Originally posted at
http://www.zedsjoesite.com/review/gog/gog.html
The Guardians of the Galaxy, the protectors of a future alternate timeline in which...UM, wait a minute.
So when I heard there was a Guardians of the Galaxy box set I got kind of excited. However I was expecting these guys:
But instead I found out it was these guys:
A touch shocking to say the least.
So to be honest I haven't read much with this new Guardians of the Galaxy, so I went online to the Wiki pages and tried to catch up, and really it seemed kind of bland. I could be wrong of course but it seemed like the standard fair for comics in the modern era. It was neat that Rocket Raccoon got dusted off and tossed in there, but mostly I felt like this group had more connections to the Infinity Watch than the old Guardians of the Galaxy. In fact I kind of wondered why they used the Guardians of the Galaxy name rather than something more original. Maybe I'm missing something there.
So I was going to pass on this set (for reasons I will detail below) but one weekend while traveling I caught the set for $5, even though I had little connection or love for the characters, $5 is hard to pass up. So was it worth $5? This might peeve off some fanboys: but barely.
So rather than dissing the set I should get to some reasons behind some of my dislike starting with the specific figures:
So apparently this guy has some sort of cult following. When the set hit there were people jumping all over this character being included like he was a big deal. Honestly I was looking at him and thinking "Who?" It took a bit to track down but I did find his old stories, he was one of those characters that hadn't been seen in a very long while. However, I really didn't see the appeal. The elemental gun idea is kind of neat but of course it appears Starlord doesn't even come with it. The only info I have been able to find that people might like this guy is that he is pretty sarcastic apparently. Other than that I'm not getting the love here.
Still I have to admit he is probably the best figure from this pack overall. He does look exactly like the pictures I found from the comics. In addition, he uses that Ghost Rider body that apparently Hasbro is determined to get many miles out of. Still it fits and works for him.
Again, I have no clue why this guy is apparently popular now, but he at least has a cult following. I did pose the question on a comic book related board I am on but no one seemed to understand either. I'm sure someone out there will tell me "He's cool" which is as informative as air pumping. Oh well, maybe one day it will be revealed to me.
The next figure is weak, but mostly because the design is weak"
I just have to be blunt, I hate this look for Drax. It looks like he went way too far with the weight watchers, but thankfully he was the size of the Hulk so he really shrunk down to normal size. Somehow this guy went from dense and ultimate physical power as a space faring member of the Infinity Watch and was transformed into a knife fighter that appears to have borrowed a great deal from primitive cultures. I'm not sure how that works but I hate it. Somehow Drax gaining a brain makes him much less interesting.
One of the better aspects of Drax is that he has holders for both knives, which is something that was very disappointing factor of Warpath, kind of makes me wish they would go back and redo him now. Some have said this is a straight repaint of Absorbing Man, sorry to say no it's not. The head is different (it has a different shape entirely) although he looks a lot like Luke Cage and it could be argued his head could be used to make a Luke without sunglasses. Even still how do you get behind a look of a character that you don't like no matter how accurate it looks. Simply put you can't so that is why he gets such a low rating. Drax is that goofy big guy with the purple cape and to me always will be, brains or not.
And that's it for the figures in this set, that's right there are only two. The rest are accessories which brings me to the real problem I have with this team pack.
Looking at previous team packs we have gotten a minimum of three figures which if you take the price of $7 a figure comes out to just being a dollar under buying the figures separately with the price tag of $20. That is something most of us can deal with and is the format we had with the first team pack of X-Force. With Avengers we had three figures and TWO accessories (Wasp and Ant Man, technically three if you count Ant Man's ant that he rides which is a separate piece). Then we got Fantastic Four (and later Future Foundation) with Sue, Reed, Ben and HERBIE the Robot as an extra. But with Guardians of the Galaxy we get two accessories with Groot and Rocket Raccoon which when compared to the other team packs, so one has to ask why.
Some have said Rocket Raccoon was just too expensive to make into an actual figure, that the toolings for such a figure would be to cost prohibitive-REALLY!? Seems that this pack has only two heads that have required tooling, if one were to take team packs in a "budget" (as Hasbro has indicated in the past with multi-packs) then there was plenty of room for a Rocket Raccoon with some articulation OR another figure (of which there are plenty of characters left in the Guardians of the Galaxy to work with). If there was another figure I probably wouldn't be so uptight about Groot and Rocket Raccoon. As extras they are cool, but without having a full team pack it seems cheap and a huge letdown.
Rocket Raccoon is ok, but some have argued Hasbro cannot make small figures like him with articulation-REALLY!? Yoda has had several figures with decent levels of articulation and Ewoks are about as tall as Rocket Raccoon here. Don't get me wrong I like Rocket Raccoon and the little statue is ok, but again without either another figure or Rocket not having articulation, well the cheapness of this set just shines through.
I think what makes it worse is the pose Rocket is stuck in, he pretty much looks like he just saw a car and is stuck in the headlights.
Does that pose not just scream for a "OMG CAR!!!" caption for it?
So despite Rocket Raccoon having some good paint, it seems wasted on a figure that is pretty well stuck in one pose. I suppose what irks me more than anything is the fact I broke my rule on reading other's reviews of something I am reviewing just to try to discover something about the appeal of Starlord. What I found was a great number of excuses for a pack that should have been better. Sure the two figures are ok and the accessories are ok, but when compared to other recent team packs you realize this has been a huge letdown due to Hasbro not giving this pack as much as it deserved.
In all seriousness I can only recommend getting this pack on clearance. I'm sure most who wanted it have gotten it at full price already. Still if you are on the fence, WAIT. That price will come down because everywhere I see this pack it has hung around for a while. I was patient and got it for $5, which I am sad to say is about what this is worth. Sorry Guardians fans, but two accessories and 2 figures do not measure up in light of some of the past packs.
*SIGH* now let the fanboy outrage begin as it always does with I give a negitive review.
