Review: Transformers Shattered Glass Octopunch

Of the numerous toys which began life in the 80s, the biggest of them all was/is Transformers. Pretty much continuously since 1984 there have been Transformers of some kind or another on sale, be it the original stuff, G1, Beast Wars, Armada, Bayformers... Hasbro cleverly manages to reboot the line every couple of years so it's always new and fresh.

Along with the biggest toy line comes the biggest toy convention. BotCon has been running since 1984 and each year the official Transformers convention produces a number of exclusive toys. Almost always these appear on ebay immediately afterwards for inflated amounts of money and those who couldn't attend the convention try and decide if a 'deluxe' scale figure is really worth £100.

This year one of the figures on sale was an update of the 80s classic Octopunch (who isn't a deluxe scale & didn't cost £100). Originally Octopunch was a Pretender, with a small transforming robot encased in an outer shell, but like all the updated Pretenders Hasbro have released in recent years this figure more or less ignores the inner robot and concentrates on the outer shell. This isn't a problem as the shell is generally the most famous look for the character, only tending to use the inner part in comic stories etc when the outer shell has been destroyed or suffered heavy damage.

News: GI Joe Retaliation delayed

Gi Joe: Retaliation, the sequel to the generally much-hated though loved by me GI Joe: Rise of Cobra, was due to be released next month. Now it's not. Yes, with only a few weeks to go Paramount have decided to delay the release until March so it can be converted to 3D. Seems an incredibly strange decision to make at this late stage, but there it is.

I was going to write more on the matter, and how it might affect the toy line, but -

a) Pixel Dan has already summed up my feelings pretty well.

b) The toys were never going to be released in the UK anyway.

News: The Return of Mr Stay Puft

Not long ago I had a rant about the yellowing of my MattyCollector Ghostbusters Marshmallow Man. It went something along the lines of 'rah rah it's all going yellow rah rah rah'.

Well, despite what I predicted, Mattel are issues refunds to everyone who bought the toy, including all the postage costs -

Ghostbusters™ Customers, 

Hopefully, the vast majority of you have been enjoying the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man figures we offered here at MattyCollector.com and San Diego Comic-Con last year. After an exhaustive investigation into the issue of why some of the figures are yellowing, here’s what we’ve discovered:

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man figure was fully tested and approved prior to being offered for sale. The figure passed all standard product tests, as well as a specialized test specific to the new foam material used. The yellowing some figures have experienced didn’t appear until a number of months after the product's release. The yellowing is due to an unforeseen chemical reaction between the paint and material used in its construction. 

Because we stand 100% behind the products we sell, we’re offering full refunds to any customer who would like to return their defective figure. We’re sorry but we won’t be able to offer exchanges. We will, however, gladly refund the original price for figures purchased either at MattyCollector.com or our booth at San Diego Comic-Con, as well as refund the original cost of shipping for figures shipped from MattyCollector.com. And in both cases, the cost to return the product to our warehouse will be covered by us. 

If you would like a refund, here’s what to do: 

If You Purchased at MattyCollector.com for Pickup at SDCCFor orders that were placed during the voucher pre-sale and picked up at the MattyCollector.com booth at SDCC, please call 1-877-GO-MATTYor email MattyCollector.CS@digitalriver.com. Our agent will look up your original order and arrange for the product to be picked up at our expense and returned to our warehouse. When the product is received at our warehouse, a credit for the original purchase price will be issued on the card you used to place the order. No refunds will be issued without the defective product being returned to us. 

If You Purchased at the MattyCollector.com SDCC BoothFor those customers who purchased the figure directly at the MattyCollector.com booth at SDCC, please call 1-877-GO-MATTYor email MattyCollector.CS@digitalriver.com. Our agent will create a ticket and arrange for the product to be picked up at our expense and returned to our warehouse. When the product is received at our warehouse, a check for the original purchase price will be issued and mailed to you at the address you provided to the agent. No refunds will be issued without the defective product being returned to us. 

If You Purchased at MattyCollector.com During Our Post-SDCC SaleFor orders that were placed during the post-SDCC sale at MattyCollector.com and shipped directly to you, please call 1-877-GO-MATTYor email MattyCollector.CS@digitalriver.com. Our agent will look up your original order and arrange for the product to be picked up at our expense and returned to our warehouse. When the product is received at our warehouse, a credit for the original purchase price and shipping will be issued on the original card you used to place the order. No refunds will be issued without the defective product being returned to us. 

Finally, we know how much you like the giant diorama package that came with the figure and we’re happy to leave it with you as a “thank you” for your business. If you choose to return your Stay Puft figure, you won’t need to return the diorama package to receive the refund.
To learn more about what we’re doing to continually improve, please read this article. Delivering the most fan-demanded designs in the highest possible quality is truly our top priority and we appreciate your business! 

–Matty

This means a) I'm terrible at predicting things, and b) at least no one will be out of pocket for the fiasco (although they'll be without a Stay Puft).

The question is now, do I return him? I'm torn. It'd help if I had a clue about whether the yellowing is going to get worse in the future. At the moment it's more of a yellow tinge on his arms and legs and I can live with it. However, if it got any worse I'm not sure how I'd feel. As I mentioned in the earlier review, I do have the NECA Stay Puft so I wouldn't be completely Marshmallow-free if I returned it. And obviously, some money appearing in the old bank account is always welcome.

The lesson I hope Mattel takes from this is not to use anything for toys which isn't standard plastic. Experimenting is all well and good, but 99% of the time it's going to end in disaster. I should know, I'm a chemist.

Review: Cars Lego

A couple of years ago Lego acquired the license to produce toys based on Disney properties and have since been making tie-ins to almost every new film, with varying degrees of success. One of the latest was Cars 2...

I bought these two little sets simply because they were cheap. You can't really go wrong with Lego at the best of times, so cheap Lego is like...a really, really good thing...


Cheap.

They're not the most pieces-intensive sets ever made and McQueen is mostly formed from 2 specialist pieces (I'm not a fan of Lego bricks that are created specifically for one model), but they kept the children entertained for a while building them...then rebuilding them 5 minutes later when they'd 'exploded' back into their constituent pieces again.

As I said, you can't go wrong with Lego - everyone loves Lego - and therefore everyone will like these sets.

Probably.

With Cars 2 now being 'so last year' these may be a little difficult to get hold of now. The price has either shot up or dropped down ridiculously low, depending on whether retailers are trying to get rid of old stock or dealers are trying to make a silly amount of profit.

Review: MattyCollector Stay Puft

In 198...somethingorother Kenner released a toy of the largest ghost ever in the world ever. The original ghost was so big it could stand on churches (well, through churches, such are the restrictions when you stick a man in a large white suit). The Kenner toy was equally...well, okay, fine. It wasn't exactly the largest ghost toy ever in the world ever.

It was about the same size as the regular Ghostbuster figures.

Ever since that day when I had to hold the Marshmallow Man in the air in order to attempt to simulate his massive size while fighting the Ghostbusters, I dreamed of owning a proper Stay Puft. One that could be tall without me having to hold him up. One that could be tall and have its feet on the ground.

A few years ago NECA released a line of Ghostbusters toys. It was good. In fact I'd go so far as to say it was very good. There was a problem, however, in the fact that NECA couldn't get hold of the rights for the likenesses of the actors. This meant that after a single wave of ghost figures, the line died.

They did, however, manage to put a pretty darn big Marshmallow Man in that first wave. And for a while I was a happy person.

Then Mattel got the licence for Ghostbusters. They looked at the NECA figure and though, 'hmm, maybe this one isn't quite big enough...'


So they made a HUGE one.

Site News: All Full Up

While attempting to post my latest review the Powers That Be revealed that I'm now out of picture space. Which is a bit annoying, to say the least. This leaves me with two options, neither of them good - 1. Pay out each month for extra storage space. The easiest solution to implement, however since I don't make a penny from the running of this blog it's not an option I particularly care for. 2. Delete photos. Not something I want to do, and it's going to be far from a fun job to do, but something I'm don't have a lot of choice about. I'll attempt to keep the essentials & weed out the others. This is an upside to this clear out - it gives me a reason to go through all the existing reviews & give them a refresh or tweak if necessary. In future I'm going to have to watch the size of new photos I upload otherwise I'm very quickly going to run out of space again. That is unless someone else wants to start paying for the storage space. Anyone? No? Oh well, it was worth asking.