Tag Archives: X-Men

#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. 

#3833: Savage Wolverine & Crawler-Rex

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

SAVAGE WOLVERINE & CRAWLER-REX

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“The X-Men find themselves mysteriously transported to the Savage Land a prehistoric tropical jungle in the middle of the Arctic circle! With the help of their friend and leader of the Savage Land, Ka-Zar, the X-Men weave their way through this treacherous land. Aided by dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, Storm, Wolverine, Angel and Joseph have their hands full throughout their dangerous journey.

More animal than man, the savage Wolverine finds himself right at home in the Savage Land. Wielding bone claws and a feral, animal-like instinct, Wolverine slashes his way through trouble. A fierce fighter, Wolverine finds himself a prehistoric partner to match his toughness. The Crawler Rex’s jaw-chomping action together with Wolverine’s fighting skills make the two of them one ferocious team.”

Okay, we had a brief run-back to some old Toy Biz, and now we’re back at…some old Toy Biz.  Keeping the theme from last week’s main review, I’m plunging deep into the depths of the Savage Land!  In addition to Ka-Zar, there were also a bunch of regular rank-and-file X-Men with special X-tra “Savage” gear.  And, since you can’t very well do *anything* with the X-Men without Wolverine, here he is!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Savage Wolverine and Crawler-Rex are the third of the five “Savage Land” sets released in Toy Biz’s X-Men line in 1997.  As with all the other sets in the line, it pairs off the main figure with a larger creature.

Savage Wolverine admittedly takes things to a further departure than the other two X-Men in the line-up, because it’s dialing into a very specific era of Wolverine, following the removal of his adamantium and then the subsequent secondary mutation that made him more feral, and also cost him his nose.  It was surprisingly scarce in toy form; Toy Biz just did this one and the Onslaught series release.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  While he doesn’t actually share any direct tooling with Wolverine Unleashed (as he’s actually in scale with the main line, more or less, rather than towering over them like all the others), the general aesthetics are very similar, as is the posing, suggesting they may have started from a common point.  It’s incredibly exaggerated and silly looking, but that’s honestly, pretty much on point for this era of Wolverine.  The color work is fine enough; I do quite like the accenting on the bone armor parts in particular.  Wolverine is without any actually accessories for himself, instead relying on his creature buddy.

Said creature buddy is Crawler-Rex.  While Angel and Ka-Zar both got an actual established character for their pack-in creature, Wolverine instead just gets a rather generic dinosaur…thing.  It’s supposed to be a T-rex sort of thing, I guess, but it’s certainly more on the cartoony side of things.  That head’s super large, which is some what comical looking, and he’s got an action feature where his jaw chomps…which doesn’t make him look any less comical, to be honest.  His color work is honestly pretty fun.  Still sort of goofy, but that’s hardly a problem.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I recall seeing this one back when the sets were new, but by 1997, I was rather Wolverine-d out, even for one that was, admittedly, pretty unique.  Now that I’m in the midst of trying to actually finish out the Toy Biz run, obviously, I can’t very well get Wolverine-d out, now can I?  I was a tiny bit bummed this figure wasn’t in the haul that brought the Day of the Wolverines upon us, but I ultimately got him very recently, when in the midst of searching for a Ka-Zar set, I found a lot with all the sets I was missing.  This one’s okay, but perhaps not quite as fun as the others in the assortment.  Still, it’s got that good goofy vibe I love.

Flashback Figure Addendum #0023: Rogue

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

ROGUE

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Gonna go back to the Addedums even when it’s not a Friday!  Why, because, for right now at least, the Figure Addendums are a sub-feature of my Marvel Monday’s, that’s why!  Today, though, it’s first Addendum for this item, rather than being the second, and sending us all into some sort of crazy world.  Let’s jump back to 2017 for a follow-up look at Rogue!

Another non-newest series of X-Men Marvel Legends X-Men figure? Does this mean Ethan’s still looking for that freaking Cyclops figure? No, actually. Ethan found that freaking Cyclops figure yesterday afternoon. He was very excited about that freaking Cyclops figure. But, he also needs some time to properly appreciate those figures before jumping into the reviews. Still, X-Men on the brain and all that, so let’s take a look at the back catalogue again. We’re going even further back this time, and pulling out one of the old Toy Biz 5-inch figures. Let’s look at Rogue!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Rogue was released in Series 6 of Toy Biz’s X-Men line, and was by far the most popular figure in the series. She was actually quite rare for some time, but was eventually re-released as part of the KB Toys-exclusive Marvel Universe line. The two figures are more or less identical. I think mine may actually be the re-release, since the timelines line up best that way. The figure stands 5 inches tall and has 7 points of articulation. The articulation count is a bit lower than other figures TB was producing at the time, mostly due to the upper cut action feature on her left arm, which removes the neck movement (to allow for the lever that activates the feature) and the left elbow movement. It also limits the left shoulder a bit. Not really sure why they opted to go for such an intrusive feature. Rogue sported an all-new sculpt (which would later be re-used for Polaris). It’s fairly standard for the time. Nothing super amazing, but it’s a decent enough recreation of her Jim Lee look. Her proportions are a bit weird; her hairs is really small, and her legs seem to make up a larger portion of her body than they should. She’s also a bit on the boxy side. But, like I said, fairly standard for the time, so I can’t judge it too harshly. Missing from my figure is her add-on belt, which replicated her wacky asymmetrical thing from the comics. Yay for asymmetry! Rogue’s paint work is decent enough. Everything is applied pretty cleanly and all of the important details are there. I will say I’ve always found this figure’s color palette to be a bit washed out and dull. I guess the cartoon and future figures just have made me expect this costume to be a bit warmer. Rogue included no accessories, not even the weird ‘90s blaster thing that Toy Biz seemed to give to all of the other figures who they couldn’t think of anything better to give to. Alas, I suppose she’ll just have to steal one from one of the other figures.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rogue was one of the last “main X-Men” I got when I was growing up. Most of the others had seen one or two re-releases, so getting them wasn’t too prohibitive. I actually ended up getting the 10-inch version of her first. Ultimately, I’m pretty sure I ended up with the Universe re-release when it hit. I think she was a Christmas present from my parents if I’m not mistaken, likely from our first Christmas in the house I spent most of my childhood in. She may not be the best Rogue figure I own, or even the first Rogue figure I owned, but I was really happy to get her when she was new.

This review is from the period of time when I was actively hunting for the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends in the spring of 2017.  I had just found the Jim Lee Cyclops, who was the last figure I needed in the set, so I was very excited, and very definitely in an X-Men review.  This was also while I was living several states away from most of my collection, so Rogue here was actually reviewed remotely.  I don’t really do that sort of thing anymore.  Since this review, I did manage to find a belt for her, finally completing her whole look.  It’s a minor touch, but it adds a lot.  In the process, I also got a whole variant to this figure!  There are actually four *different* versions of the original Rogue figure, all concerning the color of her eyes, how many lashes she has, and whether or not she has eyeshadow.  My original is the light green eyes with four lashes and no eyeshadow version, but the one that I bought to get the replacement belt is the dark green eyes with four lashes as eyeshadow version.  I don’t know if I’ll be going to the trouble of getting the two three-lash versions, so I’m counting this as complete for now!

#3828: Ka-Zar & Zabu

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

KA-ZAR & ZABU

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

“The X-Men find themselves mysteriously transported to the Savage Land a prehistoric tropical jungle in the middle of the Arctic circle!  With the help of their friend and leader of the Savage Land, Ka-Zar, the X-Men weave their way through this treacherous land.  Aided by dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, Storm, Wolverine, Angel and Joseph have their hands full throughout their dangerous journey.

Native and leader of the Savage Land, Ka-Zar rules his prehistoric kingdom with his faithful sidekick, Zabu. An expert fighter, hunter and tracker, nothing dares to threaten Ka-Zar. Zabu, the saber-tooth tiger, is ready to protect his master with his two massive razor-sharp teeth and huge paws. Ka-Zar and Zabu rule the Savage Land side-by-side keeping all its prehistoric beasts in order and safe from outside attacks.”

So, remember waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back at the beginning of the site when I reviewed Savage Land Angel?  And then, like, at the middle point between then and now, when I did an addendum about Savage Land Angel?  And then this morning when I did a *second* addendum about Savage Land Angel?  Great.  Well, what you may not know about Savage Land Angel from the three times I’ve focussed on him here on the site is that he was part of a larger set of Savage Land-themed figures, of which there are four more.  Guess what my Monday Marvel theme is gonna be this month!  That’s right, the rest of those guys.  Alright!  So, let’s look at the Savage-Land-iest of the bunch, Ka-Zar and Zabu!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Ka-Zar and Zabu make up the second of the five sets in the “Savage Land” Series of Toy Biz’s X-Men line.  These were a larger boxed series from 1997, which paired off with the thematically opposite “Space Riders” Series from the same year.  While the Riders each got a large space vehicle, each figure in the “Savage Land” set was packed with a larger beast of some sort.  In the case of Ka-Zar, his was by far the most sensible, as he paired off with his “brother” the sabretooth tiger Zabu.  This would mark the first time either character saw action figure treatment, but not the last, as Hasbro’s now tackled them twice as Legends.

Ka-Zar is the more conventional figure in the set.  He’s based on that usual off-brand Tarzan look, which makes sense.  The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall and he has 9 points of articulation.  He’s built on a variation of the Archangel II mold, a favorite of Toy Biz’s during the 5-inch era.  That being said, he actually gets a fair bit of new and reworked parts.  The head is outright new, and it’s certainly dynamic.  That hair’s just jutting straight out to the side there, isn’t it?  He’s also got quite an intense, almost crazed look in his eyes.  Wow.  I don’t know that I’d be super comforted by this guy being my ally in a place called the Savage Land, but I’m also not an X-Man.  His torso is modified, removing the wing-flapping apparatus that most uses of the mold sported, which is actually really nice.  He also gets modified lower arms and legs.  Now his hands are actually gripping, and he’s got bare feet, as well as some anklets, you know, for properly accessorizing.  He also gets an add-on piece for his loin cloth, which you can remove if you want, but why would you?  Why would you do that?  Ka-Zar’s paint work’s actually pretty fun.  He’s got those crazy eyes, of course, but also some tribal markings, to keep him a little more interesting.  Ka-Zar is packed with a shield, a spear, and an axe.  The shield has storage for both weapons, which is very fun indeed.

Zabu is, in essence, a glorified accessory, I suppose.  He’s bigger than Ka-Zar, of course, but only sort of articulated, since most of his movement is tied into his action feature.  His sculpt’s certainly very stylized, but in such a way that he feels pretty much right at home with the general Toy Biz Marvel vibe.  There’s a lot of neat detailing going on, and I do like the fur texturing.  His paint’s basic, and the shades of orange on the differing plastics don’t match up perfectly, but it’s not terrible.  He’s got a “pounce” feature, where his back legs are sort of spring loaded, so sitting him down leads to him “pouncing” back up.  It’s rudimentary, and basic, and stupid, and I absolutely love it to no end.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Toy Biz Marvel is my one true love when it comes to Marvel toys.  Heck, toys in general, really.  I could leave everything else behind, but Toy Biz Marvel would be difficult.  So, I’m trying to more properly appreciate my Toy Biz Marvel collection, and that means putting them up in a more proper display.  While going through things that were not on display, I came across my Legends Ka-Zar and Zabu, and asked myself that ever important question “am I ever going to display these?”  The answer was no, and I realized that, as nice as they were, if I wasn’t going to display them, then why was I keeping them.  The simplest answer was that I didn’t own this set yet.  So, I fixed that with a sensibly priced eBay purchase, and here we are.  These are not as technically impressive as the Legends, but I love them ever so much more, so I’m glad I finally tracked them down.

Flashback Figure Addendum #0022: Savage Land Angel

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

SAVAGE LAND ANGEL

X-MEN (TOY BIZ)

Oh man, are we bringing back the Addendums?  Yeah we are!  With the twist that it’s not Friday.  And why’s that? Because I’m doing a thematic thing here.  But, perhaps the craziest part of this Addendum is the fact that I’ve run an Addendum for this review before.  Crazy, right?  Super crazy.  So, let’s jump, for a third time, into the crazy world of Savage Land Angel!

The 90s X-Men line!  Now there was a line.  I haven’t really looked at this line yet on the site, aside from the Original Members Boxed Set, which wasn’t actually part of the line.  But in the 90s, the X-Men were the big thing.  They had a TV show, their comics sold millions, and they had one of the most comprehensive toy lines to date.  There was a Cho’d action figure for God’s sake!  Towards the end of the line, they began to run out of new characters to release, so they started doing these theme waves with rereleases of the main characters.  One of those theme waves was a set of figures based on the X-Men’s many trips to the Savage Land.  It featured figures of the X-Men in tattered “Savage Land” uniforms.  Today, I’ll be looking at the Angel figure from that line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So, as I said above, Angel here hails from the Savage Land series of Toy Biz’s 5-inch X-Men line.  He stands roughly 5 inches tall and has 11 points of articulation.  If you read the review of the Fallen, you’ve seen a lot of this figure before.   He shares all but his head, arms and feet with that figure.  The head was actually one that saw frequent reuse over at Toy Biz, and I know this wasn’t the first figure to use it, but I honestly don’t know what was.   Anyway, it works fine here, though it might be a bit scowly for a pre-Archangel Warren Worthington.  The figure’s look is mostly done through paint, which depicts a tattered version of Angel’s blue and white costume from the silver age*.   It’s cool to see this costume here, but a bit disappointing that the costume never got a proper release.  Angel at one point featured a pair of (very small) wings, a gray vest with an X-logo, and some weird claw thing that attached to his wrist, but I lost most of those pieces many years ago.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this figure on one of my many trips the KB Toys outlet in Rehoboth Beach.  I was very excited to get it because Angel figures were a bit of a rarity in the 90s.  I know I really liked this guy, and for reasons I can’t fathom at this point, I know he spent a lot of time in my Ghostbusters Ecto-1.

And, in my last addendum did I have to say?

Well, that’s not an awful review.  Still a bit shorter than the average review nowadays, but not horribly so.  I actually listed off all of the relevant information for the figure, and even referenced re-used parts and everything (though, rather amusingly, the Fallen pieces I referenced weren’t even discussed in my The Fallen review).

When I last reviewed this figure, he was missing both of his wings and the little wrist claw, both of which were returned to him during The Find.  The wings are rather on the small side, but detailed nicely enough.  I’m not really even sure what the claw supposed to be, but there it is.  Still missing is the grey cloth vest.  Also, I didn’t mention this previously, but each figure in the Savage Land series included a creature figure of some sort.  Angel included a small Sauron figure, which I still haven’t found.  Maybe he’ll turn up one of these days and I can write a *second* addendum.

Okay, so not so bad.  Addressed the review issues and changes.  Brought up what was missing the first time around, and also what I found during The Find.  Man, The Find was a hell of a thing.  I’ve had no major finds like that since, but I’ve resorted to actually buying replacement parts as I find them, which has led to the second addendum, which I even brought up in the first addendum!  So, now I’ve got the vest and the miniature Sauron figure.  The vest is super basic, but there it is.  Sauron is definitely much more gimicky than his single release.  He’s got a wing-flapping action, so there’s that.  He’s kind of not built for standing on his own, or anything, so he’s gotta be propped up on something.  And now, here’s the whole complete thing.  No additional Addendums needed!

#3826: Cyclops

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

CYCLOPS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

In 1986, Marvel decided to reunite the founding five members of the X-Men under a new title, X-Factor.  There was, of course, the slight issue that one of the five was dead at the time, so they had to resurrect her as well.  And, hey, everybody got new costumes as well.  In fact, there were a couple of costume options to choose from, so, you know, extra toy potential, right?  Team leader Cyclops has gotten a fair bit of coverage for his *second* X-Factor costume, but not so much for his first.  But, hey, things change!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is part of the Nemesis Series of Marvel Legends, the latest X-Men assortment of the line.  It’s quite a hodge-podge of looks and eras, with Scott here serving as the “classic” component.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  As with the most recent Cyclopes, he’s built on the Vulcan body, which is a respectable choice for Scott.  He mostly keeps it basic, but he does get two new head sculpts, both courtesy of Paul Harding.  We get calm and intense, and they’re both really good.  On one hand, they’re so good that I’d love to see them re-used for a ’70s Scott, but on the other, I’d really like to see them do one with the proper full mask underneath.  But, I’m getting sidetracked.  The point is, these sculpts are great.  The calm has a solid visor lens, while the intense one gets a new optic blast effect piece, which is larger and more involved than prior versions.  The color work is pretty good, and pretty clean, and matches well with the depiction from the comics.  I’m not 100% sold on the blue ears, but I guess they’re going for a strictly cover appearance look.  If nothing else, it’s kind of unique.  Cyclops is packed with two sets of hands, as well as the arm to the Nemesis Build-A Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Every time I think I’m good on Cyclops figures, they make a new one that reminds me I don’t have that one.  This is one of those instances.  The original X-Factor look isn’t a major change-up from his other looks, but it’s different enough to justify it for me.  On top of that, he’s actually quite a lot different from other Cyclopes.  The new heads are fantastic, and I love the new optic blast effect as well.

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.

#3814: Cyclops – Civilian

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

CYCLOPS — CIVILIAN

X-MEN: THE MOVIE (TOY BIZ)

“Scott Summers, the X-Man code-named Cyclops, has the mutant ability to shoot incredibly powerful optic blasts from his eyes. These beams can destroy virtually anything and can only be contained by a substance known as Ruby Quartz. Cyclops wears a visor made of this substance to control his blasts while fighting in combat which aid in his control and accuracy of the destructive beams. The field leader of the clandestine team of outlaw mutant super heroes wears his visor and black uniform in battle to keep his secret hidden from the general public.”

This year is the 25th anniversary of the first X-Men movie, which also means its the 25th anniversary of the tie-in toyline!  One of the notable things about said toyline was its jump in scale.  Technically, Blade had also done it, but it was a rather small line, and only *sort of* messed with the scale change.  X-Men fully embraced the move to 6-inch, with a complete run of all the movie’s primary players…and then some.  In the wake of the film and initial merchandise’s success, we got a rather hastily thrown together follow-up to the main push, with a bunch of more minor costume variants for the characters.  Our boy Scott Summers was in on that push, getting his second movie based figure, which I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops (Civilian) is part of the third series of Toy Biz’s X-Men: The Movie tie-in line, which, fun fact, is most commonly referred to as the *second* series because 1 and 2 were released simultaneously to promote the movie and feature no actual distinguishing on the back of the packaging.  So, functionally, it’s the second series, but, in my mind, I know it’s the third.  The first Cyclops was based on his main team suited look, but this one is instead based on his more casual attire while he’s searching for Rogue and Logan at the train station.  Why’s he still wearing the visor if he’s trying to blend in?  I don’t know, but it makes for a cooler look, so we’re going with it.  The figure stands right about 6 inches tall and he has 10 points of articulation.  He maintains that closer to the 5-inch style of articulation, which would remain until the Spider-Man lines revamped things in the next two years.  As it stands, he’s still quite posable.  Since they’d moved up the scale, Toy Biz was able to repurpose some parts from their WCW line; Cyclops is using the body from Eric Bischoff, with a new head and jacket piece.  It’s a basic guy with a jacket and jeans, so it’s fine; the most awkward part of the whole thing is that his black undershirt is just the torso’s exposed skin at the neck painted black, but it’s honestly not that noticeable.  The new jacket makes it the more sensible canvas jacket Scott’s got in the movie, and the new head makes its…well, Scott.  It’s clearly based on the same basic sculpt as the standard Cyclops head, but it’s been scaled up a touch, made most evident by the fact that his visor is *just* a bit wider, so it floats on the head of the prior figure.  The hat is a separate, but non-removable piece, which is actually a pretty nice sculpt.  There’s a spot at the top of it that allows for a light piping feature, so he can light up his eyes without any fancy electronics.  His paint work is okay; basic, but not in a bad sense.  It does what it needs to.  Cyclops, like all of the figures from his assortment, included a small set of dog tags…for reasons?  I don’t know why, and they’re not at all to scale, but there they are.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got the first Cyclops right away, and I broke his visor a bit shy of right away, so he was without it.  I remember this guy’s announcement in ToyFare, and I remember eagerly awaiting his arrival.  I also remember him being rather tricky to find at first, but I did, on one of my many trips to the local mall’s KB Toys with my Grandmother.  I was non-plussed about the visor not being interchangeable, but I made do, and I ran this one into the ground just like the original.  A replacement was a little easier to find, though, than the standard, so I got a second one about six or seven years ago.  He’s nifty.  Non-essential, but he throws me back to a time where we had fewer super hero movies, and you could get a few non-essential variants of he main characters.  I dig him a lot.