Tag Archives: X-Men

#3858: Banshee

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

BANSHEE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Last week, I took a detour from my ’90s Marvel reviews for something that was still *kind of* a ’90s Marvel review.  This week, all I can truly promise is the Marvel.  In fact, it’s kind of meant to *replace* a more ’90s-centric piece already in my collection.  That doesn’t seem right, does it?  Well, look, there are layers, okay?  Today we’re talking about Banshee, a surprisingly early addition to the X-Men mythos, first appearing in 1967 during Roy Thomas and Werner Roth’s run on the original team.  He was a reluctant antagonist, and would eventually join the team proper when the “All-New, All-Different” line-up debuted in Giant-Size X-Men #1.  Since he and Sunfire were both “returning characters,” they didn’t get to be on the fancy Gil Kane-drawn cover to the issue with the rest of the team, which means they more frequently get left out of figure coverage related to the issue.  Fittingly, Hasbro started their “modern” recreation of the team in Legends form back in 2017 with Sunfire, and are finally closing it out (more or less) eight years later with Banshee.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Banshee is part of the Classic Comic Collection series of Marvel Legends, which just started hitting in the last month or so.  It’s certainly an interesting line-up of characters, and by that I mean they seem to have just sort of drawn names out of a hat.  Banshee is one of two X-Men in the line-up, the other being Dakken, whom I don’t know that he’s ever met.  This is Banshee’s third time in Legends form, all three having been under Hasbro.  He’s based on his classic green and yellow garb, which is the same as his first Legends figure, from Hasbro’s first series of Legends after they got the license in 2007 (which, incidentally, like this figure, was in a hodgepodge assortment that happened to include an Ultimate Iron Man figure).  That one was *not* good, so this one’s been a long-time coming.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  As we’ve all been kind of expecting since we got Strike Team Banshee back in 2023, this figure makes liberal use of parts from that one, sharing both heads, the modified upper torso, and the attachments for the glider wings with the earlier figure.  I still love both heads (sculpted by Paul Harding), and the calm one in particular feels more at home on this costume, what with the clearly ’70s muttonchops and all.  It’s still a little odd that he doesn’t have consistent hair between the two heads, but it is what it is.  On the flip side, I’m still not super into the very obvious pegs that attach the glider wings to him.  Sure, they’re secure, but they’re awful to look at.  This guy swaps out the Jim Lee-specific costume elements for the standard Vulcan pieces, making for a slightly cleaner sculpt.  In terms of color work, he changes things up, obviously, to match the new palette.  I’m always partial to the green and yellow, so I do generally like it.  That said, the tops of the boots and gloves being painted rather than molded is a bit jarring.  Otherwise, though, it all looks decent.  Banshee is packed with five different hands: a pair of fists, an open right hand, and two gripping hands.  These hands are unique, as near as I can tell, in that they have stitching on them to indicate gloves.  It’s a small detail, but I actually really like it.  Banshee is also packed with a small replica of Giant-Size X-Men #1, as is the gimmick of this assortment for…reasons?  I don’t know.  It’s nifty enough, even if it’s not *quite* scaled right.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back in 2006, I was *thrilled* by the announcement of Banshee being in Hasbro’s first series of Marvel Legends.  In 2007, I was *not thrilled* by Hasbro’s actual Banshee figure.  I just never much cared for it.  I’ve been waiting for a better one since.  As we made our way through the updated GSXM line-up, I kept hoping the next one would be him, making it especially comedic when we got the Strike Force version first (especially since *exactly* the same thing happened in Minimates).  I made do with that one, but this was the one I was really waiting for.  He’s simple, and it’s not like he’s really doing anything new, but it’s very, very nice to have the GSXM line-up finished, and also, since Banshee was around for a bit, also have all of the subsequent line-up changes before he left the team in ’79.  That’s my favorite era of the book, and it’s really my X-Men, so this is really 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.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0029: Bishop

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

BISHOP

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Who better for a jump back in time than one of the X-Men’s resident time travellers, Lucas Bishop, a guy who only goes by his last name, because it’s cooler that way, so it’s just Bishop!

“Accidentally wrenched back through several decades by the time-twisting evil mutant named Fitzroy, Bishop arrived in our era from one of Earth’s many possible futures. Bishop survived the battle that followed, thanks to his mutant ability to absorb the energy attacks of others and turn that power back against his foes. Stranded in our time, Bishop has added his might to that of the present-day X-Men by joining their Gold Team!”

The X-Men really just became a haven for displaced time-travelers, didn’t they?  Also guys with vague, unrelated “cool” names that were just common place words, and whose abilities translated to “has a gun”.  All of these things nicely describe Bishop, an uber ’90s character, who could only be more ’90s if he wore a leather jacket and had shoulder pads.  I suppose he got off easy in that regard.  Bishop was prominent enough in the ’90s to feature on X-Men: The Animated Series, and by extension find his way into Toy Biz’s line of X-Men figures from the same period, getting what would be his very first action figure.  I’ll be taking a look at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Bishop was initially released as part of Series 4 of the X-Men line, and would see subsequent re-release in the Marvel Universe line and as part of a multi-pack with Wolverine and Gambit.  All three releases of the figure are functionally identical, but it’s worth noting that mine is a Series 4 release.  Bishop is sporting his primary look from the ’90s, which was the only one he had at the time of the figure’s release.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Though he’s rocking a waist swivel, he loses movement in his neck, presumably due to his hair.  Curiously, though, the Deluxe 10-inch figure and 2 1/2-inch Steel Mutants figure that are both patterned on the same sculpt both had a neck joint, so why it was missing from this guy is anyone’s guess.  Beyond that, the sculpt is fairly typical for the time.  He’s super bulky, but that’s just Bishop.  I will say that they were starting to run into the limits of this slightly simpler style of elbow joint they used, since it’s a little small for such a large arm.  It works overall, though.  The detailing on the hair is pretty nice, and definitely does his very dated hair cut proud.  Bishop’s paintwork is fairly basic, and a little bit messy on my figure.  There’s a lot of fuzzy edges, and the yellow sections are definitely prone to some serious bleedover.  In 1996, Bishop was also re-issued as part of the “Flashback” assortment, which was all repaints.  For that release, his blue was swapped for grey and black, and his yellow for gold, and his skintone was made somewhat lighter.  There was a second, predominantly red deco also shown, but it never hit shelves.  Whatever the case, the paint is a little cleaner on that release, but of course the trade off is that he’s not in his classic colors any more.  Whichever release you get, Bishop included two large blaster rifles in black, and features a “Quick-Draw Weapon Release” action feature.  Press the button on his back and his right arm swings upward.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have Bishop as a kid, largely because his episodes of the cartoon were some of my least favorite, so I never formed much of an enjoyment of the character.  That said, I really dig the ’90s X-Men line and I’m slowly working through building a complete collection, which meant getting this guy at some point, right?  I found both versions of Bishop at a toy show a while back, allowing me to close off that corner of the X-Mythos in one fell swoop, I suppose.  He’s not really one of the better Toy Biz X-Men, but then he’s far from the worst.  He fills in the roster pretty nicely.

Bishop stands as a single Toy Biz review in a month that was otherwise without them.  I’d be hard-pressed to tell you *why* I reviewed him at that time, since I wasn’t doing any notable run of Toy Biz reviews at the time.  He wasn’t even new at the time, having been picked up two summers prior.  And, I feel the need to confess that I did *not* complete the collection in one fell swoop as I stated.  I had actually gotten the regular a little bit earlier, during a birthday excursion in 2017, while the variant was indeed from a toy show the following year.  In my original review, I noted that he had two guns, but I only showed one of them.  I unearthed the second one, so I’ve added it to the main photo, so he’s all proper and complete.

#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.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0028: Gambit

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

GAMBIT

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Hey-ho, we are back with the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums here at the FiQ, and I’m sticking with that whole “Toy Biz Marvel” thing, because it sure does bring me comfort.  Or something like that.  Moving past cleaning up my reviews of the first series for a moment, I’m jumping later into the line, with Gambit!

“Gambit has the mutant ability to take the energy of any object and put it to his own use. That use usually means turning the object into a deadly weapon. Gambit is a martial arts expert with a lightning-fast karate kick. When battling multiple attackers, Gambit relies on his Techno Battle Staff for additional assault power.”

As someone whose primary introduction to the X-Men came from their ’90s cartoon, I have an almost unhealthy appreciation for their resident Cajun sleazeball, one Remy LaBeau, aka Gambit.  I am, of course, not at all alone in this, which has helped to keep him relatively high on the action figure count.  Today, I’m jumping back to the beginning, and taking a look at his very first figure (more or less).

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gambit was initially released in the second series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  Following the success of the cartoon, he was subsequently re-released in the “Classics” assortment a few years later.  The figure reviewed here is technically the later release, though the only actual difference between the two is the accessory selection.  This figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  Gambit’s sculpt is fairly typical of an early Toy Biz figure, meaning he’s a little more rudimentary than later offerings would be.  He’s slightly scrawny, and the details are a little softer.  This is definitely a kinder, friendlier looking Gambit than you usually see.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s definitely different than other Gambits.  His trench coat seems to have thrown Toy Biz for a bit of a loop, as well.  Rather than sculpting it onto him, they opted for a removable piece…mostly, anyway.  The bulk of the jacket is just a thin plastic get-up, not unlike the capes from the old Kenner Star Wars figures.  It’s not terribly sturdy, and isn’t really the sort of thing we ever saw again from them.  It looks alright, but certainly limits his playability when in place.  What’s slightly odd is the decision to make the collar of this jacket a sculpted element, which is part of the figure’s torso.  This means it’s always there, even when the coat is off of the figure.  Why not just leave the collar as part of the coat?  Who knows.  Well, someone at Toy Biz probably knew, I guess.  Gambit’s paintwork is alright.  It’s pretty basic, and gets the general gist of the character down.  There’s a lot of pink, which is really the most important thing when you get right down to it.  It does get a handful of details wrong, though, such as keeping the sleeves of the shirt pink (rather than matching with the pants as they did in the comics), and the pink squares on the sides of his legs are a different pattern than usually seen.  The original release of Gambit included his staff, while the re-release included the bandolier and knives (presumably meant to stand in for his playing cards) from Longshot.  Gambit has an action feature, a kicking action, which is an interesting choice for the character.  It’s also not implemented incredibly well, because it’s default state is actually with the leg extended, meaning the latch is in a constant state of strain when he’s in a basic standing pose.  The end result is a figure that you will commonly find with his leg forever stuck at a 90 degree angle.  Fortunately, this isn’t the case with my figure, but I’ve seen my fair share of figures that weren’t so lucky.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t recall exactly where I got Gambit, but I know I was with my parents, and it was very early into my collecting because it was before we moved into the house that they’ve been in since I was four.  So, somewhere in late ’95?  Anyway, despite how harsh I may have been on this figure in the actual review segment, it’s worth noting that this remains my very favorite Gambit figure to date, and just one of my favorite X-Men figures in general.

That review hails from right at the end of 2018, as I fell into my return to the vintage reviews a bit.  A few things to clarify here.  As I note in the original review, there are two releases of Gambit, and my original was the second release, with Longshot’s bandolier and knives.  My original photo actually didn’t have Longshot’s knife, but rather a proper playing card, which came from the later X-Men vs Street Fighter Gambit.  I must have grabbed the wrong piece during my original bulk photo session and just never fixed it.  For the purposes of this revisit, I did manage to track down a proper original release Gambit, so now I’ve got the staff as well, and a slightly less messed up coat.  Slightly.  That coat’s still not built to go the distance.  In my original review, I said I didn’t recall where/when I got Gambit.  I seem to have had a lapse in memory there, because I definitely remember getting it from a mall trip with my dad on a day off with him when we were living in our old house.  I got him and Tony Stark, and my Dad got Corsair, I believe.  I remember sneaking down during what was supposed to be my nap time to play with them.

#3850: X-Man

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

X-MAN

MARVEL’S MOST WANTED (TOY BIZ)

“Nate Grey is a stranger in a strange world. He’s a survivor of the Age of Apocalypse – a world like ours, but one where the evil mutant Apocalypse ruled supreme. Now, after that world’s ruin, Nate finds himself on our Earth, struggling to save it from a similar destiny. Genetically engineered to be the most powerful psi-talent ever, Nate’s discovered that the psychic strain may be too much for his body to handle. Nate has also found that he bears a striking resemblance to the future warrior known as X-Man Cable…”

By-and-large, the sweeping changes made by the “Age of Apocalypse” crossover were swept back to other way when the even ended, reverting the main cast of characters back to their mainstream counterparts without much fuss.  But, what of the characters who didn’t have a counterpart?  Well, a small handful of them actually got to stick around, at least for a little bit.  Nate Grey, aka X-Man, was *technically* the equal number to Cable, but with a different backstory and direct lineage, as well as a quite different ultimate outcome in terms of character, he got kept around for a bit past the event’s wrap-up.  That wound up being extra fortunate, because it *also* gave him extra time to get some toy coverage!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

X-Man is the third and final figure in Toy Biz’s 1998 Marvel’s Most Wanted line.  Its an odd line-up for the name it was given.  At the time, Nate was the closest you’d get to a “heavy hitter” since he was headlining his own book (Blink would later headline Exiles, elevating her personal status a bit, at the same time that Nate was on the downswing; Spat pretty much never got time in the spotlight).  In his solo book, Nate was constantly changing out his attire, generally keeping just a general feel of look, so to go with something more directly marketable, this figure goes back to his original AoA look, which, to be fair, he also sported for a bit in the main 616.  The figure stands just over 5 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  He was honestly pretty solid on the movement front, but contains an interesting design oddity.  His shoulder joints consist of a mix of swivel and ball-joint assembly, with the ball joint pegging into a swivel joint on the main torso.  Said swivel is ultimately redundant, since the ball joint can turn just fine on its own.  Why is it like that?  I don’t know.  The sculpt here is one of the more stylized of the Toy Biz run, though that was kind of true in general for this particular set.  He’s a bit pre-posed, with an odd sort of twist to the body, and he ultimately looks quite a bit elongated, especially the head.  It does end up feeling pretty true to the character, though, so I can’t really knock it.  X-Man’s paint work is generally basic; the suit consists of molded blue and painted yellow.  Application’s all pretty clean, so no issues there.  He’s packed with a rather involved display stand, presumably meant to replicate his psychic powers.  It was one Toy Biz liked a lot; it wound up re-used for Astral Doctor Strange and the Marvel Legends Human Torch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

X-Man is the only one of this set I had as a kid.  I was at Toys “R” Us with my dad, and it was either him or Red Skull.  I only *sort of* knew him from a team-up I’d read with Spider-Man, but I’ve always been more a heroes guy than a villains guy, so X-Man it was.  In retrospect, choosing him over the Nazi does feel like the obvious choice, right?  X-Man actually got a bit of service as some non-X-Man characters, serving as the Rick Jones to my Avengers for a while, and also as a stand-in for Kid Action/Action Boy alongside my Toy Biz M. Bison, who was my go-to for Captain Action.  Look, sometimes my figure options didn’t always match up with the stories my mind needed to tell, okay? Ultimately, he’s still my favorite of the three figures, though it’s certainly nice to have him alongside the other two after all of these years.

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0027: Apocalypse

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

APOCALYPSE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

After a brief stop over to the world of Star Wars, this week the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums head back over to Marvel territory. Yes, the end is nigh!  …well, okay, not quite, but I *am* looking at Apocalypse.

“Apocalypse is the evil mutant who has used his sinister genius and mutant ability to turn himself into a merciless one man army! Apocalypse is incredibly strong, able to change his size at will, and has created for himself a weapon system designed to destroy the X-Men. Apocalypse is the most frightening evil mutant on Earth when he turns himself into a giant, puts on this deadly arsenal and attacks!”

Following Magneto’s turn to the side of good in the ’80s, the X-Men spent quite a bit of time in search of a new over-arching big bad. They found a number of potential offerings, none of whom quite hit that same spot, but perhaps the most successful of them was En Sabah Nur, aka Apocalypse. He was a consistent foe in the back half of the ’80s, up into the ’90s, so his place early into Toy Biz’s run was certainly sensible.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Apocalypse was one of the three villains released alongside our heroes in Series 1 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line. He served as a rather sensible counterpart to the same series’ Archangel figure. The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he had 11 points of articulation (though two of those points can be somewhat debated, since they’re tied into his “action-feature”). Apocalypse’s sculpt, like many others in this assortment, is definitely showing its age. What’s interesting is that it’s due to slightly different factors than some of the others. It’s not that he doesn’t quite live up to his comics appearance the way Archangel or Storm or Cyclops do, it’s actually that he’s too faithful to an Apocalypse design that itself has fallen out of fashion. He depicts Apocalypse as he is seen in his earlier X-Factor appearances, when he was still rather lean, and still rather square and stiff. It’s a very different take on the character, and his beefier revamp design from just a few years later would end up being the prevailing design and informing how the character was depicted for the three decades since his creation. As such, this guy definitely looks out of place amongst the others, but paired with the Cyclops and Archangel from this assortment, he starts to fit in a bit better. Ultimately, the actual sculpt is one of the more competent ones from this first set. I think I’d place him in the number three slot, after Nightcrawler and Magneto. His proportions are certainly believable for this incarnation of the character, and his construction is quite sturdy. Apocalypse’s paintwork is fairly standard stuff. It’s rather limited, and the application is messy in some spots, especially the belt. Apocalypse included a staff, which is supposed to have a “gem” at the top of it. Mine’s gone missing, so my Apocalypse just looks like he’s holding a broken ball-point pen. He also has an “Extending Body” feature, where his torso and legs extend outward, in sort of a stretching sort of fashion. It’s rather goofy, and not really worth much extra, but it’s not like it impedes the figure overall.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m not 100% sure how I got Apocalypse. He was an earlier addition to the collection, I know that much, most likely gotten during my parents early efforts to expand my collection. I was watching the cartoon by that point, so I knew the character. Regardless of how I got the figure, he’s stuck with me for quite some time, despite my not being super into Apocalypse. As I noted in the review, he’s a somewhat dated figure, based on an outdated design, but he’s actually one of the stronger figures in the first assortment, and he depicts a version of the character we don’t often see.

This review is from 2018, so…well, okay, I guess it’s not *super* recent, but in my mind I consider it recent.  It’s got all the trappings of a modern review.  And, you know what, I was actually pretty kind to this figure, given it’s Apocalypse and he’s not usually one of my favorites.  It helps that this is just a figure that I find really fun, even now.  When I reviewed him, my Apocalypse was missing the “Jewel” from his staff, which I have now found.  Yay!  It’s just a solid blue spike-y thing, not particularly jewel-y, and I don’t think it really disarms the “ballpoint pen” vibe the staff already had, but at least it’s complete.  Of course, he’s still missing the cables that go from the torso to the arms, but that’s a whole other thing.

#3846: Spat & Grovel

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

SPAT & GROVEL

MARVEL’S MOST WANTED (MANUFACTURER)

Last week, I wrapped up my reviews of the Toy Biz X-Men Savage Land series, looking at Joseph, a very dialed into the moment character at the time of his release.  So, today, let’s dial in even further!  In the 1997 storyline that sent a portion of the X-Men to the Savage Land (which I referenced in my Joseph review), Gambit is set upon by Spat, a bounty hunter who has a past with him.  Spat and her bestial partner Grovel are more or less a footnote in the X-Men’s history, but they have the fun little side-bit of being designed by creators Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira specifically to be too weird to make for a good transition to toy form (something most X-characters where doing at that point).  So, they made them a woman aging in reverse and a weird space lizard.  And, of course, they had their own action figures in less than a year, because of course they did.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spat & Grovel were released in the 1998 Marvel’s Most Wanted series from Toy Biz.  It’s…well, it’s certainly a bold name for a series that included Spat & Grovel…or really any of the figure’s from it.  But, there it was.  These two are certainly the most obscure of the three offerings, hence this also being the only time they’ve shown up as action figures.

Spat’s really the main figure here, with Grovel being kind of an accessory, much in the same way as the Savage Land sets handled their figure and creature set-ups.  The figure is about 2 1/2 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  Given her smaller stature, she just moves at the basic five, and even then, the hips are v-hips, so the end result is a figure that really doesn’t move all that much.  She’s really just a stand-er.  The sculpt does an okay job of capturing Madureira’s drawings of the character, with his slightly more cartoonish proportions and stylings all pretty well present.  The head admittedly looks a bit too much like a full-grown woman’s head, on a very small body.  That being said, it’s not a terrible offering.  I do like the flow on the headband, though, as well as the texturing on the fur of her outfit.  Spat’s paint work is pretty solid.  Both the hair and outfit get some accenting work to help sell the sculpted details as well.  Spat is packed with a spear with a chain on the end of it, which she holds nicely in her left hand.

Grovel’s a big space lizard, and that’s what this figure aims to be.  He’s a big, chunky thing, a fair bit larger than Spat.  Exactly *how* much larger than Spat he’s supposed to be varied a bit in the comics, so the figure just goes for demonstrably larger, and makes it work.  He’s got base movement at the top of each leg, and the tail can twist, so there’s some slight variation in play.  He’s also got a mouth opening action feature; pushing down the front-most fins opens the mouth up a fair bit.  He’s got some cool patterning for the paint work, which is pretty fun to look at, and generally sells the whole “giant space lizard” bit rather well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, I had literally no clue who Spat and Grovel were, and they were new, so my dad, who was my primary source of information on “who these guys were,” didn’t know either, so I kind of just missed out on them.  As such, they were the last of this particular set I picked up, actually just a few weeks ago.  I’ve been on a real Toy Biz kick, largely because I’m finally trying to actually put them out on display, and I put the other two from this set out and figured it might be a good time to finally finish the set.  They’re a rather goofy pair of characters, and not so much toy-friendly, but at the same time, I don’t think they’re un-toy-friendly either.  And, it’s not like there’s ever going to be another version of this pair, so they’ve got that particular novelty, if nothing else.

#3842: Joseph & Amphibious

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

JOSEPH & AMPHIBIOUS

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“Temporarily stricken with amnesia, the evil Mutant of Magnetism, Magneto, now goes by the name Joseph. When he finds himself in the company of the X-Men in the Savage Land, Joseph is free to use his impressive powers of magnetism to manipulate not only metal, but earth as well as his every desire. Alongside his frog-like companion, Amphibious, Joseph proves time and time again why he is one of the most powerful mutants on the planet.”

And we’re headed back into the Savage Land!  But, now it’s gonna get all weird…well, weirder than it was.  Maybe.  It’s all relative.  Or something.  …Where was I?  Oh, right, Savage Land.  For the final entry in the Savage Land set, Toy Biz went really current and topical, with the one and only figure of Joseph, a character whose backstory was still unfolding at the time of this figure’s release, which is why the bio is actually just plain wrong.  Joseph was *not* Magneto de-aged and stricken with amnesia, but rather a *clone* of Magneto, created to best the original, who just so happened to re-surface after the original’s supposed demise.  Magneto’s return wound up leading to *Joseph’s* demise, and Magento’s general turn to the more heroic side since has meant that Joseph’s returns to life have tended to have him take a more villainous role, in order to offset.  It’s a bit complicated, but you know what’s not?  The toys!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Joseph and Amphibius are the fifth and final entry in the 1997 “Savage Land” assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  As noted in the intro, Joseph was rather a current addition to the team at the time, making him an interesting counterpart to the rest of the line-up, which consisted of a classic look for Angel, more or less evergreen designs for Ka-Zar and Storm, and a very modernized (at the time) Wolverine.  Joseph actually wound up in the Savage Land the same year this figure was released, but was not with any of the other characters featured (he actually spent most of his time with Maggott, who was *supposed* to get a figure, but it was cancelled…)

Joseph is seen here with his one and only action figure.  There’s something ironic about said only figure not even being a standard look, but it’s at least just a slight variation, and not as far removed as some of the others.  He’s got his same core look, that being the basic blue-and-gold suit, but it’s now sleeveless and he’s added a few things on top of it. The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation. Joseph is another re-use heavy figure, making use of a large number of parts from the Age of Apocalypse Cyclops. He gets a new head and left arm. The arm is really just designed to mimic the right, removing the asymmetric armoring of the Cyclops. It also adds an animal skull armor piece to the shoulder. The new head is quite a nice piece, and manages to capture Joseph’s usual depictions pretty well, while also fitting nicely with the base body. The long hair does mean he lacks a lot of neck mobility, but it’s still better than nothing at all. His color work is generally okay; there’s a slight metallic finish to the uniform, which I rather like. The only thing I’m not crazy about is the painted on rips to the uniform. They don’t match the actual molded skin tone, and they end up just looking a bit hokey. Ultimately, it’s the one thing the figure would be better without. Joseph is packed with a disc launching accessory, which can sort of double as a bladed weapon and a shield.

Wolverine and Storm may have gotten made up creatures, but Joseph gets an actual, proper character, and one with no other figure treatment at that. Yes, it’s Amphibious, one of the “mutates” created by the original Magneto during his stay in the Savage Land. It’s a bit of a reach, but certainly a cool one, and he even has an okay tie to Joseph. He winds up being up-scaled a bit to justify taking the “creature” spot. So, instead of being about the same size as a normal person, he’s almost that same height crouching. It’s at least a nice sculpt, if perhaps a slightly exaggerated one. He’s also got slightly more involved painting work than some of the other creatures. And, the head is soft rubber, with a small hole allowing it to be filled with water. Squeezing the head then allows him to “spit.”

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I had two of the Savage Land sets as a kid. The first was Angel, the other was this one. There were two different KB Toys outlets my family always hit while vacationing. One was right outside our vacation spot, and the other was on the drive back. These came from that second one. I got Angel because I’d lost the one from my original members set. I didn’t have a Magneto in my collection, and at the time, we all still thought he *was* Magneto, so I also got this one. I was also happy to have Amphibious, as I’d just read his original comics appearances at the time. Amphibious got lost somewhere along the way, necessitating a replacement (which actually came from Yesterday’s Fun, which is near where my family vacations), and Joseph himself was part of the box of misplaced X-Men figures I dug out during “The Find” in 2016. This is probably my favorite of these sets, partially because of my nostalgia for it, and partially because it’s the most unique of them, ultimately. In general, I was pleasantly surprised by the Savage Land set. They’re far from high concept, but the execution across the board is a very simple sort of fun.

#3838: Savage Storm & Colossus Mutant Dino

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

SAVAGE STORM & COLOSSUS MUTANT DINO

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“The weather goddess, Storm is always ready to stir up the elements. With the weather at her every command, Storm can summon a bolt of lightning, call forth a tornado or even fly on powerful winds she controls. Storm helps lead the X-Men into battle with the help of a native of the Savage Land, a Triceratops’ devastating head ramming action, Storm is unstoppable.”

We’ve once more kicked off the day with a quick look back at one of my earlier Toy Biz Marvel reviews, and I intend to keep that particular train running, specifically with a focus on those particularly savage variants of the X-Men. Today, we continue last week’s venture into the heavy hitters side of the line-up, with Storm!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Storm and Colossus Mutant Dino are the fourth of the five sets in the “Savage Land” deluxe assortment of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, released in 1997. I’ve mentioned before that this line sort of pairs off with the “Space Riders” set, and this really calls to that, because Storm’s easily the biggest name *not* included in that set, allowing her to take the focus here.

As perhaps the only X-Man included here who wasn’t “going through some stuff” in terms of her appearance in the mid-90s, Storm winds up being perhaps the most evergreen of these figures, barring Ka-Zar. Her design here calls back to a few of her more “casual” looks from the ’70s and ’80s. The figure is about 5 inches tall and she has 7 points of articulation. No movement on the elbows or knees, but she does at least get a disc and peg assembly on the shoulders, which gives her some better range. She’s got what appears to be a wholly unique sculpt. It’s not a bad one, but, on my copy at least, her hair is all just pegged in place, not properly glued, so it all falls out a lot. The main outfit is removable, showing off a sort of a bathing suit get up, if for some reason that’s the approach you want to take. Personally, I prefer the whole assembly. The color work here isn’t bad. Very much sticks to her usual sorts of colors, but she does also get a little bit of tribal style painting, much like Ka-Zar.

Storm gets no accessories of her own, but does get a dino buddy, who is a triceratops named Colossus. Why is he named Colossus, the name of a member of the X-Men? Did Colossus get turned into a triceratops? Or did Storm just miss her pal and name something after him? The bio has nothing to say about that, which feels like a missed opportunity. It’s a pretty fun little toy, at least. He’s got basic movement, and a little ramming feature that extends his head. He’s also got metal banding on his limbs, which supports the “mutated Colossus” bit, but then also could be why she named him after her pal? It’s still inconclusive. Well, I got a cool triceratops toy either way.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This isn’t one of the original sets I got from this line-up, but it was one that always fascinated me, especially the bit with Colossus. When I found the lot that got me Ka-Zar, I was honestly pretty happy this one was in there too. It’s a neat concept, and while I have some slight assembly issues with the main Storm figure, I think it’s an overall better package than the Wolverine set.

Flashback Figure Addendum #0024: Nightcrawler

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

NIGHTCRAWLER

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Let’s keep this non-Friday Addendum’s game running!  Time to update some more Toy Biz X-Men.  This time, it’s Nightcrawler!

“Nightcrawler is the X-man with the most amazing mutant ability – teleportation! Nightcrawler can instantaneously move himself to a spot up to three miles away in the blink of an eye. Nightcrawler is also an excellent acrobat. He can crawl up almost any surface. His amazing tail is almost like a third arm… not only can Nightcrawler hang from it, he can make it hold and use weapons ranging from swords to ray blasters!” The first assortment of Toy Biz’s long-running X-Men line is a veritable who’s who of heavy hitters from the franchise. It’s before they’d committed to going deep into the mythos the way later assortments the way they did later. Included amongst those figures was fan-favorite Nightcrawler. Interestingly enough, Nightcrawler wasn’t actually with the team at that point, having moved onto Excalibur in the mean time. Nevertheless, they were going for more of greatest hits thing, so in the line he went.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nightcrawler was, as noted in the intro, part of the first series of X-Men figures. He was also re-released a bit later, during the “repaints” portion of Series 3, but unlike others in that sub-set, he was essentially unchanged. The figure stands 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation. Fun fact: when the prototypes for this series were first developed, the original plan was for all figures in the assortment except Nightcrawler to have the basic 5 POA. That changed (mostly anyway), but it’s nice that they always planned to give Nightcrawler actual articulation. His sculpt is the strongest of the Series 1 figures (rivaled only by Magneto for that title), and has aged far better than others. He’s not as limited in movement as Storm, nor is he as rudimentary in design as Cyclops. He’s actually just a pretty darn faithful recreation of the character’s ’80s design. The only slight marring of the sculpt are the two suction cups mounted on his left hand and right thigh. They’re super obvious, rather goofy looking, and not particularly effective. I actually ended up prying them off of one of my two Nightcrawler figures, which improves his look a bit, though he’s still got the visible pegs. Why they added these things kind of baffles me, since it mars an otherwise quite strong sculpt. Nightcrawler’s paintwork is decent enough, being mostly pretty basic work. It matches the others in the assortment, and his comics appearances as well. Nightcrawler was originally packed with a cutlass, which both of my figures are, sadly, missing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got my first Nightcrawler from a flea market near my house. He was my go-to version of the character for a long time. And then I packed up a bunch of my figures like some stupid baby, and this guy got put in the box that ended up buried in the back of the garage, so he was missing for about 5 years. In the mean time, I had tracked down a replacement. Now I have both, and I couldn’t be happier, because, as I noted, he was my go-to. I think he’s still my favorite Toy Biz version of the character. 

This review hails from the summer of 2018.  As Toys R Us closed down and All Time Toys recovered from the second flood to shut them down in the space of less than two years, I was admittedly a little down on things and looking for something comforting, so I started pushing back into reviewing the Toy Biz figures again.  It’s my comfort thing.  The Nightcrawler review’s pretty solid.  I didn’t note, though, that there are actually two styles of tail: a thinner, harder plastic version, and a thicker, more rubbery one.  My original (which is now sans suction cups) was the thinner tail, and the replacement was the thicker.  Missing from the original review was the figure’s cutlass, which I finally managed to snag.  It’s small and a bit warped, but pretty fun.