Imaginext Teen Titans GO! Raven Review :: Azarath, Metreon, Zinthos!

Imaginext is now in the Teen Titans GO! toy game, and they've jumped into the ring swinging!

The sets are hitting retail now, being spotted at K-Mart and Toys R Us so far. I found the single figure sets of Raven, Starfire and Cyborg at Toys R Us yesterday. No sign of the bigger sets though. I picked up the Raven and Starfire sets immediately, as I am both surprised and impressed that the girl characters were both released in the first wave of figures, and as single figure 'starter set' releases to boot!

Had you asked me to predict the release pattern of these figures, I would have said Raven would be in a later wave (or never released at all if the series wasn't popular enough for multiple waves) while Starfire will only be available if you buy a massive, possibly second-time-around-repainted playset. Times, are they a-changin', maybe? Or is the release of both Raven and Starfire right out the gate simply a toy collecting anomaly? I don't know, but I'm not complaining.

The sullen, grouchy, goth, half-demon Raven is a must have for any Teen Titans GO! fan. Who doesn't love her dead-pan delivery and God (Devil) like powers?

Raven's figure design is pretty accurate to the toon. The Imaginext Teen Titans GO! figures are, like the Imaginext SpongeBob series before them, stylized to match their cartoon counterparts. They don't fit seamlessly into the standard Imaginext superhero action figure line-up, (they're taller, and of course their heads are larger and more cartoony) but kids probably won't care. I know mine mix genres and characters all the time regardless of size or scale differences. Adult collectors will be split, many will be fine with the cartoon aesthetic, and many will probably complain, because many usually do no matter what a toy company does. I for one am happy to see the toys looking like they stepped right out of the cartoon. I would have preferred Raven to have her hood 'shadow' over her upper face, but...

...her hood is designed to be removable. So the shadow would not have worked with the hood off. Perhaps there will be a variant, or I'll get a second figure and paint her, as I imagine many collectors will consider doing. I'm just happy the hood is removable, as this fact opens the door for a Lady Legasus repaint! Of course that would also be a pretty simple custom, in the off chance I end up with multiple Ravens.

"Where is 'Hell', Alex?"

Hahaha, 'Mommy, where DID Raven get her tentacles from?' Speaking of the tentacles, they are an ingenious accessory, they make a nice base as well as a rolling 'vehicle': when you push Raven across a hard surface, the tentacles portion of the base rotates! So awesome.

And Raven's cape is not only removable, but it stands on it's own. Not positive if the cape has sentience like Dr. Strange's cape, but I think it does. Anyways, I like to imagine it has a life of it's own.

The full set of Imaginext Teen Titans GO! figures and playsets can be seen on the back of the package. You can get Raven, Cyborg and Starfire at the basic figure level, Beast Boy and Robin at the figure/small vehicle level, another Cyborg at a large vehicle level and another Robin and Mammoth at the Titans Tower playset level. I'm sure Robin will be the figure with the most releases and repaints, and I am optimistic we'll start to see some villains next wave if the theme proves popular. Personally, a Mallah/Brain set is on the top of my wish list! who do you want to see?

The basic figures (Starfire, Raven, Cyborg) retail around $7.99 each. I assume the Beast Boy and Robin w/jet sets are probably around $14.99. The Cyborg and large vehicle is probably around $24.99 and Titans Tower will probably retail for around forty bucks.

Tune in next week to read my Starfire review!

Thomas the Tank...Raven?!?! Azarath Metreon Choo Choo!

I've known about the blind bagged Thomas the Tank Engine mini-trains for a while now, and the fact that certain DC Comics characters can be found therein. But only now am I finding them in my neck of the woods. I found four of them from the 2016 Wave 3 batch this past week!

Raven! A Raven train is just absurd and I love it. This is actually a train named Belle as Raven, according to packaging.

The blind bags are not only coded (Raven is number 61) but you can also see through them pretty well by moving the train inside up to the white part of the package. So the guesswork is pretty easy to work around on these things.

Flynn as Firestrom! Firestorm is number 60.

Victor as Hawkman. Hawkman is number 62.

Rosie as Supergirl. Supergirl is number 59.

These trains are ridiculous but irresistibly fun. They're off the rails! It's neat to see the broad range of heroes and villains (well, in this case just heroes) that have been released so far. You don't see much of Raven anywhere and Firestorm doesn't get much play either.

Some DC characters have been released in multi-packs, but I think the blind bagged versions can only be found in the blind bag series and aren't duplicated in the multi-packs (and vise versa). Blind bags are $1.50 each which is a fine deal for the size and for what you get here. Go get some!

That's So Raven(s)

I haven't seen any Bandai Teen Titans figures at the flea market in a long time, then today I found about six, from two separate vendors. It's funny how these things cycle around.  I even left a couple behind because they would have been doubles (or triples) and I just didn't need to buy them ALL, especially right before Christmas!

I did grab a couple that my daughter already has but that I don't have of my own, because they don't pop up that often, and was able to get a couple we didn't have as well, including the first version of Raven:

This version of Raven is pretty far off-model, but quaint in a 'toy for kids not collectors' sort of way.

She actually doesn't look that bad at this angle. She looks nothing like her cartoon counterpart, but not bad nonetheless.

I also picked up another of the later version of Raven. My daughter already has this one, but I didn't. As you can see, Bandai used the exact same mold from the neck down, and only updated her head. Which is fine, because the figure's body design was simple but effective, and it was that face that needed fixing the most.

The difference from Raven 1.0 is striking; Raven 2.0 looks just like her cartoon counterpart.

As a bonus, Raven 1.0 was wearing a removable hood/cape when I found her. I don't know if Raven 2.0 also came with the hood/cape, I've never found either version of her with a cape until today, but I swapped it over and she looks even better now! Yay!

Teen Titans GO!

I did go to the swap meet yesterday and I did buy some toys but I did not buy them for me - so I am still on track for my 28 Day Challenge!

What I did buy was seven Teen Titans Go action figures for my daughter's upcoming birthday. She loves the Teen Titans and since these toys aren't in stores any more I am always excited to find them at the swap meet and grab them up whenever I do. First up is Terra - my daughter already has a Terra in her Teen Titans outfit but this is her costume when she turned on the Titans (I think.)

I grabbed Raven, as Raven is my daughter's favorite super hero at the moment. I am pretty sure she already has a Raven but I didn't want to risk it, especially because I got all seven figures for $5. At that price I couldn't NOT get Raven!

This guy is a villain named Master of Games. I have never seen the episode(s) he appeared in, but apparently he has absorbed some of the Titans' powers as he has a Cyborg arm and a Beast Boy arm. Cool!

Another villain I picked up is Gizmo. He's some sort of mechanical genius and I seem to remember him taking over control of Cyborg or something like that.

I have previously blogged about my own Red X and here I have found a 'maskless' Red X (who is a masked Robin.) He also had his accessory which is pretty cool.

Another Robin variant I found is Robin in his 'Deathstroke' uniform he wore when Slade was trying to recruit him and turn him against his pals.

Finally I found Trident with his...trident. Another cool looking villain.

So there you have it. I found a lot of cool action figures and a loophole in the 28 Day Challenge since my daughter's birthday is right around the corner! Yay toys!

Teen Titans GO!

I posted earlier about select Ross stores selling Infinite Heroes three packs for dirt cheap.

I was heading to my new home the other day and discovered a Ross mere blocks from my house, so of course I stopped in to see if there was anything I hadn't found at the last Ross. Well Ross comes through again with another $4.99 three pack - this time with a Teen Titans angle!

The three pack I found this time includes two good gals and one villain. Let's start with the villain; Captain Boomerang:



This isn't the original Captain Boomerang; I'm no Flash rogues gallery expert, but I did read Identity Crisis and I believe that was the storyline that brought the original Captain Boomerang's son into the role.

This dude has got a lot of boomerangs. Seems excessive for a weapon that's supposed to come back to you - I mean it isn't like they're ninja stars fer chrissakes!

Crikey, that's a lot of boomerangs, mate! But regardless, it makes for a pretty cool design and a nicely sculpted figure.

Along with Cap. B. came two Teen Titans; Raven and Starfire!

I actually saw Starfire recently as a single, and nearly bought her.

Starfire is well sculpted and painted and appropriately larger than her other female counterparts. But what really sets her apart is her hair:

Not only did they do a great job representing Starfire's famous locks, but they painted them with a fade to represent her flaming hair powers or whatever her schtick is in the comics. Keen!


Last but not least is Raven. I know little more about Raven than what little I saw on the sometimes tolerable Teen Titans cartoon, but I like her look and her Infinite Heroes figure is really cool too. The only problem I have is that she has a raven on her chest, and I don't think that is comic accurate, but I could be wrong. Regardless, she's very cool and another fine addition to my ever growing Infinite Heroes roster.

I would have gladly paid $4.99 for any of this set individually, so finding them at that price for all three is awesome!

This new set brings the Infinite Heroes tally to:

Infinite Heroes: 11

Infinite Villains: 2 (Hush finally has a friend!)