Tag Archives: Toy Biz

#0821: Grey Gargoyle

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

GREY GARGOYLE

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

GreyGargoyle1

Iron Man is really not a guy with the greatest gallery of rogues. Characters Batman and Spider-Man are as much defined by their amazingly entertaining foes as they are by their own personalities. And while they may not be quite as defined by their villains, even the likes of Flash (who has my personal favorite rogues gallery), Captain America, Daredevil, and the Hulk make out pretty well. But Iron Man? Yeah, his best foe, hands down, is himself, which doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for others. So, his foes tend to be a lot more forgettable than those of other heroes. Take for instance, Grey Gargoyle. He’s French, and he’s made of stone. He can also turn other people into stone. That’s really all there is to him. He’s never had a defining story, and he’s not really out there enough to be memorably kooky. So, he’s just there.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GreyGargoyle2Grey Gargoyle was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, based on the cartoon from the 90s. He got himself a slot in the line by being one of the Mandarin’s many flunkies on the show, but even there he was mostly forgettable. The figure is 5 ¼ inches tall and has 8 points of articulation. He has one of the more unique sculpts than this line, depicting his actual chiseled nature.  The look is somewhat simplified, at least in terms of what he looks like in the comics, so as to better match the animation model from the cartoon. There are a few odd choices, though. First off, there’s the collar for the cape, which, for some reason is attached to his torso, despite the rest of the cape being a separate piece. There’s also the somewhat odd choice to remove the elbow movement from the right arm, to facilitate his (ill-conceived) action-feature. What is said action feature? When you pull his right arm back, it springs forward. This is supposed to facilitate a throwing action of some sort, but it doesn’t really work. Gargoyle’s paint is really simple. He’s mostly just molded in grey, with a tiny bit of slightly different grey for the mask/mustache, and two different blues for the gloves and the innards of his cape. What’s there is cleanly applied, but, like the rest of this figure, and the character himself, the paint is rather unexciting and forgettable.  Grey Gargoyle included two bits of stone, supposedly to be thrown by the action feature, as well as one of the weird ID badge thingies that most of the line included.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Grey Gargoyle was NOT amongst the Iron Man figures I owned growing up. In part because the first series was mostly gone from stores when I started collecting, but also due to my lack of any real interest in the character. I ended up buying him from the House of Fun, while attending the most recent Philcon. Mostly, I just got him to put towards completing the set. Truth be told, he’s actually a well put-together figure, and very true to the character. He’s just not terribly exciting….

#0819: Giant-Size X-Men #1 Boxed Set

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

STORM, COLOSSUS, NIGHTCRAWLER, SUNFIRE, BANSHEE, & THUNDERBIRD

MARVEL COLLECTOR EDITIONS (TOY BIZ)

ANADXMenPack1

In the 1960s, when Marvel Comics was on fire with all sorts of new ideas, the X-Men were created. The team was Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Beast, and Angel. While the series was a moderate success, it wasn’t as big as other titles of the time, and so the book eventually became solely a reprint series, before ending entirely. But, as anyone who has so much as thought about a Marvel comic in the last 30 years can tell you, that was far from the end of the X-Men. In 1975, the series was relaunched with Giant-Size X-Men #1, which featured an all-new, all-different cast of characters. This new cast proved far more successful than their predecessors, and the series went on to become one of Marvel’s most popular. In the 1990s, the X-Men were no strangers to toys, but most were based on the contemporary designs. To appease older fans, Toy Biz launched a line of special boxed sets, based on more classic incarnations of teams, including the All-New, All-Different X-Men, which I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

ANADXMen1

These six figures were released as one of the three sets in the Marvel Collector Editions line. All six are based on their appearances in Giant-Size X-Men #1.

STORM

ANADXMen2Though she’s by far the most well-known of the figures in this set, this was the first time Storm’s original costume had seen plastic form, and only the second sculpt the figure had gotten in the expansive 5-inch scale. The figure stands 5 ¼ inches tall and has 13 points of articulation. Her sculpt is generally pretty good, and certainly much better than the Marvel Girl sculpt from this set’s X-Men #1 companion piece. The head is definitely the nicest piece here, as it captures Cockrum’s take on Storm quite well. The body is decently sculpted, but suffers from a few issues. First off, she seems to lack Storm’s usual imposing stature, which is sadly common with her figures. She’s also got these odd, claw-like hands, which are definitely too big for the rest of her body. To top it all off, she’s nearly impossible to keep standing for very long. I do like the way they’ve handled the cape, though; it’s cloth, but it’s multiple layers, which give it enough weight to keep it from hanging oddly, and it avoids cutting off articulation as well. Her paintwork is pretty much on par with the rest of what Toy Biz was doing at the time. The colors are nice and vibrant, and everything is pretty clean, if perhaps lacking in subtlety. The edge of her collar is missing some yellow in a couple of spots, but other than that, everything looks pretty good.

COLOSSUS

ANADXMen4This marked the third time Toy Biz made a Colossus figure. They had a bit of a Goldilocks thing going on with them, though. The first one was too small, the second one was too big, but this one was juuuuust right. The figure stands 6 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. The decision not to give him any wrist movement is a little baffling, especially since he’s got a built-in way to mask the joints, but the rest of the movement is all pretty good. Colossus is probably my favorite sculpt in the set. He’s not saddled with any real pre-posing, and his proportions don’t get too wonky, apart from his hands being maybe a touch on the large side. The details here, especially on the exposed metal parts of his body are really stand-out, and he just looks really sharp. His head has an expression that’s intense, but not so intense as to make him look villainous. The paint on Colossus is pretty sharp too. He’s got no noticeable slop, and the details on his costume really look great. The red and yellow really just pop on this guy.

NIGHTCRAWER

ANADXMen3Nightcrawler received probably the best of the initial figures from Toy Biz’s X-Men line, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t room for improvement, especially since the original had sported odd suction cups on his hand and leg. It was also hard to get him into any of Nightcrawler’s distinctive crouching poses, which was the main thing this figure set to fix. The figure is 5 ¼ inches tall and has 16 points of articulation, as well as a bendable tail. If there’s one major issue with this figure, it’s that he’s just too tall. Nightcrawler should really be noticeably shorter than the rest of the team, but were the figure not crouching, he’d be taller than half the figures in the set. That’s kind of off. Aside from that glaring issue, the sculpt is generally pretty passable, though he’s more of an Excalibur-era Alan Davis-styled Nightcrawler than a GSXM Cockrum-styled one. The general quality of the sculpt is definitely nice, and he has some pretty sharp detailing. The shoulder pads are rather obviously separate pieces, which is frustrating, but not the worst thing. Paint is definitely this figure’s strongest suit, and he’s definitely got the strongest paint in the set. The colors of his costume are nice and bold, and everything is very sharp. What’s really cool is that his costume is all matte finish, while his skin/hair is much glossier, making an instant distinction between the two.

SUNFIRE

ANADXMen5The shortest-lasting (but not shortest-lived) member of the ANAD team was definitely Sunfire, who quit after just one issue. In addition, as he was not new to X-Men the series at the time of Giant-Size X-Men #1, having previously appeared as a “foe,” so he wasn’t even on the cover of that issue. This all ends up making him one of the least-remembered members of this team. Amazingly enough, it wasn’t his first 5-inch figure from Toy Biz (though it was his second of two, so he didn’t get anymore), but it is, to date, the only figure of his classic costume ever made. The figure stands 5 ¼ inches tall and has 16 points of articulation. Sunfire’s sculpt is kind of complicated. There are some really great parts, such as the brilliant texture work on the scaled part of his costume, and a very nice translation of his somewhat goofy-looking mask, but it’s all placed on an almost comically skinny body. Sunfire certainly wasn’t a body-builder, but he wasn’t scrawny either. Then there are his feet, which look to have been sized for the body he should have had, which creates this sort of clown shoe effect. The sculpt isn’t terrible, but it’s also not great either. The paint is good in theory, and decent in practice. The application is pretty solid, and aside from one tiny inaccuracy (having his neckline go all the way up to the mask when it should end just north of the collar bone) it looks pretty good. The only issue is the black wash they’ve used to bring out the details of the scaled parts. It works overall, and is especially good on the arms, but the coverage is inconsistent, and the top of the right leg on my figure is totally missing any painted detail, which sticks out quite a bit.

BANSHEE

ANADXMen7Banshee was the other “not new to the series” character, though he had shown up more than once before. He also stuck with the team a bit longer than Sunfire, and hung around as a supporting character even after leaving the team, which resulted in him being a fair bit more memorable than Sunfire (of course, one of them spent the last decade dead, and it wasn’t Sunfire, so maybe popularity isn’t always a great thing). This was his third figure from Toy Biz, but his first to sport his classic green and yellow, which is definitely my favorite of his looks. The figure stands 5 ¼ inches tall and has 16 points of articulation, just like the last two figures. Like Sunfire, his sculpt is a mix of good and bad. The general build isn’t bad, and he isn’t quite as scrawny as Sunfire. However, he’s fairly pre-posed, and the “wings” limit his posability a bit. Also, I get that his main thing is screaming, but I’m not sure how well it turned out on this head sculpt, where he looks like he’s just sort of opening his mouth kind of wide. I feel like an extra, non-screaming head should kind of be a requirement for all Banshee figures, but none of them have ever done such a thing. Banshee’s paint is pretty decently handled; the costume definitely fairs best, with some nice, subtle airbrushing to help highlight some of the sculpted musculature. The head has a passable paintjob, though I feel the colors end up looking a bit too muted.

THUNDERBIRD

ANADXMen6Now, here’s a short-lived X-Man. See, cuz he died. Get it? Yeah, you get it. Yes, Thunderbird was officially the first X-Man to die in action, just to prove a point. According to writer Chris Claremont, it was actually a toss-up as to whether it would be him or Wolverine who died during the X-Men’s second mission. Thunderbird got the axe because his powers were more non-descript than the others, and also because he was just a tiny bit on the stereotype side of things, but could you imagine how different X-Men would be without Wolverine? Seeing as he was dead for most of the team’s run, this was actually the first Thunderbird figure ever made, though it wouldn’t be the last. The figure is 5 ½ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. His sculpt is actually pretty good, overall. The head has some very nice detail work, and is probably the most realistic looking of all those in the set. The body is less realistic, with some slightly out-there proportions, but it’s not too bad, overall. The right hand is sculpt to hold something; I don’t know what it was supposed to be, since he included no accessories, and I can’t really think of anything Thunderbird would need to hold, but whatever. The paintwork on this figure is quite nicely done. Everything is nice an clean, and I love the slight accenting on the various parts of the costume.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting the other two sets in this line as a kid, I bet you think I got this alongside them, don’t you. Well, you’d be wrong. My dad did have this set, and he even offered to buy me one of my own, at a discounted price, when the now defunct Ageless Heroes Comics was going out of business. I was feeling particularly silly that day and turned the set down, a decision I proceeded to regret for the next 18 years, after the set’s price jumped on the aftermarket. This past November, while attending Philcon, I stopped by the House of Fun, and pulled this set out from underneath several boxes. It was actually less than I would have paid for it back in the day, which made me doubly happy. This is by no means a perfect set, but there are some definite gems within, and I’m happy to have it at last.

#0783: Dreadknight

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

DREADKNIGHT

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

Dreadknight1

The 90s Iron Man cartoon is a very interesting thing. Like, I really enjoy it (well, the second season, anyway), but it was definitely the victim of some very poor timing. My review of US Agent touched on how unfortunate timing ended up saddling Tony with Force Works as his supporting cast, in place of the more conventional Avengers. Well, that also extended to his rogues gallery. Sure, characters like the Mandarin, Fin Fang Foom, MODOK, and even some of the second stringers like Blizzard and Whirlwind are classics who have stuck around. But, then you have the characters that just happened to be around at the time of the show, like Dreadknight, who’s essentially a poor man’s Black Knight, with some Dr. Doom thrown in for good measure. Not exactly the most memorable guy. However, he was in the cartoon, and that meant he got an action figure. So good for him.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dreadknight2Dreadknight was released in the third series of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line from the 90s. He was based on the character’s appearance in the show, which was in turn based on his appearance in the comics, which was unchanged. The figure stands 5 ¼ inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. Dreadknight’s sculpt was unique to him at the time, though most of the body sculpt would be re-used later down the line as a Black Knight figure. Generally speaking, it’s a pretty decent sculpt, and it’s on par with the rest of the line. Some of the musculature is a little on the large side, the arms are somewhat stubby, and he’s got a bit of a pinhead going on, but he looks pretty good as a whole. The occasional hint of chainmail detailing is an interesting way of handling it, but it works. Plus, the overlying clothing all has some nice folds and movement to it. It may be a bit small, but I do like the way his head turned out; very menacing. His cape is a separate removable piece. It’s pretty well sculpted, but it’s rather thick and heavy, and it doesn’t stay in place very well. Dreadknight has the misfortune of being saddled with a pretty horrific color scheme; the light blue and magenta really don’t go together. The figure accurately captures the colors, mind you, but they remain terrible. His paintwork is alright, but nothing fantastic. There’s a fair bit of bleed over on the edges of the magenta, which is certainly distracting. Dreadknight included a lance, with a weird, hard to use missile launching feature, as well as a shield, and a badge with his bio on it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Dreadknight is another Toy Biz Marvel figure I didn’t have growing up. Can’t really say why, other than I guess never being super enamored by the character. I ended up picking him up from a dealer at this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con. He’s actually not a bad figure, and I’m especially happy to have him because he completes my Series 3 set!

#0781: Beetle

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

BEETLE

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

BeetleSF1

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

#0775: The Punisher

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

PUNISHER

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

Punisher1

The Punisher. This guy. He’s the quintessential anti-hero. He was the 90s stereotype fifteen years early. He was introduced as a Spider-Man foe in the late 70s, and he seemed to amass a fairly sizeable fan base overnight. Sure, he was never an A-lister, but people knew the guy. He’s had a whole three movies (though only two were actually released theatrically), and he’s set to play a pivotal role in the second season of Netflix’s Daredevil show. If you find Marvel related apparel, there’s like a 99% chance this guy (or his logo) will be there. Plus, he’s one of the few Marvel characters who has ever been allowed to age at a rate vaguely resembling real life. Also, I don’t really like the guy. Wait, what? Yeah, you read that right: I don’t like the Punisher. I mean, I don’t hate him, but I’ve just never seen the appeal. I did love the Punisher parody “Big Shot” for the 90s Tick cartoon, so there’s that. So, umm, let’s look at a Punisher figure?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Punisher2The Punisher was released in Series 5 of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man line, which was based on the 90s cartoon. He’s actually the third Punisher figure they released, which doesn’t seem that odd until you realize that, at this point they had only released one single Captain America figure. Hey, it was the 90s. The figure is 5 ¼ inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. While he hails from an animated series-based toyline, he’s actually not based on the animated design (which removed a lot of the black from his costume in order to make animating him a bit easier), but rather his more standard comics look. His sculpt still takes a few key points from the anima aged look, especially the facial features, but also his general build as well. His proportions are fairly standard for the time, being rather exaggerated, though not as severely as other figures. The arms seem to get the worst of it. They’re pretty long, and those biceps are huge. Guess that’s what happens when you lug around a bunch of huge guns all the time! Beyond the proportions, the sculpt actually has some neat touches. The face definitely conveys Punisher’s less than pleasant disposition pretty well. He’s also got some cool straps and pouches, like proper 90s guy should. Punisher’s paint is the real Punisher3breaking point from the animated look; they’ve just gone for the classic black and white scheme. The paint is pretty sharply handled, and the black and white look really great together. One oddity is his five o’clock shadow, which is conveyed here as just a solid patch of grey on his lower face. To be fair, this is accurate to the cartoon, so there’s that. Punisher actually has a pretty neat assortment of accessories. While he doesn’t have a normal gun, he does have a giant missile launcher (and this was BEFORE Hasbro got the license!) with two different projectiles. He also has a headset, a shoulder holster, a knife (which fits into his leg sheath), and a pin with his logo on it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is the one, single Punisher figure in my entire collection of over 3000 pieces. That’s a position that used to belong to the more cartoon-accurate repaint of this figure from one of the boxed sets, but I ended up giving that figure to a friend of mine who was a Punisher fan a few years back. I’m nice like that. I may not be a fan of the character, but I did like that figure. So, when I found this guy at a dealer’s table at this past Shoreleave, I went for it. I really love this guy. He’s kind of goofy, but in the best possible way.

#0769: Cable & Stryfe

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

CABLE VS STRYFE

X-MEN: STEEL MUTANTS

CableStryfe1

The X-Men were so popular in the 90s that they not only had two books of their own, but also a whopping three spin-off titles. Two of those, Excalibur and X-Factor, had been launched in the 80s, and the other, X-Force, was a rebranding of the New Mutants in order to make them more “extreme.” This included adding Cable, a dude who’s mutant power was apparently being a big dude with a gun, aka being the personification of 90s comics. Cable had a twin/clone, called Stryfe. Let’s look at some figures of those two today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s X-Men: Steel Mutants line, because apparently the X-Men just weren’t 90s enough.

CABLE

CableStryfe2Oh man, here’s Cable. Why’s he called Cable? God only knows. Maybe he used to work for Comcast. That would certainly explain his surly nature. The figure stands 2 ½ inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation. Cable had quite a few figures in the 5 inch X-Force line, and this one uses Series 2’s Rapid Rocket Firing Cable as sort of a reference point. I don’t know if it’s based on a specific look, but it does present a slightly more subdued look for the character than usual. He doesn’t even have shoulder pads! His sculpt is generally pretty well handled. He’s got a good amount of detail, and his build does set him apart from the other figures in the line. Plus, I do dig that assymetry. His pose is pretty straight forward, with no real outlandish poising or anything, and he’s decently balanced, so there are no issues with getting him to stand. Cable’s paint is pretty much on par with the rest of the Steel Mutants. There’s a fair degree of bleed over around the edges, but he doesn’t look atrocious. The colors are pretty well chosen, and he looks pretty sharp.

STRYFE

CableStryfe3Yes, you read that name right. He’s named Stryfe. And it’s spelled with a “y.” Because 90s. Strule also stands roughly 2 ½ inches tall and has those same 4 points of articulation. Stryfe is presented here in full 90s glory. Check out that head gear. Seriously, that helmet looks like Liefeld deliberately set out to out-Wolverine Wolverine. I suppose they succeeded in that effort. Doesn’t make it look any less stupid, but more power to him. He appears to be inspired by the Stryfe figure in the 5-inch line, though he’s lost most of that figure’s interesting armor detailing, which has the unintended side effect of drawing more attention to just how goofy the main design of the character is. It doesn’t help matters that his sculpt is just markedly inferior to that of his pack mate. Cable is nicely sized, full of detail, and not in a super goofy pose. Stryfe is the opposite of those things. The size is particularly egregious, since he’s a clone of Cable, and should therefore be about the same size. That coupled with the long monkey arms, the strange lunging pose of the legs, and the ill-fitting cape makes for a really rough looking figure. The paint doesn’t really do him any favors either. He’s mostly a somewhat drab silver, which only further highlights the blandness of the sculpt. It is, at the very least, clean, which I suppose is a plus.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This pair was purchased for me from Yesterday’s Fun, alongside the previously reviewed Cyclops and Mr. Sinister set, courtesy of my Super Awesome Girlfriend. Unlike the other set, I never had either of these guys growing up. In fact, this set represents the first, and to date only, Stryfe figure in my collection. So, there’s that. Cable is a pretty solid figure, but Stryfe is easily one of the weakest figures this line had to offer, resulting in an oddly balanced set.

#0766: Hybrid

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

HYBRID

SPIDER-MAN

Hybrid1

Remember all that stuff I said yesterday about Marvel and symbiotes? Well, it pretty much all still applies today. Yep, I’ll be taking a look at another of those wacky symbiotes. But this one’s special. See, Lasher was just one single symbiote. Today’s figure? Well, if the name hadn’t clued you in already, he’s a combination of multiple symbiotes. Specifically, all of the symbiotes from the whole Planet of the Symbiotes thing. So, let’s have a looksee at Hybrid, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hybrid2Hybrid is another figure from the “Venom: Planet of the Symbiotes” series of the 90s Spider-Man line. Like all the other figures in the series, Hybrid was available in two different color schemes. The main color scheme was mostly variations of red, and pretty closely mimicked the look of the character from the comic. The second version, which I’ll be looking at today, was made up purely for the figure, and is grey and indigo, which is pretty wildly different from the original. The base figure is about 6 ¼ inches tall and has 5 points of articulation, but the wing/pincer thing mounted on his back brings him up to 8 inches and 16 points of articulation (though 6 of those points are tied into the spring-loaded feature). Hybrid was another all-new sculpt. He’s still got a lot of the items on the 90s checklist, but what’s interesting is that his sculpt is almost an entirely different style of 90s than Lasher. Lasher kind of stuck with more or less the Toy Biz style, but Hybrid’s more pre-posed, less articulation look makes him feel like he’d be more at home with Kenner’s Total Justice/JLA line from the 90s. It’s not a bad sculpt, mind you. There’s still plenty of texturing and muscular detail, which looks pretty great. In particular, the areas where the different styles of symbiote merge together are pretty cool looking, especially the gooeier bits running fluidly up the legs and arms, and down the top of the torso. It gives him a distinctively alien look. The proportions are definitely still exaggerated, but Hybrid is definitely a lot leaner than Lasher, and his proportions generally look a bit more conventionally heroic. Hybrid’s action feature is all worked into his back thingy. Each of the “fingers” on the end is spring-loaded, and they all move as one. There’s no activation for the feature, though, which is a little odd, but whatever. Hybrid’s paintwork isn’t quite as impressive as Lasher’s, but it’s solid work nonetheless. There’s a little bit of bleed over on the changes from indigo to grey, but the application is generally pretty good. I do wish the main body had more going on than the plain grey. The indigo of the upper torso has a light speckling of red, which keeps things somewhat interesting. Hybrid is packed with a “symbiotic wall-crawler”…thing, and a clear yellow Venom head with a small red symbiote inside it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I picked up Hybrid from the same vendor at Baltimore Comic-Con from whom I got US Agent and Lasher. They didn’t have him in his standard colors, so I had to settle for the variant. I can’t really complain about that, though, because the variant colors do look pretty sharp. Hybrid is a pretty fun figure, though maybe not quite as cool as Lasher.

Hybrid3

#0765: Lasher

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

LASHER

SPIDER-MAN

Lasher1

In the early 1990s, Venom was a pretty big deal for Marvel. Everybody loved the guy and his wacky symbiote. Marvel did their best to cash in on this, creating another symbiote wearing villain, Carnage. And, what do you know, Carnage ended up pretty darn popular himself. So, Marvel decided to try catching lightning in a bottle for the third time, but this time, they created a couple of different symbiotes, presumably hoping that one of them would have an easier time of sticking. It didn’t really work out so well for them (though one of the symbiotes, Scream, did end up getting to be a part of Universal Studios’ 3D animated Spider-Man ride, so that’s cool), but seeing as it was 90s Marvel, they still got action figures. Granted, those figures ended up being on the rare side, so they aren’t very cheap on the aftermarket. Who’d have thought the unsuccessful symbiotes would be the ones going for the big bucks? I managed to get a couple of the figures, so today I’ll be looking at my personal favorite of the symbiotes, Lasher!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Lasher2Lasher was released as part of the “Venom: Planet of the Symbiotes” sub-set of Toy Biz’s 90s Spider-Man line. He was available in two different color schemes. The green/grey combo I’m looking at today is the more common of the two schemes, and is also the one closer to Lasher’s in-comic appearance. The Planet of the Symbiotes figures were pretty sizeable for Toy Biz figures from the day (when their figures were based around a 5” scale), and Lasher’s no exception. He stands 6 ½ inches tall and has 12 points of articulation. Lasher has a sculpt that was unique to him. It’s admittedly heavy on the late ‘90s stylization. His muscles are all bulging and ripped, and presumably all mid-flex. His hands and feet are huge, and his head is tiny. To be fair, this all makes perfect sense for Lasher. He’s supposed to be super 90s. That’s part of what the character is. With the exception of the hands, which seem a bit too cartoony and devoid of texturing, Lasher’s sculpt is actually pretty well handled. Everything is nice and sharp, and there’s plenty of detail work. The breaks between the colors are actually all etched into the sculpt, which adds a nice bit of pop to the figure. The tendrils on his back and forearms are made from a softer plastic, so they flop around a bit, as tendrils do. The ones on the back are removable, if you so choose, but they stay in place well if you want them to. Lasher has an action feature of sorts: when his legs are squeezed together, the top half of the figure spins, flailing his arms and tendrils about. To facilitate this, his shoulders are a little on the loose side. That can be a bit frustrating when trying to pose him, but the action feature is overall not too invasive. Lasher’s paintwork is pretty well handled. The base grey is actually this cool speckled plastic, which adds a more alien touch. The mint green color off the accents is a nice, unique look in superhero figures, and it’s got a bit of paint sprayed over it to help it match up with the grey plastic. Lasher is packed with a weird wrist-mounted shield thing, which looks like an extension of the symbiote, as well as a clear yellow Venom head which houses a small symbiote. The symbiote is cool, because it’s made from this tacky gooey substance, which sells the idea of what it is pretty well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never had any of the Planet of the Symbiotes figures growing up. I don’t recall ever seeing them in the stores or anything. I do remember them from the backs of various Marvel toy packaging, and I definitely thought they looked pretty cool, but I never saw them. When I was filling some holes in my 90s Marvel collection a few years ago, I was always on the lookout for them, but they were prohibitively costly. But, it seems luck was on my side at this year’s Baltimore Comic-Con. The booth where I acquired US Agent (another personal grail) also had about a dozen bins just full of 90s Marvel figures. After digging through them for a few minutes, I managed to find a bunch of the Planet of the Symbiotes figures. Lasher was the one I knew I wanted the most, so I was thrilled to pull him from the bin, and even more thrilled to find out he wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg. He’s definitely a goofy figure, but I’m really happy to have found one, and I really love this figure.

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#0759: Laser Blast Cyclops

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

LASER BLAST CYCLOPS

SPIDER-MAN & FRIENDS

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When they held the license for Marvel, Toy Biz tried applying the Marvel brand to everything. Literally everything. This was in part due to Toy Biz being a subsidiary of Marvel, and therefore not having any licensing fees to cover, so they had a certain degree of leeway to try out new stuff. In the early-to-mid-2000s, one of the better selling toy brands on the market was Rescue Heroes, a line of stylized, younger kid friendly action figures. This led to all sorts of imitators, including Toy Biz’s Spider-Man & Friends line, which presented some of the better known Marvel heroes in a near identical style. Despite being a Spider-Man line in name, the line actually covered a pretty decent subsection of the Marvel universe, including their resident Merry Mutants, the X-Men. That included founding member Cyclops, who we’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

CyclopsSF2Laser Blast Cyclops was part of Series 5 of Spider-Man & Friends, released in mid-2003. While some of the characters received an assortment of variants from the line, Laser Blast Cyclops was the only time Cyclops showed up. The figure stands about 6 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. His design is based on Cyclops’s movie look from the X-Men and X2, which was relevant at the time. His color scheme has, unsurprisingly, been changed to something a bit brighter, since it was a kid-aimed line. Cyclops got his own, totally unique sculpt, done to match the style of the rest of the line. His face looks a fair bit younger, and the size of his head, hands, and feet are all above the norm. In general, the figure is just a lot stockier than the typical super hero figure, no doubt to boost stability a little bit. He’s also got the standard back port that all the figures had, which allowed for the attachment of the various backpacks included with each figure (and Cyclops’s conveniently houses his battery compartment). He may be a more kid-oriented toy, but Toy Biz certainly didn’t slack off on the sculpted details, though. His uniform has all the various stitching and padding of the film look, and there are even some nice technical details on the visor. Texturing and the like has been toned down a bit, but that doesn’t hold the figure back at all. As noted above, the color scheme for this figure is a lot brighter than the movie look that inspired the sculpt. He’s been given the more traditional blue/yellow scheme, though he does still keep the black for his boots, gloves, and visor. The end result looks pretty great, and fits in very nicely with the rest of the line. Cyclops was packed with a weird yellow backpack with a blaster/gun sort of thing attached to it. It almost looks like a Ghostbusters proton pack, to be honest. In addition, he also had a light-up feature. When his head was pushed down, his visor would light up red to simulate his optic blasts. This has the unfortunate side effect of making his neck joint more prone to breakage than his compatriots.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This was the only figure I owned from this line, since I was a little out of its age range. My brother, on the other hand, was a pretty big fan, and had a sizeable collection of figures, as well as one of the playsets. So, I got a Cyclops so that I would have a figure for when he wanted me to play with them with him. My first Cyclops actually ended up breaking (at that pesky neck joint) while a friend’s daughter was playing with him. I recently picked up a replacement for that figure, courtesy of Yesterday’s Fun. These were actually some pretty awesome toys, and it’s a shame that Hasbro opted not to continue the line when they took over. At least we got the ones we did!

#0756: Cyclops & Mr. Sinister

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

CYCLOPS VS MR. SINISTER

X-MEN: STEEL MUTANTS

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Last month, I took a look at one of Toy Biz’s many experiments with the Marvel license from the 90s, ­X-Men: Steel Mutants. They were a line of small scale versions of the X-Men, which featured a heavy dose of die-cast metal parts, hence the “Steel” part of the name. Toy Biz actually offered a pretty good selection of the X-Men in this line, including not one, but two versions of founding member Cyclops. Today, we’ll be looking at one of those, along with his pack-mate Mr. Sinister.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cyclops and Mr. Sinister were released in the second series of X-Men: Steel Mutants. Like all the others in the line, they work both as comic and cartoon versions of the characters.

CYCLOPS

SinisterCyclops2This is the second of the two Cyclopses released in this line. While Wolverine got three totally different looks for his three figures, Cyclops just gets a new pose. As opposed to the straight standing look, this one’s got a bit of a running start sort of a thing going. I guess that’s new and exciting. The figure stands roughly 2 ½ inches tall and has 4 points of articulation. Cyclops’s head and arms are plastic, and the torso and legs are metal, like all the other figures in the line. He uses the same head, torso, and left arm as the first Cyclops, along with a new right arm and legs, showing off that deep lunging thing he’s got going on. His sculpt, like that of the first Cyclops, is really a scaling down of the 5 inch Cyclops II figure. That was Toy Biz’s standard Cyclops, and it was a pretty good summation of the character, so it works. The torso’s a bit on the large side for Scott, but hey, it was the 90s, everybody was juicing. All in all, the figure’s pretty well detailed, and not terrible on the proportions, for the time at least. Cyclops’s deep stance makes him a little bit more difficult to keep standing than, say, Gambit, but not as much as you might think. Toy Biz clearly put a lot of effort into making sure these guys were properly balanced, which is good on their part. Cyclops’s paint work is decent for the scale, though there’s some noticeable slop on the changes from yellow to blue, which is slightly annoying. But, smaller details, such as the “X”s on his belt and chest harness are surprisingly clean, and the figure as a whole looks pretty good when viewed from a far.

MR. SINISTER

SinisterCyclops3Mr. Sinister is a pretty natural choice for this line, given his prominence in the cartoon, and he certainly makes sense packed with Cyclops, since they interacted a lot in both the comics and the cartoon. And, unlike Cyclops, this figure doesn’t feel redundant to anyone who had the first series of the line. Sinister was a new sculpt for the Steel Mutants line, though he was more or less just a scaled down version of the 5 inch Sinister from the main line, with the articulation scheme changed. Like that figure, this one feels a little on the small side for Sinister, who was usually depicted as being at least a little bigger than the average person. Aside from that, though, he does a pretty good job of capturing the character’s design. The cape is a separate, removable piece, made from plastic. It clips around the figure’s neck, and doesn’t quite sit right, but it’s close enough not to look too off at this scale. As far as paint goes, Sinister’s mostly painted in the same shade of dark blue, which seems to be a little thickly applied. The rest of the paint is pretty good, though he’s totally lacking Sinister’s usual facial hair. The prototype shows him sporting a full goatee, which is still not correct. Maybe the factory could only do goatee or clean shaven, with no in between? I suppose this would be the preferable choice in that case. There was actually a later single release of this figure that had the goatee, but never one with the character’s actual beard.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Cyclops and Sinister were purchased for me by Super Awesome Girlfriend, when we visited Yesterday’s Fun this past summer. She recognized them as being from the same line as Gambit and Bishop and insisted on buying them for me. I actually had the later single releases of both of these figures, though I can’t say I know where they ended up. All in all, these are another fun little addition, and I’m happy to have them!