Tag Archives: 90s

#4134: Snarl

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

SNARL

TRANSFORMERS: BEAST WARS (KENNER)

“Snarl is seldom seen until the instant he attacks. His camouflage coloring allows him to sneak into Predacon base-camps undetected. Powerful legs give him the ability to lunge forward to attack startled enemies, and in robot mode he can jump straight up to escape incoming missile fire. Snarl is a fearless fighter whose gnashing, serrated teeth and razor-sharp claws are enough to fend off would-be attackers. if they know what’s good for them!”

If there’s one era of Transformers I’m decidedly light on coverage around here, it’s Beast Wars, which is, honestly kind of amusing, given its the incarnation of the franchise that really introduced me to the whole concept.  I guess I had other focuses in the ‘90s for the most part, so they never quite clicked with me.  As such, I don’t have a ton of connection to this version of things (with the most notable exception being Silverbolt, who is one of my favorites in general).  That said, it didn’t *totally* pass me by back in the day, so let’s look at one of the very few figures I actually got during the original run, Snarl, who, it should be noted, is not the G1 guy who turns into a stegosaurus.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Snarl was released in the second year of Kenner’s Beast Wars line, as part of the fourth wave of “Basics,” the smallest of the main classes.  In a three figure assortment, he was the lone Maximal.  Yay for good guys.  Snarl was notably not included in the cartoon, so he’s just a toyline guy (though his Japanese equivalent, Tasmanian Kid, was in the Beast Wars II anime, so there’s *sort of* some cartoon coverage there).  In robot mode, the figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 11 practical points of articulation.  Beast Wars marked a real turning point for articulation in the Transformers world, and Snarl showcases that, with a range of motion that’s on par with, if not a bit above the standard for the era in which he was released.  His robot mode is a pretty fun, rather basic and by the numbers design.  It’s got a bit of kibble, especially on the back, but the main bot works in the beast elements rather cleverly.  He’s got sort of a cannon thing that mounts on his arm, which is neat, if not terribly involved or anything. Snarl’s alternate beast mode is a Tasmanian devil…well, allegedly, anyway.  Whether it, you know, actually looks like a Tasmanian devil is a different matter.  Common opinion is that he looks more like a quoll?  Honestly, I don’t really know much about either animal (at least in real life; I’m obviously familiar with the Looney Tunes character, who this beast mode *also* doesn’t look like).  It’s at least a pretty neat look, with a fairly intuitive transformation sequence, and the end result is sufficiently different from his robot mode.  The cannon thing becomes his tail, and it is tied into his action feature.  There’s a spring-loaded launching thing, which, in contrast to the usual set-up, actually has the spring in the “missile” part, which launches the main figure forward.  It doesn’t do a lot, really just scooting him forward maybe an inch if he’s on a smooth surface, but it’s good for general amusement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was either my first or second Transformer…I don’t know exactly which, but definitely in the first two.  I got him on a trip to, I think either Toy Works or Toy Liquidators, which I went on with my Nana, most likely in celebration of finishing up Kindergarten (which also means it was probably my last notable day of fun before I fell down my parents’ kitchen stairs and broke my collarbone, landing myself in a brace for most of my first summer break), where I was allowed to pick out a selection of stuff.  The break down was two Toy Biz Marvels, a Tom Cruise from Mission Impossible (bought because his name was also Ethan, and pretty much no other reason), and this guy, who I mostly got because he turned into a Tasmanian devil…or at least a close approximation.  I don’t know why exactly this guy called out to me, or even why he stuck with my collection, but he did, and I even managed to unearth his tail a few months ago to complete him.  He’s just a thoroughly fun little figure, and I quite like that.

#4132: Carnage

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

CARNAGE

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“Of all Spider-Man’s foes, Carnage is perhaps the most dangerous, the most feared! Criminal Cletus Kasady shared a prison cell with Eddie Brock (better known as the Lethal Protector, Venom) – that is, until Brock’s symbiote freed its human host. However, Venom left behind a fragment of his alien costume, which bonded with Kasady… creating the sinister menace known as Carnage!”

When the Spider-Man spin-off Venom had gotten too popular to suitably serve as a proper antagonist in the Spider-Man titles, it was decided that the spin-off needed a spin-off, and thus, we got Carnage.  He’s sort of the ur-example of the Marvel approach to new characters in the ‘90s, where they’d take a successful character concept and make it more violent, more edgy, and more extreme, and it’s further dialed up, because Venom was already kind of that to Spider-Man himself.  Carnage was Venom on steroids (which is funny, since he was always depicted as being much smaller and skinnier), and should absolutely not have worked in the long run, but…he did? Like, actually kind of worked within the larger universe, and has proven to have a life outside of the characters that spawned him.  It’s honestly a bit remarkable.  Two years after his 1992 comics debut, he got his first action figure, and I’m looking at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Carnage was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in line, in 1994.  The line was more directly based on the cartoon designs (unlike a lot of the other Toy Biz Marvel “tie-ins” which trended more towards comic based), but in the case of Carnage, that was sort of a moot point, as he hadn’t really had enough time to develop distinctly deviations in his appearance the way some of the others had.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is pretty much the Toy Biz standard at the time, though he does get a waist joint, which wasn’t always a guarantee.  Said waist joint is tied into his action feature, as is his right shoulder; turning the figure at the waist moves his arm up and down, in sort of a chopping motion.  Carnage’s sculpt was all-new, and would serve as the basis of a few figures to follow, as it was scaled up for the 10-inch line, repainted for the “Maximum Carnage” tie-in, and ultimately slightly re-tooled for the later unmasked Carnage mold.  It’s a good sculpt.  It’s got the basic set-up down well, with good proportions and all of the important details.  His far more fluid symbiote design is handled via sculpted details, which feature a lot of texturing and “movement”.  The paint aids in this, using a relief style of black accenting to bring out the most from the sculpted texturing.  It does a surprisingly good job at replicating Carnage’s distinctive visual design from the comics.  Carnage was prone to creating a lot more constructs out of his symbiote than Peter or Eddie, so this figure showcases that with three different clip-on pieces, with an axe, a claw, and a more generic goopy symbiote thing.  They clip on easily enough, and help further sell the Carnage look.  The only sort of downside to them is that they’re totally smooth, rather than replicating the texturing of the main figure.  There’s at least some paint work to help sell it, but it’s not quite the same.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I had a surprising number of Carnage figures in my collection, but I seemed to have just missed this one.  Given how many others I had, I never really put the effort into tracking this one down, since he seemed rather basic.  As is the case with a lot of other “never put the effort in to track it down” Toy Biz figures, I wound up getting this one mostly because a complete loose one landed in front of me at work a few years ago, and given he had all three of the attachments, I didn’t really feel like I could pass him up.  While he mostly serves as a precursor to the figures that followed and would slightly tweak the formula, I gotta say, as a first figure, he comes out of the gate swinging for the fences.  There’s not really much you could do better, and he’s just a solid all-around figure.

#4130: Ripley

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

RIPLEY

ALIEN: RESURRECTION (KENNER)

Perhaps my favorite movie of all time is Aliens, which is, quite frankly, a bit surprising when you find out that the movie that introduced me to the franchise and got me super invested in it to the point of wanting to see the other movies and own the toys and stuff was…Alien: Resurrection.  It’s…well, it’s not a great film.  It’s not really even a good film.  Honestly, “film” seems like a stretch.  I don’t really buy into the distinction between “film” and “movie,” but Resurrection might be able to make a good case.  On the toy side of things, the original Alien film had gotten a little bit of toy coverage from Kenner upon its release, but it didn’t go over very well, and so all subsequent toys were canceled (including a whole line of 3 3/4 inch figures, put out many years later by Funko and Super 7, launching the ReAction brand).  Because of this, Alien’s sequels, Aliens and Alien Cubed, didn’t get toys at the time of their release (though Aliens got a toyline from Kenner in the ‘90s).  The first Alien movie to get a proper toyline in conjunction with its actual theatrical run was Alien: Resurrection, and oh boy, am I looking at one of those figures today.  So, let’s look at the eighth clone of Ellen Ripley, Ripley 8.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ripley was one of the six standard figures that made up the Alien: Resurrection tie-in line, released alongside the movie in 1997.  Though billed on the front of the box as being part of the “Hasbro Signature Collection” (whatever that means), the back of the box still lists Kenner, so, you know, it’s all very confusing, but that’s really just the whole Kenner/Hasbro deal in the ‘90s.  We just all decided to pretend we didn’t know they were one company masquerading as two, like some sort of strange Andy Kaufman bit.  Ripley (who is just listed as “Ripley” on the box, with neither first name, nor number) is described by the packaging as “Warrant Officer, Alien Expert,” which is…not really her in Resurrection?  I mean, I guess she knows the Aliens pretty well, but clones being different people and all, she was most certainly never a warrant officer.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  None of the articulation on these figures was particularly useful, and Ripley really showcases that.  It’s all pretty much just there for minor tweaking of the one single pose she can really pull off.  In terms of scaling, she’s got a real lunge in her pose there, so it throws off the overall height, but she’s ultimately closer to the usual 7-inch set-ups than 6-inch.  Which, you know, with the Kenner Aliens line being very much a 5-inch line, is odd to say the least.  The sculpt is, as noted, rather pre-posed, with sort of a guns akimbo, wide-stance sort of thing.  Her sculpt is…fine?  The likeness is an okay Weaver likeness, though I’m not really sure it quite gets her specifically from Resurrection.  I think the hair really throws it off, ultimately.  Ripley has a couple of outfits in the movie, but this one is the one she spends a good chunk of the movie in, and is, rather amusingly, the one that’s also worn by Hillard during the journey through the ship.  Weaver saw Kim Flowers’ outfit and asked for one like it, and that’s the one that wound up as an action figure.  The paint work on this figure is generally good for the era and style.  It’s mostly just base work, which is rather clean, but she does also get some decent accenting, and a wash on her outfit to make it look appropriately grimy.  She’s packed with a pair of rifles, an egg, and a queen burster.  Oddly, the hands aren’t really sculpted to hold the guns, so they have these extra guards that wrap around the backs of the hands.  Why not just make the hands properly hold them?  Because shut-up, that’s why.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was just shy of 11 when I saw Resurrection, and really loved it at the time, so you’d think I’d have tracked down some figures, but, even though I looked at them a few times, I never actually did buy any of them.  Since then, I’ve had this sort of odd relationship with the movie, where every time I watch it, it’s worse than I remember.  So, I wasn’t really ever planning to buy any of these.  But, then she got donated to the Farpoint charity auction, and my dad knew I didn’t have her, so…you know, here we are?  She’s been sitting on my shelf unopened for a couple of years now, and I finally decided it was time to crack her open for the review.  She’s honestly not a bad figure from a technical stand-point.  Very much dialed into the style of the era, and all, but in a world before the likes of NECA, she’s not really bad.

#4128: Venom

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

VENOM

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“Eddie Brock, former newspaper reporter, has joined with an evil, alien symbiote, giving him spider-like powers greater than those of Spider-Man himself! Driven by a twisted sense of justice, Brock has become Venom, humanity’s Lethal Protector…and he’s decided that humanity needs protection from Spider-Man!”

For a character only introduced in 1988, by 1994, Venom had a surprising amount of action figure coverage.  Toy Biz had added him to their run right at the start, and really just kept adding him.  By the time they launched their dedicated Spider-Man: The Animated Series line, they’d already done four versions of him under the Marvel Super Heroes banner, but that didn’t stop them from putting him in the first Spider-Man line-up too.  I mean, really, can you blame them?  He was pretty popular, and also on the cartoon, so it’s hard to avoid such a thing.  Let’s look at that fifth Venom today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Venom was released in Series 1 of the Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in line, which hit retail in 1994, right in time for the show’s launch.  Like others in the early assortments, Venom was drawing more directly from the show’s design, rather than the comics.  The figure stands 5 1/8 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  He gets the standard movement on the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, but loses the neck articulation in order to accommodate his action feature.  Much like the Marvel Super Heroes figures, this Venom is about he same height as his corresponding Spider-Man, mostly just relying on bulk to differentiate them.  That would become a gradual shift towards more monstrous sizes as the line progressed, but at this point, he was downright diminutive.  His sculpt was all-new, and a departure from the earlier Venoms, which had leaned into the character’s “symbiote with a mouth” look from the early days.  This one more represents his turn towards beastlier depictions, with much more intensely shaped eyes, a wider spread mouth creeping well past his ears, longer teeth, visible gums, and a whole lot of veins.  Truly, he’s a Venom who probably thinks this song is about him.  This was the Venom sculpt that served as the basis for the 10-inch figure as well, though that one had a more conventional neck.  Apart from being perhaps a little bit on the small side, it’s a pretty good sculpt, and looks quite a bit like his animated counterpart.  Squeezing the figure’s legs together activates his action feature, which extends his head upward, while keeping the jaw in place, so it looks like he’s opening his mouth.  It’s only a small extension, so not super noticeable, but it’s not the worst thing in the world.  In terms of color work, he’s predominantly just molded black plastic, with accenting in white and red.  The paint work is generally fairly clean, with only some minor fuzz, notably around the top of his logo.  Venom didn’t include any accessories, not even one of those weird plastic pins.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I’ve noted before, I didn’t have any of the proper 5-inch Venom figures as a kid, though I did have on of the 10-inch figures that was based on this mold, so I kind of experienced it a bit.  This one’s actually one of my most recent additions, picked up over the summer while I was on vacation.  He’s generally a rather straight forward figure, as far as Venoms go.  A bit more involved than some of the earliest offerings, but certainly not as crazy as some of the later versions got to be.

#4124: Dr. Octopus

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

DR. OCTOPUS

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“A laboratory explosion grafted four tentacle-like mechanical arms to the body of renowned Radiology expert Dr. Otto Octavius, warping his mind, transforming him into the genius know as Dr. Octopus! Octopus can control his titanium steel tentacles with but a thought – – and his thoughts are often of smashing his arch-foe, Spider-Man!”

The ‘90s was a pretty solid decade when it came to super hero cartoons.  At the head of the pack was Batman: The Animated Series, which everything else was kind of trying to imitate, at least in some fashion.  Perhaps the oddest case of this was Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which featured a surprising number of shared actors with BTAS.  Batman’s faithful butler Alfred’s voice actor Ephram Zimbalist Jr was one of the crossover actors, also lending his voice to Dr. Octopus, who was also one of the tie-in toyline’s first figures to roll out.  Let’s check him out today! 

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Octopus was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in line.  As with the rest of the line’s early run figures, he’s based on his cartoon design (in contrast to a lot of the other Toy Biz 5-inch lines), itself based on Erik Larsen’s updated Doc Ock design from the comics around that time.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He gets the standard set-up for the Toy Biz 5-inch figures in terms of movement, at least for the most part.  You can also get a little movement out of the tentacles, which can slightly turn at the base, but it’s sort of iffy and inconsistent.  The sculpt for this guy was all-new, though it would see re-use a few other times under Toy Biz, as well as serving as the inspiration for the smaller die cast figure and the 10-inch figure.  It’s based on his armored attire from the show, and it’s pretty good at that.  It’s certainly a more cut take on Otto than we usually see, but it was the ‘90s; everybody just looked like that.  I remember, I was there.  The hair’s not quite consistent with the show, which leaned into his Moe Howard cut; instead, it’s a little more contemporary.  All-in-all, not a bad sculpt, which captures the character pretty well.  The tentacles are a softer material, to allow for the action feature.  Pulling the (incredibly obvious and oddly shaped) tab on his back pulls the strings within the arms taut, so they sort of close inward.  It’s not a reliably good feature, but I guess it’s no worse for long-term livelihood than the usual bendy ones.  Doc Ock’s color work is pretty simple.  It matches the animation model, and its fairly clean on the application front.  It doesn’t do anything crazy, but it gets the job done.  Doc Ock included no accessories, rather common for the earlier figures in the line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have this figure as a kid.  I remember him, and I remember others having him, but I never had one of my own.  Honestly, I never much clicked with Doc Ock until Spider-Man 2, and didn’t have much interest in figures of him until around that time.  This is a more recent addition, relatively speaking, although it’s probably been five years or so since I snagged this one loose from a collection that got traded into work.  He’s kind of a basic sort of figure, and doesn’t quite get into the sorts of things that later Doc Ocks got into, but he does manage to be a decent all-around figure. 

#4120: Spider-Man – Web-Shooter

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

SPIDER-MAN — WEB-SHOOTER

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“Not all of Spider-Man’s amazing powers came from the bite of a radioactive spider – some were created by Peter Parker himself. Case in point, his astonishing web shooters! Using his scientific know-how, Parker crated a device which, when filled with a secret formula of his own design, could duplicate the super-strong web of a spider!”

When Toy Biz started out with the Marvel license, they divided the characters into two sets, with one line dedicated to X-Men (which would also quickly spin-off into an X-Force dedicated line) and one covering…the rest.  Spider-Man was undoubtedly a major focus of Marvel Super Heroes, with multiple variants per series.  So, it wasn’t a shock that he was the first property outside of X-Men to get his own line, launched to coincide with his own animated series.  There were two Spidey variants in the line’s inaugural series, both dealing with his web-slinging powers, and today I’m taking a look at the Web-Shooter variant!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man — Web-Shooter was released in the first series of the Spider-Man: The Animated Series line in 1994.  In contrast to the X-Men line, which was (mostly) a comics based line that happened to coincide with the show, the Spider-Man was a specifically cartoon-based line, with all of the official branding from the show, and Spider-Man figures clearly patterned on his show design.  Web-Shooter was pretty much the closest the first series got to just a standard Spidey.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Apart from lacking a right elbow joint due to the action feature, he’s got the basic set-up for the Toy Biz 5-inchers, plus a waist joint.  Not a bad set-up.  The figure’s sculpt is something I’ve actually sort of looked at before, because its two-up prototype served as the basis for the standard 10-inch Spidey.  It’s a good, solid, basic sculpt, which does most of what it needs to.  It’s perhaps a touch stiff for a Spidey, and the right arm is very limiting, especially given than the “web missile” is attached to a string and therefore cannot be removed.  There’s a reason so many of these show up loose with the string cut.  The color work on this figure is pretty standard for Spideys of the time, being an almost exact match for the Web Racer from the same series.  The early figures all utilized painted webs, and, honestly, I’ve come to prefer that over the years.  Otherwise, it’s bright and colorful, and just a good looking Spidey.  Since his “missile” was attached to him, Spidey’s only accessory was one of those plastic clips that mostly served as a way of padding the figures out for the appearance of value.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have either of the Series 1 Spider-Men as a kid, and both are much later, “hey it’s in front of me” sort of purchases, rather than actually actively wanting him…which is probably why this is one of those Toy Biz figures that I accidentally bought twice without even realizing it.  Whoops!  Well, I have him, and that’s the point.  He’s basic and a little limited by his action feature, but he’s certainly not bad.  Since we’d had so many Spider-Men from Toy Biz already at this point, experimenting a bit on these first two always felt like an okay choice.

#4116: Silver Fox

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

SILVER FOX

MAVEL HALL OF FAME (TOY BIZ)

“Bursting onto the scene are the most powerful heroes and villains. Leading the pack against evil is the gamma-powered savage She-Hulk and the she-devil of the Savage Land — Shanna! Keeping to the shadows is the enigmatic ninja, Elektra, while Silver Fox relies on her training as a top secret government operative. But it is the Viper, who uses her powers and abilities for personal gain, no matter what she must destroy to get it.”

Wolverine’s had a lot of ex-girlfriends, most of them dead, what with his advanced healing and all.  Given the kind of stuff he gets into, there’s frequently some convoluted stories that go along with them, but it’s hard to get past Silver Fox in that regard.  Though she’s not really been relevant since the ‘90s, that hasn’t stopped her storyline from remaining really confusing.  She’s definitely dead, perhaps even twice over, and maybe she’s two different people?  She appeared in the Animated Series and also X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but in both cases she seems to be using the name and little more, further confusing things.  Even her segment in the back of the box text up there doesn’t quite know what to do with her, just going for a rather generic “top secret government operative” rather than getting into that she was actually a rather highly placed operative in Hydra, which would, you know, make her not so great a person.  Given her short run and confusing nature, her comics incarnation has, unsurprisingly, only gotten one figure, courtesy of the Toy Biz run.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Silver Fox was released in the seventh series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Hall of Fame line.  It was the final assortment of the line, and also the third in the “She-Force” sub-set.  If you’re doing Silver Fox, I think it’s fair to say you might be scraping the bottom of the barrel just a little bit.  But, you know, here we were.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation, though the neck joint is pretty well restricted, so you’re not gonna be doing much with it.  The bulk of the figure is using the second Invisible Woman mold, which is a rather basic body that works for a lot of characters.  Curiously, it’s got a peg hole on the inner forearm of the right arm, which wasn’t there before.  Both she and Shanna from the same series have it, but I don’t really know why.  It’s not very visible, though, so it’s really not a big deal.  Her head is from Ninja Psylocke, which isn’t a bad match for her usual depictions.  The glue’s not great on the hair, though, so it pops off pretty easily.  She’s got a soft-goods cape, which is sort of awkward on the clasp, but otherwise is a nice material and hangs well.  Silver Fox’s paint work does the heavy lifting here, since it’s all parts re-use.  The black hair changes up the head sculpt pretty well, and the metallic green is a good choice for the body suit.  Silver Fox is packed with a blaster rifle, repainted from Cyborg Cable, as well as an Iron Man trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My knowledge of Silver Fox comes exclusively from the single episode of the cartoon where she appears, and is mostly paired off with Maverick.  I guess she’s okay in that one?  I can’t say she made a major impression, and drove me to actually track down the figure or anything.  But, when my wife and I took a trip to Factory Antique Mall last year, I did some Toy Biz hunting, and she was one of the figures I managed to snag.  She’s fine.  The hair thing’s kind of funny and silly, but she does the job alright, and, I mean, it’s literally the only option, so she’s got that going for her.  If you need a Silver Fox action figure, you just pretty much gotta, right?

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0089: Plastic Man

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

PLASTIC MAN

JLA (HASBRO)

Well, we’re here at the end of the week.  I mean, I hope we’re all here.  It’s been kind of a rough week for, you know, everyone getting through it.  You know what we need?  Levity!  So, for today’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, let’s have a look back at a silly stretchy sort of guy, with Plastic Man!

If there’s one super power that has a tendency to be underestimated, it’s shape-shifting, particularly of the stretching type. Mister Fantastic, arguably the most famous “stretchy” character out there often has that part of his talents down played to focus on his high-level intellect. I’ve always felt that was a shame. I love stretchy characters because I think they have a lot of potential for creativity on the part of the writer/artist. They’re just a whole lot of fun! In fact, one of my favorite characters of all time is the Elongated Man. He’s not the character I’m looking at today, but he almost would have been, had it not been for the fact that Julie Schwartz, one of the guys behind the creation of Elongated Man (and so many other Silver Age DC characters, but that’s more for a later time), didn’t remember that DC owned the name Plastic Man. Granted, EM would have still be the same character, just with Plastic Man’s name, similar to the Hal Jordan Green Lantern and the Barry Allen Flash. I’m getting a bit off topic, aren’t I?

For those of you who don’t know, Plastic Man is Eel O’Brien, a one-time crook who gets doused by a strange chemical and left behind by his gang during a heist. When he awakes, he discovers he has the ability to stretch his body into impossible shapes. He decides to use this power to bring his old partners to justice and creates the identity of Plastic Man. He was big in the 40s, but faded into obscurity until around the 80s, where he saw a bit of a resurgence in popularity, eventually leading to him joining the Justice League of America during Grant Morison’s run on the series in the 90s. But, what of the figure?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Plas was released in the 3rd series of Kenner’s JLA series. JLA was a line of figures exclusive to KB toys in the late 90s. They were made using retooled molds from Kenner’s Total Justice line from a few years previous. Plas’s inclusion in the line makes sense given his place on the titular team at the time. Plas has 5 points of articulation and stands about 7 inches tall with his neck fully extended. The line was in 5 inch scale, so he fits right in. The line used a few common pieces for certain figures, and Plas features the generic male torso, used by a few of the figures. The rest of the figure’s sculpt is unique. It all works together pretty well, though I can’t help but feel that the re-used torso looks a bit too stubby in comparison to the rest of the figure. The head and arms are cast in rubber with wires running through them, allowing you to pose the arms and neck in a variety of ways. The paint is passable. It’s fairly basic, but that fits with the rest of the line. The biggest issue with the paint is that it had some peeling issues on the rubber pieces, particularly the white on his goggles and teeth, which is almost gone on my figure. The hands have also suffered from some noticeable yellowing. Sadly, these are both issues of working with rubbery materials. I don’t know that anything could have been done to prevent them. Plas included a JLA logo stand, in red I believe.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Plas from the KB Toy outlet in the town where my family vacationed. I know I had seen the figure before, and had been interested in getting it, but I never did. My parents bought him and another JLA figure (I believe it was Impulse) for me, which was pretty cool. It’s actually not a bad figure, though it sadly did suffer from a few issues over time. I’d be curious if a Plas who had less playtime might have come out unscathed.

This review was published in the early spring of 2014, less than halfway through my first year working in the site.  It’s particularly wordy for the time, I feel, and also goes off topic a bit there.  Like, I talk for a very long time before getting to anything about Plastic Man.  I even get in an Elongated Man mention, eight whole years before reviewing any of my Elongated Man figures.  No clue why I waited so long, especially given I had two Plastic Man reviews in my first year.  I’m getting side-tracked again, and I’m not even actually reviewing this time!  Since the original review, I’ve found his red JLA-logo stand, and also done some work restoring some of the messed up paint, so he looks a lot closer to his original self.  With the paint fixed up, I do really like how that head sculpt works; it’s one of the nicer ones from this line.  Also, giving me David Byrne vibes?  In some alternate reality, maybe there’s an ‘80s Plastic Man movie starring Byrne in the role.  He’s certainly eccentric enough!

#4112: Jean Grey

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

JEAN GREY

MARVEL HALL OF FAME (TOY BIZ)

“It’s non-stop action when the Marvel Universe’s greatest heroines join forces against the power of the Black Queen! Locked in mortal combat with the notorious Queen, Jean Grey of the X-Men uses her telepathic powers to summon help. Jean is joined by fellow X-Man Storm, Avenger Ms. Marvel, and the mysterious Spider-Woman. Together, this team has all the power it needs to stop the Black Queen in her tracks!”

Hey, remember Marvel Hall of Fame, from way back in last month’s reviews?  Well, it’s back, in pog form!  Or, like, Jean Grey form, I guess.  Despite her rather prominent spot in the franchise and its various media adaptations, Toy Biz’s X-Men line was sparse on Jean Grey figures, especially her ‘90s outfit, was absent for most of the run.  It’s first real appearance in 5-inch form was not in the X-Men line at all, but rather Hall of Fame, where it cropped up as one of the line’s quick, slapdash repaints.  Let’s see how that turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jean Grey was released Series 2 of Marvel Hall of Fame, in 1996.  This was the Puzzle Zoo-exclusive line’s first “She-Force” assortment, before they really became a trend.  Jean was still in the Jim Lee get-up at the time, so this figure was more or less accurate to what was in the comics.  Sort of.  Let’s dig further into that.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation.  All of the Hall of Fame figures were repaints of some variety, and in Jean’s case she’s a complete re-use of the X-Force line’s Domino.  It’s…fine.  I do like that the figure gets proper hip joints, and not v-hips, but I don’t love the total lack of neck articulation or the odd swivels at the elbows.  In terms of actual costume design, while there are some similarities between the two costume designs if you squint, it’s not exactly a 1 for 1.  Generally, they do their best with the paint, which kind of tries to mimmic the layout of Jean’s costume.  The head gear is better than I’d expected, and the shoulders and wrists are pretty close, but it’s really the extraneous belts and pouches that ultimately throw it all off.  Also those crazy eyes.  Don’t love those crazy eyes.  Jean was packed with Domino’s guns and missiles, recolored to match better.  They make no sense at all for the character, but I do like the coloring at least.  Also included was a trading card, in my case Belladonna, Gambit’s ex.  I think she might be the most common card I’ve had turn up with these figures at this point.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember seeing the figure from time to time in the earlier days of my collecting, mostly in larger lots of figures online.  Something always felt rather off about her, though, and I’ve hesitated to track her down for many years because of that.  She’s actually the most recent addition to my Hall of Fame figures, in fact purchased as part of a larger Toy Biz lot, so I guess that’s just how she hits the market.  She’s odd, just from top to bottom.  I guess I can sort of see where they were trying to go with the costume similarities, but the thing is that Domino and Jean are very different characters with very different demeanors, and that translates to an odd match-up.  Ultimately, I don’t really love this one, but I admire what they were trying to do.

#4108: Shadow Dancer

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

SHADOW DANCER

X-MEN 2099 (TOY BIZ)

“Centuries ago, an alien spacecraft from a distant galaxy became trapped in a cave deep within the deserts of Oklahoma. Stranded, the craft’s lone survivor made the surrounding hills and mountains its home, undisturbed by the general populace. Despite its monstrous appearance, the Shadow Dancer is a being of peace, and uses its ability to blend into darkness to serve as silent guardian to those who pass through his desert.”

Toy Biz’s X-Men 2099 line might not have come even close to completing any line-up of the team from the book’s run, but at least they did include a bunch of non-team members, right?  Right.  Take for instance, the super crucial character, Shadow Dancer, who had all of three appearances.  Gotta get an action figure of that one, right?  Oh yeah.  So, let’s look at the Shadow Dancer, being of three appearances!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shadow Dancer is the final figure in the Series 2 line-up of the X-Men 2099 tie-in line, wrapping up an assortment that was light on characters from the titular team.  The figure stands right at 5 inches tall (and almost as wide) and has 7 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme is sort of oddball here.  There’s joints at the shoulders, elbows, and hips, as well as a swivel on the tail.  The hips and shoulders are pretty standard, but the elbows only move outward and inward, not up and down like usual.  It makes it so the Shadow Dancer can, at best, do sort of a hugging thing, while not really offering much other variety on posing.  At least the figure’s imposing stature makes up for it.  There’s no denying this figure sure is a big hunk of plastic, but it kind of needs to be, to accurately depict what’s in the comics.  The sculpt is appropriately big and monstrous, with some decent texturing and smaller detail work.  The jaw is hinged, and when you turn the dial on the figure’s back, it chatters up and down.  It’s gimmicky, but neat.  The color work on the Shadow Dancer is predominately a sort of maroon, which is molded, with a fair amount of dark silver accenting via paint work.  It’s nothing crazy, but it does what it needs too.  Shadow Dancer didn’t include any accessories, but given the size, it’s understandable.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As with almost the entirety of this line, I got Shadow Dancer in a big bulk lot of loose figures, back in 2020.  While I had to augment a lot of them with parts from other figures later, the Shadow Dancer, with its lack of smaller easily lost parts, was included in its entirety, which is pretty nifty.  There’s not a ton going on with this figure, but at the same time, there doesn’t really need to be.  It’s a big, chunky monster thing, with a rather neat and understated action feature.  And, I can say from the amusement it brought my son Matty when he was digging through my figures a few years  back, it does seem to resonate pretty well with that kid mindset.