Tag Archives: 90s

#3901: Malakili – Rancor Keeper

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

MALAKILI — RANCOR KEEPER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Malakili was one of the keepers of the only known rancor specimen. Kept in a special pit below the crime lord’s court, the rancor was reserved as a method of getting rid of unwelcome guests or others who failed the crime lord.”

Oh boy, we’re getting into the best part of Star Wars; the weird one-off background guys!  Prepare yourself for only the weirdest, most outlandish concepts and designs as we look into the crazy denizens of Jabba’s palace!  …What’s that?  It’s a shirtless guy?  Just a shirtless guy?  With a weird hood?  Does he do something cool?  He cries.  Well, I guess that’s *something*.  And he got a name, because of course he did.  Well, here’s Malakili, crying shirtless guy.  Can relate, buddy.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Malakili — Rancor Keeper was released as part of the 1997 line-up of Kenner’s Star Wars: Power of the Force.  Malakili got his second figure here, following up on the original vintage version, and he was one seven Jabba-related figures in the line the year of his release.  Curiously, that didn’t include the actual Rancor, which hit the following year.  The figure stands a little under 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  His articulation is all rather limited by his build and the layout of his costume, but he mostly just stands around anyway, so it’s not awful.  His sculpt was totally unique, and it’s not a bad approximation of what he looks like in the movie.  The head sculpt bears an uncanny resemblance to Denholm Elliot, which, you know, isn’t the guy that played Malakili, but I suppose Elliot and Paul Brookes, the guy that actually played Malakili, don’t look incredibly dissimilar, especially at this scale.  The rest of the sculpt is pretty good, though, and I do like the flow of the cloth parts and how they hang.  Malakili’s paint work isn’t too bad.  There’s actually some pretty solid work on his skin tone (which is classified by Wookieepedia as “swarthy”, so there’s that), that gives him some nice variation.  Malakili is packed with a long-handled Vibro-Blade, and, if you got a later release, a freeze frame with a picture of the Rancor.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I can’t say I have much attachment at all to Malakili, but he’s also the sort of character that is rather memorable.  He also doesn’t have a *ton* of action figures, so this one’s notable.  Ultimately, I bought him because he was readily available and I was looking to get a lot of Power of the Force figures at once.  I didn’t really expect much from him at the start, but honestly, he’s not so bad.

Shoutout to 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.

#3898: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

SILVER AGE (TOY BIZ)

“Steve Rogers, a frail, sickly orphan, enlisted in the army on the eve of World Ear II but was rejected due to this poor physical condition. Given a second change, Rogers volunteered for a special experiment called Operation Rebirth. He was injected with a “Super Soldier” serum and his body was transformed into a body as perfect as a human can be. He was trained in gymnastics, hand-to-hand combat and military strategy and became Captain America. In addition to speed, strength, agility, endurance and reaction speed far superior to any Olympic athlete, Captain America was given an unbreakable Adamantium shield as his sole weapon. Captain America has since faced all types of threats and has and always will be a true symbol of truth, liberty and justice.”

In 1999, Toy Biz was exploring direct market options for keeping their 5-inch Marvel offerings going, and wound up offering a handful of one-off sets of figures, each with a loose theme.  There was a pair of them based around different eras of the Marvel Universe, one Silver Age, the other Modern.  Today, I’m jumping into the former, with a look back at Marvel’s Silver Age of comics….sort of….not really.  Look, I’ll get to it.  The important thing here is that I’m looking at a Toy Biz Captain America, and that’s always a good time for me.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is the first of the four figures that make up the Silver Age line from Toy Biz.  While Modern Age skewed a bit more obscure with some of its choices, Silver Age was very heavy hitter friendly.  Both line-ups were offered up through Previews, so they were predominantly comic store exclusives.  I know KB got Modern Age, but I don’t recall if Silver Age ever made that jump.  Anyway, let’s talk about Cap!  So, let’s be clear about something right out of the gate: this is emphatically *not* a Silver Age Captain America.  They gave him a card with the cover of Avengers #4, which introduced Cap to the Silver Age, but the actual figure is very much first appearance Cap, which makes him a Golden Age Cap.  But, I suppose a “Golden Age” line of Marvel figures would struggle with a wider audience, so Cap got shuffled. The figure stands 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He made use of the mold from the Marvel vs Capcom Cap from earlier that same year.  It’s my favorite of the Toy Biz Cap molds, for sure, and generally the one that works best with their overall 5-inch line.  The only thing that’s a little off about it in a non-video game application is that the head is definitely a Capcom Cap, not a straight comics one, and this figure is definitely aiming for a more direct Kirby vibe.  There *were* new parts in this line-up, but not a ton, so they may have just figured it was close enough.  I still don’t hate it, even if it’s not crazy accurate.  The primary change-up is the paint, which serves to make him all not-Silver-Age-y.  He’s got his modified mask, without the neck coverage.  It doesn’t really follow the sculpted lines, of course, so you just have to ignore that and hope for the best.  Otherwise, he also changes the colors a bit, so the blue is a lot darker here than on others.  Beyond that, application’s pretty clean, and he gets some okay accent work.  Cap is packed with both of his shields, the circular one and the original badge-shaped one.  The circular one is the same mold as the MvC one, but using a different plastic, so the clip isn’t as prone to breaking, making it a perfect replacement for the MvC one that broke.  The other shield is neat, because you didn’t tend to see it, and this was its first toy coverage.  It’s also got actual cloth straps, which are very fun.  Lastly, there’s a trading card with the Avengers #4 cover that doesn’t have anything to do with this figure, but is still a nice example of a good cover.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

There were three Captain America figures released in 1999, and I got two of them.  I wanted all three, but my parents were still working towards grasping why I needed nearly identical figures of the same guy.  I’d already gotten them to buy me the United They Stand Cap, and I guess I just didn’t want to push my luck with this one?  I looked at it a lot of times, I recall, and I’m sure if I’d really asked, they would have bought it for me.  I recall being a bit frustrated by a clearly Golden Age Cap being in a Silver Age line, even as a seven-year-old, so perhaps I just wasn’t personally ready to own him.  He’s been on my list for a while, though.  He’s not rare, but he’s not super plentiful, so he never landed in front of me.  At the beginning of the year, as I started to get back to my Toy Biz collecting, he was on my short list, and now here he is.  I do sure like him a lot.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0038: Terrax

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

TERRAX

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

When I revived the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums in April, I did so with a crazy, radical idea: a second addendum.  Yes, back when I did my first round of addendums, all the way in distant year of 2017, some of my figures were more complete than their initial reviews, but still not *totally* complete.  That’s just not good enough for me.  I returned to Savage Land Angel for a round three, and now I’m doing the same for another Toy Biz figure, Terrax!

Today’s review is another Fantastic Four figure, this is the last of the wave one reviews: Terrax. There was one other figure in the first wave, Benjamin J Grimm, aka the Thing, but I didn’t have that version. I had the later wave 3 version. And can I just address the fact that I’m reviewing Terrax, but I’ve yet to get to the Human Torch and the Invisible Woman? You know the other HALF of the title team! How exactly did TERRAX get himself a spot in the line before two of the title characters? He’s really not that great a character, nor has he ever really been all that important…ever. Anyway…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So like I said before, this is Terrax, the second herald of Galactus, part of the first wave of Toybiz’s FF line. He’s depicted here in Terrax’s only look ever, which must have made the costume choice pretty easy for the guys at Toybiz. At one point in time, Terrax had a rock stand and his trusty axe (which tears through stuff. Cleaver name….). Mine doesn’t have these items any more. The figure’s actually a very good depiction of Terrax, which is nice because he’s not one of those characters who gets many chances at having an action figure made. His hands are interesting, because they’re both molded to hold his axe, but due to their vertical placement and his limited articulation, he can only hold it in one hand at a time. This leaves the other hand with this thumbs up position. What is this guy, the Fonz? (AAAAAAAAY!) Actually, that might make his character a bit more interesting. You heard it here first Marvel! (Do they even realize that this character exists?)

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Terrax was another of the gift figures. It’s fine because he’s a great, big, bad guy for your heroes to fight. That was always good enough for me!

Well, there’s the original review.  It’s…it’s something.  In these earliest reviews, I was still finding my voice, and I was aiming for witty and perhaps a bit edgy?  I wasn’t aiming for well-proof-read, I’ll tell you that, hence the use of “cleaver” in a sentence clearly meant to use “clever.”  Yikes.

Okay, by this point I was starting to get into the swing of things. Over 300 words and an actual intro. Still doesn’t quite follow my modern structuring, but not terrible at all. And of course, I was still doing full series reviews at this point, which is rather different than how I do things now.

Terrax is a little over 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. Missing from my original review were his rock stand, removable skirt piece and his axe. Of those pieces, the only one I found during The Find was his axe, but that’s okay, since the axe is definitely the most important piece!

Not a whole lot of extra thoughts on this guy, I gotta say. That’s all for cosmic Fonzie here.

One of my briefer addendums, for sure.  I cover the basics and add the note about the axe I found.  Well, that’s all good, I suppose.  This time around, I have his two skirt pieces, as well as his rock stand, bringing him back up to a complete figure.  He’s actually quite a nice little package of a figure, and you could hardly ask for more from a Terrax.

#3897: Chewbacca as Boushh’s Bounty

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

CHEWBACCA as BOUSHH’S BOUNTY

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“Chewbacca, acting as a prisoner, and Princess Leia, disguised as the bounty hunter Boussh, infiltrate Jabba’s Palace. There they hope to rescue the carbonite-encased Han Solo.”

Well, I’m out of “Flashback Photo” figures from the Power of the Force line, so I guess I’ll just have to go back to the *rest* of my un-reviewed PotF figures.  Back in April, when I last looked at a Chewbacca figure, it was the Flashback figure, which got around the whole “how do you differentiate Chewy figures” by going for a very scene specific look from Empire.  That same year, they did the same thing, but for Return of the Jedi.  So, here’s that figure.  It’s Chewbacca as Boushh’s Bounty!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Chewbacca as Boushh’s Bounty was released in 1998 as part of Kenner’s Power of the Force line.  He’s the first of three Chewies released that year (though the last of them I’m reviewing here), and the second of the standard release Chewbacca figures for the line.  The figure is about 4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  All three of the ’98 Chewbaccas use a variation of the same updated sculpt, removed a bit from the muscle-bound look of the ’95 figure.  In particular, this one is really similar to the Hoth figure, though he’s a little more stiff in his posture.  He’s also got the adjusted neck set-up to feature the collar he wears while posing as Boushh’s bounty.  It’s non-removable, so he’s dialed rather into the specific scene.  Overall, it’s an okay sculpt, if perhaps not much to write home about.  The paint work is more conventional than the Hoth variant.  There’s some good variation to the coloring on his fur, which is certainly cool.  Unfortunately, a recurring issue with this release is that his eyes are almost always crossed, which looks really silly.  Chewy is packed with his bowcaster, which he doesn’t use in the scene, but it’s at least something.  It’s just the same standard one used by all the others, which is fair enough.  He’s also got a Freeze Frame slide, showing the scene he’s based on.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Chewbacca on the earlier side of my dive back into the line, so late fall of 2018, I think?  I never had any “updated sculpt” Chewbacca figures, and this one was fairly easily available, so I picked him up in a larger batch of figures.  Like so many of the the time, I didn’t open him for a while, but I did open him a bit quicker compared to some, so as to populate my Jabba’s Palace playset when I got it.  He’s goofy, especially with those eyes, and a bit limited, but he’s a unique enough idea.

#3894: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“Caught in a bombardment of intense cosmic radiation while on an experimental space flight, Susan Richards found herself endowed with the power to become transparent at will, and the ability to form invisible force-fields of incredible durability. Now, as a member of the Fantastic Four, Sue battles to defend humanity as the elusive Invisible Woman!”

In preparation of the whole Fantastic Four movie release, I decided at the beginning of the month I was going to review Toy Biz figures of the whole FF.  The trouble is, that while I hadn’t reviewed the three men of the team in their Marvel Super Heroes releases, I’ve gone so far as to review *both* of the MSH Invisible Woman figures.  I’ve also already reviewed her hasty repaint release from Fantastic Four, so I’m actually wrapping things up for Sue in the Toy Biz 5-inch range today.  Let’s get to this!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four line.  Like her brother Johnny, the intent was for the Series 2 figure to be Sue’s first figure in the line, but retailers balked at the idea of not having the complete team at launch, resulting in a repainted Spider-Woman that served as a stand in, until the real thing arrived later.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation…sort of.  The neck joint is especially restricted to the point of effectively not being there.  Still, she at least gets elbow joints, making her more posable than her predecessor.  The sculpt here was all-new to this figure, but would later become a favorite of Toy Biz’s during their heavier repaint days.  It’s not a bad sculpt.  Perhaps a touch skinny on the limbs, but generally good, and in keeping with her animation model from the show.  The initial prototype for this figure was in standard colors, but when they did the stand-in figure for Series 1, so was that one.  In an effort to be more unique, this figure was molded entirely in clear plastic, simulating her abilities.  The irony of it all is that this sculpt never ended up being released in actual color as Sue, not even for all the repaints.  It works alright, and apart from some minor yellowing, it’s still pretty good.  She was packed with a wheeled stand and a small shield, which are similar to the ones used on the Series 1 figure, but ultimately totally unique.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I recall getting this figure relatively early on in my collecting, but I don’t recall the exact circumstances of exactly *how* I got her.  The Marvel Super Heroes figure was my first Sue, so this one would have been a back-up at best.  I recall my original’s arm broke at the elbow, and I ended up replacing her with a spare that came in a lot with my Black Bolt figure.  She’s a decent figure, if perhaps limited in her application.

#3893: Anakin Skywalker

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

ANAKIN SKYWALKER

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (HASBRO)

“As a youth, Anakin Skywalker was brought before the Jedi Council as a candidate for Jedi training. With some dissension, the Council voted to allow Anakin to become the apprentice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and over time Anakin became a powerful Jedi. The Council’s concerns, however, proved to be well founded. The dark side soon overwhelmed Anakin and changed him, creating Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith. Darth Vader faithfully served at Emperor Palpatine’s side, leading the Imperial efforts to crush the Rebellion. He was even ready, if necessary, to take the life of his own son, Luke Skywalker. But in the final confrontation between father and son, Luke’s pleas finally awakened the good buried deep within Darth Vader.”

While there were plenty of Darth Vaders to be had, prior to 1999, there were very few Anakin Skywalker figures on the market.  The vintage line only had a single one, released at the *very* end.  Power of the Force did a little better, upping that quantity to a whole two.  The first was a “spirit” figure, packed alongside similar versions of Obi-Wan and Yoda in a Cinema Scene pack.  The second was, like the vintage line, at the very end of the run.  He’s also hella quirky.  Let’s talk about him now!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Anakin Skywalker was part of the 1999 portion of the “Flashback Photos” Star Wars: Power of the Force figures, alongside C-3PO and Aunt Beru.  Despite us not seeing this look until he was good and dead, this figure gives us old-man Jedi as if he were real and in the flesh.  Why?  Don’t think about it too hard.  The figure stands just over 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  That said, you can really only use the neck and shoulders, since the legs and waist are hidden beneath the robes.  Despite his structural similarities, the only part actually shared with the Spirit figure is the head.  Otherwise, he’s all-new, and remained pretty well unique.  The sculpt’s rather on the static side, but this version of the character really just did stand around, I suppose.  It’s not a bad sculpt at all, and l can certainly appreciate the more reserved approach to posing at this late stage in the game.  His color work just goes for solid colors, because we’re just leaning into that hypothetical living version of him, I guess.  The application’s all good and clean, and pretty much what you would expect from this line.  Anakin is packed with a lightsaber, which is notable for two reasons.  Firstly, that the ghosts don’t use lightsabers, so it’s sort of odd for him to have one.  Secondly, you’ll notice I said “a lightsaber” not “his lightsaber.” That’s because it’s actually Obi-Wan’s saber, not Anakin’s.  Not entirely sure why that is.  He’s also packed with a flashback photo, which shows Anakin in Jedi and in Phantom Menace.  This is the *third* flashback photo to have kid Anakin as the Phantom Menace picture, especially notable because no one else so much as doubled up on them.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I recall this one was rather early in my push to start completing this line of figures.  I got him alongside the Flashback Photo versions of Luke and Leia, you know for a neat little family reunion type thing.  Honestly, it’s a figure that always rather intrigued me.  He’s not anything crazy amazing or anything, but he’s a fun, if perhaps slightly quirky figure and he’s certainly remained rather unique.

Shoutout to 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.

#3890: Mr. Fantastic

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

MR. FANTASTIC

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“Mr. Fantastic is the awe-inspiring leader of the Fantastic Four. Now only is he able to stretch and twist his elastic body into almost any shape, he is also a brilliant scientist! When he’s not fighting super-villians, he can be found either in his laboratory or workshop, creating new compounds or inventing new machines to benefit mankind!”

In more modern super hero storytelling narratives, super intelligence is often seen as a marker for, if not outright villainy, than at least being a real jerk all the time.  This was less the case earlier on.  Sure, there were mad scientists and all, but characters such as Reed Richards existed to make the world a better place, and look out for people.  Reed’s teetered on the edge of the good versus jerk thing over the years, but he almost always bounces back to good, because that’s really who he is at the end of the day…at least in the mainstream universe.  But that’s the one that counts, right?  Right.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Fantastic was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line.  This was Reed’s second figure, following his Mego from the ‘70s, and the first of only two figures under Toy Biz’s 5-inch run.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Like both Ben and Johnny, he’s got a rather reduced articulation scheme for the line, especially notable in light of Sue getting the full load out.  In Reed’s case, however, this is actually linked to his “action feature.”  Dubbed “5-way” stretch, Reed can extend at the neck, waist, biceps, forearms, thighs, and shins to replicate his stretching.  It’s a sort of off look, of course, and also results in the figure being extremely fragile, but it’s an intriguing idea.  The sculpt is in line with the rest of the team, so he’s a bit more basic and rudimentary than later figures.  The nature of the stretching feature also makes him a rather stiff looking figure.  That being said, I think it’s a more Reed Richards-y sculpt than the later cartoon one, especially in terms of build.  Color work is very dependent on molded colors on this guy, and there’s a tendency in certain samples for the blues to be rather mis-matched.  On mine, they’ve held up okay, though.  The actual paint work proper’s alright; Toy Biz did always know how to do a solid job with a “4” logo.  Reed is packed with a blaster thing of some sort.  I don’t recognize it as a story specific element, nor do I know why Reed would need a gun (unless it were wooden and for the intended purpose of breaking Magneto’s mind), but there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My initial Fantastic Four line-up was comprised of whichever version of each character was most easily accessible when I started collecting.  In the case of Reed, that was this guy.  Well, okay, it was another copy of this release.  Remember how I mentioned he was fragile?  Yeah, my original gradually broke at just about every stretch point.  I always liked this version, so that was a bummer.  But, I was able to find a replacement a few years back, and I’m a lot more careful with my toys these days.  He’s stiff, fragile, and gimmicky, but this really is my favorite of the two Toy Biz Reeds.

#3889: C-3PO with Removable Arm

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

C-3PO with REMOVABLE ARM

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (HASBRO)

I keep getting distracted from actually writing today’s review.  I mean, sure, I tend to get distracted from writing reviews a lot; such is my life and all that.  But, this one I kept trying to come up with an angle for an intro, and then I’d go to double check something, and suddenly it would be days later.  At one point, I got into a whole thing about which Star Wars character had the most reviews on the site (it’s Luke, by the way), which resulted in me also noting that C-3PO has had less reviews than any OT main character other than Yoda (who is himself beaten by Wedge of all people).  So, I guess maybe I should get those numbers up?  Well, at least one more, anyway.  On we go!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

C-3PO with Removable Arm was released as part of the “Flashback Photo” set of Power of the Force, with the second batch go figures that hit in 1999, just before the proper Episode I line launched.  3PO continued the set’s heavy focus on A New Hope, as he’s based on his appearance in the movie just after the Tusken Raider attack.  The figure stands just under 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  His sculpt is unique, but admittedly rather similar to the other later run 3POs from the line.  This one, however, does have the odd quirk of his weirdly elongated head.  It seems strange that after getting it more or less right so many other times, that this one’s so…odd.  Otherwise, it’s a decent enough sculpt, with plenty of detailing going into it all.  The left arm is designed for removal, mimicking his loss of it in the scene he’s referencing, and the articulation’s a little bit different to accommodate this.  Per the usual treatment, 3PO is vac-metalized, but he goes a bit further on top of that, getting a fairly extensive amount of paint accenting for the dirt and sand he builds up while on Tatooine.  C-3PO is packed with only his flashback photo, showing 3PO from both the original film and Episode I.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

C-3PO sort of fell into the big batch of these guys I picked up in 2019.  I didn’t honestly think much of him at the time.  That said, in my first real push to get them opened and displayed, I decided he’d be the best fit for my Jabba’s Palace playset display, so that’s where he went.  Shortly after my son Matty moved in with me, his room was still housing my Power of the Force collection, and he wanted toys to play with, so I let him mess with them.  Since the left arm was removable on this guy, Matty assumed the right was too, and snapped that sucker clean off.  He and his mom were both absolutely mortified that he’d broken one of my figures, but I personally just laughed it off, and let them both know he was a relatively cheap figure.  I had picked up a replacement, but ultimately just fixed the one I had, because I still enjoy the story, and it gives the figure more weight than he might otherwise have.

Shoutout to 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.

#3888: Magne Edison

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

MAGNE EDISON

MICROMAN MAGNE POWER (TAKARA)

The success of GI Joe in the ‘60s in the US led, unsurprisingly, to an export of the line to other countries.  Nowadays, lines are largely produced by one company even internationally, but there was a lot more licensing out back in the day.  Palitoy had great success with Action Man, a line that stuck pretty close to the spirit of the original line.  In Japan, however, Takara had to get a little more inventive.  As materials were scarcer, the figures could not be easily clothed, so to avoid selling a naked figure, the molded them in clear plastic and filled the hollow sections with “machinery,” creating Henshin Cyborg. It was quite a success, leading to the creation of a smaller scale equivalent, Microman.  That line would itself be imported back to the US by Mego as Micronauts, which picked up a dedicated following.  There have been attempts at relaunching Micronauts over the years, always falling shy of success.  The first of these attempts was in the late ‘90s, by Takara themselves.  But, when a US market failed to materialize, the Micronauts angle was dropped, leaving just the Microman component.  Alas.  Well, at least there were cool toys!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Edison is figure 004 in Takara’s Microman Magne Power line, released in 1999.  He’s the second to last of the five-man team that made up the core focus of this new line.  The figure is about 3 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  The Magne Power line was unique in its scaling; they weren’t the traditional 3 3/4 inch figures, but a bit smaller.  All of the original five were identical sculpts from the neck down.  It’s a sculpt that’s certainly a product of its time, with some rather pronounced proportions, and the very awkward magnet arm attachment on the left arm that removes the elbow joint.  It’s an interesting offering, especially so close to the immensely revamped Microman base body Takara would transition to very shortly after.  It feels like the last hurrah of the older style.  Each of them got a unique head.  In Edison’s case, it’s a helmet, patterned on a sort of grasshopper style.  It’s a little goofy, but certainly fun.  Edison’s primary color is green, so there’s a lot of that.  He’s got a mix of translucent and opaque, as well as some yellow and gold accenting.  And, of course, he’s got the chrome head, which is always super cool.  The standard figures didn’t get any extras, but they do have magnets in their left hands and torsos, which are fun for sticking them to fridges or metal shelves and the like.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since the US distribution failed on these, they were kind of unknown on this side of the world.  I only learned about them in 2011, when the Micronauts guy at Mego Meet brought up the planned relaunch of the line in his presentation, and had Edison as his sample figure for what the line looked like.  I was intrigued, and also happy to find that they weren’t an especially expensive line of figures.  Edison’s got a neat vibe, similar to Bug from the Marvel tie-in comics, and I really like that.  He definitely appeals to what I loved about the original line.

#3886: Human Torch

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

HUMAN TORCH

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

While three members of the Fantastic Four were entirely new identities and concepts for Marvel, Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, had a repurposed name and power set from one of Marvel’s first super heroes.  Unlike Jim Hammond, however, Johnny was actually *human* so perhaps the title fits better?  Of course, because of the repurposed name, this meant that Johnny got tied up in rights issues that didn’t plague the rest of the team, leading to his absence from the ‘70s cartoon, and the eventual creation of HERBIE.  But, it’s never seemed to be an issue in the area of toys!  

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Human Torch was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line, which, as I noted in last week’s Thing review, was an entire FF-dedicated set of figures.  This was Johnny’s second figure, following his Mego from the ‘70s.  The figure is a little under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Like Ben, he’s rather under articulated compared to most Toy Biz figures of the era.  His general posing is also rather similar to that figure, so I guess they’re at least kind of thematic?  Torch is slightly on the smaller side, which honestly makes a degree of sense, with him being a younger member of the team and all.  He’s fully flamed-on, as was the standard approach at the time.  It’s a slightly different take on it.  It’s got elements of the costume details beneath, notably the belt, visible, as well as sculpted etching for the “heat lines” he usually sported in the comics.  Honestly, the whole thing works better than you might expect.  Fire’s hard to sculpt, but it’s not bad.  Johnny’s paint work is sort of basic; it’s mostly just molded red, but there’s some basic yellow paint as well.  It’s applied decently enough, with no major slop.  Johnny is packed with two fireball pieces, which can be held or rather awkwardly mounted on his back.  His right arm’s got a spring-loaded feature, so you can pull it back and it “throws” one of the fireballs.  It’s very much on the basic side, but it works okay.

THE ME HALF OF EQUATION

Like Ben, this Johnny had largely dried up at retail by the time I got into collecting, so my first Johnny was the Series 4 version.  This one I got slightly later, probably in the early ‘00s, purchased loose from a comic book store that I’m rather certain isn’t around anymore.  I got the fireball pieces later, in the last few years, and now he’s all complete.  He’s an interesting figure, sort of basic and all, but he works better than most other fully flamed-on Johnny figures we’d end up getting.