MAGNO, RUBBERMAN, & FANTOM OF THE FAIR

AMAZING HEROES (FRESH MONKEY FICTION)

2019 was a pretty solid year for Amazing Heroes, all things considered.  Series 2 finally made it off the ground, and Series 3’s pre-orders came and went.  After the Series 3 venture, Fresh Monkey Fiction went back to the crowd-funding well, but not the Kickstarter well, instead using the smaller platform “Jumpstart” to get four additional figures funded.  This is the one time I got back into the line after Series 1, as I grabbed myself a Blue Beetle, because I’m not gonna be the idiot who skipped a Blue Beetle.  There were three not-Blue Beetle figures, which I’m getting to now!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Magno, Rubberman, and Fantom of the Fair are the aforementioned “not-Blue Beetle figures” from Amazing Heroes Series 4.  They were likewise part of the Jumpstart campaign that ran through December 31st of 2019, and they shipped out in the summer of the hell-hole that was 2020.

Magno is…well, he’s a magnetic guy.  You know, what with the name and all.  He had a sidekick who dressed pretty much identically to him and was named “Davey”.  Just Davey.  That’s the whole thing.  And they fought, amongst others, a guy called “the Clown.”  Is Magno just Spawn?  Well, they do both have capes, so there’s that.  The figure’s on the basic body that they’re all on, so he’s 4 1/2 inches tall like the rest of them and moves at the same 5 points of articulation. Magno uses the secondary hair-sporting head, which fits well with his usual depiction. He also gets a new set of legs, sporting cuffed boots, which is a pretty big deal, and he’s got a cloth cape, with a collar, even. Magno’s color scheme is bright, clean, and honestly pretty involved. It’s clean in its application and also pretty sharp on the edges, showing even further improvement from the Series 3 figures.

The line is still doing its best to manage at least one villain per set here, and for this round it’s Herr Riktor, aka Rubberman! He’s the head of a rubber factory in Nazi Germany, who falls into a vat of hot rubber, which does what all vats of stuff do in comics, and gives him super powers. You know, as you do. He was a foe of Iron Ace, a guy in knight’s armor who also flew a plane. You know, as you do. He’s got a very, very basic design, but is also the sort that feels tailor made to this type of figure. He’s actually got three different heads; the mustachioed one is Riktor, while the other two, much like Series 2’s Puzzler, are henchmen. I do rather like the set-up and I also rather like his shade of purple.

Last up is the Fantom of the Fair, later known as “Fantoman.” He’s essentially a heroic Phantom of the Opera, who swaps out the opera house in Paris for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. He had an underground lab, connected to an underground river, connected to an underground hip bone, connected to the Fair, which he guarded. He had a somewhat inconsistent look, but it’s okay, because the figure has that covered. He’s got a cloth cape with collar, plus three different heads. There’s a bald fully masked, a fully masked with hair, and a half-masked, which is also red? I don’t know, but they all look pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Obviously, I more vividly recall this set than the others, since I bought Blue Beetle while he was new and all. I thought about getting the whole set, I really did, but it wasn’t in the cards at the time. It’s cool, though, because, look, here they all are. In terms of quality control, Series 4 is just absolutely fantastic, and considering they were the ones made at the height of the pandemic, that’s really just astounding. I knew none of these guys going in, but I do sorta like them all.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.