Tag Archives: Firestar

#3459: Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

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

SPIDER-MAN, ICEMAN, & FIRESTAR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Using their fantastic powers, Spider-Man teams up with fellow heroes and former X-Men Iceman and Marvel’s Firestar to battle the world’s most dastardly villains from their secret crime-fighting lab.”

Going back to the ‘60s, Spider-Man has never been a stranger to animation.  He typically brings with him his own cast of characters, centered around just him.  Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, however, took a different approach, partnering him off with two other heroes, Ice Man and the show-original-creation Firestar (who was created when Human Torch was unavailable due to the same licensing issues that led to the creation of H.E.R.B.I.E.), which not only gave the an additional spotlight, but also opened the door for the wider Marvel universe as a whole, providing one of the deepest mainstream cuts of Marvel characters for a good couple of decades at least.  The show was without merchandising at the time of its release, but has found its way into wider Marvel toy lines a few times in recent years.  Hasbro gave us the first fully cartoon-based set back during their Marvel Universe line, and they’ve followed that up with a proper update to their current Legends scale.  So, let’s check that one out!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Spider-Man, Iceman, and Firestar are a Marvel Legends three-pack, originally released at the beginning of the year. Like Tuesday’s Iron Man, this set was initially a Pulse-exclusive, but it has since moved over to a wider Fan Channel release, going to other retailers at the end of the summer.

SPIDER-MAN

Spider-Man is, of course, no stranger to Legends treatment, but the last year in particular has seen a lot of reinventing of the standard Spidey, thanks to the 60th Anniversary stuff.  This one is another take on that.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 34 points of articulation.  He’s a re-use of the Amazing Fantasy figure from the Anniversary line-up.  I was a really big fan of that one, and I’m still a big fan a year later.  It’s got such an amazing range of motion, and really balances it well with the proportions.  The big change-up here comes down to coloring; the first release was in his first appearance colors, where as this one does him in his classic red and blue.  It’s largely just a straight palette swap, but he does change-over to the proper updated spider-emblems as well.  I had no issues of slop on this one, but he’s still got the slightest bit of mismatching on the reds.  AF Spidey was pretty jam packed when it came to accessories; this guy gets a bit of a down grade on that.  He still gets the three of the four sets of hands (thwipping, fists, and open gesture; gripping gets dropped), but he loses the webline and the two sets of web-wings.  The web-wings he didn’t have in the show, so I get that.  The spots are still there to plug them in, if you’re still wanting a classic Spidey with the wings, though.

ICEMAN

Though not a total stranger to the line, Iceman is certainly less frequent a release than Spidey.  Our last one was back in 2021, and that one was an AoA variant, so he’s *technically* not even the same guy.  For classic, we’re going all the way back to 2019.  So, maybe another one’s not such a bad thing.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Pizza Spidey body, calling back to his Juggernaut Series release.  I honestly rather like the sizing of it for Bobby, especially for his Amazing Friends incarnation.  Its only downside is the visible pins, but even that’s pretty minor.  He gets the head from the retro carded version from 2019, which is a solid choice for a classic Iceman, and it sits pretty well on the changed out body.  The last few Iceman figures have all gone transparent in some way, but this one goes for an opaque look, which better fits the animation.  He’s got a little bit of cel-shading going on.  It’s a little odd from some angles, but it’s largely pretty versatile.  The only thing I don’t like is the white eyes.  In the show, they were yellow (or possibly green, depending on how you view the exact shade), so as to further differentiate them from the rest of his face, and they should really be that way here, but they’re not.  It’s an odd choice.  Icemen is packed with two sets of hands, open and in fists, as well as the small ice-sled piece from the retro card release.

FIRESTAR

Firestar’s run with Legends is a very recent thing; she just got her first figure back in 2021, covering her classic look, with both comics and animation looks covered.  What new ground does this one cover?  Well…umm…elbows and knees?  See, the last one had disc and pin elbows, and visible pin knees.  This one has double elbows and knees, which are both pinless, by virtue of her re-using the arms and legs from Shriek, in conjunction with the all the other parts from the last Firestar.  And I do mean *all* the other parts, including the extra head and hands, the effect pieces, and even Ms. Lion.  The only change-up is that Ms. Lion is now in her cartoon colors, as opposed to the comics colors of the single release, which is actually a pretty nice touch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this set was an exclusive, it was an easy pass for me, because there was nothing here I *needed*.  I’ve got close enough versions of all three, so why bother going to the extra effort?  Once it got the wider release, it really *wasn’t* any extra effort, so I figured why not?  It’s an interesting set-up, because nothing here is new or ground breaking.  Every figure here is just a slightly better figure of something else out there.  I do like having the better versions, of course, and I’m sure I’d be singing a different tune if I hadn’t snagged the other versions previously, but it does beg the question who this set was for, especially when it comes to the Firestar figure, who was a Fan Channel exclusive on her own not that terribly long ago.  Still, I do like the set.  Firestar’s just a little better, Spidey’s classic colors on my favorite Spidey body, and Iceman feels like a more complete package than the other versions.  So, it’s an overall win.

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.

#2805: Firestar

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

FIRESTAR

MARVEL UNIVERSE (TOY BIZ)

NOTE: This review was written before June 6th.

It wasn’t terribly long ago I was discussing the creation of Firestar, a Marvel character that *didn’t* make her first appearance in the comics, but rather on Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends.  Despite being a rather popular show, Amazing Friends never got any direct toy tie-ins.  And, while that’s not so big a deal for the likes of Spider-Man and Ice Man, whose comic-counterparts had plenty of notoriety on their own, for Firestar, whose comic version has never had quite the same prominence, it made her more difficult to place for toy coverage.  As such, her very first action figure came not as a mass release, but rather as a mail-way exclusive, which I’ll be taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Firestar was the mail-away offer for ToyFare #2, made available to offer in October of 1997, and arriving the following spring.  Interestingly, while both Firestar and the immediate follow-up, Wonder Man, would gain prominence via membership in Busiek and Perez’s line-up for their relaunch of Avengers, that wouldn’t be until roughly a year after their releases, making it somewhat coincidental.  Much like Wonder Man, Firestar had no direct ties to any of Toy Biz’s currently running lines, making her another one-off.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 10 points of articulation.  Firestar was a total repaint, specifically of the Medusa figure from the Fantastic Four line.  It’s admittedly not one of Toy Biz’s finest.  The articulation’s kind of wonky, as are the proportions, and she’s also got a lot of sculpted details for her costume that don’t correspond to Firestar.  On the plus side, the lack of volume to the hair is at least less of an issue here, and, honestly, her being stuck in this pose with her arms sort of raised, does at least work better for Firestar than it did for Medusa.  In general, I do feel like the sculpt works better as Firestar, which is odd, because it’s so clearly not for Firestar.  Really, everything about this sculpt just continues to be weird.  The paint work is fairly sparse.  For the most part, she’s just molded in the proper colors, mostly the yellow, though the hair is molded in the proper red.  Beyond that, the paint’s decent enough.  Firestar had no accessories, but that was fairly standard with these releases.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I mentioned in the Legends review, Firestar’s always been a favorite of mine.  I didn’t actually order this figure new, however, and she was one of those ones that had sort of a silly value for a while during my primary time collecting Toy Biz Marvel.  Instead, I wound up finally getting her during my period of getting back into 5-inch Marvel just after starting college.  I found her on a dealer’s table at Mego Meet of all places, and wound up getting her for something silly, like $5.  She’s not great.  She’s not even particularly good.  But, she’s an alright stand-in for the character, and she was our only Firestar for far too long.  All that said, the sting of this figure is certainly lessened by the existence of the Legends release from earlier this year.

#2710: Firestar

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

FIRESTAR

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Angelica Jones soars into battle harnessing the power of microwaves to combat evil as Marvel’s Firestar.”

Comics adaptations introducing characters that circle back around to the comics proper isn’t an uncommon thing, going back as far as the Superman radio serials and their creation of Jimmy Olsen.  Over at Marvel’s side, things were a little bit later game for them, but one of their first instances of this was Angelica Jones, aka Firestar.  First appearing in Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends in 1981, Firestar was created when the television rights for the Human Torch couldn’t be acquired.  She found her way into the comics four years later, in Uncanny X-Men #193, as a member of the Hellions.  From there she got her own mini-series, joined the New Warriors, and even had a stint with the Avengers.  She’s never been quite as prominent in the main universe as she was in the cartoon, but she’s certainly stuck around, and made her way into most of the major Marvel scales, including, most recently, Marvel Legends.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Firestar is her own standalone Marvel Legends release, which started hitting retail last month.  She’s another Fan Channel figure, so she won’t be hitting major big box retailers, but will be at specialty shops and the like.  She features her own separate branding, which neatly avoids the issue of whether she should be grouped with Spider-Man, X-Men, or Avengers. Firestar’s had a few different designs over the years, but she generally tends to circle back to variants of her original animation design, which is what this figure wisely opts to go for. The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Firestar is built on the Phoenix base body, which is thematically appropriate, I suppose.  It’s also just a pretty good match for Angelica’s usual built.  She’s got a new upper torso piece, which adds her collar piece.  It’s pretty basic, but hits the spot.  Firestar includes two different head sculpts, based on two differing looks.  The one she comes out of the box wearing is slightly more modern-inspired, and has more wind-swept dynamic hair, and a slightly more rounded mask.  The second head is a bit more directly based on her animation design, with a more geometric mask, and slightly less mobile hair.  Of the two, I personally prefer the more modern head, but they’re both quite nice, and I like having the option.  Firestar’s paint work is basic, bright, and clean, which are really all the best things for a Legends figure.  I appreciate that they actually did the darker accents on the hair for the animation head, keeping it properly show accurate, since those tend to get overlooked.  Firestar has a pretty nice accessory selection.  In addition to the extra head, she also gets two sets of hands (both fists and open gesture), two effects pieces (borrowed from the Infinity War Scarlet Witch), and, coolest of all, Ms. Lion, the trio’s pet dog from Amazing Friends.  Ms. Lion even gets a ball-jointed neck for full posability.  How about that?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Firestar’s always been a favorite of mine, thanks to the handful of Amazing Friends episodes I had on VHS as a kid.  I didn’t manage to get her Toy Biz figure until late in the game, and that one’s, admittedly, a little phoned in, as was the later Marvel Universe figure.  I’d been hoping for something with a little more effort for Marvel Legends, and that’s what I got.  This figure’s a really nice, very cleanly done take on the character, and a fantastic way of rounding out this trio in Legends form.

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.