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Batman Stealth Strike Gorilla Attack
by broxi3781
I purchased the Batman Stealth Strike Gorilla Attack Battle Pack primarily for the inclusion of Gorilla Grodd. For those of you unfamiliar with the DC Universe Gorilla Grodd is has been given super intelligence as well as telepathic powers from an alien who crashed into the jungle. Not being a very grateful sort - Grodd arranges the ... alien's death before setting out to take over the world. He originally appeared as nemesis to Flash, but has more recently appeared in The Justice League, Batman the brave and the Bold and the Teen Titans.
Our Gorilla Grodd is significantly lighter than the one shown - which is a pity as he is clearly black in the cartoons, but perhaps he is growing old and fading to grey. After all his first appearance was in a Flash comic back in 1959. Other than that though he is a well made toy. He is 5 1/2" tall and very solid. I can't imagine this toy breaking under normal play conditions. Sadly though, he does not have Grodd's trademark helmet and without this - he does not completely look the part. Still my son did choose this himself and was happy enough to accept this as Gorilla Grodd.
We do have one other problem with Gorilla Grodd though. The box clearly states "YOU SHAKE! HE BASHES". The Amazon UK site does not give a very detailed description but Amazon USA says "Shake Gorilla Grodd and watch him smash and bash with his arms ." By these descriptions we had assumed he had some type of smash action with his arms. He does not. The arms do move - though rather stiffly if you move them - but there is no button for smashing and if you shake him - he just shakes. You can imagine that he is bashing things - but that isn't quite what I took from the ad.
In addition to Grodd, this set also comes with Superman and Batman. We already had an identical Batman, but this one also came with some snap on weapons and a helmet/ mask. The weapons were meant to snap onto the hexagon shaped socked on Batman's arms, but they never did stay on well and my sons both decided they weren't worth the bother. They did like the helmet, but it constantly fell off as well. The sockets do look a bit strange in my opinion, and my son does have another, better detailed Batman from another set, but this is not a bad toy. It is sturdy and well made, it stands up easily - which many action figures do not - and he does look close enough to Batman from the Brave and the Bold series. At 5" tall though - he is taller than most of my sons action figures making him look just a bit out of place. He fits in perfectly with the Batman the Brave and the Bold series as he is intended to though. Personally, I believe the toy manufacturers deliberately make each line on a different scale to encourage parents to buy new instead of using figures from older sets, but he can still be used with the smaller Teen Titans and Young Justice figures. This toy is played with - it just isn't one of the most popular. This is not completely the toys fault - my son just uses the adult superheroes as supporting cast to the younger versions.
Superman was a bit more interesting and the only other Superman we have is one in black - so the evil Superman. Again he is a bit big at 5", but very well made and the sockets are a bit less noticeable on his figure. The blue parts of his costume are translucent - which I found odd - a see through Superman, but it catches the light nicely and my sons do like this. In addition, this being an unusual feature may make this a good choice for someone who collects Superman figures. The overall detailing is good - he is very comic book looking, but I believe this was intentional. Both Superman and Batman have cloth capes which can not be removed.
I do have a book which features Gorilla Grodd and Plastic Man - another of my son's favourites as well as Batman the Brave and the Bold DVD which features him, and more importantly he is in a few of the Teen Titans episodes. This made Gorilla Grodd a popular figure for us, and even without his helmet or any smashing power - he makes a good villain for my sons to play with it. I paid £12.99 for this set, using an Amazon voucher and feel that I have had good value for money. There are a few flaws, but at only £4.33 per figure I feel that this was a very good set. While these figures will never be as well loved as Beastboy or Cyborg, they are good extras that add to his ability to act out adventures and they do get a bit more use after watching the Brave and Bold cartoons.
At a price of £12.99 I would still give this 5 stars despite the issue with what I feel is a touch of false advertising on the box. However, Amazon is currently selling this for £30.99 which I feel is far too much - especially as you can buy the same set on Amazon USA for $13.12 - or about £6. If you are really interested in this set - it most likely would work out less to buy this through the Amazon USA site, which I have done in the past for phonics books that were not available here. You will be charged for postage - but not £24 worth of postage. At £30.99 I really would recommend this set only for a child who absolutely loves the Brave and the Bold series. I've found all action figures expensive and if the child really loves them - the price isn't too bad. Considering current prices and the minor flaws with this set I am giving this 4 stars.
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Mattel Octonauts Gup-B Kwazii
by bush1
As previously mentioned, my daughter is a bit obsessed with the Octonauts at the moment. It is her favourite TV programme and everytime we go to toy shops she always makes straight for the Octonauts toys. She got the Gup-B as a present for learning to use the potty.
---About Octonauts:
The Octonauts are a series of ... cartoon characters created by Meomi (Vicky Wong and Michael Murphy) who have undersea adventures in their Octopod. Their mission is to explore, rescue and protect which they do while having lots of adventures. Their leader is Captain Barnacles and their are several other characters based loosely around other animals, most of them land mammals! The programmes can be seen on CBeebies or you can buy the DVDs.
---About the product:
The Gup-B comes complete with Kwazii, a shark and a noose to catch the shark with. Kwazii is bizarrely dressed in a green outfit which I can't actually recall seeing him wearing on the TV show, but maybe he did in one episode! The character is about 2 inches high and has bendable bits for tops of legs and arms which allows him to sit down and move his arms. The Gup-B looks very similar to the one on the TV program so it is very recognisable. it has a large clear plastic dome on the top which can be opened so that Kwazii can sit inside. The Gub-B is designed to be played with both in and out os water so has features for both. it can be pushed easily around on land or when used in the water, you can push the orange fin on top which will open the mouth of the gup. You can then press it again when out of the water to shoot a small amount of water out. The shark is grey with orange stripes on it and comes with a blue 'net' which can be used to catch it. It is a blue piece of plastic with a circle at the end which fits over the shark's head.
---Our experiences:
As ever with Octonauts toys, my daughter was very excited to see the box for this and even more so when we took it out of the box for her to play with. She immediately got her other Octonauts figures and began playing with them all together. She can put Kwazii in and out of the Gup and enjoys being able to move it around. Kwazii does not stay sitting upright in the Gup easily and falls over a lot, but at present this does not seem to bother my daughter. She really enjoys playing with this in the bath and we squirt water with it a lot. You have to be quite quick though because as soon as you take it out of the water, the water starts to drain from it so you need to squirt it quickly if you want any water to come out of it! It is still a bit hard for my daughter to use on her own, so I tend to use it for her.
She doesn't play with the shark very much and hasn't really worked out what the net is for yet, but this hasn't detracted from her enjoyment of the product. She likes to play with the creatures from the other character packs instead and plays with the other Octonauts alongside Kwazii.
---And finally:
The Gup-B with Kwazii costs around £17 which I feel is way too expensive for a few bits of plastic. Unfortunately, nowadays anything which is branded with kids TV characters tends to be on the pricey side. We managed to get it at £10 which I feel is good value for it. It has kept her entertained and she can do a lot of imaginative play with it. The toy states it is for ages 3+ but I feel it could be suitable for slightly younger as long as they were supervised as the pieces are not that small. I would recommend this for young Octonauts fans, but I would wait for it to be on offer first!
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Green Lantern Battle Shifters Blade Attack Hal Jordan
by broxi3781
My sons are both in the stage where they enjoy playing with super heroes, and since my son was getting the 3D movie of Green Lantern for his birthday, in addition to already enjoying the graphic novel and and animated DVD's, this looked a great addition to their set. Just so I would have a few extra lanterns - I also ordered a set of 6 ... figures from Hong Kong for a brilliant price of just under £6 with ebay. This on the other hand cost me nearly £9, although I see it has dropped in price and is now available for £4.48 from Amazon.
This set is very small. You get Hal Jordan, who is obviously modeled after Ryan Reynolds, the green gun and a very cheap green plastic ring. I would expect Hal Jordan to be the the most important part of the set, but as we had another one from Hong Kong which was clearly much better, the figure has had little use. The figure we have looks just like the one in the picture - except that the green on his suit is much lighter - too light in fact - it does not look the right colour for a green lantern suit. He stands 3 3/4" tall - which is standard size for many lines of action figures and is reasonably well made. The face is more or less recognisable, although not as detailed as our other figure, and has a green mask across it. The problem with this figure, is that while both of our figures have the same size body - this one has a smaller head and it does look a bit to small in my opinion. My youngest son just says the other one looks better - but isn't sure why. My oldest says he likes that the figure with this set comes with a mask on ( our other one does not) but he doesn't like the colour as well and something is just different. He did not notice the size though until I pointed it out. Still it is OK - but not really worth the price we paid. I'm sure the action figure would have had a lot more use if we didn't end up having another Hal Jordan from the other set. The ring is also very cheap, and doesn't do anything - in fact I think ours is lost now, but my sons have better rings that light up - so they weren't fussed with this one.
The one saving grace for this toy was the gun. It folds flat and really does pop out with a tap. My boys claim it is like a Bakugan - but whatever it is like they do really enjoy this feature. It does shoot a single missile - and I really wish they could have included a couple of spares as we all know how easily these things get lost, but at least we still have it now. I was also concerned that the springing action which allows this gun to pop open might fail quickly - and so delayed reviewing this for a few more weeks. the toy is not quite 3 months old now, but it has been played with very frequently and is still as good new.
My sons do both like this toy - they have even asked if they could get another one so as to have two guns - but they have too many other things on their Christmas wish list this year. If this was still at the price I paid I would rate this at 3 stars. I do not feel that I had good value for money from this, despite the fact that the boys like the gun so much. But as the price does appear to have dropped everywhere, I do believe this is a decent toy for £4.48 or even up to £5 as many stores are charging. It has faults - but £5 is a very good price for any action figure , and the gun on its own is worth nearly this price. If they had included at least one spare missile I would give this a 5 star rating - despite Hal Jordan's tiny head. But as the gun really is the best part of the toy - and a single missile is easily lost - I am awarding this 4 stars.
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