It’s August 1, and that means that Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has officially released MARVEL’s GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY! The latest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a major dose of sci-fi action to audiences everywhere, and with it comes a new assortment of toys – many of which have already begun blasting into the action aisle of your local retailers. Back in February, I highlighted some of what was shown off at Toy Fair from the GOTG line, and now we’ve gone hands-on, thanks to the folks over at Hasbro, who dropped a sampling of the new collection right here at Rock Father HQ. Let’s check out the unboxing with myself and Addie…
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MARVEL’S GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY LEGENDS INFINITE SERIES Action Figures
From this assortment, we received DRAX (played on film by WWE Superstar Dave Bautista), a solid and beefy figure. I’m a big fan of the Legends Infinite series overall for their high levels of articulation and posability. What I don’t dig is the “Build-a-Figure” gimmick, which many toy lines have done in the past. Here, GROOT is presented as the Build-a-Figure, and that requires collectors to get the entire line in order to complete a key character from the film. Regardless of that, I highly recommend not only the GUARDIANS, but the entire Legends Infinite series.
BIG BLASTIN’ ROCKET RACCOON Electronic Action Figure
This guy pretty much rules. If the film is a success, expect kids to be going crazy for Rocket Raccoon for a long time to come. This large-scale figure features lights, sounds and movement.
If you watched the unboxing video above, it was apparent straight-away that Rocket had that “wow” appeal for my oldest. He’s a little noisy, but that’s just his nature, and something I know well.
BATTLE GEAR Mini Action Figure Assortment and MILANO Starship
Growing up a STAR WARS kid, the Kenner/Hasbro 3 3/4″ figures are the standard by which all action figures are judged. We’ve seen this for nearly forty years at this point, but here we find something a bit different, with 2 1/2″ figures and vehicles. It keeps the prices down (appreciated), but we lose some detail and articulation by shrinking the toys.
The MILANO Starship (complete with Chris Pratt as Star-Lord action figure) is a big hit. Lights and sounds compliment the vehicle, which has a nice, yet reasonable size. Three figures fit in the cockpit, so Star-Lord, Groot and Rocket Raccoon have already had quite a few adventures here at Rock Father HQ.
NERF STAR-LORD QUAD Blaster
These Nerf blasters always get me into trouble, but I don’t mind. Again, did you watch the unboxing? Addie lit up when she first saw this thing, but truth told – she hasn’t gotten a chance to play with it yet. That’s Daddy in the Instagram video to the right.
This thing just looks cool. Clip-click, bwoomp-thwip. You feel like you’re in an action movie while playing with this, and that’s exactly the point. We always teach “blaster” and never “gun,” though that word has been creeping in from some of the other kids that the girls play with.
The ROCKET RACCOON Action Mask
This is pretty much the big winner of the collection here, with role-play being such a fun thing for summer. In the hands of children, it’s hilarious – as Hasbro did a great job of building creative articulation into the mask without electronics. For a kid, it fits perfectly, and when the chin is planted firmly in the mask, simply talking will activate eyebrow, mouth and ear movement.
Our mask was a hot commodity for the neighborhood kids – girls and boys alike, all taking turns.
For a grownup, however, the results can be a little creepier… like when yours truly reimagined Rocket as an animatronic character at ShowBiz Pizza Place, complete with the clickety-clack action…
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These toys and more are at retail now, and you can expect to hear much more about GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY in the years ahead – a sequel has already been announced for July of 2017.
