REVIEW 3A Queenie of 7 Bones

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Knives

INTRO

Up until about eight months ago or so, I wasn’t into PopBot. I really didn’t know anything about it, and of all the 3A toy lines, it was the last wall of my personal resistance. Last year, I decided to get PopBot: Big Beautiful Book from IDW as well as a cool sketch in it from Wood himself. When I got that puppy home I dove head first into the hardcover beast. The world of Ashley Wood’s Popbot is a convoluted, confusing mind screw coupled with gorgeous paintings and sketches. My hope was that I’d develop some sort of appreciation and attachment to its characters. I told myself that if I’d take the time to read and re-read the massive catacomb-like storyline, I’d glean a bit of real understanding and background of the dramatically illustrated world.

Nope. No idea. None what-so-evah. There’s something in there about a talking cat that sings and sleeps with robot hookers, some robots who want him dead, a blind cowboy that shoots his teeth, Sherlock Holmes waxes wise, Lady Sham is chatting it up with the devil in the wastelands, more robots, a few salt and pepper shake’s worth of Tomorrow Kings, Andy Warhol has his own talk show where he keeps interviewing some rapper dude who keeps killing him… I don’t know. The saga continues, I guess?

The Popbot world is as big, varied and fascinating as it is confusing, silly and unorthodox. The only thing I took away from reading the Popbot collection other than an even further appreciation for Ash’s skilled brush is that I now have the general knowledge that those characters and their vague stories exist.

But that’s the odd thing. Now that I have that, it somehow manages to be enough to make my ears perk up and my F5’n finger twitchy anytime 3A announces a new Popbot figure. I’m hooked on PopBot. 3A has to be lacing them with something.

Which brings me to 7 Bones, another expansion of the PopBot world. The 3A wiki says, “Seven Bones, stylized “7bones,” is a group of rogue Tomorrow Kings in the Popbot Universe who are the personal guard of Punk King.” 3A has been slowly releasing them over the course of the past year. So far we’ve seen Wasabi, Kyoku and Queenie. Wasabi has been setting the vibe on our shelves since 2011. Kyoku was next in line sales-wise, but due to a production delay, Queenie was actually shipped out first.

So now that all that intro huffa-puff is out of the way, on to talking about Queenie. Read on to learn more about one of the most exciting figures to come out from 3A this year!

PACKAGING

As you can see, Queenie gets the packaging treatment she deserves with a nice painting of her looking stoic on the front. On the back things get traditionally 3A graphic design-y. It’s a nice contrast, shelf worthy for sure.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

Queenie has a tiny array of stuff to fiddle with. Equipped with a staff (a first for any 3A toy!) and a couple of interchangeable hands, she was triple clam shelled together and took a little work to get out. A few spare pegs are included as well.

Also I’m happy to report she comes with a fantastic poster of the cover art with a mini comic on the back. I’m unhappy to report that it appears a blind monkey packed my poster. Instead of neatly folded as they’ve always been in the past, mine came loosely bent together and crinkled. There’s even a few small wear holes where the folds come together. Bummer.

THE BREAKDOWN

The second I got Queenie out of her plastic prison I was sold on her character. As the leader of 7 Bones, she looks appropriately tough in that unrealistic, super slim tough chick way. Her eye patch gives her an air of mystery, while the subtle smirk on her face gives her a sense of confidence. Other than possibly her belt/packs, all her attire is completely new, never used before on any previous 3A figure. The pants in particular set her apart from any other of 3A’s offerings as they’re almost a faux linen material.

Her staff fits into her hands as perfectly as it should. I want to mention that the staff was straight as an arrow. No warping or bends from bad packaging. Huzzah! The second you get her set up with it, you’ll probably lose track of time for a few, putting her in your favorite Donatello pose. I don’t know about you, but it’s been a while since I’ve had a figure with a bo staff.

Queenie is also the recipient of yet another new female body. Ever since 3A updated the tried and true Tomorrow Queen bodies of old, they’ve been messing around with the formula, trying to get the best balance of asthetics and articulation. The older Tomorrow Queens were kind of a pain to pose. Not only did they wear skin tight latex, but their long legs made them wobbly and the opposite of sure-footed. They had a mid thigh joint you could twist around, a very limited knee joint and an ankle joint with a round twisting ankle peg to allow for rotation in most directions. With a good deal of futzing, you could pull of something dynamic, but it wasn’t a very organic process.

3A updated that body when they released Lolli last Christmas. All new leg joints, much better knees, a new torso and thinner arms. You can check our review of her here. They came so close to getting it right, but dropped the ball by changing out the round ankle joint for a square peg. You basically have a figure with much more generous articulation in the legs that should promise you better and more dynamic poses.. but it’s hacked off at the knee by the inability to move the ankle around to get a solid flat footing.

So now we have Queenie. 3A kept the double jointed knees of Lolli and brought back the ball ankle joint. Ah.. that wasn’t so hard, now was it?

Queenie is the first female figure that’s just about as fun to play with as any of your TKs or Adventure Kartel gang. Yes, the ankles are still pretty finicky. You have to press the shoe together to grip the ankle peg so you can twist it to the desired angle. But it’s not difficult at all to get her into some really fun stances. With the bo staff in both her hands, it’s incredibly easy to shift her from one cool pose to the next.

The other hands she comes with are more neutral/relaxed variations. I like that they’re slightly different from one another and not symmetrical copies. They’re useless for holding the staff, but they do add some nice variety when you feel like changing things up.

Speaking of not symmetrical, I might as well broach the subject here. One of the main “complaints” of the new 3A female body is the supposed wonky-ness of its.. breasts. Boob-gate, we’ll call it. Well, Queenie is not lacking in the chestal region by any means, and yes, you can tell they’re not lined up perfectly. I’m of two schools of thought here: My first is the fact that in real life, women’s breasts are unsymmetrical. Now, whether or not Ash and 3A designed them this way on purpose to reflect that is simply a matter of personal opinion, but even for a stylized character, Queenie is more realistic and less barbie doll this way. My second feeling on it is.. this is a toy and I’m simply not going to spend more time talking about a toy’s boobs.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, check out that thing dangling between her legs!

Made you look! When the teaser pics of Queenie popped up, I thought the cylindrical thing strapped to her belt was a jar of rice wine or something, like an old drunken monkey kung fu legend of old might carry. Turns out, it’s a giant EMP bomb. I suppose this makes sense due to all the robots the gang has to take on. Still, a rice wine jug with some XXX would have been cool.

As a member of 7 Bones, it’s only natural that I’d want to put her up with Wasabi. The two look great together, though the blues aren’t exactly spot on. It makes me even more excited about the idea of having all seven positioned together. Which at this rate should be sometime in 2014.. ugh.

So what do we have so far? The new articulation is a marked improvement over any previous female figures. The new head/hand sculpts, accessories and clothing make you comfy in the knowledge that you’re legitimately getting a brand NEW character and not a bunch of reused bits and pieces. There’s a lot to like about Queenie.

There’s also a few things that aren’t so fabulous. I already mentioned boob-gate, but only because there’s been some discussion amongst the ranks about them. However, they don’t bother me. My first real complaint is the equally discussed misaligned/sized eyepatch strap. If it’s a design choice as some argue, it’s a very odd one that simply doesn’t work. If it’s something 3A somehow missed before finalizing her sculpt, I can only ask the question, “How?”. It’s just a bizarre detail that doesn’t kill the cool factor of the character, but those more OCD than me may have a hard time looking at her from some angles thanks to it.

The other complaint comes back to the articulation in the legs. While they’re vastly improved and easier than ever to play with, once again 3A’s knack for adding while subtracting has somewhat shot themselves in the foot. (So many leg/feet analogies I hardly know what to do with myself!)

When they upgraded the female figure for Lolli, giving her double jointed knees and a more forgiving hip joint, they took away her mid thigh joint and stuck her with a square peg at her ankle. It was an upgrade that was nullified by the downgrades. With Queenie they brought back the round ankle peg, but still left out the mid thigh joint. I feel like this was a bad move, especially for a figure that should be as articulated as possible. Some may argue asthetics, but Queenie’s legs are covered up by pants! I’d start trying to push her into a pose and get about 80% there only to realize that’s as far as it’s going to go. It’s still a jump forward of course, but don’t be surprised when you find yourself thinking, “If only I could twist her leg this way just a tiniest bit, she’d be perfect”.

My last issue falls on the shoulders of 3A QC. Early pics of Queenie revealed some terrible peeling and bubbling of the paint on her chest and stomach. From what I’ve read, it’s pretty rare, like shark bites or plane crashes. My Queenie doesn’t suffer from the same disaster those images portrayed, but she has a few odd paint bumps on her chest that are obviously not meant to go there. My instinct is to scrape them off, but I’m sure that would just start a chain reaction of peeling and heartbreak. I’m waiting to hear back from CS to see what my options are. Issues are bound to pop up from time to time and in my history with 3A, I’ve had next to none, but that doesn’t make the bumps go away.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So yes, Queenie is cool. Despite her unique design, I wasn’t incredibly excited about her arrival after being fairly disappointed with Lolli. Seeing how untouched and neutrally posed I generally keep her on the shelf, the thought of having yet another figure that’s a struggle to balance upright didn’t exactly thrill me. I’m happy to report that she was well worth the wait and in fact exceeded my expectations.

She looks great and is loaded with character. The amount of unique poses you should be able to squeeze out of her should make her a stand out addition to your collection. She balances well, she moves for the most part how you’d expect her to, even her neutral hands add appreciated variety to the package.

Queenie is a positive step forward for 3A. I hope they continue to tweak the female body, refine the articulation some more and do something about the uncertainty of the paint app on their rubber torso. Right now, she’s as good as it gets.

Pros:

An all new unique character that will stand out from the rest of your collection
New female body with enhanced articulation; a big step forward
Tons of character squeezed into her tiny frame

Cons:

Wish they’d bring back the thigh swivel joint as her articulation still feels inhibited
Her eyepatch band, purposeful or not, is mismatched and just looks off
Boob-gate? Nah, but some paint issues.

Help us improve this site by letting us know what you think! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated!

Wednesday’s Wallpaper of the Week

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Knives

click on your desired screen resolution to download!

Lounging Wallpaper_1024x768

Lounging Wallpaper_1280x800

Lounging Wallpaper_1920x1200

Let us know how we’re doing! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and stay updated!

If you’d like to contribute to Wednesday’s Wallpaper of the Week and have your name go down in history as someone who’s image is a wallpaper on a (awesome) website drop us a line at radtoyreview@gmail.com with your idea and/or image sample.

REVIEW 3A RVHK Tomorrow King

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Knives

INTRO

It’s been awhile since I’ve been so excited about getting a figure dropped on my doorstep. 3A’s ReVenture Hong Kong 2012 show held host of quite a few exclusives that only those lucky enough to attend the show could get their greedy little mits on. That is, until the remaining tiny allotment was released on bambaland.com about a week after the show wrapped. I was at a friends house, enjoying a cold beverage and some freshly made salsa when the sale went live. I logged into bamba and waited for the first tid bits to load. I knew it was going to be chaos trying to score ANYTHING and that most likely the thing I wanted most (an Old Guard) would also be the most impossibel to get. Exclusives began to trickle onto bambaland.. so far, no Old Gaurd. Each hit of f5 was another spinning beach ball of 5 minute limbo. Finally, the TK box art popped up. I speedily clicked “add to cart” only to be forced into pumping my brakes hard, treated with yet another loading screen some 8 minutes in length. “Come on, come on, come on.. big money.. BIG money.” I’m sure I was muttering something along those lines. Suddenly the message on the screen caused my heart to sink into my shoes. A “server error, server too busy try again later” screen popped up. Knowing how crazy people would be to score one oof these excluves, I knew it was over, that I’d lost out. I failed to score a Tomorrow King.

Just before I closed my screen, I noticed the URL address still read as if it was on my cart page. I decided to hit refresh instead of the back button to see what would happen. After what seemed yet another eternity of waiting, my cart screen loaded up with the stubborn TK still inside! Stunned, I quickly hit the pay/checkout button and watched with delight as my order processed.

Now he’s finally here, my Old Guard. My Tomorrow King.

PACKAGING

What TK worth his salt hasn’t come in a lovely illustrated box? OG is no different. The front is splashed with a dynamic AW painting with a color coded dot on the top to indicate whether you received the blue, black, red or yellow TK. I got red. On the back has something ripped from Ash’s sketchbook with kitty purring the word “Exclusive” in bold letters! Yup, it’s legit!

WHAT’S INCLUDED

I was hoping for a poster, but I’ll settle on just getting the figure. Sigh. 😉

Brass tax. You get your TK and his single trusty sword.

THE BREAKDOWN

3A’s Tomorrow King isn’t anything new. Many 3A collectors have at least one in their collection tucked away somewhere. There’s the Oyabun, Heavy TK, 7 Bones and Interloper to name the few. There hasn’t been much description of exactly how the Old Guard truly fit into Popbot lore (the storyline Tomorrow Kings originate from). The original Tomorrow Kings are often referred to as the “OGs” (Original Gangsta’s), so it’s fitting that “OG” in this case stands for Old Guard. It’s a nod to the original Tomorrow Kings that are so cherished and desired by 3A collectors the world over. Given the relative difficulty scoring these guys, that desire is likely not to diminish despite their new car smell.

There’s a definitive simple elegance that’s just shy perfection in the design of the Tomorrow King figures. It’s something most people who don’t collect or own one won’t pick up on. Heck, I didn’t really get it until earlier last year when 3A released (and shipped) the first of their 7 Bones TKs, Wasabi. With their clean, not overly fussy design and punk rock meets japanese ninja ethos, I don’t find it all that shocking that many think the TK is THE perfect action figure.

So while I assume the Old Guard is a return to that simple elegance of the original Tomorrow Kings, 3A didn’t simply sew up a new batch of shirts and send these guys on their way. The Old Guard actually has an all new body (One shared by the forthcoming/currently landing on doorsteps, Rothchild). Most noticeable is his slimmer silhouette with narrow shoulders. I’ve read some refer to it as the kid or teenager body. One even called it the Bieber body. I laughed at that. Here you can see standing side by side with Wasabi just how much of a visual difference it makes.

You can also see from the same pic that Old Guard’s tee is much more fitted than Wasabi’s. I can’t say which I prefer as they both work well for the characters. I may give a slight edge to the new body as it seems to work better visually with the lean, mean fighting machines that TKs are suppose to be. But I like the look of variety between them!

The tee shirt itself is what some may feel is a smidge “porny” while others will claim it simply “art”.. whatever you want to call it.. it’s an image of some sort of visually decapitated women in panties and bandages with her boob hanging out. Honestly, of the four Old Guards it’s not my favorite. I like the red color a lot, but find the design on the black and yellow to be much more in tune with my personal style.

Visually, my RVHK score is a slam dunk. I love the orange hair and red shirt. The paint is nice, clothes run or snag free. The new slim profile looks fantastic. Head to toe, I’m digging the orange headed Bieber. So what else do we have here to mess with? Ah yes, articulation!

At first blush, it’d be easy to believe that the articulation is the same as it’s ever been. Knees and elbows are double jointed, wrist spin and twist (a little loosely for my taste). His torso bends in various places and his ankles have those love them or hate them double ball joints. The hands are the same sculpts we’ve seen for years on Tomorrow Kings. One hand molded for gripping the sheath, the other a little tighter to handle the hilt of the sword. Nothing new there.

Or is there? As much as I think the new slim bodies really enhance the overall look of the Old Guard TKs, I did find one little hiccup in it’s execution. I’d even call it a step backwards. Due to the decrease in torso real-estate, the head/neck has less room to wiggle. The head/neck of the OG’s are not redesigned to compensate for the smaller area at the neck joint. What this has done is prevent as full of a range of movement side to side (ear to shoulder) as previously possible.

In the picture above I’ve pushed both heads sideways as far as they’ll go and I think it’s pretty clear how much of a difference that extra space makes. It was probably not worth the effort/expense to 3A to develop an entirely new neck post just for the Old Guards, but it IS kind of a shame it’s even an issue. I guess we’re to believe these guys are warrior ninja’s capable of all sorts of insane giant robot crushing acrobatics and limber twisty turny ninja skill.. as long as they don’t have to crane their necks too far.

Maybe they are much older than they look?

Other than that, I only have a few small nagging complaints here and there. The first, I mentioned before is the incredibly loose wrist joints. My Wasabi has had the same helicopter wrists since day one, so it’s not exclusive to the Old Guard. I’m sure some will have a lucky die roll and get perfectly taught wrists that can manage whatever pose you twist them in. My OG needs physical therapy. The other “ugh” I muttered came when I first put his sword in his hand. I realized that the blue wash used to get into the creases of his gloves was still wet! The paint wiped off the sword fine and there was no noticeable smudging on the gloves themselves, but it’s still a nuisance. This isn’t baked goods, we’re don’t need our toys piping hot still smelling of the oven.. the paint should be dry/cured before it hits our hands. Kyuuketsuki anyone?

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m all about Tomorrow Kings and am thrilled to have one from 3A’s Hong Kong ReVenture in my possession. Though not my first pick, (that would have gone to blue or black) red looks just fantastic. In fact, amongst the blue and neutral tones of my other TKs, he really stands out.

Posing and snapping shots of Tomorrow Kings is always a lot of fun. The strength of their character really blooms when you find the right light, angle and pose. Their faces are practically without expression but sculpted in such a way that they lend themselves to whatever type of mood it is within your imagery that you’re trying to capture.

I wish I could say, “Everyone should go out and buy one of these guys right now at your local Toy Store!” But you and everyone else knows that’s impossible. The ebay prices are silly.. stupid even. I’ve seen more than one of these OGs up for almost a grand. I find that hard to stomach, not only because it’s a freaking toy!! BUT some of the ACTUAL OG Tomorrow Kings aren’t fetching those kind of prices. Unfortunately, the flip factor for these guys is pretty high and ebay is evidence of that. Douche-McGee’s came out by the truckloads to Hong Kong to buy these guys just to flip for extortion level prices. Instead of supporting these layman of the avid toy collector’s bile ducts, reach out to your favorite toy community. Be patient. Something will come up eventually. I doubt you’ll get a hand out and I’m sure you’ll end up paying a good deal more than the 90 stones or whatever these guys were at retail, but I can almost promise you’ll get better results dealing with collectors community than the sultans of ass-hattery on ebay.

The more I’ve played with this guy the more I realize I’ll probably be right there with you, holding my breath, abiding my time and waiting for that WTS post. Daddy needs a black and blue. 🙂

Pros:

Classic Tomorrow King design.
Fantastic toy to play with and shoot photos of.
Great quality and care throughout
New slimmer body/silhouette looks fantastic
Box Art

Cons:

Slim body lessens neck articulation substantially
Loose wrists
Do to exclusive status, they’re being flipped like there’s no Tomorrow… King. (whamp whamp)

Help us improve this site by letting us know what you think! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated!

REVIEW 3A JUNGLE VET

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Knives

INTRO

It”s been ages, but finally the dreary dull period of nothingness has come to a sharp and abrupt end. Today, the long cold chain of having exactly zero boxes labeled “3A” sitting at my doorstep has finally been broken. Jungle Vet from 3A’s retail assortment of Adventure Kartel toys has arrived.

Purchasing the full retail run of these guys would be a great start to just about anyone’s 3A collection, however Rad Toy Review was only able to snag one. We’ve been holding our breath since then in hopes our choice was indeed a wise one.

Early opinions from other collectors seemed extremely polarizing as well as fairly consistent. Of the the AK gang, the overwhelmingly positive praise seems predominantly aimed towards Jungle Vet (whew!) and Pneumbra. The lukewarm, comfy room temperature praise to Tommy Red, Lil Shadow and Johnson. While an apparent and almost unanimous negative panning has marred the arrival of the otherwise beloved Hooded Zombs.

Alas, this is NOT a review about Zombs or anything else other than Jungle Vet. So lets get to that.

First let me say that the photos that accompany this review were taken on the first official RtR “field trip”. A field trip to Pearl Harbor. While it’s not the jungle, the seemingly military background of JV lent itself to what we hoped would be an fun and interesting shoot.

It turned out to be both those things as well as a little… surprising.

PACKAGING

Ed’s note: My Jungle Vet came from Sideshow Collectibles in a brown Sideshow shipping box. The JV box itself was not shrink wrapped. Don’t be alarmed if your’s shows up the same way as apparently that’s how most of these were shipped out from 3A. It’s normal.

Much like the retail release figure’s afore mentioned opinion polarization, the packaging for them shares the same mark. Unlike the epic paintings that usually grace 3A boxes, we’re left with a simple graphic depicting Jungle Vet. Astute observers might notice that all 3A did was take the initial preview photos of the various AK figures and then toss some vector artwork over it. I think it fits pretty well with this line. It’s lends itself to animation, it’s playful, clean and gets the job done. I’m cool with a little variety in my boxes, but I also know for a fact there are those who feel a little shortchanged with the lack of a true Ashley Wood painting.

On the back you get a little preview of the rest of the collection you can hunt down at your favorite retailer (providing they sell 3A toys) and the Adventure Kartel slogan, “The Adventure continues with you!”

WHAT’S INCLUDED

The Adventure Kartel series proper has always come with a poster with a comic on the back giving us a tiny slice of the AK story. Sadly, the retail gang did not get the same treatment. Tis a small thing, but given Adventure Kartel’s track record for including one, I feel the absence is note worthy. It’s also little odd to me because paying retail for these figures is a good deal more expensive than what a similar offering that included posters in the past go for on 3A’s own Bambaland website.

So what do you get? Well, really what you paid for. Jungle Vet himself sporting a gaggle of bags and his (or rather Bleak’s) trusty side arm.

THE BREAKDOWN

As mentioned above, for this shoot we decided to take Jungle Vet to Pearl Harbor and see what sort of trouble he could get into. A grown man with a group of camera wielding ladies carrying a doll (cough* action figure!) around a historical site which also happens to be a functioning military base, garners more than the occasional stare and sideways glance.

Pearl Harbor has some pretty strict rules about what you are allowed to bring in with you. Bags of any kind are on the list. So how does one smuggle a 1:6 scale action figure into such a locked down establishment?

Like so. Shhhhhh…

So we waltz into the memorial and then take a bus over to the Battleship Missouri Memorial. For those that don’t know, it’s a massive battleship, the last one built by the United States. She was used heavily during World War II and provided fire support during Desert Storm back in ’91. She’s a beauty and a beast.

Once we got on deck and I started to play around with JV, the first thing I notice is probably the first thing you’ll notice. His hands rock! They’re so much fun to pose. The fingers are firm but not tight and I didn’t once worry about any of them snapping off. I know, I know.. they’re basically ripped off an 1:12 armstrong and shoved onto an Ankou body, but fun is fun I say.

I also love the fact that the hands are different colors. It’s as though Ol’ Jungle Vet has seen a few scraps in his time and has required some maintenance over the years. I’ve always had a soft spot for robots that look hobbled together from various tossed away bits. I’m not sure if an Ankou is 100% robot or a man-bot.. or whatever.. but the fond leaning remains.

The paint and weathering on JV are nicely done. His dome is overly rusty with pops of crusty blue paint peaking through. The yellow ring around his eye ties in nicely with his left yellow hand. His right red fist has three black fingers further supporting the “hobbled” together patch work he might have had while on the battlefield.

I’m definitely a fan of the new hooded boiler suit as it just about doubles the different looks you can go for when setting him up on your shelf. The hood itself has an underwire around the brim so you can shape it some, though the suit rests fairly high overall and despite my efforts he always seemed to wind up with one form or another of pointy hat syndrome.

The camouflage on his boiler is the best 3A have done so far. Unlike the more hand painted flecks that appear on Jung De Plume, Pathfinder Ono Oya or the Jungle Grunt, Jungle Vet’s seems to be an actual camo pattern that’s simply part of the fabric. Across JV’s chest is two white “v” marks that call back to military badges and symbolism. The weathering for the boiler suit is what we’ve all seen before, faded and mostly dusty with a few heavier stained touches here and there.

Of course underneath it all is a standard issue white 3A shirt. I understand branding is important, but I really would like to understand how everyone from all walks of 3A toy life has managed to score one of these Ts. Are they the GAP of 3A land? Also, if all the toys have them, why can’t we? Where’s our 3A logo T-shirts? Anyway, it’s there in case you need it, but I preferred the look of keeping his suit zipped.

Again, the hands are just so much fun. I never really warmed to the original Ankou. I’ve had several in the past and have long since sold or traded them off. The mono eye is cool/funny, but I found the clamps too be somewhat restrictive to the character overall. I had a few laughs displaying my old creepy grinning Ankou using his clamps to try and lift Cherry Shadow’s skirt.. but beyond that I never really found a use for them that resonated with me. Others may have had much greater success and wouldn’t trade off their old Ankous for anything but take my word on it.

Jungle Vet is waaaay better than they are.

Jungle Vet as character feels more sneaky than dangerous. There’s something goofy about the Ankou design that keeps you from taking one seriously. I really like that about them. JV continues the feeling of playfulness and in fact might enhance it with the added (and personally much applauded) digits.

So yes, the hands are awesome and the gun JV comes with is awesome. Unfortunately for us, they weren’t made for each other and that’s less than awesome. JV’s gun is originally from Bleak Mission who’s hands are sculpted to fit the hand cannon. Despite JV’s awesome dexterous digits, he’s not as fortunate. He can hold the weapon, but he can’t fire it. As is often times the case when things are retrofitted after the fact.. they don’t technically work together.

Jungle V’s fingers are simply too fat for the trigger gaurd, or the trigger gaurd is too small for Jungle V’s fingers. It’s a small thing but it does add a little more fuel to my one criticism of Jungle Vet and that is the fact that he’s basically the result of company level kit bashing.

Even if you take into consideration the added hood on the boiler suit, there’s really nothing “new” about him. The body is the same old 3A body, the head and boots are from an Ankou, the boiler suit is from Zombs, and his hands are from either a 1:12th Armstrong or a Bramble. The bags and t-shirt are from countless other 3A figs and the gun is from Bleak.

I can’t decide if the fact that so many existing parts were used to build this guy should bother me, or if I should just marvel at how well it all works together.. AGAIN to create a seemingly unique new figure to play with.

This is about the part of the photo shoot where we were interrupted.. or rather, we interrupt others. As we move down the deck of the Missouri, we suddenly and unexpectedly ran into..

Rihanna. “Heyaaah.”

Without thinking it through I waved at her with a toy in my hand. She politely smiled and waved back.

It turns out, the day we chose to do our photoshoot also happen to be the day that some of the stars of the movie “Battleship” would be aboard to do some interviews and DVD extra’s shooting. We continued our own shoot and made a quick pit stop by where they were setting up to film to see what we could see.

As they walked pass, I don’t think anyone “got” why a grown man was holding a toy, posing and taking pictures of it. I can’t blame them.

Taylor Kitsch didn’t get it.

Brooklyn Decker gave us the stink eye…

Alexander Skarsgard kept looking over at as with an almost visible “?” above his head.

(editors note: Alex turns out to be a really nice guy. He came over later, shook our hands and took some pictures. I should have had him hold Jungle Vet for one.. but that’d been a little “Dance monkey! Dance!” I think.)

Anyway.. back to the review.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Jungle Vet is a bunch of different bits and pieces of 3A toys cobbled together and sold to us like something brand new. I’d call it snake oil if it didn’t work so totally well together. 3A is already known for putting out high quality, dynamic and highly articulated toys. What we have here is one of the best elements of the WWRp line of bots combined with the flexibility and articulation of the 1:6 human figure line. You’ll be able to squeeze more poses and gestures out of JV than any other figure currently in your collection. That in itself, makes him feel all new. Yes, his gun SHOULD have fit his hand. Though honestly, this is something I’ve learned to accept from 3A. My WWRp Warbots fingers can’t fit his guns and they were MADE for each other. Blind Cowboy’s hands are sculpted to fit his yet they’re a tad big and his grip is a little fickle. I’m not sure why this is, but for whatever reason, 3A’s “gun to fit hand perfectly” ratio is just not very good. Yet I can almost promise you it won’t detract from your enjoyment of this guy.

I enjoyed taking Jungle Vet to the Pearl Harbor memorial and posing him in various locations while snapping pictures like a fiend in front of various tourist and sailors. Despite wagging him raggedly like a goon at Rihanna as she walked by I think the shoot went really well and may be our best yet!

Opinions may be scattered on the quality of the Retail Adventure Kartel collection. Some have said it’s left a bad taste in their mouth and are even questioning whether or not they’ll continue to collect 3A. (Suuuure.. ) But I can assure you that Jungle Vet will live up and perhaps even surpass your expectations. It’s the most fun I’ve had with a toy this year hands down. Seek him out, try not to pay the flipper price and add him to your collection. Should you buy? Yes!

Pros:

The hands make the man/machine. Adds a ton to your poses and to his overall character.
The paint and weathering is up to snuff and sure to please.
New camouflage is better quality than in the past. Looks to be an ACTUAL pattern instead of a haphazardly painted one.
My favorite take away from the original Ankou the googley eye, is still fun to play with and good for a laugh
He’s a near perfect 3A kitbash

Cons:

He’s a near perfect 3A kitbash
Boxart might turn purist off
Unlike bambaland released Adventure Kartel Figures, no poster or extras are included with the retail released AK