Review – Marvel Blind-Bagged Mega Bloks War Machine
A few days ago I found Marvel Blind-Bagged Mega Bloks toys at Wal-Mart (mentioned here) and I’ve gotta say that I am a real sucker: there have already been Marvel Mega Bloks*, but it took the blind-bags to hook me. I’ve bought twelve bags in an attempt to find a Green Goblin. No Green Goblin so far — he’s a rare — but I do think I should take a few moments to show you guys the War Machine from the first wave of toys.
Tiny Action Figures
These Mega Blok figures use the same design and articulation as other Mega Blok mini-figures. There’s nothing especially exciting here — ball-jointed shoulders, hips, and head along with some hinges and swivel wrists and waist — but all of the joints work just fine and you can get some basic poses out of the toys. But these really aren’t meant to compete with Marvel Universe and Marvel Legends action figures so I’ve got no complaints. Besides, the $2.50 price tag is pretty fair and perfectly competitive with the LEGO minifigs which is what these are meant to compete with.
Paint and Sculpt?
Nothing exciting or outstanding, but everything works together well to make this clearly a War Machine action figure. At only about 2-inches tall he’s pretty tiny, but the painted details aren’t as sloppy as I’ve seen on some more expensive toys. But the paint isn’t awesome, either, and you basically get what you should expect for your $2.50. See this review at That Figures for more about the paint and sculpt; I would write more, but these are super simple toys and I just can’t find the inspiration to rattle on about what you can clearly see in the pics.
Closing Thoughts
DO NOT go after these toys if blind packaging offends you in any way. Out of twelve packs I am still missing two of the figures in the run, and it’s only the sudden inspiration that I can customize the duplicates that has me going after more. The figures are cute and playable, but in the end I have to admit that it’s the chase aspect of the line that has me suckered in. Seriously, I love a good blind packaged series and the fact that this first wave is all Spider-Man and Iron Man characters is what drew me in.
Fun toys, worth the price point, but not something you should buy unless you enjoy chasing down random figures.
Philip Reed wonders how many more bags he’ll buy in an attempt to find a Green Goblin. And when will he find time to paint a few of the extra Iron Man figures? One needs to be blue and silver, right? Or maybe pink and purple.
Thanks for the plug!
I’m trying to do the maths – you have 6 unique figures then? So it’s about a 50% success rate, right? Or am I off with my numbers?
This is the thing that really got me about them – they’re temptingly-priced but the knowledge that there are so few in the line and the chance of getting duplicates is so high wipes-out the price advantage.
I saw these last week at Wal-mart also, and fell for the price. I only got one thinking it might be a cool mini figure just to try out. Brought it and hoped for any Iron man figures or even the Spider man… I got Green Goblin…and I was sad. Funny that I was all jazzed to get any one of the common figures, but I get the rarest one! No luck
I actually think making green goblin the “super rare” was a brilliant move- only a few people are going to want him, and the rest of us dont end up buried in them. I’m perfectly fine getting a small army of Iron Men, and the Spideys details are all printed on, not cast into the figure, so they’re great for customizing into other superheroes.
My only real bitch is the complete absence of the Hammer Drones from this series- the one figure I desperately want to army build…