Tag Archives: Cyclops

#3288: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, is one of Xavier’s very first students and fights tirelessly for Xavier’s dream as the X-Men field leader!”

Oh sure, just go ahead and make me buy the same design for a third time, why don’t you?  What do you think I am, Hasbro, an easy target?  Because I am.  I mean, at least when there’s a ’90s Cyclops on the table.  Which there is.  Check it out.  ’90s Cyclops.  Oh, you want context?  Yeah, okay, I’ll give you context.  Remember how Hasbro’s been doing this whole line of animation-inspired X-Men figures based specifically on X-Men: The Animated Series?  Yeah, that’s been pretty cool.  I’ve picked up most of them (I’ve been focusing really just on the core team members, though), and I’ve been enjoying them a fair bit.  But, it’s all been a build up to the one figure I was really, really hoping to see, which was an updated version of ’90s Cyclops.  And, yes, I know I’ve gotten him updated.  On multiple occasions even.  But, look, I can always use more ’90s Cyclops.  And would you look at that?  More ’90s Cyclops.  Let’s review the ’90s Cyclops.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is the eighth figure in the X-Men: The Animated Series sub-line of Marvel Legends.  He follows up on the Mystique figure that I didn’t review, and is currently the last figure in the line-up, at least as far as we know.  Following Scott, Hasbro’s shifting things over to Spider-Man: The Animated Series, so Cyclops is our send-off for the line.  Like the last handful of figures from the set, Cyclops was shown off and went up for order on his own.  He was originally slated for a March 2023 release, but wound up making it out just before Christmas.  As with the rest of the line, Cyclops ships in a VHS-inspired package, with an illustration by Dan Veesenmeyer on the front.  It’s honestly my favorite illustration thus far, but I’m probably a bit biased.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  From a structural stand point, Cyclops is using the Vulcan body as a basis.  It’s a decent choice, since it’s been deigned the replacement for Bucky Cap, which was the recurring base body for Scott previously.  It’s just a little bit bulkier, which actually fits a little more with the ’90s Cyclops than Bucky Cap, honestly.  The only down side to the Vulcan sculpt is the glove line on the forearm; it’s not terribly noticeable, but it’s still just a little bit annoying.  Cyclops shares his slightly modified legs with the previously released Morph figure, allowing him to have the proper strappy bits for this costume.  He also re-uses the wrist straps from the prior ’90s Cyclops, which is fair enough.  The figure also gets a new head and a modified torso piece, both courtesy of sculptor Rene Aldrete.  The head is quite similar to the prior ’90s Cyclops head, but goes a bit more in depth with its detailing.  I liked the last sculpt a lot, but this one is a marked improvement across the board.  It’s worth noting that, similar to Morph, the sculpt walks the line between animation accuracy and the line’s usual stylings, suggesting it’s likely to get re-used for a standard color variant at some point down the line.  The new torso, much like the legs, takes the standard torso set-up, and makes the strappy bits an affixed element, rather than just a free-floating piece.  The floating nature of the prior release’s harness was one of my few issues with it, so working it into the torso sculpt not only makes it less of a pain to pose him, it also just makes for a tighter fit and a generally better looking design.  Following in the footsteps of the rest of the line, Cyclops’s paint work replicates the cel shading of the cartoon.  It’s not too pronounced, and like the others, it works surprisingly well from different angles.  I myself still quite like the cel shading on these figures, but I know others aren’t quite as keen on it.  If nothing else, it makes this release a bit more unique.  Cyclops is packed with five different hands, a pair of fists, a pair relaxed, and his usual left hand with the two fingers extended for proper optic blast unleashing.  It’s a little bit bare bones, honestly, but it’s on par with most of these releases, especially given how much new sculpting this one got.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ll admit, I was pretty hyped for Morph when this line began, because he’s unique and everything, but the figure I was absolutely hoping for the most from this line-up was this guy.  X-Men: The Animated Series‘ take on Cyclops shaped a lot of my view on the character, as well as shaping a lot of what I like in characters in general.  I like a good clean cut hero, what can I say?  I’ve gotten pretty much every possible version of the ’90s Cyclops design out there, and I honestly do love them all.  This guy is just a step above the rest, though.  And, I look forward to buying this exact same figure again, but without the cel shading.  Look, I know what I’m about, okay?

#3013: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Cyclops helps prisoners escape from Apocalypse’s prison camps in an attempt to be a force for good in a harsh dystopian future.”

To quote Jimmy Woo: “It’s an oversimplification of events, but yes.”  While the Cyclops of the “Age of Apocalypse” universe ultimately joins the side of good and aids in helping the victims of Apocalypse, that’s not where he spends most of the story.  While AoA saw a lot of previously villainous characters on the side of good, it also saw Cyclops, a character previously very straight-laced and noble, pretty firmly in the villains camp, at least at the start.  Sure, his in-grained noble streak kept him from being truly villainous, but he’s also very far from a force for good.  But, here I am critiquing the bios again, when I could be reviewing a new Cyclops figure.  What am I even doing with my life?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is figure 2 in the Colossus Series of Marvel Legends.  Though far from the first Legends Cyclops, it’s still the first Legends release for AoA, and the third figure for the AoA design overall.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Cyclops is built on the Bucky Cap base body, which has been the consistent choice of base for Cyclops since the Puck Series version.  The AoA version has at times been depicted as a little larger in build, but that can be chalked up to artistic license, and thus far all of the other AoA variants have maintained consistency with their main counterparts in terms of body choices.  I mean, that’s gonna sort of fall apart as we make it further into the assortment, but we’ll stand by it here.  Ultimately, I really don’t mind it.  He gets a new head, arms, and an overlay piece for his belt/shoulder strap.  The head’s not quite as extreme and 90s-tastic as some of the illustrations made him out to be, but the important elements of the design are all present, and his features are also internally consistent with the other Cyclops figures from the line.  His new arms bulk him up a little bit more compared to the standard Bucky Cap pieces, as well as transitioning him to the pinless construction on the elbows.  Some of his articulation is lost on said elbows, which can really only make it about 90 degrees.  It’s understandable given the nature of the design.  Cyclops’ paint is generally very basic.  Much of the color work is just molded plastic, and it’s honestly a pretty basic layout of colors for the costume anyway.  Kudos to Hasbro, though, they did actually do some weathering and wear on the gold armored parts, which looks pretty solid.  Cyclops includes no accessories of his own, which is kind of a shame.  A blast effect, or an alternate head, maybe with the hair swept back to better show off the missing eye and scarring, would have been pretty cool.  All he winds up getting is the left leg for Colossus, which definitely feels light compared to pretty much everyone else.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I do really like Cyclops, and I even kind of like some of the stuff they did with him within the AoA story, the actual AoA design for the character isn’t necessarily one of my favorites for him.  It’s kind of overkill on the worst of the ’90s tropes for character design, really.  That being said, if you’re gonna have an AoA set-up, it feels wrong to not have him.  He’s another figure I felt was really missing from the first go-round, and I’m glad he showed up here.  He’s light on extras, and perhaps a little skinny, but overall I do rather like him, and hey, it’s another Cyclops, right?

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.

#2738: Cyclops – House of X

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

CYCLOPS — HOUSE OF X

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Cyclops assembles a team of mutants to destroy the Mother Mold and vanquish the Sentinel threat.”

After using him as something of a cross between a punching bag and a patsy for all things wrong with the X-books at the time, the original 616 version of Cyclops was ultimately killed off in a rather unceremonious fashion during what would ultimately prove a somewhat forgettable cross over.  Fortunately, someone over at Marvel realized that wasn’t the best treatment for the first X-Man, and he was resurrected, and subsequently given a central, and far more on-brand for the character, role in the X-Men’s latest revamp, sporting a classically-inspired design to match.  Now that design’s got a figure, which seems about right to me.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is figure 6 in the Tri-Sentinel Series of Marvel Legends, and is the final of the single-packed figures in the set.  He’s sporting Scott’s newest design, first introduced in “House of X”, and continuing into the main X-books.  It’s a merging of a handful of his prior designs, drawing a lot from the body of his Now! design, but with a more classically-inspired visor design, and the gauntlet set-up on the arms, much like his second Astonishing costume.  It’s a good design for the character, keeping a lot of the better elements of more recent looks, and merging them all into something that flows well together, and keeping that classic flair.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Bucky Cap body, like all of the other modern-era Cyclops figures.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I guess.  He also makes use of the cowled head from the Dark Phoenix two-pack version, which is a good, clean sculpt, marred only by the fact that the visor is ever so slightly misplaced on my copy, leaving a bit of a gap in the sculpt on the left side of the visor.  It’s fairly minor, and not terribly noticeable in person, but it still could be a bit better.  Cyclops also gets a new set of arms, and a new belt piece.  The arms add his gauntlets, as well as upgrading the elbows to the new pin-less design.  The new belt is, at first glance, very similar to the Now! figure, but it’s got a far greater depth of detail, and makes for a much stronger final product.  Cyclops’s paint work is fairly decent.  The blues go well together, and the whole thing looks pretty slick.  The line work has a little bit of slop, and there’s less clean application on the visor, but on the whole, it looks pretty good.  Cyclops is packed with an alternate head and attachable optic blast, repurposed from the X-Factor Cyclops figure.  It’s nice to see those parts turn up again, because I really liked them the first time around.  He’s also packed with the left arm of the Tri-Sentinel Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m a sucker for a halfway decent Cyclops figure, so I was on-board for this guy from the word go.  There’s not a ton new or unique to him, but he works well within the formula of the line, resulting in a solid and clean figure.  Honestly, he’s my personal favorite from this particular line-up, though I guess being a Cyclops does give him a slight advantage on that front.

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

#2715: Cyclops & Dark Phoenix

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

CYCLOPS & DARK PHOENIX

MARVEL MINIMATES

The Giant-Size X-Men-themed boxed set which hit in Marvel Minimates’ second year was our first taste of that era of the team in Minimate form, and one we’d have to stick for a little bit.  We were notably two main members short of that team’s starting line-up, to say nothing of the various other players from that era.  Our first follow-up came not in the main line, but as one of 2005’s non-exclusive sets.  While it didn’t round out the team (it would be another 11 years before we’d get to that), it did give us a little treatment from the biggest X-Men story of that period, if not the biggest X-Men story in general, the “Dark Phoenix Saga.”  We got that story’s two major players, Jean Grey in her Dark Phoenix persona and Cyclops, both of whom I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Dark Phoenix and Cyclops were, as noted above, a con-exclusive Marvel Minimates two-pack, who officially dropped in March of 2005, and sort of toured the cons that year, rather than really being tied to one of them in particular, eventually even making their way to more regular release channels as well.  Both ‘mates here would remain exclusive to this particular pack, but this wasn’t the last time we got either of the characters.

DARK PHOENIX

Jean’s third Minimate finally put her in something with a little bit more staying power than the prior two, who were both outdated by the time they hit shelves.  And, depending how you classify things, this even kind of qualifies as a new character as well, so that’s doubly cool.  Jean was built on the C3 Minimate body, so she’s 2 1/4 inches tall and she has 14 points of articulation.  She’s still without the peg hole in the head, which wasn’t a huge shock, since she’d been rattling around for a bit before getting an actual release slot.  She gets two add-on pieces, one for her hair, and the other for her sash.  Both were new to this figure, neither would remain unique.  They’re not bad pieces.  Not a ton of detailing or anything, but they certainly look the part.  I suppose the hair’s a bit too tame by later standards for the line and the character’s original design, but it looks okay.  Her paint work is actually pretty involved, seeing as they’ve put some definite effort into recreating some of the more dynamic lighting of the comics.  As such, the red sections of her costume all have black shadowing, her face is slightly darker in the center, and her yellow parts have lines suggesting reflectiveness.  Her face is also a far more intense expression than we tended to see at this point, especially for a female figure.  The lines on the yellow have a tendency to rub off a bit over time, but otherwise the paint’s really solid.  Dark Phoenix is packed with two flame effect pieces.  They’re nice in theory, but kind of clumsy in practice, since they require taking off the hands to put on and remove, and in their most natural configuration, they block the use of the elbow joints.  It’s weird, because they’re sculpted with one side sharply lower than the other, but it’s the wrong side, so it doesn’t end up helping.

CYCLOPS

Cyclops had already gotten the basics of this design covered in the GSXM set, but that particular release was lackluster to say the least, so a second go wasn’t the worst idea.  Structurally, this guy’s the same as the prior variant, apart from subbing in the C3 feet, of course.  He uses the cowl/visor piece from the last one, which was good the first time around, and was still good here.  The only issue I ran into was something limited to my copy of the figure, who wound up with two left arms, one of which doesn’t sit quite right on either shoulder, making it susceptible to falling off frequently.  Aside from that, he’s cool.  The big change-up to this guy is the paint work.  The basics remain the same, but he gains extra shading on the torso piece, simulating how he looked in the comics, and also gets a much more detailed face under the mask.  It’s a very definite improvement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I snagged this set relatively shortly after its release.  It was probably a year or so after.  Cosmic Comix happened to get one in, and I was happy to pick it up.  This set did a lot to move Minimates forward in terms of how detailing was handled, with its actual attention to things like comics-inspired shading, and marks an interesting turn for the line.  It’s a good way of handling the extra detailing, really, and I think this was the real sweet spot for where the level of detail should have more or less stuck.

#2708: Emma Frost & New Cyclops

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

EMMA FROST & NEW CYCLOPS

MARVEL MINIMATES

Marvel Minimates‘ third year was headlined by the proper arrival of the Fantastic Four, but coupled with the assortment centered on them was a slightly more mixed bag assortment, combining the X-Men with some Marvel Knights branded characters.  The X-Men were of course no strangers to the line by this point, but they’re proper mainstream counterparts were just starting to dip their toes in the water, especially for the main two-packs.  Heading off the assortment were two X-Men mainstays, one new to the line, and one not, Emma Frost and Cyclops, who I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Emma Frost and New Cyclops were released in Series 9 of Marvel Minimates, which hit specialty stores the week after Series 8, in January of 2005.  This particular set was the variant, which featured Emma in her diamond form, as introduced in New X-Men.  Cyclops was shared between the two versions of the set, and would later be slightly tweaked for inclusion in the Darktide set in 2006.

EMMA FROST

Emma made her debut in the line with this release, but got two whole figures right off the bat, which I suppose is good for her.  There were both diamond form and regular form releases, denoted by the diamond form being called “Emma Frost”, and the regular being called “White Queen”…which is kinda backwards feeling, really, especially compared to how they handled the naming on the Sue Richards/Invisible Woman split.  Whatever, it’s just the name on the box, I suppose.  Emma is constructed from the new and improved C3 parts, with a peg hole on her head and everything.  She also gets new add-on pieces for her hair and cape, both of which were shared with her standard counterpart.  They’re basic, but get the job done.  Emma’s main thing is her paint work.  It’s nice from the technical side; the white sections are largely painted on, and look pretty crisp and clean.  Her face is also painted on, and is a respectable translation of smug classic Emma.  All of her exposed skin is clear plastic, showcasing her diamond form.  It looks pretty cool, but does lead to the somewhat lingering issue of this being Emma’s classic costume, which was before she had the diamond powers.  I get wanting to do her most distinctive look first (though it didn’t stop them from having weird starting looks for other characters), and also wanting a solid variant, but the two don’t quite reconcile here.  At least she looks pretty nice.

NEW CYCLOPS

Ah, yes, New Cyclops.  So much better than Old Cyclops.  This one’s New, you see.  Yes, this Cyclops is based on his leather uniformed design from New X-Men, joining the two other NXM figures, Jean and Logan, from the prior year.  And also joining no others, because they literally only did three members of this incarnation of the team.  As I mentioned in the Jean/Logan review, it was somewhat bad timing, since the looks had been abandoned in early 2004, with the launch of Astonishing X-Men, which put Scott back in a classic-inspired costume.  But, I guess it would have been weird to leave him out?  Scott notably gets the C3 feet, but *not* the head with the peg-hole.  Correspondingly, his new hairpiece/visor combo was also missing a peg, making it seem like this guy may have been designed at the same time as the other two, and just held back a bit.  He also gets a new jacket piece, as well as the belt piece from the other two.  It’s not a bad look overall, and the pieces hit that nice middle-ground of detail vs simplicity.  The paint work also treads this middle-ground, though perhaps not quite as well.  The face on this guy is really, really detailed.  Too detailed, if I’m honest; Scott ends up looking like he’s 80.  On the costume, rather than match Cyclops to the other two’s dark grey attire, Scott’s got black.  Not sure why they changed, and it means he doesn’t match anyone else.  I generally like this look a little more personally, but I’d probably still prefer consistency over anything else.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back when these were new, I picked up the standard release of this set, mostly due to just wanting the Cyclops, because I like Cyclops.  I know, you’re all really shocked by this development.  I managed to hang onto all of his parts over the years, but lost most of the standard White Queen pieces, so I snagged the variant version when All Time got that big collection in 2019.  They’re not bad, but do sort of feel like an odd middle ground for the line.

#2395: Giant-Size X-Men

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

CYCLOPS, WOLVERINE, COLOSSUS, STORM, NIGHTCRAWLER, & THUNDERBIRD

MARVEL MINIMATES

The first year of Marvel Minimates was all kind of consolidated around the summer of 2003, so it was a little while before we well and truly got a follow-up, but they kickstarted their second year off with a bang.  After focussing purely on the Ultimate incarnation of the X-Men, for their first two entries in year two, DST decided to circle back around and give us classic X-Men in spades.  When it comes to classic X-Men, it’s hard to get more classic than the cover of Giant-Size X-Men #1, which is what the line’s first dedicated boxed set was based around.  So, without further ado, let’s jump right in!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The Giant-Size X-Men boxed set hit in January of 2004, and was the first boxed set to be available through specialty shops.  It (and the AFX-exclusive Professor X and Magneto) introduced the totally windowless packaging that would become the norm for the line for the next four years.  In the case of this particular set, it was probably the nicest box the line produced, replicating the cover to the original issue quite nicely.  I’ve included a shot of it here, courtesy of minimatedatabase.com.  Of the six figures contained in this set, five would eventually be made available as part of a set of Target exclusive two-packs (Thunderbird wound up as the odd man out), with the major difference between the two releases being C3-style feet on the later figures.

CYCLOPS

Already two ‘mates in by this point, this set finally gave us Cyclops with his classic cowled appearance.  It wouldn’t be the last time we’d see it, even just for a short while, but it sure was important at the time.  He’s built on the standard old-style body, so he’s 2 1/4 inches tall and he’s got 14 points of articulation.  He’s got one add-on piece for his mask/visor, which is a pretty nicely sculpted piece.  I always appreciated how the visor on it was so instantly unique from the one on the Series 3 Cyclops.  It was also a nice enough piece that it lasted through to 2010 before being retired.  The rest of things are handled through paint, and admittedly not a lot of it.  Of the six figures included here, Scott was by far the least detailed, with not even chest detailing to make him stand out.  Given how he was always so creatively shaded in the comics, it’s a shame they didn’t go for that here.  They’d end up fixing that on later figures.

WOLVERINE

Already two ‘mates in by this point, this set finally gave us Wolverine with his classic…cowled appearance…wait, I just did this.  Sorry!  I mean, yeah, it’s the same deal as Cyclops, though.  Woverine’s two prior releases lacked his distinctive mask, so this was our first shot at it.  He got a new add-on piece for it, as well as new boots, and the same clawed hands from the two Series 3 releases.  It’s not a bad selection of parts, but it definitely didn’t hold up as well as the Cyclops mask did.  These parts would see only one more use before being retired.  Everything else is paint, and that includes the shoulder pads, which was an…interesting choice.  Clearly, they’re a three dimensional item, but they were just painted on here.  The separate pieces that came later were a better fit.  The rest of the paintwork is pretty decent.  Like Scott, he doesn’t have any sort of musculature on his chest, but he does at least get his tiger stripes, so it’s not a total blank void.

COLOSSUS

Notably missing from the Series 3 X-Men line-up (despite Ultimate Colossus being a prominent member at the time), Colossus made his debut here.  He was one of the most involved ‘mates in the set in terms of parts count, with add-ons for his hair, tunic/belt, and boots.  All of the parts were new at the time, and they’re honestly the best of the parts introduced here.  They just do a really great job of replicating the feel of the character, and I always liked how they bulked him up a bit when compared to the others in the set.  In addition to having the most extra parts, Colossus also had by far the most involved paint work of the whole set, and honestly of most of the line at this point.  The banding on his metal skin wraps all the way around on his arms and legs, and he’s got a fully detailed front and back to the torso block under his tunic.  His face also is just so full of character.  It’s honestly a little shocking that this guy and Cyclops are from the same set.

STORM

Storm had gotten one ‘mate prior to this, but that was a modern design, so the classic was kind of needed, I guess.  Her original costume is pretty darn distinctive, and I think more properly captured that regal side of the character.  She had add-ons for her hair and cape.  The hair is huge, to comical standards, honestly, and makes her quite tricky to keep standing.  The cape, on the other hand, is small and very understated, and rather easily missed, I feel.  That was kind of the nature of the capes, at this point, though, so I can’t really say it was out of the ordinary or weird.  The paint is alright on her, but not the same level as Colossus.  She has the basics, and she does at least get torso detailing of some sort, so she’s a bit ahead of Cyclops and Wolverine.  That said, it’s also a lot messier in application than the others in this set.

NIGHTCRAWLER

Nightcrawler has been pretty sparse when it comes to Minimates.  This was his first, and remained his only until 2011.  So, this guy had to keep us content for 7 whole years.  Certainly, he must have been really good, right?  …Ehhh.  He did get a lot of new parts, with add-ons for the hair, chest cap, and tail, as well as unique hands and feet.  The hair seems a little too demonic, if I’m honest, but the hands, feet, and tail all are pretty dope.  The biggest problem I’ve got with this guy is that chest cap, which bulks him way up, despite the fact that Nightcrawler should actually be the smallest of the six figures included here. Why would they do this?  And then not fix it for soooooo long?  The paint was okay on this guy, at least.  The face again leans more into the demonic thing, but at least that fits okay with the GSXM-stylings.

THUNDERBIRD

The one truly exclusive figure in the set, this Thunderbird wouldn’t see a re-issue at all, and the character wouldn’t appear again until 2016, when we got another GSXM-set.  He’s the one that seems to diverge the most from the comics appearance, falling back more into a general ‘mate aesthetic.  He had a new hair piece and shoulder pads, both of which would remain unique.  They’re…well, they’re there.  Neither’s all that impressive, but I guess they aren’t bad either. The bit of his forehead that’s visible on the hairpiece looks really odd, and he’s missing the feathers from the back of his headband.  The paintwork brings in a few more inaccuracies.  He’s got visible pupils, which he shouldn’t, and his feet are the wrong color (they should be red).  Also, his face just doesn’t feel at all like Thunderbird.  I could see it passing for Warpath, but definitely not Thunderbird.  At least he got torso detailing?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like a fool, an absolute fool, I passed on this set when it came out.  I saw it at Cosmic Comix, I had the money to spend, and I dropped on the DC Direct import of the Batman Kubricks instead.  Why?  WHY!?!  I was young and stupid, that’s why.  This set’s never been super plentiful, and was going for a bit on the aftermarket for a while, so I just never got one.  I finally ended up getting the Series 68 set, and figured that was good enough, but I still had this little nagging need for this set too.  Fortunately, it came into All Time as part of a big Minimates collection they bought last fall, so, hey, I finally got it.  Honestly, this set hasn’t aged so well, but it’s really worth the price of admission just for that Colossus.  That’s still the best version of him the line produced!

As I mentioned above,  I got this set from my friends at All Time Toys.  They’ve still got a lot of that Minimate collection, and other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2364: Jean Grey & Cyclops

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

JEAN GREY & CYCLOPS

MARVEL MINIMATES

I’ve been slowly making my way through the earliest assortments of the Marvel Minimates line.  The X-Men-themed third assortment’s been on the docket for a good long while in particular, since I officially started reviewing it back in December of 2016, with Cyclops and Wolverine.  Today, I’m finally gonna finish it, taking a look at the other Cyclops, as well as the one unreviewed team member, Jean Grey!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This set rounds out Series 3 of the specialty assortments of Marvel Minimates, and like the other sets in the line-up, it’s themed around Ultimate X-Men.  The two figures included here are notable for being the only ones to remain wholly exclusive to the specialty line-up, since Jean was paired up with either of the two Cyclopses and the Cyclops seen here is the one-per-case variant.

JEAN GREY

I’ve only briefly touched on my opinions of the Ultimate designs, especially as they pertain to this set of ‘mates.  Jean got saddled with one of the absolute worst redesigns of the bunch.  For a character whose personality didn’t really change too much from her mainstream counterpart, they managed to stick her with a costume that was divergent in just about every way and held onto pretty much nothing that was signature of the character.  Without a name attached to it, there’s any number of female X-Men that I would guess for this design before arriving on Jean.  But I digress…what of the figure?  Well, she’s on the old style body, with add-ons for the hair and necklace.  The hair is an okay recreation of the style she had in the early Ultimate X-Men issues, and the necklace is the same kinda bulky piece used on Storm.  It gets the job done on recreating the look she’s got in the comics, so I guess that’s good.  The paintwork follows suit, and she gets all of the important details, while going a bit more lax on the smaller details than later entries would.  She’s got the wrapped arms like Storm, which is still a pretty cool detail.

CYCLOPS

I’ve already reviewed the standard Cyclops, so why not take a look at his slightly different variant.  The variants in the early days of the line were a mixed bag.  While the Symbiote Spidey was honestly too big a design for the one-per-case thing, and Elektra was a whole lot of “meh”, the variant No Visor Cyclops falls into a subset of variants that actually wouldn’t even count as separate figures as the line progressed.  Seriously, the thing that distinguished him from the standard release was merely the fact that he wasn’t wearing his visor; nowadays it’s standard for a Cyclops to just include an extra hair piece.  You were originally meant to pay the price of a two-pack for one single extra part.  It’s a fairly nice extra part, I guess; it’s the same basic hair piece as the regular, but with no visor and actual proper ears.  I also dig that they gave him a slightly different expression, and also added the facial hair that he grew later on in the books, but it’s hard to say there’s all that much exciting about this guy.  He’s an accessory, not a complete figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Cyclops and Jean were my second set of Marvel Minimates…just not this actual set.  I got the standard set with the regular Cyclops and Jean.  While I held onto most of the regular Cyclops, I lost most of Jean’s parts over the years.  When All Time got their big collection of Minimates in last year, I took advantage of it to fill in the gaps of my early ‘mates, and picked up a replacement Jean, and finally got that variant Cyclops I’d never had.  Reviewing these two without the standard Cyclops, I’ve kinda realized he was the real lynchpin of the set.  Jean’s got the worst of the team designs, and the variant Cyclops honestly feels a little bit pointless.  All that said, I’m happy to have at least finished out the assortment, even if I’ve realized that the best one of them is the one I’ve had for 17 years.

#2333: Jean Grey, Cyclops, & Wolverine

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

JEAN GREY, CYCLOPS, & WOLVERINE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Love triangles are far from uncommon in serialized fiction, with a good deal of narratives being built around at least one.  The X-Men have been host to a fair number of them, but I don’t think any of them will ever beat out the Jean Grey/Cyclops/Wolverine triad…which is kind of amusing, because it was originally only a minor plot line, mostly meant as a way to give Logan a little character development, while also strengthening Scott and Jean’s relationship and solidifying them as the definitive couple.  Then Wolverine’s popularity went through the roof, Jean died and came back a few times, and Scott became the X-writers’ favorite punching bag, and now they’ve got some sort of vague polyamorous relationship going on?  Listen, the X-books are being written by Hickman, and he hasn’t deigned that they make any sort of sense yet, so we’ll all just have to sit back and wait for him to tell us whether or not we understand anything that’s going on, alright?  While we’re waiting for that, let’s flash back to the ’90s, when things were simpler, and we just had your basic love triangle between a newly married couple and their surly 100-year-old friend.  The basics!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Wolverine were released late last year as a Fan Channel-exclusive Marvel Legends three-pack.  Like the Havok and Polaris pack, they are loosely built into the “80 Years of Marvel” celebration, and also like that pack, the box is all themed around the trading cards of the ’90s.  It’s a cool design, but as with most of my figures, these things could ship in plastic baggies for all I care–actually no, I do care!  Paper bags!  Let’s be a little more environmentally conscious!  Until then, I guess a throwback to the ’90s trading cards is alright.  What was I doing?  Grand standing?  No, wait–action figure review! Yeah, let’s go with that!

JEAN GREY

“Jean Grey is an incredibly powerful mutant with the psychic powers of telepathy and telekinesis.”

After being Marvel Girl, then Phoenix, then Dark Phoenix, then dead, then not dead anymore, Jean decided to ditch the whole supramyn concept and go with her regular-ass name.  Seems fair, honestly.  It does make marketing her a little tricky, though, since everyone else is using these really sweet code names and she’s just regular-old “Jean.”  Whatever the case this particular regular old Jean is an important one, because she finally completes the core ’90s X-Men line-up (though we still need a proper Colossus)…well, for most fans, anyway.  Some people were fortunate enough to have found the Rocket Raccoon Series Jean, which had this same costume, but to call that release “hard to find” would be something of an understatement.  Plus, that was just before Legends really got the formula down, so an update is not unprecedented.  So, here Jean is in all her head-band-wearing, Jim Lee-designed-glory.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  She’s built on a variant of the same body that Phoenix was built on, but with a new upper torso and thighs.  She also re-uses the bracers and belt from the previous ’90s Jean, which seems pretty sensible.  She does not re-use the head from that figure, instead getting not one, but two new ones.  She gets one that’s a direct recreation of the last one, being the more comics-accurate hairdo (seen with Wilson on the right there), but also gets an X-Men: The Animated Series accurate head with her slightly tweaked headgear from the show.  That’s actually a first for toys, and I’m genuinely thrilled that I can now have a cartoon accurate roster.  Jean’s paintwork is mostly pretty basic, though I will say that there’s a little bit of slop on the blue portions of the costume on mine, and I had to check a few samples to get the best one.  Hasbro was definitely having a more lax QC day on this figure.  Jean doesn’t get any accessories beyond the extra head…well, I mean, unless you want to count the next two figures, which would be somewhat valid.

CYCLOPS

“Scott Summers can fire optic blasts so powerful that they can only be harnessed by a special ruby-quartz visor.”

Cyclops has already gotten his modern-Legends-take-on-the-’90s-design due, with a pretty darn cool figure, I might add. However, in a similar fashion to the Jean situation above, said figure was never amazingly easy to find, and he’s kind of an essential piece to a ’90s X-Men set-up.  However, Hasbro didn’t want to just do a straight re-issue, so they’ve given us a figure that works to fill in the roster for fans that missed the first figure, while still having something to offer for fans who already have him.  What’d they do to change things up: bomber jacket.  Yeah, Scott was prone to wearing a jacket over his costume in the ’90s (especially on the cartoon), so that’s what this guy replicates.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  He uses the same starting point as his predecessor, the Bucky Cap body, and also gets the same head and collection of straps as the previous, minus the wrist straps.  He then gets the jacket from Old Man Logan and the arms from Punisher.  The jacket works better with the straps than I’d expected it to, and while I’m still not sure it’s 100% perfect, it’s decent.  I do wish the arms had a better range of motion, but that’s really the only thing.  The other thing that this guy changes up quite a bit is the paint.  While the last one went more for the Capcom colors for the costume, this one leans more heavily on those animated colors, so there’s a darker blue and a brighter yellow.  I wasn’t sure about the change at first, but I kinda like it in person.  The only downside is that now I want an un-jacketed version to match this and a jacketed one to match the prior.  Oh darn.  Cyclops is packed with two extra heads, one depicting his ’90s sunglasses, and the second his ’70s/’80s, allowing for some nice options on the civilian front.  He also includes a second left hand in a standard fist, for those that don’t like the optic blast hand.

WOLVERINE

“The mutant known as Wolverine possesses razor-sharp Adamantium claws and the ability to heal virtually any wound.”

Did you know that Wolverines have an average lifespan between 7 and 12 years in the wild?  That’s your fun FiQ fact for this tiger-stripe Wolverine review!  Wolverine is *definitely* no stranger to the toy world, the Legends world, or even the modern-Legends-take-on-the-’90s-design world.  We got his brown costume twice, and so now I guess it was time to even things out with the tiger-stripe design, especially since, even at two-to-a-case, the last release had really disappeared.  This one acts as something of a smaller-scale companion to the 12-inch Legends Wolverine.  I loved the heck out of that figure, so the prospects of it translating to the smaller line were definitely a plus for me.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s the same as the Apocalypse Series Wolverine, which makes sense, that being a very ’90s Wolverine and all.  It’s also just a really solid sculpt, and Hasbro can hardly be faulted for getting a little more mileage out of it.  The paint work changes up in a fashion quite similar to how it worked on Cyclops.  In fact, the shades of yellow and blue appear to be identical.  I don’t like the dark blue quite as much, but the yellow’s not bad.  Wolverine gets the best accessory selection of the set, with two extra heads, a pulled down mask, and an alternate set of hands with bone claws.  The two extra heads replicate the ones included with the larger figure, so there’s an unmasked head and an angry battle-damaged head.  I really like that battle-damaged head, and I’m glad we got it at the smaller scale.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was fortunate enough to get both Wolverine and Cyclops’ original releases at retail pricing, but Jean pre-dates me getting back into Legends collecting, and honestly I probably wouldn’t have found one anyway.  As I got more and more of the ’90s team, the lack of a Jean was more and more of an issue.  I was hoping for at least a re-issue, but when Hasbro announced an all-new figure, I was definitely happy, even more so when I saw that animated head.  I know a lot of people weren’t thrilled about the prospect of having to re-buy the other two, but I don’t mind so much, and find that both figures have something to offer even if you’ve got those previous releases.  All in all, this is a great set and I’m glad we got it.  Now I can finally stop using Phoenix in my X-Men display!

I picked this trio up from my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#2270: Havok & Cyclops

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

HAVOK & CYCLOPS

MARVEL MINIMATES

Okay, six days into this year’s Post-Christmas reviews, we’ve stumbled into our first theme: Minimates.  Yep, the next five days are going to be all about Minimates, which, somewhat like the Robin figure I reviewed on Saturday, feels a bit like getting back to my roots.  It’s been a while since I’ve just done a week of Minimates reviews.  For years, one of the more persistently demanded teams yet to grace Minimate form was the ’90s incarnation of X-Factor.  After giving us most of the characters in other, non-X-Factor forms, DST has finally given us the core team, each paired alongside one of their predecessors from the original X-Factor line-up.  I’m kicking things off with the two teams’ respective leaders, the brothers Havok and Cyclops!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Havok and Cyclops are part of Series 78 of Marvel Minimates, which is, as noted above, based on the first two incarnations of X-Factor.  In addition to the two main figures, this set also includes the legs and torso of this assortment’s Build-A-Figure, Strong Guy, who I’ll be reviewing on his own at the end of the week.

HAVOK

“Alex Summers, Scott’s brother, was a member of the X-Men before leading a new incarnation of X-Factor. He can create directional directional energy blasts.”

Okay, so the Legends release has stolen this guy’s thunder ever so slightly, but I am nevertheless still stoked to have yet another figure of Havok’s X-Factor duds.  They’re very sentimental to me, and while I’m glad we got the two versions of classic Havok we did before this guy, I am still so thrilled by this guy’s existence.  In contrast to the Legend, the old Toy Biz figure, and even the Kubrick, this Havok actually gives us the first incarnation of Havok’s ’90s costume, before he got the yellow straps to match the main X-team.  The only other instance of his first costume in toy form that I can think of is the X-Men Under Siege! board game from the ’90s, so it’s a pretty noteworthy thing.  The figure is 2 1/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He’s constructed using the modern standard ‘mate body, with the poofy-sleeved upper arms, and add-ons for the hair, jacket, and glove cuffs.  The cuffs are the same Spirit pieces we’ve seen many times before, but the hair and jacket are all new pieces.  While I always envisioned this look with a full head-piece myself, I must admit that this layout works pretty well, and keeps him from being overly bulked up.  Havok’s paintwork is pretty impressive, given just how much detail is going on.  The face is really the first time I feel they’ve gotten comic Havok down; the previous two seemed just a bit too intense with the screaming.  The gritted teeth here look good.  The torso is fully detailed under the jacket, and I was pleased to see that they had even included some of the easier to miss details such as the pockets on the sides of his legs.  Havok is packed with two brand new effects pieces and a clear display stand.

CYCLOPS

“Scott ‘Slim’ Summers was the deputy leader of the X-Men before forming X-Factor. He possesses the power of optic blasts.”

And again Legends did a bit of thunder stealing here, what with giving us this exact costume in the Vintage wave this year.  Who would have guessed?  Certainly not me.  While I don’t have quite the same level of attachment to this costume that I do Havok’s, this Cyclops costume is still pretty sentimental to me, and I’m down for another version of it.  It should be noted that this is Cyclops’ second X-Factor costume.  The first was released as part of a boxed set in 2009, and remains the only time that the original costume has been done in toy form.  In that regard, Minimates are just catching up with everyone else and releasing the more popular white and blue.  The figure is constructed solely from re-used parts, with the cowl/visor piece from Series 68’s Giant Size X-Men Cyclops, plus standard cuffed boots and flared gloves.  If you want to get really technical, the gloves are supposed to have folded over cuffs like the boots, but otherwise the parts make for a good match to his comics appearance.  Cyclops’ paint is a bit more straight-forward than his brother’s, but still very nicely done, with clean application and a striking color scheme.  Cyclops is packed with an alternate hairpiece (borrowed from the Series 34 release) with his Jim Lee-style exposed hair, which he had towards the end of this costume’s run, as well as a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This pair (and the rest of the series, for that matter) were a Christmas gift from my Super Awesome Wife.  Amusingly enough, the series was wrapped as two pairs, and these two weren’t in the first pair, but I knew they had to be in the selection of wrapped gifts.  It may have slightly undermined my excitement on the first pair, which may have slightly annoyed Super Awesome Wife.  Whatever the case, I was very glad to get them, and this pair in particular has extra sentimental value to me, being my first two figures of both characters packed in one set.

#2197: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

ONE:12 COLLECTIVE (MEZCO)

Cyclops sure does seem to be getting a good bit of love these days, with a headlining role in the latest X-Men relaunch, plus all sorts of toys.  I mean, he’s had no less than two Marvel Legends in one single year.  That’s a pretty big deal for him, especially after the less than stellar treatment he’s gotten for the better part of the last decade.  Riding in on the Cyclops-hype train as well is Mezco, who are finally expanding the X-Men portion of their One:12 Collective line to more than just variants of Wolverine, and adding both long-time foe Magneto and old-school leaderman Cyclops to the docket.  I’m an unabashed Cyclops fan, so it’s not much of a surprise who I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is a Fall 2019 release for Mezco’s One:12 Collective line.  He took his sweet time getting onto shelves, but he started arriving just within the last month.  This is the standard Cyclops offering, which depicts him in a ’90s Jim Lee-inspired get-up.  There’s also a more Cockrum/Byrne-inspired variant, which should be arriving at retail shortly.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

Cyclops is another figure on the multiple heads band-wagon.  There are two included here, each with the same basic design, but each with a different expression.  The standard is the more classic calm Cyclops, fit for the more usual standing poses, while the alternate is sporting an intense scream, just right for all that…screaming that Cyclops is wont to do.  It means that you’ve got some decent options for posing, to be sure.  Both sculpts do a respectable job for capturing that classic Cyclops likeness.  While I’m still more partial to the Legends ’90 Cyclops head sculpt as a whole, I can definitely respect these heads for what they do, and there’s a more real world quality to them.  Both heads are designed to work with the light-up feature built into the body.  It’s not a super complex system or anything, but the battery is built into a compartment which is housed in the neck joint.  The ball-joint contains a small LED, the desired head pops onto the ball-joint, the switch on the housing is turned on, and the whole housing is slid back down into the main neck and turned to lock into place for posing.  It’s not a bad design, and it’s a rare light-up feature for a Cyclops that doesn’t completely hinder his neck joint.  However, I found the actual lighting to be a little unreliable and tempermental, making it difficult to keep it illuminated during posing.  I don’t know if this is just my figure or an across the board thing.

Cyclops is built on a smaller male body than a lot of the line, but it seems suitably sized to the character.  He’s a mixed-media affair, with a slightly rubberized jumpsuit, plus hard plastic add-ons for his belt/shoulder strap, wrist cuffs, leg straps, and boots.   There have been a few adjustments made to the design, such as removing the yellow shorts (which the classic-styled figure will be adding back), adding a proper collar, and adding some piping and panelling lines to the main body suit.  It’s really not terribly different from how they updated, say, Iron Man’s design, and is generally in pretty good keeping with the line’s stylings as a while.  It also keeps all of the major points for selling this as a Jim Lee Cyclops, so they seem to have done a pretty respectable job of boiling things down.

Cyclops has a decent selection of accessories included.  In addition to the previously mentioned extra head, he’s also got a selection of five extra visors to swap out between the two, which includes a few duplicates, presumably in case you accidentally lose one.  The “smoking eye” piece is great for subtle poses, and the two extremes of the blasts pair well with the two different expressions on the heads.  There are also three included pairs of hands in fists, open gesture, and a flat/visor operating pose combo.  He also includes the usual display stand, this time with a big ol’ X on it.  Lastly, and most impressively by my count, is the removable (faux) leather jacket, which is pretty much essential to completing a proper ’90s Cyclops, and was the only notable thing missing from Hasbro’s first release (although they’re going to be amending that very soon).  The accessories for Cyclops are definitely an improvement over the comparatively rather light Vigilante Daredevil figure, which is a pretty good thing, even if Cyclops technically retails for $10 more.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I waffled a lot on this figure, truth be told.  At it’s core, I love the idea, and honestly, I’m very happy with the execution.  The problem I run into with most of the One:12 stuff is the cost relative to other lines in the same scale, and I won’t lie that Hasbro’s announcement of the reissue of the Jim Lee Cyclops with an added jacket did knock this one down ever so slightly in my book.  I get *why* these figures are more expensive, but that doesn’t make it easy for me to justify.  And Cyclops even retails for $20 higher than the previous base price point on these figures, making him an even harder justification.  That said, when I saw this guy in person, he really spoke to me, and I decided that a good figure of Cyclops was the sort of thing I could invest in.  Well, I’m glad I did.  Despite being the most I’ve paid for a One:12 figure, I’d say this one’s the one I’m the most satisfied with at the end of the day.  He’s a very nice piece on his own, and I think stands apart enough from the likes of Legends to be worth the additional investment.

I got this guy from my friends All Time Toys, where he is currently in stock here.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.