Tag Archives: Toy Biz

#1720: Wolverine

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

WOLVERINE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“When it comes to fighting Evil Mutants, the X-Men know there’s no one better than Wolverine! With his razor-sharp adamantium claws, his lightning-quick reflexes and his unmatched combat experience, Wolverine can outfight anyone! Thanks to his super-fast mutant healing ability, in just a few short hours he’s totally healthy and ready for action again, no matter how serious his wounds!”

Would you believe there was a time when a Wolverine figure was an exciting and new thing?  I know, that’s a bit hard to grasp.  But, until Mattel’s Secret Wars line, there were no Wolverine figures at all.  And that one wasn’t even all that good!  He’d have to wait until 1992 for a second go, courtesy of Toy Biz’s then-newly-launched X-Men line.  He would be the first of very, very many.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wolverine was released in Series 1 of the X-Men line.  He was actually unique amongst the 5-inch X-Men figures for being in Wolverine’s brown costume.  It was still his current look when these figures hit (which is more than could be said for a number of his Series 1 compatriots), but it was quickly replaced by the returning tiger-stripe design, which would be the main focus for a good decade.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall (making it one of Toy Biz’s few offerings to truly stick to Wolverine’s proper stature) and he has 7 points of articulation.  His sculpt was new to him, and remained unique for all of Toy Biz’s run.  It’s a pretty decent one for the time.  While it doesn’t quite eclipse the likes of Magneto and Nightcrawler, it’s still really quite good.  The build of the body is probably the strongest aspect; Wolverine figures tend to overlook his distinctive stature, so this one getting it down so well is certainly notable.  The head’s not quite as strong.  This was really the first time that Logan’s hair was translated into three dimensions, so they were still sorting it all out.  It ends up looking a little goofy and sort of impossible, but it’s not terrible.  Wolverine’s paintwork is reasonable, though not anything outstanding.  The base colors are all pretty decent recreations of the comics look, and he’s rather eye-catching.  There’s some unevenness with the lines in a few spots, especially on the torso.  Wolverine was packed with his mask, which works surprisingly well for the scale, as well as a katana.  He was also the first Wolverine to feature the popping claw action, which allowed him to simulate Wolverine’s signature “snikt” move.  It robs his arms of any elbow movement, and the claws are required to be rather small to facilitate.  That said, it works reasonably well, and is certainly fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was too young to get Wolverine new, and he wasn’t one that was prone to showing up later on.  Fortunately, Cosmic Comix had me covered there, and I got this guy not too long after getting into collecting.  He’s actually not a bad figure, and despite the sort of odd removable mask, it was one of the better Wolverines from the line.

#1705: Magneto

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

MAGNETO

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“The evil mutant master of magnetism, Magneto is the arch-enemy of the X-Men. With his magnetic power, Magneto’s magnetic force can pull even the heaviest objects to him, throw them miles away, or cause them to shatter with sudden explosiveness. Magneto plans to enslave mankind and mercilessly rule Earth with the other evil mutants. But first he must destroy the X-Men, the super hero mutants who are mankind’s defenders.”

Magneto’s first action figure came from Mattel’s Secret Wars line.  Though sold as a villain, the story was an early adopter of the heroic turn for the character.  By the time of his second figure, he’d run the whole gamut of villain to hero and back again.  It’s a little odd to see the character referred to simply as an evil mutant, but that’s where he landed when the team came into all of their notoriety, I suppose.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Magneto was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, as one of three villains presented therein.  Magneto had gone through a few different costumes by this point, but returned to his classic design just in time for this figure’s release.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Magneto’s sculpt was an all-new offering, and it remained unique to this figure all throughout Toy Biz’s tenure with the license.  Magneto sports perhaps the finest sculpt in the whole first series.  His proportions are notably less goofy and his posture far less stilted than other figures from this assortment.  He’s not painfully scrawny like Cyclops was, and he can actually manage some decent poses, unlike Storm.  His helmet was removable, and while that made it more than a little bit oversized, and just a touch goofy looking, it does mean we were treated to the fully detailed un-helmeted head beneath it, which does a very nice job of capturing Magneto’s usual stern but well-meaning expression.  Despite the big emphasis on the whole “evil” bit in the bio, that’s not quite what was presented by the figure here, and he ends up very true to the character in that regard.  Though later figures in the line would go the sculpted cape route, this one got a cloth piece, keeping with the vaguely Super Powers-esque aesthetic that these early Toy Biz offerings had.  Like the bulkier helmet, it’s a bit dated looking and slightly goofy, but it’s not bad for what it is.  Magneto’s paintwork is pretty straight forward stuff.  The red parts are all molded plastic, and everything else is painted.  Application is mostly pretty clean; there’s some slight slop on the boots and gloves, but it’s very minor.  In addition to the removable helmet and cape, this guy came with three pieces of “metal debris,” which, via magnets in his torso and hands, could be attached to the figure, thus simulating his powers.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I have two of this guy, and it’s all my dad’s fault.  Well, not directly, I suppose.  When I was just getting into collecting, my dad and I were doing a lot of tandem buying, where we’d both get something.  On one of our trips, he got this figure, and I really liked it, but I never ended up finding another at retail.  A few years later, I found this guy (along with Nightcrawler) at a flea market, sans helmet and cape.  Despite the missing pieces, that was certainly good enough for me, at least at the time.  In recent years, I become slightly more picky about such things, so I ended up tracking down a second one, via my friends at Yesterday’s Fun, and this one had the missing pieces.  This remains my favorite Magneto figure, and I’m happy to have a more complete release.

Check out this review’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum here!

#1691: Nightcrawler

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

NIGHTCRAWLER

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Nightcrawler is the X-man with the most amazing mutant ability – teleportation! Nightcrawler can instantaneously move himself to a spot up to three miles away in the blink of an eye. Nightcrawler is also an excellent acrobat. He can crawl up almost any surface. His amazing tail is almost like a third arm… not only can Nightcrawler hang from it, he can make it hold and use weapons ranging from swords to ray blasters!”

The first assortment of Toy Biz’s long-running X-Men line is a veritable who’s who of heavy hitters from the franchise.  It’s before they’d committed to going deep into the mythos the way later assortments the way they did later.  Included amongst those figures was fan-favorite Nightcrawler.  Interestingly enough, Nightcrawler wasn’t actually with the team at that point, having moved onto Excalibur in the mean time.  Nevertheless, they were going for more of greatest hits thing, so in the line he went.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightcrawler was, as noted in the intro, part of the first series of X-Men figures.  He was also re-released a bit later, during the “repaints” portion of Series 3, but unlike others in that sub-set, he was essentially unchanged.  The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Fun fact: when the prototypes for this series were first developed, the original plan was for all figures in the assortment except Nightcrawler to have the basic 5 POA.  That changed (mostly anyway), but it’s nice that they always planned to give Nightcrawler actual articulation.  His sculpt is the strongest of the Series 1 figures (rivaled only by Magneto for that title), and has aged far better than others.  He’s not as limited in movement as Storm, nor is he as rudimentary in design as Cyclops.  He’s actually just a pretty darn faithful recreation of the character’s ’80s design.  The only slight marring of the sculpt are the two suction cups mounted on his left hand and right thigh.  They’re super obvious, rather goofy looking, and not particularly effective.  I actually ended up prying them off of one of my two Nightcrawler figures, which improves his look a bit, though he’s still got the visible pegs.  Why they added these things kind of baffles me, since it mars an otherwise quite strong sculpt.  Nightcrawler’s paintwork is decent enough, being mostly pretty basic work.  It matches the others in the assortment, and his comics appearances as well.  Nightcrawler was originally packed with a cutlass, which both of my figures are, sadly, missing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got my first Nightcrawler from a flea market near my house.  He was my go-to version of the character for a long time.  And then I packed up a bunch of my figures like some stupid baby, and this guy got put in the box that ended up buried in the back of the garage, so he was missing for about 5 years.  In the mean time, I had tracked down a replacement.  Now I have both, and I couldn’t be happier, because, as I noted, he was my go-to.  I think he’s still my favorite Toy Biz version of the character.

#1685: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“The Invisible Woman loves to vanish into thin air! She can also use her amazing power to turn other people and things invisible too! The Invisible Woman can also create invisible force balls and discs that she can mentally throw at enemies. She can levitate herself and others out of harms way with this invisible force in the blink of an eye. Super-villains know that what they can’t see can hurt them when they have to fight the Invisible Woman! Use her invisible catapult launcher to spring her into action.”

The Fantastic Four seem to be in a better spot all the time.  After a few years of essentially not existing over at Marvel, this year, they’ll be making their triumphant return to the comics pages.  Yay for them!  They’ve also been absent from the toy aisles for a little while, but Marvel Legends are offering up some new figures.  There are also plenty of older offerings, one of which I’ll be taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman was released in Series 3 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line, and was then re-issued in Series 5 of the same line.  There were two slight variations on the figure, one featuring a color-changing feature, and one not.  This one is from the second group.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has (or had, anyway) 9 points of articulation.  The joints, particularly the neck joint, are on the fragile side, so mine has been repaired at the neck joint, rendering it motionless.  This figure’s sculpt was re-used wholesale for the Hall of Fame release, reviewed here.  It’s a dated sculpt, to be sure, and definitely looks clunky compared to later releases.  It’s got its charm, though, and it certainly fits in with the rest of the line, especially the other FF figures from Series 3.  The paint work is the main difference between this figure and that one.  Since she lacks the color-change feature, she’s not all washed out, which is a plus.  The application is pretty clean, and the palette matches pretty well with how she looked during the Byrne run.  Like the other figure, this one includes her weird Tron-disk, frisbee-thingy.  Still don’t know what that’s supposed to be.  She also includes a clear launch-pad stand, re-used from X-Force‘s Cannonball.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This was my first Sue Storm figure, purchased from KB Toys back in the day, when she was still relatively new.  It was either her or the Fantastic Four Series 2 version, and that one was all clear, so I opted for the one I could actually see.  She’s a dated figure, and has been surpassed by later versions, but she’s still special.

#1656: Fin Fang Foom

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

FIN FANG FOOM

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

“Little is known of the powerful and dangerous dragon Fin Fang Foom, only that is is said he is the Mandarin’s worst enemy and greatest ally. He occasionally comes to Mandarin’s aid when he is beckoned, but only doing so because he needs the power of the Mandarin’s rings. He knows that they hold the key to his way back home!”

The Iron Man cartoon from the ‘90s had some troubles finding some decent foes for Tony to face.  His usual gallery of rogues isn’t always the most thrilling.  Perhaps one of the coolest is one that’s not exclusively his.  In fact, it’s a character who wasn’t even created to fight super heroes at all.  Yep, Fin Fang Foom was not originally a super-villain, but instead comes from Marvel’s pre-super hero monster books.  After the super hero craze hit, he got refitted, and he’s been batted around the Marvel Universe over the years.  He’s only had three action figures in his run.  I’ll be looking at the first of these figures today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Fin Fang Foom is one of the three figures in the Dragons sub-set of the ‘90s Iron Man line.  He’s based on Foom’s design on the Iron Man cartoon of the time, which isn’t too far removed from his classic design.  I mean, he’s missing the purple shorts, but I suppose that’s not the end of the world.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  His sculpt was unique to him, and remained unique to him.  How many Jack Kirby-designed dragons are there that could make use of it?  Not that many.  To quote Highlander, there can be only one!  The sculpt is pretty decent.  Obviously, it’s a product of its time, and it matches up with the other figures from this line stylistically.  It’s certainly got some elements that are rudimentary in design, especially the legs, which have rather an inorganic shaping to them.  That being said, the overall look is pretty great, and the face in particular has a lot of expression to it, doing a spot-on job of capturing the show design.  The paint work on Foom is actually pretty subtle, with its varying shades of green.  The application isn’t super complicated or anything, but it’s cleanly done, and again, it matches the show pretty well.  Fin Fang Foom doesn’t have any accessories (though you do have to pop his wings into place out of the box), but he does have an action feature.  When you press the button on his back, his wings flap.  Nothing super complex, but a cool little extra nonetheless.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Fin Fang Foom was picked up a few months back from the bi-annual Dave Hart toy show.  I’d had my eye on him for a few years, but never gotten around to actually buying him.  Actually seeing him in person was enough to push me to grab him.  He’s kind of a dated figure, like a lot of these guys, but he’s still a pretty fun figure, and a nice piece for the collection.

#1644: Crimson Dynamo

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

CRIMSON DYNAMO

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

“As the United States had its armored champion in Iron Man, so did the former Soviet Union have their own crusader — the Crimson Dynamo! His first mission was to destroy the symbol of Western democracy — Iron Man — a mission which led to the first of many defeats for the Dynamo. As the Cold War came to a close, so did their animosity; now these uneasy allies focus their combined might against such foes as Fin Fang Foom and Titanium Man!”

The biggest problem faced by the ‘90s Iron Man toyline was Iron Man’s overall lack of a really strong rogue’s gallery.  I mean, he’s got Mandarin, and….alcohol?  That’s hard to do in a toyline, though.  Another good, solid Iron Man foe (and my personal favorite) is Crimson Dynamo.  Unfortunately, Dynamo wasn’t very prominent in the cartoon that the toyline was based on, so it took a few assortments.  Still, at least he got a figure.  Living Laser was on the show a couple of times, and he never did…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Crimson Dynamo was released in Series 4 of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, as the assortment’s only villain.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  This figure uses Dynamo’s armor design from the Valentin Shatalov incarnation of the character, which was the most recent version  of the character at the time of this figure’s release.  It’s got a lot more silver than most Dynamo designs (the cartoon even recolored the whole thing red to keep him consistent with other versions), and is a but thinner, making it much more similar to an Iron Man design.  Personally, I’d have preferred one of the earlier models, but I think it’s fair to say this version worked a bit better with the overall style of the line.  As with all of the Iron Men and War Machines of this line, Crimson Dynamo’s fished look is completed using a base figure with a bunch of clip-on armor pieces.  Dynamo had 9 clip-on pieces, for his chest plate, back plate, gauntlets, belt, boots, and helmet horns.  What’s that you say?  You don’t see any horns on his helmet?  Yep, mine’s missing his.  I’d have borrowed them from my dad’s figure, but his is missing them too.  They have a tendency to go missing.  Why they didn’t just make them a permanent fixture of the head is anyone’s guess.  I can’t imagine why someone would want him without them.  The rest of the armor is cool enough, though I’m not a huge fan of how the boots work, since they make posing the figure a bit difficult.  Another major issue with the figure’s design is linked to his action feature, which launches a missile from the middle of the figure’s torso, resulting in a big hole in the middle of his chest.  Another item that harms the integrity of the figure’s appearance for essentially no good reason.  On the plus side, the paint’s decent enough.  Moderate slop on the edges of the silver, but nothing too terrible.  Beyond the clip-on armor, Dynamo also included a flame-styled projectile, meant to go in that big gaping hole int he torso.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I believe Dynamo was a gift, possibly for Christmas.  I definitely remember getting one of the other Series 4 figures for Christmas that year, so I think Dynamo was part of the same set of gifts.  Honestly, Dynamo is one of the line’s weaker entries.  Off costume choice, and a number of very strange design choices in the actual implementation of the figure.  He’s hardly a bad figure, but he’s still a rather frustrating one.

#1627: Psylocke

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

PSYLOCKE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“A master of martial arts, Psylocke is also one of the most powerful telepaths on Earth! Focusing her mental power, Psylocke can create what she calls her “psychic knife”. Using this weapon, Psylocke is able to incapacitate her opponents without any physical injury! As beautiful as she is powerful, Psylocke is a key member of the X-Men team!”

Today’s review subject is brought to you in part by Tim, who ran through about five potential review subjects, before we both agreed to a Psylocke figure.  Sometimes that’s just how things work here at the FiQ offices (okay, it’s not so much an office as it is the Jeep Cherokee that we both happened to be riding in at the time).  So, without further ado, here’s Psylocke.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Psylocke was part of the “Light-Up Weapons” Series of Toy Biz’s X-Men toyline.  This was Psylocke’s first action figure, and is based on her Jim Lee-inspired post-mind swap look.  While it’s not my personal favorite, it’s the look that she was sporting for a decade or so and it’s how most people know her.  The figure stands about 4 3/4 inches tall and she has 9 points of artiuculation.  As with all of the figures in this particular assortment, she looses movement in her arms in order to facilitate the light-up feature, so her posablity is a bit down.  She’s also got the dreaded v-hips, so sitting isn’t much of an option.  Essentially, she’s only good for a basic standing pose.  ….Which is odd when you take into account the sculpt’s decision to give her very dynamically flowing hair.  That just ends up looking weird, like she’s standing sideways in a wind tunnel or something.  I mean, the rest of the sculpt is decent enough, though, and for all of her restricted posing, the figure has a natural sort of posture to her, so she doesn’t look too unreal.  The paintwork on her is alright, but has some notable flaws.  The straps on her arms and legs are really showing some slop, which is a bit frustrating.  Also, the coloring of her hair is a bit off, since it shouldn’t really be so much a straight purple color as a black with purple dye.  Psylocke was packed with her psychic knife (which is the basis of her light-up feature), as well as a more standard katana.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Psylocke is a recent addition to my collection.  I feel like I’ve been saying that a lot recently.  I swear, I had a lot of these figures growing up, I just happen to be reviewing the more recent ones.  Anyway, I picked her up back in December from Time Warp Toys, during Ellicott City’s Midnight Madness event.  She’s an alright figure, but, admittedly, not one of the stronger Toy Biz X-Men or even one of the stronger figures just in this series alone.

#1625: Mr. Sinister

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

MR. SINISTER

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Mr. Sinister is a mysterious Evil Mutant mastermind who loves to plot and scheme but prefers to let others do the fighting for him. But if he’s trapped and has to fight…watch out! He’s super strong and super tough…even cannon shells bounce off him! Mr. Sinister’s goal is to make everyone – even Evil Mutants – his slaves! And what scares everyone is the fact that he has the power to make that goal a reality!”

In the mid-80s, after reforming Magneto, killing the Phoenix, and thoroughly humiliating the Hellfire Club, the X-Men were in need of a new big bad.  Enter Mr. Sinister, a character with dubious origins and a dubious plan and a dubious obsession with Scott Summers that wouldn’t be fully explained for quite some time.  Even the bio here doesn’t really say much about him, since his origin wouldn’t actually be given for another three years after this figure’s release.  At this point in time, he still had the potential to be a dark take on the Shazam concept.  Kind of crazy, right?  Well, let’s just get onto the review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Sinister was first released in Series 2 of X-Men.  Despite the packaging showing him clean-shaven, that particular figure was sporting a goatee.  This fresh-faced fellow is from the repaint series, which coincided with Series 3’s release.  The only difference between the two is the facial hair, which isn’t even a sculpted element.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  He’s missing the joint at the neck that most X-Men figures, due to a light-up feature in his eyes, not unlike Series 1’s Cyclops and Storm.  The sculpt is pretty decent, and an early example of Toy Biz finding their footing, after the slightly more rudimentary sculpts in Series 1.  It may look somewhat familiar to my loyal readers, as it served as the inspiration for the smaller-scale Steel Mutants figure.  It’s a good summation of the character, especially as he was depicted in the late ‘80s.  The proportions are well balanced, especially for the era, and he’s got a passable amount of detail work.  Like the smaller figure, the cape is removable.  It still sits a little high, but at the larger scale, it’s not quite as bad.  The paint work on Sinister is passable.  Not amazing or anything, but it’s about par for the rest of the line.  There’s some slight slop, especially on the belt, but I’ve seen worse.  Mr. Sinister included no accessories, instead just relying on the previously mentioned light-up feature to add extra value.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mr. Sinister is a somewhat recent addition to my collection, in my current drive to get a complete set of ‘90s X-Men figures.  I picked him up last fall from House of Fun, fished out of their rather extensive selection of loose figures.  Mr. Sinister is actually a lot better than I’d been expecting.  The character’s never done a whole lot for me, but his design really suits an action figure.

FIQ Friday Fab Five at 5 #0002: Top 5 Spider-Man Figures

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Friday Fab 5 and tagged with , , , ,

What’s up FiQ-fans!  It’s the last Friday of the month, so that means it’s time for another FiQ Friday Fab Five at 5!  For my inaugural FFFF@5, I looked at the top five figures of DC’s number one hero, Batman.  Today, I’m flipping over to Marvel and their top hero, Spider-Man, and taking a look at the top 5 Spider-Men.  Obviously, this list is just confined to Peter’s classic red and blue number; the symbiote really deserves a list all its own!

#5:      Battle-Ravaged Spider-Man — Spider-Man Classics (Toy Biz)

Okay, admittedly, this guy’s not *technically* a standard Spidey.  But, let’s be honest with ourselves, Peter takes damage often enough that this might as well be as standard look.  2002’s Marvel Legends-prototype Spider-Man Classics gave us a handful of awesome Spider-Men in its short two series run, but I always felt this Battle-Ravaged variant really stood out from the pack.  In fact, up until very recently, he was the only Classics Spider-Man in my collection.

#4:      Spider-Man — Marvel Minimates (Diamond Select Toys)

Sometimes you get things right on your first try.  The first Spider-Man Minimate is definitely one of those times.  While later Spider-Mates have offered more accessories and greater detailing, it’s hard to beat this guy and all his simplistic glory.

#3:      Super-Poseable Spider-Man — Spider-Man: The Animated Series (Toy Biz)

Spider-Man’s a character that needs to be super-poseable to fully do him justice.  Early offerings from Toy Biz were decidedly more restricted in their mobility, so this Series 3 addition to the line put them all to shame.  Even two decades later, he’s still a pretty solid contender.  And, bonus points: he was my first Spider-Man figure!

#2:      Pizza Spider-Man — Marvel Legends Infinite Series (Hasbro)

There’s no shortage of really great Spider-Men in this particular scale, but there’s just something about Hasbro’s most recent update, affectionately called Pizza Spidey based on his rather amusing accessory slice of pizza, that just seems to get the character down pat.  The poseablity, the bright colors, and a selection of expressive interchangeable hands all make for a really fun figure that feels very true to the character.

#1:      18-inch Spider-Man — Spider-Man 2 (Toy Biz)

At 18 inches tall, this is definitely a monster of a figure.  He had the misfortune of hitting at a time when there weren’t many other figures available in this scale, but even as a standalone figure, he’s downright amazing.  Toy Biz took advantage of the larger scale to make him the most detailed and by far the most articulated version of the character ever made in figure form.  He carries a hefty after-market price tag for a very good reason.

#1585: Spider-Man – Battle Ravaged

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

SPIDER-MAN – BATTLE RAVAGED

SPIDER-MAN CLASSICS (TOY BIZ)

“The amazing Spider-Man uses his sensational spider-powers to protect society from the world’s most dangerous super villains.  It takes all of his super-human strength, speed, and agility to fight the forces of evil.  He often faces insurmountable odds and is forced to combat numerous opponents at the same time.  Not even his amazing early warning “spider-sense” can always keep him from being hurt in battle.  However, Spidey’s incredible determination and will to win lets him triumph in battles against impossible odds.  In the process, his world famous red and blue costume is often torn to shreds.  It’s a good thing our hero created his own costume and knows how to sew up a replacement.  Where else can a superhero bring their costume to be mended?”

Man, Toy Biz’s bios sure were in-depth, weren’t they?  I dig that they got all of Spidey’s usual descriptors in there.  Someone was having a good time with that one.

Spider-Man Classics marked Toy Biz’s first move towards the style that would define the industry for the next decade or so.  The first series was a smash success, and happened to feature both the basic and black-costumed variations of Spider-Man.  When it came time for the follow-up, they had to get a little more inventive for the necessary Spider-variants.  Hence, the Battle Ravaged Spider-Man, a figure I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Battle Ravaged was one of the two Spider-Man variants in Series 2 of Spider-Man Classics (the other was First Appearance Spider-Man).  This would mark Toy Biz’s second Battle-Ravaged Spider-Man, following the one from their 5-inch line years earlier.  This figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Rather than just going for a sort of generic battle-damaged look, this figure actually goes for a very specific look, namely Spidey’s damaged appearance from the Todd McFarlane-drawn “Torment” storyline.  It was a fairly pivotal storyline at the time of its release, and it helps the figure blend in well with the rest of the Classics figures, which had all followed a decidedly McFarlane Spider-Man aesthetic.  Obviously, this figure made use of a lot of pieces from the Series 1 standard Spidey.  That figure was very good for its time, and while some aspects of it haven’t aged the best, it’s still a solid offering.  He also gets a new head, right hand and forearm, left upper arm, thighs, and left shin.  These new pieces fit in seamlessly with the old parts, and the battle damaged parts look pretty impressive.  The head’s really the star part of the sculpt, being a pretty spot-on recreation of McFarlane’s battered Peter Parker.  The paintwork on this guy is pretty solid overall.  The colors are well chosen, and the black wash used all throughout the figure helps to really accentuate the detail in the sculpt.  There are some issues with some bleed over, especially on the parts showing the damage, but the overall look is good.  Spider-Man was packed with a wall-mountable display stand, depicting Lizard trapped under debris.  It’s actually really well-detailed, and he even has a jointed neck, jaw, and shoulder.  Very impressive.  Also included is a reprint of Spider-Man #5, which is part 5 of “Torment” and features a beaten down Spider-Man battling the Lizard.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Battle-Ravaged Spider-Man was actually my first Spider-Man Classics figure.  On a particularly rainy day, my Dad and Grandmother had taken me out.  We stopped by a nearby comic book store (which I, sadly, cannot remember the name of) which had this guy and no one else from the series, so he was kind of my only option.  Nevertheless, I thought he was really cool, so my Grandmother picked him up for me.  It’s a figure that shows its age, but I still really like this guy!