Tag Archives: X-Men

#3320: Jean Grey

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

JEAN GREY

X-MEN: SECRET WEAPON FORCE (TOY BIZ)

“Trapped in an alternate universe, Jean Grey wages a battle against Omega, one of Apocalypse’s minions. One of the most powerful mutant telepaths on the planet, Jean Grey has teamed up with Wolverine to put an end to Apocalypse’s diabolical plans once and for all. With her transforming Catapult Tank Blaster, Jean has a secret weapon that can send any opponent down for the count!”

By 1997, Toy Biz’s X-Men line had firmly moved away from purely comics-based figures, and was fully venturing into the “wacky variants” territory.  Assortments moved to a generally themed nature, with that theme usually being some sort of gimmick.  Both X-Men and Spider-Man took on an underlying line rebranding in ’98, with the X-Men one being
“Secret Weapon Force.”  Though the main purpose of these assortments was have an excuse for wacky variants, Toy Biz did at least throw peopled a bit of a bone, and tried to make some of those variants line-up with something actually from the comics.  In the case of today’s figure, Jean Grey, it allowed them to give her “Age of Apocalypse” look some coverage, after it had been left out of the proper tie-in assortment for the storyline.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jean Grey was released in the “Battle Blaster” series of Toy Biz’s re-branded X-Men: Secret Weapon Force line.  The four figures in the assortment were all loosely AoA-themed, with the pretense of this being our Jean trapped in an alternate universe.  Jean was the most straight forward of the bunch, at least in terms of design.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  Jean marked the second use of the Monster Armor Mystique body, which would become one of Toy Biz’s favorites in the later 5-inch run.  She uses the main body, sans the skirt, with a new head sculpt (though the prototype on the back of the box was just a straight repaint).  The new head is a decent match to her AoA look in the comics, so that’s pretty decent.  The body’s not terrible, though I’m not a huge fan of the enormous right hand, or its general lack of posing.  Also, this release kept the etched-in lines from Mystique’s gloves and boots, which don’t line up with Jean’s costume details.  Jean’s paint work was generally okay.  It follows her look from the comics fairly closely.  Some of the details are a little fuzzy, especially on the costume.  I do like the tattoo on the face, though.  She’s also got a “Secret Weapon Force” insignia on her leg, which isn’t true to the original design, but is still a little cool, honestly.  Jean was packed with her “Secret Weapon Force” secret weapon, which was a Catapult Tank Blaster.  Given the sheer size of this thing, I’m not clear on just how she manages to keep it “secret,” but she *is* a telepath, I suppose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Despite being a main character for the franchise, by this point in the X-Men line, Jean Grey figures were still rather rare.  If you saw one, you got it.  That’s just how it was.  I wanted a non-Phoenix Jean, and this was my only real option at the time, so you know I went out there and got one…with my Grandmother’s money, most likely.  I know I got the Cyclops from this set first because, well, Cyclops, but Jean was a fairly close second.  Gotta have those two together, right?  She’s not a bad figure, I guess.  I mean, not great, but also not bad.  It was a nice way for Toy Biz to get this variant of Jean out there and continue the AoA line-up just a little bit more.

#3315: Quicksilver

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

QUICKSILVER

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“The speedster known as Quicksilver belongs to a family of strong mutants, his sister is the Scarlet Witch and his father is Magneto! Quicksilver spend the early part of his career as a member of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, before realizing his powers would best be put to use for the good of all Mankind. Since that time, Quicksilver has been a member of several super-teams, including X-Factor and the Avengers!”

Though he hasn’t quite made the lasting impressing that his twin sister has in recent years, Quicksilver is still certainly in a better spot than he was back before 2014.  Nowadays, he’s almost a household name…well, one of him is, anyway.  Not sure which.  Probably not the comics one, but that’s the one I’m looking at anyway, so let’s just stick with that.  Anyway, here’s a Quicksilver, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Quicksilver was released in the infamous “Muntant Armor” series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  There were two variants of Quicksilver available, one in his classic blue and white costume and one in his his then-current white and grey one.  Back in 2015, I looked at the white and grey, so today’s review focusses on the blue and white.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  As noted in the prior review, Quicksilver was built on the smaller male base body, which Toy Biz got quite a few uses out of around this time.  He shares his mostly new head sculpt (retooled from the Battle Brigade Archangel) with his variant, and it’s still a pretty good take on the character.  His paint work was obviously the main selling point.  It’s a pretty solid recreation of his classic design.  For true accuracy, it should have the black shorts, but this isn’t horribly inaccurate or anything.  Application is pretty clean for the most part, with minimal slop or bleed over.  Both versions of Quicksilver got the same accessories, a weird machine gun thing (missing from both of mine) and a dust cloud running effect stand, which was re-used from Meanstreak, but was now in a fun translucent grey, which was generally just a little more effective for the appearance of a dust cloud.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My dad had this version of Quicksilver, while I had the other one when I was growing up.  I was always a fan of this one too, but I liked having my own distinct version.  Over the years, though, I’ve been slowly working at getting a full run of the Toy Biz Marvel, and I was able to snag this guy at a toy show, in order to help me towards that goal.  It’s intriguing that Toy Biz did Pietro with both costumes, seeing as he’s exactly the sort of character that you don’t really need multiple figures for, but now, well, now I have both, and I guess that’s kinda cool, right?

#3310: Meanstreak

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

MEANSTREAK

X-MEN 2099 (TOY BIZ)

“A former researcher for the multinational corporation Alchemax, Henry Huang broke with his corporate masters, and now uses his superhuman mutant speed and dazzling intelligence to battle for mutant rights in the year 2099 as Meanstreak of the X-Men!”

While Spider-Man 2099 has generally been accepted as being an overall successful and not terrible idea, the rest of the 2099 line has always been generally accepted as not so much successful or not terrible.  Marvel tried to launch 2099 equivalents for all of their best-selling books at the time, so unsurprisingly, there was an X-Men 2099.  It was populated by a bunch of characters unrelated to the main timeline characters, who were all just very, very ’90s.  The team’s resident speedster was Meanstreak, who was fast and mean.  Okay, maybe not so mean, but the name sure sounded cool, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Meanstreak was released in the first series of Toy Biz’s X-Men 2099 line, which hit in 1995.  He really only had the one look, so that was the one he had here.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Meanstreak got what became the most basic articulation set-up of Toy Biz’s Marvel lines, which works out pretty well for him when it comes to decent running poses and such.  Meanstreak sported an all-new sculpt at the time, though it would see a little bit of re-use later down the line.  It’s honestly a pretty strong one, perhaps the best basic build sort of sculpt that the 2099 line had to offer.  The proportions aren’t anything too crazy, the costume details are clean and a good match for his design in the comics, and his face is cartoony, while still fitting with the overall vibe of the line up to this point.  One does have to wonder how the baggy boots and all sorts of pouches are going to do on a guy that’s a speedster, but hey, it could certainly have been worse.  In an era of particularly gaudy color schemes, Meanstreak actually had a pretty sensible one, sticking more or less to primary colors.  His paint work followed suit, and the end result is clean, bold, and fairly eye catching.  There were two versions of the paint on this one: one with a dark metallic gold on the bands, belt, and boots, and one where those parts are a slightly metallic yellow.  I personally prefer how the yellow looks, especially in conjunction with the other colors, but they both work in their own way.  Meanstreak was packed with a small gun, which he could fold up and store on his belt, as well as a running effect piece, which would later be re-used for the main X-Men line’s Quicksilver.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve talked before on the site about the store Ageless Heroes, a comic book store near me that went out of business when I was about 6 or 7, whose clearing out sales netted me a whole ton of 5-inch Marvel.  Well, Meanstreak wasn’t added to my collection because of that directly, but he did come to me indirectly because of that.  A family friend ran the Masquerade at a couple of local fan conventions, and she had cleared out a large chunk of Ageless Heroes’ remaining stock when they closed for the purposes of having some goodies to put in the prize bags for the children’s costume competition.  I would help her out with various pieces of set-up, and in exchange I was always allowed to pick out one of the figures from the box of stuff meant for those bags.  Meanstreak was one that I just really liked the look of, so he was one that I specifically chose. 20 some years later, I still know virtually nothing about the character, but I still have a real soft spot for the original yellow-colored version of the figure I picked out all those years ago.

#3291: Tactical Wolverine & Marvel Now Magneto

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TACTICAL WOLVERINE & MARVEL NOW MAGNETO

MARVEL MINIMATES

For the last few years of Fox’s hold on the X-Men film rights, Disney actively discouraged licensees from doing any direct tie-ins with Fox’s movie releases.  So, while we got tie-in assortments for both X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine from Minimates, the last of the solo Wolverine films, Logan, went without.  To tie-in with the general themes, however, there was still a comics-based Wolverine assortment in the main line, as well as a corresponding TRU-exclusive.  Today, I’m looking at the TRU-exclusive.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Tactical Wolverine and Marvel Now Magneto were released in the 23rd TRU-exclusive assortment of Marvel Minimates, alongside two shared sets from Series 72 of the main specialty line.

TACTICAL WOLVERINE

“A verteran of many wars, the slow-aging Logan has acquired a great many human combat skills to complement his natural animal instincts.”

As the 65th version of Wolverine to grace the line, Tactical Wolverine definitely comes from a place of “what more can we do to make different versions of this one guy?”  The answer, as it turns out, is add a headband and a vest.  Very exciting stuff, really.  The figure is based on the standard post-c3 ‘mate body, so he’s about 2 1/4 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  He’s got add-ons for his hair and vest, plus the adjusted hands and feet with the claws and signature boots.  The hair is the same piece unmasked hair piece that had been in use for a few years at this point, and the hands and feet were the same set-up.  The vest appears to be a unique part.  It’s alright.  Kinda soft on the details, but not the worst.  The paint work on this guy gives him his brown costume, and it’s actually pretty crisp and clean.  I definitely dig the extra stubble on his face; it looks really cool.  For accessories, he’s packed with a mask piece, so that you can convert him to a proper Brown Costume Wolverine, as well as a clear display stand.

MARVEL NOW MAGNETO

“Max Eisenhardt has been both friend and foe to the X-Men over the years. His magnetic powers make him one of the most powerful mutants on Earth.”

Ah, yes, Marvel Now.  Or, I guess Marvel Then at this point, since none of it stuck.  Well, except for Magneto going monochromatic, I guess.  Yay.  Glad that stuck.  Big fan of that.  There were a few different versions of his costume in play.  This one’s sleeveless and black.  He’s got add-ons for his helmet, cape, belt and wrist cuffs.  The belt and cuffs appear to be new, while the cape is a re-use from the Avengers Vs X-Men Scarlet Witch and the helmet is from the Series 50 Onslaught.  The parts are all pretty respectable matches for the source material, so that’s cool.  His paint, monochromatic though it may be, is pretty crisp and clean, and just quite nice looking.  His head gets full face detailing, as well as ears, since Magneto was bald at the time he had this look.  He’s still got the hole in his head, of course, but, you know, there it is.  Magneto’s packed with both a flight stand and a clear display stand.  The flight stand is a bit too small, so his foot doesn’t actually securely stay put, which makes balancing him a real…well, balancing act, I suppose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

None of these sets really appealed to me at the time of their release, largely due to me not having a whole lot of money to throw at Minimates.  I got these for the same reason I got most of the Minimates of the same era: TRU was going out of business and they were cheap.  Both figures are pretty nice, all things considered, but they’re also both non-essential looks, which makes this set as a whole kind of extraneous.  Still, they’re not bad.

#3288: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, is one of Xavier’s very first students and fights tirelessly for Xavier’s dream as the X-Men field leader!”

Oh sure, just go ahead and make me buy the same design for a third time, why don’t you?  What do you think I am, Hasbro, an easy target?  Because I am.  I mean, at least when there’s a ’90s Cyclops on the table.  Which there is.  Check it out.  ’90s Cyclops.  Oh, you want context?  Yeah, okay, I’ll give you context.  Remember how Hasbro’s been doing this whole line of animation-inspired X-Men figures based specifically on X-Men: The Animated Series?  Yeah, that’s been pretty cool.  I’ve picked up most of them (I’ve been focusing really just on the core team members, though), and I’ve been enjoying them a fair bit.  But, it’s all been a build up to the one figure I was really, really hoping to see, which was an updated version of ’90s Cyclops.  And, yes, I know I’ve gotten him updated.  On multiple occasions even.  But, look, I can always use more ’90s Cyclops.  And would you look at that?  More ’90s Cyclops.  Let’s review the ’90s Cyclops.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is the eighth figure in the X-Men: The Animated Series sub-line of Marvel Legends.  He follows up on the Mystique figure that I didn’t review, and is currently the last figure in the line-up, at least as far as we know.  Following Scott, Hasbro’s shifting things over to Spider-Man: The Animated Series, so Cyclops is our send-off for the line.  Like the last handful of figures from the set, Cyclops was shown off and went up for order on his own.  He was originally slated for a March 2023 release, but wound up making it out just before Christmas.  As with the rest of the line, Cyclops ships in a VHS-inspired package, with an illustration by Dan Veesenmeyer on the front.  It’s honestly my favorite illustration thus far, but I’m probably a bit biased.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  From a structural stand point, Cyclops is using the Vulcan body as a basis.  It’s a decent choice, since it’s been deigned the replacement for Bucky Cap, which was the recurring base body for Scott previously.  It’s just a little bit bulkier, which actually fits a little more with the ’90s Cyclops than Bucky Cap, honestly.  The only down side to the Vulcan sculpt is the glove line on the forearm; it’s not terribly noticeable, but it’s still just a little bit annoying.  Cyclops shares his slightly modified legs with the previously released Morph figure, allowing him to have the proper strappy bits for this costume.  He also re-uses the wrist straps from the prior ’90s Cyclops, which is fair enough.  The figure also gets a new head and a modified torso piece, both courtesy of sculptor Rene Aldrete.  The head is quite similar to the prior ’90s Cyclops head, but goes a bit more in depth with its detailing.  I liked the last sculpt a lot, but this one is a marked improvement across the board.  It’s worth noting that, similar to Morph, the sculpt walks the line between animation accuracy and the line’s usual stylings, suggesting it’s likely to get re-used for a standard color variant at some point down the line.  The new torso, much like the legs, takes the standard torso set-up, and makes the strappy bits an affixed element, rather than just a free-floating piece.  The floating nature of the prior release’s harness was one of my few issues with it, so working it into the torso sculpt not only makes it less of a pain to pose him, it also just makes for a tighter fit and a generally better looking design.  Following in the footsteps of the rest of the line, Cyclops’s paint work replicates the cel shading of the cartoon.  It’s not too pronounced, and like the others, it works surprisingly well from different angles.  I myself still quite like the cel shading on these figures, but I know others aren’t quite as keen on it.  If nothing else, it makes this release a bit more unique.  Cyclops is packed with five different hands, a pair of fists, a pair relaxed, and his usual left hand with the two fingers extended for proper optic blast unleashing.  It’s a little bit bare bones, honestly, but it’s on par with most of these releases, especially given how much new sculpting this one got.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ll admit, I was pretty hyped for Morph when this line began, because he’s unique and everything, but the figure I was absolutely hoping for the most from this line-up was this guy.  X-Men: The Animated Series‘ take on Cyclops shaped a lot of my view on the character, as well as shaping a lot of what I like in characters in general.  I like a good clean cut hero, what can I say?  I’ve gotten pretty much every possible version of the ’90s Cyclops design out there, and I honestly do love them all.  This guy is just a step above the rest, though.  And, I look forward to buying this exact same figure again, but without the cel shading.  Look, I know what I’m about, okay?

3270: Mystique

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

MYSTIQUE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Wanting her foster-daughter Rogue back in her life, Mystique helps Miser Sinister in his plan to take over the X-Men! Shapeshifting into the Beast, Mystique tricks the X-Men into Sinister’s clutches. Witnessing Sinister turn Rogue into a monster proves too much for Mystique and she turns against the villain, using the now out of control monster Wolverine to aid in her revolt.”

Oh boy, late ’90s X-Men line.  When the whacky themes ran rampant.  Early in the line, things were rather focused and comics based, with a little bit of the cartoon input bleeding in here and there.  As the line progressed, the concepts started to get weirder, but not too crazy.  1996 had some weirdness, but it was 1997 where things got crazy, and each assortment seemed to be trying to top the last.  We had Ninjas and Robot Fighters, and eventually they just turned everyone into monsters.  Yeah.  At least we got one new character out of the whole deal, though.  Let’s look at Mystique.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mystique was added to the X-Men line in 1997’s “Monster Armor” assortment, which was the twentieth series of the line.  This marked Mystique’s first time in 5-inch form, though she’d previously been part of the 10-inch line as a rather hastily thrown together Rogue repaint.  Mystique was seen here in her classic attire, likely chosen because it matched her animated appearances.  That was a small grace, since she had some real doozies in the ’90s.  The figure stands just under 5 inches tall and she has 5 points of articulation.  She marked a rather reduced articulation set-up.  Generally, this assortment marked a move away from practical articulation and into more pre-posing, a la what McFarlane’s offerings of the time.  Mystique’s articulation was good for minor tweaks to keep her standing, but ultimately not much else.  Her pre-posing was at least kept to a minimum on the figure’s sculpt, so she doesn’t look quite as silly as some of the others.  The sculpt has a respectable set of proportions, and just generally looks pretty balanced.  Toy Biz was clearly a fan of this one, too, since it got quite a few re-uses in the following years.  The paint work on this figure is decent enough.  Some of the change-overs are a little fuzzy, but there’s nothing horribly out of place and all of the important details are there.  Mystique was packed with her own set of Monster Armor, which included a mask, hand, and feet clip-ons, meant to turn her into a loose approximation of Beast, as mentioned in the bio.  It’s not spot-on, but it works okay, and it’s actually a pretty sensible accessory set-up for a character whose main gimmick is shape shifting.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this assortment hit, I got distracted by the prospect of another Cyclops, and wound up not actually getting any of the others.  I’ve been slowly grabbing the rest over the years, and Mystique was on the top of my list.  I wound up snagging her from Collector’s Corner a few years ago, when they were doing a sale on a lot of their action figure back stock.  She’s not bad.  I mean, sure, she could be more posable, but otherwise she does look pretty decent, and it was the best option for a very long time.

#3252: Beast

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

BEAST

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Dr. Henry McCoy, the gentle giant of the X-Men, uses his mutant physicality and genius mind for the betterment of humans and mutants alike.”

Back in 2019, Marvel Legends was taking its first real stabs towards completing the core ’90s X-Men line-up for the first time.  We got a Beast back then as part of the Caliban Series, and he and the Jubilee from the same series were legitimately always impossible to find.  There was a grey Beast variant later to alleviate the issue a little, but it definitely wasn’t the same thing.  As we add more to that ’90s line-up, a proper re-release of some sort kind of feels more and more inevitable.  And here it is, being all not evitable.  So, now we’re getting another go at the ’90s Beast.  On the plus side, this one’s aiming to not just get the prior one back out there, but also make it even better in the process.  Does it do it?  Let’s find out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Beast is his own Fan Channel-exclusive single-offering for Hasbro’s Marvel Legends.  He’s under the Retro Collection banner, with a fun throwback card inspired by the early ’90s Toy Biz stuff.  This is the second time Beast’s been done under this banner, following the Grey Beast from 2020.  This one is, of course, more true to what Toy Biz actually put out back then.  He’s also not at the same price-point as prior versions, being in the mid-tier price between standards and deluxes, first done with Iron Spider.  This allows him to go just a little bit heavier on the accessories, and also keep his size and original core parts, which all feels like a win to me.  This Beast is, of course, very much a Jim Lee ’90s Beast in terms of design, fitting in with a lot of the other focus as of late, and loosely fitting with the VHS packaged figures, though without the specific cel shading set-up.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  For the most part, this figure shares his sculpt with 2019’s Caliban Series Beast, which is exactly what we all expected, and is really just the aim of the figure.  It’s a solid piece of work, and a base that’s only gotten four uses at this point, so it’s not at all a bad choice.  He does get an all-new head sculpt, courtesy of Paul Harding, which gives us a far more calm and collected Hank McCoy than the first sculpt.  I was always kind of iffy on that one’s screaming look, so I definitely appreciate this one; it’s still perhaps a touch serious for my personal preference, but that also distinguishes it more from the Grey Beast head, as well as sticking pretty close to the original Toy Biz figure.  Beast’s color work is similar to the Caliban release, but ever so slightly changed up; the main blue is a ever so slightly lighter in shade, and the accenting is much subtler than before.  I liked the prior one for the time, but this coloring definitely is an improvement.  The biggest change-up for this release is the accessory selection.  He’s been moved to a higher price point, and to justify that, he gets not only the two sets of hands from the original release, but also the original release’s head, a cloth lab coat, Grey Beast’s glasses, and two different beakers with different color liquids in them.  It’s a great selection of extras, and I especially love the “X-Gene” label on the pink beaker.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was overall happy with the first release of this mold back in 2019, but in the years since, I’ve really grown to dislike him being saddled with the one head sculpt that he got.  Add in that he was so hard to find, and didn’t quite fit with more recent releases, and it all comes together as a definite need for some sort of update.  I honestly wasn’t expecting something this involved, honestly, but I really can’t knock it.  This figure takes the 2019 figure and just makes it emphatically better in ever sense.  He’s finally a Legends Beast that I don’t feel is some sort of compromise!

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

#3232: Morph

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

MORPH

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The mutant shapeshifter Morph returns to haunt the X-Men after being captured and manipulated by Mr. Sinister.”

Oh, yeah, it’s all finally starting to pay off, you guys!  Remember all those X-Men: The Animated Series-themed Marvel Legends I’ve been looking at since June?  And remember how up until this point they’ve all just been reworks of other Legends releases?  Well, today, that changes!  Admittedly, it only changes for the one release, and then it’s back to the reworks, but I’ll take the wins where I can get them.  When The Animated Series launched, the creators wanted to show the seriousness of the X-Men’s battle with the Sentinels by having a casualty within the first episode.  So, they dusted off a rather minor ’60s character, Changeling, re-christened him “Morph,” and went forth with their plan of killing the poor guy off just as soon as possible.  They didn’t anticipate him being nearly as popular as he wound up being, so in the show’s second season, he was revealed to be still alive, and under the control of the season’s arc-villain, Mr. Sinister.  Though not completely original to the show, Morph is still a very show-centered concept, so he’s not been quite as privy to all the toy goodness that the rest of the team received.  He got a standard figure, a Metal Mutant, and even a Shape Shifter back in the day, but it’s only now, 20 years into Legends, that he finally shows up there.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Morph is the sixth figure in the X-Men: The Animated Series sub-line of Marvel Legends, and the first figure to debut a character in Legends….well, unless you count his AoA counterpart as his actual debut, but that’s a legal grey area at best.  Following Jean’s precedent, Morph was shown off and put up for sale on his own.  Like the rest of the line, Morph ships in a VHS-styled box (sporting art by Dan Veesenmeyer), and I still really dig these things.  Morph’s is certainly a lot of fun.  The figure stands just over 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Structurally, Morph is built on the Vulcan body, which is a sensible enough starting point, especially if Hasbro’s looking to really cement it as the Bucky Cap’s replacement.  He also makes use of the jacket piece from Old Man Logan and the arms are from Punisher, as well as an all-new head, belt, and altered legs.  All of the new pieces are courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding, and they’re quite an impressive selection.  The head does a good job of capturing the animated Morph’s general character, while also being just a touch more in line with the standard stylings of the line.  The new legs replicate the various ’90s X-Men straps, previously handled via add-on pieces that tended to fall down a lot.  Now, they’re worked into the legs, and it’s honestly so much nicer this way.  Morph’s paint work continues with cel-shading that we’ve seen with the rest of the line, thought this time around it does seem just a touch less present, so that he won’t look nearly as out of place with non-animation based figures.  It’s rather considerate, since this is Morph’s first 6-inch figure.  Morph is packed with a second head sculpt, based on his “evil” look from Season 2, and two sets of hands in fists and relaxed poses.  The extra head is really nicely handled, looking consistent to the standard head, but again capturing the feel of the show design.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Morph is the figure I was most hoping to see in this line, right from the beginning.  He wound up going up for order while I was on the road, actually, but I was able to get him ordered without too much fuss.  I’ve been eagerly awaiting his release, and I’m thrilled to have him in hand.  He’s easily my favorite figure from this set thus far, and he gives me a bit more hope for the line after being a little bit underwhelmed by a few of the mid-run figures.  He turned out really well, and he’s a great update to the original Toy Biz figure.

#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.