Tag Archives: Marvel

#3790: Blacklash

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

BLACKLASH

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

Alright, we’ll be back with the Toy Biz Marvel!  Look, it’s kind of my comfort zone right now, so I’m sticking with it.  I’m back with the Iron Man line, patterned on the cartoon from the ’90s.  The show’s first season built a classic cartoon roster of recurring villains out of Iron Man’s existing rogues gallery.  Admittedly, Iron Man’s villains aren’t the most notable for the most part, but they did their best.  Whiplash, who was at the time going by Blacklash, was part of the Mandarin’s squad of lackeys, and ultimately was never more than a minor player (though he was still a better adaptation than Iron Man 2).  He did at least get a figure out of it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blacklash is part of Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, as part of the small batch of villains at launch.  He’s based on Blacklash’s design from the show, which is in turn based on his Justin Hammer-designed gear from the comics.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  His construction is on the simplistic side, and he’s notably missing any elbow articulation.  I guess maybe it’s to aid in the action feature?  It makes him quite stiff, as does the cape piece, which is large, heavy, and also doesn’t stay on so well.  The head’s actually pretty good, so good, in fact, that Toy Biz re-used it a bunch, minus the weird ponytail.  It’s definitely the best part of the figure.  His paint work is reasonably well done.  It’s a little sloppy, but certainly not the worst I’ve seen from this line.  Blacklash is packed with a whip and nunchucks, which work with his arm swinging feature.  He also gets the ID badge that all of the non-armored figures got.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Blacklash was the last figures I got from the Series 1 line-up.  For whatever reason, I never got him back in the ’90s, and he just never showed up in front of me.  I had picked up a sealed one a while back, but he had weird paint issues, so I never ended up opening him.  One with far better paint got traded into All Time a couple of months ago, so I opted to do the swap out.  He’s not the most impressive figure.  He’s not the most impressive character, either.  But, he’s decent, and good with the rest of the line-up, so there it is.

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.

#3785: Iron Man – Hydro Armor

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

IRON MAN — HYDRO ARMOR

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

“When the power of Iron Man is not sufficient to meet the needs of a given situation, the genius of Tony Stark compensates – by creating specialty suits of armor to get the job done! Iron Man’s Hydro Armor is designed to withstand the enormous pressure of deep sea exploration, and is equipped with a battery of on-board weapons designed to function in the murky depths of the deepest parts of the ocean!”

Okay, I’m kicking the month off with another retro Marvel review!  It’s an Iron Man review, specifically from Toy Biz’s Iron Man.  I last looked at this line back in October, with Tony Stark, and now I’m taking a look at one of his many armored Iron Man variants from the show that spawned the line.  The Model 6 Hydro Armor was introduced in the comics in the late ’80s for use in deep sea operations, and it turned up a number of times on the show, which also netted it an action figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hydro Armor Iron Man was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line.  Given the focus on the armor in the show’s first season, it made sense.  The figure was subsequently re-packed in a two-pack with Mr. Fantastic from the FF line, and repacked a few times in the Marvel Universe line.  They were certainly fond of this one.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  In terms of articulation and build, he’s very similar to the other armored figures from this line.  He uses the under-lying figure with clip-on armor set-up.  The under the armor look isn’t based on anything specific, but it’s a neat enough design.  His head is a re-use of the Modular armor head, which tracks with the show design. When fully assembled, the armor looks pretty good, and fairly accurate to the design.  The arm pieces have a little trouble staying put, but that was sort of a recurrent issue with the line.  The head dome piece is cool, even if the entire concept of the dome piece is slightly weird.  The color work on this guy is alright, but suffers from an odd clash between the yellow parts and the chromed gold armored bits.  It doesn’t work as well with gold as it did with silver and red.  The figure is packed with “Deep Sea Weapns”, which translates to a missile launcher and two missiles.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got my original copy of this figure from the KB Toys near my family’s usual vacation spot, during an off-season visit, I believe shortly before my brother was born?  He was appropriately thematic for the trip, but beyond that, he was never a major focus in my collection, especially because I lost most of his armor, and that made him extra pointless.  I wound up getting a replacement very recently, when a complete one came into All Time.  He’s neat, but perhaps not the coolest of the Iron Men this line had to offer.

#3781: Red Hulk

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

RED HULK — BRAVE NEW WORLD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

In the immortal words of Harrison Ford: “What’s a Red Hulk?”  Oh, wouldn’t that be bliss?  Maybe I’m being a bit too callous there.  The MCU’s been setting the stage for Red Hulk in some fashion pretty much its whole existence, including bringing back William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross even after the rest of the Incredible Hulk cast got dropped.  Then William Hurt died, and that put using Ross again in sort of a questionable area.  But, we couldn’t *possibly* drop such an important and high-brow idea as Red Hulk, so they’ve recast Ross, with Harrison Ford taking up the part.  He’s certainly got the surly energy down.  So, of course, the best place to debut a Hulk villain is…in a Captain America movie.  Look, let’s not nitpick.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Red Hulk is the third of the three Deluxe-sized Marvel Legends that serve as the tie-in for Captain America: Brave New World.  It’s again pretty reasonable, given the sizing on this guy.  Speaking of sizing, the figure stands about 8 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Near as I can tell, this is an all-new mold, not sharing any parts in common with any of the Ruffalized Hulks.  He’s certainly got a similar ancestry, in particular feeling quite a bit like the Endgame Hulk Build-A-Figure, at least in terms of construction.  He’s obviously got the pinless joints, of course, which cleans things up, but other than that, it definitely feels like a solid, pretty by the numbers MCU-style Hulk sculpt.  There are two heads, one angry, and one less so.  They appear to be based on slightly earlier renders for the character, before the Harrison Ford resemblance got pushed up a bit more.  There are certainly elements of Ford in there, maybe a younger version, but it’s a bit more generic than it should be.  Paint it green, and I think it would look as much like Ruffalo as it does Ford.  In general, Red Hulk’s sculpt feels a touch more comic book-y than other MCU figures, something that might be further pushed by how little his design has changed between the two mediums.  In terms of color work, the figure is largely reliant on molded colors, which work well enough.  The face detailing’s clean enough, if a tad basic, and I do enjoy the chest hair as an accent, though I’m not sure how realistic it winds up being.  Red Hulk is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture.  It’s not a ton, but neither is it particularly lacking.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I largely got Red Hulk because I got the other two, and felt compelled to get the whole set.  I’m not much of a Red Hulk fan in the first place, and have always found the concept and execution rather shallow, and not really worth the time investment they tend to get.  I do like the idea of Ford as Ross, so I’m interested to see the direction they take him the movie.  The figure’s okay.  Can’t really say he’s all that thrilling or different, but he’s at the very least another way to get a Red Hulk.  For me, he’s the weakest of the set, but that’s more about personal preference, and the fact that the other two are just more technically impressive than this one.  Still, he’s solid.

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.

#3778: Falcon

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

FALCON

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A former lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, Joaquin Torres has picked up Sam’s old wings to take on the role of Falcon.”

It’s all well and good when you move a sidekick up to the main role, but in the world of copyrights and trademarks and the like, you don’t wanna leave that sidekick title open for too long.  When Sam Wilson moved into the role of Captain America in the comics, that left the “Falcon” title wide open, leading to the introduction of Joaquin Torres, the second Falcon.  With Sam also moving up to Captain in the MCU, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier introduced Torres as a side character, who’s getting upgraded to Sam’s primary support for Brave New World.  Not so bad!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Falcon is the second deluxe tie-in Marvel Legends figure for Brave New World, who hit alongside the others at the beginning of the month.  This is Joaquin’s very first time in figure form of any sort, which is actually pretty nifty.  Movie figures don’t tend to do that as much these days.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and the core figure has 30 points of articulation.  He’s another all-new sculpt, based on his all-new film design.  Comics Joaquin is a metahuman, so his costume plays into that.  Since his MCU counterpart’s just an average guy using Sam’s old tech, he’s got a design more inspired by the sorts of designs we’ve seen with Sam previously.  That said, they keep a lot of the general design elements, and there are some call-backs to the comic Joaquin design.  It’s certainly a bit MCU-ified, but I’m not one to pull those particular designs apart as much.  The sculpt does a nice job of conveying this new look, and it’s just generally a pretty nice looking offering.  The proportions work very well, there’s good texturing work, and the likeness on both heads (with full face-mask and the mask pulled back) is a pretty strong match for actor Danny Ramirez.  Living up to his name, he’s also got a wing pack.  This one’s more similar to the Build-A-Wings from the first Sam Cap, with the three points of motion on each wing.  He’s got handles on the front of each, which is an interesting idea, but they’re really soft plastic, and he doesn’t have any proper gripping hands, so he doesn’t really hold them.  Falcon’s color scheme is decidedly different from Sam’s usual; in a callback to Sam’s original costume, it’s predominantly green.  It makes for a good contrast, and the paint work here conveys it well.  His application is pretty clean, as we’ve come to expect.  He’s benefit from some accenting, but he’s standard Legends fare.  Falcon is packed with two sets of hands (in fists and open gesture), a collapsed wing pack, and his own Redwing drone.  Like Sam, there’s no stand or anything for Redwing, so he just sort of has to sit there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I enjoyed Joaquin during Sam’s time as Cap, and I liked what we got to see of him in Falcon and The Winter Soldier, so I’m pretty excited to see more of him in the upcoming movie.  I’m also always game for a figure of a character that hasn’t gotten one before.  His design isn’t quite as unique as the comics one, but it’s also not a bad one, and I think it makes for a pretty good toy.  This guy’s just as nice as the Cap figure, and they make for quite a nice pair.

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.

#3776: Captain America – Brave New World

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — BRAVE NEW WORLD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“After carrying the mantle of Captain America for a few years, Sam Wilson must use his intelligence and make new allies to stop a force unlike any he’s seen before.”

Every so often, it’s good to highlight some people that like to punch Nazis.  Because Nazis need some punching.  And who better to lead the charge in Nazi punching than Captain America?  There’s a new Captain America movie coming out next month, and I sure do love Captain America movies (well, most of them; I don’t wanna talk about the 1990 one), so I’m excited.  This one is Sam Wilson’s first time headlining a film in the title role, which I do love as well.  And, there’s new toys.  I especially love that.  Here’s one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is one of the three Deluxe-sized Marvel Legends releases tying into the release of Brave New World.  It’s not a bad approach, and certainly works a bit better than the Build-A-Wing approach of the prior Sam Cap.  This way, he’s a nice one-and-done offering.  At his core, the figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation. He’s got what appears to be an all-new sculpt, based on his new design for the film.  His new costume isn’t ultimately too drastic a departure from the last one when you get down to the sculpted details; a lot of the elements are the same, just recolored in such a way to more closely mimic some of the Steve Cap costume elements.  He does go a little more casual, loosing the “mask” elements that connected to his goggles, and rolling up the sleeves (a change that Carol Danvers also did in her most recent movie; I guess the Captains are all just rolling up their sleeves now).  I feel like he maybe seems a little bit too skinny for Sam, but it might just be me.  It’s got some respectable proportion balancing, though, and the likeness on the head is a very good match for Anthony Mackie.  As with the last figure, he’s also got his wings, which add an additional 8 points of articulation to the figure.  They’re a total rebuild from the last ones, adding an extra segment with an extra joint, as well as being sharper and cleaner.  I honestly thought the old ones were pretty good, but these ones just improve on them and are super awesome.  Sam gets a fair bit of painted detailing, and it all works pretty well.  It’s generally pretty clean on the application front, and the new color scheme is at the very least an obvious departure from the last one.  Sam is packed with two pairs of hands (fists and open), an extra helmeted head, an alternate folded up backpack, Redwing, and his shield.  The helmeted head is nifty, but really hard to get on the body, so I don’t see myself using it much.  Redwing appears to be the same one from the Build-A-Figure release, but has no stand or anything to mount on, so I don’t really know what to do with him.  The shield is the John Walker Cap version of the mold, so it can be mounted on either of the two backpacks, which is certainly an improvement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

These figures snuck up on me.  Admittedly, so did the movie.  I have no real excuse for the second one, because it’s been delayed and all.  It’s on me, you guys.  I haven’t been as up on things.  I didn’t *need* this one, of course, but it’s a new Cap, and I always have a hard time saying no to those.  Ultimately, this one’s pretty darn solid.  Not perfect, but the wings alone make him worth it.

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.

#3768: Quicksilver

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

QUICKSILVER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Along with his twin sister, the Scarlet Witch, the ‘speedster’ Quicksilver joined the Avengers after leaving Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants”

Oh man, more Marvel Legends?  Whaaaaaaaaaaat?  Who could have foreseen such a shocking twist of events?  Okay, so it’s not really a shock.  Well, maybe a minor surprise?  I did run out of new Legends for a moment there at the end of last year.  There are always more on the horizon, but specifically at this moment, I’m back-tracking the slightest bit to grab more of a filler piece.  So, let’s look at Quicksilver, who is of a greener variety than his usual state of being.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Quicksilver is a stand-alone Marvel Legends release.  He was a retro carded figure, released exclusively through Walmart at the tail end of last year.  This is our second comic Quicksilver Legend in the modern era of Legends, following up on the blue version from the three pack back in 2019.  He’s seen this time around in his original green costume, which last got the Legends treatment as a variant to Hasbro’s original Quicksilver from back in 2007.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  The construction on this figure is very similar to the last Quicksilver, but with a generally updated flair.  He’s got the upgraded version of the 2099 body, with the pinless elbows and knees, as well as a new head.  At least, I think it’s a new head.  The hair is certainly new, and has regained Pietro’s signature wispy bits at the front.  It also feels a bit less bulbous in comparison to the rest of the body, which is what leads me to think it’s a whole new head.  I certainly like it a lot more than the previous set-up.  The color work on Quicksilver is generally pretty bright and clean.  It’s not a straight palette swap from the blue; the white’s more of an outright white, and they’ve given him the lower collar that was more common to his earlier appearances.  If you want to get finicky, his boots and gloves were more often than not a lighter green with this costume, not white, but that’s really more of a by the artist thing.  Quicksilver gets two pairs of hands, one in fists, the other in open gesture.  The open gesture instead of flat’s an odd choice, and not one I love, but it’s not the end of he world.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure honestly flew under the radar for me until it was already out and people were getting them in-hand.  That was certainly a weird experience, but that’s how it is when you’ve got a lot going on, which is certainly where I am these days.  After hearing about him, I didn’t really go looking, because I’m even less up for the hunt than I used to be.  Thankfully, one landed in front of me without much fuss or trouble, and now I have him.  He’s not a perfect figure, but he’s certainly a much better figure than the blue one, so that works for me.  I wouldn’t mind an updated blue version, though, and I’ll never say no to the Perez costume, either.

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.

#3766: Wolverine

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

WOLVERINE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A broken and shame-fueled Logan reluctantly joins Deadpool’s side to fight for their survival — and a shot at redemption”

I discussed Deadpool & Wolverine very briefly when I reviewed the Legacy release Colossus, but didn’t really get into the whole film proper.  In general, my experience with the Deadpool movies was one that improved as they went along, going from not personally caring for the first film to being thoroughly entertained by the third.  In particular, the return of Hugh Jackman to the role of Wolverine after his departure in Logan was something I really enjoyed, especially since it was accompanied by him finally getting to wear the “yellow spandex” we were teased with 24 years prior.  And now, it’s time for the toys.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wolverine is part of the three figure Deadpool & Wolverine tie-in assortment of Marvel Legends.  He’s one of the two Wolverines included, this one being the more “standard” of the two, since he’s wearing his actual hero suit from the movie.  Or…well, it’s sort of an idealized version of it, since we don’t ever see the mask and the full suit on screen at the same time.  Look, it’s close enough.  The figure stands a little over 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  The articulation’s interesting.  He gets a more unique style of shoulder articulation, which is sort of like a butterfly joint, but in all directions, being something more akin to the types of joints we see on McFarlane figures.  It’s a tighter connection, though, so it doesn’t feel like it’ll fall apart the same way.  It was a little tricky to get it posing at first, especially with the shoulder pads, but the range definitely improved after messing with it a bit.  He’s got a ball-jointed neck, with all the range that affords, but then a rather limited crunch and waist swivel on the torso, which feels…reductive?  Out dated?  It’s an all-new sculpt, so it was a choice for sure.  The sculpt is itself generally nice, but not without its drawbacks.  We get the full version of the suit, sleeves and all.  It’s a pretty good recreation of the film’s Astonishing-inspired suit, with its smaller details worked out pretty well, and plenty of texturing, so he looks as much like a basketball as he should.  He feels either too narrow at the shoulders or too wide at the hips; his proportions feel a little off either way.  Otherwise, things are pretty solid.  I do really love that masked head.  In terms of color work, he’s certainly garish, but in the way that he’s supposed to be, what with the clown suit and all.  Application is clean, perhaps a touch too clean, but clean.  Everything more or less goes where it should.  He would definitely benefit from at least a little accenting, but that’s not where Legends are these days.  He’s packed with two pairs of hands (fists with claws, and a clawless fist/gripping combo) and an unmasked head.  The gripping hand’s weird, since he doesn’t have any accessories to hold, but it gives you the option, I suppose.  The unmasked head’s as good a Jackman likeness as we’ve seen previously, so good on them for that.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was pretty excited for Deadpool & Wolverine.  It was really great to finally get to see Jackman in a proper Wolverine costume, and, if I’m honest, I was excited to see him get a better send off than Logan, a film that really didn’t work for me.  *ducks to avoid getting hit*  The yellow suit’s inclusion was certainly an interesting experiment, and it really worked in some ways, and not so much in others.  The figure sort of meets that assessment itself.  In both cases, I’m happy they gave it a go, and I enjoy the end result.  And, with this Wolverine and the previous Colossus, I can create my fantasy world where those two actually interacted the way they unfortunately didn’t in the movie.  And perhaps I’ll further that fantasy by hoping I might some day see more movie X-Men of a similar style.

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.

#3763: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When the Avengers, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four are transported to a strange planet, Captain America is chosen to take the lead in fighting the ultimate war!”

As much as it’s become something of a rarity these days, since I tend to buy most Marvel Legends for myself, there was a time when Legends invariably made up a large component of what I got for Christmas.  We’re, of course, going largely back to the Toy Biz days, but still.  Thanks to a new set of figures that came in right under the wire on last year’s deliveries, the timing astoundingly lined-up for that to happen again.  2024 marked the 40th anniversary of Secret Wars, an event designed to sell toys, so what better way to mark the occasion than by selling some more toys?  It gives Hasbro a good excuse to re-release some heavy hitters, like, for instance, Captain America!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is part of the six-figure “Secret Wars” anniversary assortment of Marvel Legends, which hit right at the end of last year.  He’s joined by the similarly heavy-hitter-y Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Iron Man, as well as the all-new but still very much important to the actual event Beyonder and Titania.  They’re all patterned on the vintage Mattel line, with replica retro card backs, and a few of the gimmicks as well.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Structurally, this figure’s the same kind of “Ship of Theseus” set-up as the Renew Your Vows Spider-Man, just for Cap.  His oldest parts are from the Grim Reaper body, who was reworked into Cap Wolf.  Cap Wolf got upgraded to 80th Anniversary Cap, who was also used for the 20th Anniversary Series 1 Cap.  This figure further upgrades the body by adding pinless construction on the arms and legs, as well making the glove cuffs a separate piece, making for a cleaner assembly.  In general, it takes a base body that was already quite strong, and gives it that winning edge, making this the best Cap base body to date.  Cap gets two new head sculpts, both sculpted by Paul Harding, who handled the heads on the 20th Cap.  According to him, all four heads were sculpted at the same time, and these ones were saved for later.  This time around, he’s got one smiling head, and one gritting his teeth.  They’re both quite nice, and just as solid as the prior two.  Personally, I think the smiling one’s my favorite of the bunch, but I like the versatility in general.  There’s only one drawback, and that’s to do with the colors.  This figure is notably NOT the same color palette as the 20th release, which in a vacuum isn’t terrible.  Clearly, they’re trying to emulate the Mattel colors more directly, right down to the reversed stripe pattern on the mid-section.  The blue in particular is a bit warmer, and I do honestly prefer that.  The biggest trouble with it, however, is that it means you can’t swap the different expressions between this guy and the 20th, so there’s no neutral expression for this figure, and you can go more intense with the 20th.  It’s not the end of the world, but it’s a little more limiting than I’d expected.  In terms of actual application, he’s generally alright.  The glove construction in particular clears up the problem with messy edges on the gloves that we saw with the earlier mold.  On my figure, both heads do have some slight issues, with part of the A being scraped off on the happy head, and a weird flecking of flesh tone paint on the angry head.  Neither is a major issue, but it’s frustrating.  Cap is packed with three sets of hands, in fists, gripping, and flat/pointing.  The gripping are an interesting choice, and I assume they’re just there to reference the vintage figure?  I do miss the open gesture hands from the 20th, but I always miss the open gesture hands when they get left out, honestly.  He gets two different shields, and neither of them is standard, continuing the bit of this updated Cap mold not getting standard shields, and also the gag of the vintage Secret Wars Cap not getting a standard one either.  He’s got a throwback vintage shield, complete with the lenticular gimmick, as well as a shattered version of the standard shield, which even includes the broken off pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I love the 20th Cap, but even when he was new, I was aware there would be another on the horizon.  This one didn’t surprise me.  I ended up getting him as a gift from Max, who sniped me purchasing him on the basis that he didn’t know exactly what to get me, and knew I wouldn’t have the new Cap that just came in.  It’s a solid observation.  I’ve gotten something out of every successive iteration of the Caps that led to this version of the mold, and this one is certainly the best thus far.  Sure, the color change is frustrating, and we still don’t have a proper undamaged classic shield for him, so I know there’s another one on the horizon with all the heads and a repainted Ultimate shield.  And, I’ll buy that one too, because I’m weak.  But, until then, I do really, really like this one.

#3759: Archangel

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

ARCHANGEL

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Rich playboy Warren Worthington III was the X-Men’s Angel until the day that he was captured and transformed into one of the horsemen of Apocalypse. A darker reflection of his previous self, Archangel now possessed wings made of metal – wings that he could barely control, wings that fired paralyzing “feathers” at friends as well as enemies. Constantly battling his dark side, Archangel longed to regain the goodness that he once stood for. Recently finding kinship with the X-Men’s Psylocke, Archangel has come to terms with his transformation, and has started to rebuild the life he thought he had lost forever!”

Do you guys like X-Men?  I heard somewhere that you might.  I mean, I do.  And it’s my site.  So, you know, it’s ultimately my call, right?  Amusingly, I was actually not gonna do an X-themed review today, but then I thought better of it.  Yay for me.  And here, on the day before the day before X-Mas, I’m reviewing an X-Man named Archangel, which feels somewhat appropriate, right?  Sort of that “lo, an angel of Xavier appear and they were sore afraid” kinda vibe?  Of course, it’s just Warren Worthington, and he’s kind of a push over prep school guy, so, maybe not “sore afraid.”  I’m getting sore afraid of this intro going any longer, if I’m honest.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Archangel is from the Battle Brigade Series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, which was the 14th assortment.  I’ve already reviewed the standard version of this figure, but he, like all of the figures in this particular line-up, also had a color variant.  While the standard was in his white and blue, Neal Adams-inspired costume, this one’s in the Champions-inspired version.  The figure stands 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He’s the exact same mold as the standard version, which was itself largely re-used from the “Invasion” series release.  It’s still a little bulky for Warren, and we’re just ignoring the sculpted wrist bands.  Still, it’s not too terrible.  I do rather like this particular head sculpt, especially for this version of Warren.  The wings remain a bit floppy as well, but they do at least look the part.  In terms of paint work, this guy’s got the same layout as the standard, but with red in place of the blue.  It’s a little rough on some of the edges, but otherwise looks pretty solid.  Like the standard and Invasion releases, this guy gets no accessories.  He’s still got the wing-flapping action, though, which remains pretty nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This guy is actually quite a recent acquisition for me.  I’ve been wanting one since shortly after I got my original, so it’s been a good 20 years, but in all that time, I’ve never seen the variant in person.  I was at Ocean City Comic Con last weekend, and found a booth that had exactly one sealed Toy Biz X-Men figure in it, which happened to be this guy.  I was honestly pretty excited.  He’s obviously not super different from the regular release, but the color change-up is enough to give him a pretty unique look.  It certainly helps that I liked the standard figure so much in the first place.

#3754: Rogue

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

ROGUE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Super strong and virtually indestructible, Rogue is a one-woman fighting force! But when there are too many enemies for even Rogue to handle at once, she relies on her Double-Barrel cannon slammer. Flying in above the clouds, Rogue faces the forces of Master Molds Sentinel squadrons and is overwhelmed by their number. But with the help of her cannon slammer and her fellow X-Men, the Sentinels don’t last long enough to realize what hit them. With a mutant power matched only by her southern charms, Rogue is one mutant to be reckoned with!”

Hey, look, it’s time for more Toy Biz X-Men!  The things that keep me happy.  And taking them away would make me unhappy.  You certainly wouldn’t want to make me unhappy, would you?  Good.  Glad we’re all on the same page there.  As Toy Biz moved later into the run of their 5-inch line, they had run out of standard versions of the main characters, so they had to start doing some good old fashioned wacky-varianting.  They went heavier on gimmicks, with their “Secret Weapon Force” branding in particular standing out as a notable push.  New designs, even comics-based ones, were filtered through these gimmicks.  Here’s a gimmicky Rogue.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rogue was released in the “Power Slammers” assortment, which was released under the Secret Weapon Force heading in Toy Biz’s 1998 X-Men line-up.  This marked Rogue’s fourth figure in the 5-inch line, and was based on her Shi’ar mining uniform, which she sported for a stretch of less than a year.  It debuted in 1997, so it was pretty quick turnaround for such a thing.  It’s a pretty notable departure from her traditional designs, and was fairly short-lived, but it’s nothing if not unique.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and she has 12 points of articulation.  On my figure, the joints are exceptionally loose, to the point of making it difficult to keep her standing, which is frustrating to say the least.  I am also, as always, not really a fan of the v-hips, but it is what it is.  Rogue’s sculpt was new at the time, though most of it would be re-used two years later for the movie line’s team suit Rogue.  It’s rather on the stylized front, but a decent match for the art from within the books at the time.  There’s a touch of pre-posing, but generally to a minor degree, and the level of detailing honestly is pretty solid.  The head’s particularly unique, and the hair in front of her face is certainly a neat touch.  Rogue’s color work is generally solid.  It’s an odd color scheme (the Shi’ar outfits were generally off-model in their coloring), but it’s accurate.  The’s a bit of fuzz at the edges of some of the painted elements, but the overall appearance is decent.  Rogue was packed with a big giant gun thing, which serves as the titular “power slammer.”  When the bit at the top is slammed down, there are small yellow ball projectiles that fly out.  It’s super silly and super goofy, but it does at least go totally apart from the core figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rogue comes from the era of the line where I missed more than I got when they were new.  There were a lot of repeats on characters, and I had most of my core cast, Rogue included, so I didn’t double up on most of them.  Since jumping back in, though, they’ve been some of my focuses.  I managed to snag Rogue from Yesterday’s Fun while vacationing a couple of summers ago.  She’s alright.  The look’s certainly unique, but the figure has some issues, especially the loose joints, which hold it back.