MR. MONSTER, BADGER, E-MAN, STRAY, & BLACK PIRATE

AMAZING HEROES (FRESH MONKEY FICTION)

Oh boy, it’s part 5 of the Day of Amazement, and guys, I’m tired. Like, sure, there’s a thrill to these whole big bunch of reviews in a day thing, but the inertia’s always worn off by this point, and you’re just left wondering who placed you in this horrible position. And then you remember that you did it to yourself, and I’ll tell ya, that doesn’t really help matters. Why do I keep doing this? At this point, I think I honestly don’t know how to quit. Don’t worry, though, I’ll pull through this and the next review, and I’ll get back that thrill, and in about 2 1/2 years time, I’ll convince myself to do it again, because of all the *fun* I had the last time. I’m gonna need one of you to stop me next time. Oh, sure, you’ll have no way of knowing, but at least now I can blame somebody else.

…where was I? Something with toys? Oh, yeah, Day of Amazement. Yep. That’s the one. So, we’re on Series 5, and by this point, FMF had moved things back to their own site, but they built their own crowd funding thing, which they ran in September of 2020.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Mr. Monster, Badger, E-Man, Stray, and Black Pirate were all part of Series 5 of Amazing Heroes, which also included a re-release of Nexus from Series 2, as well as being augmented by a Comic House-exclusive Captain Canuck and a separately backed Oddity Madman.  What’s interesting about this particular set is that it’s largely *not* public domain characters, instead placing a heavy focus on creator-owned independent characters.  A lot of these had actually shown up previously as potential incentives for earlier campaigns, and wound up all bundled together for one fun creator-owned series here.

Mr. Monster sort of bridges the world between the two aesthetics, having originally appeared in 1947, created by Fred Kelly.  He had two appearances before disappearing into obscurity.  He was later discovered and revived by Michael T Gilbert, who reinvented the character in the ’70s and secured the trademark for the name on his new version of the character.  Mr. Monster is a legacy title, currently held by Dr. Strongfort Stearn, who fights all of the monsters of the night in true pulp hero fashion.  The figure uses the standard body, so he’s 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Series 5 marked a switch up of sorts, because all of the new not public domain characters were also granted some new molds.  In addition to repurposing the flared gloves introduced on Series 4’s Blue Beetle, Mr. Monster also gets a brand-new head, as well as a belt add-on piece.  Since his usual build isn’t quite a perfect match for the general style of the line, Mr. Monster has been adjusted a touch to better fit with the rest of the line.  It works pretty well, and still keeps him true to the character’s spirit and design.  His paint work is quite sharp and clean, and also quite bright and eye catching, and is generally far more in line with Series 4’s quality.  Mr. Monster is packed with a pair of pistols, which are the same ones that were previously available separately on Fresh Monkey Fiction’s site, for the purposes of arming Black Bat.

Badger is, of course, fully into the creator-owned territory, having been created by Mike Baron in 1983.  He’s the sort of character that I’ve been aware of for a while, but not, like, every really *that* familiar with.  He’s a scrappy sort of guy with multiple personalities, though, so he does seem at least a little bit up my alley.  Badger also gets new parts, though in his case it’s just a new head.  It’s…well, it’s certainly a change-up.  I don’t know that it *quite* fits the vibe of the rest of the line for me, but I can definitely dig them going for something a little bit different.  Badger’s paint work is a little sloppier than Mr. Monster’s.  It’s still not awful, but there are a few spots that are a little sloppy, notably the change-over of color on the hips.

E-Man is a character who’s reputation for me is that my cousins used to call me “E-man” as a nickname (which stopped with the birth of my brother Christian, for whom the first letter plus “man” set-up created less than stellar results, at least verbally), and I found some back-issues of E-Man at one point and everyone joked they were about me.  Beyond that, I had no real idea who he was.  His design and name similarities to Elongated Man led me to believe for a good while that he was a stretchy guy, but that’s apparently not the case.  E-Man is actually a sentient packet of energy, which formed itself into a super hero, which is honestly kind of cool.  He was created by Joe Staton and Nicola Cuti, and he was a late-stage creation of Charlton, before moving elsewhere when they closed up shop.  E-Man gets a new head sculpt, which is honestly one of my favorites from the line.  There’s just so much character and expression behind it, and I really love that.  His paint work is also incredibly clean and sharp; there was room for the yellow and orange to meld together too much, but they rather smartly applied black outlining, which really finishes the look off super nicely.

Stray is a surprisingly new character, having only been introduced five years before joining the line.  Creators Vito Delsante and Sean Izaakse are clearly dialing into some Batman and Robin stylings, with Stray himself being a sort of stand-in for Dick Grayson, albeit with his own unique set-up.  He’s a fun concept, and a fun design, and a great way of adding a little bit of variety to the whole set-up.  Stray’s got an all-new head, which gives him his distinctive head gear.  It’s a pretty strong sculpt and it fits well with the overall style of the line.  Stray’s paint work is pretty involved, and a pretty different sort of color scheme.  His application is pretty clean; there’s a few little spots of slop, but it’s generally solid work.

Hey, we’ve made it to the one proper public domain guy in the set.  They gotta have at least one.  Even by the usual public domain standards, though, Black Pirate is pretty obscure. Don Angelo di Martini appeared in two issues of Avventure in Alto Mare, before the book was ordered to cease publication by Mussolini’s Fascist Party.  He may have made sure the trains ran on time, but apparently Black Pirate was not on his list of things to keep running on time.  For shame.  Well, at least he got a figure out of it all.  Take that, fascists!  Black Pirate uses the base body, with the flared gloves and cuffed boots from Series 4.  He’s also using the bald head, and he gets a cloth cape as well.  In terms of paint work, he’s got a lot of black, as you would expect.  His face is a little messed on my copy, which is a little annoying, but there’s a workaround.  In addition to the sword accessory, which was shown off from the beginning, Black Pirate *also* got a “mystery accessory.”  It turned out to be a second head.  This one’s an all-new one, which gives him a hat atop his mask, granting him a resemblance to another all-black wearing guy with a sword and a mustache, who should totally be in the public domain, but in a myriad of court cases that would make Disney’s head spin, isn’t.  What’s that guy’s name?  I mean, it’s definitely *not* Zorro, right? Right.  Honestly, the whole mystery piece angle was pretty brilliant, and I love the option to turn this guy into someone who’s very definitely not Zorro.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I recall a handful of these guys from when they were shown off in earlier campaigns, but I was totally out of the running on the line by the time this assortment showed up.  So, it was something of a pleasant surprise, honestly.  E-Man speaks to me for the odd nostalgic reasons, and I love Black Pirate for reasons that can’t legally be disclosed.  Stray’s a cool modern character, and the other two have pretty fun visuals in their own right.  Okay, just one more to go.  I can do this, right?

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.