Tag Archives: Toy Biz

#3918: Cyclops & Jean Grey

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

CYCLOPS & JEAN GREY

MARVEL’S FAMOUS COUPLES (TOY BIZ)

“As founding members of the mutant team of super heroes called the X-Men, Scott Summers and Jean Grey began a friendship that quickly blossomed into love. Adventuring around the globe and even into outer space, Scott and Jean have faced the most terrifying of threats. But even when hardships struck this duo, they’ve struggled to overcome the danger and emerge together even stronger than before. Now married, Cyclops and Phoenix are the foundation of the X-Men team!”

During their expansive ‘90s run with Marvel, Toy Biz really experimented with all sorts of ways to get as many figures as possible out on the market.  While the bulk of their figures were single-carded assortments, they also had all manner of multi-packs, of all manner of themes.  In the latter half of the decade, they put out a decent chunk of themed two-packs, usually exclusive to specific retailers.  One of the larger sets of these was Famous Couples, which paired off some of the best known couples in the Marvel Universe.  And, you can hardly do such a set without touching on really the central couple of the X-universe, Cyclops and whatever code name Jean Grey is using this week!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cyclops and Jean Grey are one of the three two-packs that made up the Marvel’s Famous Couples line.  It was a Toys “R” Us-exclusive run, with each pair getting a 24,000 piece production.  The sets were released individually, with Scott and Jean coming from the line’s second year.  In addition to character-specific accessories (which I’ll address in the relevant sections), the set included a weird pressed metal sort of thing depicting the two embracing in a way that the figure’s could only dream of.

CYCLOPS

Cyclops had no shortage of figures under Toy Biz.  They covered most of his major looks, and this one was rather unique.  It’s his late-run X-Factor attire, which lasted all of 7 issues, but had a lot of influence on the later Jim Lee re-design.  This is the only time it’s gotten a figure, which is pretty neat.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He’s a total kit bash figure, with the head from the Monster Armor release and the body of Archangel II.  Boy, did Toy Biz sure love that Archangel II body.  It’s an…interesting combo.  The head has that whole screaming thing going on, which is odd enough on the original release, where it’s worked into the whole body.  It’s extra odd on this very stiffly posed body.  Presumably, it was chosen as a reference to the cover of Uncanny X-Men #280, but given that the sculpt for the X-Men vs Street Fighter Cyclops was in production at the same time, it does feel like a bit of a shame that one wasn’t re-used.  The body’s fine, but still has the sculpted wrist cuffs that don’t line up with Scott’s costume, and also still the visible spots on the back where the wings would have connected.  Scott’s paint work is rather sloppy around the edges, but I do like the colors, especially the metallic blue.  Scott is packed with a recolored version of the Cerebro blaster from the Generation X Banshee, which is…fine?  I don’t know.  It’s a weird accessory, and it doesn’t really fit him, and he can’t hold it.

JEAN GREY

Jean was a little rarer under Toy Biz, but still on her third separate mold here, so that’s not so bad.  Like Scott, she’s in her short-lived X-Factor costume, which she had for the exact same span of time, and which has likewise not received any other figures.  The figure is 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation, though the neck is very restricted.  Jean is also totally parts re-use, but curiously, none of the parts were previously Jean Grey figures.  Instead, she gets Black Cat’s head on Invisible Woman’s body.  Admittedly not a bad combo, and I’m honestly a little surprised it never got re-used for a more proper ‘90s Jean.  It’s a little stiff, and you can still see the costume elements for Sue on the body, but it does feel less clunky than Scott.  The paint is also a little cleaner here.  The colors remain the same, and she still gets that really cool metallic blue, which I still really dig.  Jean gets Blizzard’s ice fist and cane, but now in translucent red.  Not totally sure why, but they’re cool enough.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I vividly recall looking at this set multiple times when it was new, but for whatever reason, I never actually bought it.  Seems sort of silly, because it’s a Cyclops, and I do love an excuse to buy those.  This one got traded into All Time Toys a couple of years ago in a much larger Toy Biz collection that I bought way too much of.  A good cross section of the two-packs was present, so that made that part easier.  They’ve been sitting in my office waiting to be opened for a bit, but I finally cracked open a bunch of them in the spring, as I’ve been trying to get more of my Toy Biz stuff out on display.  This set’s kinda weird and quirky.  But also, I kinda dig it.  Like, it’s not great, and it’s not Toy Biz’s best take on either character, but they’re a fun and unique pair.

Shoutout to my friends at All Time Toys, from whom I purchased these figures for review!  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0042: Eric the Red

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

ERIC THE RED

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

It’s Friday, and that means we’re flashing back into another figure addendum!  I get to dive back into the world of Toy Biz Marvel, which is of course one of my very favorite things.  Specifically, I’m going back to my own personal earliest days, and revisiting the one and only ever action figure of X-Men antagonist Eric the Red!

Eric the Red was a famous Viking, known for being the father of—wait, sorry. That’s not the right Eric the Red. Right. Umm… Eric the Red was an alias used by X-Man Cyclops in order to infiltrate a group of villains so he could rescue the rest of the X-Men. What? Still not right? Hang on….

Here it is: Eric the Red was a member of the Shi’ar Empire, the alien race most notable for really hating the Phoenix. He actually stole the identity from Cyclops, for reasons unknown, and used Shi’ar tech to mind control Havok and Polaris into battling the current team of X-Men. Mostly, he’s known for his appearances in the 90s X-Men cartoon during the show’s version of The Phoenix Saga, which is what earned him this figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Eric the Red was released in the “Invasion Series” of ToyBiz’s X-Men line. In all honesty, I’m a bit surprised he wasn’t part of the wave meant to tie-in to The Phoenix Saga, but I guess ToyBiz was just making everything X-Men related at the time. The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation. That’s a bit less than the norm, mostly due to his lack of knee joints. I’m not really sure why he’s missing them, but they do cause him to be a little difficult to get to stand properly. From a sculpting standpoint, the figure’s amazing. The 90s X-Men line could be a bit odd or overly simplistic at times (doesn’t mean I don’t still love them), but this one is genuinely great. He pretty much looks dead on to Dave Cockrum’s interpretation of the character, which is really cool to see. There’s an amazing amount of sculpted detail, and I especially love how well the head’s been handled. It just looks perfect. The paint work isn’t quite as astounding as the sculpting, but it’s all well applied, and I do really like that all the red parts have been molded in metallic red. Eric included a crazy space blaster, which fit very nicely in his hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Eric was a Christmas gift from my parents. I received him, along with Havok, I believe. He was a very early addition to my action figure collection, and as such, I have a lot of nostalgia for this guy. It also helps that he was in The Phoenix Saga, which I owned on VHS, and that he is also just a pretty great figure. He also made for a really great bad guy for just about anyone to fight, which is always cool. 

This review came from roughly the middle of the first year, and was a very early review for Toy Biz X-Men.  He’s only the second mainline figure I looked at here on the site, which is honestly a pretty deep pull, but also feels very appropriate for me.  I think my review’s generally not bad.  It helps that he’s a figure I genuinely like a lot, and I think that comes through pretty well.  I do still have a few notes.  Firstly, my figure was missing his “crazy space blaster” as I dubbed in my review, which I have subsequently replaced.  It’s a pretty basic piece, and he does hold it well.  Something I glossed over in Eric’s review, but talked more about in my year-end wrap-up review for Havok, is that Eric and Havok are my first two X-Men figures, purchased for me by my father for Christmas the year they came out.  Allegedly, my mother raised some concern that I wouldn’t know the characters, but that was pretty well squashed when I opened them Christmas morning.  Eric doesn’t maintain quite the same significance for me that Havok does, but he’s still pretty up there, and I do still really love this figure.

#3914: Captain America & Bucky

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA & BUCKY

AMERICAN HEROES (TOY BIZ)

“Taking Part in the U.S. Army’s Super-Soldier program during the World War II, Steve Rogers was transformed into red-white-and-blue shield-throwing Captain America! Fighting against the enemies of freedom, Cap inspired millions of people around the world with his bravery–and one of these people was teenager, Bucky Barnes. Learning the secret of Captain America’s true identity, Bucky became Cap’s friend and sidekick–joining him to fight evil on their many adventures as they became two great American Heroes!”

Fighting Nazis: it never goes out of style!

Captain America and his sidekick Bucky Barnes debuted alongside each other in Captain America Comics #1 in 1941, and remained a pretty fixed pair for their first seven years of existence.  However, when Cap was revived in the “modern” age in the ‘60s, it was revealed that the accident that froze Cap also killed Bucky.  For 40 years, Bucky was on the list of exceptions to the “nobody stays dead in comics” rule, alongside the likes of Jason Todd, Uncle Ben, and Gwen Stacy.  Boy, that’s a shorter list these days, huh?  During his 40 years being dead, Bucky was kind of rare on the toy front.  Cap and his related characters were generally on the rarer side in general during the early Toy Biz days, but Bucky did get one figure during the run, alongside another figure of Cap himself.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Captain America and Bucky make up the “American Heroes” two-pack, released as a one-off two-pack as part of Toy Biz’s wider 5-inch Marvel range in 1998.  They had an edition size of 20,000, at least according to the package.  The pack includes the two figures, as well as a magnetic address book with an illustration of the two on the front.  Why do they come with an address book?  Great question.  No clue.  But there it is, and Toy Biz isn’t taking my calls.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

There were seven Captain Americas in Toy Biz’s 5-inch line, and four of them were variations on the same figure.  This is one of those four.  The figure stands about 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  His mold is a re-use of the Electro Spark release from the Spider-Man line in 1996.  The mold has its ups and its downs.  It was certainly one of Toy Biz’s favorites for the character, but it’s rather big and bulky, and he’s quite angry looking.  All that said, it’s got a sort of quaintness to it, and I find myself always enjoying it whenever I mess with it.  The sculpt remains unchanged here, so this figure has two notable change-ups.  Firstly, there’s the paint work.  The actual paint masks remain the same as the Electro Spark version, but the colors themselves have changed.  The blue is notably a much brighter shade, his skin isn’t quite as pale, and the white sections have a more pearlescent sheen.  On my copy, the general application also seems to be a little cleaner than his earlier release.  It’s just a much better set-up than the prior figure, and really the best this mold got to look.  The other change-up is on the accessories, or rather accessory.  He drops the weird transforming armor bit, and instead of the really thick light-up shield, he gets a more proper version, which is similar to the one with the Marvel vs Capcom figure, but less fragile.

BUCKY

The still very much dead at this time Bucky had never gotten a figure prior to this, making him very definitely the selling point of this set.  He’s seen here in his classic attire, because what else are you going to put Bucky into, I guess?  The figure stands right at 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  Bucky is a total parts re-use like Cap, but since this was the first Bucky figure ever, he’s re-using parts from other characters.  He’s mostly re-using parts from the Incredible Hulk line’s Doc Samson figure, topped off with the head of Peter Parker.  Samson’s kind of bulky and muscle-bound for what I’d usually think of for Bucky, but at the same time, when paired off with that really quite large Captain America sculpt, he doesn’t feel too crazy out of place.  If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say Samson was largely chosen because he has the cuffed boots already.  He doesn’t have Bucky’s cuffed gloves or collar, though.  In the case of the gloves, he gets extra wrist cuff pieces made from cloth, while the collar is just ignored by the sculpt all together.  The paint does what it can to transform the re-used parts into something more Bucky-like.  The head’s mask does an okay job of differentiating him from Peter, and most of the costume elements are fine.  As is so often the case, you have to ignore some sculpted details that just get painted over, in this case Samson’s etched-in collar to his shirt.  They do at least use the front of that detail as the top of Bucky’s jacket flap, so it could be worse.  The red collar being painted is probably the weakest element here but ultimately, it all works a bit better than expected.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I spent a lot of time watching my VHS copies of the Ruby-Spears Captain America cartoons, which Bucky figures quite prominently into.  As such, I was always eager to add a Bucky to my collection, and I recall being very excited when this set was announced.  Unfortunately, it never really showed up in stores near me, so I never got one.  Bucky had my animated Nightwing figure as his stand-in, with a story that he had actually been woken up years before Cap and that was why he was older and his hair was longer…did I come up with the Winter Soldier idea in 2000?  Maybe, but also is it really *that* original an idea?  I assure you that 8-year-old me certainly didn’t have a Russian sleeper agent angle…mostly because I didn’t really know what that was.  I’m getting sidetracked.  I’ve had my eye out for this set for a while, and I finally found one for a price I liked over the summer, so here it is.  I like it a lot.  Cap is the best version of this mold they did, and that’s pretty cool.  Bucky feels like he *shouldn’t* work being cobbled together the way he is, and yet, in “whole is better than the sum of the parts” situation, he really just does.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0041: Gambit

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

GAMBIT

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOY BIZ)

Okay, after a brief interruption in the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums last week, we are back, and we are jumping back onto that Toy Biz bandwagon!  This one strays a bit later than a lot of the Addendums, hitting up Toy Biz’s move to 1/12 scale figures with Marvel Legends.  Let’s look at Gambit!

So, Happy President’s Day, I guess. Um, I don’t really have that much in the way of presidential action figures, so I’m just gonna go ahead as if it’s any other day. But I thought I’d point it out anyway. Just to mess with you.

Looking back at my past reviews, I’m actually a bit shocked by how few reviews I’ve done of ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends. For a while back there they were, like, the only line I really collected, and I’ve done quite a few reviews of DC Direct figures, which I collected about the same time, so it seems odd I haven’t really looked at any of them. I think part of this might be that I have some bad memories of trying to track certain figures down, and part of it might be that the figures just haven’t aged all that well. Or, I’m going by a totally randomized list, and not as many of them have popped up. Who knows? (Well, me but that kinda ruins my intro).

So, in an effort to attempt to correct some slight oversight, I’ll be reviewing the Marvel Legends version of the X-Men’s own resident scum bag, Gambit! Gambit isn’t as big a deal as he once was, but he was pretty big in the 90s, and even into the early 2000s, hence his place in the line. So, let’s take a look at the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gambit was released as part of the 4th wave of ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends line. He stands about 6 inches tall, and he has 40 points of articulation. The figure depicts Gambit in him classic pink/blue/black leotard and brown trench coat look that everyone thought was oh so rad in the 90s. It’s a truly hideous design, but I can’t help but be so damned nostalgic about it, because being born in the 90s ruined me as a person. The sculpt was pretty good at the time, but now feels like one of the more outdated sculpts in the line, with huge hands, some pretty serious monkey arms, and an overall emaciated look to him. I think the head still holds up, with that perfect floppy Gambit hair, and the totally in character smirk. The coat isn’t the best tailored thing ever, but it isn’t too bad, and it does somewhat mask the odd proportions of the figure. The figure’s paint is pretty good, though it can be sloppy in some places, particularly the face, which I’ve seen have some variance from figure to figure. I do appreciate that this is one of the only Gambit figures to give him the appropriate black sleeves with those weird pink squares, instead of just leaving them pink. The figure had a really nice assortment of accessories that I wish I still had, including: his staff, an energy explosion with a set of cards to simulate his powers, and a base sculpted to look like a fallen Sentinel hand. These pieces were all pretty cool, and I think I still have the stand in a box with some others, but the other two pieces are long gone.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Believe it or not, Gambit was one of my favorite ToyBiz Legends. I’m not really sure why, as I’m not that big a fan of the character, and the figure isn’t that amazing, but I really liked him. I suppose coming early in the line, he got a lot more play time than some of the later figures, and he was one of the figures in the line who you didn’t have to devote all your free time to tracking down.

He hasn’t aged amazingly well, but he’s still held up better than some of the figures, which does give a leg up. And given Gambit’s rather quick decline in popularity, the character has yet to see any kind of rerelease in the more recent incarnations of the line, which I suppose makes this guy a bit more valuable. 

That is a very long intro, and it sure does take a while to get to the point, doesn’t it?  I was still getting the feel for how to jump into things, I think, and I was still doing a lot of call outs for even more minor holidays, which I just don’t do now.  At this point, I was still recovering from being burned by some bad experiences collecting Toy Biz Legends.  Another decade removed, I’m less that way, and generally feel a bit more nostalgic about the whole experience.  Also, I do kind of rag on Gambit for being not really relevant anymore, which is funny here in 2025, when he’s definitely come back around.

Generally, the review proper’s not bad.  I stand by a lot of what I said.  The sculpt has good aspects, but also some issues as well, much like most of the Toy Biz run of this period.  When I originally reviewed him, he was sans accessories.  Since then, I’ve tracked down the stand (which I knew I had when I reviewed him originally, but just didn’t go to the trouble of tracking down), as well as the charged card effect piece (which I was convinced there was no chance at me finding originally, but I was clearly wrong).  The display bases could be a bit of a mixed bag, but Gambit’s is undoubtedly one of the best from the line, and the best of the running subset of damaged Sentinel bases packed with X-Men characters.

#3910: Grey Hulk

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

GREY HULK

SILVER AGE (TOY BIZ)

“Meet Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, a nuclear physicist working for the United States Defense Department. Dr. Banner designed a Gamma Bomb, a weapon that emitted a high output of gamma radiation. During the testing of the bomb, Dr. Banner attempted to rescue a civilian who had wandered onto the test site. Banner was caught in the blast and thanks to an unknown genetic factor, was transformed into a grey-skinned behemoth known as the Hulk. The meek and timid Banner, when enraged, changes into the unstoppable Hulk. Possessing unearthly strength, the Hulk can easily lift 70 tons. While in Hulk form, he is nearly impervious to harm as well. Make no mistake, the Hulk more than lives up to his name and has yet to meet his equal in sheer brute force.”

Hey, look it’s a Grey Hulk.  Or perhaps a Gray Hulk.  You know, depending on your take on spellings.  This one’s emphatically a “Grey” Hulk, and I’m gonna go so far as to say that it’s ultimately this figure’s fault that I default to the “e” spelling over the “a” spelling.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  I’ve thoroughly exhausted the one real bit of trivia I have for Grey Hulk, so I won’t bring it up again.  I’ll just assume you know why he shifted from grey to green in the comics.  Because of that shift, however (and Marvel’s recoloring of reprints of his original appearance), Hulk merchandise always stuck to his emerald pallor.  It was a pretty big deal to get any sort of Grey Hulk at all, and an especially big deal for it to not be a Joe Fixit variant.  So, hey, let’s check out the big deal.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Grey Hulk is the fourth and final figure in Toy Biz’s Silver Age line, a PX-exclusive assortment from 1999.  He, like last week’s Spidey, is actually true to the line’s name, and perhaps one of the very best uses of such an idea.  As noted above, this was the first proper Grey Hulk figure released, which was very cool.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He wasn’t especially big, but I guess Grey Hulk was kind of on the smaller side.  The articulation is notably limited, with no elbows or knees, which happened a lot with the Hulks.  Most of his sculpt is a re-use of the “Crash-Out Action” Hulk from the main Hulk line’s “Smash & Crash” assortment.  It was that line’s take on the standard look for the character from the UPN series at the time.  Issues of size and articulation aside, it’s a decent basic Hulk sculpt, and it fits in well with the rest of the Toy Biz figures of the time.  Since that figure’s head sculpt was very much a later style Hulk, this guy gets a new head, a rare new piece for the line.  It gives Hulk his shorter hair and more pronounced brow, and while it’s a touch soft, it’s generally a pretty nice sculpt.  He also gets a soft-goods shirt and shoes, so as to give him more of the tattered remains of Bruce Banner’s clothing, in line with the look on the original cover.  They’re admittedly a little dopey looking, but they’re also completely removable if they’re not your vibe.  The color work here’s not bad.  The grey is all painted, and there’s pretty extensive accenting, which works quite well.  Hulk is packed with a couple of pieces of wall, which are re-purposed from the Cyclops Laser Arena, a seven year old set that had no re-use up to this point.  Pretty impressive resourcefulness, honestly.  The new paint work makes them look a bit more natural than the original use as well, which is certainly a plus.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This figure is the only Silver Age figure I had as a kid.  He was, if I’m recalling correctly, left for me by my dad the Tooth Fairy after I lost my first front tooth.  Sneaking an entire sealed figure under my pillow was a neat trick, I’ll tell you that.  I was always reading old Marvel comics, and the early Hulk look fascinated me, so he was right up my alley.  Despite not technically being a standard Hulk, he rivaled my Avengers boxed set Hulk for being my go-to Hulk at play time.  I lost the shirt, shoes, and wall shortly after getting him, I recall, but was able to get replacements more recently.  He holds up pretty well, and I think he’s probably the best figure in this particular set.

#3906: Spider-Man

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

SPIDER-MAN

SILVER AGE (TOY BIZ)

“Peter Parker, a mild mannered honor student in high school was fascinated with all things scientific. While attending a science exhibition on the manipulation of wavelength radiations, Peter was bitten by a spider that was exposed to radiations. Peter was bitten by a spider that was exposed to radiation. As a result, he was given superhuman, spider-like abilities. Peter could now climb walls, leap incredible distances, and life more than 10 tons, prompting him to adopt the identity of Spider-Man. He made a costume and with his knowledge of science created “web-shooters.” Attached to each wrist, his web-shooters allow Spider-Man to shoot super strong, sticky webs to swing from and use as various weapons. Spider-Man also has a “spider-sense” that warns him of impending danger making him one of the most legendary crime fighters ever known.”

While he spent the first two decades of his existence with only a handful of action figures, but the end of the ‘90s, there was absolutely no shortage of Spider-Man action figures.  Toy Biz released a metric ton of them in the 5-inch line, mostly under his own self-branded line, launched to tie-in with his ‘90s Animated Series.  The more obscure offshoot lines weren’t as likely to include him, since he was better suited in other, more big-box-retail-friendly set-ups.  He did get the occasional less mainstream release, as was the case with today’s offering, which goes back to the character’s earliest days.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man is the third of the four figures in Toy Biz’s PX-exclusive Silver Age line from 1999.  By far, he is the assortment’s heaviest hitter, making him this line-up’s correspondent to the Wolverine in the Modern Age line-up.  Unlike the Cap figure, which was emphatically *not* Silver Age, and the Gwen figure, which was a loose connection, Spidey is emphatically well within the timeline for Silver Age…for the most part.  I’ll get to all that.  The figure stands right under 5 inches tall and he has 15 points of articulation.  Spidey was entirely parts re-use, using the body of the Marvel Super Heroes “Multi-Jointed Action Poses” Spidey, with the head from the Animated Super-Posable Spidey.  It’s actually kind of a neat combo.  The MSH body is smaller and skinnier than most of the other Spideys that Toy Biz put out, and the head being originally meant for a more bulked up Spidey means it’s a touch too large…which is a pretty good match for Ditko’s portrayal of a teenage Peter Parker in the costume.  The base body is very posable, as well, which makes for a better general Spidey set-up.  To really sell the earlier Spidey look, they’ve also pinned a pair of vinyl “web-wings” to the backs of his arms, much like the first Fantastic Four line’s Black Bolt.  I limits the posing on the arms a little bit, but it’s not terrible, and it’s a good change-up for the look.  The figure’s paint work is more or less what you would expect from this era of Spider-Man.  I might have perhaps liked a slightly more Ditko-like pattern and eyes on the face, but it’s not incredibly far off, and it wouldn’t shock me to find out there may have been some branding involved in the look here.  The blue is a darker shade, but not the straight on black of his original appearance, meaning this isn’t a First Appearance figure, but rather a broader Silver Age figure.  While I always love a good First Appearance Spidey, the blue with the web-wings is the look less often done, so can dig it.  Spidey was packed with the web-shooters, belt, and ankle pouches from Scarlet Spider, all done in the same silver with darker accenting, as well as an actual rolled paper copy of the Daily Bugle, and a card with the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 (which makes this line 3 for 3 on the figures not wearing the costumes depicted on the covers for their cards).  Not entirely sure why he gets all the Scarlet Spider gear, but it’s a neat extra nevertheless.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had *plenty* of Spider-Men by the time this figure hit, so he’s the one member of the line-up that didn’t tempt me in the slightest…you know, until I had the other three and he was all I needed to finish the set.  So, off to eBay I went.  In light of figures that are more obviously new and different, he sort of gets lost, but at the same time, he’s actually a pretty neat figure with a solid take on a more specific design.  And, he does at least actually stick to the theme.

#3902: Gwen Stacy

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

GWEN STACY

SILVER AGE (TOY BIZ)

“Former student and model, Gwen Stacy was also Peter Parker’s girlfriend. Both Peter and Gwen were Biochemistry majors at Empire State University where they met and fell in love. Unbeknownst to Gwen, Peter Parker was secretly Spider-Man and Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin knew so. The Green Goblin kidnaped Gwen Stacy and used her as a hostage to exact revenge on his nemesis, Spider-Man. During their battle, the Goblin knocked Gwen Stacy off the Brooklyn Bridge. Spider-Man caught her with his webbing. Tragically, Gwen died from the shock of the fall, thus ending a major chapter in the personal life of Peter Parker.”

Last week, I took a jump into one of Toy Biz’s one-off specialty assortments released in 1999 to fill out their 5-inch Marvel run.  Titled “Silver Age”, it was designed to highlight characters from Marvel’s heyday of the ‘60s.  While largely heavy hitter driven, it did give them an opportunity for one slightly more off the beaten path sort of character.  By the end of the ‘90s, Spider-Man’s then-current love interest Mary Jane Watson had gotten two figures from Toy Biz, both via multipacks with Spidey variants.  His previous love interest, Gwen Stacy, was as of yet without any sort of toy coverage, but that was fixed by Silver Age, where she made her figure debut.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gwen Stacy was one of the four figures in Toy Biz’s Silver Age line.  She was the only non-heavy hitter in the bunch, but paired off well with the included Spider-Man figure.  Gwen’s an interesting choice for a Silver Age line; she was created during the Silver Age, but her death, which is a major piece of her bio for this figure, is one of the defining events of the Bronze Age, and as such she’s frequently attached to that era.  The figure stands right about 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation.  Her posability is odd.  She’s got no neck or elbow movement, but she’s got one wrist and ankles.  She’s not particularly agirl.  Gwen’s using what appears to be a variation of Aurora’s body from the Alpha Flight line, but smoothed out for a better base starting point.  It’s decent enough, but the torso’s a little too tightly sculpted to believably be a shirt.  She gets a cloth skirt piece as well, and a unique head/hair.  Interestingly, Gwen’s *not* wearing her attire from “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” despite that being the usual go-to.  It’s a design that still feels rather Gwen-y, though, so it works out well enough. The paint work on this figure is okay.  The skin tone’s nice and clean, as are the stripes on her shirt.  The eyes are a touch wonky, though.  Gwen is packed with a camera (presumably borrowed from Peter?  It’s a unique piece, though), and a pair of clip-on fur pieces for her boots, for fashion purposes, no doubt.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember seeing this figure a fair bit in ’99, but I didn’t know who she was at the time.  It was actually this figure that kind of got me interested in finding out, so I guess that’s kind of cool.  I didn’t get her at the time, though.  She’s a far more recent addition, from the last few years, grabbed during one of my family vacations from Gidget’s Gadgets, a neat shop in the area.  She actually got me invested in getting the rest of the Silver Age line-up, which I’d up to then been putting off.  She’s okay.  Not super playable or distinctive, but at the same time, she’s pretty solid for a civilian character who’d never gotten a figure before.

#3898: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

SILVER AGE (TOY BIZ)

“Steve Rogers, a frail, sickly orphan, enlisted in the army on the eve of World Ear II but was rejected due to this poor physical condition. Given a second change, Rogers volunteered for a special experiment called Operation Rebirth. He was injected with a “Super Soldier” serum and his body was transformed into a body as perfect as a human can be. He was trained in gymnastics, hand-to-hand combat and military strategy and became Captain America. In addition to speed, strength, agility, endurance and reaction speed far superior to any Olympic athlete, Captain America was given an unbreakable Adamantium shield as his sole weapon. Captain America has since faced all types of threats and has and always will be a true symbol of truth, liberty and justice.”

In 1999, Toy Biz was exploring direct market options for keeping their 5-inch Marvel offerings going, and wound up offering a handful of one-off sets of figures, each with a loose theme.  There was a pair of them based around different eras of the Marvel Universe, one Silver Age, the other Modern.  Today, I’m jumping into the former, with a look back at Marvel’s Silver Age of comics….sort of….not really.  Look, I’ll get to it.  The important thing here is that I’m looking at a Toy Biz Captain America, and that’s always a good time for me.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is the first of the four figures that make up the Silver Age line from Toy Biz.  While Modern Age skewed a bit more obscure with some of its choices, Silver Age was very heavy hitter friendly.  Both line-ups were offered up through Previews, so they were predominantly comic store exclusives.  I know KB got Modern Age, but I don’t recall if Silver Age ever made that jump.  Anyway, let’s talk about Cap!  So, let’s be clear about something right out of the gate: this is emphatically *not* a Silver Age Captain America.  They gave him a card with the cover of Avengers #4, which introduced Cap to the Silver Age, but the actual figure is very much first appearance Cap, which makes him a Golden Age Cap.  But, I suppose a “Golden Age” line of Marvel figures would struggle with a wider audience, so Cap got shuffled. The figure stands 5 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He made use of the mold from the Marvel vs Capcom Cap from earlier that same year.  It’s my favorite of the Toy Biz Cap molds, for sure, and generally the one that works best with their overall 5-inch line.  The only thing that’s a little off about it in a non-video game application is that the head is definitely a Capcom Cap, not a straight comics one, and this figure is definitely aiming for a more direct Kirby vibe.  There *were* new parts in this line-up, but not a ton, so they may have just figured it was close enough.  I still don’t hate it, even if it’s not crazy accurate.  The primary change-up is the paint, which serves to make him all not-Silver-Age-y.  He’s got his modified mask, without the neck coverage.  It doesn’t really follow the sculpted lines, of course, so you just have to ignore that and hope for the best.  Otherwise, he also changes the colors a bit, so the blue is a lot darker here than on others.  Beyond that, application’s pretty clean, and he gets some okay accent work.  Cap is packed with both of his shields, the circular one and the original badge-shaped one.  The circular one is the same mold as the MvC one, but using a different plastic, so the clip isn’t as prone to breaking, making it a perfect replacement for the MvC one that broke.  The other shield is neat, because you didn’t tend to see it, and this was its first toy coverage.  It’s also got actual cloth straps, which are very fun.  Lastly, there’s a trading card with the Avengers #4 cover that doesn’t have anything to do with this figure, but is still a nice example of a good cover.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

There were three Captain America figures released in 1999, and I got two of them.  I wanted all three, but my parents were still working towards grasping why I needed nearly identical figures of the same guy.  I’d already gotten them to buy me the United They Stand Cap, and I guess I just didn’t want to push my luck with this one?  I looked at it a lot of times, I recall, and I’m sure if I’d really asked, they would have bought it for me.  I recall being a bit frustrated by a clearly Golden Age Cap being in a Silver Age line, even as a seven-year-old, so perhaps I just wasn’t personally ready to own him.  He’s been on my list for a while, though.  He’s not rare, but he’s not super plentiful, so he never landed in front of me.  At the beginning of the year, as I started to get back to my Toy Biz collecting, he was on my short list, and now here he is.  I do sure like him a lot.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0038: Terrax

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

TERRAX

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

When I revived the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums in April, I did so with a crazy, radical idea: a second addendum.  Yes, back when I did my first round of addendums, all the way in distant year of 2017, some of my figures were more complete than their initial reviews, but still not *totally* complete.  That’s just not good enough for me.  I returned to Savage Land Angel for a round three, and now I’m doing the same for another Toy Biz figure, Terrax!

Today’s review is another Fantastic Four figure, this is the last of the wave one reviews: Terrax. There was one other figure in the first wave, Benjamin J Grimm, aka the Thing, but I didn’t have that version. I had the later wave 3 version. And can I just address the fact that I’m reviewing Terrax, but I’ve yet to get to the Human Torch and the Invisible Woman? You know the other HALF of the title team! How exactly did TERRAX get himself a spot in the line before two of the title characters? He’s really not that great a character, nor has he ever really been all that important…ever. Anyway…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So like I said before, this is Terrax, the second herald of Galactus, part of the first wave of Toybiz’s FF line. He’s depicted here in Terrax’s only look ever, which must have made the costume choice pretty easy for the guys at Toybiz. At one point in time, Terrax had a rock stand and his trusty axe (which tears through stuff. Cleaver name….). Mine doesn’t have these items any more. The figure’s actually a very good depiction of Terrax, which is nice because he’s not one of those characters who gets many chances at having an action figure made. His hands are interesting, because they’re both molded to hold his axe, but due to their vertical placement and his limited articulation, he can only hold it in one hand at a time. This leaves the other hand with this thumbs up position. What is this guy, the Fonz? (AAAAAAAAY!) Actually, that might make his character a bit more interesting. You heard it here first Marvel! (Do they even realize that this character exists?)

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Terrax was another of the gift figures. It’s fine because he’s a great, big, bad guy for your heroes to fight. That was always good enough for me!

Well, there’s the original review.  It’s…it’s something.  In these earliest reviews, I was still finding my voice, and I was aiming for witty and perhaps a bit edgy?  I wasn’t aiming for well-proof-read, I’ll tell you that, hence the use of “cleaver” in a sentence clearly meant to use “clever.”  Yikes.

Okay, by this point I was starting to get into the swing of things. Over 300 words and an actual intro. Still doesn’t quite follow my modern structuring, but not terrible at all. And of course, I was still doing full series reviews at this point, which is rather different than how I do things now.

Terrax is a little over 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. Missing from my original review were his rock stand, removable skirt piece and his axe. Of those pieces, the only one I found during The Find was his axe, but that’s okay, since the axe is definitely the most important piece!

Not a whole lot of extra thoughts on this guy, I gotta say. That’s all for cosmic Fonzie here.

One of my briefer addendums, for sure.  I cover the basics and add the note about the axe I found.  Well, that’s all good, I suppose.  This time around, I have his two skirt pieces, as well as his rock stand, bringing him back up to a complete figure.  He’s actually quite a nice little package of a figure, and you could hardly ask for more from a Terrax.

#3894: Invisible Woman

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

INVISIBLE WOMAN

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

“Caught in a bombardment of intense cosmic radiation while on an experimental space flight, Susan Richards found herself endowed with the power to become transparent at will, and the ability to form invisible force-fields of incredible durability. Now, as a member of the Fantastic Four, Sue battles to defend humanity as the elusive Invisible Woman!”

In preparation of the whole Fantastic Four movie release, I decided at the beginning of the month I was going to review Toy Biz figures of the whole FF.  The trouble is, that while I hadn’t reviewed the three men of the team in their Marvel Super Heroes releases, I’ve gone so far as to review *both* of the MSH Invisible Woman figures.  I’ve also already reviewed her hasty repaint release from Fantastic Four, so I’m actually wrapping things up for Sue in the Toy Biz 5-inch range today.  Let’s get to this!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invisible Woman was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four line.  Like her brother Johnny, the intent was for the Series 2 figure to be Sue’s first figure in the line, but retailers balked at the idea of not having the complete team at launch, resulting in a repainted Spider-Woman that served as a stand in, until the real thing arrived later.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and she has 9 points of articulation…sort of.  The neck joint is especially restricted to the point of effectively not being there.  Still, she at least gets elbow joints, making her more posable than her predecessor.  The sculpt here was all-new to this figure, but would later become a favorite of Toy Biz’s during their heavier repaint days.  It’s not a bad sculpt.  Perhaps a touch skinny on the limbs, but generally good, and in keeping with her animation model from the show.  The initial prototype for this figure was in standard colors, but when they did the stand-in figure for Series 1, so was that one.  In an effort to be more unique, this figure was molded entirely in clear plastic, simulating her abilities.  The irony of it all is that this sculpt never ended up being released in actual color as Sue, not even for all the repaints.  It works alright, and apart from some minor yellowing, it’s still pretty good.  She was packed with a wheeled stand and a small shield, which are similar to the ones used on the Series 1 figure, but ultimately totally unique.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I recall getting this figure relatively early on in my collecting, but I don’t recall the exact circumstances of exactly *how* I got her.  The Marvel Super Heroes figure was my first Sue, so this one would have been a back-up at best.  I recall my original’s arm broke at the elbow, and I ended up replacing her with a spare that came in a lot with my Black Bolt figure.  She’s a decent figure, if perhaps limited in her application.