Tag Archives: Toy Biz

#3491: Wolverine Combat Cave

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

WOLVERINE COMBAT CAVE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“The Combat Cave is Wolverine’s secret training complex in which he works to improve his formidable fighting abilities. A wide array of weapons and traps challenge Wolverine’s slashing skills to the fullest. Only after completing the combat Cave workout can Wolverine be certain that he is ready for the ongoing struggle against the Evil Mutants.”

Last week, I was discussing the presence of vehicles in ’90s action figure lines, and continuing down that path of figure-adjacent items from those lines, let’s follow up with a look into the wild world of playsets!  I’ve delved into them a little bit here on the site, but not in a terribly in-depth sort of fashion, and not for a good long while.  I’m dipping my toes back in today, starting off on the smaller side of things with the Wolverine Combat Cave!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Wolverine Combat Cave was released in 1991 alongside Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  It was one of two small-scale playsets that accompanied the line’s launch, both clearly meant to emulate portions of the Danger Room.  It would be rendered more or less obsolete by the larger X-Men Headquarters playset, which had a more elaborate set-up, but that wasn’t until 1995, so this set had a decent run of its own.  The Combat Cave measures 7 inches tall, 7 inches wide, and 4 1/2 inches deep.  The set required assembly when new, so you needed to pop the three walls into the base, as well as popping in a few other parts.  It’s a pretty small little area, but with a name that features “cave,” you’re not expecting a huge set-up, I suppose.  The sculpting on it’s notably not very cave-like, though.  It’s pretty basic and geometric, without much in the way of actual detailing.  As far as classic Danger Room designs go, it’s alright, I suppose.  The set has a few spots that are designed for more direct figure interaction.  You plug the figure onto the stand (which works with any figure with standard pegs, but is clearly designed to work directly with the Series 1 Wolverine), and there’s a lever to move the stand back and forth, as well as spin the figure on the stand.  All three walls get some sort of feature as well.  There’s an attack thingy mounted on the first wall with a bunch of different weapons, which you can move in and out towards the figure.  The longest wall gets a printed picture of Magneto that’s affixed to a sliding door, which has a circle in the middle that can be punched out.  On the last wall, there’s a “brick” section, which has a spring-loaded release, which flips the top half down.  The vast majority of this set’s coloring is molded plastic, but there are decals for the obligatory X-Men logo at the top, and the Magneto on the sliding door.  There’s also a small touch of paint for the mount for the logo, which I guess is cool.  Other than that, it’s molded red and blue-grey.  It’s an interesting color choice; certainly not my go-to for a Wolverine theme, but I guess it’s alright.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I came into the game a little late for these particular sets.  I recall seeing them in the booklet that came with my Sentinel, but that was really it, with the Headquarters being my main X-playset as a kid.  I added this particular one to my collection when I came across a sealed one for a remarkably good price at Player’s Choice, one of the two comic shops near where I lived when I was in South Carolina back in 2016.  It was sort of a comfort purchase, given it was my first real time away from home, and I rather vividly recall sitting down and assembling it in my old living room.  It’s a kind of a goofy little set, but it’s a fun little stepping stone towards the more complex stuff from later.

#3486: Wolverine Jeep

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

WOLVERINE JEEP

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Whether he’s on a top-secret mission with his fellow X-Men or off on his own tacking one of his many adversaries, Wolverine needs a powerful rig to cover any terrain he might encounter! Thus, the creation of this custom-made jeep, designed to operate under the harshest conditions—just about the only conditions Wolverine ever finds himself in!”

In the ’90s, when action figure buying was at a definite high, figures didn’t just function on their own.  Oh, no, they also got stuff to accent.  There were playsets.  There were vehicles.  Oh, how we sang the songs of…something.  Look, it was a different time.  There was a Jeep in every toy line.  Or a Jeep in multiple toy lines, at the very least.  Most importantly (to me, anyway), there was a Jeep in the X-Men line.  And, you know what, I’m gonna look at that today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Wolverine Jeep was added to Toy Biz’s X-Men line in 1995, alongside a similarly scaled Mini-Blackbird vehicle.  For the initial release, it was officially titled “Wolverine Jeep” and sold sans-figure.  It saw three re-releases, all of which changed it to “Wolverine 4×4” (presumably having something to do with Jeep not approving the use of their name), and added a 5-inch Wolverine figure to the mix.  The vehicle measures about 9 inches long by 4 1/2 inches tall by 4 inches wide, and it’s scaled to Toy Biz’s 5-inch line, at least at the earlier end of things.  While Wolverine had driven a number of actual Jeeps in the comics and the cartoon, this particular item wasn’t specifically based on any of them, instead crafting something that is vaguely Jeep like, while also kind of being more toyetic, I suppose.  The later descriptor of 4×4 is honestly a more accurate one, which may have added to the push to re-name it.  The sculpting for this thing was all-new in ’95, but of course it would get the three aforementioned re-releases, and was even repainted for Toy Biz’s Spider-Man line as well.  It’s a pretty decent little set-up.  There’s seating for two standard-sized figures, and even some space for storage in the back, if you wanted to throw some accessories or something back there.  The wheels all can spin just fine, and you can even put the windshield down if you so choose.  In its default configuration, it’s just a pretty sensible car.  But it’s also got an action mode, because it was for a toy line.  All four wheels get adamantium claws that pull out, and pressing the steering wheel pops open the hood of the car, revealing a rotating grinder.  For grinding purposes, I guess?  The box shows Sabretooth getting thrown in there, which feels like it would be pretty messy, but he’s also Sabretooth, so he can probably handle it.  Paint work on this thing is at a minimum; there’s a little bit of base work for the blue and black detailing on the main body, but it’s otherwise just down to decals.  They work pretty well, and I especially like the printing for the headlights.  The Jeep was packed a gripping claw piece that mounts on the back, as well as a missile launcher….which launches a claw missile.  Say, do you suppose they really wanted to theme this thing around claws?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In 1995, I was only just discovering my love of Jeeps, so I didn’t jump on this one the way you might assume.  I was more invested in the Blackbird, I suppose.  It was actually a good long while before I got this one.  I snagged it from a store in my family’s usual vacationing spot, back in the fall of 2019.  It was still sealed, and it was pretty cheap, so it’s kind of hard to pass-up that sort of thing.  It’s a fun, if perhaps gimmicky, little vehicle.  Now, I just have to find all the variants on it, I suppose.

#3451: Wild Thing

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

WILD THING

MARVEL COMICS 2 1ST APPEARANCE (TOY BIZ)

“The young woman known as Rina Logan is the daughter of the mutant Wolverine and the ninja, Elektra.  Trained by her parents from childhood to take their place as a superpowered hero, she uses her inherited mutant healing factor and enhanced senses along with her incredible martial arts skill to fight for what’s right as the Super Hero code-named, Wild Thing.  Unlike her dad, Rina slices through her opponents with claws made up of psychic energy instead of Adamantium and prefers to fight alone instead of as a member of a team.”

Ah, yes, Wolverine and Elektra.  The classic pairing.  There are no two more entwined than these two.  When you think of one, how can you not think of the other?.. Have I done the bit enough?  Can I stop now?  Cool.  So, as I was touching on last week, some of the legacy characters in MC 2 were pretty natural, and some were…less so.  Wild Thing seems to largely exist because Wolverine and Elektra were both popular in the ’90s, and they’re thematically similar enough to sort of work? Well, whatever the case, she got a toy.  Here it is.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wild Thing is the  final of the four figures in the PX-Exclusive MC2 1st Appearance line that Toy Biz released in 1999. She, like American Dream, hasn’t had any figures since this first one. Also, despite her parentage, she’s easily the most minor of the four characters in the line-up.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation.  Most of her articulation is honestly pretty pointless. The neck can’t move because of the hair. Shes got nothing at the elbows, and there’s the dreaded v-hips.  The shoulders are at least pretty useful, so there’s that.  Wild Thing is built on a modified version of the Death Bird body. It’s decent enough, if perhaps a little stiff.  She gets a surprising number of elements specific to her design, as well as an all-new head sculpt.  It’s an alright offering, but you gotta love the sheer absurdity of the Wolverine mask with the Wolverine hair and then a pony tail on top of that.  In general, it’s a decent enough sculpt, on par with most of the others of the era, but of the four in this line, she definitely feels like the weakest.  She does get a little bit of a mixed media thing, with a proper cloth sash, rather than a sculpted one.  Wild Thing doesn’t have a particularly thrilling or pleasant color scheme, but that’s hardly the fault of the figure.  The paint application’s a little fuzzy on the edges, but overall, things look alright.  I do really like the clear pink plastic used for the psychic claws.  Wild Thing was packed with the break-apart doors previously included with Battle-Ravaged Wolverine, which are really always a fun piece to see crop up.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve got no attachment to Wild Thing.  I know her exclusively because of this figure.  If I weren’t aiming to get the whole Toy Biz run, I’d definitely pass her up.  In fact, I really only bought her at all because the antique store where I found Stinger *also* had her, and if I was already buying one, I might as well buy the other.  She’s honestly better than I’d expected.  Still my least favorite of the four, but I’m glad she came along for the ride.

#3446: Stinger

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

STINGER

MARVEL COMICS 2 1ST APPEARANCE (TOY BIZ)

“Cassie Lang, the daughter of the retired miniature Super Hero Ant-Man, followed in her father’s footsteps by becoming a brilliant scientist, as well as a costumed adventurer. She possesses the ability to shrink to the size of an ant, fly on wings that sprout out of her back while in miniature size and shoot powerful stinger blasts from her wrists. She currently uses her vast intellect, courage and battle prowess as a member of the next generation of Avengers, A-Next.”

The MC2 universe was big on legacy characters for its future, and while a lot of those legacy characters existed only for that universe, there were some preexisting characters that got aged up for their roles. One such character was Cassie Lang, who took on the role of Stinger, a sort of merging of Wasp and Ant-Man.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Stinger was released in the PX-exclusive Marvel Comics 2 1st Appearance series, which hit in 1999. This was our first Cassie figure, but not our last. We’ve even gotten Stinger as a Marvel Legend (though, officially she was the mainstream Cassie, but still). This was still the first one, though. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 14 points of articulation.  Stinger, like American Dream, is built on the Vindicator base body.  It’s a decent enough starting point.  Perhaps a little bulky for Cassie, but it’s her MC2 version, so she’s supposed to be a little older.  She gets a new head, forearms, and a modified torso to add attachment points for her wings.  The head seems a little bit small, especially since it’s supposed to be helmeted and all, but it’s decently sculpted beyond that.  The new forearms add her gauntlets, which are pretty nice, and something notably not featured on her later Legends figure.  The new torso and wings are decent enough, though the actual joints on the wings are a little loose.  Stinger’s color work is pretty solid.  The application of the paint is all pretty cleanly handled, and like American Dream, she’s got some pretty cool accenting.  Her skin tone is a little inconsistent, but beyond that it all looks pretty good.  Stinger is packed with a launcher base, re-used from Invisible Woman, but in translucent purple, as well as a trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Stinger is a very recent addition to my collection, which is honestly surprising, because she’s the one figure from the set that I kept meaning to go back for, what with her being the first Cassie Lang figure and all.  I wound up snagging her from an antique store that I hit up on a day trip with the family a few weeks ago.  She’s not a perfect figure, but she’s pretty fun, like the other two I’ve looked at.

#3441: American Dream

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

AMERICAN DREAM

MARVEL COMICS 2 1ST APPEARANCES (TOY BIZ)

“When Captain America disappeared, Shannon Carter took over the battle to uphold his fight for truth and justice. Calling herself “American Dream”, she uses her fighting skills, acrobatic abilities and keen strategic mind to help defend the world from the forces of evil as a member of A-Next, the next generation of Avengers. American Dream originally threw miniature discs to knock out her opponents, but now proudly uses the indestructible shield passed down to her by her inspiration, Captain America.”

After the success of Spider-Girl led to the launch of the whole Marvel Comics 2 line, they were in need of some characters to fill things in.  What resulted was a mix of old and new, with a definite theme of lineage and legacy in play.  The Avengers’ legacy was carried forward by “A-Next,” which included amongst its members Shannon Carter, niece to Captain America’s old flame Sharon (who was herself the younger sister niece grand-niece to Cap’s old flame Peggy…), who took up the name “American Dream,” and served as the team’s analogue to Cap.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

American Dream is another figure from the four figure Marvel Comics 2 First Appearances line, released in 1999 as a Previews-exclusive.  She’s one of the two characters in the set who hasn’t gotten any sort of update.  Perhaps one day we might see a Legend, but today is not that day.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 12 points of articulation.  American Dream uses the Vindicator body as her starting point.  It’s honestly not a terrible piece of work; proportions are still a little skewed, but that was the norm for this era.  She got a new head and forearms, as well as tweaked shins and feet, which give her the proper change-ups for her design.  Due to the nature of her hair sculpt, her neck articulation is pretty limited, but beyond that, things all mesh together pretty well.  The arms and legs add the small little discs, which served as her main offensive attack in her earlier appearances, which is definitely cool.  The paint work on the figure is appropriately bright and eye-catching, as you would expect a Cap-inspired patriotic scheme to be.  There’s some sloppiness, especially on the red and white striped section in the middle.  There’s some pretty impressive air brushed accenting on the costume, which actually really gives the sculpt a great deal of pop, and is decently consistent from piece to piece.  American Dream is packed with Cap’s shield, which she eventually added to her arsenal alongside the discs, as well as a trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in my Spider-Girl review, I didn’t get any of this set as a kid.  Once I got back into my Toy Biz collecting, this one was the first of them I snagged, partly due to my love of all things Cap, and largely because she was just one of the first two I found in-person.  I don’t know that she’s quite as good as Spider-Girl, but she’s still pretty solid, and certainly a lot of fun.

#3436: Spider-Girl

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

SPIDER-GIRL

MARVEL COMICS 2 1ST APPEARANCES (TOY BIZ)

“May ‘Mayday’ Parker is the daughter of Peter Parker, the one true Spider-Man. Like her famous father, she has the proportionate strength, speed, agility, and early warning danger sense of a spider and she can crawl up walls. May first became a costumed crime fighter in order to save her parents from an attack by the Green Goblin and now uses her powers to continue her retired father’s battle against the forces of evil, while still trying to maintain a normal life as a teenager.”

During the continuity dumpster fire that was “The Clone Saga,” one of the story elements introduced to give the “real” Peter Parker a reason to pass the role to Ben Reilly involved Peter and Mary Jane having a child. By the end of the story, the child seemingly died, leaving Peter and MJ childless and carefree(ish) once more. The whole angle was rather quickly revisited in the pages of What If…?, and proved popular enough to launch a whole line of alternate universe stories, dubbed “MC2.” Central to the whole thing was Peter and MJ’s daughter, now a teenager, going by Spider-Girl. While the rest of the universe did well enough, Spider-Girl was a break away hit. Her series ran 100 issues, and she’s even made return appearances in crossovers such as “Spider-Verse” and “Spider-Geddon”. She’s had a few figures over the years, including he debut figure during Toy Biz’s 5-inch days, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Girl was part of the four figure Marvel Comics 2 First Appearances line, offered up in 1999 as a Previews-exclusive.  She’s by far the star piece of the set, and is one of two Spider-Girl figures offered that year (and one of three Mayday Parker figures, if you count the Earth X Venom), with the other being the similarly PX-exclusive Famous Covers figure.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 13 points of articulation.  She represents Toy Biz experimenting a bit with articulation, before going totally crazy with Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends, so she’s a bit more mobile than the average 5-incher, albeit with the v-hips that I don’t generally dig.  At least everything else distracts from them, I suppose.  Spider-Girl was a mix of old, new, and shared parts.  The beginnings of her sculpt come from the Alpha Flight line’s Snowbird, from whom she borrows her arms and most of her legs.  She gets a tweaked torso piece, which she shared with the Greatest Moments Dark Phoenix figure from the same year.  She also gets her own head and feet, as well as add-ons for the web-shooters.  The head is basic, but different from the Spidey heads, which is cool, and the feet are flat-footed, rather than high-heeled, making her a far more stable figure than the others built from similar parts.  It’s all a pretty solid recreation of her comics design, and a pretty balanced looking figure overall.  Her paint work is actually rather decently handled; the webline detailing is all sharply applied, and the base colors don’t have any notable issues with slop or bleed over.  There’s a little bit of wonkiness on how her spider-emblem is placed, but it generally works.  In terms of coloring, there were two different color set-ups for the Ben Reilly costume at this point, so this figure sort of splits the difference between the two, which is honestly the best of the three choices, really.  Spider-Girl was packed with a large web piece, as well as a trading card.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I very much recall when these figures were released, but I didn’t read any of the comics at the time, so I didn’t know any of the characters, and as such I passed on the whole lot.  I’ve come to regret that a bit over the years.  Thankfully, I’ve been able to slowly piece together a full set.  Spider-Girl was the second of them I got, grabbed from a comic store that was doing a clearance on a bunch of 5-inch Marvel figures, in fact.  She’s honestly a pretty great figure, especially for the time.  Also, fun fact: I shot these photos with the assistance of my daughter Aubrey, who was absolutely fascinated with her the whole time!

#3365: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Studying the genetic structure of Scott Summers’ family for many years, Mister Sinister took special care when mutating Cyclops into the one-eyed mutant monster Cyclaw! A bizarre genetic creation, Cyclaw is a one-eyed beast with optic blasts that disintegrate whatever they hit! Completely under the control of Mister Sinister, Cyclaw is Sinister’s chief weapon against the remaining X-Men!”

At the end of the ’90s X-Men toyline from Toy Biz, they got much more experimental with themes.  1997 seemed to hit peak levels of weirdness for that experimentalness, including turning a bunch of the team into monsters.  You know, as you do.  Amongst the X-Men getting all monster-ized was Cyclops.  Big surprise, I have a Cyclops figure to review.  I know.  Crazy.  Anyway, let’s look at the figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is part of the “Monster Armor” series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, which was the line’s 20th assortment.  He was the line’s sixth version of Cyclops.  The standard portion of the figure is sporting Scott’s Jim Lee costume, which made its second appearance in the scale here, after Cyclops II.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation.  This assortment’s articulation set-up marked a move towards slightly less posable, and slightly more detailed sculpts, as Toy Biz attempted to emulate some of the McFarlane style that had become so popular towards the end of the decade.  Scott made out alright, though he lost elbow and knee movement.  On the flip side, he got universal joints at the shoulders, and a swivel at the waist.  I’ve actually looked at most of this figure’s sculpt before; it was re-used the next year for the X-Men vs Street Fighter version of the character.  The unique piece between the two was the head sculpt.  This one is a far more intense sculpt, with his head back and his expression screaming.  It’s not exactly an all-purpose sort of sculpt, but I guess it’s unique.  It also fits that whole “I’m transforming into a monster” vibe that the whole set was going for.  The figure’s paint work was more on the basic side.  His colors were very bright; arguably too bright for his design, and that’s something the X-Men vs Street Fighter figure would adjust.  Cyclops, like the rest of the series, was packed with a selection of clip-on Monster armor, which turns him into “Cyclaw,” which is kind of a lackluster name.  There’s a mask, “gloves”, and “boots.”  My figure is missing the feet pieces these days, but beyond that, the remaining pieces are appropriately grotesque and horrifying.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Cyclops was, unsurprisingly, the only one of this set that I got when they were new.  Look, I liked Cyclops, okay?  He got some play time as my standard Cyclops, before getting pretty quickly replaced by the Vs version.  Something about the head always seemed a little off to me, but I really liked the monster set-up, so that got a lot of use.  And, honestly, that was kind of the main point, right?

#3360: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA VS MORRIGAN

MARVEL VS CAPCOM (TOY BIZ)

“When Steve Rogers volunteered to serve his country by undergoing the experimental super-soldier augmentation process, Captain America was born. Captain America is the defender of truth and justice, and is the living embodiment of freedom. He has sworn an oath to protect the weak and shepherd the innocent. Armed only with an unbreakable shield, Captain America guards the freedoms held most dear.”

Remember when you had go out to a place to play a video game?  Pepperidge Farm remembers.  Okay, it’s a little more than that, right?  In the ’90s, fighting games were a big craze in the arcade world, and comics, specifically Marvel comics, were big in other parts of the world, and some genius had the idea to smash those two things together.  First, we got X-Men vs Steet Fighter in 1996, followed but Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter in 1997, and then Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes in 1998.  With the games themselves a success, Toy Biz licensed the Capcom half of the characters, for the purpose of doing some two-packs interacting with their Marvel line.  Like the actual games, they started with X-Men, but they eventually expanded to the rest of the Marvel and Capcom universes for a short-lived line in 1999.  And all of this is a very long lead in for me saying “hey, look at the Captain America figure I’ve got.”  Oh, and I guess there’s another figure as well.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Captain America and Morrigan are one of the four two-packs that made up Toy Biz’s one-series Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of the Super Heroes line, which fell under their larger Video Game Super Stars branding.  They hit retail in 1999.

There was a surprisingly small number of standard Cap figures in the ’90s, and this one was on that rather short list.  The figure stands about 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He was on the larger side for Cap, at least in terms of height, though was not quite as crazy on the width as some of the other Toy Biz Caps.  His articulation scheme is amongst the best that this era had to offer, which was certainly a plus.  His sculpt was all-new at the time, though it was quickly re-used for the Silver Age line’s take on Cap, and the head got a subsequent re-use for the Greatest Moments Bullseye, all in the same year.*  It’s honestly a pretty respectable offering.  The head sculpt goes for a slightly more anime-styled look, which fits with the overall style of the game he’s meant to be based on.  It still captures his usual features, and keeps him from looking too angry or intense, like some other Caps ended up being.  The body sculpt is nicely balanced in its proportions, being bulked up, but not ridiculously so.  He’s still a little wonky in some spots, but for this era of the line, it was actually quite tame.  Cap’s paint work is generally pretty nicely handled; the base colors a touch more muted than usual, but not incredibly so.  There’s a little bit of accenting on the blue and white sections of the costume, which generally works pretty well.  The eyes get quite a bit of detailing, adding a lot of depth and life to his overall look.  Cap was packed with his usual shield; it was a unique piece, and, like oh so many Cap shields, the clasp on the back is quite prone to breaking.

Fulfilling the proper video game portion of the set, coming straight outta Darkstalkers, it’s Morrigan.  Look at her, over here, all Morrigan-y.  Oh yeah.  Morrigan.  ….Okay, I’m gonna be honest with you all here: I don’t really know much about Morrigan.  Or anybody from Darkstalkers for that matter.  I mostly know them as space fillers when Capcom needs more characters for a cross-over roster, which is probably really reductive, but it’s my site, and that’s where we are.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 11 points of articulation.  Despite having a lot of articulation, the actual range of motion on most of the joints is pretty restricted.  The head can’t really turn because of the hair and wings, the shoulders don’t really go any further down, and there’s always the dreaded v-hips.  It all makes her rather difficult to keep standing as well, which is really frustrating.  She got an all-new sculpt, which has a fair bit of pre-posing, but does honestly look pretty spot-on for the character’s usual look.  Morrigan’s paint work is all pretty basic, but it matches well with her character again.  Everything is pretty clean in application as well, so that’s nice as well.  Morrigan is packed with a small bat creature thing, which clips onto her wrist.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

In 1999, I had some sort of half-day at school, and my father had a dentist’s appointment that he was unable to get out of, the location of which meant there would be no time for me to go home and actually get anything that I could entertain myself with.  There was, however, a Toys R Us rather close to the dentist’s office, so my Dad took me in to pick out something to entertain me.  This Cap (and the Morrigan that was packed with him, I guess) was what I picked.  I was always in search of the best possible Cap for my collection, and this guy looked right up that alley.  He’s honestly my favorite of the Caps in this scale, and remained my go-to Cap pretty much from the time I got him onward.  Also, there’s Morrigan.  She’s there too.

*This mold was also the one shown on all of the packaging images for the Avengers: United They Stand line’s take on Cap, though it was replaced with an entirely different mold before they actually arrived at retail.

#3355: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

X-MEN: SECRET WEAPON FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“In an alternate universe very different from the one the X-Men come from, Cyclops acts on his own. Friend or foe, do not get in the way of Cyclops’ powerful optic blasts. With but the blink of an eye, Cyclops can punch a hole through the thickest walls or blast an opponent from the sky. Cyclops’ War Tank Battle Blaster is always at his side ready to unleash its secret weapon on any unsuspecting foes. Cyclops seems to be united against the evil mutant Apocalypse, but has yet to join forces with Wolverine and Jean Grey. Only time will tell if the three heroic X-Men will reunite for one final, ultimate battle.”

By the late ’90s, Toy Biz’s long-running 5-inch Marvel imprint had moved away from purely comics and cartoon adaptations, with their main lines based on Spider-Man and X-Men both getting a more toyetic flair.  In 1998, the X-Men line got the subtitle “Secret Weapon Force,” which meant plenty of wacky variants for the main characters.  The first assortment under this banner placed Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey in a *very* loosely AoA-inspired setting, with Cyclops in particular taking the “loosely” part of that to heart.  But hey, cool Cyclops is cool Cyclops.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops was released in the “Battle Blaster” series of Toy Biz’s X-Men: Secret Weapon Force line.  Where Jean was a straight-forward AoA Jean (with the slight irony of the package backstory saying she was actually the main universe Jean transported), the other three figures in the set differed a bit in their own ways.  Cyclops was perhaps the most different, since his design had little to nothing in common with the AoA look for the character, instead being more closely linked to the standard Cyclops look.  That being said, this figure sports a design that has no direct comics or cartoon source; he’s instead a toy unique look.  It’s honestly not a bad one, and it’s a little surprising that it never got worked in anywhere over the years.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  The entire Battle Blaster assortment was largely based around what Toy Biz could do with minimal new parts.  For Cyclops’ part, it means he’s almost entirely a re-use of the 2099 line’s Meanstreak figure.  The only difference between the two is the presence of a new visor, sculpted over Meanstreak’s face.  It’s a change that works surprisingly well.  It helps that the Meanstreak sculpt is honestly a pretty good one, meaning that he’s just a very playable figure.  The character specific elements are really kept to a minimum, with only the boots and gauntlets feeling very unique; even then, they read more generically ’90s X-Men anyway, so they still work fine for Scott.  His paint scheme goes for a rather different look for Scott.  There’s notably no blue, which is interesting, but also keeps him further from the Meanstreak origins of the mold, so it makes a degree of sense.  My figure’s paint has taken a beating over the years, as you can see, but he still looks pretty good all things considered.  Cyclops, like the rest of the assortment, was packed with his “Secret Weapon Force” weapon, which is dubbed a “War Tank Battle Blaster.”  It’s big and goofy, and curiously not color coordinated with the figure at all.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a very big Cyclops fan as a kid, and jumped at any chance for a new version of him in toy form, so I made a point of getting this figure early after his release, during a trip to the nearest KB Toys with my Grandmother.  I remember being very excited for him, and he spent a good while as my default version of Scott, even with the non-standard costume.  He’s a fun figure.  Just a good, fun figure.  And still one of my favorite Cyclopses, honestly.

#3350: Spider-Woman

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

SPIDER-WOMAN

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

“Single mother and Stark Enterprises Vice President, Julia Carpenter conceals a fantastic secret: she possesses the ability to weave psionic webs, and has the strength, speed and agility of a spider! Now, in the guise of Spider-Woman, Julia is determined to turn her astonishing abilities to the downfall of the Mandarin and his sinister schemes of conquest!”

Since Iron Man is a character that’s had a spotty track record with supporting casts over the years, when it came time to give him a cartoon in the ’90s, the show had to sort of make due with the super team he was running around with at the time.  Unfortunately, it was during the brief period of time where that team *wasn’t* the Avengers, and was, instead “Force Works,” a replacement for the Avengers West Coast team, which lasted an astonishingly long 22 issues.  Force Works adopted most of the remaining West Coast line-up, which included Julia Carpenter, the second Spider-Woman, who wound up as one of the members chosen to get the largest focus in the Iron Man cartoon, even remaining in the show when the rest of the team left during the show’s second season.  She got a figure out of the deal, as well, and I’m taking a look at that one today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Woman was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, as not only this series, but in fact the whole line’s only female figure.  Fellow team member Scarlet Witch was less fortunate (a streak that would continue for United They Stand‘s tie-in line), as was the villainess Hypnotia (who remains without any action figures to this day).   The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 6 points of articulation.  I’ve looked at Julia’s sculpt previously, once in its slightly modified form as Jessica Drew, and also in its completely repainted form as the Invisible Woman.  Apart from issues with the articulation, it’s actually not a half-bad sculpt, and its only flaw when used for Sue was the lack of eyes, which isn’t a problem here.  Other than that, it’s a rather nice, rather balanced sculpt.  The figure’s paint work is decent enough; to keep with her animation look, there’s a slight purple shade to the “black” sections of her costume, which actually doesn’t look half bad.  The application is a little fuzzy in some spots, but it certainly could be worse.  Julia was packed with her Psionic Webs, which were a big goofy purple thing, as well as an ID badge with her bio on it.  She also got an action feature; there’s a lever on her back, which flips her arms up rather spastically.  It was meant to be a “Psionic Web Hurling Action” according to the package, but it really just looks like she’s flipping over a table or celebrating a touch down or something.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spider-Woman is a figure that I don’t vividly recall getting.  I know she was still new when I got her, and that she was more than likely a gift, probably for either my birthday or Christmas.  I’d guess she came from my parents, since they’re the most likely culprits for purchasing her.  She’s one of those ones that I just recall always being in my collection.  She’s honestly a pretty solid figure, just start to finish.