STINGER

MARVEL COMICS 2 1ST APPEARANCE (TOY BIZ)

“Cassie Lang, the daughter of the retired miniature Super Hero Ant-Man, followed in her father’s footsteps by becoming a brilliant scientist, as well as a costumed adventurer. She possesses the ability to shrink to the size of an ant, fly on wings that sprout out of her back while in miniature size and shoot powerful stinger blasts from her wrists. She currently uses her vast intellect, courage and battle prowess as a member of the next generation of Avengers, A-Next.”

The MC2 universe was big on legacy characters for its future, and while a lot of those legacy characters existed only for that universe, there were some preexisting characters that got aged up for their roles. One such character was Cassie Lang, who took on the role of Stinger, a sort of merging of Wasp and Ant-Man.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Stinger was released in the PX-exclusive Marvel Comics 2 1st Appearance series, which hit in 1999. This was our first Cassie figure, but not our last. We’ve even gotten Stinger as a Marvel Legend (though, officially she was the mainstream Cassie, but still). This was still the first one, though. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 14 points of articulation.  Stinger, like American Dream, is built on the Vindicator base body.  It’s a decent enough starting point.  Perhaps a little bulky for Cassie, but it’s her MC2 version, so she’s supposed to be a little older.  She gets a new head, forearms, and a modified torso to add attachment points for her wings.  The head seems a little bit small, especially since it’s supposed to be helmeted and all, but it’s decently sculpted beyond that.  The new forearms add her gauntlets, which are pretty nice, and something notably not featured on her later Legends figure.  The new torso and wings are decent enough, though the actual joints on the wings are a little loose.  Stinger’s color work is pretty solid.  The application of the paint is all pretty cleanly handled, and like American Dream, she’s got some pretty cool accenting.  Her skin tone is a little inconsistent, but beyond that it all looks pretty good.  Stinger is packed with a launcher base, re-used from Invisible Woman, but in translucent purple, as well as a trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Stinger is a very recent addition to my collection, which is honestly surprising, because she’s the one figure from the set that I kept meaning to go back for, what with her being the first Cassie Lang figure and all.  I wound up snagging her from an antique store that I hit up on a day trip with the family a few weeks ago.  She’s not a perfect figure, but she’s pretty fun, like the other two I’ve looked at.