Tag Archives: 00s

#0622: Tail-Whipping Nightcrawler

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

TAIL WHIPPING NIGHTCRAWLER

MARVEL MOTORIZED TWIST ‘EMS

NightcrawlerTwist1

Licensed toys can be weird. Sometimes, you get totally straight-forward action figure lines. They represent the property well, and they don’t really surprise anyone.  They are what they are. Of course, you might occasionally get the wacky variant here and there, just to keep main characters out there. But the line as a whole is still pretty standard. Occasionally, you get a whole line of figures that are just wacky from start to finish. Take, for instance, ToyBiz’s Marvel Motorized Twist ‘Ems, a short-lived little line of super-deformed figures from the early 2000s. At the time, ToyBiz was taking the “see what sticks” approach to toy making, trying a variety of things. Twist ‘Ems was just one of the things that didn’t take off. Still, that didn’t stop them from making two regular series and one movie-based series. They really tried. Let’s have a look at Nightcrawler, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

NightcrawlerTwist2Tail Whipping Nightcrawler was released in the Movie Series of Marvel Motorized Twist ‘Ems, as one of the two figures based on the recently released (at the time) X-Men 2. The figure is about three inches tall and, while his shoulders, hips, and neck all have “joints,” they aren’t really articulated, due to the motorized nature of the figure. They move pretty well when the wind-up feature is activated, but they’re not of much use for anything else. The sculpt takes the design of the character from X-Men 2 and “twists” it into a more super-deformed style. The body is where most of the styling kicks in, with short, stubby arms and legs, and larger hands and feet. In proportion, the head is really huge. In fact, the head is pretty much just a 1/6 scale sculpt of Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler. The head sculpt is really well done, with plenty of detail and an excellent likeness of Cumming. Were one to want a Hot Toys-style Nightcrawler, this sculpt would definitely be a good starting point. It’s a little weird to see this detailed a sculpt on a “cartoony” figure like this, but the details are fairly present throughout the rest of the figure, so it blends well enough. The body is subject to a little bit of intrusion from the wind-up mechanisms, but the tabs on the feet and the winding gear aren’t too obtrusive, just obviously present. The figure’s paintwork is generally pretty good. The colors all match up pretty well to the movie look, everything is applied pretty cleanly, and there’s plenty of small detail work that adds a lot of dimension to the figure. Some areas, such as the jacket, are a little bit on the more simple side, but it works pretty nicely. Nightcrawler doesn’t have any accessories, but he does have the wind-up feature. When wound up, his legs walk him forward, his arms move up and down, and his head goes side to side. Interestingly, despite the name, the tail doesn’t really move or whip.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t entirely miss out on the Twist ‘Ems, but I didn’t get any of the movie ones. In fact, I had almost entirely forgotten about this goofy little line. While at a local Goodwill with Super Awesome Girlfriend (who was looking for some unrelated stuff) I found this little guy just sitting on a shelf, amongst a random collection of stuff. He was only a few dollars, so I figured he was worth it. Like I said, this is a goofy little line, and it’s a little difficult to figure out just who the target audience was meant to be. That said, you can tell a lot of effort was put into this guy, and he’s just a whole lot of fun. And check out this walk cycle!

#0620: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOYBIZ)

CapAmericaML1

My relationship with ToyBiz’s run on Marvel Legends was and still remains a love-hate one. I enjoyed the figures (though that’s widely changed over time) but collecting the line was one of the most grueling, frustrating experiences of my collecting career. Even from the start, things were pretty rough, with two of the four first series figures being in higher demand than the others. One of those two was Captain America, who up until this point was running short on good figures. But I got one, and that’s what matters to me!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

CapAmericaML2As noted in the intro, Captain America was released in the first series of Marvel Legends. The figure is 6 1/4 inches tall and features 36 points of articulation. The articulation is okay, but Cap is definitely hindered by being released before ToyBiz had perfected some of the joint styles. The neck and mid-torso movement are particularly limited, almost to the point of making you wonder why they even bothered. Cap’s sculpt was all new (in fact, I believe it remained completely unique to him) and it’s got some definite highs and lows. Let’s start with the highs. The head sculpt is quite good. In fact, it’s probably my favorite Captain America head sculpt to date. It has strong enough features, and has a determined expression while avoiding looking too angry. From the neck down, the sculpt takes a bit of a downturn. The proportions are a little wonky, and a lot of the muscles look strange and misshapen. Not terribly so, but definitely noticeably off. The hands are well sculpted, but they seem a little on the large side. The real issues with the sculpt are on the lower half, where the articulation becomes far more obvious, and we get things like the wonky duck feet he’s sporting. Still, as a whole the sculpt doesn’t seem too bad, and it’s certainly better than some of the other sculpts in the line, even the ones that came later. It just goes to show that a quality head sculpt can go a long way. The paintwork on Cap isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty decent. Slop and bleed over are both minimal, and the colors seem pretty good, if maybe a tad washed out. The patterning on the upper portion of the blue is pretty cool, though it’s a little jarring that it just stops on the under sides of the arms. Cap came packed with a display stand, sculpted to resemble the wreckage of a tank and a portion of brick wall, as well as a small plastic American flag, and a reprint of Captain America #100.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I was able to find his series-mate Iron Man when the series was first released, I was not quite so lucky with the good Captain here. At least, not at first. However a year or so later, KB Toys marked all of their Marvel Legends down to $4. Most of their stock was made up of easy to find figures from later series of the line, but I was able to find one lone Captain America amongst them, which I happily bought. And he’s stuck with me since. The figure is far from perfect, and he shows his age, but I must admit, after digging him back out for the review, I enjoy him a lot more than I thought I would. I think this guy might just stay out of storage for the time being.

CapAmericaML3

#0552: Ultron

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

ULTRON

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOYBIZ)

UltronTBML1

Countdown to Avengers: Age of Ultron: 4 days remaining.

Ultron first made his way into the toy world courtesy of one of ToyBiz, as art of one of their many one-shot lines of figures from the tail-end of the 90s. He then quickly received his second figure thanks to the tie-in line for the short-lived Avengers: United They Stand cartoon. Eventually, Ultron made his way into ToyBiz’s popular Marvel Legends line. Interestingly, his first induction into the line was not as a figure himself, but rather as a non-articulated piece of the stand included with Series 8’s Modern Iron Man. Eventually, he got a whole figure to himself, but the results were… mixed at best. I’m gonna be upfront here: this review is going to be rather critical of ToyBiz, to, like, Mattel levels. You’ve been warned.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

UltronTBML2Ultron was released as part of the eleventh series of ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends, also known as the “Legendary Riders” series. The figure was one of the shortpacks of this particular series, because he was a fan-demanded character and ToyBiz didn’t understand how business worked. Ultron is roughly 7 inches tall and features 35 points of articulation. Of course, the way the sculpt works, most of that articulation is mostly blocked, but, hey ToyBiz just wanted the number to print on the front of the box, so who cares how it actually works, right? Now, Marvel Legends began as a way to release characters in their classic, memorable looks. They were Legendary, if you will. So, what classic, unforgettable Ultron design did the go for on this one? None of them. See, ToyBiz looked at all the classic Ultron designs and thought “Nah, we can do better!” So, ummm, we got….this thing. To their credit, it was a totally unique sculpt. And viewed purely aesthetically, it isn’t bad. The details are all nice and clean, and each piece is appropriately symmetrical and even. There are lots of cool little details and layers all over the place. The sculpt is definitely a quality one.  …But it’s not Ultron. Like yesterday’s Vault Ultron, this figure’s weakest point is the head. Now, to be fair, it could have been much worse. The prototype had a head that featured some sort of built in visor thing in place of the eyes, further distancing it from the classic Ultron look. The final head is better, but still not really there. Right off the bat, they’ve done the antennae wrong again, in pretty much the exact same way as before. Moving past that, you’ve got the actual head. The mouth is alright, but the “teeth” are a bit too close together, making them look a bit like buckteeth. The eyes are just plain the wrong shape.  They’re way too square. The sum of these parts ends up looking like some sort of mechanical bunny, which really isn’t what you should see in an Ultron figure. Like Scarlet Witch, Ultron feels really shoehorned into the “Legendary Riders” theme. He included a glider thing, which actually had a halfway decent classic Ultron head mounted on the front of it, but was otherwise complete nonsense. Also included was a copy of Avengers Vol. 2 #22, which, for the record is a fantastic showcase of the CLASSIC ULTRON EVERONE ACTUALLY WANTED BUT DIDN’T GET!!!!!! …Just in case the poor design choice wasn’t present enough to begin with…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked this figure up from my local comic book store, at a rather marked up price: a whole $18. That, of course, is actually a little lower than the current retail price of a basic Infinite Series figure. However, it was almost three times what the figure was supposed to retail for. I bought it because I didn’t want to not have an Ultron in my collection, but I wasn’t particularly thrilled about it. Looking back at this figure, he reminds me of just about every reason I disliked collecting ToyBiz Marvel Legends: stupid packout decisions, the inevitable markup, pointless articulation, and questionable sculpting choices. Plus, this one adds in ToyBiz’s own arrogance regarding their designs being better than what was in the comics. The package might have said Ultron, but that wasn’t what was in it. This is a well-constructed toy and all, but it’s just not what anyone wanted.

#0548: Scarlet Witch

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

SCARLET WITCH

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOYBIZ)

ScarletWitch

Countdown to Avengers: Age Of Ultron: 8 days remaining.

Yesterday, I talked about Hawkeye, and how he’s one of the quintessential Avengers. Well, today I’ll be looking at another one of those. Scarlet Witch joined the team at the same time as Hawkeye, and she’s been just as much a fixture over the years (at least until the writers decided that having a competent, high-powered female hero on the team was too hard to write…). Sadly, she’s kind of gotten the short end of the stick in the toy world. So, hey, why don’t we look at one of the worst action figures ever made! Aaaaaaaaaah! It burns! …Sorry, I’ll try not to do that too much.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

ScarletWitchMLWilsonScarlet Witch was released in Series 11 of ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends, which was officially dubbed “Legendary Riders.” The figure (aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!) stands just shy of 6 inches tall and features 33 points of articulation. So, how about that sculpt (aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh)? Well, ummm, simply put, it’s hideous. She makes use of the same body as the previous series’ Mystique. ToyBiz was, at the time, trying to use it as some sort of a standard female base body. The problem is that it just isn’t a particularly good sculpt. It does pretty much nothing to work any of the articulation into the sculpt organically. The joints are just out on display. Plus, the body is really scrawny, which not only emphasizes the issue with the joints, it also makes the figure feel really frail. That’s not what I want out of my super hero toys! Okay, so the base body isn’t so great, but what about the rest of the figure? Well, Scarlet Witch features a unique head, gloves, and boots, as well as an add-on for the cape. The gloves are okay, though her hands seem too big, only further playing up the scrawniness of the body. The boots are decently sculpted, but they’re inaccurate; Wanda didn’t have cuffed boots. The fact that they sculpted all-new boots that are wrong seems wasteful. The cape is a fair piece, but it is a little on the short side. That just leaves the head. …*ahem*… Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Sorry, I just needed to get that out. Yeah, it’s hard to tell if the head or the body is the real issue here. Regardless, they certainly don’t help each other. The head is WAY too big for the body, the hair is a solid block of moving, un-flowing plastic, and the jawline is cut straight across, with no organic shape to it. Add in a facial expression that looks not unlike she ate some bad oysters, and you’ve got a sculpt that, at its best is sub-par. Wanda’s paint does the figure no favors either. The body paint is alright, I guess, but there’s some slop from the pink on her right breast, which is….unfortunately placed. The paint on the head just makes an already lackluster sculpt worse. She’s really pale, she’s got brown flecks all over the place, her lips are definitely too dark and don’t even get me started on those eyebrows. Yikes. Being part of the Legendary Riders series, Wanda includes some strange jet cycle thing, which is totally made up for this figure. I don’t really know why she was in in this particular series.  She also included a copy of Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #8, which was a retelling of Avengers #16.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this series was first released, Wanda was easily the most sought after figure. See, ToyBiz realized just how badly they had screwed up, and ended up pulling a lot of Scarlet Witches from cases before they hit retail. A few got out, but they were going for top dollar. Amazingly, I actually found out this figure at a retail store for retail price. Since it was this figure or nothing, I bought her, because my collection certainly wasn’t going without a Scarlet Witch. She’s gathered quite the reputation for being one of the worst figures ever made, and it’s not an unearned reputation. However, now that Hasbro’s released a far superior version, my hatred of this one has died down just a bit. She’s still a terrible, terrible figure, but she brings me a certain degree of amusement.

#0546: The Hulk

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

THE HULK

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOYBIZ)

Hulk1stAppML1

Countdown to Avengers: Age of Ultron: 10 days remaining.

The original, founding members of the Avengers are an interesting bunch. Iron Man and Thor made sense. They were two of Marvel’s more popular heroes of the time. Ant-Man and Wasp, as minor as they may be now, also had a decent following. Hulk? He was the oddball. The character was only moderately successful, and his whole thing was not playing well with others. In fact, he was also the first member to leave the team, quitting after only two issues. Officially, his founder status was given honorarily to Captain America, and the Hulk remained separate from a team. In the last few years, thanks in no small part to The Avengers movie, Hulk has found his way back to the team, but only after moving away from the whole green rage monster thing. But that’s less fun, so let’s look at a figure of the more rage-y variety.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hulk1stAppML2Hulk was released as part of the ninth series of ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends, also known as the “Galactus Series.” In case you hadn’t gathered, the series featured Galactus as a Build-A-Figure, and it’s noteworthy because it’s actually the series of Marvel Legends that introduced the concept. This particular figure was officially dubbed “1st Appearance Hulk” and he was offered in two different color schemes: Grey and Green. The green version, which I’ll be covering today, is the variant of the grey version, and it’s actually NOT a 1st appearance Hulk, due to the coloring. The figure is 8 inches tall and features a whopping 38 points of articulation. The sheer size and bulk of the figure means that most of that articulation is rather limited in range of motion. In fact, the joint in his torso is almost completely inert, making you wonder why they bothered at all. From the neck down, Green Hulk’s sculpt is identical to that of his grey counterpart. It’s rather typical of a ToyBiz Legends sculpt of the time. There’s lots of detail and texturing, which is really great, but the figure also suffers from some odd proportions, and some spots where the articulation interferes with the quality. The feet are probably the worst offenders. The ankles are set too far back and the toes are too wide and flat in comparison to the rest of the foot, resulting in something that looks more like a duck’s foot than Hulk’s. At the very least, I guess they make him stable. The head is unique to this particular version of the figure. It’s not much different from the grey version, but this one is showing teeth, while the other had a closed mouth. Apart from that, it’s actually a very nice translation of Jack Kirby’s version of the Hulk, in his more Frankenstein’s Monster-like state. It’s definitely the best part of the figure. Hulk’s paintwork is really quite well done, and features some nice subtleties. The basic green and purple are admittedly a little dark for my tastes, but they aren’t bad. In addition, there’s some brown airbrushing on the green parts, which help to make him look a bit more organic. Hulk’s only accessory was a piece of Galactus.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When Series 9 was first released, I quickly assembled a complete set of figures so that I could get my Galactus just as quickly as possible. However, given the scarcity of Legends figures in general at the time, I picked up the regular grey version of Hulk first. A little while later, I was walking through my local Walmart. There weren’t any Legends on the hangers, but I happened to bend down to check something on the bottom shelf, where I noticed a stack of Marvel Legends. The stack was three each of the variants for the Series 9 Hulk and Bullseye. So, I grabbed one of each for myself and placed the others in their proper spot (because I certainly wasn’t going to scalp!) While the figure hasn’t aged spectacularly well, I still really like this version of Hulk, and it remains my go to Hulk for Legends set ups.

#0544: Thor

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

THOR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

ThorLoA1

Countdown to Avengers: Age of Ultron: 12 days remaining.

Alright, we’ve seen Captain America and we’ve seen Iron Man. How about we take a look at the remaining corner of the “Avengers Trinity,” Thor, God of Thunder! Ummm, so I don’t actually own that many non-movie Thor figures. I know, bad Ethan. So, this one got picked by default. I swear I didn’t intentionally pick two Marvel Legends figures in a row to torment the readers still waiting for that Hobgoblin. Or did I? No, I really didn’t. Let’s just get to the figure already!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

ThorLoA2Thor was released in second series of Marvel Legends following Hasbro’s takeover of the Marvel license. The figure is roughly 7 inches tall and has 29 points of articulation. He’s based on the Thor’s more armored, Lord of Asgard appearance from the early 2000s, not long before he died for the first time (spoilers?). It was sort of current at the time, so I guess it makes sense here. Thor got a brand new sculpt for this figure. Supposedly, this was one of the figures ToyBiz had finished before passing the license over, and that actually does make a fair bit of sense. This figure, like a lot of the early Hasbro Legends, ends up feeling more like an extension of the ToyBiz Legends than part of a new line. It’s a pretty decent sculpt, though it’s certainly stylized, at least as far as the proportions go. There is a lot of nice detail work throughout the sculpt; his clothing has lots of texture, and there’s some pretty good work on the hair and beard. One real downside of the sculpt is that it ends up being rather restricting to the figure’s movement, so he ends up being really only good for a basic standing pose. Sure, it’s an intimidating standing pose, but it’s a little bland coming from a line that prided itself on crazy amounts of articulation. While the sculpt may be filled with lots of detail and texture, the same cannot be said for the paint. To be fair, it’s not that the paint is bad, sloppy, or messy. It checks all the basic boxes. The problem is that it’s just very flat. The colors are pretty much just there, with no accenting of any sort or even variety. Also, like a lot of the initial Hasbro Legends, his color palette seems really washed out, meaning he just sort of fades into the back of a display. Thor includes his trusty hammer, Mjolnir, a double-bladed axe, and a piece of the series’ Build-A-Figure, the Blob.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When Hasbro first started to release Legends, I was deep in my obsession with the line. Still, I mostly skipped the first series of the line due to just not being interested in any of the figures. The second series, however, I was rather excited for. I ended up finding most of them at my closest KB Toys (gee, I miss them…). I ended up buying them in batches, and Thor found his way into the second “batch” of figures. Up until Hasbro’s most recent Infinite Series Thor, this was actually the only Legends Thor I had in my collection. He’s not a bad figure, but he’s definitely held back by the paint. Hasbro actually ended up re-releasing this figure with better paint as one of the figures they did to tie-in to the first Thor movie, but I’ve never actually seen one in person.

#0515: Hellboy

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

HELLBOY

HELLBOY: ANIMATED

HellboyAnimated1

Back in the days before every comic book property under the sun was getting a movie or TV deal, it was a pretty huge accomplishment for anything that wasn’t Batman or Spider-Man to make it to the big screen. Such was the case with Hellboy, which surprised everyone by not only making it to the big screen, but also managing to do so without fundamentally changing everything about the series. That said, getting one movie made is one thing. Getting a sequel? Even less likely. In the years that followed the first Hellboy film, the film’s director, writers, and principle cast members decided to continue their fun through a series of direct-to-DVD animated movies. They produced two, Hellboy: Sword of Storms and Hellboy: Blood and Iron, before eventually returning with the live action Hellboy 2. While Mezco Toyz held the licenses for the comic and film incarnations of Hellboy, the animated license was picked up by Gentle Giant, at the time known for their statue and bust work (now they’re the ones responsible for the sculpts in Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Black Series and Marvel Legends Infinite Series). They produced HB and his teammate Abe Sapien. Today, I’ll be taking a look at Big Red himself.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

HellboyAnimated2Hellboy was released in two different ways, though the figure is the same both places. He was available as a single figure, or packed in a set with the two movies. My figure comes from the set with the movies. The figure is about 6 ½ inches tall, with 30 points of articulation. The figure is based on the standard Hellboy design used in both animated films. He’s done here in his sans-coat look. One has to wonder if there might have been plans to do a coated version later down the line. The figure’s sculpt was original to him, and it’s really quite well done. In the films, HB’s proportions are rather exaggerated. The figure does a nice job of translating them, resulting in an (overall) sturdy figure, to a level that’s pleasantly surprising. From his head to his hooves, HB’s sculpt is very carefully handled, resulting in something that not only replicates the cartoon look, but also looks pretty great in three dimensions. Something that sets this figure apart from the vast majority of animation-based figures is texture. Many animation figures attempt to replicate the totally smooth look of the animated character, which can be rather problematic if not done right, and can also end up a little boring. HB, on the other hand, is pretty much coated in unique textures. The best work is definitely on the Right Hand of Doom, which is appropriately rocky looking, but he also has a rather neat orange peel-style texture on his skin, which is strangely appropriate for the character. The texture really catches the light just right and ends up making the figure quite interesting to look at. My only issue with the sculpt is that the shins are so thin that one of them snapped on my figure. However, this is less the sculpt’s fault and more an inevitability of the character design. Still, it’s something that warrants caution. The paint on this figure could have been rather flat, but it’s actually not, which is pretty cool to see. The base paint work is pretty much par for the course. There are a few spots of bleed over and missed lines, but nothing too bad. The strength of the paint really lies in the accent work, which does a lot to bring out the best of the sculpted work. The musculature is all outlined by some nicely handled dark red airbrushing, the RHoD has a black wash to bring out the cracks in the rocky surface, and the belt/pouches/holster have all been given a sufficiently worn looking paint job. All of this is above what is generally expected for an animation figure, which just makes it that much better. Hellboy included his signature gun, The Samaritan, an extra left hand to properly hold it, the Sword of Storms, and a display stand with the Hellboy Animated logo on it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I kinda missed these figures when they were first released, mostly due them being in scale with pretty much nothing I owned. I ended up finding a slightly damaged HB along with the DVDs at this record store called Music for a Song. They were selling it for less than the price of one of the DVDs by itself, so I figured it was probably worth it. I’m glad I found it and decided to go for it, because it’s probably the best Hellboy figure ever made. The articulation’s great, the sculpt is great, the paint’s great. The only thing (at the time) that wasn’t great was that he really didn’t fit with anything else I owned. And then DC Collectibles started doing Bruce Timm-styled figures in the 6 inch scale. Batman/Hellboy team-up FTW!

Hellboy&BatmanAnimated

#0497: Green Goblin

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

GREEN GOBLIN

MARVEL LEGENDS

Ah, yes, ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends. What a bunch of mixed feelings that was. When they were new, I loved the figures, but they were impossible to get. Now, they’re a lot easier to get a hold of, and… well, it seems there was quite a nostalgia filter.

One of the things about when ToyBiz was handling the line is that they consistently had a Spider-Man line running alongside it. This generally meant that any Spider-characters would appear in that line, not in Marvel Legends. However, there were three instances of the unofficial rule being broken. One such case was today’s figure, the Green Goblin!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Goblin was released in the 13th Series of ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends. The series was officially titled the “Onslaught Series” after its Build-A-Figure, and unofficially titled “Bring On the Bad Guys” due to the fact that it was a series of nothing but villains. It was actually a pretty novel idea, but seems like the sort of thing that would never happen now. Goblin is roughly 6 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation. All that articulation, and he still couldn’t stand on his glider the right way. It’s mostly the fault of the hip joints, which were common to this era of ML figures and were notorious for their inability to forward and back and side to side at the same time. You had to pick one or the other. This figure does actually represent one of the few times that the toe articulation proved useful, so that’s a plus, though the finger articulation was as pointless as ever. The figure’s sculpt may or may not have been new to him. This figure was released around the same time as a Hobgoblin from the Spider-Man line, and they shared all but the head, pelvis, and shins. I don’t know which one of them used the pieces first, or if they were in fact designed to share the pieces from the beginning. Regardless, the figure sports one of the best Green Goblin sculpts, pretty much ever. The build is actually pretty great for the Goblin, and the scales on his arms and legs look fantastic. The highlight of the figure is easily the head, which translated Goblin’s grinning visage perfectly to three dimensions. This is easily one of ToyBiz’s best sculpted efforts from this time-period. While the figure is fantastically sculpted, the paint leaves a little bit to be desired. The biggest thing is that it’s just way too dark. Goblin’s a character who really needs to be bright and garish, so the subdued green and not quite purple doesn’t really work. The washes are also a little heavy and uneven, and they just make the figure even darker. From a purely technical standpoint, the paint is clean; cleaner than a lot of other ToyBiz Legends, so kudos to them on that. The figure included his trusty satchel, a display stand in the form of his signature glider, and a piece of Onslaught. The glider ends up with the most issues. For one thing, it seems a little droopy on the sides. The biggest issue, though, is the completely opaque piece holding the glider up. They didn’t even try to make it a little inconspicuous, which just feels lazy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Goblin actually comes from the point in the line where the figures became a little easier to get a hold of. He was picked up from my local comicbook store, who had started getting the figures in for a slightly higher price. I can’t remember exactly what led me to get Goblin, as I’m not the character’s biggest fan or anything. I will say he’s one of the nicer figures the line had to offer, and, aside from the hip joint issue, he actually still looks pretty good with modern Legends.

#0476: Madman

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

MADMAN

LEGENDARY COMIC BOOK HEROES

The story of Toybiz is an interesting one. They first made their mark on the industry with their DC Superheroes line, which is generally remembered for a) being a rip-off of Kenner’s DC Super Powers and b) not being very good. When the DC license went back to Kenner, Toybiz picked up the license for Marvel, which ended up becoming their defining property. In 1996, Marvel filed for bankruptcy, and the now successful Toybiz bought them out. Toybiz was re-formed as an in-house toy company for Marvel. Marvel eventually decided it was more cost effective to license the property out. Toybiz was rebranded “Marvel Toys,” but they were left without a primary license. They had a lot of success with their Marvel Legends line, and they still owned all of the molds, so they decided to do a Marvel Legends-style line with characters from the numerous non-Marvel/DC comics that have emerged over the years. One such character was Mike Allred’s Madman, a personal favorite of mine. I’ll be looking at his figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Madman was released in the first series of Legendary Comic Book Heroes. He was something of an odd-ball in an assortment mostly focused on 90s anti-heroes, but he was a cool addition nonetheless. The figure is roughly 6 inches tall and he features 36 points of articulation. He’s based on Madman’s look a little ways into the series, after Allred had refined him a bit. It’s his signature look, so it was a good choice. I’d heard over the years that this figure used the Marvel Legends Face Off Daredevil as a starting point, but a quick look at that figure was enough to convince me otherwise. Truth be told, it looks like Madman got an all new sculpt out of the deal. It’s an impressive merging of styles. He’s been made to fit the ML style that LCBH used, but he still features a lot of traits that are undeniably Allred influenced. The end result is some that is cleaner and has aged a bit better than most of this figure’s contemporaries. The figure still has a few of the odd proportions that plagued the Toybiz Legends, namely the protruding shoulders, gangly legs, and flat feet, but overall, he ends up looking pretty good. Madman’s paint is pretty well handled. For the most part, everything is clean, and there isn’t any real issue with slop or bleed over. The blue used to accent the white parts of the costume is a little on the heavy side, but it could certainly be worse. Madman included a piece to Pitt, the B-A-F from this series. Mine was purchased loose, so I never had said pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed the boat on LCBH. I remember seeing them in stores, and I even remember looking at Madman a few times. However, I didn’t purchase a single one while they were at retail. A large part of that was that I hadn’t read most of the series represented, Madman included. For Christmas a few years ago, I received the first three volumes of Madman and I absolutely loved them. The following summer, I was visiting Yesterday’s Fun (a favorite store of mine), and I came across this figure loose. All in all, he’s a fantastic figure. He’s not hindered by the same issues that hold back a lot of the Toybiz Marvel Legends. It’s a shame that Marvel Toys was unable to make this line a success and get a few more properties added in.

#0451: General Grievous

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

GENERAL GRIEVOUS

STAR WARS: REVEVENGE OF THE SITH

Here it is, Day 14, the last day of the Christmas Reviews. Today, I’ll be sticking with what I started yesterday: Star Wars reviews. Yep, it’s another SW prequel figure. This time around, it’s another of the characters I could actually tolerate, General Grievous (aside from the name. The name always bothered me. Seriously, his name’s just an adjective! What’s next, Savage Oppress? Oh, wait…) Grievous, like so much of the prequel stuff, was a good idea at the start. He’s got a cool design, an interesting enough backstory, and he had those four lightsabers! And then he went out like a punk. Well, at least he was in good company! Let’s look at the figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Grievous was part of the first (and only) series of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 12-Inch figures. He’s a little over 12 inches in height (though not as over as he should be) and he features 17 points of articulation. I always marvel when companies manage to get less articulation into a character that has obvious joints built into their look. How do they miss the obvious joints? Anyway, the figure’s based on the character’s “live-action” appearance in Revenge of the Sith, which is, as I said in the intro, a pretty decent design. The sculpt of the figure is actually very well done, and it’s certainly above what Hasbro usually offered in this scale. For the most part, the sculpt follows the movies design pretty faithfully; the proportions all seem right, and all the little details and intricacies are present. The figure’s arms have been constructed so as to allow them to split as they do in the movie, and I believe this is the only of Hasbro’s figures of the character to actually do this the right way. Sadly, there isn’t really any mechanism to keep the arms together, so you have to fix them a lot. It’s also worth noting that, due to the lack of proper articulation, the figure is a bit pigeon-toed, which can make him difficult to stand. Given the character’s somewhat unique design, he’s mostly lacking the usual clothing seen on the 12-inch Star Wars figures. He does, however, get a rather nice cloth cape. It’s got two layers of fabric, so as to properly convey the two-toned nature of the cape, and it even has the pattern on the back like it does in the movie. It can easily go on and off of the figure, and it stays in place very well. The figure also has more paintwork than the average 12-incher. While it’s a bit basic in some areas, particularly the silver parts, there is some very nice work, especially on the lighter armor parts and around his eyes. Grievous included four lightsabers: two blue, two green. Unfortunately, due to the softer plastic used for his lower arms, it’s impossible for him to actually hold any of them.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Obi Wan, Grievous was a Christmas gift from my pal Phil. What’s interesting about Grievous is that I fully intended to buy this figure when it was originally released. I wasn’t terribly impressed by the movie, but I remember seeing this guy on the shelf and thinking he looked pretty cool. But, then I never got around to it, and he vanished from shelves, so I didn’t think about it. I was quite happy to unwrap this figure after all these years. While the articulation isn’t the best and the plastic could be a bit stronger, there’s no denying that this is a pretty great looking figure.