Tag Archives: Marvel

#3192: Iron Man

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

IRON MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Tony Stark resolves to get back to basics, donning a new stripped-down Iron Man armor inspired by his most classic designs.”

Oh boy, are you guys ready for some more Marvel Legends?  I sure hope you are, because apparently the only settings on Hasbro’s release schedule for these are nothing at all and everything at once.  It’s…it’s a lot.  With no Avengers movies out or upcoming in the next year, the Avengers portion of the line is shifting over to purely comics based, which is where the most recent assortment sets its sights. The resident heavy hitter for this round is an Iron Man, who I’m gonna be taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iron Man is the non-numbered figure for the Controller Series of Marvel Legends. He’s based on Alex Ross’s updated Iron Man armor, which is his current set-up in the comics.  It’s a fairly nice merging of modern aesthetics with his classic design elements, offering a look that’s both unique, but still reads as a standard Iron Man.  Definitely a solid choice for the line-up.  The figure stands 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  This Iron Man’s articulation scheme is probably the best we’ve gotten on a Legends Iron Man.  The 80th body and its spin-offs certainly weren’t bad from a movement perspective, but his figure takes a lot of the things that Hasbro’s learned from other lines and implements them for Marvel.  In particular, the neck is a mix of two ball joints and a universal, resulting in a ton of range we don’t usually see.  And, it’s all worked in really well from an aesthetic standpoint, making it doubly successful.  His sculpt is an all-new affair, of course.  It’s a really nice recreation of the armor as we’ve seen it on the page.  The depth of detail is also quite impressive, in part because it’s handled with so many separate pieces that are all assembled.  The only part I’m not super crazy about is the shoulder armor, which is a softer piece that goes over; when posing, it can be slightly restricting, and I worry about warping it by leaving the arms up for too long.  Beyond that, though, it’s a really strong sculpt.  His color work isn’t terrible, but it’s probably the figure’s weakest aspect.  The reds and golds are largely molded, rather than painted.  For the red, it means its not metallic; not the end of the world, but it doesn’t quite have that same pop.  For the gold, it means he’s got the swirls going on.  On my figure they’re rather prominent on the faceplate, which can be a tad distracting.  The actual paint application is all at least pretty clean, though, and I do like how the whites really stand out from the rest of the armor.  Iron Man is packed with two sets of hands (repulsor blasts and fists), and the two-part blast and smoke effects that were first included with Ironheart.  The replusor hands get the full wrist articulation, which I’m very happy about, and I’m also happy to see the Ironheart effects turn back up, as they’re honestly pretty cool.  It’s a shame that there’s not an unmasked Tony head, but there are at least options available.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

With classic Iron Man and Modular Iron Man checked off, there’s not a ton left on my Iron Man checklist, but I’ll admit that I’ve liked this look since it was first shown off and was on-board for its inevitable Legends release.  When this one was announced, I was definitely planning to grab it, but didn’t think much beyond that.  It’s actually a pretty awesome figure.  He’s not my standard armor or anything, but it’s just hard to deny that this is a really, really good Iron Man figure.

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.

#3190: Iceman

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

ICEMAN

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Iceman has the mutant ability to turn himself into a being of living ice. Once he does that, he can create almost anything he wants: ice slides, ice weapons, ice shields, not to mention icicles and snowballs. And when he really concentrates, he can create a blinding snowstorm even in the middle of July! But most important of all, the X-Men know that no matter how hot the battle, Iceman always keeps his cool.”

Sometimes in the toy world, you discover an issue with an item way too late in the production process, or perhaps even completely after the production has wrapped, leaving you with no way to actually fix the issue.  So, what are you to do?  Well, sometimes you just ignore it.  Other times, you decide to double down on the money train, and do something to fix the issue quickly, all so you can rake in that sweet, sweet cheddar.  Or, ice, as it may be in this case.  This case being the first Toy Biz X-Men Iceman, whose clear plastic and thermochromatic paint caused issues with the intended “stick him in the freezer” gimmick, and meant that the figure just broke.  But it’s okay.  They made another one!  And this time he’s different!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iceman was released as part of Toy Biz’s first dedicated Repaint series of X-Men, released in late 1993/early 1994, around the main line’s 4th and 5th assortments.  He was perhaps the most sensible of the repaint choices, given the issues with the first release.  The figure stands a little under 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  It’s the same mold as the prior release, which is a respectable classic Iceman sculpt, and fits in quite nicely with the early line figures.  The major difference between this one and the original is now he’s blue.  It’s a nice, consistent, transparent blue, which looks really cool, and makes him immediately different from his Series 2 counterpart.  He includes the same ice sled piece, which can still work with the freezing gimmick, with a little bit less risk of him breaking right away.  That said, you have to be careful with these things, especially given the age of the plastics.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back when I was a kid, this was the Iceman that my dad had in his collection, so I got to use it with my collection from time to time.  I never had one of my own, but did eventually get the re-release of the clear version from KB a few years later.  I eventually found this guy on his own in a bin of loose figures a few years ago, and, viola, now I have both.  Woo-hoo!

#3185: Vulture

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

VULTURE

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“When his business partner attempted to swindle Adrian Toomes out of the flying harness he had invented, Toomes stole the harness back and embarked on a life of crime as the high-flying Vulture! Recently rejuvenated, the Vulture is now a more dangerous threat than ever – as Spider-Man has learned, to his lasting regret!”

Man, the ’90s were definitely rough on some characters, especially as they tried to stay hip and relevant.  Spider-Man foe the Vulture, perennially defined by being, like, the oldest man alive, got saddled with the whole “making myself young again by draining off other people’s lifeforce” thing, in addition to also getting a new armored look, which also had a headband built-in.  It was, like, all of the ’90s things at once.  And it didn’t really stick, which was probably for the best, really.  Man, what a time.  And that’s how we got his first action figure, no less.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Vulture was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in line.  He was based on the character’s revamped design, which got a special focus on the show.  And, more specifically, he was actually kind of animation-based, in contrast to the likes of the X-Men line.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  I’ve actually looked at most of this sculpt before, albeit at twice the size, when its 10-inch equivalent was re-used for Savage Land Angel.  It’s a rather awkward sculpt, all things considered.  The body’s kind of scrawny and goony looking, and the head is rather large in comparative scale, which just makes the scrawny and goony thing even more apparent.  The armor detailing is at least pretty sharply handled.  You know, if you like your Vulture to be armored.  The paint work on the figure is basic, but pretty well handled.  There’s a little bit of bleedover on the edges of the lighter green, but otherwise it works well.  Vulture was originally packed with a small gun sort of thing, meant for storing in his side holster, thought that piece is missing from mine (and most loose ones, honestly; it was super easy to lose).  He also featured a “Spreading Wing Action”; squeezing his legs lifts his arms, thereby spreading his wings.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Okay, you know how I was ragging on overly ’90s Vulture?  Yeah, well, as stupid as it may be, I kinda like the overly ’90s Vulture.  That being said, I didn’t own this figure, for whatever reason.  I remember looking at it, but I just never picked it up.  I wound up getting one loose a few years back at a toy show, in one of my pushes to complete my Toy Biz run.  He’s a really goofy figure, and I don’t know that he really captures the design as well as he could.  Or maybe he does, and it’s just destined to be forever super goofy.  You know what?  It’s probably that.

#3180: Sauron

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

SAURON

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Sauron is the most terrifying Evil Mutant. Sauron loves to silently swoop down and use his mutant power to hypnotize and drain the energy out of his victim! Then in the blink of an eye, he flies away ready to strike again! The more energy he drains, the more powerful he becomes. Because he can drain the energy from anyone, even another Evil Mutant, even Magneto, the leader of the Evil Mutants, fears him!”

Not to be confused with the evil ruler of Mordor, Sauron is one of the X-Men’s older foes, predating quite a few of the team’s more popular members–Wait a minute…didn’t I review this figure already?  well, hypothetical reader, the answer to that question is…not technically.  And, technically is what really matters here.  Why?  Because it’s my site, that’s why.  Okay, maybe I should actually explain what the heck I’m reviewing this guy again.  It’s quite simple:  early in the days of their X-Men line, Toy Biz liked to justify the re-releases of figures they’d already done by doing minor tweaks to their color schemes, in dedicated “Repaint” series, in order to not only keep those figures out, but also freshen up the shelves a bit, but without having to actually produce a whole new figure.  Generally, I like to bundle those repaints into the main review, but, well, I don’t always own them when I review a figure the first time, so I guess I just have to follow them up this way.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Sauron (the repaint) was added to Toy Biz’s X-Men line in 1993-1994, right around the same time as Series 4 and 5 of the line, alongside a whole assortment of repainted figures.  Of all the figures present amongst the repaints, his was the oddest choice, given how minor the character was, but perhaps they were looking to tie in with the show’s second season, where he actually had a pretty important role to play.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  He’s 100% the same sculpt as the standard release of Sauron.  It was a decent sculpt for the time, and honestly holds up pretty alright.  Still not sure exactly what he’s wearing, but what are you gonna do?  The change to this one’s paint is honestly pretty subtle; instead of orange pants, his are gold with a little bit of black.  It’s super minor, but I actually quite like it.  It’s nice that they actually added, rather than just doing a straight palette swap.  Interestingly, the card back prototype showed him with red shorts, a figure that, to date, no one has any evidence actually existed.  As with his original release, Sauron was packed with a big ol’ club.  Yay big ol’ club.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wound up going back to the toy show where I’d gotten my standard Sauron the next year, in hopes of finding more Toy Biz stuff.  I discovered it was rather slim pickings that year, but managed to fish a handful of the repaint figures out of a loose figure bin.  Sauron was one of those figures.  He’s not a bad figure, but the two offerings do feel slightly redundant when in the same collection together, I suppose.

#3178: Nova

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

NOVA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Chosen by the last surviving member of an elite intergalactic defense force, Richard Rider ascends from humble origins to continue the battle as Nova.”

Remember all that stuff yesterday’s intro had to say about Nova and his background both in the comics and in the real world?  Cool, that’s super handy, because it makes this intro way easier.  I mean, apart from me not really having much unique or exciting to say.  Oh no.  I’ve become my own worst enemy.  I’ve…I’ve written myself out of a job.  Well, a hobby, I guess.  And I can just go meta for a few sentences until I make it to the review proper.  So, in the end, it doesn’t even matter.  Or perhaps something less emo than that.  I mean, we’re talking about Nova here; let’s try to be at least a little bit cheery, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nova is a Walgreens-exclusive Marvel Legends release, who dropped last year…theoretically.  He was the second in Walgreens’ 2021 line-up of cosmically-themed characters, following on the tails of their “The Fallen One” Silver Surfer variant.  This marked Richard Rider’s third time in Legends form, after the figure I looked at yesterday, and the one from the first Guardians tie-in assortment in 2014.  While the 2014 release brought him up to more modern standards in figure-making, it also did so in his modern costume.  This figure instead updates the classic costume from the first release to the current level.  I like that.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Nova is built on the Bucky Cap body at his core, though he winds up with a lot of new parts.  The head and upper torso are the obviously new parts, but the pelvis and shins are also new.  The new parts are pretty nicely handled.  The head is two pieces, with the helmet and underlying head being two separate pieces, which adds some extra depth to the design.  The new upper torso adds his shoulder pads, which are separate from the core torso, allowing for them to move with the arms for more optimal posing.  The new pelvis and shins don’t really do a lot different, but they add a little bit of variety to the mold just before it got dropped.  So, there’s that.  The color work on Nova is a pretty straight updating of the first Legend.  This time around, the gold’s a bit brighter and the blue’s a bit deeper, which makes for a far better contrast.  The paint work is all pretty crisp, which I certainly like.  Not so big on the molded gold plastic with all the swirls, though, especially since it means there’s quite a line right on the front of his helmet.  Nova is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and flat poses, plus fellow Nova Corps member Qubit, who’s really just a helmet with a flight stand.  It’s accurate to the comics, of course, where he’s “a synthorganic being of the Manufactured Harmonites.”  That’s a totally normal sentence, I suppose.  He’s a cool extra, and follows the trend started by The Phlish’s inclusion with Sam Nova.  I like it, and I’d like to see more of it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I like Nova a fair bit, especially his classic look.  His first Legend was kind of weak, but he tided me over.  The modern version was better, but not my preferred version.  This one was the one I was waiting for.  And boy was there a lot of waiting, because I never found one at Walgreens.  When Quasaar got offered up to Fan Channels, I was hoping Nova would follow, but no such luck yet.  Thankfully, one was traded into All Time, so I still got my shot at him.  He’s a solid update, and pretty much exactly what I wanted.  Calling this one a win.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure for review.  If you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#3177: Nova

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

NOVA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“It was pure chance that granted Richard Rider his fragment of the cosmic power known as the Nova Force. He was just some smart-​aleck kid from Queens, dreaming the same other big dreams as everyone else. The closest he’d ever been to being a superhero was seeing the Avengers’ Quinjet once in a while. Since the day he felt that first rush of power, he’s traveled the universe and battled against and alongside some of the most powerful creatures in the known universe. He has turned back the aggression of entire star empires, and become the last survivor of an annihilated culture. His power enhanced by the absorption of the entire Nova Force and the Xandorian Worldmind, he serves now as a final bulwark against perhaps the greatest threat our universe has ever faced.”

Well, that’s quite a thorough selection of bio-text up there.  I guess…I guess I don’t really need to get into it too much, then.  Well, I suppose I could discuss the out-of-universe stuff, then.  The success of Spider-Man in 1962 was somewhat unexpected.  For the decades that followed, Marvel was kind of always trying to craft that next Spider-Man.  Admittedly, it’s kind of hard to purposefully create an equivalent for a character that didn’t really originate with that purpose in mind.  A decade after Spider-Man’s creation, they tried this with Nova, an admittedly noble attempt at aping Spidey’s success, right down to him being a reimagining of a pet character that Marv Wolfman had made up for a fanzine, mirroring Stan Lee’s own fostering of Spidey before he actually made it to publish.  Though they gave it an honest try, but he ultimately didn’t take off, and he fell into obscurity until the early ’90s when he was added to the cast of the New Warriors.  Nova got his first Legends release, which was his second figure overall, early in Hasbro’s run, and I’m taking a look at that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nova was released in 2009 as part of the Nemesis Series of Marvel Legends.  The Nemesis Series, which wound up being the last assortment of Hasbro’s first run of Marvel Legends, had a turbulent path to release.  Originally, it was supposed to be a mass-release assortment, slated to hit in 2008, but there were production issues associated with it, and a bunch of planned exclusive assortments got pushed up first.  The line-up got tweaked and shifted around several times, and then it looked like it was cancelled entirely, but then, at the end of 2009, the set just started showing up at Walmarts, apparently as an exclusive, effectively pushed out to wrap up the line before the full switch to Marvel Universe occurred.  It was a mess.  Nova was based on his classic design, which was amusing at the time, since he’d just gotten a new look in the comics.  This is still my preferred, so I never really minded.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and he has 40 points of articulation.  Nova was built on the modified base-body version of the Bullseye body, first seen with Havok.  It was a good piece when it first dropped, and even in 2009 it was still holding up okay.  I mean, it was still in use for another 6 years after this, so clearly it still had a little bit of mileage left.  It’s a little goofy by today’s standards, especially given how the articulation has been worked into the overall sculpt.  His only new piece on this release was his head sculpt.  It matches well with the style of the base body, and doesn’t do a bad job of adapting the helmet design from the comics.  For proper accuracy, he probably should have a few other unique pieces, but it was the best we could hope for at the time.  The figure’s paint work isn’t great, really.  The big issue is the “gold,” which is really dull, far too dark, and just generally doesn’t pop the way it should.  In general, it’s just a super drab figure, just across the board.  Nova’s only extra was the leg to the Nemesis Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This assortment wound up hitting at the same time as the Walmart-exclusive 10th Series of DC Universe Classics.  At the time, my Dad was scouting out the DCUC figures for me and my brother, and he happened upon a few of the figures from this set, so he started scouting out those as well.  He and I wound up finding this one together, while on a run for some Christmas decorations.  He’s not a great figure, but I was happy to have him at the time, and I appreciate the story behind it.

#3175: The Thing

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

THE THING

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“The powerhouse of the fabulous Fantastic Four, Benjamin J. Grimm may look like a ‘Thing’, but he’s a rock-solid Super Hero through and through! Fiercely loyal, unflinching in the face of danger, The Thing brings his ‘Clobberin’ Time’ strength to bear against the likes of the wicked Wizard and the sinister Psycho-Man.”

Okay, hear me out: what if The Thing got actual clothes?  Would that be a crazy, novel idea?  Maybe.  Just maybe.  But a man can dream.  Or, you know, just look into the years and years of Fantastic Four history, where there’s plenty of instances of just that thing happening.  I mean, there’s just, like, Ben Grimm, running around in an almost full FF uniform, instead of just an overly large speedo.  Usually, it has something to do with him getting depowered, and then starting to wear a different uniform, and then inevitably being repowered, and, book, the Thing’s in a tank top.  Oh yeah.  Dig it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Thing was released in Series 4 of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four line, which wound up as the line’s final assortment.  He was the third version of Ben within the line, and was clearly designed to tie-in with Ben’s stretch of episodes in the cartoon’s second season where he had the tank top look.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  For whatever reason, he lost the elbow and knee joints for this release, despite the other two figures getting them.  He does get a waist joint, though.  Additionally, he’s the largest of the cartoon-inspired Thing figures, making him feel more true to the character as he appears in the show, and having him look a little more cohesive with the rest of his team.  The figure’s sculpt was all-new, and followed the character’s season 2 design pretty closely.  It’s especially evident in the face, which really feels spot-on, but even the general shaping of the body seems to line-up pretty well.  The only real deviation is the torso, especially around the waist, where he winds up with far more toning and definition than he ever had on the show.  The figure is also sculpted with just a touch of pre-posing; he appears to be in mid-stride.  It’s nothing too crazy, and it winds up making him very stable on his feet, which makes it really feel like a win.  The figure’s color work is pretty basic; the majority of it is molded.  What paint is there is generally pretty clean, though there is a touch of fuzziness on the edges of the white parts of the outfit.  To their credit, the portions of the exposed skin that are on the torso, and are therefore painted, actually match pretty closely with the molded tones on the arms and head, which is quite an accomplishment.  Series 4 of the line was all about platforms with action features.  For Ben, that translates to a vaguely rock-looking thing, which he can “break” apart.  It’s not a terrible gimmick, but it’s also not a great one.  Just sort of there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always really liked this particular design for Ben, largely due to its presence in the cartoon’s second season.  That said, I already had the trench coat version of Ben from the prior assortment when this one hit, so I didn’t really *need* this one, and I wasn’t really into doubling up at that point.  So, this one remained absent from my collection for a surprisingly long time, finally making its way into the set back in 2017, when I wound up snagging it out of a case at an antique mall.  He’s actually a pretty solid version of the character, and has the notoriety of being a version that doesn’t get covered much, so that’s pretty cool.

#3171: Savage Wolverine & Reaper

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

SAVAGE WOLVERINE & SAVAGE LAND REAPER

MARVEL MINIMATES

In 2013, Marvel decided to a soft re-branding of their comics, under the banner “Marvel Now!” which would do new and and innovative things with the line.  Like giving Wolverine another book!  Nobody had done that before!  Okay, so Savage Wolverine may not have been the most unique thing, but it did get some decent buzz, thanks to Frank Cho’s name being attached to it. When DST put together some complimentary assortments of Minimates, Savage Wolverine got not one, but two packs dedicated to it.  I looked at the first, which featured Shanna the She-Devil (Wolverine’s co-star in the book) and a Savage Land Reaper, back in January of 2018.  Today, I’m looking at Wolverine proper…and the Reaper again…

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Savage Wolverine and the Savage Land Reaper were released in the 16th TRU-exclusive series of Marvel Minimates, which was TRU’s equivalent to the 51st specialty assortment.  The Reaper was the only cross-over between the two assortments, and is the same figure between both of its pack-outs.

SAVAGE WOLVERINE

Wolverine has had a lot of Minimates.  This particular one was his 48th.  It’s a derivation of the John Cassady Astonishing X-Men design, which had gotten a number of tweaks from several artists at this point.  This one marked his most current at the time, and it remained his most current until his padded number from the “Payback” story.  The figure is based on the standard ‘mate body, so he’s 2 1/2 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation .  Wolverine uses add-ons for his mask and belt, as well as “unique” pieces for the clawed hands.  The mask was the first actual, proper update to the mask we’d gotten since the Series 26 version, and I quite like it.  It’s got a unique shaping to it, and I dig the sculpted seams running along the head.  The belt, which I believe was new to this figure, but it can be hard to tell, is another nice piece, full of lots of fun details.  The hands are the same hands used initially on the Series 47 Wolverine, and they’re my favorite of the clawed hands we’ve gotten.  The paint is my favorite aspect of this figure, because at the surface, it’s just a basic Wolverine paint job, but there’s so much else going on.  The yellow with black in place of blue makes for a figure that’s quite striking, and while there are still some spots of slop on some of the edges, the small detail work is crisp, and very plentiful.  The face gives us a great, intense, Wolverine-style snarl, the hair on the arms is sharp and well defined, the muscles are subtly handled in a fashion that mimics Cho’s artwork pretty well, and they’ve even included all of the laces on his boots.  There’s a ton of attention to detail, and a lot of details that could have easily been overlooked.  Logan is packed with an extra hair piece and a clear display stand.  It’s a shame they stopped giving Wolverines extra, non-clawed hands, but at least in this one’s case, it won’t be hard to find a pair that matches.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wasn’t really intending to get this figure when he was shown off, since who really needs the 48th version of Wolverine?  Well, me, apparently.  Once packaged shots surfaced, I found myself really liking the look, and at the time, it was easiest to just order a whole assortment from TRU.com, to make sure you didn’t randomly get the wrong pack in place of what you actually wanted.  Wolverine pairs off well with this same assortment’s version of Captain America.  He’s a variant of an A-lister that no one was necessarily asking for, but DST put in some of their best work here, and the end result is a figure that really rocks.

#3170: Jean Grey

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

JEAN GREY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Possessing near-limitless psychic potential, Jean Grey is Charles Xavier’s first student, and could someday become the greatest psychic on earth, and beyond.”

At the beginning of the month, I continued my look into Hasbro’s X-Men: The Animated Series-inspired sub-line of Marvel Legends with a look at the updated version of Storm, who got reviewed all on her lonesome because I didn’t really need another Mr. Sinister, and the figure that I ordered alongside hadn’t shipped out yet.  Well, as luck would have it, I got that other figure, and I’m going to be looking at it today!  Which figure is it?  Why, it’s Jean Grey!  Yes, founding member of the X-Men, and central piece to a bunch of the show’s storylines, to say nothing of her spot in the show’s main love triangle, Jean is finally getting her due in the line, especially given that she didn’t really even get her due in the line that was running when the show was on the air.  It’s just overdue, really.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jean Grey is the fifth figure in the X-Men: The Animated Series sub-line of Marvel Legends.  Unlike the last two rounds, Jean was shown off on her own, which has been the trend since.  It was a little odd at the time, since it kind of felt like Cyclops would be her natural pairing figure, but as of yet we’re still waiting on him to be added to the line.  Oh well.  Guess I’ll just make do.  This is the third time we’ve gotten a ’90s-based Jean Grey in Legends, with all three of them being under the Hasbro banner, and the most recent one being under this same incarnation of Legends, even.  As with the rest of the line, she ships in a VHS-inspired box, and I’m continuing to love these, guys.  They just look so fun and nostalgic.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Structurally, this Jean Grey is the same as the last ’90s Jean Grey, making use of all of the same parts.  For the most part, that’s okay.  The body in particular gets the point across, and there are a lot of really solid unique pieces just for this design.  The only real issue is that the hands don’t have the proper sculpting for how the gauntlets looked in animation, but that’s quite minor.  The heads are…well, they’re a bit of a different story.  While they’re certainly not bad, especially from a comics perspective, they don’t quite match up with the animation models as well.  Wolverine and Storm both got new heads, and even Jubilee got a slightly better alternate head that was a little more accurate.  I’d have really liked to see them throw us a more animation accurate Jean head.  Honestly, they could have even done that and cut the extra head with the longer hair, since she only had that look in the final season of the show, and by that point, the model was already far different.  As it stands, the ponytail head is workable, but it’s not quite as good as it could be.  The paint work for Jean is cel-shaded, like the rest of them in the line.  There are some fuzzy edges, but it’s generally a good set-up, and I prefer the brighter palette of this release to the prior one.  Jean is packed with two sets of hands (open gesture and fists), as well as the two heads.  Again, this feels a bit lacking for the animation angle.  An extra head with her psychic effect, or even a Cerebro piece would have been really cool.  As it stands, it just really feels like bare minimum, especially with no new sculpting on the main figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was really excited about Jean initially.  Excited enough to actually get me to go back and order the Storm, who I had skipped at that point.  That said, getting her in hand, I’m a little letdown.  The complete lack of any new parts, and the barebones nature of the accessories is rather upsetting, especially after Wolverine kicked us off with such a good set-up of new parts and extras.  I’m worried that this line is already kind of losing its focus of animation accuracy, a mere five figures in.  I hope that’s not the case.  Perhaps Morph will change the tide of things a little bit.  As it stands, I do like the Jean more than the three pack release, and I’m glad that there’s another version of her available.

#3166: Cowboy Tony Stark & Aldrich Killian

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

COWBOY TONY STARK & ALDRICH KILLIAN

MARVEL MINIMATES

Now listen up, here’s the story, about a little guy who started both of his Iron Man 3-themed Minimates reviews the same way, and all day and all night, everything he sees is reviews, inside and outside.  Okay, I think the Eiffel 65 thing as far as it can possibly go.  Look, you get the gist, right?  Minimates?  Iron Man 3?  Great.  Here’s Cowboy Disguise Tony Stark and Aldrich Killian!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cowboy Disguise Tony Stark and Aldrich Killian were released as part of Series 49 of Marvel Minimates, the specialty component of the Iron Man 3-tie-in ‘mates.  It’s one of the two sets contained there in which was completely exclusive, the other being the previously reviewed War Machine and Maya.

COWBOY DISGUISE TONY STARK

Over the course of his three films (and Age of Ultron), we’ve gotten all manner of Tony Starks, but I think Cowboy Tony may very well be the most out-there variant. Well, at least he seems that way on the surface.  In practice, he’s actually just a fairly standard Tony, who also includes a cowboy hat.  The figure is built on the standard post-C3 body, so he’s about 2 1/2 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He uses two add-on pieces, one for his hat, and one for his sweater.  Both parts are re-used; the hat is from Mad Dog Tannen and the sweater comes from Agent Zero.  The sweater is fine, but the hat ends up being rather off the mark for the one he was wearing in the movie.  Obviously, DST wanted Tony to be a re-use figure, and I guess this hat was just the closest thing they had on hand? I don’t know, but it makes him look more like a mountie than a cowboy.  The paint work on Tony is the strongest aspect of the figure, to be sure.  His likeness to RDJ is a decent one, and the replication of Tony’s injuries from the move on his face make for a more distinctive look for the character.  The detailing on his vest and what we can see of his plaid shirt is also pretty impressive.  Tony is packed with an extra hair piece, for those of you that want the non-cowboy/mountie look for him, as well as a set of extra arms for a look sans-sweater, and a now standard clear display stand.

ALDRICH KILLIAN

Man, Killian really through marketers for a loop, didn’t he?  His role was super down-played going into the film, with all the focus going to Ben Kingsley’s Mandarin, but toy companies were still informed he’d be important, but in a sort of a vague way.  The character in the comics is very, very minor, but then, boom, there he was, main villain of the piece, unquestionably.  Well, at least the Minimates included him, right?  Killian uses three add-on pieces for his hair, jacket, and tie.  All three are re-used; the hair’s from Larry Talbot, the jacket from World of the Psychic Peter Venkman, and the tie from The Spirit.  It’s a reasonable enough collection of parts, though I personally find the hair to be a touch to close cropped for Killian.  We’ve seen worse, though.  Killian’s paint is pretty straight-forward color work.  He’s not terribly thrilling or anything, but he’s accurate to his (present day) introductory scene in the film, and the face has a decent Guy Pierce likeness.  Aldrich’s only accessory is a clear display stand, which is rather light.  Some extra Extremis-powered parts would have been cool, though it’s possible they weren’t a viable option, due to spoilers.  He still feels like he should have *something* else, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked these up, alongside the rest of the assortment, the day they were released from my local comic book store, Cosmic Comix, on a special trip to the store in the middle of my day of college classes, meaning I got to carry them around in my bag.  You know, like I was in elementary school.  No, I mean, like an adult.  Yeah, an adult.  Sure.  Tony is a figure I had little interest in when he was initially shown off, but the ability to remove that hat actually opens the figure up quite a bit, and makes him a fairly intriguing variant of the character.  Overall, Killian is a passable figure of the character, but there’s not a whole lot that really sells him.