Marvel Legends Walgreens Exclusive Agent Venom action figure review

Welcome to this week's three-minute toy review! Hah I kid but this review focuses on just one figure tonight, the long awaited release of Agent Venom. If you haven't been keeping up with the comics Flash Thompson has the symbiote suit now and while he lost his lower legs during combat the symbiote creates them for him. Hasbro has come out of left field and made this a Walgreens drug store exclusive, eight Venoms per case. Yep, you won't have trouble finding him...unless you don't live near a Walgreens. He runs the standard $19.99 and sits in a nifty pre-hung display rack that's usually located near either of the toy aisle endcaps. But is he worth hunting down? Let's find out.

Right off the bat you'll find that Agent Venom's sculpt really, really shines. The headsculpt is slick with goggle-like bug eyes. Venom's base body is the Shield Agent/Steve Rogers/Drax, also being shared by the Toys R Us exclusive Magneto but you won't see much of it as its covered in some great looking armor. It's done in a bumpy organic sculpt with brand new lower arms and legs. The chest piece is intricately done as is the belt full of grenades and weaponry. There's a holster on his right leg with a non-removable gun on it as well. Venom's fingers are in a cool gnarled pose that allows him to hold different sized weapons.

Paint work comes in one shade, white on black plastic. You'll want to compare as the very fine eyeliner can be skewed and the white logo is actually a tampograph, meaning paint that's been applied with a stamp rather than sprayed on. This lends to some symbols being all crisp white and some having missed the sculpt with black specks showing through at the crevices and organic sculpt. However this doesn't actually look terrible and can fall in the way of accidental shading. Just snag a jar of Testors Model Master Acrylic white paint and you can easily touch him up. I wasn't kidding either that's it for his paint work, yet he still looks amazing.

Articulation for Agent Venom is top notch! While some of you may not want to fall back towards the ball-hips they're hardly noticable. His shoulderpads are on thin flexible strips and move out of the way. Every joint including the ab crunch has excellent range. His wrists turn at the upper forearm where the armor meets and he has side-tilt ankles. Pose him however you like, Agent Venom has great proportions and range of motion.

You're in for an accessory extravaganza here. Agent Venom's chest armor and belt are removable. He comes with four guns and a wicked looking symbiote tendril attachment on his back that can wield them. Three of the guns are Hit Monkey's so they're a bit on the small side (tho your Black Widow would benefit from them!) but not a noticeable with the tendrils holding them. The other gun is Steve Roger's and looks better in the actual figure's hand. Removable armor and a bunch of guns, that's pretty decent.

So what's the verdict on Agent Venom? You're probably reading this review on your cellphone walking through a Walgreens right now looking for him. And if you aren't, you should be. This is one awesome figure and I'm having a hard time putting him down. Even if you aren't a huge fan of this Venom customizers can always use the weapons and armor for other figures and that head is practically Spiderman Noir material. The problem is not living near or IN a country with a Walgreens. Hasbro cut out the scalpers by making the entire case Venoms tho his card shows all the other Spiderman Infinite characters as if he were a variant of the assortment. You just need to ask some friends to keep an eye out for you, he won't be hard to find. I'd plug my sponsors here but you're really only going to find him at Walgreens, tho various 3rd parties on Amazon and Ebay have him in stock (all eBay links are eBayPartnerNetwork affiliate links that help me out!) at various markups if you can't stand to wait.

Transformers the Ride Universal Studios Hollywood exclusive Evac figure review

If you've been to Universal Studios in California (or Singapore) you may have had a chance to hop on Transformers The Ride and immerse yourself in a 3D extravaganza. Afterwards you can immerse your credit card at the ride's gift shop and snag a brand new deluxe mold, Evac. His packaging is nicely done and similar to the Transformers Universe figures with a bio on the back. He's a 'Supercar' and more importantly your attraction ride. That's right, you ride in an Evac during the show.Big thanks to LegendAntiHero who picked one up for me! Check him out on Facebook and Twitter!

Sculpting for Evac is a brand new mold even though some mistake him for a DotM Roadbuster repaint and he's quite nice. The headsculpt is very detailed, there's all sorts pistons and wires running through his limbs, and the inner chest cavity is skeletal looking. He has movable waist guns that double as the car's weapons too. His back wings fold out and have sculpted rocket boosters on them. There are four c-clips on his shoulders and arms allowing for weapon placement though you will have to supply your own.

Articulation for Evac is like your basic deluxe. Ball neck, bicep, and hips. Good 90 deg range on the elbows and knees. He doesn't have wrist or waist movement but it doesn't seem to hinder him as you can turn his arm to aim his wrist guns. What does hinder him is the lack of forward tilting ankle. He has amazing side-tilt, able to do a complete split but no way to step forward. If you can over look this he's fine but this may be a deal-breaker for some.

Evac's paint apps are cleanly applied on both modes. The blue and silver looks nice breaking up his bot mode and the yellow lights look sharp on his chest. On his alt mode you can see the green hex-tampo which is done cleanly as well as autobot logos on either side. Silver rims complete the look. His blue light-piping was painted over with yellow so it no longer works. A savvy customizer may be able to scrape that off however.

Alt mode is a 'Supercar' and as mentioned the car you sit in during the ride. A close look through the windshield reveals four tiny seats for the audience. The overall vehicle look is something of a cross between the shoebox-design of War for Cybetron and a concept car. The thruster in the back looks neat and the waist guns now poke out of the headlights, another cool feature. The car rolls fine and looks good doing so without a ton of cut lines. Lifting a wing up kind of opens the 'door' to the seating.

Transformation is a bit complex requiring you to twist then fold the waist, line up the shoulders, and fiddle a bit. The picture of the figure has the back mistransformed so go by the step-by-step pics on the instructions. Evac has no accessories but the C-clips allow you to add your on in bot and alt mode. He has 5mm holes for hands but no mech-tech ports hinting he may have been designed before the DotM plug-in craze.

So what's the verdict on Evac? If you can get past the ankle issue he's a really neat deluxe. I like the idea he has a jetpack on his back and his overall design in both modes is pretty decent. He's $21 at the gift shop and keeps selling out though they do get entire cases of him in when they restock. You can snag him off of Ebay (all eBay links are eBayPartnerNetwork affiliate links that help me out!) to avoid buying a ticket or if you have a friend in California pay for their ticket to get in and buy one for you.

Big Bad Toy Store's GI Joe "Dreadnoks" Exclusive battle Set review

Here we have part 2 of BBTS' exclusive GI Joe sets, the Dreadnoks Battle Set. Like the Slaughter's Marauders set in the last review you get 7 figures but this time they're all new characters to the lines with no repeats. Zanzibar, Burn Out, Clyde "Gnaw" Hyde, Road Pig, Thunder, Zandar, and Zanya have never had modern figures made as of yet. They all however are original Dreadnoks members tho Thunder's name use to be Thrasher and Clyde was Gnawgahyde, name changes usually being copyright cases. Either way you get 7 brand new figures.

Sculpting on all of these are top notch and it really shows in the brand new headsculpts. From Road Pig's scowl to Zanzibar's facial scars, every detail can be seen. Zanya, Zartan's daughter has an excellent sculpted head of dreads as does Burn Out. Dreadlocks are often very hard to capture sculpt-wise and here we see them in minute 1:18 scale done right. The bodies while re-uses are matched perfectly and have great sculpted detail.

Articulation is the same across each figure with no major surprises. All the Dreadnoks have the same range of motion and points of articulation. While there are no hinged wrists here there's also no weird knees. Each character can pose just about any way you'd need them to in battle or stealing someone's vehicle. Some characters have long gloves that turn fully while others turn at the wrist. These variations in articulation add a little extra touch to the characters that have them like Thunder and Zanya.

As mentioned earlier each body is a mix of re-used parts but were picked perfectly by Hasbro to represent the character. The battle-cut Storm Shadow body was used for Zanzibar where so the cuts match his facial scars. Zandar's upper arms are Zartan's, fitting as he's his brother. Re-uses like this save Hasbro on tooling costs keeping the cost of figures down while giving us a brand new character.

Paint apps are top notch in this set and there's a lot of detail on the accessories/removable clothing as well. Zanzibar and Road Pig have detailed arm tattoos, the fur on Clyde's vest is highlighted, and every piercing on Zanya's face are painted on along with some great fishnet arm stocking design. The color choices for Zandar may seem a bit on the pastel side but that's how the vintage character looked, tho his scarf is huge this time around.

The character backstories on the back of the box are well written and informative. This reveals that nobody really likes Road Pig that much and Clyde likes to cover himself in rancid hog fat. To keep his scent hidden while poaching of course. You get seven stands included in the box and the figures are easily removed. Their weapons may give you trouble as some are tiny and taped in well.

Speaking of weapons the assortment in this set is amazing. Burn Out's flamethrower gear and sawed off shotgun, Zanzibar's flintlock and cutlass, to Road Pig's Brick hammer are all sculpted and painted great. Road Pig's brick is so well detailed it could pass as the real thing and the removable clothing that characters like he and Thunder wear have cool metallic scuffing. Clyde has a removable back knife and Zanzibar can stow three of his weapons on his person in various holsters and sheathes. This is always a bonus.

So what's the verdict? This set is even cooler than the Marauders one. You get 7 brand new figures all with a ton of great accessories, nicely painted and articulated for only $49. You have to order them from Big Bad Toy Store directly because they're an exclusive set but at this price you're paying less than retail for each figure. My favorite of this set is Road Pig. Everyone I knew owned him as a kid and his cinder block hammer was iconic for the character. So head over to BBTS and get your set while they're still in stock because popular characters like Zander, Zanzibar, and Road Pig will have it sold out quickly.

Big Bad Toy Store's Exclusive GI Joe "Slaughter's Marauders" Battle Set Review

GI Joe is a military staple in action figures and has been since its creation. The smaller 3 3/4" figures have an assortment of vehicles and bases which the 12" ones couldn't justify for a decent price. Today I cover Big Bad Toy Store's exclusive battle set of Slaughter's Marauders. This review is going to be longer than others because the set contains 7 figures, some characters you have and some brand new to the line. I will also be doing part 2 of the review later which covers BBTS' Dreadnok's battle set.

The sculpts on these figures is amazing. How Hasbro manages to pack so much detail into under 4" is great and the faces really bring the characters to life. Felix "Mercenary" Stratton is an ex-Cobra Viper and you can tell he's wearing a partial uniform. His serious face looks like he's seen it all and he has tiny sculpted earrings. Felix also sports an anti-Cobra tattoo which is clean and crisp. He's one of the new characters as only Spirit, Barbecue, and Low Light appeared as part of the original toy team.

Articulation for these figures is excellent. Ball heads, arms, and legs, allow just about any posing position you can think of. Some characters like Low Light and Barbecue have hinged wrists allowing them to angle their weapons in a new way. Basically if you need them to get into a pose, each figure can do it. Bull's kneepads do seem to keep him in sort of a bent-leg position but not too badly.

Each character is a mix of parts from other figures from earlier sets. Hasbro made excellent choices here as the parts match up perfectly for each character. Some keen-eyed folks will notice Red Dog's torso as Bazooka's and Falcon's lower legs from the earlier Resolute Duke. This saves on tooling and gives us unique figures each time. Hey, it's just like customizing your own Joes. The heads on the four new team members are all new sculpts however, nice!

Everyone gets a nice amount of accessories in this set. Most figures come with 2-3 weapons and a blade. Neat features include Falcon's removable beret, Bull and Merc's removable knives, and Spirit's removable arrow clip from his gun. Each of their vests or web-gear can be moved or repositioned as well. Bull comes with some great accessories, a joe-scale football and removable necklace/headband that fit on him perfectly.

Speaking of the accessories you also get stands for each character and bio-cards you can cut out from the back of the window box the figures come in. Take care not to lose anything while unpacking the figures. Merc's pistol has a tiny removable silencer and Low Light's glasses come off. One hasty tug and these will vanish into your carpet so take the figures out carefully. Falcon's grenade launcher actually cocks in half and has a TINY flip up sight.

Paint apps are plentiful here with the exception of Falcone whose upper shirt looks like it's missing something. The character's eyes feature two tones of color instead of the classic black pupil on white. Now there's brown iris as well. Low Light's vest has a great shading wash to it and Barbecue's armor has sooty highlights and metallic scuffing. Spirit's chest tattoo is amazing and you can make out every edge of Red Dog's tribal tattoos.

Each character has their own backstory and traits. Bull's burly beard and twin pistols make him stand out and Merc's ex-Cobra Viper history is very apparent. You can tell Barbecue utilizes fire with his flamethrower, Spirit is an Indian tracker, and Red Dog use to be a football player. It's things like this that set the Marauder's set apart from others. You really get a feel for the characters here and will enjoy having Sgt Slaughter (assuming you have one from the SDCC already) leading them into battle.

So what's the verdict? Slaughter's Marauders Battle Set is an excellent addition to anyone's GI Joe collection. You get 7 figures, 4 of which are new characters to the line, a whole bunch of accessories, stands, and all for just $49.99. That means each figure is a buck under what you'd pay for them separately at retail, and these are exclusives. Being store exclusives you can only order them online from our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store so get cracking. If you miss out on these you'll be stuck paying twice as much on ebay or even more for them individually from sellers. And don't forget to check back tomorrow for part 2 of the review featuring the Dreadnoks Battle Set.