tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post8332551105681682305..comments2024-03-22T04:20:11.870-05:00Comments on Gentlemen of Leisure: X-amining X-Men Action Figures: X-Men Series V & VI, X-Force Series IIIAustin Gortonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-16702932076936573772018-04-20T09:23:54.598-05:002018-04-20T09:23:54.598-05:00Sorry for the relatively late comment, but I have ...Sorry for the relatively late comment, but I have so much nostalgia for this specific wave. My collection was built on the back of the Kay-B 3 for $10 bin, so I never saw Beast or most of the Starjammers or Senyaka, but there was no shortage of Rictor or the rest of X-Force.<br /><br />At the time I hadn't read any X-Force comics and just generic cool designed dudes were perfect for my friends and I's original characters to team up with the X-Men (my character was Morph). Also I had a Rogue figure and don't remember it being that rare, but it could just be one of the vagaries of toy distribution at the time. The one I never saw for outside of a comics shop was Beast, and that's the one I wanted.<br /><br />Even though I sold all my figures after sitting in storage for years, I still have this weird lingering desire to buy a Beast and a Mojo figure, just because I never had them.Dobsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08884152078310514684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-83116923661121780472018-04-01T21:51:10.752-05:002018-04-01T21:51:10.752-05:00Oh the irony of Rictor and his gun in light of an ...Oh the irony of Rictor and his gun in light of an upcoming issue of X-Force. John Cookhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12600335496622438290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-16254690432737531032018-03-29T17:17:54.459-05:002018-03-29T17:17:54.459-05:00Oh, MOTU and ThunderCats scale-mixing definitely w...Oh, MOTU and ThunderCats scale-mixing definitely would've been a bridge too far for me as well. I could tolerate differences in scale within like, an inch. Those original ToyBiz figures were very hard to reconcile with the sculpts from this time. You could still make it work with characters like Nightcrawler (slight in stature) or Storm (having no other choice). But Juggernaut, Colossus, Apocalypse? Those geeks had to go.<br /><br />That Phoenix figure really was great though and put earlier renditions of the X-Women to shame.<br /><br />GenX Banshee was a DRASTIC improvement over skinny awkward whistle jammed in his back original Banshee.cyke68https://www.blogger.com/profile/16863809928504935104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-29086902104676645642018-03-29T17:08:59.569-05:002018-03-29T17:08:59.569-05:00I wanna say blue was the "official" Mave...I wanna say blue was the "official" Maverick release. That version was far more common and got packed in the next assortment or two with Havok, blocky Iceman, mansion Sabretooth, etc. The earlier silver one was probably exclusive to specialty stores. Maybe in a two-pack with Fitzroy? Something wonky like that. I definitely never saw or owned that variant.cyke68https://www.blogger.com/profile/16863809928504935104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-84915999388957126322018-03-29T13:02:04.154-05:002018-03-29T13:02:04.154-05:00I don't think I ever saw the actual silver-cos...I don't think I ever saw the actual silver-costumed Maverick in any store. I wound up with a repaint in blue. I don't recall what sub-line he was part of.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-91603691888043744672018-03-29T12:59:37.576-05:002018-03-29T12:59:37.576-05:00Scott Lobdell wrote a guest column in an issue of ...Scott Lobdell wrote a guest column in an issue of TOYFARE where he talked about how proud he was that Senyaka received an action figure since he was his favorite of the Acolytes he created. Or something to that effect; it's been a couple decades since I read it.<br /><br />Lobdell also noted, as I seem to recall, that he and Fabian Nicieza had an informal contest between them when it came to creating Acolytes. I think they tried to make them as weird and obscure as they could.<br /><br />Trivia: In the column, Lobdell referred to the character as "Senyaka from Sri Lanka" more than once. I don't know if it was ever confirmed in the comics, but I guess, at lest per his creator, that's where he comes from!Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-87293750673040476212018-03-29T12:55:30.918-05:002018-03-29T12:55:30.918-05:00I'm probably retroactively modifying my though...I'm probably retroactively modifying my thoughts on Rogue. I'm guessing I liked her initially too -- but my opinion of both her and the original Storm fell when Phoenix was released, far more in scale with other characters in the line.<br /><br />I was a scale nut, though. I've always been a little jealous of kids for whom it didn't matter. My Transformers never teamed up with any of my other toys because they were grossly out of scale. I would've loved to play "He-Man meets ThunderCats", but again scale put the kibosh on that idea.<br /><br />I forgot about the Gen-X Jubilee figure! She was awful, so much so that I never got her despite liking the character. I loved the Gen-X Banshee, though. He fit great with the regular X-Men figures. The White Queen wasn't bad, either.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-2158484359186295332018-03-28T19:49:28.571-05:002018-03-28T19:49:28.571-05:00What does it say that Kylun wasn't even the mo...What does it say that Kylun wasn't even the most obscure character to get an action figure in this specific assortment? Bonebreaker?? Senyaka???<br /><br />To say nothing of Quark, Slayback, Killspree, and Krule over the course of this run. The '90s SURE were a thing.cyke68https://www.blogger.com/profile/16863809928504935104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-58832041478406865872018-03-28T17:25:39.821-05:002018-03-28T17:25:39.821-05:00I was quite pleased with this Rogue. Maybe I'm...I was quite pleased with this Rogue. Maybe I'm an easy customer, but she looked the part and had TWO fists. (I was always a stickler that characters notable for punching their adversaries being able to do so in action figure form.) The variations in scale didn't bother me too much until the Generation X lines about a year or two later. ToyBiz got heavy on sculpting at the expense of articulation around that time, and somehow produced a Jubilee that TOWERED over all of her teammates. Bad form considering how long we'd been waiting for her.cyke68https://www.blogger.com/profile/16863809928504935104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-51553395727749780522018-03-28T17:19:21.713-05:002018-03-28T17:19:21.713-05:00Similar to Matt, I first encountered these figures...Similar to Matt, I first encountered these figures in the form of overpriced comic shop offerings. Morph and Fitzroy, who I grabbed up at the first opportunity. It was more the novelty of seeing new X-Men toys than a genuine longing for either character (though I was pretty excited for Fitzroy at least, since he was basically impossible to "sub" with a different character). Morph, despite getting a big push in the animated series and having the very fun interchangeable heads gimmick, was basically relegated to the role of "de-iced Iceman" in my personal X-Men stable. I just had little interest or use for the poor guy otherwise.<br /><br />Beyond that, I recall rarely seeing these assortments in stores. Nevertheless, I must have run my dad absolutely ragged that Christmas tracking them down because I'm reasonably sure I had every damn one. Beast and Rogue felt like BIG gets, as major characters receiving the first-time figure treatment and done very well. (Balanced on a flat surface, I could manage to flip Beast... onto his head.) "Civilian" Wolverine is also a damn near pitch perfect translation. There was even a jeep accessory for him (that he didn't quite fit in) to recreate countless melodramatic "I go where I wanna go!" scenes from the cartoon!<br /><br />Of the three lines, X-Force really crams in the most bang for your buck. Only one real dud in Quark, but the rest are must-haves for fans of the series. I share Austin's love for that insane Mojo sculpt and was relieved I could retire Daredevil as my Pyro stand-in. As proper team entrants, Sunspot and Rictor are also notably well-done. Shatterstar is fine as a figure, but I was disappointed by his swords being kinda small and shitty. For as much as ToyBiz insisted on giving everyone weird obligatory weapons, it sucked that they whiffed so badly on a legitimate accessory. Especially measured against the original Shatterstar's swords (too big for this figure to even hold) or even Ky'Lun's.<br /><br />Cable changes outfits constantly, but wasn't that "Air Assault" version pretty similar to a Tony Daniel design?<br /><br />Finally, Maverick was supposed to be included in series V. There's a faint line between Morph and Beast (and I feel like part of a gun or something) on these cardbacks indicating where his figure was cropped out. I believe he was released to comic stores in limited editions and will appear properly in the next wave. Curious exclusion for a hot early '90s character. Wonder what the rationale was there; already too many dudes with guns?cyke68https://www.blogger.com/profile/16863809928504935104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-58832706057312308772018-03-28T16:41:52.708-05:002018-03-28T16:41:52.708-05:00Ha, La Lunatica was my stand-in for Hepzibah too!Ha, La Lunatica was my stand-in for Hepzibah too!cyke68https://www.blogger.com/profile/16863809928504935104noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-86012886469660822262018-03-28T11:26:12.685-05:002018-03-28T11:26:12.685-05:00Huh. Sorry about the repeated comments. They weren...<br>Huh. Sorry about the repeated comments. They weren't showing up for me.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-51756368184596693432018-03-28T11:25:12.189-05:002018-03-28T11:25:12.189-05:00Kylun got a figure? Wow. I mean, Young Blam never ...<br><i>Kylun</i> got a figure? Wow. I mean, Young Blam never imagined he’d see action figures of the Starjammers and Right-This-Minute Blam couldn’t have told you who Quark or Senyaka were even from the pictures, but Kylun just feels like a really deep cut. Maybe because Excalibur was so tangential to the X-Men line for so long — and, like you say, no other members of the team besides Nightcrawler have shown up.<br /><br />Civilian Wolverine looks pretty rad.<br /><br />I wonder if the folks who chose Beast’s ridiculous electric blue for the live-action movies had this figure. He seems to have appropriately dark fur in the group shot you posted first but the later solo photo might explain (yet still not excuse) one of my great peeves about the films.<br /><br>Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-26530595498844841422018-03-28T11:24:29.409-05:002018-03-28T11:24:29.409-05:00Forgot to note that I was always disappointed we g...Forgot to note that I was always disappointed we got Ch'od and Raza, then Corsair, but never Hepzibah. I got the X-MEN 2099 La Lunatica figure as her stand-in. If you pretended really, really hard, she could pass for the Jim Lee incarnation despite the totally different costume and lack of ears and a tail.<br /><br />You noted above that it was toy executive-think that led to female figures being vastly underrepresented and short-packed on the occasions they were actually produced. I believe this was, at least with regards to Toy Biz, specifically Ike Perlmutter-think, an influence which still permeates certain parts of Marvel to this day, unfortunately.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-42199767535834530622018-03-28T11:22:43.235-05:002018-03-28T11:22:43.235-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-90494381804426134082018-03-28T11:20:24.252-05:002018-03-28T11:20:24.252-05:00Let's see... out of all three of these waves, ...Let's see... out of all three of these waves, my brother and I owned Silver Samurai, Morph, Random, Fitzroy, Rogue, Ch'od, Raza, Civilian Wolverine, Mojo, and Pyro. I had no interest in X-Force, so we only got the two X-Men villains from their wave. I think our Ch'od and Raza came later, though, in a "Phoenix Saga" boxed set that also included Corsair and an exclusive Dark Phoenix (repaint of the regular general release Phoenix figure).<br /><br />I still vividly remember the day we discovered these figures. We were out -- my parents, grandparents, brother, sister, and me -- and I somehow convinced my dad to stop at the local comic shop even though there was no plan to do so. My brother and I went inside; I was looking for comics, but we spotted these new X-Men figures we'd never seen before on the wall, including Beast and Morph! They were tagged at the princely sum of $10.00 each, but we went back out to the car and convinced my parents to buy one for each of us. And as I recall, we never actually saw those two at regular retail, so I guess it was the right thing to do.<br /><br />It's so surreal to think back to my childhood, when you didn't know what toys were on the way until you saw them on shelves. Nowadays (and really even dating back to the days of TOYFARE magazine, among others), you see prototypes and such online long before they're released.<br /><br />Beast was easily my favorite from this group simply for his existence -- he is a major core X-character after all. I really wanted to like Rogue, but I felt like she was too small next to the other newer figures. It was like she was sculpted to fit in with the earliest figures in the line rather than the bulkier ones that were now seeing release. This was made even worse by the fact that within another year or so we'd have Phoenix, a beautifully sculpted female figure who positively dwarfed both Storm and Rogue in size!<br /><br />I also really liked Morph -- as a character he wasn't necessarily terribly useful, but his action feature was totally benign and thus he was one of the best articulated figures in the line. I loved Silver Samurai despite his lack of posability -- and Pyro was great too, though he didn't really live up to his full potential until Toy Biz produced Avalanche and Blob within another year or so.<br /><br />These were some good lineups and they come with great memories, as will the next few waves you look at.Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14580725636327122073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7266470995513648978.post-78786833570201716752018-03-28T11:19:39.652-05:002018-03-28T11:19:39.652-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Blamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07342343767763035991noreply@blogger.com