Action Figure Review: Bradley "Big Lob" Sanders from G.I. Joe: Classified Series by Hasbro

 

   Hasbro is starting off 2026 with some slam dunks in the G.I. Joe: Classified Series line. Don't believe me? Then check out the first of the newest series of figures out there: Big Lob! Big Lob didn't appear in the vintage toyline; he's another character from the 1987 G.I. Joe animated movie that never got a vintage action figure from Hasbro. A grenade throwing basketball? Add him to the roster of other sports themed Joes like Bazooka, The Fridge, Hardball, Captain Gridiron, Red Dog, and Backstop. No, not all of those guys are in the Classified Series yet (only Bazooka, so far) but don't worry; they'll get there. Big Lob never had a vintage figure but the G.I. Joe Collector's Club released an o-ring version in 2010 as the annual membership figure and a generation 3 version in 2017 as the annual exclusive. Those were made by the G.I.J.C.C. though, so technically this is the first time Hasbro is tackling Bradley "Big Lob" Sanders. Why Bradley Sanders? He was given the same file name as his voice actor, Brad Sanders. Cool detail! Big Lob has been showing up at Walmart in a hanging display box (with Lifeline, Hit & Run, the Mole Rat [Stage 2], and the Night Viper) and on Hasbro Pulse, but he should be everywhere soon. Ready to see if Big Lob shoots and scores? Then join me after the break...

Wrapping Up 2025: Chainsaw Main [Chainsaw Man-The Movie: Reze Arc] from S.H. Figuarts: Chainsaw Man by Bandai Namco/ Tamashi Nations

 

   Last year I didn't just get into One Piece; I also took an interest in Chainsaw Man, too. Like I've said a few times before: Apparently, getting into anime is my midlife crisis. I grabbed a few of the manga volumes out of curiosity and really like them. I liked them enough that I read past the Reze Arc in the manga and then picked up some of the figures here and there, too. I've watched all of the Chainsaw Man anime available currently and I'm waiting for the movie to hit physical media  or streaming at some point before I watch it (I still cannot bring myself to purchase a "digital" film). Apparently the movie did quite well, so I'm optimistic we will see a physical release sometime soon. If you're not familiar with Chainsaw Man and the main character, Denji, the titular Chainsaw Man, keep reading. I'll try to throw the main points into the review. The manga and anime are both quite good and kind of remind me of something like Hellboy and the other BPRD books. Ready to check out the newest S.H. Figuarts figure of Chainsaw Man? You already know this one made my 2025 "Best of the Rest" list, so that means this one is pretty good. Join me after the break...

Missing in Action: Toylines That Didn't Make the Cut in 2025

 

   Since 2015 I've followed up my Top 10 Toylines of the Year list with Missing in Action (no relation to the Chuck Norris film), a look at what lines made the list in the prior year's best of list but fell off for this year. This list is somewhat of a reflective piece as I'm looking back at the Top 10 Toylines list from the year before and giving my reasoning for why some of the lines from that year failed to return for the current year's list.  2025's top 10 list had seven lines returning from 2024's list, which is a fairly high number, so this year's Missing in Action list is shorter. I always think it's kind of fun to look back up at the lines that failed to show up again in order to diagnose why they went missing. Sometimes I'm also just complaining and griping a bit, which might be part of the reason this list is so much fun. There's a bit of saltiness here, though not always. Over the years I've compiled a list of reasons why a toyline might make this list:

Missing in Action: This is a toyline that gets cancelled, ends, or just didn't have any releases during the year. It happens,  unfortunately, and often to some of my favorites it seems, though not as much as in the past. There do seem to be more longer running toy lines today than, say, a decade ago. About half of my Top Ten list this year had been on my list for more than 4 or 5 years. 

Demoted: Sometimes a toyline just gets outdone by others. This isn't specifically related to the quality of the demoted line and is instead more reflective of the quality of the lines that supplanted it or of my interests shifting to other things. You can be demoted simply because of me getting fascinated by something else.

Sunk: This is when a toyline has a severe drop in quality, becomes stale, or suffers an exorbitant price hike that causes it to fall off my radar. While most toylines get better as they go, some do indeed get worse and worse due to cost cutting, mismanagement, and quality control issues. Sometimes the price just outpaces the value, making a once impressive toyline now seem like a shell of its former self. With the crazy price hikes of the past year, I'm sure many lines have "sunk" off of the radar for some collectors.

Ready to gear up and see who went Missing in Action in 2025? Then join me after the break...

Action Force by Valaverse- Demoted!

   I like Action Force quite a bit (one of the figures made my "Best of the Rest" list) but 2026 was a bit of a dull year for the line. There were figures I liked, sure, along with excellent accessory packs and a lower price point, but I think a decrease in unique characters definitely curbed my interest a bit. Don't get me wrong, I still really liked "Day of the Dead" Sidewinder and "Night Ops" Senshi, but I wanted to see more figures like those and fewer generic troop builders. Maybe those troops are what butter Valaverse's bread, but I like the unique characters best. It's also possible the line had a slower year due to tariffs and Valaverse was waiting to see what would happen before rolling out more product.

Figura Obscura by Four Horsemen Studios- Demoted!

   Figura Obscura is a line that really fluctuates from year to year as it draws characters from such a wide variety of different cultures, literature, folk tales, mythology, and more. That being said, 2023 and 2024 featured characters from books and stories I really love. 2025's three releases (Ganesha, the Jersey Devil, and the Mouse King from "The Nutcracker" just didn't appeal to me enough to pick up any of them. I'll admit, to, I'm still a bit salty that we didn't get another character from A Christmas Carol. Hopefully 2026 is more to my tastes. They're still nice figures, I just wasn't terribly excited by the character choices and the Jersey Devil looked a bit underwhelming. 

Turtles of Grayskull by Mattel- Demoted/ Missing in Action

   Turtles of Grayskull, Mattel's collaboration with MOTU and TMNT, ended in 2025. It was overall a fairly strong line though it did drag a bit at the end with fewer interesting releases, lots of redos, and some figures at the end that were just a pain to find. Mattel went on to a MOTU and ThunderCats mashup and a MOTU and Transformers mashup, but this year they seem focused just on the upcoming movie product.


Well, those are the three lines that went "Missing in Action" on my 2025 best of list. Did any of your favorite toy lines fall out of favor with you in 2025? Did any end, go missing, or just get no new releases? Let me know in the comments below.

2026 has just started but, looking at last year's list, there are a few lines I'm worried about not making my inevitable Best of 2026 list...

DC Multiverse by McFarlane Toys- I think this line could still pull out another year, though with 2026 being the final year of product before Mattel takes over, it's going to be interesting to see how much really interesting stuff McFarlane can get out. I have picked up a few new figures already this year (reviews coming soon), so we'll have to see what happens. 

Masterverse by Mattel- Mattel's official word at Toy Fair was that Masterverse is "On Pause." It's never a good thing to be On Pause in the toy industry; that's just time to lose shelf space and consumer interest. 2026 is all about the upcoming movie lines (with some figures already being found in stores or sent from Mattel customer service). I don't think any Masterverse product has been revealed yet for this year other than the straight up vintage styled Walmart exclusives, so this line very well may be Missing in Action for 2026.

Toony Terrors: Unless NECA gets some more Universal Monsters stuff announced or really gets into some properties I care about, I could see this line dropping off. I just wasn't overly impressed by much I saw at NECA's 2026 Toy Fair booth.

Universal Monsters/ Classic Horror Collection: This has been one of my favorites and I'm afraid that NECA is going to let it fade away. The Imperial inspired Classic Movie Monsters set is coming soon but at Toy Fair the only thing NECA showed that I can recall was the black & white Masque of the Red Death Phantom. I want NECA to go deeper into both Universal and Hammer's classic horror films but I just don't think that's going to be the case. Maybe there's just not the interest from consumers? 

Wrapping Up 2025: Roboto from Masterverse: Masters of the Universe: New Eternia by Mattel

 

   Roboto is another 2025 Masterverse release who I didn't get my hands on until the end of the year but he's so incredibly cool that I just have to check him out. Roboto is going to appear in the Masters of the Universe movie later this year, voiced by Kristen Wiig, which is definitely a different take, but maybe it will work? The images of Roboto from the trailer look a bit more like the 200x / MYP era Roboto but this Masterverse Roboto is based on both the vintage toy and some of the early concept art for the character, particularly a Ted Mayer concept for a character called Transparent Man (you can find it at the Battle Ram Blog). Mattel has previously released a Masterverse Roboto but he was based on the character's appearance in MOTU: Revelation. This one still feels very classic but has some cool features that also make him feel quite fresh. Ready to check out the New Eternia version of the Heroic Mechanical Warrior? Then join me after the break...

The Best of the Rest: My Top 10 Favorite Individual Toys of 2025

 

  While the list of My Top 10 Toylines of 2025 might be considered as the most prestigious of my annual lists, making it on might be just as impressive if not even more so. What is The Best of the Rest? It's a careful selection of my top 10 favorite individual toys of the previous year that were not part of a larger toyline that ended up on My Top 10 Toylines of 2025 list. While I tend to collect toylines that offer huge rosters of characters that span multiple years, I also love to grab random figures here and there that just appeal to me. The Best of the Rest is my way of acknowledging smaller lines, single releases, or that odd figure that's cool enough for me to grab from a larger toyline I really don't even collect. Who is eligible? Most any toy or collectible released in the past year (2025). Who isn't eligible? Any toy from a line that was features on the list of My Top 10 Favorite Toylines of 2025. Remember that these are always listed alphabetically and not in order of merit. This list is always pretty interesting to me as while you could probably guess most of my favorite toylines by looking at what I tend to review the most, these tend to be a bit more offbeat and sometimes not even figures I had the chance to review. Many of the figures I picked this year were from properties with limited characters released, import figures I ordered out of curiosity, or a particularly impressive figure from a toyline line that just didn't make the cut this year. This one is a tricky one to select as I started with a massive list and whittled my way down. Ready too check out the Best of the Rest for 2025? Then join me after the break...

(Note: I do these by individual releases, so a two-pack or a figure with a vehicle, animal companion, etc., would count as a single entry.)

How Do You Feel About Assigning a Rating/ Grade to Action Figures? Necessary, Meaningless, Arbitrary? Let me know!

 

Image by freepik

   Lately I've been thinking about how I assign ratings at the end of my reviews. I've gone back and forth over the years, initially using the scale that was created for The Epic Review when I started writing my action figure reviews over there. Eventually I modified that scale for toys and action figures and began using the descriptions you see at the link above. Over the years I began implementing a behind the scenes (invisible dice rolls!) scoring system that factored in different weights for the Positives, the Negatives, and other factors. Then I began factoring price into my reviews as well. I don't dislike the review scale and method I've come up with but I do think that it might be a little long in the tooth at this point. Lately I've been thinking about changing it up a bit by just allowing my summary and thoughts to serve as the conclusion rather than worry about including a rating or grade. What do you think?  Do you care at all that there is a final grade or verdict summed up in one word? Is it really meaningful in any way? If you're reading this then you're likely a regular reader and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I do have a few scattered thoughts about this after the break that might add some context to my question and give you a bit of insight into my process, but it's mostly just me prattling on. Read it if you'd like...

Wrapping Up 2025: Max Shreck (Batman Returns) from DC Multiverse by McFarlane Toys

 

"I'm Walken here!"

   For many Batman fans, having action figures based on the two Tim Burton films (Batman and Batman Returns) has been kind of a dream. We've seen companies do one or two figures here or there but McFarlane has been making their way backwards through the live action Batman films and finally put out a full series of releases from 1992's Batman Returns, AKA the strangest Batman film ever released but also one of the best. I think we all assumed we'd get figures of Batman, Catwoman, and the Penguin (AKA the Bat, the Cat, and the Penguin) but did anyone think we'd get an action figure of Max Shreck, a unique creation for the film, played by the often imitated but never duplicated Christopher Walken. Woah. Woah! (This review is better if you imagine it being read in Christopher Walken's voice.)
   Who expected that, right? He's a ball of fire and a stand out guy in a movie full of actors portraying characters that are larger than life and seemingly divorced from reality. I love it. This isn't the first Christopher Walken action figure I've reviewed but it definitely has the best likeness of any of the figures based on the actor. Named after the actor Max Schreck who played Count Orlok in Nosferatu, Gotham's Shreck is just a poor schmoe who got lucky. And sue him if he wants to give some back. Actually, he's a wealthy, ruthless businessman who plans to steal Gotham's power and earn himself a massive profit. He also murders/ attempts to murder Selina Kyle, which is his biggest crime in my book. He was talking to my girl all wrong. It was the wrong tone. Even as a second grader, I wanted to stab him in the face with a soldering iron. Catwoman takes care of him, though. 

   This figure is a Red Platinum, which means he's supposed to be a bit harder to find, but he seems to readily be available online. That's good for folks that want him. Mine was a Christmas gift. Like all of the "Deluxe Theatrical Release" DC Multiverse figures he's quite a bit overpriced. Mine also has a weird QC issue which I'll get to in a minute. So...do you have a fever and the only cure is an action figure of Max Shreck? Then join me after the break...