Tag Archives: Toy Biz

#3804: Captain America – Ultimate

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — ULTIMATE

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOY BIZ)

“In 1940, as America prepared for war, young and frail Steve Rogers volunteered for an experiment that transformed him into the ultimate physical specimen: Captain America. Enhanced by the Super-Soldier Serum, Captain America’s agility, strength, endurance and reaction time were superior to those of an Olympic-level athlete. Cap also mastered a number of fighting forms, including American-style boxing and judo. These abilities, combined with his indestructible shield, made him one of the finest human combatants Earth had ever known. Steve Rogers battled the Nazis until a mishap placed him in suspended animation deep within the Himalayan Mountains. Decades later he was discovered by Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. and became a cornerstone of the Ultimates.”

It’s a new month, but I’m still keeping that Toy Biz Marvel train rolling, albeit in a slightly different fashion.  Last month it was all 5-inch figures, but this month, I’m taking it up a notch…and I mean that literally, because the figures are actually gonna be taller, because we’re jumping ahead into the Marvel Legends era for a bit.  Yeah, it’s classic Marvel Legends!  And, I’m still sort of staying in a comfort zone, with a look at one of the line’s Captain Americas…well, two of them, I guess.  And, sure, it’s Ultimate Cap, but I’ll take what I can get.  At least he always makes for a pretty decent toy.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ultimate Captain America was released in Series 8 of Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends, which was the last series before the introduction of Build-A-Figures, which also led to Toy Biz abandoning the actual numbering for the line.  He was one of the three figures in the line-up to get a variant, which I’ll touch on later in the review.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 46 points of articulation.  His articulation’s pretty typical of this era of Toy Biz’s run.  It’s not bad, but it’s definitely a little over complicated relative to the range of motion he gets.  It’s also prone to getting a bit loose over time, especially on the hips.  The sculpt was all-new, and it was…well, it was certainly something.  The articulation definitely took the precedent on this one, so the flow of the sculpt is a little bit odd and disjointed.  His proportions are sort of odd, with the head being a bit small, and the hands and feet being a bit large.  He’s also got a little bit of a hunch.  That said, the work on outfit, especially the texturing, is really good, and conveys the modernized take on his design well.  The variant figure gets a unique head sculpt, which adds the classic head wings.  It’s also just totally different from the standard, with a slightly friendlier expression, which makes more sense for the 616 version of the character.  He’s more modernized to match the body sculpt, so there’s extra stitching, as well as straps on the sides.  It’s an interesting approach, but perhaps not the most truly classic version.  It serves more as a prototype for the more proper classic Cap they built out of this mold the following year.  The paint work on the figure is pretty decent.  There’s a lot of accenting to bring out the sculpted elements, and it works pretty well.  The standard version gets additional grey detailing, as is proper to the Ultimate design, while the standard is straight blue.  However, early versions of the two figures had the details reversed, giving Ultimate Cap the full blue look, and Classic Cap the grey, meaning there are actually a total of four different versions of this figure.  Regardless of the version, Cap is packed with his shield (the same one used with the Series 1 figure), a display stand, and a poster booklet (in place of the usual comic book).  The poster book, interestingly, is actually more classic Cap images than Ultimate, but I’m hardly complaining.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m really not a fan of Ultimate Captain America as a character, so I wasn’t much for this one at the time of his release.  I also had the Series 1 version, and he was pretty much perfect to me.  That said, I’ve gotten more comfortable with having a lot of Captain America figures these days, so I ended up snagging the standard release sealed a couple of years ago, and then the variant loose just last year.  And now I have them both.  They’re kind of a mixed bag, but an intriguing part of the Cap Legends genealogy.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with these figures to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3800: Whirlwind

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

WHIRLWIND

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

“A mutant born with the power to spin at superhuman velocities, Whirlwind delights in using his special talents to terrorize others-first as the neighborhood bully, and now as a powerful costumed Super Villain! Volatile and brutal, Whirlwind doesn’t really care what target the evil Mandarin sends him to destroy-he’ll obliterate it in an instant with maniacal glee!”

We’re back with the Iron Man reviews today, specifically of the Toy Biz variety because that’s what I like to do. I’m keeping things rolling with the antagonists, I suppose. Today’s entry is Whirlwind! It’s worth noting that despite the show’s insistence on sticking purely to Iron Man villains, not filling in with more interesting villains, Whirlwind’s actually not really an Iron Man villain at all, and is instead an Ant-Man and Wasp villain, but I guess Iron Man just sort of takes what he wants. It does seem kind of cruel to steal from Ant-Man, but, you know, that’s just Tony. He’s a bit cruel. This was Whirlwind’s very first action figure, which was pretty cool for him, so let’s take a look at it!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Whirlwind was released in the second series of Toy Biz’s Iron Man toy line. He’s based on his animated incarnation, which was in turn based on his classic costume, more specifically his second costume design after he added the chain mail and also added a shirt. Thank you for that, Whirlwind. The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation. The articulation on this one is kind of interesting because it’s a sort of a mix of unique and kind of basic. He loses the knee joints, which had become fairly standard of this point, but has disc and peg shoulders. The shoulders are rather loose in order to facilitate his action feature. He also has a waist swivel, but again it’s restricted to facilitate his action feature and isn’t really much for posing. His sculpt is pretty much on par with what we expected from the line. He is a little on the bulky side, but also not bad for Whirlwind. The chainmail detailing is actually pretty good. The hands and feet seemed rather large, and conversely the helmet feels a little small, like it might be difficult to fit an actual head underneath. The face plate is also definitely giving like more ironron Man vibes than Whirlwind usually did, but it’s not bad. Whirlwind’s paintwork is pretty decent, and pretty basic. It’s really just the silver applications. His hands are a little bit more prone to chipping, which is a little bit of a bummer, but not the end of the world. Whirlwind is packed with two removable wrist sawblades, which are super easy to lose, but also super cool. as well as an ID card like the other non-armored characters in the series. Whirlwind has a spinning feature; turning his waist a number of times and then pressing the button on his back to release it will cause his upper half to spin. It works okay, but it does cause some issues with posability.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually got Whirlwind back close to the original run. I’ve brought up Ageless Heroes a few times on the site. It was a comic store, not too far from where I grew up, that went out of business in ’99/’000. They had a lot of Toy Biz Marvel figures and had they put them on pretty deep discount. So, I picked up a lot of them at the time. This one in particular was sort of consolation prize. The Avengers: United They Stand figures have just been released and were very hard to find at first. After a failed trip trying to find them, my dad took me to Ageless Heroes where I picked out this guy. He’s not perfect, but he’s pretty cool and I do really like him. And, it’s not like there’s a plethora of Whirlwind figures out there.

#3795: Blizzard

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

BLIZZARD

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

“A once-brilliant scientist driven insane when he tested his portable cold generator on himself, the man now known as the Blizzard has become the twisted enemy of all that is decent. Possessing the ability to create untold amounts of ice and snow with a single thought, the Blizzard always has a chilly reception ready for those who would oppose him-particularly his arch-enemy, Iron Man!”

Okay, let’s jump back into the Iron Man villain well, I suppose!  Last week was Whiplash Blacklash, who’s always been sort of forgettable.  Today it’s Blizzard, who’s not as forgettable in general, but is minorly forgettable in the sense that most people don’t know there’s actually two of them.  The full face mask and generally similar designs don’t really help matters there.  Nor does the fact the cartoon the Iron Man line was based on identified Blizzard as one guy, while the toy identified him as another.  Hooray for confusion!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blizzard was released in Series 2 of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, as one of the three “antagonist” figures.  He’s an adaptation of Blizzard’s animated design, which was a pretty good, solid “classic” Blizzard design.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  His movement is pretty decent for the era, though it’s not revolutionary or anything.  The sculpt was new at the time (though it saw re-use later down the line for Dormammu of all characters), and it’s generally okay, apart from one odd quirk.  The general build and layout of the costume elements certainly works, but, for some reason, he kinda looks like he has two left feet?  Guess he’s not much of a dancer.  His paint work is limited to a bunch of white on blue plastic.  It honestly works pretty well, though, so it’s pretty striking.  Blizzard is packed with an ice glove attachment for his right hand, an ice cane, and an identification card.  Generally, it’s a nice selection of extras.  He also gets an action feature; much like a number of the earlier Wolverine figures, he has a little thumb-hold on his back, so you can move him at the waist, which will swing his arms up and down.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always liked Blizzard pretty well, and I especially liked him in the cartoon.  I didn’t get this one new, but I got him *relatively* close to new.  I found him loose at a toy show, in the early ’00s.  He didn’t have any of his accessories, but he worked for my purposes at the time.  I just got the chance to complete him a few weeks ago, when a complete one came in through work.  Aside from the slightly odd foot sculpt, he’s a really nice, pretty basic figure.

#3790: Blacklash

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

BLACKLASH

IRON MAN (TOY BIZ)

Alright, we’ll be back with the Toy Biz Marvel!  Look, it’s kind of my comfort zone right now, so I’m sticking with it.  I’m back with the Iron Man line, patterned on the cartoon from the ’90s.  The show’s first season built a classic cartoon roster of recurring villains out of Iron Man’s existing rogues gallery.  Admittedly, Iron Man’s villains aren’t the most notable for the most part, but they did their best.  Whiplash, who was at the time going by Blacklash, was part of the Mandarin’s squad of lackeys, and ultimately was never more than a minor player (though he was still a better adaptation than Iron Man 2).  He did at least get a figure out of it.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blacklash is part of Series 1 of Toy Biz’s Iron Man line, as part of the small batch of villains at launch.  He’s based on Blacklash’s design from the show, which is in turn based on his Justin Hammer-designed gear from the comics.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  His construction is on the simplistic side, and he’s notably missing any elbow articulation.  I guess maybe it’s to aid in the action feature?  It makes him quite stiff, as does the cape piece, which is large, heavy, and also doesn’t stay on so well.  The head’s actually pretty good, so good, in fact, that Toy Biz re-used it a bunch, minus the weird ponytail.  It’s definitely the best part of the figure.  His paint work is reasonably well done.  It’s a little sloppy, but certainly not the worst I’ve seen from this line.  Blacklash is packed with a whip and nunchucks, which work with his arm swinging feature.  He also gets the ID badge that all of the non-armored figures got.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Blacklash was the last figures I got from the Series 1 line-up.  For whatever reason, I never got him back in the ’90s, and he just never showed up in front of me.  I had picked up a sealed one a while back, but he had weird paint issues, so I never ended up opening him.  One with far better paint got traded into All Time a couple of months ago, so I opted to do the swap out.  He’s not the most impressive figure.  He’s not the most impressive character, either.  But, he’s decent, and good with the rest of the line-up, so there it is.

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.

#3759: Archangel

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

ARCHANGEL

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Rich playboy Warren Worthington III was the X-Men’s Angel until the day that he was captured and transformed into one of the horsemen of Apocalypse. A darker reflection of his previous self, Archangel now possessed wings made of metal – wings that he could barely control, wings that fired paralyzing “feathers” at friends as well as enemies. Constantly battling his dark side, Archangel longed to regain the goodness that he once stood for. Recently finding kinship with the X-Men’s Psylocke, Archangel has come to terms with his transformation, and has started to rebuild the life he thought he had lost forever!”

Do you guys like X-Men?  I heard somewhere that you might.  I mean, I do.  And it’s my site.  So, you know, it’s ultimately my call, right?  Amusingly, I was actually not gonna do an X-themed review today, but then I thought better of it.  Yay for me.  And here, on the day before the day before X-Mas, I’m reviewing an X-Man named Archangel, which feels somewhat appropriate, right?  Sort of that “lo, an angel of Xavier appear and they were sore afraid” kinda vibe?  Of course, it’s just Warren Worthington, and he’s kind of a push over prep school guy, so, maybe not “sore afraid.”  I’m getting sore afraid of this intro going any longer, if I’m honest.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Archangel is from the Battle Brigade Series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, which was the 14th assortment.  I’ve already reviewed the standard version of this figure, but he, like all of the figures in this particular line-up, also had a color variant.  While the standard was in his white and blue, Neal Adams-inspired costume, this one’s in the Champions-inspired version.  The figure stands 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He’s the exact same mold as the standard version, which was itself largely re-used from the “Invasion” series release.  It’s still a little bulky for Warren, and we’re just ignoring the sculpted wrist bands.  Still, it’s not too terrible.  I do rather like this particular head sculpt, especially for this version of Warren.  The wings remain a bit floppy as well, but they do at least look the part.  In terms of paint work, this guy’s got the same layout as the standard, but with red in place of the blue.  It’s a little rough on some of the edges, but otherwise looks pretty solid.  Like the standard and Invasion releases, this guy gets no accessories.  He’s still got the wing-flapping action, though, which remains pretty nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This guy is actually quite a recent acquisition for me.  I’ve been wanting one since shortly after I got my original, so it’s been a good 20 years, but in all that time, I’ve never seen the variant in person.  I was at Ocean City Comic Con last weekend, and found a booth that had exactly one sealed Toy Biz X-Men figure in it, which happened to be this guy.  I was honestly pretty excited.  He’s obviously not super different from the regular release, but the color change-up is enough to give him a pretty unique look.  It certainly helps that I liked the standard figure so much in the first place.

#3754: Rogue

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

ROGUE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Super strong and virtually indestructible, Rogue is a one-woman fighting force! But when there are too many enemies for even Rogue to handle at once, she relies on her Double-Barrel cannon slammer. Flying in above the clouds, Rogue faces the forces of Master Molds Sentinel squadrons and is overwhelmed by their number. But with the help of her cannon slammer and her fellow X-Men, the Sentinels don’t last long enough to realize what hit them. With a mutant power matched only by her southern charms, Rogue is one mutant to be reckoned with!”

Hey, look, it’s time for more Toy Biz X-Men!  The things that keep me happy.  And taking them away would make me unhappy.  You certainly wouldn’t want to make me unhappy, would you?  Good.  Glad we’re all on the same page there.  As Toy Biz moved later into the run of their 5-inch line, they had run out of standard versions of the main characters, so they had to start doing some good old fashioned wacky-varianting.  They went heavier on gimmicks, with their “Secret Weapon Force” branding in particular standing out as a notable push.  New designs, even comics-based ones, were filtered through these gimmicks.  Here’s a gimmicky Rogue.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rogue was released in the “Power Slammers” assortment, which was released under the Secret Weapon Force heading in Toy Biz’s 1998 X-Men line-up.  This marked Rogue’s fourth figure in the 5-inch line, and was based on her Shi’ar mining uniform, which she sported for a stretch of less than a year.  It debuted in 1997, so it was pretty quick turnaround for such a thing.  It’s a pretty notable departure from her traditional designs, and was fairly short-lived, but it’s nothing if not unique.  The figure stands just shy of 5 inches tall and she has 12 points of articulation.  On my figure, the joints are exceptionally loose, to the point of making it difficult to keep her standing, which is frustrating to say the least.  I am also, as always, not really a fan of the v-hips, but it is what it is.  Rogue’s sculpt was new at the time, though most of it would be re-used two years later for the movie line’s team suit Rogue.  It’s rather on the stylized front, but a decent match for the art from within the books at the time.  There’s a touch of pre-posing, but generally to a minor degree, and the level of detailing honestly is pretty solid.  The head’s particularly unique, and the hair in front of her face is certainly a neat touch.  Rogue’s color work is generally solid.  It’s an odd color scheme (the Shi’ar outfits were generally off-model in their coloring), but it’s accurate.  The’s a bit of fuzz at the edges of some of the painted elements, but the overall appearance is decent.  Rogue was packed with a big giant gun thing, which serves as the titular “power slammer.”  When the bit at the top is slammed down, there are small yellow ball projectiles that fly out.  It’s super silly and super goofy, but it does at least go totally apart from the core figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rogue comes from the era of the line where I missed more than I got when they were new.  There were a lot of repeats on characters, and I had most of my core cast, Rogue included, so I didn’t double up on most of them.  Since jumping back in, though, they’ve been some of my focuses.  I managed to snag Rogue from Yesterday’s Fun while vacationing a couple of summers ago.  She’s alright.  The look’s certainly unique, but the figure has some issues, especially the loose joints, which hold it back.

#3749: Silver Samurai

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

SILVER SAMURAI

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“The Silver Samurai has but one goal in life: to become the leader of the Japanese underworld! Trained in the martial arts and wielding a massive katana through which he can channel mutant energy, this honorless samurai has often come close to achieving his desire–if not for the interference of Wolverine and the X-Men!”

Hey, how about some more Toy Biz Marvel?  Would you like that?  Would it be good for you?  Well, it would be good for me, and it’s my site, so I’m doing it.  It’s more X-related stuff today, though it’s worth noting that the focus, Silver Samurai, wasn’t an X-Men character at the start, but rather a Daredevil villain.  These days, he’s not even really a villain, I suppose.  In the ’90s, when he got his first figure, he was a bit more straight forward, and was a recurring thorn in Wolverine’s side.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Silver Samurai was released in Series 6 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line in 1994.  Going by my records, he’s the last of that particular line-up I’ve gotten to reviewing.  The whole assortment was pretty odd-ball, being really light on notable characters, ultimately resulting in it being a rather poorly performing set, and Samurai was one of he worst sellers in the line.  He was, for unknown reasons, also re-packed in a two-pack with Robot Wolverine/Albert from the same assortment.  Because we needed more of him.  The figure stands about 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  He’s exceptionally restricted on the articulation front, curiously having knee joints but not hips, making the knee joints effectively useless.  He doesn’t get elbows or wrists either, just neck, shoulders, waist, and knees.  The sculpt is rather stiff on top of that, so it doesn’t really help.  His helmet is removable, and also permanently attached to his shoulder pads for some reason.  Don’t know why either of those things is the case, but the piece doesn’t really stay in place very well, and also the underlying head is rather oddly shaped.  If there’s one redeeming feature to this guy, it’s the chrome finish on most of him; it gives a literal shine to an otherwise lackluster sculpt, and at least helps him stand out a but.  Silver Samurai is packed with his sword, which is partially chromed as well.  It’s rather prone to breaking, and also not really the proper shape for a katana, but there it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It took me an exceptionally long time to get this one, all things considered.  I’ve seen a great many loose ones, always missing the helmet, and I didn’t want to bother with an incomplete one.  I finally snagged a sealed one while on vacation this past summer, which I took as something of a win.  Is he a good figure?  No.  Not in the slightest.  But, I do like the chrome.  So, you know, he’s a bit like Google that way.  Not great, but I do like the chrome.

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.

#3714: Silver Surfer

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

SILVER SURFER

SILVER SURFER (TOY BIZ)

“Deep in outer space, far beyond Earth, there wages a never-ending cosmic battle between good and evil. With the power-hungry Titan known as Thanos leading the forces of evil to destroy the universe, all hope seems lost. Together with the bounty hunter, Raze, Thanos is virtually unbeatable. The fate of the universe now rests in the hands of Drax the Destroyer and the noble Silver Surfer. Can the two of them stop Thanos and Raze and bring peace to the universe? The decision – and the power – is yours!

Possessing extraordinary cosmic powers, the Silver Surfer soars through space on his board in search of his homeworld, the planet Zenn-La. On his endless voyage, the Surfer happens upon a war-torn planet plagued by the evil Thanos. The Surfer knows he must stop the mad Titan, and engages Thanos in battle. Channeling his cosmic power through his cosmic star blaster, the Surfer produces a blast that sends Thanos reeling!”

There were a whole bevy of Marvel cartoons running in the ’90s.  While shows like Spider-Man and X-Men met more wide success, there were also a bunch of shorter run entries.  In 1998, we got one season of a Silver Surfer cartoon, launched on the tails of those two more successful shows.  It didn’t quite gain its foothold, but it did at the very least get a decent little toyline out of the deal, with a bunch of cosmically-themed characters and, of course, a bunch of variants of the title character.  I’m looking at one of the Surfers today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Silver Surfer was released in the “Cosmic Power Blasters” assortment of Toy Biz’s Silver Surfer tie-in line, which hit in 1998, alongside the show.  He was the main version of the Surfer for this particular set, and had two color variants: standard silver and blue.  This one is the standard.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  Though decently articulated, the figure does suffer from some slightly loose joints, especially on the legs, which can make it a touch tricky to keep him standing.  The sculpt was a new one, and its a bit of a departure from his prior variants from Toy Biz.  He’s definitely got a style about him, though it’s oddly not really the one from the show.  He’s got some odd proportions and notably a very boxy pair of hands.  He’s also a little pre-posed, with the legs having a sort of a crouch to them.  Like a couple of the earlier TB Surfers, this one’s vac-metalized, so he’s got a fancy chrome finish.  It’s definitely cool, but also a little prone to scratching.  Mine was scratched right out of the box.  He gets some additional paint for the eyes, but that’s really it.  Surfer’s board is worked into the “Power Blasters” gimmick.  It’s hollow and attaches to the included stand, allowing for the launching of a sort of strange light-up disc projectile.  Getting the whole thing to balance isn’t super easy, and the actual launching part is also not super smooth.  And, to top it all off, the pre-installed battery that lights up the disc is very, very corroded on mine, so that one ain’t lighting up.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Silver Surfer line, though it ran for multiple years, was still kind of a blip at retail.  None of them really seemed to linger.  I remember the line, but only owned one figure from it growing up, and it wasn’t even a Surfer.  The line’s one I always keep my eye out for when hunting for Toy Biz, but I only see them every so often.  I got this one during my summer vacation this year, courtesy of Yesterday’s Fun.  He’s goofy, but fun, and reminds me that I definitely want more of this line.

#3709: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

X-MEN: MOVIE SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“Scott Summers, Professor X’s first student and the X-Men’s field leader, possesses the uncanny mutant ability to fire beams of devastating energy from his eyes. He must wear a special visor made of ruby quartz to control these powerful otpic blasts or he would destroy everyone and everything around him with just a glance. The disciplined, serious minded student code-named Cyclops is often at odds with Logan because of his maverick attitude and their mutual attraction to Jean Grey.”

It’s been almost 25 years since the release of the first X-Men movie. It was a pretty big deal for comic book movies, being the first time we ever truly got to see the scope they could achieve, even if there were some growing pains along the way. It was, of course, Hugh Jackman’s first turn as Wolverine, a role he’s so defined in the two and a half decades since. Jackman got the opportunity to reprise his role earlier this year, in Deadpool & Wolverine, but the other main cast members weren’t quite as lucky. As much as I loved the film, I myself was a little bummed we didn’t get to see more of James Marsden’s Cyclops, especially since I’ve always felt that Marsden was woefully underserved by the writing for his character in the first three movies. I guess he’ll just have to make his grand return…in my mind! Or, you know, in a review of an old figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s X-Men: The Movie tie-in line from 2000 (which, I always like to point out, was released simultaneously with series 2, so that the whole main cast could be on shelves at the same time).  The figure is about 6 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  The X-Men: Movie line wasn’t Toy Biz’s first jump to the 6-inch scale for Marvel figures, but it was the first major move towards making it their standard scale.  It’s closer to a proper 1/12 scale than where they would go with Legends, for what it’s worth.  He’s still closer to the 5-inchers in terms of posing, and is in fact a little stiffer than some of the smaller guys.  He’s in sort of s mid-step kind of pose, which does result in some of the articulation being a little on the ineffective side, especially on the legs.  The ankles in particular are kind of pointless.  It is worth noting, however, that this was the first Cyclops to have both a light-up feature *and* neck articulation.  It doesn’t get a full rotation, but it’s still cool.  The actual sculpt proper’s actually pretty nice.  The larger size allows for more depth of detailing, which works especially well for the suit design, and its variety of textures.  His head’s got pretty passable likeness of Marsden as Cyclops.  The visor is designed to be removable, which is a cool feature, but makes the visor itself really fragile, and very prone to breaking.  But, it does look really cool when its properly in place, and it stays there pretty well.  Cyclops’s paint work is decent enough.  It’s pretty cleanly handled, and the color scheme is a solid match for the film.  The skin tone’s a little pasty, and perhaps a little thick, but it works reasonably well.  There were a few different takes on the exact details of the suit and its different piping, which got brighter and more obvious applications as the different production runs hit.  Cyclops was packed with both his visor and an alternate pair of sunglasses (which are even *more* fragile than the standard visor), as well as a figurine of Jean, clearly meant to be based on the scene in the movie where she gets hit by Toad’s slime and Scott has to blast it off her.  Of course, she’s not completely encased by the slime the way she is here; it’s actually just on her face in the movie, which is, amusingly, the one piece that mine’s missing.  She’s also based on the first Jean mold, so she’s got the wrong hair style, but beyond that, I guess it’s an okay extra, weird though it may be.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Cyclops was, unsurprisingly, the first of the X-Men: Movie figures that I got.  I got him as soon as they were released, before the film even came out.  I was very excited for the movie, and Cyclops was my favorite of the characters, so it was kind of a natural move for me.  He went everywhere with me for probably about 6 months or so, and his visor snapped in half probably about a month in, which was always a bummer.  I’ve been looking for a replacement for a little while and finally snagged one while on vacation two summers ago, which very much exited me.  The figure’s not perfect, but I really do love him, and still have very fond memories associated with him, which, honestly, is not unlike my feelings about the movie proper.

#3704: Red Skull

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

RED SKULL

SPIDER-MAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES (TOY BIZ)

“The Red Skull, a notorious American enemy during World War II, continues in his quest toward world domination. And being the military and political genius that he is, the world better beware! Traditionally an enemy of Captain America, this evil villain has recently turned his attentions towards the amazing Spider-Man and his heroic exploits. And not that weapons-master Red Skull has employed his special “Giant Skull Catcher” device, this villain of all villains makes any rival easy prey!”

Nazis.  I hate these guys.

So, remember when one of Captain America’s most prominent Toy Biz era releases was inexplicably in their Spider-Man line?  And that was kind of weird?  I mean, I guess there was a whole arc with Cap in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, so it wasn’t *that* weird.  Cap was supposed to get his own cartoon, but it was ultimately the victim of Marvel’s bankruptcy.  That left Cap and his supporting cast without a real landing spot, so Cap was in the Spider-Man line, and so was his nemesis Red Skull, the aforementioned Nazi, who I hate.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Red Skull was released in 1998 as part of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man: The Animated Series tie-in line, as part of the “Flip ‘N Trap” assortment, which was an odd gimmicky assortment under the larger “Sneak Attack” sub-line.  It’s sort of strange that he was in an entirely separate assortment from Cap, and wasn’t even released in the same year, but there it is.  Maybe he sat around for a bit before release?  This was the first ever Red Skull figure, which has its own sort of notability.   The figure is a little over 5 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  Skull got a lot upgraded articulation, which was honestly pretty cool.  The sculpt was an all-new one, and I don’t believe any of it was re-used later.  Despite being in an animation-based line, the Skull’s sculpt doesn’t seem to be based directly on his animated appearance.  It’s more of an all-purpose Red Skull, I guess.  The sculpt’s slightly wonky.  The proportions are slightly odd, with notably large hands and feet.  The head also seems a little too actually skull-like for his usual looks.  The left hand appears to be sculpted to maybe hold, oh, I don’t know, a cube, or something?  But nothing of the sort is included.  The color work on Red Skull is generally basic, but there’s some decent accent work on the head to help with the sculpted details.  Red Skull is packed with his own “Flip ‘N Trap” thingy, which is a backpack with a large red skull thing at the front.  It launches these small yellow rubber spider things.  It’s honestly more of a space filler than anything, and doesn’t really do much for the core figure, but it’s not terrible.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I was a kid, on a trip to Toys R Us with my dad, I recall having the choice between getting this guy or X-Man.  I chose X-Man, because I guess I’m more of a heroes guy.  I did wind up getting Red Skull later down the line, obviously, courtesy they guys over at Cosmic Comix.  I lost some of the weird launcher parts over the years, but I was able to re-complete my figure thanks to trade-in at All Time.  Honestly, he’s kind of a weird figure, but then, so have most of the Red Skull figures.  I guess this one just sort of set the precedent for the ones that followed.  Ultimately, he’s not terrible, but he’s wonky.  I suppose that means he just matches up with the corresponding Cap in quality.