Ghost Rider. Motorcycle hero. Toy Biz ‘96. I’m done.
My Old Toys
Presented by Jaalay
If you’re wondering why this Blade figure doesn’t look like Wesley Snipes, it’s because Toy Biz released it a couple of years before the movie.
The character had been around for about 20 years, but outside of the Tomb of Dracula series he never got much love. Then in the early 90s the Nightstalkers got their own book and Blade started popping up on the Spider-Man cartoon.
Those takes inspired this figure, which was released as part of the Spider-Man Vampire Wars series.
The figure still looks good, but I’ve lost most of the accessories. Blade came with some sort of axe/spear launching equipment; all I left are the axes. Also, that’s not his sword the figure is holding in the pictures above.
So, I’m still punching myself over all my lost Marvel toys. This week I’ll be putting up the last ones and then moving on to another toy series.
Think the next one might go back to the 80s again. Should be fun.
beb0p asked:
His name is Exodus. I used to have them. He was Magneto's second for a while. Leader of the Acolytes.
Thank you!
Mystery Toy Sighting!
I know he’s a Toy Biz figure, I’m pretty sure he’s from the 1990s X-Men series, but I have no idea who this character is.
He’s pinkish with some purple, so he might be an alien, or he might be from the future where pink people live.
He’s got a pair of wings that you can squeeze together, activating an up-and-down motion in his left arm.
My mind’s drawing a blank. Can anyone name this guy and tell me what he does for a living?
This is all Battleship’s fault.
News came Wednesday that Paramount was shelving G.I. Joe: Retaliation — which was scheduled for release June 29 — until March 29, 2013 so it can be converted to 3D.
“It is increasingly evident that 3D resonates with movie-goers globally and together with Paramount, we made the decision to bring fans an even more immersive entertainment experience,” Hasbro’s President and CEO Brian Goldner said in a statement.
I don’t believe it. Why would you stall a movie five weeks out, when the posters and merchandising is already in place? Why would a decision on post-conversion 3D come so late in the game?
I know I’m not the only speculating that this decision is a panic response to Battleship sinking last weekend.
Both flicks come from Hasbro, although the latter was a Universal release that got awful reviews and had a marketing campaign that heavily featured Rihanna.
G.I. Joe has The Rock. Come on.
(By the way, that line is funny if you say it like Downey talking to Loki in The Avengers)
I don’t see how converting G.I. Joe to 3D and pushing it to March — when kids are still in school — is going to make you more money.
Even though the first one was an abomination, I was genuinely excited about The Rock and Bruce Willis and the guy playing Flint and Cobra Commander in his real armor and Firefly and Lady Jaye and basically a G.I. Joe film that actually looked like it might kick ass.
The only other thing I can figure is the June 29 release date was too close to The Amazing Spider-Man on July 3. Maybe Paramount thought Retaliation would open big and get crushed in its second weekend.
That’s reasonable, considering Avengers is suffocating any flick released in its wake.
If that’s the case they could have bumped up the release, rather than postpone it. A week earlier it would have competed only with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Now all they’ve done is clear my calendar for Madea’s Witness Protection. Good work Paramount.
Nightcrawler, Colossus, two versions of Wolverine and Archangel.
Those are some of the Toy Biz X-Men figures that I’ve lost over the years, and who’s left in the box?
Trevor Fitzroy.
Not just any Fitzroy, but the one that came in a Kay Bee Toys exclusive two-pack with the “special metallic edition” of Maverick. Not Maverick from Top Gun, although that would be awesome.
This Maverick was a mercenary mutant who first appeared in X-Men in the early 90s. And everyone thought he was awesome, because it was the early 90s, and antihero mutants were pretty much the coolest thing on Earth.
Anyway, getting back to Fitzroy, I’ve got him, but no Maverick.
In the comics, Fitzroy was a time-traveler who ran this mutant-killing competition with a group called The Upstarts. I stopped reading Uncanny around the time he showed up, so I can’t tell you much more than that.
Obviously, I was more interested in owning Maverick than this green-haired guy. He’s got no action feature and his only accessory was his “crystal battle armor.” Lame.
But the figure’s still in great shape, no loose limbs or chipped paint or anything. That’s probably because I never really cared that he was ever there.
Poor guy, he probably needs some love.
As for Maverick, I don’t know what happened to him. He’s not in the box and none of the other toys have seen or heard from him.
Maybe Fitzroy knows something.
So, this is supposedly one of the great villains in X-men lore.
Toy Biz wasn’t exactly swinging for the fences when they produced this Apocalypse figure as part of their Series One X-Men line.
If they had been, they’d have given him something better than Mr. Fantastic stretching ability.
Yes, this version of the almighty Apocalypse came with extending action at the waist and legs, allowing the figure to grow almost two inches taller!
On top of that, he got stuck with this staff weapon that couldn’t be held in his hands, you actually had to hook it to one of his arms.
I don’t know what the thing was for, I used to let other figures, larger figures, use it as a weapon.
As I’ve mentioned before, Toy Biz’s first attempt at X-Men figures wasn’t that great, but it picked up steam by the time the second series hit stores.
Apocalypse was one of three villains in the first series. The other two were Magneto and Juggernaut. The latter actually had wheels attached to his feet. It was awful.
Somebody explain the look on Mister Sinister’s face here. It’s like a forced angry smile.
Before I even get into my issues with the moniker Mister Sinister, let’s take a look at the figure produced for Toy Biz’s 1992 X-Men line.
I didn’t know much about the character when I got him; although I was reading X-Men at the time I think he only popped up in X-Cutioner’s Song and I don’t remember why.
I’ll have to dig those issues out of the shoebox sometime.
The figure, like all the ones in Series 2, is a vast improvement over those first figures Toy Biz put out in stores. He’s got a “light-up” action on the chest that’s activated by a button on his back.
The battery on it must be dead, because it doesn’t work anymore. There a little panel on the back where I can replace it, but I haven’t gotten around to it.
There are two things I don’t like about the figure: 1) The head doesn’t move, and 2) The pins in his elbow and knee joints aren’t painted, so they stick out like unpainted pins.
That was a Toy Biz problem going all the way back to the DC Comics Superheroes line.
So other than those two things, Mister Sinister is pretty good. He got into some tussles with the X-men and other heroes, but in the end they always worked out their differences.
Now, about those issues with the name. It’s kind of lame. That’s pretty much how I feel.
It must have been really hard for X-Men fans to go all those years without seeing their favorite characters in toy stores.
I’m lucky that Toy Biz started putting out their first couple lines in the early 90s, when I started getting into the comic.
The first series wasn’t that impressive: Nightcrawler had suction cups on his body, Magneto came with actual magnets, and the sculpting was pretty awful (wait until you see Apocalypse).
But the toys got better, and by the time the above version of Forge was released with the second series, Toy Biz was really picking up steam.
This figure came with a “quick draw” action that would flip his right arm up when you pushed a button on his back. It still works, and the figure is in really good shape.
Forge wasn’t exactly my favorite X-Men character but I loved that he looked exactly like he did in Uncanny X-Men No. 254, which was one of the first issues I had.
I think I mentioned before that I didn’t get into the comic until No. 246, right when the team was about to go through a massive transformation.
In No. 254 and 255, Forge is part of a new team that fights the Reavers on Muir Island. Those were some pretty good issues.
A Wolverine figure in a similar costume was also released with this Toy Biz series. I had him, but I don’t know what happened to him.
In fact, I don’t know what happened to most of my X-Men figures. Rather than do a lengthy “In Memoriam” post, I think I’ll just put up a list of the ones I lost sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Coming Sunday, a “sinister” X-Men villain comes out of the box!
In memoriam… if there’s one thing I really miss about my decimated Toy Biz Marvel figure collection, it’s Aureus, the gold dragon.
He was released as part of the Iron Man toy series in the mid-90s, along with a silver dragon named Argent and Fing Fang Foom.
The latter is one of the most famous monsters in the Marvel Universe, but I don’t think Aureus or Argent ever appeared in the comics.
Anyway, when I saw Aureus in the store I thought, “I have to have this.” He was just so awesome.
Think about it, what toy company had ever made a big giant dragon to go along with a superhero line?
With Aureus and the rest of the villains I’d purchased, I was putting together a nice little collection of Iron Man figures.
I can’t remember why I stopped collecting them, probably just decided to spend my money on something else.
For the life of me I have no idea what happened to Aureus or most of the figures from my old Toy Biz collection. It’s a real shame because I’ve got so many other toys in the box.
