Tag Archives: x-men

Feb 9 2011

Marvel Universe: Wolverine and Jean Grey by Hasbro

So, I picked up a case of Marvel Universe figures the other day. Actually, I pre-ordered them last year and they finally came in. I just got tired of hunting for some of these figures and even though it netted me doubles of Classic Cap and Modern Thor, I think it was still worthwhile. It also netted me that shitty looking, and yet oh so desireable Phasing Vision, which I promptly put up on Ebay so I could get the proper one. Today, we’re going to kick off looking at some of the figures in this case with two of the assortment’s X-Men, Wolverine and Jean Grey.


It’s the same old MU packaging we’ve been seeing for a while. This pair are still part of the Norman Osborne reign with the HAMMER insignia, as opposed to the SHIELD insignia on the older and now the current packages. The character artwork on the cards is as awesome as ever and the figures are really displayed well in the bubbles.


Wolverine is a decent looking figure, and pretty much exactly what I expected. His classic costume is well executed, mostly via paint apps and with a sculpted belt buckle and separate straps for his legs. There’s a wee bit of slop here and there around the blue and yellow borders, but I’ve definitely seen worse. Wolverine’s claws are produced in soft plastic, so as not to break easily. The real shining point of this figure, though, is the head sculpt, which Hasbro really nailed. I doubt we’re going to see a better one in this scale any time soon. The only thing I’m not crazy about here is the really weird sculpt of his neck and shoulders. It’s always been a bit weird on Hasbro’s modern GI Joes, but it’s really off putting here when you view the figure from the side.


And then there’s Jean Grey. From the neck down, I’m pretty happy with how she turned out. She uses the basic female body for the line with some sculpted detail to make up her shoulder pads, belt buckle, and arm bracers. The yellow and blue look good and overall the paint apps aren’t at all bad. From the neck up is a little bit of a different story. It’s hard for me to put a finger on exactly what’s wrong with her head sculpt. On the one hand it looks too small and the face is a tad wild eyed and generic. I also think they should have gone a different route with her hair sculpt. Between the hair and the shoulder pads it looks like she’s hunching really awkwardly. I’ve seen a lot of hatred for this figure among collectors circles, and while I can certainly see where it all comes from, I can’t say that I really hate her. Did the character deserve better? Yeah, most definitely. What we wound up with is just kind of average and awkward.

Both figures come with the Top Secret packet containing her file card and and secret document. They also both include figure stands, which is always a welcome treat. Wolverine doesn’t come with any other accessories, but Jean Grey comes with a little ball of energy that can fit over her hand.

All in all this is a decent pair of figures, but neither one really blew me away, which is disappointing because I’m usually a pretty easy sell on X-Men figures. Wolverine edges out Jean as my favorite of the pair, but I can’t summon up the hatred that some people seem to have over Jean Grey. I’m certainly not sorry I added them to my collection.

Dec 30 2010

Marvel: X-Men Origins Wolverine Comic Series Deadpool by Hasbro

Holy crap. This Deadpool figure is easily the coolest surprise I got this Christmas. I guess I’ve been gassing on about Deadpool a lot since I’ve been reading Deadpool Corps, and that’s got me going back and re-reading the original ’97 run of the Deadpool comics. I guess, a buddy of mine took it as a hint and sent me this figure and I am in love with it and totally blown away by its very existence, since I’d never seen it before. I think it’s amazingly ironic that a movie that completely butchered the Deadpool character just happened to spawn an action figure line that gave us this awesome guy under the comic series sub-line. And to think that whenever anyone mentioned the Wolverine Origins Deadpool figure, I was just thinking of the horrible movie version.

Ah, the X-Men Origins Wolverine cardback. It’s the same artwork of Hugh Jackman as Logan snarling at you on every generic card, complete with the unnecessarily long movie title, and practically screaming, “BUY THIS FIGURE, BUB!” About the only thing I can say good about this movie was that it was better than Elektra. If you think that’s really a compliment than you should know that I once spent a three hour flight opting to stare at the seat in front of me than watch the in-flight showing of Elektra. But now I can say something else better about the Wolverine movie… it gave me this figure, almost as an apology for fucking up Deadpool so badly in the film. It’s also worth noting that the back panel has one of the lamest possible bios for Deadpool that could possibly written. If i were writing that bio, I would most definitely have mentioned the time when Deadpool sucker punched 16-year-old Kitty Pryde right in the stomach. [Volume 1, Ish 27, I believe. -FF] Now, that’s classic Deadpool. Fortunately, everything on display under the bubble is pure love.


After ripping open the package, and thoroughly destroying it so that I can pretend this is indeed a Marvel Universe Deadpool and that I never actually owned a figure in any way associated with the Wolverine movie, it’s easy to see that Deadpool is indeed glorious. Deadpool is one hundred percent compatible with the Marvel Universe figures, as he uses a very similar body type. The paint apps are immaculate, which is more than I can say for a lot of the MU figures. Deadpool’s belt and harness are a separate piece of soft plastic and includes two scabbards for his swords. It would have been nice if it were easily removable to offer up some more display options, but I can’t see any easy way to remove it without disassembling the figure.

Articulation includes a ball jointed neck. His arms feature ball jointed shoulders and elbows and swivels in the wrists. His legs have ball jointed hips, double hinged knees and swivels in the ankles. His torso features the swivel/ab crunch that is common in most of Hasbro’s MU and GI JOE figures.


Deadpool comes with a nice array of weapons. He has two ninja swords, both of which fit in the scabbards criss-crossing his back. He has an automatic pistol that fits in his holster, and he’s got a si that you can tuck into his belt. He’s also got a folded-stock AK-47. Alas, there is no figure stand included.

It’s amazing to me that Hasbro hasn’t repacked this figure into a Marvel Universe card. What’s even more amazing is that when I called my friend to thank him profusely for such an awesome gift, he just shrugged it off and said that the figure cost next to nothing. So, why is it that I can’t get a MU Bullseye figure for under $35, but Deadpool here can be had on the cheap? What’s that all about?

Nov 5 2010

Marvel Universe: Kitty Pryde by Hasbro

I was pretty excited when I heard that Kitty Pryde was coming to the MU lineup, as I’ll take all the X-Men figures I can get, but then I heard and read some initial reactions to the figure. Most of them were either lukewarm or downright unfavorable. I tried not to let it bother me, because at the time I was trying to deny the very existance of the Marvel Universe line, since I wasn’t having any luck finding them. Then I happened upon this figure hanging on the peg when I least expected it. I didn’t take a lot of time to check her out in the store, because it was just so amazed that I was able to find an MU figure I needed. Turns out, I like her quite a bit.

Well, ya just gotta love that artwork on the card, because damn, she’s sexy. Wait, how old is she? Ok, moving on… the only downside of the fabulous card art is that the figure’s head sculpt couldn’t possibly hold a candle to that. And it doesn’t, but more on that in a second. Kitty’s a pretty diminutive figure, so its a good thing that she’s got her buddy Lockheed in there to keep her company.

It may have sounded like i was slighting the head sculpt here, but I’m really not, because I think it’s fine for a figure in this scale. She’s not gorgeous, but she’s not ugly either. And let’s face it, Hasbro has a seriously troubled past when it comes to making attractive ladies in the 3 3/4″ scale. Did y’all happen to see Rise of Cobra’s Cover Girl? Yikes! So yeah, the head sculpt is just fine and the hair is sculpted in a nicely detailed, and neutral style so it isn’t all crazy wind blown like Ms. Marvel’s.

The body sculpt is very generic, as this figure relies almost completely on the paintwork for detail. That’s not to say it’s not a good body sculpt. I know some fellow collectors who have taken issue with the proportions on some of the MU female figures, but I think Kitty looks just fine.

The coloring on this figure is a pretty simple two-tone black and yellow uniform. Her belt is also painted on. The paintwork is pretty solid, although I confess it wasn’t until I started scrutinizing some of the photos I took that I realized there’s quite a lot of bleeding on the edges, as was the case with Ms. Marvel. The difference here is that the problem areas aren’t as obvious, which gives Kitty the illusion of having a much better paint job than she really does. Although, the paintwork on her face is actually quite good.

Ms Pryde comes with a figure stand, a profile card and a pretty amusing Top Secret document referencing her time spent lost in space. She also comes with Lockheed her space dragon pal. Lockheed is just a very simple piece sculpted in soft purple plastic. It’s not the most exciting accessory, but I like that Hasbro included it.

Kitty sports 17 points of articulation, which ain’t bad for a figure in this scale, but it’s not up to par with many of Hasbro’s other 3 3/4″ figures. She has a ball jointed neck. Her arms have ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows and swivels in the wrists. Her legs have ball joints in the hips, she has double hinged knees and her ankles have both swivels and hinges. She also has a ball joint just under her chest and a swivel in her waist. The most infuriating thing about this figure is the lack of swivels in her biceps. I’m constantly being rebuffed in my efforts to pose her because of these missing swivels.

Goes to show you, you can’t always rely on the opinions of others. Apart from some missing articulation, I think Kitty Pryde turned out just fine. I’ll confess, she wasn’t at the top of my list of X-Men that I wanted to see released in this line, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t happy to add her to my collection.

Nov 4 2010

Marvel Universe: Juggernaut by Hasbro

Back when I was collecting Marvel Legends, Juggernaut was my absolute favorite figure. I really wish I still had him, if for no other reason because he now goes for a hefty sum on Ebay. I was mighty glad to be able to get him again, even in this diminished scale as part of Marvel Universe.

The card features some great artwork and as expected, Juggernaut really fills out the card’s deeper bubble. Juggs is appropriately large, easily measuring up to The Hulk and The Thing in terms of height and bulk.

My favorite thing about this sculpt is the way Hasbro molded Juggernaut’s face and helmet as two pieces. It adds great depth to the figure’s head and really makes him look like his helmet is removable even though it isn’t. The texturing, sculpted bolts, and paint job on the helmet also makes it look a lot like weathered, pitted old metal. Fantastic. His muscular is wonderfully sculpted and the straps on his arms and fists are nicely reproduced here as well. His bicep straps are actually separate pieces and even the treads on his boots are intricately sculpted.

Juggernaut is more or less a three colored figure. You have the brown outfit, his skintone and the maroon for his belt and boots. Most of the figure is molded in the appropriate colors, so there aren’t a lot of paint apps at work here, although the brown parts have a nice deeper shading.

Along with the figure stand, Juggernaut comes with his profile card and his Top Secret document. I don’t usually have a lot to say about the documents, but Juggernaut’s is hillariously a handwritten threatening letter to Osborne telling him to leave him alone. I just can’t help picturing Juggernaut hunched over a desk feverishly hammering out this letter. Great stuff. He actually has surprisingly good penmanship.

The articulation is on par with the rest of the MU lineup, although Juggernaut’s huge sculpted muscles make some of his joint movement more limited than usual. I’m not sure what type of joint is used on the neck, but his head can pretty much just turn. His arms have ball jointed shoulders, hinged elbows and swivels in the biceps and forearms. His legs have ball joints at the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinged knees and swivels at the top of the boots. He also has a ball joint in the torso.
Basically, this is my definition of a “must have” figure. Sure, it helps that I love the X-Men and the Juggernaut character, but even still, it’s hard to find much not to like here. He’s a big, beautifully sculpted and hefty figure, and well worth the extra couple of bucks I had to pay to get him online.

Oct 13 2010

Vintage Vault: X-Men Rogue by Toybiz

I’m a BIG X-Men fan. So much so that I was even able to sit through multiple viewings of all those shitty movies. But my real love has always been in the 90’s cartoon series, the comics and the old Toybiz action figures. I’m in the process of rebuilding my old collection of X-Men figures, so in the coming weeks, I’ll be liberally peppering this blog with looks at some of these figures. I thought we’d start with Rogue. Not the best figure to start with, but once we get this major disappointment out of the way, it’s all uphill from there… almost.

I loooove the cards on these figures. The artwork is great, they’re bright and colorful, just like a comic book figure package should be, and they’re not ashamed to advertise the figure’s gimmick, no matter how useless or annoying it may be. They’re also pretty simple, with a nice big bubble displaying the figure. The reverse side shows the gimmick at work, features a blurb about the character, and lots of photos of all the other X-Men figures you NEED to own. The figure also comes with a collectible character card, which is cool, but it always seemed stupid that you didn’t get a card based on the figure you just bought. Instead it was a random crap shoot. What sense does that make?

Moving on to the figure… oh, Toybiz, how do you flub this major a character? The saddest thing about Rogue is that 90 percent of this figure is really fine. The body sculpt is great, the outfit is classic and well recreated complete with jacket and separate removable accessory belt. Her stance is wide, but she isn’t terribly preposed, which is great because preposed figures is one of my big pet peeves. The colors are pretty much spot on, too.

So what’s the problem? Rogue is a butter face, as in everything is fine butter face. Look, I understand that this is a line for kids, not for collectors, but still, how could anyone at Toybiz signed off on this head sculpt? The hair is fine, but look at the expression on her face. She looks like Tammy Faye Baker scared out of her mind. She looks like one of those Real Ghostbusters figures where you press a button and the eyes pop out in sheer terror. I don’t know what kind of look they were going for here, but it sucks.

Rogue’s articulation is pretty basic. Her right arm rotates at the shoulders and her legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees. Her right arm is hinged, but that’s all you get here. Her hair and jacket collar sculpt prevent any neck movement as her head and body are sculpted in one piece. Her left arm does rotate at the shoulder, but if you move it around a lot, you risk messing up the action feature.

The action feature is a Power Upper Punch. You press the lever on her back and her left arm springs up. Yeah. Not exactly the first thing I think of when I think of Rogue, but then considering her primary power was sucking the life force out of people and absorbing Mutant powers, it’s kind of hard to replicate her specialties in an action gimmick.

Despite the awful expression on her face, it’s hard to hate this figure. There’s a lot to like here. She’s fun and colorful and she fits in really great with the other X-Men figures. The crazy thing is that Toybiz used almost the exact same sculp to create a Deluxe large scale version of Rogue, but we’ll check that one out another time.

Mar 21 2010

X-Men Ninja Force: Deathbird Figure by Toybiz

If there’s one thing you simply cannot overestimate, its the popularity of ninjas in the 90’s. Yeah, they were popular in the 80’s too, but that doesn’t help my segue into today’s post. So, yeah, pop culture in the 90’s was obsessed with ninjas and nowhere is that fact better displayed then on the pegs of the toy aisles. It was such an awesome force of nature that even companies who produced traditionally non-ninja figure lines had to get into the act. This phenomenon can best be summed up in two words: Ninja Force!

Both Hasbro and Toy Biz banked on the Ninja Force concept. For GI Joe, just having Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow and Jinx and all the other ninjas just wasn’t ninja enough to appease the ninja-hungry 90’s toy buyer. No, they had to create GI Joe: Ninja Force. Toy Biz had an even farther reach by introducing the concept of X-Men: Ninja Force. The story involved Wolverine and Psylocke heading off to Japan to fight aliens and ninjas, and possibly alien ninjas, but then the story isn’t as important as the fact that we were seeing something as unlikely as X-Men ninja figures.

I used to have a few of these figures back in the day, but I was never all that enamored with them and where they wound up is anyone’s guess. However, I was recently re-introduced to them when I picked up a lot of miscellaneous figures off of Ebay and Ninja Force Deathbird happened to be one of the extras in the lot. I’m really glad she was in there, because you can easily toss out the whole ridiculous ninja angle, and you have a pretty good figure of everyone’s favorite Shi’ar mutant, Deathbird.

The packaging is certainly colorful. All the cards are the same on the front with a seriously pissed off animated-style Wolverine on the top and the figure displayed in a huge bubble. Behind the bubble is the X-symbol made up from two crossed katana swords. Wow. Just, wow. The back panel shows off some simple instructions on how to equip the figure with her exo-armor and shows off the other figures in the line along with some of the Spider-Man animated figures too.

The sculpt here is pretty simple, but I like it a lot, and its improved by the accessories included to turn regular Deathbird into exo-armor wearing Ninja Deathbird. Actually, there’s really nothing ninjafied at all about this figure as her armor is pretty reminiscent of some of her comic book appearances. The base figure just features a painted purple body suit and arm-length gloves. Her face sculpt is excellent and her mask is permanently attached, but her purple feathered cowl is removable to show off a little mutant birdlady cleavage and her wings come off too.

Or at least, her wings are supposed to come off. Despite my figure coming mint on card, I don’t think she was stored in very good conditions because as soon as I got her out of the package the peg that holds her wings on snapped off from being brittle. I glued them back on so they look great, but unfortunately that inhibits one of the figure’s cool play features. Her arms can peg into the wings to make them move with her arms, or you can detach them to give her arms independent articulation. Either way, this figure looks really awesome with wings spread and spear in hand.

Her exo-armor pieces are purple vaccuum plated, which give the figure a pretty striking look when attached. Mine have aged well, but it doesn’t take much to make these things start to flake. The armor set consists of front and back pieces for the torso and two arm pieces that are attached to the front chest piece by flexible cables. She also has two leg pieces. The cables could be a tad more flexible as they do either inhibit some of her armo movement or just pull the arm plates off if you try to move them too much.

Deathbird’s articulation is pretty good. She has ball joints in her shoulders, rotating joints in her hips and hinged knees. Her head also rotates from side to side. If your figure isn’t broken like mine, the wings rotate up and down. While the leg armor does cover up her knee joints, it doesn’t inhibit her articulation at all, which is pretty cool.

Overall, this figure was a nice bonus and looks really great on display. The only problem is I don’t really have any other X-Men or even Marvel figures in this scale to display her with, so right now she’s just a stand alone piece, but I’m still glad to have her. In fact, just looking at her has motivated me to go dig out my Star Trek X-Men comic and give it another read… maybe Second Contact too!