It’s Marvel’s turn — in October the Marvel Universe will begin a relaunch. New characters! New costumes! New #1! More money! This week, I pick apart the Marvel Now! initiative to look at positives, negatives, hopes, and fears.
Posts Tagged ‘Wolverine and the X-Men
Blake and Erin spent the week in Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving, and this week they’ve got a trifecta of entertainment to talk about. From the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, they discuss the special exhibit Heroes and Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross. Then they shift gears to discuss the new Stephen King novel 11/22/63 and the online experience surrounding the new King miniseries Bag of Bones. And to cap it off, they delve into the movie event Blake has been waiting to see for 12 years: The Muppets. In the picks, Erin talks more about the Dresden Files and Blake doubles up with Wolverine and the X-Men #2 and Legend of Oz: The Wicked West #1. Contact us with comments, suggestions, or anything else at Showcase@CXPulp.com!
Music provided by Music Alley from Mevio.
Episode 247: Of Muppets and Kings
21
May
09
Toy Stories: Another Marvel Mob
What’s that, you say? You want to see pictures of more Marvel action figures? And my inimitable commentary? And, if at all possible, you’d like three figures from the Marvel Universe line and one from Wolverine and the X-Men?
Well… if that’s what you really want, okay.
Nightcrawler: Swashbuckler and Extremely Popular Dude at Sorority Rush Week
First up, from Wolverine and the X-Men, let me introduce you to Nightcrawler. In truth, I’m not really a huge fan of the X-Men characters. Outside of the original five, the only ones I’ve ever really liked are Shadowcat, Colossus, and our boy Kurt Wagner here. The animated figure is nicely articulated, but his funky feet make him difficult to pose. For a moment, I entertained the thought that I could use the tail to help prop him up, but it doesn’t really rotate enough to be practical. They included the sword, though, which is awesome.
These next three are from the Marvel Universe line, and i’ll present them in increasing order of awesometude.
Don't mess with Ms. Marvel. She burns gloves.
Ms. Marvel is the first female Marvel Universe figure I got, and honestly, I wasn’t wild about it. The paint at the top of the boots is bad — the lines are messed up and not clean at all. The head almost looks like a wig was glued on, and the face sculpt isn’t so hot. The actual body sculpt is pretty good, though. The torso joint is much better than in the male figures, and unlike the female DC Universe Infinite Heroes toys, Ms. Marvel is very easy to stand up and pose. There are two Ms. Marvel figures — this one features her current costume, but you can also get her in her original costume. I just prefer this one.
The ever-lovin', blue-eyed Thing
I was really excited to get this figure. Benjamin J. Grimm, the Thing, is my favorite Marvel superhero and my second-favorite hero of all (right after Superman). The figure is pretty good too. Like the oversized Hulk figure from the same line, Ben’s sculpt is more stable than your standard Marvel Universe torso. I wish he wasn’t hunched over quite so much — Ben is a big dude, but he does have decent posture — but other than that this is a sharp-looking figure that does Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s greatest creation justice.
Much as I love Benjy, though, his figure just isn’t as cool as this next guy…
I! AM! I-RON MAN!
This is the third Iron Man figure in the Marvel Universe series, and like the first two, it’s one of the best toys in the line. This armor design isn’t Tony Stark’s current armor, nor is it his first, nor is it even my favorite, but it’s arguably the most classic version of Iron Man and inarguably the armor that he wore the longest. The entire figure looks like a unique sculpt, especially the great helmet, gloves, and boots. He comes with the same energy-burst accessory as the first two figures, but I can forgive that because it looks that cool. With the sequel to last year’s hit movie scheduled to come out next year, I hope they keep producing his armors, especially his original, the Silver Centurion outfit, and my personal favorite, the Neo-Classic armor.
 Once again, friends, I’m here to take a look at a few of the toys I’ve picked up recently. Although I’ve talked quite a bit about the new 3.75-inch Marvel Universe action figure line, it’s worth noting that Marvel has also launched two additional 3.75-inch lines based on its other media projects, the upcoming movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the current cartoon show Wolverine and the X-Men. How this obscure, little known character from a nearly unheard of comic book has garnered both a TV show and a feature film this year is utterly beyond me.
Let’s start with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Not having seen the movie yet, I really have no particular urge to get the movie figures, but Marvel and Hasbro have done something undeniably cool here. They’ve actually launched two subsets of this line — one series of figure based on the characters as they appear in the movies, and a second series based on the characters’ comic book appearance. I won’t get all of the figures in either line, but the fact that the comic versions are available makes it far more likely that I’ll pick up any. For example, check out this guy here:
Deadpool and his lil' friens!
Honestly, I never much cared for Deadpool until about a year and a half ago, when I started getting issues of Cable and Deadpool to review for Comixtreme. The character turned out to be really, really funny. The action figure? Not bad. He came with about a thousand accessories — a machine gun, a pistol, a sai that (proportionately) could be used to skewer a couple of pigs, and two swords for the sheathes on his back. The figure looks good, but there are two major problems with it. First: the legs. As you can see in the picture, their poseability is extremely limited. They don’t close very far, and this was honestly the only posture I could get for him. Second: the swords. One of them fits into its scabbard very nicely. The other… don’t. This may be a problem specific to my figure, I admit, but I tried both swords on both sides, and the same one kept giving me trouble, despite being visually indistinguishable from its brother. Grr.
I’ve passed on the movie version of this character. Maybe after I actually seen the movie I’ll decide to get it. I do think Ryan Reynolds was a good choice for the character, for what it’s worth.
As for the other line, Wolverine and the X-Men is based on the new animated series I haven’t seen yet because I don’t get the Nicktoons network. If anyone knows a (legal) place to watch this show online, please let me know in the comments. In the meantime, I’m going to look at the figures and pick up the ones I like. This guy, for instance:
The Bouncing Beast!
Dr. Hank McCoy is my favorite character in the X-Men universe (as you’ll all hear in this coming weekend’s edition of the 2 in 1 Showcase podcast), and I’ll pick up almost any figure based on him. This animated-style figure is pretty good. I like the style, and his arms are massive. The articulation is pretty good as well. Hank also comes with three widget-type doohickeys that he can hold in either his hands or his feet, which is a nice touch.
Cyclops!... wearin' a trenchcoat for no apparent reason!
Finally, there’s this guy here. Scott Aloysius Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops, longtime leader of the X-Men, who for some reason wears a trenchcoat in the cartoon. This is a nice looking figure, although like Deadpool his hip articulation is really poor. He does have one cool accessory, though: a removable optic blast.
This is pretty neat. I’ve never seen a Cyclops figure with a blast before. On the other hand, it’s a pretty short-range blast. This could be quite a liability in some battle situations. Allow me to demonstrate, with the help of my lovely assistant, the Joker.
Clearly, you see how this version of Cyclops may have trouble thwarting evildoers.
Don’t forget, friends, you can scroll back through previous toy blogs at the Toy Stories category of Evertime Realms! More next week!
(Title note for people who are less of a geek than I am, which is just about everyone: “616” refers to the “core” Marvel Universe. In a comic book world with multiple alternate dimensions, Marvel chose to designate their main world as #616.)
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