The Energon Pub

Not all action figures are created equal. Some are amazing, and others...not so much. But the worst of all IMO are the ones that look like they're going to be great, and then turn out to be kinda meh. Not even necessarily awful, but nowhere near as good as we hoped.

So what figures have you bought that you either regretted buying or were just let down by?

For me, I'd pick Bring Arts 2B (1.0, I don't have the 2.0). She's a bit...eh. The articulation is decent enough, with a really nice mid-torso balljoint and generally good range of motion, but she feels a bit...rickety? Her stand is FRIGHTENING to assemble due to the tolerances, her joints are either too loose or too tight and the paint is variable; the skirt in particular has really sloppy drybrush work on it that looks like it belonged on a ToyBiz Marvel Legend. Worst of all, it only comes with Virtuous Treaty, which sucks as 2B always has two weapons with her in the game (though the sword itself is nicely made).

The saving grace is Friedrich, AKA Bucket Boy, the Machine Lifeform (from the beginning of 9S' story mode) that comes with her. He's awesome.

The one Revenge of the Sith 3.5" Anakin Skywalker figure. He was okay, but the headsculpt wasn't perfect and he's a bit impaired articulation-wise by a "spinning slash" gimmick. The corresponding Obi-Wan has it a bit worse since his gimmick is a kick, although I didn't buy him (he was a gift).

Anakin having issues was a bit of an extra disappointment since I had to buy him at an inflated price from a reseller at a collectibles meet... The RotS 3.5" action figure line got scalped REALLY badly.

The figures that I regret to buy the most are the Final Fantasy 8 figures of Bahamut and especially Odin. That was over 20 freaking years ago already but the burn is still felt.



Those were HUGE and incredibly detailed. Beautiful figures.

HOWEVAH...

Posability was not only limited (and the horse had none) but they were made out of some kind of rubbery plastics. The joints were stiff and the parts kept stucking themselves together. Just a wee bit of force and SNAP! A leg off, joint broken beyond repair. Glue it permanently in a pose. Glue don't last long because bizarre ungluable material. Then SNAP! Here's come the arm, SNAP! Off the claw goes.

GARBAGE!
Expensive garbage.

I can't remember how much I spent on the final fantasy viii summons so it softens the blow, still finding broken limbs of them in boxes when searching for other stuff.

Kind of an odd one... But WWE xbox one game with exclusive NWO hulk hogan funko... Because once you have one funko you don't feel bad buying other funkos.

On the bright side, whilst searching through some boxes I found my Xmas pressie from a friend from a while back - unboxed Dick (Tracy) in a box. Some toys are so bad they are great.

I have two lines for this, and they're both Blizzard related.

NECA did a short run for Heroes of the Storm a while back. I bought 3 of them, and they all have problems specific to each of them.

The other one was the Hasbro Overwatch line. I have no problems with about half of them. The rest range from being limited in articulation to being unable to hold accesories to just plain bad QC.

At least Overwatch has an (albeit expensive) alternative in Figma. HotS was abandoned after a grand total of 8 figures.

Do vehicles for action figures count?
Because if vehicles for action figures count, then these days I definitely regret having bought two RotS Jedi Starfighters (Anakin's and Obi-Wan's). The S-foil trigger mechanism was much more prone to the struts jamming than the similar one for the AotC Jedi Starfighter's "Fight mode", plus the tabs that secured the S-foils aren't as durable and neither are the struts. I love the Eta-2 Actis, and I had always wanted to have more action figure starfighters (the AotC Jedi fighter was the first I got, and the only other vehicle I'd had was Anakin's podracer... I wonder whatever became of that)... but these toys were a bit too frustrating and I find the LEGO renditions decidedly more enjoyable anymore.

Although perhaps the biggest factor in the regret is that with them being $20 (4 weeks of allowance!) apiece, I weep to think that I could have gotten some Cybertron toys (which I would still be enjoying to this day) at retail instead with that money.

Revoltech Transforming Macross VF-1S.

Figure can barely hold itself together, and the parts are too flimsy for the stiffness of the revo joints. Macross was the first mecha anime I ever watched, and this was the first official product that I bought (I made do with bootlegs that had a pencil sharpener as a kid), and I still feel I paid way too much for the fig (almost 40 USD).

Back when I was still doing collector lines I got ss86 blurr and ss dotm bumblebee. those figures were such disappointments I sold them to a local toy shop within a week and got the phantom menace commtech reader instead. But nothing can possibly compare to the disappointment of ss86 "leader" class starscream. Now I'll grant everyone at least one point here, that being that I'm mentally incapable of understanding the new way of doing classes in transformers. I just simply cannot understand how engineering equates price point when the figures have generally the same complexity and characters that would fit a different size class are bumped up or down in class (looking at you scout class beachcomber and voyager class aoe optimus). Having said all of that, was the earthrise seeker mold really supposed to be that bad an upscale of the classics deluxe one? Also honestly we could have done without the stupid throne he didnt even get to use in the movie. As a massive Starscream fan it genuinely offended me how disappointing that figure was. He felt cheap and flimsy his transformation felt lackluster his accessories while in line with the idea of ss86 royally sucked and dragged him down significantly and I hated this thing so much I begged my roommate at the time to take me to the same shop I dumped blurr and bee at the next day. With the store credit I got for him I snagged a Cybertron Optimus I'm still working to restore to this day (just need the handgun and a way to fix the ratchet joints in the wing rotation on both sides). I'd say I got an objectively better figure for dealing with that colossal sting.

Aladar The Outmode wrote:But nothing can possibly compare to the disappointment of ss86 "leader" class starscream. Now I'll grant everyone at least one point here, that being that I'm mentally incapable of understanding the new way of doing classes in transformers. I just simply cannot understand how engineering equates price point when the figures have generally the same complexity and characters that would fit a different size class are bumped up or down in class (looking at you scout class beachcomber and voyager class aoe optimus).

Well, good news for you: "engineering equates price point" doesn't really apply to him anyway. That more covers things like Legacy Putzwing, where he's a Leader due to an overcomplicated transformation to achieve maximum cartoon accuracy (at the cost of having ROTF Jetfire levels of jet underside clutter, and severely-limited shoulder articulation). With SS86 Starscream, AKA "Earthrise Voyager Starscream reissued with articulated hands and extra accessories", it's just a case of MASS equates price point. Between the chair, the extra guns, the cape, and the crown, there's about enough extra plastic to make a modern Deluxe.

Aladar The Outmode wrote:Having said all of that, was the earthrise seeker mold really supposed to be that bad an upscale of the classics deluxe one?

No. And in case you didn't know, the NORMAL Earthrise Starscream that didn't come with all the bonus accessories and had standard fists, was sold as a Voyager at Voyager price. Same for Earthrise/Legacy Dirge.

Aladar The Outmode wrote:Also honestly we could have done without the stupid throne he didnt even get to use in the movie.

No, we really couldn't have. The throne/Nemesis command chair (because technically, it's actually that) was part of the reason for him - and they had to do something with the plastic allotment not used up by the cape and stuff.

Aladar The Outmode wrote:As a massive Starscream fan it genuinely offended me how disappointing that figure was. He felt cheap and flimsy his transformation felt lackluster his accessories while in line with the idea of ss86 royally sucked and dragged him down significantly and I hated this thing so much I begged my roommate at the time to take me to the same shop I dumped blurr and bee at the next day.

If he felt "cheap and flimsy" then any Transformer made after 2011 probably feels "cheap and flimsy" to you regardless of their actual durability/quality, and as someone who owns both Generations and Earthrise Dirge I feel like the Earthrise Seeker mold is about equal. And what "royally sucked" about his accessories?
Or was it a perception thing because paying $55 for him instead of $30-35 like you would have for the vanilla version put your expectations super high?

Aladar The Outmode wrote:With the store credit I got for him I snagged a Cybertron Optimus I'm still working to restore to this day (just need the handgun and a way to fix the ratchet joints in the wing rotation on both sides). I'd say I got an objectively better figure for dealing with that colossal sting.

Agreed that Cybertron Optimus is an objectively-better figure though. Cybertron Optimus is staggeringly awesome. Can you show me the damaged ratchet joints? I might be able to advise on repair. I've customized and done repair work on a Cybertron Optimus myself.