Action Force by Valaverse

@trunks3540 I think he offered without points because people didn't want to cut up their packaging.  I couldn't find a full price offering either.

@mrboshek He originally didn't but it will be after the next mail away figure drops

So yeah Black Jacket Pandora should be available a little bit aFter the con like we've seen in the past with Bone Collector V2.

Have we heard any possibility of an all-black troop builder with gear included in a similar vein to the urban cammo one with series 4? Seems like the next obvious one to do. Also really hoping we get an all-black weapons pack with some silenced weapons. I need my night spec ops assassins.

@jakeekiss I'm sure you'll get it eventually. All black sells

All this recent Valaverse talk spurred me to pick up a few things from Wounded Warrior/loose sale that's been running a while now. Grabbed the Blowback sniper set without the ghillie suit (was never a fan of the suit and I picked up Gridiron's ghillie a while back), a female Riot Trooper and the Kill-Switch upgrade pack in hopes of making a decent poor man's Kill-Switch. Dragged my feet on Kill-Switch and missed out.

Actually, I had her and Eclipse preordered at Dorkside prior to the unfortunate events over there ...

Anyone out there grab a Vanguard? I really like those muddy versions but can't justify the cost or space it'll take up. Tempting, though.

Now that reviews are coming out for the Vanguard, it looks even more like it's a big, well-crafted, boring-looking SUV. Maybe someday he'll put this same effort into a cooler design. 

The Vanguard is still available at his website and BBTS, so I'll occasionally wonder if I want to risk missing out on getting it. But then I watch a video showing that it has a working rear hatch and lose interest again.

@fletch The front-end add-ons coming almost make it look interesting, but still I don't think it'll move me. Too many other 1/12 vehicles out now or soon that are flat cooler to look at. I'm not sure I get it. Why was it this car he decided to emulate?

Posted by: @jakeekiss

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Why was it this car he decided to emulate?

At a guess, I'd say it was to not have to compete with the VAMP and find a distinctive niche of security vehicle rather than military vehicle. And maybe Rezvani partially funded it to allow him to make them without a Kickstarter. I'm just making those up, but it's the best I can think of. 

I'm not very familiar with the Action Force lore either, but so far it's been very real world military (shut up, Swarm) and a posh security van doesn't even really fit with that. To me.

Meanwhile, there are things like the modular, multi-role AJBAN that feels like it was designed specifically to be a military toy.

Something like that would look great with AF soldiers spilling out of it.

@fletch

Posted by: @fletch

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At a guess, I'd say it was to not have to compete with the VAMP and find a distinctive niche of security vehicle rather than military vehicle. And maybe Rezvani partially funded it to allow him to make them without a Kickstarter. I'm just making those up, but it's the best I can think of. 

Yeah, being distinct from the Vamp I get, though like you point out, there are options that feel more in keeping with the line. I have a hard time imagining Rezvani paying to help out a toy company unless someone over there is just a big fan. That would be a very weird investment for them. Like, it's not really even advertising because I cannot imagine the overlap between folks who buy their cars and 1/12 indie military action figure collectors is large.

The Swarm helicopter thing looks a lot more fun to me and might be worth picking up. That at least has a lot of personality to it. Want to see the color choices though. The pilot looks cool.

I was hesitant on buying the vanguard but after watching a few reviews, I'm glad I skipped out on it. It looks really cheap and it's way overpriced. Bobby really thinks this thing is better than the H.I.S.S.?

@blackcomicnerd IIRC his main brag was that it was *bigger* than the HISS. And in raw footprint size that might be so. But in the looks, accessories, and features departments.... ehhh.

Anyone grab a pink Steel Brigade female trooper? It looks garish for sure but it’s so darn unique and it will contribute to charity in the purchase. I grabbed one. I think there’s a two limit. I’m happy with one. 

Thwipp!

A box showed up at my door yesterday and I thought it could be a couple of things I had been waiting for from Pulse,  an old Target order,  but lo and behold it was the Action Force figures I honestly forgot I had pre-ordered.

So I got to unbox  Senshi,  George Peppard as Colonel Siege and the Praetorian.

My favorite of the bunch is definitely Senshi and that's probably because the basic military body is well done but I'm not a huge fan of Vala's head sculpts or maybe more accurately the face painting and so the samurai mask on this guy allows me to cover that up with great effect and differentiate it.      I almost wish there was a little more modification to the overall armor to carry the samurai theme further - although the sword is an effective touch.

Col. Siege is fine.    I bought him because I felt like he brought something different to the table than I get with my Joes -  the grizzled grey haired veteran.   The cigar chomping old saw, who's not afraid to step in the fray when needed.    I honestly felt like the cigar chomping head was meant to look a little like Hannibal from the A-Team.    The figure is fine.    My least favorite part is the face and I think it's the paint work, especially on the eyes.   They read more 'confused' than intense.    The finished product does not quite match the images on the web site on either of the unmasked characters that I got.

I expected to like the Crimson Shadow Praetorian more than I do,  but honestly this just reads as basic cyborg/robot which isn't particularly new or exciting in the action figure space.     There's nothing wrong with it.   The black and red color scheme is fairly strong but there's nothing particularly unique about it that makes it fresh and interesting.    The SWARM troopers were so much better that this just felt a tad 'meh.   I am not sad that I decided to only order one and wait and see before deciding if I wanted to troop build this thing since that's a pass.

I am wondering if I should have ordered Sidewinder too, though.   I feel like I might have liked that one.   If Eclipse was still available for order,  or if I could get more SWARM troopers I would probably do another order.   But I can't see myself ordering just the one figure.

Sidewinder's mostly cool. The pattern tattoo is sharp, the headsculpt and paint is unique, and I love the backstory of being a former Garrison trooper. But grenade holsters? That's weird, right? 

I ordered the BBTS black Senshi instead of the normal one because I like the black look getter then the tan or whatever the og one is. It has a unique face paint to it as well that's more intimidating. In conjunction with the mask, it looks alot more samurai imo. But I wouldn't mind getting a non face paint head too. I'm wondering if that one is going to be coming soon too or if it's farthur off since it's a special release.