BLUE FLAME, VULCAN, LASH LIGHTNING, CAPTAIN TOOTSIE, THE CLAW, ATOMAN, BLACK COBRA, & BLACK FURY

AMAZING HEROES (FRESH MONKEY FICTION)

Oh, man, who we are!  We’re almost at the end!  Just one more review! ….one more eight figure review… No, I’m losing steam again.  I shan’t do that!  I’m making it to the end!  Forward, into battle!

In 2021, after running their own crowdfunding internally on their webstore, Amazing Heroes got another shot in the arm in the form of Big Bad Toy Store, who financed the whole next assortment.  And, they even financed a whole eight figures this time around, as well as returning the line to its fully public domain set-up.  This one’s gonna be even more rapid-fire than anything else, so let’s get into it!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Blue Flame, Vulcan, Lash Lightning, Captain Tootsie, The Claw, Atoman, Black Cobra, and Black Fury make up Series 6 of Amazing Heroes, and they were available through BBTS and Fresh Monkey Fiction’s website, with preorders opening in early 2021, and the figures shipping out late-summer/early-fall.

Hey, look, it’s the Human Torch!  No, wait, this guy’s blue.  Can’t be the same guy.  This must be the Blue Flame.  Classic mistake, honestly.  Blue Flame was originally shown as a stretch goal for Series 4, but he didn’t make it.  But, Fresh Monkey Fiction isn’t one to let a good idea die, so he resurfaced here.  The figure is on the standard body, so he’s 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He gets a new head, now with all of the features removed…you know just like Human Torch…sorry, Blue Flame.  The paint work does the nifty scorch lines thing, which is fun, and he’s got some flame effects.  And he’s blue, which is especially fun.

Vulcan’s the descendant of the Roman God of Fire, who is also named Vulcan, which certainly has to get confusing.  Being descended from a God of Fire, he’s got fire powers.  Two fire powers guys in a row.  Weird.  Vulcan’s not blue, though, so I guess that makes it less confusing.  Vulcan is another figure that dates back to earlier, having been shown off during the very first Kickstarter as one of four choices of figures that you could back an entire production run for.  Like I said, they don’t let these things go to waste.  He’s using the Captain Action-style head, which is fun, and definitely looks the part of the character from the comics.  It’s got red hair, now, though, which certainly helps it look different.  Beyond that, he’s rather green.

“Lash” Lightning is another one that was held onto from the first Kickstarter.  I guess, what with BBTS financing a whole run of figures, they were entitled to pick two of the four.  Robert Morgan takes on the persona of “Lash” Lightning after training with the Old Man of the Pyramids and getting an amulet, because it was the ’40s and that’s just sort of how Egypt worked back then.  Especially if you were American!  Lash is another figure using the Captain Action head.  Now, he’s ginger, rather than the stark red hair of Vulcan.  I guess that’s different enough too.  Beyond that, he gets a pretty involved paint scheme, which is honestly pretty fun.

Captain Tootsie is, if you can believe it, and honest to god mascot of Tootsie Rolls.  I’m not making that up.  He was created by Captain Marvel/Shazam co-creator CC Beck, and he needed to consume Tootsie Rolls to gain bursts of energy to complete whatever tasks were before him.  He also had a sidekick named “Rollo”, because why not.  His figure is using the standard male head and the main body.  It’s not a terrible set-up, but it’s a bit of a shame he couldn’t get a slightly more Beck-inspired head sculpt.  As it stands, he’s a bit generic, but admittedly, so’s his design.

The Claw is yet another villain.  We didn’t get one of those in Series 5, I suppose, so he was overdue.  Claw was one of those villains of the Golden Age who just sort of fought everybody, and he’s also got the good virtue of just being a straight up alien, rather than some sort of horribly caricatured take on a real person.  Yay?  He did figure Daredevil a few times, so it’s a nice tie-back to the earliest figures.  He’s also got an all-new head, which actually does a respectable job of capturing his comics appearance.  It certainly works far better than anything they already had on hand for him.  He’s also got a clot robe piece, which is basic, but does what it needs to.  There are two sets of arms as well, one with white painted claws on the ends of the fingers, the other without, just so you have some options.

Atoman is another atomic powered hero, because that’s where everyone went for a while.  He’s honestly a pretty by the numbers character when you get down to it.  As such, he’s a pretty by the numbers construction, too.  Basic male head on the standard body.  He does get a cape as well, just to keep things a little more…cape-y?  Sure, why can’t that be a thing?  The colors are red and yellow, which is a pretty neat set-up; he winds up with a bit of a Firestorm vibe, I find.

Black Cobra is a Cold War-era character, so he’s sort of got a different vibe than the others.  It’s a very Commie-smasher, government agent thing.  He, too, uses the standard body and basic haired head; he’s one I feel might have worked with the other male head, but I guess it was already used twice, and you don’t want it to overstay its welcome.  His paint work is the roughest of all the figures in this set.  It’s not bad, but there’s definitely some slop.

And here we are with our last guy, the Black Fury.  Totally different from the Black Terror, by the way.  That’s a whole other guy in black with a red cape and skull and crossbones logo.  How could you possibly confuse them?  Black Fury is Daily Clarion gossip columnist John Perry, who decides that be best way to get gossip is to…go out and fight crime?  Like, he’s not even noble about it, he’s just like “oh, man, I wonder if bad guys ever spill the tea while duking out with good guys” and then he just goes for it.  Hey, good for him.  The figure’s honestly pretty fun.  He’s got a clean design, and it definitely translates well.  He’s even got a cool red cape, and some of this set’s best paint work.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It was actually part of this set that alerted me to all of the others.  The guy that brought everything to All Time brought Vulcan and Claw first, and I snagged those, and was hopeful I might see some others, and then he just brought the rest.  And here I am.  Blue Flame was another one that was very high on my list, so I was definitely glad to see him.  The others in this set are decidedly goofy, to be sure.  I did like learning more about them all, though.  Honestly, that’s kind of my favorite thing about this whole venture.  Just learning all the craziness of these old, largely untouched characters.  It’s fun times.  There’s one more set, which introduced a female buck, which I’d like to track down some day, but for now, I’m done.  I made it, you guys.  It didn’t totally kill me!

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.