Tag Archives: X-Men

#2518: Professor X & Magneto

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

PROFESSOR X & MAGNETO

MARVEL MINIMATES

After their first year had wrapped, there was a bit of a gap in Marvel Minimates releases, as DST mapped out the direction the line would take.  When they returned, there was a pretty heavy lean into the classic X-Men set-up, with the previously reviewed Giant Size X-Men set and one other exclusive, which is today’s focus, Professor X and Magneto!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Professor X and Magneto hit in January of 2004, and are notable for being the first Marvel Minimates exclusive to come out of Action Figure Xpress, who would serve as a major supporter of the line for the next decade of the line.  The two would then subsequently see re-issue in one of TRU’s four-packs the following year, alongside the Nex X-Men Wolverine and Jean.  Both would also get slight paint tweaks for one more additional release each in 2006.  Xavier’s suit was made blue and released at Target alongside Dark Phoenix.  Magneto got a new face and was released in the infamous Dark Tide boxed set that clogged up retailers everywhere for quite a bit.

PROFESSOR X

Before we had our fancy hover chairs and what not, this was the Xavier that had to hang around in everyone’s collection for a good long stretch of time.  Patterned on the character’s earliest appearances, Xavier is a ‘mate that could have been pretty basic, but actually has more going on than you might realize at first glance.  The core ‘mate is totally vanilla, albeit long-footed vanilla.  He gets the basic amount of detailing you’d expect from this era of ‘mate.  If I have one complaint, it’s that his ears are printed a little too close to his face.  That’s a problem that would be with most of the line’s bald characters, even to current day. It’s the accessories that really spice this guy up, since he’s got Cerebro, his wheelchair, and a blanket to cover his legs…or he would if that last piece wasn’t missing from mine.  I don’t know when it went missing, but it sure did.  Drat.  Well, the other two pieces are still cool, and the wheelchair in particular is a really solid, really fun piece.

MAGNETO

Charles Xavier’s sometimes nemesis/sometimes friend made for a pretty logical pairing, and makes for this set’s more outwardly exciting release.  He’s constructed on the standard long-footed body, with add-ons for his helmet and cape.  Both sculpted pieces are somewhat on the basic side, but they both do a really nice job of summing up the character’s classic design.  The paint work helps in that effort as well, as there’s actually a surprising level of detail going into this guy.  The torso not only got the costume details, but also some underlying musculature as well, making him look less flabby than the X-Men he was fighting.  Under the helmet, there’s a nice evil grin, which works perfectly for the character.  Sadly, extra hairpieces weren’t quite a thing, so it’s stuck hiding somewhat beneath the helmet.  In fact, Magneto doesn’t get any accessories at all, which feels light these days, but wasn’t really much of a surprise when he was new.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

These guys hit before I was really making many online purchases for myself, so I missed out on the initial release.  I actually ended up snagging the TRU 4-Pack versions a few years later, courtesy of All Time Toys, way back before I had any sort of official partnership with them.  See, even when I try to review something from before I was getting everything from All Time, I still review stuff from All Time!  Both of these guys were pretty solid offerings of the characters, especially for this early in the line.  It’s not terribly surprising that they remained the primary versions for as long as they did.

#2510: Archangel II

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

ARCHANGEL II

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“As the high-flying Angel, Warren Worthington III was one of the original members of the X-Men. Years later, Worthington’s real wings were dissected, replaced with razor sharp wings of steel, and he was transformed into Archangel, one of the four Horsemen of Apocalypse. Now, having fought against the conditioning that tainted and turned him into a living weapon, Archangel has embraced his humanity and strives to regain the purity that once surrounded him.”

The Toy Biz X-Men line came out of the gate pretty strong, marking off a good chunk of the core X-Men.  By a few years into the line, they were steadily supplying updates to those core characters.  While characters such as Wolverine or Cyclops were central to the then-running cartoon, and therefore higher on list for updates, Warren Worthington III, aka Archangel only had a guest-starring role on the show.  It was still enough to justify another figure, and so here we are!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Archangel II was released in the Invasion Series of X-Men, the eleventh assortment of the line.  Archangel was included in the initial cases of the series, but was replaced in later cases by the previously-reviewed Erik the Red, making this version of Archangel ultimately the rarer figure.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Archangel II debuted an all-new sculpt, one that would prove a favorite of Toy Biz over the years.  Though I haven’t actually managed to review any of the later uses (something that kind of baffles me, honestly), it was used *a lot* over the years.  This is where is kicked off, though, so that’s pretty cool.  It’s an okay sculpt, but what’s somewhat interesting is that it doesn’t really feel like it works as well for Archangel as it did for the later figures it was used for, despite being sculpted specifically for this guy.  The build seems perhaps a touch bulky for Warren, but ultimately, it’s the head that seems the most off.  It’s also rather bulky, and I’m not sure exactly what that facial expression is, but it seems a bit unpleasant.  The new wings were actually pretty decent.  They were certainly more sizable than the Series 1 version, and the detail work is a little more in depth.  The softer material used for them make it a little easier to keep him standing, which is definitely a plus.  The paint work on Archangel is pretty decent.  It covers all of the basics of his hideous colorscheme from the time period, and the application is all pretty strong.  Mine’s taken a little bit of a beating, but that’s kind of the usual for these guys.  Archangel didn’t include any accessories, but he did get a wing-flapping action feature.  It’s super goofy, but I enjoy it and all its hokiness.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Okay, so consulting my records shows that I *have* talked about Ageless Heroes here on the site, back when I reviewed Bespin Luke.  I got a good chunk of 5-inch Marvel figures that way, and Archangel was amongst that grouping of figures.  He was one of those figures that was kind of rare when he was new and I was getting into collecting.  I recall seeing him on the back of the packaging for a few of my figures, so when I found him at Ageless Heroes, I was pretty excited.  Ultimately, he’s maybe not the best Archangel, but I still appreciate him for what he is.

 

#2507: Maverick

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

MAVERICK

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Maverick absorbs the force of enemy attacks, converting it into hyper-concussive blasts of power.”

Hiiiiway through the danger zone!  Oh, sorry, wrong Maverick.  This one’s significantly less Tom Cruise-y.  Though, I bet he still plays a pretty mean game of volley ball.  It’s been quite a while since I reviewed a Maverick figure.  In my defense, that’s because there really aren’t a lot of them out there.  But now there’s one more, so that ups the quantity of Mavericks by about 30% or so.  Aggressive expansion and all that.  He’s very, very ’90s, so that does make him ripe for the picking in regards to the current Legends line-up, and, well, here he is, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Maverick is figure 4 in the Strong Guy Series of Marvel Legends.  While Black Tom eschewed the ’90s trend, Maverick is squarely in the middle of it.  He’s perhaps the central piece of it, really.  He’s Maverick.  Sorry, wrong Maverick again.  This assortment is really a mid-point between Deadpool and X-Force, and Maverick’s connection to both of those things is pretty tangential.  I suppose he and Deadpool are both products of Weapon X, so there’s that.  If it gets me a Maverick, I won’t complain about the circumstances.  The figure is almost 7 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  The nature of Maverick’s design is that it’s somewhat restricting to movement.  Subsequently, that translates to this figure, especially when it comes to the elbows.  That being said, he still manages to be quite posable, and Hasbro’s definitely done their best with most of the articulation implementation.  He can even move his head mostly unimpeded, which is awesome for a Maverick figure; the ’90s figure didn’t even try on that one.  Maverick is sporting an all-new sculpt, which I was actually a little surprised to find out.  I had just assumed he’d be making use of some of the Deathlok tooling, but that’s not the case at all.  That means his sculpt isn’t playing double duty, or aiming for close enough, resulting in a figure that’s a quite solid recreation of Maverick’s original comics design.  For the most part, I’m a really big fan of how the sculpt works.  The details are clean and sharp, and I love how well they’ve captured his mop of ’90s hair under neath of the helmet.  The only part I’m not much of a fan of is the collar piece, which is a free-floating add-on piece for some reason, rather than being properly attached.  It doesn’t stay in place very well at all on my figure, and ultimately, I just kind of prefer him without it.  It would be nice if it could at least tab in or something to keep it in place.  Maverick’s color work is pretty decent overall.  The gold goes more orange-y than what we saw on the ’90s toys, but I actually think it looks pretty good.  It feels more in line with his comics depiction this way.  The actual paint application is decent overall, though there’s some slight bleed over from the mask to the face.  Due to the layout of the mask, though, it’s not terribly noticeable.  Maverick is packed with two different guns.  The smaller (based on the Nerf Vortex Proton; thanks Tim!) can be stowed in his holster, but he’ll just have to always be holding the other one.  He’s also packed with the left arm of Strong Guy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I have a perhaps somewhat irrational love of Maverick.  There’s never been much to the character, but I always thought he was really cool on X-Men: The Animated Series, and I tended to have him on my team whenever playing X-Men: Under Siege board game as a kid.  His ’90s toy eluded me until I was an adult, but I was super excited when he was announced for this line, and he was definitely my number one want from this line-up.  I’m very happy with this figure, and he turned out even better than I was expecting really.  A very solid offering.

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.

#2506: Black Tom Cassidy

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

BLACK TOM CASSIDY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A nefarious criminal with the power of concussive blasts and plant morphology, Black Tom is a true threat.”

I guess I might as well keep this Marvel Legends thing rolling.  Hey, I can even keep this X-Men thing rolling, too…essentially.  It’s sort of tangental, but yeah, it’s rolling.  Rather than handling a stand-alone this time, I’m just going to jump head-long into a proper full assortment of figures.  When it comes to giving us characters from the X-Men side of things, Hasbro likes to diversify slightly with their assortments, so that things aren’t too centralized on the core team and its characters.  So, we’ll typically get one or two “proper” X-Men assortments for Legends in a given year, and the one or two sort of off-shoot assortments.  Last year, they did more of an X-Force thing for their secondary thing, and the year before it was all about Deadpool.  This year, they’re sort of slapping those two together.  Alright, I can get behind it, I guess.  I’m kicking things off with a pretty classic X-Men character who was co-opted by X-Force back in the ’90s, it’s Banshee’s evil cousin, Black Tom Cassidy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Tom Cassidy is figure 2 in the Strong Guy Series of Marvel Legends, and stands out in the assortment as the only figure to be sporting a pre-1990 design.  As someone with a deep appreciation for the Claremont/Cockrum/Byrne days, I can really dig it.  I can also really dig it as someone who prefers his Black Tom to not be a tree.  Thanks for not having him be a tree, guys.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Black Tom Cassidy is built from the same bank of parts as Shatterstar, making him a Bucky Cap adjacent figure.  He gets a new head, upper torso, pelvis, and belt piece to mix things up a bit.  I quite like the head sculpt in particular; it’s a more modern take on Tom, but it really works for the line’s general aesthetic, and it’s got some nice character behind it.  Technically, the re-used gloves and boots aren’t accurate to Tom’s usual depictions, but I like the flair they have to them, and it ultimately makes for a slightly more interesting design, so I can get behind them.  The paint work on Tom is pretty solid for the most part. The face and hair is clean, but there’s some slightly uneven coverage on the chest insignia.  It’s not terrible, but it certainly could be better.  Black Tom is packed with a wooden staff for channeling his powers, as well as the back to the BaF Strong Guy.  The staff’s a well done piece, and looks good in Tom’s hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Though not at the top of my list, Black Tom certainly ranks pretty highly in this line-up for me, again thanks to my enjoyment of the Claremont/Cockrum/Byrne days (and, by extension, the ’90s cartoon’s adaptation of the Phoenix Saga, and Black Tom’s appearance there).  This figure is pretty by the numbers, but it really works for him, and he’s definitely a solid figure.  Now, can we please get a Banshee of matching quality to go with him?

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.

#2505: Beast

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

BEAST

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“While the Beast is incredibly strong and astonishingly agile, he is also one of the world’s leading experts in biochemistry. When he is not fighting evil alongside the X-Men, he devotes his time to expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.”

It’s been an actual month since I reviewed any Marvel Legends, which does feel like a bit, doesn’t it?  In my defense, there was a touch of a gap between new releases there.  But, we’re jumping into another onslaught of releases here, so in an effort to keep up with them, I suppose I might as well just do a bunch of Marvel Legends reviews.  I’m kicking things off with one of this year’s standalone releases, the Retro Carded Beast figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Beast is, as noted above, a standalone Marvel Legends release, fitting in with the Retro Carded line they’ve been running since 2018, and following the “standalone repaint” pattern established by last year’s Storm re-deco (which I never actually reviewed…that’s on me).  He also follows what’s become an overwhelming trend of Retro Card figures that aren’t actually based on any proper vintage release, since there existed no Grey Beast figure in the Toy Biz days.  However, this way allows Hasbro to duplicate their formula from the 3 3/4 inch lines of Blue Beast being the ’90s version, and Grey Beast covering the ’70s-’80s look, while also giving people another chance at the mold.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation.  From the neck down, this guy’s the same figure as last year’s Beast from the Caliban Series.  This was pretty much expected as soon as we knew this figure was coming, since it’s a pretty natural re-use.  The body’s still a strong offering; it’s technically a bit on the tall side for Hank, but the detailing is sharp, and the posability is really great.  He gets an all-new head sculpt, based more on the Perez-style Beast of the ’70s and ’80s, with a far more controlled hair style, and a far more jovial expression than the prior piece.  I’m quite a fan of it, and it gives me something slightly more in line with how I prefer the character, as well as offering a bit more versatility than the Caliban Series head.  There’s a fair bit of change-up in the paint department, as you might expect, since he goes from being blue to being grey.  It works pretty well, and he still keeps most of the accent work from the prior figure.  There are a few spots of bleed over on my figure, but for the most part, he looks pretty solid.  While the prior Beast release just got an extra set of hands, this one steps things up a bit, giving him not only the extra hands, but also the Caliban Series head (this time in grey), a book, and a pair of glasses.  It adds a lot of posing options to the plate, and again brings him a bit more in line with how I think of the character, so I’m all about it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I enjoy the Caliban Series Beast for what he is, but I wanted a little more out of him, if I’m honest.  A follow-up felt inevitable.  If I’m entirely honest, I’m a touch disappointed that he ended up being Grey Beast.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s a cool figure, and this does make him slightly more distinctive, but I was really hoping to finally get a proper Perez-style Blue Beast, especially after having to make due with the Grey version in the smaller scale already.  I’d like to hope this guy might get re-popped in blue at some point, but that feels slightly like overkill right now, so I don’t imagine it would be soon.  Still, he’s certainly not a bad figure, and I’m glad they put the mold back out there.

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.

#2503: Battle-Action Mega Armor Wolverine

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

BATTLE-ACTION MEGA ARMOR WOLVERINE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Toy Biz’s ’90s Iron Man, though far from a failure, was also not quite the success of some of their other Marvel-based toy lines from the same period.  Following the slow sales of its fourth assortment, the line was brought to a close, cancelling not only its fifth set of figures, but also some off-shoot products, which included a line of items dubbed “Mega Armor,” which would effectively take off from the Hulkbuster armor and give both Iron Man and War Machine larger mecha suits to pilot.  It was a cool concept, but not one that Toy Biz could get retailers to support under the Iron Man name.  However, with the molds ready to go, they had to do *something* with them, so they were quick to repurpose them under two of their more successful brands, X-Men and Spider-Man.  Why Spider-Man and the X-Men were running around in big mechs is anyone’s guess, but I try not to complain too much about such things.  Whatever the case, it gives me a Wolverine variant I haven’t yet looked at, so I might as well jump in on that, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Battle Action Mega Armor Wolverine hit shelves in 1997, under the main X-Men line branding.  To start with, they did Wolverine and Storm with the armor, but others would eventually follow down the line.  The Mech suit is about 9 inches tall and has movement at the shoulders and wrists, as well as a cockpit that opens in two spots to let the standard figure inside out.  Said standard figure is about 5 inches tall and has 10 points of articulation.  Wolverine’s mech suit is the one that was originally intended for Iron Man, and as such it’s definitely got a lot of details that really match up with both the modular armor and with the Hulkbuster armor’s depiction on the Iron Man cartoon in the ’90s.  It’s certainly a cool looking piece, though the very stiff nature of it does make it a little more difficult to really play with.  It’s more of a set piece than anything, and that becomes really even more apparent when you stick Wolverine in it instead of its original intended occupant.  The included Wolverine figure is interesting in that, when you really get down to it, he’s not *technically* a Wolverine at all.  He’s actually a re-use of the main line’s Morph figure, just with that figure’s alternate Wolverine head in place instead of the standard.  While the Wolverine head works fine on that figure as a more quick gimmicky set-up, the two character’s really don’t share the same build, resulting in a very anemic looking Wolverine.  He’s still very posable, however, so he’s at least a pretty playable figure.  When it comes to paint, the mech suit gets a pretty notable overhaul on the color scheme, moving away from the intended Iron Man scheme into something more in line with Wolverine’s usual palette.  It’s not a terrible look, but it’s definitely a departure, and I don’t know that it suits the mold as well as the original set-up would have.  For his part, the included Wolverine also gets a pretty major overhaul as well, with a totally blue number, some silver accenting and a whole bunch of weird gold techno lines thrown in to top it all off.  Really weird set-up, and I’m really not sure exactly what they were going for.  It’s certainly….different?  Oh, and he’s of course wall-eyed, because that’s just how you do, I suppose.  In addition to the Wolverine figure being included, the mech suit also gets a claw weapon thing to hold in one hand, and has a spinning hand feature on his right side and an extending punch feature on the left.  He’s certainly got his fighting options all laid out for him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have the whole mech suit thing as a kid, but I did have just the Wolverine from it, as it had been found at my Dad’s work, and he ended up bringing it home for me.  I always wanted the whole suit, in any of its many released forms, but I just never did get one.  But lucky me, one came into All Time in a collection, and also lucky me, Christian had just happened upon some really good trade fodder for me at Goodwill, sort of kind of as a birthday thing, meaning I was able to get this guy essentially free of charge.  That worked out pretty darn well.  This thing is so majorly goofy, and I so majorly love it.

#2497: Warstar

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

WARSTAR

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Members of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, aliens B’nee and C’cll unite their superhuman abilities symbiotically as the unstoppable Warstar! Possessing superhuman strength and the ability to discharge electrical blasts, Warstar stands ready to strike at any and all enemies of the Shi’ar Empire – even if it means crossing the width of the galaxy itself!”

First appearing early in the Phoenix Saga, the Shi’ar Imperial Guard’s original membership were all homages to artist Dave Cockrum’s previous work on Legion of Super Heroes.  When the team reappeared during “The Dark Phoenix Saga” a few years later, Cockrum’s replacement John Byrne was tasked with a few more members to pad out the roster a bit during their fight with the X-Men.  Instead of creating more Legion homage characters, these new characters, including today’s focus Warstar, were wholly original, while still loosely fitting the theme.  No doubt for reasoning related to the potential issues that surround homage characters and toys, Warstar being a non-homage character made him a slightly cleaner choice when it came to toy coverage.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Warstar was another inclusion in the “Phoenix Saga” Series of Toy Biz’s X-Men toy line.  He is by far the most obscure character in that particular mix, but he did at least get a little bit of focus during the cartoon version of the Saga, which made him at least somewhat memorable to the buyer base, I suppose.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation.  He lacks a neck joint, but in his defense, there’s a sensible reason for that.  As touched on in the bio up top, Warstar is actually two symbiotically-linked beings.  The main body is C’cll, the larger of the pair.  It does a respectable job of replicating his larger mechanical frame.  He’s perhaps a touch more boxy than C’cll tends to be depicted, especially when Byrne was drawing him, but by and large, it’s a pretty close match.  Borrowing a page from the previously released Tusk figure, C’cll has a little hatch and a small lever on his back.  Sliding back the hatch and pushing up the lever reveals a tiny B’nee figurine, who’s been hiding back there the whole time.  Both of them are just a touch underscaled for the line, and B’nee doesn’t get any sort of articulation, but it’s a fun feature nevertheless.  Warstar’s paintwork is pretty solidly handled.  It’s largerly all one color (for C’cll, anyway; B’nee *is* one color), but it’s a pretty slick metallic green.  Mine’s taken quite a beating over the years, but that doesn’t seem like the worst thing in the world for a character with “war” in his name.  The only extra included here is the small B’nee figure; no other weaponry or weird accessories thrown in this time.  Also, he’s one of two figures in the “Phoenix Saga” assortment not to get any additional accessories when moved over to the larger card, presumably because of how sizable he was in the first place.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Warstar was a rather early addition to my collection, purchased for me by my Nana, specifically at my request.  Interestingly, I had no clue who the character was (I hadn’t yet seen his appearance on the cartoon), and actually thought he was a Titanium Man figure, who I wanted to have to face off against my Iron Man figure I’d just gotten.  It wasn’t until later that I realized my mix-up (and got a proper Titanium Man), though I can’t really say I was ever upset to own a Warstar.  He’s a pretty fun figure of a pretty fun character, and is probably one of my favorites from the line.  I’d love to see him get an update as a BaF or Deluxe Legends offering.

#2490: Space Wolverine

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

SPACE WOLVERINE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“The X-Man known as Wolverine will travel anywhere for a good fight with the forces of evil – even to the far reaches of outer space! Wolverine’s space armor protects him from the hostile conditions of deep space, while still allowing him to bring his adamantium claws to bear on alien evildoers! Even in this harsh environment, Wolverine is still the best there is at what he does!”

The eighth assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line was the first to properly theme itself, being based on the Pheonix Saga, which had just been adapted for the cartoon.  While a number of the character choices were pretty self-explanatory, they were still faced with a need for a Wolverine variant.  So, they kind of made one?  I mean, it’s not too far of a reach.  It’s a space suit variant, and in both comics and cartoon, the team does go into space.  Never in anything that looks like this, but still…

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Space Wolverine was, as noted in the into, released in the eighth series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  He marked the line’s first dabble into made up Wolverine variants, something that anyone who followed the Day of Wolverines will know was far from at its end here.  At least this one was tame, I suppose.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall (continuing the upward size trend on Wolverines) and has 8 points of articulation.  Due to a returning of the Series 1 style retractable claws, he lacks any sort of elbow movement, but at least the posing isn’t quite as stiff as it was on the Street Clothes Wolverine.  As far as sculpting goes, this Wolverine gets a head that’s really similar to Wolverine II’s, albeit with some slightly sharper details.  The body is kind of on the wide side, at least in contrast to previous Wolverines.  It does match the overall bulking up trend that Logan went through as the line and the decade progressed, however.  The space suit for some reason doesn’t actually cover Wolverine’s whole body, leaving part of his costume exposed.  I guess his costume really doesn’t breathe?  That can’t be all that comfortable, can it?  Like going everywhere in a tyvek suit.  Yuck.  I guess it helps with branding, though, so there’s that.  In terms of paint, Wolverine again stays on-brand, with what we see of his costume being the usual colors, and the space suit continuing those general colors, but in a more metallic sense, so it’s more golds instead of yellows.  It honestly works pretty well.  There was also a variant of this figure released a bit later alongside a CD-Rom including the original Phoenix Saga issues, which swapped out the gold for a metallic blue.  I also have this figure…somewhere.  Unfortunately, all I could find at the time of this review was his helmet.  Maybe I’ll find him and I can run an addendum, I guess.  For the original release, as with all of the Phoenix Saga figures, there were two releases, once with the short card and once with the wider card the following year.  The initial version included just his removable helmet, second version(which is the one I had) added a gun and two of Shatterstar’s swords to the mix.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was still new to the collecting game when these guys came out, so I got most of the assortment new, Wolverine included.  He was a gift to me from my parents, shortly after we moved into the house they live in now, and I recall that he was accompanied by an X-Men carrying case to keep all of my figures in (which was a far more realistic goal back when I received the case and it could actually hold all of my X-Men figures).  He’s a little more gimmicky than earlier Wolverines, but he is at least a somewhat sensible variant.

#2483: Corsair

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

CORSAIR

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Snatched from the Earth by a passing Shi’ar spacecraft, Christopher Summers was pressed into service as a slave of that galactic empire. But Summers burst the bonds of his captivity, and now in the company of his fellow Starjammers, he roams the cosmos as the free booting space pirate known as Corsair!”

“The Phoenix Saga” opened up a lot of new avenues for the X-Men.  I guess going into space will do that for you.  In addition to contending with the whole Shi’ar Empire, they also came upon a band of space pirates, the Starjammers.  Originally pitched by artist Dave Cockrum as a standalone set of characters, they were reworked into the crew of a displaced Christopher Summers, the man eventually revealed to be the father of X-Men Cyclops and Havok (and Vulcan, too, but I don’t wanna talk about it).  As the bio above notes, Christopher took on the name “Corsair” and even managed to get himself an action figure, which I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Corsair was released in the 8th Series of Toy Biz’s X-Men series, officially dubbed the “Phoenix Saga” Series, and designed to tie-in with the storyline’s adaptation on the cartoon.  Corsair played a large role in that adaptation, so his presence in the tie-in made quite a bit of sense.  Interestingly, Corsair was actually the third Starjammer to grace the line, following Ch’od and Raza’s inclusion in Series 7.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He’s a pretty standard offering for the line in terms of mobility and construction, being hampered by no odd lack of joints or the addition of any weird action features.  He’s just a nice, basic sculpt.  The details are all pretty cleanly handled, and he’s got a nicely balanced set of proportions.  He’s perhaps a touch exaggerated, but certainly no where near as badly as later figures in the line.  He does go for Corsair’s slightly updated shoulder pad-bearing design, introduced in the early ’90s (because everyone had to have shoulder pads in the ’90s, of course).  It’s the one used on the cartoon, and it really wasn’t much of a change from the original design, so it ended up working out okay.  If there was one change I’d like to see on this figure, I wouldn’t have minded if his hair had a little bit more of a dynamic flair to it; it was usually pretty fabulous, and it seems a little tame here.  It’s not the end of the world, though; I’ll learn to live, I’m sure.  Corsair’s paint work is overall pretty cleanly handled. It’s basic, but it’s also bright and eye-catching, as Corsair should be.  Corsair was originally packed with a sword, gun, and grapple.  My figure’s only got the sword left, but that’s honestly the best part, so I’m okay with it.  Interestingly, Corsair is one of only two figures in the Phoenix Saga Series not to gain extra accessories when the assortment was moved over to the larger-style cards.  I guess they felt like he had enough already.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Corsair as gift from my Nana back when he was new.  I don’t remember exactly the occasion, but I know it wasn’t a birthday, because my cousin Rusty also got one at the same time.  Maybe it was an end of school thing?  Or possibly an Easter thing?  I don’t know.  I do know that Rusty had no clue who Corsair was and definitely didn’t appreciate getting him as much as I did.  He’s a pretty solid figure, so I definitely am glad he was one I held onto.

#2473: Sugar Man

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

SUGAR MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Mixed in with a lot of re-imaginings of prior characters, Age of Apocalypse did also have a few honest to gosh new characters, wholly original to this reimagined universe.  Included in that grouping is today’s focus, Sugar Man, a character that even 25 years later still has no main universe counterpart.  In fact, he’s more or less his own main universe counterpart, since he was one of the four character’s to travel into the 616 following AoA’s wrap-up, and spent a good 20 years cropping up in the background of various X-Men stories.  He’s also really gross.  Yuck.  Well, let’s review him, shall we?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Sugar Man is the Build-A-Figure for the predictably titled “Sugar Man Series” of Marvel Legends.  Given his monstrous size and odd proportions, he’s a rather natural choice.  While this is his first Legend, it’s not actually his first figure, if you can believe it.  He managed to get a figure from Toy Biz’s 5-inch line back in the day.  The figure’s 6 1/2 inches tall, and just about as wide, and he’s got 38 points of articulation.  Though he’s got plenty of joints, he’s not exactly the most exceedingly mobile figure in the Legends line-up.  In the figure’s defense, however, a lot of the limits are imposed by the character’s design, and he’s certainly a dramatic improvement over the old ’90s figure.  Sugar Man’s sporting an all-new sculpt, which isn’t really that surprising, because really, who would he share parts with? It’s definitely an impressive sculpt, and a really hefty one, too.  The detailing is all nice and crisp, and there’s a great dynamic flair to him with the facial expression and his flailing tongue.  He is truly hideous, and I can’t really say I’d want him any other way.  Hideous is kind of Sugar Man’s game.  There’s also just a lot going on with this sculpt, from the unique gesturing on each of the hands, to the novelty buttons lining his suspenders.  Someone certainly had fun with this one.  In terms of paint, Sugar Man does a pretty solid job of translating the quite frankly rather messy color jobs the character was usually sporting in the comics into something that looks alright on a mass produced figure.  There’s a fair bit going on here, just like with the sculpt, with a fair amount of accenting, especially on the head/torso.  Sugar Man is packed with his hammer, complete with “SUGAR” inscribed on one side.  He can either hold it or keep it stored on his belt, though it’s a little tricky to get it in there, given his general shaping.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As with a lot of AoA stuff, I can’t really say that Sugar Man was a character I was dying to have in figure form.  Heck, I don’t even have the old one.  However, he did certainly look pretty impressive, and I was already planning to grab the whole assortment, so here we are.  He’s certainly one of the most unique BaFs we’ve gotten, I’ll give him that, and he fills out the rest of the assortment well.

This is definitely one of the most focused assortments of this line we’ve gotten, what with the very defined theme and all.  My favorite is definitely Morph, who’s quite basic, but just such a clean translation of his comics design.  X-Man’s another high ranking one for me, with Jean not too far behind.  Sunfire was certainly better than I’d expected, and I guess Dark Beast isn’t too bad either.  I can kind of take or leave Weapon X and Wild Child, but I definitely knew that much going in.