BLUE FLAME, VULCAN, LASH LIGHTNING, CAPTAIN TOOTSIE, THE CLAW, ATOMAN, BLACK COBRA, & BLACK FURY

AMAZING HEROES (FRESH MONKEY FICTION)

Oh, man, who we are!  We’re almost at the end!  Just one more review! ….one more eight figure review… No, I’m losing steam again.  I shan’t do that!  I’m making it to the end!  Forward, into battle!

In 2021, after running their own crowdfunding internally on their webstore, Amazing Heroes got another shot in the arm in the form of Big Bad Toy Store, who financed the whole next assortment.  And, they even financed a whole eight figures this time around, as well as returning the line to its fully public domain set-up.  This one’s gonna be even more rapid-fire than anything else, so let’s get into it!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Blue Flame, Vulcan, Lash Lightning, Captain Tootsie, The Claw, Atoman, Black Cobra, and Black Fury make up Series 6 of Amazing Heroes, and they were available through BBTS and Fresh Monkey Fiction’s website, with preorders opening in early 2021, and the figures shipping out late-summer/early-fall.

Hey, look, it’s the Human Torch!  No, wait, this guy’s blue.  Can’t be the same guy.  This must be the Blue Flame.  Classic mistake, honestly.  Blue Flame was originally shown as a stretch goal for Series 4, but he didn’t make it.  But, Fresh Monkey Fiction isn’t one to let a good idea die, so he resurfaced here.  The figure is on the standard body, so he’s 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He gets a new head, now with all of the features removed…you know just like Human Torch…sorry, Blue Flame.  The paint work does the nifty scorch lines thing, which is fun, and he’s got some flame effects.  And he’s blue, which is especially fun.

Vulcan’s the descendant of the Roman God of Fire, who is also named Vulcan, which certainly has to get confusing.  Being descended from a God of Fire, he’s got fire powers.  Two fire powers guys in a row.  Weird.  Vulcan’s not blue, though, so I guess that makes it less confusing.  Vulcan is another figure that dates back to earlier, having been shown off during the very first Kickstarter as one of four choices of figures that you could back an entire production run for.  Like I said, they don’t let these things go to waste.  He’s using the Captain Action-style head, which is fun, and definitely looks the part of the character from the comics.  It’s got red hair, now, though, which certainly helps it look different.  Beyond that, he’s rather green.

“Lash” Lightning is another one that was held onto from the first Kickstarter.  I guess, what with BBTS financing a whole run of figures, they were entitled to pick two of the four.  Robert Morgan takes on the persona of “Lash” Lightning after training with the Old Man of the Pyramids and getting an amulet, because it was the ’40s and that’s just sort of how Egypt worked back then.  Especially if you were American!  Lash is another figure using the Captain Action head.  Now, he’s ginger, rather than the stark red hair of Vulcan.  I guess that’s different enough too.  Beyond that, he gets a pretty involved paint scheme, which is honestly pretty fun.

Captain Tootsie is, if you can believe it, and honest to god mascot of Tootsie Rolls.  I’m not making that up.  He was created by Captain Marvel/Shazam co-creator CC Beck, and he needed to consume Tootsie Rolls to gain bursts of energy to complete whatever tasks were before him.  He also had a sidekick named “Rollo”, because why not.  His figure is using the standard male head and the main body.  It’s not a terrible set-up, but it’s a bit of a shame he couldn’t get a slightly more Beck-inspired head sculpt.  As it stands, he’s a bit generic, but admittedly, so’s his design.

The Claw is yet another villain.  We didn’t get one of those in Series 5, I suppose, so he was overdue.  Claw was one of those villains of the Golden Age who just sort of fought everybody, and he’s also got the good virtue of just being a straight up alien, rather than some sort of horribly caricatured take on a real person.  Yay?  He did figure Daredevil a few times, so it’s a nice tie-back to the earliest figures.  He’s also got an all-new head, which actually does a respectable job of capturing his comics appearance.  It certainly works far better than anything they already had on hand for him.  He’s also got a clot robe piece, which is basic, but does what it needs to.  There are two sets of arms as well, one with white painted claws on the ends of the fingers, the other without, just so you have some options.

Atoman is another atomic powered hero, because that’s where everyone went for a while.  He’s honestly a pretty by the numbers character when you get down to it.  As such, he’s a pretty by the numbers construction, too.  Basic male head on the standard body.  He does get a cape as well, just to keep things a little more…cape-y?  Sure, why can’t that be a thing?  The colors are red and yellow, which is a pretty neat set-up; he winds up with a bit of a Firestorm vibe, I find.

Black Cobra is a Cold War-era character, so he’s sort of got a different vibe than the others.  It’s a very Commie-smasher, government agent thing.  He, too, uses the standard body and basic haired head; he’s one I feel might have worked with the other male head, but I guess it was already used twice, and you don’t want it to overstay its welcome.  His paint work is the roughest of all the figures in this set.  It’s not bad, but there’s definitely some slop.

And here we are with our last guy, the Black Fury.  Totally different from the Black Terror, by the way.  That’s a whole other guy in black with a red cape and skull and crossbones logo.  How could you possibly confuse them?  Black Fury is Daily Clarion gossip columnist John Perry, who decides that be best way to get gossip is to…go out and fight crime?  Like, he’s not even noble about it, he’s just like “oh, man, I wonder if bad guys ever spill the tea while duking out with good guys” and then he just goes for it.  Hey, good for him.  The figure’s honestly pretty fun.  He’s got a clean design, and it definitely translates well.  He’s even got a cool red cape, and some of this set’s best paint work.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It was actually part of this set that alerted me to all of the others.  The guy that brought everything to All Time brought Vulcan and Claw first, and I snagged those, and was hopeful I might see some others, and then he just brought the rest.  And here I am.  Blue Flame was another one that was very high on my list, so I was definitely glad to see him.  The others in this set are decidedly goofy, to be sure.  I did like learning more about them all, though.  Honestly, that’s kind of my favorite thing about this whole venture.  Just learning all the craziness of these old, largely untouched characters.  It’s fun times.  There’s one more set, which introduced a female buck, which I’d like to track down some day, but for now, I’m done.  I made it, you guys.  It didn’t totally kill me!

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

MR. MONSTER, BADGER, E-MAN, STRAY, & BLACK PIRATE

AMAZING HEROES (FRESH MONKEY FICTION)

Oh boy, it’s part 5 of the Day of Amazement, and guys, I’m tired. Like, sure, there’s a thrill to these whole big bunch of reviews in a day thing, but the inertia’s always worn off by this point, and you’re just left wondering who placed you in this horrible position. And then you remember that you did it to yourself, and I’ll tell ya, that doesn’t really help matters. Why do I keep doing this? At this point, I think I honestly don’t know how to quit. Don’t worry, though, I’ll pull through this and the next review, and I’ll get back that thrill, and in about 2 1/2 years time, I’ll convince myself to do it again, because of all the *fun* I had the last time. I’m gonna need one of you to stop me next time. Oh, sure, you’ll have no way of knowing, but at least now I can blame somebody else.

…where was I? Something with toys? Oh, yeah, Day of Amazement. Yep. That’s the one. So, we’re on Series 5, and by this point, FMF had moved things back to their own site, but they built their own crowd funding thing, which they ran in September of 2020.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Mr. Monster, Badger, E-Man, Stray, and Black Pirate were all part of Series 5 of Amazing Heroes, which also included a re-release of Nexus from Series 2, as well as being augmented by a Comic House-exclusive Captain Canuck and a separately backed Oddity Madman.  What’s interesting about this particular set is that it’s largely *not* public domain characters, instead placing a heavy focus on creator-owned independent characters.  A lot of these had actually shown up previously as potential incentives for earlier campaigns, and wound up all bundled together for one fun creator-owned series here.

Mr. Monster sort of bridges the world between the two aesthetics, having originally appeared in 1947, created by Fred Kelly.  He had two appearances before disappearing into obscurity.  He was later discovered and revived by Michael T Gilbert, who reinvented the character in the ’70s and secured the trademark for the name on his new version of the character.  Mr. Monster is a legacy title, currently held by Dr. Strongfort Stearn, who fights all of the monsters of the night in true pulp hero fashion.  The figure uses the standard body, so he’s 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Series 5 marked a switch up of sorts, because all of the new not public domain characters were also granted some new molds.  In addition to repurposing the flared gloves introduced on Series 4’s Blue Beetle, Mr. Monster also gets a brand-new head, as well as a belt add-on piece.  Since his usual build isn’t quite a perfect match for the general style of the line, Mr. Monster has been adjusted a touch to better fit with the rest of the line.  It works pretty well, and still keeps him true to the character’s spirit and design.  His paint work is quite sharp and clean, and also quite bright and eye catching, and is generally far more in line with Series 4’s quality.  Mr. Monster is packed with a pair of pistols, which are the same ones that were previously available separately on Fresh Monkey Fiction’s site, for the purposes of arming Black Bat.

Badger is, of course, fully into the creator-owned territory, having been created by Mike Baron in 1983.  He’s the sort of character that I’ve been aware of for a while, but not, like, every really *that* familiar with.  He’s a scrappy sort of guy with multiple personalities, though, so he does seem at least a little bit up my alley.  Badger also gets new parts, though in his case it’s just a new head.  It’s…well, it’s certainly a change-up.  I don’t know that it *quite* fits the vibe of the rest of the line for me, but I can definitely dig them going for something a little bit different.  Badger’s paint work is a little sloppier than Mr. Monster’s.  It’s still not awful, but there are a few spots that are a little sloppy, notably the change-over of color on the hips.

E-Man is a character who’s reputation for me is that my cousins used to call me “E-man” as a nickname (which stopped with the birth of my brother Christian, for whom the first letter plus “man” set-up created less than stellar results, at least verbally), and I found some back-issues of E-Man at one point and everyone joked they were about me.  Beyond that, I had no real idea who he was.  His design and name similarities to Elongated Man led me to believe for a good while that he was a stretchy guy, but that’s apparently not the case.  E-Man is actually a sentient packet of energy, which formed itself into a super hero, which is honestly kind of cool.  He was created by Joe Staton and Nicola Cuti, and he was a late-stage creation of Charlton, before moving elsewhere when they closed up shop.  E-Man gets a new head sculpt, which is honestly one of my favorites from the line.  There’s just so much character and expression behind it, and I really love that.  His paint work is also incredibly clean and sharp; there was room for the yellow and orange to meld together too much, but they rather smartly applied black outlining, which really finishes the look off super nicely.

Stray is a surprisingly new character, having only been introduced five years before joining the line.  Creators Vito Delsante and Sean Izaakse are clearly dialing into some Batman and Robin stylings, with Stray himself being a sort of stand-in for Dick Grayson, albeit with his own unique set-up.  He’s a fun concept, and a fun design, and a great way of adding a little bit of variety to the whole set-up.  Stray’s got an all-new head, which gives him his distinctive head gear.  It’s a pretty strong sculpt and it fits well with the overall style of the line.  Stray’s paint work is pretty involved, and a pretty different sort of color scheme.  His application is pretty clean; there’s a few little spots of slop, but it’s generally solid work.

Hey, we’ve made it to the one proper public domain guy in the set.  They gotta have at least one.  Even by the usual public domain standards, though, Black Pirate is pretty obscure. Don Angelo di Martini appeared in two issues of Avventure in Alto Mare, before the book was ordered to cease publication by Mussolini’s Fascist Party.  He may have made sure the trains ran on time, but apparently Black Pirate was not on his list of things to keep running on time.  For shame.  Well, at least he got a figure out of it all.  Take that, fascists!  Black Pirate uses the base body, with the flared gloves and cuffed boots from Series 4.  He’s also using the bald head, and he gets a cloth cape as well.  In terms of paint work, he’s got a lot of black, as you would expect.  His face is a little messed on my copy, which is a little annoying, but there’s a workaround.  In addition to the sword accessory, which was shown off from the beginning, Black Pirate *also* got a “mystery accessory.”  It turned out to be a second head.  This one’s an all-new one, which gives him a hat atop his mask, granting him a resemblance to another all-black wearing guy with a sword and a mustache, who should totally be in the public domain, but in a myriad of court cases that would make Disney’s head spin, isn’t.  What’s that guy’s name?  I mean, it’s definitely *not* Zorro, right? Right.  Honestly, the whole mystery piece angle was pretty brilliant, and I love the option to turn this guy into someone who’s very definitely not Zorro.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I recall a handful of these guys from when they were shown off in earlier campaigns, but I was totally out of the running on the line by the time this assortment showed up.  So, it was something of a pleasant surprise, honestly.  E-Man speaks to me for the odd nostalgic reasons, and I love Black Pirate for reasons that can’t legally be disclosed.  Stray’s a cool modern character, and the other two have pretty fun visuals in their own right.  Okay, just one more to go.  I can do this, 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 and their eBay storefront.

MAGNO, RUBBERMAN, & FANTOM OF THE FAIR

AMAZING HEROES (FRESH MONKEY FICTION)

2019 was a pretty solid year for Amazing Heroes, all things considered.  Series 2 finally made it off the ground, and Series 3’s pre-orders came and went.  After the Series 3 venture, Fresh Monkey Fiction went back to the crowd-funding well, but not the Kickstarter well, instead using the smaller platform “Jumpstart” to get four additional figures funded.  This is the one time I got back into the line after Series 1, as I grabbed myself a Blue Beetle, because I’m not gonna be the idiot who skipped a Blue Beetle.  There were three not-Blue Beetle figures, which I’m getting to now!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Magno, Rubberman, and Fantom of the Fair are the aforementioned “not-Blue Beetle figures” from Amazing Heroes Series 4.  They were likewise part of the Jumpstart campaign that ran through December 31st of 2019, and they shipped out in the summer of the hell-hole that was 2020.

Magno is…well, he’s a magnetic guy.  You know, what with the name and all.  He had a sidekick who dressed pretty much identically to him and was named “Davey”.  Just Davey.  That’s the whole thing.  And they fought, amongst others, a guy called “the Clown.”  Is Magno just Spawn?  Well, they do both have capes, so there’s that.  The figure’s on the basic body that they’re all on, so he’s 4 1/2 inches tall like the rest of them and moves at the same 5 points of articulation. Magno uses the secondary hair-sporting head, which fits well with his usual depiction. He also gets a new set of legs, sporting cuffed boots, which is a pretty big deal, and he’s got a cloth cape, with a collar, even. Magno’s color scheme is bright, clean, and honestly pretty involved. It’s clean in its application and also pretty sharp on the edges, showing even further improvement from the Series 3 figures.

The line is still doing its best to manage at least one villain per set here, and for this round it’s Herr Riktor, aka Rubberman! He’s the head of a rubber factory in Nazi Germany, who falls into a vat of hot rubber, which does what all vats of stuff do in comics, and gives him super powers. You know, as you do. He was a foe of Iron Ace, a guy in knight’s armor who also flew a plane. You know, as you do. He’s got a very, very basic design, but is also the sort that feels tailor made to this type of figure. He’s actually got three different heads; the mustachioed one is Riktor, while the other two, much like Series 2’s Puzzler, are henchmen. I do rather like the set-up and I also rather like his shade of purple.

Last up is the Fantom of the Fair, later known as “Fantoman.” He’s essentially a heroic Phantom of the Opera, who swaps out the opera house in Paris for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. He had an underground lab, connected to an underground river, connected to an underground hip bone, connected to the Fair, which he guarded. He had a somewhat inconsistent look, but it’s okay, because the figure has that covered. He’s got a cloth cape with collar, plus three different heads. There’s a bald fully masked, a fully masked with hair, and a half-masked, which is also red? I don’t know, but they all look pretty cool.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Obviously, I more vividly recall this set than the others, since I bought Blue Beetle while he was new and all. I thought about getting the whole set, I really did, but it wasn’t in the cards at the time. It’s cool, though, because, look, here they all are. In terms of quality control, Series 4 is just absolutely fantastic, and considering they were the ones made at the height of the pandemic, that’s really just astounding. I knew none of these guys going in, but I do sorta like them all.

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