These were mentioned elsewhere on the board, and I thought I'd look into it for everyone who was wondering if they're worth it. First, a short description of these little guys.
Description: The figures themselves are slightly smaller than your average G1 MUSCLE figure, and made of a slightly softer plastic. The initial line is divided into distinct "factions", with each faction clinging to a different stereotypical toy theme; you have your pirates, your lava monsters, your robots, fish men, kung-fu guys, etc.
The character designs are entertaining, and if you log on to fistful.com you can get a short bio for each character which is a nice touch. Each individual sculpt, of which there are 43 in this first series, comes in three different color variations. Shadow, which is a translucent grey color, is the most common. Expect to see lots of these if you buy a pack. Hyper is a fully painted figure, and you will get at least one per 5-pack. 7 of the characters from this series are only avaliable in this form. The third form is Crystal, and it seems to be the most rare. Crystal figures are a clear plastic, with some painted-on details.
It is also important to note that of the 12 figures I have purchased, 2 will not stand.
Packaging: There was some question about if the sets were standard like the ultimate muscle packs in another post. I bought two 5 packs and one 2 pack. The two pack is completely sealed and the two figures you get are a suprise. The five packs feature one "hyper" figure visible on the outside of the package, and then 4 random figures within the box. Because of all the figures and variants, and the rarity issue they seem to want to stress with certain figures, those figures not visible are completely random. There are Warlords figures avaliable exclusively with certain accessories (which I will go buy this week to check out) and I'm not sure if these are random within the accessories, or specific to the accessory you buy.
The best way to describe the packaging is buy relating it to another of this company's products. Fistful of Power is produced by the company that makes Mighty Beans, Moose Enterprise. Like the Mighty Beans pack with the one visible bean and the random beans inside, this is the same sort of idea.
Paint: The most common figures, the shadows, have no paint at all, so for them it's non-issue and you will be getting more of these than anything else. The hyper figures are generally well-painted. The colors are simplistic but seem to work well with the figures. The paint on the single crystal figure I got leaves much to be desired. It is a little sloppy, parts of the figure are only partially painted, and the effect through the clear plastic body with some of the paint is unappealing.
Gameplay: The "game" that these figures revolve around is very similar to "Pass the pigs" if any of you have played that before. Basically you throw the figures on a table. If more of your figures land face up than your opponent, he looses a figure. First person with no figures loses. There's a point system which factors in having to do with a number printed on the foot of each figure, but basically that's what it amounts to. They also include "solitare" rules, which basically amounts to a variation of Yahtzee. Some mindless fun if you have a few minutes, but certainly not strategy games.
Value: The figures are entertaining. I'm not wild on the 3 versions of each figure, as I envision the dozens of packs of these things I'm going to have to buy to collect them all. At $7-8 a 5-pack that's also a sizeable chunk of change in my opinion. On the other hand, opening blind packs of anything is always fun, as I say the sculpts are very nice, and they are entertaining in the way that MUSCLE figures were well before I knew anything about Kinnikuman. I guess the value depends on what you like about toys in the end. I would recommend buying a 2-pack and deciding for yourself.
I apologise for the quality of the images below, but the autofocus on my camera is not cooperating.
