Tag Archives: X-Force

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0055: Shatterstar II

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

SHATTERSTAR II

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

Well, last week was all special cuz it was Black Friday, but this week’s just, like, a regular Friday.  Either way, I’m doing a Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, so I guess it doesn’t matter much to me.  I’m going *way* outside my comfort zone here, with more Toy Biz Marvel, as I take a follow-up look at Shatterstar!

Ah, the 90s. What wondrous creations you gave us. The X-Men were super hyped up, so, obviously, it being the 90s, they needed an edgier, x-ier spin-off team. Enter X-Force, a slightly re-worked version of the New Mutants, with several new, more x-treme members. It had art done by Rob Liefeld, who seemed to set out to make it the most 90s thing imaginable. One of his additions was the character Shatterstar, who was either an alien or a mutant who had the amazing ability to…ummm….have swords? Yeah, I don’t know.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shatterstar here was released as part of Series 3 of ToyBiz’s X-Force, which, like the comic, was a spin-off of the X-Men line. As the name denotes, this is the second figure of Shatterstar that the line offered. Shatterstar stands roughly 5 inches tall and features 9 points of articulation. This figure is actually based on Greg Capullo’s redesign of the character following Liefeld’s departure from the series. It’s…a little better? It’s more symmetrical, that’s for sure. That being said, he’s still got many of the 90s trademarks. He’s got pouches, shoulder pads, pouches, some weird headband thing, pouches, and that funky sunburst tattoo over just the one eye. Though, I guess you need some of that 90s flare to recognize it as Shatterstar, right? It should also be noted that Shatterstar also appears to have been doing a bit of juicing since his first figure. He looks…I don’t want to say puffy… but, yeah. He’s gotta be at least twice the size of the previous Shatterstar figure. Now, to be fair, that figure did seem a little emaciated, but this one seems to have gone a bit too far the other way. It’s not completely off the mark for Capullo’s rendition of the character, but the size feels a little bit laughable. That being said, the figure has a sculpt that is up to the standards of other ToyBiz Marvel stuff of the time. The details are nice and clean (which is certainly better that the comics) and the figure does a pretty good job of translating the comics design to three dimensions. The paintwork on Shatterstar is generally pretty clean. There’s some bleed over here and there, but nothing too noticeable. The colors are nice and bright, which is always a plus. Shatterstar included a pair of his trademark (and oh so silly looking) twin-bladed swords. Sadly, my figure doesn’t have them. He does, however, still have his action feature. His arms can be raised and locked into place, and then released by pressing the button on his pack, resulting in a slashing effect of sorts. So there!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Whilst at Balticon this year, I dug this guy out of a dollar bin of loose figures. I kind of have an addiction to the old 90s ToyBiz stuff, so I obviously had to get him (and several others…). Truth be told, goofy as he is, I kind of like Shatterstar, and this is definitely the best of his 90s figures. Certainly worth the dollar I paid!

Well, I feel like I did alright with that review.  He was from a bulk of figures purchased in the spring of 2015, which was a pretty decent run of purchases for me.  I had a lot of Toy Biz to review around this time, and I remember that was quite a pleasant thing for me.  Since I fished this guy out of a loose bin of figures for a dollar, he was missing his swords.  Thankfully, I’ve tracked down some replacements for him in the mean time, so the guy whose gimmick is “sword” now has his swords.  It’s funny that in tandem with Shatterstar getting much bulkier, his swords got smaller, so they do look pretty puny in his hands.  You can also store them on his back, though, which is pretty cool.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0052: Domino

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

DOMINO

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

It’s finally Friday, which is great, but also feels like it took more than a week to get here, because that’s just the world we live in these days.  Let’s jump back to when it wasn’t the world we lived in with another funky Flashback Friday Figure Addendum, this time based on Domino!

Grrrrr! 90s! Everything had to be soooooo X-Treme! And no one was more X-Treme than the X-Men! Well, okay, actually, that’s not true. There was one team than was more X-Treme, by design. They were the X-Force and they were super hardcore 90s. So hard. One of their more prominent members was Domino, who had luck based powers. You know, like a domino!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Domino was released in Series 6 of ToyBiz’s X-Force line. It’s surprising to see one of the team’s higher tier members not being released until one of the last few series of the line, but, hey, it was the 90s, and we were in the worst dregs of boys thinking girl toys were icky, so…..yeah. The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation. While she was fortunate enough not to be saddled with the dreaded v-style hip joints that plagued many female figures of the time, she’s completely lacking in neck articulation, and for some strange reason her elbow joints are just simple cut joints. This ends up severely limiting what can be done with the figure, which is quite a bummer. Domino featured an all-new sculpt (though it would see a couple of re-paints later on down the line). It’s…passable. They’ve done a fairly decent job of capturing the design from the comics, which, it should be noted, is her second, non-Liefeld-designed costume. It’s got all the requisite buckles, pouches, shoulder pads, and even a weird head thing! The proportions aren’t the worst thing ever and she has one of the better female faces of the time. That said, she’s rather boxy, especially in her lower half, and I’m really not sure what’s going on with the straps on her torso. They certainly can’t be comfortable configured that way. Also, she seems to have lost a row of abdominal muscles, which ends up making the legs look way too long. The paintwork on the figure is alright. Nothing amazing, but the colors are pretty good matches for the look in the comics, and there isn’t any substantial slop or bleed over. Domino originally included a set of gun attachments, which hooked into her legs. Yeah. Not really sure why they did that, since she just held the guns in her hands in the comics, but hey, whatever. Mine didn’t have them anyway.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Domino was another figure that I fished out of a box of loose figures at one of the dealer’s tables at this past Balticon. I was never really into X-Force growing up, and Domino never played a prominent role in the X-Men cartoon, so I didn’t really have a reason to get this figure while it was still new. But, it was a dollar. It’s not ToyBiz’s best work, but it isn’t atrocious. 

First and foremost, before getting into a discussion of the actual written review, I feel the need to bring up that I’ve somehow reviewed *four* Domino figures here?  I know that because this was the first one, and I had to scroll back through the other three to get to it.  I don’t even really like Domino, so that just really feels absurd.  For comparison, that’s one more Domino review than I have Longshot reviews, and she’s literally just him plus guns.  Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked.

Generally, I think I did alright with the review.  My points still more or less stand, so I can dig it.  It does include a slight factual gaffe on my part, which is linked to the main thing I’m addressing here anyway, which is the accessories.  Domino included two guns which, contrary to what my original review stated, she *could* hold in her hands.  Not very well, but still.  She also got two weird spring-loaded missiles, which sort of kind of sit in the guns and can “launch” but not very well either.  They also have pegs to be stored on her legs, which is where my confusion about the guns attaching to her legs came from.  In my defense, I was working from just the image on the back of the box at the time.  But, now I’ve fixed it, and that’s the most important part!

#3744: Commcast

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

COMMCAST

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“A technological wizard, Commcast lets his keyboard do his fighting for him! Not only can he access virtually any information in the world within seconds, but this cyberpunk hacker has an arsenal of high-tech weaponry available via his computer! Disdaining physical combat, Commcast uses knowledge as his weapon of trade, usually allowing others to fight his battles for him, while overseeing the action from a safe distance. Still when the action gets too close for comfort, Commcast and his hover disc have taken down many an overconfident foe!”

It’s December, a month for looking back fondly with nostalgia, and what better thing for me to be nostalgic about that Toy Biz Marvel?  Wait, Comcast.  Well, I’m certainly not nostalgic about Comcast, and I’m happy I left them behind.  Oh, wait, it’s ComMcast, with two “m”s.  That’s not the communication company, it’s the X-Force character!  Admittedly, they’re about equally effective, I suppose, since Commcast never really did amount to much as a character.  He’s just one of the many, many, many ’90s X-characters introduced because they were so popular, who then fell into the background.  But, it was the ’90s, so he got an action figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Commcast was released in Series 4 of the X-Force spin-off to Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  He hit in 1994, which is a surprisingly quick turnaround from the character’s original 1993 appearance.  You’d think a character like this would be the most obscure part of the assortment, but Slayback, Killspree, and X-Treme all give him some serious competition for that spot.  The figure stands about 5 1/4 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is pretty much the standard for the line, albeit somewhat restricted by the nature if his design.  His sculpt is also pretty standard.  It’s not a bad recreation of his comics design, which is itself surprisingly tame for ’90s standards.  The posing of the arms is a little awkward, and he’s a touch pigeon-toed.  Also, his holster is kind of ridiculously large.  That said, he’s a pretty cleanly defined figure.  Commcast’s paint work is a touch rough.  There’s some notable slop around the boots and gauntlets, and the coverage on the silver sections is a bit inconsistent.  The face isn’t bad, I guess, though.  Commcast is packed with a gun and a “Mutant Hunting Hovercraft.”  Honestly, the hovercraft is the coolest bit with its collapsable set-up.  It even got re-used for the re-release of Cyclops II.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Honestly, the biggest thing that sticks in my memory about this figure was that he was the origin of the hovercraft part that came with my Cyclops figure.  I don’t really know anything at all about the character, and nothing about him every spoke to me in particular.  At this point, I’m trying to get a complete run of the Toy Biz Marvel stuff, which leads to me buying a lot of figures I wouldn’t necessarily buy on their own.  Commcast fits squarely into that set-up.  I wound up snagging a sealed one during my summer vacation this year.  He’s not a star piece, or anything, but I can genuinely say he’s better than I’d expected.

#3230: Nimrod

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

NIMROD

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“The most dangerous Sentinel of a dark future timeline, the robot known as Nimrod has returned to the present to achieve his prime directive — the eradication of all mutants! With an arsenal of weapons and a virtually indestructible body, there’s little anyone can do to stop him… even the X-Men!”

Where would we be without our dangerous Sentinels from a dark future timeline?  In a much worse place, I assure you.  I mean, without Nimrod, we wouldn’t have Bastion, or all of the Orchis subplots from Hickman’s X-Men.  Could you imagine a world without those things?  Because I can.  And…actually I wouldn’t mind it so much.  But I guess I’d miss Nimrod a little bit.  But, fortunately, he does exist.  So, you know, here we are.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nimrod was released in Series 6 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line.  This marked his very first time as a figure, and would more or less remain his only version for a surprisingly long time.  Unfortunately, due to an issue of timing, they wound up going with a very modern and up to the moment look that Nimrod was sporting in the X-Force comics at the time, which was a rather divergent look that didn’t stick.  But, I guess it’s better than nothing?  Sure, let’s go with that.  The figure stands a little under 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Nimrod wasn’t particularly posable, with no neck or elbow movement, as well as greatly restricted movement on his shoulders and knees.  Not really a ton you can do with it all, but it’s kind of something you have to deal with on any version of Nimrod.  He’s just clunky.  The figure’s also rather on the small side for Nimrod, who’s classically a pretty sizable guy.  He’s chunkier than other figures, but not actually any larger, which does make him seem…less than imposing.  The figure does an alright job of capturing the design from the comics, for better or for worse.  It’s not as sleek a design as the usual, but there’s at least some cool tech detailing.  Nimrod’s colorscheme is largely red, which isn’t the usual, but it’s again accurate.  All of the red is molded, with painted yellow and black accenting.  Nimrod was originally packed with a missile for his wrist cannon, which my figure is missing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Nimrod wasn’t really much on radar as a kid, largely due to him not actually looking like the character in anything I knew him from.  I wound up getting him much later, during one of my 5-inch Marvel sprees in the summer of 2017.  He’s not really the figure anyone wanted.  He’s not bad, though.  Just limited by the source material he came from.  It’s just a shame they didn’t at least do him in the more classic Nimrod colors at some point, just to sort of do that half step.  But, nowadays, we’ve got the Legends release, so I guess it all worked out.

#3225: Stryfe

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

STRYFE

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Stryfe is the mysterious evil mutant who could be Cable’s brother – or perhaps even Cable himself! No one knows the truth about this fearsome warrior, and anyone who came close to finding out learned never to do it again! Styfe’s armor is not only shatter-proof, it’s packed with amazing weapons systems. But his most dangerous weapon is his energy mace – with just a touch it can destroy a skyscraper.”

Ah, Stryfe.  He’s so ’90s, it’s painful.  Definition of try-hard.  Just way too much going on.  Ooooh, what if he’s Cable?  Or what if he’s a clone?  And what if he looks like Wolverine, but with more Wolverine stuff shoved on his face?  But he’s also in a full suit of armor?  And he’s maybe a telepath?  And there’s a random “y” in his name, in place of the proper vowel?  See what I mean?  Too much going on.  He’s just so hard to follow.  At least he had a short run of action figures, I guess.  Well, here’s the first one of those.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Stryfe was released in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Force line.  He was one of two outright villains in the first assortment, the other being the wonderfully named “Forearm.”  Gotta love that one.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation, as well as a flip-up helmet.  The figure’s sculpt was all-new.  Apart from the head, which was re-used for one of the X-Men boxed sets later down the line, it was a sculpt that remained unique.  I looked at the slightly miniaturized version of the sculpt when it was in the Steel Mutants line-up, and I wasn’t particularly enamored by it at the time.  I’m still not really enamored by it here.  He’s scrawny, strangely shaped, and still largely devoid of detailing.  The flip-up helmet is an interesting concept, but it just winds up looking really strange.  It’s just so flat, and the underlying head just winds up looking silly.  The cape piece is removable, and….well, it connects at a very unfortunate spot, right in the middle of the butt.  Yes, this figure has a butthole.  Why connect it there?  Doesn’t it just feel like it’s asking for trouble?  The paint work on this figure is very basic.  Lots of silver.  All very flat.  It’s alright.  Stryfe was packed with his weirdly shaped mace, which is just about as goofy as he is.

 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t like Stryfe.  I’ve never liked Stryfe.  This figure’s always looked lame, and I stand by that.  I bought him because I want all of them, and he was cheap because I bought him loose.  He’s not great.  He’s really not.  He’s a try-hard, and that comes through on the figure, too.  I guess it could be worse.  It could be Ahab.  But that’s not a lot to clear, really.

#3220: Warpath

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

WARPATH

X-FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“He’s super-strong and super loyal! He’s the Native American known as Warpath! The X-Force team loves him for his rock-steady calm in even the most dangerous situations. Because he’s so big and so strong, Evil Mutants often attack him first, thinking that “the bigger they are, the harder they fall”. But in Warpath’s case, it’s the Evil Mutants who fall!”

The X-Men were really big in the ’90s, and the best way to capitalize on that is spin-offs!  Previous X-book The New Mutants was made more x-friendly with its own x-themed title, X-Force, and, with X-Force itself becoming a pretty big deal, it got its own spin-off of Toy Biz’s own X-Men toyline.  They got right to work filling in the team’s roster, in an assortment that, in a form of dramatic irony, didn’t actually feature any of the New Mutants members who had transferred over.  It did, however, feature Warpath, brother to X-Man proper Thunderbird, getting a figure years before his brother did.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Warpath was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s X-Force toyline.  He was one of three actual team members in the set.  The X-Force line was a bit slower on getting out actual team members than the X-Men line, but then again, the actual book was far more focused on side characters most of the time too.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Warpath lacks elbows and knees, which were still kind of phasing in and out at this point.  Presumably, the lack of them here was somehow linked to his slightly larger stature.  Not much larger, mind you; he’s actually surprisingly small for Warpath, who is classically a quite large and imposing guy, especially in the ’90s.  The sculpt is also kind of soft in terms of detailing, and sort of pre-posed, but also really stiff?  It’s an odd mix.  His muscles are also just kind of odd lumps.  I mean, aside from the very definite presence of feet, he’s not a bad match for a Liefeld drawing.  Perhaps not in terms of actual look, but certainly in terms of vibe.  The paint work on the figure is honestly not bad.  It’s bright and colorful, and the application is pretty sharp and clean.  Warpath is packed with…a red bazooka?  Not really sure why.  Not exactly true to the character, but, well, there it is.  He also featured a “Thunder Punch Action,” which just means his arms swing opposite directions when he’s twisted at the waist.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is another one of those figures that I looked at a lot growing up, but never actually wound up buying until I was an adult.  I snagged him sealed in the summer of 2017, alongside a bunch of other ’90s Toy Biz stuff.  He’s…not a terribly impressive figure.  I mean, he’s not awful either, I guess, but that’s not exactly a lot to write home about.

#2904: X-Force Cannonball & Shatterstar

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

X-FORCE CANNONBALL & SHATTERSTAR

MARVEL MINIMATES

Marvel Minimates have always paid very close attention to ‘90s Marvel, specifically the X-Men side of things. In 2010, we even got a small subset of Liefeld-inspired X-Force Minimates, which included Liefeld-favorite Cannonball and Liefeld-creation Shatterstar!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cannonball and Shatterstar were released in the ninth TRU-exclusive series of Marvel Minimates, which hit at the tail end of 2010.

X-FORCE CANNONBALL

Not Cannonball’s first or last time as a Minimate, this particular take on the former New Mutant gives us his first Liefeld design, which, despite my usual distaste for things Liefeld, is actually one of the better takes on Cannonball.  Cannonball is built with four add-on pieces, for his hair/goggles, coat, and gloves. The gloves are just standard flared gloves (DC flared gloves, though; not Captain America flared gloves), but do their job well enough. The hair piece and jacket are both new, and do a reasonable job of capturing Sam’s in-book appearance. The hair could perhaps stand to be a little sharper in terms of detailing, but the coat definitely turned out well.  The paint on Cannonball is reasonable overall, but some of the application is rather sloppy. The boots on my figure are particularly messy. This assortment falls during the stretch of time where the plastic quality on Minimates took a bit of a dive. They aren’t hit by the worst of it, but you can sort of see the difference in the coloring of the skin-tone on the head, and how the paint takes to the plastic (detail lines here are generally a bit duller).  In terms of accessories, Cannonball’s only got one, but it’s a good one. He’s got a blast effect piece that plugs into the bottom of his torso in place of his legs, depicting how he is usually drawn when using his powers.

X-FORCE SHATTERSTAR

This figure marked Shatterstar’s debut as a Minimate, appropriately in his debut costume from the pages of New Mutants #99. Shatterstar is a character with a history of truly hideous costumes. This one is hardly an exception.  Shatterstar has add-on pieces for his hair/headgear, shoulderpad/scarf, belt, and gloves. The gloves are the same ones used on Cannonball, but beyond that, all of the other add-ons were new to Shatterstar.  They’re decent enough recreations of his gear from the comics, goofy as they may be. Shatterstar also has the poofy sleeved upper arms that first showed up on the Series 29 90s Storm. I’ve never been overly fond of these pieces, given how far they stick out from the chest block. Just the standard arms might have worked better, especially on a figure that’s already as bulked up as this one.  Shatterstar’s paint is rather similar to Cannonball’s. There’s some serious slop on the changeover from white to black on the legs. He’s also plagued by the same issues of plastic quality. The skintone’s a sickly color, and the white has always been a little bit yellowed. Just an overall messy piece of work.  Shatterstar is packed with a pair of his signature twin-bladed swords. They’re decent enough on their own merits (apart from some slight warping from the packaging), but the choice of hands for him means he has some serious trouble properly holding them. Getting them into his hands can take some serious effort.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This pack marked a rather easy to acquire purchase for me back when they were new, surprisingly.  I wound up finding them on a last minute stop at TRU during the holiday season, when I wasn’t actually expecting to find anything.  Cannonball is an overall decent rendition of the character, slightly held back by a few quality issues.  Shatterstar is a flawed figure, in both design and execution. Had the execution been there, I think he still would have been fine, but he had the misfortune of being released during one of the roughest periods of quality control, so he ends up really middle of the road. Not awful, but not so great either.

 

#2509: Warpath

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

WARPATH

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A powerful mutant with superhuman strength and speed, Warpath is a formidable warrior with a proud and noble heart.”

One thing that seems to accompany the mutant gene in the Marvel universe is a propensity to breed like rabbits.  Everybody and their brother seems to have…a brother.  Okay, poor choice of words.  But, the point still stands, that a whole lot of the merry mutants have siblings, frequently with similar, or even identical, power sets.  I guess it’s a pretty easy way for the writers to “bring back” a character that can’t really be brought back.  Such was the case James Proudstar, brother to John Proudstar, the original Thunderbird and early addition to the X-Men’s casualty list.  James cropped up first under the same title as his brother, before jumping into his own identity as Warpath, whose wound up with a good deal more staying power than his brother.  That’s probably why he’s got so many more figures.  Well, here’s one more.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Warpath is figure 6 in the Strong Guy Series of Marvel Legends.  Unlike a lot of this assortment, this isn’t Warpath’s first time as a Legend; he got two separate figures back during the two-pack days of Hasbro, covering two of his later X-Force costumes.  This one, however, goes back to his start with X-Force, and gives him that proper Liefeldian design.  Shoulder pads and pouches!  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Warpath is built on the body introduced with Omega Red back in 2018.  It’s honestly surprising it took this long for the body to crop back up, because it’s a really solid big guy type of body, with a really good articulation scheme.  It’s certainly a welcome improvement to the Hyperion body, or even that weird Hulkling take-off the prior Warpaths made use of.  Warpath gets a new head, hands, forearms, shins, and add-ons for his shoulder pads, wrist bracers, and belt.  The head seems perhaps a touch on the large side, if I’m honest.  Not terribly so, but in line with Hasbro’s usual difficulties getting the proportions just right on some of the larger characters.  Sizing aside, though, it’s a really nice sculpt, definitely befitting James’s usual depictions.  The forearms clean up the Omega Red-specific elements of the prior mold, paving the way for easier use for other characters, while the shins not only add another point of articulation, but also add in Warpath’s fringed boots.  The shoulder pads do a variation of the Omega Red ones, pegging into place on the shoulders.  It keeps them secure, while still allowing for removal, if that’s your thing.  The bracers and belt wrap things up with some fairly standard issue parts, which work out pretty well.  His paint work is pretty basic, but also pretty appropriate.  They did tone down his colors ever so slightly from how they were initially depicted in the comics, but it definitely still works, and probably even works a bit better, since he ends up a little less garish.  Warpath’s accessory complement is…odd?  He’s got a second pair of hands for gripping, but nothing to grip.  I don’t mind the extra hands at all, but I’m not used to seeing them without accessories to interact with.  Perhaps he was supposed to have some knives or something?  He also gets the left leg of Strong Guy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Warpath’s not a character I’ve ever had any sort of major attachment to, due mostly to never really following any of the stories he was a part of.  Subsequently, I’ve also not really collected many of his figures, apart from having his first Toy Biz offering.  That said, he’s got a pretty distinctive design, so I was down to see his classic look get some Legends love, especially with most of the team already here.  He’s a pretty strong figure.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2508: Sunspot

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

SUNSPOT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“In his solar form, Sunspot possesses the supreme power and cosmic durability of a supernova.”

Anyone know of a good way to start a Sunspot review?  I don’t.  I mean, apart from this rather meta thing we’ve got going on here.  I guess this works in a pinch.  Gonna be honest, I don’t have much to say about Sunspot as a character.  He’s never done a whole lot for me.  He’s just sort of there.  Now I’ve got him in Marvel Legends form, and he’s just sort of here.  And now, so is this review, I suppose.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Sunspot is figure 5 in the Strong Guy Series of Marvel Legends.  After some tangential ties, Sunspot is the first figure to really embrace the X-Force theme, what with being a proper member of the team and all.  Sunspot’s wearing his Greg Capullo-designed costume, which is probably the best of his ’90s looks, in addition to also being the one used in the old Toy Biz days.  Technically, it doesn’t quite match with the other X-Force members we’ve gotten, what with them being in their Liefeld costumes, but the Toy Biz figures did the same thing, and it’s honestly not terribly far removed.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Sunspot is based on the Bucky Cap body, albeit with a lot more new parts than your might expect.  He’s got a new head, torso, pelvis, and lower legs.  It keeps him at the same basic build as the standard body, but refreshes a few of the parts that were starting to show some degradation on Spymaster, which I’d count as a definite plus.  The new parts are all pretty solidly handled, but I do have one minor complaint: as cool as the energy effect on his back is, it’s a shame it’s not removable.  It ends up being slightly limiting when it comes to posing the figure.  Other than that, he’s a pretty solid translation of the design, and is a good pair off with his old TB figure.  The paintwork on him is generally pretty solid, and he is nothing if not an eye-catching figure.  The bright red and blue really makes him stand out from the pack on the shelf.  Sunspot is packed with two of those orby effects pieces that we all have far too many of, but now in a solid black.  He also includes <most of> the torso for Strong Guy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As the intro may have clued you in, I’m not really that huge into Sunspot.  Couldn’t really tell you why.  I like the other New Mutants well enough, but he’s never stuck out to me.  I did have his 5-inch figure back in the day, and he’s a cool one, but ultimately there’s not much to draw me in on this guy.  That being said, I can appreciate filling in the X-Force team a bit more, and there’s no denying that this guy has a vibrant design.  I also dig the minor updates to the Bucky Cap mold to keep it still going.  Overall, not a bad figure.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2256: Deadpool

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

DEADPOOL

MARVEL LEGENDS VINTAGE (HASBRO)

Boy howdy am I running out of compelling ways to start Deadpool-themed reviews.  To say he’s overdone may be something of an understatement.  There’s *only* been three figures of him this year for Marvel Legends though, so I guess that represents Hasbro backing things off a little bit.  Lucky us.  I’ve managed to pick up all of them so far, so why stop now, I guess.  So, here’s one more Deadpool.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Deadpool is a standalone Marvel Legends release, done up in the retro style cardback packaging.  Like the Grey Hulk I reviewed earlier this month, he was originally slated to be a con-exclusive release, before being moved to the fan channel.  This Deadpool is designed to be an earlier in his career Deadpool, specifically patterned after the ’90s Toy Biz figure whose packaging this one mimics.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation. Sculpturally, he’s essentially identical to the classic Deadpool figure released in the Sasquatch Series last year.  The only difference between the two is that this one adds a second strap of pouches to the left leg so as to better mimic the old figure.  He’s using the 2099 body, which is a solid starting point, especially for a character like Deadpool.  He then has add-ons for his webgear/belt, the pouches on his legs, and his neck, wrist, and ankle straps.  He’s also got the classic Deadpool head, which fits the body a lot better than the Juggernaut Series one did for the X-uniform Deadpool.  Ultimately, it results in a pretty solid figure, especially if you missed the Classic Deadpool like me.  The figure’s paint mixes things up a little bit as well.  This is in part to more closely match the old toy, so things like the belt and torso gear have been left red like on that figure.  However, they’ve also changed the black parts of the costume to a dark metallic blue, which is honestly a pretty cool look, and really feels like it hearkens back to those early ’90s appearances of the character.  The application is all very clean, and the colors really pop off of each other.  Deadpool is actually pretty decently accessorized for a vintage-packed release, with two swords, two small machine guns, a pistol, and a larger assault rifle.  Given that the Classic Deadpool only included the swords, that’s actually kind of surprising, and I’m definitely glad they went the extra mile.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Much like Hulk, when this was still planned for a con release, I paid very little attention to it.  I passed on the Sasquatch Series release numerous times, and this one, while certainly a neat look, didn’t feel any more essential than that one.  The shift to Fan Channel meant that he more or less arrived in my lap, and going in with no expectations, he’s another figure I ended up liking quite a bit.  Honestly, that’s kind of been the case with all of this year’s Deadpool figures, so maybe I should just stop complaining about them.