SDCC13: MEGA Bloks

Convention Freebies and Hot Wheels Ripcord Racers...

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by David Yeh

This year, fans who strolled on and visited the MEGA Bloks booth at San Diego Comic-Con were given some neat freebies just for stopping by! Halo has been a strong license for MEGA Bloks so naturally there was a 2013 exclusive Spartan figure to hand out. Hot Wheels, also a "hot" new license for the building toy company provided visitors an exclusive racer as well, if they chose wisely!

But first, I'd like to take a moment to look at one of the entry-level Hot Wheels items, the Ripcord Racers. It's typical for fans of building blocks to take special care not to smash their creations together in fear of losing pieces or simply having to rebuild what could have taken hours to do. But with the Hot wheels Ripcord Racers, the entire concept is to build, race, flip, crash, play. At only 14 pieces, kids and collectors will still be able to build, but not worry about losing anything as most of these pieces are larger.

There are three Ripcord Racers total but I'm to have gotten Team Blue, who comes in the Precision Luge car. That's a robotic skull on his jersey and racer so you know he means business.

The included racer isn't as articulated as the other Mega Bloks figures but it's easy to see why. These guys can be put into their cars much more quickly without their elbow and knee joints because if it's Hot Wheels, there's no time to lose. The Hot Wheels drivers also come with a peg that plugs into both the car seat as well as their back, keeping them firmly in place. Who needs seatbelts when you're bolted in?

There's a large ripcord included for you to stick it in, pull it out, set it down (preferably on a hard surface), and watch it go. These sets should be fun for the smaller kids in the family who are just getting into building. Mega Bloks has a lot of other Hot Wheels sets coming too so stay tuned.

Moving onto the Convention exclusives, one of them is a Hot Wheel Racer, Team Red by the looks of it and a flaming skull jersey instead of a robot skull. Even with the limited articulation, these figures still sport about ten moveable joints and that's nothing to shake your fist at. Each individually packaged figure comes with a display base, a flat one, a great improvement over the actual blocks of the past.

The Halo figure is a Steel Mark VI Spartan figure with green visor and comes in several pieces that can be easily snapped together. The paint is great and makes this figure really pop... of course it has a great sculpt too. With the added elbow and knee joints, this ups the articulation count to 14 approximately. With a blaster rifle included, this is one great give-away!

If you couldn't make it to San Diego Comic-Con this year, fear not as these are MEGA Bloks' traveling exclusives so you'll have another chance to obtain these!

Story and Photos by David Yeh

Convention Figures and Ripcord Racer courtesy of MEGA Bloks

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