Tag Archives: Toy Biz

#0687: Web Swamp Spider-Man

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

WEB SWAMP SPIDER-MAN

SPIDER-MAN (TOYBIZ)

WebSwamp1

Toybiz’s Spider-Man toyline from the 90s initially started out as a tie-in toyline for the animated series running at the same time. The first several series were comprised mostly of key characters from the cartoon, based on their character models from the show. Variants of the titular character tended to be rather tame; most of them were just regular Spider-Men with a different gimmick, though there were a few different costumes that made their way onto the show. After a certain point, hype for the show began to die down, and the toyline gradually began to reformat into its own entity. It was at this point that the Spider-Men started to get just a bit out there. Today, I’ll be looking at one of those later Spider-Men.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

WebSwamp2Web Swamp Spider-Man was released as part of the Web Force series of the main Spider-Man line. Chronologically, this was the 15th series of the line, and the sixth series since the line had abandoned the more conventional numbering system. Web Swamp Spidey was one of two Spider-Man variants in the series. Neither of these two was a comic-based design; they were both wholly original to Toybiz’s design department. The figure was pretty big for the line, at roughly 5 ½ inches tall, and he had 11 points of articulation. The articulation assortment on this figure is kind of odd. The shoulders have extra movement that was typically seen on figures of the time, but he’s also been saddled with the dreaded “v-hips” that allow for next to no practical movement. The sculpt on this figure was completely unique to him, which is probably for the best. I don’t want to say it’s a horrible sculpt, but it’s certainly not one of Toybiz’s better ones. The proportions are definitely the weirdest part. To start with, there’s the aforementioned huge size of the figure, but then he’s got a really thin waist and somehow manages to have hands that are too big. Not sure how they managed that one. Also, the guy is seriously jacked, with insane levels of muscle definition that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger jealous. The sculpt is so over the top, you have to wonder if it was on purpose. Paint-wise, this guy’s pretty far removed from the traditional Spider-Man, and ends up looking more like a take on his black costume. One has to wonder if there was some sort of plan to have this guy be symbiote themed at one point. The Web Force shtick was that each figure had a set of weird armor that could be assembled into a small vehicle. Spidey included a hovercraft sort of a thing, which I guess sort of fits his “swamp” theme.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never got this figure when it was at retail, but I was always kind of intrigued. He ended up being another figure I purchased from Yesterday’s Fun this summer. I got him loose, so I missed out on the hovercraft fun, but I do still get a super-jacked Spider-Man. I think that’s a win, right?

#0646: Leon Kennedy

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

LEON KENNEDY

RESIDENT EVIL (TOYBIZ)

Leon1

For a guy who’s not really into video games, I sure do have a lot of video game-based action figures, don’t I? Hey, I’m a sucker for a halfway decent action figure, regardless of its origin. That said, I do usually try to have at least a passing familiarity with the source material. In the case of Resident Evil, I can name most of the franchise’s main characters and give a fairly loose summary of what’s going on in a given game. I consider that good enough. Now, without ever playing any of the games, I’d say my favorite character is Leon Kennedy. Dude just looks super cool. Of course, everyone else agrees, so figures of him tend to be quite pricey. However, I did manage to find one of them, for better or for worse.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Leon2Leon was released as part of ToyBiz’s first series of Resident Evil figures. He was originally packed in a two pack with a Licker, but I just picked up Leon. Resident Evil seems like a slightly odd choice for ToyBiz in the 90s, but they were running the X-Men vs Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom lines at the same time, so I’d guess RE was just part of the master Capcom license. Leon stands 5 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. He’s seen here wearing his Racoon City Police Department uniform from Resident Evil 2. It’s nowhere near as cool as his bomber jacket look from RE4, but it’s not a terrible look, and it’s certainly distinctive. The figure featured a sculpt that was unique to him. It’s alright, but not really fantastic. It certainly isn’t the same quality of a lot of ToyBiz’s Marvel stuff from the same time. His proportions are weird, with a huge head and hands, but a tiny waist and feet. He’s also very oddly posed, with this sort of hunch and oddly turned legs. It’s weird. The uniform has some decent detail work, so that’s cool, I guess. Leon’s paintwork is actually pretty good. He’s mostly molded in the appropriate colors, but he has a fair amount of paint. I like the subtle differences between the regular parts of the uniform and the padded ones, and the RPD initials are nice and sharp. To be really true to the game design, Leon’s hair should be sort of two-toned, but the single color they’ve gone with is at least a decent midpoint. Aside from being packed with the aforementioned Licker, Leon also featured a shotgun he could hold, which my figure is also missing. In addition, Leon has a lever on his back which…raises his arm and turns his head to the right. Yeah, I guess it went with the gun somehow?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I ended up finding Leon loose in a bin of other video game figures at Yesterday’s Fun. Since he was fairly inexpensive, I figured I might as well get one, just for the novelty of it. He’s definitely not going to be winning any awards or anything, but he’s not the worst thing ever. I certainly can’t say the guy disappointed me or anything.

#0639: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

MARVEL HALL OF FAME

InvisibleWoman1

The Fantastic Four have sort of become personae non gratae over at Marvel Comics in the last few years (thanks Fox) but they’re kind of one of the most important sets of characters Marvel’s ever had. Without them, there really isn’t a modern day Marvel Comics. It’s a shame they aren’t getting the respect that they deserve. It’s been a little while since any of the team has graced the toy world, but there’s a pretty decent back catalogue of stuff out there, including today’s focus, Invisible Woman.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

InvisibleWoman2Invisible Woman was released as part of the first series of ToyBiz’s Marvel Hall of Fame line. The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. She, like most of the other figures in the line, is more or less a re-release of a previous Marvel figure. In this case, she’s a rehash of Marvel Superheroes’ series 3 version of the character. That figure was available in both color-changing and non-color-changing versions, but this one seems to just have been offered with the feature, hence her somewhat odd coloring. The sculpt for the figure is definitely a dated one; it’s from very early in ToyBiz’s run with the license, so they were still finding their footing. The head is rather small, the articulation isn’t worked in very smoothly, and the figure just feels rather clunky in general. It’s not the worst thing ever, and it’s not even the worst female figure of the time (I’m looking at you, Monkey Face Princess Leia) but it certainly shows its age. The paint on the figure is somewhat hard to judge, mostly due to the figure’s color-change “action feature.” I can’t speak for when it was new, but the feature doesn’t really work anymore, which leaves the InvisibleWoman3figure sort of in this middle state. I tried putting her in cold water, as the packaging says to do, and all it really did was slightly change the back of the figure. Now she looks like a pie…(Tim’s been calling her Miss Meringue). Invisible Woman’s only accessory is…uhh…well, it sort of looks like a Tron disk or a Fantastic Four Frisbee. I don’t know. It plugs into her back. So, there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure’s another piece of the slew of figures I bought from Cosmic Comix a few months back. I actually own the original, non-Hall of Fame release, but I didn’t have the color-change version, so I figured this one was probably worth the $3 I paid. She’s not a figure that’s going to win any awards or anything, but she’s a neat little product of the early 90s.

 

#0635: Cyclops & M. Bison

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

CYCLOPS & M. BISON

X-MEN VS STREET FIGHTER (TOYBIZ)

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The 90s were an interesting time to say the least. The X-Men were at the height of their popularity, which, of course, meant plenty of tie-in stuff. Capcom, makers of hit games series such as Mega Man and Street Fighter, licensed the team for a fighting game, called Children of the Atom. This ended up being a success, leading to Capcom pitting the X-Men against the cast of Street Fighter. ToyBiz already held the license for Marvel, so they picked up the Capcom license as well, allowing them to do their own tie-in two packs. One of these sets was X-Men leader Cyclops versus Street Fighter’s big bad M. Bison, which I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cyclops and Bison were a two pack in ToyBiz’s X-Men vs Street Fighter line, released in the late 90s. I believe these two were part of the first assortment of packs.

CYCLOPS

CyclopsBison2Cyclops is presented here in his fan-favorite 90s costume, designed by Jim Lee. It’s one of those looks that doesn’t make a whole lot of practical sense and could be considered a bit silly. That said, nostalgia is a powerful thing, so I can’t help but love it. The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and sports 8 points of articulation. That’s a little lower than the typical Marvel figure of the time, due to his lack of both elbow and knee joints. I can’t say why ToyBiz decided to leave those out, but he does at least have some extra shoulder articulation, which certainly eases the pain. Structurally, Cyclops makes use of the body of the Monster Armor Cyclops from the main X-Men line, along with a new head. The body is from towards the end of the X-Men line, when ToyBiz was trying to emulate the higher-detailed, more pre-posed figures being offered by McFarlane at the time. However, Cyclops had one of the tamer sculpts, so he doesn’t end up being too bad. The one real drawback of the original figure, the head, has been replaced CyclopsBison3with a much nicer piece. This new head does a great job of capturing the animated style Cyclops from the cartoon; it’s simplistic, but all the necessary details are there. The paintwork isn’t the best ever, but it’s not terrible. There’s a bit of slop, especially around the yellow spots. Also, the hair and headband don’t quite meet up right, giving poor Cyke a bit of a bald spot. On the plus side, the blue is a darker shade than the Monster Armor figure, which is more true to the character design, and the plastic/paint is much more matte, which has an overall better look. Cyclops came packed with an optic blast piece (Which I don’t have) and a pleather jacket like the one he was known to wear from time to time in the 90s cartoon (mostly when Jean was crazy or presumed dead. It’s his brooding jacket.)
M. BISON

CyclopsBison4Ah, good ol’ M. What’s it stand for? Well, apparently it’s a shortening of Mister, which seems kinda dumb. In reality, Bison, Vega, and Balrog all swapped names when the game was imported to the US, mostly because Capcom wanted avoid the potential legal issues of having a boxer character whose name was Mike Bison. So the villain became M. Bison, with little explanation of what the M was exactly. Oh well. The figure is about 5 inches tall and has 10 points of articulation. He also has a punching action feature, which sort of gives him two more points of articulation. Bison is built on the Spider-Man line’s Tombstone body, with some additional armored pieces added on, as well as a new head. The body isn’t a perfect match for Bison, but it’s pretty good. The proportions are quite exaggerated, but it was the 90s, so that’s sort of to be expected. There are a few oddities, such as the hand clearly molded to hold something that he doesn’t include. The head is a little on the small side and a little light in the details. The hat is really nice, though. Paint is pretty rough here. Some areas make out okay; the red sections have a nice wash to bring out the details of the sculpt, and the armored parts are clean. The biggest issues are on the head. The hair apps are almost totally missing from one side, and the eyes are at best an approximation of what they should be. M. Bison originally included a cloth cape, but mine no longer has it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I first got this set many years ago, purchased from KB Toys while on a trip with my grandmother. I got it purely for the Cyclops, who was the most accurate version of the character available. I had no idea who this M. Bison guy was. I eventually found out, and became quite a fan of Street Fighter II, but Cyclops was still why I got these.  Somewhere in the last 15 years, Cyclops went missing (stupid house gremlins!) and Bison crumbled into pieces. I thought about replacing them, but this line picked up quite an aftermarket price, with this set being one of the highest. A few weeks ago, I came across this pair for a reasonable price and snagged them as fast as I could. Years later, Cyclops is still very much the star, but I’m happy to have them both again.

#0626: Shocker

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

SHOCKER

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOYBIZ)

Shocker1

Spider-Man definitely has one of the best rogues galleries around. Maybe it’s not as cool as Batman’s (though that mostly falls to personal opinion), and sure, for my money, it doesn’t quite have the same flare as the Flash’s, but it’s definitely a strong contender. Of course, with every rogue’s gallery comes the inevitable selection of less than threatening entries. Those, by the way, are my personal favorites. I love the lower tier guys. My favorite Batman villain is Calendar Man for God’s sake! So, I have a real appreciation for them. One of the Spider-Man foes who has never really managed to be anything more than a nuisance is the Shocker, eternal punching bag.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shocker2Shocker was released in the third series of ToyBiz’s 90s Spider-Man line. The line was designed as a tie-in to the cartoon of the same time, and as such, the characters drew from their animated designs. Fortunately, Shocker was pretty much unchanged from the comics, so this is just a fairly basic classic Shocker figure. The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and features 7 points of articulation. That’s less articulation than was usual at the time, due to the figure’s action feature preventing him from having elbow joints. And what was this feature? It was dubbed “Shooting Power Blasts” on the box; in reality, he comes with two red missiles, which pop into the spring-loaded arms and can be “launched” by…well, just letting them go. The springs have no locking feature, so the missiles just launch as soon as you let go. Also, the feature doesn’t really make much sense for Shocker. His powers are based on vibration, so he doesn’t actually blast anything. I don’t know. Shocker featured a sculpt that was unique to him. It’s in line with the rest of the figures in the series; the details are rather simple, and the proportions are slightly boxy. He’s a little pigeon-toed, but not excessively, and due to the action feature, his arms are really straight and stiff. That can’t be a comfortable position. Still, the sculpt isn’t bad, and it does a pretty good job of translating Shocker’s design into three dimensions. Shocker’s paintwork is also pretty simplistic, with basic color work. Most of its pretty clean, but the silver areas seem especially prone to bleed over. The figure included the two missiles to go with the action feature and nothing else, though I can’t say I know of anything Shocker would really need to include.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the vast majority of the 90s Marvel stuff I’ve been reviewing as of late, Shocker was purchased from a vendor at this year’s Balticon. I missed out on a lot of the Spider-Man stuff growing up, mostly due to me not liking Spider-Man: The Animated Series as much as the other cartoons of the time. That said, I still appreciate the series, and I love Spidey’s rogues gallery, so I’m glad to be filling some holes in my collection. Shocker’s not a perfect figure, but he’s fun enough to make the purchase worthwhile.

#0622: Tail-Whipping Nightcrawler

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

TAIL WHIPPING NIGHTCRAWLER

MARVEL MOTORIZED TWIST ‘EMS

NightcrawlerTwist1

Licensed toys can be weird. Sometimes, you get totally straight-forward action figure lines. They represent the property well, and they don’t really surprise anyone.  They are what they are. Of course, you might occasionally get the wacky variant here and there, just to keep main characters out there. But the line as a whole is still pretty standard. Occasionally, you get a whole line of figures that are just wacky from start to finish. Take, for instance, ToyBiz’s Marvel Motorized Twist ‘Ems, a short-lived little line of super-deformed figures from the early 2000s. At the time, ToyBiz was taking the “see what sticks” approach to toy making, trying a variety of things. Twist ‘Ems was just one of the things that didn’t take off. Still, that didn’t stop them from making two regular series and one movie-based series. They really tried. Let’s have a look at Nightcrawler, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

NightcrawlerTwist2Tail Whipping Nightcrawler was released in the Movie Series of Marvel Motorized Twist ‘Ems, as one of the two figures based on the recently released (at the time) X-Men 2. The figure is about three inches tall and, while his shoulders, hips, and neck all have “joints,” they aren’t really articulated, due to the motorized nature of the figure. They move pretty well when the wind-up feature is activated, but they’re not of much use for anything else. The sculpt takes the design of the character from X-Men 2 and “twists” it into a more super-deformed style. The body is where most of the styling kicks in, with short, stubby arms and legs, and larger hands and feet. In proportion, the head is really huge. In fact, the head is pretty much just a 1/6 scale sculpt of Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler. The head sculpt is really well done, with plenty of detail and an excellent likeness of Cumming. Were one to want a Hot Toys-style Nightcrawler, this sculpt would definitely be a good starting point. It’s a little weird to see this detailed a sculpt on a “cartoony” figure like this, but the details are fairly present throughout the rest of the figure, so it blends well enough. The body is subject to a little bit of intrusion from the wind-up mechanisms, but the tabs on the feet and the winding gear aren’t too obtrusive, just obviously present. The figure’s paintwork is generally pretty good. The colors all match up pretty well to the movie look, everything is applied pretty cleanly, and there’s plenty of small detail work that adds a lot of dimension to the figure. Some areas, such as the jacket, are a little bit on the more simple side, but it works pretty nicely. Nightcrawler doesn’t have any accessories, but he does have the wind-up feature. When wound up, his legs walk him forward, his arms move up and down, and his head goes side to side. Interestingly, despite the name, the tail doesn’t really move or whip.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t entirely miss out on the Twist ‘Ems, but I didn’t get any of the movie ones. In fact, I had almost entirely forgotten about this goofy little line. While at a local Goodwill with Super Awesome Girlfriend (who was looking for some unrelated stuff) I found this little guy just sitting on a shelf, amongst a random collection of stuff. He was only a few dollars, so I figured he was worth it. Like I said, this is a goofy little line, and it’s a little difficult to figure out just who the target audience was meant to be. That said, you can tell a lot of effort was put into this guy, and he’s just a whole lot of fun. And check out this walk cycle!

#0620: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOYBIZ)

CapAmericaML1

My relationship with ToyBiz’s run on Marvel Legends was and still remains a love-hate one. I enjoyed the figures (though that’s widely changed over time) but collecting the line was one of the most grueling, frustrating experiences of my collecting career. Even from the start, things were pretty rough, with two of the four first series figures being in higher demand than the others. One of those two was Captain America, who up until this point was running short on good figures. But I got one, and that’s what matters to me!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

CapAmericaML2As noted in the intro, Captain America was released in the first series of Marvel Legends. The figure is 6 1/4 inches tall and features 36 points of articulation. The articulation is okay, but Cap is definitely hindered by being released before ToyBiz had perfected some of the joint styles. The neck and mid-torso movement are particularly limited, almost to the point of making you wonder why they even bothered. Cap’s sculpt was all new (in fact, I believe it remained completely unique to him) and it’s got some definite highs and lows. Let’s start with the highs. The head sculpt is quite good. In fact, it’s probably my favorite Captain America head sculpt to date. It has strong enough features, and has a determined expression while avoiding looking too angry. From the neck down, the sculpt takes a bit of a downturn. The proportions are a little wonky, and a lot of the muscles look strange and misshapen. Not terribly so, but definitely noticeably off. The hands are well sculpted, but they seem a little on the large side. The real issues with the sculpt are on the lower half, where the articulation becomes far more obvious, and we get things like the wonky duck feet he’s sporting. Still, as a whole the sculpt doesn’t seem too bad, and it’s certainly better than some of the other sculpts in the line, even the ones that came later. It just goes to show that a quality head sculpt can go a long way. The paintwork on Cap isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty decent. Slop and bleed over are both minimal, and the colors seem pretty good, if maybe a tad washed out. The patterning on the upper portion of the blue is pretty cool, though it’s a little jarring that it just stops on the under sides of the arms. Cap came packed with a display stand, sculpted to resemble the wreckage of a tank and a portion of brick wall, as well as a small plastic American flag, and a reprint of Captain America #100.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I was able to find his series-mate Iron Man when the series was first released, I was not quite so lucky with the good Captain here. At least, not at first. However a year or so later, KB Toys marked all of their Marvel Legends down to $4. Most of their stock was made up of easy to find figures from later series of the line, but I was able to find one lone Captain America amongst them, which I happily bought. And he’s stuck with me since. The figure is far from perfect, and he shows his age, but I must admit, after digging him back out for the review, I enjoy him a lot more than I thought I would. I think this guy might just stay out of storage for the time being.

CapAmericaML3

#0617: Mondo

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

MONDO

GENERATION X (TOYBIZ)

Mondo1

The 90s were a very strange time. I can’t say it enough. Amongst other things, Marvel’s merry mutants, the X-Men were really, really popular. That meant spin-offs out the wazoo. One such spin-off was Generation X. They weren’t “X-Treme” like X-Force, but they still had a very definite 90s flare to them. They were popular for a while, but the team eventually fell into some pretty serious obscurity. However, they managed to get more than one series of an action figure line, leading to a lot of figures that nowadays make people go “Who?” One such figure is team member Mondo. Yeah, I don’t really know him all that well either.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mondo2Mondo was released in the second series of ToyBiz’s Generation X line. Mondo was the only actual team member in the series, making him the last released in the line (though a ToyFare exclusive version of Synch would be released not too long after. Who’s Synch? Exactly.) The figure stands about 5 inches tall and features a whole 6 points of articulation. Usually, ToyBiz’s Marvel stuff was pretty well articulated, but for whatever reason, the Generation X figures were less so. Mondo’s sculpt was also pretty pre-posed. His arms are somewhat spread at his sides and his legs are in a deep walking stance. Unlike a lot of pre-posed figures, Mondo is actually quite stable and well-balanced, so the lack of movement isn’t really too detrimental. The sculpt is actually pretty well handled; there’s plenty of texturing and detailing, and his proportions are in line with what he looked like in the comics. He’s definitely an angry spud, which seems a little out of character, at least going by the bio on the back of the package. The paintwork on Mondo isn’t super complex, but there are a few more minor details that are handled rather nicely. Plus, there’s not really any slop or bleed over, which is always cool. Mondo included a set of clip on armor pieces for his arms, which help to simulate his “omnimorph” abilities. The right side is meant to be wooden and the left is made of stone. Both clip on well enough, and are decently detailed (though the right is definitely a step above the stone). He also has the standard “X” stand, which was included with every figure in the line. He doesn’t need it, but hey, consistency isn’t bad!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mondo is another piece of the lot of figures I picked up from my local comicbook store during a recent sale. I only had a passing familiarity with Generation X growing up, so I never really got many of the figures. I saw Mondo sitting there and, for whatever reason, he called to me. He’s actually a pretty neat figure, truth be told. Sure, he’s not the most standout character of all time, but it’s clear a lot of effort went into this guy, and that always makes a figure better.

Mondo3

#0615: Wizard

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

WIZARD

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOYBIZ)

Wizard1

The 90s was a great time to be an action figure fan, especially if you liked Marvel comics. Thanks to animated versions of several of their properties airing on TV, there was a lot of tie-in product to be found. Entire lines of figures would be devoted to one particular hero and his rogues and allies, providing a rather large depth of characters, many of whom had not and would not get another figure. One such character is today’s focus, the Wizard, a slightly lesser-known Fantastic Four foe.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wizard2The Wizard was part of the fourth series of ToyBiz’s first Fantastic Four line. The character made an appearance in an early episode of the show’s second season, which had just kicked off when this series of figures was hitting stores. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and features 9 points of articulation. The figure features an entirely unique sculpt, which is…odd to say the least. Let’s start with the posture: he seems to be somewhat hunching, with widely splayed legs, and strangely outstretched arms. His head is atop a crooked, flexing neck, and his torso is oddly shifted to the left. Then there’s the proportions: his head and hands are huge, and his torso is far too short. The Wizard has always had a helmet that made his head look a little bigger than it was, but here it’s his whole head that’s huge, which ends up making the helmet look too small by comparison. Then there’s the arms, which start off somewhat normally sized, and then quickly shift into some sort of jacked-up, oversized monstrosity. I actually kind of like the positioning of the hands, but they look like they belong to another figure. And, of course, you can’t look at this figure and not mention the muscle definition. Seriously, most of those are just made up. The figure’s paint is passable, but not really anything outstanding. It accurately represents his garishly clashing color scheme of the comics, so that’s good, I guess. However, the figure has more than a few instances of bleed over, and his belt in particular is only a slight approximation of where it should be. If you read my Medusa review, you’ll remember that Series 4’s gimmick was that each figure had a base with some sort of action feature. Medusa got her hair, which wasn’t bad, but Wizard’s been given some strange disk…thing. I really don’t know what it is. It’s big, yellow, circular, and so goofy. There’s this lever on the right, which he can loosely hold. It doesn’t do anything, though. If you want to activate the action feature, you have to use a second lever, located behind the first, which shoots some blue disk things. That’s fun I guess.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Wizard was one of the many figures I picked up from my local comicbook store a month or so back when they were running a big sale on action figures. They had several, and I’d passed him up several times over the years, so I figured I might as well break down and buy one. I don’t say this often, but he’s really not a very good figure. So much about him is just so off, and there’s no real rationale as to why. And, to make things worse, this is literally the only figure the character’s ever had, which makes it a serious bummer.

#0614: Domino

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

DOMINO

X-FORCE (TOYBIZ)

Domino1

Grrrrr! 90s! Everything had to be soooooo X-Treme! And no one was more X-Treme than the X-Men! Well, okay, actually, that’s not true. There was one team than was more X-Treme, by design. They were the X-Force and they were super hardcore 90s. So hard. One of their more prominent members was Domino, who had luck based powers. You know, like a domino!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Domino2Domino was released in Series 6 of ToyBiz’s X-Force line. It’s surprising to see one of the team’s higher tier members not being released until one of the last few series of the line, but, hey, it was the 90s, and we were in the worst dregs of boys thinking girl toys were icky, so…..yeah. The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. While she was fortunate enough not to be saddled with the dreaded v-style hip joints that plagued many female figures of the time, she’s completely lacking in neck articulation, and for some strange reason her elbow joints are just simple cut joints. This ends up severely limiting what can be done with the figure, which is quite a bummer. Domino featured an all-new sculpt (though it would see a couple of re-paints later on down the line). It’s…passable. They’ve done a fairly decent job of capturing the design from the comics, which, it should be noted, is her second, non-Liefeld-designed costume. It’s got all the requisite buckles, pouches, shoulder pads, and even a weird head thing! The proportions aren’t the worst thing ever and she has one of the better female faces of the time. That said, she’s rather boxy, especially in her lower half, and I’m really not sure what’s going on with the straps on her torso. They certainly can’t be comfortable configured that way. Also, she seems to have lost a row of abdominal muscles, which ends up making the legs look way too long. The paintwork on the figure is alright.  Nothing amazing, but the colors are pretty good matches for the look in the comics, and there isn’t any substantial slop or bleed over. Domino originally included a set of gun attachments, which hooked into her legs. Yeah. Not really sure why they did that, since she just held the guns in her hands in the comics, but hey, whatever. Mine didn’t have them anyway.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Domino was another figure that I fished out of a box of loose figures at one of the dealer’s tables at this past Balticon. I was never really into X-Force growing up, and Domino never played a prominent role in the X-Men cartoon, so I didn’t really have a reason to get this figure while it was still new. But, it was a dollar. It’s not ToyBiz’s best work, but it isn’t atrocious.