JOSEPH & AMPHIBIOUS

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Temporarily stricken with amnesia, the evil Mutant of Magnetism, Magneto, now goes by the name Joseph. When he finds himself in the company of the X-Men in the Savage Land, Joseph is free to use his impressive powers of magnetism to manipulate not only metal, but earth as well as his every desire. Alongside his frog-like companion, Amphibious, Joseph proves time and time again why he is one of the most powerful mutants on the planet.”

And we’re headed back into the Savage Land!  But, now it’s gonna get all weird…well, weirder than it was.  Maybe.  It’s all relative.  Or something.  …Where was I?  Oh, right, Savage Land.  For the final entry in the Savage Land set, Toy Biz went really current and topical, with the one and only figure of Joseph, a character whose backstory was still unfolding at the time of this figure’s release, which is why the bio is actually just plain wrong.  Joseph was *not* Magneto de-aged and stricken with amnesia, but rather a *clone* of Magneto, created to best the original, who just so happened to re-surface after the original’s supposed demise.  Magneto’s return wound up leading to *Joseph’s* demise, and Magento’s general turn to the more heroic side since has meant that Joseph’s returns to life have tended to have him take a more villainous role, in order to offset.  It’s a bit complicated, but you know what’s not?  The toys!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Joseph and Amphibius are the fifth and final entry in the 1997 “Savage Land” assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  As noted in the intro, Joseph was rather a current addition to the team at the time, making him an interesting counterpart to the rest of the line-up, which consisted of a classic look for Angel, more or less evergreen designs for Ka-Zar and Storm, and a very modernized (at the time) Wolverine.  Joseph actually wound up in the Savage Land the same year this figure was released, but was not with any of the other characters featured (he actually spent most of his time with Maggott, who was *supposed* to get a figure, but it was cancelled…)

Joseph is seen here with his one and only action figure.  There’s something ironic about said only figure not even being a standard look, but it’s at least just a slight variation, and not as far removed as some of the others.  He’s got his same core look, that being the basic blue-and-gold suit, but it’s now sleeveless and he’s added a few things on top of it. The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation. Joseph is another re-use heavy figure, making use of a large number of parts from the Age of Apocalypse Cyclops. He gets a new head and left arm. The arm is really just designed to mimic the right, removing the asymmetric armoring of the Cyclops. It also adds an animal skull armor piece to the shoulder. The new head is quite a nice piece, and manages to capture Joseph’s usual depictions pretty well, while also fitting nicely with the base body. The long hair does mean he lacks a lot of neck mobility, but it’s still better than nothing at all. His color work is generally okay; there’s a slight metallic finish to the uniform, which I rather like. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the painted on rips to the uniform. They don’t match the actual molded skin tone, and they end up just looking a bit hokey. Ultimately, it’s the one thing the figure would be better without. Joseph is packed with a disc launching accessory, which can sort of double as a bladed weapon and a shield.

Wolverine and Storm may have gotten made up creatures, but Joseph gets an actual, proper character, and one with no other figure treatment at that. Yes, it’s Amphibious, one of the “mutates” created by the original Magneto during his stay in the Savage Land. It’s a bit of a reach, but certainly a cool one, and he even has an okay tie to Joseph. He winds up being up-scaled a bit to justify taking the “creature” spot. So, instead of being about the same size as a normal person, he’s almost that same height crouching. It’s at least a nice sculpt, if perhaps a slightly exaggerated one. He’s also got slightly more involved painting work than some of the other creatures. And, the head is soft rubber, with a small hole allowing it to be filled with water. Squeezing the head then allows him to “spit.”

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had two of the Savage Land sets as a kid. The first was Angel, the other was this one. There were two different KB Toys outlets my family always hit while vacationing. One was right outside our vacation spot, and the other was on the drive back. These came from that second one. I got Angel because I’d lost the one from my original members set. I didn’t have a Magneto in my collection, and at the time, we all still thought he *was* Magneto, so I also got this one. I was also happy to have Amphibious, as I’d just read his original comics appearances at the time. Amphibious got lost somewhere along the way, necessitating a replacement (which actually came from Yesterday’s Fun, which is near where my family vacations), and Joseph himself was part of the box of misplaced X-Men figures I dug out during “The Find” in 2016. This is probably my favorite of these sets, partially because of my nostalgia for it, and partially because it’s the most unique of them, ultimately. In general, I was pleasantly surprised by the Savage Land set. They’re far from high concept, but the execution across the board is a very simple sort of fun.