Tag Archives: X-Men ’97

#3943: Cyclops & Jean Grey

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

CYCLOPS & JEAN GREY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

As a direct continuation of X-Men: The Animated Series, the designs in X-Men ’97 at its launch stick pretty close to the designs from the original, which for most of the characters also means sticking to their Jim Lee-designed looks from X-Men #1.  Before the show launched, we heard that the main cast would be getting some costume changes, which led to a lot of deliberation about which set of post-Lee costumes they’d land on, until the show itself threw things into reverse, reverting most of the cast to their ‘70s and early ‘80s era attire (the explanation in-show being that those are the costumes they had on-hand at the auxiliary base they have to launch their final run on Magneto from).  For me, it’s the best of both worlds, because I love both sets of designs, and it also means that the more frequently overlooked ‘70s designs get an excuse for some toy focus.  Also, there’s a new Cyclops and Jean Grey, and how can I ever complain about that?

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cyclops and Jean Grey are a Hasbro Pulse-exclusive Marvel Legends two-pack.  They’re under the X-Men ’97 banner, and were released at the same time as a Storm and Wolverine two-pack with their matching costumes (Jubilee in her alternate attire, which was *not* a ‘70s/‘80s look also hit right around the same time in the main line).

CYCLOPS

This figure makes up kind of the central need for this whole set in the first place.  Though this look served as Scott’s main appearance for just over a decade, it often gets the short end of the stick on toy coverage.  In the case of Legends, the last release was back in 2017, as part of an exceptionally hard to get Toys R Us-exclusive two-pack.  Suffice to say, that figure’s gotten pretty pricey on the aftermarket, and also doesn’t quite fit with newer releases.  This one’s aim is to address all that, and also to maybe fix some issues with prior figures?  I’ll get to that.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  As with most recent Cyclops figures, this one is built on the Vulcan body.  For this design in particular, it feels like a pretty natural choice for the character.  He gets a pair of new heads, new shins, and a new belt add-on piece.  The two heads follow the trend of recent Cyclops figures, with one calm, and one more intense.  As with prior instances, the more intense head has a slot in the visor for the attachment of an optic blast effects piece, which is always a fun touch.  When the X-Factor Cyclops was released, I was low-key kind of expecting those heads to get a straight re-use for this costume, despite the inaccuracies involved with such a choice.  I was very pleasantly surprised by the decision to go all-new for both sculpts, meaning that not only does he get the more distinctive visor shape of the Cockrum/Byrne days (complete with the etched in lines running at either side of the visor), he also gets the proper slants of the full mask under the visor; both prior Legends versions of this costume have gone with the later straight lines from the edges of the visor look, and while it’s a minor detail, I’m very glad it didn’t get overlooked here.  Likewise, his new boot pieces are a more accurate version of the boots Scott wore with this costume than the more generic buccaneer boots of earlier releases, making him even more accurate.  The only thing that isn’t quite as cool as Hasbro’s last version is the paint work, which, rather than replicating the shading of the comics for the blue sections, just goes for a flat blue.  They’re going for the animated look, which was a bit flatter, and I know the coloring on the last one was difficult to get consistent, so I understand it, and this one ultimately doesn’t look *bad*, but it’s the one area where he’s not *quite* as impressive.  Cyclops includes two pairs of hands (in fists, and an open/activating visor combo) and the large optic blast effect first used with X-Factor Cyclops.  It’s basic, but covers the important bases.

JEAN GREY

Jean’s return to her green miniskirt costume in the last pair of ’97 episodes is a return in more ways than one, since she’d also worn it during the original show’s adaptation of the “Dark Phoenix Saga.”  She’d also recently returned to it during the Krakoan-Era in the comics, which was how it got its last Legends figure.  That one wasn’t all that long ago, nor was it super hard to find, so this one was a *little* surprising, but given the two-pack angle, not incredibly so.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  Going in, I was expecting a lot of re-has from the HoX release of this costume, but that’s really not the case.  The only piece actually shared between the two is the torso.  The arms and legs are newer, updated pieces that sport the pinless construction on the elbows and knees.  The feet are now proper closed boots with heels, instead of the re-purposed shoe-d feet from Peggy Carter, and the gloves are now cleaner slip-over pieces, rather than the wrinkled ones from the last one.  She’s also got two new heads, and a newly sculpted skirt piece, which is more dynamic than the last one, and therefore more practical for posing the legs.  In general, she’s a much easier figure to pose, and by extension more easy to balance.  Much less falling over with this one.  The two heads mimic Cyclops, with one calmer, and the other more intense.  They’re both clearly patterned on her animation model from the show, but can also work easily as a stand-in for her comics look.  Jean’s color work is a slightly different approach than the HoX version, which went for flatter shades.  This one goes a bit more off-kilter, making the yellows gold and the green a sort of duller shade.  I wasn’t sure about it at first, but in hand it actually really works, and gives this design a more unique feel, while also calling forth her Phoenix design.  Jean is packed with two pairs of hands (in fists and open gesture), as well as two energy effects pieces in blue.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve mentioned many times how the late ‘70s X-Men is really what I consider my X-Men.  So, I’ve got this real attachment to that classic Cyclops look.  The Toy Biz version’s not worth mentioning, and much as I love the TRU Cyclops (because he’s a half-way decent Cyclops), he’s got some issues that hold him back.  When this look reappeared in ’97 I was very hopeful it would turn up in toy form again.  It took a while, but here it is.  I jumped on the pre-order for these as soon as possible, because I was not missing this Cyclops.  He’s sooooooooooo nice.  Very much the best version of this costume, and I love so much about him, but especially the actual accuracy to the costume’s intended design, which is always overlooked.  Jean I had very little actual expectations about.  I had the HoX release, and it was fine but not overly impressive.  I expected mostly re-hash here, and just saw her as a glorified accessory for the Cyclops figure.  While she doesn’t supplant Cyclops as the star for me, she’s a lot better than I expected, and an unquestionable improvement over the last release, and I’m very happy about that.

#3935: Morph

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

MORPH

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

The character of Morph was created for X-Men: The Animated Series by re-working an obscure X-Men foe “Changeling” essentially for the sole purpose of having a team member to kill off in the pilot, to show the seriousness of the situation.  Morph, however, proved to be a lot more popular than the show runners had expected, so the character’s death was reversed at the end of the first season, and they returned as an antagonist in the second, before eventually turning on Mr. Sinister (who had kept them alive, but brainwashed them), and returning to the team as a reserve member.  For the show’s continuation, X-Men ’97, Morph is once more a full-fledged member of the team, and that’s finally paid off in figure form, too!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Morph is part of the third X-Men ’97 tie-in assortment of Marvel Legends.  Due to delays with the show and a lack of knowledge of the exact demand for product, the third round had a pretty significant delay from the first and second, with over a year’s worth of space between them.  This is the animated Morph’s second time in Legends form, following up on their first release in the VHS line.  Obviously, that one was based on Morph’s original animated design, which was really just Changeling in a standard X-uniform.  Morph’s success in the show led to the character’s reintroduction during “Age of Apocalypse,” which saw a rather radical redesign.  For ’97, Morph is sporting a design that mixes the two notable looks together, with the presumption that this is Morph’s default state, and the more “human” look seen during the original run (which makes a brief re-appearance in the first episode of ’97) is an affected look used to fit in better.  The figure stands just under 6 1/4 inches tall and they have 32 points of articulation.  Morph is sporting an all-new sculpt.  The articulation scheme is a bit stiff and old-fashioned, apart from the pinless construction, but it does what it needs to.  They end up feeling a bit like the What If…? figures in terms of movement.  The actual sculpt is a good match for the animation model.  The last Morph sort of fit them into the more general Legends style, and was likewise a bit more bulked up than their in-show appearance.  This figure sticks much closer to Morph’s more svelte design, giving them a more unique feel, overall.  Morph’s color work is largely molded colors, which is always pretty clean.  There’s a bit of accenting on their face, to keep it from being *too* blank, which works pretty well.  Morph is packed with two sets of hands (in fists and open), an alternate original series styled head, and an alternate Gyrich head.  Alternate heads are a classic bit for Morph, and I do generally dig them (especially taking the opportunity to offer Gyrich, since he’s a rather noteworthy character who’s never gotten a figure), but unfortunately the molded color on the neck is a match for the standard head, meaning they’ll always have an off-white neck.  Since the neck’s a separate piece, it’s too bad they couldn’t include an alternate part to swap in.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Morph’s certainly a favorite of mine, especially in regards to the original series, and all of the figures included.  I’ve always had a soft spot for them, and I was thrilled to hear they were being promoted to full-fledged team member for the revival.  I was a bit bummed by no Morph figures at launch, but I’m glad they were amongst the first of the post-show product.  Definitely a fun little figure.

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

#3854: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

X-MEN ’97 (MONDO)

Are you guys ready for a super crazy radical shift in how reviews go around here? …Well, I hope not, because that’s not really happening. I mean, sure, in contrast to the last several weeks of ’90s Toy Biz reviews, I’m instead doing something totally different. Okay, not totally different. It’s still Marvel. And while it’s not actually *from* the ’90s, it’s certainly ’90s inspired. Mondo, who I haven’t actually discussed here, is a company that didn’t *start* with toys, but they’ve moved into them, and they’re offerings have a lot of ’90s coverage, which undoubtedly has some overlap with my interests. They started doing 1/6 scale figures based on X-Men: The Animated Series a few years ago, and are slowly working their way through not just the main cast, but also a number of supporting players. And last year, in the midst of all that awesome X-Men ’97 hype, they did a Cyclops, which I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is figure 1 in the X-Men ’97 line from Mondo. It’s an interesting choice, since they haven’t yet finished up the main run of their Animated line and, well, he’s also very clearly an original series Cyclops. Sure, the box uses the ’97 logo, and the main image is the ’97, but all of the storyboard images are from the original show, and he’s clearly based on the original design sheet. He’s clearly a figure intended for the first line refitted for a quick tie-in with the newer show. Not that I’m complaining either way.  There were two releases of the figure: the standard, and a deluxe version that was a timed exclusive available directly through Mondo’s store.  The core figure remains the same for both versions. The figure stands just over 12 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  Unlike a lot of 1/6 figures, the Mondo animated figures are fully sculpted, with an articulation scheme not unlike a Marvel Legend.  The range of motion is okay in some spots, but rather restricted in some others.  The hips and shoulders in particular are rather stiff, but you can work with them if you’re patient.  The sculpt, handled by Alex Brewer, is a unique offering, and it’s a pretty solid match for the animation design.  It’s clean, and the head in particular really looks the part.  I especially like how sharply defined the hair and its flippy ’90s goodness.  The only thing I’m not crazy about is how the shoulder harness hovers.  It’s a frequent issue with this design, and it’s one of the quirks of maintaining an okay range of motion on the torso.  Cyclops’ paint work (laid out by Tomasz Rozejowski) goes for the cel-shading angle.  It’s always a tricky prospect, but I think they actually did a respectable job of making it work, even in three dimensions.  As it stands, it gives the sculpt an impressive extra bit of pop.  The standard release of Cyclops includes an alternate head with a screaming expression, two alternate visors (one for optic blasts, and the other with a flare effect attached), two different optic blast attachments, 9 different hands (in fists, open gesture, pointing, two fingers extended, and a right gripping hand), and a cup of coffee.  It’s a solid, basic assortment of parts.  The deluxe version also added an extra optic blast, a head without the head gear, a pair of sunglasses, an alternate Sentinel-style head, and a jacket and extra arms and hands for his bomber jacket look.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back when this figure was shown off, I totally wanted…specifically the deluxe version.  He had all the extras I wanted, and I was all game to jump on and get him when he dropped.  And then…well, a stomach bug tore its way through my household, and I totally missed the drop dealing with that, so I didn’t get the exclusive.  I was bummed, and thought about getting the standard, but I lost my initiative, and it just didn’t happen.  That is, until this guy got traded into All Time, giving me the opportunity to see him in person.  Even without the extras, he felt worth it.  I’d still love to get the deluxe one, if I could, but for now, this guy’s still pretty awesome.

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.

#3594: Jean Grey

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

JEAN GREY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0073:  This figure’s technically two figures in one!

Well, X-Men ’97 continues to deliver on the awesomeness front, so I’m going to keep jumping into that particular well.  I already looked at Cyclops earlier this week, and what better follow-up to him is there than Jean Grey!  Jean’s gotten her fair share of ’90s inspired figures, and here’s one more!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jean Grey is part of the second X-Men ’97 tie-in assortment of Marvel Legends.  She’s the first ’90s Jean at regular retail since the Rocket Raccoon Series figure, which was quite a while ago.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  The last ’90s Jean re-used the 3-Pack Jean molds, just done up in animated colors.  This one, however, is an entirely new sculpt, based on her updated model for X-Men ’97.  It’s a really nice sculpt.  I wasn’t much of a fan of the prior one, but I made do with it because I felt I had to…but, like, now I don’t?  Because, again, this one is so nice.  All of the costume elements are actually sculpted this time around, which makes them a lot cleaner and pop-ier.  There are two different head sculpts, one with the hair up in a ponytail, and one with it down.  The ponytail head is undoubtedly my favorite, but I may be slightly biased on that front.  Both sculpts are really strong, and again so much nicer than the ones from the prior figure.  Jean’s color work isn’t bad.  It’s a lot of molded color work, of course, but there’s a little bit of paint as well.  The faces are nice and clean.  Her belt is a real mess on my copy, which is a bummer, but it’s also not the end of the world, since it’s just a belt.  Jean gets the two different head sculpts, as well as two sets of hands.  It still feels a little light, but she does at least get the extra head.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I’ve gotten two versions of ’90s Jean for my Legends X-Men already, and I didn’t dislike them, but I didn’t love them either.  I was bummed by the less animation-specific elements of the VHS figure, so getting another chance is really awesome.  Cyclops may be my favorite figure in this series, but I think Jean is the most needed one.  I really love this figure, and I think she’s a fantastic Jean Grey.

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.

#3578: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

X-MEN ’97 EPIC HEROES (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0057: Cyclops’ Jim Lee re-designed costume has appeared in figure form 19 times, before the arrival of the X-Men ’97 tie-ins.

Do you guys know what day it is?  It’s X-Men ’97 day!  After a 27 year hiatus, X-Men: The Animated Series is back in the form of X-Men ’97, which makes its debut to Disney+ today.  I might be just the slightest bit excited about this.  No biggie.  There’s a whole plethora of tie-in merch hitting for the show, so I figured the launch day might be a good one to review one of those.  And, you know me: I’m a sucker for a Cyclops figure.  So, I’m definitely gonna review one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is part of the first series of Hasbro’s X-Men ’97 Epic Heroes line, which is both a tie-in for the show, and also falls under their new “Epic Heroes” banner, which is what they’re classifying all their basic price-point 1/18 scale lines under.  Cyclops was also re-released alongside the rest of Series 1, plus the vehicle pack-in Storm, and a thus far exclusive Gambit, in a five-pack for Target, which hit towards the end of last year.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 15 points of articulation.  In terms of mobility, he’s about on par with the end of the Universe/Legends run.  It’s not a terrible set-up, and he’s honestly able to pull off most of the poses you’d need to get out of him.  Plus, he doesn’t feel as fiddly as some of the Universe figures, and he’s certainly more stable on his feet than the Universe ’90s Cyclops figure.  The sculpt on this figure is all-new, and it’s not bad.  It does appear that, in spite of him being specifically called out as a ’97 figure, he’s a little more in line with his design from the original show.  This is especially evident in the head, notably the way the hair sits.  Of course, it still works very much as an evergreen take on the character, which is far from a bad thing.  The actual detailing is all pretty sharp, and the proportions are nicely balanced.  Cyclops’ color work is decent enough.  Paint, especially the yellow sections, is a little sloppy.  I’m also not sure why they’ve neglected to paint his shorts yellow, but I assume there’s probably some sort of cost-saving element involved.  It’s a frustrating omission, but not the end of the world.  Cyclops is packed with an optic blast effect piece, which slips over his head.  It’s super goofy, but I unabashedly love it.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

Last year, when these started to be sighted at retail, and their listings dropped on Amazon with no real info, I jumped on them, because, well, it’s ’90s X-Men, and how can I not.  Obviously, I’m not the main target audience for the line, which is part of the reason why I haven’t reviewed any of the four figures I’ve picked up until now.  But, like I said above, I can’t resist a good Cyclops, and, basic though he may be, this is a good Cyclops.  And now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna watch a new episode of X-Men: The Animated Series for the first time in two decades.