Monthly Archives: March 2025

#3823: Doctor Doom

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

DOCTOR DOOM

MARVEL FAMOUS COVERS (TOY BIZ)

“Victor Von Doom was a brilliant, if arrogant scientist, studying alongside Reed Richards. But when he was caught in a horrible accident, Doom was driven over the edge. Covering himself in armor, he became Doctor Doom! Ruler of his homeland of Latveria, Doom will not be satisfied until he has taken over the entire planet. Using the vast resources at his command and the incredible technologies he has created, Doom faces off against his old nemesis, Reed Richards, now the leader of the Fantastic Four.”

In the ’90s, Toy Biz’s main scale for Marvel was of course their highly expansive 5-inch line, but they tried out a number of other sizes in tandem to sort of see what stuck.  The 10-inch line certainly had the most longevity of the secondaries, but they also had a pretty solid go at their own sort of Mego follow-up, Famous Covers.  Famous Covers was sort of an odd line sort of at cross purposes, but it’s nothing if not an interesting experiment.  We got a weird, quirky cross-section of the Marvel universe, and that did *not* include a full Fantastic Four, but it *did* at least include a Doctor Doom.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Doctor Doom was released as part of the “First Appearances” Series of Famous Covers, which was the line’s second assortment.  Though branded as “first appearance” and showing the cover to his original appearance on the cover, Doom is not actually his first appearance design, but rather his later, more classic design, which makes sense.  The figure is about 8 1/2 inches tall and he has 23 points of articulation…in theory.  In practice, he’s got, like, two, because the rubber armor pieces they’ve put on him restricted almost all of his articulation to the point of not really being worth it.  For whatever reason, Toy Biz opted to handle his armor in the same way they did the boots and gloves, so they’re just these thick rubber pieces, that mostly just flop around.  They’re also really clunky, especially when compared to the size of the figure’s head.  The head’s at least a very nice sculpt, even if it’s very small.  Since he’s got a full mask, he lacks the overly intense expression most of the other figures in the line had, which isn’t such a bad thing.  In addition to the rubber armor pieces, Doom gets a cloth tunic and cape; the tunic’s fine enough, and the bulk of the cape works out alright, apart from the hood being quite difficult to get the lay in any fashion that’s not just really silly looking.  The paint on this guy is decent enough.  The head’s particularly good, as expected, but the armor on the body at least gets some panel lining.  Famous Covers figures were always a bit light on accessories, and given the number of sculpted parts, it’s not much of a surprise that Doom was sans-accessories for this release.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember getting Doom when I was a kid.  There was a Toy Liquidators outlet near us, which my Nana had taken me, I wanna say for my birthday?  This guy was there, but still a little pricier, so I didn’t get him at that time.  I instead went back with my dad later that same day, and he bought it for me, I believe as an incentive for finishing the summer reading program.  He’s not the most playable figure, and he’s quite goofy looking, but I also kinda love him?

#3822: ARF Trooper – Assault on Geonosis

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ARF TROOPER — ASSAULT ON GEONOSIS

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

So, remember just last week when I was talking about the Biker Scout armor and its various derivatives?  Cool, let’s loop back to that.  Amongst the prequel era Biker Scout derivatives is the ARF Trooper, a modified version of the standard Clone armor that surfaced in The Clone Wars.  I’m a huge fan of that particular design, and I’ve made it one of my goals to track down every version of it released in Hasbro’s tie-in line.  During the episode “Landing At Point Rain,” the ARF armor gets a re-deco in Geonosis-inspired camo, which got toy coverage in the form of recurring clones Boil and Waxer, but also a not-named clone, you know, for some variety.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The ARF Trooper was released in 2011 as part of the “Assault on Geonosis” Battle Pack from Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars tie-in line, in a pack that also featured variants of Obi-Wan and the Geonosian Warrior.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  He’s using the standard ARF Trooper mold from the line, which also happens to be one of the line’s very best.  The articulation is just top notch, and the detailing is really fun.  Just generally a fantastic mold.  This one mixes it up on the paint front, as is the case with all the ARF Trooper variants.  It’s not *drastically* different from the ARF Boil and Waxer figures, of course, since they’re all Geonosis camo, but it’s different enough to say “hey, that’s different.”  The actual shades are yet another slightly tweaked set up, meaning were three for three on the colors being different.  He ditches the Boil and Waxer specific markings, swapping for a more generic set-up.  So, you know, different.  The ARF Trooper is packed with two styles of blaster, both long and medium, so that you can mix it up a bit.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Have I mentioned that I like the ARF Trooper design?  And also that I like the ARF Trooper mold?  Because I do.  And I do.  So, any chance I have to get another ARF figure I don’t have, I take.  Even if he isn’t *drastically* different from two other ARF Troopers I have already.  But he *is* different, and that’s the most important thing.  Yaaaaaaaaaaay!  New ARF Trooper!

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.

#3821: Blue Senturion

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

BLUE SENTURION

POWER RANGERS: LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Ah ha!  As the prophecy foretold I said in the opening to last Friday’s review, it’s time to look at Blue Centurion!  Who’s Blue Senturion? Aw, why’d you have to go and ask that? Oh, right, because I mentioned him.  That tracks.  I have discussed once before here on the site Power Rangers: Turbo, the season of Power Rangers wedged between my two favorite runs of the show.  It’s…not great.  It does make up for it’s lack of quality with a noted *quantity* of Rangers.  Thanks to a mid-season cast change-up, there are a total of nine main rangers over the run, and not one, but two contenders for the “sixth ranger” spot (though, neither is officially classified as a Sixth Ranger).  The last time I talked Turbo, I looked at one of those two contenders.  Today, I’m looking at the other, the aforementioned Blue Senturion .

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blue Senturion was released as a deluxe-priced figure in Hasbro’s Power Rangers: Lightning Collection line. Unlike Phantom Ranger, Senturion was actually billed under the Turbo banner, making him the first in the line (though there was only one more after this before the line wrapped).  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  His movement is similar to the rest of the line, but surprisingly unimpeded by the sculpt, which is super cool.  He’s sporting an all-new sculpt, courtesy of sculptor Dennis Chan.  It’s a very strong recreation of his show design, wherever you may land on that.  I mean, it’s certainly goofy.  I don’t think it’s really as strong a look as Phantom Ranger.  But, there’s no denying that the sculpt does it justice, and it’s certainly clean and sharp.  There’s a lot of layers to the assembly, which gives him some nice depth.  It’s this complexity of design and sculpting that contributes to the “deluxe” price point of the figure, despite his generally fairly average sizing for the line.  The color work on this guy is also pretty solid.  I really dig the translucent coloring on his “lights”, and the general application of the paint’s all pretty clean.  Blue Senturion is packed with two pairs of hands (in fists and gripping), his Senturion Synergizer in blaster, baton, and collapsed configurations, swappable leg holsters for open and closed on both sides, a blast effect, and his whistle.  That’s quite a lot of stuff, and pretty much covers every base except perhaps his bike, but that’s a bigger item I really wouldn’t expect.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I came rather close to buying this guy new, but ultimately didn’t because I’d opted to start scaling back on this line.  Of course, so did a lot of other people, so he didn’t really sell, and then he got really cheap, so when a loose one got traded in, he wasn’t really worth doing anything with on his own.  Max also prodded me by reminding that he’s not only technically a sixth ranger, he’s also kind of a Blue Ranger, so here we are.  He’s not as cool as the Phantom Ranger.  But that’s a character thing, not a figure thing.  The figure’s actually really good, and he’s certainly worth what I paid for him, so that’s a definite plus too.

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.

#3820: The Phantom

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

THE PHANTOM

POWER STARS (BOSS FIGHT)

Okay, so, before I get into the main body of today’s review, I’ve got a semi-related plug.  Not the sort of thing I usually do, but I’ve been going down the Super Powers-adjacent rabbit hole the last couple of months and really quite enjoying it.  With McFarlane losing the DC license at the end of the year, there’s some concern about the future of SP-style figures.  One of my personal favorites, Longbox Heroes, just launched a Kickstarter this week for their second series of figures, and if you’re a fan of the style and want to see it continue, I urge you to check that out!  There’s an Arthur and a Tick, and that’s got to at least count for, like, a whole thing!  Okay, that’s the plug, onto the actual review!

Back in the world of Super Powers-adjacent reviews, I’m heading back into Boss Fight’s own similarly styled line, Power Stars.  I looked at Flash Gordon and Ming, and when you’ve gotten the King Features Syndicate rights, then your next stop is very frequently Lee Falk’s The Phantom, the Ghost Who Walks.  Predating Superman by two years, Phantom is a very early costumed hero, with a very classic design, which is super great for toys.  And it’s surfaced as a toy going back to even the days of Captain Action.  So, here’s another of those, but now a bit more retro-y.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Phantom is part of the first series of Power Stars.  The whole set was King Features based, but Phantom is the only non-Flash Gordon character from the bunch, so he sort of stands out.  He’s seen here in his classic purple costume, and even still has those striped shorts that the first NECA figure lacked!  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  His movement is the same as Flash and Ming, which is to say it’s pretty good.  His sculpt is again very similar to the others stylistically, but has no actual straight overlap of pieces, with each part getting at least enough small detailing to keep him unique.  I very much like that.  For a character such as the Phantom, who has such a simple design, it’s easy to sort of phone some things in, so things like the patterned sleeve cuffs or the raised ridges on the shorts are really cool to see.  His paint work is pretty basic, but does what it needs to, without any real issues.  I certainly like the actual shades picked, which is another leg up on the NECA figure.  Phantom is packed with a pair of pistols, which he can dual wield, or store in the working holsters on his belt.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was grabbing Flash and Ming, and Phantom was also there at the same time, and I figured, why not?  Actually, it was more than that.  He sort of helped sell me on the idea of grabbing more than just Flash.  I had the NECA figures, and they were fine, but they didn’t really do it for me, and so being able to get all three characters in a style that more appeals to my sensibilities was actually pretty nice.  Flash is still my favorite, but Phantom’s no slouch at 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.

#3819: The Atom

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

THE ATOM

SUPER POWERS (McFARLANE)

Hey, ho, let’s get back to the McFarlane Super Powers!  I went proper vintage Kenner last week, but now we’re back with the continuation line, and also with actual new figures, rather than filling in with some of the back-releases I missed.  That’s always fun!  The latest round of figures is a pretty solid mix of characters, including one of the classic JLA-ers not included in the vintage line, Ray Palmer, aka the Atom!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Atom is part of Series 10 of McFarlane’s Super Powers line.  After the last assortment was a lot of revisited characters, this one’s a lot of totally new ones for the style.  Ray’s another addition to the Satellite Era JLA, which is a fun choice, and also a very classic, very solid selection.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s ever so slightly too tall, I feel, since Ray’s kind of a smaller guy.  As it stands he’s a smidge taller than Hal, which doesn’t quite feel right.  But, it’s close enough to fudge, so I can’t complain too much.  He’s using the smaller Flash-inspired body, which works well enough as a starting point for Ray.  He’s got a unique head, belt, and boots, which sufficiently sell his look.  They’re clean and well-fitted to the character.  No muss, no fuss.  The color work is pretty basic, but it’s bright and it’s clean, and I especially like how the insignias on the head and belt look.  Atom gets no accessories, not even a little mini-Atom.  It definitely feels a bit on the light side, but it’s Atom, so I guess it’s not terribly surprising.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

At this point, I’ve given up on steady retail presence for this line, and given the jumping prices of some of the mid-range figures, so I don’t want to risk missing anybody.  So, I snagged a pre-order for the whole core set through Entertainment Earth.  I love the whole JLA set-up, and I was already fudging the smaller Atom figurine from the 7-inch line in with the Super Powers stuff, so this guy was a pretty natural addition for me.  He’s not anything revolutionary, but he’s another solid, fun figure.

#3818: Iron Man – First Appearance

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IRON MAN — FIRST APPEARANCE

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOY BIZ)

And here we are, back at the Toy Biz Marvel Legends.  Sure, they’re not as numerous as the 5-inch line (especially not when it comes to my collection in particular), but there still are a lot of them, and they still make up a decent little chunk of my Marvel collection.  As Toy Biz went deeper into their run with the line (which was, admittedly, just a drop in the bucket compared to what Hasbro’s been doing), they revisited some of the main characters.  Despite not yet getting his major boost from his live action movie, Iron Man was nevertheless a consistent character in the line, appearing in six out of its fifteen series.  Towards the tail end of their run, we got him in his original get-up, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iron Man was released in the Mojo Series of Marvel Legends, the 14th standard assortment release, and penultimate series from Toy Biz.  He and his cohorts were a sort of under the wire release, hitting just before the holiday season, a month or so before Toy Biz handed the reins over the Hasbro.  The figure stands almost 7 inches tall and he has 39 points of articulation.  Boy, is that a lot of articulation.  It’s partly so high because they gave him individually articulated fingers, which don’t do a ton, but also manage to not look as terrible here as on other figures from the line.  He does notably lack the line’s usual mid-torso movement and toe joints, but neither of those was likely to work to well with the design.  As it is, he’s got a lot of joints that give him an okay amount of movement, but not as much as other figures, due to his bulky nature.  His sculpt was totally unique, and remained so, only being shared with his variant.  It’s honestly a pretty good one.  The articulation sticks out a bit in some spots, but not as badly as some of the other TB Legends.  He also manages to look quite a bit like the proper first appearance design, and to my eye looks more on the mark than Hasbro’s more recent offering, especially around the shaping of the eyes on the mask.  His faceplate is removable, revealing Tony Stark’s face beneath.  It was a feature share with most of Toy Biz’s Legends Iron Men, and one that works better, I think, on those than it really does here.  Still, it’s not a bad sculpt, and this one feels like it was the closest Toy Biz got to just giving us Timothy Dalton as Tony.  There were two different color schemes in play for this release.  The standard was silver, depicting his proper first appearance armor, while the variant was gold, as it was starting with his second appearance.  The paint’s pretty much the same for either, just swapping the palette out.  There’s some slight accenting on the main armor, which works okay, but they’re also a little prone to scuffing.  And, if you want to get technical, the variant *should* get a different waist piece, but that clearly wasn’t in TB’s budget at the time.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I stuck with Toy Biz’s Legends to the very end, though I did get spotty on some of the releases.  That said, this one I didn’t skip.  At least the standard, who was a Christmas gift from my parents on the year of his release.  He’s one of the handful of Toy Biz’s run that I think honestly held up pretty well, hence my rather critical view of the Hasbro version.  I managed to snag the variant in the last year or so, for a pretty good deal, just before Hasbro updated that one, too.  They have some spots that show their age, but I generally really like them.

#3817: Elite Corps Clone Trooper – Combat on Kashyyk

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ELITE CORPS CLONE TROOPER — COMBAT ON KASHYYK

STAR WARS: SAGA COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“The specialized troopers in the 41st Elite Corps are deployed on the beach of Kashyyyk to battle droid forces invading from the water. Swarms of droids overrun the beach but the elite troopers hold them back, supporting their Republic leaders… until the Emperor orders the corps’ commander to execute Order 66.”

Ah, whoa, whoops, looks like I dropped my review there yesterday.  Okay, that makes it seem like an accident.  It wasn’t.  At about 9:30 last night, I decided I just didn’t have the energy in me to write a review about Blue Centurion.  So, you know, something to look forward to for next week?  Today, I’m setting my sights back on Star Wars, though.  My favorite troopers have always been the Biker Scouts, so I’m always excited to see some variant of them show up elsewhere.  In Revenge of the Sith, that variant of them was green, which is extra exciting, and an excellent way to get me to buy another figure of a Clone Trooper, which is admittedly not super hard to do in the first place.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Elite Corps Clone Trooper was released as part of Star Wars: The Saga Collection, the franchise-spanning line that immediately followed the Revenge of the Sith tie-in.  He was figure #65, and one of the many that served as an extension of the RotS line’s run.  RotS was surprisingly light on the clone figures up front, so there were a lot of them here.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s a straight re-paint of the Vintage Original Trilogy Collection Biker Scout.  Now, the thing is, it’s not strictly accurate; while the designs are certainly very close, there are a number of changes to the Elite Corps design, that obviously aren’t represented here.  But, on the flip side, it’s a really good mold, and it’s really fun to mess with.  The articulation’s great, and it doesn’t break up the sculpt too much to get there.  On top of that, his inaccuracy kind of makes him feel like he belongs with the similarly inaccurate clones from the RotS line.  So, you know, maybe not that bad?  His paint work also isn’t strictly speaking screen accurate, but it is strictly speaking pretty cool looking.  It gets the general vibe down, I feel, and that feels like the most important thing in light of the sculpt not being accurate to begin with.  There were two versions of the visor color (much like with the original Gree), and mine is the lighter of the two (which matches my Gree!  Hooray for consistency!), which I dig.  The Trooper was packed with a small blaster pistol and a medium sized blaster rifle, as well as a display stand that is not pictured.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I dig the general vibe of this design, but I can’t say I’m in love with the specifics of it, so figures that are more accurate don’t do as much for me.  In that regard, this figure feels strangely perfect for me.  And, in light of there being other, more accurate versions of the same design for those that want a proper one, he can just be a quirky step towards the accurate figure, and also go perfectly with my original Gree, who is also not accurate, but also still very much entertains me.  It’s because of this that, when I got the chance to snag this one, I swapped him with the more accurate 30th Anniversary figure already in my collection.  I don’t regret that swap, and I don’t regret getting this figure at 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.

#3816: Tourist Tick

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

TOURIST TICK

THE TICK (BANDAI)

SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!

Look, I’m just legally required to start Tick reviews that way.  It’s in the contract.  What contract?  It’s not important.  I’ve not had a *ton* of Tick reviews here, but I’ve had a few, and they’re happening with increasing frequency at this point.  Thus far, the only “figure” I’ve looked at from the cartoon tie-in line was one of the small figurines, and not even of the Tick himself.  So, here’s me taking a look at an actual Tick figure from the original Tick line!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tourist Tick was released in the “Tick Talkers” series of Bandai’s The Tick tie-in line, which hit during the line’s second year in 1995.  They were designed to augment the standard line of figures with extra Ticks with electronic talking features.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The sculpt is pretty similar to the rest of the Ticks, which is to say pretty on-model for his design in the show.  He’s got minor pre-posing, but nothing too crazy.  The head’s got his big toothy grin he was prone to doing, which feels very on character.  To sell the touristy thing, he’s got a pair of sunglasses and a pair of swim trunks, which are a minor but fun change-up.  The sculpt works them in pretty well, with the glasses in particular being pretty sharply detailed.  The color work starts with the basic Tick set-up, of course, but he’s also got some fun coloring on the shorts, which make for a nice little pop.  The paint work is cleanly handled for the most part, which is good for this era of figure.  Tick got no accessories, but he did have the talking feature.  The batteries are long dead on mine, but that button’s still there, taunting me.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed most of the Bandai Tick line as a kid.  It was a short run, and I hadn’t quite gotten into the show yet.  I did have the 14-inch talking figure, but that was it.  I later snagged most of a figurine set, but again nothing beyond that.  This particular figure has actually been sitting on my shelf at work for a few years, clutched in the hands of a ’90s Godzilla figure.  We ended up dismantling the employee shelves for more space, so my stuff got boxed up and brought home, and Tick here made the cut on the stuff that actually joined my collection.  He’s a neat little figure, and a reminder that I really should get some more of these guys.

#3815: Cyclotron

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

CYCLOTRON

SUPER POWERS (KENNER)

Okay, so I’m taking a brief intermission from McFarlane’s Super Powers to look at…Kenner’s Super Powers.  Look, I’m nothing if not a creature of habit.  When last I looked at the proper Kenner line, I looked at one of the line’s original characters made up by Kenner for the line.  Today, I’m looking at the other one!  Not content with two spinning heroes, Kenner decided to introduce a third, re-using a name that DC had already used, but on a completely un-related character.  So, anyway, here’s Cyclotron!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclotron was added to the Super Powers line in its final year, alongside Golden Pharaoh.  It was, of course, his first figure, but, like Golden Pharaoh, he also turned up in DC Universe Classics.  Curiously, though he’s had two figures, neither of the two comics Cyclotrons have gotten any figure coverage at all.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  His waist joint is more meant to facilitate the action feature, but can turn independently as well, so that’s a nice little extra bit of movement.  Also, while he’s got the neck joint, when his face plate is in place, the joint can’t be used.  Cyclotron has an all-new, totally unique sculpt.  It’s based on a Jack Kirby design, which is honestly pretty nifty.  It’s definitely got some early Wonder Man vibes to it, which I don’t mind.  The coolest element by far, though, is the robot face underneath the face plate; it’s a bit rudimentary, but it’s still super neat, and quite unique.  The color work on Cyclotron is honestly pretty unique, so he stands out from the rest.  The application’s basic, but clean, and fits well with the rest of the line.  Cyclotron’s only accessory is the face plate, and he also gets his “Power Action Cyclo-Spin”; you spin the torso counter clockwise a few times, and squeeze his legs to release it and send his torso spinning the other way.  It’s actually a pretty fun feature.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Cyclotron’s an earlier addition to my Super Powers collection, and the first of the later run figures I got.  I was fascinated by his design, and found an eBay auction for one without his faceplate.  And I had that one for a good two decades, no faceplate at all, but there he was.  I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to complete him, but as I’ve neared the end of my Super Powers collecting, I’ve gotten a bit lucky on the parts front.  I managed to get a solid deal on a complete Cyclotron, so I could finally finish my original.  He’s goofy as hell, but also one of my favorites from the line.

#3814: Cyclops – Civilian

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

CYCLOPS — CIVILIAN

X-MEN: THE MOVIE (TOY BIZ)

“Scott Summers, the X-Man code-named Cyclops, has the mutant ability to shoot incredibly powerful optic blasts from his eyes. These beams can destroy virtually anything and can only be contained by a substance known as Ruby Quartz. Cyclops wears a visor made of this substance to control his blasts while fighting in combat which aid in his control and accuracy of the destructive beams. The field leader of the clandestine team of outlaw mutant super heroes wears his visor and black uniform in battle to keep his secret hidden from the general public.”

This year is the 25th anniversary of the first X-Men movie, which also means its the 25th anniversary of the tie-in toyline!  One of the notable things about said toyline was its jump in scale.  Technically, Blade had also done it, but it was a rather small line, and only *sort of* messed with the scale change.  X-Men fully embraced the move to 6-inch, with a complete run of all the movie’s primary players…and then some.  In the wake of the film and initial merchandise’s success, we got a rather hastily thrown together follow-up to the main push, with a bunch of more minor costume variants for the characters.  Our boy Scott Summers was in on that push, getting his second movie based figure, which I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops (Civilian) is part of the third series of Toy Biz’s X-Men: The Movie tie-in line, which, fun fact, is most commonly referred to as the *second* series because 1 and 2 were released simultaneously to promote the movie and feature no actual distinguishing on the back of the packaging.  So, functionally, it’s the second series, but, in my mind, I know it’s the third.  The first Cyclops was based on his main team suited look, but this one is instead based on his more casual attire while he’s searching for Rogue and Logan at the train station.  Why’s he still wearing the visor if he’s trying to blend in?  I don’t know, but it makes for a cooler look, so we’re going with it.  The figure stands right about 6 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  He maintains that closer to the 5-inch style of articulation, which would remain until the Spider-Man lines revamped things in the next two years.  As it stands, he’s still quite posable.  Since they’d moved up the scale, Toy Biz was able to repurpose some parts from their WCW line; Cyclops is using the body from Eric Bischoff, with a new head and jacket piece.  It’s a basic guy with a jacket and jeans, so it’s fine; the most awkward part of the whole thing is that his black undershirt is just the torso’s exposed skin at the neck painted black, but it’s honestly not that noticeable.  The new jacket makes it the more sensible canvas jacket Scott’s got in the movie, and the new head makes its…well, Scott.  It’s clearly based on the same basic sculpt as the standard Cyclops head, but it’s been scaled up a touch, made most evident by the fact that his visor is *just* a bit wider, so it floats on the head of the prior figure.  The hat is a separate, but non-removable piece, which is actually a pretty nice sculpt.  There’s a spot at the top of it that allows for a light piping feature, so he can light up his eyes without any fancy electronics.  His paint work is okay; basic, but not in a bad sense.  It does what it needs to.  Cyclops, like all of the figures from his assortment, included a small set of dog tags…for reasons?  I don’t know why, and they’re not at all to scale, but there they are.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got the first Cyclops right away, and I broke his visor a bit shy of right away, so he was without it.  I remember this guy’s announcement in ToyFare, and I remember eagerly awaiting his arrival.  I also remember him being rather tricky to find at first, but I did, on one of my many trips to the local mall’s KB Toys with my Grandmother.  I was non-plussed about the visor not being interchangeable, but I made do, and I ran this one into the ground just like the original.  A replacement was a little easier to find, though, than the standard, so I got a second one about six or seven years ago.  He’s nifty.  Non-essential, but he throws me back to a time where we had fewer super hero movies, and you could get a few non-essential variants of he main characters.  I dig him a lot.