Happy New Year, guys! Let's set the tone for 2012 by welcoming the year with a bunch of new toys! Come on!
I had been eyeing this Fury of Combat set for
quite some time because of the exclusive Nick Fury figure that banners it but I wasn't
willing to purchase it at SRP since I was only interested in one figure
and paying for three other figures that I thought I didn't need seemed
like a rip off. When I attended the Hasbro Toy Fair last December, the
sets were already on sale for 1500 bucks (USD 35) but I decided not to
grab one as I continued to hold out hope of finding a cheaper set at the
Christmas Toy Fair being held simultaneously on a different level of
the same venue. I eventually found one being sold for 1400 bucks and
needless to say, that's the set that I bought. I was really happy with
the purchase but I didn't realize that I would later be in for a rude
awakening! Upon reaching home, I hurriedly set all of my new toys loose
only to learn that one of my Ground Assault Drones came without the
inner outrigger/stabilizer of its left foot! I double-checked the box to
see if it had been opened before but it was definitely sealed when I
bought it and that only meant one thing: the figure passed quality
control despite the missing piece! Darn! I'm not a pathological
cheapskate and although I can't be classified as a big spender either, I
guess this time I just got what I paid for. Tough luck.
So, let's move past that effing missing piece and
concentrate on the toys at hand. Let's start with the Iron Man Mark VI
fig since it's the least interesting fig in the set. There's really
nothing new about this Mark VI figure and in fact, it's the same as the
single-carded version minus the stand, the armor cards, and the
arm-mounted missile launcher. I already have the single-carded Mark VI
in my armory but prior to the arrival of this new figure, my Marvel
Cinematic Universe display lacked an Iron Man fig and so, this one will
be staying alongside Nick, Thor, Cap, and the Warriors Three.
Next,
we have Nick Fury, a figure that's really essential in every fan's MCU
collection. The fig uses a lot of parts from the G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary
line, particularly Beachhead's upper torso, lower torso, upper arms, and
lower arms and Dusty's upper legs, knees, lower legs, and feet. The head is
new but I'm not sure if that's also the case with the hands. With the
exception of the G.I. Joe Sigma 6 figs, I don't like real fabric clothes on my
action figures as they make the toys look goofy, as evidenced by this
figure. There are other ways to give a 1:18 figure a coat but I'm not
sure why Hasbro settled with this method.
The coat is really awful and I'm planning to
display the fig without it but there's one problem: the figure's head
sits a bit high on its neck, making the neck look too long when the coat
is not worn. To make matters worse, the figure's neck is also missing
the brown paint app that should have been applied on it, leaving Fury
with a black neck. On the positive side, the head sculpt captures
Samuel L. Jackson's likeness quite well and that is this figure's real
draw. Overall, Nick Fury is not a bad figure but we've seen better offerings from
Hasbro.
Finally,
we're down to the set's best figures, the Ground Assault Drones. These
desert-themed robots are the real stars of this set and that fact can be
attributed to the figures' fantastic sculpt and amazing color scheme.
The figures are tall and bulky and judging by their looks, they're built
for battle. The gray paint wipes suggest that these drones are already
battle-tested mechanical warriors. They are loaded with heavy weaponry
and even though their arm movements are limited, they can still hold a
lot of poses. I don't really collect 1:18 figs of Marvel villains but I
definitely have room for these two drones. Thanks to the US flag tampoed
on their chest, these bad boys will be bolstering my G.I. Joe Desert
Battle squad in their fight against Cobra!
I didn't know that I was
missing out on a lot by not getting this set when it first came out. I
bought it only for the Nick Fury figure and ended up using all four
figures in my display! Nick Fury may not provide enough reason to snag
this set at the current price of 1500 bucks but with the inclusion of
the two Ground Assault Drones, there's no reason to skip this set.
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