CYCLOPS

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0058: On two separate occasions during Toy Biz’s run with Marvel, they released Cyclops’ classic ’70s costume and second X-Factor costume on the same mold, with ’70s as the variant to X-Factor the first time, and X-Factor as the variant the second time.

When Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends was running, I was, much like a lot of the fanbase, very invested in the line.  I was particularly invested in the X-Men, and strove to get as complete a line-up as possible.  You can’t have a good X-line-up without Cyclops, but Scott wasn’t given the official Legends treatment until the tenth assortment of the line (he did get a Classics figure, which wasn’t a bad offering on its own, but that’s still *technically* different).  And it was…well, it wasn’t great you guys.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops was released in the Sentinel Series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends.  It was the tenth series of the line, and the second assortment to sport a Build-A-Figure.  As noted above, there were two versions of Cyclops available: a standard release in his Cockrum/Byrne costume, and a variant with his second X-Factor uniform.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  At his core, Cyclops is using a mold previously used for the line’s versions of Namor and Nick Fury.  I believe its original origins are in one of Toy Biz’s wrestling lines, but I don’t know enough about those to know for certain.  The torso, pelvis, arms, and upper legs are re-used, while the head, hands/gloves, and lower legs are new.  The end result is, simply put, a mess.  The torso is really stiff, and clearly not sculpted to be wearing a shirt.  The pelvis and legs make for an awkward working in of the articulation, and again don’t really match the suit he’s supposed to be wearing.  There’s not a proper belt, which looks weird for the standard release, but there’s still *sort of* a belt, which looks weird for the variant.  The new hands extend the arms, and are really huge, while the new boots are similarly huge, but are also squat, generally shortening the figure, resulting in a monkey-arm situation.  The head sculpt is the best work, and that’s really relative more than anything.  I do like the visor sculpt, but the face looks a bit odd, and the head’s really big, I guess to compensate for the rather buff body.  The paint is what differentiates these two, but the application isn’t terribly different in approach.  The bulk of the suit coloring on both is heavy on the drybrushing and accenting, which feels more right for the standard, but not so much for the variant.  The lighter colors on both wind up a bit muddied, with special note going to the mix of pure white and light grey on the variant.  The striping on the variant is a bit thin for the design, made more notable by the larger size of the body.  Both figures give him very pink lips, which makes it look like he’s wearing lipstick.  Both releases were packed without accessories for Cyclops, instead just giving a piece to the Sentinel.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I was excited for this figure when it was released, but wound up really disappointed by the final product.  So disappointed that I dragged my heels on even getting one.  I actually got the variant first.  My dad found him and the variant blue Angel from the same set, and gave them both to me for Christmas the year the came out.  I only added the standard to my collection very recently, when one was traded into All Time.  Neither of them is a particularly good figure, and that’s only been made more apparent by Hasbro giving us far better versions of both looks.  But, they’re a curious entry in the history of the line.