on there is a pain in the ass due to her head not being made to come off easily.

And here she is with Anakin, both of whom are wearing outfits that aren't technically shown to co-exist since Anaking is ROTS and Padme is AOTC, but you can always use your imagination. And also, I'm not immediately going to hunt down Black Series copies of AOTC Anakin and Obi-Wan right away so this will be more than perfect! Overall, Padme is nearly as equal to Anakin's qualities, but her biggest vice is not her elbow articulation but instead those stupid Y-jointed hips. I say that because I don't want to have to spend even more on the Figuarts of the characters if they're even pricier than what I paid for these two on eBay.

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

Star Wars The Black Series Yoda & Emperor Palpatine review

Yoda. Emperor Palpatine. Two legends in the Star Wars universe that shaped up the lore of their various universes beautifully.  One represented wisdom, the other forbidden knowledge. One trained various Jedi, the other stuck with the rule of two. One lost in the Clone Wars, while the other won thanks to being granted emergency powers from a possible Sith Lord (and keep in mind, almost no one in-universe knew Palpatine was the true menace). One would later become part of the Force and the other was defeated by the Chosen One (until Disney buttfucked it all but you probably heard of that by now). Anyways, let's review two Black Series figures!

Here is Yoda in-hand. Being the wise Jedi Grand Master that he is, this figure captures the aged appearance of the character, from the elderly look of the face to the old, tattered robes that have seen better days. I feel like it's either something intentionally done by Hasbro, or they are used up from the previous owner. Either way, these feel kind of cheap in terms of how the materials work (still better than the cloth capes of Mattel's Josstice Superman and Batman). Holding the cloak is a belt of sorts, and his necklace has a flute, apparently. 

Head sculpt is based on the Original Trilogy muppet, even though he comes with a lightsaber. It's a little derpy with one eye staring off slightly in one direction, but I will admit that I wish he had an alternate head that gave him the Prequel face; his more stern facial expression would have been great!

His articulation is limited due to his scale, with a neck swivel and hinge, shoulders that move front and back, in and out, elbows bend, wrists swivels and hinge (in and out as well as up and down), there is a diaphragm joint, hips move front and back, in and out, the knees swivel but they don't bend. His ankles swivel and hinge but no pivot. He has a lightsaber that was only used at least in Episode II and III, but since this is meant to be a more OT-era Yoda, you can depict him with a random snake and his cane if you so choose. I wish he had a few more accessories, like his hover chair or his council seat.

Here is Yoda alongside other Jedi, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, and the soon-to-be-reviewed Anakin Skywalker. While he is appropriately shorter than everyone else, he isn't that size-accurate, as he is two-feet tall while he is 3-feet here. Overall, Yoda is a decent figure that will be good for fans who got him either as the Archive release or for the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, but don't expect too much from him unless his price is lowered.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Up next, we have Emperor Palpatine, who is obviously from Return of the Jedi (though Empire counts for his brief appearance). This guy is covered in black robes, which may seem problematic since it would make him as puffy and stupid as Leia like I mentioned months ago, but it makes sense since he doesn't really need to offer much for action anyhow. At least Leia could have had a sculpted torso and arms while she retains the skirt; Palpatine being all robes makes sense to me.I also appreciate the points of the hood and the sleeves being carried over like they should for this figure, and you can even see a bit of a belt in there.

Head sculpt is appropriately wrinkled and old like it should be for a character like him, especially with the baggy eyes he is well-known for. His articulation does have a diaphragm joint, double-jointed knees, and ankle pivots, but I haven't used them because he really wasn't made for articulation if he has his cane and is pointing a lot (the last pic will fix that don't worry).

For a size comparison, here he is in-between his apprentice and a random Stormtrooper. He's a short guy, which is expected since a Stormtrooper gets slightly taller with the armor on (unless you're Luke) while Vader towers over everyone.

For those wondering, you can give him a lightsaber, but probably not one that is Vader's since it's a thicker handle not meant for Palpatine's hand. Overall, Palpatine is another figure that is only worth getting, though there are other versions of him with lightning-effect hands that he should have had. Slightly less recommended than Yoda. I know this isn't his form from Revenge of the Sith, but at least make hima little more interesting for display options than just his cane and pointing hand!

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

Transformers Legacy Evolution Scraphook review

When fans look back at the history of Junkions, Wreck-Gar almost always gets attention by Hasbro. He was in Animated and received a lot of new toys as a G1 character, so it was cool whenever we got figures of the other Junkions like with Reveal the Shield and SS86. But sometimes, Hasbro could do more than just tweak Wreck-Gar slightly. Junkheap is cool, but we can be even more creative with these designs and the underrated race of robots. So let's get straight to Scraphook!

Here is Scraphook in his tow truck mode, which is a Mad Max-influenced design that makes it feel more so made for intense towing throughout the worst of times, like a post-apocalyptic desert. The front of the truck, the spiked ridges, the engine block, and the windshield guard all suit that aesthetic and the Junkions pretty well. Even the back has that design trait carried through with the exhaust pipes and the metal patch on the doors. This goes from being a standard, family-owned Tow Truck to the aforementioned Mad Max truck meant for emergency towing. It's like if Mater was on the run from alien invaders that took over the Earth!

In general, the design makes for a badass alt mode that you probably wouldn't expect if it was a tow truck, but with this and Battletrap shaping up 2023, things are shaping up to be great.

Transformation is pretty unusual for truckformers, as the front becomes the legs while the back becomes the upper body, with everything almost folding inside out so we get the red torso that stands out among the beige, orange, and brown of the robot mode. Some parts of the conversion do suck, such as the forearms coming off because of how they're attached without pins, and the biceps are tighter than normal. Bad design choice on Hasbro's part, but the parts that were meant to detach are the hook, spare tire, and the exhaust pipes. The resulting robot mode looks like a mix between a Junkion and Impactor. Resembling a parallelogram with those shoulders, he is a mix of blocky and jagged with those design traits mixed together, which I feel works well for a new character like him. And even though he has an entirely different design and altmode from the Junkions, he has similar design traits like the colors and the wheel shield a la Wreck-Gar.

Head sculpt is interesting when you first think of how it resembles Impactor and another Transformer, and the beard combined with the mohawk and especially the eye patch make for a unique design for the character. His articulation consists of a neck swivel, shoulders that move front and back on 5mm posts, in and out on hinges; biceps swivel, elbows bend, wrists swivel, and the waist swivels. The hips move front and back, in and out, lower legs swivel on 5mm pegs, knees bend, and the ankles hinge as well as pivot. Those engine block halves on his shins can actually become blasters.

A reuse of the mold popped up a few waves later as Axelgrease, a Decepticon that is vaguely like Animated Lockdown. And yes, this is a Decepticon who is a Junkion and not Nancy. Amusing how in Hasbro's quest to milk tf out of everything G1, the first female Junkion toy is an OC.

For a size comparison, here he is with his Junkion leader, Wreck-Gar. He may be shorter than his boss, but it makes sense since Wreck-Gar is meant to be a taller character after all. I bet you can use Scraphook as an accessory for Wreck-Gar in vehicle mode.

Now why did I mention 5mm posts and accessories, you might ask? Well, disassembling him is not part of the transformation, but this guy can perform a similar Weaponizer gimmick with the Evo-Fusion gimmick, which is something he doesn't have to do compared to the Weaponizers, Modulators, and Fossilizers of the WFC trilogy!

And here we have him combined with Hot Shot, as the legs become winglets, the arms become foot add-ons, and the back attaches even if it had nowhere to go. Overall, Scraphook is a great way to make new Junkions without having to constantly reuse SS86 Wreck-Gar constantly, so if you want to get this guy, I recommend it!

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Studio Series Cheetor review

Cheetor's been one of two Maximals to get a lot of attention in Transformers lore up to this point; much like how Optimus Primal made a comeback in the mediocre Prime Wars Trilogy, Cheetor would pop up in Season 2 of Cyberverse and make a surprisingly sad sacrifice at the beginning of Season 3 before their more traditional iterations returned in the shitty Netflix trilogy. And we now know Cheetor is going to be a main character for the upcoming Rise of the Beasts movie, with fans being surprised that we got two iterations of the character (as was the case with Airazor and possibly Rhinox, judging by the altered merch in the toyline). We saw an earlier Deluxe figure present the character in a more traditional Season 1 look, but this guy, a Voyager, is the more official look that the Studio Series line represents as it better resembles the concept art that was used to make the toy. We'll see if this more Beast Machines-esque figure wins fans over.

Here is Cheetor's backdrop, which depicts the Maximal hideout that will likely put the initial conflict between both factions before they work together to stop the Terrorcons and possibly Decepticons and Predacons. This'll be a lot of Cons. But yeah, it's an alright backdrop that also got used by Airazor.

Here is Cheetor in his beast mode, which is a more caramel beast mode rather than a bright yellow that one would expect from the toyline. I think this was done in order to depict the Maximal in-between the standard color and the "realistic" color scheme one would have expected for the CGI model if it was gray like the Dinobots. While the Dinobots being patina made sense, I feel happy that we have a compromised color scheme that makes him feel somewhat like the normal Cheetor in terms of beast mode. It's a lot more mature of a design rather than the youthful look that his old BW iteration has in the past. Mot of the beast mode is sculpted decently, though it could use more paint apps to make said sculptwork pop better; in addition, some of the hinges of the transformation do make the figure feel a little more broken up than it should. At the very least, the anatomy works well for this guy. His articulation is admittedly worse than the Kingdom offerings of Cheetor and Tigatron. His forelegs (but not the shoulders) move front and back while the legs have a little more range (though the lower legs are mostly meant to be bent that way. At least he has a bit of tail articulation as well as head and jaw articulation.

The weapons he has can be stored on the back, though they are meant to be stored as such in robot mode.

For a size comparison, here he is next to Bumblebee, recreating the scene of the two kid-appeal characters charging into battle. Yeah, Cheetor's a big cat, though I feel that's not quite scale-accurate because of the size class Cheetor is in. I'm kind of surprised Hasbro did a Voyager for Cheetor since he's more commonly known to be a Deluxe.

Transformation is honestly pretty basic, with the typical catformer approach that makes him unimpressive considering how it's a case of stretching the limbs to be humanoid and hiding the beast head to have the robot head out instead. At the very least, the robot mode is not a design that I expected them to make since one would have initially believed the Beast Wars design would be used rather than the Beast Machines design, but it turns out that the latter is what we're going with. I do like that decision, honestly, as I don't feel we really give much attention to the Beast Machines series given how fans saw the show as being inferior to Beast Wars. I feel like the sculptwork and paint apps stand out better on this figure than on the beast mode, especially since it appears that the robot mode had a lot of attention put into it as an action figure while making the beast mode a little more in second-place of priorities. So that's why the beast mode feels half-baked in articulation (and of course, the front paws being robot hands). I like the muscular design and the techno-organic trait of Cheetor serving as a Beast Machines homage, but I can't say for certain that the figure would be the most mind-blowing thing of all time.

Head sculpt feels very interesting as it feels like a mix between Transmetal II and Beast Machines in terms of details, though I wonder if that is supposed to be a faceplate or a mouth. We'll see later on, as it does look as confusing as Jackie's faceplate. His articulation consists of a ball-jointed neck, shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out (with shoulder pads), biceps swivel, elbows bend, wrists swivel, waist swivels, hips move front and back, in and out, thighs swivel, knees bend, and the ankles pivot. You can pose him with stubby Wolverine claws if you want.

His weapons are two slightly different melee weapons that makeup being so-so by connecting together as a spear he could hold with a single hand and utilize better articulation if you ask me. While the handles are a little shorter than I'd like, they at least work well when they're tabbed together as a staff.

According to earlier concept art, this is what Cheetor looked like before receiving the final redesign. It's not too bad, and in some ways, this design does work better than the Voyager, not because it's closer to the classic Cheetor look, but because it feels better engineered. I like the more complete beast mode and the transformation having a little more going on with it. The brown legs do make him look like he's wearing brown pants, but otherwise, this would probably be the best non-SS Deluxe figure in the line.

For a robot mode size comparison,he is taller than fellow Maximal Airazor, but he isn't towering over her too much since she got a bit of a size increase compared to the regular Kingdom Airazor that the Studio Series mold took inspiration from.

Overall, Cheetor is an average figure with a cool design added to him. I can't really say that he's a must-have since he doesn't really wow people all that much. He's not a terrible figure, but I wouldn't really say he's going to be as good as figures like Scourge or Bumblebee. I think even Airazor ended up being cooler than him since he feels less imaginative with his transformation than Airazor borrowing the engineering of another figure. I like the Beast Machines influence, but I feel the Beast Wars-styled Deluxe would be more interesting in terms of engineering.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐