Tag Archives: Wacky Variants

#3958: Superman – Golden

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

SUPERMAN — GOLDEN

DC HEROES UNITE (SPIN MASTER)

It’s been *over a year* since I last looked at anything from Spin Master’s DC line, despite them still very much holding the license (at least until the end of the year when Mattel takes over as master license holder again), because, like, I had some stuff going on or whatever?  Honestly, as nifty as the figures are, they’re really little more than that, and I’m personally not really their target audience, so I can’t really fault them for not catering to me.  I do still like messing with a nifty figure every now and then, though, so today I’m looking at a Superman that I’ve been putting off reviewing for far too long.  Here he is.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Superman was released in the third assortment of Spin Master’s DC Heroes Unite line.  He was one of the “super rare” figures, and initially hit at the end of 2020, but started showing up in greater numbers when Spin Master put out additional runs of the figures in ’21 and ’22.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 17 points of articulation.  Sculpturally, he’s the same as the line’s first take on the basic Superman mold.  Technically, that means he, like the other releases, is based on Supes’s second Rebirth costume, but in the case of this release, unless you’re looking *really* close at his belt, it’s a bit harder to tell.  Generally speaking, it’s still a decent sculpt.  A bit bulky and rudimentary, but genuinely a nice offering for the style.  Like the standard, he’s got a cloth cape, which is still really cheap, but it’s not awful.  The change-up to this figure, much like was done with Batman and Wonder Woman before him, is that Clark’s all gold.  In his case, that’s actually a bit more cannon than the other two, since it means he can stand-in for his appearance in the future world of DC One Million, which is extra fun. Largely, the color’s just molded plastic, but he does get a little bit of paint for his logo on his chest.  Superman gets the same blast effect, torso armor, and Kryptonite pieces packed with the other two versions, but they, like the figure, are all gold.  In the case of the Kryptonite, that means we get Gold Kryptonite, meaning you can permanently remove his powers…if you’re feeling especially evil or whatever.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Wonder Woman from this set/style pretty quickly, and had help getting a Batman after the fact, but I really wanted a Superman to finish out the trinity.  I completely missed the first run, but during the re-runs, probably in ’22 I think, I lucked into one, who I bought, and then….kind of forgot about?  He’s been unopened since I got him, and I kept meaning to open him and review him, but I kept forgetting.  Not this time!  He’s not really anything new, but I do like him in all his goofy not-new-ness.

#3853: Boba Fett – Deluxe

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

BOBA FETT with WING-BLAST ROCKET PACK and OVERHEAD CANNON

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

“As a result of Luke Skywalker’s daring rescue of Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett was thrust into the Great Pit of Carkoon and presumed to be a victim of the dreaded Sarlacc. Sometimes later, the notorious bounty hunter was spotted on Nar Shaddaa with a menacing-looking weapons pack. Several rumors have been spread concerning his recent escape and present situation, the most prevalent one being that the Hutts have contracted him to capture Han Solo and Princess Leia alive for the death of Jabba.

A weapons master, Boba Fett has a veritable arsenal hidden throughout his Mandalorian armor. His new pack is reported to possess powerful turbo thrusters that provide prolonged atmospheric flight up to 500km per hour. Shielded battlewings open to reveal missile racks loaded with concussion rockets, while heavy-rotating blasters, similar to those mounted on Jabba’s sail barge, respond to optically-activated signals in the helmet. Certainly the deadliest feature of this device/vehicle is the bolstered proton torpedo launcher. It is estimated that this pack was designed and built by Boba Fett himself: besides that fact that not one of its kind has ever been seen before, the type and variety of its weaponry – few other than Fett would dare carry a proton torpedo on his back – suggest that this battle machine be a signature model of the galaxy’s most notorious bounty hunter.”

You know, I gotta say, I do love it when Kenner would get real wordy with the bios on the back of their figures.  These days, Star Wars figures are lucky to get maybe two sentences to themselves, but here’s this wacky variant Boba Fett that’s out here getting an entire post-RotJ storyline.  There’s two whole paragraphs!  That’s dope!  Also, it makes my intro easier, because look how many *words* there are.  Anyway, a while back, I looked at three of the four debut “Deluxe” figures from Power of the Force, which marked a rare instance of Kenner pushing their usual “toyetic” approach on Star Wars, but I never rounded out the set.  So, let’s do that now!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Boba Fett with Wing-Blast Rocketpack and Overhead Cannon (which, yes, is his official name) was part of the first year of Deluxe figures from Kenner’s Star Wars: Power of the Force line in 1996.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Like the other three figures from the first year, Boba is effectively a tweaked version of the Series 1 Boba, but now with a big accessory you can strap onto him.  The core figure is sort of a merging of the standard and Shadows Boba molds, but also with a more neutral stance, which also makes him just the slightest bit taller.  Beyond that, it’s more or less the same figure, with more or less the same design elements.  It’s not terrible, but it’s also a little removed from accurate.  His color work follows the Series 1 set-up, putting him in specifically his Return of the Jedi colors, which, given the way the bio goes, makes a degree of sense.  It was also the look being most pushed by the multi-media side at the time, so that also makes him the most evergreen look, I suppose.  His main change-up is the inclusion of the “Wing-Blast Rocketpack and Overhead Cannon,” which replaces his usual, more modest jet-pack.  It’s really big, and it makes him rather unstable, but I guess it’s…like, fun?  Is that allowed?  Are Star Wars figures allowed to be fun?  Eh, I’ll allow it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I was a kid, I wasn’t much of a Fett guy myself, but my cousin Rusty was.  With that in mind, I bought him one of these for his birthday the year they came out, but, unfortunately, someone else had done the same.  He told me I should open it, and it was his birthday, so I did.  And since I’d opened it and it couldn’t be returned for another gift, I ended up keeping it.  Well, just the core figure.  I never had the backpack.  And, honestly, I didn’t have the core figure for long either, as I lost him somewhere along the way.  The one here in the review is the result of quite a hunt.  See, I found the figure and the backpack with ease, but the launcher and the missile seem to be the one thing that goes missing every time. At one point, I even got my hands on a sealed one, and that one was somehow missing the missile and launcher *in the package.*  As you can see, though, I did eventually find a complete one.  He’s goofy and silly, but he’s neat.

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.

#3724: Kilowog – Max Charge

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

KILOWOG — MAX CHARGE

GREEN LANTERN (MATTEL)

Oh, man, Green Lantern stuff?  Like, from the movie?  I must be getting desperate for review subjects, huh?  Or, you know, just trying to mix it up with the back catalogue items I review.  So, here we are, with a Green Lantern movie review, I guess.  I haven’t really discussed the movie since way back in 2016, and at that time, I looked at Kilowog, whose Michael Clarke Duncan performance I noted was one of the better aspects of the film.  I guess it was good enough to justify me talking about it again, because I’ve got another Kilowog.  Yay for variants!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Max Charge Kilowog was part of Mattel’s basic small-scale Green Lantern movie tie-in line.  There weren’t really strict assortments, so to speak, or at least none that were really advertised, but I recall this particular figure was of a later run than others, and I believe he hit after the movie’s release.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s the same as the basic Kilowog, for all the good and bad that brings.  His articulation’s still sub-par for the era, and I’m still not the biggest fan of the movie Kilowog design.  That said, the sculpt itself isn’t a bad one, and I can get the desire to re-use it.  Prior to this figure, there was a “Max Charge” Hal Jordan, who took the basic Hal mold and did it in translucent green, with only some white for the eyes and his insignia.  This figure does the same with the Kilowog mold, and it honestly is a pretty fun look.  It does sort of make him look like a construct, though.  Speaking of constructs, like the first figure, this one gets the larger hand construct adapter piece, as well as a wearable Green Lantern ring.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This isn’t the sort of figure that I needed or anything, but in 2011, I was still very excited about all things Green Lantern, and I did still get pretty hyped about the movie release and its tie-ins.  I snagged a bunch of them new, for full price no less.  This one wasn’t one of those, though.  A bunch of the late run stuff was unloaded to Five Below pretty quickly, and I stumbled on them and did a pretty decent clean-up of them, including this guy.  He’s goofy and non-essential, and very much like the rest of the line.  That being said, he could certainly be a lot worse, and the fully transparent look certainly has a charm about it.

#3721: Punker Don

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

PUNKER DON

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

“Listen up, spudheads. Punker Don isn’t a scum sucking, stage divin’ sewer head. He’s a kickin’ kowabunga keyboardist of calamity. He’s gonna slam dance the Foot into submission! This mutant mohawk of mayhem will make mincemeat outta any mindless minion who can’t rock ‘n roll. He’ll crank your cranium with his punk-funk flute bo, then slide you on the inside with a flip of his flyin’ record discs. But be wise dudes: the only thing more grating than Don’s music is Shredder’s armor. So watch the wax blast out of your ears – cuz the punk-sonic sounds of Don have dawned!”

The last several instances of my discussing Super 7 here on the site have focused on the ReAction side of things, because it’s just so easy to pick up a bunch of those, I guess.  They’re small.  I haven’t touched on Ultimates in a good while, in  part because Super 7’s been having some difficulty getting the figures out in anyway other than huge batches all at once.  While the first Ultimates figures I looked at were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-related, that’s one of the lines I’ve been away from the longest.  Super is moving into the 2003-era in the next year, but they’re wrapping things up with their vintage-inspired figures first.  In 1991, Playmates did a “Rockers” series of Turtles variants, which is one of the variant sets Super 7’s been working on recreating.  I snagged the Donnie, who is of the Punk Rock variety.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Punker Don is part of Wave 7 of Super 7’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates line.  This particular assortment proved a specific trouble for Super, it would seem, as it faced even more major delays than the rest of the line, making it the last of the “vintage” inspired assortments, despite there being later assortment numbers that were released before.  We got no official word from Super 7 regarding the delays, but when they did arrive, they were still in the older style packaging, with the extra slip cover and everything.  Had this assortment arrived in proper order, Punker Don would have been the second Donatello from the line, but Slam Dunkin’ Don jumped ahead of him due to the release snafu.  The figure stands just over 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  His articulation range is pretty similar to the other figures I’ve looked at from the line.  It’s a little restricted, especially at the elbows and knees, but okay overall.  The joint tolerance is tighter than other releases, presumably in an attempt to offset the floppiness of earlier releases.  It’s a little tricky to get him to pose, but I imagine the joints will loosen up a bit through regular posing.  The figure’s sculpt is all-new.  It does a really nice job of replicating the vintage sculpt, while updating it and adding more depth and sharpness.  He lifts details like the tear in the back of the jacket from the vintage figure, showing off the shell beneath, but here it’s a lot sharper, and more convincing.  The necklace is also now a separate piece, which is certainly fun.  The color work on Punker Don is very vivid and eye-catching, even to a greater degree than the original.  It also makes sure to get the proper coverage for all of the sculpted details, in contrast to the vintage release.  The application’s generally pretty decent, but there’s a little bit of slop, especially on the laces of the boots.  The vintage Punker Don included a Punk Funk Flute Bo, two Record Flyin’ Discs, and a Kickin’ Keyboard.  This release ditches one of the two records, but gains two extra head sculpts, four pairs of hands (fists, pointing, loose grip, and tight grip), a chain, tuning fork, mic, and mic stand.  The two new heads are new designs, one taking the vintage look and adding a pair of goggles, while the other gives him a different punk hair style.  I quite like the goggled version, though on my figure it gets a spot of excess glue on the top of the head.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I first dipped my toes into this line, I knew I wanted some version of Donnie, but I didn’t know exactly which.  I was going to grab the standard, but this one got shown off, and I really wanted him, so I opted to wait.  And what a wait it was.  It was a long enough wait that the standard Donnie started to dry up, and I was starting to feel the pangs of regret.  But, this one finally arrived, and waiting for him was definitely the right call.  He’s a really fun, quite unique figure.  Sure, the posing can have some limitations, but still fun.

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.

#3689: Martial Arts Batman

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

MARTIAL ARTS BATMAN

BATMAN (MATTEL)

Back in 2003, there was a huge change-up in the world of super hero toys, as the DC license passed from Hasbro (who had inherited it when they had fully absorbed Kenner at the end of the ’90s) to Mattel.  While Mattel had focused decidedly less on the action figure market for a lot of the ’90s, in the early ’00s, they’d relaunched their in-house brand Masters of the Universe, with former McFarlane sculptors the Four Horsemen doing the sculpts.  Having netted the DC license, they launched a line of Batman figures, also primarily sculpted by the Four Horsemen.  McFarlane sculptors on DC figures?  It’ll never work….

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Martial Arts Batman was one of a whole plethora of Batman variants present for the launch of Mattel’s Batman line in 2003.  While the standard Batman (dubbed “Zipline”), Robin, and Joker all flew off shelves, the Bat-variants were less speedy.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 12 points of articulation.  While the articulation scheme’s nothing to write home about these days (or even when the figures were new, considering they were contemporaries of Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends), it was actually a pretty nice step up from what we were typically seeing from Hasbro before the license transferred.  All of the Bat-variants were sculpted by the Four Horsemen, centered around the core sculpt done for Zipline Batman.  It’s a solid starting point, being a clean and rather “generic” take on the then current Batman design.  The iconography definitely holds up.  Each of the variant figures got their own little selection of unique parts, which, in the case of Martial Arts Batman, was the hands, feet, and belt.  The belt and hands would also see re-use for the Batman packed in with the Nightwing figure later the same year.  Generally speaking, the parts aren’t bad.  They match well with the core body pieces, and the general “martial arts” vibe is captured decently enough.  The wrappings on the hands, in particular, are pretty cool.  Also, in keeping with a theme that the Four Horsemen were very insistent on early in the line, he’s got the little bat-symbol on the bottom of his feet, which is a pretty nifty little bit.  His paint work is…odd.  They saddled him with a lot of maroon, as it’s the base color of his suit for some reason.  There’s some black, of course, but he’s also quite reliant on gold for the accents.  It’s a weird set-up.  I’m also not entirely sure how I feel about the bare hands under the wraps.  The application is at least pretty clean, so he’s got that going for him.  He’s packed with a bladed staff thing which can split into two, as well as a wrist mounted bladed thing.  Look, it’s all very technical, but there are a number of things, and they’re all rather martial arts-y, I guess?  I mean, I guess they’re at least kind of nifty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Hasbro’s last few years on the DC license were rough.  Mattel gaining the license was a breath of fresh air….until the product actually hit.  This line is a great example of that, being a perfectly fine line, while also being more or less indistinguishable from what Hasbro was doing a year before.  I didn’t get a ton of these figures when they were new, and this one in particular is a rather recent addition to my collection…relatively speaking.  He came into All Time a few years ago, and his package was such that he was going to wind up in the loose figure bin anyway, so I snagged him, because why not.  He’s fine.  Nothing amazing or anything, but fine.  He’s got a good sculpt at the very least.

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.

#3679: Crusader Robin

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

CRUSADER ROBIN — SPECIAL LEGENDS EDITION

LEGENDS OF BATMAN (KENNER)

“Armed with his powerful crossbow, bat-shaped shield and cunning wit, Crusader Robin accompanied Silver Knight Batman on his zealous mission to impose peace on the war-torn medieval world. Since being rendered an orphan at the hands of marauding infidels, Crusader Robin constantly battled internal demons as well as the ones visible to the outside world. His never ending quest for justice – coupled with his youthful energy – made Crusader Robin a powerful force – one that the enemy would be wise not to take lightly. Crusader Robin’s brilliant new costume colors inspire his peace-keeping troops to make an all-out effort in battles to come.”

While Marvel jumped full-force into their comics-inspired toy lines in the ’90s, DC, who generally were having a greater success than Marvel with their outside media, tended to lean more heavily on tie-in products. They did at least have a few shorter run lines dedicated to comic versions of their heaviest of hitters, Batman and Superman, with Legends of Batman offering up a number of comics looks, albeit mixed in with some made-up and otherwise “Elseworlds” inspired takes. Batman got to try out all sorts of different personas, and sometimes his sidekick Robin was even lucky enough to tag along. Dick Grayson, seen in his Nightwing gear, got a pretty standard figure, but there were also two more Robins, both leaning more into the Elseworlds side. Today, I’m looking at the knight themed Crusader Robin.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Crusader Robin (who, it should be noted, has no relation to the Crusader Batman from the same line, which served as a “standard” Batman) was part of the “2.5” revision to the second series of Kenner’s Legends of Batman line…originally. But that’s not the figure I’m reviewing here. No, this one is the “Special Legends Edition”, one of a whole sub-line of repaints created by Kenner to be sold through the Warner Brothers Studio Store, back when they were trying to give it an actual retail presence in the ’90s. The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  The Legends of Batman line preceded Total Justice in its usage of rather intense pre-posing for the figures, and Robin’s a pretty good example of this.  In particular, he’s got a rather wide stance, which makes keeping him standing rather tricky.  You have to get his balance *just* right, and even then, it’s kind of a toss-up.  Well, maybe not a toss-up, because if you toss the figure up, nothing’s gonna stand.  But, you get my point.  The sculpt has quite a bit going on, with Robin’s usual spandex re-imagined into a mix of armored plates and chainmail.  The chainmail in particular makes for some visually interesting texture work, which is fun.  The color work on the standard release was pretty close to the Tim Drake Robin’s color scheme, but for this release, it winds up going a lot heavier into the reds, which serve to replace the black from the standard, as well as most of the yellow as well.  What I find interesting about both releases is the decision to give him a medium brown color for his hair, given that all three potential Robin identities at the time had black hair.  Presumably they were attempting to loosely tie-in with Batman Forever‘s casting of Chris O’Donnell, but it’s still kind of weird to see it done on a comics-inspired figure.  Robin was packed with a crossbow, three green arrows for it, a bird-shaped shield, a cape, and a removable helmet.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, my first Robin, of course, was Hydro Claw Robin, but he was a movie Robin, and I wanted one that wasn’t.  I recall this resulting in a store trip with my Grandmother, expressly for the purposes of getting a comic Robin, which resulted in me getting the standard version of this guy, who was, admittedly, the best option at the time.  That one took quite a beating, and at one point got completely covered in acrylic paint for some sort of project.  It’s been a project *since* then to clean him back up, which is still ongoing.  In the mean time, I only in the last few years discovered the “Special Legends Edition” figures even existed, and during my family vacation this summer, I happed upon this guy.  He’s fun, as was the original.  It’s crazy that there wasn’t a standard Robin in this line, but with as cool as this one is, I can’t really knock it.

 

#3678: Luke Skywalker – Snowspeeder Prototype Edition

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

LUKE SKYWALKER — SNOWSPEEDER PROTOTYPE EDITION

STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“This Luke Skywalker is inspired by the colorful prototypes that enable the development team to look past the deco and focus on the sculpt, analyze mold alignment, and adjust for quality.”

During the action figure production process, there are a number of prototyping stages.  Once the sculpt is completed and has been tooled into a steel mold for the purposes of mass-production, the molds have to be tested to make sure they work properly.  Since you don’t want to use the plastic you’ve paid to use on final production for something that may or may not work and which will effectively be junked once the mold has been confirmed as properly working, factories will run these tests with whatever plastic they have left over from other jobs, often resulting in colorful results.  Over the years, some of the test run prototypes have surfaced, and they’re a fun little quirk of the process.  And, because it’s been determined that there’s money to be made in that particular quirk, Hasbro has jumped on mass-producing them.  Thus far, we’ve gotten six of them as part of the Star Wars: Retro Collection, and I’ve finally gotten one!  Huzzah!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke Skywalker (Snowspeeder) Prototype Edition is a Target-exclusive offering for the Retro Collection, as all of the Prototype Editions have been thus far.  He arrived in January of 2023, and is the fifth of the six Prototype Edition releases.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Obviously, all of the Prototype Edition figures are re-using a mold that Hasbro’s already got in production for the main Retro Collection line, but in Luke’s case, he’s notable for being a new, actual in-house Hasbro mold, rather than a recreation of an old Kenner one.  As there were no proper Snowspeeder pilots in the vintage line, Hasbro did a sizeable rework on the X-Wing Pilot Luke from Kenner’s vintage line, bulking him a bit to add the extra padding, as well as making sure he’s got the gloves, and the modified boots.  He also brings the helmet’s visor down over his eyes, as it was more frequently seen in the movie.  For color work, these figures have no paint, instead relying on a variety of different colors for each of the body parts.  There are actually six different variations of color layouts available, with the blue, red, green, yellow, purple, and orange each being applied to a different body part depending on the variant.  This one has blue for the head, red on the torso, orange on the right arm, green on the left arm, yellow on the right leg, and purple on the left leg.  He’s packed with his lightsaber (which is molded in the same color as the head, so it’s blue here) and his grapple.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been low-key wanting one of these since Hasbro started doing them, but not enough to really go hunting for any of them.  Likewise, I kind of wanted this mold, but also not enough to track down its original release with the board game.  This guy landed in front of me, and that made the whole thing a lot easier.  He’s very definitely a novelty, and I don’t see myself going in for any more of them (well, maybe an IG-88 if they did him), but I do like having at least one of them.

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.

#3674: Stealth Venom

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

STEALTH VENOM

SPIDER-MAN (TOY BIZ)

“In the past, Venom has been both hero and villain, and Spider-Man knows how powerful he can be! With his chameleon-like abilities, Venom can even blend into his surroundings and virtually ‘disappear’ from sight. So, although Venom is unpredictable, one thing is certain; when he does appear, things heat up!”

Ah, yes, Venom’s chameleon like abilities. Of all the Spider-Man villains out there, surely it’s Venom whose abilities could be best classified as “chameleon-like.” …look, guys, I can’t just stand by and let this Chameleon erasure happen! He’s the original Spider-Man villain. Can’t we get him some respect? No? Well, I tried. I guess I’ll just review this “chameleon-like” Venom.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Stealth Venom was released in Series 7 of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man line.  The whole set was dialed into Toy Biz’s tendency to give their lines the occasional repaint-heavy line-up, so there were minimal new parts across the board, all dialed into more recognizable characters.  This was Venom’s third time in the line, and the first of the kind of made-up variants.  It was far from the last of either thing, of course.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  Venom lacks elbow joints for reasons I’m not entirely sure of, but there it is.  Otherwise, it’s pretty standard stuff.  His sculpt from the neck down was the same as the unmasked Venom from earlier in the line.  It’s honestly not a bad sculpt, and in particular it captured the animated approach to Venom pretty well.  He got a new head, which removed the removable mask feature…un-removed?  I don’t know.  There’s no unmasked head is my point.  It’s really bulky at the neck, and I’m not entirely sure why.  Also, he’s got this sort of permanently looking up thing going on, which seems odd for someone of his stature.  Venom’s stealth-ness came from the color work, which was translucent.  There were actually two different versions; the one seen here was the one that more closely mimicked Venom’s usual set-up, while the second one inverted the colors.  This one’s not nearly as different at a glance, especially in the photos, but I guess it works out alright.  Venom was packed with two clip-on hand attachments, as well as a web-line that was wrapped around his waist.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was surprisingly short on Venom figures growing up.  I had one of the 10-inchers, and I jumped on the original Spider-Man Classics one pretty quickly, but the 5-inch ones all eluded me until later in life.  This guy was mixed in with a handful of Toy Biz figures that got traded into All Time a month or two ago, and he was surprisingly complete, so hooray for me!  He’s kinda goofy, obviously, but it’s not like I’m collecting the Toy Biz stuff for its serious adherence to the comics lore, am I?  Now, I guess I just have to track down that variant.

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.

#3616: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS — SPACE RIDERS

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Fun FiQ Fact #0095: While Cyclops’s only space suited appearance in X-Men: The Animated Series kept his usual headgear from the show under his helmet, his fully cowled look showed up under his space suit in the “Pryde of the X-Men” pilot.

Hey, you know those X-Men Space figures I was talking about last week? Those are pretty fun. Wanna read about them some more? Well, I sure hope so. And, hey, this time it’s a Cyclops. Can never get enough of the Cyclopes!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is the third piece of the “Space Riders” assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, released as a deluxe item in 1997.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 8 points of articulation.  Like the rest of this line-up, Cyclops’s sculpt was an all-new one, based on a wholly original design for the character.  Cyclops’s design is definitely drawing a fair bit of its visual elements from the Jim Lee design, which makes a fair bit of sense.  One of the neat things about this particular release, however, was the presence of his cowled look, which hadn’t been featured in the main X-Men line since the first series*.  It’s fun to see how far the line’s sculpting had progressed since those early figures.  There’s definitely a lot of stylization to this one, and I’m not *entirely* sure how I feel about the weird sneering expression.  The body sculpt is a bit stiff, which was common with these figures.  The armored elements definitely feel a little bit tacked on and random, especially on the arms.  I’m not sure that suits a character like Cyclops, but it does at least feel pretty consistent with this era of X-Men designs.  The proportions are also a little bit wacky, with that left hand in particular being…just odd.  I don’t know.  It’s, like, too large, and also something seems off about his fingers.  The color work on this guy is pretty by the numbers.  It’s a lot of blue and yellow, and, honestly, what more could you ask of a Cyclops.  The paint’s not nearly as sloppy on this figure as it was on Wolverine, which is certainly a plus.  It’s still a little bit sloppy, of course, but nothing beyond the usual expected level for this era of Toy Biz.  Cyclops is packed with his face mask, his big inter-locking space sled, and some disc projectiles (missing from my copy).  I don’t like this mask quite as much as the Wolverine one; the visor bit is cool enough, but the shaping just seems a little off, and I don’t much care for the extra hose leading to his hand.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Cyclops was the only one of these I had as a kid.  And I didn’t even have the space sled bit!  Really, I had looked at him a bunch of times and came very close to buying him (largely for that cool cowled head), but he was gone from retail by the time I’d truly made up my mind.  So, I wound up getting a loose one, at a toy show, I believe.  Or maybe it was a Comic Con?  I don’t know.  I remember fishing him out of a big cardboard box.  I was pretty excited at the time, but I did regret missing out on his extra gear.  Thankfully, I found a full set, and he came with it, so that was pretty fun.

*Though the look would have shown up again on a more proper ’70s/’80s Cyclops figure had the second round of Missile Flyers not been cancelled.

#3562: Freestyle Skate Batman

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

FREESTYLE SKATE BATMAN

BATMAN: MISSION MASTERS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0041: Terry McGuinness is never seen skateboard in or out of the Batman costume in Batman Beyond, but that didn’t stop Hasbro from making a figure based on that very concept.

My relationship with Hasbro’s run with the DC license was a particularly good one.  While Kenner had managed an alright balance of accurate to the source figures and goofy variants during their run with the DC license, Hasbro honed in on the wackiness, especially narrowing in on Batman, and ignoring most of the DCU for…well, a bunch of rather silly Bat-variants.  The end of the animated Batman tie-ins was an all-encompassing line, Mission Masters, where the express purpose was just doing nothing but baseless variants.  As the line progressed, even Batman Beyond, whose own line was never super to begin with, got in on the action.  One time they made him a skater, because it was 2000, and that was what they decided the kids like.  Full disclosue: I wasn’t one of those kids.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Freestyle Skate Batman was part of the third round of Mission Masters, dubbed Mission Masters 3, and he was a deluxe-sized release.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 7 points of articulation.  He was noteworthy for getting a disc and peg set-up on the shoulders, in contrast to the simple cut joint that almost every Hasbro/Kenner DC figure got.  Why did he get the extra movement?  No clue.  It’s cool, though.  His sculpt was all-new, and it’s…well, it’s a Batman variant.  The head sculpt is very much consistent with Hasbro’s other BB head sculpts, which is to say it’s not exactly an accurate recreation of the animation model, but it’s not terribly far off.  The rest of the sculpt is definitely on the goofier side.  He’s quite pre-posed, and his design maintains elements from his standard look, but adds a bunch of extra ones, because I guess that’s what you do when you’re skating?  His color work is again pretty close to the standard, though he’s a metallic blue, rather than black.  He’s accented with some slightly bronzed silver.  I particularly dig the tech detailing on the wings.  Batman wouldn’t be much of a “Freestyle Skate” guy without some form of skateboard, so he gets just that.  It’s big, silly, strange, and it launches a big missile.  So, there it is.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t buy this new.  I saw it a good many times, as I did most of the Mission Masters figures.  I generally disliked Mission Masters when it was at retail, because it never really felt authentic.  I wanted other characters, and I didn’t dig the switch to purely odd Batmen.  But, I’ve mellowed over the years a bit, so when I got the opportunity to pick up a loose one a few years back, I jumped on it.  He’s pretty fun.  Silly, but fun.

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.