Tag Archives: Invisible Woman

#3090: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“Caught in a bombardment of intense cosmic radiation while on an experimental space flight, Susan Richards found herself endowed with the power to become transparent at will, and the ability to form invisible force-fields of incredible durability. Now, as a member of the Fantastic Four, Sue battles to defend humanity as the elusive Invisible Woman!”

Very early in my reviewing days (we’re talking low teens here), I made my way through most of the first series of Toy Biz’s ’90s Fantastic Four line.  I neglected to review the standard version of the Thing at that time, mainly because I didn’t actually, you know, own one.  I fixed that back in 2017, and officially rounded out my reviews of Fantastic Four Series 1.  Of note, that means there are still no basic Invisible Woman and Human Torch reviews for the line, and that’s for a very specific reason: Toy Biz didn’t put them in Series 1.  For some reason, they felt that the best call for a line based on a team of four was to split the team between the first two assortments, meaning that the team was to be incomplete for the entirety of the gap between the two assortments.  With the line launching to tie-in with the cartoon, retailers weren’t particularly keen on Toy Biz’s plan to split the main team, and wanted them added to the first assortment.  With the molds not ready to go, Toy Biz had to hastily throw together stand-in versions of the other two members from molds already in production, making two figures that are *technically* part of Series 1, but also not advertised as such in any way what so ever.  I’m looking at the stand-in Invisible Woman today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman was, as noted above, technically released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four line, or at the very least adjacent to it.  Whatever the case, that means she hit shelves in 1994.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  She doesn’t get neck or elbow movement, which put her a bit behind other figures of the same era, and generally makes her a little bit stiff.  In order to get Sue to the market, she was a complete re-use of the Iron Man line’s Julia Carpenter version of Spider-Woman.  All things considered, it’s actually not a bad option.  Julia’s costume details weren’t sculpted in, and the build and hairstyles of the two characters were similar enough to make it work.  The only real oddity to the re-use s the lack of sculpted eyes.  I mean, it’s not totally smooth there; there’s a slight indent and all.  However, Spider-Woman’s mask has Spidey-style eyes, not actual eyes, so Sue’s were just painted on.  It does look ever so slightly odd.  There’s an action feature worked it, which has a rather visible lever on the back.  It flips her arms upward, in a sort of a “flipping the table” fashion, which is kinda comedic, really.  Otherwise, it’s a decent sculpt, no matter who it was being used for.  The paint work does the heavy lifting on making this a convincing Sue Richards figure, and it does that alright.  Some of the edges are a bit on the fuzzy side, but the colors line up well with the other two team members from Series 1, and those eyes really don’t look as bad as they could.  Sue was packed with a stand and a small shield piece, both of which are molded in clear plastic.  Not a bad little display of her powers, and I do believe these were both actually unique parts, albeit much more simplistic than the actual figures, so thereby much more cheaply produced.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure was a filler figure at best when it arrived at retail, and wasn’t designed to linger, so when I got into collecting figures (which was about around the time of Series 3 of the line), there weren’t any of this one still hanging around.  My first Sue was an old stock Marvel Super Heroes version, followed closely by the proper Series 2 release.  This one is a much more recent addition, picked up from an antique mall a few years ago.  Given how slap dash of a release this figure was, she’s surprisingly not a bad figure.  You could be forgiven for even thinking she was supposed to be this way.  She’s a good example of a solid quick-save from Toy Biz.  Her brother…well, he was a different story.  But Sue’s good, and that’s what matters here.

#2989: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“After receiving superpowers, Sue Storm Richards co-founds the Fantastic Four and emerges as the single-most powerful member of the group.”

Is it weird that it’s become so passé to review Fantastic Four Marvel Legends these days?  I mean, it was the astronomically huge deal back in 2017 when the Walgreens-exclusive Sue kicked off that line, and now they’re sort of a yearly thing.  I mean, I’m certainly not complaining.  I love the FF, and my truest love of them comes from the ’90s cartoon and its corresponding toy line, which served to really introduce me to the team.  I get very nostalgic, and Hasbro’s really gaming to tap into my era of nostalgia these days, I suppose.  They’ve been doing the retro-card thing for a bit, and the FF is finally getting in on it.  I’m thrilled you guys.  Thrilled.  So, let’s kick this off with our latest version of Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman is part of the FF-themed Retro Collection assortment of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends.  They’re all patterned on the packaging for Toy Biz’s own Fantastic Four line from the ’90s, which makes them a little more removed from the other Retro Collection figures, apart from the Fan Channel Dr. Doom from last year, who officially debuted the packaging style.  To match the style of the package, Sue is wearing her John Byne-designed costume from the ’80s/’90s.  These are by far my favorite costumes for the team, so I’m pretty psyched to see them show up.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Like the last two Sue figures, she’s built on the Phoenix body.  It’s a good match for how Sue is usually depicted, and is just generally a pretty nice body, so it makes sense to use it again here.  The main change up is that she gets a new head sculpt.  It’s based on earlier in Byrne’s run/the cartoon run, which makes sense, since it’s a far less dated appearance than the mullet.  It’s…well, okay, it’s better than I’d expected.  I’ll say that from the start.  When the first pictures were shown off, it looked pretty bad.  In hand, it looks a lot less bad.  I don’t know that I’d venture into calling it good, but it’s less bad.  It’s not the hair; that actually works well.  It’s definitely the face, which just has to be viewed from exactly the right angle to really work, and it’s very hard to find that sweet spot.  There have been some pretty great customs that have swapped out one of the other two Sue faces under the hair, and it honestly looks pretty good, so I might be trying that myself.  Sue’s paint work is generally pretty good.  Rather basic, as you’d expect, but the application’s pretty clean.  As is usually the case with the Byrne costumes, they’ve gone for a darker blue, rather than an almost black like Byrne intended, but that’s just the name of the game at this point.  I actually quite like the color, so I’m really okay with it.  Sue is packed with two sets of hands, as well as the invisible shield effect we saw on the last release.  As with most Retro releases, it’s a little lighter than the standard, but it’s not terrible.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Did I mention that these costumes are my favorites for the team?  I don’t know if I’ve brought that up enough yet.  Well, they are, and I’ve been wanting a good set of them since the FF came back into modern Legends.  I was elated by the announcement of this set, and I’ve been eager to get them since.  Sue wound up being the first one I got, since she got traded into All Time loose a couple of weeks before the wholesale stock arrived.  I’m kind of glad it worked out that way, because it allowed me to appreciate her on her own before the rest of them arrived, which was to her benefit.  She’s the weakest figure in the set, there’s no doubt of that, but that’s less because she’s a bad figure, and more because she just doesn’t quite stick the landing the way the others do.  I’m still very happy to have her, and I still think she’s a good figure.  Sue’s certainly had worse.

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.

#2596: Susan Richards, Invisible Woman, & Powerhouse Thing

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

SUSAN RICHARDS, INVISIBLE WOMAN & POWERHOUSE THING

MARVEL MINIMATES

You can’t just do *half* of the Fantastic Four…well, I mean, if you’re Toy Biz, I guess you can.  In fact, you can do it way more times than you ever fairly should be able to.  Just constantly stringing people along forever…Sorry, I was having flashbacks.  Look, we’re not talking about Toy Biz here, we’re talking about Diamond Select.  And they would never leave us high and dry like that, with an incomplete team, just two members shy of completion…apart from that one time that they did exactly that with their Aliens line…look, this isn’t about Aliens, it’s about the Fantastic Four, and finishing up that line-up, which we’re totally doing right here, right now, with no further distractions!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Susan Richards and Powerhouse Thing were released in Series 8 of the main Marvel Minimates line, and then again at Target in 2005 and 2006.  Standard Sue was the heavy packed version, with a full Invisible Woman swapping in for her in the variant set.

SUSAN RICHARDS/INVISIBLE WOMAN

Sue made her Minimates debut in style.  While her brother Johnny was stuck being flamed on all the time, she gets to be regular most of the time.  Lucky her.  Like her assortment-mates, Sue is built on the standard C3-style ‘mate body, peg hole on the head and all, so she’s 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  She uses the same glove pieces as Reed, as well as a new hair piece, clearly based on a ’60s Sue ‘do.  It’s a rather basic piece, but it gets the job done, and thanks to the peg it stays in place better than Reed’s.  I’m still iffy on the bulked up glove pieces, and exactly what their purpose is, but I’ll try to move on.  In terms of paint, the standard version fairs a bit better than Reed, thanks to having consistent coloring for the all of the costume details, as well as getting some actual torso detailing.  The variant is molded in all clear plastic, keeping the detail lines, and going for a slightly translucent blue for the black sections of the costume.  It’s a cool look, and you can easily mix and match the two for a powering up effect.  Both versions are packed with a shield piece, similar to Captain America’s.  And, thanks to those bulked up gloves, the shield has to sit over her elbow joint, which is a bit annoying.

THING

Thing gets his third go at a Minimate here, thanks to being the only team member available for a while, and yet still kind of needing to be included in the assortment proper.  So, here he is.  2005 marked a notable change-up for the line’s construction, adding in a few more bulked up parts for slightly larger characters, hence the “powerhouse” title for this version of Thing.  He uses the same bulked up hands as before, as well as making the first use of the original powerhouse chest piece, and an all-new head piece.  The powerhouse piece is pretty basic, and not nearly as involved as later bulk up parts.  This kind of helps to keep him more on the basic side, in keeping with the rest of the assortment.  The only part I don’t really care for his the head piece.  It’s really just different from the prior piece for the sake of being different, and that’s not really a good reason to change it.  It’s just not as good as the older piece, and even DST knew it, since this piece didn’t get used beyond this series.  In terms of paint, he’s not terribly far removed from the Series 5 version.  He’s got the proper team shorts this time, which is good, but I don’t like the the new face. It just doesn’t match that classic Thing feel.  Fortunately, the oranges match, so a re-work is possible.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in the last set of these I looked at, despite being very excited for this set of ‘mates, I didn’t buy them new, and I didn’t really jump too quickly into tracking them down after the fact either.  I blame the Thing; he’s just so ugly.  I snagged these guys at the same time as Reed and Johnny, just to round out the team.  They’re not bad, but they’re definitely dated, and kind of from a weird middle spot for the line.

#2307: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Sue Storm has the ability to bend light, making herself and others invisible.”

Let’s officially bookend these modern FF Legends reviews with the Invisible Woman, the character that started this renewed lease on Legends life for the team back in 2016 when Hasbro first unveiled her at one of the con presentations.  Hasbro launching with Sue was something of a promise to long-time collectors that they were really going to finish the team, by kicking things off with the most frequently neglected member of the core group.  With this latest set, Hasbro seems to be sticking with that promise, releasing the whole team in one go this time, and not making the same mistakes that Toy Biz made over and over again.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman is figure 3 in the Super Skrull Series of Marvel Legends.  Like the rest of her team from this assortment, Sue is sporting her latest costume from the comics, thereby completing this set of the team.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  This Sue shares most of her parts with the last Sue, which seems respectable enough.  The Phoenix body is a good fit for Sue’s usual build, and a solid base body in general, so there are no complaints there.  She also uses the same face as the last figure, but gets a new hair piece, as well as new feet to match the more stylized soles of the rest of the team.  I was a pretty big fan of the prior Sue figure’s head sculpt, and I wasn’t so sure about this one at first, but in person I find myself really liking the new hairstyle, and even preferring its more dynamic nature to the previous sculpt.  It also looks really nice swapped onto that old body, for those interested.  The feet are okay; not as goofy looking as Reed’s, but I’m not the biggest fan of the wedges.  I liked the prior figure’s flat feet.  They don’t look bad, though.  The paintwork on Sue matches well with the rest of the team, but something about it looks better on this particular body than the others.  I don’t know if the design of this body just lends itself better to the costume layout or what, but I just like the costume even more here.  Not having that belt broken by a waist joint probably helps.  The prior figure didn’t get anything in the way of effects pieces to demonstrate her powers, but this one gets an all-new force shield piece, which clips over her right hand.  I quite like it, and it’s also compatible with the Walgreens figure, for those curious.  In addition to the shield,this figure includes the torso of the Super Skrull Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure didn’t do much for me when she was announced.  I really like the Walgreens figure, and didn’t see much room for improvement, and honestly felt the changes made the figure look worse.  In-hand, it’s a totally different story.  That new head sculpt is really great, the effects piece is one of Hasbro’s coolest, and even the costume works better here than on the others, making Sue my favorite of the FF members from this particular set.  I think a lot of people might pass her up for being so similar to her prior figure when compared to her teammates, but she’s surprisingly good.

I picked up Sue from my friends at All Time Toys. If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

 

#1685: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“The Invisible Woman loves to vanish into thin air! She can also use her amazing power to turn other people and things invisible too! The Invisible Woman can also create invisible force balls and discs that she can mentally throw at enemies. She can levitate herself and others out of harms way with this invisible force in the blink of an eye. Super-villains know that what they can’t see can hurt them when they have to fight the Invisible Woman! Use her invisible catapult launcher to spring her into action.”

The Fantastic Four seem to be in a better spot all the time.  After a few years of essentially not existing over at Marvel, this year, they’ll be making their triumphant return to the comics pages.  Yay for them!  They’ve also been absent from the toy aisles for a little while, but Marvel Legends are offering up some new figures.  There are also plenty of older offerings, one of which I’ll be taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line, and was then re-issued in Series 5 of the same line.  There were two slight variations on the figure, one featuring a color-changing feature, and one not.  This one is from the second group.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has (or had, anyway) 9 points of articulation.  The joints, particularly the neck joint, are on the fragile side, so mine has been repaired at the neck joint, rendering it motionless.  This figure’s sculpt was re-used wholesale for the Hall of Fame release, reviewed here.  It’s a dated sculpt, to be sure, and definitely looks clunky compared to later releases.  It’s got its charm, though, and it certainly fits in with the rest of the line, especially the other FF figures from Series 3.  The paint work is the main difference between this figure and that one.  Since she lacks the color-change feature, she’s not all washed out, which is a plus.  The application is pretty clean, and the palette matches pretty well with how she looked during the Byrne run.  Like the other figure, this one includes her weird Tron-disk, frisbee-thingy.  Still don’t know what that’s supposed to be.  She also includes a clear launch-pad stand, re-used from X-Force‘s Cannonball.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This was my first Sue Storm figure, purchased from KB Toys back in the day, when she was still relatively new.  It was either her or the Fantastic Four Series 2 version, and that one was all clear, so I opted for the one I could actually see.  She’s a dated figure, and has been surpassed by later versions, but she’s still special.

#1360: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With HERBIE by her side, Sue Storm uses psionic energy to suit up as the incredible hero, Invisible Woman!”

Fantastic Four Marvel Legends?  It’s a Christmas miracle!  Or something.

The poor FF has fallen out of fashion in recent years, in no small part due to the lackluster-to-atrocious quality of their live-action films and the fact that their film rights aren’t currently with Marvel proper (it also doesn’t help that creative teams who actually know what to do with the characters are a dying breed, meaning their comic hasn’t really been selling well either).  On the plus side, it looks like things are on the upturn for the Fab Four, with a triumphant return to the toy aisles, starting with Sue Richards, aka the Invisible Woman!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman is the latest Walgreens-exclusive Marvel Legends figure.  This marks only the second time that Sue’s been offered as a single figure in the Legends line. Unlike prior Walgreens exclusives, Sue’s not attached to any other particular series.  Instead, she’s the first of a sub-set of FF figures exclusive to Walgreens, and she’ll be joined by her brother Johnny later this year.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  She’s built on the new base female body (seen previously on the likes of Phoenix, Kitty Pryde, and Kate-Guy), which is, as always, a welcome choice.  It’s a pretty solid base overall, and serves as a good starting point for Sue.  She also gets a new head, which is just a, pardon the phrase, fantastic piece.  Easily one of my favorite head sculpts from Legends as of late.  Definitely Hasbro’s best female, and that’s saying something, given their recent track record.  Sue’s had a number of hair-dos over the years, and a lot of them have been really period-specific.  The one they’ve gone with is pretty timeless and true to the character.  I like that the face is calm and friendly, as Sue should be, rather than being too bland or intense.  The paint on Sue is pretty decent, but there are a few things that seem a little off.  The overall application is really sharp and bold.  The face is particularly clean, as is the emblem.  The emblem being all in grey is a little different than I was expecting, but I can’t say I dislike it.  The only real issue I have is how they’ve implemented her powers.  The actual work isn’t bad; her right arm starts full color and slowly fades out.  It’s a cool effect, and very well rendered.  The real issue is that there’s no option to swap the arm out, meaning she’s always stuck like that.  Still, that’s a pretty minor issue.  Sue *does* include an extra hand, that’s done up to match the right arm, so that’s cool.  And, since it’s going to be a little while before the rest of her teammates are released, Sue also includes a HERBIE pack-in figure to keep her company.  Believe it or not, this is actually HERBIE’s third time as an action figure, and second as a Marvel Legend.  He’s about 3 inches tall and has a joint as the neck, as well as a removable flight stand to let him hover.  His sculpt is pretty awesome, and his paint is nice and clean.  He’s just an all-around awesome inclusion.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Here’s a shock: I got this Walgreens exclusive figure at Walgreens.  I know.  Thrilling.  In all honestly, I’ve been patiently waiting for this figure ever since Toy Biz released Reed back in Series 5 of the original line.  14 years is a lot of waiting.  Ultimately, I’m glad I waited, because this is best Invisible Woman figure ever released.  I can’t wait to get the rest of the team to match!

#1240: Invisible Woman

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

FORCE FIELD INVISIBLE WOMAN

MARVEL MINIMATES

At one point, the Fantastic Four were the premier characters at Marvel.  They’re the whole reason for the modern Marvel universe’s existence, and were a central piece of said universe for almost 50 years.  Unfortunately, the fact that the film license for the characters lies with 20th Century Fox has made the characters very difficult to use in Marvel’s current structure, which is very reliant on movie momentum to keep things going.  This, plus a less than stellar relationship with Fox and the fact that the Four don’t have the same selling power as Spider-Man and the X-Men, has led to Marvel’s first family and all associated characters being absent from pretty much all Marvel merchandise for quite a few years, which is a real shame.  Before it all fell apart, the FF were the main source of one of my all-time favorite assortments of Marvel Minimates, which is where today’s version of the Invisible Woman hails from.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Force Field Invisible Woman was released alongside the Moloid (previously reviewed here) in Series 48 of Marvel Minimates.  Sue was the heavier-packed regular release to Alicia’s short-packed variant release.  She, like the rest of the team in this series, is based on her appearance during John Byrne’s lengthy run on the title in the ‘80s, which just so happens to be my favorite set of costumes for the team (in no small part due to the presence of the designs in the ‘90s cartoon, which served as my main introduction to the characters.)  The figure stands about 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  She’s built on the standard body, with an add-on piece for her hair.  It’s a new piece, and it does a reasonable enough job of capturing Sue’s standard look, from early in Byrne’s run and any time an artist other than Byrne depicted this design.  Seems odd that they sculpted an all-new piece, since there were several that probably would have worked fine, but I’m not complaining.  She also has an alternate hairpiece, based on the mullet she was sporting for while during Byrne’s run.  Not my preferred look for her, but it was a look she had for a good long while in the costume, so it’s good DST didn’t leave it out.  The paint on Sue is about what you’d expect from a modern ‘mate.  The details are nice and clean, and the colors are a pretty decent match for the comics.  If we’re getting picky, the shadows should be black, not dark blue, since Byrne has stated many times that the costumes weren’t actually blue.  However, it’s dark enough that it’s still passable.  Sue is packed with two sets of arms and legs: solid colors and partially transparent, simulating her powers.  She also includes a stand made up to look like the beginnings of an invisible shield, which is a really fun piece. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This whole series was one of my most anticipated releases of Minimates at the time, so I made it a point of going to Cosmic Comix the day they were released to pick them up.  I’ve got other Invisible Woman ‘mates, but this one’s my favorite.  The costume choice is great, and the extras are, well, they’re just fantastic.  Which is very appropriate, is it not?

#0963: Power Blast Invisible Woman

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

POWER BLAST INVISIBLE WOMAN

FATASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

SueAlba1

The Fantastic Four haven’t really had much luck when it comes to movies. The recent Fant4stic was a total box-office bomb, of, like, epic proportions. Before that travesty, there were two other theatrical Fantastic Four movies, which weren’t bad, but were far from great. One of the more present issues with both 2005’s Fantastic Four and its sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer was the questionable casting choice of Jessica Alba as Susan Storm, aka the Invisible Woman. As is the case with just about every Marvel movie, Fantastic Four got its own line of toys, which included a couple versions of Alba’s Invisible Woman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SueAlba2Power Blast Invisible Woman was released as part of the first series of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four movie tie-in. There were actually three different variations of this figure released. The figure I’m looking at today is the fully visible version, but there were also fully invisible and “half-and-half” versions available. She stands about 6 inches tall and has 38 points of articulation. Sue comes from around the point when Toy Biz was focusing on articulation above all else, and it kind of shows. Sure, she’s got a lot of movement, but she looks more like a drawing mannequin than an actual person. The joints are really obvious and she’s painfully skinny, to a degree that no living person should be. The waist is the absolute worst, though; it’s actually a bit smaller than her thigh in diameter, which is beyond off. These are proportions that would look strange even on a comicbook character, but on a figure that’s supposed to be based on a real person, they’re downright laughable. At the very least, the figure’s head is a pretty spot-on likeness of Jessica Alba, right down to that slightly condescending sneer she was sporting for about 99% of her screen time in the movies. The hair is a separate piece and whole it’s a little on the thick side, it’s not atrocious, and there’s at least some nice detailing. Sue’s paintwork is probably the figure’s strongest point. Everything’s pretty clean overall, and there’s even some nice accent work on the uniform of the blue, which helps keep it from getting too monotonous. Her face is also surprisingly well-done, especially at this scale. Invisible Woman included a disc-firing base, which I think was supposed to represent here powers somewhat, but it just ends up being weird.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Sue was one of the more difficult to find figures in the line at the time of release, so I didn’t have this figure when she was new. She ended up being one of the 15 figures I picked up at this past Balticon. The figure’s definitely wonky, especially in terms of proportions, and Alba’s Sue is far from one of my favorite characters, so I can’t say this is one of my favorite figures. But hey, she was $2. I can’t really complain.

#0639: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

MARVEL HALL OF FAME

InvisibleWoman1

The Fantastic Four have sort of become personae non gratae over at Marvel Comics in the last few years (thanks Fox) but they’re kind of one of the most important sets of characters Marvel’s ever had. Without them, there really isn’t a modern day Marvel Comics. It’s a shame they aren’t getting the respect that they deserve. It’s been a little while since any of the team has graced the toy world, but there’s a pretty decent back catalogue of stuff out there, including today’s focus, Invisible Woman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

InvisibleWoman2Invisible Woman was released as part of the first series of ToyBiz’s Marvel Hall of Fame line. The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. She, like most of the other figures in the line, is more or less a re-release of a previous Marvel figure. In this case, she’s a rehash of Marvel Superheroes’ series 3 version of the character. That figure was available in both color-changing and non-color-changing versions, but this one seems to just have been offered with the feature, hence her somewhat odd coloring. The sculpt for the figure is definitely a dated one; it’s from very early in ToyBiz’s run with the license, so they were still finding their footing. The head is rather small, the articulation isn’t worked in very smoothly, and the figure just feels rather clunky in general. It’s not the worst thing ever, and it’s not even the worst female figure of the time (I’m looking at you, Monkey Face Princess Leia) but it certainly shows its age. The paint on the figure is somewhat hard to judge, mostly due to the figure’s color-change “action feature.” I can’t speak for when it was new, but the feature doesn’t really work anymore, which leaves the InvisibleWoman3figure sort of in this middle state. I tried putting her in cold water, as the packaging says to do, and all it really did was slightly change the back of the figure. Now she looks like a pie…(Tim’s been calling her Miss Meringue). Invisible Woman’s only accessory is…uhh…well, it sort of looks like a Tron disk or a Fantastic Four Frisbee. I don’t know. It plugs into her back. So, there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure’s another piece of the slew of figures I bought from Cosmic Comix a few months back. I actually own the original, non-Hall of Fame release, but I didn’t have the color-change version, so I figured this one was probably worth the $3 I paid. She’s not a figure that’s going to win any awards or anything, but she’s a neat little product of the early 90s.