To be perfectly honest Jakks Pacific is a completely new company to me, I have never even heard of them prior to my review of the Pokemon Pikachu Attack Action Bases toy. It seems they specialize in action figures, a new version of building blocks called “Gorilla Blocks,” scientific discovery toys, vehicle models, sports products, artistic products, stationary, TV games and dog toys. A strange variation of products to say the least. It seems from sifting through the variety of products that Jakks Pacific produces they are a hit or miss company when it comes to product development. There are a few products such as the funnoodle (yes that foam noodle you use in swimming pools), Creepy Crawlers, and Eyeclops which are widely known and have been on the market for years; however, there are also products which you have only ever seen before on TV infomercials at 3am. The very fact that they don’t seem to be a hugely reknowned company mixed with the “hit or miss” nature of so many of their toys makes me think twice before looking to purchase any of their products in the future…it could just be my personal opinion though so use your personal discretion in purchasing from this company.

Aside from the company the toy genre which I chose to review from them (action figures) seem to feature very well known characters such as WWE wrestling figures, Dragon Ball Z figures, Rocky figures and Pokemon figures. Being that they gained such toy contracts I do not suppose that they can be such a “bad” company, but still I find myself sucked in to the “it was on an infomercial” panic when I look at some of their toys (in particular BloPens). The action figures seem to be constructed well and appeal directly to the “boy” market in particular by featuring characters from wrestling and anime cartoons (that is not to say it would not appeal to girls only that they seem to appeal more to boys.) The figures are painted in to lifelike figures that manuever as one would expect them to, nothing special, yet nothing to complain about as far as the actual action figures go.

The Pokemon Pikachu Attack Action Bases came in the usual bubble type packaging with the cardboard backing and contained an “attack base” (a stand that shoots the Pokemon character off it), a Pokemon figure ( in this case Pikachu) and two pieces of “track” which slot on to the attack base. The track and the figure themselves seem sturdy enough; however, the “electric” base is not electric at all and is more of a flimsy windup type mechanism. The Pokemon character is true to the character itself and provides enjoyment for a child who likes the Pokemon characters; however in a nutshell the toy is overpriced and does not perform up to standard.

I really didn’t think that Pokemon were still popular among children anymore until I took a walk down the “boys action figure” aisle at Toys R Us and saw half an aisle dedicated to the little critters (incidentally, Power Rangers are also still popular, who’d have thought it!). I wasn’t going to pick up this toy to begin with until I saw a boy of around seven standing and just staring at the toys so I grabbed one, I needed to see what was so enthralling about this toy…and now that I have it I can quite honestly say that it must have been a character recognition thing because no way was it from first hand knowledge of what this toy can do.

To begin with, the toy was $9.99, a reasonable price for a collectors figure that actually does what it is supposed to do; however this “action base” figure most certainly did not do what it was supposed to…in fact it did nothing short of sit there and look pretty. The toy itself slots together and is supposed to “launch” the Pokemon figure off the base by use of what I can only describe as a “clockwork” mechanism (ie. not electronic and more like gears and rubber bands.) Clockwork does not make this toy worth ten hard earned dollars. Upon “launch” (hitting the button after placing the figure on the “base”) the Pokemon figure skids a very short way and drops off the table. In actuality the toy is supposed to “launch” off the base to “attack” another figure. The only thing this toy is attacking is the carpet as it careens off the table and on to the floor.

The “attack bases” figures are supposed to be collected, there were four varieties at Toys R Us, each featuring a different Pokemon character. When used correctly two characters bases are slotted together opposite each other and the characters are launched at each other; however, I definitely do not see this happening as they both go rolling on to the floor. The rolling on to the floor is the fun part though because guaranteed at least four out of every five times the launching mechanism will fail and your Pikachu just sits on the “attack base” or simply drops over to one side much the same as grandma would on Christmas eve after one too many glasses of eggnog.

To keep it short…a little late for that but all the same…this toy is absolutely not worth the money, it is flimsy, malfunctioning and something akin to what you would find in the Dollar Store. The only plus for this toy is the character recognition and even then you can find Pokemon figures for less than the $9.99 you would pay for this pile of junk.

The Transformers movie legends action figures come in a plastic shell packaging on a cardboard backing. The back of the packaging includes “transforming” instructions for the figure as well as statistics for each individual transformer with vitals such as “strength” and “skill” which enables different movie legends Transformers to be pitted against each other in play. The packaging is easy to open and the toy runs around $3.99. There are a variety of the movie legends figures available currently including: Jazz, Ratchet, Barricade, Blackout, Bumblebee, Megatron, and Starscream. All of these figures run at the same price; however, as they become harder to find in stores and online you will notice that certain stores (both reputable and not so reputable stores) will bump up the price on certain figures and not others. The original Habro website; however, always charges the same price for all of their figures but they do frequently run out of stock and seem to be running at a constant backlog.

The Movie Legends Transformers are one of the most readily available of the Transformers action figures as opposed to the Movie Deluxe figures which are not as easily found. The Movie Legends figures are also one of the cheapest Transformer toys on the market at a cost under $5 each, which aids children in completing a collection with their own pocket money or aids in parents who are seeking complete collections for their children. The actual figures are approximately as long as the average woman’s middle finger (excuse the reference, but it is easier to put things in perspective.) The figures are also extremely lightweight and plastic as opposed to various diecast Transformers figures on the market. Each figure available transforms from one vehicle to one Transformer robot figure.

The toy packaging was simple enough to open and the toy itself easy enough to extricate from the twist ties holding it inside the packaging but honestly that was the most fun part of the Movie Legends Transformer figure. The plastic figure not only feels cheap but it is so cheaply made that it literally fell apart in the first 4 minutes and 4 seconds of me “transforming” it. While the movie legends toys do offer a cheap alternative for parents who can’t afford the full blown Transformers figures for their kids this Christmas, I don’t recommend spending the $3.99 on them.

The toy fits the bill as far as looking like a Transformer, the colors are perfect and as long as your child doesn’t actually want to transform the figure you should be safe; however, once the transforming action starts you stand a pretty high chance of your Transformer of choice losing a limb or two. Pieces come off easily and while they can be replaced on to the figure the replacing of limbs is frustrating and a little harder than it was to accidentally remove the limb in the first place. Not only is the transformation factor a risky one when it comes to limb loss, but it is a frustrating one as well. Instead of a slide and lock system that completes smoothly the transformation process consists more of a cracking, snapping frustrating sequence of curse words and pinched fingers. The pieces fit together loosely and don’t stick in place creating a slumped mess of semi-Transformer.

I am sad to say that aside from the visual of the toy when it is untouched, the Transformers Movie Legends toy falls so far from my expectations of such a popular toy that it left me speechless. As a childhood fan of the old school Transformers action figures I had such high expectations for the newly released figures and while the newer released larger scaled action figures may meet or exceed those expectations these small scale Movie Legends figures do not. I could not recommend these figures to anyone other than a collector who will leave them in the boxes, as for your children? Move on and try another action figure with more to give and don’t waste your money on these.