I’ve been a fan of the Ben 10 franchise since the very beginning, when a strange cartoon by the mysterious entity known as “Man of Action” first appeared on TV in 2005. The show features a young boy who comes into possession of an extremely powerful technological device, the Omnitrix, that allows him to transform into various alien forms to fight bad guys. Since that humble beginning Ben Tennyson and his aliens have been featured in multiple successive animated series, live action and cartoon movies, video games, comic books, and more for over a decade. Oh yeah, there have also been some toys too. Now, longtime fans and new are enjoying the latest generation of Ben 10 on Cartoon Network, and on hand for merchandise so we can all play along at home is a new partner, Playmates Toys. Today we’ve got a really fun treat as we look at three items from the new Playmates Ben 10 5 inch figure line: Heatblast, Cannonbolt, and the Rustbucket!
There are a few important elements in good, eye-catching Ben 10 package design and these toys check off all the boxes. It’s got to be bright and bold, it’s got to feature imagery of Ben, it’s got to have in-universe information about the characters and aliens, and it’s got to show off other cool toys we can collect next. Both Cannonbolt and Heatblast are packaged on traditional J-hook cards, with the figures held securely in a round plastic module (‘bolt is so big he almost fill it!) in front of a super cool Omnitrix art effect. Tennyson shows up in the top-right corner while the specific character’s name is at the bottom.
The back of the toys’ cards is jam-packed with info featuring the premise of the show as well as a detailed description of the individual aliens. And, of course, at the bottom is a “Collect Them All” section showing off other figures you can purchase.
Meanwhile, the Rustbucket deluxe vehicle/playset comes packaged in a HUGE box that repeats a lot of the artwork seen on the small cards and adds to it a massive amount of photography of the toy, with call outs to the transformation and lots of fun gimmicks.
The universe of Ben 10 is filled with all sorts of different aliens, and those translate to a plethora of interesting designs that can be turned into cool toys. The first series of Playmates’ standard 5 inch figure line has a lot of familiar faces for longtime Ben 10 fans, aliens we’ve seen throughout the different versions of the show or even in the original incarnation. While the aesthetics may change from generation to generation the basic details remain the same, and so Four Arms is always a huge red dude with a quartet of limbs, XLR8 is a blue and black speedster with pointed head and balls on its feet, etc. Here we’re looking at two more legacy aliens, Heatblast and Cannonbolt.
The fiery Heatblast is a Pyronite, and its form was actually Ben Tennyson’s very first transformation on the original 2005 cartoon. Now he’s back looking pretty much the same as always has with a fire magma core and outer red sections of cooler material. The Heatblast figure stands 5 inches tall, so of appropriately average height in the line. He’s humanoid with a tapering “V” shaped torso and long limbs ending in four-fingered hands and feet with hooked toes.
Heatblast’s face appears to float within a tall translucent flame while similarly his extremities end in pure fire. There’s a nice variation in sculpt between the smoothness of the flames and the rocky crust-like elements, and the only thing breaking up those patterns is the solid black and white Omnitrix on Heatblast’s chest.
I was very pleased with this figure’s articulation, fully 11 points including wrists allowing him to achieve all sorts of fun poses (see the photos) especially with his posed open left hand. He even comes with two accessories, a ball of flame that fits over his fist and a fire-blasting effect that can attach to his other arm.
While Heatblast is tall and thin, Cannonbolt is pretty much the opposite. An Arburian Pelarota, this alien is short and incredibly stocky with a bulbous body, no neck or separate head, stump-like legs, and heavy arms. Cannonbolt’s body features large armored plates on his back and limbs which stand out beautifully in bright yellow over the alien’s core black and white color scheme.
Its massive face looks stern with downturned lips and slitted green eyes, and below that is the Omnitrix resting in its general belly area. Cannonbolt also has small claws on his hands and feet in case he didn’t look dangerous enough. Previous versions of this alien from other toy companies have frankly struggled to combine the unique look of the creature with a fun toy… but that all ends here. Playmates has beefed this guy up to an awesome degree AND built in a shocking amount of functional articulation.
While Cannonbolt stands 4 inches tall he’s nearly 5 inches wide and has an extended arm span of almost 8 inches! Even with all of that bulk (and he’s heavy too) his six points of articulation allow him to be posed in a variety of ways mostly thanks to the ball joints at shoulders and elbows. Frankly, I never expected a Cannonbolt toy to be able to be posed in a cool running position, and yet here we are.
Last but certainly not least we’re taking a look at the Rustbucket, vehicle of choice of the Tennyson family. Originally the ‘bucket appeared to be an ordinary recreational vehicle with secret technology inside, but in this latest incarnation it’s much more of a high-tech transport even on the outside. The toy is nothing short of spectacular. The box it comes in is huge and heavy, and opening it up you’ll find the main craft along with a bunch of accessories and parts you’ll need to assemble/attach, instructions, and two full sheets of stickers. Assembly is easy and straightforward, though I’ll admit that the stickers (always a bane of my existence) were a chore to apply. If you’re a parent planning on giving this toy to an eager child, consider opening it up and putting on the stickers in advance; otherwise it’ll take up a lot of time when he or she wants to play with it immediately.
The Rustbucket in its standard form is a rough and tumble six-wheeled vehicle that’s 16 inches long, more than 6 inches wide, and over 10.5 inches tall! It’s big and chunky for little hands, including an open-topped cab so you can put in 5 inch figures (at least those smaller than Cannonbolt), and the large wheels spin nicely. The outside is covered in sculpted panels, grills, windows, lights, and more, and the stickers punch up the blue and grays with stripes of red, differently colored light lenses, “reflective” mirrors, a UFO logo on one side, and more.
Other than placing figures in the cab you can utilize the side-mounted ladder, a rear drop down gate, a hook on winch under the cab, and the plasma cannon on the roof. It’s a lot of fun, but that’s just the beginning.
The Rustbucket then unfolds into an over 2 foot tall interior playset! There are tons of gimmicks and features in this thing from a grabbing claw to a rotating exam table/computer screen, spinning Omnitrix “transformation” pod, an elevator utilizing the winch, a command chair attached to the exterior plasma cannon, and more. As you’ll see in the photos, the interior walls of the ‘bucket are absolutely covered in intricately-fitting stickers to mimic the look of the craft in the show; it took a while and a little frustration to get these applied but all done it looks pretty darn good.
If these three items are any indication, Playmates has a huge hit with these new Ben 10 toys. The 5 inch scale works perfectly with these alien designs and clearly gave the designers room to pack in nice sculpts and details along with useful articulation and special features. Both Heatblast and Cannonbolt are a lot of fun and each are easily the best figure of that character ever made in a standard line. And at still under $10 each they’re affordable for kids or collectors too!
The Rustbucket is awesome, combining a big, rough and tumble vehicle with a huge playset(!) all for $50. Frankly, the main issue with the ‘bucket is that you’re going to need a bunch of the 5 inch figures to fill it out and play with all of the features! Right now you can get these Ben 10 toys and many more from Playmates exclusively at Toys R Us (late this summer they’ll expand to other retailers).
Review and photos by Scott Rubin
Review samples courtesy of Playmates Toys
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Deanna Bergman
Cannonbolt is suppose to be able to be a sphere per the back of your packaging.
Please send direction on how to change his form.