Tag Archives: Fantastic Four

#0013: Black Bolt

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

BLACK BOLT

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOYBIZ)

Today’s figure is yet another figure from the 90s Fantastic Four toy line.  So far we’ve looked at Mr. Fantastic and his nemesis Dr. Doom, now we’re going to look at another corner of the FF Universe: The Inhumans!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The figure in question is Black Bolt, king of the Inhumans.  Black Bolt was released in the first wave of the Fantastic Four line.  He stands about 5 inches tall, and he has 9 points of articulation.  The figure’s sculpt is pretty decent, though his shoulders are a bit slender for a character like Black Bolt.  The facial expression is okay, but it might be a bit too sly for such a serious character.  Like Dr. Doom, Black Bolt has an action feature, and also like Doom, it’s a bit useless.  When you press the button on his belt, his arms spring up, extending his wings.  While I suppose it makes more sense than Dr. Doom’s, it still mucks up the figure’s articulation for a feature with fairly minor results.  Unlike Dr. Doom, I don’t feel Black Bolt’s action feature ruins the aesthetic of the figure, it just hiders his articulation slightly.  Also, while subsequent figures of this character depict him clad in black with silver highlights, this one went with a dark blue/light blue color scheme.  It actually looks fairly striking, but it is odd that a character named BLACK Bolt doesn’t have any black on him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

By the time I started collecting, Black Bolt was pretty much gone from stores.  But I really wanted one, so my dad tracked one down for me on ebay.  It marks the first time I ever sat eagerly awaiting the end of an ebay auction, which was a thrilling experience!  I’ve gotten other Black Bolts since then, but this one is still my favorite by far.

#0012: Dr. Doom

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

DR DOOM

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOYBIZ)

Today, we look at another figure from Toybiz’s Fantastic Four line from the 90s.  Yesterday, we looked at Reed Richards, today we look at his arch nemesis Dr. Victor Von Doom

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The patriarch of Latveria was released in the first wave of figures.  He’s based on the character’s look on the cartoon, which was obviously based the comic book look.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation.  He has a removable cape and a spring loaded right hand.  The hand is launched by pushing the extremely obvious lever on the shoulder.  It’s kind of an odd feature, as I don’t recall Doom ever doing anything that resembled what this figure seems to emulate.  I guess maybe if he were a Doombot, but it just seems like an odd choice for a figure that would have probably been better without it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Dr. Doom was a great figure.  I remember being pretty content with this figure, and as a kid he was one of my go to bad guys for whatever hero I was playing with that week.  I think he still holds up pretty well for the time, aside from the odd action feature.

Check out this figure’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum here!

#0011: Mr Fantastic

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

MR FANTASTIC

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOYBIZ)

Today’s post is from Toybiz’s Fantastic Four line from the 90s.  The line was released to coincide with the cartoon from the same time.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The figure in question is the leader of the FF, Dr Reed Richards, aka Mr Fantastic (Mr. F!).  He’s from the first wave of the line.  Reed is depicted in his costume from the cartoon, which was based on the John Byrne design.  He stands 5 inches tall, with 5 points of articulation.  He features stretchy arms and a neat Negative Zone harness, for all that negative Zone exploring he’s prone to do.  The harness fits well, and goes on and off pretty easily.  The stretchy arms were an inspired choice, but I feel they may have been the wrong way to go.  As you can see from the photo, the rubber is very prone to yellowing, kind of ruining the figure.  Plus, there’s no way to pose his arms any other way than straight down at his sides.  Overall, a decent depiction of Mr Fantastic, but there’s some room for improvement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Reed was my second figure of the character, bought to replace my fragile Marvel Super heroes figure.  He’s definitely an improvement in sturdiness and in overall quality, though I’m not sure it’s a spot-on Mr Fantastic.