Tag Archives: 90s

#0242: Iceman -Armored

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

ICEMAN – ARMORED

X-MEN

IcemanArmored

Like I said yesterday, the 90s X-Men line was very important to me when I was growing up. It’s still one of my favorite lines, and I still enjoy picking up figures I don’t have when I see them. Today, I’m looking at another version of founding X-Man, Iceman. Let’s have a look!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iceman was released as part of the “Mutant Armor” Series of the Toybiz X- Men line. Or, if you’re a fan of typos on mass released toys, the “Muntant Armor” Series. The figure stands around 5 inches tall and features 9 points of articulation, as well as an action feature that allows the height of the ice on his back to be raised. The figure is based primarily on Iceman’s design from the 90s X-Men crossover “Age of Apocalypse.” The figure creates this look by reusing the body of Iceman II, released in the “Invasion” series of the X-Men line, with a new head. The body is a nice replication of the “spiky” look that Iceman sported for a good portion of the 90s. The head features the character’s mouth-less look from the crossover, which looks pretty cool! The figure’s paint is a little uneven, in all honesty. They’ve attempted to do an air-brushed mist look on the figure, but it doesn’t really work. It’s really heavy on the head and neck, but practically non-existent on the rest of the figure, which makes for a jarring change. Being part of the “Mutant Armor” Series, Iceman is packed with hand and feet attachments to armor him up.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Just like the last 3 reviews, this Iceman was purchased from the Balticon dealer’s room. I mostly picked him up because he was a 5-inch X-Men figure I didn’t already have, and he was $3. He’s a pretty neat figure, and probably one of the more interestingly sculpted figures in the line. He was definitely worth the purchase!

#0241: Iceman

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

ICEMAN

X-MEN

Iceman

I’m not quite sure how much I’ve touched on this, but Toybiz’s X-Men line from the 90s was incredibly important to forming my collecting habits. It was a very expansive line, and offered me the opportunity to own almost every character from the 90s cartoon in plastic form. To this day, it remains one of my all-time favorite lines of figures. Sure, some of the figure’s haven’t aged the greatest, but they instill me with lots of fond memories. Today, I’ll be taking a look at the coolest X-Man around, Iceman!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This version of Iceman was actually released twice. Once in the third series of Toybiz’s X-Men line, and later as part of another X-Men line released exclusively to Kaybee Toys a few years later. This particular is from the later release, but the two figures are virtually indistinguishable. The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and features 9 points of articulation. The figure is based on Iceman’s classic design, but the cuffed boots seem to indicate his late silver age design. The figure is molded in clear plastic so as to replicate Bobby in his full ice mode, after he learned how to actually transform himself into ice. The sculpting is actually pretty good for an early 90s piece, though his hands do seem a little bit on the large side. Still, the figure has a grade blocky sculpt that really makes him look like he’s been chiseled out of ice. The paint work is pretty simple but what’s there is pretty good. They’ve used some white paint to do some “icicle” detailing. It looks a bit strange to be honest, but it’s not too apparent when the figure is on display. Iceman includes a stand shaped like an ice sled. There’s a block around the foot pegs that could be filled with water, which could in turn be frozen around the figure’s feet, allowing you to make an actual ice sled. It’s gimmicky, but it’s an entertaining gimmick at least.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was purchased in the Balticon dealer’s room this past Memorial Day. This is actually the second of this figure I’ve bought. I got the first one years ago from Kaybee Toys. However, I used that one’s freeze gimmick numerous times, and little did I know that this would cause the figure’s clear plastic to become more brittle. My poor first figure’s legs bot snapped off at the hips, which was a serious bummer (that’s actually him in the Wilson photo; you can even see the apoxy holding his legs in place). When I saw this figure in a box with a bunch of other 5 inch X-Men, I was more than happy to once again have this guy in my collection. I certainly won’t be putting this one in the freezer!

#0216: Batman – Power Armor

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BATMAN – POWER ARMOR

BATMAN BEYOND

In the 90s, the DC Animated Universe was in its prime. Kenner held the license for the toys, and they were doing some pretty great stuff too. Batman: The Animated Series got a great line, with the majority of the characters seeing release. Sure, it wasn’t all winners, but it was a decent line.  Superman: The Animated Series came along, and while Kenner didn’t quite have the nice selection that B:TAS had gotten, most of the key characters had been released in their basic looks. And then, there was Batman Beyond. Oh, boy was there Batman Beyond. The show was great, but the toyline released along with it was… strange to say the least. For starters, they never actually released a proper normal Batman, and the supporting cast and villains were pretty much non-existent. They weren’t bad toys per say, but they didn’t do the cartoon justice. Case in point, today I’ll be looking at the line’s release of BB’s alter ego, Terry McGuinness, wearing that red and gray power armor he was so known to wear…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Okay, officially, this wasn’t a Terry McGuinness figure. He was actually labeled “Power Armor Batman” on the box. Let’s be real here: people didn’t buy this figure because it was “Power Armor Batman,” they wanted the Terry McGuinness head. Anyway, the figure was released in one of the later assortments of the first series of Kenner’s Batman Beyond line. The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and features 5 points of articulation. Kenner were big fans of the 5 and 5 set-up. From a purely technical standpoint, the sculpted work on the figure is pretty top notch. The circuits in his underlying suit look great, and the head is the spitting image of Terry’s appearance on the show. Stylistically, the figure’s body sculpt is completely wrong for the designs of the show, but it was in keeping with the rest of the line, so at least Kenner was consistent. The paint work is passable, with no real slop or bleed over (though mine has suffered some minor wear). For some reason, they’ve gone with a bright red and gray color scheme. Terry’s Batsuit on the show had red circuitry, so I suppose that’s what they were going for, but the light gray armor is just plain weird. The figure was accessorized with several snap-on armor pieces, a removable helmet, and a robotic bird. It’s red, green and yellow, so maybe they were going for a Robin thing? Yep, according to the package, it’s a strike R.O.B.I.N. Okay then.*

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Odd variants aside, I was very excited for the Batman Beyond line at the time of its release. I actually recall seeing this figure at the store several months before I actually got one. I saw the figure on a trip to the store with my parents, who told me I’d have to get it some other time. Little did they know that it would end up being one of the harder to find figures in the line. So, months went by, and I just assumed I’d missed my chance at the figure. Then, on another routine trip to the store, I wandered to the toy aisle, where I found this figure, as well as Blight. My parents were more than happy to get them for me this time around. As strange as this line was, I still have a major soft spot for those two figures in particular. Plus, they actually are pretty good toys!

*While doing some research on this figure, I discovered that Kenner did a repaint of this figure in more appropriate colors for their Deluxe line. He was dubbed “Strikecycle Batman,” if you’re curious. 

#0198: T-1000

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

T-1000

MOVIE MANIACS

Terminator 2 is a very good movie. In fact, it’s probably one of my top 5 favorite movies. A lot of that is because of the film’s primary villain, the T-1000. That guy was just super cool!

Back in the early days of “collectible action figures” McFarlane Toys put out a line called the Movie Maniacs, which was a compilation of figures from lots of famous horror, suspense, and slasher movies. The figures featured detailed sculpts, which was new at the time, but were rather infamous for their lack of useful articulation. Amongst their figures they released were both the T-800 and the T-1000 from T2.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The T-1000 was released as part of the fourth series of Movie Maniacs. He has a few possible looks, but overall, he’s based on the character’s appearance from the last act of the film. The figure is about 7 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation. As with the rest of MM, he has very little articulation, and what he does have only really allows for one real pose. It kind of sucks compared to recent stuff, but it wasn’t too bad for the line. At least the T-1000 had an okay default pose, which is more than can be said for a lot of the MM releases. The sculpt is pretty good, especially for the time. It has more than a passing resemblance to Robert Patrick. The body is better work, with lots of nice textures, folds, and such. The paint work is okay, though there is some serious slop in some areas, and some of the flesh toned areas almost look like they’ve been dunked in mud. The figure does feature a nice selection of accessories, including a whole extra torso, head and arms for his exploded look, a hand gun, swap out hook hands, and a display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually hadn’t yet seen T2 at the time of this figure’s release, so I didn’t get it new. I ended up picking this figure up from my local comic book store (Cosmic Comix & Toys, for those of you in the area), got in a large collection of loose action figures. I fished out the T-1000 and all his pieces, which quite excited me! To top it all off, the store owner sold it for $3. It’s not a perfect figure, but it’s a pretty good one, and for that price, it was more than worth it.

#0192: Jawas

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

JAWAS

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II

Kenner’s Power of the Force II was a very important to my toy collection. The line first hit in 1995, when I was 3 and just beginning to get into action figures. Needless to say, I ended up with quite the selection of figures from the line. One of my favorite subsets of creatures from the original Star Wars was always the Jawas. For some reason, I just love those little guys! So, today’s review covers POTF II’s release of those.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The Jawas were released as part of the 1996 assortment of POFT II figures. They were released as a pair to make up for their smaller stature. The taller one stands about 3 ¼ inches tall and has 5 points of articulation. The shorter one is about 2 ¾ inches, and has 4 points of articulation. In both cases, I’m counting the neck as a point of articulation, but there isn’t very much motion that can be gotten out of either. The sculpts are both pretty good for the time. The taller one is a little bit more detailed, but that’s not too surprising given the difference in size. However, the smaller one still has some very nice detail work. The paint on the pair is fairly basic, but everything is cleanly applied, with no noticeable slop on either figure. Both figures also have a light-piping feature, which allows their eyes to light up. It’s a bit obvious where the clear plastic is on the heads, so I could see some people being annoyed by this. I’m not really bugged by it, but I chalk that up to nostalgia.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t remember exactly when or where I got this pair, but I know it wasn’t too long after I got Dagobah Luke. If I recall correctly, they were bought for me by my Mom, while we were out on an excursion together. I always really liked these figures, and I do seem to recall the taller one getting a spare lightsaber, and thereby being a Jedi-Jawa!

 

Incidentally, my brother Christian had a quick comment about these figures while I was reviewing them:

“This figure likes to go MARTINI too many damn times. I don’t see why they made this figure. It’s a piece of SHIET! Why do I need to feel bad about my life when I already have the war to care about?”

Yeah, he’s a bit on the strange side…

#0188: Eric the Red

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

ERIC THE RED

X-MEN (TOYBIZ)

Eric the Red was a famous Viking, known for being the father of—wait, sorry. That’s not the right Eric the Red. Right. Umm… Eric the Red was an alias used by X-Man Cyclops in order to infiltrate a group of villains so he could rescue the rest of the X-Men. What? Still not right? Hang on….

Here it is: Eric the Red was a member of the Shi’ar Empire, the alien race most notable for really hating the Phoenix. He actually stole the identity from Cyclops, for reasons unknown, and used Shi’ar tech to mind control Havok and Polaris into battling the current team of X-Men. Mostly, he’s known for his appearances in the 90s X-Men cartoon during the show’s version of The Phoenix Saga, which is what earned him this figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Eric the Red was released in the “Invasion Series” of ToyBiz’s X-Men line. In all honesty, I’m a bit surprised he wasn’t part of the wave meant to tie-in to The Phoenix Saga, but I guess ToyBiz was just making everything X-Men related at the time. The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation. That’s a bit less than the norm, mostly due to his lack of knee joints. I’m not really sure why he’s missing them, but they do cause him to be a little difficult to get to stand properly. From a sculpting standpoint, the figure’s amazing. The 90s X-Men line could be a bit odd or overly simplistic at times (doesn’t mean I don’t still love them), but this one is genuinely great. He pretty much looks dead on to Dave Cockrum’s interpretation of the character, which is really cool to see. There’s an amazing amount of sculpted detail, and I especially love how well the head’s been handled. It just looks perfect. The paint work isn’t quite as astounding as the sculpting, but it’s all well applied, and I do really like that all the red parts have been molded in metallic red. Eric included a crazy space blaster, which fit very nicely in his hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Eric was a Christmas gift from my parents. I received him, along with Havok, I believe. He was a very early addition to my action figure collection, and as such, I have a lot of nostalgia for this guy. It also helps that he was in The Phoenix Saga, which I owned on VHS, and that he is also just a pretty great figure. He also made for a really great bad guy for just about anyone to fight, which is always cool.

#0186: Kraven The Hunter

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KRAVEN THE HUNTER

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

Remember my review of Unmasked Spider-Man from just last week? Good, that means this intro can be a bit shorter. Like that figure, this one hails from ToyBiz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series line from the 90s, and also comes from one of the boxed sets ToyBiz released exclusively through BJ’s Wholesalers. This time around, it’s Kraven the Hunter, one of the classic Spider-Man foes. He was a hunter looking for a more exciting hunt, which led to him fighting Spidey on numerous occasions and eventually joining the first incarnation of the Sinister Six. Let’s see how he turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kraven was released in the BJ’s exclusive Monster Mayhem set, which also included 5 other figures, all repaints. Kraven stands about 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation, which were both standard for the line. Kraven is 100% re-use, being a repaint of the main Spider-Man line’s own release of Kraven. The previous Kraven was based on his cartoon appearance, whereas this one seems to be more comic based. The biggest difference present is this figure’s leopard patterned pants in contrast to the previous figure’s black pants. The sculpt is a pretty good one, and is pretty in line with the classic Kraven design, so I can’t blame them for re-releasing it in a more comic accurate palate. The paint work is well applied and clean overall, and it appears to be a bit more detailed than the single release figure. Kraven included no accessories, which is a shame, because his hand is obviously molded to hold one. [EDIT 07/31/26 — He in fact *did* include an accessory, which I added to his photo, and discussed in this review’s Addendum!]

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I acquired this BJ’s exclusive at KB Toys. Yes, you read that right. Apparently, BJ’s would only actually hold on to these sets for a short while before selling them to KB for the rest of the distribution. Hey, it works for me. Anyway, I was on a trip to the beach, I think right before my brother was born, but I don’t recall for certain. My dad took me to the nearby KB and they had this set there. I had known about its existence, thanks to the internet, but I hadn’t seen it in person. I remember being pretty happy to get it, though it wasn’t really for Kraven. Still, he’s a decent figure, and does help bring back the memories of getting the set.

#0181: Spider-Man – Unmasked

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SPIDER-MAN – UNMASKED

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

Spider-Man, Spider-Man.  Does whatever a spider can.  Spins a web any size.  Catches thieves just like flies.  Look out, here comes a Spider-Man….Review.  It’s a Spider-Man review.  That’s what it is.

Yes, it’s another figure from the 90s Marvel Licensing giant that was ToyBiz.  They made a big success with X-Men, so they moved onto Spider-Man and ended up finding even greater success.  This figure comes from that line.  It’s not the first figure I’ve taken a look at from this line, but the first figure was actually Captain America, so I didn’t really discuss it much at length.

Once the line proper had proved to be a hit, ToyBiz teamed up with BJs Wholesalers to have several exclusive boxed sets, consisting mostly of repaints, and based around certain themes.  Today’s figure comes from one of those sets.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This figure was released as part of a 6 pack of figures, all based on the Clone Saga, which was going on in the comics at the time.  The figure depicts Peter in his Spider-Man costume, sans mask.  I guess he took his mask off a lot in the story?  I must confess, I haven’t actually read the Clone Saga, so I wouldn’t know.  I’m not opposed to having an unmasked Spider-Man, whatever the reasoning, so I’m not complaining.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and features 11 points of articulation, which was pretty good for the time.  The figure was made from completely reused parts:  The head comes from the Spider-Man line’s version of Peter Parker, and the body is the same one used on Mutant X’s The Fallen.  It’s a body ToyBiz was fond of reusing.  It’s not bad, though it is a bit scrawny, especially in the lower arms.  The head was pretty nice.  It’s based on his look on the cartoon, which it emulates well.  Peter’s  paintwork is decent, not amazing.  Mine has some wear on the webbing from minor play and such.  As far as I recall, he included no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I’m going to give a shout out to my friend Pat Sponaugle, who follows this blog. This figure, as well as the rest of the set he was included in, was a Christmas gift from Pat way back when!  Thanks Pat!

Overall, he’s actually a pretty neat figure.  Perhaps not the greatest Spider-Man ever, but still pretty cool.  I have fond memories of getting this figure and adding it to my, at the time much smaller, collection.  I think this was the rough start time of me becoming the kid for whom everyone just bought whatever action figures they could find during the holiday season.

#0169: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOYBIZ)

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.

Read the Flashback Friday Figure Addendum for this guy here!

#0163: Plastic Man

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

PLASTIC MAN

JLA (KENNER)

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. [EDIT 08/28/26 — The stand was indeed red, and I did some slight clean up on that paint as well, which I showcased in the new photos that I took to go alongside his Addendum!]

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.