PUNISHER

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“The Punisher has an explosive arsenal designed to bring any criminal to justice! To “load” his weapon, thread the caps into the top of the Punisher’s back pack and advance them into position by raising and lowering the Punisher’s right arm. Once the caps are “loaded”, pull the Punisher’s arm back until it locks into position. Next, select from his arsenal his Bazooka, Uzi, Pistol, or Sniper Rifle, put it in his hand, aim, release the trigger on his back and watch how the Punisher’s arm realistically raises and lowers as each cap is fired! (Caps Not Included)”

In preparation for today’s review, I double checked some older reviews, as I do, and discovered I haven’t reviewed a Punisher figure since 2020.  Of course, I also reviewed, like, five Punishers in a single year span there, which is literally half of the Punishers I’ve reviewed, so I guess maybe I just exhausted my initial supply.  Today, I’m bringing him back around in the most me way possible, with a Toy Biz 5-inch figure.  In fact, it was his very first Toy Biz 5-inch figure, and his very first figure in general.  Let’s check that guy out! 

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Punisher was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line, and also saw a re-release in Series 4 of the line, which was predominantly a re-release assortment.  He’s sporting his classic design, which was still his main look at this point, as we hadn’t yet made it to the War Journal era.  The figure is just shy of 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation.  His sculpt would serve as the basis for the three other Punishers in this same line, as well as the talking one.  Like the other Series 1 figures from this line, he shows a lot of similar stylings to their DC Superheroes line, and by extension has a bit of an off-brand Super Powers feel.  Frank in particular feels quite soft around the edges for this particular character.  Not exactly the intimidating presence you might expect fro a guy that regularly mows down criminals.  His actual details are also rather soft, and sort of only partly formed.  Details like ears and jawline are sort of mushy.  I do appreciate that they at least put some folding and creasing around his ankles to properly show off his boots; it’s not the sort of detail you’d expect, but it’s cool.  Because Toy Biz was very much a fan of stealing the notes from other successful toylines, they took a page out of the Kenner Robocop book and designed Punisher to have a cap firing feature, worked into the back of the figure’s torso.  It’s a rather obvious construction, and doesn’t really line up with his design, so it represents hampering the final figure in a way that Toy Biz wasn’t really much for with later releases.  His paintwork was fine, but not really anything special.  There’s some decent base level work, and his insignia in particular is quite clean.  Other areas are a bit more prone to slop, and like a lot of the earlier figures, he’s rather prone to wear.  While the Punisher did *not* include the caps for his cap-firing feature, he did include four different weapons, though I don’t know that they’re quite the “Bazooka, Uzi, Pistol, & Sniper Rifle” indicated by the back of the box text.  Pistol and Uzi, for sure, but the other two are clearly an M-16ish sort of rifle and a shotgun.  Whatever the case, he can only hold them one at a time, which feels rather limiting, if I’m honest.  But, the variety is nice regardless.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had no interest at all in the Punisher until Jon Bernthal played him in Daredevil, so the only one of him I had as a kid was the one that I couldn’t avoid getting because it was in a boxed set.  That said, I certainly remember the character, and this figure in particular was on the back of the box for other figures I got growing up, so I always had this sort of curiosity about this figure and his later variants.  A few years ago, a sizable batch of loose Marvel Super Heroes figures were traded into All Time, and this guy was among them, suprisingly complete.  He’s not great, but I’ll admit I wasn’t really expecting him to be.  He’s an interesting curiosity, though.