Tag Archives: Marvel Super Heroes

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0056: Silver Surfer

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

SILVER SURFER

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Hey-oh, it’s the end of the week once more, which means it’s time for another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Oh yeah!  Flashing back to the far away year of 2016, back when things were oh so 2016-y, here’s a revisit on a Silver Surfer!

Though they were best known for their 15 year run with the Marvel license, Toy Biz’s first work of note was actual doing toys based on Marvel’s Distinguished Competition. Toy Biz’s DC action figures were little more than knock-offs of Kenner’s Super Powers line. When Toy Biz was granted the Marvel license, their initial offerings were rather similar to what they had done for DC. They offered a rather broadly ranging line, covering the major corners of the Marvel Universe (barring the X-Men, who got their own line). Today, I’ll be taking a look at one of that line’s versions of the Silver Surfer!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Silver Surfer was released in the third series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and has 6 points of articulation. That’s actually a pretty low articulation count for a Toy Biz figure, and it’s even a bit low for this particular line. This figure is mostly the same sculpt as his Series 1 counterpart. The only difference between the two is the lack of neck articulation. It’s an odd choice, and it definitely limits what can be done with the figure, but I’d guess it had something to do with the vac metalizing. The sculpt isn’t terrible, but it’s not particularly great either. He’s similar in style to the Toy Biz Green Lantern, in that his proportions feel rather off, and the level of detail is very low. Also, his head is just very oddly shaped. It’s definitely too small, and the face (which is very ill-defined) sits too high. In fact, the head in general sits too high on the neck, and the whole construction there just looks weird. As far as paint goes, this particular Surfer doesn’t really have any, he’s just vac metalized. Later Surfer’s would at least get detailing on the eyes, but that’s not the case with this guy. Just the straight up and down silver for him. Silver Surfer originally included his surfboard, done up to match him. Unlike other versions of the board, this one was really thick, and it had wheels on the bottom. So, he’s not actually the Silver Surfer, he’s the Silver Skateboarder. Radical.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Surfer is the eighth of the 15 figures that I picked up from a vendor at this past Balticon. I…I’m not really sure how I feel about him. I mean, the chrome look is certainly cool, but the actual figure’s kind of a bit lame. Toy Biz definitely improved in leaps and bounds over the years, but this guy’s a disappointment even compared to the figures from the same line. I hate to be this down on a figure, but this guy, well, he’s not great.

This figure was another part of a batch of loose Toy Biz figures I snagged for super cheap at a con literally the weekend after I graduated from college.  I was all nostalgic and stuff, and I sort of bled a lot of that into my reviews of the associated figures, I think.  I had the option to get both MSH Surfers at the time, but opted only for the chromed one, because I guess I like shiny things?  My review’s generally not bad, though, not having both figures in my possession, I did kind of go with “they’re the same sculpt” when they’re not.  The chrome version is much more simplified, and the face in particular is a lot more oddly shaped.  Missing from this figure the last time around was his surfboard, which is honestly the one area where he’s truly better than his predecessor.  This one’s more streamlined, lacking the motorized bit on the back, and just generally looking more the part, provided you can get past the rather obvious wheels on the bottom.

#3890: Mr. Fantastic

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

MR. FANTASTIC

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“Mr. Fantastic is the awe-inspiring leader of the Fantastic Four. Now only is he able to stretch and twist his elastic body into almost any shape, he is also a brilliant scientist! When he’s not fighting super-villians, he can be found either in his laboratory or workshop, creating new compounds or inventing new machines to benefit mankind!”

In more modern super hero storytelling narratives, super intelligence is often seen as a marker for, if not outright villainy, than at least being a real jerk all the time.  This was less the case earlier on.  Sure, there were mad scientists and all, but characters such as Reed Richards existed to make the world a better place, and look out for people.  Reed’s teetered on the edge of the good versus jerk thing over the years, but he almost always bounces back to good, because that’s really who he is at the end of the day…at least in the mainstream universe.  But that’s the one that counts, right?  Right.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Fantastic was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line.  This was Reed’s second figure, following his Mego from the ‘70s, and the first of only two figures under Toy Biz’s 5-inch run.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Like both Ben and Johnny, he’s got a rather reduced articulation scheme for the line, especially notable in light of Sue getting the full load out.  In Reed’s case, however, this is actually linked to his “action feature.”  Dubbed “5-way” stretch, Reed can extend at the neck, waist, biceps, forearms, thighs, and shins to replicate his stretching.  It’s a sort of off look, of course, and also results in the figure being extremely fragile, but it’s an intriguing idea.  The sculpt is in line with the rest of the team, so he’s a bit more basic and rudimentary than later figures.  The nature of the stretching feature also makes him a rather stiff looking figure.  That being said, I think it’s a more Reed Richards-y sculpt than the later cartoon one, especially in terms of build.  Color work is very dependent on molded colors on this guy, and there’s a tendency in certain samples for the blues to be rather mis-matched.  On mine, they’ve held up okay, though.  The actual paint work proper’s alright; Toy Biz did always know how to do a solid job with a “4” logo.  Reed is packed with a blaster thing of some sort.  I don’t recognize it as a story specific element, nor do I know why Reed would need a gun (unless it were wooden and for the intended purpose of breaking Magneto’s mind), but there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My initial Fantastic Four line-up was comprised of whichever version of each character was most easily accessible when I started collecting.  In the case of Reed, that was this guy.  Well, okay, it was another copy of this release.  Remember how I mentioned he was fragile?  Yeah, my original gradually broke at just about every stretch point.  I always liked this version, so that was a bummer.  But, I was able to find a replacement a few years back, and I’m a lot more careful with my toys these days.  He’s stiff, fragile, and gimmicky, but this really is my favorite of the two Toy Biz Reeds.

#3886: Human Torch

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HUMAN TORCH

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

While three members of the Fantastic Four were entirely new identities and concepts for Marvel, Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, had a repurposed name and power set from one of Marvel’s first super heroes.  Unlike Jim Hammond, however, Johnny was actually *human* so perhaps the title fits better?  Of course, because of the repurposed name, this meant that Johnny got tied up in rights issues that didn’t plague the rest of the team, leading to his absence from the ‘70s cartoon, and the eventual creation of HERBIE.  But, it’s never seemed to be an issue in the area of toys!  

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Human Torch was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line, which, as I noted in last week’s Thing review, was an entire FF-dedicated set of figures.  This was Johnny’s second figure, following his Mego from the ‘70s.  The figure is a little under 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Like Ben, he’s rather under articulated compared to most Toy Biz figures of the era.  His general posing is also rather similar to that figure, so I guess they’re at least kind of thematic?  Torch is slightly on the smaller side, which honestly makes a degree of sense, with him being a younger member of the team and all.  He’s fully flamed-on, as was the standard approach at the time.  It’s a slightly different take on it.  It’s got elements of the costume details beneath, notably the belt, visible, as well as sculpted etching for the “heat lines” he usually sported in the comics.  Honestly, the whole thing works better than you might expect.  Fire’s hard to sculpt, but it’s not bad.  Johnny’s paint work is sort of basic; it’s mostly just molded red, but there’s some basic yellow paint as well.  It’s applied decently enough, with no major slop.  Johnny is packed with two fireball pieces, which can be held or rather awkwardly mounted on his back.  His right arm’s got a spring-loaded feature, so you can pull it back and it “throws” one of the fireballs.  It’s very much on the basic side, but it works okay.

THE ME HALF OF EQUATION

Like Ben, this Johnny had largely dried up at retail by the time I got into collecting, so my first Johnny was the Series 4 version.  This one I got slightly later, probably in the early ‘00s, purchased loose from a comic book store that I’m rather certain isn’t around anymore.  I got the fireball pieces later, in the last few years, and now he’s all complete.  He’s an interesting figure, sort of basic and all, but he works better than most other fully flamed-on Johnny figures we’d end up getting.

#3882: The Thing

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

THE THING

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“The Thing’s super-strength, rock-hard skin and never-say-die attitude make him an invaluable ally in a fight. And his loyalty, heart-of-gold and great sense of humor make him the best friend anyone could have. Before he became the Thing, Ben Grimm was a top test pilot. Now he flies the Fantastic Four wherever super-trouble erupts.”

Last week, I discussed the pending release of the first of the two Super Hero movies this month, Superman.  This week, I’m starting my build-up to the *other* movie, hitting at the end of the month, Fantastic Four!  The FF have have rather a storied history in terms of movies (including two movies directed by a guy named Story….), at best rising to “okay,” but never truly living up to the potential of the team as showcased in the comics.  It is my very distinct that this one is the one that breaks the curse.  The actual movie tie-ins haven’t quite hit yet, so I’m gonna just stick to my recent formula with some vintage Toy Biz reviews.  Here’s Benjamin Grimm, the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Thing was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line, which was a whole assortment devoted to the FF and their associated characters.  It was Ben’s first figure under Toy Biz, and only his second figure, following up on the Mego.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He’s by far TB’s least articulated take on Ben, owing largely to them still not quite having a firm handle on where they were going with articulation.  He gets the basic 5, and even then, one of his shoulders is a but hindered by his action feature.  He’s notably small for Ben, especially a ‘90s Ben, where he was really getting scaled up.  Instead, his stature and build feels a lot more like an early career Ben.  The slight softness of the sculpt kind of adds to that.  To my eye, he looks a lot like the Hannah-Barbera Thing, which, honestly, I don’t hate.  Despite being a departure, he still very much feels like the Thing, and that’s what’s most important.  His color work is generally basic.  The orange is all molded plastic, and it’s admittedly rather on the yellow side of shading.  Certainly more than I’m used to.  There’s no accenting or anything, so the already soft sculpt feels even softer, which is a bit unfortunate.  He’s sporting his Byrne-era colors for the costume, which was still current at the time.  It’s actually a dark blue, rather than the very bright shade they kept going with later, so it feels more authentic than Toy Biz’s other versions.  Ben is packed with a rather neat street sign accessory.  It’s bent and breaks into two pieces, and it even says “Yancy Street” at the top, which s a really neat character touch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, my first Ben was the disguised version from Series 3 of the cartoon line, which was the current version when I got into collecting.  He remained my only figure of the character in this scale for my entire childhood.  This figure was actually my brother’s, which he bought from Cosmic Comix some time in the mid-00s.  When he scaled down his collection after high school, I happily absorbed this guy into mine.  He’s a different sort of figure, and not really your conventional take, but I like him a lot.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0034: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Hey, it’s July 4th.  Well, isn’t that something. Really going great for us as a country here, huh?  Lot to celebrate?  American Dream feeling super realized?  Oh, wait, no, it’s actually none of those things.  Well, gee, that’s a bit of a bummer.  And I’m not even writing a proper review today?  Wow, guys, sorry.  If nothing else, I’ll lean into my own personal coping mechanism for the ugliness surrounding us, which is championing behind a man who’s loyal to the dream and made a career out of punching Nazis, Captain America!

“When Captain America throws his mighty shield! All Foes who chose to oppose his shield must yield!”

-Captain America Theme Song

My first introduction to Captain America was through VHS copies of the ‘60s cartoon. As cheesy as they are, I loved every minute of them. Sadly, in the mid-90s, when I was becoming so fond of Cap as a character, he was more or less absent from toy shelves. I eventually got the Spider-Man: The Animated Series version when it was finally released, but the figure I always wanted was Toy Biz’s first version of the character, which I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line. This Cap stands just under 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation. This figure predates elbow articulation becoming a standard for Toy Biz’s Marvel stuff, as they were still very much aping the Kenner Super Powers style, and none of those had elbow movement. Really, this whole figure in general feels like a Captain America figure done to fit with Super Powers (well, aside from size, since he’s taller than any figure Kenner put out), which is far from a bad thing. Rather than the more ‘90s-esc proportions of which Toy Biz would later become so fond, Cap is pretty subdued, and looks more or less like a real person. His torso features some awesome detailing for the scale-mail, and I love the way they’ve sculpted the star logo so as to make it pop a bit more. Figures of Captain America have the unfortunate tendency to miss the mark on the good Captain’s face. I guess he’s just one of those characters where it has to be just right. I think this figure’s the closest anyone’s ever gotten to my ideal Captain America, at least from a comic-based perspective. It’s a little round by today’s standards, but I really like the overall style present here.  There’s just a certain sincerity to it that lots of Caps lack. Cap’s paintwork is quite nicely handled, especially for the time. The colors are all nice and bold, and he really sells the whole patriotic super hero thing. His eyes are admittedly a little wonky, and it would have been nice for his belt buckle to be something other than the unpainted blue plastic, but those are relatively minor complaints. Cap was packed with his mighty shield, as well as a weird launching device for it. However, my figure sadly lacks these pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in the intro, this was a figure I really wanted growing up. Unfortunately, he was released before I got into collecting, and wasn’t very easy to find after the fact. So, I had to settle for the US Agent repaint from a few series later. In fact, my dad, as awesome as he was, even bought me an extra US Agent and we painted him up in proper Cap colors, which held me over quite nicely. This particular figure ended up being one of the fifteen figures I picked up at the last Balticon. I’m glad to finally have the official version, and he’s aged a bit better than a lot of Toy Biz’s output from the same time period.

Well, after being rather disappointed with my own review for last week’s Addendum, this one feels more on the money.  Admittedly, it was a generally better time for my writing.  I’d just graduated from college, and I was writing this in my down time on an RV trip I took with Jess and her aunt and uncle.  It gave me more time to properly appreciate things.  I do still really like this guy.  Since my original review, I did manage to track down a shield and launcher for him.  It’s the same one used with US Agent, of course, but in more proper coloring.  It’s gimmicky, but ultimately not in a really obtrusive way, so I don’t hate it.  All-in-all, Toy Biz kind of hit it pretty strong with their original Cap, and I don’t really know that they ever truly topped it.

#3581: Dr. Doom

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

DR. DOOM

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0060: While the Fantastic Four jumped into the world of action figures during the Mego days, their longtime foe Dr. Doom wasn’t alongside them, and wouldn’t get his own figure treatment until Mattel’s Secret Wars, a line that, ironically, didn’t feature any of the FF.

I sure do like Dr. Doom. He’s the quintessential comic book villain, and he’s just great.  While he’s got his fair share of toys, they do have a tendency to be…hit or miss.  As a kid, I had the Fantastic Four line’s version, which wasn’t bad, and left me without a real need for other versions, prior to the switch to other scales.  Toy Biz themselves seemed pretty happy with that one as well, since they mostly took to just re-releasing that one a bunch.  That one wasn’t their first try, though, so let’s look at his predecessor.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Doom was released as part of the first series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line in 1990.  He was then re-released in Series 4, three years later.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and has 7(ish) points of articulation.  His sculpt was a unique one and…well, it’s kind of…umm…stiff?  Scrawny?  Small?  Not real great?  Yeah, it’s a bit all of those things.  It’s also awkward, so let’s throw that one on the list, too, shall we?  It’s further removed from that Super Powers styling than most of the Series 1 figures, but I’m not sure that’s really a good thing, because he winds up as perhaps the weakest of the bunch.  There’s just not really a part of it that really works.  He’s got a cloth cape, in contrast to later figures, but it’s really short and wide, which again feels odd.  The color work on the figure is pretty basic.  I mean, I guess it’s better than the sculpt, but the green feels really bright for Doom.  Doom featured a rather odd action feature, where turning the wheel on his back spins his right hand.  Not really sure why.  Toy Biz liked to give Doom odd action features on his right hand, I guess, since they did it with the later figure’s spring-loaded hand as well.  This one just feels especially pointless.  He included a gun/drill thing, as well as a wheel/fan thing, which he could hold and spin in his hand.  Yay?

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I don’t really recall this one as a kid.  I had the second, superior, one, so I wasn’t in the market for a Dr. Doom anyway, but this one didn’t seem to really be around as much.  I really only got this one in my move for completion.  Thankfully, I was able to snag a loose one through All Time a while back.  It’s not a good figure.  It’s not even a really fun figure.  But, it’s a Doom I didn’t have, so there’s that.

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.

#3576: Spider-Man

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

SPIDER-MAN — MULTI-JOINTED ACTION POSES

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0055: Prior to Toy Biz taking the license, no Spider-Man figure had ever been more posable than the rest of his corresponding toy line.

As I was a child when I started collecting action figures (what can I say, I had no choice in this matter), a lot of my earliest entries in my collection were gifts from family members and the like.  My grandparents had a real tendency to bolster the ranks of the collection, and introduce me to characters I didn’t already have.  Since others were buying the figures for me, I didn’t always have a say in *which* version started things.  So, there are some cases where I perhaps *wanted* one version, but got another instead.  But I’m in charge of it all now, and there’s no one to stop me from going back to get the ones I wanted…so that I can discover that the one already had was honestly just as good.  I’m getting ahead of myself.  Anyway, here’s a Spider-Man.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man was released in the third series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line in 1992.  There were two Spider-Men in the assortment, and this one was the “Multi-Jointed Action Poses” version, which is to say he was extra posable.  The same figure was re-released in Series 5 of the line, two years later.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 15 points of articulation.  Up to this point in the line, all of the Spider-Men had used a body that was similar in construction to the rest of the line.  It was bulkier and more pre-posed, and looked more like Toy Biz’s Super Powers-inspired DC figures.  This time around, Spidey is far skinnier, and in fact has a much greater level of articulation.  While the mobility isn’t quite to the heights of later Marvel offerings, it was by far the best this specific line had to offer, and would remain some of the best to come out of Toy Biz’s 5-inch line.  The sculpt is still somewhat dated by modern standards, but showed a real jump forward in terms of how Toy Biz handled things.  There aren’t any major details or anything to worry about, but the proportions were generally much more balanced than others, and he certainly looked the part for the character.  Since the sculpting is on the lighter side, the paint does the heavier lifting here.  It does well enough.  The weblines aren’t terrible, though there are some slight inconsistencies in exact placement on some of the extremities.  This design opts for a smaller eyed version of the mask, which is unique, and also kind of fun.  The biggest issue I have with the coloring on the figure is the near universal issue of the figure’s upper legs discoloring over time.  This figure was packed with no accessories, with the extra posablity being his main selling point.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

When I was a kid, my cousin Rusty got Spider-Man before me, and this was the one he got.  I wanted one too, but when our Nana went back to get me one, the closest match was the later Spider-Man Animated super-posable figure.  He was fine, but I always kinda wanted this one.  I had the chance to snag one loose from a collection that came into All Time a couple of years ago.  Ultimately, he’s fun, and a cool sign of Toy Biz’s progression with the brand.  I can’t really say it’s *better* than the Animated one, though, so I spent a lot of time chasing an equivalent, if perhaps not a little worse, figure.  It makes you think, I guess.

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.

#3571: Silver Surfer

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

SILVER SURFER

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0050:  Though first introduced all the way back in 1966, the Silver Surfer wouldn’t join the world of action figures until 1990, with the very figure I’m looking at today!

I have a lot of gaps in my knowledge of how *exactly* I encountered a number of classic Marvel characters for the first time, and Silver Surfer is part of that.  I feel like something to do with the FF would be how I knew him, but I don’t recall seeing any of his appearances on the ’90s cartoon until after the fact, which means that, like last week’s Daredevil, I’m leaning more on comics appearances, I guess?  Exactly which ones, I don’t know, but there certainly had to be something.  I mean, obviously, there were figures, too, right?  Right.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Silver Surfer was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line in 1990.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s rather typical of the earliest figures in the line, in terms of articulation and design.  There’s a slightly tweaked version of this figure from Series 3, which I looked at a few years back.  That one was vac-metalized, a process that also removed the neck joint from the figure.  The vac-metalizing removed a ton of the sculpt’s sharpness (and it’s not an exceptionally sharp sculpt in the first place), so this one does wind up looking a little bit better.  He’s still a little odd looking on the proportions front, and I don’t care for the face, but it’s not *awful*.  In contrast to the chromed finish of the Series 3 release, this one gets a flat silver finish.  It’s not as immediately stunning, but it works fine.  He also gets paint for the eyes on this one, which is a minor change-up, but enough to be somewhat notable.  Surfer is packed with his board, which for this release is really thick and bulky, and also more of a skateboard than a surfboard.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

My first Silver Surfer was actually the 10-inch release, followed closely by the CD-Rom pack-in 5-inch figure.  The Super Heroes ones wouldn’t cross my radar for quite some time.  I got the chrome version back in 2016, when I snagged a bunch of loose Toy Biz figures at a con.  It wasn’t until a few years ago that I was able to track down the standard version, when one came into All Time.  I expected to like the chrome one more, but honestly, the sculpt works better this way.  He’s nothing to write home about, but he’s okay in context of the rest of the line.

#3567: Daredevil

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

DAREDEVIL

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0046: Daredevil’s first action figure was in Mattel’s Secret Wars line, despite the character’s absence from the comic event the series was tying into.

I can’t tell you exactly where my love of Daredevil came from. It had to be comics related, because his cartoon presence in the ’90s was pretty scarce and I don’t recall seeing any of his appearances in first run. I certainly recall one of his early team-ups with Spider-Man from the first essential collection, and I think I had a small stash of Daredevil back issues. Whatever the case, I was invested from a pretty early age. Obviously, my first figure was from ToyBiz, but, curiously, it was neither of the two figures I’m looking at today. Weird, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Daredevil was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes in 1990. He then received a repainted release in 1994’s Series 5. The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation. At this point, Toy Biz was very much working through the left over stylings of their DC line, which had aped a lot of Kenner’s Super Powers, albeit in a more rudimentary fashion. The sculpts on the first Marvel Super Heroes have a lot in common with Toy Biz’s in-house sculpts from the second series of their DC line. They’re up-scaled about half an inch, but they keep the articulation scheme and ever so slight preposing. DD’s sculpt was technically unique, but it was also very similar to other Series 1 figures, just with some DD-specific elements added. The head’s the main selling point, of course. It’s a little on the soft side, and the horns in particular are rather nubby. But, given the era, it’s not terrible. The body features sculpted elements for his belt, holster, gloves, and boots, which is more than a lot of DD sculpts have offered. The Series 1 release is in his classic all red, which is largely just molded plastic, with minor paint work for his face and logo. The Series 5 release upgrades him to his then-current armored look, which changes up his paint tremendously. It also means that the paint doesn’t remotely line up with the sculpted costume elements, but, honestly, given the softness of the sculpted details, it’s not the end of the world. The plant is particularly fuzzy on the second release, and it doesn’t hold up particularly well to wear on either one. Both releases included an “exploding grapple hook”, which is a missile launcher. It’s black on the Series 1 release and silver on the Series 5.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

My original Daredevil figure was from the Spider-Man Animated line, but the repaint of this guy came pretty quickly after. I recall that it was featured in a story in a Spider-Man magazine I had growing up, and this guy was at Cosmic Comix, so my dad bought him for me. His sculpted details jumped out as wrong, and that’s when I learned about the magical world of repaints! I only added the original release to my collection a few years ago, when one got traded into All Time. They’re both definitely dated, but I still dig them.

#3305: U.S. Agent

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

U.S. AGENT

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“U.S. Agent is the ultimate super soldier of justice. And with his awesome shield, he proves it. To prepare shield for crime-fighting action, gently push the extension of his shield along the top of the shield-launcher until it locks into position. Wrist launcher and shield can both be attached separately to his wrist, thus making him ready for any – and every – attack!”

When they first took over the license, before building all sorts of different lines, Toy Biz’s Marvel toys were initially split into X-Men and a larger Marvel Super Heroes line, which covered literally everything else.  The line ran five series, with its final assortment being entirely re-hash…or at least very close to re-hash.  There were a couple of re-paints, and only one actual new character, whom I’m looking at today.  Yes, it’s time for another version of John Walker, aka U.S. Agent!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

U.S. Agent was released in the aforementioned Series 5 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  U.S. Agent’s entire existence in the line was due to his easy parts re-use, so he’s a complete re-use of the standard Captain America molds.  Cap’s sculpt was honestly one of the best from this line, though it’s kind of the best because it’s so specifically Steve Rogers as Cap, which works just a little bit against this figure’s intended purpose.  The clearly denoted sections of chain mail, as well as the vertical stripes on the mid-section, and the star symbol on the front of the chest are all elements that don’t work quite so much for the U.S. Agent costume.  Likewise, the face is very definitely Steve, not John.  That said, the paint does its best with the material, and it’s honestly not terrible looking.  It helps that a lot of it’s black, which hides more of the extra details, and it also helps that the paint work is pretty sharp, so it at least looks pretty good.  U.S. Agent is packed with the same shield and launcher as the basic Cap.  It’s a little clunky, but honestly a fun gimmick, since the shield still functions as a shield, while also working with the launcher.  The shield has been appropriately re-colored, and looks pretty nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve owned this figure three times over.  My first one came to me as a gift from my Nana, who had gotten him for both me and my cousin Rusty, I believe as a “good job with school” gift.  Mine was well-loved, but also wound up losing his foot at one point, in an incident I was never able to explain.  Rusty was kind enough to give me his, so I had one with two feet again, but I lost the shield and launcher from both over the years.  Enter the third one, which was given me just a few years ago by Max, who had gotten a sealed one and decided he didn’t really need it.  As U.S. Agent, this guy’s not quite there.  As The Captain, he’s actually not bad, so I’ll just consider him that way, I guess, because at least then I can enjoy him unimpeded.