Tag Archives: 90s

#3649: Aquaman

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

AQUAMAN

TOTAL JUSTICE (KENNER)

“Born in the underwater world of Atlantis, Arthur Curry leads a dual life as Aquaman, protector of the world’s oceans. He is able to “breathe” water, swim at speeds up to 100 miles per hour, and communicate with most sea life. Though his strength diminishes after prolonged exposure out of the water, Aquaman’s Fractal Techgear allows him to remain on land and battle villains with his blasting hydro spear for extended periods of time.”

Aquaman seems like he’s in this perpetual state of bouncing back and forth between everyone thinking he’s lame and the people responsible for his stories trying overcompensate for the perceived lame-ness by making him super edgy.  Perhaps the earliest instance of this was Peter David’s revamp of the character in the ’90s, a run which, amongst other things, had Arthur lose a hand and replace it with a hook.  Don’t ask how he lost it.  It’s really important that you don’t.  Because it made him very edgy and serious, and you don’t want to risk upsetting that.  To aid with the edginess, Arthur also grew a beard and long hair.  Edgy!  It was the ’90s, so there were toys abound, meaning this new Aquaman got coverage pretty darn quickly.  Let’s look at him today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Aquaman was released in 1996 as part of the first series of Kenner’s Total Justice line.  This was Kenner’s second time doing an Aquaman, following their Super Powers offering in the ’80s.  That one was, of course, in his classic attire, while this one was, as noted above, all edgy.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Well, 5-ish.  The neck joint’s pretty my useless, what with the hair, and the range on the hips is also pretty restricted.  You can spin those shoulders all the way around, though.  Total Justice figures are, of course, defined by their extreme posing.  Aquaman follows suit, and has perhaps one of the most extreme poses the line had to offer.  So extreme that he can barely even stand most of the time, which is a bit frustrating at times.  Why the pre-posing?  What exactly is the pose?  I have no clue.  The sculpt is…well, it’s also extreme.  There’s certainly a lot of detail going on there, with all those flexing muscles and everything.  It matches well with the typical depictions of Aquaman from the time, so I’ll certainly give them that.  Aquaman’s color scheme came in two set-ups; the standard had the shoulder armor in an off-black, while there was a variant that did it in gold, presumably in reference to his classic costume.  Beyond that detail, the paint work remains the same on the two figures.  It’s not a bad set-up, and all the major details are present and pretty cleanly handled.  In addition to the odd posing, one of the other signatures of Total Justice was the “fractal armor.”  Aquaman’s is a sort of purple-ish asymmetric set-up.  It’s very goofy, and it’s very ’90s, and I very much enjoy it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I may not be the world’s biggest Aquaman fan myself, but he’s one of my dad’s favorite characters, which does give me a bit of a link to the character.  My first figure exposure was my dad’s old Mego, which he had on display in my parents’ living room.  I wanted my own Aquaman, and this was really my only option at the time.  I got the standard one pictured above, I want to say from an Ames near where my family vacationed?  I might be totally off on that, but it’s what I’m visualizing.  He was well-loved, and my only Aquaman for a bit.  He lost the hook not terribly long after I got him, and it was never fixed.  I snagged the gold variant more recently, when a loose one came through All Time.  He’s oh so much a product of his time, more so than just about anything else in this line, and, honestly, that’s pretty fun.

#3644: Evil Bizzaro

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

EVIL BIZZARO

SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (KENNER)

While Kenner’s tie-in line for Batman: The Animated Series was far from lacking in made up variants of its main character, it still did an okay job of filling in the villains and supporting cast. For Superman: The Animated Series, things were a touch less balanced, especially notable given how much harder it was to make variants of Superman. The third assortment of the line was *just* Superman variants, which led to it being skipped at mass retail. Kenner tried to course correct for the next set, which had a whole three non-Superman figures. It wound up being too little too late for mass retail, but the set got a second life through Diamond, which, amongst other things, made sure we didn’t miss out on Bizarro!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Bizarro, or “Evil Bizzaro” as he was called on the packaging, was part of Series 4 of Kenner’s Superman: The Animated Series line, which was released domestically through comic shops via Diamond Distributors. He was also re-released under Hasbro alongside Supergirl and Metallo from the same series as part of the “Super Heroes vs Super Villains” boxed set. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation. His sculpt was totally unique to this figure, and honestly one of this particular line’s best. Kenner struggled with keeping these figures on-model to the show, especially when it came to proportions, but Bizarro is actually a pretty good match to his animation model. Even the rather notable pre-posing isn’t a terrible departure from Bizarro’s usual poor posture in the show. Bizarro’s color scheme here isn’t bad. The purple’s a little closer to lavender than it really should be, and his belt is green for some unknown reason, but generally the look is good. Bizarro is packed with a wheel and a gear, molded in grey for this one, which is the single release, or in block for the boxed set version. The figure has a wheel in his back, which, when turned, spins his arms in opposite directions, allowing him to swing his accessories back and forth.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I owned one figure from Series 4, and it wasn’t this guy. My first Bizarro was actually one of the Mattel ones, though I always wanted one of these. I got my shot at him a little bit back, when a bag of DC animated figures got traded into All Time, and Max and I split the contents. He’s one of the best this line had to offer, so I’m glad I finally got one.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3636: Parallax

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

PARALLAX

TOTAL JUSTICE (KENNER)

Fun FiQ Fact #0115: According to Wikipedia, a parallax is “the difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight,” which is honestly not a terrible name to attach to a former hero driven to extremism.

Growing up, thanks to my dad’s old comics and re-runs of Challenge of the Super Friends, I became rather attached to Hal Jordan, despite his having been replaced by Kyle Rayner in the role before I started reading comics.  Options for Hal figures were, admittedly, a little limited in the ’90s, with the only option in 5-inch scale being not a Green Lantern figure, but Parallax, Hal’s villainous turn from the comics.  Of course, in my collection, he was never *really* villainous.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Parallax was released in Series 3 of Kenner’s Total Justice, which wound up being the line’s last series.  Each set got one “villain”, which was Parallax…I guess.  Like I said, never so much to my eyes.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Total Justice‘s sculpts were always very heavy on the pre-posing, and Hal’s no exception.  This one’s definitely one of the better ones; Hal’s flair for the dramatic during this era translates well into the sculpt, and he’s got a pose that reads as dynamic, without being too absurd. The sculpted elements of the costume are a pretty good match for the source material (certainly a closer match than McFarlane’s attempt from two decades later), and there’s a nice sharpness to them. The head’s my favorite part of the whole thing, capturing Hal’s likeness, while also getting the crazed expression he was so wont to have during this period of time. The last set of Total Justice got a lot of its paint budget slashed, resulting in a lot of unpainted elements. For his part, Parallax was pretty fortunate, getting all of the base details he was supposed to, and really only missing out on a few metallic details. The end result still looks totally fine, and you’d be unlikely to guess what was cut if you didn’t know it was supposed to be there. Another notable change-up for the last round was making the accessories into things that made a little more sense for the characters. Rather than “fractal armor”, Parallax gets a missile launcher and a shield, both molded in clear green.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I had a few Total Justice figures when they came out, but Series 3 was pretty rare at the time. I wanted a Parallax, of course, since he was the only option for Hal, but it took a bit for me to find one. I wound up getting him just a few years after his release, at a toy show my dad took me to, I think for my birthday. He’s a solid figure, even now, and remains my favorite of the Total Justice line-up.

#3626: The Beast

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

THE BEAST — SPACE RIDERS

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0105: The Beast’s real name is Henry McCoy, and he’s a doctor, which can get real confusing if you call him Dr. McCoy while he’s on a space mission.

Spaaaaaaaaaaaaace Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiders!!!!!!  Oh, yeah, gonna look at some more Space Riders.  You know, cuz it’s a set of five and I’ve looked at four of them, so, like, let’s wrap that up, I guess.  Now, the undeniable heavy hitters of the set are Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey, so they’re a lock.  Xavier does a lot with the space side of things, and he’s rarer with action figure coverage, so he’s decent.  But, if you’re doing five of them?  Who else do you do?  There’s got to be some degree of playing favorites, I suppose.  Whatever the chase, the choice was Beast, whose scientifically-inclined mind certainly sets him up for success in a space-faring environment.  So, here he is, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Beast is the fifth and final figure from the “Space Riders” set that Toy Biz released in 1997 as part of their X-Men line.  The figure stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme is fine.  Restricted a bit, since he doesn’t have any elbow or wrist movement.  Also, he lacks any ankle movement, which was kind of a standard for Beast, to help with his crouching poses.  This one has to rely on some slightly more awkward posing to accomplish it.  The figure’s design goes for the “add some armor to the character’s usual look” angle, which we saw with both Jean and Logan.  In Beast’s case, that means a good portion of his body is just completely uncovered, which doesn’t really seem ideal for space, but, you know, maybe there’s a good scientific explanation for it?  Hank would probably know, I guess.  Beast’s sculpt is all-new, like the rest of the set.  It’s a rather unique one, not really following in the footsteps of any of the other Beast figures Toy Biz put out.  It’s…interesting.  The head keeps the hair more tame and refined, more in line with his earlier furred appearances.  The face isn’t quite right for that, though, and feels kind of, I don’t know, un-Hank McCoy-like.  The body sculpt has a good variety of textures, which at least keeps things visually interesting.  The fur texturing in particular is quite impressive.  The color work on this figure is a lot of blue and yellow, consistent with the others in the set.  The paint application is notably cleaner on this guy than the other four, at least for my set, which I certainly like.  As with the others in the set, Hank is packed with a face mask and a big space sled thing.  His sled is, understandably, much larger than the others.  It’s got a lot more vertical play, and there’s a large cannon thing…I don’t know that it works as well as a vehicle on its own as some of the others, but it works well as part of the larger interlocking vehicle assembly.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

After passing on the whole set many times when they were new, I finally managed to snag a whole set of them this past fall, courtesy of Factory Antique Mall.  Beast, much like the figure proper, was just along for the ride.  If I was getting the whole set, I was getting him.  He’s not as phoned in as Jean, but he’s definitely not the strongest entry in the set either.  But, I have the whole set, and they do look pretty fun together.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0021: Polaris

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

POLARIS

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Whaaaaaaaaat!?! Another one of these addendums? So soon? You betcha! I don’t like bringing them back for just one thing, so, umm, I’m not! Ha-haaa! We’re keeping this Toy Biz Marvel bit rolling, but jumping quite a bit ahead in my reviews, all the way to 2021, when I reviewed Polaris!

“Lorna Dane, a long-time friend to the X-Men, is the mutant known as Polaris! Able to manipulate the forces of magnetism, she has learned to utilize her powers in various ways, such as creating force fields and firing pure bolts of magnetic energy! As a member of the government sanctioned X-Factor Team, Polaris will not hesitate to use her powerful mutant abilities to help the X-Men whenever she is needed!”

“Long-time friend” kind of down plays that whole period in the ’60s when she was an actual member of the team.  Or that period in the ’80s when she was an actual member of the team.  Heck, you can’t even use the “maybe they were trying to keep it in line with the cartoon” excuse, because, there too, she was an actual member of the team.  What I’m getting at here is a simple question: why does this unnamed Toy Biz copy writer have a personal vendetta against Lorna Dane?  Is it because of all the times she’s been brainwashed and crazy?  Because you’re going to have to rule out, like, 90% of the X-Men, if that’s your thing.  I will not stand for this slander libel against Lorna.  It’s unreasonable, I tell you!  I’m so mad, I’m gonna review this action figure.  I know, that’s so out of character for me.  See?  See how mad I am?  It’s your move, person that wrote the packaging text on a figure from 25 years ago for a toy company that’s been defunct for over a decade…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Polaris was released in the “Flashback Series” of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, which hit shelves in 1996, and was the 15th assortment in the line.  It was that year’s requisite repaint series, which they’d gotten somewhat attached to, I suppose.  Polaris marked the third member of the ’90s X-Factor team added, and would be the last one added to the mainstream line.  She’s ostensibly in her ’90s team attire, but I’ll get a bit more into that in a moment.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation.  Since it was a repaint series, Polaris is, unsurprisingly, a repaint, specifically of the Series 6 Rogue figure.  It’s not a terrible sculpt, I suppose, but it was a little outdated by this point, making her a little stiffer than other figures from the same year.  And, while the overall design of the character matches up alright with the sculpt if you squint, it’s not a super close match, and ends up amalgamating a few of her different X-Facter looks.  It’s seems to be closest to the sleeveless with headband look she had slightly later in the run, but adds a jacket to the mix (since Rogue’s was sculpted in place), and somewhat awkwardly recreates a few of her costume design elements by ignoring or reinterpreting the actual sculpted Rogue elements.  This is largely done by the paint work, which does the heavy lifting to make Rogue look like Polaris.  Honestly, it does a pretty respectable job, and while it looks like she’s a repaint, she’s at least distinctly different enough to not look totally out of place if both figures are on the shelf.  Polaris was packed with a removable belt, and a weird translucent green gun thing…I suppose to make up for Rogue’s general lack of the obligatory unnecessary gun?  She also keeps Rogue’s “Power Upper Punch” action feature, which is a little out of place with Lorna, but it’s a part of the sculpt, so it stays.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had Havok in my X-Men collection from the very beginning, so I couldn’t very well not have Polaris to go with him, right?  I got her back when she was new, and if I’m recalling correctly, I believe she was given to me by my parents, alongside the second of the two X-Men carrying cases I had as a kid.  I’m fairly certain I actually got her before Rogue, which made her stand out a bit more in my collection at the time.  She’s perhaps not the most exciting or inventive figure in the line, but she’s not a bad figure either, and that places her into the half of the “Flashback” assortment that wasn’t totally pointless.  Good for her.

Man, I really let that poor nameless Toy Biz copywriter have it, didn’t I?  Really didn’t like the “friend of the X-Men” bit.  In my defense, I was going through some stuff.  And, you know, the bio was wrong.  And boy do I have trouble letting that sort of thing slide.  Also, in re-reading this for the purposes of this addendum, I caught, like, a bunch of typos in this one.  So, I’ve fixed them, so as to eliminate all the evidence make it easier to read.  Beyond the horrible typo-related sins, it’s a decent review.

When I reviewed the figure originally, I had lost her gun and belt, though I didn’t actually note the omission within the text.  I got both of them via a trade-in that showed up at All Time, so now my figure is back up to her full ’90s standards.  Hooray!  And, while I was at it with the new accessorized photos, I also went back and fixed the visible whole in my backdrop that was still present in the original pictures.  Because, you know, it looked bad.

#3621: Jean Grey

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

JEAN GREY — SPACE RIDERS

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0100: “The Dark Phoenix Saga” is the proper storyline to be published in the trade paperback format by Marvel.

You guys didn’t forget about the Space-themed X-Men figures, did you?  Because I certainly haven’t.  They’ve been sitting on the floor of my room for months, and, you know, I kinda wanna not have them there.  Reviewing them seems like the easiest way to go about that, honestly.  I’ve done Wolverine and Cyclops, so might as well do the third point on the triangle and get Jean Grey reviewed!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jean Grey is the fourth member of the deluxe-sized “Space Riders” assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, which was released in 1997.  The figure stands a little under 5 inches tall and she has 8 points of articulation (which includes a spinning ponytail).  Jean is lacking the single wrist swivel that a bunch of the others in the set got, which is a bummer.  In general, she’s a bit stiffer, I feel.  Her sculpt is all-new, and it’s…fine.  Her design is dialed very closely into the Jim Lee look, making this the closest the main X-Men line got to actually doing that look during the ’90s.  Crazy, huh?  It’s pretty much just that look, with some extra armoring.  The sculpt is rather on the soft side, especially on the head.  It’s in rather stark contrast to the heads on Cyclops and Wolverine, which are easily the best parts of their respective sculpts.  For Jean, that would be…I don’t know, maybe her boots?  Those seem pretty nice.  Jean’s paint work is fine.  It checks the boxes, but like the rest of the set, it’s thick and a little sloppy.  Jean is packed with her own Space Racer, which has folding wings, and a pair of missiles.  She’s also got a mask piece, though hers is missing any actual enclosing around the mouth, which feels like it defeats the purpose.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I actually got this one before the others, when a sealed one came through All Time a few years ago.  I even had to fight Max for it.  Okay, not really.  He wanted it, but I said I didn’t have one, and he told me I got first dibs on Toy Biz Marvel, which was very considerate.  No actual fighting.  Probably for the best, really, since she’s…well, she’s not amazing.  I mean, I guess she’s not terrible, but she certainly feels like the most phoned-in of the figures thus far.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0020: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

It’s been a year and a half since I’ve done one of these, but it’s Friday, and I’ve got some addending to do, so, behold, a new Flashack Friday Figure Addedum!  I’m diving back into an older Toy Biz Marvel review, from way back in the site’s very first year, waaaaaaaaaaaay back in 2014.  I hadn’t even seen The Winter Soldier when I wrote this!  Crazy!  So, let’s look back around to Captain America!

By the time this review is posted, I will have seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier.  I’m hoping that I love it as much as I am expecting to, but I’ll just have to wait and see (EDIT: I saw it!  It was amazing.  Go check it out!).  In the meantime, to celebrate the release of the movie, I’ll be taking a look at my very first Captain America action figure.  Back before Cap was the household name he is now, the only way to get a Cap figure was in the tie-in line to the Spider-Man cartoon, of all places.  Cap had just made an appearance on the show, so Toybiz was gracious enough to put him in the eighth series of the line, dubbed Electro-Spark.  How does the figure hold up almost 20 years later? Let’s find out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

 

The Spider-Man line was 5 inch scale, but Cap was a big guy, standing almost 6 inches tall and featuring 9 points of articulation.  Toybiz seemed intent on depicting Cap as quite the hulking figure (not that one).  He’s so big, it’s almost like his super-soldier serum took super-soldier serum.  This was not a Cap you wanted to mess with!  The sculpt had some nice touches, particularly the scale texture on Cap’s torso, which is simple, but very effective.  The gloves and boots also show a nice level of detail.  There’s lots of folds and creases, making them stand out nicely.  The face depicts Cap in a very angry state, which wouldn’t be my first go to for the character, but it was the 90s.  Everybody gritted their teeth like that.  The paint work on Cap was simple, but it fits with the time, and it was fairly cleanly applied.  I quite like the stylizing of the “A” on the forehead.  Cap included his mighty shield, though this is probably my biggest issue with the figure.  The shield was reworked to give it some sort of light-up feature, which means it’s really small and like an inch thick. Plus, the star’s not even the right color!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I mentioned in the intro, Cap was my very first figure of the character.  It was also the only version available for a few years, so this is what I had to live with.  The figure is probably one of the most dated sculpts of the old Spider-Man line, but I can’t help but love it.  I guess I just got used to what I had.  AS a kid, there was no thrill like getting to watch my VHS copies of the Ruby-Spears Captain America cartoon while holding this figure.

Here’s the part where I get all hyper-critical of my old writing.  I mean, a little.  Honestly, this one’s not bad.  It breaks format a bit, since his release info is in the intro, and the “Figure Itself” segment jumps right to the stats of the figure.  Also, it should be “Toy Biz was generous enough” not “Toybiz was gracious enough.”  Wrong “g” word past-Ethan!  Beyond that, the review covers its bases pretty well.

What it *doesn’t* cover is the extra accessories I didn’t have at the time.  In addition to that surprisingly thick shield, Cap also got a weird transforming plane/jetpack thing.  It’s extra goofy and silly, but, hey, why stop that now.  I honestly had completely forgotten the whole thing at the time of my original review.  But, thanks to an assist from Max (who I totally am gonna blame, by the way), I got a second copy of this Cap, which had all of his accessories, and look, now he’s all complete!

#3616: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS — SPACE RIDERS

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0095: While Cyclops’s only space suited appearance in X-Men: The Animated Series kept his usual headgear from the show under his helmet, his fully cowled look showed up under his space suit in the “Pryde of the X-Men” pilot.

Hey, you know those X-Men Space figures I was talking about last week? Those are pretty fun. Wanna read about them some more? Well, I sure hope so. And, hey, this time it’s a Cyclops. Can never get enough of the Cyclopes!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is the third piece of the “Space Riders” assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, released as a deluxe item in 1997.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  Like the rest of this line-up, Cyclops’s sculpt was an all-new one, based on a wholly original design for the character.  Cyclops’s design is definitely drawing a fair bit of its visual elements from the Jim Lee design, which makes a fair bit of sense.  One of the neat things about this particular release, however, was the presence of his cowled look, which hadn’t been featured in the main X-Men line since the first series*.  It’s fun to see how far the line’s sculpting had progressed since those early figures.  There’s definitely a lot of stylization to this one, and I’m not *entirely* sure how I feel about the weird sneering expression.  The body sculpt is a bit stiff, which was common with these figures.  The armored elements definitely feel a little bit tacked on and random, especially on the arms.  I’m not sure that suits a character like Cyclops, but it does at least feel pretty consistent with this era of X-Men designs.  The proportions are also a little bit wacky, with that left hand in particular being…just odd.  I don’t know.  It’s, like, too large, and also something seems off about his fingers.  The color work on this guy is pretty by the numbers.  It’s a lot of blue and yellow, and, honestly, what more could you ask of a Cyclops.  The paint’s not nearly as sloppy on this figure as it was on Wolverine, which is certainly a plus.  It’s still a little bit sloppy, of course, but nothing beyond the usual expected level for this era of Toy Biz.  Cyclops is packed with his face mask, his big inter-locking space sled, and some disc projectiles (missing from my copy).  I don’t like this mask quite as much as the Wolverine one; the visor bit is cool enough, but the shaping just seems a little off, and I don’t much care for the extra hose leading to his hand.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Cyclops was the only one of these I had as a kid.  And I didn’t even have the space sled bit!  Really, I had looked at him a bunch of times and came very close to buying him (largely for that cool cowled head), but he was gone from retail by the time I’d truly made up my mind.  So, I wound up getting a loose one, at a toy show, I believe.  Or maybe it was a Comic Con?  I don’t know.  I remember fishing him out of a big cardboard box.  I was pretty excited at the time, but I did regret missing out on his extra gear.  Thankfully, I found a full set, and he came with it, so that was pretty fun.

*Though the look would have shown up again on a more proper ’70s/’80s Cyclops figure had the second round of Missile Flyers not been cancelled.

#3611: Wolverine – Space Rider

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

WOLVERINE — SPACE RIDER

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0090: The X-Men have had their share of space-faring adventures, but Wolverine in particular was particularly well-suited to space battle, with three different space suit-wearing figures in Toy Biz’s ’90s X-Men line.

Back during this site’s first year of reviews, I looked at the first of a set of five X-Men figures, the “Space Riders.”  It’s been 10 years, but, well, I’m finally looping back around, I guess.  I’ve been in a particularly X-Men themed mood, especially when it comes to the ’90s era.  I can’t imagine why that might be.  Anyway, since I’m going for that nostalgia vibe, why not also be nostalgic about my own work, while I’m at it!  So, let’s look at Space Riders Wolverine, and hope I don’t get flashbacks to the Day of the Wolverines.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wolverine was released in 1997 as part of the “Space Riders” sub-line of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  They were one of two sets of more deluxe themed figures from the year, the other being “Savage Land” themed.  Talk about your extremes.  The figure stands just over 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  Wolverine’s sculpt was unique to him, although it’s certainly got some similarities to the Water Wars Wolverine, showing more of a consistent take on the character during this year of releases.  We’d shrugged off the gargantuan stature that Wolverine picked up in the mid-run of the Toy Biz line, which is nice.  He’s got a built-in crouch to him, which is also proper for the character, and there’s an intensity to the detailing, especially the facial sculpt (which is also where the most similarities to the Water Wars sculpt crop up).  His space suit design is using the core Wolverine Tiger Striper look, but with extra armored bits stuck on, largely on the arms, but also the shoulders and boots a but.  It doesn’t come across as incredibly practical for space travel, but it does at least read as a solid take on Wolverine.  The paint work on this figure is astoundingly sloppy.  Honestly, just some of the worst I’ve seen on a Toy Biz offering, even from this era.  Like, there’s a whole rather sizable spot of just straight missed paint on his “trunks,” and the yellow paint on his armor looks to have been thrown in the general direction of the sculpted elements, but not actually purposefully applied.  It’s rough.  Wolverine is packed with a fun removable face-mask, which I sure do love, as well as his space sled, which serves for all that “space racing” he’s got to be doing.  His sled has built-in claws, so, you know, very on brand.  It interlocks with the rest of the sleds, so you can build one extra big one.  This one’s definitely geared to go at the front, but there’s still some modularity to it.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I remember seeing this set a good many times at KB Toys when I was a kid, and I always thought they were cool, but I only ever got a loose Cyclops growing up.  I picked up the Xavier I reviewed back in 2014, but I’ve been looking to fill in the rest of the set for a while.  And fill in the rest of the set I did.  I managed to find them all in one shot, at Factory Antiques, when I stopped there to break up the drive back home from my Grandmother’s funeral back in the fall.  Given how many of the visits to KB Toys where I didn’t buy these where taken with her, I suppose it was ultimately rather appropriate.  Wolverine is goofy and silly, and exactly what I expected out of this set.

#3595: ShadowHawk

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

SHADOWHAWK

SPAWN (MCFARLANE TOYS)

Fun FiQ Fact #0074: Today’s review increases my Spawn line reviews by 50%!

Hey, remember back in 2017, when I reviewed a ShadowHawk figure?  Well, this review is gonna be very similar because, um, the figures are also very similar?  Because, if there’s one thing McFarlane has always enjoyed, it’s very easy variants.  And early on, he made up a lot of very easy variants, exclusively for the purpose of having very easy variants.  Here’s one of those.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

ShadowHawk was released in Series 4 of McFarlane’s Spawn line.  I’ve already reviewed the standard black and silver edition, but this is the bronze variant.  He was bronze, instead of black, for, um, reasons?  It doesn’t correspond to a specific comics thing as far as I know, much like the weird gold DC variants more recently don’t correspond to anything specific either.  Like the other figure, he stands about 6 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Sculpturally, he’s identical to the standard version, which is a fun enough toy, even if it’s not *super* accurate to Jim Valentino’s design for the character.  It’s still got the whole “can’t remove the weapons” bit going on, which is odd to say the least, but it is what it is.  The change-up here is the paint work.  It’s about the same quality as the standard, but with bronze in place of the black, and a slightly duller version of the silver, which is molded, rather than painted like on the standard.  It’s nowhere near as striking as the main scheme; he kind of looks like a dirty penny.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I bought the standard ShadowHawk figure on a whim seven years ago, and I honestly really dug him.  I wasn’t going to go hunting for this one, but All Time got a huge ’90s Spawn collection, and there he was, and I caved (and, in fact, there were two of him, so Max and I both caved separately for the same figure).  He’s different.  Not better different.  But, different different.  Also, seven years later, I realize I haven’t yet read any ShadowHawk despite saying  should at the end of the *last* review.  I should get on that.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.