Tag Archives: 90s

#4008: Forearm

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

FOREARM

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“This Evil Mutant loves to fight! Forearm’s favorite boast is that he’s the best in hand-to-hand-to-hand-to-hand combat. It’s not a hollow boast either-Forearm can clobber a dozen attackers in seconds. Locked doors can’t keep him out for long, either. His rapid-fire piledriver punches can buckle steel! Though he can use guns if he has to, Forearm prefers to fight with his fists. Because he’s so good at it, Magneto the leader of the Evil Mutants is only too happy to let him!”

You know the expression “too cute by half?”  Well, if I were to refer to today’s focus, Forearm, as having a name that was too cute by half, and we factored in that his starting point is actually twice the mode for a person, would that mean that, relative to others, you he might be too cute by a whole?  Or am I just overthinking this?  I did, after all, adjust my second sentence there to replace “average” with “mode” because I realized it was incorrect to say the average person has two arms.  So, you know, probably overthinking it.  Not like Liefeld when he came up with Forearm, a guy who has four arms.  He really just went for the obvious on that one, right?  Yeah.  Forearm is so not overthought that his bio up there mentions Magneto, a guy I’m not sure Forearm has ever actually worked for, but not Stryfe, the guy that Forearm was working for when this figure came out, who was in fact included in the same very series.  But I’m back to overthinking it.  Let’s just review Forearm, the man with four arms.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Forearm is the final figure in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Force, a nine figure line-up that’s only actually got three members of the team, which is an odd kind of start, especially relative to how X-Men launched.  Perhaps they were just building for longevity?  I suppose they kind of won out on that one.  Where was I?  Right, Forearm.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  He gets extra movement thanks to the extra arms, but offsets it a bit with a lack of knee joints.  I guess it helps keep him a little more stable on his feet.  I do like that this figure, unlike some other more-than-two-armed people, gets separate shoulder movement for each arm, albeit tied into his “punching” action feature.  Forearm’s sculpt is pretty much on par with the others from this first assortment.  It does a respectable job of capturing the character’s look, and not looking too dated…you know, apart from the character’s general design.  His hair is undeniably an odd shape sticking up out of the headband all flat like that.  It looks not unlike a pot-pie, something I can demonstrate with a handy photoshop courtesy of my boi Tim.  Look at that silly pot-pie lookin’ hair.  Otherwise, though, the proportions seem fine, and the level of definition on the details is pretty sharp.  Forearm’s paint work is fine.  Generally basic, and not the most appealing set of colors, but it works well enough.  In addition to his overabundance of arms, Forearm includes a weird sort of double-nun-chuk thing, which he can fling about with his action feature.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have Forearm as a kid, but I do quite distinctly remember him being on the back of the boxes of other figures I had.  He does have a pretty neat visual, especially if you’re just going by what’s on the back of the box.  It took me a little while to finally track him down, but I got him with a larger batch of loose X-Force figures that got trade into work a couple of years back.  He’s neat.  He makes me chuckle about a number of tangentially related things, and that’s always a fun bit.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0064: Avalanche

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

AVALANCHE

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

The week, she is once more at an end.  Honestly, feels like it flew by, but maybe not in the best way.  But, the main point is, we made it to Friday!  Alright!  Go us!  Let’s have another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, this time jumping back over to my little Toy Biz Marvel corner of the world with a return to Avalanche!  Why would anyone want to return to Avalanche?  Your guess is as good as mine.

 “A mutant with the ability to control earth and rock, Avalanche’s powers earned him a place in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants! Now operating largely on his own, or in the company of his allies, the Blob and Pyro, Avalanche strikes not so much out of hatred for normal humans, but from a desire to make a profit!”

Back in the ‘90s, the X-Men were super hot, and by, extension, the various X-Men spin-offs were super hot. X-Force, the spawn of everyone’s favorite artist Rob Liefeld, was inexplicably successful, but only the actual team seemed to get real notoriety. The villains were mostly forgettable, however, so for the toyline Toy Biz borrowed a few classic X-Men baddies, including today’s focus character, Avalanche!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Avalanche was released in Series 5 of Toy Biz’s X-Force toyline. He was the second of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants figures featured in this particular line, following Pyro. Seeing how the two of them were a semi-recurrent pair on X-Men: The Animated Series, it was a pretty sensible inclusion, I suppose. The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation. He got extra disk joints on his hips, which I guess was kind of nice. It does seem a little bit odd that Avalanche of all people got extra special articulation, but I’m not gonna fight it. HIs sculpt was all new to this particular figure, and it was fairly decent for the era. The proportions are a little exaggerated, obviously, but given that he was in the X-Force line, it’s actually fairly balanced. There articulation could perhaps be worked in a bit better, but it’s not awful. The details of the costume are pretty clean, and I do like the intensity of the expression on what we can see of his face. It’s a bit of a shame that his helmet is permanently affixed, since he had it off rather frequently on the cartoon, but it looks good, and that’s ultimately the most important thing. Avalanche’s paintwork is fairly standard, mostly silver and blue. It looks decent enough, though it’s perhaps not the most thrilling color scheme. Avalanche was originally packed with an “Exploding Rock Platform” which demonstrated his powers via action feature. My figure was purchased loose, however, so he doesn’t include this piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Avalanche is a rather recent addition to my ‘90s Marvel collection, picked up over the summer from Yesterday’s Fun. They had a number of old X-Men figures, and this was one I kept meaning to grab, but never got around to. He’s a pretty decent figure of a character I admittedly don’t have a ton of attachment to. Nevertheless, I’m happy to have him, and he brings me one step closer to completing this collection.

In 2017, when I wrote that review, I was batting back and forth between more comical reviews and more serious ones, and Avalanche wound up as the latter.  Alas, it means my witty intro about how he never got much of a a character arc beyond “being Pyro’s buddy” wasn’t until I reviewed his Marvel Legend.  I instead used this one to rag on X-Force a bit, which, you know what?  Fair.  My review of the actual figure seems pretty solid.  Still really don’t know why he got the extra movement on the hips, but it is what it is.  In 2017, he was missing his stand, but in 2026, he’s got it once more.  It’s a rather neat piece, and demonstrates the powers about as well as I think you can.  It also keeps him very stable, which comes in handy with those hips.

#4007: Ree-Yees

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

REE-YEES

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Even with a court full of conspirators, Jabba the Hutt never suspected Ree-Yees as a potential assassin. Ree-Yees cut a deal with the Empire to destroy Jabba, but fate would save that role for Princess Leia.”

Missed it by *that* much.  Like, do you ever think that Ree-Yees tried to play it off to the Empire like he was actually somehow responsible for the deed?  Just to see how far he could take it?  I mean, who could blame him.  Well, the Empire, I guess.  And they have a history of being less than pleasant to the people that cross them.  Don’t do it Ree-Yees, you’ve got so much to live for!  Or maybe you don’t.  I don’t really know you all that well.  I have your action figure though.  Let’s review that!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ree-Yees was released in the final 1998 assortment of Star Wars: Power of the Force II.  The final assortment was largely repacks, with the only actually new figures being Ree-Yees here and the Death Star Trooper.  Given general diminishing interest in the line at the time, as well as the heavy repacking, Ree-Yees and the Trooper were both rather rare at retail, at least at the time.  The Trooper was at least given an identical re-release as part of a weapons pack, but Ree-Yees was not so lucky, so he remained one of the more rare pieces from the line.  Of course, we’re still playing by PotF pricing rules, so he’s not exactly going to break the bank.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  His sculpt was unique to him, at least at the start.  It did wind up re-used for the Disney Parks-exclusive Star Tours version of Ree-Yees, but it’s still the same guy.  It’s actually a pretty nice sculpt.  The details are all really sharp, and it matches up well to his design in the movie.  He’s got a bit of pre-posing, but it’s not a bad set-up, and he ultimately looks pretty natural just standing there.  The figure’s color work is cleanly handled.  I quite like the metallic purple shade on his outfit; it’s pretty unique and stands out with the other figures.  Ree-Yees is packed with two different blasters, as well as a Freeze Frame slide showing Ree-Yees on Jabba’s Sail Barge.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In all my years tracking down Power of the Force figures, I think I’ve seen Ree-Yees in the wild once?  He doesn’t show up often, and I wasn’t in a position to buy him at the time, so I didn’t, and kind of regretted it.  He’s been on my list since, but, as I neared the end, I ultimately broke down and bought him on eBay, because he was a good price, and, well, I still needed him.  He’s probably one of the stronger alien figures from this line, so he feels like he was worth the wait.

#4005: Impulse

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

IMPULSE

JLA (HASBRO)

“Bart Allen, the 30th century grandson of The Flash, Barry Allen, inherited his bloodline’s powers but no ability to control his super-speed. After reaching the age of 14 in only two years, he was brought to the 20th century. Having been raised in an artificial environment, Bart is just learning the ways of the real world as he attends Junior High School in Smalltown Alabama.”

While the Golden Age Flash didn’t have a sidekick in the traditional sense (though he did have a trio of comedic “sidekicks” for a little while, much like Plastic Man, Alan Scott, and Wonder Woman did during the same period), Barry Allen got one relatively quickly in the form of Wally West, aka Kid Flash.  Wally remained in the role until Barry’s death in Crisis, at which point Wally got promoted to just “Flash.”  It was almost a decade before Wally would get his own sidekick, a revamp of the Kid Flash idea, Bart Allen, aka Impulse.  Bart wound up rather successful in his own right, eventually taking on both the Kid Flash and Flash monickers.  But Impulse was always his coolest, and it got him the action figures first.  Let’s take a look at one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Impulse was released in the third series of Hasbro’s JLA line in 1999.  Like Superboy, he was also available in the fourth boxed set, released through comic book stores and the like, along with Robin, the other piece of the “Young Justice” trio from the assortment.  This was Bart’s first figure, albeit only by a slight bit, as DC Direct also released one very close behind.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  As with the rest of the line, he’s heavy on the re-use.  He gets a new head, but his torso is the frequently re-used retool of Superman’s, and he’s also got the arms from Black Lightning and the legs from the Flash.  The head is sort of an attempt at approximating a few different artist’s looks for Bart into one, along with folding him into the general line aesthetic, and it’s not awful, but it does feel a little small.  The Black Lightning arms are a little long for the body, but the gloves at least match pretty well with Impulse’s design.  The legs have a good running sort of pose to them, but the boots are definitely *not* Bart’s from the comics.  To be fair, they really weren’t Wally’s either, so it’s kind of whatever.  In general, like Superboy, the figure is really bulky for Bart, who was always pretty skinny and appropriately teen (in fact even pre-teen) like in the comics at the time.  This appears to be some sort of imaginary older Bart as Impulse sort of figure.  His color work is decent enough, but the biggest issue is definitely that the orange of the outer portions of his lightning bolts is too close to the red, so the distinction is largely lost.  Also, he’s got no pupils for some reason.  Beyond that, the application is pretty clean, so there’s at least that.  Impulse is packed with a display stand, this time in white.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first exposure to Impulse was an issue of his solo series, which got handed to me as a free give-away at an early Baltimore Comic-Con I attended, more than likely *in* 1999.  I loved the issue, and it got me into the whole series (which I had a subscription to until its cancellation years later).  I developed a particular attachment to the character, and ended up getting this figure, I feel almost confident at the same time as Superboy.  He’s never been a perfect figure, but he’s always been one I very much appreciated.

#4004: Gideon

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

GIDEON

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Imagine fighting a stronger and faster version of yourself. That’s what it’s like for the X-Men when they battle Gideon! Whether it’s one person or ten, Gideon can absorb the abilities of everyone he fights, increase that power, and turn himself into a super-charged version of his opponents. Not only that, Gideon is also one of the richest men. His ultimate goal is a mystery, but one thing’s for sure, he has the power and money to reach it!”

By the ‘90s, a lot of the new mutants introduced into the X-books seemed to rely pretty heavily on  one-upmanship and taking a pre-existing character’s power set and making it “cooler” or “edgier,” frequently by just adding “gun” somewhere in their description.  Today’s entry, Gideon, debuted in the same issue of New Mutants as Deadpool, and effectively takes Rogue’s power mimicry abilities and kicks them up a notch.  Also, fun fact here, he’s an “External,” a concept explored in the early X-Force run about a group of extra special mutants who are immortal and have been secretly guiding history for a very long time.  Because somebody really liked Highlander, I guess.  As with so any characters from early in X-Force, Gideon was touted as being a “big deal” before kind of quietly fading into the background and largely being forgotten.  He did get an action figure, though, so there’s that.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gideon was part of the first series of Toy Biz’s X-Force line.  There’s a lot of non-team members present, huh?  Also kind of amusing that Gideon predates the inclusion of both Cannonball and Sunspot, the two characters on the team he spent most of his time with.  They weren’t too far behind, at least, so it’s not the end of the world.  This was his only action figure, with no re-releases or variants even, so he was truly a one-and-done.  The figure’s just under 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s missing the elbows again, which was quite common in this first round of figures.  He seems rather small, again pretty common for this particular batch of figures.  Not sure why the X-Force line in particular seemed so small and shrimpy.  I’d say that makes him something of a Li’l Gideon, but I think connecting this guy to a Gravity Falls reference might be too high class for him.  Gideon’s sculpt is totally unique to him and…yeah, it’s certainly something.  Gideon had a number of looks early on, all rather out there, and meant to showcase his…look I don’t know.  He’s dressed like a cyborg chippendale or something.  None of it makes sense independently, much less as a whole cohesive thing.  I suppose it’s at least unique and distinctive?  Yeah, let’s go with that.  The actual quality of the sculpt is pretty similar to the others in this first series.  He’s kind of soft on the details, and the direct resemblance to Liefeld’s artwork is minimal.  He’s sort of pre-posed on the arms, but otherwise rather stiff.  He looks awkward for sure, and his ponytail is hanging in a way that doesn’t really feel natural.  His color work is…unpleasant.  It’s accurate…more or less.  The comics were back and forth on Gideon’s hair color; sometimes it was white, and other times green.  I think green might have been more fun, but they went for white, which is fine.  Otherwise, it’s *fine*.  Once again, not very cohesive, but the application’s clean enough.  Gideon is packed with a briefcase that has a removable katana.  You know, as you do.  He’s got an action feature as well, where flipping the lever on his back moves his arms up and down.  You know, as you do.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have a Gideon as a kid, but my cousin Rusty did.  Neither of us actually knew who he was, nor was either of us really much of a fan of the guy.  I later got that figure, in a bag with a bunch of others, when my grandparents’ house was being cleared out, and he was in *rough* shape, and I ended up chopping him up further for custom fodder.  The one seen here was a much later addition to my collection, circa 2018.  I got him sealed for super cheap, because that’s how things are for Gideon.  He then sat sealed until last spring when I decided to actually appreciate the stacks of Toy Biz figures I had sitting around, so I finally cracked him open and put him on the shelf.  He’s not a great figure.  He’s not a good figure.  He’s maybe a mediocre figure.  His design is awful, and there’s very little appealing about the final product, honestly.  But, there’s something sort of amusing about how poorly executed every part of Gideon’s journey to action figure was, so…I kinda love him?  Wait…when did that happen?  I think all this Toy Biz reviewing is starting to get to me.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0063: TIE Fighter Pilot

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

TIE FIGHTER PILOT

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

Hey-o, and welcome to the end of the week! We did it again, you guys!  Here we are! It’s Friday, so it’s a beautiful day for some addendum-ing!  Let’s flip back over to the world of Star Wars and take a follow-up look at the TIE Fighter Pilot!

“With its vast space fleet, the Imperial Navy is a model of military efficiency. The best pilots in its ranks are rigorously trained to useto use highly maneuverable and heavily armed Twin Ion Engine (TIE) fighters. The small ships are used to both attack – and defend against – Rebel forces.”

Do I have to turn in my nerd card if I admit that until I read that bio in preparation for this review, I actually had no clue what TIE stood for? I kinda thought it was because they looked like bow ties. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle! Wait, wrong 3 3/4-inch-based franchise! Without further ado, let’s look at one of these Twin Ion Engine fighter pilots!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The TIE Fighter Pilot was released in 1996, during Power of the Force II’s second year. This marks the second time this design had been seen in plastic, following the vintage figure. The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation, which was standard for the line. The figure’s sculpt was unique to him, and does a fairly decent job of capturing the TIE design from the movies. He’s surprisingly tame in his stylization and his pre-posing, and also helped by not having a likeness to really worry about. The lack of pre-pose is likely owed to his intended use with the actual TIE Fighter vehicle (which, fun fact, arrived on store shelves a year before this guy’s release), since too much of a pose would have made seating him in the ship rather difficult. I appreciate that the figure’s been designed in such a way as to keep his neck movement, by way of attaching the tubes and box to his head. It can look a little weird when turned to certain angles, but is by-and-large a well-worked out concept. The paint on this guy could have been rather lazy and un-inspired, but Kenner went the extra mile and added differing sheens to the various black tones, as well as making sure he has all of the proper insignias. It’s really quite remarkable work. This figure was packed with two different blasters, one large, and one small. Neither really seems to go with the figure, and mine has been without both for a little while.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I was growing up, in addition to grandchild-specific gifts, both sets of grandparents would tend to go out and buy one smaller item in bulk, to give everyone that one same item. The TIE Fighter was one such gift, given to all of the grandkids on my Dad’s side one year for Christmas. We were all pretty into Star Wars at the time, so it was pretty sensible. While I’ve never really had a particular attachment to the TIE Fighter pilot, I do still really like this guy, and he’s always been a steady fixture of my collection.

This is another 2017 review, written in the midst of a rather hectic summer of multiple cross-country trips and a coast-line-spanning move.  I’d jumped back into Power of the Force with a batch of figures I’d gotten for cheap in February of that year, and moved onto the prior entries already in my collection.  In the midst of all the craziness, I’ll admit, I completely forgot the bit about what “TIE” stood for.  In one ear and out the other and all that.  The actual review covers the basics well-enough, I suppose.  He was at the time missing both of blasters, but I’ve since replaced them.  The larger one is particular comedic in its sizing, which I find quite amusing.

#4003: Luke Skywalker with T-16 Skyhopper Model

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

LUKE SKYWALKER with T-16 SKYHOPPER MODEL

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (HASBRO)

“While tinkering with his model T-16 skyhopper and tending to his uncle’s new droids, Luke unwittingly short circuits R2-D2’s recording system, triggering the holographic appearance of a young Princess Leia. The image implores the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but vanishes soon thereafter.”

Luke Skywalker has four notable looks over the course of the original Star Wars film, but by far the most definitive is his “farm boy” look, which, understandably, was the first to get a toy back in 1978.  It was also the first to get an update for the relaunched line in 1995, albeit with a notable pectoral upgrade.  It was never truly absent from Power of the Force, but I suppose there was a slight downtick in its frequency.  Then, in the space of about a year and a half, there were *so* many of them.  Farm boy Lukes as far as the eye could see!  And they all had their own minute difference.  Well, here’s the one that wrapped it all up.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke Skywalker with T-16 Skyhopper was part of the 1999 run of Star Wars: Power of the Force, following the shift to Hasbro’s name being on the packaging.  Like last week’s Leia, he was part of an assortment featuring the CommTech gimmick from the Episode I line, and was meant to run alongside that one.  He was the seventh and final figure in the line based on Luke’s main A New Hope look, and fifth variation on the “new” mold version of it.  Each of those Lukes was based on a specific snippet of the movie, and this one is specifically Luke right after the purchase of the droids, when he discovers the message from Leia while cleaning them up.  Yay, another non-action scene!  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  While it’s the same count as the Flashback Photo Luke, it’s a different configuration.  This one lacks the wrist movement, and only gets swivels on the elbows instead of hinges, but gets proper knee movement, which was very rare in this line.  It’s good for getting him kneeling down, like he does in the scene this figure’s meant to be referencing.  His sculpt is using the “updated” Luke head, with a body that’s all new parts, albeit ones that all look very similar to the other four Lukes from this period of time.  The paint is on par with the other offerings, a little cleaner and a little more involved than some of the other variations on the look, rivaling the Flashback figure.  Once again, I do like the accenting on the boots, and it otherwise does what it needs to.  Luke is packed with the T-16 Skyhopper model mentioned in his name, as well as a small hand tool, and his CommTech stands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like I said in my Leia review, the CommTech figures aren’t as common as other figures in the line.  And, with all the similar looking Lukes, this one has a tendency to fly under the radar.  I saw this one once or twice in the early days of jumping into the line, and just never got around to getting him.  Ultimately, he’s one of those figures I just happened to find mixed in with a larger lot of PotF figures that got traded into work.  He’s…fine?  Like, he does some new, but also feels very same-y.  After the Flashback figure, which was kind of the best of these variations, he feels like he’s sort of treading water, which, I guess, in a way, he kind of was.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#4001: Superboy

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

SUPERBOY

JLA (HASBRO)

“Created to replace Superman, Superboy was genetically engineered by scientists at Project Cadmus to have a close approximation of Kryptonian DNA. His power of tactile-telekenesis gives him super-strength, flight, and grants him a number of unique abilities, such as disassembling an object through touch alone.”

One of the tenets of the change-over from the Superman of the Golden Age to the Superman of the Silver Age was the creation of Superboy, who was Earth-1 Clark Kent’s alter-ego as a teenager.  After Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman’s origin was once more re-established, and he was no longer a superhero as a teenager, eliminating Superboy from the timeline.  But, if you don’t want to lose your trademark to such a fancy name, you have to use it, so in the ‘90s they brought the name back, now attached to a separate character, Kon-El, a clone of Superman.  He operated solo for a while, before eventually joining “Young Justice,” a sort of re-imagining of the Teen Titans.  It was during the period that he got his second action figure, which I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superboy was added to Hasbro’s JLA line in its third series in 1999.  He was also available in the line’s fourth boxed set, alongside Impulse and Robin from the third series, and a pair of exclusive “Hologram” figures of Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.  Like his earlier Man of Steel figure, he’s based on Conner’s original look, though this time around he’s without his usual leather jacket.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Since JLA was all about getting as much mileage as possible out of re-used parts, Superboy is a lot of re-use.  His torso is the modified Superman torso that a lot of the line used as a starting point, and he’s got the legs from Black Lighting (albeit with some serious mold degradation, which removes a lot of the sharpness of the details) and the arms from the Legends of Batman Riddler.  It was rare to see them reach outside of the Total Justice molds, but it happened.  The Riddler arms are designed with a narrower gait to the legs in mind, though, so his hands can’t clear his legs when posing.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is decent enough, though it’s a bit on the large side, in order to off-set the sizing on the body.  The face is a little bit goony, but it fits the later ‘90s take on the character alright.  His paint work carries a lot of the work on selling the character design.  Mostly, it’s not bad, but it’s a little odd to see the straps and belts all just as painted elements, rather than with any sort of dimension to them.  The hair is also quite odd; in the comics, he had the back and sides buzzed, which the original figure more or less just ignored.  This one didn’t sculpt them in, but then they were painted black, and then painted back over with a sort of a grey shade, and then there’s sort of stubble effect.  It’s weird looking.  Superboy was packed with a JLA display stand, in bright red.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had the Man of Steel Superboy, which I really loved, but I was always bummed that you couldn’t take off his jacket, since he did that so often in the comics.  I remember this guy getting shown off, and I remember really wanting him, to the point of printing out a prototype shot and turning it into a paper figure.  I don’t recall exactly when I got him.  More than likely it was from the KB Toys near where my family vacationed, but it was also probably during one of our fall trips, rather than summer.  I remember being excited to find him, but perhaps not quite as enthralled by the final product once I’d opened it.  Superboy without the jacket certainly has novelty, but this figure’s more on the goofy side of things for this line, and the Man of Steel figure’s definitely the stronger offering.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0062: Green Lantern

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

GREEN LANTERN

DC SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

It’s Friday!  We made it to Friday, you guys!  High five!  Good for us!  Let’s celebrate with another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum.  I know, it’s such a special occasion.  Sticking to the usual, it *is* a Toy Biz figure, but in a break from the norms, it’s not Marvel, but DC.  Let’s take another look at Green Lantern!

The now defunct toy company Toybiz is a name that is most commonly associated with making Marvel toys. This isn’t surprising, of course. They ended up bailing Marvel out of bankruptcy in the mid-90s, leading to them becoming a part of Marvel proper and thereby passing the name onto Marvel’s in-house toy making branch. However, their first major property was not Marvel. No, it was actually Marvel’s main competition, DC. See, when Super Powers ended, DC was looking to move the DC license elsewhere. They turned to a small upstart company by the name of Toybiz, who launched a line simply titled DC Superheroes. The line was pretty much the same scale as Kenner’s Super Powers, mostly because it was pretty much just a slightly lower budget version of Super Powers. The sculpts were just slightly tweaked and made out of inferior plastic. Needless to say, DC wasn’t thrilled by this offering, and after just two series, the rights reverted back to Kenner. Today, I’ll be taking a look at that line’s version of Green Lantern!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s DC Super Heroes line. The figure is just shy of 5 inches tall and he features 7 points of articulation. The second series is a little different from the first in that they actually featured new sculpts, rather than just retooled SP ones. So, for better or for worse, GL got a brand new sculpt, wholly unique from his SP counterpart. I suppose it’s not fair to compare the work of Kenner at their prime to that of Toybiz in their infancy, but the sculpt of the TB Green Lantern is not up to the quality of his predecessor. The sculpt is wide and oddly proportioned. He’s got these bent arms, which are honestly impressive, because I’m surprised he could bend arms that thick. The torso is huge and ill defined, and the legs lack any real detail. The head looks not unlike a papier-mâché head sculpted over a balloon, which is not a compliment. To top it all off, the joints are horrendously obvious, to the point where you have to question if they did that on purpose. I suppose if I were really trying to find something nice to say, I’d say he bears a passing resemblance to the Filmation version of the character, which isn’t a terrible thing. The paint is…well it’s there. It’s mostly cleanly applied, but other than that, there’s not much to be said of it. The figure is incredibly shiny, which really plays up the whole obvious toy angle. The figure came with an array to let him squirt water from his ring or something. I don’t know, I bought mine loose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is another from the haul I picked up during the summer from the super cool Yesterday’s Fun. As an avid Green Lantern collector, it’s a figure I’d been looking to pick up for some time now, I’d just never gotten around to it. They had one for a reasonable price, so I went for it. Now I’m reminded of why I put off buying it. It’s not a terrible figure, it’s just overwhelmingly mediocre. It feels like one of those incredibly obvious toys they’d use on a TV show to more easily convey that it’s a toy. I just don’t quite know what they were thinking with this one, especially since it followed up figures that re-used the far superior Super Powers sculpts. 

This review came from way back in my first year, from right at the tail end of it, in fact.  While not the kindest review I’ve ever written, I can’t say I find it all that inaccurate.  I do think the Filmation angle’s grown more on me over the years, which has made my appreciation of the figure a bit greater.  In my original review, I was lacking all of the figure’s accessories, which I’ve subsequently replaced.  He has the apparatus for squirting water, as mentioned in the original review, as well as a power battery and a wearable prop ring.  The water squirting bit is very gimmicky, but fun, I suppose, and the other extras are actually pretty nice.

#3997: Superman – Power Flight

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

SUPERMAN — POWER FLIGHT

MAN OF STEEL (TOY BIZ)

When is the standard version of a character not the standard version of a character?  When it’s the ‘90s!  Or at least that’s the case when it comes to Superman, who spent a decent chunk of the decade moving between rather off-brand designs.  Following his death and return, he kept the same general suit as before, but one of the apparent side effects of coming back from the dead was getting a sick mullet, so that’s what he had going on (at least until he went all electric blue for a bit).  DC made a big splash of keeping this updated look as his evergreen appearance for a while, so it served as his primary look for his first proper toyline under Kenner, Man of Steel.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Power Flight Superman was the second of the two Superman variants in Series 1 of Man of Steel.  He served as the line’s basic Superman, and was the heaviest packed figure in both standard assortments of the line.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Due to his action feature, his articulation is kind of wonky.  He doesn’t get any side-to-side movement on the neck, instead having the slightest, tiniest, almost imperceptible up and down motion.  The shoulders are also tied into the whole thing, so there’s a mechanism that moves them in tandem.  You can pose the separately, but it’s a little more work.  His sculpt was totally unique to him (he was, notably, one of the few Supermen in the line not to use the “standard” head sculpt introduced on Laser Superman), and it’s fine.  It feels very skinny, and very stiff.  The head doesn’t feel as true to the character as Laser Superman; there’s something about it that just feels kind of pinched.  Otherwise, things are pretty basic, and the details generally work well.  The cape is removable, and is a softer rubber piece, which plugs into the back.  His color work is generally very basic.  It does what you’d expect.  The torso is prone to some discoloring over time, but it’s not as bad as some figures I’ve encountered.  He’s packed with a weird sort of chain thing, which clips over his wrists.  It’s meant to be used to capture bad guys, but it’s awkward at best, and his very narrow stance makes it a struggle to get him to use it at all.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In 1995, while I was busy giving away and replacing Batman figures, and my dad was rediscovering Iron Man, my mom, not one to be left out, got her own action figure of Superman, a character who had been her favorite since the first Christopher Reeve Superman.  She’d never had a figure of him, and this was the only standard one available at the time, so he fit the bill.  And then *someone* borrowed said figure, and lost his cape, so a replacement was purchased for my mom, and the now capeless figure became mine (alongside the Laser Superman specifically purchased for me alongside the replacement).  Over the years, the cape turned back up, so, hey that worked out okay.  He’s not a great figure, but he’s what we had, and that was good for me.