Category Archives: Flashback Friday Figure Addendum

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0035: Mandarins & Dreadnought

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , ,

MANDARIN(S) & DREADNOUGHT

MARVEL MINIMATES (DIAMOND SELECT TOYS)

You know, for as many Minimates reviews as I wrote in the early days of the site, I haven’t resisted a single one of them for the purposes of a Flashback Friday Figure Addendum.  Oh, sure, I’ve revisited them for *other* sites, but…well, they’re not around anymore.  Sad.  Anyway, here’s a look back at the Dreadnought and the Mandarins!

Today, it’s another look at the behemoth that is Marvel Minimates!  This time, we’ll be looking at Iron Man’s number one foe Mandarin in both his Modern and Classic looks, as well as his villainous robo-minions, the Dreadnoughts.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The two Mandarins and the Dreadnoughts were released as part of the 36th series of Marvel Minimates, in order to tie in with 2010’s release of Iron Man 2.  Modern Mandarin was the regular set, with the Classic version as the one-per-case variant.

MODERN MANDARIN

First up, it’s the look that most would consider the definitive Mandarin, the “Modern” version.  This figure is based on his appearances from roughly the early 90s onward.  As usual for the line, Mandarin is built on the basic Minimate body.  He stands roughly 2 ½ ‘’ tall and has 14 points of articulation.  Instead of regular hands, Mandarin features sculpted claw like hands featuring his ten rings.  Mandarin also has a sculpted hair piece, robe, and sash.  I believe the sash is a reuse from an earlier figure, but the robe and hair are new pieces.  They are well done enough, though with the robe on, Mandarin is pretty much limited to standing with his arms raised, due to the robe’s solid construction.  This is less an issue with the figure itself, and more an issue with translating the design.  The ToyBiz Marvel Legends figure based on this design has the exact same issue.  Regardless, the robe can be removed, revealing a completely detailed torso underneath, if you desire to show off Mandarin sans robe and shirtless.  Whatever floats your boat…

CLASSIC MANDARIN

Next is the alternate look for the Mandarin.  This is the original design for the Mandarin from when he first appeared in the 60s.  I’m much more of a fan of this design and the resulting figure.  I know some people would find this design cheesy, but that’s the Mandarin for me.  Over the top cheesiness.  The figure’s the same basic body, standing about 2 ½ “ tall and featuring 14 points of articulation.  This Mandarin features the same sculpted hands as the previous one, which is fine as they suit the same purpose here.  Classic Mandarin features a sculpted mask, cape, wrist bands, sash/tunic combo, and cape.  All but the mask is reuse here, with the cape comic from Mephisto, the writ guards from Ocean Master, and the sash from Dr.  Strange.  This isn’t a bad thing, though, because all the reused parts work very well for their intended purpose.  The mask is well done, and accurately depicts Mandarin’s mask from the early comics.  Mandarin also includes an alternate hairpiece so that you can show him unmasked.  The detailing on the figure is nice, especially the face, which has a nice crazed expression which really works great for the character.

DREADNOUGHT

Last up is the robotic Dreadnought!  A dreadnought was included with both versions of the Mandarin, which is great for those who want to do the whole army building thing.  Like the other two figures, the Dreadnought was built on the basic Minimate body.  He stands about 2 ½ “ tall and features 14 points of articulation.  In place of the basic parts, the Dreadnought features a sculpted head and hands.  The head is an all new piece, but the hands are a reuse from Viggo the Carpatian.   The Dreadnought also features a set of sculpted boot tops which I believe are a reuse from the Dark Avengers Ares.  The paint is relatively basic, but it is well done.  Plus the metallic blue is just so awesome!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

These guys were picked up at their time of release from my local comicbook store, Cosmic Comix.  I think the Mandarin is meant to be the main draw of these sets, but I actually really like the Dreadnoughts a lot.

You know, it’s an early review, only hitting during the second month of the site, but it’s really not a badly written review, all things considered.  I do, however, have a few notes.

Modern Mandarin was missing his gold wrist bands when I reviewed him, as well as his only accessories, a spare set of hands, the same as his normal ones, but in a pale green instead of flesh tone.  Apparently, these are a reference to when Mandarin lost his hands and had to grow new reptilian ones or something?  Can’t say I’m familiar with the story, but the extras are certainly nice to have.

Classic Mandarin I incorrectly identified as having an alternate hair piece, which he actually did *not*.  In fact he has no accessories at all.  That said, with all of the add-on pieces already used on the figure, he doesn’t feel too light.

The Dreadnoughts accessories were also left out of my original review.  They each get two arm attachments: a blaster arm and a hammer arm.  Both are re-used, with the blaster coming from DC’s Cyborg, and the hammer coming from the Avengers #1 Iron Man, and they offer up some nice customization potential, to keep the Dreadnought army from getting too same-y.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0034: Captain America

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Hey, it’s July 4th.  Well, isn’t that something. Really going great for us as a country here, huh?  Lot to celebrate?  American Dream feeling super realized?  Oh, wait, no, it’s actually none of those things.  Well, gee, that’s a bit of a bummer.  And I’m not even writing a proper review today?  Wow, guys, sorry.  If nothing else, I’ll lean into my own personal coping mechanism for the ugliness surrounding us, which is championing behind a man who’s loyal to the dream and made a career out of punching Nazis, Captain America!

“When Captain America throws his mighty shield! All Foes who chose to oppose his shield must yield!”

-Captain America Theme Song

My first introduction to Captain America was through VHS copies of the ‘60s cartoon. As cheesy as they are, I loved every minute of them. Sadly, in the mid-90s, when I was becoming so fond of Cap as a character, he was more or less absent from toy shelves. I eventually got the Spider-Man: The Animated Series version when it was finally released, but the figure I always wanted was Toy Biz’s first version of the character, which I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line. This Cap stands just under 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation. This figure predates elbow articulation becoming a standard for Toy Biz’s Marvel stuff, as they were still very much aping the Kenner Super Powers style, and none of those had elbow movement. Really, this whole figure in general feels like a Captain America figure done to fit with Super Powers (well, aside from size, since he’s taller than any figure Kenner put out), which is far from a bad thing. Rather than the more ‘90s-esc proportions of which Toy Biz would later become so fond, Cap is pretty subdued, and looks more or less like a real person. His torso features some awesome detailing for the scale-mail, and I love the way they’ve sculpted the star logo so as to make it pop a bit more. Figures of Captain America have the unfortunate tendency to miss the mark on the good Captain’s face. I guess he’s just one of those characters where it has to be just right. I think this figure’s the closest anyone’s ever gotten to my ideal Captain America, at least from a comic-based perspective. It’s a little round by today’s standards, but I really like the overall style present here.  There’s just a certain sincerity to it that lots of Caps lack. Cap’s paintwork is quite nicely handled, especially for the time. The colors are all nice and bold, and he really sells the whole patriotic super hero thing. His eyes are admittedly a little wonky, and it would have been nice for his belt buckle to be something other than the unpainted blue plastic, but those are relatively minor complaints. Cap was packed with his mighty shield, as well as a weird launching device for it. However, my figure sadly lacks these pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in the intro, this was a figure I really wanted growing up. Unfortunately, he was released before I got into collecting, and wasn’t very easy to find after the fact. So, I had to settle for the US Agent repaint from a few series later. In fact, my dad, as awesome as he was, even bought me an extra US Agent and we painted him up in proper Cap colors, which held me over quite nicely. This particular figure ended up being one of the fifteen figures I picked up at the last Balticon. I’m glad to finally have the official version, and he’s aged a bit better than a lot of Toy Biz’s output from the same time period.

Well, after being rather disappointed with my own review for last week’s Addendum, this one feels more on the money.  Admittedly, it was a generally better time for my writing.  I’d just graduated from college, and I was writing this in my down time on an RV trip I took with Jess and her aunt and uncle.  It gave me more time to properly appreciate things.  I do still really like this guy.  Since my original review, I did manage to track down a shield and launcher for him.  It’s the same one used with US Agent, of course, but in more proper coloring.  It’s gimmicky, but ultimately not in a really obtrusive way, so I don’t hate it.  All-in-all, Toy Biz kind of hit it pretty strong with their original Cap, and I don’t really know that they ever truly topped it.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0033: Mole Man

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MOLE MAN

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

We are back with the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums, and today, we’re continuing last week’s return back to my earliest Fantastic Four reviews here on the site.  This one contains less outright lying to my dear readers, but I won’t say it’s without issue.  So, here’s Mole Man!

I’m looking at a fourth (hey that’s neat!) figure from Toybiz’s 90s Fantastic Four line.  This time it’s a figure of their first foe (Other than those wacky cosmic rays):  Mole Man.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The figure is Mole Man, released in the first wave of Fantastic Four figures.  He’s got 7 points of articulation and he stands about 5 inches tall.  And that’s an issue.  Mole Man is a character typically depicted as being a short, fat guy in the comics, and while Toybiz got the girth right, the scale of this figure is WAY off.  He’s the same height as just about everyone in the line, but he’s obviously meant to be smaller.  Quite frankly, he looks like he belongs with a marvel Legends set up, were it not for the more simplistic styling of the figure.  He’s also got this weird spinning right hand action feature.  When you press the button at the top of his right arm, his hand quickly spins 360 degrees.  I’m not really sure what it’s purpose is, but there you have it.  Somebody thought that was a good hook for the figure.  This figure is fairly disappointing, because the sculpt isn’t bad, but the scale totally kills it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mole Man, while disappointing, actually represents a pretty neat story.  He was purchased in 2003 from a KB Toys liquidation center.  It was pretty much this giant KB, that was full of deeply discounted toys from about 5-10 years earlier.  Mole Man was purchased along with a large selection of other 90s Marvel figures for an insanely low price, which excited me greatly.

Okay, I’m gonna be real with you guys: I don’t like this review.  That’s a first for me.  I’ve looked back on earlier writing and felt like maybe it didn’t hold up as well, but this is the first time I’ve just actively disliked it.  The “wacky cosmic rays” bit is perhaps the only thing I don’t hate.  I blame my desire to place whit over function earlier on in my writing, which sometimes worked, but sometimes did…this?

I feel like I was exceptionally harsh on the figure, specifically on the scaling front, which is a bit much.  Like, yes, he’s too large to properly fit with the rest of the line, but I don’t know that it’s a total deal breaker the way I make it out to be up above.  In fact, it’s a pretty nice sculpt, all things considered.  And yeah, the spinning wrist isn’t the most thrilling feature, but it works well with his staff, and it’s not as intrusive as, say, Dr. Doom’s launching arm or Reed’s rubber arms.  So, I’m gonna have to break from past Ethan and say I think this figure’s actually pretty okay.  He was missing his staff and little Moloid buddy when I reviewed him, but I’ve since found them, and they do really help make him cooler.

Also, I talk a little about the KB Toys Liquidation Center at the end, and say it’s a great story, but then I don’t really elaborate.  The significance of that story is that my Dad, Grandmother, brother, and I took a day trip out to this spot, and we just absolutely loaded up on stuff, a lot of it being Toy Biz Marvel for me.  And then we got lunch, and just generally had a good time of things.  My Grandmother viewed it as sort of a progression of our weekly trips to the KB in the mall near her house, and always reflected pretty positively on the trip, which was pretty cool.  So, *that’s* the cool story.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0032: Silver Surfer

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , ,

SILVER SURFER

FANTASTIC FOUR THE SILVER SURFER (TOY BIZ)

People are fallible. Even the best of us can let you down sometimes. Dear reader, please remember this and be kind as we delve into today’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, my oldest Silver Surfer review.

Time for another Fantastic Four review it seems.  Today we’re looking at a sometimes foe, but usually friend of the team, Silver Surfer.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The figure in question is the first herald of Galactus, Norin Radd, aka the Silver Surfer.  Good old Nor here has 11 points of articulation and stands 5 inches tall.  At one point in time, he was a bit shinier, but my figure has long since dulled.  The figure’s sculpt is solid.  I think it would be difficult to mess up a bald, naked guy, but I’d probably be wrong.  He’s got a nice assortment of articulation, though I’m not really sure what’s going on with his right arm.  Is he supposed to be doing something specific ?  Because all I see is some kind of record scratching move.  Maybe this is actually a figure of often forgotten 90s sensation DJ Sizzle Surfer-izzle and I just wasn’t aware…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a moderate silver surfer fan as a kid, but I actually rarely used this figure as the Surfer.  He was a nice, generic figure, good for a million things.  His joints are practically worn out from all the play time this guy got!

So, the failing starts right at the beginning, and just goes all the way through, where I just totally and completely LIE about this figure. Because the figure covered both here and in the original review? He’s *not* the one from the Fantastic Four line, nor was he ever any shinier than he is now. No, in fact, he’s actually one of two figures released in 1996, accompanied by a CD-ROM featuring digitized versions of key comic book issues, in the case of this figure, Silver Surfer related ones. I recall that being the one I had, but I guess in my mind he was the same basic figure. He was notably duller than the original release. My initial review, aside from the lying, covered the basics of the figure okay. He was missing his surfboard at the time, but I’ve since scared that one up, so huzzah, he actually gets to be a Surfer again. It’s an okay piece, and matches his finish. The connection is sort of odd, kind of like a slipper that goes over his foot, but it keeps him in place okay. There’s also a loop that attaches to the bottom, so you can put it on your finger? I guess that’s better than just holding the actual board with your hands. What is it, a toy for babies?

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0031: Lt Ripley

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LT RIPLEY

ALIENS (KENNER)

Taking a bit of a detour from updating my Toy Biz Marvel reviews for just a moment, this week’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum marks the site’s original change of pace, less than one week in, as I made my very first mention of my favorite movie of all time, Aliens, with a look at its main character, Ripley!

So, change of pace.  Moving away from the Batman stuff for a bit.  Today we’re looking at a figure from another Kenner line:  Aliens.  This line is nominally based on 1986’s ALIENS, though it was originally meant to be a tie-in line for Operation: Aliens, a scrapped Saturday-morning cartoon adaptation of the film.

Ellen Ripley is the sole survivor of the Nostromo, drafted by the colonial Marines to save a colony that has been attacked by a hive of creatures like the one Ripley faced before.  At least that was what she was in the movie.  I have no idea what her backstory would have been in Operation: Aliens, though if the comics included with each figure are anything to go by,  she was going to be one of the marines.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The figure is a pretty decent representation of Ripley from the movie, though her palate’s been tweaked a bit to make her more colorful.  The figure’s also a bit soft on the details, but that makes sense given it was based on the cartoon design.  The face actually isn’t too bad of a Weaver likeness for the time.  The figure included a pretty cool flamethrower, but I’ve since lost that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Though the figure was released in 92, I didn’t get mine until 2003, when I saw ALIEN for the first time.  I know I had this figure and the accompanying Hicks before seeing ALIENS itself because I sat through my first viewing of the film clutching both of them very tightly.

Ah, the brevity of my old reviews.  Also, the general not-applying-to-the-format nature of my old reviews.  The intro’s the longest part, which is honestly kind of crazy.  I do very little reviewing of the figure, so let’s hit you guys with some stats.

The figure stands a little over 4 1/2 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  Missing from my original review was Ripley’s accessories.  The main one is the flamethrower, which isn’t at all like the one in the movie.  It is, however, really neat.  There’s a lever on the bottom that hooks onto a spot on her leg, and turning the waist pushes out a little flame effect.  She also got a small silver rifle, which she could keep on her back.

I don’t mention in my original review that I got my first Ripley figure from my local comic shop, Cosmic Comix, so shout out to them here.  I actually picked up a second one, after starting the site, also from Cosmic, as luck would have it.  Also, fun little bit of FiQ trivia here: while the wording was removed from the final version of the review, while writing this review, I referred to Ripley as “The Figure in Question” and liked the phrase so much that I decided to use it for the site’s name.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0031: Magneto

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

MAGNETO

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Okay, you guys, I’m doing it for real this time!  I’m *actually* wrapping up Toy Biz X-Men Series 1….more or less.  I’m focussing on the more, though, because I think that sounds better for me personally.  So, for today’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, let’s return back to Magneto!

“The evil mutant master of magnetism, Magneto is the arch-enemy of the X-Men. With his magnetic power, Magneto’s magnetic force can pull even the heaviest objects to him, throw them miles away, or cause them to shatter with sudden explosiveness. Magneto plans to enslave mankind and mercilessly rule Earth with the other evil mutants. But first he must destroy the X-Men, the super hero mutants who are mankind’s defenders.”

Magneto’s first action figure came from Mattel’s Secret Wars line. Though sold as a villain, the story was an early adopter of the heroic turn for the character. By the time of his second figure, he’d run the whole gamut of villain to hero and back again. It’s a little odd to see the character referred to simply as an evil mutant, but that’s where he landed when the team came into all of their notoriety, I suppose.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Magneto was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, as one of three villains presented therein. Magneto had gone through a few different costumes by this point, but returned to his classic design just in time for this figure’s release. The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation. Magneto’s sculpt was an all-new offering, and it remained unique to this figure all throughout Toy Biz’s tenure with the license. Magneto sports perhaps the finest sculpt in the whole first series. His proportions are notably less goofy and his posture far less stilted than other figures from this assortment. He’s not painfully scrawny like Cyclops was, and he can actually manage some decent poses, unlike Storm. His helmet was removable, and while that made it more than a little bit oversized, and just a touch goofy looking, it does mean we were treated to the fully detailed un-helmeted head beneath it, which does a very nice job of capturing Magneto’s usual stern but well-meaning expression. Despite the big emphasis on the whole “evil” bit in the bio, that’s not quite what was presented by the figure here, and he ends up very true to the character in that regard. Though later figures in the line would go the sculpted cape route, this one got a cloth piece, keeping with the vaguely Super Powers-esque aesthetic that these early Toy Biz offerings had. Like the bulkier helmet, it’s a bit dated looking and slightly goofy, but it’s not bad for what it is. Magneto’s paintwork is pretty straight forward stuff. The red parts are all molded plastic, and everything else is painted. Application is mostly pretty clean; there’s some slight slop on the boots and gloves, but it’s very minor. In addition to the removable helmet and cape, this guy came with three pieces of “metal debris,” which, via magnets in his torso and hands, could be attached to the figure, thus simulating his powers.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I have two of this guy, and it’s all my dad’s fault. Well, not directly, I suppose. When I was just getting into collecting, my dad and I were doing a lot of tandem buying, where we’d both get something. On one of our trips, he got this figure, and I really liked it, but I never ended up finding another at retail. A few years later, I found this guy (along with Nightcrawler) at a flea market, sans helmet and cape. Despite the missing pieces, that was certainly good enough for me, at least at the time. In recent years, I become slightly more picky about such things, so I ended up tracking down a second one, via my friends at Yesterday’s Fun, and this one had the missing pieces. This remains my favorite Magneto figure, and I’m happy to have a more complete release.

Man, I did cover my bases on “more complete” at the end there.  Good for me.  Well, now he’s *actually* complete.  And then some!  I managed to find those missing “debris” parts for my figure, and, along the way, I also managed to snag the paint variant that I neglected to mention the last time.  For his initial and all subsequent releases, Magneto got the all purple collar, as seen in my original review, but for only the initial run, there was also a variant with a red box in the middle, unpainted.  It gives him an extra bit of flair, but I imagine it was a lot more difficult to keep consistent, hence just filling it in for later runs.  Not crazy different, but nifty.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0030: Archangel

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

ARCHANGEL

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Hey, did you guys realize there were still some figures from Toy Biz’s first series of X-Men I hadn’t addendummed?  Because there are.  So, here I go, fixing that.  Ooooooooooooooh yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaah!  …*ahem*… Sorry about that.  Anyway, here’s Archangel.

“Archangel is the high-flying X-Man with a knock-out secret weapon– wingtip darts filled with paralyzing fluid! Archangel can fire these darts with uncanny accuracy from any height and speed. With his amazing metal wings, Archangel is able to fly faster than the speed of sound and silently attack like a striking eagle. This ability strikes terror in the hearts of evil mutants, for their first warning of Archangel’s attack is usually the impact of one of his darts!”

In the late ’80s/early ’90s, there was a trend in comics, of taking characters with formerly passive powers and either creating a new character with those powers plus an offensive component, or even just reforging the original into something more “kick-ass.”  Founding X-Men member Warren Worthington III, originally known as Angel, found himself on the receiving end of one of these make-overs, become the war-ready Archangel.  It was a lasting look, and one that was at the forefront when it came time for Warren’s first action figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Archangel was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  His presence is somewhat interesting, as he’s the only X-Man in the line-up who wasn’t from the “All-New, All-Different” lineup.  Archangel was still wearing his hideous “Death” togs he got from Apocalypse at the time of this figure, so that’s what he’s wearing here.  Boy, was this costume ugly.  I mean, I love it, but it’s ugly.  The figure stands 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation (his wings can also move, but it’s tied into his action feature, and they don’t really hold poses or anything).  His sculpt was unique to him.  It’s not terrible, but I do think he’s a fair bit more dated than some of the others in the set.  His head’s kind of large, and his facial expression is sort of goony. I think it’s the eyes; they seem too close together.  The body is rather stiffly posed, and his proportions are definitely a little off.  The arms are probably the worst part; they just look so scrawny when compared to the rest of him.  The wings are okay, though they suffer a bit from the comics’ lack of consistency on the exact shaping of them.  They’re also slightly marred by the “missile launching feature” at the tops.  I use the quotes because there’s no actual spring-loaded feature or anything; you just pushed them out with your thumb.  Kind of disappointing.  The torso is also impacted a bit by the wings.  Toy Biz wasn’t sure how to attach them, so they went for this this big honking block on his back.  Elegant it is not.  Archangel’s paintwork is decent enough; it’s a little brighter than a lot of interpretations of this costume tend to be, but it’s not like it was going to get *less* ugly.  There were two versions of this guy’s colorscheme; the original release had white wings, while the re-release offered both white and grey wings.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Archangel was one of my earlier additions to my collection.  Though the Invasion series had hit right when I started collecting (and given me my first three X-Men figures in the process), the Archangel variant included there wasn’t quite as plentiful, so I ended up getting this guy’s re-release instead.  He’s not aged particularly well, and I definitely prefer other Archangel’s, but he still has a quaint sort of a charm to him.

This review hit in the midst of a run of these reviews I ran in 2018, as I was doing a dive into the first series of the line, following finally getting a complete set of them.  At the time, I didn’t have his two thumb missiles, but I have managed to square up a pair of them to go with mine since.  They’re kind of unimpressive, but at least they’re there?  Wooooooooo.

 

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0029: Bishop

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

BISHOP

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Who better for a jump back in time than one of the X-Men’s resident time travellers, Lucas Bishop, a guy who only goes by his last name, because it’s cooler that way, so it’s just Bishop!

“Accidentally wrenched back through several decades by the time-twisting evil mutant named Fitzroy, Bishop arrived in our era from one of Earth’s many possible futures. Bishop survived the battle that followed, thanks to his mutant ability to absorb the energy attacks of others and turn that power back against his foes. Stranded in our time, Bishop has added his might to that of the present-day X-Men by joining their Gold Team!”

The X-Men really just became a haven for displaced time-travelers, didn’t they?  Also guys with vague, unrelated “cool” names that were just common place words, and whose abilities translated to “has a gun”.  All of these things nicely describe Bishop, an uber ’90s character, who could only be more ’90s if he wore a leather jacket and had shoulder pads.  I suppose he got off easy in that regard.  Bishop was prominent enough in the ’90s to feature on X-Men: The Animated Series, and by extension find his way into Toy Biz’s line of X-Men figures from the same period, getting what would be his very first action figure.  I’ll be taking a look at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Bishop was initially released as part of Series 4 of the X-Men line, and would see subsequent re-release in the Marvel Universe line and as part of a multi-pack with Wolverine and Gambit.  All three releases of the figure are functionally identical, but it’s worth noting that mine is a Series 4 release.  Bishop is sporting his primary look from the ’90s, which was the only one he had at the time of the figure’s release.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Though he’s rocking a waist swivel, he loses movement in his neck, presumably due to his hair.  Curiously, though, the Deluxe 10-inch figure and 2 1/2-inch Steel Mutants figure that are both patterned on the same sculpt both had a neck joint, so why it was missing from this guy is anyone’s guess.  Beyond that, the sculpt is fairly typical for the time.  He’s super bulky, but that’s just Bishop.  I will say that they were starting to run into the limits of this slightly simpler style of elbow joint they used, since it’s a little small for such a large arm.  It works overall, though.  The detailing on the hair is pretty nice, and definitely does his very dated hair cut proud.  Bishop’s paintwork is fairly basic, and a little bit messy on my figure.  There’s a lot of fuzzy edges, and the yellow sections are definitely prone to some serious bleedover.  In 1996, Bishop was also re-issued as part of the “Flashback” assortment, which was all repaints.  For that release, his blue was swapped for grey and black, and his yellow for gold, and his skintone was made somewhat lighter.  There was a second, predominantly red deco also shown, but it never hit shelves.  Whatever the case, the paint is a little cleaner on that release, but of course the trade off is that he’s not in his classic colors any more.  Whichever release you get, Bishop included two large blaster rifles in black, and features a “Quick-Draw Weapon Release” action feature.  Press the button on his back and his right arm swings upward.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have Bishop as a kid, largely because his episodes of the cartoon were some of my least favorite, so I never formed much of an enjoyment of the character.  That said, I really dig the ’90s X-Men line and I’m slowly working through building a complete collection, which meant getting this guy at some point, right?  I found both versions of Bishop at a toy show a while back, allowing me to close off that corner of the X-Mythos in one fell swoop, I suppose.  He’s not really one of the better Toy Biz X-Men, but then he’s far from the worst.  He fills in the roster pretty nicely.

Bishop stands as a single Toy Biz review in a month that was otherwise without them.  I’d be hard-pressed to tell you *why* I reviewed him at that time, since I wasn’t doing any notable run of Toy Biz reviews at the time.  He wasn’t even new at the time, having been picked up two summers prior.  And, I feel the need to confess that I did *not* complete the collection in one fell swoop as I stated.  I had actually gotten the regular a little bit earlier, during a birthday excursion in 2017, while the variant was indeed from a toy show the following year.  In my original review, I noted that he had two guns, but I only showed one of them.  I unearthed the second one, so I’ve added it to the main photo, so he’s all proper and complete.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0028: Gambit

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

GAMBIT

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Hey-ho, we are back with the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums here at the FiQ, and I’m sticking with that whole “Toy Biz Marvel” thing, because it sure does bring me comfort.  Or something like that.  Moving past cleaning up my reviews of the first series for a moment, I’m jumping later into the line, with Gambit!

“Gambit has the mutant ability to take the energy of any object and put it to his own use. That use usually means turning the object into a deadly weapon. Gambit is a martial arts expert with a lightning-fast karate kick. When battling multiple attackers, Gambit relies on his Techno Battle Staff for additional assault power.”

As someone whose primary introduction to the X-Men came from their ’90s cartoon, I have an almost unhealthy appreciation for their resident Cajun sleazeball, one Remy LaBeau, aka Gambit.  I am, of course, not at all alone in this, which has helped to keep him relatively high on the action figure count.  Today, I’m jumping back to the beginning, and taking a look at his very first figure (more or less).

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gambit was initially released in the second series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  Following the success of the cartoon, he was subsequently re-released in the “Classics” assortment a few years later.  The figure reviewed here is technically the later release, though the only actual difference between the two is the accessory selection.  This figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Gambit’s sculpt is fairly typical of an early Toy Biz figure, meaning he’s a little more rudimentary than later offerings would be.  He’s slightly scrawny, and the details are a little softer.  This is definitely a kinder, friendlier looking Gambit than you usually see.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s definitely different than other Gambits.  His trench coat seems to have thrown Toy Biz for a bit of a loop, as well.  Rather than sculpting it onto him, they opted for a removable piece…mostly, anyway.  The bulk of the jacket is just a thin plastic get-up, not unlike the capes from the old Kenner Star Wars figures.  It’s not terribly sturdy, and isn’t really the sort of thing we ever saw again from them.  It looks alright, but certainly limits his playability when in place.  What’s slightly odd is the decision to make the collar of this jacket a sculpted element, which is part of the figure’s torso.  This means it’s always there, even when the coat is off of the figure.  Why not just leave the collar as part of the coat?  Who knows.  Well, someone at Toy Biz probably knew, I guess.  Gambit’s paintwork is alright.  It’s pretty basic, and gets the general gist of the character down.  There’s a lot of pink, which is really the most important thing when you get right down to it.  It does get a handful of details wrong, though, such as keeping the sleeves of the shirt pink (rather than matching with the pants as they did in the comics), and the pink squares on the sides of his legs are a different pattern than usually seen.  The original release of Gambit included his staff, while the re-release included the bandolier and knives (presumably meant to stand in for his playing cards) from Longshot.  Gambit has an action feature, a kicking action, which is an interesting choice for the character.  It’s also not implemented incredibly well, because it’s default state is actually with the leg extended, meaning the latch is in a constant state of strain when he’s in a basic standing pose.  The end result is a figure that you will commonly find with his leg forever stuck at a 90 degree angle.  Fortunately, this isn’t the case with my figure, but I’ve seen my fair share of figures that weren’t so lucky.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t recall exactly where I got Gambit, but I know I was with my parents, and it was very early into my collecting because it was before we moved into the house that they’ve been in since I was four.  So, somewhere in late ’95?  Anyway, despite how harsh I may have been on this figure in the actual review segment, it’s worth noting that this remains my very favorite Gambit figure to date, and just one of my favorite X-Men figures in general.

That review hails from right at the end of 2018, as I fell into my return to the vintage reviews a bit.  A few things to clarify here.  As I note in the original review, there are two releases of Gambit, and my original was the second release, with Longshot’s bandolier and knives.  My original photo actually didn’t have Longshot’s knife, but rather a proper playing card, which came from the later X-Men vs Street Fighter Gambit.  I must have grabbed the wrong piece during my original bulk photo session and just never fixed it.  For the purposes of this revisit, I did manage to track down a proper original release Gambit, so now I’ve got the staff as well, and a slightly less messed up coat.  Slightly.  That coat’s still not built to go the distance.  In my original review, I said I didn’t recall where/when I got Gambit.  I seem to have had a lapse in memory there, because I definitely remember getting it from a mall trip with my dad on a day off with him when we were living in our old house.  I got him and Tony Stark, and my Dad got Corsair, I believe.  I remember sneaking down during what was supposed to be my nap time to play with them.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0027: Apocalypse

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , ,

APOCALYPSE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

After a brief stop over to the world of Star Wars, this week the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums head back over to Marvel territory. Yes, the end is nigh!  …well, okay, not quite, but I *am* looking at Apocalypse.

“Apocalypse is the evil mutant who has used his sinister genius and mutant ability to turn himself into a merciless one man army! Apocalypse is incredibly strong, able to change his size at will, and has created for himself a weapon system designed to destroy the X-Men. Apocalypse is the most frightening evil mutant on Earth when he turns himself into a giant, puts on this deadly arsenal and attacks!”

Following Magneto’s turn to the side of good in the ’80s, the X-Men spent quite a bit of time in search of a new over-arching big bad. They found a number of potential offerings, none of whom quite hit that same spot, but perhaps the most successful of them was En Sabah Nur, aka Apocalypse. He was a consistent foe in the back half of the ’80s, up into the ’90s, so his place early into Toy Biz’s run was certainly sensible.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Apocalypse was one of the three villains released alongside our heroes in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line. He served as a rather sensible counterpart to the same series’ Archangel figure. The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he had 11 points of articulation (though two of those points can be somewhat debated, since they’re tied into his “action-feature”). Apocalypse’s sculpt, like many others in this assortment, is definitely showing its age. What’s interesting is that it’s due to slightly different factors than some of the others. It’s not that he doesn’t quite live up to his comics appearance the way Archangel or Storm or Cyclops do, it’s actually that he’s too faithful to an Apocalypse design that itself has fallen out of fashion. He depicts Apocalypse as he is seen in his earlier X-Factor appearances, when he was still rather lean, and still rather square and stiff. It’s a very different take on the character, and his beefier revamp design from just a few years later would end up being the prevailing design and informing how the character was depicted for the three decades since his creation. As such, this guy definitely looks out of place amongst the others, but paired with the Cyclops and Archangel from this assortment, he starts to fit in a bit better. Ultimately, the actual sculpt is one of the more competent ones from this first set. I think I’d place him in the number three slot, after Nightcrawler and Magneto. His proportions are certainly believable for this incarnation of the character, and his construction is quite sturdy. Apocalypse’s paintwork is fairly standard stuff. It’s rather limited, and the application is messy in some spots, especially the belt. Apocalypse included a staff, which is supposed to have a “gem” at the top of it. Mine’s gone missing, so my Apocalypse just looks like he’s holding a broken ball-point pen. He also has an “Extending Body” feature, where his torso and legs extend outward, in sort of a stretching sort of fashion. It’s rather goofy, and not really worth much extra, but it’s not like it impedes the figure overall.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m not 100% sure how I got Apocalypse. He was an earlier addition to the collection, I know that much, most likely gotten during my parents early efforts to expand my collection. I was watching the cartoon by that point, so I knew the character. Regardless of how I got the figure, he’s stuck with me for quite some time, despite my not being super into Apocalypse. As I noted in the review, he’s a somewhat dated figure, based on an outdated design, but he’s actually one of the stronger figures in the first assortment, and he depicts a version of the character we don’t often see.

This review is from 2018, so…well, okay, I guess it’s not *super* recent, but in my mind I consider it recent.  It’s got all the trappings of a modern review.  And, you know what, I was actually pretty kind to this figure, given it’s Apocalypse and he’s not usually one of my favorites.  It helps that this is just a figure that I find really fun, even now.  When I reviewed him, my Apocalypse was missing the “Jewel” from his staff, which I have now found.  Yay!  It’s just a solid blue spike-y thing, not particularly jewel-y, and I don’t think it really disarms the “ballpoint pen” vibe the staff already had, but at least it’s complete.  Of course, he’s still missing the cables that go from the torso to the arms, but that’s a whole other thing.