Tag Archives: Toy Biz

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0064: Avalanche

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

AVALANCHE

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

The week, she is once more at an end.  Honestly, feels like it flew by, but maybe not in the best way.  But, the main point is, we made it to Friday!  Alright!  Go us!  Let’s have another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, this time jumping back over to my little Toy Biz Marvel corner of the world with a return to Avalanche!  Why would anyone want to return to Avalanche?  Your guess is as good as mine.

 “A mutant with the ability to control earth and rock, Avalanche’s powers earned him a place in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants! Now operating largely on his own, or in the company of his allies, the Blob and Pyro, Avalanche strikes not so much out of hatred for normal humans, but from a desire to make a profit!”

Back in the ‘90s, the X-Men were super hot, and by, extension, the various X-Men spin-offs were super hot. X-Force, the spawn of everyone’s favorite artist Rob Liefeld, was inexplicably successful, but only the actual team seemed to get real notoriety. The villains were mostly forgettable, however, so for the toyline Toy Biz borrowed a few classic X-Men baddies, including today’s focus character, Avalanche!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Avalanche was released in Series 5 of Toy Biz’s X-Force toyline. He was the second of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants figures featured in this particular line, following Pyro. Seeing how the two of them were a semi-recurrent pair on X-Men: The Animated Series, it was a pretty sensible inclusion, I suppose. The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation. He got extra disk joints on his hips, which I guess was kind of nice. It does seem a little bit odd that Avalanche of all people got extra special articulation, but I’m not gonna fight it. HIs sculpt was all new to this particular figure, and it was fairly decent for the era. The proportions are a little exaggerated, obviously, but given that he was in the X-Force line, it’s actually fairly balanced. There articulation could perhaps be worked in a bit better, but it’s not awful. The details of the costume are pretty clean, and I do like the intensity of the expression on what we can see of his face. It’s a bit of a shame that his helmet is permanently affixed, since he had it off rather frequently on the cartoon, but it looks good, and that’s ultimately the most important thing. Avalanche’s paintwork is fairly standard, mostly silver and blue. It looks decent enough, though it’s perhaps not the most thrilling color scheme. Avalanche was originally packed with an “Exploding Rock Platform” which demonstrated his powers via action feature. My figure was purchased loose, however, so he doesn’t include this piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Avalanche is a rather recent addition to my ‘90s Marvel collection, picked up over the summer from Yesterday’s Fun. They had a number of old X-Men figures, and this was one I kept meaning to grab, but never got around to. He’s a pretty decent figure of a character I admittedly don’t have a ton of attachment to. Nevertheless, I’m happy to have him, and he brings me one step closer to completing this collection.

In 2017, when I wrote that review, I was batting back and forth between more comical reviews and more serious ones, and Avalanche wound up as the latter.  Alas, it means my witty intro about how he never got much of a a character arc beyond “being Pyro’s buddy” wasn’t until I reviewed his Marvel Legend.  I instead used this one to rag on X-Force a bit, which, you know what?  Fair.  My review of the actual figure seems pretty solid.  Still really don’t know why he got the extra movement on the hips, but it is what it is.  In 2017, he was missing his stand, but in 2026, he’s got it once more.  It’s a rather neat piece, and demonstrates the powers about as well as I think you can.  It also keeps him very stable, which comes in handy with those hips.

#4004: Gideon

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

GIDEON

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Imagine fighting a stronger and faster version of yourself. That’s what it’s like for the X-Men when they battle Gideon! Whether it’s one person or ten, Gideon can absorb the abilities of everyone he fights, increase that power, and turn himself into a super-charged version of his opponents. Not only that, Gideon is also one of the richest men. His ultimate goal is a mystery, but one thing’s for sure, he has the power and money to reach it!”

By the ‘90s, a lot of the new mutants introduced into the X-books seemed to rely pretty heavily on  one-upmanship and taking a pre-existing character’s power set and making it “cooler” or “edgier,” frequently by just adding “gun” somewhere in their description.  Today’s entry, Gideon, debuted in the same issue of New Mutants as Deadpool, and effectively takes Rogue’s power mimicry abilities and kicks them up a notch.  Also, fun fact here, he’s an “External,” a concept explored in the early X-Force run about a group of extra special mutants who are immortal and have been secretly guiding history for a very long time.  Because somebody really liked Highlander, I guess.  As with so any characters from early in X-Force, Gideon was touted as being a “big deal” before kind of quietly fading into the background and largely being forgotten.  He did get an action figure, though, so there’s that.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gideon was part of the first series of Toy Biz’s X-Force line.  There’s a lot of non-team members present, huh?  Also kind of amusing that Gideon predates the inclusion of both Cannonball and Sunspot, the two characters on the team he spent most of his time with.  They weren’t too far behind, at least, so it’s not the end of the world.  This was his only action figure, with no re-releases or variants even, so he was truly a one-and-done.  The figure’s just under 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He’s missing the elbows again, which was quite common in this first round of figures.  He seems rather small, again pretty common for this particular batch of figures.  Not sure why the X-Force line in particular seemed so small and shrimpy.  I’d say that makes him something of a Li’l Gideon, but I think connecting this guy to a Gravity Falls reference might be too high class for him.  Gideon’s sculpt is totally unique to him and…yeah, it’s certainly something.  Gideon had a number of looks early on, all rather out there, and meant to showcase his…look I don’t know.  He’s dressed like a cyborg chippendale or something.  None of it makes sense independently, much less as a whole cohesive thing.  I suppose it’s at least unique and distinctive?  Yeah, let’s go with that.  The actual quality of the sculpt is pretty similar to the others in this first series.  He’s kind of soft on the details, and the direct resemblance to Liefeld’s artwork is minimal.  He’s sort of pre-posed on the arms, but otherwise rather stiff.  He looks awkward for sure, and his ponytail is hanging in a way that doesn’t really feel natural.  His color work is…unpleasant.  It’s accurate…more or less.  The comics were back and forth on Gideon’s hair color; sometimes it was white, and other times green.  I think green might have been more fun, but they went for white, which is fine.  Otherwise, it’s *fine*.  Once again, not very cohesive, but the application’s clean enough.  Gideon is packed with a briefcase that has a removable katana.  You know, as you do.  He’s got an action feature as well, where flipping the lever on his back moves his arms up and down.  You know, as you do.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have a Gideon as a kid, but my cousin Rusty did.  Neither of us actually knew who he was, nor was either of us really much of a fan of the guy.  I later got that figure, in a bag with a bunch of others, when my grandparents’ house was being cleared out, and he was in *rough* shape, and I ended up chopping him up further for custom fodder.  The one seen here was a much later addition to my collection, circa 2018.  I got him sealed for super cheap, because that’s how things are for Gideon.  He then sat sealed until last spring when I decided to actually appreciate the stacks of Toy Biz figures I had sitting around, so I finally cracked him open and put him on the shelf.  He’s not a great figure.  He’s not a good figure.  He’s maybe a mediocre figure.  His design is awful, and there’s very little appealing about the final product, honestly.  But, there’s something sort of amusing about how poorly executed every part of Gideon’s journey to action figure was, so…I kinda love him?  Wait…when did that happen?  I think all this Toy Biz reviewing is starting to get to me.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0062: Green Lantern

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

GREEN LANTERN

DC SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

It’s Friday!  We made it to Friday, you guys!  High five!  Good for us!  Let’s celebrate with another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum.  I know, it’s such a special occasion.  Sticking to the usual, it *is* a Toy Biz figure, but in a break from the norms, it’s not Marvel, but DC.  Let’s take another look at Green Lantern!

The now defunct toy company Toybiz is a name that is most commonly associated with making Marvel toys. This isn’t surprising, of course. They ended up bailing Marvel out of bankruptcy in the mid-90s, leading to them becoming a part of Marvel proper and thereby passing the name onto Marvel’s in-house toy making branch. However, their first major property was not Marvel. No, it was actually Marvel’s main competition, DC. See, when Super Powers ended, DC was looking to move the DC license elsewhere. They turned to a small upstart company by the name of Toybiz, who launched a line simply titled DC Superheroes. The line was pretty much the same scale as Kenner’s Super Powers, mostly because it was pretty much just a slightly lower budget version of Super Powers. The sculpts were just slightly tweaked and made out of inferior plastic. Needless to say, DC wasn’t thrilled by this offering, and after just two series, the rights reverted back to Kenner. Today, I’ll be taking a look at that line’s version of Green Lantern!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Lantern was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s DC Super Heroes line. The figure is just shy of 5 inches tall and he features 7 points of articulation. The second series is a little different from the first in that they actually featured new sculpts, rather than just retooled SP ones. So, for better or for worse, GL got a brand new sculpt, wholly unique from his SP counterpart. I suppose it’s not fair to compare the work of Kenner at their prime to that of Toybiz in their infancy, but the sculpt of the TB Green Lantern is not up to the quality of his predecessor. The sculpt is wide and oddly proportioned. He’s got these bent arms, which are honestly impressive, because I’m surprised he could bend arms that thick. The torso is huge and ill defined, and the legs lack any real detail. The head looks not unlike a papier-mâché head sculpted over a balloon, which is not a compliment. To top it all off, the joints are horrendously obvious, to the point where you have to question if they did that on purpose. I suppose if I were really trying to find something nice to say, I’d say he bears a passing resemblance to the Filmation version of the character, which isn’t a terrible thing. The paint is…well it’s there. It’s mostly cleanly applied, but other than that, there’s not much to be said of it. The figure is incredibly shiny, which really plays up the whole obvious toy angle. The figure came with an array to let him squirt water from his ring or something. I don’t know, I bought mine loose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is another from the haul I picked up during the summer from the super cool Yesterday’s Fun. As an avid Green Lantern collector, it’s a figure I’d been looking to pick up for some time now, I’d just never gotten around to it. They had one for a reasonable price, so I went for it. Now I’m reminded of why I put off buying it. It’s not a terrible figure, it’s just overwhelmingly mediocre. It feels like one of those incredibly obvious toys they’d use on a TV show to more easily convey that it’s a toy. I just don’t quite know what they were thinking with this one, especially since it followed up figures that re-used the far superior Super Powers sculpts. 

This review came from way back in my first year, from right at the tail end of it, in fact.  While not the kindest review I’ve ever written, I can’t say I find it all that inaccurate.  I do think the Filmation angle’s grown more on me over the years, which has made my appreciation of the figure a bit greater.  In my original review, I was lacking all of the figure’s accessories, which I’ve subsequently replaced.  He has the apparatus for squirting water, as mentioned in the original review, as well as a power battery and a wearable prop ring.  The water squirting bit is very gimmicky, but fun, I suppose, and the other extras are actually pretty nice.

#3996: G.W. Bridge

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

G.W. BRIDGE

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Wherever there’s a private war being fought, or an Evil Mutant that needs to be captured, you’re sure to find G.W. Bridge, the special agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., America’s top secret, high tech security agency. This battle-scarred veteran is a weapons-master extraordinaire and has tracking abilities that put a bloodhound to shame. Everyone agrees that once G.W. Bridge is on an Evil Mutant’s trail, one thing is certain-that evil Mutant is as good as caught.”

Okay, so remember when I was talking about Kane a couple of weeks ago, specifically in regards to not really knowing a lot about the guy?  Well, we get to go down that path again, today, with GW Bridge.  Like Kane, he’s from Cable’s past, and he’s like, tough, in that sort of generic ‘90s way that people were tough.  He was also in SHIELD, so I guess that’s an additional thing he’s got going for him?  And, he was set-up to be such a big deal.  So, you know, here’s Mr. Big Deal himself.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GW Bridge was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s X-Force line, and that was it.  He had no variations, no re-releases, and no follow-up figures, so he wasn’t even on Kane’s level in that regard.  He’s seen here in his “Six-Pack” era attire, which s certainly his most Liefeldian.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  No elbow joints again, but he gets all the other standard movement.  He’s still pretty stiff, which was very common with these earlier figures.  His sculpt was new, and remained largely unique to him (though his head was re-used later for an unmasked Rhodey).  It’s pretty much the same quality as the other Series 1 X-Force figures, which is to say it’s rather soft in terms of details.  Also quite small given the ultimate direction of the line.  I think GW in particular seems sort of…uninspired?  He’s just kind of bland, and shallow, with his expression in particular seeming rather devoid of any sort of character.  Not even a Liefeld grimace.  His body sculpt is kind of awkward in terms of posing, and he’s also very difficult to keep standing. GW’s color work does its best to replicate his Christmas decorations-looking outfit, and generally does fine at that.  It’s prone to wear, as you can see from my copy, and there’s a fair bit of bleed over on the edges.  GW Bridge is packed with a “Rapid Fire Gun” accessory.  It’s an odd sort of rifle thing, which he can’t really hold very well.  There’s a switch on the side, which slides back and forth, in a sort of bolt-action motion, and there’s a clicking noise that accompanies.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I knew a little bit about GW Bridge as a kid, because I seem to recall him appearing as a SHIELD agent in something I read, and also the re-used head for that Rhodey figure.  I didn’t have a figure of him, though, because I can’t say he made much of a lasting impression.  He was pulled from the same bag of junk figures as Kane, and likewise given to me by Jason from All Time.  He didn’t have the gun, but that got re-used a few times, so I thankfully had a spare laying around.  Kane had some novelty, but GW rather lacks even that.  He’s just sort of unimpressive, and it’s kind of a shame he never got a better figure.

#3992: Shatterstar

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

SHATTERSTAR

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“An alien warrior from another planet, Shatterstar’s whole body has been scientifically redesigned to make him the ultimate warrior! That means his reflexes are super-humanly fast, his endurance is unmatched and his ability in battle is overwhelming. Shatterstar can learn how to use any weapon, no matter how strange, in seconds. But his favorite weapons are his swords which can easily slice through even the toughest steel!”

How often do you get to write a review of a guy who’s his own grandpa?  Well, if you’re me, about once every year and a half, averaging it out.  Admittedly, that’s literally all Shatterstar and Longshot, who are locked in a time-travel-based cycle of father and son…or something.  Look, we’re not gonna deal with that, because today we’re jumping back to a time before all of that, when Shatterstar was just a guy with weird two bladed swords and no discernible backstory or motivation at all.  Oh yeah!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shatterstar was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line.  It was his first figure, and one of three he got during Toy Biz’s run.  This one, unlike the later ones, was based on his original costume design, in all its inconsistent Liefeld-y goodness.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  His articulation is all the basics for the scale, and, unlike a number of the others in this first set, he even gets both elbow joints.  His sculpt was new, and remained unique to his release.  It’s on par with the other figures in the first series, which is to say it’s kind of an awkward sort of thing.  Details are kind of on the softer side, with his face in particular just sort of seeming like silly putty.  The build on him is skinnier than later figures, which is ultimately closer to Shatterstar’s usual build, especially under Liefeld, but he’s got an oddly small waist, and oddly large legs.  His stance is sort of stiff, and not really natural, and his feet are strangely positioned.  So, you know, the whole thing’s just rather awkward, is what I’m getting at.  It’s not really a shock this one never got re-used.  Shatterstar’s paint work is notably thick and shiny in its application, which makes him look especially fake and plastic, but…I mean, the color work is good, so there’s at least that.  Shatterstar is packed with a pair of his two bladed swords.  They’re both the same sculpt, which means the left sword’s blades angle the wrong way outwards.  That said, the sizing feels more accurate than the later ones, since they’re not too small, and the alternate coloring on the hilts is really nice.  Shatterstar has a “slashing” action feature; turning his waist swings both arms up and down in an alternating fashion.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Two-and-a-half decades ago, give or take, I was staying at my grandparents house, and found a random issue of X-Force (issue 6, I’m fairly certain), which my father had rescued from a donation bin while working at the library years prior.  It was my first exposure to the book, or Liefeld in general, and, being 8, I loved it.  Shatterstar was central to the issue, so my next trip to Cosmic Comix involved me getting this guy, because I thought he was cool.  He is absolutely not a great figure, but I loved him at the time, and it’s saddled me with this nostalgic twinge for Shatterstar ever since, which is, I guess, okay?  So, you know, I kinda love him, even if he’s not great. 

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0060: Thor

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

THOR

MARVEL SUPER HEROES (TOY BIZ)

When does a Flashback Friday Figure Addendum come a day late?  When it’s actually a Thor’s day!  …Get it?  Because, you know, it’s, Thor.  And Thursday’s his day?  Yep, I’ll just show myself out, then.  Actually, no I won’t, because it’s my site, so I kinda need to be here.  You guys are free to leave any time though, so, you know, just putting that out there.  Let’s look at Thor again!

“Thor, the legendary Norse God of Thunder, is the most powerful Marvel Super Hero. With his amazing hammer, Mjolnir, Thor can fly, smash through any obstacle and create and control the mightiest storms – even tornadoes and hurricanes. Though Thor’s home is Asgard, where all the Norse gods live, Thor spends most of his time on Earth with his friends Iron Man and Captain America helping them fight the forces of evil and injustice that threaten the world.”

Happy Thorsday everyone! …She already did this bit earlier, didn’t she? *sigh* This is what I get for letting other people write for the site. Well, there goes my intro. Anyway, I’m also looking at a Thor figure today, but I’m looking at the original, Odinson variety of Thor. This one hails from the ‘90s, which was actually a pretty barren time for Thor figures, believe it or not. There were only three figures of him in the space of the decade, and today I look at the first of those three.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Thor was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s Marvel Super Heroes line, alongside fellow Avenger and previous subject of review Iron Man. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation. He’s ostensibly based on Thor’s classic design, though he’s a bit removed from how he usually looks. See how he doesn’t have a cape? There’s no missing piece there; he just never had a cape. They left it out, for whatever reason. Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they were actually basing him on Thor from Adventures in Babysitting? I mean, he doesn’t look *unlike* Vincent D’Onofrio. Maybe I’m onto something here. Thor’s sculpt was unique to him, and follows the style seen with the likes of Cap, Iron Man, and Silver Surfer. There’s a definite Super Powers sort of aesthetic, albeit a slightly dumbed down version. It’s not quite as strong a sculpt as Series 1’s Captain America (which is probably my favorite in the line), but it’s certainly an improvement over the really goofy Iron Man sculpt. Still, he’s kind of oddly proportioned, and the hair just sort of looks weird suddenly stopping the way it does. Thor’s paintwork follows the sculpt in its strange lack of cohesion to his usual design. Instead of the usual black for the tunic, this guy’s got the same blue used on his pants. It makes for a slightly less bold look, and means he looks a little blander than usual. It probably that doesn’t help that the little chest circles are light blue instead of silver, and the helmet is just a straight white. The paint definitely seams a bit lax on this guy. Thor was originally packed with his hammer Mjolnir, which mine is missing. He also has a hammer swinging action feature built into his right arm.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Marvel Super Heroes Series 2 was pretty much entirely gone from retail when I started collecting, so I went quite a while without a Thor (all I had was the rather lackluster Marvel Masterpiece boxed set version). I ended up getting this guy over the summer, via Yesterday’s Fun. He’s okay, I guess. Not anything amazing, but he fits well enough with the rest of the set of Marvel Super Heroes Avengers.

This review originally ran second on the day it was published, following a guest review by my late wife Jess, who had reviewed the Marvel Legends Jane Foster Thor, and had, appropriately, stolen my thunder on the opening joke.  We’d actually deliberately planned it out that way, because we liked being silly in the public view.  That was quite a bit of fun.

I think my actual review on this guy was generally solid.  He’s got some issues that hold him back from being great, but in the larger context of Marvel Super Heroes, he works well enough.  What I was missing at the time were his accessories.  I called out the missing hammer, but neglected to mention that he also included a lightning bolt piece.  I have subsequently located replacements for mine, and along the way also determined that there were actually two lengths of hammer for this figure, one long, and one short.  There also exist two different molds of this release, one with a button for his hammer throwing feature, and one without.  Now I have both.  Hurrah.

#3988: Kane

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

KANE

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Evil Mutants watch out! The long arm of justice now has a name: Kane, the mutant with the “rocket-powered” hand! Few people know his past, and those that do keep quiet about it-if they know what’s good for them! Kane’s an expert tracker, and can master even the most complex weapons system in minutes. But his flying hand with its vise-like grip is his favorite weapon-and the one his enemies fear the most.”

Hey, here we are, back with more X-Force!  It’s a thing that I am most certainly an expert on, just through and through, because I know so very much about all the X-Force stuff.  Take for instance, Kane.  He’s…a guy named “Kane.”  Umm….evil mutants watch out?  Long arm of justice?  Expert tracker?  Kane?

Okay, joking aside, I know a little bit about Kane, who was introduced early in the X-Force run as a guy from Cable’s past back before they’d really nailed down what exactly that past might be.  He’s a member of Cable’s first team, “Six Pack” (yes, really), and he, like all the good mystery men from X-Men characters’ pasts is a cyborg.  He didn’t really take off the same way as others from the early days, but he got two figures before he faded into relative obscurity.  Here’s the first of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kane was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line that they spun out of their X-Men line.  He was subject to no fewer than four paint variations, concerning the color of his hair and the strap on his leg, and exactly how they were combined, but the sculpt remained the same all the way through.  The version seen here is the most common of the four, by virtue of being released on two separate card backs.  The figure stands a little under 5 inches tall (the early X-Force offerings ran a little bit small) and he has 8 points of articulation.  One of those joints is wrist movement on his left arm, which is actually just incidental movement, brought about by his “Snap Back Living Hand!” feature.  His hand is attached to a string that’s on a spring mechanism; you can pull it out, and then pushing the lever on his back snaps it back into place.  It’s an inoffensive gimmick, and it’s not a bad take on his “rocket-powered” hand.  It does mean you and spin his wrist, though, so there’s that.  His sculpt is rather common of these early figures.  It’s not crazy detailed, and, especially compared to Liefeld’s line-heavy illustrations, looks rather basic and simple.  Kane’s face looks almost child-like, and his proportions are thin and stretched out.  His costume details are at least pretty consistent with the ones seen in the book, as ridiculous a costume design as this may be.   His paint work is basic, but fine.  It was the source of the variations, with the one seen here sporting black hair and a red band on his leg.  There were also samples with grey hair, as well as those with blue straps, and corresponding mixes of the hair and strap colors.  Kane was packed with  a blaster/gun thing, which he can hold in his right hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I know a bit more now, I knew very little of Kane as a kid.  He’s in X-Men: The Animated Series, but it’s a different design, and he’s never named, so I didn’t connect it.  Mostly, I just remember that he was on the back of the boxes, and I never knew who he was, and then he didn’t really reappear after that.  So, I never got his figures.  At least, until I decided to get all of the Toy Biz Marvel stuff, so then I needed to.  I got this guy loose, given to me by Jason from All Time when I fished him out of a plastic bag of mostly junk that got traded into All Time back in, gosh, probably 2019?  He didn’t have his gun, but I came across that in one of the bags of spare Toy Biz parts I’ve accumulated over the years.  He’s not the most impressive figure, and he’s not the most impressive character, but there’s a certain bit of novelty to him, for sure.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0059: Ahab

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

AHAB

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

It’s Friday, which around here is my own day of personal reflection…well, within the context of the site, at the very least.  You know, in that sort of Flashback Friday Figure Addendum sort of way.  I’m jumping once more back into the world of old Toy Biz Marvel reviews, with Ahab!

“A houndmaster from a future timeline in which mutants are hunted down and destroyed, Ahab has time-traveled to the present to continue his mission of eliminating dangerous mutants. Employing advanced Sentinel technology in his powerful cyborg body, Ahab ruthlessly enslaves those mutants he does not kill, transforming them into telepathic hounds which he uses to track down others of their kind. Only the combined powers of the X-Men, X-Factor, the New Mutants and the Fantastic Four were able to put a stop to Ahab’s murderous rampage through our time in the past. Should he reappear, who knows what havoc he might wreak!”

You know how sometimes there’s bad figures of good characters? Or, on the flip side, good figures of bad characters? Today represents neither of those things. Today, I look at what might be one of the very worst figures ever released in Toy Biz’s 5-inch X-Men line. He’s a little figure by the name of Ahab. Let’s just get straight to it, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ahab was released in Series 5 of X-Men. In a series populated by fan-favorites, he’s…well, he’s not. He’s an odd choice for the set, and the line in general really. I mean, I guess he was involved in some semi-important stories in the comics. But, given that one of the characters completely absent from Toy Biz’s entire run was Rachel Summers, who’s sort of the only reason Ahab matters at all, he feels out of place. Maybe there’s a big Ahab fanbase out there or something. I don’t know. Anyway, the figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation. For reasons I’m not entirely sure of, he lacks neck and elbow movement, which makes for a very stiff figure. Already not the greatest start. Ahab has what has to be one of the clunkiest sculpts of any figure in this line. I genuinely don’t know how they managed to mess him up this bad. I mean, he’s hardly got the greatest design in the comics, but it’s better than this, to be sure. Everything about this figure is blocky, stiff, and inorganic. That’s fine for the blocky, stiff, and inorganic parts, but not so much for the parts that aren’t those things. His head is particularly bad, given it’s incredibly thin, tall look, and complete lack of neck. He’s got this sort of cyborg-zombie-Abraham-Lincoln thing going on, and the sculpt doesn’t seem to be able to decide what’s his hair and what’s his headgear. They just sort of meld together. He’s also got this look on his face like he just crapped his pants. Which, in a gross way, leads me to my next complaint: his legs. Or, more specifically, his hips, which are oddly shaped, not particularly accurate to his comics design, and start a considerable distance after his torso ends. Ahab’s paintwork is decent enough for what it is. It’s pretty basic, and far from the most appealing color scheme. Burnt sienna and lavender isn’t exactly an imposing combo. Also, we get the same issues the sculpt had with the hair/headgear changeover, which just sort of…happens. The figure was originally packed with a missile launcher and three “harpoons,” which I don’t have.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, if I hate this guy so much, why do I own him? Is he another gift from a confused family member? Nope, he’s actually a pretty recent acquisition. In the last few months, I’ve decided to try and complete my ‘90s X-Men collection. That meant I was gonna have to get this guy eventually. I found this one at Yesterday’s Fun for $1, which is really about the cap of how much I’m willing to pay for him. He’s an awful figure. Just awful. But, I like to look at the positives: the collection only improves from here! 

Okay, so, for the second time since I started doing these, I find myself honestly not liking a review I wrote.  It’s odd for it to be one so late in the run, after I’d established the style more, but…yeah, I just feel like this one seemed a bit mean spirited.  Looking at the publication date, it went up the day after my birthday in 2017, and, well, I was going through some stuff at the time, which I think may have impacted my writing a little bit.  It’s not to say that I think I was wrong about Ahab being a less than stellar figure.  That he most certainly is.  Worst in the Toy Biz run?  Eh, I don’t know if I can really stand by that.  He’s not super fun, and I think I made a good point that it’s odd they made him and no Rachel Summers to go along, given he mostly exists as a foil to her.  Worst though?  Seems a bit hyperbolic.

In 2017, I was still content to have a bunch of incomplete figures in my collection, and I’m less about that now, so this summer I actually bought a second Ahab (I know, crazy) so that I could get the missile launcher and harpoons.  They, like the figure, aren’t great, and are even worse in the sense of how they interact with him, which is not very well.  But, at least he’s complete.  And, he’s the only Ahab figure out there, so he’s at least got some novelty?  I don’t know, I’m trying to be nice!

#3984: Deadpool

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

DEADPOOL

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Deadpool is a mercenary and one of the world’s most dangerous assassins. What makes Deadpool so dangerous is not his super-silent tracking ability or his assassin’s arsenal of incredible weapons, it’s his ability to paralyze his victims with fear. He enjoys doing that so much that sometimes he lets his victim go. A panic-stricken live victim, he reasons, does wonders for his reputation.”

Can you believe there was a time in the Marvel universe before Deadpool?  That seems crazy, doesn’t it?  Would you also believe that when he *did* finally appear, it was literal years before he was even remotely close to the character that everyone knows him as now? The bio for his very first action figure, shown up top there, really cements that, referring to him as “super-silent” and having the “ability to paralyze his victims with fear.”  Not really the slap-sticky, fourth wall-breaking meme guy we have these days, huh?  Well, let’s just fully commit to this back to the beginning approach for Deadpool and take a look at his very first action figure, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Deadpool was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line, which spun out of their main X-Men line during its second year.  While the book was still relatively new, they had already started to identify its break out characters, hence the early presence of Deadpool, despite him at that time just being a recurring character, not affiliated with the team.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Not a bad set-up in terms of movement.  It’s all basic stuff, but it’s pretty clear in its range, and he’s fairly sturdy on his feet.  He was a unique sculpt, which wound up re-used for a couple of repaints over the years, but only ever for Deadpool.  It’s based on his earliest appearances, although, like Cable, it’s been kind of cleaned up from Liefeld’s usual inconsistencies.  Deadpool was still being shown as very svelte in is early appearances, and this sculpt follows that lead.  He’s generally light on detailing, but gets his pouches and straps, albeit with a slightly softer detailing to them than later offerings.  He’s got a dagger permanently attached to his left hand, which is spring-loaded, so he can more convincingly look like he’s stabbing someone, I guess?  Deadpool’s color work is fairly basic, but generally well in line with his comics look at the time.  Interestingly, while the circles around his eyes are black, the rest of the costume’s accenting is done with a very dark grey, which makes for a neat bit of visual pop.  There was an FAO Schwarz-exclusive variant (pictured at the end) which just made it all black, which is *fine* but feels a bit more lacking, as well as a KB Toys re-release that adds in some silver elements on the pouches.  Whatever the release, Deadpool is packed with a pair of grey swords.  They’re able to be put in the sheaths…in a manner of speaking; they’re actually just going through his shoulders into the hollow portion of the torso, and they still end up being kind of comedically small to make it work.  It does look pretty cool when they’re in place, though.  It’s amusing that they’re both removable, though, since only one of his hands is able to hold one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This was not my first Deadpool (that was the unmasked one from later), but I do recall wanting to track one down rather early on in my collecting.  I found a loose on some time in the very early ‘00s, which I assumed was the original, but would only later find out was actually the rarer FAO version, necessitating that I get a proper Series 1 release many years later when it got traded into All Time.  I’m a real sucker for this mold, no matter which paint scheme it’s sporting.  Something about it just really works for my collecting sensibilities, and it’s all I really want out of a Deadpool.  He’s basic, but he really just works.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0058: Spider-Woman

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

SPIDER-WOMAN

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

Hey, look it’s the first Friday of the new year!  No it isn’t, but it is for the purposes of the site, so there!  Did we really miss out on anything from that actual first Friday, anyway?  I don’t think so, and I was there, so trust me.  It’s a new year and a new start, so it’s a perfect time for me to continue to do exactly the same thing I was doing on Fridays at the end of last year, and look back at my old Toy Biz reviews.  Yaaaaaaaay.  Here’s Spider-Woman….again.

“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.

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. 

That’s a summer 2017 review, so things are pretty much the shape they’ve been for a while in terms of my approach.  I wrote what I wrote, and I think it’s pretty on point.  2017 was, in retrospect, a pretty good year for me in terms of Toy Biz pulls, so that was pretty nice, given it was otherwise a kind of rough one for me.  What I was missing when I wrote the original review *nine* years ago, were Spider-Woman’s accessories, which I did note at the time were “a bunch of random stuff.”  Well, I got the random stuff.  She’s got a big gun and a shield.  Can’t actually hold either of them on account of her karate chop hands, but they, like, slide on them?  They’re very silly, and she’s better without them, but they do at least make me laugh.