Tag Archives: x-force

Aug 28 2017

Marvel Legends (Warlock Wave): Shatterstar by Hasbro

It’s just another Marvel Monday, and that’s my fun day! At least this one is, because I have the day off and I’m spending the morning drinking coffee and opening up some action figures. Today I’m checking out my third figure in this wave, Shatterstar, and I’ll be back later tonight with a look at Dazzler!

A lot of this wave I wound up buying loose from a buddy online, but Shatterstar was pretty easy to find, so here’s a packaged shot. I was a big fan of X-Force way back when even to the point of buying some of the Toy Biz figures at a time before I got back into buying toys and was only really collecting Playmates Star Trek figures. I never even opened any of those X-Force figures. I just hung them on my wall and admired them in all their garishly colored beauty. Shatterstar was one of my favorites, so naturally I’m thrilled to see him turn up in this wave.

And here we are, Shatterstar in all his 90’s comic design glory. Giant shoulder pad? Check! Bitchin’ half cape? Got it! Meaty, extra-thick, pointless thigh strap? Of course! Pouches? Um… sorta? He’s got a nice brace of pouches running around his sculpted belt, but honestly, there’s plenty of room for more. All these wonderful 90’s trappings feature original sculpted parts and are tied together with a pair of buccaneer gauntlets and some truly epic flared boots. The underlying, mostly white, buck features wide black stripes down the outer legs and his star pattern printed in black and partially obscured by his mega-shoulder-pad. All the original sculpting looks great. I love the little folds and rumples in his cape and the shoulder pad and belt have a worn leathery look to them. Even the belt buckle is painted silver. When all is said and done, this is a great looking figure!

And the portrait is no slouch either. The facial features are well designed, and he has the star tatt over his left eye. It’s a little tough to see the eyes when looking straight at him because that padded half-helmet sits low and casts a shadow over his peepers. Nonetheless, I love how the top-less helmet looks like it’s sculpted from an entirely separate piece. It matches the weathered leather look of the belt and shoulder pad, almost like an old timey rugby helmet. Also the hair looks great, complete with his trademark snaking ponytail and the twin braided pigtails that hang down the front, which must have been all the rage back on MojoWorld.

The articulation here is superb. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivel cuts in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed in the hips, have double hinges in the knees, as well as swivels in the upper thighs and hidden under the boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. The torso features an ab crunch hinge, a waist swivel, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The only issue I have here is the hips on my figure are really loose. Going to have to address that with a little floor polish.

Shatterstar includes his distinctive swords, and I have always loved these things! They’re both cast in the same matte gray plastic. Some paint apps on the hilts would have been cool, but they still look fine. One features a twin blade and the other a single blade. Both have those kick-ass spiked knuckle guards.

While I haven’t encountered Shatterstar in my funnybook readings in a very long time, the nostalgia I have for this character makes him a most welcome addition to my X-Force roster. Everything on this figure just comes together perfectly and I’ve had him on my desk for quite a few days so that I could play around with him on my down time. I’m still pretty early into this wave, but it’s possible that Shatterstar could turn out to be my favorite in this assortment, but he’s going to have some stiff competition. Come on back tonight and we’ll have a look at Dazzler!

Jan 27 2014

Marvel: X-Force Psylocke Bishoujo Statue by Kotobukiya

I ended last week with Kotobukiya and we’re starting this week with the same! The difference is that this week I’m giving the Justice League ArtFX+ statues a rest and instead turning my attention back to Koto’s Bishoujo line. Koto has a veritable shit-ton of amazing Bishoujo statues on deck for 2014-15. From Marvel to DC to Star Wars and Street Fighter, this line is going to get a lot of my money in the months ahead. And if their most recent release, Psylocke, is any indication it’s going to be a damn fine couple of years. This release is Psylocke’s second outing for the Bishoujo line and that’s a rather sore point for me because I missed the first statue and now it sells for crazy prices on the secondary market. I try not to look for it a lot because I kind of want it bad enough to pay a lot more than I should, and so it’s best to try to forget it exists. This all-new Psylocke release, however, serves as a mighty nice consolation prize, even if I’m not usually keen on the X-Force costumes.

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The box shares the same deco style as previous releases in this line, but it’s a little unusual as it is a landscape shaped box to fit the unusual orientation of the statue. As usual, there’s some great source artwork by Shunya Yamashita on the package and the windows give you a tease of what’s inside. The statue is wrapped in plastic and nestled between two plastic trays, so if you want to really get a good look you’ve got to take her out and unwrap her. Psylocke comes already attached to the base and the only assembly required is placing her katana in her hand.

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I’m always impressed by these statues, but Psylocke here absolutely blows me away. Seriously, I don’t want to downplay previous releases in the line, they’re pretty much all great, but I don’t think I’ve been this amazed by a Bishoujo since Wonder Woman. To see what all the fuss is about, first and foremost we have to look at the composition because in terms of pose this is some of Koto’s finest work. Psylocke is poised close to the ground, with one leg bent back under her and the other stretched out all the way so that it extends well beyond the base. She has one hand on the ground and the other holding her katana aloft. This is absolutely gorgeous composition work, so much so that it feels like it belongs among one of their larger and more expensive Fine Art statues. Speaking of size, Psylocke scales perfectly with my other Marvel ladies. Her head is close to the same height as the kneeling Mystique and X-23, but with her katana stretched above her the total height of the piece comes close to statues like Black Cat and Black Widow.

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Of course, composition is only half the battle, and doesn’t mean much without a solid sculpt. Again, in this department, Psylocke outshines most other releases. The contours and curves of Psylocke’s body border on pure poetry and the muscle definition in her shoulders and… um, groin, are superb. The straps on her thighs and biceps are sculpted so that they ever so slightly constrict her skin and the rumbling of the costume adds that extra touch of realism. Even the way her white belt rises up in a frozen flurry conveys the kinetic energy on display here. Her scabbard is tethered to her belt with sculpted ties and is punctuated with a little brass cap. Truth be told, there isn’t a lot of complexity to Psylocke’s costume, but it feels like Koto went above and beyond with what little they had to work with.

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As for the portrait, I really like what they did here. Sure, you can argue that a lot of the Bishoujo portraits look alike, and I wouldn’t refute that. Psylocke here has slightly narrower eyes, giving her a more serious expression that better matches her action packed pose. It fits the statue better than the more frivolous portraits that Koto has used on some of the more cheesecake poses like Kitty Pryde or Sue Storm. I also dig that her face is looking straight up. The style with many of the Bishoujo statues is to have the girl looking slightly down and to the side. It’s part of the “pretty girl” motif, I get that, but it’s kind of nice to get a good look at the portrait from dead on for a change. Of course, Pyslocke’s hair is flowing outward with beautiful effect and the tips of her hair are partially transparent.

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I don’t have a lot to say about the coloring here. The katana looks particularly good with a semi-steel finish on the blade, intricate paintwork on the grip and a bronze colored tsuba and ricasso. The X-Force costume is black and the high gloss contrasts beautifully with the soft matte plastic used for Psylocke’s bare skin. It looks good, but I would have so preferred this piece be her in the traditional purple costume. I suppose there’s always a chance that we could get a Comic Con recolor.

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The base places Psylocke in what I think is supposed to be a Shinto Garden with a piece of sculpture off to the side. The base is textured to look and feel like stone with what looks like possibly snow covered grass. As mentioned, Psylocke’s leg stretches well beyond the base making her the least space efficient Bishoujo so far. She certainly demands a lot of real estate on the shelf, but she’s well worth it and she looks great in the front row with the taller statues behind her.

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Psylocke retailed at just under $60, which is a pretty solid value. Sure, sometimes the Bishoujo’s go down in price, but they also sometimes go up. Because of the fluctuations in price, I usually gamble and don’t pre-order this line, but I was pretty smitten with this piece when I first saw it and so I dropped a pre-order straight away. She’s the 13th Bishoujo statue in my collection and right now she’s definitely in league with Wonder Woman and Huntress in my top three favorite releases. That’s saying quite a bit since I’m not necessarily a big fan of the X-Force costume. This is just a case where Koto nailed the essence of the character perfectly in a breathtaking pose and followed through with a superb sculpt.

Aug 11 2012

Vintage Vault: X-Men X-Force Cable (2nd Version) by Toy Biz

It’s been a long week and I am more than a little bit hungover, so I’m afraid today is going to be a quickie… Vintage Vault hasn’t been back to Toy Biz’s early 90’s Marvel figures in quite a while, so I thought we’d remedy that today and start throwing some more of these into the mix in the weeks ahead. Today we’ll check out the second version of Cable where he dons his deep space armor.

There’s the packaged shot of Cable… I mean Grizzly… no, I mean Cable. Yeah, what we’ve got here is an error card with Cable in Grizzly’s packaging. This guy came to me as part of a lot, in which I got double screwed because it was supposed to be the first version of Cable, not the second version on the wrong cardback. Ah, well. I was going to keep this figure carded as a curiosity and eventually said, screw it, I need that wall space to hang other carded figures, so I decided to tear him open and feature him. Error or not, I’m still in love with the early Toy Biz Marvel packaging. I think these are some of the best comic inspired figure cardbacks. They’re colorful, the character art is great, and they kind of look like comic covers.

Out of the package, and we can see that this indeed isn’t the more iconic version of Cable, but it is still pretty damn cool. He’s in his bulky deep space armor, complete with a removable clear dome helmet over his head. You just need to pinch it a bit to undo the clips and take it off. The armor has a lot of sculpted detail, particularly for this fairly simple line. You know he’s from the 90’s because even in space armor, he’s still covered in enough belts and pouches to make Rob Liefeld blush. The head sculpt is classic Cable with a grim, angry visage. All in all, well done.

As always, Toybiz did a great job with the colors on this figure. Cable is bright orange and blue with a great glossy finish that makes him work so well as a comic book character in toy form. Unfortunately, they could have done a better job with the actual execution of the paintwork. Most of it is good, but there are a few spots, particularly on his legs that look like they might have been painted by blind cats.

Cable features six points of articulation. His arms rotate at the shoulders, his legs rotate at the hips, and his knees are hinged. The head doesn’t turn, otherwise it’s about the same level of articulation I expect from these 90’s Toy Biz figures. There’s not a lot of dynamic posing possibilities here, but just enough so that you can still have a little fun with him.

Cable comes with a big gun, but what else would you expect? It’s a big silver rifle and it has some kind of rapid-fire gimmick that completely eludes me. Either mine is broken or it just never worked right. It’s a nice piece of killing hardware, but since he has no elbow articulation, he can just hold it awkwardly with one hand, striaght out.

I’m always a bit unsure of how the current collector community feels about these 90’s Marvel Toy Biz figures. Sure, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since these were hanging on the pegs, and you can’t deny that they’re thoroughly dated, but I still can’t help but love them, and they’re cheap as all hell, which makes them fun and painless to collect. If I had to do over, I might not have opened as many, because I love the packaging so much and they do look great hanging on the wall. At the same time, these figures have such a colorful, toyish charm that really meshes well with their comic book roots. It just makes me want to pick them up and play with them.

[Phew… and that’ll be a wrap for the week. Star Trek Saturday may or may not be back next week. We’ll see how things go. In the meantime, I’ve got a lot of stuff backing up in the toy hopper, so I’ll see y’all Monday with something new. –FF]

Oct 12 2011

Vintage Vault: X-Men X-Force Warpath by Toy Biz

I’ve been sitting on a whole box full of unopened Toy Biz X-Men figures for a while now and since things have been slow here at FigureFan, I decided to bust some of these open and take a look. I’ll start peppering them throughout the next couple of weeks. If you weren’t collecting toys in the 90’s or perhaps you just collect Toy Biz’s Marvel figures with the Marvel Legends line, then these guys are going to be quite a departure for you.

One thing I’ve always loved about Toy Biz’s Marvel figures from this era? The packaging. I mean, just look at that. It takes all the colorful and exciting qualities of a comic book cover and transfers them onto the cardback. You get some awesome character art, Just check that out. The Marvel Universe package art is often good, sometimes mediocre, but this image of Warpath is capital stuff. Not to mention the exposition explosion that tells you what the figure’s special play gimmick was. In this case? “SMASHING POWER PUNCH!” Hell, there’s even a sticker advertising a T-shirt. The front of the card is just bursting with activity. The back of the card has a little bit about the character and photos of some of the other figures in this line.
If your only action figure experience with Warpath is the Marvel Universe version then this guy is likely to shock. His design is deliciously comic book inspired and he’s certainly got that wonderful bright and obnoxious 90’s toy motif that meshes so well with comic book and animated inspired figures. There isn’t even a remote attempt to go for realism here. Warpath is a brick wall of a mutant with a neckline that nearly matches his waistline. The glossy, retina-burning red and blue paint job is just stellar. There’s no way this guy is going to appear in any multi-million dollar live action movie treatment. Nope, he’s straight from the panel of a funnybook.
For a 90’s era figure, Toy Biz’s Warpath sports some pretty decent articulation. The arms rotate at the shoulders and he has hinged elbows. His legs rotate at the hips and he has hinged knees. His roast beef sized neck doesn’t move at all, but this is still better than the standard 5-points I’m used to seeing in figures of this era. Warpath also swivels at the waist, but that’s more a part of his “Smashing Power Punch” gimmick. Swivel him at the waist and his right arm goes up. Let him go and he springs back and his arm comes down. It’s an ok gimmick in that it really doesn’t screw up the figure or mar his articulation.
I’m not knocking the more realistic approach that Hasbro takes with their Marvel Universe line, but from package to figure, Toy Biz’s Warpath represents everything that is awesome about comic books and their characters, distills it, and pours it into action figure form. Granted, as we’ll see in the coming weeks, these X-Men figures could be hit and miss (just check out the fright face on Rogue down there), but when they were great, like Warpath, they were really great. What’s better is you can usually buy these guys carded for next to nothing. Certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but I absolutely love this guy.
May 5 2011

Vintage Vault: X-Men X-Force Quark by Toy Biz

Time to start ripping open some good old fashioned Toy Biz X-Men figures. Why? Well, why not. They’ve been hanging around in my closet for long enough, there’s nothing new on the pegs around here, and I’m hankering for some new figures to look at. Or at least newly opened. I’ve got a whole tote full of these guys, so there’s plenty to go round. Today we’re going to start with Quark, and I don’t mean the guy slinging drinks on Deep Space Nine. 

How can you not love this packaging? The super colorful card is set up to look vaguely like a comic book with the little Marvel Comics tab up in the corner. The artwork and logo are both really exciting. I particularly love the way Quark’s smoking gun is positioned in front of the X-Men logo. Very cool. The bubble is huge to accomodate both the figure and his big weapons. This is the kind of awesome packaging that we got in the 90’s by the likes of Toy Biz and Playmates. I’m sad to say that apart from Star Trek figures, I really wasn’t collecting a lot of figures in the 90’s, and this is the kind of stuff I was missing out on. I am not usually a Mint-On-Card collector, but even I have to admit, tearing open this thing made me cry a little inside. 

Out of the package, you can’t help but love Quark. He looks like a hyper-muscled ram-man with a pirate’s eyepatch, but in reality he was one of the race of slaves Mojo had created to help his kind with the hard labor. It’s tough picking up after yourself when you haven’t got a spine! Of course, as is often the case with those pesky slaves, they tend to turn on you and so Quark was part of Longshot’s revolt on the Mojoverse. He may look tough, but he was a good guy at heart.

The sculpt is simple enough, but it’s got it where it counts, particularly the head sculpt, which gives the figure a ton of attitude. Quark looks like he’s ready to drive his head through the nearest wall, and he’s got the horns to back him up. Apart from his belt with side pouches and bulging muscles, there’s not a heck of a lot of detail here, but the whole thing works as a comic/animated figure and I really dig the high gloss used on the paint.

Quark’s articulation includes a rotating head, arms that rotate at the shoulders, legs that rotate at the hips, and hinged knees. He’s not what we would call super-articulated by any stretch, but he’s got better than the five points we’re used to seeing in figures from this era. Quark also has an action feature, triggered by the lever in his back, which shoots his arms up so that he can quickdraw his weapons. Those weapons include a silver shotgun and a silver assault rifle. The shotgun is hinged in the middle so when you activate his gimmick it snaps up into place. It’s kind of a dopey gimmick, but it doesn’t really detract from the figure, so s’all good.

Quark isn’t what you would consider an A-lister in the Mutant Hall of Fame, but he’s a really cool character that I actually first encountered just a few years back when I was reading up on my X-Men comics. The figure really does him justice and he’s definitely worth picking up and certainly reading up on. You just can’t go wrong with a trip through the Mojoverse. It doesn’t hurt that you can probably find him carded for just a couple of bucks if you look hard enough.