Tag Archives: Marvel

#0034: Uncanny X-Men Team Pack

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

ROGUE, WOLVERINE, LONGSHOT & CYCLOPS

MARVEL UNIVERSE (HASBRO)

Today’s review looks at yet another mighty Marvel toy line, Hasbro’s Marvel Universe.  The Marvel Universe line is pretty much Hasbro doing Marvel characters in the scale that they know best: 4 inch(well, technically 3 ¾ inch, but let’s not split hairs).  The line’s been running for a few years, and Hasbro likes to mix things up occasionally and release figures in multipacks.  I’ll be looking at their 80s/90s X-Men Boxed set today.  The set features X-Men mainstays Rogue and Wolverine, as well as prominent 80s member Longshot and a kiddified version of X-Men leader Cyclops.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These figures were released in the 2013 series of “Team Packs”

ROGUE

First up, it’s everyone’s favorite angsty mutant who can’t touch anybody!  Rogue is depicted here in her Jim Lee designed 90s costume.  It’s a good choice, as this is the costume that most people are familiar with.  Rogue stands just shy of 4 inches and has roughly 20 points of articulation.    She’s built on Hasbro’s second basic female body, with a new head and arms, and add –on pieces for the jacket, belt, and boots.  The body sculpt is well done, and the generic body works fine for her underlying spandex costume.  The newly sculpted pieces are passable, if not the greatest.  The jacket’s sculpt is well done, and the boots do their job, though they do kinda stick out as add-on pieces.  The head is far from the worst in the line, or even the worst Rogue figure we’ve seen, but it’s not the best offering.  The hair looks fine, but the face is far too gaunt, and they’ve left her with her mouth permanently open.  The paint is passable, but could be better some places, particularly at the cut joint’s on her thigh, where it’s virtually impossible to get the lines of the yellow parts to line up.

WOLVERINE

Next, it’s the most famous X-Man by far!  Wolverine is depicted in his brown and yellow costume from the mid-to-late 80s, which, like Wolverine himself, is no stranger to the action figure world.  Wolverine stands closer to the 3 ¾ inch mark, making him noticeably shorter than Rogue, and he has 18 points of articulation.  The figure is actually just a repaint of the same version of the character from the Wolverine: Origins tie-in line, but since I never got that one, it’s new to me.  The sculpt is decent, especially the body, which conveys Wolverine’s short and stocky nature pretty well.  The claws are a solid piece on each hand, which is okay by me, since they have a tendency to warp at this scale. Like with Rogue, the head leaves something to be desired.  It’s a bit too squat, and the details are a bit on the soft side.  Paint on the figure is okay, though he does have very fuzzy lines on some of the brown sections, particularly the shoulders.

LONGSHOT

Next, it’s everyone’s favorite, uhhh… no, hang on, it’s just Longshot.  And Longshot’s nobody’s favorite.  Longshot is depicted in his debut costume from the 80s.  Longshot stands about 4 inches tall and features 22 points of articulation.  Hasbro wisely reused the body previously used for Ghost Rider and the AIM soldier.  It’s a nice body, with a whole lot of folds and wrinkles which work great to hide folds and wrinkles.  The reused body is masked with the addition of a new head and hands, as well as add-ons to represent his cuffs, pouches, and belt.  These are all well sculpted end fit well.  The head is obviously a focus point, and it’s a decent piece.  It has a pretty nice determined look, and actually manages to make his mullet look okay.  The paint is nice and clean, with no noticeable bleed over or slop.

CYCLOPS

Lastly, it’s the fourth figure in the three-pack.  So, yeah…that’s a thing.  He’s actually more of an accessory than a separate figure.  In the 80s, the X-Men had a few run-ins with the villain Mojo.  Mojo was a TV exec from another dimension, always looking for the new fad.  After a few fights with the X-Men, Mojo decided that what his viewers really wanted to see was the X-Babies, child versions of everyone’s favorite mutants.  This Cyclops is based on the X-Babies version of the character.  Cyclops stands just shy of 2 inches tall, and has no articulation.  Given the small scale and since he’s technically an accessory, the articulation’s not an issue.  He’s an all new sculpt, and it’s a good sculpt!  It’s nice and simplistic, but in a good way that reflects the source material.  The paint could be a bit better, as there is some noticeable slop, but it’s not terrible.  Cyclops may actually be my favorite figure in the set!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Nothing much to report in this section.  I mostly got this set because I wanted the other sets in the series and buying the whole series was the most practical way of handling it.  I’m certainly not disappointed by this set, but it’s not really one of my favorites.

#0033: Alpha Flight Minimates Part 1

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

GUARDIAN, PUCK, NORTHSTAR & MARINA

MARVEL MINIMATES

Did somebody say I should review more minimates?  No?  Oh…well, too bad ‘cause that’s what I’m doing, whether you like it or not!

Today’s review focuses on another set of the greatly expansive Marvel Minimates line.  This is also another set of characters from Canada’s premier super-hero team:  Alpha Flight!

Guardian is (was?) the leader of the group, husband of fellow member Heather Hudson, and all around generic hero guy!  Puck’s a short guy!  Northstar’s a guy who’s powers can only be activated by holding hands with his twin sister!  Also gay.  And Marina does water stuff!  There, now you know the characters as well as I do.  Let’s get to the review!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These four were released as a boxed set available through online retailer Action Figure Express during San Diego Comic Con 2012.

GUARDIAN

Guardian is depicted in his basic red and white, Canadian flag costume.  He’s built on the basic minimate body, so he stands a bit over 2 inches tall and features the standard 14 points of articulation.  He has a sculpted mask, with an alternate hairpiece to swap out to display James Hudson unmasked.  The detailing on the figure is well done, with little slop or bleed over.  James also doesn’t suffer from the same red paint bleed that Heather did, which is nice.  Lastly, Guardian includes an alternate robot head, so that you can depict the artificial replacement Guardian from after James’s death, which is a neat little throw in.

PUCK

Puck is shown here in pretty much the only uniform he’s ever had: Black unitard with boots and wrist bands.  It’s certainly an odd look, but I guess he looks fairly unique, so there.  Puck is built on the basic minimate body, with one slight deviation.   To simulate Puck’s diminished stature, he’s been given a set of “slipper” feet in place of the regular ones.  This brings Puck’s articulation down to 12 points, and only really reduces his height in a very subtle way.  It does help to make him appear a bit more stocky, however, so it’s not too bad.  Puck’s got a sculpted cowl, as well as a new hand that is sculpted to let him do hand stands with the included stand.  Puck’s detailing is well done, and fairly detailed, especially the hair on his arms and legs.  And I really like his face for some reason…

NORTHSTAR

Ah, Northstar.  This guy.  He’s probably the best known of the characters featured here, due to also being a member of the X-Men and, most likely, his status as one of Marvel’s  few long lasting gay characters.   He’s depicted in what is his best known, and in my opinion best designed, costume.  The simple black and white is rather striking, and it looks pretty good in Minimate form.  Northstar’s only sculpted piece is his hair, which he includes in both black and white.  This is a nice touch, given the variance in the coloring Northstar’s hair has received over the years.  I think I prefer the black just because that seems to be the way he’s depicted most often.  His details are handled with some pretty good simplicity, which really fits the character’s design.  Lastly, Northstar includes a stand to simulate his flying abilities.

MARINA

Marina was a later addition to the team, and she honestly didn’t stick with them for too long.  She married the Sub Mariner and joined the Avengers, where she was turned into a giant monster and killed by her husband.  Which is a bit of a bummer.  She’s depicted in what I believe is her only costume.  She’s built on the basic minimate body, though she has a set of specially sculpted hands to depict her webbed fingers.  She also has a sculpted hair piece, which is nicely done.  The entire figure is painted, no molded colors, which is a bit of a rarity for a minimate.  It looks nice, though, and helps to set her apart from the others.  She is certainly a unique looking minimate.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this set, like so many other “Action Figure Xpress exclusives” from my very favorite minimate retailer: Luke’s Toy Store.  I do really like this set, which is really saying something, because I only have a passing familiarity with the characters it features.

#0031: Heather Hudson & Box

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

HEATHER HUDSON & BOX

MARVEL MINIMATES

Look at that!  More Minimates!  What a rarity!  Okay, not really.   Today, I’ll be looking at two more minimates from the ever growing Marvel Minimates line.  It’s Heather Hudson & Box, members of Canadian super team Alpha Flight!  If you’re unfamiliar with Alpha Flight, they’re like the Avengers, but more ….Maple-y?

Heather Hudson is one of the more prominent members, though she typically operates under the code-name of her sometimes dead husband Vindicator.  Box is a guy who can control technology.  They’re just great!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two were part of the 14th Toys R Us Exclusive series of Marvel Minimates.

HEATHER HUDSON

Heather is shown here in her Vindicator costume, based on that of her husband, James Hudson, the original Vindicator.  She’s built on the basic Minimate body, so she’s about 2 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  Her mask is a sculpted piece, and she includes it with two different colored visors: Blue and Red.  I prefer the blue mostly because the red plastic of the red visor bleeds through the white paint of the mask.  Heather also includes an alternate hair-piece so that she can be displayed unmasked and a stand to simulate her flying.  Her paint is decent, though she does have a recurring issue of red plastic bleeding through the white parts of her costume.

BOX

Box is depicted in his armored up form.  I don’t know which version because I’ve never really followed the character that closely, but I feel certain that he’s had more than one look.  His built on the basic Minimate body, though he’s got some extra pieces that make him a little taller, and his sculpted boots restrict his ankle articulation, leaving him with 12 points.  Box has a good selection of sculpted parts:  Helmet, chestplate, gloves, belt and boots.  He also includes an alternate gun hand, a blast off stand and an alternate hair piece to show Box’s ghostly operator Madison Jefferies.  The paint on Box is nicely done, with little slop and no issues with bleed through.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This set is important because it marks one of the first times I was able to purchase minimates from Toys R Us’s online store.  Of course, I had to know the sku’s because all of the set in the wave were listed as “Marvel Minimates Wave 14: Figure” but that’s beside the point!  Man TRU sucks…

#0030: The Fallen

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

THE FALLEN

MUTANT X (TOY BIZ)

Ah, Mutant X.  Man, that was such a 90s comicbook.  One that I enjoyed immensely!  Diamond Comics’ catalogue Previews offered figures of four members of the books main team “The Six”(No, I don’t really know why they didn’t offer all six.  Seems a little odd, doesn’t it.  It’s like only releasing  three of the Fantastic Four!).  Being a fan of the comic and a fan of action figures, particularly 90s Marvel figures, I of course wound up with a set.  Today, I’ll be looking at The Fallen, who was an alternate universe version of Warren Worthington III, aka Archangel.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Fallen stands about 5 inches tall, and has 13 points of articulation.  He also had his signature wings, which could be snapped onto his back, and were made of a soft translucent green material, with wire running through to allow them to be posed.  The wires honestly didn’t offer much poseability, but it’s the thought that counts, I suppose.  Fallen also included an X-Logo shaped stand, which is good, because he can’t stand without it due to his top heavy nature.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Fallen, along with the other figures from the Mutant X line, was a Christmas gift from my parents.  I recall being fairly excited to open him, as he was my favorite character from the series.  Yay!

#0024: Betsy Braddock

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

BETSY BRADDOCK

MARVEL MINIMATES

Today, we’re looking at another Minimate.  Once again, this one if from the extensive Marvel line.  The character in question is Betsy Braddock, sister to Captain Britain, and future X-Man(well X-Woman) Psylocke.

For those of you unaware of who Betsy is:  She’s a telepathic mutant.  There, you’re caught up.  Okay, actually there’s a lot more, but I’ll cover all that on the next Psylocke Minimate…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Betsy is depicted here in her first “Psylocke” outfit.  She’s obviously meant to be a mid-80s Psylocke, from before she started joining in on the fighting.   She’s built on the basic Minimate body, so she stands about 2 inches tall, and has 14 points of articulation.  She has sculpted hair, though I do believe it is reused from an earlier ‘mate, and a set of unique upper arms to depict the poofy sleeves of her early look.  She’s painted in mostly variations of purple and pink.  She’s a fairly decent interpretation of the character, though she does end up looking a bit dull.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Not much to report here.  This is admittedly my favorite look for Psylocke, but it’s not like there’s a large number of them to choose from.  I guess I like that this one kinda treads the line between her other two most prominent looks, not too covered up(the armored look) and not too skimpy(whatever the hell that was that Jim Lee put her in).  So, yeah…

#0023: Photon

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

PHOTON

MARVEL MINIMATES

Today’s review is another Minimates item.  This time the figure comes from the Marvel Minimates line.  It’s a Minimate of Photon.  I know what you’re thinking: “Who’s Photon?”  Allow me to provide an answer! Photon, aka Monica Rambeau, actually started her career under the name Captain Marvel.  She was the second (well, technically third if you count Billy Batson, now known as SHAZAM!, but Marvel Comics would prefer you didn’t) character to use the name.  She was introduced in the 80s, and was somewhat prominent for a while, joining and even leading the Avengers for a short period.  However, the character was depowered in the early 90s and fell into obscurity for a bit, until writer Warren Ellis brought her back in his series Nextwave.  Recently, she’s had a slight resurgence, but nothing major, mostly owing to the fact that she can’t seem to hold on to a code name for very long.  Anyway, she was also in 80s cross over series Secret Wars which is why the figure I’m reviewing got made in the first place.  Yeah…I know way too much about Photon.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Photon was released as part of the Toys R Us exclusive Secret Wars boxed set.  Like the Captain America set I reviewed earlier, the set was decided by an online poll.  Guess who I voted for.  Photon is depicted in her debut costume.  She’s built on the basic Minimate body, so she stands a little over 2 inches tall.  She has 12 points of articulation, 2 less than usual for a Minimate, due to her sculpted boots.  She has sculpted hair, boots, and cape.  They’re all handled well.  The design is nice and clean, which is fitting for her character.  The black/white contrast really helps to make her stand out on the shelf.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, you’ll notice that I mentioned that she’s part of a 4-pack, but I’m not reviewing the others from the set.  That’s because I don’t own them.  Photon was the only character I really wanted from the set, but that’s actually not why I don’t have the others.  I’ve bought a whole set for one figure in the past, so I probably would have again if I’d been given the chance.  But…I wasn’t.  Yeah, my Toys R Us has never carried the fan poll Minimate sets, and this set predates tru.com carrying said sets, so I was never able to find this figure.  Apparently, this was a common problem with this set, given its fairly high value on ebay now.  So, still really wanting a Photon figure (The only Photon figure ever, mind you) I tracked down Photon loose, for probably a little too much money.

#0021: The Vision

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

VISION

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOY BIZ)

Today, I’m looking at the first of what I’m sure will be many Marvel Legends reviews.  Back in the early 2000s, this was THE line to collect.  They had killer sculpts, awesome paint, and of course, a huge quantity of articulation!  And let’s not forget the scalper appeal.  While this line didn’t start the trend of action figure scalpers, its high demand and tendency to pack fan-favorites as short-packs led to high prices, and a whole lot of “legitimate businessmen” trying to corner the market.  It was so great.  No, wait, I meant the other thing.  Terrible.  It was terrible.   I’ll be looking at the Vision figure from the line.  For those of you who are unaware (which is probably a large portion), the Vision is a long standing member of the Avengers.  He was a synthezoid (basically an android) created by the villain Ultron to destroy the Avengers.  However, he was created using the brain-patterns of Wonder Man, a reluctant villain who the Avengers had tried to help before his unfortunate demise.  Apparently, Wonder Man’s emotions overpowered the synthezoid, and he rebelled against his creator and joined the Avengers.  There’s a lot more to his story, but that’s the basic gist.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Vision was part of the seventh series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends line. He stands roughly 6 inches tall and has 33 points of articulation.  He also included a clear poseable stand that can simulate his flying ability.  He was available in both regular and “Phasing” versions.  The regular has a normal paint job, while the phasing is cast in various translucent plastics.  I managed to get a hold of both versions, and since they’re the same sculpt, I’ll be looking at both today.  The phasing version was technically the variant.  I say technically because Vision was only one to a case, meaning which version of him was in said case was fairly random.   Both figures depict Vision in his original green and yellow costume.  Vision was built on a base body, with the details added via paint.  The body’s fine, though the abundance of articulation does give it some odd proportions.  The head is this figure’s real strong point.  It’s an all new sculpt, and it’s really well done.  It has that perfect “just too perfect to be human” look, which is great!  The painted figure has some sharp paint ops that really highlight the sculpt well.  For this reason, I think the regular version is a bit better than the phasing version, as the details can get lost in the clear plastic.  Both figures are topped off by a nicely done rubber cape.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, you saw the displeasure up there about the whole scalpers charging insane prices thing?  Yeah, that pretty much sums up my experience with this figure.  While I was eventually able to track down both versions of this character for my collection, it wasn’t until well after Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends were done and gone.  Being less than one per case (thanks to the variant) he was near impossible to find, and instant scalper bait, resulting in a high after market price.  I was fortunate enough to track down both versions loose from a local toy store that had just bought someone’s collection, which made me a happy collector indeed!

#0020: Reborn & Suspended Animation Captain America Minimates

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

REBORN & SUSPENDED ANIMATION CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL MINIMATES

For today’s review, I’ll actually be looking at something I just got, for a change.  This is another Minimates entry.  Today’s review focuses on half of a set that was both a Toys R Us-exclusive and a Fan’s Choice set: Captain America Through the Ages.  The set was released to coincide with Cap’s return to the land of the living, and featured four of his looks from throughout the years.  I’ll be looking at two of those today.

REBORN CAPTAIN AMERICA

First up is the figure that functions as the set’s definitive Captain America.  This figure depicts Cap as he appeared right after his return from the dead.  It’s the classic Captain America look with a few minor changes that aren’t really noticeable.  The figure stands about 2.5 inches tall, and has the standard Minimates articulation of 14 points (well, technically 12, since the boots remove the foot articulation).  Minimates mostly rely on paint to convey the character, and it all looks crisp and well applied.  Like most of the more modern Minimates, he does have his share of sculpted pieces: Glove cuffs,  Mask, Belt and Boots, as well as an alternate hair piece for an unmasked look.  He also includes his mighty shield, for throwing, which can either be plugged into his left glove or his shoulder harness, depending on how you want to display him.  One thing he doesn’t come with, however, is an alternate left glove cuff sans the strap for the shield.  This is a bummer, because it effectively makes his really cool harness piece useless, because his glove looks weird.  I gave mine the right glove from SA Cap, because I think that one looks better sans gloves, but it would have been nice for Diamond to include the extra piece.

SUSPENDED ANIMATION CAPTAIN AMERICA

Interestingly enough, this figure also depicts Cap after he returned from the dead…the FIRST time!  Yep, this figure’s based on Cap’s appearance at the beginning of Avengers #4, right after the Avengers find him floating in the ocean, frozen in a block of ice. This is back when Cap’s long nap in the ice was about 15 years, not the 70 years it is now.  Anyway, the figure gives us Cap in his army fatigues, which have been shredded, revealing his Captain America costume below.  He’s got the basic Minimates articulation.  The painted details are once again really well done here.  The tears in the fatigues are quite well done.  He also has a few sculpted pieces:  his hair, gloves, belt, as well as both a mask to put on his head and one to drape over his shoulders.  He also comes with a spare set of ungloved hands, his shield, and coolest (heh!) of all, a chunk of ice to place him in.  I could complain that it’d be cooler if the chunk actually covered more of the figure, but it does the job pretty well.  This is a really neat variant of Cap, and is definitely one that will stand out on the shelf.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was never able to track this set down at retail, and for whatever reason never got around to picking it up online.  When I saw it going for between 60 and 70 dollars, I just figured I’d missed my shot.  Fortunately, I was able to score these two loose on ebay for a decent price, and I’m really glad, because they’re great additions to my already large Minimate collection.  One of these days, I’ll get the other half of the set.  I mean, everybody’s gotta have a crazy 90s armored Captain America in their collection, right?  How could you not?

#0017: Terrax

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

TERRAX

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOYBIZ)

Today’s review is another Fantastic Four figure, this is the last of the wave one reviews: Terrax.  There was one other figure in the first wave, Benjamin J Grimm, aka the Thing, but I didn’t have that version.  I had the later wave 3 version.  And can I just address the fact that I’m reviewing Terrax, but I’ve yet to get to the Human Torch and the Invisible Woman? You know the other HALF of the title team!  How exactly did TERRAX get himself a spot in the line before two of the title characters?  He’s really not that great a character, nor has he ever really been all that important…ever.  Anyway…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So like I said before, this is Terrax, the second herald of Galactus, part of the first wave of Toybiz’s FF line.  He’s depicted here in Terrax’s only look ever, which must have made the costume choice pretty easy for the guys at Toybiz.  At one point in time, Terrax had a rock stand and his trusty axe (which tears through stuff.  Cleaver name….).  Mine doesn’t have these items any more.  The figure’s actually a very good depiction of Terrax, which is nice because he’s not one of those characters who gets many chances at having an action figure made.  His hands are interesting, because they’re both molded to hold his axe, but due to their vertical placement and his limited articulation, he can only hold it in one hand at a time.  This leaves the other hand with this thumbs up position.  What is this guy, the Fonz? (AAAAAAAAY!)  Actually, that might make his character a bit more interesting.  You heard it here first Marvel! (Do they even realize that this character exists?)

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Terrax was another of the gift figures.  It’s fine because he’s a great, big, bad guy for your heroes to fight.  That was always good enough for me!

Read the Flashback Friday Figure Addendum here!  And another one here!

#0016: Silver Surfer

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

SILVER SURFER

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOYBIZ)

Time for another Fantastic Four review it seems.  Today we’re looking at a sometimes foe, but usually friend of the team, Silver Surfer.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The figure in question is the first herald of Galactus, Norin Radd, aka the Silver Surfer.  Good old Nor here has 11 points of articulation and stands 5 inches tall.  At one point in time, he was a bit shinier, but my figure has long since dulled.  The figure’s sculpt is solid.  I think it would be difficult to mess up a bald, naked guy, but I’d probably be wrong.  He’s got a nice assortment of articulation, though I’m not really sure what’s going on with his right arm.  Is he supposed to be doing something specific ?  Because all I see is some kind of record scratching move.  Maybe this is actually a figure of often forgotten 90s sensation DJ Sizzle Surfer-izzle and I just wasn’t aware…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a moderate silver surfer fan as a kid, but I actually rarely used this figure as the Surfer.  He was a nice, generic figure, good for a million things.  His joints are practically worn out from all the play time this guy got!