Hydra Armored Soldier; Captain America Movie action figure review

With all the HAIL HYDRA action going on in the Captain America movie it's easy to see why being a goon is so fun. You get a cool costume and a gun that disintegrates things. The 3 3/4" Hydra Armored Soldier (not the deluxe) gets exactly that. He looks pretty close to the movie characters, though I think they may have had dark brown gloves/boots not black. There's also a variant of this figure in lighter green and yellow like in the comics.

The Hydra Soldier is really articulated well with ball jointed everything and double jointed knees. The skirt only partially hampers the leg articulation thanks to the split in it. He has cut upper thighs like the new MU bodies and I was able to get plenty of poses out of him. The sculpt is really detailed right down to his shades and nifty buckles on his shirt and boots. Hydra went all out here.

But what about weaponry? You can look spiffy but without equally spiffy guns you'll just be a twang off some guy's shield. Fortunately Hydra Soldier has that covered with two weapons, a rifle and an even BIGGER version of the same rifle that shoots a missile. Yeah, it's pretty much the exact same sculpt but larger. His H-harness is also removable and counts as an accessory I suppose.

So what's the big deal about this guy? Army building! Get three. Get twenty. Get some of the yellow/green variants, they have blue goggles. The Hydra Soldier is a really nicely sculpted and articulated figure. You could make some nifty customs from this guy if your army gets too big. He's in the assortment with the desert camo colored Captain America. Don't forget there's a deluxe version with the flamethrower units too. Enlist in Hydra army today! You'll be glad you have two heads when one gets cut off! Eh...or something like that.

Windcharger: Transformers Reveal the Shield action figure review

If you collected Transformers back in the 80's you may remember the pocket size ones. Windcharger was one of them (along with Warpath, Seaspray, Brawn, and some others) and was a little red muscle car. He's back in the Reveal the Shield line and is perhaps one of the best scout class figures to come out. He's also the hardest to find, only appearing at Ross outlet stores and in overseas assortments.

Windcharger has some really nice articulated like ball-jointed everything including ankles for those wide stances that are hard to get in most scouts. He has a real sturdy feel to him and he's molded in a metallic red plastic that looks really sharp. Two tones of gray, black, and silver round out his colors. While it may look it, he doesn't have light piping for the eyes.

What Windcharger does have is CANNON HANDS. Yes, both articulated wrists can fold in to reveal megaman-esq blasters that look pretty neat. You can also leave the hand partially up so it looks like he's flicking them out of his wrists as well. His alt mode is still a muscle car though lacking the sun roof sections the original had. It's wide, angled, and would have made a great deluxe mold. But keeping him small brings in the nostalgia factor.

Windcharger's bag of tricks doesn't end there either. He has two c-clip bars on his cannons where you can attach other weaponry to. The DotM Human Alliance weapons work well and so do the Generations. As mentioned before finding him is going to be a problem. He is available on Ebay (all eBay links are eBayPartnerNetwork affiliate links that help me out!) at sometimes decent prices and Amazon if you want to pay a premium. Or you can just check Ross until he shows up at 2 per case along with Chopsaw, Sunspot, and Breacher. If you see them chances are Windcharger may be there too.

6" Titanium Man; Iron Man action figure review

He's mean, green, and hails from Soviet Russia, Titanium man is finally available in Marvel Legends scale. This appears to be an enlarged mold of the 3 3/4" Titanium man from the Iron Man movie line with a few tweaks. He somewhat resembles the character in the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 video game, at least the head does. Titanium Man has a very nice sculpt to him with plenty of armor detail and angled styling.

His articulation is top notch too. From double-jointed knees/elbows to movable shoulder pads, he can be posed most any way you want and fits in perfectly with your Marvel Legends theme. The only thing missing is rocker ankles but if he was just the upscaled version of the smaller figure this is forgivable. Titanium Man also has a great ab crunch and neck hinge.

TM comes with a wrist cannon that was actually included with the first Iron Man movie series Titanium Man, the one that looked like a 'mark 1' version. It's painted to match his armor and shoots two clear plastic blasts the same as the first one. Unfortunately it hardly fits on his wrists and you'll have to bend the clamp inward to get it to stay. Since he never used this in the comic you can probably ditch it in the parts box.

The paint apps on this figure are nice and the silver parts have a black wash to shade them. The green does look a bit plain but there's no slop on any of the figures I saw. He appears to be one per case and finding him may be a problem just like Crimson Dynamo which is shipping now in the wave that follows this one.

Now it comes down to how bad you really want Titanium Man. Toys R Us has the Armored Avenger line at an astounding $18. But he's showing up at Target for $14.99 and Walmart for $13, so that's a little better. He is a super articulated figure and those DC Universe figures with only half the joints are going for $18 these days so take that as you will.

Imaginext DC Super Friends Clayface action figure review

You've seen the Hasbro Marvel 'Super Hero Squad' style figures around and most other companies are capitalizing on entry-level minifigs for the 3yo+ crowd. Fisher Price is no exception but offer a different style of superhero figure by integrating DC characters into their Imaginext lines. Clayface is part of the newest assortment on the shelf and I almost passed him by as I thought he was just some sort of mud monster from one of their other lines.

Fortunately I took a closer look. Clayface's design is a simple one with two 'action features' of you will. He's hollow and has a hinge where you can open his mouth and fit Batman inside. Yes, he eats other figures. This alone scores high in the play-factor if you have a child who likes to feed their T-rex toys and Rancors.

The sculpt is to be expected of a toy aimed at the younger crowd. He definitely looks like a muddy clay and the black plastic specks blend in well with the plastic used for the body and the mallet. The mallet hand can be removed and fitted on to either of Clayface's hand, made of soft plastic itself. You could even use it with your BTAS or DCU Clayface with a little paint, it's nicely sculpted.

Clayface's articulation is limited to four points, five if you count the hinged jaw. But his charm is the simplicity of the figure's design. Basically a container he could hold your paint brushes, loose change, spare figure heads/hands, or serve as a Yahtzee cup. And even if your child doesn't know who Clayface is the possibilities for a mud-monster in their carpet-based-battles are endless. Clayface is available about everywhere and around 7-$8.