Tag Archives: Toy Biz

#3874: Silver Surfer

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

SILVER SURFER

FANTASTIC FOUR (TOY BIZ)

On Friday, I admitted to the great lie I perpetrated back during the first month of reviews here on the site. That I hadn’t *actually* reviewed the Toy Biz Fantastic Four Silver Surfer. So, to make up for this horrible thing I’ve done, today I do what I claimed to do 12 years ago, and review that Toy Biz Fantastic Four Silver Surfer. Let’s do this.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Silver Surfer was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s Fantastic Four line. He was ostensibly meant to tie-in with the show, but also it’s kind of a general purpose Surfer design, so it easily goes either way. The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation. His mold is the same one I looked at before, though it originated here (and was shared with the hastily added Human Torch from the same series). It’s good, but does feel perhaps a little small. For the original release, he was done up in a bright, very shiny chrome, which feels more in line which the character’s usual depictions. It holds up pretty well, and also manages to not totally remove all of the sculpted detailing, which marked an improvement on the Marvel Super Heroes version. He was packed with his board, which again matches his finish, and again has the slipper looking spots for his feet. He also gets the ring attachment for the bottom.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I had the CD-ROM figure and the 10-inch figure, but never this guy. I honestly never felt the need, since my bases were covered by the others. But, as I delve further into a proper complete run of these, I realize my bases were in fact *not* covered. Thankfully, a proper Series 1 figure came into All Time a little while back, allowing proper coverage of the bases once more!

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to 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 #0032: Silver Surfer

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

SILVER SURFER

FANTASTIC FOUR THE SILVER SURFER (TOY BIZ)

People are fallible. Even the best of us can let you down sometimes. Dear reader, please remember this and be kind as we delve into today’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, my oldest Silver Surfer review.

Time for another Fantastic Four review it seems.  Today we’re looking at a sometimes foe, but usually friend of the team, Silver Surfer.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The figure in question is the first herald of Galactus, Norin Radd, aka the Silver Surfer.  Good old Nor here has 11 points of articulation and stands 5 inches tall.  At one point in time, he was a bit shinier, but my figure has long since dulled.  The figure’s sculpt is solid.  I think it would be difficult to mess up a bald, naked guy, but I’d probably be wrong.  He’s got a nice assortment of articulation, though I’m not really sure what’s going on with his right arm.  Is he supposed to be doing something specific ?  Because all I see is some kind of record scratching move.  Maybe this is actually a figure of often forgotten 90s sensation DJ Sizzle Surfer-izzle and I just wasn’t aware…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a moderate silver surfer fan as a kid, but I actually rarely used this figure as the Surfer.  He was a nice, generic figure, good for a million things.  His joints are practically worn out from all the play time this guy got!

So, the failing starts right at the beginning, and just goes all the way through, where I just totally and completely LIE about this figure. Because the figure covered both here and in the original review? He’s *not* the one from the Fantastic Four line, nor was he ever any shinier than he is now. No, in fact, he’s actually one of two figures released in 1996, accompanied by a CD-ROM featuring digitized versions of key comic book issues, in the case of this figure, Silver Surfer related ones. I recall that being the one I had, but I guess in my mind he was the same basic figure. He was notably duller than the original release. My initial review, aside from the lying, covered the basics of the figure okay. He was missing his surfboard at the time, but I’ve since scared that one up, so huzzah, he actually gets to be a Surfer again. It’s an okay piece, and matches his finish. The connection is sort of odd, kind of like a slipper that goes over his foot, but it keeps him in place okay. There’s also a loop that attaches to the bottom, so you can put it on your finger? I guess that’s better than just holding the actual board with your hands. What is it, a toy for babies?

#3866: Maestro

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

MAESTRO

THE INCREDIBLE HULK (TOY BIZ)

“From the future comes the corrupted version of the Incredible Hulk, the Maestro! Turning away from good, the Maestro defeated all of the world’s heroes in his future time, and now wears their weapons and armor as trophies. Using his incredible strength to become the ruler of the war-torn society, the Maestro is evil personified and he’s not finished. The only hope for this terrible future comes as the Hulk of our time is pulled forward to face the Maestro in battle and defeat him. Warned of the arrival of the Hulk, the Maestro readies himself for the greatest clash of his life!”

Two weeks ago, prolific comics writer, novelist, and columnist Peter David passed away.  Peter was a family friend, who I had known pretty much since I was born, and a regular attendee at the sci-fi conventions my family helped run.  He’d been battling with some health issues for a few years, but his passing still seemed sudden, and it is odd to think that a man with such a distinctive voice will now be absent from so many conversations.  Peter had a hand in a lot of very popular comics over the years, and in particular did a lot of pretty noteworthy things during his time writing Hulk.  He really explored the internal struggle of Bruce Banner and his duality as the Hulk, bringing to the forefront many different versions of the title character.  Alongside the late and great George Perez, Peter created Maestro, a dark take on the Hulk from an alternate future.  He got a pretty quick turnaround on the toy front, which I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Maestro was released in 1997’s “Transformations” series of Toy Biz’s The Incredible Hulk line.  Rather appropriately, the assortment also had Smart Hulk, the version of Hulk from the present day that he faced off against in his initial story, so that worked out pretty well.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  He’s not particularly agile, but he’s a Hulk, so they don’t tend to be.  The neck is particularly stiff, though, due to the beard and long hair.  Generally, he’s really just good for the one pose.  It is, at least, a pretty cool pose.  The sculpt is rather on par with the rest of the main Hulk line.  It’s solid, and there’s a lot of pretty nice little detailing.  The warts and such on the skin are gross, but they’re kind of supposed to be, right?  In the story, Maestro is Hulk after the rest of the Marvel Universe is dead, so to reflect this, the figure gets a Toy Biz original twist on his design: the fallen hero armor.  He’s got a bandolier sporting the helmets/heads of Juggernaut, Ultron, Iron Man, Dr. Doom, and Nova, and Dr. Strange’s cloak attached to that.  He’s also got a damaged version of Cap’s shield, with a chain connecting Mjolnir to it on his left arm, and he *should* have a gauntlet on the right arm made of Wolverine’s bones, but mine is missing that part.  It’s a really cool, really distinctive visual, that’s not based on anything from the comics, nor has it ever been adapted into the comics, but it’s still very cool.  Maestro’s paint work is pretty nice, actually.  The core body gets quite a bit of accenting and smaller detail wrk, and the fallen hero armor gets a lot of color.  The only slight oddity is the all-red eyes; he usually just had normal eyes, but they made them red.  It’s not a bad visual, but doesn’t quite represent the character’s comic look.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember seeing this figure in the store when he was new, and I was always fascinated by the armor (especially since it was our only glimpse at a classic Iron Man or Ultron during the Toy Biz run), but for whatever reason, I just never got around to buying one.  It’s been on my list since I got back into the collection in college, but was always just outside my immediate “gotta buy it” price range.  In light of Peter’s passing, I decided it was time to stop putting it off and finally get one, which I did.  He’s really cool, even if he’s not strictly comic accurate.  I’m glad I finally got one.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0031: Magneto

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

MAGNETO

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Okay, you guys, I’m doing it for real this time!  I’m *actually* wrapping up Toy Biz X-Men Series 1….more or less.  I’m focussing on the more, though, because I think that sounds better for me personally.  So, for today’s Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, let’s return back to Magneto!

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

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

THE FIGURE ITSELF

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

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

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

Man, I did cover my bases on “more complete” at the end there.  Good for me.  Well, now he’s *actually* complete.  And then some!  I managed to find those missing “debris” parts for my figure, and, along the way, I also managed to snag the paint variant that I neglected to mention the last time.  For his initial and all subsequent releases, Magneto got the all purple collar, as seen in my original review, but for only the initial run, there was also a variant with a red box in the middle, unpainted.  It gives him an extra bit of flair, but I imagine it was a lot more difficult to keep consistent, hence just filling it in for later runs.  Not crazy different, but nifty.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0030: Archangel

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

ARCHANGEL

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Hey, did you guys realize there were still some figures from Toy Biz’s first series of X-Men I hadn’t addendummed?  Because there are.  So, here I go, fixing that.  Ooooooooooooooh yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaah!  …*ahem*… Sorry about that.  Anyway, here’s Archangel.

“Archangel is the high-flying X-Man with a knock-out secret weapon– wingtip darts filled with paralyzing fluid! Archangel can fire these darts with uncanny accuracy from any height and speed. With his amazing metal wings, Archangel is able to fly faster than the speed of sound and silently attack like a striking eagle. This ability strikes terror in the hearts of evil mutants, for their first warning of Archangel’s attack is usually the impact of one of his darts!”

In the late ’80s/early ’90s, there was a trend in comics, of taking characters with formerly passive powers and either creating a new character with those powers plus an offensive component, or even just reforging the original into something more “kick-ass.”  Founding X-Men member Warren Worthington III, originally known as Angel, found himself on the receiving end of one of these make-overs, become the war-ready Archangel.  It was a lasting look, and one that was at the forefront when it came time for Warren’s first action figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Archangel was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  His presence is somewhat interesting, as he’s the only X-Man in the line-up who wasn’t from the “All-New, All-Different” lineup.  Archangel was still wearing his hideous “Death” togs he got from Apocalypse at the time of this figure, so that’s what he’s wearing here.  Boy, was this costume ugly.  I mean, I love it, but it’s ugly.  The figure stands 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation (his wings can also move, but it’s tied into his action feature, and they don’t really hold poses or anything).  His sculpt was unique to him.  It’s not terrible, but I do think he’s a fair bit more dated than some of the others in the set.  His head’s kind of large, and his facial expression is sort of goony. I think it’s the eyes; they seem too close together.  The body is rather stiffly posed, and his proportions are definitely a little off.  The arms are probably the worst part; they just look so scrawny when compared to the rest of him.  The wings are okay, though they suffer a bit from the comics’ lack of consistency on the exact shaping of them.  They’re also slightly marred by the “missile launching feature” at the tops.  I use the quotes because there’s no actual spring-loaded feature or anything; you just pushed them out with your thumb.  Kind of disappointing.  The torso is also impacted a bit by the wings.  Toy Biz wasn’t sure how to attach them, so they went for this this big honking block on his back.  Elegant it is not.  Archangel’s paintwork is decent enough; it’s a little brighter than a lot of interpretations of this costume tend to be, but it’s not like it was going to get *less* ugly.  There were two versions of this guy’s colorscheme; the original release had white wings, while the re-release offered both white and grey wings.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Archangel was one of my earlier additions to my collection.  Though the Invasion series had hit right when I started collecting (and given me my first three X-Men figures in the process), the Archangel variant included there wasn’t quite as plentiful, so I ended up getting this guy’s re-release instead.  He’s not aged particularly well, and I definitely prefer other Archangel’s, but he still has a quaint sort of a charm to him.

This review hit in the midst of a run of these reviews I ran in 2018, as I was doing a dive into the first series of the line, following finally getting a complete set of them.  At the time, I didn’t have his two thumb missiles, but I have managed to square up a pair of them to go with mine since.  They’re kind of unimpressive, but at least they’re there?  Wooooooooo.

 

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0029: Bishop

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

BISHOP

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Who better for a jump back in time than one of the X-Men’s resident time travellers, Lucas Bishop, a guy who only goes by his last name, because it’s cooler that way, so it’s just Bishop!

“Accidentally wrenched back through several decades by the time-twisting evil mutant named Fitzroy, Bishop arrived in our era from one of Earth’s many possible futures. Bishop survived the battle that followed, thanks to his mutant ability to absorb the energy attacks of others and turn that power back against his foes. Stranded in our time, Bishop has added his might to that of the present-day X-Men by joining their Gold Team!”

The X-Men really just became a haven for displaced time-travelers, didn’t they?  Also guys with vague, unrelated “cool” names that were just common place words, and whose abilities translated to “has a gun”.  All of these things nicely describe Bishop, an uber ’90s character, who could only be more ’90s if he wore a leather jacket and had shoulder pads.  I suppose he got off easy in that regard.  Bishop was prominent enough in the ’90s to feature on X-Men: The Animated Series, and by extension find his way into Toy Biz’s line of X-Men figures from the same period, getting what would be his very first action figure.  I’ll be taking a look at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Bishop was initially released as part of Series 4 of the X-Men line, and would see subsequent re-release in the Marvel Universe line and as part of a multi-pack with Wolverine and Gambit.  All three releases of the figure are functionally identical, but it’s worth noting that mine is a Series 4 release.  Bishop is sporting his primary look from the ’90s, which was the only one he had at the time of the figure’s release.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Though he’s rocking a waist swivel, he loses movement in his neck, presumably due to his hair.  Curiously, though, the Deluxe 10-inch figure and 2 1/2-inch Steel Mutants figure that are both patterned on the same sculpt both had a neck joint, so why it was missing from this guy is anyone’s guess.  Beyond that, the sculpt is fairly typical for the time.  He’s super bulky, but that’s just Bishop.  I will say that they were starting to run into the limits of this slightly simpler style of elbow joint they used, since it’s a little small for such a large arm.  It works overall, though.  The detailing on the hair is pretty nice, and definitely does his very dated hair cut proud.  Bishop’s paintwork is fairly basic, and a little bit messy on my figure.  There’s a lot of fuzzy edges, and the yellow sections are definitely prone to some serious bleedover.  In 1996, Bishop was also re-issued as part of the “Flashback” assortment, which was all repaints.  For that release, his blue was swapped for grey and black, and his yellow for gold, and his skintone was made somewhat lighter.  There was a second, predominantly red deco also shown, but it never hit shelves.  Whatever the case, the paint is a little cleaner on that release, but of course the trade off is that he’s not in his classic colors any more.  Whichever release you get, Bishop included two large blaster rifles in black, and features a “Quick-Draw Weapon Release” action feature.  Press the button on his back and his right arm swings upward.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have Bishop as a kid, largely because his episodes of the cartoon were some of my least favorite, so I never formed much of an enjoyment of the character.  That said, I really dig the ’90s X-Men line and I’m slowly working through building a complete collection, which meant getting this guy at some point, right?  I found both versions of Bishop at a toy show a while back, allowing me to close off that corner of the X-Mythos in one fell swoop, I suppose.  He’s not really one of the better Toy Biz X-Men, but then he’s far from the worst.  He fills in the roster pretty nicely.

Bishop stands as a single Toy Biz review in a month that was otherwise without them.  I’d be hard-pressed to tell you *why* I reviewed him at that time, since I wasn’t doing any notable run of Toy Biz reviews at the time.  He wasn’t even new at the time, having been picked up two summers prior.  And, I feel the need to confess that I did *not* complete the collection in one fell swoop as I stated.  I had actually gotten the regular a little bit earlier, during a birthday excursion in 2017, while the variant was indeed from a toy show the following year.  In my original review, I noted that he had two guns, but I only showed one of them.  I unearthed the second one, so I’ve added it to the main photo, so he’s all proper and complete.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0028: Gambit

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

GAMBIT

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Hey-ho, we are back with the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums here at the FiQ, and I’m sticking with that whole “Toy Biz Marvel” thing, because it sure does bring me comfort.  Or something like that.  Moving past cleaning up my reviews of the first series for a moment, I’m jumping later into the line, with Gambit!

“Gambit has the mutant ability to take the energy of any object and put it to his own use. That use usually means turning the object into a deadly weapon. Gambit is a martial arts expert with a lightning-fast karate kick. When battling multiple attackers, Gambit relies on his Techno Battle Staff for additional assault power.”

As someone whose primary introduction to the X-Men came from their ’90s cartoon, I have an almost unhealthy appreciation for their resident Cajun sleazeball, one Remy LaBeau, aka Gambit.  I am, of course, not at all alone in this, which has helped to keep him relatively high on the action figure count.  Today, I’m jumping back to the beginning, and taking a look at his very first figure (more or less).

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gambit was initially released in the second series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  Following the success of the cartoon, he was subsequently re-released in the “Classics” assortment a few years later.  The figure reviewed here is technically the later release, though the only actual difference between the two is the accessory selection.  This figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Gambit’s sculpt is fairly typical of an early Toy Biz figure, meaning he’s a little more rudimentary than later offerings would be.  He’s slightly scrawny, and the details are a little softer.  This is definitely a kinder, friendlier looking Gambit than you usually see.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s definitely different than other Gambits.  His trench coat seems to have thrown Toy Biz for a bit of a loop, as well.  Rather than sculpting it onto him, they opted for a removable piece…mostly, anyway.  The bulk of the jacket is just a thin plastic get-up, not unlike the capes from the old Kenner Star Wars figures.  It’s not terribly sturdy, and isn’t really the sort of thing we ever saw again from them.  It looks alright, but certainly limits his playability when in place.  What’s slightly odd is the decision to make the collar of this jacket a sculpted element, which is part of the figure’s torso.  This means it’s always there, even when the coat is off of the figure.  Why not just leave the collar as part of the coat?  Who knows.  Well, someone at Toy Biz probably knew, I guess.  Gambit’s paintwork is alright.  It’s pretty basic, and gets the general gist of the character down.  There’s a lot of pink, which is really the most important thing when you get right down to it.  It does get a handful of details wrong, though, such as keeping the sleeves of the shirt pink (rather than matching with the pants as they did in the comics), and the pink squares on the sides of his legs are a different pattern than usually seen.  The original release of Gambit included his staff, while the re-release included the bandolier and knives (presumably meant to stand in for his playing cards) from Longshot.  Gambit has an action feature, a kicking action, which is an interesting choice for the character.  It’s also not implemented incredibly well, because it’s default state is actually with the leg extended, meaning the latch is in a constant state of strain when he’s in a basic standing pose.  The end result is a figure that you will commonly find with his leg forever stuck at a 90 degree angle.  Fortunately, this isn’t the case with my figure, but I’ve seen my fair share of figures that weren’t so lucky.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t recall exactly where I got Gambit, but I know I was with my parents, and it was very early into my collecting because it was before we moved into the house that they’ve been in since I was four.  So, somewhere in late ’95?  Anyway, despite how harsh I may have been on this figure in the actual review segment, it’s worth noting that this remains my very favorite Gambit figure to date, and just one of my favorite X-Men figures in general.

That review hails from right at the end of 2018, as I fell into my return to the vintage reviews a bit.  A few things to clarify here.  As I note in the original review, there are two releases of Gambit, and my original was the second release, with Longshot’s bandolier and knives.  My original photo actually didn’t have Longshot’s knife, but rather a proper playing card, which came from the later X-Men vs Street Fighter Gambit.  I must have grabbed the wrong piece during my original bulk photo session and just never fixed it.  For the purposes of this revisit, I did manage to track down a proper original release Gambit, so now I’ve got the staff as well, and a slightly less messed up coat.  Slightly.  That coat’s still not built to go the distance.  In my original review, I said I didn’t recall where/when I got Gambit.  I seem to have had a lapse in memory there, because I definitely remember getting it from a mall trip with my dad on a day off with him when we were living in our old house.  I got him and Tony Stark, and my Dad got Corsair, I believe.  I remember sneaking down during what was supposed to be my nap time to play with them.

#3850: X-Man

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

X-MAN

MARVEL’S MOST WANTED (TOY BIZ)

“Nate Grey is a stranger in a strange world. He’s a survivor of the Age of Apocalypse – a world like ours, but one where the evil mutant Apocalypse ruled supreme. Now, after that world’s ruin, Nate finds himself on our Earth, struggling to save it from a similar destiny. Genetically engineered to be the most powerful psi-talent ever, Nate’s discovered that the psychic strain may be too much for his body to handle. Nate has also found that he bears a striking resemblance to the future warrior known as X-Man Cable…”

By-and-large, the sweeping changes made by the “Age of Apocalypse” crossover were swept back to other way when the even ended, reverting the main cast of characters back to their mainstream counterparts without much fuss.  But, what of the characters who didn’t have a counterpart?  Well, a small handful of them actually got to stick around, at least for a little bit.  Nate Grey, aka X-Man, was *technically* the equal number to Cable, but with a different backstory and direct lineage, as well as a quite different ultimate outcome in terms of character, he got kept around for a bit past the event’s wrap-up.  That wound up being extra fortunate, because it *also* gave him extra time to get some toy coverage!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

X-Man is the third and final figure in Toy Biz’s 1998 Marvel’s Most Wanted line.  Its an odd line-up for the name it was given.  At the time, Nate was the closest you’d get to a “heavy hitter” since he was headlining his own book (Blink would later headline Exiles, elevating her personal status a bit, at the same time that Nate was on the downswing; Spat pretty much never got time in the spotlight).  In his solo book, Nate was constantly changing out his attire, generally keeping just a general feel of look, so to go with something more directly marketable, this figure goes back to his original AoA look, which, to be fair, he also sported for a bit in the main 616.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He was honestly pretty solid on the movement front, but contains an interesting design oddity.  His shoulder joints consist of a mix of swivel and ball-joint assembly, with the ball joint pegging into a swivel joint on the main torso.  Said swivel is ultimately redundant, since the ball joint can turn just fine on its own.  Why is it like that?  I don’t know.  The sculpt here is one of the more stylized of the Toy Biz run, though that was kind of true in general for this particular set.  He’s a bit pre-posed, with an odd sort of twist to the body, and he ultimately looks quite a bit elongated, especially the head.  It does end up feeling pretty true to the character, though, so I can’t really knock it.  X-Man’s paint work is generally basic; the suit consists of molded blue and painted yellow.  Application’s all pretty clean, so no issues there.  He’s packed with a rather involved display stand, presumably meant to replicate his psychic powers.  It was one Toy Biz liked a lot; it wound up re-used for Astral Doctor Strange and the Marvel Legends Human Torch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

X-Man is the only one of this set I had as a kid.  I was at Toys “R” Us with my dad, and it was either him or Red Skull.  I only *sort of* knew him from a team-up I’d read with Spider-Man, but I’ve always been more a heroes guy than a villains guy, so X-Man it was.  In retrospect, choosing him over the Nazi does feel like the obvious choice, right?  X-Man actually got a bit of service as some non-X-Man characters, serving as the Rick Jones to my Avengers for a while, and also as a stand-in for Kid Action/Action Boy alongside my Toy Biz M. Bison, who was my go-to for Captain Action.  Look, sometimes my figure options didn’t always match up with the stories my mind needed to tell, okay? Ultimately, he’s still my favorite of the three figures, though it’s certainly nice to have him alongside the other two after all of these years.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0027: Apocalypse

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

APOCALYPSE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

After a brief stop over to the world of Star Wars, this week the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums head back over to Marvel territory. Yes, the end is nigh!  …well, okay, not quite, but I *am* looking at Apocalypse.

“Apocalypse is the evil mutant who has used his sinister genius and mutant ability to turn himself into a merciless one man army! Apocalypse is incredibly strong, able to change his size at will, and has created for himself a weapon system designed to destroy the X-Men. Apocalypse is the most frightening evil mutant on Earth when he turns himself into a giant, puts on this deadly arsenal and attacks!”

Following Magneto’s turn to the side of good in the ’80s, the X-Men spent quite a bit of time in search of a new over-arching big bad. They found a number of potential offerings, none of whom quite hit that same spot, but perhaps the most successful of them was En Sabah Nur, aka Apocalypse. He was a consistent foe in the back half of the ’80s, up into the ’90s, so his place early into Toy Biz’s run was certainly sensible.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Apocalypse was one of the three villains released alongside our heroes in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line. He served as a rather sensible counterpart to the same series’ Archangel figure. The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he had 11 points of articulation (though two of those points can be somewhat debated, since they’re tied into his “action-feature”). Apocalypse’s sculpt, like many others in this assortment, is definitely showing its age. What’s interesting is that it’s due to slightly different factors than some of the others. It’s not that he doesn’t quite live up to his comics appearance the way Archangel or Storm or Cyclops do, it’s actually that he’s too faithful to an Apocalypse design that itself has fallen out of fashion. He depicts Apocalypse as he is seen in his earlier X-Factor appearances, when he was still rather lean, and still rather square and stiff. It’s a very different take on the character, and his beefier revamp design from just a few years later would end up being the prevailing design and informing how the character was depicted for the three decades since his creation. As such, this guy definitely looks out of place amongst the others, but paired with the Cyclops and Archangel from this assortment, he starts to fit in a bit better. Ultimately, the actual sculpt is one of the more competent ones from this first set. I think I’d place him in the number three slot, after Nightcrawler and Magneto. His proportions are certainly believable for this incarnation of the character, and his construction is quite sturdy. Apocalypse’s paintwork is fairly standard stuff. It’s rather limited, and the application is messy in some spots, especially the belt. Apocalypse included a staff, which is supposed to have a “gem” at the top of it. Mine’s gone missing, so my Apocalypse just looks like he’s holding a broken ball-point pen. He also has an “Extending Body” feature, where his torso and legs extend outward, in sort of a stretching sort of fashion. It’s rather goofy, and not really worth much extra, but it’s not like it impedes the figure overall.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m not 100% sure how I got Apocalypse. He was an earlier addition to the collection, I know that much, most likely gotten during my parents early efforts to expand my collection. I was watching the cartoon by that point, so I knew the character. Regardless of how I got the figure, he’s stuck with me for quite some time, despite my not being super into Apocalypse. As I noted in the review, he’s a somewhat dated figure, based on an outdated design, but he’s actually one of the stronger figures in the first assortment, and he depicts a version of the character we don’t often see.

This review is from 2018, so…well, okay, I guess it’s not *super* recent, but in my mind I consider it recent.  It’s got all the trappings of a modern review.  And, you know what, I was actually pretty kind to this figure, given it’s Apocalypse and he’s not usually one of my favorites.  It helps that this is just a figure that I find really fun, even now.  When I reviewed him, my Apocalypse was missing the “Jewel” from his staff, which I have now found.  Yay!  It’s just a solid blue spike-y thing, not particularly jewel-y, and I don’t think it really disarms the “ballpoint pen” vibe the staff already had, but at least it’s complete.  Of course, he’s still missing the cables that go from the torso to the arms, but that’s a whole other thing.

#3846: Spat & Grovel

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

SPAT & GROVEL

MARVEL’S MOST WANTED (MANUFACTURER)

Last week, I wrapped up my reviews of the Toy Biz X-Men Savage Land series, looking at Joseph, a very dialed into the moment character at the time of his release.  So, today, let’s dial in even further!  In the 1997 storyline that sent a portion of the X-Men to the Savage Land (which I referenced in my Joseph review), Gambit is set upon by Spat, a bounty hunter who has a past with him.  Spat and her bestial partner Grovel are more or less a footnote in the X-Men’s history, but they have the fun little side-bit of being designed by creators Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira specifically to be too weird to make for a good transition to toy form (something most X-characters where doing at that point).  So, they made them a woman aging in reverse and a weird space lizard.  And, of course, they had their own action figures in less than a year, because of course they did.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spat & Grovel were released in the 1998 Marvel’s Most Wanted series from Toy Biz.  It’s…well, it’s certainly a bold name for a series that included Spat & Grovel…or really any of the figure’s from it.  But, there it was.  These two are certainly the most obscure of the three offerings, hence this also being the only time they’ve shown up as action figures.

Spat’s really the main figure here, with Grovel being kind of an accessory, much in the same way as the Savage Land sets handled their figure and creature set-ups.  The figure is about 2 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Given her smaller stature, she just moves at the basic five, and even then, the hips are v-hips, so the end result is a figure that really doesn’t move all that much.  She’s really just a stand-er.  The sculpt does an okay job of capturing Madureira’s drawings of the character, with his slightly more cartoonish proportions and stylings all pretty well present.  The head admittedly looks a bit too much like a full-grown woman’s head, on a very small body.  That being said, it’s not a terrible offering.  I do like the flow on the headband, though, as well as the texturing on the fur of her outfit.  Spat’s paint work is pretty solid.  Both the hair and outfit get some accenting work to help sell the sculpted details as well.  Spat is packed with a spear with a chain on the end of it, which she holds nicely in her left hand.

Grovel’s a big space lizard, and that’s what this figure aims to be.  He’s a big, chunky thing, a fair bit larger than Spat.  Exactly *how* much larger than Spat he’s supposed to be varied a bit in the comics, so the figure just goes for demonstrably larger, and makes it work.  He’s got base movement at the top of each leg, and the tail can twist, so there’s some slight variation in play.  He’s also got a mouth opening action feature; pushing down the front-most fins opens the mouth up a fair bit.  He’s got some cool patterning for the paint work, which is pretty fun to look at, and generally sells the whole “giant space lizard” bit rather well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I had literally no clue who Spat and Grovel were, and they were new, so my dad, who was my primary source of information on “who these guys were,” didn’t know either, so I kind of just missed out on them.  As such, they were the last of this particular set I picked up, actually just a few weeks ago.  I’ve been on a real Toy Biz kick, largely because I’m finally trying to actually put them out on display, and I put the other two from this set out and figured it might be a good time to finally finish the set.  They’re a rather goofy pair of characters, and not so much toy-friendly, but at the same time, I don’t think they’re un-toy-friendly either.  And, it’s not like there’s ever going to be another version of this pair, so they’ve got that particular novelty, if nothing else.