Tag Archives: Spider-Man (Toyline)

#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.

#1369: Spider-Woman

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

SPIDER-WOMAN

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“Once an illegal operative, Jessica Drew left the group called Hydra to fight crime as the original Spider-Woman! With the ability to climb walls and emit bio-electric spider-blasts, Spider-Woman put many super-villains behind bars. Eventually giving up her identity as Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew now fights crime as a private investigator!”

When does a spin-off character have nothing to do with the original?  When they’re Spider-Woman, of course.  The first Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, was introduced in 1977 as little more than a way of preventing Filmation from putting out a cartoon with their own Spider-Woman.  She had a similar power set to everyone’s favorite wall-crawler, but there the similarities ended.  The two characters wouldn’t even meet for quite a long time after her creation.  Which makes the fact that her very first figure came from a Spider-Man toyline all the more amusing.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Woman was released in Series 7 of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in toyline.  She wasn’t based on a cartoon appearance (likely to avoid viewer confusion; her successor, Julia Carpenter, was a regular on the Iron Man cartoon at the same time).  In fact, Series 7 was right about the time that the series stopped focussing on following the cartoon, so Spider-Woman was not the only non-show figure in the series.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 8 points of articulation.  Jessica’s sculpt is a reworking of the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman from Series 1 of the Iron Man line.  This would be the first time they’d share a sculpt, but far from the last.  Given the similarities in design, it’s a rather practical way of getting an extra use out of the molds, I suppose.  She’s been tweaked to add in elbow joints and also to remove Spider-Woman II’s action feature.  Sadly, they didn’t go as far as to add back in the neck movement lost due to the action feature, but that would have been a more hefty re-working, I suppose.  The sculpt is a pretty decent one overall.  The proportions are fairly balanced, and pretty decent for the time.  The hair has a pretty nice sculpt, and sits nicely, and the face isn’t too terrible.  The one main drag with this sculpt is just how stiff it is.  She doesn’t really look natural in any pose.  It’s largely to do with the arms, or more specifically, the hands.  She’s got this karate chop thing going on, and it just looks rather out of place.  The paint is really the key part of this figure, and it’s pretty decent.  The colors match well with her comics counterpart, and the work is generally on the clean side.  Some of the black lines are a little fuzzy, but it’s not terrible.  In terms of accessories, Jessica was about on par with most of the other figures of this time, which means she has a bunch of random stuff that doesn’t amount to much of anything.  There was like a shield and a weird gun-thing I think?  Mine has neither piece, and that’s just fine.  [EDIT 01/09/26 — It turns out it hasn’t just fine, so I’ve replaced them and talked about it in my Addendum!]

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spider-Woman wasn’t one of my childhood figures.  My dad had one, but I didn’t, largely due to not being overly familiar with Jessica Drew.  I’ve since picked up some knowledge and appreciation for the character, so I’ve been on the look out for this figure.  I found her at Yesterday’s Fun last week, but ultimately put her (and a few others) back in favor a few other things.  My Dad apparently took note of this, and presented me with the whole lot the next day.  He’s nice like that.  She’s a decent enough figure, I suppose.  Nothing amazing, but certainly entertaining.

#1356: Kingpin

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

KINGPIN

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“The colossal overlord of the underworld, the Kingpin has his dirty hands in almost every criminal enterprise on the East coast. His enemies often mistake his massive girth for flab – it is, in fact, over three hundred pounds of solid muscle!”

What’s this?  Kingpin in a Spider-Man line?  What?  It’s almost as if he was originally a Spider-Man villain or something.  Yes, before becoming the big (in every sense of the word) bad for Marvel’s resident horn-head, Wilson Fisk began life as a foe to everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood arachnid.  So they put him in the ‘90s cartoon, and that meant he got his first action figure!  Let’s have a look at him!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kingpin was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series line from the ‘90s. The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall (he’s a bit taller than the average figure from the line), and he has a whole 3 points of articulation.  Woooooo.  This guy had an all-new sculpt, based on his show appearance, which was also his standard look in the comics for a very long while.  It’s certainly a unique sculpt; it’s almost as wide as it is tall.  No doubt the cut articulation was to help ensure he’d cost the same as the others in the line.  The quality of the sculpt is fairly decent, but not without a few issues.  The head is way on the small side, or perhaps the shoulders and arms are in the large side.  Either way, the proportions are off.  In addition to that, he’s wearing the wrong style of jacket for animated Kingpin; it should be double breasted, but it isn’t.  Beyond that, it’s actually pretty decent.  The head definitely captures Fisk well, and his overall size is definitely impressive.  The paintwork on Kingpin is fairly good work.  The colors are all appropriate to the character and the application is all nice and clean.  Kingpin is packed with a diamond topped cane, which can be placed in either hand.  He also has a “crushing” action feature.  His arms can be pulled upwards and clipped into place; when the lever on his back is pulled, they swing down.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Kingpin is another more recent addition to my collection. Like a few others I’ve looked at recently, he came into my collection courtesy of the supremely cool Bobakhan Toys & Collectibles.  More specifically, he’s a Super Awesome Girlfriend purchase.  Honestly, he’s not a character I was ever dying to track down, and the figure’s just so-so, but I’m still happy to have added him to the collection!

#1354: Mary Jane Watson

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

MARY JANE WATSON

MARVEL FAMOUS COUPLES (TOY BIZ)

Hey, so Spider-Man: Homecoming is out today.  That’s pretty cool.  I mean, it’s not a super rare occurrence in this day and age, what with this being the sixth Spider-Man flick in less than 20 years (and the second reboot in five years).  Still, this one looks like it should actually be pretty good, which puts it above the last two movies in my eyes.  Anyway, in honor of the film, I’ll be looking at long-time Spider-Man recurring character, who may be his funky and fun female friend, his girlfriend, his wife, or his awkward ex via deal with the actual devil.  Yes, it’s Mary Jane Watson!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mary Jane was released in a two-pack with a Spider-Man variant as part of Toy Biz’s Marvel Famous Couples line.  It’s not a huge shock, since the odds of getting a Mary Jane in plain clothes sold on her own would be far from a solid business plan.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation (albeit with limited motion on the neck joint).  She’s patterned on her design from the ‘90s animated series, which is certainly a solid look, and more importantly, it’s a look that was fairly easy to pull off with completely re-used parts.  Yep, Mary Jane is head-to-toe a re-use of the Series 2 version of Fantastic Four’s Invisible Woman.  The sculpt works surprisingly well for this design, and it’s also more unique than a lot of re-paints, since the original figure was all clear.  The hair’s not right for MJ, but you take what you can get, I guess.  The heavy work here is being carried by the paint work, which does its very best to turn Sue’s spandex costume into a sweater and jeans combo.  It actually works out pretty well, since MJ’s outfit was usually depicted as rather formfitting both on the cartoon and in the comics.  The only really unconvincing part is the boots, which are just painted on, and therefore look a little goofy.  Still, the paint is very bright, pretty clean, and largely very convincing when it comes to making her look like MJ instead of Sue.  Mary Jane included no accessories, unless of course, you count the included Spider-Man.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I saw this set a number of times growing up, but I wasn’t enough of a Spider-Man fan at the time to get the pair.  Since then, it’s never been super easy to find, so I just never got one.  Mary Jane was another figure from Pop Culture Exchange in Omaha.  She was loose and by herself, which is fine by me, since I have plenty of Spider-Men.  She’s not anything amazing or spectacular, or even sensational, but she’s decent enough, and she’s an important enough player that I feel my collection would be incomplete without her.

Flashback Friday #0012: Green Goblin

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

Hello and welcome to another Friday at the Figure in Question!  It’s time for another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Today, I’m taking a look at another Green Goblin figure, specifically the one from the ‘90s Spider-Man line.  This is from back *before* he was Willem Dafoe.

Alright guys, after a brief stop over into the strange bizzaro world of The Stapler in Question, we are back at home with the action figures. Yay! So, back in the 90s, the 5-inch scale Marvel figures, produced by the very much at the height of their game ToyBiz were totally my jam. The figures were (at least loosely) based on the then current cartoons. Amongst those cartoons was Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which ended up with a fairly nice toyline of its own, at least for a few series. So, let’s have a look at one of Spidey’s greatest foes, the Green Goblin, as he was presented in said line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Goblin was released as part of Series 3 of ToyBiz’s Spider-Man line. The cartoon did this odd thing where Hobgoblin preceded Green Goblin, which resulted in Hobs taking the Goblin slot in Series 1. And Goblins never go for even numbered series. That’s just not how they roll. The figure is about 5 inches tall, with 9 points of articulation. He’s pretty much standard for a ToyBiz figure of the time. He’s based on the character’s animated appearance, which itself was a fairly faithful recreation of the comics design. Mostly, it just comes down to style cues, resulting in a slightly “friendlier” looking Goblin. Surprisingly, Green Goblin got his own sculpt, which shared no pieces with Series 1’s Hobgoblin. I think that may be the only time these two have both appeared in a line with no re-use at all. Impressive. The sculpt itself ends up being quite impressive, with not only some pretty good proportions, but also some killer texturing, especially on the scaly arms and legs. They aren’t super-detailed like some of the sculpts that followed, but they are a great example of using just enough detail to suggest the rest (which, incidentally, is how Goblin was drawn for most of his classic appearances). Also, it’s an odd thing to point out, but this figure has some of the best hand sculpts of any figure from this time. Most were molded in a generic clasping positon, but Goblin has one splayed as if it’s just thrown a pumpkin bomb and one in a pointing position. I don’t know what he’s pointing at, but at least it’s different. Goblin’s paintwork isn’t quite up to the same level as the sculpt, but it’s pretty much on par with just about everything else being offered at the time. The colors match up pretty well to the show’s design. The colors don’t so much match up to themselves, however. The purple ends up changing a few times over the course of the figure, which is rather distracting. There is also some rather noticeable bleed over around the edges of the gloves and boots, and the edges on the shorts aren’t even close to being even. Green Goblin included his faithful goblin glider (which even launched missiles) and a pumpkin, but pesky child-Ethan lost them!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As into the ToyBiz Marvel stuff as I was as a kid, I actually ended up avoiding a lot of the Spider-Man line. The cartoon never really gripped me like the others, so I just never really had the connection. So, Goblin here wasn’t part of my “initial collection.” He was a later acquisition, fished out of a bin of low priced figures at a nearby comic book store sometime around the mid-00s. I don’t know exactly why I picked him up, but I imagine I was just filling in some gaps in the collection at low prices. Going back to review this guy, he surprised me. With most of the 5-inch figures, the nostalgia filter is firmly in place, but not for this one, and yet he still impressed me. That really says something.

Ah yes, this was the first review following 2015’s “Stapler In Question” gag, which was my second April Fools Day post.  I had originally pegged this figure as the subject of that year’s gag post, but I couldn’t come up with any good gimmicks, so he was pushed back a day, and the Stapler replaced him.

My review for this guy was pretty on point.  I had thoroughly shaken the off slump that plagued a chunk of my 2014 reviews, and was back to having some more fun with the writing again.  It probably helps that he immediately followed my SiQ review, which really reignited my writing spirit.  It should be noted that this was my second-to-last review to be published using one of my old catalogue shots.  He still had a Wilson photo I’d shot later, but I apparently deemed the original lead photo as “good enough.”  Not something I’d do nowadays, or even a month after for that matter.

Missing from my original review were his Goblin Glider and pumpkin bomb.  They cropped up during The Find.  Still don’t have the glider’s missiles, and technically there should be a second bomb, but I’m calling this close enough.   The glider is a little on the flat side, but not a bad piece for the time, and it’s honestly not noticeably worse than any of the other pack-in gliders we’ve gotten (barring the Famous Covers one, because that thing is goddamned perfection).  The pumpkin bomb could actually plug into the base of GG’s right hand, allowing for some pretty sweet posing options.  Nice forethought on that guys!

I was pleasantly surprised by this guy when I reviewed him the first time, and I’m still surprised by how much I like him now.  And, as an added bonus, he’s even more complete!

#0984: Jack O’Lantern

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

JACK O’LANTERN

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

JackOLanternTB1

During their lengthy run doing 5-inch Marvel figures, Toy Biz really took a stab at getting out as many characters as they could, even if they were rather obscure. Though they never got as far into any property as they did X-Men, their Spider-Man line sure gave it a shot. Among the huge slew of villains the line gave us was the very first action figure of the somewhat offbeat villain Jack O’Lantern, which is the figure I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

JackOLanternTB2Jack O’Lantern was released in the “Bug Busters” series of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man line. He was an interesting inclusion, seeing as he wasn’t ever featured on The Animated Series, but this was around the point that Toy Biz was moving away from using the cartoons as an influence in general. The figure stands about 5 ½ inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  This figure is based on the classic Jack O’Lantern design, which means it can serve as both the Jason Macendale and Steve Levins (the first and second Jack O’Lanterns), since they both had essentially the same design. Sculpturally, this figure was totally unique, which is both a blessing and a curse. On the plus side, the more character specific details, such as his head and his scale-mail tunic, are handled very nicely. The downside is that this figure came at the height of Toy Biz’s fling with oddly proportioned figures. The hands are enormous, dwarfing even his extra-large head, but they’re attached to a rather scrawny set of arms. Well, maybe the arms aren’t scrawny. From some angles, anyway. What they really are is flat. Jack also has in impossibly tiny waist and pelvis, which continues into a rather large set of thighs. He’s definitely got an odd appearance. The paintwork on Jack is pretty solid. He matches the multiple tones of green from the comics quite well, and he’s even got some very nicely rendered accent work on his head and torso. It would be nice if some of the accent work continued onto the rest of the figure, but it’s not too horribly jarring. Jack included a large bug thing, as well as a disc for it to shoot. These were both part of the gimmick of this particular series, and neither really adds to Jack in any meaningful way.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Jack O’Lantern is figure 13 of the 15 I got from this year’s Balticon. I didn’t have Jack growing up, mostly due to being relatively unfamiliar with the character. I’ve come to appreciate him over the years, and have been on the lookout for this figure since. Like a lot of Toy Biz’s output from right around this time, this figure shows his age. The goofy proportions are the biggest issue, though, given the character’s ghoulish look, they aren’t impossible to overlook. Not a bad figure at the end of the day.

#0983: Punisher

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

PUNISHER

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

PunisherWJ1

Hey! It’s another Punisher figure. That’s actually a pretty rare occurrence in my collection (since only own two of them). I’ve never been much of a Punisher fan, but Jon Bernthal’s truly amazing turn as the esteemed Mr. Castle in Daredevil has definitely changed my opinion, at least a little bit. So, let’s have a look at the second half of my Punisher collection!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

PunisherWJ2This Punisher was part of the “Monster Mayhem” set from Toy Biz’s 5-inch Spider-Man line. The set was initially a BJ’s exclusive, but it later showed up at KB Toys as well. All the figures in the set were loosely based around the “Man-Spider” arc from Spider-Man: The Animated Series. This figure stands 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. Structurally, this figure is the same as the last Punisher I looked at. It’s a fairly sensible re-use, since that figure was a fairly decent rendition of the animated design. The only downside to the sculpt is that it lacks any sculpted indication of a headband, despite there being one painted on. Speaking of the paint, it’s kind of the figure’s main selling point. The prior Punisher was based on his classic black and white look. When they were translating Punisher to animation, it was decided that black and white would be too hard to animate. So, he was given a slightly altered version of his War Journal look from the ‘90s, and that’s what this figure represents. With the exception of the clearly just painted on headband, the paint on Punisher isn’t bad, aside from the obvious wear and tear present on my figure. Punisher included a cloth trenchcoat (to complete the cartoon look) and a knife.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My dad bought me the whole “Monster Mayhem” set from the KB Toys in Rehoboth Beach, on a trip we took just after my brother was born. I remember being incredibly excited by the set, even though Punisher was not a favorite. I actually gave my original Punisher to my friend Charlie, who was a much greater Punisher fan than I, and seemed rather happy to have the figure. Of course, years later, I regretted this decision, since it meant my set was now incomplete. It’s okay, though, because I ended up finding myself a replacement at this year’s Balticon! Now no one’s the wiser….apart from everyone reading this review….which I believe actually accounts for about 100% of anyone who cares about my action figure collection in the slightest. Oh well.

#0971: Hydro-Man

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

HYDRO-MAN

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

Hydroman1

You know what the absolute best reason to create a new character is? To replace another character you can’t use at the moment. Seriously, that always results in a fully formed, exciting character, who’s just as exciting as the previous character. That’s why everyone’s favorite Red Ranger is Rocky, Heavy Duty is hands down the best heavy gunner G.I. Joe’s ever had, Chachi was the coolest guy on Happy Days, and Coy and Vance Duke were universally loved by all. What’s that? I’m wrong on every single count? Oh, my bad. Apparently, substitute characters aren’t a good thing.

So, speaking of substitute characters, let’s talk about Hydro-Man. Strictly speaking, he didn’t start out as a substitute, though he’s always been rather similar in concept to Sandman. When James Cameron was working on putting together a Spider-Man movie in the ‘90s (yeah, it was a weird time), he wanted to use Sandman as one of the main villains, and an embargo was placed that prevented using Sandman in any media outside of the comics. So, when Spider-Man: The Animated Series wanted to use him, they had to settle for Hydro-Man (the same thing happened when the Fantastic Four cartoon did the Frightful Four, but Hydro-Man had been a part of that team before). This meant that Hydro-Man also got his first shot at an action figure, courtesy of the Spider-Man tie-in line. I’ll be looking at that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hydroman2Hydro-Man was released in the “Spider-Wars” series of Toy Biz’s 5-inch Spider-Man line. The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation. Though he lacks any sort of elbow movement, he makes up for it with a disc-and-pin style joint for his hips. This makes him a bit imbalanced in terms of posability, but I’ve certainly dealt with worse. Hydro-Man is based on his look from Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which was a fairly faithful recreation of Hydro-Man’s look from the comics. The figure does an…interesting job translating his look to three-dimensions. Hydro-Man has always been depicted as being a pretty beefy guy, and this figure tries to convey that. He’s certainly big, but perhaps a bit too big. Well, in some areas, anyway. In other areas (such as the head), he’s too small. Hydro-Man’s been saddled with some pretty serious man-boobs. I think there was an attempt to make him muscular, but they missed the mark and he just ended up lumpy instead. Also, check out the mom jeans. Not exactly the sort of thing that makes for an imposing villain, there. On the positive side, the head sculpt, while a bit weird-looking, certainly has quite a bit of expressiveness. The arms are also pretty good. While I might like a pose other than straight-armed, the water effect is pretty believable and the overall sculpt is pretty cool. Hydro-Man’s paintwork is fairly straightforward, but also pretty solid. The application is nice and clean, and the translucent arms even have a few flecks of white paint to emulate the impurities in the water. Hydro-Man originally included a base to make it look like his lower half was also water, as well as a “water gun” for his left hand to hold. He also came with a small pump, which was used for his right arm’s water shooting feature. The pump could be filled with water and plugged into his back, and when squeezed, the water would shoot out of his right middle finger. It’s a rather gimmicky feature, and the removal of the pump results in a rather large, gaping hole in his back, which is slightly annoying.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hydro-Man is the ninth figure of the 15 figures I picked up at this past Balticon. I never had Hydro-Man growing up, but I did have the Sandman that was a repaint of this guy. This figure is super, super goofy, and probably not one of the better figures from Toy Biz’s run. But, you know what? I kinda love this guy. I can’t really say why, but I do.

#0828: Spider-Man 2099

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

SPIDERMAN 2099

SPIDER-MAN (TOYBIZ)

Spidey2099a

The 90s was definitely an interesting time for comics. Marvel was pretty much slapping their brands on whatever ideas they could to see what stuck. From this came Marvel 2099, a bunch of books set in the year 2099. Generally speaking, they tended to be 90s insanity at its finest, so most of them have been (thankfully) forgotten. The only one who really stuck was Spider-Man 2099, probably because a) his series didn’t totally suck and b) his costume was super cool. I think that second bit is the lion’s share of what made him last. The design also made him a natural fit for action figures. I’ve looked at his two most recent figures, but let’s look at his first action figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spidey2099bSpider-Man 2099 was released in Series 7 of Toy Biz’s 90s Spider-Man line. The figure is just over 5 inches tall and has 11 points of articulation. Structurally, he uses one of Toy Biz’s favorite 5 inch bodies, which was first introduced with the Octo-Spider-Man from Series 6. It’s a decent enough sculpt, with fairly balanced proportions. My biggest issue with this base body, which was the scrawny forearms, is not an issue with this particular figure, as he has a new set of forearms/hands, specially sculpted to reflect 2099’s clawed hands. These new pieces actually seem a touch on the large side for the body, though not to insane levels. 2099’s cape was handled via a cloth piece, which attached to the figure at the neck and wrists. It’s much more solid than it was in the comics, and it actually looks a bit better if you unhook it from the wrists. There were actually two different color variations available for this figure: dark and light blue. Mine is the lighter one, but the difference is fairly minor. The red detailing is handled via paint, and it’s applied pretty nicely. The red is a touch inconsistent, but it’s not bad. 2099 is packed with a big giant fiery axe (which came in both red and white variations), and a big giant gun thing. He’s never used either of those things, but it was the 90s, so…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

2099 isn’t one of the figures I had growing up, but he was one who always fascinated me. I ended up finding him at the last Shoreleave, from the same dealer who sold me Punisher, as well as a number of other 5-inch figures at Balticon. They really like me. Anyway, he was a little bit pricey, so I was going to hold off. However, Super Awesome Girlfriend was there, and was having none of that, so she bought him for me. One of these days, she’ll stop doing that. He’s a fun little figure, and definitely worth the purchase.

Spidey2099c

#0781: Beetle

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

BEETLE

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

BeetleSF1

Marvel has a great history of wacky c and d list villains that would get passed back and forth between their various leading heroes. One of my favorites is Abner Jenkins, formerly known as the Beetle. He’s kind of a low rent Tony Stark, which amuses me. Of course, he’s no longer The Beetle, he’s Mach IV of V or X or whatever he is this week. But that’s another story. Good ol Abner’s gotten a few figures over the years, but it all started with today’s figure, from the golden age of Marvel action figures, the 90s.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

BeetleSF2Beetle was released in the “Spider-Force” series of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man line from the 90s. It’s kind of funny, because he never actually showed up on the Spider-Man cartoon, but he did cameo in the Iron Man cartoon from the same time. He’s based on his “classic” look from the 70s-80s (officially known as his MK II armor), which is probably his best look. Curiously, this is the only figure of him to use it. The figure stands about 5 ¾ inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation. Of course, a lot of that articulation is rendered somewhat ineffective due to the use of these freaking “v” style hips, which make doing any real posing of the legs virtually impossible. Beetle sports a body sculpt that would go on to be used for a couple of Toy Biz Marvel figures, but I believe he was actually the first to make use of it. It’s a slightly wonky sculpt, with some weird proportions. The waist is definitely very thin for a guy this size, and the pelvis seems a bit high-set. The hands and feet are also pretty huge, giving him an overall very exaggerated look. The body also has a slightly pre-posed nature to it, though exactly what pose they were going for, I can’t say. The hands definitely suggest some villainous gloating, though. His head sculpt, which was unique to him, does a pretty decent job of capturing the classic Beetle look, though, like the rest of the figure, it’s a fair bit exaggerated. One piece BeetleSF3conspicuously missing from the figure is Beetle’s signature wing-pack. I’m not sure why it wasn’t included, but it makes an otherwise very accurate figure rather inaccurate. Beetle’s paint work is fairly straight forward, but generally well done, and it has a few nice touches. The purple areas are all done with a metallic finish, which looks really sharp, and the green areas have a nice wash to keep those sections from being too drab or boring. The accessories are where things get weird. The main gimmick of the whole Spider-Force series was that each figure came with this sort of a bug… buddy. So, Beetle comes with a giant beetle thing. Said thing can be taken apart and clipped onto Beetle, transforming him from Beetle into, to quote the box, “The Dangerous Beetle.” Because that lovely shade of salmon is just soooooo dangerous….

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Despite the fact that I quite like the character, and the fact that I had quite the expansive collection of 5-inch Marvel figures back in the 90s, Beetle was not a figure I owned until fairly recently. I ended up picking him up at this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con (from the same dealer who sold me US Agent, Lasher, and Hybrid). He’s definitely one of the more exaggerated figures Toy Biz put out, and the gimmick is goofy as heck, but he’s pretty cool figure.