Review 3AA Membership pack/F-Legion

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Knives

INTRO

And so it came to pass that in the latter months of 2011, a membership was purchased. This membership offered a prayer of discounted toys and exclusive releases. Verily, as 2012 wore on, the faithful grew restless and sore afraid that their membership might naught appear before year end or worse, 2013.

Hark brethren! I bring good tidings of great joy! The 3AA Membership has arrived and heralds with it a mighty host of geeky goodies!

PACKAGING

What is this packaging you speak of? Essentially, the 3AA pack IS the packaging. It shows up in your standard issue 3A brown box, but inside there’s no artwork, no real “packaging” at all. Just the messenger bag wrapped in plastic with everything else stuffed inside.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

The first and most important item included with the 3AA pack, isn’t an item at all but the 15% discount you get on each and every purchase you make at bambaland. If you’re a member for 2012 (and have had any interest in the drops thus far) you’ve been enjoying that as well as a sprinkle of 3AA exclusives for about six months now.

The excess includes a messenger/laptop bag, baseball cap, membership card and 3AA’s first 1/6 offering, F-Legion.

THE BREAKDOWN

I’m going to start with the “extras” before I talk about F-Legion. For some, all this stuff is “extra” and the membership is all about the year long 15% discount and the 3AA exclusives you have access to. For me, it’s about the discount/exclusives AND the included 3AA figure. The rest of this stuff is the extra sauce that some will savor, some will spit out. The laptop bag surprised me. I’d heard many a negative rumble about it weeks before I’d even gotten mine in so I had very low expectations. I heard everything from it being “too small” to “cheaply made” to simply being “crap”.

Maybe I’m alone, but I like it. Don’t shoot me.

I’ll just address the three common complaints directly. Too small? Really? What the heck are you carting around crazy people? I can easily fit my wife’s larger, clunkier, older 15 inch macbook pro and it’s charger. I’ve also put in there a Wacom tablet, standard sketchbook, an iPad, a couple of backup drives and some light reading material. Even with a Zomb tossed in, I still have room for extra chargers and a PSP or Vita if I felt so inclined. All you peeps with 17′ plus laptops need not apply.. but come on, “too small”? I simply can’t agree with that.

“Cheaply made”. I’m no laptop bag connoisseur, but I’ve had my share of good and bad bags. Currently I have a really lovely hand made leather bag that will only fit the bare essentials as well as a tried and true (though currently at the forefront of falling apart) booq bag I got a few years back. The 3AA bag isn’t made of kevlar, but it seems to be of the normal kind of quality that you’d find on low to mid range bags at your local Best Buy. There’s large clips on straps and velcro inside to safely secure your laptop as well as a few extra zipper pockets to hide your stuff. The 3AA logo adorns the inside of the flap which some will dig if you’re down with the font choice. I think it looks nice enough. Two faux iron on patches decorate the front flap. Both make stabs at accurately portraying Mr Woods sketchy art style and do so well enough. However, you might shield your children and grandmother’s eyes if you fear they’ll be shocked by what looks like an eight year old’s rendition of a topless buxom babe.

So yeah! I think the bag’s cool. Useful even! I’ll probably even carry it around SDCC this year since my booq is failing me.

Le’ hat on the other hand…

It’s not that the cap is all that terrible or anything, it’s just that it strongly favors those with tiny heads. It’s fitted (not elastic) so there’s zero wiggle room. It will either fit you or it won’t. Most likely it won’t.
I haven’t sported a ball cap in years. It’s just not my jam/style. So even if it fitted me perfectly, it’d wind up in the back of the closet collecting dust.
I suggest you just give it to your kid or the neighbor’s and call it.

Honestly, this is what I’d consider the most useless piece of the whole kit: the membership card. It is cool that it has some nice Ash artwork on the front as well as your name and member number pressed into it. I guess there’s a sense of “now it’s official” but the actual real world usefulness is nil since you’ve already been experiencing the benefits of being a 3AA member for the past 6 months without it. For those that trip out over getting theirs year after year, I can only assume it’s a little like slowly building a collection of annually released baseball cards. Next year you’ll have 5!

Now we come to the meat and potatoes of the pack, F-Legion. The name for our friendly neighborhood 3AA fig comes from a rather sorted past. Some say it was A. Wood’s response to “haters” on other forums, people questioning his work ethic, personality or quality of his toy line. Others have said that it came from a misunderstanding concerning a Facebook based ThreeA BST page, where Wood thought his newly dropped toys were being bought and flipped for 3 times their original price. Many have taken some small amount of offense to it, believing that it’s essentially an “F you!” to the opinionated and dedicated fans who helped make Wood the success story he is. On the other hand, it could just be an obscure unrelated nod to the ever growing “3A Legion”.

I don’t know what to believe nor do I really care. F-Legion is here regardless of the why or the inspiration behind his existence. And as it turns out, he’s actually an alright dude.

When you first open F-L up, he’s zipped up head to toe with a hoody and balaclava on. From the initial preview pics I was really excited for the balaclava simply because it looked sorta Batman or Casey Jones cool. A crime fighter in a street thug mask. I dug it. The execution of it is terrible though. The eyeholes don’t line up at all and the zipper forms some sort of odd mohawk like shape over his dome.

To top it off, it’s sewn to his jacket. So whether you have F-Legion dawning it or not, you’re stuck with it. It’s a pretty odd/lame move on 3A’s part. In it’s own way it’s still an alright accessory. Pose him with his jacket hood up and over it looks appropriately menacing as long as you don’t’ pay too much attention to the uneven eye holes. Have him zipping it up or down looks pretty cool as well. So there’s stuff you can do with it though worn as intended just looks silly.

You can tuck it up under the hood of the jacket or even roll it back and down behind his back with a little work. That way it’ll become quickly out of sight and kinda out of mind. Just be careful with it. Mine started to fray and come apart at the seams immediately. Literally. It’s cheap, ie poorly made.

We don’t need no stupid odd shaped balaclava anyhoo, F-Legion’s face sculpt is awesome! I absolutely love the menacing little dot eyes and the simple, carved robotic grooves that run down the sides of his head. The tight lipped overbite and clenched jaw make him look like he’s all business, ready to kick some serious Zomb butt. The dark hue of his robo-skin looks really nice too. There’s just the right amount of weathering to give you the sense that you’re looking at something made of metal.

Of course by being robot in origin, F-Legion also is the beneficiary of the same fantastically fun hands that have been a part of 3A toys since almost the beginning. Much like the super sweet/superior Jungle Vet (review here) before him, the amount of character the articulated fingers give F-Legion is difficult to measure. I just put a bunch of gold star stickers all over the place to show support!

Moving on to what covers his would-be naked robo-butt. My man has a newly fashioned jacket with an afore mentioned hoody (and by proxy, annoyingly attached baklava). I really like the way it looks. For some reason it reminds me of a dock worker or something someone working on a ship would wear, so we took a bunch of these pictures on the docks.Where the real intrigue and “hmmmm”s come in for me, is that when the thing is all zipped up F-Legion looks a lot like Bamba-lad, an Ashley Wood character that’s been around as long as I can remember. Bambas have been released since year one from 3A but none have been (very) articulated and that’s something a lot of us have been pining for.

pic credit: ThreeA

In short, the whole deal makes me wonder if Ash/3A have a fully articulated version of the character in the works at some level. It’s all blind speculation, but here’s to hoping! At the very least I can bet we’ll see some talented customizers give the idea a spin.

So the jacket looks rad, but the zipper on it sucks. Much like you’re stuck with the annoyingly sewn in baklava, you also can’t unzip the jacket all the way. Well, you can, just know that if you do, it’s no easy task to rezip. 3A, in their infinite wisdom didn’t include the crucial little part that keeps the zipper from going off the end of it’s track. Heed my words, “DON’T UNZIP THE JACKET ALL THE WAY!”

Another problem with the jacket is the massive pieces of stiff velcro flaps that jut out the sides of his collar. Aesthetically they look terrible. One side has a cloth covering so it looks fairly natural, but the other side is just a big rectangle of velcro. I wish 3A had just used a little snap or something instead because much like a pair of Walmart khakis, obvious velcro just cheapens anything it touches. I tuck the velcro side in for display which helps a little.

As you can see, FL doesn’t have a the obligatory 3A tee that most figures have under their jackets, boilers or hoodies. Instead you get a bare chested decal, ala superman insignia. It works alright with this particular figure because why would a humanoid robot need anything more than the most basic articles of clothing to blend in with everyone else? Still, combine the fact that the jacket isn’t made to be unzipped all the way or taken off with the total lack of an under shirt and it becomes pretty easy to see that the entire figure is the result of character design carefully balanced with cost cutting.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing by the by, it’s just the reality of it.

A cool feature of F’s jacket is the built in holster loops on his back for holding his zomb brain busting baseball bat. I’m not sure how practical it is or even how he’d actually access it, but it sure looks cool.

At first, F-Legion’s jeans were the best we’d ever seen from 3A! They’re fitted enough to look modern, yet loose enough to allow for a ton of movement. The wear on them looks really believable as well. Things stay pretty sexy right up until you lift F’s jacket and reveal that these things are actually TJ Max mom-jeans in disguise. Who’d-a-thought a BA robot like F-Legion shopped at discount women’s clothing stores.

Keep the jacket DOWN and we’re back to being cool.

The new kicks F-L comes with are super nice! While other Adventure Kartel figs sport chuck tailors or doc martins, F-L gets a pair of vans-esque foot gear. It’s always cool to see some more variety come to 3A’s figures. The detail and sculpt of the shoes are really nice! Also for what I believe is the first time ever, 3A actually painted the laces separately from the rest of the shoe.

F-Legion comes with a baseball bat to contribute to all things Zomb bashing related. It’s yet another brand spanking new piece of kit you get with your 3AA exclusive figure.

While It’s definitely a cool accessory for your zomb thwacking army to have, I wish I liked the actual piece as much as I did the idea behind it. The bat “works” for the most part as it looks like a bat, albeit a rather chubby one and F-Legion looks cool swinging it around.

The part that bugs me is that it’s not nearly as refined as it could be. It’s basically a tan piece of plastic with some quick weathering dabbed on. There’s an incredibly visible seam that runs the length of it which makes the whole joint scream “whiffle bat”. If they’d put just a little extra work into it and added some grip tape or possibly a decal, it would have made a world of difference.

Before you go calling me a “stickler “or something that means “unnecessarily picky”, please know that I’ve been slightly spoiled by the fantastic custom work of my buddy Simon (aka. Goatbot) who’s fantastic custom 3A bats have been rocking the scene for several years now. Check his workshop tutorial here if you missed it. He made this bat for me and named it after my wife, which I thought was a fancy touch. It may be cleaner than F-Legion’s, but it’s much more accurately tooled and a heck of a lot bloodier! At the very least his custom piece has shown me that it all comes down to character and while good enough for government work, F’s bat lacks it completely.

The new slim body has been pretty popular of late. The RVHK Tomorrow Kings (review here) and Rothchild (review here) both use it and F-Legion is no different. There’s not a ton to say further about it other than you get to enjoy a very wide range of articulation thanks to it and F’s forgiving attire. It works well with the figure.

FINAL WORD

So there it is, the 2012 3AA membership pack. All laid out in exhaustive detail. It would have been awesome if we had gotten this thing a little earlier in 2012 but I try to think of it as a mid year reward for patience pack. The past two years that I’ve been a 3AA member have been incredibly worth it. The amount of monies the discount has saved me on purchases easily paid for itself. These extras are about the only thing I feel warrant a debate of value at all. The opinion of the computer bag is split. I found it to be “useful” as it fits all my stuff just fine. Others, whom I can only assume are made up of people who mistakenly consider a 17 + inch, water cooled laptop “portable”, have called the bag “too small” and “complete trash”. To each their own. The ball cap falls in the same ball park, if you’ll excuse the pun. I wouldn’t wear it regardless of if it fit my large-ish noggin or not. It’s just not my style. Others might have really enjoyed adding another wearable brim to their entourage.

Regardless of which side of the fence you fall on or how much better you wish they were, let’s be honest, they’re not WHY you bought the membership.

F-Legion is incredibly close to being a classic 3A figure. He hits a ton of the right notes but misses the mark completely on so many others. Like something that’s only beautiful from afar. I ended up really liking him, but only when I didn’t look at him too close..

You’re stuck with the bakaclava since it’s sewn in. You certainly don’t want to unzip the jacket all the way unless you want to struggle for a stupid amount of time rezipping it. By minding that precaution, you’re stuck with the jacket as well. Even if you didn’t care about the jacket ever zipping up again, to tear it off would mean to expose the terrible mom jean tops which F-Legion tries to hide as any decent person who conceals that kind of shame.

As I played around with F-Legion I started to feel like I had to experience the figure as Ashley Wood or 3A intended me to experience the figure instead of how I’d preferred to. It’s a strange thing to say about a toy, particularly one you can move around and change so much, but . Could artistic design which attempts to force user perspective truly be at work here?

Maybe it’s not that grand. Maybe it’s just easier and cheaper to make a toy without fully functioning zippers, weird mom jeans and sewn in partially realized crappy masks. Maybe it’s as simple as that.

Maybe.

F-Legion is a mix of a little old, but mostly new. A blend of a few finely crafted pieces and a couple of half-assed shoddily spit up bits. Like a 4 cylinder engine in a corvette. It’s still cool looking, light and peppy, but there’s so much “why would they do that?” going on it’s impossible to love.

Pros:

The new head sculpt is SICK!
Once again we get awesome robot hands
His overall design works really well
Awesome new shoes
The jacket is MOSTLY a good thing
The jeans MOSTLY rock
Another unique and fun Adventure Kartel figure

Cons:

The bakaclava is terrible. Mismatched eyeholes and cheaply sewn
It’s also sewn to the jacket, which knocks the jackets cool factor down a couple slots
The jackets non fully functioning zipper
ugh, mom jean tops
baseball bat could have been better

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Wednesday’s Wallpaper of the Week

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Knives

It’s been pretty good to be an Adventure Kartel fans recently with F-Legion, King Thumb and his 10 Finger Gang showing up in collector’s homes the world over. In light of that, we wanted to do something a little different for our wallpaper this week. We reached out to someone who’s work many of you may be familiar with. Brizl’s artwork shows up at just about every ThreeA Bambaland drop. He’s skillfully pushed out more images depicting, De Plumes, Tomorrow Kings, Cherry Bombs and of course, Zombs than probably anyone other than A. Wood. We’re so happy that he drew this exclusive image for us/you to enjoy!

We asked him to give us a little run down of what makes him tick and this is what he wrote us:

“Currently, I do graphic design as my full-time job, but I’m a starving artist at heart. Growing up with anime/manga, it is the one art form that got me into drawing hard core. But ever since discovering 3A, it has opened my imagination so much more. Whenever I can squeeze in the time, I get my trusty brush, ink, markers and a pencil and let it all out on the paper. One day I hope I can say I that I do this stuff professorially!”

You can check out more of Briz’s work on his personal blog here and his deviant art page here.

Thanks again Brizl!

click on your desired screen resolution to download!

Brizl AK Gang 1024×768

Brizl AK Gang 1280×800

Brizl AK Gang 1920×1200

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If you’d like to contribute to Wednesday’s Wallpaper of the Week and have your name go down in history, drop us a line at radtoyreview@gmail.com with your idea and/or image sample.

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.

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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