Tag Archives: Hydro-Man

#3604: Daredevil VS Hydro-Man

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

DAREDEVIL VS HYDRO-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0083:  Despite both characters making appearances on the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man cartoons in the ’90s, Daredevil and Hydro-Man were never both present in the same episode.

I gotta be honest, of all the ’90s Marvel cartoons, Spider-Man: The Animated Series is probably my least favorite.  I know, bold statement.  I’m a guy that defends Avengers: United They Stand and Silver Surfer; how can I take a swing at one of the big ones?  Hard to say.  Something about the show’s pacing always bugged me.  I can appreciate its significance, and it did give us some very cool toys back in the day.  After doing a year of figures based on X-Men: The Animated Series, Hasbro switched over to Spider-Man, which I had less need for, of course.  But then they went and got me with a set I couldn’t pass up.  So, let’s look at Daredevil vs Hydro-Man!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Daredevil and Hydro-Man are the fifth release in the Spider-Man: The Animated Series sub-set of Marvel Legends.  They keep the X-Men set’s VHS-style packaging, but they’re now all two-packs, instead of singles, with each pairing being a hero/villain match-up.  This set is a Hasbro Pulse-exclusive, at least thus far.  The whole line was *supposed* to be exclusive, but three of the six two-packs jumped to a Fan Channel release, so it’s hard to say.

DAREDEVIL

Our second Hasbro Pulse-exclusive Daredevil in rather short succession, and yet again he’s part of a multi-pack.  At least it’s just a two-pack this time.  The aim of this one seems to really be just getting more mileage out of the new stuff from the last one.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 38 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s identical to the three-pack figure I looked at not that long ago.  That figure moved Matt to the Renew Your Vows body, which works well for the character.  He uses that figure’s Paul Harding sculpted head sculpt, as well as getting  a new one, with his teeth bared.  The calm one’s no slouch, but that new sculpt is really solid.  I really like it.  The big change-up to this figure is the paint work.  He’s still in the same general costume, of course, but the show very much dialed into the comics’ tendency to go for very dynamic shading on Matt’s costume, and that’s reflected here.  He gets a lot of black shading, done with a cross-hatching style to it.  I wasn’t sure about it at first, but I turned out really, really well.  It’s not like a lot of the other cel-shading, where it’s really directional; it feels like a proper dynamic design for DD, and I think it adds something that was missing from the three-pack release.  I especially like the actual distinction for the boots and gloves this time around.  DD gets the two heads, three sets of hands (in fists, gripping, and open gesture), his batons, and a line to go between them, which is impressive, since the three-pack figure actually came with a fair bit less.

HYDRO-MAN

Our villain this time around is Morris Bench, aka Hydro-Man.  I last reviewed a Hydro-Man before the release of Far From Home, a movie which didn’t *actually* feature him.  Sure looked like it would at the time, though.  Hydro-Man only has two appearances in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, but he was used in the show’s opening credits, which gave him a little extra staying power.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Like his last figure, he uses the Netflix Luke Cage as a starting point.  He actually keeps the figure’s arms this time, rather than using the water ones from before.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is a bit more dialed into the animation look.  For full accuracy, his hair should be a bit longer in the back, but it’s ultimately not bad.  Since the standard black T-shirt and jeans look was covered pretty well by the last Hydro-Man, this figure’s coloring replicates his fully water form, molding him entirely in translucent blue plastic.  It works well, and he’s quite striking.  He gets a little bit of white accenting to give him a little extra flair, which I dig, but it’s minor.  Hydro-Man is packed with the water effect pieces from the last figure, as well as two sets of hands in fists and open gesture.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

The rest of this line’s been very easy to skip, and I thought DD would be too after I got the three-pack release.  Then I saw this set, and the new stuff with DD just made it impossible to pass this one up.  The shading works so, so well, and the extra head and hands make him even better than an already very good figure.  This is my definitive DD Legend, and there’s no question about that.  Hydro-Man?  Well, he was more along for the ride.  I don’t mind having him, and he’s certainly fun, but I also don’t see him replacing the other figure outright in my collection.  Still, he’s certainly fun.

#2083: Hydro-Man

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

HYDRO-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

The last time I reviewed a Hydro-Man figure, I discussed his nature as sort of a poor-man’s Sandman.  He wasn’t necessarily meant to be one, but that’s definitely where he tends to find himself, especially when it comes to other forms of media outside of the comics.  His biggest claim to fame was definitely courtesy of his stint on Spider-Man: The Animated Series, where he was really only featured because Sandman was off-limits.  By the time lines like Marvel Legends came along, Sandman found his way back into the spotlight, and poor Hydro-Man was back to playing second fiddle.  Fortunately things seem to be turning around, especially depending on how Far From Home plays out for him.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hydro-Man is figure 3 in the Molten Man Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s the first comic-based figure from the set, though he was undoubtedly chosen due to the character’s presence in the upcoming movie.  Unlike his last 6-inch figure (from more than a decade ago), this figure actually puts Hydro-Man in his classic black t-shirt and jeans combo, which is a good start.  He stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  The arms are a little restricted, especially at the elbows, but he’s otherwise quite posable and nowhere near as badly restricted as prior Hydro-Men.  The arms are actually some of the small handful of new pieces this guy gets, along with his head.  The rest of the figure is re-used from last year’s Netflix Luke Cage.  It was heavily rumored that those parts would be making their way onto a Hydro-Man, so nobody is super shocked to see that pay off here.  It’s worth noting that it’s a good fit for Hydro-Man, who is classically depicted as large, but not supernaturally so.  I was a little worried that there might be an attempt to re-use some Sandman pieces for him, which would not have worked at all.  The new parts jibe pretty well with the old, with the arms doing a pretty convincing job of the whole water thing and the head doing a pretty convincing job of the whole smarmy douchebag thing.  Hydro-Man’s paintwork is pretty straightforward, but definitely well-rendered.  It’s clean, and certainly hits all the major points.  He’s packed with two water effects pieces, which clip over his feet in much the same way as the parts included with the comics-styled Mysterio last year, and are a slightly better solution than the immobile lower half we tend to see.  Hydro-Man is also packed with the head to the BaF Molten Man.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I have an unabashed love for Hydro-Man, so I’ve been waiting for him to get decent Legends treatment for quite a while.  I was never big on his more “costumed” appearance, and was definitely happy to see this figure show up when this line-up was announce.  I think this figure turned out very well, and he’s easily the best Hydro-Man figure ever released.  He’s maybe not the most essential Spidey foe, but he’s still a very good figure.

I purchased Hydro-Man from my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’re interested in buying Marvel Legends figures, or are looking for other cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.

#0971: Hydro-Man

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

HYDRO-MAN

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

Hydroman1

You know what the absolute best reason to create a new character is? To replace another character you can’t use at the moment. Seriously, that always results in a fully formed, exciting character, who’s just as exciting as the previous character. That’s why everyone’s favorite Red Ranger is Rocky, Heavy Duty is hands down the best heavy gunner G.I. Joe’s ever had, Chachi was the coolest guy on Happy Days, and Coy and Vance Duke were universally loved by all. What’s that? I’m wrong on every single count? Oh, my bad. Apparently, substitute characters aren’t a good thing.

So, speaking of substitute characters, let’s talk about Hydro-Man. Strictly speaking, he didn’t start out as a substitute, though he’s always been rather similar in concept to Sandman. When James Cameron was working on putting together a Spider-Man movie in the ‘90s (yeah, it was a weird time), he wanted to use Sandman as one of the main villains, and an embargo was placed that prevented using Sandman in any media outside of the comics. So, when Spider-Man: The Animated Series wanted to use him, they had to settle for Hydro-Man (the same thing happened when the Fantastic Four cartoon did the Frightful Four, but Hydro-Man had been a part of that team before). This meant that Hydro-Man also got his first shot at an action figure, courtesy of the Spider-Man tie-in line. I’ll be looking at that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hydroman2Hydro-Man was released in the “Spider-Wars” series of Toy Biz’s 5-inch Spider-Man line. The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation. Though he lacks any sort of elbow movement, he makes up for it with a disc-and-pin style joint for his hips. This makes him a bit imbalanced in terms of posability, but I’ve certainly dealt with worse. Hydro-Man is based on his look from Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which was a fairly faithful recreation of Hydro-Man’s look from the comics. The figure does an…interesting job translating his look to three-dimensions. Hydro-Man has always been depicted as being a pretty beefy guy, and this figure tries to convey that. He’s certainly big, but perhaps a bit too big. Well, in some areas, anyway. In other areas (such as the head), he’s too small. Hydro-Man’s been saddled with some pretty serious man-boobs. I think there was an attempt to make him muscular, but they missed the mark and he just ended up lumpy instead. Also, check out the mom jeans. Not exactly the sort of thing that makes for an imposing villain, there. On the positive side, the head sculpt, while a bit weird-looking, certainly has quite a bit of expressiveness. The arms are also pretty good. While I might like a pose other than straight-armed, the water effect is pretty believable and the overall sculpt is pretty cool. Hydro-Man’s paintwork is fairly straightforward, but also pretty solid. The application is nice and clean, and the translucent arms even have a few flecks of white paint to emulate the impurities in the water. Hydro-Man originally included a base to make it look like his lower half was also water, as well as a “water gun” for his left hand to hold. He also came with a small pump, which was used for his right arm’s water shooting feature. The pump could be filled with water and plugged into his back, and when squeezed, the water would shoot out of his right middle finger. It’s a rather gimmicky feature, and the removal of the pump results in a rather large, gaping hole in his back, which is slightly annoying.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hydro-Man is the ninth figure of the 15 figures I picked up at this past Balticon. I never had Hydro-Man growing up, but I did have the Sandman that was a repaint of this guy. This figure is super, super goofy, and probably not one of the better figures from Toy Biz’s run. But, you know what? I kinda love this guy. I can’t really say why, but I do.