Super 7 ReAction

[Donocropolis]

I still don't understand who these are actually for but 'G1 toy prototype Unicron ReAction figure' is not something I expected to be a thing.

I understand the appeal of these things in general, having a small collection of retro-looking, aesthetically cohesive, universally-sized figures. And if they were like, $5 or so, I would probably have picked up a couple. But if I can get a larger, fully transforming figure for the same (or similar) price that works in my existing collection, I'm gonna do that.

But this Unicron, THIS is what would make me buy these. Crazy, off-the-wall stuff that we would never get as actual Transformers. The Optimus and Megatron and Soundwave and such, those are for the general pop-culture collector that wants to have some Transformers in with their retro action figure collection. Prototype Unicron is for us.

 

[ZacWilliam1]

I get why they exist and why they sell. I even like the general concept, but... Changes I would make:

1) Nothing sells for $5 anymore that's never happening for a toy this size, but $10 to $12 like the Marvel retro figures. THATS a reasonable current price for something this size. I have also passed due to the cost.

2) The poses are too stiff. They look like nutcrackers. Look at actual retro figures from the 80s and even in a neutral poses their arms and legs are a bit more apart from the body, sometimes there's even a very slight bend in the elbow. It's not much but it's a relaxed normal enough pose that it looks natural and as a kid you can imagine then doing just about anything. These are all stock straight like a drill sargent just called attention. It looks stiff and awkward.


-ZacWilliam, the way you get me with these is by offering something unique and creative: Santa Prime and Prototype Toy Unicron. And that Sharkticon because it's just too cute.

 

[Sciflyer]

Now this is interesting! Heck, I might even be tempted to pick up one or two of those Quintessons. I've got a few of the Reaction figures and they make fun little desk toys to fiddle with at work.

 

[lastmaximal]

I get why they exist and why they sell. I even like the general concept, but... Changes I would make:

1) Nothing sells for $5 anymore that's never happening for a toy this size, but $10 to $12 like the Marvel retro figures. THATS a reasonable current price for something this size. I have also passed due to the cost.

2) The poses are too stiff. They look like nutcrackers. Look at actual retro figures from the 80s and even in a neutral poses their arms and legs are a bit more apart from the body, sometimes there's even a very slight bend in the elbow. It's not much but it's a relaxed normal enough pose that it looks natural and as a kid you can imagine then doing just about anything. These are all stock straight like a drill sargent just called attention. It looks stiff and awkward.


-ZacWilliam, the way you get me with these is by offering something unique and creative: Santa Prime and Prototype Toy Unicron. And that Sharkticon because it's just too cute.

I really want to like these because the packaging is pretty dang spiffy, but I can't buy stuff for that alone, especially now. And certainly not at those prices. Hell, I'd sooner get an art book compiling all the cardback art. I want more Transformers art books in general. Just put that directly in my veins.

The paint work isn't bad, and it's neat that some have accessories, but the figures themselves are so... bland. Like, at least give me some interesting or dynamic SCF/HOC style pre-posing rather than "standing in a police lineup".

 

[Dake]

Does anyone actually collect these or find them of value?

I still don't understand who these are actually for but 'G1 toy prototype Unicron ReAction figure' is not something I expected to be a thing.

I understand the appeal of these things in general, having a small collection of retro-looking, aesthetically cohesive, universally-sized figures. And if they were like, $5 or so, I would probably have picked up a couple. But if I can get a larger, fully transforming figure for the same (or similar) price that works in my existing collection, I'm gonna do that.

But this Unicron, THIS is what would make me buy these. Crazy, off-the-wall stuff that we would never get as actual Transformers. The Optimus and Megatron and Soundwave and such, those are for the general pop-culture collector that wants to have some Transformers in with their retro action figure collection. Prototype Unicron is for us.

Yeah - I think Dono's got it. I'd imagine they're for a collector similar to Funko Pops! collectors. You can get sooo many different properties all in the exact same aesthetic. I get the basic attraction (and in fact understand ReAction far better than I do Pops!). I mean, where else can you have Optimus Prime, Lion-O, Cobra Commander, Jam Master Jay, Malcom Reynolds, Jessica Rabbit, Zangief and Freddy Krueger all sitting around a table on the deck of the USS Flagg having a dinner party? Dammit... now I want to start collecting them so I can do that.

Also, I didn't even know that Galvatron and Grimlock were new - saw them at Target a few days ago myself. Just goes to show I should've looked at the back!

 

[Princess Viola]

I'll admit probably some of why I don't 'get' these figures is my age. Cause these are obviously meant to be in the vein of 3.75 inch action figures from the 1980s (correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the entire ReAction line start with them having found the molds for a cancelled Alien toyline from 1979 and then actually making and releasing those figures using those old molds?) and I was born in the mid-90s so even tho I 'get' what they're supposed to be, I just don't have the attachment to that style of figure to understand the appeal.

(Also yeah even tho these aren't for me, I gotta agree with the stuff about the price tbh)

 

[Salt-Man Z]

I think they're really cool, but not almost-$20-apiece cool.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

I'll admit probably some of why I don't 'get' these figures is my age. Cause these are obviously meant to be in the vein of 3.75 inch action figures from the 1980s (correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the entire ReAction line start with them having found the molds for a cancelled Alien toyline from 1979 and then actually making and releasing those figures using those old molds?) and I was born in the mid-90s so even tho I 'get' what they're supposed to be, I just don't have the attachment to that style of figure to understand the appeal.

(Also yeah even tho these aren't for me, I gotta agree with the stuff about the price tbh)

Yeah, ReAction skews closer to the late 70s/early 80s style of 3.75 figures, mostly "Kenner" styled. Even the first couple years of GI Joe, even with the added articulation, skewed closer to that style in aesthetics (at least until they upped their sculpting game around 1985).

An issue I've long had with ReAction was...I don't have the "attachment" to the style because I was born WELL after that style had phased out of vogue. Not to say I don't have some due to the license involved (I mean, nobody was making Rocketeer or sub-$20 Robocop toys a decade ago), but the "style" I grew up with was the Kenner 4.5" standard (Batman, Super Powers, Robocop, Real Ghostbusters, Jurassic Park, etc). ReAction's styling was basically before my time.
Most exciting retro stuff hitting lately has been stuff like McFarlane's Super Powers reboot (of sorts) and BBTS's Long box figures, both skewed FAR closer to the kind of Kenner stuff I actually had as a kid.

I also have a HUGE, and peculiar, hang up on "period authenticity". Stuff like Alien, Terminator, GI Joe and even Transformers, and such are all from that early 80s period where that style was popular. I've long said ReAction Transformers, largely, FELT like something Hasbro might have produced in 1985/6 to capitalize on the brand's success in a cheap fashion.
But Aliens? Predator? Rocketeer? Power Rangers? To me, that styling does not "fit" within the era in which these properties were introduced and would have gotten toys.

I think they're really cool, but not almost-$20-apiece cool.

That's my thing as well. That's not far from a deluxe Transformers, or "standard" 6" articulated action figure. And nearly double a Marvel Retro figure (which I love because they've, largely, stuck to late 70s era of characters and costumes which makes the Retro thing feel more "appropriate")
I can totally get into a premium cost for this stuff...but $20 is just too far to collect at the rate I think I would if it were back around $15.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

These things are so stiff that prototype Unicron looks nice in comparison.

 

[Thylacine 2000]

To the "I don't get it, who is this for, does anyone see these of value?" questions -

They are popular with people who want to buy entire line-ups of somethings in the same style (all of TMNT, all of Stranger Things, etc.), or who are devoted character completists. I'm a character completist so I got ReAction Galvatron. It's a bad sculpt with very good card art and it might plausibly be worth like $6, nowhere near the $23 with shipping it cost me. This barely-mobile cludgy waxy curio thingie was 50% the price of the near-perfect Leader figure that actually transforms. And now I've got to get the toy-colored version and Cyclonus too.

I shouldn't want it, but I've come so far that I can't turn back now.

That's who this is for.

 

[Haywire]

I was born in 1981, and me and my brothers and sisters grew up with GI Joe. I remember figures like Star Wars and Indiana Jones in stores when I was a kid that were closer to the ReAction style, but I remember, even then, considering them inferior to the poseability and detail of the Joes.

I say that to say this: I would never collect ReAction extensively, but there are individual figures that push the right buttons. I have picked up several of the Godzilla ReAction figures, as they complement the recent Bandai 4" Godzilla figures I have. My brother, who maintains a large Joe collection, has picked up Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China, and at least one of the Red Dawn 2-packs. If they did characters from Airwolf, we would probably pick those up, too. In other words, the right character in 3-3/4" scale will get us to buy it, even in the ReAction style. (Although, if the same figures were available in, say, Joe o-ring-style figures, that would be the preferred choice.)

As to the prices, I have trouble dropping $11 on the Marvel figures, so at $20 a shot, ReAction really has to "wow" me, or go on clearance, to get a buy. This is particularly frustrating with the Joe and Cobra Trooper figures they have released, as I would probably pick a few of those up if they were closer to $10-$12, but can't justify the regular cost (or buying a case on sale that is mostly figures I don't need). I mean, it's a collector's toyline, I get that, but it does seem like they are on the high end of the price scale compared to similar figures in that scale.

 

[Future_Erika]

I was born in 1991 and generally avoided action figures even in that decade because I always thought they were incredibly boring
It was give me the transforming robot toys or give me nothing

(now I do like the super articulated stuff for characters I'm fond of, but ouch so expensive)

 

[lastmaximal]

I think they're really cool, but not almost-$20-apiece cool.

Ayup. It'd be much easier to talk myself into a couple of these at half that price, but as it is, it's a comfortable pass.

There's some appeal to these, obviously if you're in that target audience. As Thy points out, like Funko Pops, it's a big cast (within one represented series) and beyond that a wide range of properties in a unified size and aesthetic, and pleasingly displayable with pretty art. If you're not in that target audience it's understandably a harder sell, but mainly because you're not looking for or at what they are.

Me, I'm weird, it's like the "toy" element itself doesn't exist. It's like I'm looking at one of those odd Marvel comic "packaged toy" variant covers; I'm just staring at the nice, nostalgic card art. That just makes the "what are you getting for $20" question much more uncomfortable though, lol.

 

[Powered Convoy]

They gave Stepped back his real name. These are neat and despite doing a million Optimus and Megatrons, I'm surprised they haven't milked more obvious recolors like the Seekers.

They look good standing together.

 

[Salt-Man Z]

That looks great (and expensive!)

 

[Fenix Twilight]

I've said this before but I guess it was lost, but these would be great if Action Masters were the last thing we ever got and now we have a chance for Alpha Trion or season 3 characters, I don't even have many of them and I like the idea of getting Hot Rod and Galvatron in that style, but like everyone else the price stops me.

That black Megatron looks nice, and that Unicron is not something I ever thought I'd want or even have the chance to get.

 

[Salt-Man Z]

Can you imagine the BW or Animated or Prime casts in this style? Knock $5 of the price, and I'd be struggling real hard against the completionist urge.

 

[Dake]

I've said this before but I guess it was lost, but these would be great if Action Masters were the last thing we ever got and now we have a chance for Alpha Trion or season 3 characters, I don't even have many of them and I like the idea of getting Hot Rod and Galvatron in that style, but like everyone else the price stops me.

That black Megatron looks nice, and that Unicron is not something I ever thought I'd want or even have the chance to get.

Also, they aren't as "good" as Action Masters. I might actually be more tempted by them if they were.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

These do look better in a group. Individually, they're incredibly lame. In a group, the unified aesthetic becomes apparent and it does add something.

 

[Sunstorm]

Definitely want Unicron. I'll eventually get the Quint as well.
Does anyone know if S7 is going to be releasing another wave of ReAction ThunderCats? I'm beginning to get a little worried. No News for a while now, and S7 customer service had nothing in the way of news when I contacted them. Speaking of S7....I'd love to see them release a few ReAction Sector 7 agents. Simmons, Burns, and a few generic would make my day. And why the hell is there no Spike, Sparkplug, Carly, Daniel, Raoul, Fakkadi, the cast of Synthoids from Only Human, and Old Snake? That seems like a given, and I'm sure would sell out in pre-order...I'd even pick up the chick with the Autobot fetish if they made her....