Tag Archives: Multiple Man

#3353: Multiple Man

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

MULTIPLE MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man, possesses the unique ability to duplicate himself at will.”

My first Multiple Man review, back in 2018, started off with a James Franco joke.  Boy, has *that* not aged well.  That’s what I get for trying to be topical.  Nowadays, I just stick to more timeless and tried things.  How about this up and comer, Madrox the Multiple Man?  His appearance in Fantastic Four sure shows a lot of promise, doesn’t it?  It sure would be cool if he bounced around as a minor supporting player in the X-Books for a decade, and then got promoted to one of the actual teams.  And also if he got five action figures.  You know what?  Let’s actually make that six.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Multiple Man is the third figure from the latest retro-inspired X-Men assortment of Marvel Legends.  Multiple Man is unique in this assortment, as he’s the only figure whose design has no direct equivalent in the Toy Biz run, since his only 5-inch figure (which was a ToyFare exclusive) was in a variation of his X-Factor costume.  This one is based on Jaime’s original suit, which has, up until now, been without toy coverage.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Multiple Man is built on the ANAD 2099 body, which is a slight change-up from his last figure, who was based on the Bucky Cap body. Interestingly, Havok did the same jump on his most recent figure.  This body is more posable and honestly a slightly better match in build, especially for a younger Jaime.  The figure gets two new head sculpts.  One has a more neutral expression, while the other is angry and teeth gritty.  They’re both internally consistent, and also consistent with the three heads included with the last figure, so they all look convincingly like the same guy.  Curiously, while the last figure used separate pieces for the cowl and faces, these ones are both solid construction.  It doesn’t really change up the look, but it’s different.  Jaime’s paint work is actually quite intricate, with all of the gold lines and circles.  They wrap all the way around the body, with nothing being cut for costs like on the last one, and the coverage is actually pretty consistent (always tricky with gold pain, especially when it’s going over a darker base color).  The work is also quite sharp, again improving on the fuzzy edges seen on the last figure.  Multiple Man does alright on the extras, with the previously mentioned second head, as well as two sets of hands in fists and relaxed posing.  It’s not anything fancy, but it allows for some mixing it up for the purposes of army building.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I quite like Multiple Man, so I’m always happy to get more figures.  I liked the X-Factor version that we got in 2018 a fair bit, but I’ve honestly been hoping to see the green costume in some form for a good long while.  This figure is simple, but very effective.  I never got to actually army build the last one, but I can see that being more likely this time around.

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.

#2868: Multiple Man

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

MULTIPLE MAN

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

The ‘90s X-spin-off teams that weren’t X-Force all had to sort of find their footing within the already established lines that Toy Biz was putting out, which meant that some of them were fewer and further between.  The line up to Peter David’s X-Factor run was definitely a slow build, as they sort of trickled out of the main X-Men line.  The likes of Strong Guy, Havok, and Polaris all found spots, but Jaime Maddrox was, I guess, a step too far for the main line at the time.  Good thing we had the exclusives game to rely on, huh?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Multiple Man was the mail away offer in ToyFare Magazine #4, offered up in December of 1997, and shipping out in early 1998.  Though ostensibly part of the X-Men line still running from Toy Biz at the time, his box had no such branding, or any branding at all.  It was just an all-white shipper, with him bagged up inside.  They hadn’t gotten very fancy yet at this point.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  He got extra joints at the ankles!  Good for him, I suppose.  Multiple Man was built on the body of Octo-Spider-Man, which was one of Toy Biz’s favorites to repaint.  It’s a pretty decent slender build body, and it fits usual depictions of the character, so it works well for him.  His head is re-used from Silver Surfer, and, apart from being perhaps a little devoid of character, it works perfectly alright for his full cowled look.  It does have a slightly weird fit on the body, but generally it works okay.  The rest of the magic is done with paint.  Much like the Polaris figure, Multiple Man’s paint work gives him a weird amalgam of his various costume designs over the years.  It was blue and yellow to match the rest of X-Factor, and it also had the x-symbol on the head, but the overall detailing on the main suit more matches up with his original costume design.  Ultimately, this is a case where I think the amalgamated approach may really work better, since it just feels like a classic Multiple Man.  It’s sort of a greatest hits set-up.  He’s unfortunately missing out on his usual overcoat of the era; surely a cloth one wouldn’t have messed up their margins too badly?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was exactly a year behind on getting a Multiple Man new, so I had to wait a few years.  He still wound up as one of my earlier additions when I started actually get them.  I remember seeing him in the same glass case that held the Wonder Man I was always looking at, but my first one actually came out of a $5 bin of loose figures, which was a real steal at the time.  I also picked up a second one, quite recently, when it got traded into All Time, because it really never hurts to have more Multiple Men.  He’s a simple figure, but I really liked him when I got him, and he’s a surprisingly effective figure.

#2272: Multiple Man & Archangel

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

MULTIPLE MAN & ARCHANGEL

MARVEL MINIMATES

The last two sets of Minimates I looked at each paired off one member of X-Factor’s first incarnation with one from the second.  The first was the team leaders, Scott and Alex Summers, the similarly powered leaders of their respective teams.  The second was Jean Grey and Lorna Dane, the again fairly similarly powered love-interests of the team leaders.  For the third set, the connective tissue appears to be choice in head gear…*

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Multiple Man and Archangel are another set in Series 78 of Marvel Minimates, a whole assortment based around X-Factor.  Multiple Man is also available in a Luke’s Toy Store-exclusive two-pack with a duplicate of himself, allowing for quicker army building.  Also included with this pair is the head of the assortment’s Build-A-Mate, Strong-Guy.

MULTIPLE MAN

“Jamie Madrox has possessed the mutant ability to form duplicates from birth. He has been a member and the leader of X-Factor.”

Multiple Man’s first minimate was based on his 2000s X-Factor Investigations appearance, and pretty much since then a more classic version of the character has been fairly heavily requested.  Like a lot of this assortment, Multiple Man treads down the same roads as his recent Legends release; at least they know there’s a market, right?  The figure stands 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  He’s built on the modern ‘mate body, with an add-on piece for his jacket.  The jacket’s actually a new piece, which is a little surprising, but nice to see nevertheless.  The rest of his design is conveyed via paint work, which is a pretty impressive affair.  The shading on the uniform works really well, and I dig the green trench coat that more closely replicates the comics art.  Multiple Man’s only accessory is a clear display stand, which is a slight let down.  It’s too bad we couldn’t get some alternate arms for a sans jacket look, or maybe an extra head with a different expression like the Legends release had.

ARCHANGEL

“Warren Worthington III lost his feathered wings in battle, but was given new, metal wings by the mutant Apocalypse.”

Archangel marks this assortment’s first straight remake of an earlier ‘mate.  His Death design was first released back in Series 19 of the line, and hasn’t been updated since.  This one is different, but I don’t know that it’s inherently better.  He gets an add-on for his wings, which are a different piece than the previous Archangels, another surprise.  While these seem to capture the earlier stylings of the wings a bit better, it’s at the cost of the cool ball joints of the old ones; these wings only have the one possible pose.  That’s a bit of a letdown.  His paint work is at least pretty good.  I like the general color scheme of this one a little more than the prior release, and I think the face is more Warren Worthington-esque than the earlier version.  Archangel gets a flight stand and a regular display stand.  Cutting the death mask from this release is another letdown.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got these two from the same source as the last two packs: Super Awesome Wife!  As I noted yesterday, I mostly wanted the first set, and the rest were along for the ride.  That said, this set’s probably number two for me.  Both figures are decent, but I can’t help but wish there were some more extras included, and there’s no denying that Archangel suffers a bit from change fro the sake of change.  Multiple Man’s pretty cool, though.

*Interestingly, as odd-ball as this pair may be, this is not the first time Madrox and Worthington have been paired up in this line; Madrox’s more modern appearance from Series 31 was packed with two different versions of Angel.

1767: Multiple Man

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

MULTIPLE MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Not to be duped by duplication, Jamie Madrox uses the ability to clone himself to assign liaisons to travel the world and acquire new skillsets.”

Hey look!  It’s James Franco!  Okay, not quite yet.   And depending on how all the Fox/Marvel stuff shakes out, possibly not at all.  Still, higher chance than that Channing Tatum Gambit movie ever making it out, right? Jamie Madrox, aka the Multiple Man, is one of those fun lower tier Marvel characters who has had quite the history.  His initial appearance had him facing off against the Fantastic Four, and ended with him being put in touch with Charles Xavier, who shipped him off to Muir Island.  He hung around there just mostly being a background character for a decade and a half, before making his way onto the X-Men off-shoot team X-Factor, which was where the character really took off.  He’s maintained a fairly steady fanbase, and believe it or not, has managed to get an action figure in just about every major Marvel scale.  The only one missing was 6-inch, but Hasbro’s been kind enough to fix that this year.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Multiple Man is figure 6 in the Apocalypse Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Jamie’s first Legends release, though he was one of the potential choices in the 2009 Fan’s Choice poll that got us three TRU-exclusive two-packs.  That figure, of course, would have been based on Jamie’s more civilian X-Factor Investigations appearance.  This one instead opts for his ’90s era costume.  I think we can all agree that it was worth the wait to get the actual costume.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Bucky Cap body.  Not a huge shock there; Jaime’s never been a particularly bulky guy, and since they went with the spandex look, this one fits it pretty well.  Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper 90s Multiple Man without the trench coat.  I think there was an expectation that this would be an all-new endeavor, but Hasbro opted for some parts re-use…thankfully it’s not a total re-use of the old trench coat body.  That would have been bad.  Instead, he just uses the coat overlay from that figure, paired up with the jacketed arms from the Netflix Punisher.  It’s honestly a much better combo, and goes a long way to salvage that coat piece.  I still feel like we’re going to need a new trench coat body sooner rather than later, but this is a serviceable substitute.  Topping off the frankenstiened body is not one, not two, but three all-new head sculpts.  The first is your standard Multiple Man design, skull cap and all.  He has a more battle-ready expression, teeth-gritted and everything.  The second head is the same as the first, but with a different face, this time more jovial.  This one’s my favorite of the three.  The last one is the most unique, lacking the headgear of the other two, and with a more neutral expression.  This is the sort of head that would probably look more at home on an X-Factor Investigations figure, so one has to wonder if Hasbro is planning a head with this one.  Multiple Man’s paintwork is fairly standard stuff.  The design on his costume doesn’t have quite as much going on under the trench coat as I’d personally like, but in Hasbro’s defense, the artists on X-Factor were never super consistent about his costume design, and tended to just hide most of the spandex under the coat anyway.  Jamie’s primary accessories are the two extra heads, which are fun.  I do sort of wish he’d gotten some extra hands to go along with them, but alas, it was not to be.  He does, however, include the right leg of the Build-A-Figure Apocalypse.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Multiple Man was my most wanted figure from this set, and, as luck would have it, the first figure from the set I was able to get a hold of.  I came across him, and only him, at my local Target.  I’ve always been a fan of Jamie, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting him getting the Legends treatment.  While I would have been happy with the X-Factor Investigations version shown back in ’09, I’m ultimately much happier to have gotten this variant now.  While not a perfect figure, he’s still a ton of fun.  Now I just need to see how many I can track down!