GAMBIT

MARVEL UNIVERSE

Yesterday I reviewed the MOTU Vikor figure who is clearly intended to be Conan the barbarian.  I would’ve got to him eventually but I picked him out specifically to review for my friend Matt.  Matt is a die hard Conan fan, the biggest I’ve ever met.  I ran into him at his place of work this past weekend and he told me that he’s been keeping up with my blog and enjoying it so I decided to tackle his favorite character as a small token of my appreciation.  Matt has since called me out for saying that Conan lives in Hyboria which is not really true.  He lived during the Hyborian Age.  Apologies to Matt and any other Conan nerds.

Today I’ve picked out another “special request” for my new facebook friend April.  My facebook (and real) friend Rob decided that we needed to meet because we are both big comic nerds and so he orchestrated our virtual friending.   In our initial getting to know you facebook  wall chat April told me that her favorite Marvel character is Gambit.  Her friend Richard chimed in that he likes Cable.  Both X-Men characters of which I have figures of.  I decided to tackle Gambit today and I’ll get to Cable soon enough.

I must be honest, although I am a HUGE Marvel fan, the X-Men corner of the Marvel universe is not one that I visit often.  I read them regularly as a kid because my brother Doug collected  the X titles and we shared a bedroom.  Doug and I have been in separate rooms and separate residences for many years now so I’m pretty out of the X-Men loop.  I pick up bits and pieces here and there as I need to in order to understand cross over story lines but overall the X-Men corner has become a frightening  and mysterious place.  There are at least a half dozen X-Men books plus solo books and mini series and it’s all really confusing to the uninitiated.   For example, Cyclops who’s 30ish is the father of Cable who’s 50ish.  That’s possible through the miracle of time travel.  What gets more confusing is there is another guy named X-Man who is the same character as Cable but he’s like 20ish and he comes from another timeline or something.  Oi.  I’ll refresh my memory on the whole thing before I tackle my Cable post.

So onto Gambit.  He’s the Cajun card throwing thief able to create kinetic energy.  I remember when he first appeared in Uncanny X-Men issue 266 back in 1990, Doug and I still shared a room back then.  He quickly became a fan favorite character to many but to be honest he never really did it for me.  I just never “got” him.  His power is kinda whatever and not easy to explain, his outfit seems lazy  and I’ve always found him kinda boring.  Lately he’s been playing the role of sidekick in the only X related book that I do read, X-23, and he’s pretty useless in there too.

Regardless, I snagged this figure when I saw it.  No Marvel character is really a bad character; I like something about all of them.  Even if for no other reason to pad my Marvel Universe display case I had to have this figure.  It didn’t hurt that he came with another must-have figure of an X-men character who I am equally indifferent about, Mister Sinister.  How could I pass up a 2-pack of confusing outdated looking X-Men?  The answer to that is I couldn’t because they are both great figures.  Even if the character Gambit doesn’t really interest me this is a great representation of him.  The head sculpt is great, the flowing jacket is great, the bow staff accessory is great, even his separately sculpted lil neckerchief is great.  I still have a long way to go before I have a respectable X-Men toy collection but having Gambit here is a pretty good start.  6 out of 10.

BARON ZEMO

MARVEL UNIVERSE

Last Friday my first San Diego Comic-Con exclusive arrived in the mail.  That was the Transformers/G.I. Joe hybrid Shockwave HISS tank.  Since I can’t afford to go to San Diego myself I am forced to pay top dollar for these Con exclusives on ebay.  It sucks but there really isn’t any other way to get ahold of these toys.  When my HISS tank arrived I absolutely loved it and felt it was worth even the inflated price I paid for it.  Well on Monday my second SDCC shipment arrived and unfortunately it did not meet my high expectations.  This Baron Zemo was one of three figures included in the Marvel Universe SDCC exclusive Masters of Evil box set .  Zemo is the leader of the Masters of Evil.  Also included were two of his lackeys Tiger Shark and Radioactive Man.  The Masters of Evil are a team of super villains who usually band together to do battle with the Avengers. The team has been lead by a variety of villains over the years(The original MOE was led by Baron’s father) and dozens and dozens are criminals have joined the roster at one point or another.  The 3 characters included in this set have never actually served on the team at the same time before so it seems like an odd choice when considering all of the possible character options Hasbro had to pick from.

And yet I actually quite like the character choices.  I’ve always thought Tiger Shark was cool and I’ve developed a fondness for Radioactive Man over the past few years after he became a good guy and played a starring role in one of the monthly books I collect, the Thunderbolts.

Baron Helmut Zemo was the real draw to this set for me though.  I always loved the look of the character.  Somehow he makes a purple suit with a pink mask, yellow gloves and boots with fur trim “work”.  He’s never been a typical rob-a-bank type of villain like  many of the other MOE alumni.  Baron Zemo is more of a Doctor Doom world conquerer type of villain. Zemo’s father, Baron Heinrich Zemo was a full on Nazi who was killed in battle against Captain America.  This Zemo isn’t necessarily a Nazi but he’s a nasty German with a thirst for power and a mission of revenge so I wouldn’t mess with him.

In recent years Zemo’s become an anti-hero of sorts.  He starred in Thunderbolts for years where we fans got to see a side of the character that we’d never seen before.  It was this book that really made the character more interesting to me as he no longer seemed like such a stereotype.  I’ve never owned a figure of the character before and was pretty stoked when I found out one would be available at the SDCC.

So my overpriced set arrived on Monday and I was immediately disappointed.  The figures all look pretty cool but they feel cheap.  Zemo’s arm fell off as soon as I took him out of the package.  Not a good sign.  It snapped back on easily enough but all of his joints are rather loose.  His articulation is awkward making it very hard to pose him in a normal standing position.  His pink chest piece, belt and boot fur are all separate pieces of plastic which can easily slide around and fall out of place.  When he’s posed on a shelf you don’t notice it but as soon as you start trying to pose him the sliding parts get annoying.  The other figures suffer from loose joints and wonky articulation as well.

Another issue I have is with the accessories.  The set included a sword and a pistol both intended for Baron Zemo.  Unfortunately his hands are sculpted open and his grip is way too wide to hold either of them.  I’d like to display him with his sword but unless I use tape or glue or something it just won’t stay in place.  The highlights of this figure are his head sculpt and color scheme.  The newly tooled head looks great with sculpted grooves and a dark purple paint wash over the pink base.  The silver eyes really stand out as well and manage to convey emotion even though the rest of the face is covered.  Zemo looks appropriately evil.  He would get a lower score if he weren’t such a cool character.  6 out of 10.

 

COLOSSUS

MARVEL UNIVERSE

Today in Halifax Nova Scotia its Gay Pride.  Technically it’s been Gay Pride week since last Sunday but today is the day that they held the parade and the concert and fireworks and all that jazz so I guess you could say today is the gayest and pride-iest  day of the week.  The parade grows every year and this year was no exception with what was the longest parade I think I’ve ever seen.  I’m very supportive of the LGBT community and I hope you are too.  I have friends that fall into each of those categories (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender) and my little brother is out and proud and awesome.  I read an article about Gay Pride Week in this weeks issue of The Coast (our free alternative newspaper) and it was pretty sad to read about how some people that marched in Halifax’s first Pride Parade 25 years ago had to wear bags over their heads so as not to get recognized and potentially fired from their jobs.  We’ve come along way from that Thankfully.  Seeing the large crowd that turned out for the parade today made me proud.  

To celebrate gay pride today I thought it might be nice to review a gay action figure.  Unfortunately I don’t think I have any.  There are many gay characters out there in comic books and pop culture and a few of them have been made into action figures but none of them have ended up in my collection.  There’s Batwoman for example who’s a lesbian, and there’s Hulkling from the Young Avengers both of whom have received the action figure treatment.  There’s Smithers from the Simpsons or Mr. Garrison from South Park who both have figures available as well but I don’t have them.  I don’t think that there are any gay G.I. Joes, at least no ones asking and no ones telling.  And I’m not sure Transformers have any sort of sexual identity at all so it’s hard to say with those guys.  If they  are sexual beings though I guarantee you that there a few of them that like to drive on the wrong side of the road, if you know what I’m saying.  98% of them are dudes after all. 

Ultimate/Gay Colossus

 

The closest thing I have to a gay action figure that I could think of is this guy, Colossus the metal skinned Russian member of the X-Men.  This is a bit of a cheat on my part because the Colossus figure pictured here is not actually gay.  This is the “real” Colossus who inhabits the Marvel Universe and is all about the ladies.  However Marvel also publishes a series of comic books that take place in an alternate universe called the Ultimate Universe.  In the Ultimate Universe many things are the same as they are in the regular Marvel Universe but a few minor and a few major things have been changed.  For example the Scorpion figure I reviewed a while back was from the Ultimate Universe and his backstory and costume is drastically different than the “real” Scorpion of the Marvel Universe.  Anyway, the Colossus of the Ultimate Universe is gay.  He looks pretty much the exact same in both universes except the Ultimate version wheres a black and yellow uniform instead of red and yellow one.  So it’s a bit of a stretch but I did sort of manage to find a gay character to review for gay pride week.

The figure is pretty awesome.  He’s big and tall like he should be; he stands about a head taller than most of the other figures in the line.  He’s wearing what I feel is his most iconic outfit which I appreciate.  I wouldn’t have bought the figure if he was wearing the stupid helmet that he wears in the comic books these days.  The face sculpt is great; he looks pissed.  The body sculpt is fantastic as well.  Each one of those lines on his skin is sculpted, not just painted on so you can feel them when you run your finger down his arm.  It’s an awesome figure and the folks at Hasbro who created him should be proud as well.  8 out of 10.

THE VULTURE

MARVEL : SPIDER-MAN

The Vulture first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man issue 2 published in  1963.  Back in those days Stan Lee and Steve Ditko were creating an awesome new villain for Spidey to fight almost every single month.

Issue # 3 brought us Doctor Octopus

Issue # 4 brought us the Sandman

Issue # 6 brought us the Lizard

Issue # 9 brought us Electro

Issue # 13 brought us Mysterio

The list goes on.  Almost all of them were pure comic book gold and they live on to this day remaining a thorn in Spideys side 50 years later.   They’ve pretty much all had make overs throughout the years but they pretty much always end up back in their original duds from these classic stories.  For the past decade Doctor Octopus for example has been running around in a black trench coat or a gigantic metal cocoon but I feel very safe betting my first born child that we haven’t seen the last of him in green tights and yellow boots.  Eventually some writer and artist will get together and say lets do away with all this crap and get back to what made this character appealing in the first place.  Doc Ock is actually one of those original villains that really needed a make-over.  A Roy Orbison look-a-like dressed like a leprechaun never really appealed to me all that much in the first place.

Another classic villain which never much appealed to me was the Vulture.  This guy was old as hell when we first met him.  It seems to me that he should be long since dead by now.  In fact I’m quite certain that he’s been on his death bed many times over the years and yet he’s still kicking.  Yep, old Adrian Toomes just won’t go away.  The old coot with the liver spotted bald head and pin striped green pajamas with a feathery collar is a resilient ol bastard.  Marvel has tried to replace this guy with a cooler Vulture many times but nothing ever sticks.  I remember there was the Vulturions years ago, a whole gang of flying bad guys using stolen Toomes technology but they didn’t last.  A few years ago a new Vulture was introduced who wore red and spit acid or something out of his predator like mouth.  He’s fallen by the wayside as well and the geezery old Vulture remains.  There was one attempt many years ago to make the character a little more hip which I quite liked.  Rather than replacing Toomes entirely what they did was have him convert himself into a young man again by sucking the life out of an android posing as Spider-Mans long lost mom (oh comic books).  Once young, he had a full head of hair and he wore a new armored costume.  They actually repeated that comic story in the 90s animated cartoon and that’s what this figure is based on.  I really dug this new look.  The Vulture actually seemed like a threat for the first time ever and the suit was far cooler than any he had worn before.  Unfortunately young Vulture didn’t last very long at all and he was back to the withered old “classic” Vulture in no time at all.  It is rather odd that the only Vulture toy I own is of the young Vulture who only appeared in a couple of issues out of the Vultures half century of comic book appearances.  I am glad this version made it to plastic at least once though as I’m sure I have many crusty old Vulture toys in my future.  

The toy itself is alright.  He’s kind of stiff looking and the really large V neck is pretty gay.  His head doesn’t seem to sit on his torso very naturally as his neck is almost non existent.  It’s a decent likeness but Toy Biz coulda done better than this.  4 out of 10.

PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL : SPIDER-MAN THE MOVIE

I have a little bit of time to kill before a two hour block of Chef Ramsey cooking shows consumes my evening so I figured I’d throw up a quick review.  Amazing Spider-Man disappointingly fell out of the number one box office spot this past weekend, being surpassed by the fourth film in the Ice Age franchise.  Spidey still pulled in good numbers to come in second but it does come as a surprise that Spider-Man was only able to hang onto the top spot for it’s debut weekend.  Spidey’s teammates The Avengers held the number one spot for 3 solid weeks earlier this summer.  I’m not sure how high Amazing Spider-Man will rank by the end of the summer but I hope it is not regarded as a failure.  Even though I didn’t absolutely love it I would like to see the franchise continue on without another senseless reboot.

Box office drop aside, it seems likely that we’ll get a sequel starring the same cast because overall the reviews for Amazing Spider-Man have been positive.  Most people I know either liked it or loved it.  Almost everyone I talk to seems to agree that it’s superior to the past 3 films if nothing else.  A lot of people tend to bash the Tobey Maguire films nowadays and some criticisms are definitely justified but overall I still really enjoy those films.  Yes, even number 3.  Rotton Tomatoes currently has the films ranked as follows: Spider-Man  89%, Spider-Man 2  93%,  Spider-Man 3  63%, Amazing Spider-Man 74% so I guess I’m not the only one who still likes bit of corny fun. 

This figure is based on the first Spider-Man movie starring Tobey Maguire.  This is my favorite figure from that line.  I also have a Spider-Man in his standard costume which is fine but nothing special;  plus a movie version Green Goblin as portrayed by Willem Dafoe.   The Goblin figure is a good representation of what was an absolutely terrible costume.  The line also produced a really nice figure of Peter Parker in his civilian clothes which I love.  I would award best figure in the line to this figure because it is the best of three worlds.  It works as a Peter figure, a rookie Spider-Man and a veteran Spider-Man.  It covers all stages of the characters evolution through the entire film.

First off there’s Peter.  This figure has a stellar face sculpt which is immediately recognizable as Tobey in the forlorn role of Peter Parker.  The clothes obviously don’t work great as a strictly Peter figure but that’s why you go buy the civilian Peter figure I mentioned earlier.  This figure includes an excellently constructed rubber mask that fits perfectly over Peter’s face to recreate his look from the amateur wrestling scenes in the movie.  The paint job on the rubber sweater looks pretty close to what we see in the film.  Next up you can actually peel off the sweatshirt and jogging pants and underneath is a fully clothed Spider-Man costume.  This provides you with a rare but desirable unmasked Spidey.  As cool as that is fortunately the toy comes with a second rubber mask which covers Peter’s entire head creating a perfect standard Spider-Man figure.

So regardless of what you feel about the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films I don’t think that you can dispute that the movies provided us with some excellent action figures. 9 out of 10.

THE LIZARD

MARVEL UNIVERSE: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

Along with being a celebration of America’s independence July 4th  also tends to be a big day for the box office.  Studios usually reserve the holiday for the release of a big budget action spectacle.  This year July 4th ushered in the beginning of a new Spider-Man franchise, you don’t get much bigger than that.  Spidey is one of the most well recognized characters in the world and has legions of fans from the die-hard to the casual.  I consider myself of the die-hard variety.  I’ve loved Spidey for as long as I can remember, what kid doesn’t?  I bought my first Spider-Man comic in the mid 80s and I haven’t missed a beat since.  I have bought every single issue of The Amazing Spider-Man published since that day right up until today when I bought the latest issue.  Besides that I have complete runs of all kinds of other spin-off titles that have sprung up over the years like Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Peter Parker: Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man, Spider-Man Unlimited, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and so on and so on.  Not to mention all the various Spidey mini-series’ and books published about his friends and foes.  I have a very decent sized comic collection, and I’d say more than half of it is made up of Spider-Man books.  And yet, even being a die-hard fan able to rhyme off the civilian identity of most of his villains I wasn’t uber excited about this new movie.  Maybe because it was over shadowed by the Avengers and G.I. Joe: Retaliation (nerd rage)and the conclusion of the Dark Knight trilogy.  Or maybe it’s because it was his origin story yet again and I’ve been there and done that more times than most people.  The last thing I wanted to see in a Spidey flick was Uncle Ben getting gunned down yet again. 

However the casting looked good and the trailers showed promise and at least a new villain was included rather than revisiting a villain we’d already seen on film.   I did still want to see it and I was sure I’d enjoy it (I even enjoyed the debacle that was Spider-man 3 after all)  I just wasn’t super-stoked to see it.  Well I went and saw it last night and I got  out of it pretty much what I expected.  It was good.  They changed up his origin story just enough to not be blasphemous to the mythos  and not to be overly repetitive to what we saw in the first Tobey Maguire film.   They didn’t include key characters of Peter Parker’s youth who played key parts in the last trilogy.  It was kind of strange to not have a Harry, Mary Jane or especially J. Jonah Jameson included in this picture but I’m glad they weren’t there.  I’m sure those characters will start popping up in the inevitable sequels but for now it was a nice change of pace.  It’s almost a shame that Spider-man 3 introduced film audiences to Gwen Stacy and her father George as their inclusion in this film would’ve seemed that much fresher otherwise.  I do like that this new series started out with Peter’s first love being Gwen as was the way it happened in the comics.

They’ve come a long way with the effects.  This Spider-Man looks much more realistic when swinging through the city.  While not nearly as cheesy as the Rami series this film had a few groaner moments.  I could’ve done without the gigantic American flag and the scene where all the regular New Yorkers decide to pitch in and give Spidey a hand.  Overall the film was quite good and if it had been the very first Spider-Man movie I probably would’ve loved it.  But with a rehashed origin story, tweaked or not and a plot similar to ones we’ve seen in past super hero movies this left me feeling just alright.

I’ve spoken before about Spider-Man’s stellar rogues gallery.  He’s got the best villains in the biz.  The original trilogy covered some classics like the Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Sandman, and Venom but there were still at least a dozen more great villains for the filmmakers to pick from this time around.  They opted for the Lizard and I’m glad they did.  The Lizard is a great classic Spidey villain and they managed to merge their origins in this version in a way that made sense.  Besides, it seemed as though the Lizard was bound to appear in the next installment of the Tobey Maguire series had a 4th been made.  The Lizards alter-ego Dr. Curt Connors appeared in both Spider-man 2 and 3 with a mention in 1 as Peter’s  university professor.  It seemed as though he had earned his place as a leading film villain.  When I first saw the movie-fied look of the Lizard I wasn’t really sold.  Why fix something if it ain’t broke?  I understand why they chose not to put Wolverine in yellow spandex on film but with the Lizard, his iconic comic book look would’ve translated fine and would’ve looked super cool.  I reviewed a figure based on his standard comic book appearance of The Lizard a little while ago.   The comic book version looks more like an alligator walking upright in a tattered lab coat.  The movie version is much more humanoid and buck naked.  Upon actually seeing the film I was a little more sold on this new appearance.  I assume the more human like face was chosen so the character could emote more on screen.  You’d think it would’ve made the lip synch easier too but I found the lip synch didn’t always line up with the audio.   I do not think this look is an improvement but it’s still a cool variation and so the action figure was worth picking up. 

The figure is pretty nice.  It’s well detailed with all the little scales covering his body.  The head is a pretty good representation of what appeared on screen but I’m not sure what emotion he’s supposed to be conveying here, angry maybe?   To me it kinda looks like he’s just speaking here.  I think an angrier scowl would’ve been better.  The paint apps are nice and the articulation is decent will ball jointed shoulders and elbows.  One thing I do not like about this figure is his size.  The previous release was way too big and this guy is too damn small.  He’s smaller than the Spider-Men figures in the line.  In the movie the Lizard was a big hulking reptile making the comic version seem more appropriate in size.  This guy is completely dwarfed when placed next to the other Lizard figure.  He looks like the Geiko Gecko by comparison.  I like this figure but it would have seriously benefited from some bulking up.  Over all a pretty good toy for a pretty good movie.  7 out of 10.

U.S. AGENT

MARVEL : CAPTAIN AMERICA

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!  Just a few days after our Canada Day celebrations here in the great white north our southern neighbors are celebrating their own national holiday.  A good number of my site visits come from the U.S. of A. so I figured I should pay them a similar courtesy as I paid to my fellow Canadians on July 1st.  On Canada Day I reviewed Guardian, a Canadian super-hero who proudly runs around the country in our flag so the obvious choice for a 4th of July figure review would be Captain America who runs around in their flag.  However I already reviewed Capt not that long ago and I’ve even previously reviewed the Patriot, another American flag waving  do-gooder.  Luckily the States have no shortage of National pride and there are literally dozens of characters who wear the red, white and blue.  So for this post I’ve decided to review another shield throwing yank, the U.S. Agent.

Now U.S. Agent isn’t actually wearing the red, white and blue but he’s close enough.  The origins of this character stem from a storyline that took place in 1986, just a few years after Doug and I got into collecting comics.  Steve Rogers, the defrosted WWII hero was fired from his role of Captain America by the US government over some silly dispute.  A new soldier was hired in Steve’s place, one who would follow orders without question,  John Walker.  John inherited the red, white and blue and became the governments brutal, unquestioning lapdog.  Steve meanwhile didn’t want to stop fighting the good fight so he donned this black costume and became the unsanctioned crime fighter known only as the Captain.  After the story resolved itself Steve regained his rightful role as Captain America and John Walker took over the identity Steve had created while off the grid.  Only when John took over he dubbed himself the U.S. Agent. 

U.S. Agent served as a member of the Avengers, Force Works and oddly enough even the Canadian super-team Omega Flight.  In a  battle against Scourge during the seige of Asgard he lost an arm and a leg.   Bummer.  Stubborn as a mule John Walker refused to retire from  keeping the peace and even though he was in a wheel chair and had a hook for a hand he took on the position of Warden of the Raft, a prison for super-villains.  I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one day John is somehow miraculously able to walk again, equipped with a cybernetic hand and ready to leap into action as the U.S. Agent once again but for now this figure represents a happier time in the life of Mr. Walker (I just realized that his name is kind of ironic now)

I think this is a great figure of U.S. Agent.  he’s a bit bulkier and a bit meaner looking than Captain America which is appropriate as John has always been portrayed as a brute.  The costume looks great with perfect tones of red and black and the articulation is the standard we’ve come to expect from the Marvel Universe figures which is good.  He comes with a shield accessory as no Captain America knock-off is complete without one.  The Agent  is the type of character you wouldn’t normally expect would make the cut in an action figure line.  Thankfully the Captain America movie line (a spin off from the main Marvel Universe line) allowed the Hasbro designers to focus on some Captain America specific characters for a couple of waves allowing for the inclusion of guys like U.S. Agent and Crossbones who may never have found their way into the main line.  Hopefully a Captain America sequel will spawn more figures of unlikely toy candidates from Cap’s supporting cast like Diamondback and other members of the Serpent Society.  7 out of 10.

U.S. Agent from the Marvel Handbook. I used to have binders full of these loose character bios.

GUARDIAN

MARVEL UNIVERSE

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!  That’s right it’s July 1 which is a national holiday here in Canada that celebrates the birth of our fine country.  I will be spending my Canada Day drinking a few beers and then heading down to the waterfront for a free concert and fireworks.  Mother Mother is playing tonight, a quirky Canadian talent whom I recommend you check out.  Before the beer starts flowing I thought I would post  a review of one of the most Canadian toys in my collection: Guardian.  The Heroes Force figures would have been an even more appropriate choice perhaps but I’ve already covered them.  Feel free to check out that review for more Canadian goodness.

Guardian is the leader of the Canadian super-team Alpha Flight in the Marvel Universe.  Well, he’s the leader most of the time, when he’s alive.  This guys has died and been resurrected more times than Resurrection Man.  Guardian was a Canadian scientist who built an exo-skeleton battle suit which gave him the powers of super-strength and flight and the ability to shoot blasts of energy from his hands.  One of the times he died his wife Heather donned the suit and bore the name Guardian in his place.  When he returned he let her keep the name and he became Vindicator.  He’s also gone by the name Weapon Alpha.  I think Guardian is currently alive but last I checked a different dude was wearing the costume and leading a new team called Omega Flight.

I’ll be honest, even though between Doug and I we read practically the entire Marvel Universe at one point, neither of us ever got into Alpha Flight.  I’ve tried in the past and have a handful of issues but it just wasn’t that good.  The characters were ridiculous stereo-types.  The team was made up up a guy wearing our flag like long underwear, a midget in black tights named puck, a Sasquatch, an indian shaman, and an inuit Goddess that could transform into only Canadian creatures like snow owls.  They sucked.

And yet it’s hard to not feel Patriotic when you see Guardian in this costume.  He’s the closest thing we’ve got to our very own Captain America.  Well that is with the exception perhaps of Captain Canuck, another Canadian super-hero with a very similar costume.  This figure is pretty nice overall but it does have some articulation issues.  I find it hard to have him stand naturally with the way his arms are sculpted and designed.  He’s stuck with his arms jutting out like a juiced up body builder.  The paint apps are really nice here.  The red is metallic and it really pops.  The white has a grayish-blue wash overtop which brings out the muscle detail in the sculpt.  For a C-list character I’m glad he found his way into the Marvel Universe line and sucky or not I hope the rest of Alpha Flight is eventually released as well.  7 out of 10.

WOLVERINE

MARVEL UNIVERSE

When the 3 ¾ inch Marvel Universe line of figures launched a couple of years ago I told myself not to bother with it.  I already had a pretty large Marvel collection in the 6 inch scale from a few years back anyway.  The initial figures that came out didn’t do much to impress me anyway.  I found they looked really scrawny and they were selling for the same price as G.I. Joes only G.I. Joes were far more detailed and came with a ton of accessories while most of the Marvel figures didn’t come with any accessories.  I actually like the fact that they don’t come with accessories because very few super-heroes use accessories.  Silver Surfer needs a surf board of course and Captain America needs a shield but I hate when they package Spider-Man with a hang glider just so they can charge me an extra couple of bucks for the toy.  I say do away with all useless accessories but for the love of god drop the price point a buck or two.  Paying $12 for a little iceman figure is kind of hard to swallow when the guy is practically a solid white stick man.  It wasn’t until the Red Hulk figure came out that I was finally hooked on this line of figures.  The detail and overall quality had improved greatly over the next couple of lines and the fact that they were able to capture Ed McGuinness’s art style in such a small figure is what really impressed me.  There was no turning back after that, I must have 100 of these things by now.

Though Red Hulk is the figure that convinced me to collect the line he wasn’t the first figure I purchased.  Oddly enough the first figure I bought was this Wolverine.  To some Wolverine might seem like an obvious choice but to me.  I’ve always had a kind of love/hate relationship with Wolverine.  He was booming in popularity right around the time I was getting into comic books.  He was absolutely everywhere and he got shoehorned into different comic books that were struggling with sales.  His costume is cool  and his powers are awesome but half the time he couldn’t even be bothered to bring his costume to his guest appearances.  His haircut may be unique but it never struck me as cool and I hated having a casually dressed Wolverine wandering around in all of my comic books.  A couple years into my comic collecting Marvel launched Wolverines first solo book.   I remember reading it thinking that this was exactly what I didn’t want in a Wolverine book.  He was goofing around fighting losers I’d never heard of in a boring fictional city all the while wearing a stupid eye-patch.  Meh.  Doug stuck it out for a while but I lost interest quickly. I also was annoyed with the whole “no memory of his past” angle.  Basically, yes he looked cool but I found him to be a boring character to read about.

When I saw this figure I didn’t see all the boring over-wrought stories of him wandering around in Madripoor, I just saw a cool figure.  In the comic books around this time Wolverine had joined the new X-Force team which was a stealth team assembled by Cyclops for covert missions.  All of the X-Force crew wore black and silver variations of their usually costumes.  It’s amazing what a little black and silver can do to make a character seem even more bad-ass than he was before.  I was really digging the look and was impressed when this figure came out (the first Wolverine of the series) to see that they had opted to put him in his new and not widely recognizable X-Force costume.  I wanted it just because it was so fresh but I didn’t want to rope myself into collecting a new series of figures.  It then dawned on me though that I didn’t own a single Wolverine figure.  Clearly I had let my hate of the character overshadow my love for him and had navigated my way through the Secret Wars, the 90s X-Men toys, and the Marvel legends without ever having owned a Wolverine toy.  For a character released so often it’s almost a staggering thought that I was able to avoid owning him for so long.  So I figured it was time to remedy that situation and I scooped me up this X-Force Wolverine.  I think my patience paid off as this is a very nice little Wolverine.  The sculpt is nice, he’s well detailed, has the just-right amount of articulation and is not overly posed.  I really like the head sculpt too as the mask is just pointy enough.  And the black and silver costume just seals the deal, he looks awesome.  The X-Force costume has been released twice more since but this one gets points for being the first. Welcome to my collection Wolverine…I hope you survive the experience. 8 out of 10.

KAINE

MARVEL- SPIDER-MAN

I joked in my last post that this was shaping up to be another theme week here at “mike’s collection” as my last two posts have been about toys I bought while vacationing with ex-girlfriends.  When I sat down today to decide which action figure to review I figured, what the hell, let’s go with it.  So today I’ve chosen to review Kaine.  It was probably the summer of 1998, maybe 1999 that I decided to take my first real vacation ever.  I would’ve been about 20 at the time.  As a kid I travelled from Ontario to Nova Scotia with my family a few times but since moving to Nova Scotia permanently in 1986 I hadn’t been anywhere.  Hadn’t been on a plane, a train or even a greyhound bus in over 10 years.  I don’t have a natural inclination to travel as I like to spend my money on other things but after graduating high school and starting university I figured it was time I saw a little bit more of the world. I wasn’t feeling worldly enough to just travel to some random destination and try my hand at being a stranger in a strangeland, I thought it best to go visit a place where I knew someone who could show me around.  I didn’t have too many friends scattered about the world in those days as I do now.  My ex Rhonda had moved to Toronto a while back and I thought it would be nice to touch base with her again.  We remained very good friends for many years after our romance ended.  At the time she was living with her new boyfriend Mike in the heart of downtown.  They were both up for me crashing on their couch for a week so away I went.  They were great hosts and we had lots of funny visiting the Metro Toronto Zoo and Canada’s Wonderland theme park.  On my first night there we went and saw one of my favourite bands, The Dandy Warhols in a small and packed sweaty club.  We went to the Playdium which was a wicked cool giant arcade and I went to a Hooters restaurant for the first time.  Great memories all. 

Both of them had to work during the day so all of our time together was in the evenings and on the weekend.  Every day I had the entire afternoon to myself to explore the city.  It was mind boggling to me that each day I could walk for hours in a different direction and still be “downtown”.  In Halifax where I currently reside we have like two real urban streets, maybe 5 or 6 if you want to be generous.  The rest of the city is mostly residential.  I hadn’t been to Toronto since I was a little kid and I wasn’t so aware of my surroundings back then.  On this trip I was in awe at the size of it.  On one of my afternoon walkabouts I discovered the ancient mythical city of Shangra-La.  At least it felt that way, It was actually the Silver Snail comic book shop.  This shop was enormous; at least when compared to the shops we had back home in Halifax.  I couldn’t believe the variety of old toy lines they had available on their shelves.  In those days I was buying a lot of the 5” ToyBiz Marvel figures.  I think I bought a few other toys on that vacation but it was the ToyBiz figures which practically resulted in me needing to buy another suitcase for the trip home.  I bought a ton of them, ones I had never seen before or even knew existed.  Kaine for example was part of an 8-pack of figures based on the clone saga storyline and I no idea this set was out there.  The clone saga didn’t go over well with fans for the most part so most of the characters related to it were swept under the rug and never received the action figure treatment despite their prominent role in the Spider-Man books for a couple of years.  The set contained the first figures I’d ever seen of characters like the Scarlet Spider (Spider-Man’s clone who became his ally and brother) Kaine (The scarred and homicidal evil clone of Spider-Man)  Spidercide (another evil clone able to alter his shape) Ben Reilly (the Scarlet Spider’s secret identity) Spider-Man (the Ben Reilly version after Peter Parker relinquished the title to him)and the Jackal (the nut job college professor who was doing all this cloning.  At the time I thought this set was an epic find.  I don’t recall what I paid for it but I don’t think it was unreasonable.  It’s just that I bought so many other Marvel figures that the overall price tag got a little scary. 

Kaine might not look like much and you’re right, his design is less than stellar.  In fact it straight up sucks.  I was never sure what the deal with his costume was.  When he shows his real face he looks like Peter Parker except with all these web like scars.  This disfigurement is his shame, it was why he was rejected by his creator the Jackal.  So why he felt the need to get a blue unitard and cover it with the same web like scars is beyond me.  Sometimes he was drawn as if the scars were like thorny vines on the outside of his costume.  And then the purple shawl around his neck?  I just don’t get it.  If somebody came to me and said “design Spider-Man’s evil clone”, this is quite literally the last design I would’ve came up with.  After every other possible design in the known universe I might’ve finally said, “how about a thorny blue onesy with a purple cape and a Bon Jovi haircut.”  Maybe. And yet I kinda like him anyway.  It was an interesting concept that a clone with all of young Peter’s memories could’ve turned into a brutal killer after just a few years of rejection and torment.  Was Spider-Man’s psyche really so fragile?  It made you think.  And you sympathized with Kaine because he was just a broken down version of a character you already loved.  Crappy costume aside I was just glad to have a Kaine figure.  The clone storyline wrapped with the death of Scarlet Spider and Kaine faded off into the background.  In recent years, Kaine has been cured of the degenerative disease that was scarring and killing him and given a chance at redemption.  He has donned a new costume (still not a great one but far better than this and much more Spider-Man-esque) and has taken on the mantle of his fallen brother, the Scarlet Spider.  With Kaine in this new role we may never be subjected to seeing him run around in this garb ever again. Thank God.  Still, I’m glad it was rendered in plastic at least this one time.  5 out of 10.