Tag Archives: Marvel

#4124: Dr. Octopus

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

DR. OCTOPUS

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“A laboratory explosion grafted four tentacle-like mechanical arms to the body of renowned Radiology expert Dr. Otto Octavius, warping his mind, transforming him into the genius know as Dr. Octopus! Octopus can control his titanium steel tentacles with but a thought – – and his thoughts are often of smashing his arch-foe, Spider-Man!”

The ‘90s was a pretty solid decade when it came to super hero cartoons.  At the head of the pack was Batman: The Animated Series, which everything else was kind of trying to imitate, at least in some fashion.  Perhaps the oddest case of this was Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which featured a surprising number of shared actors with BTAS.  Batman’s faithful butler Alfred’s voice actor Ephram Zimbalist Jr was one of the crossover actors, also lending his voice to Dr. Octopus, who was also one of the tie-in toyline’s first figures to roll out.  Let’s check him out today! 

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Octopus was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in line.  As with the rest of the line’s early run figures, he’s based on his cartoon design (in contrast to a lot of the other Toy Biz 5-inch lines), itself based on Erik Larsen’s updated Doc Ock design from the comics around that time.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He gets the standard set-up for the Toy Biz 5-inch figures in terms of movement, at least for the most part.  You can also get a little movement out of the tentacles, which can slightly turn at the base, but it’s sort of iffy and inconsistent.  The sculpt for this guy was all-new, though it would see re-use a few other times under Toy Biz, as well as serving as the inspiration for the smaller die cast figure and the 10-inch figure.  It’s based on his armored attire from the show, and it’s pretty good at that.  It’s certainly a more cut take on Otto than we usually see, but it was the ‘90s; everybody just looked like that.  I remember, I was there.  The hair’s not quite consistent with the show, which leaned into his Moe Howard cut; instead, it’s a little more contemporary.  All-in-all, not a bad sculpt, which captures the character pretty well.  The tentacles are a softer material, to allow for the action feature.  Pulling the (incredibly obvious and oddly shaped) tab on his back pulls the strings within the arms taut, so they sort of close inward.  It’s not a reliably good feature, but I guess it’s no worse for long-term livelihood than the usual bendy ones.  Doc Ock’s color work is pretty simple.  It matches the animation model, and its fairly clean on the application front.  It doesn’t do anything crazy, but it gets the job done.  Doc Ock included no accessories, rather common for the earlier figures in the line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have this figure as a kid.  I remember him, and I remember others having him, but I never had one of my own.  Honestly, I never much clicked with Doc Ock until Spider-Man 2, and didn’t have much interest in figures of him until around that time.  This is a more recent addition, relatively speaking, although it’s probably been five years or so since I snagged this one loose from a collection that got traded into work.  He’s kind of a basic sort of figure, and doesn’t quite get into the sorts of things that later Doc Ocks got into, but he does manage to be a decent all-around figure. 

#4122: Moon Knight – Rivals

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

MOON KNIGHT — RIVALS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Bathed in a luminous aura that pierces the darkness, Moon Knight glides through the night, ready to sear his enemies with his master’s sacred Ankhs.”

Hey, we had an almost two year break between Moon Knight reviews there, but, have no fear, just two weeks later, I’m coming in with another Moon Knight review, because that’s just how I roll.  Also, you know, because I got two new Moon Knights relatively close to each other, and I’m passing that closeness onto you!  …Or something.  Today, though, it’s a little different, because it’s also a video game figure.  Hailing from the 2024 game, Marvel Rivals, it’s, umm, Marvel Rivals Moon Knight?  Yeah, that’s it.  That’s the ticket.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is a standalone deluxe-sized release from Hasbro’s Marvel Rivals subset of Marvel Legends, shown and *sort of* released alongside the Rivals Punisher figure.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Moon Knight sports an all-new sculpt, based on his standard skin from the game.  It’s a look clearly based on the Shalvey-designed armored up design, but filtered through the game’s edges upon edges sort of design aesthetic.  Aside from the faceplate feeling maybe just a touch too Taskmaster, it’s a fairly decent Moon Knight design.  The sculpt certainly does it justice.  The articulation is worked in pretty well, allowing for a good range of motion on most of the joints, while not breaking up the flow too much.  The shoulders are a little limited, and he’s stuck looking sort of downward a bit, but otherwise it works out okay.  While some of the game-based figures have brought the designs more into the general aesthetic of broader Legends set-up, the Rivals figures are more inline with the actual game looks, down to the slightly amplified proportions.  The details on the costume elements are quite sharp, and I quite like the texture work on the under suit in particular.  The standard cape has a sort of dramatic flow to it, mimicking his character screen from the game.  It looks pretty cool, and lends itself to a nice variety of poses.  The line work is sculpted, which helps give it some extra pop.  There’s a second cape included, set in an outstretched crescent shape like when he’s gliding.  Without some sort of flight stand, the posing options are slightly more limited, but it’s an impressive looking piece regardless.  The figure’s color work is actually quite involved.  There’s a number of different finishes to the white sections, which I quite like.  The darker sections are likewise varied, and all of the application is pretty cleanly handled.  Moon Knight is packed with a pair of crescent blades and a pair of Ankh batons, so he’s got some options for attack.  No way to store anything, and I was a little bummed by no extra hands, but the weapons do at least fit nicely into the gripping hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rivals isn’t available on any of the consoles I play the occasional video game on, so I’ve not had the opportunity to experience any of it first hand, but I know a fair bit of it through reputation.  My knowledge of Moon Knight’s inclusion is really that he’s in the game, and that’s it.  A new Moon Knight figure is a new Moon Knight figure, though, so I was onboard for this one from its announcement.  It’s a solid release.  Not my personal favorite of the many Moon Knights, but he does some cool, and more unique stuff, which I definitely appreciate.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#4120: Spider-Man – Web-Shooter

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

SPIDER-MAN — WEB-SHOOTER

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“Not all of Spider-Man’s amazing powers came from the bite of a radioactive spider – some were created by Peter Parker himself. Case in point, his astonishing web shooters! Using his scientific know-how, Parker crated a device which, when filled with a secret formula of his own design, could duplicate the super-strong web of a spider!”

When Toy Biz started out with the Marvel license, they divided the characters into two sets, with one line dedicated to X-Men (which would also quickly spin-off into an X-Force dedicated line) and one covering…the rest.  Spider-Man was undoubtedly a major focus of Marvel Super Heroes, with multiple variants per series.  So, it wasn’t a shock that he was the first property outside of X-Men to get his own line, launched to coincide with his own animated series.  There were two Spidey variants in the line’s inaugural series, both dealing with his web-slinging powers, and today I’m taking a look at the Web-Shooter variant!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man — Web-Shooter was released in the first series of the Spider-Man: The Animated Series line in 1994.  In contrast to the X-Men line, which was (mostly) a comics based line that happened to coincide with the show, the Spider-Man was a specifically cartoon-based line, with all of the official branding from the show, and Spider-Man figures clearly patterned on his show design.  Web-Shooter was pretty much the closest the first series got to just a standard Spidey.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Apart from lacking a right elbow joint due to the action feature, he’s got the basic set-up for the Toy Biz 5-inchers, plus a waist joint.  Not a bad set-up.  The figure’s sculpt is something I’ve actually sort of looked at before, because its two-up prototype served as the basis for the standard 10-inch Spidey.  It’s a good, solid, basic sculpt, which does most of what it needs to.  It’s perhaps a touch stiff for a Spidey, and the right arm is very limiting, especially given than the “web missile” is attached to a string and therefore cannot be removed.  There’s a reason so many of these show up loose with the string cut.  The color work on this figure is pretty standard for Spideys of the time, being an almost exact match for the Web Racer from the same series.  The early figures all utilized painted webs, and, honestly, I’ve come to prefer that over the years.  Otherwise, it’s bright and colorful, and just a good looking Spidey.  Since his “missile” was attached to him, Spidey’s only accessory was one of those plastic clips that mostly served as a way of padding the figures out for the appearance of value.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have either of the Series 1 Spider-Men as a kid, and both are much later, “hey it’s in front of me” sort of purchases, rather than actually actively wanting him…which is probably why this is one of those Toy Biz figures that I accidentally bought twice without even realizing it.  Whoops!  Well, I have him, and that’s the point.  He’s basic and a little limited by his action feature, but he’s certainly not bad.  Since we’d had so many Spider-Men from Toy Biz already at this point, experimenting a bit on these first two always felt like an okay choice.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0090: Gambit & Psylocke

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

GAMBIT & PSYLOCKE

MARVEL MINIMATES (DIAMOND SELECT TOYS)

And here we are, with another Friday!  Alright.  Friday.  End of the week and all that.  So, let’s go for that flashing back thing, and jump back into the world of Minimates with a return look at Gambit and Psylocke!

When in doubt, I always turn to Minimates. I find the reviews to generally be a bit easier to write and I can be a little more enthusiastic about them, so they make for better writing in general (at least I sure hope so…). Today marks another Marvel Minimates review. This time around, I’m pulling from the great big world of X-Men with loveable rogue (who is coincidentally loved by Rogue) Gambit, and psychic fighter Psylocke!

THE FIGURES THMSELVES

Psylocke and Gambit were released in series 28 of Marvel Minimates. Originally, this was meant to be series 26 and it would have served as a loose tie-in to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but it was pushed back to 28 when Diamond picked up the license to do Minimates directly from the movie.

PSYLOCKE

Psylocke is built on the basic Minimate body, which, means she stands about 2 ½ inches tall and she has 14 points of articulation. She’s based on Psylocke’s Jim Lee designed look from the early 90s, right around the time that she became Japanese (just go with it). She features two sculpted add-ons: a hair piece and a sash. The hair was originally sculpted for one of the BSG Starbucks, but it was actually released on Psylocke first. The sash may be a re-use, but I don’t know for sure. The paint work is pretty good overall, no slop or bleed over to speak of. One issue is the face seems a bit too narrow, like the paint mask wasn’t applied properly. Psylocke includes a katana, previously seen with Blade, and a “psy knife” which slips over her hand peg.

GAMBIT

Like Psylocke, Gambit is also built on the basic Minimate body. He’s based on Gambit’s default look through much of the 80s and 90s, which is the look most people associate with the character. The figure features a brand new trench coat piece, an all-new hair/headband piece, and a set of new boots. Lots of new stuff.  I do kind of wish that the bib wasn’t a part of the coat, but it looks pretty good. I do love how well they captured Gambit’s mop of unruly hair. The paint work is passable. There’s a bit of slop on the hands, and his face seems a tad too high on the head, but the torso detailing and the pink squares on the legs look great. Gambit included two spate hands with different charged cards and his fighting staff.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is another set of Minimates I picked up from Cosmic Comix when it was first released. I had eagerly been awaiting series 28, especially after taking part in and winning several prizes in a contest to guess this and series 25’s lineups. This isn’t my favorite version of Psylocke, but it’s not too bad, and Gambit is a character I’ve had an attachment to ever since the 90s animated series.

This was an early summer of 2014 review, which I wrote along with a much larger batch of reviews in the spring of 2014, while in Jess’s hometown for a week and some change-long visit.  There were a number of Minimate reviews written during that stretch in particular, for the reasons outlined in the intro.  A lot of Minimates in those early days.  This is a respectable review, I think, at least as far as the actual writing goes.  This review was one that went live with one of my original “index” photos, which were a lot more basic and not so artsy.  Also, they were missing a bunch of the parts, so, hey, here’s all that stuff now!  Pretty neat!

#4116: Silver Fox

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

SILVER FOX

MAVEL HALL OF FAME (TOY BIZ)

“Bursting onto the scene are the most powerful heroes and villains. Leading the pack against evil is the gamma-powered savage She-Hulk and the she-devil of the Savage Land — Shanna! Keeping to the shadows is the enigmatic ninja, Elektra, while Silver Fox relies on her training as a top secret government operative. But it is the Viper, who uses her powers and abilities for personal gain, no matter what she must destroy to get it.”

Wolverine’s had a lot of ex-girlfriends, most of them dead, what with his advanced healing and all.  Given the kind of stuff he gets into, there’s frequently some convoluted stories that go along with them, but it’s hard to get past Silver Fox in that regard.  Though she’s not really been relevant since the ‘90s, that hasn’t stopped her storyline from remaining really confusing.  She’s definitely dead, perhaps even twice over, and maybe she’s two different people?  She appeared in the Animated Series and also X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but in both cases she seems to be using the name and little more, further confusing things.  Even her segment in the back of the box text up there doesn’t quite know what to do with her, just going for a rather generic “top secret government operative” rather than getting into that she was actually a rather highly placed operative in Hydra, which would, you know, make her not so great a person.  Given her short run and confusing nature, her comics incarnation has, unsurprisingly, only gotten one figure, courtesy of the Toy Biz run.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Silver Fox was released in the seventh series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Hall of Fame line.  It was the final assortment of the line, and also the third in the “She-Force” sub-set.  If you’re doing Silver Fox, I think it’s fair to say you might be scraping the bottom of the barrel just a little bit.  But, you know, here we were.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation, though the neck joint is pretty well restricted, so you’re not gonna be doing much with it.  The bulk of the figure is using the second Invisible Woman mold, which is a rather basic body that works for a lot of characters.  Curiously, it’s got a peg hole on the inner forearm of the right arm, which wasn’t there before.  Both she and Shanna from the same series have it, but I don’t really know why.  It’s not very visible, though, so it’s really not a big deal.  Her head is from Ninja Psylocke, which isn’t a bad match for her usual depictions.  The glue’s not great on the hair, though, so it pops off pretty easily.  She’s got a soft-goods cape, which is sort of awkward on the clasp, but otherwise is a nice material and hangs well.  Silver Fox’s paint work does the heavy lifting here, since it’s all parts re-use.  The black hair changes up the head sculpt pretty well, and the metallic green is a good choice for the body suit.  Silver Fox is packed with a blaster rifle, repainted from Cyborg Cable, as well as an Iron Man trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My knowledge of Silver Fox comes exclusively from the single episode of the cartoon where she appears, and is mostly paired off with Maverick.  I guess she’s okay in that one?  I can’t say she made a major impression, and drove me to actually track down the figure or anything.  But, when my wife and I took a trip to Factory Antique Mall last year, I did some Toy Biz hunting, and she was one of the figures I managed to snag.  She’s fine.  The hair thing’s kind of funny and silly, but she does the job alright, and, I mean, it’s literally the only option, so she’s got that going for her.  If you need a Silver Fox action figure, you just pretty much gotta, right?

#4114: Mr. Knight

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

MR. KNIGHT

TELEVISION MASTERPIECE SERIES (HOT TOYS)

For about a decade now, every time I’ve reviewed a Moon Knight figure, I’ve done this whole bit about “yelling” out the name and all caps and being very overly excited.  But, these days, I’ve matured.  I’ve found myself as a more refined connoisseur of Moon Knights.  It’s all a very classy affair.  Ah, yes.  Moon Knight.  Did you hear?  There’s a new Moon Knight.  Quite exciting, isn’t it?  Yes, quite.  See, classy?  And what could be a classier Moon Knight to review than a Hot Toy?  And not just any Hot Toys Moon Knight.  Oh, no, this is a Hot Toys Mr. Knight.  He gets the honorific because of how refined and respectable he is.  What’s that?  Oh, Mr. Knight is when Steven’s in control, so he’s actually kind of a goober the whole time?  So, I’ve just kept it all in check for, like, nothing?  Cool.  Great.  Well, you know what, let’s review this figure.  Of MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON KNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Knight is part of Hot Toys’ Television Masterpiece Series, where he’s figure TMS139, placing him between Vi from League of Legends and the Artisan edition of hooded Moon Knight.  He’s the second entry from the Moon Knight show, following up on the 2023 standard Moon Knight.  This one was shown off way back at the end of 2024, originally with a mid-to-late 2025 release window, but he got dragged out to August of this year due to all manner of distribution issues emanating from the insanity that is the world we live in.  While the first Moon Knight was based on Marc’s more classic incarnation of the avatar, this one is based on the Declan Shalvey-designed suited look sported when Steven is in control.  The figure stands just under 11 1/2 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

The first Moon Knight figure only sported a single head sculpt, fully masked.  This one goes back to the Hot Toys tendency towards having options.  The one he comes wearing is the masked one, which, like the prior one, is quite an impressive piece.  All of the texturing present in the show mask is clearly replicated here, and you can clearly make out the face beneath it all.  Like the prior Moon Knight, the masked head has a light-up eye feature, which works more or less the same way…or at least it’s supposed to.  On my figure, a few hours after putting the batteries in, it stopped having an “on/off” switch and instead had a “on/more on” switch that just modulated the brightness, and required taking out the batteries to turn back off.  That’s really not ideal.  The figure’s second head is an unmasked Marc/Steven, sporting Oscar Isaac’s likeness, the first time on a Hot Toy, despite a Poe Dameron figure having been teased a literal decade ago.  It’s quite an amazing sculpt, very clearly capturing Isaac’s likeness, which is something that’s proved rather difficult for Hasbro in all of their many attempts.  This head also gets moving eyes, much like Superman and Spider-Punk.  It’s cool that this has become a more standardized feature, and it gives him a lot more variety for character.  Also, if you position them just right, you can hide the pupils entirely, to get a mid-transformation look like in the show.

Mr. Knight, both in the comics and in the show, is always seen in a three-piece white suit, and the figure replicates that here, with an outfit tailored to the underlying body.  While the standard Moon Knight had some cheats involved to approximate a complicated outfit design, Mr. Knight really doesn’t employ any cheats.  They’re really just gone and done the whole suit, with a full vest, shirt, and tie underneath of it.  Much like the actual construction of the thing, there’s some layers to all of this.  The patterning on the material is nothing short of amazing, as are all of the tiny little details, and the stitching and assembly is all really on point.  He’s even got a little pocket square (though be careful; it’s not attached and will fall out while you aren’t looking), and the jacket has a wire running on the edge, so you can pose it dynamically.  There are, however, some curiosities at play.  As noted, every article of clothing is a full article, no partials or stand-ins.  The vest is fully tailored and detailed, right down to the strap and buckle on the back.  The shirt is likewise full-sleeved, and even has said sleeves rolled up, just like they are when he removes the jacket.  The underlying body uses the muscle forearms, which are the ones meant for showing, rather than the more basic ones for when they won’t be visible.  So, I was a bit surprised that none of the promotional photos showed the jacket off, and the instructions with the figure noted that the outfit wasn’t removable.  Well, I noted the instructions thing *after* taking the jacket off, unfortunately, at which point it was really difficult to get back in place, and I ultimately did some minor damage getting it back on (just some undone fabric glue and a popped seam, both hidden in pretty much any pose), so, you know, don’t take it off, I guess.  Given all of the various extra detailing under the jacket that will never be seen, I’d guess there was at some point a plan for it to be removable, but they couldn’t make it work, so they abandoned it.  Clearly, this was decided after the body was picked, but before it was cast, as the elbow joints are notably black plastic, which is certainly not something you’d do if you intended the arms to be visible.

In addition to the interchangeable heads, Mr. Knight gets a rather basic assortment of parts, including 4 pairs of hands, 1 pair of eskrima sticks, a scarab amulet, a doohickey for moving the eyes on the unmasked head, and a display stand.  The hands come in gripping, fists, relaxed, and open gesture, and make for a decent variety of posing options.  They swap easily enough, and there’s also a spare pair of wrist pegs should you have any breakage issues.  The sticks are nicely detailed, featuring the markings seen in the show, and slide well into the hands.  The scarab isn’t really for this figure, but it’s a neat little extra.  The display stand is one of the basic ones, and as impressive as the more deluxe stand from the last figure was, I’m glad this one’s just basic, if just for the space considerations.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I began my wait for this figure at the end of the review of the last HT Moon Knight.  I knew it was a good likelihood he was coming, it was just a matter of when.  Admittedly, it was a longer gap than I was expecting before he was announced (and I almost caved on getting a third party version in the mean time), and then it was an even longer gap than I was expecting between his announcement and his actual arrival.  I honestly wasn’t even sure he was gonna show up.  But he did, and I’m glad for it.  He’s not perfect.  The last one, though lacking the unmasked head, was a pretty solid figure, without any notable issues I can recall.  This one has some issues.  Not minor.  Not enough to ruin the figure.  But, certainly enough for me to feel like there may have been some concessions made just to get him out the door.  At the end of the day, though, I really am just glad to finally have him.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased this figure for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#4112: Jean Grey

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

JEAN GREY

MARVEL HALL OF FAME (TOY BIZ)

“It’s non-stop action when the Marvel Universe’s greatest heroines join forces against the power of the Black Queen! Locked in mortal combat with the notorious Queen, Jean Grey of the X-Men uses her telepathic powers to summon help. Jean is joined by fellow X-Man Storm, Avenger Ms. Marvel, and the mysterious Spider-Woman. Together, this team has all the power it needs to stop the Black Queen in her tracks!”

Hey, remember Marvel Hall of Fame, from way back in last month’s reviews?  Well, it’s back, in pog form!  Or, like, Jean Grey form, I guess.  Despite her rather prominent spot in the franchise and its various media adaptations, Toy Biz’s X-Men line was sparse on Jean Grey figures, especially her ‘90s outfit, was absent for most of the run.  It’s first real appearance in 5-inch form was not in the X-Men line at all, but rather Hall of Fame, where it cropped up as one of the line’s quick, slapdash repaints.  Let’s see how that turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jean Grey was released Series 2 of Marvel Hall of Fame, in 1996.  This was the Puzzle Zoo-exclusive line’s first “She-Force” assortment, before they really became a trend.  Jean was still in the Jim Lee get-up at the time, so this figure was more or less accurate to what was in the comics.  Sort of.  Let’s dig further into that.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation.  All of the Hall of Fame figures were repaints of some variety, and in Jean’s case she’s a complete re-use of the X-Force line’s Domino.  It’s…fine.  I do like that the figure gets proper hip joints, and not v-hips, but I don’t love the total lack of neck articulation or the odd swivels at the elbows.  In terms of actual costume design, while there are some similarities between the two costume designs if you squint, it’s not exactly a 1 for 1.  Generally, they do their best with the paint, which kind of tries to mimmic the layout of Jean’s costume.  The head gear is better than I’d expected, and the shoulders and wrists are pretty close, but it’s really the extraneous belts and pouches that ultimately throw it all off.  Also those crazy eyes.  Don’t love those crazy eyes.  Jean was packed with Domino’s guns and missiles, recolored to match better.  They make no sense at all for the character, but I do like the coloring at least.  Also included was a trading card, in my case Belladonna, Gambit’s ex.  I think she might be the most common card I’ve had turn up with these figures at this point.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember seeing the figure from time to time in the earlier days of my collecting, mostly in larger lots of figures online.  Something always felt rather off about her, though, and I’ve hesitated to track her down for many years because of that.  She’s actually the most recent addition to my Hall of Fame figures, in fact purchased as part of a larger Toy Biz lot, so I guess that’s just how she hits the market.  She’s odd, just from top to bottom.  I guess I can sort of see where they were trying to go with the costume similarities, but the thing is that Domino and Jean are very different characters with very different demeanors, and that translates to an odd match-up.  Ultimately, I don’t really love this one, but I admire what they were trying to do.

#4108: Shadow Dancer

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

SHADOW DANCER

X-MEN 2099 (TOY BIZ)

“Centuries ago, an alien spacecraft from a distant galaxy became trapped in a cave deep within the deserts of Oklahoma. Stranded, the craft’s lone survivor made the surrounding hills and mountains its home, undisturbed by the general populace. Despite its monstrous appearance, the Shadow Dancer is a being of peace, and uses its ability to blend into darkness to serve as silent guardian to those who pass through his desert.”

Toy Biz’s X-Men 2099 line might not have come even close to completing any line-up of the team from the book’s run, but at least they did include a bunch of non-team members, right?  Right.  Take for instance, the super crucial character, Shadow Dancer, who had all of three appearances.  Gotta get an action figure of that one, right?  Oh yeah.  So, let’s look at the Shadow Dancer, being of three appearances!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shadow Dancer is the final figure in the Series 2 line-up of the X-Men 2099 tie-in line, wrapping up an assortment that was light on characters from the titular team.  The figure stands right at 5 inches tall (and almost as wide) and has 7 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme is sort of oddball here.  There’s joints at the shoulders, elbows, and hips, as well as a swivel on the tail.  The hips and shoulders are pretty standard, but the elbows only move outward and inward, not up and down like usual.  It makes it so the Shadow Dancer can, at best, do sort of a hugging thing, while not really offering much other variety on posing.  At least the figure’s imposing stature makes up for it.  There’s no denying this figure sure is a big hunk of plastic, but it kind of needs to be, to accurately depict what’s in the comics.  The sculpt is appropriately big and monstrous, with some decent texturing and smaller detail work.  The jaw is hinged, and when you turn the dial on the figure’s back, it chatters up and down.  It’s gimmicky, but neat.  The color work on the Shadow Dancer is predominately a sort of maroon, which is molded, with a fair amount of dark silver accenting via paint work.  It’s nothing crazy, but it does what it needs too.  Shadow Dancer didn’t include any accessories, but given the size, it’s understandable.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As with almost the entirety of this line, I got Shadow Dancer in a big bulk lot of loose figures, back in 2020.  While I had to augment a lot of them with parts from other figures later, the Shadow Dancer, with its lack of smaller easily lost parts, was included in its entirety, which is pretty nifty.  There’s not a ton going on with this figure, but at the same time, there doesn’t really need to be.  It’s a big, chunky monster thing, with a rather neat and understated action feature.  And, I can say from the amusement it brought my son Matty when he was digging through my figures a few years  back, it does seem to resonate pretty well with that kid mindset.

#4104: Junkpile

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

JUNKPILE

X-MEN 2099 (TOY BIZ)

“With a bad attitude and the brawn to back it up, Junkpile is one mean machine. Once aligned with the mutant outlaw X-men, he turned against his teammates and helped arrange the attempted assassination of their leader Xi’an. Now their sworn enemy, Junkpile uses his ability to “rebuild” himself with scrap metal and spare parts to make waste out of any piece of “meat” that gets in his way.”

You gotta respect X-Men 2099, they really did do their best to replicate the sheer volume of backstory of the main timeline books into a backstory for the 2099 equivalents.  There’s, like, lore, and all sorts of archetypes and concepts in place.  It’s astounding given how relatively small a run it is.  There are multiple former members of the team, one of the Junkpile, who was a recurring character who bounced around multiple roles, including at one point working for SHIELD.  He had a neat gimmick and a decent design, so that got him an action figure.  Let’s look at that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Junkpile was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s X-Men 2099 line, and then again during the Marvel Universe run later.  Why the re-release?  Who knows.  Toy Biz felt the need to make sure the people had ready access to Junkpile.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  His movement is pretty much the base standard for he scale and style, albeit somewhat restricted by the nature of his design, which is rather on the bulky side.  The sculpt was unique to Junkpile and it’s quite a nice one.  These figures in general really captured the art style of the books quite well, and Junkpile was no exception on that front.  He’s got a sort of unique flair about him, a lot of personality in that head sculpt, and a ton of small detail work.  Junkpile’s action feature, worked into the whole body, allows him to pop apart and be reassembled, using connection points, much like the ones used on Robot Wolverine.  Pushing down his head shoots out the arms and legs and the shoulders and hips.  They clip back in, albeit with some careful positioning.  He has a tendency to pop back apart without much pressure, but he’s a bit better than the Robot Wolverine was.  Junkpile also had four pieces of removable armor, on the shoulders and shins.  He looks best fully assembled, but the variety is fun, and it works well to illustrate his powers.  Junkpile’s color work is sort of monochromatic, but also rather colorful for what it is.  There’s little splashes of brighter color mixed in.  The application is all very cleanly handled, and there’s no major details missing.  The Universe re-release lost some of the smaller paint, but they’re otherwise the same.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hey, remember the way that I got most of my other X-Men 2099 figures, where there was a big lot of them I bought loose through work back in 2020?  Well, here’s another one of those…mostly.  He was missing a couple of the armor pieces, so I had to find replacements, but he’s otherwise been with me that whole time.  He’s fun.  He’s very gimmicky, but it’s a fun gimmick, and it’s paired with a really neat sculpt that I think stands out nicely among the other 2099 figures.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0086: Spider-Man – Spider-Sense

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

SPIDER-MAN — SPIDER-SENSE

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

Hey, whoah, it’s Friday!  Welcome to Friday, here at the Figure in Question, where we like to celebrate the week with a little bit of flashing back, with some addendums to older reviews.  Today?  We’re taking a second look at a Spider-Man variant that really should have seen it coming!

“Perched on a ledge high above the city, Spider-Man’s ‘6th sense’ begins to tingle – providing a split second warning that imminent danger looms behind him. Back-flipping with a speed and precision well beyond an Olympic athlete, Spider-Man turns to see the ledge blasted into airborne shrapnel thanks to the Scorpion’s thrashing tail! For on the day Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, his life was changed forever. And although he gained super-human strength, amazing agility, and enhanced reflexes – it’s his uncanny spider-sense which alerts Spider-Man to the dangers of his adversaries – and benefits him the most!”

Early in its run, Toy Biz’s 5-inch Spider-Man line actually tried to have some valid variants of its main character.  They weren’t always perfect, and sometimes there were some definite reaches to justify a whole new figure, but they gave it their best shot.  In Spider-Man: The Animated Series, there was this animation gimmick they had every time his spider-sense went off, where he’d get this drastically different, rave-esque color scheme for a few moments.  It was different enough in Toy Biz’s eyes to milk a few figures out of it, the first of which is today’s offering.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Sense Spider-Man was released in Series 5 of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man line, which hit shelves very late in 1995.  He was one of three Spidey variants in the line-up, with the other two being battle-ravaged and six-armed.  The figure stands just under 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is kind of wonky, in that it doesn’t really match with any other figure Toy Biz produced, in this line or any other.  The arms move only at the shoulders, but the legs get all sorts of range at the hips and knees.  He seems to be built with a wall-crawling pose in mind, which makes sense with his built-in action feature, which sort of mimics this with his arms…or at least it did when mine still worked.  It was pretty easily worn out.  It’s a little odd that they didn’t put in a little motion on his neck, since its inability to move the head upwards kinda wrecks the credibility of most crawling poses, but there it is.  The sculpt follows the model of the earlier Spideys from this line, being quite sparse on the sculpted details, opting instead to paint most of them on.  In that respect, the paint’s pretty good.  It’s taken a bit of a beating on my figure, but it’s held up alright, and the color work matches the scheme seen on the cartoon pretty well.  It’s a somewhat unique look, and I can certainly get behind it.  This guy was packed with a web-line, web hook, and a collector’s pin, though none of them really did much for the figure.  But hey, extras are extras, right?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

For Easter when my cousin Rusty and I were four, our grand parents bought both of us one figure from this series.  If you’re thinking this is the one I got, you’re wrong.  My cousin got this guy, and I got Six-Armed Spidey.  I wasn’t happy with that decision as I recall (which seems a but silly to me now, because Six Arm is clearly the better option.  Silly child Ethan), and my parents ended up working out some sort of deal (I’m sure related to cleaning my room or something) in order to take me to the mall and get me this guy for myself.  He’s not bad, but I don’t know how exciting he is, honestly.  I really wanted him, though.

This was a May 2020 review, which was written during the shut down, about a month ahead of publication.  He would have most certainly been a “pulled from the back catalog to fill out the schedule” review, which was a lot of what I was doing at the time.  In general, it’s a good stretch of time for my writing, so I think the review itself holds up pretty well.  Missing at the time of the original writing, I was missing all of the figure’s accessories, but in the mean time, I did manage to find both of his web accessories.  They’re still not really all that relevant to the main figure, but there they are.