July 9, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 2”

By Joe
Original premiere date July 8, 2026.

Unlike the first three episodes of season two of X-Men ’97, this fourth one is going to spend all of its time in one era. And as you could probably guess, that era is 3,000 BCE since that is where we left off last week. I consider these reviews that I do spoiler free, but even so, I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that Rama-Tut’s (John de Lancie) attack at the end of last week’s episode was not very successful. The show wanted us to believe that our beloved X-Men were in real danger, but that was pretty hard to believe considering it was just the third episode. As expected, Magneto (Matthew Waterson) was able to put up a forcefield just in time to spare our heroes. Also surviving, to no one’s surprise, is En Sabah Nur (Adetokumboh M’Cormack) who is basically some kind of super man and I think he just shrugged it off. As for the rest, they’re all dead and Nur’s fortress is in ruins. Among the dead is Baal, Nur’s adopted father, and it’s unlikely he’ll react well to that.

Much of last week’s episode featured Magneto trying to get En Sabah Nur to buy into Xavier’s (Ross Marquand) dream of human and mutant coexistence. Mercy was a big part of that lesson, but when Nur discovered that Magneto and the X-Men were sneaking around behind his back and working on a time machine, he grew pretty angry. He felt this was a betrayal, which seemed extreme to me at the time, but it’s hard to get a read on just how Magneto sold himself to Nur. Clearly, he doesn’t look like someone born in Egypt so he should have known that he was from somewhere far off (we’ll ignore the whole language thing, everyone speaks English because it’s just easier that way). Then again, Nur doesn’t really look like a typical Egyptian either thanks to his mutation and I suppose he may have assumed the same of Magneto. Either way, that door was shut by episode’s end, but now it’s Xavier’s turn to try to appeal to the would-be mass murderer. Since Xavier and pals survived Tut’s attack, Nur is forced to look upon him with respect since he does buy into that whole survival of the fittest mantra. Xavier is then able to convince Nur to allow him to probe his mind to find out just what it is they are both seeking.

You’re up, Chuck.

Xavier doesn’t really learn anything new, at least not to the audience. The temple they, and Rama-Tut, are seeking is quite literally calling out to En Sabah Nur. It’s clearly not of this world, but it’s a destination they all seek. It’s also made even more important for the X-Men to find this thing because Magneto is very much committed to his idea of reform for Nur so much so that he disables Bishop’s (Isaac Robinson-Smith) time traveling bracelet. He seems to think they’ll be able to repair it with the tech waiting for them at this temple, but that’s one Hell of a gamble. The rest of the episode is fairly straight-forward. We do get some character moments of which the most intriguing is between Rogue (Lenore Zann) and Nur while camping for the night. Xavier also receives a communication from Rama-Tut himself during which viewers not familiar with the character get the Cliff’s Notes version of just who he is. The most interesting aspect of the meeting is finding out that Tut is attempting to prevent the rise of Apocalypse (Marquand), though he seems to view it as inevitable. I mostly find it interesting because we know that he, as Immortus, will assist Bishop in doing just that some 5,000 years in the future during the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc. He had to wait an awful long time for that sort of satisfaction.

Well, that answers some questions.

And inevitable is certainly a theme with this one. What we’re seeing is a fatalistic approach to time travel on display where everything occurs in a loop. We saw that in episode two with Nathan obtaining the power of Apocalypse’s celestial ship, which was referred to simply as Ship in the X-Men episode “Obsession.” That entity manifests itself as Cable’s computer, a device which allows him to travel through time and a power Apocalypse seeks in “Beyond Good and Evil.” It first rested with Apocalypse until Cable essentially stole it before he reacquired it to embark on that particular quest. With the X-Men in the past attempting to prevent his rise, they have inadvertently become a part of it. Apocalypse is inevitable, and like Bishop trying to alter time to improve upon his future, it seems like there is little mere mortals can do about it. Everything has happened for a reason and for longtime viewers of X-Men and now X-Men ’97, it’s rewarding to see how everything intertwines.

Even this one finds time for some interesting character moments.

This episode does feature an action-packed climax and a resolution designed to land with a wallop. It is, unfortunately, undermined by the show up to this point as we have had numerous fake outs and lasting consequences seem to be in short supply when it comes to X-Men ’97. That is not unique to the show as it’s something of a failing for comics as a whole. Perhaps the fallout will land better in a future episode, but for me when this one was over I didn’t feel much of anything other than appreciation for how well everything was animated. To my surprise, the episode also didn’t really toy with the idea of the X-Men taking out En Sabah Nur before he becomes Apocalypse, assuming they could. There is a brief moment where it seems like Bishop is willing to do so, but he’s stopped and no discussion ensues. A pedantic complaint I also have is we see Xavier and Magneto secretly communicating via telepathy, but the whole time Magneto is wearing his helmet. This would not have been an issue in the original series because at that point it had not been established that Magneto’s helmet blocked psychic attacks. Unfortunately for the show, that retcon was adopted for the first season of the show so it should still be in effect now. It further annoys me because we didn’t need Magneto to put his helmet on. He didn’t have it in the previous episode and I don’t even know how he managed to recover it during all that happened on Asteroid M, so why even stick it back on his head now? The design is slightly different so maybe it’s not the exact same helmet and instead one he created during their time in Egypt. Even so, it sure looks to be largely the same so there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t possess the same benefits as his old one.

That helmet is bugging me way too much.

It’s not important, just something a very invested fan like myself needs to call out. “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 2” lives up to its name and it will likely prove to be a necessary step for the greater conflict with Apocalypse this season. Nothing is resolved here as far as that conflict goes, though other aspects of this early season are. For instance, we do learn who was calling out to Xavier in that vision he had in the prior episode, though the individual is never given a name (you’ll have to…search…that information out yourself). I should also point out that there is a stinger scene at the end of this one during the credits so don’t bail on it while the X-Men are spinning on their pedestals. It’s just a tease for next week’s episode and if you looked ahead at the episode titles then you can probably guess where we’re heading. I’m expecting it to be kind of a time out episode before we get back to the Apocalypse plot, but I obviously could be wrong. This is an episode of X-Men ’97 that largely keeps the train rolling and serves to be an exciting half hour of television with some time travel quirks, albeit one with an ending that doesn’t land as forcefully as the writing staff probably intended.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 1”

The premiere episode for season two of X-Men ’97 took us to the far off future where Apocalypse reigns supreme. The second followed that one up with a story set in the present time of the series: 1997 (Duh!). Now, for the third episode of this three-part premiere we head to ancient Egypt to meet…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “A Force to be Reckoned With”

The title of this post says X-Men ’97, but in some respects it should read X-Force ’97 because that’s what the opening title presents. Yes, boys and girls, we have ourselves an X-Force on television. Cable made numerous appearances in the original series, but never as the leader of X-Force. This surprised me as a…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Days of Past Future”

At last, X-Men ’97 has made its return to airwaves with not one, not two, but three episodes for the premiere which means there’s a lot to talk about. Truthfully, too much for one post which is why we need to keep things to one episode per entry as is the style of the time.…

Keep reading
by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 8, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “Rise of Apocalypse: Part 1”

By Joe
Original premiere date July 1, 2026.

The premiere episode for season two of X-Men ’97 took us to the far off future where Apocalypse reigns supreme. The second followed that one up with a story set in the present time of the series: 1997 (Duh!). Now, for the third episode of this three-part premiere we head to ancient Egypt to meet up with the rest of the X-Men, only they’re not alone for in this time is the mutant En Sabah Nur who the X-Men know will one day become Apocalypse. They have been unknowingly sent here against their will by Mother Askani to prevent the rise of Apocalypse, but just how they’re supposed to go about such is a matter of debate. Beyond that is the debate of if it should happen at all?

The episode opens with the X-Men who were sent to the future now back in the ruins of the X-Mansion. They returned expecting to find the team Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith) was sent to retrieve there as well, but when no one appears they become concerned. This is time travel, after all, so the idea that they have to wait for their return doesn’t make sense if they were all set to return to a specific moment in time. All they can do is wait though, because Forge (Gil Birmingham) is unable to get a reading on their time bracelets. In 3,000 BCE, En Sabah Nur (Adetokumboh M’Cormack) is preparing to lead his forces against those of Rama-Tut (John de Lancie) who is a vicious ruler and slaver that once possessed Nur. Alongside Nur is Baal (Michael Dorn), the man he looks up to as a surrogate father for he is the one credited with rescuing Nur from a life of slavery. Nur is, as far as we know, the world’s first mutant with the tell-tale sign being his pale skin and blue lips. He also possesses incredible strength and durability and is something of a super man which is what makes him a natural leader of other former slaves.

The X-Men have been sent to the past to stop En Sabah Nur from becoming Apocalypse.

The X-Men trapped in this past are under no delusions who En Sabah Nur is, or rather, who he will become. Charles (Ross Marquand) feels their presence in the past is an affront to nature and they should do everything in their power to not interfere and instead focus on getting back home. Magneto (Matthew Waterson), on the other hand, sees this as an opportunity to set Nur on a different path. If he can instill in him the values of Charles Xavier then perhaps Xavier’s dream of human and mutant coexistence can come true before he’s even born to dream it himself. He views this as penance for his hand in what happened on Genosha, but Charles is not so certain this is the correct path. What no one seems to suggest is simply destroying En Sabah Nur before he can become Apocalypse. Such is the quagmire of the time traveler – if you can prevent an atrocity by taking out the orchestrator of such before it happens should you? En Sabah Nur as he exists in this moment in time is not the same man who committed countless atrocities as Apocalypse. Can he be sentenced for a crime he has not committed? This question doesn’t come up in this episode, but perhaps it will soon enough.

This isn’t the Egypt you read about in your textbooks.

As for the X-Men stranded here which includes Beast (George Buza), Rogue (Lenore Zann), and Nightcrawler (Adrian Hough) in addition to Magneto and Charles, their journey home is perhaps an impossibility. Beast is no Forge, but he has spent time working with Bishop’s time traveling device and has some knowledge of how it works. The problem is acquiring the power and resources needed to create a time machine and to do that they look to the forces of Rama-Tut. We may be in ancient Egypt, but the tech of Tut is certainly not of this era. He attacks with robotic minions lead by a human general named Logos (Chris Britton) and once the forces of Nur lay waste to them, the X-Men scavenge the battlefield for parts, but they’re not making much headway which is taking its toll on everyone, especially Beast. The plot takes a turn when Magneto is able to convince Nur to abandon his survival of the fittest mantra and take Logos hostage rather than kill him. With him in their clutches, Magneto hopes to convince Xavier to probe his mind and perhaps find a solution to their problems, but instead Xavier just finds more riddles. A disembodied voice that espouses a famous quote from Apocalypse appears before Charles alongside a massive, fiery, eye that looks like a galaxy being born. The presence of a shattered moon in the shape of Magneto’s helm leads me to believe this could be a foreshadowing for Onslaught, though I’ve seen some speculate that this could be a reference to Stryfe. I would have thought it was merely a vision of Apocalypse himself, but Xavier is the one who classifies this individual as a mystery and that would be a pretty lame mystery since we know that Apocalypse is the villain already in focus.

In this era, Rama-Tut rules, but I definitely wasn’t expecting to see the X-Ternal (credited as Candra) from the episode “X-Ternally Yours” to make an appearance.

The episode does end on a cliffhanger, though it’s a bit of a toothless one since these characters have quite a bit of plot armor at this point. Bishop will also make an appearance and, if anything, this cliffhanger may just explain why the X-Men were unable to rendezvous with their comrades in 1997. Perhaps we will find out the events of this episode caused the time bracelets to be damaged and the X-Men will have to seek out another way to return home. Of course, with me catching up and this going live the day part two drops that means these questions have likely already been answered (and maybe the identity of the mystery voice has as well), but I had to make sure I got my thoughts down before that episode dropped. I am guessing the technology of Rama-Tut hides a way for the team to get home and it would be a great example of circular story-telling since it was a future version of Rama-Tut that helped Bishop and the X-Men take down Apocalypse in the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc. There, he took the form of a cosmic janitor named Bender who only revealed himself to the viewer as Immortus at the end, but he’s basically a future version of Rama-Tut who is also an aspect of Kang the Conqueror. Yeah, it’s complicated.

A lot of capes in this picture.

“Rise of Apocalypse: Part 1” is a bit slower paced than the other two episodes in this three episode premiere. Being that it’s co-written by Beau DeMayo (along with JB Ballard), that’s not a surprise as he seems to like these more talky episodes and when you get Magneto and Xavier sharing scenes that tends to happen. It’s a necessary episode, though I do wonder if this is really how I want to see Apocalypse portrayed. I like origin stories and villain ones can be a lot of fun, but Apocalypse as a Spartacus figure is hard to square. Are we supposed to have sympathy for this character? Apocalypse is a genocidal monster, I’m not sure that I want or need to know that he wasn’t always bad. This is an adaptation of Rise of Apocalypse by Terry Kavanagh and Adam Pollina so it’s not a new story, but I never read that one to know if the portrayal of En Sabah Nur was quite the same. At any rate, I’m willing to see how things progress from here and since this is only part one it does feel a little incomplete. We’ve set the table, but the meal has yet to arrive.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “A Force to be Reckoned With”

The title of this post says X-Men ’97, but in some respects it should read X-Force ’97 because that’s what the opening title presents. Yes, boys and girls, we have ourselves an X-Force on television. Cable made numerous appearances in the original series, but never as the leader of X-Force. This surprised me as a…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Days of Past Future”

At last, X-Men ’97 has made its return to airwaves with not one, not two, but three episodes for the premiere which means there’s a lot to talk about. Truthfully, too much for one post which is why we need to keep things to one episode per entry as is the style of the time.…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3”

Today, X-Men ’97 dropped the curtain on its first season and what a way to bring it to an end. Last week’s episode was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I couldn’t go into much detail of my review of “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2” without wading into spoiler territory, so allow me…

Keep reading
by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 7, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “A Force to be Reckoned With”

By Joe
Original premiere date July 1, 2026.

The title of this post says X-Men ’97, but in some respects it should read X-Force ’97 because that’s what the opening title presents. Yes, boys and girls, we have ourselves an X-Force on television. Cable made numerous appearances in the original series, but never as the leader of X-Force. This surprised me as a kid since if you went to a toy store during that era you would find action figures featuring an X-Men cardback as well as those with an X-Force one. Cable was basically the Wolverine of that line as he received quite a few figures, though never as many as the more famous Canadian. The line lasted for a few years, but it always was less popular than the X-Men one. In my home town we had a big warehouse store that was literally located in an old warehouse that was family owned. Even though the place looked like a dump and was most associated with cheap products, the toy section was often pretty current and sometimes they would get stuff before even Toys ‘R Us. However, they would also get some of the more unwanted figures and when it came to X-Men there was a long drought because they couldn’t get rid of their X-Force figures. G.W. Bridge, Gideon, Shatterstar, and Kaine seemed to linger forever. It’s why I had a Shatterstar because he felt like the coolest of the ones available. Cable was rarely there, same for Deadpool and Fourarm. Maybe the stink of that store is what kept me out of X-Force because I think the only other X-Force figure I would own from that Toy Biz line was a later Cable who had Terminator-like tare-away flesh for some reason. And that one was given to me by my friend.

When the first season of X-Men ’97 ended with the majority of the team flung through time, but Cable remaining in 1997, it seemed like the time was now for X-Force to make its animated debut. The first episode ended with a tease as Cable (Chris Potter) is seen in the present telling two familiar faces in Archangel (Christopher Barger) and Psylocke (Naoko Mori) that they need to focus on recruitment. When the second episode, “A Force to be Reckoned With” opens, it comes as a cold open which is unusual for the show. It depicts a group of young mutants on the run being lead by some kind of energy bird to the remains of the X-Mansion. It’s in ruins, and one of the kids has an “I told you so,” attitude about the discovery because everyone knows the X-Men are gone. These kids are just the start of the cameos as this is going to be a big one for those who like to scan the background. There are more cameos in this one than there were during the segments in Genosha from the original series (and from last year’s episode, for that matter) so I’m not going to bother to list them all. These ones are rather prominent as among them are Kid Omega (Thomas Dekker) (sporting a Phoenix shirt) and Penance (Miatta Ade Lebile).

X-Factor has entered the chat.

Who are these kids running from? That would be X-Factor, the government backed version of the team that briefly showed up in the original series episode “Cold Comfort.” There, they were lead by Forge, but now they’re being directed by Val Cooper (Catherine Disher) to round up mutants in a bid to turn down the current temperature where human-mutant relations are concerned. The actual makeup of the team is still pretty much the same as we have Havok (Teddy Sears), Polaris (Carolina Ravassa), Strong Guy (Adrian Hough), Wolfsbane, and Multiple Man, the latter having no lines and thus no credited voice actor at this time. Following that scene, we catch up with Jubilee (Holly Chou) and Sunspot (Gui Agustini) at an arcade, but they’re soon visited by an old friend: Cable. Here we get the recruitment pitch, and when Jubilee asks if this team he’s putting together has a name, we smash-cut to the opening title only it’s X-Force! Each member of the team gets their own segment which is headlined by Cable and there are a lot of similar shots to the standard intro. There are throwbacks to the first season of the show as well as the original series including the scene of Cable encountering Apocalypse in his temple and one of the creation of Archangel. The ending sequence has X-Force colliding with the forces of Apocalypse with the mutant kids caught in the middle. It’s an awesome sequence that is almost sure to put a smile on the face of every viewer, even those not necessarily familiar with X-Force.

This is pretty awesome.

With the fun intro over, the rest of the episode can focus on X-Force chasing leads, the first of which concerns the horseman War (Lawrence Bayne) from the first season of the original show. He was the green guy with the bowl cut who I don’t think has ever been seen again since that episode, but Cable lets everyone know that this guy has been pretty busy spreading death and genocide wherever he goes. Our team is indeed Cable, Psylocke, Archangel, Jubilee, and Sunspot with the latter two getting a costume change. Jubilee now has her longer hair and red Generation X costume while Sunspot is sporting his X-Force blue and orange. Curiously, Archangel is back in the blue and pink which we knew from the trailers and Hasbro figure, but why he ditched his Angel look is not addressed. Psylocke is in her ninja look from the 90s and now sports a British accent despite not having one in the original series. Since this is more accurate, I can let that inconsistency slide. This is a hodgepodge assortment for X-Force, but in the confines of the animated series, I think it makes sense. The cast is already bloated and introducing the likes of Warpath, Shatterstar, and Kaine would just be like adding to the pile.

This group may not scream “X-Force,” to 90s comic readers, but for this show I think this squad makes sense.

The mission to capture and interrogate War reveals to Jubilee just how Cable envisions this squad working which stands in direct opposition of what Charles Xavier would do. Cable rationalizes them as soldiers, not students or teachers, and Xavier’s pacifist methods are not going to cut it. He’s more ruthless, and yes we do get our answer as to why the Marvel Legends Archangel comes with Cable’s gun, though I still think it was a mostly worthless inclusion. From there, the focus pivots based on what Psylocke is able to extract from War’s mind by force and telepathy to an old foe in Emma Frost (Zehra Fazal). This puts our squad on a collision course with X-Factor that also leads to Jubilee getting separated which is where the episode really kicks it into high gear.

It’s time for Jubilee to truly graduate.

During the original series, Jubilee was featured a fair amount, but often as the kid who got in over her head and needed the other X-Men to bail her out. Her most independent episode might have been “Jubilee’s Fairy Tale Theater” in which she keeps a group of students calm with a story we see acted out in animation while they wait for rescue. It’s not exactly the sort of spotlight someone like Wolverine would get. In this episode, Jubilee gets her moment as she’s captured and tasked with not just breaking out, but also freeing all of the captive mutants being held by X-Factor on what looks like a SHIELD helicarrier. It’s set to a very era appropriate song which has Beau DeMayo written all over it, but I don’t know for sure who is responsible. The sequence shows Jubilee really cut loose with her powers and skills and the nice thing was that during the new opening title we were treated to a sequence of Psylocke training Jubilee. It’s just a nice, tidy, way of saying this is something that’s been going on for a little awhile and we’re seeing the fruits of that labor on display. What I really appreciate though is that before Jubilee can bust out, we get to see Sunspot and Cable argue over what to do about her capture. Sunspot, being the heroic boyfriend, wants to set everything aside to rescue her, but Cable tells him to trust her. He knows she can take care of herself, or at least he wants to see if she can. When Jubilee does eventually cause a commotion, there’s a moment where we see Cable smile, but it’s not some cocky, “I told you so,” smile. It’s the kind of smile a teacher might feature when a student demonstrates that they’ve absorbed the material they’ve been taught. And he said they weren’t students.

I didn’t necessarily need to know where this thing came from, but it was pretty cool.

The episode does end back in the future to wrap-up the events of the first episode. In doing so, the origin of Cable’s computer cube (Rachel Kimsey) is revealed in a rather clever way. I have no idea if this is something born from the comics or if it was created for the show (this episode was written by Anthony Sellitti and Mariah Wilson), but I do like it. It also sets up the events for the third part of this season premiere where we will check in on the squad sent to the distant past. Even though this is deliberately woven into other threads, this episode of X-Men ’97 X-Force ’97works really well as a stand-alone adventure. It ties into the core mission of the X-Men through a different lens and putting this X-Force team up against X-Factor is another great way to put the focus on just what the X-Men (and X-Force) are out to do. Jubilee’s escape is a ton of fun and should be a highlight of season two when all is said and done, assuming it’s not overshadowed in the 8 episodes to follow. There is some foreshadowing contained in this one via Psylocke’s observations in the mind of War that are certainly intriguing. I think anyone who watched how the first season ended can guess what’s coming, but it’s still fun to see the show tease it. I just wonder when it will pay off?

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Days of Past Future”

At last, X-Men ’97 has made its return to airwaves with not one, not two, but three episodes for the premiere which means there’s a lot to talk about. Truthfully, too much for one post which is why we need to keep things to one episode per entry as is the style of the time.…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3”

Today, X-Men ’97 dropped the curtain on its first season and what a way to bring it to an end. Last week’s episode was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I couldn’t go into much detail of my review of “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2” without wading into spoiler territory, so allow me…

Keep reading
by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2”

Magneto was right. That was the realization many characters seemed to share at the end of last week’s episode of X-Men ’97. As we roll into the penultimate episode of the show’s first season, a lot is on the line and the show is drawing inspiration from several different sources related to the X-Men over…

Keep reading
by Joe

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television

July 6, 2026

X-Men ’97 – “Days of Past Future”

By Joe
Original premiere date July 1, 2026.

At last, X-Men ’97 has made its return to airwaves with not one, not two, but three episodes for the premiere which means there’s a lot to talk about. Truthfully, too much for one post which is why we need to keep things to one episode per entry as is the style of the time. It’s been a long two years since the first season ended with the X-Men scattered through time. When that episode ended, it was tough to know just where everyone landed, but with the first episode of season two that is at least resolved along with a whole bunch of other things. And structurally, the three episode premiere makes sense because each episode is going to take place at a different point in time and focus on a different group of mutants with the very first taking place in the far off future of 3960 where we know Cyclops (Ray Chase) and Jean (Jennifer Hale) wound up, but will soon learn it’s also where Storm(Alison Sealy-Smith), Wolverine (Cal Dodd), and Morph(JP Karliak) landed as well.

As we basically knew going into this one based on how season one ended, season two is going to focus on Apocalypse (Ross Marquand) as the big antagonist of the season. At least, that’s the setup and I suppose he could be dispatched before the season ends, but it sure feels like he’s going to have a presence throughout. When the show begins with that fantastic intro, we find Forge (Gil Birmingham) and Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith) taking stock of where the X-Men are. Forge has utilized his mutant powers of invention to create a crude version of the time portal seen in the very first season of X-Men and through that they have been able to pinpoint where everyone wound up. Because Forge’s love interest, Storm, resides in 3960 he draws the task of traveling to the future to bring back the X-Men there while Bishop will be tasked to heading to ancient Egypt to retrieve the rest.

Expect Apocalypse to have a presence throughout this season.

In 3960, we’re properly introduced to Nathan Summers (Michael Johnston) and Mother Askani (Gates McFadden). Askani leads a tribe of individuals who are resisting Apocalypse in this future. There, the immortal mutant has pretty much taken over and successfully enslaved much of the world. The Atlantic ocean is dried up and his fortress looms large. Cyclops and Jean have been training Nathan who does not know that they’re his parents for a few months while the other X-Men are just along for the ride. When Forge arrives, he finds a Wolverine sans his adamantium skeleton who is forced to tangle with Apocalypse’s robotic Dark Riders with bone claws that shatter upon impact, but soon regrow thanks to his mutant healing ability. Because the episode is heavy on the Summers family dynamic, we don’t get any insight on how Wolverine has been coping with that very traumatic moment from the penultimate episode of season one and Morph is mostly there for a little window dressing. Forge has the unenviable task of convincing the Summers family to separate and return to the present despite getting this unexpected opportunity at a life with their son.

The main focus of the episode is on the Summers family.

As such, the episode is heavy on the soapy elements X-Men is known for. Cyclops distrusts Mother Askani who declines to reveal her origins, though the episode is not shy at hinting at it. She feels Nathan is destined to take down Apocalypse and that takes precedent over the whims of his long lost parents who are struggling with the idea that their kid needs to go on without them. We also learn just why the X-Men are where they are, and even though there’s a lot of drama there’s also no shortage of action in this opening episode. It also leads directly into the second episode as we briefly touch base with Cable in 1997, one of the few heroes from season one not sent through time, and even see the origin of a second season of X-Men character.

Claws of bone have limited effectiveness against machines.

“Days of Past Future” is written by Brad Ford Sullivan, Anthony Sellitti, and JB Ballard which does call into question if anything former showrunner Beau DeMayo had planned for this one made it in. Since he will be receiving writing credits in future episodes (and is an executive producer on the series still), I suspect that isn’t the case and the larger picture he had for the show is still intact. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is not something I can say, but since he oversaw the excellent first season I can only assume it’s good despite how his time on the show came to an end. The visuals in the show have only improved, if anything, with bright, vibrant, colors even in this dystopian future dominating the palette. I especially love the little touches like how Wolverine can be seen wincing in pain every time his claws snap and the way this show really makes Storm’s powers resemble those of an actual goddess. The soundtrack by The Newton Brothers, which borrows heavily from the original series score, is thumping and there’s a great use of Cable’s old theme as well when Nathan enters a scene. If I have anything to criticize it’s that the episode resolves itself rather quickly. It’s not necessarily unexpected as we can’t have a big showdown with Apocalypse right out of the gate, but it did bring the episode to a bit of a screeching halt. It’s not unsatisfying as the character interactions work especially well, but perhaps felt a bit too neat and tidy.

Young Nathan will be forced to grapple with his own destiny.

As a return to the world of X-Men ’97, “Days of Past Future” works exceptionally well. I love the callbacks and the minor tweaks to the opening title. This is a show that is rich in lore for longtime viewers of the show and readers of the comic books from which the show draws inspiration from. And in this case, we’re talking about The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix which was written by Scott Lodbell who probably should have received a credit on the episode. It’s a good setup for the next several episodes and the season to come and if it had arrived all by itself I would have absolutely been frothing for more, but since it didn’t I got to go right into the second episode which might be even better.

Previously…on X-Men ’97:

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3”

Today, X-Men ’97 dropped the curtain on its first season and what a way to bring it to an end. Last week’s episode was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I couldn’t go into much detail of my review of “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2” without wading into spoiler territory, so allow me…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2”

Magneto was right. That was the realization many characters seemed to share at the end of last week’s episode of X-Men ’97. As we roll into the penultimate episode of the show’s first season, a lot is on the line and the show is drawing inspiration from several different sources related to the X-Men over…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 1”

Ever since the episode list was released for X-Men ’97 I’ve been looking forward to what reads like an epic, three-part, season finale. In truth, given that X-Men ’97 is a serialized show you could basically call every episode “X-Men ’97 Season 1 Part 1” and so on, but the titles do add a dramatic…

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by Joe

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July 1, 2026

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Archangel

By Joe
“Behold my angel of death!”

On July 1st, 2026, our long wait ends. X-Men ’97 returns to Disney+ with its greatly anticipated second season a little over two years after the conclusion of the first. It’s something I have been looking forward to pretty much ever since credits rolled on the finale and the only thing that stinks about it is that it arrives when I’m on vacation. As a result, I likely won’t have any thoughts up on this blog for a little while where that debut episode is concerned, but to tide things over we do have a toy to look at and it’s of a character that figures to be featured somewhat prominently in the second season of X-Men ’97: Warren Worthington the third, also known as Archangel.

Archangel made his debut in the first season of the original series. He’s ambushed by Cable over his funding for a cure for mutation and winds up being the first victim of said cure when Mystique turns him into a slave of Apocalypse. In the process, Worthington’s feathery, angelic, wings were replaced with cold steel and his skin turned blue. He’d break free of Apocalypse’s control by the next episode, but his quest for revenge consumed him in his next appearance, “Obsession,” before a slightly milder version of the character appeared during the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc. That story was intended to be the show’s finale and at the end of it Archangel was to join the X-Men where he belonged, but a surprise order for new episodes extended the show and such plans were scuttled. During that arc, Archangel had returned to his Angel persona of blue and white, but for some reason when we meet him in X-Men ’97 he’s going to be sporting his original blue and pink Archangel look which is what this figure is based on. Will a reason be given in the show for the switch back? I don’t know. It could be whoever was in charge of the character designs just likes this look better, but I guess we’ll have to watch to find out.

Archangel is a pretty standard height for a superhero.

Archangel is considered a deluxe offering so he comes at an inflated sticker price and in a box as opposed to a blister card. The base figure is the same as the previously released Angel of a couple of years ago which is essentially just a modified version of the Vulcan sculpt. The only difference from that mold is that the torso had to be redone to exclude the butterfly joint in the shoulders in order to fit the ports for the wings. The body even still has the grooves in the forearms intended for characters with long gloves because it’s apparently too much to ask for Hasbro to just sculpt some smooth forearms. The costume is very similar to its appearance in the original series which is also quite similar to the look from the comics. It’s still blue with a pink design painted onto it and the application is pretty clean. The opacity of the pink varies as it transfers to different types of plastic which make up the body. It looks pretty damn good on the torso where the paint has a nice matte appearance. It gets a little thin on the thighs, but it’s not as noticeable as it was with the Gamerverse Venom and its white logo. The only difference between this version of the costume and the one from the 90s series that I can see is that the hands are the same color as the rest of the costume. In the older show, the sleeves ended at the wrist and Archangel’s hands were bare and matched the shade of blue of his face. He also tended to have dark, black, lines under his eyes which are not present here, but that’s probably for the best. They also decided to give him clawed hands which is an interesting choice. I would have preferred that they didn’t, but this (and the color of his hands) all appears to be part of the character design in X-Men ’97 so these aren’t critiques of the figure, but of the design.

The two wing setups available.

Archangel’s distinguishing feature is the pair of big, steel, wings on his back. For the show, Archangel’s wings are fairly simple and are represented by two somewhat triangular pieces of metal. In the comics, he could have all kinds of panels and metallic feathers and there are definitely some designs that are quite busy. This is a simplified look and it’s one I prefer. The wings clip into the figure’s back, but there’s also a joiner piece in the center they port into. The center piece basically just exists to match the look of the show, but it does provide some stability as well. There’s a hinge close to the center for flapping, but otherwise this central piece basically holds the wings in place. If you want to shift them up and down you’ll have to remove that piece, though it leaves behind something ugly. The wings are basically a light gray plastic and there’s no metallic paint applied. It would have been nice to see them fully painted to better reflect their look on television, but that’s not really how Hasbro does things. They do look fine, though I’m torn on how much I like the curve sculpted into them. Maybe something a little less severe would have looked better? If you don’t like them, Hasbro did include Archangel’s retracted wings. Resembling a tuning fork, this just plugs into the back like the standard wings and will take up far less shelf space. It’s a nice option to have, though I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist posing him with his wings out in a flying pose.

He comes with an alternate version of Cables’s gun for some reason.

The other accessories are a bit minimal. Archangel has two portraits: neutral and a teeth gritting one. Both are cowled and it’s a shame we didn’t get an un-cowled look. If Ka-Zar wasn’t so expensive I’d consider buying one and painting the face blue as I always preferred Archangel with his blonde locks showing. By default, Archangel has a trigger finger right hand and a left fist. He also comes with a set of open, clawing, hands which are okay, but I already mentioned how I’m not a fan of his new talons. I’m also irritated we don’t get a right fist, despite one appearing on the back of the box. What would that have added to the budget? A penny’s worth of plastic? If that? The trigger finger hand is unusual, but they did decide to include a gun. Cable’s gun, to be exact as it’s the same one that came with the X-Men ’97 figure. It’s the bigger of the two guns and it has a new deco. The colors are more matte where as the original used a shiny plastic Hasbro loves for metallic objects. This new deco makes it a bit more animated looking, but it’s an odd accessory to include with Archangel. I assume he wields the gun at some point in season two, but getting it over a third head option, extra fist, or some feather blade accessories kind of sucks. A flight stand would have also been nice and, honestly, should be standard issue for a deluxe figure that has big wings on its back.

It’s like they gave him two fists on the back of the box just to call attention to the fact that we’re missing one.

Archangel’s articulation is pretty standard for the line. If you have a figure on this Vulcan body (like Cyclops), then you know what to expect for the most part: hinged neck, ball-hinged shoulders, ab crunch, waist twist, bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, wrist hinge and swivel, ball-socket hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, shin swivel, ankle rocker and hinge. As stated earlier, the only change is the removal of the butterfly joint which does kind of suck for a flying character. Range otherwise is fine at all of the joints though the various swivels break-up the sculpt of the pink linework and musculature in a rather ugly fashion so they have limited utility. If you want Warren to wield the gun, the trigger hand does have a vertical hinge though the open, clawed, left hand is only so-so as as a stabilizing hand for the barrel. The wings have a hinge where they plug into the back and towards the middle so they can “flap,” and they can also wrap around to the front of the figure. As I mentioned earlier, you can take out the central mount to get swivel articulation, if that’s your preference. The joints are the usual tolerance for a Legends release with the exception of the left elbow. Mine is a touch on the loose side, but not so much that it can’t hold a pose or support the weight of the gun. I’ve never seen a loose elbow joint on a Legends release since they moved to the pin-less design so I’m thinking it’s a one-off with mine and likely not something afflicting all copies.

He should mix in fine with other characters from the animated universe.

This X-Men ’97 Archangel is not an unwelcomed addition to the collection. As a reoccurring guest character in the original series, it always made sense to do a figure of Warren. While I don’t think any of the subtle changes to his look are an improvement, it’s not far enough removed from the 90s look for me to care all that much. What I do care about are the lackluster accessories and Hasbro getting cheap on us with the hand assortment while simultaneously upping the price. They’ve been doing that more and more with releases and it’s getting pretty annoying. Most Legends figures pull from the same pool of already sculpted hands so we’re just talking about the cost of plastic in most cases which is pretty damn negligible with something as small as a hand. And at the asking price of $40 it’s not as if this is a basic release. We’re paying an extra charge just because this guy has wings which is honestly kind of ridiculous. Back in the old days, Archangel was the same price as anyone else, but Hasbro likes to take any excuse it can to raise the price which is why they recently solicited a Doc Samson figure for $35 even though he’s really not deluxe sized and only comes with one extra head and one extra set of hands. I shudder to think what the X-Men ’97 Beast is going to cost since he actually has a backpack accessory – they’re practically breaking the bank! As a result, I’m far more excited for the return of X-Men ’97 than I am for this figure of Archangel. It’s not an underwhelming release, nor does it overwhelm the synapses. It merely whelms. He’ll slot into my animated X-Men collection, though I’ll always wish he had an unmasked head or another fist.

For more X-Men ’97 and ’97 adjacent releases from Hasbro, check these out:

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Cable

Today we finish our look at wave 3 of X-Men ’97 Marvel Legends action figures and I think I saved the best for last. Cable was one of the non-members of the X-Men to play a pretty substantial role in the original animated series. He showed up in multiple episodes in both the first and…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Rogue

Previously, on X-Men reviews we looked at Magneto from the upcoming series X-Men ’97. The animated series may have been delayed into 2024, but the action figures from Hasbro are already here. And if you were collecting Hasbro’s line of figures based on the animated series from the 90s, this new line offers a chance…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men Retro Card Series Apocalypse

It is Halloween and that means it’s time for costumes, candy, and spooky fun. It’s also Halloween 2022, a pretty important date if you grew up loving those mutants who ran around in colorful spandex fighting for a better tomorrow. That’s because 30 years ago on this very night, the animated series X-Men premiered on…

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by Joe

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June 29, 2026

The Return of X-Men ’97

By Joe
I’m guessing you already heard the news, but in case you haven’t: the X-Men are back.

The return of the ’92 era X-Men featured in the classic animated series could not have gone any better. I was extremely excited for that show’s continuation via X-Men ’97, but at the same time a bit fearful. Could it really live up to my own expectations even as I tried to tamp them down? It turns out that it absolutely could and I truly feel we were gifted something unique. Not many shows are allowed to grow up with its audience. Even long-running shows like The Simpsons or Sponge-Bob Squarepants mostly stay the same and rely on picking up new fans as older ones fall off. X-Men ’97 really did take a show crafted for 7-12 year olds in 1992 and age it up for that same audience 30 years later. And the fact that it worked was pretty remarkable. That first season ended two years ago so it’s been a bit of a wait for the show’s second season. For that first season, I reviewed every episode and intended on doing a season one wrap-up or overall review, but I never got around to it. As a warm up for this second season, now seems like the appropriate time to share my final thoughts on that first season while also getting hyped for what’s to come.

I watched quite a bit of the first season of X-Men ’97. When a new episode would premiere, I’d get up and watch it while riding my exercise bike which really helped get my heart rate going. My son also took an interest in the show so we’d usually watch it together after school and then I’d watch it again the next day to prepare for my review which I’d post on Friday. Recently, with the release of the new trailer for season two I went back and watched the whole season again in one sitting. It was a rainy Sunday so a perfect time to refamiliarize myself with the show again. Before that rewatch, my opinion of the first season was that it was quite good, but also felt rushed at times. Upon rewatching it, I felt it didn’t go by as fast as I remembered. Some stuff certainly did like the entirety of the “Inferno” plot being condensed into one episode. I still don’t like how that one ends with Cyclops declaring he won’t abandon his son and then immediately flipping or how the clone Jean Grey just pulls the name Madelyne Pryor out of thin air. The “Lifedeath” arc was the other one I felt got rushed, but upon reflection I no longer think so. It was probably my least favorite plot in the season so the idea of spending more time with Storm and Forge isn’t really a recipe for making the season better. Once the show hit the fifth episode, “Remember It,” it moves at a nice clip. The events of that episode are felt throughout the rest of the season and dedicating three episodes to the finale was also a smart move. The final episode of the season is more of an aftermath episode with a lot of character work. Cyclops and Jean seem to resolve their differences and have that nice moment with Cable while Xavier and Magneto reconcile with the damage they’ve inflicted upon each other over a lifetime despite their love for each other.

Effect shots like Nightcrawler taking Wolverine and this jerk on a ride through his teleportation simply were not possible in the original series.

The production values of the first season were also wonderful and the biggest upgrade over the original series. Much of the voice cast returned and while many sound a bit older, their acting chops have only been further honed over the decades. The redone X-Men theme is grander and worthy of cinema and I am delighted that Marvel seems to have settled on it as the theme for the X-Men from here to eternity. The animation though is the clear upgrade. Going from the original series to this one reminds me of the first time I saw the Star Wars prequels. No, not in terms of the quality as a whole, but just in what we were allowed to see the characters do. The technology is now available to match the imagination of the writers and storyboard artists. The old show would never have been able to pull off the action that this show possesses. The action sequences from that show are what have arguably aged the worst. And you don’t have to watch X-Men ’97 for very long to see this on display as in the very first episode we get that incredible sequence where Storm enters the battlefield and uses her powers to blast the desert sand with lightning turning it into a sheet of glass. She then unleashes a tornado on the same which shatters and grabs the shards of glass to create a violent, Sentinel-destroying, freak of nature. Such a thing would not have been possible in 1992 either due to the talent of the animators or the budget supplied by Saban.

The prospect of topping that first season is what really drives my excitement for the second season set to premiere on July 1st. Last year, attendees at New York Comic Con were treated to a new trailer to hype that season which was sadly never made public. While there were leaks, us regular folk had to wait until fairly recently for a proper trailer. A follow-up has already been released and the hype train is now traveling at full speed. When that first season ended, the X-Men were scattered across time. Some appeared to be stranded in the present like Wolverine and Morph, while a small group was sent to ancient Egypt where they meet En Sabah Nur, better known in the present time as Apocalypse. Cyclops and Jean were also shot forward in time where they meet Mother Askani and their son, Nathan, who is now a boy of about 10 by the looks of things. And if that wasn’t thrilling enough, the final stinger for that first season featured Apocalypse combing through the ruins of Genosha and uncovering a playing card while musing on the subject of death, an obvious foreshadowing for what is likely in store for the fallen Gambit.

The sister of Colossus, Magik, is an unexpected casualty of the Genosha massacre.

I’m not going to go through all of what is in the trailers for season two, but I wanted to touch on some things featured prominently. One, it sure looks like we have more Genosha fallout to deal with. One of the scenes featured in the trailer is Colossus, wearing for the first time his yellow and red costume, cradling the body of his sister Illyana, also known as the mutant Magik. We later see a scene where Colossus, now in his Acolytes outfit, is leading Rogue and Nightcrawler to a shrine where his sister’s picture is front and center among others lost in the attack on Genosha (and now that I look at it more closely, is that a picture of Iceman to the left of the Never Forget sign?). This is an interesting development as in one of the final scenes of the first season we see Forge and Bishop conversing in front of a wall of portraits of mutants as Forge is attempting to account for them. Magik is featured and is noted as being alive, but clearly something has changed since then if she actually fell in Genosha. It was a huge catastrophe and it’s reasonable to assume more bodies were still being recovered, though at that point they probably would have had a firmer idea on who was alive and who was presumed dead. Much of the second season had already been written by the time the first aired, but just before the show premiered the showrunner Beau DeMayo was fired by Disney. It stands to reason that a new showrunner would likely have ideas of their own and things may have changed.

Is this a bad sign for Bobby?

The Magik reveal further interests me because it calls into question other names on that bulletin board. My beloved Iceman is seen on it and seemingly fine, but there was also a blink and you’ll miss it moment in the fifth episode where an ice cream man on Genosha uses his mutant powers to make a treat for Leach. He certainly looks a bit like the Bobby character model from the original series so was he on Genosha too? With this show being far more willing to tackle social issues it would surprise me if the most prominent gay X-Man was unceremoniously killed off like that, but you never know. In the trailer, we see Bobby’s ex-girlfriend Lorna return to what appears to be the mansion and a photo of her and Iceman together is shown. Is she reflecting on the loss of him as well as the X-Men?

That you, Bobby Drake?

Lorna’s presence also coincides with the return of X-Factor and the apparent formation of Cable’s X-Force. Both teams are featured prominently in both trailers and it does make one wonder if the cast is perhaps getting too big? That’s a whole lot of people to follow, not to mention we see scenes of Wolverine and Morph paling around with the likes of Sabretooth and Deathstryke plus some young mutants including Kid Omega. In the old show, it wasn’t unheard of for groups of mutants to drop in and out so this could end up being nothing. We had episodes with Alpha Flight, X-Factor, The Morlocks, or episodes like “Slave Island” which were full of cameos. Not everyone is going to get the spotlight shined on them and that’s probably for the best with a cast as big as this one. I do think some characters will be featured more though and Polaris definitely seems to be one. The show also has yet to reveal that Cyclops and Havok are related and we saw their other brother, Vulcan, among the Shi’Ar in season one so that could come into play at some point.

During some part of the season it would appear that Wolverine will dawn a costume evocative of his feral appearance from the comics, but perhaps without the feral personality?

What does intrigue me perhaps the most is Wolverine’s arc this season. He is shown prominently in the trailer since he was given the line, “We’re back,” and he delivers it while striking a pose identical to the cover of his first mini series by Frank Miller. As he does, his claws pop out and they have been re-bonded with adamantium. What further intrigues me are the sequences we see where he’s in his skull cap look with bone claws. This harkens back to the “feral” Wolverine era in the comics. Some time after losing his adamantium skeleton during the “Fatal Attractions” arc, Wolverine is lured into a trap by Genesis, the son of Cable corrupted by Apocalypse. He tries to replicate the adamantium bonding process with Wolverine to turn him into a weapon for himself, but Wolverine’s body rejects it leading to this feral transformation. Perhaps that happens right after his skeleton is returned? It looks like he’s in his brown and tan costume in the trailer when he flashes those claws, but the feral look is yellow and blue so I think it’s something from later in the season. There’s also a group shot of Wolverine with his adamantium skeleton and brown costume that could take place anywhere in the second season timeline. We’ll just have to wait and see.

This feels like an homage to X-Men vs Street Fighter and I am here for it!

And then there’s Apocalypse. He’s obviously the big baddie this season and it looks like the X-Men will be confronting him across timelines. I can see this being the season long arc. Maybe not every episode will deal with that conflict (we know that Danger is featured), but I would be surprised if there isn’t some big showdown in the final episode with Apocalypse and perhaps a new set of horsemen. Nothing is teased about Gambit possibly returning as Death (unless you consider Rogue being handed a playing card foreshadowing) and that makes sense. They should refrain from such to preserve the surprise as much as possible so I think there is much that is still to come. I have seen some speculate that the events of this season could give rise to an Age of Apocalypse third season. That would be interesting since the original series already did something similar with the “One Man’s Worth” episodes, but that arc also didn’t involve Apocalypse so it wouldn’t be as redundant as it seems at face value. Those episodes were the genesis for the hypothetical “What if Charles Xavier were assassinated before starting the X-Men?” question that gave rise to the Age of Apocalypse in the comics which is why many of the character designs from that arc were featured in the episodes. And since we’re following the show’s version of “Fatal Attractions,” the prospect of Onslaught still looms. Hasbro even re-released Onslaught (or is set to) in its Marvel Legends line and they usually don’t do stuff like that with very specific characters unless there’s an outside reason for such. Perhaps that will be our season three which is right now scheduled to arrive in 2027 so we won’t have to endure an extra long wait to find out.

I am completely and utterly hyped about this second season and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it. Unfortunately, the premiere arrives while I’m on vacation so I’m not sure when I’ll be able to share my thoughts on it. I do plan to take time out of my vacation to watch it, but if I had been home I probably would have spent the Tuesday before binging the first season once again. Whenever I do get to it I am sure it will be a fun time and I plan on reviewing every episode right here on The Nostalgia Spot.

To help you get hyped for the return of X-Men ’97, here are the reviews of my favorite season one episodes:

X-Men ’97 – “Mutant Liberation Begins”

The first episode of X-Men ’97 left me grinning from ear to ear and eager to see what would happen next. I’m happy to say, the show’s second episode left me feeling very much the same. “Mutant Liberation Begins” starts off right where the previous episode ended. Magneto, has revealed that it was the wishes…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Remember It”

Last week’s episode of X-Men ’97 saw the show take a breather with a fairly low stakes plot involving Jubilee and Roberto getting sucked into a video game. The last 7 or 8 minutes of the episode concluded with a more serious tone as Storm and Forge found themselves at odds in the wildlands of…

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by Joe

X-Men ’97 – “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 2”

Magneto was right. That was the realization many characters seemed to share at the end of last week’s episode of X-Men ’97. As we roll into the penultimate episode of the show’s first season, a lot is on the line and the show is drawing inspiration from several different sources related to the X-Men over…

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by Joe

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June 24, 2026

Jada Toys Ultra Street Fighter II Blanka (Player 2 Version)

By Joe
Player 2 has entered the game.

I have been admiring Jada Toys and their action figure line based on the video game Ultra Street Fighter II from afar. As I mentioned in my reviews of the Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3 figures, I am just a casual Street Fighter fan. I never owned Street Fighter 2, but I still managed to play it a lot because it was ubiquitous. I did own the first Street Fighter Alpha so I have more nostalgia tied into that series, but going back to the original sequel my favorite character was one that didn’t appear in Alpha: Blanka. Blanka was just cool to me. He was this monstrous creature in a roster of characters that looked far more conventional. I also wasn’t that great at the game so when I learned that he had a super move that just required me to hit one button repeatedly (his electric attack) that made me like him even more. Much of my Street Fighter 2 playtime came at the home of my nana and grandpa as my cousin would bring his Super Nintendo and a copy of the game over. Since I was one of the younger cousins, I was almost always player two which meant I would play as a blue Blanka often. That would come to be my preferred colorway for the character over his standard green (never mind that Blanka translates to white in Spanish, though he’s from Brazil where most speak Portuguese. It’s all so confusing,) and that’s true to this day. As a result, I opted to pass on the Jada figures even while they received glowing reviews from fellow collectors, but I promised myself that if Jada ever did a version of its Blanka in blue and yellow then I’d get it. Promise kept.

Different lines, but the sizing seems to work all right.

Big Bad Toy Store was given this exclusive player two variant of Blanka to sell on its store for $35. Blanka, classified as a deluxe release by Jada, does run a little more expensive than their other Street Fighter figures, but $35 is still a pretty good price in today’s market (this figure is a lot better than one we’re looking at next week which set me back $40). The packaging is big and flashy as it resembles an arcade cabinet with game artwork on the sides and photography on the back featuring the character. There’s also an expansive cross-sell featuring the character select artwork from the game which really captures how big the line is at this point. As nice as it is, I do have to say that getting into this box is a bit of a pain in the ass. There’s different layers of plastic inside and they’re held in place by those god-awful translucent tie-downs that NECA loves so much. This isn’t the sort of packaging that will easily go back together if you want to re-box the figure, though that really shouldn’t be a concern for Jada. There is a backdrop inside the box that refers to Blanka’s stage in the game, but it’s probably too small to be of much use outside of the box. Still, if you are one of those weirdos that doesn’t like to play with their toys, (I kid, I love you too) this will display nicely and there’s a window on top of the box which helps light to filter in and really show off the figure inside.

There isn’t a ton of paint on this guy, but what is there is pretty clean.

For those who do bust Blanka out of the box, they’ll find a big, blue, boy who stands at about 6.75″ to where I assume his head would end. To the top of his blazing yellow hair he’s about 7.25″. Some of that is irrelevant since Blanka, like last week’s fellow blue boy Beast, is almost always crouched to some degree when moving about in the game and I assume most will pose him as such. I don’t have any other figures from this line, but comparing him to the Storm Arena figures and he looks to be well sized. The sculpts for this line run soft compared with Storm Arena which is partly why I’ve preferred the look of their figures to what Jada was doing, but I do think this does a solid job of capturing the artwork associated with Ultra Street Fighter II. Not the sprites, but the artwork. The default portrait, for example, is definitely modeled on his portrait in the character select screen with the frowny grin that’s wider on his right side. It’s captured well and I like the cleanliness of the edges and the paint. Where the softness comes in is with the musculature. He’s ripped compared to a normal human, but not to the same degree as other figure lines. The biceps show this best as they just wrap around the base of the shoulder without really separating from them. It’s better than the Marvel Legends tiny shoulder syndrome, but I’d have liked to see more definition in that particular area.

“So, what made you blue?”

What obviously jumps out about this figure is the deco. This powder blue skin with bright yellow hair and trunks just pops. I love the blue and yellow combo, maybe it’s why I’ve always liked a lot of the X-Men costumes from the same era, and this looks great to my eye. The blue body is mostly colored plastic, but it has this tendency to eat light. It’s not shiny and it doesn’t have that “plastic” look some figures possess. There does appear to be some shading on the muscle groups in places which helps give it a nicer texture. The painted portions include the yellow patches of fur on the torso, forearms, and shins. It’s applied cleanly and the yellow is applied heavy enough to overcome the blue underneath. I have a tiny bit of chipping on the shins, but I think that’s from the bronze shackles around his ankles which are floating. I probably need to be more careful when posing his feet. The hair and trunks are molded yellow plastic with the trunks having white trim at the top and bottoms which is nicely applied. We do have some slight color mismatching though as the painted yellow is noticeably darker than the hair and trunks. The upper torso is also a stronger plastic and is a slightly different shade of blue from the arms and abs. It’s not egregious and I’ve seen worse on more expensive figures than this, but it is noticeable under certain lighting conditions. The previously mentioned shackles also appear to be painted which is probably why they have a nice metallic finish.

I think this was his fierce strike? It does draw attention to the fact that his arms probably aren’t as long as the sprite’s.

The figure looks good and my only nitpicks with it really are more stylistic than anything. If you dig the source artwork then you’ll probably dig this interpretation of Blanka. I will say, the in-hand feel of this figure is not as premium as Storm Arena. I don’t know how interested people are in hearing comparisons between the two, but since they are my only reference point for Street Fighter figures (unless you want to count the 90s Hasbro offerings) it’s a comparison that’s begging to be made. Blanka has a very similar feel to the Jada Frosty the Snowman I reviewed back in December of 2025. There’s a heft and a chunk factor, but not really that smoothness I often find with more premium offerings. Of course, he’s $35 so it’s not like we’re talking about MAFEX or Mezco here, but those Storm figures are in the same price range and come with about the same amount of stuff. Blanka feels more like a toy to me which is good in some respects as he definitely feels durable. The plastic is very hard in most places and offers little give. There’s not a smoothness to the joints and even compared to a Marvel Legends it still possesses some of that toy feel. It feels similar to a McFarlane figure, which again is not a bad thing on its own, but it’s just my impression. I’m not sure how I expected the figure to feel in-hand, but it took me a little by surprise.

Simple, but effective.

The accessories in the box are pretty typical from what I’ve see of this line. We get an alternate head, an alternate set of hands, and an effect apart from the game. The alternate head features Blanka with a yelling expression. The hair is slightly different and a bit more wild befitting the expression. It’s a good look and I honestly don’t know which I prefer. He comes with a pair of fists by default, but also has a set of clawing hands which is appropriate for the character. For an effect part, we actually get two lightning effects designed to be placed on a surface around a crouching Blanka to mimic his lightning attack from the game. They’re not the same sculpt with one being a little taller than the other, but both are done with soft, translucent, plastic that starts off yellow and finishes clear. It looks great and makes the most sense as an effect part for Blanka though if you wanted a stand in the box I wouldn’t blame you.

The lightning move was the easiest to pull-off in the game, but the head bite was my favorite.

What I was most looking forward to with this figure was just having this colorway in my hands, but not far behind that was checking out the articulation. For a company that has only been in the action figure business a short while, Jada really knows what it’s doing where articulation is concerned. They seem unafraid to take risks and I get the sense that their figures are designed by people who like handling action figures. Take the head, for instance. I haven’t even mentioned it up until now, but the plastic used for Blanka’s hair is very soft and very pliable. It’s basically in two parts: the front which frames the face, and then a center part that’s basically hollow. It looks good, but best of all, it doesn’t impede the figure’s ability to look up nor does it add substantial weight. I don’t know how this would work with something like Dragon Ball Z, but with this figure it works very well. As for joints, just get a load of this roll-out: double ball peg head, neck joint, butterfly, shoulder hinge, bicep, double elbows, wrist hinge and swivel, ball-jointed diaphrahm, ball-jointed waist, ball-socket hips, thigh swivel, double knees, shin swivel, ankle hinge and rocker. And it’s not just what is articulated, but the manner in which Jada does it. The diaphragm has great range weather it’s tilting or rotating. There’s plenty of clearance between it and the abdomen so there’s no paint rub on Blanka’s patch of stomach fur. The waist ball has a little cut-out in the front to help it rock forward that you would only know is there if you popped the figure apart. The thigh swivel is under the shorts so it’s not visible and the shin swivel is hidden by the ankle shackles. The fur on the front of the shin even starts above the cut but hangs over the joint and thus isn’t split when the joint is utilized. It’s a small attention to detail, but how often do we see Hasbro say “Screw it,” and just put a cut through some part of a figure’s sculpt? Doing so renders the joint almost unusable for many because it looks so bad, but Jada took care not to create such issues.

He can kind of do the rolling attack though finding a stand that can support him was a bit of a challenge.

That’s not to say there isn’t any room for improvement. The neck joint on mine doesn’t seem to want to do anything. I checked out some videos to see what it’s supposed to do and it looks like it should click forward and back, but mine is binding. There’s also a lot of plastic cut out of the inside of the elbow joint so it’s not the prettiest double elbow you’re likely to see. The range is great as this big-armed monster can bend past 90 degrees, but some might not like the trade-off. Apart from that though, it largely works really well. The figure, even with a semi-functional neck joint, can look up well enough to get into a crouch and it’s even capable of a decent rolling attack look. The range in the torso and hips is terrific and about the only joint that’s semi-compromised when it comes to range is the butterfly joint. I assume that was an aesthetic choice to not cut more into the pectorals and it’s one I’m personally fine with. It also means his shoulders sit where they should which preserves the silhouette. I hope Jada gave its designers a nice bonus last year and that other companies are buying these things with the intent to copy them because more companies should make figures that articulate like this.

I’d say set it and forget it, but he’s too fun to pose to leave on the shelf for too long.

That’s a lot of praise to end the last paragraph on and it’s justified praise. Everything I’ve heard about this line is captured well in this Blanka figure. The figure looks good, the construction is solid, and the articulation is fantastic. And it all comes at a pretty decent price especially considering that this is an exclusive variant. If you’re just interested in picking up a good action figure you’re unlikely to find one that’s appreciably better than this Blanka. While I prefer the aesthetic Storm Arena has settled on for its Street Fighter line, that doesn’t diminish what Jada is doing. If I was a bigger fan of Ultra Street Fighter II then I’d be more than happy to collect this line. As it stands, I may still cave and grab Vega if I ever see him in the wild and I look forward to seeing where Jada goes from here. It may only be June, but I’m pretty sure this Blanka will be part of my own personal top ten when all is said and done this year.

We have a few other Street Fighter figure reviews if you’re interested, and also more blue:

Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3 Sagat

As my collection grows, I try to be more regimented in my purchasing decisions. I have toy lines that I’m more or less all-in on and I rarely question myself with those. They have the most room budgeted in my house and in my actual budget. And then there’s the stuff I’m less invested in.…

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by Joe

Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3 Ken

One of my most anticipated releases of 2025 came out of no where. I was a kid during the early 90s and into video games so I know a thing or two about Street Fighter. Street Fighter II was everywhere and is pretty much the reason why the one-on-one fighting game became a huge genre…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Gamerverse Captain America vs Venom

We’re going to be doing a lot of 2025 catch-up here as Christmas always slows things down. Toy producers also like to push product for the holidays so I seem to always end up with a backlog at the end of the year. Especially when stores are doing generous sales and convincing me to buy…

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by Joe

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June 17, 2026

Mondo X-Men ’97 1/6 Scale Beast – Limited Edition

By Joe
I don’t normally do this, but for once I figured why not try to emulate the box art with the pose?

Back in the old Toy Biz line, it felt like we had to wait a long while for an action figure of Beast, or The Beast as the opening title of X-Men: The Animated Series referred to him as. Perhaps that was due to the character spending the bulk of the first season out of sight and out of mind thanks to being incarcerated. And I say it was a long wait, but what is a long wait to a child? It may have been about two years, but Beast eventually arrived with flipping action and an accessory that let him hang off of a smooth surface via a suction cup. I believe I got my figure for Christmas in 1994 and it felt like a big deal as he arrived alongside Morph and nearly filled out the roster from the cartoon. All that was missing was a proper Jean (we’d have to settle for her as Phoenix) and Jubilee (who eventually received a figure in the Generation X subline) while Rogue would arrive shortly after, if memory serves (action figure producers in the 90s were quite reluctant to make women). When Hasbro returned to X-Men for its Marvel Legends line based on the show, they made sure to get to Jubilee and Jean pretty early, but never did release a Beast. For the X-Men ’97 line, once again Jean and Jubilee made it out along with Rogue, but Beast got the shaft yet again. Finally, Hasbro unveiled a ’97 version of Beast on June 8th which is set to go up for preorder in August and will presumably release at some point in 2026. And that very same week I got a shipping notification from Mondo for its take on Beast who will get us ever closer to completing the main roster from the original series.

If you stand him up as tall as he’ll go then he’ll look down on the likes of Wolverine, but I think this is about right for his posture.

Beast has the distinction of arriving before Storm despite going up for preorder after her. And in this case it was well after as Storm went up around Halloween while Beast went up in February, but for some reason the blue guy beat her out of the factory. Maybe it’s the soft goods needed for Storm’s cape? I’m not sure, but I’d be lying if I said I was disappointed for while I do look forward to getting Storm, Beast was a pretty sizable want for me (literally). He’s just a fun design and we really have never received a proper animated Beast. Even that old Toy Biz figure featured more of a comic look as Beast had his whited-out eyes while the animated version had normal, blue, human eyes. Most of the Legends versions have followed a similar pattern with perhaps the only deviation being the very first Marvel Legends Beast which, apart from the eyes, didn’t bare much resemblance to the cartoon version (not that it was aiming for that). This Beast unquestionably is and like most Mondo releases in this line it arrives first as a limited edition with a bunch of extra goodies thrown in the box. It is yet another wonderful sculpt by Alex Brewer with paint by Mara Ancheta and packaging artwork Dan Veesenmeyer. The packaging does follow the same design as Mr. Sinister with no flap on the front and a write-up by Eric and Julia Lewald on the back detailing their affection for Hank. It would seem this is the standard going forward which is honestly fine as the front flap on the old boxes revealed little since these figures ship wrapped in plastic to protect the paint.

“Eureka!”
“Let me tell you about this wonderful resource.”

Beast is a big hunk of plastic coming in it at about 11.75″ per Mondo. Since he is a character often depicted standing with a bit of a hunch, exactly how much vertical space he’ll occupy on your shelf is certainly variable. He does pack some heft though as he’s solid. He doesn’t look out of place among the other figures and I do like that Mondo appears to have a mostly no compromises approach to size and scale with these releases. He’s also very much a ’92 design. While there isn’t much separating Beast from the original series and its sequel series, there are some subtle differences most notably in the shape of the face and the linework of the body. This Beast has the wide face of the original series with tufted bits of fur along the jaw line. His stark, black, eyebrows also sit more in-line with the eye as opposed to stretching well beyond them and his hair is a bit more unrestrained. It’s also reflected in the paint job as the original series was more likely to paint the inner lines of Beast’s musculature in a rougher manner. Instead of one, curved, line it was more like several shorter lines arranged in a curve shape to create a subtle illusion of fur. The ’97 art mostly goes with an all blue body with the fur only appearing as a means of breaking the silhouette in key places, something the original series also did. For this figure, Mondo did not sculpt any fur inside the body, but painted it withing the muscles such as in the base of the pectorals and basically along all muscle groupings. It means Beast has a slightly furrier appearance in plastic than he does on celluloid, but given the scale I think it’s a necessary touch to give him a bit more depth and the paint job is subtle enough that it doesn’t detract from the source material. Instead, it feels like this is how Beast is represented in the show on episode’s with the biggest budget or in close-ups as opposed to when he’s just lost in the background.

Beast is known for being well-read.
He’s not really known for being well-dressed. This is as formal as he gets.

Apart from the paint job, this is just a really great looking take on the character. Initially, I thought the shoulders looked a little bulbous in the promotional shots, but in-hand I don’t see the same. Beast always had quite large shoulders on the show and sculpt reflects that rather accurately. My favorite X-Men character designs are the ones that bely the personality of the individual underneath. A great example is Nightcrawler, the character who looks like a demon but is actually a devout Christian. In the case of Beast, it’s a monstrous individual who is actually a scholar and medical doctor. What makes me prefer the animated design over all others rests with his face. Beast has this very gentle, human-like, visage as opposed to the more primal one he is often given by comic book artists. And for this one, Brewer really nailed the different expressions contained in this set. We get a neutral face by default that has a faint hint of a smile which feels like the perfect default Beast. There’s also an angry one, and a yelling one if you want more of a battle setup. We also get this humorous toothy grin which is the only face that might be from X-Men ’97 though it still reads as a ’92 look to me. Lastly, there’s sad Beast and this is likely pulled from his spotlight episode, “Beauty and the Beast,” though he does have moments of sadness in other episodes that it could work for. I really like that Beast is the chosen character to wear his emotions on his sleeve as he’s basically the first to cry in X-Men ’97 when things get heavy.

It’s not easy being a beast.
A Howard the Duck shirt will be a smile on even the saddest face.

Those are just the expressions available, for hands we get a solid spread that includes sets of fists and gripping hands. There’s also another set of gripping hands that are asymmetrical, a very wide or style posed right hand, a pointing right hand, and an open left hand. He also has two books, one that is open and one that is closed. The closed book contains a shoutout to showrunner Erik Lewald and writer Julia Lewald as it’s titled Lewald’s Book of Words. The open book is The Genus of Genius, a bit smug for someone like Beast. For seeing that small print, Beast has his glasses which slot over his ears well enough without the need for any ugly cut-outs. They’re just black, plastic, frames without a lens and I think it serves the prupose here. He also has his tactical backpack which has a few different accessories all pulled from the original series. There’s a set of goggles that come up and over the head as well as a little blaster that pops out. These just plug into the backpack if you wish to use them or you could have the backpack appear closed. The goggles don’t slot into anything on the face, so you basically have to position his head and the pack itself to get it to sit right. Even so, you’ll probably have a hard time getting him to look in any direction other than straight ahead with these on. Beast also has a little handheld device that served as a communicator in “The Phalanx Covenant – Part One” in conjunction with a radio inside the pack, but that would have been a little too ambitious to include the whole thing. If you don’t want him out in the field though, there’s also an included lab coat accessory which he actually comes packaged wearing. This necessitates the swapping of arms as it’s setup just like the coats that came with Logan and Cyclops. It looks nice when in place and there’s even a little pocket with optional tongue depressor on the left breast, something that showed up in both shows. Because the coat adds a little more bulk to the shoulder area, I’d say it actually casts the slightly better silhouette as a result which was also true of the Cyclops figure. Lastly, Beast also comes with his Howard the Duck shirt as seen during The Phoenix Saga episodes. Unfortunately, it’s just a lump of painted plastic meant to represent the shirt folded up and it’s not something he can actually wear. An actual soft goods one he could wear would have been the icing on the cake. Beast also has the typical Mondo display stand. Unfortunately, they didn’t deem him worthy of the flight stand which is what I’d prefer to see become the standard for the line as these doll stands are pretty poor. If you think it’s a matter of heft my counter to that would be the recently solicited Goliath from Gargoyles comes with a flight stand so if it can support him then it could likely support Beast.

Beast is ready to head out into the field.

Beast has a pretty standard array of articulation for Mondo, but to my surprise, it’s among the most well-executed. For joints, we get a double ball head, hinged shoulder pegs, bicep, single elbow, ball-jointed wrist, diaphragm, ball-jointed waist, ball socket hips with swivel, double-jointed knees, ankle hinge and rocker, and a toe hinge. The head is perhaps the most limited as his sloped posture and large head means his range is a bit subtle and it’s easy to pop the head off by mistake when posing him. The shoulders have terrific range for what they are and the elbow hinge is pretty deep so Beast has no issues bending his arm 90 degrees, be it sleeved or not. The diaphragm joint actually works and he can arch back and crunch forward a bit and the waist enhances both directions. Both spots swivel and provide for a little rock. Nothing outrageous, but better than other figures in the line. All of the joints are also firm, but smooth, out of the box so I’ve had more fun messing around with Beast than a lot of figures from Mondo. The heads and hands are pliable enough to easily swap and all of the pegs are nice and thick so there’s no durability concerns here. Still, without a neck or butterfly joint, Beast will be confined to mostly simple poses. He can’t quite get down into a three-point stance nor can he look up well enough to emulate his pose on the cover of X-Men #1. He can crouch down and I was able to do so without the aid of a stand. I probably wouldn’t trust him on a shelf without one in such a pose (and I did have him take a dive already), but it is doable.

“Open your mouth and say, ‘Ahh,'”
Like Nightcrawler, Beast can get into a crouch.

As a result, Beast is probably the most fun character to handle since Nightcrawler, with Nightcrawler being the only one that’s obviously superior to him in the articulation department. He fits in really well among his teammates and I do love the big splash of blue it adds to the shelf. Or rather I will when I find a way to fit him in. The Mondo shelf is getting extremely crowded and it only gets worse when figures are released. I’ll have to find a home for Storm as well at some point this summer and eventually there’s Jean. That’s all that’s been shown so far and with the release of Jean that essentially completes the default team from the ’92 show with the exception of Professor X. And honestly, I don’t know if I want a Professor X for this line given the likely size and cost of such a thing since he has to come with the hoverchair. I do absolutely feel that we need a Morph since he was in the first episode and is a full-time member in X-Men ’97. After that, there’s Bishop, Cable, and Archangel which would all be nice to have, but aren’t necessities for me. If Mondo thinks it can do Apocalypse justice without a massive price hike, then I’d certainly be interested in him as well. He is really the only villain I feel like I need. Juggernaut would be cool as well, but he really didn’t show up much in the original series and has yet to make an appearance in X-Men ’97.

That’s a lot of plastic.

All that is to say there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for this line, but also not. I just listed out probably a couple grand in “maybe” figures not to mention shelf real estate so I guess we may not be as close as I would like to think. With San Diego Comic Con on the horizon, I am sure we’ll see a new figure or two in this line, though it would not shock me if Mondo prioritizes Spider-Man a bit more since that line has only put out three characters so far. Then again, X-Men ’97 returns to Disney+ in just two weeks so they’ll want to strike while the iron is hot with some new reveals. For now, Beast is a clear enhancement to the collection and one of Mondo’s best. I feel like I say that a lot with new releases in the line, but Beast really does vault up to the top or near top of my personal rankings for the line. He’s definitely one to get whether you’re cherry-picking the line or looking to assemble a full squad. And best of all, this limited edition version is still available on Mondo’s website. He is not cheap coming in at $255 and Mondo charges a lot for shipping these days. He is also still listed as coming with a tariff surcharge even though they’ve been reduced dramatically. That’s probably to not enrage the customers who preordered and paid that upfront. With the limited edition of 1,500 units not selling out, it’s possible that a standard version is not inbound either and there’s no indication on the listing what is part of the limited version and what would not be in a hypothetical standard edition. I’m not sure if any of these figures are truly worth what they cost, but if any are then Beast is among them as he’s very well executed. I am certainly happy to have him in my collection.

For more Mondo X-Men figures, check out the below:

Mondo X-Men ’97 1/6 Scale Nightcrawler

Yes, I’m afraid this is another toy review that needs to begin with a word about tariffs. It was the talk of 2025 in the toy collecting community because it caused considerable delays, disruptions, and worst of all, increased prices across the board. One line impacted by the introduction of these new costs more than…

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by Joe

Mondo 1/6 X-Men ’97 Wolverine – Limited Edition

Back in 2021, Mondo unveiled for San Diego Comic Con a sixth scale Wolverine action figure based on the X-Men animated series from the 90s. It was a presale to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the show’s premiere and product went out in 2022 closer to that actual anniversary. At the time, Mondo wasn’t…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television, toys

June 10, 2026

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Son Goku & Dragon 40th Anniversary Edition

By Joe
“Hi! I’m Goku!”

It was last year that Bandai and Tamashii Nations announced a selection of special releases in the S.H.Figuarts line of action figures celebrating the 40th anniversary of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball. Among those announced was a brand new version of kid Goku and Shenron from the cover of the very first volume of manga for Dragon Ball depicting Goku in a pale orange gi riding atop a rather adorable version of the mighty eternal dragon. At the time, it was a Japan-only exclusive and I patiently waited for it to show up on Premium Bandai like other 40th anniversary figures, but it never came. The figure would be added to the pop-up shop circuit, but those never came anywhere near my geographic location and I’m not about to make a five hour drive in order to secure a figure, no matter how much I might want it. Thankfully, this spring Bandai partnered with Big Bad Toy Store to make this exclusive figure available to customers unable to attend one of these events. Ordinarily, when exclusives from this line show up at BBTS it’s because the store purchased them like an actual customer from Bandai making the price for anyone buying it off of them MSRP+. For this release, it looks like BBTS was able to get a bunch of these at wholesale as the price is $100 which is certainly steep for an action figure, but as far as I know it’s the price of the figure at the pop-up shops.

Not the worst set to keep in-box, though since he wasn’t packaged riding the dragon the temptation may be too great.

Previously, the only 40th anniversary figure I had purchased was the reissue of Cooler. He’s a bit of an odd one to release for such an occasion since he didn’t even appear in the manga or anime and is instead a movie character. In this case, the occasion just seemed like an excuse for Bandai to reissue one of its more popular and well-received exclusives for those who had previously missed out and to tie him into the event they just stuck a special base in the box. With Goku, the homage to the first cover is a much more worthwhile way to celebrate such an historic occasion and should make for a wonderful display piece whether it’s kept in-box or taken out. The box is oversized and more of a cube shape than typical with a generous window showcasing the figure riding atop the dragon. It’s presented so well that it did almost pain me to remove it, but I really wanted to get my hands on this all new Goku figure so it basically had to happen. I’ve repeated many times that my favorite era of Dragon Ball is the kid Goku era. There’s a charm to it not present in the later iterations and the cast is pretty tight. The original SHF Goku figure was fine at the time i purchased it, but he’s not even remotely in-scale with other figures in the line. He’s much too big plus he doesn’t really embody the proportions of the character from either the manga or anime. In both, Goku is kind of chubby looking with an egg-shaped body with stubby little arms and legs. He’s designed to look cute, not powerful, while the figure was more stream-lined and quite tall. More than the height though, it’s just that the overall proportions don’t look right. Place him beside a Dragon Ball era Bulma and the two don’t even look like they’re from the same toy line. Roshi was a bit on the large side too so the scale there is a bit better, but overall it’s not the best representation.

We keep getting closer and closer to my ideal kid Goku.

Since then, we’ve received smaller versions of Goku, but none based on his look from Dragon Ball. There’s a Dragon Ball GT Kid Goku release as well as the Daima Mini Goku and both are quite small by comparison. This new version takes after them and likely utilizes some of the same parts. Or at least that was my thinking going in, but in the case of this figure vs the Mini Goku there’s virtually nothing shared. Even the hands and Power Pole accessory are different. I can’t attest to the GT figure since I don’t have it, but if Bandai went to the trouble of making so many new parts for this figure then it bodes well for those hoping to get a blue version or a red one. This little guy stands a tick under 3″ putting him in similar territory to the Daima figure. What’s different though is the approach to the sculpt. Daima Goku is slimmer and more like a shrunken down adult Goku. This new Goku has those rounded proportions of the manga character with tubular arms and a round tummy. His legs are a bit long for the design, but since he had to match the pose from the manga his legs needed to be a bit long. When Goku is just standing still in the manga his legs definitely “shrink” as Toriyama was able to take some liberties with the character, but for a 3D representation some adjustments are needed. The gi is orange and a more saturated shade when compared with the Daima figure, but not as red as what appears in the anime. This is in keeping with the look from that cover which also has small, slipper-like shoes and red wrist bands and trim at the end of the pants. It’s basically just a different color of his traditional blue gi and he has an off-white sash and a turquoise pouch hanging from it where his Dragon Ball is stored, a nice little attention to detail.

He’s got some cheeky little expressions.

For heads, we get two with four total expressions. The default head features Goku’s trademarked spikey hairdo with a big open mouthed expression to match the cover image. The eyes have a rounded look which is consistent with Dragon Ball and the inner mouth is just painted pink which is very similar to an expression the original Kid Goku figure came with in both appearance and execution. His other expressions feature a cocky little smirk and a mischievous side-eye grin. The side-eye expression is pretty cute, though it looks a bit off-model to me. It could also be the pink outline around the mouth that’s throwing it off for me as that’s not usually present in the art or the figures. The alternate head is an even spikier version of Goku’s hair with an open-mouth expression. It’s pretty goofy looking, but it’s a direct pull from the cover of volume 10 (and the anime’s ending credits) where Goku is just sort of floating in the air with his Power Pole across his forehead while Bulma mugs for the camera. I do enjoy this rougher looking version of Goku’s hair, but it seems the only portrait that works with it is the one that’s on it by default. That makes it very scene specific and I don’t know if I really see myself using it, even though I do like it. In addition to that, there is an assortment of hands in the box: waving, gripping, fists, peace sign, relaxed (a cupping Kamehameha-like pose), open, and a pair of gestured hands that seem specific to how Goku often placed one hand at the top of his Power Pole. There’s an alternate set of bangs for the default head that’s barely different from what’s on him to start with. I guess one is slightly askew and maybe it’s just to match the cover while the other represents how he’s typically drawn? There’s a secondary bow for his sash which is more of an action pose as well as some weapons. For one, we get the Power Pole and included sling. There’s a version for Goku to hold and a little stub to plug into the sling when the weapon is holstered. He also has a pair of tonfa which are tiny and cute. These are taken (along with the mischievous side-eyes grin) from the cover of chapter one of the manga. They’re brown with some red trim and provide for some more display options. To insert them into Goku’s gripping hands, the red banding needs to be removed from the handle first. It’s a tiny piece so don’t drop it or the carpet monster will eat.

There’s tonfa for when Goku tires of using his Power Pole. The “O” mouth head certainly makes for an interesting display.

That is, if you aren’t planning on displaying this Goku atop the dragon. The little Shenron included is a cuter depiction of the character meant to match the artwork and he’s basically a glorified display stand for Goku. Shenron is well-painted and his whiskers are the only parts that need to be attached out of the box. In addition to the head itself, they’re also the only articulation points and he’s meant to sit atop three, translucent, clouds which are atop transparent, acrylic, posts. They plug into the included base which has a 40th anniversary graphic printed onto it and Shenron affixes to these clouds via magnets, which is a nice touch. Just in front of his forelegs is a section of his spiny fin that can be removed and replaced with an acrylic seat for Goku. It’s meant to allow the small piece between his legs to get a secure enough grip on the back of the dragon for his riding pose and there’s also a slot for his tail. If you don’t want him atop the dragon, then you simply leave the fin in place. The clouds do have to be inserted by the user and in order to do so the little pegs in the base have to be popped out which can be done from the underside. There’s also an included, orange, piece of plastic that’s basically a pry bar. This is used for swapping the bow on Goku’s belt since the instructions flag it as a potential damage point, but you probably won’t need it since both bows are rather pliable. With everything assembled, Goku sits atop the dragon with relative ease. He can be posed to resemble the manga cover, or he can be doing something else. The dragon sits a little over 2″ above the base and its silhouette doesn’t extend much beyond the base so the shelf space needed for this one is surprisingly minimal. It might have been fun to get three additional posts for the clouds to sit the figures even higher above the base, but as is it displays very well.

Let’s not forget about the dragon.

For articulation, Tamashii Nations made some alterations to this one when compared with other smaller Goku figures from the past. I’m guessing some of these are similar to the Pan figure they did, but that isn’t one I actually bought. The neck is a standard double ball peg which has solid range that’s aided by a single ball at the base of the neck. The shoulders are hinged ball pegs with a butterfly joint, but not the kind that gets a whole lot of range. There’s a ball joint in the waist, and the legs affix via straight ball pegs and have suitable range out to the side and forward. The knees and elbows are single hinged and they do swivel. A 90 degree bend is possible, but no further. Interestingly, there is a visible peg on the inner knee and elbow which is something I can’t recall seeing in a Tamashii Nations release prior to this one. It’s not ghastly or anything, just something I noticed. The wrists and ankles are the most unique and the most basic as they are like the hips in that they’re just straight pegs with a ball at the end. On one hand (no pun intended), I don’t mind it since it makes swapping hands easier than having to fiddle with a tiny hinged ball joint like the Goku Mini. At the ankles though, it’s a bit limited and I don’t know why the Daima Goku can have a more traditional hinge and rocker setup and this Goku can’t. I can only assume it was an aesthetic choice more than anything as the slipper look does present better this way, but it does come at a cost. The tail also swivels on a ball peg as does the bow on the sash.

With this set you can reference multiple pieces of Toriyama’s artwork beyond just Goku riding the dragon.

The articulation is certainly functional, but is more limited than other kid versions of Goku. He can do a decent Kamehameha charging pose, but a firing one is a little less convincing. The ball joint at the waist mostly provides rotation and a little pivot without much crunch. That’s pretty much expected though given the size and shape of Goku. The original had that hinged diaphragm joint to extend and bend, but that just doesn’t really work with these rounder dimensions. This is a more scene specific figure and as far as that goes he can do it, but it’s a little less fun to play with in hand. Does that mean I actually wouldn’t want to see this repurposed for other Dragon Ball looks? I certainly would not go that far. The articulation may have limits, but the trade-off is worth it to me so if Bandai wants to come back with this figure in blue I’d probably be all over it. Especially with some more scene specific expressions. That’s where most of the charm lies in this figure for me and it’s a great base for others. Goku has plenty of looks in the series, but Bandai hasn’t done a brand new Dragon Ball figure since Launch back in 2022. It seems like a dead line, but I hope this leads to more. This body could be repurposed for Krillin and we never did get a training uniform version of him. There are numerous looks for Bulma and the main antagonists of early Dragon Ball, the Pilaf gang, have yet to be made and this body could probably work for Shu. Not to mention all of the characters that come later like Tienshinhan, Kami, Chi Chi, and Piccolo Jr. If we could only get one figure though I’d have to go to bat for Yamcha in his first appearance look. That one seemed like a given, but we’re still waiting.

A wonderful way to celebrate Dragon Ball’s 40th. Here’s to 40 more!

I’m getting ahead of myself. What’s important here is we did get a new Dragon Ball figure of Goku and it’s a special one because it celebrates one of the earliest depictions of the character. As a very specific release, this works pretty well. Sure, it’s a bit tough to perfectly nail the pose, but it definitely can get close enough. A more determined individual may even be able to get something more accurate with persistence. The Goku and dragon turned out well and it’s a pretty attractive piece for anyone’s collection. It does come at a cost, but for what’s in the box I think the value is decent. Not great, but not the worst thing in the world. If you love Dragon Ball and wanted something to celebrate this milestone then you’d be hard-pressed to do better here. There is an adult Goku on the way with his turban and tiger pelt, but I have no attachment to that particular artwork. This, on the other hand, is one I’ve always adored so it’s the best release for me. And if it leads to more Dragon Ball figures then all the better.

For plenty more Dragon Ball, take a look at these:

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Daima Super Saiyan 4 Son Goku (Mini)

It’s no great secret that the black sheep of the Dragon Ball universe is the anime Dragon Ball GT. Created in-house by Toei animation, Dragon Ball GT was a continuation of Dragon Ball Z without creator Akira Toriyama. While Toriyama had to grant approval to many aspects of the series, he wasn’t directly involved with…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Lunch

It’s no secret my preferred take on the world of Dragon Ball created by author/artist Akira Toriyama is the original one: Dragon Ball. Of course, in the manga it’s just all Dragon Ball up until the more recent Dragon Ball Super, but for anime viewers there’s Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Comics, Television, toys

June 3, 2026

INART The Dark Knight Rises Catwoman

By Joe
“The cat came back the very next day…”

Queen Studios is back with another installment of its INART The Dark Knight Rises action figures and this time we’re talking about Catwoman. Portrayed on the screen by actress Anne Hathaway, Catwoman was something of an anti-hero in the film. In a post Occupy Wall Street world, her anger and frustration with the ruling class was meant to humanize her and make her sympathetic, but when she set her sights on one Bruce Wayne she did unknowingly risk her reputation with the unseen audience watching all. Still, this was an action film based on a comic book so Catwoman did get a chance to demonstrate her ability to kick ass and rock a skin tight suit and while she didn’t have the kind of tech Batman possessed, she did have some toys of her own. The portrayal was fine, but perhaps a bit too conventional for movies. It certainly lacked the camp of Julie Newmar and proved less memorable than the Michelle Pfeiffer portrayal which makes this Catwoman feel a bit like a lesser Catwoman. The character didn’t stay with me once the credits rolled and not helping things is that The Dark Knight Rises was the weakest film in the Christopher Nolan trilogy. Not a bad film, just not as good as what came before. As a result, I’ve never felt the pull to add Catwoman to my action figure collection, but then along came INART with its take on Batman last year and now this Catwoman. The look of the figure blew me away in promotional shots and the early reviews that showed up last summer were able to sway me. Now, the figure is in-hand and I have to figure out if this was really something I needed, or if my impulse control got the better of me.

This looks pretty good to me.

Catwoman comes in a plain shipper box with a nicer black box lurking within in a style very similar to what Batman came in. The packaging is accessible without destroying it and the trays inside contain the figure and all of the accessories free from any sort of aggravating tie-downs. It’s a nice setup, though I do find it odd that Queen Studios literally puts a request (more like a demand) that you record your own unboxing in case there are any defects or damages to be found. I guess if you don’t have proof that you didn’t cause the damage or lose the part then they’re less likely to help you in the event something went wrong between the factory and your hands. I guess this would have made for an opportune time for me to pivot to video, but a bunch of toy reviewers got this thing last year so what would be the point? INART has an interesting production schedule where they send reviewers final copies of the figure just as preorders are going up for the rest of us scum. It seems weird to produce just a handful of figures upfront for the purpose of reviewing, but I guess it works for them. And if it’s costing them a lot it’s not reflected in the price compared with other premium collectibles as Catwoman is somewhere in the $65 – $75 range. She is only available overseas for folks living in North America so there will likely be a not insignificant shipping charge attached to that, but even after all is said and done I think I’m in the hole about $80 and given what Medicom and Bandai are charging these days that ain’t bad.

Goggles down.
You’ll have to trust me when I say this portrait looks better in person.

Out of the box, Catwoman stands at just a tick under 6″ in height. INART is a 1:12 scale brand and since Anne Hathaway is a real person that sent me to the Internet to see if I could get a height on her. And if said Internet can be trusted then Miss Hathaway stands at 5’8″ or 68″ tall. At 1:12 scale that would place her at about 5.67″ – but wait! Cawoman sports some rather large heels. It’s a little tricky to measure them, but I have them at about 5/16ths of an inch. Convert that to 1:12 scale and add it to the figure and we come out to 5.98″ which is almost right on the money. Impressive. She is a figure comprised mostly of black plastic, but it’s plastic with different textures and finishes like Batman. The long boots and gloves have a sheen to them like leather, while the body suit is more matte and textured like Kevlar. There is some shiny black piping along the inner shoulder and the zipper down the front with a little hit of silver on the zipper grasp itself. The end of which is coated black which is an impressive attention to detail. There are also some faint hits of silver along the pouches of her belt with some of them looking quite faded. Is this to simulate use or an imperfect paint app? In looking at stills from the movie, I don’t think these are meant to be silver, but instead supposed to just give it some gloss. The same is true of the mask over her eyes. It’s a gray or silver paint, but it seems to exist to just provide some gloss and break-up the otherwise all black look. The other paint hits are reserved for the red of her lips and the brown of her hair which leads me to the faces in the box.

Back off, rich boy!

Just like we saw with Christian Bale, the likeness here is almost so good that it’s eerie. The likeness is really all in the shape of the face as Hathaway isn’t someone with obvious creases or hallmarks on her face. It’s the size of her eyes, the shape of her lips, and the angle of the jaw and cheekbones and whoever sculpted these portraits did a fantastic job. There are two portraits in the box: one with the mask sculpted on and one without. The one with the mask has two ports on the temples for the included goggles, of which you get two. One is designed for when she doesn’t have them in use and they sit atop her head like cat ears. The other piece is for when she actually needs to wear them. They have translucent red lenses and are well sculpted. The expression for both portraits is a fairly neutral one. There may be a tiny hint of a smile, or maybe that’s my imagination. If there’s one failing with both portraits it’s that the hair is a bit flat and unconvincing. It’s obviously plastic and I don’t typically dock points from an action figure for not being able to create the illusion that it’s actually a tiny person, but so much of this figure does accomplish that for me so it sticks out a touch. It’s especially true with the unmasked portrait as her hair is just as taut as it is on the masked version, and as a result, I’ll probably never use it. Hair is tough to make look real so it’s easily forgiven. Some probably wish she had more expressions though and I do agree. Something a bit more cheeky or angry would have added some nice variety.

“What?! You’re not my Selena!”

Even though she doesn’t have a host of expressions to choose from, Catwoman is hardly lacking in the accessory department. For hands, we get six sets: relaxed, fists, a wide grip, trigger finger, pinching, and a two finger gesture. I assume these are pulled from the movie. The two finger gesture looks like a good adjusting goggles kind of hand while the wide gripping hand is probably for putting her hands on her hips (INART actually lists their intended use in the instructions which is pretty cool). The trigger finger hands are for use with her included gun which is a very small handgun cast in black plastic. The more pinching gesture is for her to hold the included smashed Batman mask. The relaxed hands can also hold it just fine and the trigger finger hands could too, but the instructions in the box specifically call out these hands as being intended for that. The wide grip can be used to cradle it as well. Also included is a swappable hair piece that has a swoosh effect to it if you want to add a dynamic element to your display. There’s also the same stand with an articulated arm that came with Batman only this one is labeled Catwoman on the underside so you don’t get them mixed up. It’s a nice stand as the base has some heft and the armature is nice and tight. The film’s logo is stamped on the front in a shiny plastic that’s cool, but also hard to read.

Catwoman’s articulation is fairly robust. There are joints at the head, hair, neck, shoulders, bicep, elbows, wrists, diaphragm, waist, hips, thighs, knees, ankles and toes. The head is a little limited in looking up because of the hair, though swapping to the swoosh hair alleviates some of this. That joint is mostly a pivot point and exists mainly to facilitate swapping the parts, but it has some utility when posing the head. The shoulders feel like they’re just on ball pegs to get a little butterfly action forward and back. There are no cuts into the torso for a full-on butterfly joint which I think was the right call for this sculpt. Since she’s fairly slight, the range is solid for such a joint. The bicep swivel is a little lower than usual as they put it at the part above her elbow where her glove meets the arm – a logical spot given the design of the suit. The same is true for the thigh swivel as that’s where her thigh-high boots meet her leg. Knees and elbows bend way past 90 degrees as both spots are double-jointed. The wrists utilize ball joints so they’ll move in any direction you need them to. The diaphragm joint has solid range forward, but is a little more limited going back. It will rotate and tilt and the waist does the same as it feels like a ball joint. The hips are these nice, big, hinges which allow Catwoman to hit splits and kick forward quite far. There is a diaper piece at the hips, but it’s quite small so it doesn’t hinder articulation much. If anything, it’s so small that you’ll risk grinding it up as the hip joint slips over it so do be mindful if you’re attempting something more extreme. The ankles do feature a hinge and rocker, though her stiletto type boots limit the ankle rocker’s range. They swivel as well. Despite the rather extreme heels, this figure is fully capable of standing without the aid of a stand. You may not get her into the most dynamic of poses without utilizing her stand, but you also don’t need it if you would rather not display her with it.

She poses well, but it’s the more casual poses that seem to work best.

The abundance of joints combined with Catwoman’s lithe frame makes her relatively easy to pose. There’s a lot of room for nuance adjustments which is great for a subject sourced from a live-action film. Splashy comic book poses are great for figures based on actual comic book characters, but are less useful for a character like Catwoman. Though given how robust the articulation is, if you wanted to do such with her then have at it. The combination of accuracy, accessories, and articulation (the three A’s of figure making) really makes this Catwoman from INART a true home run. I’m lukewarm on the character, but this figure blew me away in promotional shots and it blew me away in person. It’s almost too perfect – where do we go from here? I expect this level of detail from everyone going forward even though I’m sure to be letdown. I’m also not sure how Queen Studios is able to keep the cost on these figures down as much as they do – is that simply because they’re not paying for a North American distribution license? Maybe, though there’s still little reuse potential in a figure like this and yet that didn’t stop them from going all out. I had some nitpicks in here, but they’re just that – nitpicks. I really couldn’t be any happier with this one and she looks awesome beside my Batman. Does this mean I’m going to get Bane too? I don’t know. He’s less interesting, but they did show a Joker prototype last year (or very early this year) and that could certainly get me. If you’re interested in this one, but reside in the United States, your options are limited as far as where you can purchase this. INART can’t sell directly to folks in North America, but other non-US retailers certainly can. I got mine from Bombusbee (no affiliation or anything, just sharing where I got it) and I was content with both the price and customer service. This one may have gone up since, and I assume she will in general just like Batman did, so it’s probably best not to wait. You may not feel you need a Catwoman from The Dark Knight Rises, but you’ll probably be happy to have her should you change your mind.

For more Batman releases including the previous INART release, check these out:

INART The Dark Knight Rises Batman – Deluxe Version

Is this a review I really need to do? Probably not, but I’m doing it anyway. Queen Studios wasn’t a shop that was on my radar going into 2025. I’m guessing that’s true for a lot of folks and that’s probably why they had a media blitz when it came time to promote their brand…

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by Joe

The Dark Knight Rises

I mentioned in my look at Batman’s best films that I had gone into total lockdown mode for The Dark Knight Rises.  I got off of social media, stayed away from review sites, and just basically blocked the world out where Batman was concerned.  I wanted to walk into this film with an unformed opinion.…

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by Joe

Mezco One:12 Collective Batman (1989)

When it comes to the world of more high end action figure collectibles, I’ve been able to get my hands on a few. Some rather prominent companies have yet to cross my path though, and it’s not really for any reason other than they either don’t make what I like or I don’t really like…

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by Joe

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Film, Comics, toys