Tag Archives: Generation X

#4148: Penance

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

PENANCE

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“The young woman called Penance possesses the mutant ability to internalize negative energy around her, turning her body into a diamond-hard, razor-sharp weapon. Held prisoner by the energy-stealing mutant Empath for an undetermined number of years, she escaped and was transported to the doorstep of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Now, Banshee and Emma Frost face the challenge of reaching out to help a girl who can slice apart anything she touches”

Okay, so there’s this Marvel character named Penance, and their identity is all mysterious, and they’re wrapped up in some sort of weird…bondage related gear, and their gimmick is like, pain, and being literally edgy.  Would you believe that this has happened twice, with two completely unrelated characters?  Because it has.  And one of them is objectively better than the other, but given that one of them was “let’s take Speedball, a fun lovable character and make him angsty and broody and just totally ruin him,” the other one being “better” isn’t exactly high praise, but it’s where we are here.  Introduced in Generation X #1, Penance was a big ol’ mystery character, though she was originally intended to be a random Yugoslavian girl named Yvette.  A creative team change just kind of made things more complicated, as it was revealed that Penance was in fact Monet St Croix, and that her fellow Gen X team-member who was supposedly Monet was actually Monet’s younger twin sisters Nicole and Claudette fused into one being, masquerading as their older sister.  An altercation with Emplate (who was revealed to be the eldest St Croix sibling, Marius) put Monet back in her own body, and the twins into Penance’s body, but then they got removed as well, and the body that was Penance continued on as “the Hollow” for a bit?  Are you confused?  Well, yeah, that tracks.  Me too.  Anyway, here’s this figure of Penance, from when she was secretly Monet St Croix…well, at least in continuity, if perhaps not in reality.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Penance was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Generation X tie-in line.  She’s the final team member in the set, though I suppose “team member” is at times a loose term with her.  She’s got the uniform, though, is more what I’m getting at.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation.  Penance’s sculpt has a lot of similarities to Chamber in its approach, with its even more limited articulation relative to the others in the line, the sort of softer detailing, and the decision to put her in a team uniform she was wearing on the covers, but still not in the book at this point.  The softness is odd, especially for a character like Penance, whose whole gimmick is “real sharp.”  It’s not the worst, overall, and it covers the basic details of her design alright.  I think the head, particularly the hair, seems to miss the mark a bit on how she looked in the comics.  It’s just got too much volume and roundness in its shape.  Penance has a built in slashing action feature; pushing down the lever on her back swings the arms up and down. In terms of coloring, Penance is sort of brighter than she maybe should be, I feel.  She was wearing mostly black in the comics, but here it’s a sort of mid-tone purple.  It seems…off?  I feel like the softness of the sculpt wouldn’t be as obvious if it weren’t as bright.  Penance was packed with four shackle pieces that go on her arms and legs, as well as a display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t really have much of an attachment to Penance as a character, aside from knowing this figure existed, and reading some early issues of the comics back in the day, and she’s not exactly one I really invested myself in after the fact.  She’s…you know…kinda confusing.  The figure isn’t confusing, I suppose, but she’s also not great.  It’s a design that didn’t really translate all that well, and without the attachment to the character like I had with Chamber, it’s hard to feel much about this figure.  It…is?  So, that’s what she’s got going for her.  Existence.  Well, it puts her ahead of some of the other team members.

#4144: Chamber

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

CHAMBER

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“The privileged life of Jonathan Starsmore was shattered forever when his mutant ability emerged for the first time. Most of his chest and lower jaw was blown away because he couldn’t control the powerful psionic-biokinetic energy that exists within him. Chamber is the oldest of Banshee’s new pupils, but he’ll have to emerge from the shell that his injury has forced him into, before he can emerge as a leader of his fellow students.”

What’s an X-Men team without a guy with energy based powers he can’t control manifesting in a way that makes him an outcast, who also has a penchant for leather jackets? Well, like, I guess that’s maybe the New Mutants?  Generation X was having none of it, though, so when they officially made the group of youngsters that had teamed up during “The Phalanx Covenant” a proper team in Generation X #1, Jonathan “Jono” Starsmore joined the line-up, as Chamber, the guy with no lower jaw or upper chest.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Chamber was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Generation X toyline.  He’s fairly pivotal to the comic’s first few issues, especially in regards to both Emplate and Penance, who were also in Series 1, plus there was also just a big push behind the character (and a sensible one at that, since he remained perhaps the book’s most signature character even well after its ending), so it all tracked pretty well.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation.  None of the Generation X figures were very posable, but Chamber gets hit harder than most, due to his design removing the possibility of a neck joint, leaving him with just the shoulders and hips.  Chamber’s sculpt was all-new to him and remained unique.  It shows him in his team suit (which in 1995, he still wasn’t really wearing in the book, but it was showing up on the covers), with his signature leather jacket over it.  Chamber’s original prototype had a rather different sculpt, with a more visible break between the energy of his torso and his head, as well as closed fists and a zipped up jacket.  The final product is…well, it’s fine.  The jacket is a separate piece, and it’s got a nice flow about it.  The torso/head is a bit soft on the detailing, which makes it a little tricky to make out exactly what’s going on.  His hair does at least have a nice dynamic flow to it, even if it does somewhat have the consistency of a tootsie roll. Otherwise, the sculpt’s perfectly fine.  He’s a lot less pre-posed than other figures from the line, opting for a more basic standing pose, albeit one with enough flair to not be too boring.  He had a light-up feature worked into the torso, which was the same as the one used on the Fantastic Four Human Torch; pulling the string on his back would create sparks in the torso.  It has the benefit of not relying on batteries, but since it’s just a friction thing, used copies tend to be too worn down to work, and new copies tend to have seized up.  Mine’s somewhere between those two points, but still isn’t in working order.  The color work on Chamber is decent enough.  He matches up with the other team members in terms of uniform colors, and his base application is all pretty clean.  Mine’s taken a beating over the years as you can see.  Chamber is packed with a team logo display stand, and…well, that’s it.  Just the stand. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have Chamber during the original line’s run proper, but I did have him very shortly thereafter.  Sometime in the summer of 2000, I got an X-Men 2099 Meanstreak, and saw the Generation X line-up on the back of his box, and got it into my head that I wanted Chamber and Skin, and my dad did a bit of hunting and we found these two at a comic shop sort of near by.  Chamber was the one I really wanted, and he’s always stood out to me as my favorite member of the team.  The figure’s honestly kind of mediocre, upon review, but the rather cool design of the character still bleeds through, and I do still quite like him.

And I almost let this review finish without noting it, but over the weekend, the site officially made it into its 14th year.  Man, time sure does fly.  Crazy stuff.  Thanks for reading everybody!

#4140: Jubilee

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

JUBILEE

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“Jubilation Lee spent lots of time in the malls of Southern California before she first displayed her mutant powers. It was her time spent as an X-Man, however, that may have spoiled Jubilee – now that she’s just another student at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. But considering her studies will include how to fully develop her ability to create explosive plasma ‘fireworks’, there’s bound to be plenty of excitement.”

The cast of Generation X, which spun out of the “Phalanx Covenant” crossover, were a lot of new faces for the franchise, but in addition to the team’s two veteran advisors of Banshee and Emma Frost, the main team also had Jubilee, a fairly notable junior member of the main team in the years prior, who was, much like Kitty Pryde before her, graduating to her own team.  While the main X-Men line under Toy Biz rather dragged its feet on adding Jubilee to the line-up, her more prominent placement on Generation X would prove a quicker path to the action figure treatment.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jubilee was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Generation X line.  She was one of four team members in the opening line-up, and was the only returning character in the batch.  As touched on in the intro, this was the first of the three Jubilees under Toy Biz’s tenure, and also just the first Jubilee figure in general.  The figure stands 4 7/8 inches tall (with a slight crouch) and she has 6 points of articulation.  I’ve mentioned before that Generation X was a less articulated line than its compatriots from Toy Biz, for whatever reason.  Jubilee continues this trend, with no elbow or knee joints.  Her scaling is also off relative to the X-Men line (and, honestly, even relative to the other Generation X figures), since she’d be over 5 inches tall if standing straight, and that’s not really right for a character usually depicted as being on the shorter side.  I guess she fit in fine with those later run Wolverines that were always so large.  Jubilee’s sculpt was new to her and would remain mostly unique; only the head saw re-use, for another Jubilee figure.  She’s seen here sporting her Gen X team suit; it’s still got the signature yellow raincoat and gloves, but gives her a little bit more of a super heroic look than more civilian gear that she tended to sport.  It’s not a bad sculpt.  There’s a lot of pre-posing to it, though, and she definitely feels rather bulky for Jubilee.  Look at the size of those hands and feet!  I do quite like the head sculpt, though.  It feels pretty on the mark for the character, especially within the usual Toy Biz style.  Jubilee’s color work is rather basic, but generally does what it needs to.  There’s a lot of yellow, as there should be, and the paint (which has taken a rather notable beating on mine) is applied fairly cleanly.  Jubilee is packed with a blast effect (which her spring loaded left arm can “throw”…sort of) that was shared with the X-Force line’s Exodus, released the same year, a pair of roller blades, and a display stand.  Honestly, not a bad little set-up. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Jubilee is quite an early one for me.  I know she pre-dates my family’s move to the house I spent most of my childhood in, which puts her probably in my first ten?  Wow, that’s crazy early.  Anyway, since I was into X-Men: The Animated Series, and she was a core cast member, she was definitely high on my list, and my dad made a note of that and she was a surprise for me one day when he came home from work.  She’s been kind of an unsung part of my collection since that day.  I can’t say she was ever my favorite or top of my list, but she’s just always been a part of my collection, which is kind of nuts.  She’s far from perfect, and kind of awkward to fit in with the rest of my X-Men from the time, but still very much in the category of nifty.  And I do like that.  I like a figure that’s nifty.

#4136: Emplate

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

EMPLATE

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“It’s unknown how long the evil being known only as Emplate has existed. Uninterested in plots of destruction or world domination, the mysterious mutant has one concern only: satisfying the eternal hunger that possesses him. To do this he feeds on the genetic marrow of other mutants – the younger the better! This, coupled with his ability to rechannel energy that he absorbs, makes him a most dangerous threat to Generation X”

The ‘90s X-Men spin-off Generation X started off in the pages of the main books, coming out of the “Phalanx Covenant” crossover, so, they’re first antagonists were, you know, the Phalanx.  When they got their own book, they also got their own antagonists, and first amongst them was Emplate, a dark and mysterious villain that nobody knew anything about, who actually turned out to be related to a member (or rather, members) of the team.  What? That totally *never* happens in an X-Men book.  Since Emplate was right there at the start of the book, he was also right there at the start of the toyline, getting his first, and thus far only, action figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Emplate was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Generation X toy line, as one of the two antagonists in the line-up.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 6…ish points of articulation.  The Generation X figures were all less articulated than the usual Toy Biz Marvel stuff, lacking the usual elbows and knees in particular.  Emplate’s neck joint is also essentially motionless, but he does at least get movement on his left wrist, by virtue of his extending hand action feature.  The sculpt on this figure was new at the time, and remained unique to this figure for the the entirety of Toy Biz’s run.  It’s based more on his earliest appearances, and it’s definitely got a lot of stylizing to it.  It’s certainly distinctive, though feels maybe a bit more tame than the art from the books.  There’s a lot of smaller work going into it, though, which is quite nice.  Emplate’s color work is sort of monotone, with big stretches of the same basic colors, mostly molded.  The purple/grey/black set-up made him stand out nicely from the other figures in the set, and do help sell a particularly villainous vibe to him.  Emplate was packed with a standard Generation X logo stand, as well as a figurine of DOA, his little Renfield-like buddy from the comics.  Honestly, I love the recurring “little guy” inclusions from this era of time.  We got some really neat extra characters this way.  I mean, DOA?  Who could imagine getting a DOA figure?  Well, I guess anyone who owns the guy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t read Generation X when it was new, so the only figures I got when they were hitting were the Jubilee and Banshee, who I knew from elsewhere.  I got some back-issues towards the end of the ‘90s, and wanted some of the figures, but they got scarce for a bit there.  Well, the team members, anyway.  Emplate?  He was never scarce.  In fact, he was kind of the bane of my existence for a while, as I kept spying Generation X packaging at comic shops, only to find it was Emplate, yet again.  I didn’t get an Emplate until I was an adult, back in 2020, in fact, as part of a large batch of loose figures I picked up while working at All Time.  He and DOA were both present, making for one of the few instances of a complete figure in the batch.  If nothing else, it’s a unique pair.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0057: Skin

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

SKIN

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

Hey, we made it to another Friday!  Good for us!  Go team!  We did it!  Well, to celebrate the occasion, let’s have another Flashback Friday Figure addendum, shall we?  This time we’re taking a second look at Skin.  Just Skin.

“Angela Espinosa’s body has six extra feet of skin – this is his mutant ‘gift’???. Even he doesn’t quite understand how it works and although he would never admit it, that scares him. He’s come to Xavier’s School form the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles to learn to control his skin, at least enough for him to appear as he did before his powers developed – normal.”

In the ‘90s, the X-Men were Marvel’s hottest property by far. To cash-in on this success, they turned around and launched like a million spin-offs. The more teen-oriented team of hip, fliggity-fly youngsters was Generation X, which was super, super ‘90s. It had a pretty decent following back in the day, and since Toy Biz was giving a toyline to just about everything under the son, it also had one of those. Today, I’ll be taking a look at one of the team’s central members, Skin!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Skin was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Generation X line of figures. He appears to be patterned after the character’s earlier appearances in the book, before he got all scruffy. The figure stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation. For some reason, the Generation X figures were less articulated than most of Toy Biz’s Marvel output from the same time. Perhaps it was to minimize potential risk on the financial side of things, should the line fail? I don’t know. Anyway, Skin was an all-new sculpt. It seems to take the Kenner route, offering a more preposed figure with less movement. It looks pretty solid; I like all the little minor details, like the folds in his skin. In makes for quite a unique looking figure. I also appreciate that his costume isn’t simply depicted as painted on, but actually has some dimension to it. Now, if you want to get picky, the hands and feet shouldn’t be done the way they are here, since the skeletal structure is clearly elongated here, and his abilities only actually had to do with his skin. That being said, most artists tended to ignore this rule, so the figure’s hardly inaccurate. The paint work on the figure is okay, but there are a few issues. The base work is overall okay, but the magenta on the arms and legs doesn’t quite match the torso. It’s not as bad in person as it is in the photos, but it’s still noticeable. The yellow paint is also a bit prone to chipping, which is a little annoying, but otherwise he’s pretty decent. The figure has a “Growing Fingers” action feature on his left hand. There’s a little latch on the forearm, and when you release it, the fingers shoot forward a half-inch or so. It’s pretty much the same mechanic that was used on several of TB’s Wolverine figures, and it works pretty well, without disrupting the overall look of the figure too much. Skin was packed with a back pack that can be clipped on his back. It originally had a little headset attachment, but I’ve lost mine.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed out on most of the Generation X figures when they were new. Around 2000 or so, I got some still-packaged mid-90s figures, and the whole first series of Gen X figures was pictured on the back, leading me to attempt to track down Skin and his team-mate Chamber. It wasn’t easy (we had eBay, but the ‘90s action figures market wasn’t really there yet), but I eventually found both figures at a nearby comic book store for a pretty decent price. Despite never being super huge into Generation X, I’ve always really liked this figure, and he holds up pretty well. 

Generally, that’s not a bad review.  Good for me.  It’s from 2017, and I was really into the swing of things by that point.  This one was more than likely written on the road, as we took a cross country from Seattle to North Carolina in June of that year, and I did a lot of writing during it.  Skin would have actually made the trip with me, because I was trying actually have things on hand for reviewing.  While I had his backpack at the time, it was missing the headset attachment, and I also didn’t show off his stand.  I managed to snag a complete one over the summer, and used that to recomplete my original, as seen here.

#3404: Chamber

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

CHAMBER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“At the Massachusetts Academy and as a member of Generation X, Chamber learns to manage his biokinetic flame which covers his chest and face”

Okay, but you know that the flame doesn’t *cover* his chest and face, right? It’s important to me that you know it doesn’t *cover* his chest and face. Because, like, his powers actually blew away is jaw and the upper portion of his torso when they manifested. Like, they’re just gone. Anyway, let’s talk about Generation X. Generation X is the generation between the baby boomers and the millennials. No, that’s not right. Generation X is an English rock band fronted by Billy Idol. No, still not it. Generation X is an X-Men spin-off, launched out of “The Phalanx Covenant” crossover in 1994. While most of the initial team was formed from the group of young mutants gathered by the Phalanx during the event, one of their most distinctive members didn’t join until their series proper launched later that year. But join he did, and no one can deny that Chamber was worry the wait.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Chamber is figure 6 in the Ch’od Series of Marvel Legends. He’s one of the two debut Generation X figures in the line-up, and he’s also Chamber’s first figure since his old Toy Biz figure.  While he would eventually get a variation on the team uniform look, during his initial run, Chamber had his own look, which was really just civilian garb.  That’s what this one goes with.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Chamber’s mobility is a little more on the restricted, partially due to design (it’s hard to get good neck movement with this look), and partially due to the parts he’s re-using.  He’s making use of the lower-half of the Coulson body, which isn’t the most charming selection of parts.  The movement is very limited, especially on the hips and ankles, and the sculpt is also broken up quite a bit by posing the figure, which isn’t very fun.  It also means that he’s wearing dress shoes, which seems a bit off for Chamber.  Thankfully, the rest of him looks to be all-new.  The head’s the real star piece here.  It’s the work of sculptor Paul Harding, who seems to be Hasbro’s go-to for cool fire sculpts right now.  It’s very dynamic, which is truly the best way to handle Chamber’s appearance.  It’s largely meant to be viewed from the front, but it still works from other angles as well.  Chamber also gets a new torso and arms, which aren’t as flashy as the head sculpt, but still pretty solid pieces.  I’m particularly impressed by the texturing on the sweater, because that’s where I am with my life, I guess.  The figure’s color work is largely black, which is expected.  The variation on the head keeps with the dynamic nature of the sculpt, which I certainly enjoy.  Chamber is packed with two sets of hands, as well as the left arm for the Ch’od Build-A-Figure.  Since the head is on a ball-joint, I would have liked to see an alternate head with his collar pulled up over his energy, like he did a lot in the comics.  But, I guess that’s a lot to ask.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Chamber’s another one of those characters that I just have this sort of attachment to.  I don’t know exactly why.  He’s just really cool looking, I guess.  I really liked the ’90s figure back in the day, and I’ve been waiting for an update.  This one was very high on my list in a wave that has other very high on my list figures.  I’m not super thrilled about the leg re-use; it seems rather limiting and backwards, honestly.  Beyond that, though, I do really like him, and he’s certainly a step-up from the original figure.

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.

#3195: White Queen

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

WHITE QUEEN

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“The former White Queen of the sinister Inner Circle, the telepathic Emma Frost, recently re-evaluated her philosophy and alliances. As a result, she has accepted Professor Charles Xavier’s offer to join Banshee in training Generation X, the next class of young mutants enrolled at his school. Shrewd, manipulative, and hardened by her villainous past, Emma Frost will provide the tough guidance necessary for her new students to make it through the turbulent times ahead.”

During the events of the X-Men crossover “Phalanx Covenant”, Marvel formed a new X-team, Generation X.  It was a bunch of younger mutants (essentially the ’90s answer to the New Mutants, who by this point had all been folded into X-Force and X-Factor), under the tutelage of two reformed X-foes: Banshee, who’d been on the main team for years, and the very recently reformed Emma Frost, aka the White Queen.  The reformed White Queen angle wound up sticking, and she’s pretty much been there since.  Her Generation X run wound up getting Emma her first action figure, which is pretty cool, all things considered.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

White Queen was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s Generation X line.  After years with more or less the same look, Generation X had placed her in a more toned down outfit.  It’s not classic White Queen, but a solid argument can be made that it’s far more appropriate for a toyline that’s selling at mass retail.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall (the Generation X line as a whole was just a touch scaled up), and she has 5 points of articulation.  The articulation on this figure is more or less pointless.  She’s kind of just a statue that you can slightly move the head and arms on.  The hip joints in particular are rather pointless.  Any real change means she can’t stand at all.  So, she just really stands there.  Which, I guess, is what Emma tends to do in the comics.  You know what, I guess it’s the perfect set-up, isn’t it?  The sculpt is a rather stylized one.  Her hands are notably quite large, and the body’s got some definite pre-posed-ness to it.  The proportions are generally just all over the place, and she winds up looking a little bit odd.  I do like how the detailing on the outfit worked out, though.  The paint work on White Queen was the source of a variant for the figure.  The main release has a flesh tone painted on the upper legs, suggesting she’s wearing short shorts, while a rarer version of the release drops the extra paint app, and effectively gives her pants.  Not  huge change, but there it is.  There was also a later variation of the figure in the Marvel Hall of Fame line, dubbed “Black Queen,” which, predictably, swaps black in for all of the white parts, as well as the hair.  Presumably, it’s supposed to be Selene, but it really just winds up looking like Emma’s going through a goth phase.  White Queen’s orignal release was packed with a Psychic Energy Spear, whatever that is, as well as the Generation X display stand.  Black Queen gets the same Spear, but in silver.  Again, no clue what it is, but, you know, there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

There was a long trek to getting all of the variants of this particular figure.  I got the standard release version first, courtesy of Jess, who bought it for me from Power Comics, the comic shop near our apartment when we first moved in together in 2016.  A few years later, I picked up Black Queen loose at a toy show in 2018.  And, I finally wrapped it up with the variant of White Queen, which I snagged from a collection that came into All Time in 2021.  They’re all kind of goofy, and not particularly unique, but there’s a novelty behind how I got them all, which is pretty nice.

#2875: Synch

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

SYNCH

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

One of the primary appeals of ToyFare‘s exclusive mail away offers, for the 5-inch Marvel stuff, at least, was the ability to fill in some teams and line-ups that were just missing one stray character here or there, or at least give them at least a touch more depth to their numbers.  There were a lot of short-lived lines from Toy Biz in the ’90s, so they had plenty of loose ends to worry about.  Case in point: Generation X.  The X-spin-off team had their own line, which ran two series, and left the central team without a number of its core members.  While it was still rather lacking at the end of the day, they did get at least one extra core member via the mail-away set-up, and gave current main X-Men team member Everett Thomas, aka Synch, his very first (and to date, only) figure in the process.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Synch was offered up in ToyFare Magazine #9, first becoming available for order in May of 1998, and shipping out later that year.  After nine Marvel exclusives, they had a Witchblade figure for issue #8, and then came back to Marvel with this guy.  He was then the last Marvel exclusive for six months, when Havok picked up the baton.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  The Generation X figures were at a weird spot for Toy Biz, articulation wise, as they decided to eliminate the elbow and knee joints on all of the figures for some reason.  Synch did at least get extra shoulder movement, by virtue of making use of Banshee’s body from the main line.  Toy Biz apparently felt Banshee always needed the extra movement, and Synch got that on a technicality.  Or, perhaps he just copied it from Banshee using his powers.  That’s a pretty solid explanation, right?  In addition to using all of Banshee’s parts below the neck, Synch also got the head from the Space Riders version of Professor X.  It’s not quite the face I envision Synch having, but it was a bald head that actually had ears, which made it a better fit than the Silver Surfer head, I suppose.  It’s honestly not the worst choice.  The rest of the work is handled with the paint.  It does an okay job for the most part, but for some reason the belt buckle is way larger than the actual sculpted piece, which makes it look really strange.  That said, they did actually try on this one, and he even got some extra accenting on the yellow parts of his costume.  It’s a bit heavy handed in some spots, but the effort’s at least nice.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually kinda liked Generation X back in the day, and I really liked my figures of Jubilee, Chamber, and Skin from the toyline.  I didn’t have a Synch growing up, though, mostly because he just wasn’t a figure I ever saw turn up anywhere.  I know he’s not generally regarded as being a very good one, but I’ve never much looked into that.  Whatever the case, my first real chance to get one came quite recently, when he got traded into All Time, which made him an easy pick-up for me.  He’s not a bad figure.  Maybe not great, but he gets the job done.  It’s a shame that they didn’t ever get M or Husk out, leaving the team incomplete, even with this guy included.  Of course, with him just being added to the main X-team, maybe this won’t be the only Synch figure for too much longer.  Fingers crossed.

#1332: Skin

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

SKIN

GENERATION X (TOY BIZ)

“Angela Espinosa’s body has six extra feet of skin – this is his mutant ‘gift’???. Even he doesn’t quite understand how it works and although he would never admit it, that scares him. He’s come to Xavier’s School form the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles to learn to control his skin, at least enough for him to appear as he did before his powers developed – normal.”

In the ‘90s, the X-Men were Marvel’s hottest property by far.  To cash-in on this success, they turned around and launched like a million spin-offs.  The more teen-oriented team of hip, fliggity-fly youngsters was Generation X, which was super, super ‘90s.  It had a pretty decent following back in the day, and since Toy Biz was giving a toyline to just about everything under the son, it also had one of those.  Today, I’ll be taking a look at one of the team’s central members, Skin!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Skin was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Generation X line of figures.  He appears to be patterned after the character’s earlier appearances in the book, before he got all scruffy.  The figure stands about 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  For some reason, the Generation X figures were less articulated than most of Toy Biz’s Marvel output from the same time.  Perhaps it was to minimize potential risk on the financial side of things, should the line fail?  I don’t know.  Anyway, Skin was an all-new sculpt.  It seems to take the Kenner route, offering a more preposed figure with less movement.  It looks pretty solid; I like all the little minor details, like the folds in his skin.  In makes for quite a unique looking figure.  I also appreciate that his costume isn’t simply depicted as painted on, but actually has some dimension to it.  Now, if you want to get picky, the hands and feet shouldn’t be done the way they are here, since the skeletal structure is clearly elongated here, and his abilities only actually had to do with his skin.  That being said, most artists tended to ignore this rule, so the figure’s hardly inaccurate.  The paint work on the figure is okay, but there are a few issues.  The base work is overall okay, but the magenta on the arms and legs doesn’t quite match the torso.  It’s not as bad in person as it is in the photos, but it’s still noticeable.  The yellow paint is also a bit prone to chipping, which is a little annoying, but otherwise he’s pretty decent.  The figure has a “Growing Fingers” action feature on his left hand.  There’s a little latch on the forearm, and when you release it, the fingers shoot forward a half-inch or so.  It’s pretty much the same mechanic that was used on several of TB’s Wolverine figures, and it works pretty well, without disrupting the overall look of the figure too much.  Skin was packed with a back pack that can be clipped on his back.  It originally had a little headset attachment, but I’ve lost mine.  [EDIT 12/19/25 — But then I replaced it!]

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed out on most of the Generation X figures when they were new.  Around 2000 or so, I got some still-packaged mid-90s figures, and the whole first series of Gen X figures was pictured on the back, leading me to attempt to track down Skin and his team-mate Chamber.  It wasn’t easy (we had eBay, but the ‘90s action figures market wasn’t really there yet), but I eventually found both figures at a nearby comic book store for a pretty decent price.  Despite never being super huge into Generation X, I’ve always really liked this figure, and he holds up pretty well.

#0617: Mondo

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

MONDO

GENERATION X (TOYBIZ)

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The 90s were a very strange time. I can’t say it enough. Amongst other things, Marvel’s merry mutants, the X-Men were really, really popular. That meant spin-offs out the wazoo. One such spin-off was Generation X. They weren’t “X-Treme” like X-Force, but they still had a very definite 90s flare to them. They were popular for a while, but the team eventually fell into some pretty serious obscurity. However, they managed to get more than one series of an action figure line, leading to a lot of figures that nowadays make people go “Who?” One such figure is team member Mondo. Yeah, I don’t really know him all that well either.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mondo2Mondo was released in the second series of ToyBiz’s Generation X line. Mondo was the only actual team member in the series, making him the last released in the line (though a ToyFare exclusive version of Synch would be released not too long after. Who’s Synch? Exactly.) The figure stands about 5 inches tall and features a whole 6 points of articulation. Usually, ToyBiz’s Marvel stuff was pretty well articulated, but for whatever reason, the Generation X figures were less so. Mondo’s sculpt was also pretty pre-posed. His arms are somewhat spread at his sides and his legs are in a deep walking stance. Unlike a lot of pre-posed figures, Mondo is actually quite stable and well-balanced, so the lack of movement isn’t really too detrimental. The sculpt is actually pretty well handled; there’s plenty of texturing and detailing, and his proportions are in line with what he looked like in the comics. He’s definitely an angry spud, which seems a little out of character, at least going by the bio on the back of the package. The paintwork on Mondo isn’t super complex, but there are a few more minor details that are handled rather nicely. Plus, there’s not really any slop or bleed over, which is always cool. Mondo included a set of clip on armor pieces for his arms, which help to simulate his “omnimorph” abilities. The right side is meant to be wooden and the left is made of stone. Both clip on well enough, and are decently detailed (though the right is definitely a step above the stone). He also has the standard “X” stand, which was included with every figure in the line. He doesn’t need it, but hey, consistency isn’t bad!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mondo is another piece of the lot of figures I picked up from my local comicbook store during a recent sale. I only had a passing familiarity with Generation X growing up, so I never really got many of the figures. I saw Mondo sitting there and, for whatever reason, he called to me. He’s actually a pretty neat figure, truth be told. Sure, he’s not the most standout character of all time, but it’s clear a lot of effort went into this guy, and that always makes a figure better.

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