Tag Archives: x-men

May 4, 2026

Medicom MAFEX 287 Gambit (Comic Variant Ver.)

By Joe
Everyone can relax…

When I think of 90s comic book characters, there are quite a few who come to mind, but first and foremost is Gambit. I attribute that largely to the X-Men animated series as that was my first real introduction to the character. Prior to that show’s premiere, I had seen images of the character and had a vague understanding of what made him a superhero, but he wasn’t someone I paid much attention to. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Jim Lee, he is quite a bit different from the classic superhero when it comes to his appearance. He’s been around so long and is so popular now that it’s easy to lose sight of how a guy in a trench coat and hot pink shirt might not read as a superhero right away. His role as a bit of a scoundrel and unique power set have certainly helped make Gambit a memorable member of the X-Men, but I do think that very popular cartoon in ’92 really helped cement the character as one of the most popular X-Men of all time.

This figure is a costly, but obvious, upgrade over the Legends figure. It does make me want to talk myself into the MAFEX Rogue though.

If you have followed any of my previous X-Men figure reviews, then you know that a big part of my goal as an action figure collector is to assemble that animated team on my shelf. The only issue with that goal is the only game in town when it comes to something in a 1:12 scale the only game in town in a lot of respects has been Hasbro. They did their own take on some of the animated team and have since moved on to X-Men ’97 based figures, but a lot of them have been not great. In particular, the dedicated ’92 series of figures was pretty bad. The line was only 8 figures and yet I’ve already replaced 3 of them in some form or another. And all of them have been replaced with other Marvel Legends offerings or a kit-bash approach, but this new Gambit figure marks my first time attempting to replace one with another company’s offering.

For some, this might be the ideal Capcom Gambit.

Gambit was released in the first wave of X-Men ’97 figures by Hasbro. It was basically just a straight re-release of a prior Gambit, but with an updated portrait that’s more evocative of the new show’s style. It’s an okay release. The articulation is dated and the card-throwing accessory is worthless, but visually it’s passable. Certainly not good enough to not be at risk of replacement. Enter Medicom and their new MAFEX-branded release of Gambit. This is an update on an older figure that has proven to be one of the more popular releases in the line. Just perusing the toy community online it sure seems like Gambit, Magneto, and the brown-costumed Wolverine are often cited as being among Medicom’s best efforts. And one look at Gambit and it’s easy to see why. The proportions and sculpt look nice, the soft goods coat turned out well, and there’s a bunch of stuff included in the box – so why did I never pick it up? Well, it’s expensive. MAFEX figures for those sitting outside Asia will routinely cost around $100 when all is said and done. That figure looked good, but it wasn’t $100 good for me. Medicom went with a metallic paint job, something they seem quite fond of with their X-Men figures, which just isn’t my thing. I want my figures to resemble their source material as close as possible and nothing about a metallic paint job on Gambit really screams that for me. Then last summer, Medicom unveiled a new variant Gambit which they referred to as their comic variant. Basically, it’s a more straight-forward paint job with a different color applied to the coat and effect parts and suddenly I was in. Well, almost. I still waited for the figure to actually release before I finally gave in (and a nice bonus at work helped give me a nudge) and once I was satisfied with how it turned out I laid my money down.

If so, he’s not going to make the SHF Cyclops look tall.

Gambit comes in the standard Medicom MAFEX box which is designed to mimic a comic book with a snippet of art from the books and a bunch of product shots. I will say, it immediately made me chuckle that the comic book art doesn’t match the look of this supposed comic book variant of the figure (and we’ll get more into that shortly), but that’s not something that truly bothers me. Out of the box, Gambit stands a little over 6″ with his poofy hair taking him up to around the 6.5″ mark making him true 1:12 scale. He possesses the typical, MAFEX, proportioning as his legs are fairly long and the build is more on the slender side than the bulked-up type. It works for Gambit and the coat helps to add more of a presence to the figure’s form. The pink of the shirt is a nice, bright, shade with some light purple shading added which helps create texture. The blue…whatever this thing is…around the base of his neck is sculpted as I remember it from the comics and is shaded with dark blue which really helps to make it pop. The paints and the cowl are a nice, matte, black and the pink rectangles on the thighs are present and painted well. The blue of the belt and boots matches to each other and there’s some nice black linework in both areas. The face is really well done and the hair has some black or very dark brown wash applied. There’s also a hint of stubble on his chin and the trademark red eyes glow brightly. Most of the paint is clean. There is a white spot on the right thigh of my figure and some of the black lines on the boots could have been applied in a neater fashion. The hands, which feature Gambit’s traditional fingerless portions, could have been painted cleaner as well. If it sounds like I’m nitpicking know that I am, but we’re also talking about a $100 action figure and standards should be exceptionally high.

The sculpt is pretty freakin’ nice.

The presentation of the sculpt and paint works very well for me. This is a sharp figure. What’s been a bit more divisive is the coat. In pictures, the coat has a real touch of red to the brown. It’s a far more saturated shade compared with the original release which is much closer to the comic image on the box in terms of color. In hand, it’s still noticeably red, but not to the same degree. It’s indeed a brown coat and I think it plays off of the hot pink shirt very well, but if you’re looking for pure comic book accuracy this shade probably isn’t it. Now, we are talking about a character who debuted in 1990 and in the ensuing decades he’s had a lot of looks and variations and if you scour the pages of Marvel Comics I don’t doubt that someone could turn up an image of Gambit where he looks like this, but is it what people think of first? Probably not. For me, I personally think the figure looks great. I get a lot of Toy Biz vibes out of the figure as far as the colors go stretching back to the first Gambit released in that line (with the karate kick action!). I’ve seen people online doing a coat swap with the first release and being quite happy with the result, but that’s a lot of money to shell out for the ideal Gambit.

He has two arc effects, one with more of a fire texture and another that’s smoother.

Another area where this color discrepancy rears its head is with the accessories. Gambit gets the usual vast assortment of hand options including fists, gripping, relaxed, open, open with an effect peg, and a set of card holding hands that are not mirrored. The right hand is the classic two-finger Gambit pose while the left is designed to hold two cards. The alternate head features a gritted teeth expression while utilizing the same sculpt for the hair. Gambit has his staff which is a light brown with some black linework painted onto it. The “controversial” part are the effects. Gambit has a solo card with a trailing effect on it, a two-card piece that’s more stationary and flaming, and then there are two flame effects for the ends of his staff. For all, Medicom went with a yellow and orange coloration like actual fire. On the previous figure, they went with the pink/magenta the character is more known for when he activates his powers in the comic. Like the coat, you can find images of Gambit’s powers taking on this color, but they’re definitely the minority (and originally his powers were green which is just weird to think about). His power effects were similar to this color in the original cartoon series, but in that show they also used an animation effect that gave it a different texture. In X-Men ’97, his powers were altered to resemble the comic. I think we got this set because Medicom just wanted to differentiate the figure further from the first release, but in doing so it does lessen the whole notion of this being the true comic variant. For me personally, while I would have preferred the pink, it doesn’t really move the needle at all. I think the effects look good, they’re just not in the color that first comes to mind for when I think of Gambit.

He also has his staff and even some flame effects for the ends.

And those aren’t even the only effects. Gambit also has two, large, throwing effects. Each one features three cards and an arc of flame behind them. They’re designed to peg onto the effect hands and the peg hole is at the end so we don’t end up with a Hasbro situation where the arc makes no sense. All of the cards, including the other two effects, are just yellow like they’re glowing and there’s no visible suit or number. One of the arc effects is thinner and sharper looking while the other has textured flames. It’s heavier as a result, not that the slimmer profiled one isn’t heavy, and to counter that Medicom included a stand for the effects. It’s just a clear, plastic, base and post with two options for a “Y” shaped top to help prop it up. Without it, the wrist joint won’t be able to support the weight and it will turn towards the ground. Certain poses, like a vertical toss, can work, but if you want a horizontal sweep type of throw you’ll need the post. Also included is the usual MAFEX stand that works just as well as it always does.

It can be tricky to pose, but these effects are pretty damn fun to mess around with, though they do add heft.

The articulation for Gambit is pretty typical for MAFEX which is to say it’s quite good. There’s a double-ball peg head, ball-jointed neck, butterfly shoulders, shoulder hinges, bicep swivel, double elbows, ball-hinge wrists, diaphragm, ball-jointed waist, drop-down hips, thigh swivel at the hips joint, double-jointed knees, ball-hinged ankles, toe hinge. Range at pretty much all spots is a plus. The torso gets nice arch back and crunch forward, the head can be posed with a great deal of freedom, and the hips allow for high kicks and the like. The ankles are the only area I’m not in love with. The ball hinge can be tough to get a good ankle rocker out of it. It works, it’s just a bit more fickle than I’d like. The coat is wired all along the hem including the collar so it can pose very well. It will bunch up on the arms and that’s just the nature of soft goods – you’re always sacrificing something when they cover limbs. The coat can come off, if you so desire, which will free up the range of the arms, but your Gambit will look far less cool. To probably get the most out of the arms, you will have to remove the coat to pose him, then try to carefully get it back as manipulating the bicep swivel and even the elbow joint can get really cumbersome with the coat on.

The big effects are flashy, but sometimes the simpler ones work just as well.

This Gambit from Medicom is expensive, but it is a terrific action figure. There’s not a whole lot to complain about. I think the paint could have been a little sharper in places and I really think we should have got a third portrait with a smirk on it. Two heads where one is stoic and the other angry just isn’t ideal for a character like Gambit. People are going to want to pose him with Rogue and he’s never not smiling when he’s around Rogue. This reissue would have been a great opportunity to add an extra head, but Medicom opted not to. Still, what is here is pretty substantial when it comes to hands and effects and the end result is something special. This is only my fourth MAFEX figure, but it quickly became my favorite. If all of their X-Men figures turned out this well I’d have a whole lot less money to my name, but one Hell of a collection. This is the rare $100 figure at this scale that I have no regrets whatsoever about picking up. If you dig it and want one of your own, the import sites will probably be a better deal than some of the US-based retailers which are charging upwards of $130 for this one. That’s pretty rich, but if you shop around you should be able to get him for less so long as he’s in stock. And I would guess this one will sell out eventually so don’t put it off for too long.

For more premium action figure offerings check these out:

S.H.Figuarts Marvel Gamerverse Cyclops

A funny thing happened in 2025 where two companies revealed they were going to be making action figures based on the hit video game series Marvel vs Capcom only for neither company to actually mention the words Marvel vs Capcom. It would seem that neither Hasbro nor Bandai wanted to compensate the Capcom portion of…

Keep reading
by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Across the Spider-Verse Scarlet Spider

In the two reviews I did of Scarlet Spider action figures I shared the origins of my love for the character’s design. To make it short, I found the appearance of him on a cover of a Spider-Man comic intriguing, but more is as a young artist I much preferred to doodle him in my…

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by Joe

MAFEX No. 117 – Superman (Batman: Hush Ver.)

They finally wore me down. It was nearly five years ago that I reviewed the Medicom MAFEX Batman (Hush Ver.) action figure and concluded that it would probably be the only figure I’d get. Then along came Superman. As a kid, I liked Superman well enough. I think the first pair of superhero themed pajamas…

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by Joe

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

April 22, 2026

Manipple Studio S.H.Figuarts Wolverine Arm Upgrade (Deadpool & Wolverine)

By Joe
Wolverine got himself some new arms.

When Marvel got rolling on the film Deadpool & Wolverine I think it did so with a veil of secrecy. This was going to be the first Marvel movie where Wolverine would be in a costume similar to what he’s worn in the comics for years. When X-Men first arrived back in 2000, the thought process back then with most superhero movies was that you couldn’t get a casual audience to take seriously a bunch of people running around in yellow spandex. Even Batman couldn’t be in gray and blue he had to go full black. As it would turn out, the whole notion of superhero squads in uniforms is a pretty far-fetched idea all by itself so who really cares how loud those threads get? The downside of this secrecy though meant that companies looking to produce merch for the movie may have had their hands tied. Or maybe they’re just cheap? When Wolverine did show up in plastic it was somewhat incomplete. The Hasbro figure came with a masked and unmasked portrait, but the truth of the matter is the masked portrait never really worked well because he never wore the mask with the sleeves in the movie. Other companies seemed reluctant to pay Hugh Jackman for his likeness which is how we got the S.H.Figuarts release that only had masked portraits plus the sleeved look. Where could someone go who wanted something more all-encompassing? Diamond Select appeared poised to release such a figure, but they went belly-up before that could happen. Enter the third parties!

I think Hasbro Logan is jealous.

Wolverine had a lot of looks in Deadpool & Wolverine with the vast majority of them being a fun sequence of cameos early in the film. For the most part though, he had three distinct looks: unmasked, unmasked without sleeves, and masked without sleeves. He also did end up completely shirtless with the mask in place, but for an action figure that’s a little more involved. For a company wanting to hit those three main looks though you basically need two heads in the box plus two sets of arms. Throw in some clawed and unclawed hands and you have yourself a pretty complete release. Unfortunately, that’s been hard to come by and while I love the unmasked portrait of the Legends release, the figure itself is pretty mediocre. It is being re-released this spring with bare arms, but that just solves one problem. The far better figure release was the S.H.Figuarts one, but as I noted already, it only had masked portraits and featured sleeves. In other words, this is a Wolverine we never saw on film. And if Bandai came back around with an updated one, how eager would I be to spend $80-$100 on an all new figure when it’s really the arms I take issue with?

They were able to match the gloves pretty well.

When it comes to third parties, I’m often reluctant to purchase. Many are essentially bootlegs of someone else’s work. They may be good quality, but it’s still essentially stolen property. Manipple Studios has come onto my radar a few times and with them it’s usually parts sold on their own that are intended to work with an official release. They’re filling a void the official companies don’t want to and as far as I know they’re sculpting their own parts. I could be wrong and the arms I purchased off of AliExpress could be cast from an official release, but if so I’m not aware of it. These things are available though and for around $20 shipped to the US. Sure, that seems like a lot for two plastic arms, but considering the actual figure retails for $85 maybe it’s not so bad? I also got my Wolverine figure on steep discount so there’s some surplus value here that I could spend on an extra set of arms and after getting them in over the weekend how do I feel about them?

Show off them guns, Wolverine!

Pretty damn good. The arms are just that – arms. The gloves are part of the sculpt and painted while the flesh is bare plastic. It has some warmth to it though and isn’t waxy or shiny and works with the figure considering it too is a lot of bare plastic. And they are straight replacements so swapping them is fairly easy. Bandai uses a shoulder ball peg which can be popped out without the need for heat – maybe. My figure’s right arm came out just fine while the left was more stubborn. It first came apart on me at the bicep, and then when I did try heat the black portion popped out. Once I did get the arm itself extracted it wasn’t particularly trying to get the new arm in place, it just took slightly more effort than the right arm. The hands pop onto the new wrist pegs effortlessly and they may even have slightly better range than the stock ball hinges. The elbows are double-jointed and there’s a bicep swivel so you’re not losing any functionality and the paint between the forearms and the gloves appears to be pretty spot-on. It gets this figure to where I want it to be and now I have a Wolverine that looks like he did onscreen, minus the grime and battle damage. If you prefer a more comic inspired look, Manipple also includes extra shoulder parts with a peg hole in them in case you want to use the shoulder pads from the stock figure. I don’t so I didn’t bother, but it’s a fun thought.

This just feels right.

And that’s all there really is to it. If you want, for about twenty bucks you can get the arms the figure probably should have come with to start and improve the look of your $85 Wolverine figure, or whatever you paid for it. It’s still available in some places and often for less than MSRP while the arms on AliExpress seem to fluctuate in price from about $18-$22. The quality on the new parts is good and the look hopefully speaks for itself. Obviously if you’re happy with the sleeved look of the figure then this isn’t for you, but if you wanted something more evocative of what was in the movie then this gets the job done and is cheaper than buying a whole new figure.

For my original review of this SHF Wolverine see below as well as some other Deadpool & Wolverine figure reviews:

S.H.Figuarts Deadpool & Wolverine Wolverine

It feels like a theme this summer for me is buying action figures I previously deemed unworthy of my money as they go on clearance. Sometimes that’s a dumb thing to do. If I didn’t want something six months ago why should I want it now just because it’s cheaper? In the case of today’s…

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by Joe

S.H.Figuarts Deadpool & Wolverine Deadpool

Despite the fact that I own dozens of them, I don’t really consider myself a fan of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends series of action figures. They largely are able to get a purchase out of me thanks to Hasbro’s exclusivity agreement with Marvel/Disney which basically makes them the only game in town. Despite that, I will…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Deadpool & Wolverine Wolverine

It might be hard for the young folk to believe, but once upon a time movies based on comic book characters were treated like box office poison. Unless you were Superman or Batman, you just didn’t belong in cinema. Even those characters weren’t bulletproof. Superman had a nice run, but fizzled out with the fourth…

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by Joe

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

March 19, 2026

S.H.Figuarts Marvel Gamerverse Cyclops

By Joe
A new challenger has arrived.

A funny thing happened in 2025 where two companies revealed they were going to be making action figures based on the hit video game series Marvel vs Capcom only for neither company to actually mention the words Marvel vs Capcom. It would seem that neither Hasbro nor Bandai wanted to compensate the Capcom portion of that pairing so instead we’re getting “Gamerverse” figures based on “the popular video game series.” Yes, it was kind of amusing watching the people at Hasbro try to talk around that fact, but to the initiated these action figures are clearly based on that series of games which began way back in 1994 as X-Men: Children of the Atom before morphing into the tag team video game confrontation series it’s most known for today. To see Hasbro mine this franchise for characters was hardly a surprise. They had basically already begun as much with their release of a yellow and blue Cable in 2024 and the Iron Man with proton canon set that came before it. 2025 was just the year they leaned into it more heavily and it so far has produced some pretty nice results. As for Bandai, I’m not sure if anyone saw that coming. It makes more sense for the company since they have had the Street Fighter license in the past and seem to still do though their output has dwindled more recently (which probably has to do with that I.P. getting licensed out to several companies now). Making some Marvel characters to scale with those seems like a natural pivot, but I wasn’t sure if it was something they were allowed to do. Most of the Bandai figures I’ve seen are based on film franchises, but I guess someone at Disney felt that video games was a natural extension of that.

He’s shorter and stockier than his Legends counterpart, though the picture makes it look more apparent than it does in reality.

I’m not sure if either company had advance warning of what the other was up to, but it seemed to work out nicely for Bandai that their first ended up being the leader of the X-Men: Cyclops. Hasbro didn’t touch the character in their own Gamerverse line and even Bandai’s follow-up, Spider-Man, has so far not made an appearance for Hasbro (Wolverine follows who was the star of the Hasbro releases last year). The X-Men are pretty damn popular and it was their video game that got the ball rolling so it makes sense to turn to one of them first, though Cyclops can probably be thought of as a slight surprise. Wolverine will always be the expectation, but even someone like Gambit could have lead the way or even Rogue or Psylocke. Cyclops has been featured rather prominently in marketing materials though so it’s hardly an upset that Slim would get the coveted debut slot. And as a character who fires lasers out of his eyes, he tends to lend himself rather well to action figures. And then there’s the fact that Hasbro has kind of struggled with this design at times. I think most agree the figure based on his look in the animated series has been their best take, but that was a pretty bare bones release that was also a Pulse exclusive. He also has that controversial cel-shading much of the collector community seems to despise. The figure was essentially re-released to general retail as part of the X-Men ’97 wave of figures, but it had a new, and terrible, portrait. Many have taken to swapping the portraits between the ’92 and ’97 versions finding it’s much easier to remove the cel-shading on just a head as opposed to a whole figure.

He still looks down on a standard Wolverine, but perhaps not to the degree most would want.

As for me, my goal with my X-Men collecting is always to assemble that ’92 animated team on my shelf in the most authentic way possible. The Hasbro figure is fine, but it does bother me he has no effect parts and the portrait is pretty off-model for the show. Not terrible, but certainly not perfect. This Gamerverse Cyclops isn’t really going to get me closer to my ideal take on the character, but it did look like a figure that was just a whole lot more fun. There are caveats though. For one, he retails for around $100 for North American buyers. That’s a big price, and even though I was able to get that mark down to $89 that’s still an expensive action figure in this scale. He’s also shorter and there’s a question of scale where the figure is concerned. It wasn’t enough to get me to bail, but now that he’s in-hand it’s time to figure out if this was money well spent.

He’s got enough stuff to duplicate a lot of poses from the games.

The Gamerverse packaging is pretty much like any other SHF release. My box got pretty well mangled in shipping since I got it through Amazon and they decided that $100 figures should just be placed in brown paper bags (meanwhile, my sub $10 manga gets the box treatment). They’re lucky I’m not an in-box collector. Out of the box, Cyclops stands at around 6.125″ to the top of his hair. If Bandai is going for true 1:12 scale then this might be okay. This is video game Cyclops, not comic or cartoon Cyclops. In the game, he’s pretty much average height and if they’re saying he’s a bit over 6′ tall then that seems to conform well enough. Where it will cause issues is for those who just want to slot him in with some Marvel Legends figures. Compared to the VHS series Cyclops referenced earlier, he is indeed shorter as I have that guy at about a quarter of an inch taller. Is that a meaningful distinction? That I can’t really answer as it’s going to be pretty subjective. He’s still taller than the ’92 Wolverine and ever so slightly taller than my ’92 Jean (with a ’97 head). That’s in just a straight up and down stance for all figures. Crouch Wolverine down or put some bend in the knees of Jean and he starts to look taller. For me though, the real thing that stands out is that this is a thick Cyclops. He has a big neck and something of a square head. Cyclops traditionally has a taller, slimmer, head in this costume, but with this design the head is more in-line with the neck. It’s an all-together different silhouette. His torso comes across as more compact, though in reality it’s the same size as the Hasbro figure if not a little taller. It’s the thickness and his unique belt that give off the appearance of a stockier torso. The legs are indeed shorter than usual though while his arms might be a touch longer than average or it’s just his big mitts that make it appear that way. This is the point where I mention that some folks who have this figure have purchased an aftermarket double ball peg for the inner torso that does make the figure taller. I think his issue, if there is one, rests with the legs though so I’m not too keen to fork over the $30 for a piece of plastic to see if I like it better, but it’s out there if that’s your thing.

Cyclops has two blast options plus two additional neck parts to adjust the angle of his blast and provide more stability, though the default neck is pretty good at both.

The other thing that stands out with this figure when grouped with your Legends is the shade of yellow in use. With Hasbro, recent editions of Cyclops have gone very yellow – a bright, lemony, shade. With this figure we’re back to that orange-yellow which Hasbro used to use for Cyclops. It wasn’t super obvious to me in the solicitation shots, but in-hand it most certainly is. I prefer this costume go more yellow as it plays off the darker blues better, but his bodysuit also isn’t the same shade of blue that Hasbro has been using. For that, we get a lighter blue with almost a metallic finish. It’s subtle, but there’s a purposeful shine to it. There’s also shading in the lines for the muscles and around the joints which does look nice in person. It’s just a shame the orange-yellow parts lack the same care. Those parts are basically all bare plastic and some take on a non-purposeful shine that looks cheap. In particular is the crotch area where Bandai is utilizing hard plastic caps to fill gaps like we used to see with the Dragon Ball line. The visor, unfortunately, suffers from the same. The painted yellow at the thighs and wrists looks better as it absorbs more light while the boots, unfortunately are colored plastic though they’re not the same material as those harder pieces. The skin tone is also extremely pale, almost a bone white. The hair is unpainted, but sculpted in a very convincing manner that’s almost too realistic, but otherwise looks nice. I should also point out that this design uses the non-traditional “A” shape for the rear of the harness that’s true to the game (and if you had the classic Toy Biz figure it was the same there) while most illustrations of this costume just have the rear mirror the front without the X logo.

Bandai also threw in this cardboard accessory that’s…interesting.

Those unsure of the overall look of the figure will likely need to be sold on the next two parts: accessories and articulation. At least in the accessory department, this figure is a clear upgrade over most others. Cyclops comes with five sets of hands: fists, two-finger pointing, open, clenching, and chop. The two-finger pose is for when he manually activates his optic blasts at the visor and also his pointing gesture for a victory pose in the games. The chop also comes from the games where he makes an X with his arms before unleashing his super. They’re all good choices, but more exciting are the effects. For optional expressions, we get a teeth-gritting and a yelling head to go with his default neutral expression. The hair swaps to all of the heads while the visors do as well. And for those we get a total of four: standard, power “leaking,” short blast, and long blast. The standard one is just that, it’s a shiny plastic piece with a red line painted on. The “leaking” one has a translucent, red, piece which mimics a lot of the game art for the character and is a pretty fun look for your self. That is, if you can resist using one of the blasting visors. The shorter one is more narrow and kind of like a blade while the longer one mushrooms at the end. Both are done with translucent red plastic sprayed with white for a nice look. Both are pretty great and shelf space may be the driving force over which one you prefer. Or how they fit since that’s a bit of an issue. The optional visors have a hard time sitting flush with the portraits and can leave a tiny gap near the ear. Heating the head you wish to use and softening the plastic can help, as can just plain old elbow grease. I haven’t had any issues getting them to stay on and I even placed Cyclops on my shelf with the heavier of the two blasts for a couple of weeks before getting to this review and his head never drooped and the part never fell out. Still, after my experience with the interchangeable face plats on the recently released Super Saiyan Goku, it’s a bummer to see a similar issue here albeit one that isn’t to the same degree.

This seems like a more relevant size comparison than perhaps one to Legends figures.

Rounding out the package is a cardboard standee of Cyclops’ massive optic blast from the game. It’s two pieces of cardstock and I guess it looks fine, but it’s a pretty cheap presentation no matter the quality of the print. I suppose it didn’t cost them much of anything to include, but I can’t see using this thing. Of more note are the optional neck parts. Of which there are two. They pop in and out very easily and the intent seems to be to provide a more stable base for the heavier effect parts. Both basically remove the ability for the neck to do much where it meats the torso while retaining the head articulation. One piece is more straight on while the other is angled up slightly. It’s a good thought and a bit of a fail safe in case the default neck proved to be too loose, but I haven’t experienced any issues with the standard one. For my two week experiment from before, I kept the standard neck in place just to see what would happen and it held up fine. Would it still after six months? A year? I don’t know, but it certainly doesn’t seem any looser. These extra parts can perhaps get a more natural looking curve to the neck for those blasting poses so they’re not worthless or anything, just interesting. And in case you were wondering, even the longer one doesn’t materially change the profile of the figure. It sits lower in the torso and I still have him at 6 and an eighth with the longest neck in place.

Natural rivals.

The other most likely area for this Cyclops to shine when compared with the cheaper alternatives is with the articulation. It’s what Tamashii Nations has staked its reputation on. With Cyclops, he seems to follow a lot of the same design philosophies as the recently released Scarlet Spider and that’s not exactly welcomed news for me. We do get a mostly typical load-out for a SHF release: double ball head, ball neck, shoulder hinges that peg in, butterfly, bicep, double elbows, wrist ball-hinge joints, diaphragm double ball joint, hips, thighs, double knees, ankle swivel, ankle rocker, ankle hinge, toe hinge. What’s missing? A damn waist joint. Why is Bandai omitting waist articulation from its Marvel figures lately? I don’t understand it. With Scarlet Spider, the culprit is a lower back piece that’s part of the waist sculpt and seems to only exist to prevent gaps from appearing at the waist. The joint itself is a simple ball peg, like most SHF releases, and it’s just this spacer that prevents rotation. With Cyclops, perhaps it has something to do with these straps that go over the shoulders. They connect underneath the abdomen and there’s actually some play here. You can pull them out and push them back in to provide for more articulation in the diaphragm. It’s a sound concept, but practically speaking offers little. That joint is pretty limited as it mostly tilts and barely rotates. There isn’t an obvious spacer like Scarlet Spider, but there is a blue piece that appears to be doing essentially the same thing and that is preventing the figure from rotating. The hips with the old cap system in place at least work well going forward and back as well as out to the side – certainly more than a Cyclops likely needs. I do like the more traditional thigh cut instead of that hideous thing they’ve been giving us in the Dragon Ball line and the ankles work well. There is an exposed, metal, ring on the hinge at the ankles which some may not like to see. They also did the same thing with the shoulders as we saw with Scarlet Spider where the inside of the shoulder is quite flat. If you put him in a standard T-pose he’ll look pretty weird, but I guess that’s a pose you’re probably not likely to do so does it matter? The butterfly joint is okay and doesn’t break up the sculpt much so we’ll call it a plus. Really, it’s just the torso that blows, but that is kind of a big deal since the torso is most of the figure. Nothing is stuck or floppy so the quality control where articulation is concerned is at least a positive.

I have some nits to pick with a lot of the figures here, but I don’t hate how this looks.

At the end of the day, I’m a little conflicted here. This isn’t my ideal interpretation of Cyclops, but I can’t really say it’s off compared with the game it’s drawing inspiration from so I don’t think it’s fair to knock it for that. If you want to get more into it, this figure more embodies the artwork associated with the Capcom games as opposed to the sprite and that’s potentially a conversation worth having for those building out a Marvel vs Capcom collection. His scale is certainly off with Marvel Legends, but again, that’s not really this figure’s problem. Sure, I would have personally preferred him to scale better with Legends, but it’s not an expectation I can put on it either. It needs to scale with the figures Bandai is releasing though in that regard it’s impossible to say since he’s the first. He does seem to scale fine with Storm Arena which may matter more in this case for those building out that MvC display. What truly irritates me though is the articulation in the torso and the lack of paint on the yellow parts. He looks a little too cheap to be a $100 figure. Bandai doesn’t typically occupy that price range save for their more limited offerings, but maybe the Marvel tax is a significant one. If he were more at that mid-tier SHF price point, say $65, I’d feel better about the lack of paint, but at $100 this doesn’t really cut it. I’m left with a figure that I’m happy to have in my collection, but I don’t think he’s really worth the ask. I would not be shocked if this line dies because Marvel is fairly oversaturated at this point and the price is pretty insane. There may be deals in the future. I’m also less inclined to continue down this path despite my positive reaction to the Spider-Man they showed off. I need to think on that one some more and see how he turns out before committing to purchasing it. The same is true for Wolverine and whatever follows. If this line is one that interests you I’d recommend seeking out multiple opinions and going from there. Yeah, this hobby is an expensive one these days and six months from now you probably won’t miss that $100 too much no matter how you feel about this thing, but we probably should expect more for our buck.

There’s a lot of stuff I could list here that is likely of interest, but I can only select three. Maybe check out my Toy Review Archive if you want to know more of my thoughts on all of the figures that could relate tot his one:

S.H.Figuarts Across the Spider-Verse Scarlet Spider

In the two reviews I did of Scarlet Spider action figures I shared the origins of my love for the character’s design. To make it short, I found the appearance of him on a cover of a Spider-Man comic intriguing, but more is as a young artist I much preferred to doodle him in my…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends Gamerverse Wolverine vs Silver Samurai

Video game inspired action figures are quite the hot ticket right now. I’m not entirely sure why that is, but maybe some of that is owed to Jada Toys and how well received their line of Ultra Street Fighter 2 action figures have been received. Hasbro, for their part, has had a “Gamerverse” subline of…

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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

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March 2, 2026

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

By Joe
“My name is Sinister. Mister Sinister.”

When the topic of X-Men villains is broached the first name that comes to mind is Magneto. And rightly so, he was on the cover of the very first issue getting pelted by a snowball from Iceman (and Marvel wonders why the kids of the day thought the X-Men looked lame). When the X-Men were first brought to television in pilot form, it was Magneto that was chosen to lead the antagonistic group the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants removing all subtlety from the character and firmly placing him in the role of villain. That show never made it any further and when Marvel got yet another chance to bring the X-Men to animation it was, once again, Magneto placed as the big, bad, guy right there in the opening title directly opposing Xavier’s X-Men. He didn’t actually debut in the series until the third episode where he had a brief skirmish with just three members of the team before returning in the following episode for a slightly more combative showing that ultimately ended in defeat.

And then that was it. Magneto was never the central villain again past the fourth episode. He briefly teamed-up with Apocalypse for the “Beyond Good and Evil” arc, but otherwise he was more like a hostile ally which is why the first villain I think of when someone mentions X-Men – The Animated Series my mind goes to Mister Sinister.

Sinister is actually a little taller than Cyclops.

Mister Sinister was still a relatively new face when the cartoon series began having first been mentioned in 1986, but holding his full debut until 1987. He was the antagonizing force over the show’s second season either directly opposing the X-Men or lurking behind the scenes setting plots in motion. Apart from a brief truce with the X-Man Beast during the Phalanx confrontation, he remained a villain throughout because that’s really all you can be with a name like Mister Sinister. The scientist Nathaniel Essex was obsessed with human mutation, but his experiments were so controversial he was forced to do them in secret and on himself and his wife. This basically turned him into a mutant with somewhat undefined abilities. His body can restore itself almost instantaneously and he can produce energy blasts. He may even have some telepathic abilities as well as telekinetic ones, or maybe all of that was just for show in the cartoon. He is often allied with Apocalypse and one has to wonder if a thousand years from now his powers might evolve to more match that of the original mutant.

Oh, don’t be such a baby, Cyclops. You don’t need all of that DNA of yours.

Because of his lofty standing in the show, Mister Sinister was a must have for Mondo’s action figure line based on X-Men and X-Men ’97. The character does always pose some difficulties in bringing him to life due to his unusual appearance. His costume and portrait is pretty straight-forward, but it’s that cape that can give animators and sculptors fits. It basically consists of three, main, parts: collar, upper portion, and lower portion. The upper portion rises from Sinister’s body and then takes an acute angle towards the ground. The section below that is wider and basically does the same thing giving his cape a tiered appearance. To further complicate it, it isn’t just one or two pieces of material, but it’s broken out into strips. I have no idea what the material is intended to be, it could be leather, it could even be a thin metal, but it moves around like a cape. For the show, the animators basically just kept Sinister as stationary as possible. He wasn’t allowed to turn or do much in frame to reduce the need to animate that cape. Sometimes, they would drape part of it over his forearm which is about as fancy as they ever got. In toy form, the original Legends one had rubber strips of plastic affixed to his collar and didn’t really attempt that big “hump” the upper piece creates. When Hasbro attempted the character it did the cape in the proper shape, but also tried to keep it as few pieces as possible by essentially fusing the strips together in a manner that made it look like the cape was just bunched together. That approach worked fine for a 1:12 scale figure, but for a 1:6 scale figure there’s a greater challenge. You can’t hide things at such a large scale and the need for realism becomes more important. Mondo had to come up with a way to both have Sinister’s cape retain its shape while also not being brittle. Now that he’s here, how did they do?

This gesture, along with the glove cuffs, are very X-Men ’97 specific.

Before we get into it, I want to mention that this another figure distributed in a box with new artwork by series storyboard artist Dan Veesenmeyer. It’s also adorned with production artwork from the original series depicting Sinister which I think is from the episode “Till Death do us Part – Part 2.” Sinister foregoes the usual frontal flap and instead has his bio on the rear of the box. It’s again by the Lewalds, Eric and Julia, who worked on the writing staff of the original series. I’m curious if this is the plan going forward which is honestly fine by me. There isn’t much use for a window box on something most people buy online, and even less so for a Mondo figure as they always wrap their figures in plastic bags and tissue paper to protect the paint. It is one of the deeper boxes in the series so far as Sinister needs quite a bit of room. Once again, this is a sculpt by Alex Brewer with paint by Mike Pflaumer. Hector Arce is credited with art direction and Jordan Christianson packaging.

This portrait is also pulled directly from X-Men ’97.

Sinister to the top of his head is a little over 12″ putting more or less eye to eye with the likes of Cyclops, Gambit, and Magneto. His collar takes him higher, but more so is the depth needed because of that bizarre cape. Mondo elected to do Sinister’s cape with a hard plastic – I’m assuming ABS. It’s basically four pieces: you have two upper pieces each consisting of four strips and two lower pieces each consisting of another four strips. The pieces for each side, one upper and one lower, are glued together where the cape slots into the body of the figure so you effectively have two pieces to slot into the figure. They do not go in easy. The right side is more stubborn than the left on my figure and the challenge here is that this type of plastic has little to no give. It’s thick, probably a quarter of an inch, so you probably have to give it way more force than is reasonable to actually break it, but it’s hard to find a safe way to apply the pressure needed to fit it in there. I don’t think heating the actual cape will help as this type of plastic usually doesn’t work like that, but heating the openings on the back of the figure is an option. I tried lowering the upper body into some hot water, but I don’t think I got it quite hot enough. It still helped, but there’s a little notch on the side of the cape that I think should be flush with the figure’s back and it’s not quite there. And yes, that is the sort of thing that will annoy me as I do my best to ignore it. I feel like the top of the cape relative to the top of the collar looks about right though so I’m trying not to let it bother me. If this were a cheaper figure I’d consider cutting some plastic away on the entry points to get a smoother fit. Or, I’d attempt to file off the little lip they put on the cape itself.

Aggravations aside, the cape does look good and it’s pretty accurate to the show. The figure’s right side has red and dark blue highlights on the side while the figure’s left has white which follows the shading in the show. This material will also never warp, though shelf dives could be quite destructive so definitely do be careful with how you ultimately pose this guy. As for the rest of the figure, he looks pretty damn great. The sculpt is basically dead-on with a nice shape to the torso. He is mostly a dark blue with a lot of black shading and some white highlights. The horizontal stripes are sculpted in which is accurate to the show as his costume almost looks like metal banding around his body. The collar is wonderfully excessive and the design of the shoulder pads and how they connect with the chest was realized well.

This portrait, along with the controller on his belt, are pulled from the original animated series.

Sinister’s bone white visage is also done well with black lines accentuating his cheekbones which was always prominent in the show. There’s a blue-gray used to shade his face and his very square haircut is mostly black with blue highlights. His default portrait is a rather…sinister grin with his pointy teeth prominently displayed. This is one area where some fans may quibble with the look of the character. When I look at this portrait I very much see the X-Men ’97 version of the character. The differences between the two are very subtle and come down to the style of the show. Sinister’s mouth is just a little wider in that show, a little more cartoon-like. And that’s fine given that the box says X-Men ’97, but I don’t see a true original series portrait in the box. His other portraits include a scowl that’s basically a neutral portrait for him and it’s very ’97-like in appearance. He also has a portrait of his withered, old, look from the finale of the first season of X-Men ’97. The only other portrait is the one that I think looks the most like it’s from the original series. It’s a yelling head where his eyes are aglow with yellow energy. The energy is part of the sculpt and painted yellow, it’s not a translucent piece glued into the eye sockets like Rogue’s optic blast portrait. The yelling mouth, which has no hint of a smile, is like an equalizer in bringing the two designs together. Plus, I think this look is from an episode in the original series. It’s just a shame that it’s such a specific expression, though it is one I like and am happy to have. Personally, I have no use for that withered portrait and I wish instead we got a specific original series portrait that looks like the character turn-around art on the rear of the box.

This Sinister shadow accessory is neat, but also really small (other portraits inserted for scale)

Those are the portraits, and per usual we also get a bunch of hands. By default, Sinister has some style-posed open hands. They look like he’s reaching for something or maybe getting ready to blast some foolish X-Man. He also has a set of fists and clenching/gripping hands. There’s an extra left hand that’s pointing with a red diamond at the tip of the index finger which is from X-Men ’97. The most eye-catching hands are his blasting hands which he comes with two of. They have the blast effects glued onto them which adds some noticeable heft, but so far my figure has been able to support them just fine. The blasts are done in red, translucent, plastic which looks very similar to the blasts that came with Cyclops. I kind of wish they went with yellow or mixed some yellow into it to differentiate them more from Cyclops since they famously had a collision of blasts to close out season two of the original show. When Sinister came back in later seasons he had red blasts so the figure isn’t inaccurate, I just would have gone with something else. He also has optional cuffs for his wrists. By default, he has red bands around his wrists which is how he was depicted in the original series. The cuffs were added for X-Men ’97 which is what he had in the comics as well so if that’s your preference Mondo gave you the option. His other accessories include a translucent, yellow-green, clip-on part for his abdomen to depict his battle damage after getting blasted by Cyclops. There’s his control device that can clip onto his belt which he used to control Morph. And then there’s his gross tentacle thing with red lips. In one of the more bizarre scenes in the original series, Sinister makes one of these things just kind of grow out of the ground which he then uses on Cyclops and it spits out some amber-colored jelly bean. For an X-Men ’97 specific accessory, there’s also the shadow Sinister from the final episode which is done on smokey, translucent, black plastic with the red details of Sinister’s face painted onto it. It’s neat, but way smaller than it was in the show. This is more like a little buddy accessory like Nightcrawler’s Bamf doll. Everything is sculpted well and painted perfectly. Lastly, there’s the traditional Mondo stand with X logo on the base. Even though Sinister isn’t the sort of character who would necessarily need it, I do wish we got the new flight stand that came with Nightcrawler as that one just feels more sturdy and this is one figure I want to feel like is secure on my shelf.

Blast off!

That’s a ton of stuff and I honestly kept forgetting about things here and there and would go back to the pile to remind myself of what else came with this guy. For articulation, there’s much less to talk about. Sinister is a step back for this line as Mondo has gone back to single-jointed elbows with no bicep swivel. I guess the thinking was that Sinister didn’t need more? I’d disagree, but it does help to give him a cleaner look. He does have double-jointed knees, but even with those thigh high boots he wears (they’re more like double boots as he has cuffs at the ankles too, but no one ever said this design wasn’t “out there”) Mondo opted not to put in a thigh swivel. His thighs do rotate a little on the ball-joint at the hips, but it’s not much. The diaphragm joint does nothing while the waist is a little loose, but does rotate fine with a little tilt. The elbows are quite tight and come close to a 90 degree bend while the double-ball peg at the head works mostly as intended. The collar will limit his ability to look up and there’s paint rub to be mindful of, but it’s probably enough. The cape does have some play in the slots on his back so you can kind of adjust the angle of it if it suits your pose.

Like his onscreen counterpart, this Mister Sinister figure is largely a statue. He can raise his arms and take advantage of those blast effects, but he’s not going to do anything remotely exotic or dynamic. The only figure in the line more limited than him is Omega Red, who between the bulk and the costume really can’t do much of anything. That likely comes as no surprise for those who collect this line as the articulation and ability to pose the figures is a distant second to the aesthetics, and like basically all of the other figures in this line, Mister Sinister looks great. He’s a wild design and that cape is a pain in the ass, but Mondo’s solution for it is one that preserves the look of the character from the show.

“My body…”

Mister Sinister is advertised as a limited edition by Mondo that’s been restricted to 1,250 units. It has apparently not been a big seller because even though this went up for preorder last summer it has yet to sell out. Some of that is likely due to the price tag of $265, and that’s before tariffs, shipping, and any applicable sales tax. He is, without a doubt, the worst value in the line so far and I guess that cape is the driving force of the price. Not only is it a unique piece of engineering, it necessitates a deeper box and a bigger box means more space is taken up and more room in a shipping container is needed and so on. There’s also a lot of stuff in here fans might feel like they don’t need. The weird Sinister wave, the withered head, maybe even the tentacle thing – all things fans might be able to do without in exchange for a cheaper price tag. Given that this one hasn’t sold out, I wouldn’t necessarily count on there being a standard version of this character. Especially when one considers that the non-exclusive versions are usually only around 15 dollars cheaper. If Mondo can’t sell 1,250 Sinister action figures at $265, how many do they really think they can sell at $250? All that is to say, if you’re like me and feel that Mister Sinister is a necessity for an animated X-Men display then you probably should just bite the bullet and grab this version. The figure looks amazing and absolutely brings up the quality of the display. It does lead me to wonder what villains could possible be next after Sinister? Apocalypse? Juggernaut? They’ll both be huge and a lot more expensive. Mystique seems likely, or maybe they’ll go X-Men ’97 specific with a Goblin Queen? More importantly, where am I going to put all of these figures?!

If you want to read my thoughts on other X-Men offerings from Mondo then check these out:

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…

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…

by Joe

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

After putting a real hurting on my wallet in 2023, Mondo decided to take it easy in 2024 with its line of sixth scale action figures based on the animated series X-Men which ran from 1992-1997 on Fox Kids. Two figures ended up getting released this year, Rogue and now the leader of the X-Men…

by Joe

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February 23, 2026

Marvel Legends Retro Card Mystique

By Joe
Mystique is coming to get you – bang! Bang!

This should be a relatively quick review because today we’re looking at what I was hoping would be an upgrade over a prior release. Mystique was one of 8 characters released in the Marvel Legends X-Men – The Animated Series subline and she was just one of two villains for the line (3 if you count Evil Morph). She was an interesting pick for the line, but in thinking over the major villains in the show, not unworthy. It was just a surprise to see her take a slot over someone like Magneto (Apocalypse was released on a retro card in cartoon colors as a sort of companion figure to the line) who is is thought of as the main rival to the heroes. Mystique did make numerous appearances and she had her hand in some stories, though she did mostly fall by the wayside post Season Two with the exception of the Nightcrawler return episode. All that is to say I had no problem with the character selection, but I did have a problem with the figure.

At least her blue matches Kurt’s now.
They just can’t seem to get her right.

Things got off to a bad start for Mystique when Hasbro advertised her using a render that was not accurate to the figure. There was a mix-up somewhere and the digital artist basically used the wrong base body for the render making collectors think they were getting a true upgrade on an old release. They did not. Instead we got the same old figure on the tubular body with a new, animated series inspired head. It had all of the problems of a lot of the female figures of the era where the knees basically bowed and the figure was limited with its posing. Now, we have a new Mystique and this time she’s exclusive to Target. The previous comic book version of the character was a Walgreens exclusive, if I’m not mistaken, so some fans had a hard time tracking her down. This time figures to be easier as she appears to be getting stocked in ample supply. It was my hope to bring one of these home and do a head swap, but once I got home I realized I had an issue.

Damnit…
It’s an improvement, but worth full price?

One of these things is not like the other. The cartoon version of Mystique had a grayish, blue-green skin tone while this comic book one is more of a royal blue. Oops. Still, maybe it’s an upgrade since this is on a newer body. Kind of. The arms are double-jointed now and the legs pin-less, but the torso appears to be the same with its narrow proportions. Mystique isn’t built like She-Hulk or anything, but I feel like she needs bigger shoulders. The original render is perfect in that her shoulders sit higher, or maybe the angle is just better. A lot of Legends females end up being too slight for my taste. They have the opposite issues of the men where head-on their proportions look fine, but from the side they’re lacking in bulk. Mystique has plenty of curves from a side view, but not the front. Anyway, she has sleeves up past her elbows and her boots are different so the costume isn’t exactly the same either, but it’s close enough that it wouldn’t have bothered me if the skins matched. They did a really odd thing where they painted some blue onto the butt area of the torso. Apparently someone took one look at this figure and decided she wasn’t showing enough ass and demanded a little stripe of blue be added. The same skull belt with skirt is still being utilized only now there’s a gold finish to the skulls which looks nice. The face appears to be the same, but the hair is entirely different. It’s a very late 90s look, almost like a Rachel haircut, and it’s okay. Funny enough, the back of the box once again has an incorrect render. There she has the animated portrait and the torso might even be different as there’s a sculpted belly button. Once again, we’re sold a Mystique that looks better on the box than in-hand.

What am I supposed to do with this?
“Whoa! You’re not getting me to take that!”

The double-jointed elbows are a marked improvement over the prior figure, but they don’t offer much more in a practical sense. With no butterfly joint and an ample bosom to deal with, she just doesn’t get really any clearance across her chest which would have been nice since she has a pair of firearms to utilize. They are new to me, but I’d guess they’ve been released before, and include a pistol and an assault rifle. They’re done in black plastic and seem fine while she also has a set of trigger finger hands and a set of open hands. She also has a very odd accessory in the form of Jean Grey as the Black Queen’s head. I think this was something that was locked away in a convention exclusive before or something, but I don’t like it. There’s nothing wrong with the head itself, but I’d much prefer another Mystique portrait. And you could say “Well, she’s a shapeshifter,” but what good is one head that’s a completely different color from the rest of her body? Yeah, I had fun with my Morph Toy Biz figure back in ’94 too, but that sort of gimmick does nothing for me now. If there was a surplus of White Queen figures out there then maybe I’d be tempted to buy one and paint it up, but as it stands this is just wasted plastic.

She doesn’t look bad alongside them…

Articulation is the same as the previous Mystique which was mediocre. The only change is now we get bicep swivels and double-jointed elbows. The knees aren’t bowed so she stands much easier and is an overall better release, I just wish that old head worked or we got the head that’s on the back of the card. I was tempted to try and heat and pry the hair pieces off of each, but I don’t want to risk ruining them in the process. That mediocre Mystique is now gone so replacing it if I messed up would be costly. I think I’ll just return it to her box and make this my display figure from now on. Maybe I’ll even add some shading to the dress – I don’t know. This is a figure only for those Legends collectors who must have a slightly better Mystique in their collection or for those who missed out on her. There’s nothing special about the figure itself and there’s a very good chance she hits clearance six weeks from now as most of the Target exclusives tend to do. If you’re on the fence then you probably shouldn’t pay full price. If I had been smart enough to actually compare my two figures before I opened this one I probably would have returned it. Oh well.

We have a whole lot more from Marvel Legends and the X-Men if that’s your fancy:

Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Mystique

The penultimate figure in this series is a bit of a curveball. When one thinks of the animated series X-Men, the first villains that come to mind are Magneto, Sinister, Apocalypse, Sabretooth, and then it gets muddled. Graydon Creed made quite the impression in the show’s second season and may even be the most hate-able…

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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

Marvel Legends X-Men Animated Series Mr. Sinister

This week, the long wait for an in-person San Diego Comic Con comes to an end. For the first time since 2019, attendees, creators, and the like will be invited back into the city of San Diego for a celebration of all things comics, movies, and general “nerd” culture. One of the many panels this…

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by Joe

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January 12, 2026

Mondo X-Men ’97 1/6 Scale Nightcrawler

By Joe
Make way for Munich’s own 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 most was Mondo’s line of sixth scale action figures based on the Marvel cartoons X-Men and X-Men ’97. These figures, being around a foot tall and consisting of unique parts, extravagant paint apps, and numerous accessories already carried a hefty price tag. Most had settled into the $235 range, but with free shipping that made it slightly more palatable. That was all out the window once extraordinary tariffs were introduced. Mondo was forced to add a tariff fee to its products to help offset the costs which, for this line, typically ran $20. Then there was the removal of the de minimis exemption on shipments under $800 which blew up Mondo’s shipping policy to ship directly from the factory to your door. Now, they had to go the shipping container route, bring everything to port, truck it to a warehouse, and then ship it from there. Free shipping was gone replaced with an option totaling over $20 and then add on the usual sales tax and you end up with a line that now runs over $300 a pop.

Even at sixth scale, he’s a bit of a little guy.

Nightcrawler was the first victim of this new world. When he initially went up, it was the limited version with a price tag of $245. When I went to check out, the total came out to over $300 and gave me a great deal of sticker shock. Mondo’s line appeals to me as a fan of X-Men ’97, but it appeals to me even more as a fan of the original cartoon. That’s the collection I want to assemble on my shelf, but Nightcrawler wasn’t really essential to such a display. He appeared in a mere two episodes during that original run, and while I like both, the space requirements of such a display and the cost gave me pause. I wanted to think it over and also wondered what the standard version would cost, but before Mondo revealed that the limited one sold out. I guess others weren’t as indecisive as I was. Eventually, the standard version was put up for sale and it cost $230, a nice price break, but it came at a cost. The X-Men ’92 portrait that was included with the limited version was omitted making this standard version truly an X-Men ’97 release. I admit, this frustrates me. The line began as one based on the original show and it was a request by Marvel to add the ’97 branding. For most characters, Nightcrawler included, there isn’t a big difference between the look so it’s easy enough to please both customer bases, but locking the ’92 version behind the limited paywall betrays that spirit. I complain, but obviously I gave in because I do like Nightcrawler an awful lot and knew I’d regret not having him on my shelf.

Nightcrawler is so popular he even has his own in-universe toy.

Nightcrawler comes in the same box as the rest of the line with new artwork by Dan Veesenmeyer and production artwork behind that. Even though this figure is truly an X-Men ’97 release, all of the production art is from the original series episode “Bloodlines” which is kind of amusing. There’s a character bio from Eric and Julia Lewald on the inside of the cover flap and there’s the usual display window behind it. Nightcrawler is a sculpt by Alex Brewer with paint by Mara Ancheta. He is one of the smaller figures in the line just barely outdoing the most recent Wolverine at around 10.75″. He’s far less chunky than the Canadian and quite lithe giving him a similar in-hand feel to the line’s smallest release, Jubilee.

He’s also well-armed.

Nightcrawler is depicted in his classic red, black, and white costume which is true to both shows. Paint is clean and it’s accentuated with blue linework which is how he’s shaded in both shows. The face has an abundance of black shadows cast across it which looks excellent and is how every Nightcrawler figure should be done at any scale. He has that tuft of hair which is the most recognizable aspect of the ’97 look and the eyes are a bright yellow. His black hair has some streaks of blue in it which helps convey the highlights we see in the show and I love how the white hands and feet stand out against the darker colors of the costume. I don’t know if it’s said enough, but Nightcrawler really is one of the best designs in comics (hat tip to Nightcrawler’s creator, Dave Cockrum). There’s a reason why he’s rarely strayed from this look which dates back to his original appearance from the 1970s. I love that X-Men ’97 added him to the main cast partway through the inaugural season and it appears that he will remain in the main cast going forward. That’s a terrific pickup as, next to Morph, Nightcrawler is the one I would have most wanted to see added to the roster.

He passes the crouch test.

Mondo had a challenge in bringing a character like Nightcrawler to plastic. The other characters from this line can get away with being a little stiff when it comes to posing, but Nightcrawler is a literal acrobat. He needs to articulate better than the rest. Mondo had a similar challenge before it with Spider-Man and, in my opinion, mostly dropped the ball there. With Nightcrawler, I’m happy to say they faired much better. He doesn’t have much in the way of additional joints, but the functional ability of what’s there is improved. What’s not is the head and diaphragm. The head is still really tight as the lower ball joint in the neck doesn’t like to move. The diaphragm joint is similarly stubborn, though it fares a little better with Nightcrawler than it did with Spider-Man. What works well is the waist which rocks in all directions quite well. His hips have more range and the double-jointed knees and elbows are super smooth. The same is true for the ankle hinges which border on being so smooth they’re loose, but I never had any issues standing Nightcrawler. He can get into a crouch which is necessary for such a character and he’s even better at doing so than his Marvel Legends counterpart thanks to the addition of toe hinges. His tail is also done with a wire and it’s perhaps the most poseable wired joint I’ve ever encountered. These figures typically aren’t much fun to pose, but Nightcrawler is the rare entrant who actually is.

Bamf! effects in action.

To accentuate those poses we have a slew of alternate parts and accessories. For portraits, there’s a neutral one and a smiling one. While the neutral one is executed very well, it’s the smiling portrait that I am almost certain to display exclusively. The limited version came with the original series head as well as one based on the pilot of the original X-Men cartoon, “Pryde of the X-Men.” I really want that ’92 portrait, but oh well. For hands, he has a set of fists, gripping, open, and style posed hands. For effect parts, he has a trio of “bamf!” effects. These are all cast in translucent, pink, plastic with one intended to clip on his shoulder and the other two on each arm. You could probably put them on a leg too if that was your preference. They’re sculpted to resemble the smoke that appears when Nightcrawler uses his teleportation powers and if you got the limited version you would have received a fourth piece that’s intended as a base. They’re easy to make use of and add a nice visual splash to a display.

These two proved to be a formidable pair in X-Men ’97.

If you watched X-Men ’97 then you undoubtedly recall Nightcrawler and Wolverine’s defense of the mansion during the eighth episode. In it, Nightcrawler finally was given a sword to wield which. Even going back to his original Toy Biz figure, Nightcrawler has been associated with blades for quite some time. And in that scene he had a saber, or cutlass, that resembled that old figure and Mondo included it here. It has nice paint effects on the blade and slots into a gripping hand quite easily. Nightcrawler, being an ambidextrous acrobat and accomplished sword wielder, wasn’t content to just handle one sword. He also found some decorative fencing blades in a study and took them down from the wall. He has one to grip in his other hand, but that still wasn’t enough for Nightcrawler. That prehensile tail of his needed a weapon too so that’s where the third sword went. Mondo included an extra tail where the end is coiled like a fist. The third sword separates where the handguard meets the pommel and can slide effortlessly into the extra tail to outfit Nightcrawler with all three weapons. Even if I had that coveted ’92 portrait, I would have been hard pressed not to pose Nightcrawler with all three swords in hand (and tail).

The stand, plus Nightcrawler’s poofy hair, lends itself well to inverted poses.

Feeling that wasn’t enough to really capture the spirit of the character, Mondo also used this occasion to provide collectors with an improved stand. It’s a badly kept secret that Mondo’s doll stands it includes with all of its sixth scale figures is pretty crappy. I almost never use them and many have never even been removed from the package. For Nightcrawler, we get a new model that includes a poseable post and a gripping claw for the end. The base is still the standard circular base with the X-Men logo painted on. The post plugs into that and the claw…goes on somehow. I don’t know what the intention was, but I had to remove the crotch piece and unscrew the clip in order to get it onto the post. It was still a tight fit and I reassembled it once on the post. Some instructions would have been helpful. Once assembled, it works as intended. The claw has some nice tension and the gripping part is lined with a soft material that should protect the paint. The crotch piece adds some stability, though it might not really be needed though could come in handy with heavier figures. This is the stand we should have received with Spider-Man and I hope it’s the standard going forward even for characters that don’t necessarily need it. It’s unfortunately not coming with Mr. Sinister, but is with Storm. Lastly, Nightcrawler comes with a Bamf doll accessory. He’s fully painted and plenty adorable. I don’t know why Nightcrawler has small effigies of himself, seems to go against his religious convictions, but it’s a cute little detail from the comics and an appropriate accessory.

This guy just looks terrific. It’s an instant upgrade for any display.

While I was and likely will remain salty about the removal of the original series portrait for the standard edition, it’s hard not to be pretty happy with how Nightcrawler turned out. He’s simply one of the best releases in the line combining the incredible presentation qualities Mondo is known for with an unexpected fun component the line ordinarily doesn’t possess. While I do enjoy swapping in and out portraits and effects, I rarely enjoy the act of posing these figures. That’s not the case with Nightcrawler and I feel like I’m wasting the figure’s potential when I leave it in the same pose longer than a week. Nightcrawler is a fan-favorite and that’s likely partly why the limited version did sell out relatively quickly, even at an increased price. It’s a reputation that’s been well-earned over the decades since the character’s introduction. If you can get past that increased price, even for the standard version, you’ll find an excellent figure. Other retailers won’t have the $20 surcharge Mondo charges, or their shipping fee, though many have added an apparent tariff fee to the base price. Big Bad Toy Store currently has this edition of the figure priced at $245 while Entertainment Earth has it at $250. Both have cheaper shipping options than Mondo so you’ll save some money going through them instead, but if you want to buy direct form Mondo he’s still in-stock there for $230 with an additional $20 tariff charge. If you’re in on this line or just a big Nightcrawler fan looking for a nice one-off in your collection then I think it’s worth it. And if you intended to just be collecting the main cast from the ’92 show then I do think you should think long and hard about passing on Nightcrawler. You may come to regret it.

For more from Mondo’s line of sixth scale Marvel figures look no further:

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

Mondo 1/6 Scale Spider-Man (Spider-Man ’94)

It took a long time for Mondo’s Spider-Man to get to me. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to even buy it. I passed on the Mondo offering in 2024, debated the symbiote costume variant, but ultimately passed on that as well. The X-Men line from Mondo is my true love and…

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by Joe

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

After putting a real hurting on my wallet in 2023, Mondo decided to take it easy in 2024 with its line of sixth scale action figures based on the animated series X-Men which ran from 1992-1997 on Fox Kids. Two figures ended up getting released this year, Rogue and now the leader of the X-Men…

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by Joe

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January 1, 2026

The 2025 Action Figure Round-Up

By Joe
What greatness was delivered this year?

It’s the end of the year so that means it’s time for year-end awards and accolades. It’s easy content and who doesn’t enjoy reflecting on another year gone by? Unless, of course, that year was a bad one. I don’t think 2025 is going to go down in history as a particularly good year, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some great toys released or announced. I don’t always do posts like this, but I felt like I did a lot of toy reviews this year so it felt warranted. It was also interesting because some staples, like NECA’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon line, didn’t put out a ton of figures. And yet I still managed to have reviews up almost weekly this year. I have a bunch coming in early 2026 as we play catch-up, but that’s probably true most years. It did feel like this year in particular had a heavy dose of releases at the end of the year and I think I know why – which I’ll get to momentarily. My rules for this list are pretty simple though: if it came out in 2025 and I got it then it’s eligible. Even if I haven’t technically posted the review yet. And since I’m based in the US, it’s all US release windows so if Asia was enjoying something at the end of 2024 that didn’t arrive at my house until 2025 then it’s fair game for me. Now, let’s get started with an atypical category:

The Storyline of the Year – Tariffs

Yes, those wonderful tariffs are being brought up again, but hopefully it’s the last I need to say about it until they’re gone. The “brilliant” strategy of the new administration in the US was to tax the hell out of imports because someone convinced the president that a trade deficit is akin to being robbed. It’s not. And even though tariffs are paid by those who are doing the importing, it’s a regressive tax that is passed onto the general public either in whole or in part. It varies from company to company, but it also created a bottleneck in shipping and some packages have been tossed or seized for “reasons.” I had one seized, but was fortunate the shipper re-sent without any additional charge to me, but it has meant I’m on week 6 for a package that still isn’t here as of this writing. I’ll tell that story when I get to the figure review. Anyway, tariffs have had a huge negative impact on a lot of industries this year and I’m not going to pretend that my hobby is the worst affected, but it still sucks and continues to suck as we head into 2026.

Reveal of the Year – Mondo X-Men ’97 Beast

He looks so good!

I don’t know why, but it feels like we’re always waiting on a toy company to deliver some version of Beast. Back in the early days of Toy Biz, Beast was one of the last characters featured in the cartoon series to make it to plastic (poor Jean had to wait even longer for a non Phoenix version) and current Marvel Legends collectors are waiting on him to finish up the X-Factor squad (they may technically be waiting on a properly costumed Angel too). With Mondo’s X-Men and X-Men ’97 line of sixth scale figures, we’re still waiting on Storm, Jean, Morph, and Beast, but in 2025 all but Morph were shown. Storm already went up for preorder too and I think Beast is expected next. Mondo showed him off in their end of year stream (they had previously announced and displayed him at a convention) and he looks fabulous. We’ve never had a proper animated Beast. The last one Hasbro did is good, but the portrait isn’t right for that version of the character. Animated Beast never had those whited-out eyes which I have always felt was inappropriate for the character as the pupils show the human within the beast. I’m a little afraid of how much a chunky boy like Beast is going to cost, but I can’t wait to add him to my collection in 2026!

Honorable Mentions: Mondo Squad Rocko’s Modern Life, Big Bad Workshop The Tick, Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Apocalypse

Worst Toy Line of the Year – Jakks Pacific The Simpsons

Jakks got to take over The Simpsons from Super7 which meant more releases at a much cheaper price. Their output has been fine. I have nits to pick with them as I do most things, but for the price it’s hard to complain. What lands Jakks on this list though is just how damn frustrating the line is to collect. My local stores never got anything past Wave 2 until very recently when they got Wave 4. I was able to snag a Barney off of Target’s website, but nothing else from his wave has shown up in store for me or online and it’s very annoying. I’ve basically “quiet quit” the line as I’m not paying scalper prices for them or blowing a ton of gas riding around hoping to find them because the on-line inventory tracking is so poor.

Honorable Mentions: None

Figure I wish Arrived in 2025 – S.H.Figuarts Gamerverse Cyclops

A weird thing happened in 2025. Two companies, Hasbro and Bandai, decided to unleash upon us a “Gamerverse” line of figures. Hasbro has been doing that for years, but mostly for the Spider-Man games on PlayStation. In 2025, both companies are dipping their toes into Marvel vs Capcom and, oddly enough, both are focusing on the Marvel side of that equation. For Hasbro, it’s not a surprise as they don’t have a license for anything Capcom, but Bandai has been doing Street Fighter figures for years. Maybe they’ll get to more from them, but thus far we’ve only seen Marvel and sneaking out in Asia just before the end of the year is the first figure in the line – Cyclops. There are some things about the figure I’d change based on what I’ve seen so far, but overall I think he looks like the best Cyke that’s ever been. I like the Legends Cyclops I have from the VHS styled line of X-Men figures, but that one came with almost nothing. The X-Men ’97 one comes with some effect parts, but it looks horrible. This one may be the last Cyclops I’ll ever need so I’m really eager to see how he looks and moves in person.

Honorable Mentions: S.H.Figuarts Across the Spider-Verse Scarlet Spider, Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3 Sagat

Debuting Toy Line of the Year – Storm Arena Street Fighter Alpha 3

Storm Collectibles has been releasing figures based on Capcom properties for years, but always in a weird scale and for a large sum of money. Perhaps feeling pressure from Jada Toys, Storm decided to launch a new line in 2025 based on designs from Street Fighter Alpha 3 and this time they were finally listening to fans. The Storm Arena line is a true 1:12 scale action figure line where each figure comes with alternate hands, portraits, a stand, and effect parts and for the low price of $26! I honestly didn’t see this one coming. Larger characters, like Sagat who is due any day now, will retail for more, but still at a hell of a price in today’s market. And the figures do not sacrifice anything as far as I can tell. The sculpts are terrific, the articulation is excellent, and they even retained that soft plastic torso Storm loves to use. They only managed to release two figures in 2025 and they’re basically the same figure with different heads – Ken and Ryu, and yet I was tempted to make them Line of the Year anyway. They are that good and I can’t wait to see how Sagat turned out. 2026 could really be the year this line takes off.

Honorable Mention: NECA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Marvel Legends “Not Marvel vs Capcom” Gamerverse, InArt The Dark Knight Rises, Mondo The Real Ghostbusters

Most Disappointing Cancellation of the Year – Super7 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Vintage)

Super7 did not have a good 2025, but it did manage to finally make it’s long-planned pivot to action figures based on the 2003 version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, though how long-planned that was we don’t know. When Super7 first announced they were doing figures based on that show it was supposed to be in conjunction with their line of vintage-inspired TMNT. The release pattern would go Vintage, 2003, Vintage, 2003, etc. Well, plans apparently changed as Super7 clarified things to say the vintage-inspired line is “on pause.” I don’t know about you, but anytime I’ve seen a toy line described as being on pause the phrase has been synonymous with cancelled. Other than Marvel Legends, which saw Hasbro pivot to a 1:18 scale line when oil prices were incredibly high, I can’t think of another line that came back. Maybe Super7 will buck the trend, but it’s disappointing because there are some Technodrome-sized holes in the collection headlined (for me) by Heavy Metal Raph. We know Super7 was running into issues with Playmates who did not like them recreating their figures, but this is a case where the company needs to take a stand and go to bat for its collectors. Paramount wanted them to do 2003 which is fine, but they should have negotiated at least one final wave to give their fans what they have been waiting for. They managed to do it for Rat King, surely they could have for the rest.

Dishonorable Mention: NECA Gargoyles

Toy Line of the Year – JoyToy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

This is a line I never saw coming. When JoyToy first showed off their 1:18 scale Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I was very much intrigued, but thought they would mostly be a one-off in my collection. Then came Shredder, Bebop, Rocksteady, April, Krang, and on and on it went. JoyToy pumped out a ton in this line in 2025 and there’s still more on the way including a 1:18 scale Turtle Van! And it’s not just the volume of releases, but the quality. These figures have a ton of unique sculpt, accessories, and paint and the roster is basically complete even if the line came to a sudden end today. We got freakin’ Zork already – that’s insane! Trying to pick a favorite is almost a pointless exercise and it’s the line I’m basically most excited for when a new reveal is announced because I never know what to expect. If you dismissed this line because of the scale or because it’s a little bit of a chore to collect due to the restrictions then I suggest giving it another look. It’s really been phenomenal.

Honorable Mentions: Storm Arena, Mondo The Real Ghostbusters

Worst Company of 2025 – Super7

All of that stuff I said about Super7’s vintage-inspired Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line can basically be copied and pasted here, but that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Not only did Super7 bungle some of their lines, they also laid off a huge chunk of their workforce and closed their retail locations. I get it, things must not be going well there and tariffs certainly didn’t help, but they dumped some of the people responsible for what little success they’ve had in recent years which didn’t make a whole lot of sense. And they’re still just doing stupid stuff with their line. They are expected to deliver wave 2 of the 2003 TMNT line in the coming weeks, but wave 3 consists of Hun, April, and a Raph with a motorcycle – who asked for that?! And their prices continue to climb where now it seems like $65 is the new norm for them and the figures hardly live up to the term “Ultimate” anymore. They are in a price point all on their own that is grossly out of touch with the wider market. I have no idea how they survive 2026 at this point. I’m not rooting for them to fail, just expecting it.

Honorable Mention: None

Worst Figure I Reviewed in 2025: Super7 Ultimates! Ghost Papa Emeritus IV

I call him Mr. Frumpy.

Probably no surprise that my pick for worst company of the year is also responsible for the worst toy I reviewed in 2025. This Papa Emeritus isn’t terrible on its own. It’s the same body we’ve seen before with a few tweaks, but the blatant false advertising really stuck in my craw. The base figure is merely okay. It looks a little cheap especially considering the price, but is a decent likeness. With the soft goods though it just looks frumpy and awful. The solicitations they sent out for the figure with the soft goods look nothing like the final version. I don’t expect any release to precisely match a promotional shot, especially one using digital renders of a figure and not a prototype, but there’s a limit and Super7 betrayed its fanbase with this one. And yet, I still ordered Papa V Perpetua with the hope it will actually resemble the figure I purchased so clearly I’m part of the problem.

Action Figure of the Year – The Runners Up

Marvel Legends Gamerverse Wolverine – this figure is a blueprint for what I want to see from Marvel Legends going forward. The sculpt is unique and appropriate for this version of Wolverine, but mostly it’s the articulation. They finally went with the double-ball peg joint in the diaphragm and combined it with a ball joint at the waist. No more ugly ab crunch. The only thing that sucked about this release is you had to also pay for a crappy Silver Samurai since it was sold in a two-pack.

Mondo X-Men ’97 Nightcrawler – a sixth scale figure would have to be really special to take the top spot, but Nightcrawler came close. Maybe if I had been able to get the limited version, or if the economic conditions didn’t push the price to over $300 for the same, I’d have given it to Nightcrawler, but runner-up isn’t bad. This figure looks impressive, as all Mondo figures do, but it does something most don’t which is they made it fun to pose. Even their Spider-Man couldn’t manage that. Look for the full review in the coming weeks.

JoyToy Groundchuck – I said it was hard to select just one figure from JoyToy’s excellent line of TMNT figures, but if I had to pick one it would be Groundchuck. Not only does he look impressive, he comes with so many tremendously fun accessories. I love it when an action figure creates a dilemma for me when it comes to displaying it on my shelf and this one qualifies. I currently have him with three effect parts attached which is kind of ludicrous, but oh so much fun!

Action Figure of 2025 – InArt The Dark Knight Rises Batman

Queen Studios really came out of no where for me. I wasn’t asking for a Batman based on The Dark Knight Rises, but this figure looked so damn good that I couldn’t say “No.” This is, quite simply, one of the best 1:12 scale figures I’ve ever had the pleasure of handling. The sculpt is incredible, the likeness is spot-on, and the articulation is great. If you got the deluxe version then you also got a ton of accessories as well. In a way, it has the opposite problem for me when compared with the JoyToy Groundchuck in that he just looks so cool standing in a vanilla pose that I am not tempted to pose him with anything else. The shortcomings with this release are few – the alternate portraits are too similar, no wired cape, and it’s not sold in the US. It was still relatively easy to import for under $100, which while not cheap, actually feels worth it compared with other figures in that price range (it’s cheaper and likely better than what Mezco is prepping). While it’s not exactly fair to compare such a figure to one that costs $25, this one is so exceptional that it just had to be it. It’s so good that they got me to preorder their next Batman based on Arkham Origins even though that’s another figure I wasn’t asking for and they damn near got me with their Dark Knight Rises Catwoman. I expect it to be every bit as good as this one too. Keep your eyes on Queen Studios and their InArt line because they are making some terrific stuff.

If you want to read more about the best figures of 2025 then 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

Marvel Legends Gamerverse Wolverine vs Silver Samurai

Video game inspired action figures are quite the hot ticket right now. I’m not entirely sure why that is, but maybe some of that is owed to Jada Toys and how well received their line of Ultra Street Fighter 2 action figures have been received. Hasbro, for their part, has had a “Gamerverse” subline of…

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by Joe

JoyToy TMNT Groundchuck

Last week we had ourselves a look at Dirtbag from JoyToy’s line of 1:18 scale Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures. As most probably expected, we’re back this week with a look at his buddy Groundchuck, the mutant bull that could have very easily been named Bull’s Eye, but maybe Playmates felt that was too…

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by Joe

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December 31, 2025

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Sentinel

By Joe
He’s here and he’s ready to rock!

When X-Men premiered on Halloween 1992 the big bad guy of the day wasn’t Magneto, it wasn’t Apocalypse, it was the Sentinels. The mutant-hunting robots were chosen because they represented the threat from humanity as it pertained to the protagonists of the show. Any show or comic book can put some scary dude in a cape and call him the bad guy, but X-Men wanted you to know that the biggest threat out there for the heroes was humanity itself which had allowed its fear and bigotry to manifest itself in the form of giant, killer, robots. It sounds kind of crazy, even silly, but it worked as those cold, detached, humanoid robots stalked a young girl and even killed one of the X-Men. And when it came time to bring the X-Men back for X-Men ’97 it was decided pretty early on that the Sentinels needed to be a focal point of that return season.

So…this guy is so big my background is basically useless. And I even cut off the top of his head in this comparison with a standard Marvel Legends release and a Mondo sixth scale one.

The Sentinels, being 30′ robots have never made for easy toys or action figures. Back in the old days, there was a Sentinel toy that was probably 14″ tall or so and was more of a play thing than something that looked cool or intimidating. The legs didn’t move, it had blast off hands and toes, and there was a retractable claw on one hand. It seemed almost lame even to me, but I still bought it when I had 20 bucks burning a hole in my pocket. In the Marvel Legends era, the Sentinel was the second build-a-figure and was the first I completed. It was more of a modern look, but still cool and I hung onto it for a long time until eventually selling it when I thought I was done with Marvel toy collecting (hah!). More recently, we’ve had a HasLab Sentinel, smaller arcade game Sentinels, and now this new made-to-order one. The HasLab model has been basically Hasbro’s crowd funding way to make more riskier products. It has always struck me as ridiculous that a company the size of Hasbro needs to resort to crowd-funding for anything, but the model has worked mostly well save for a failure here and there. The newer made-to-order model is simpler and something that strikes me as a better way to do things. They put a product up for a price and if you want it you order it, and if you don’t you don’t. It took about 14 months for fulfillment, but the Sentinel is here and hopefully it’s spectacular.

The battle damaged face looks great and is good for punching.

The Sentinel retailed for $175 direct from Hasbro with free shipping. It arrived in a brown box with a brown shipper box inside it. Within that is the actual product box. It contains a graphic on the front illustrating what’s inside with a larger picture on the right spine of a Sentinel in action. The other side has a group shot of the cast of X-Men ’97 and the rear has a cross-sell along with a shot of the figure in action with other X-Men ’97 action figures. There’s no window so if you got this as an in-box collector it might not do the trick for you, but if you just want a box that looks nice and fits in with the other X-Men ’97 boxes then this is fine. Inside it is another brown box and tray with the figure inside. It comes bagged and all of the accessories are bagged as well to protect it as much as possible and it seems good enough. In spite of that, my figure does have some dings on it. There’s light scuffing on the chest and on the side of the neck. I don’t think it has anything to do with how the product is shipped, I think this is just from assembly at the factory, but it’s a little disappointing.

The scene that has stayed with me since 1992.

Apart from those blemishes, the Sentinel cuts a nice figure and presents well. Those scuffs are only visible up close, and while they shouldn’t be there, they don’t really impact my enjoyment of the product. This dude is pretty damn big and even though I saw lots of images online including Hasbro’s display at San Diego Comic Con, it still didn’t prepare me for how big it is. I have the Sentinel at about 22″ in height which is also the advertised height. It has some heft, especially in the lower legs. Now, the plastic is pretty hard and I likened the feel to a Super Soaker when someone asked me my thoughts, but it presents reasonably well. It is a Legends release so there’s not a lot of paint. The darker purple near the collar is painted on as are the black lines. The face has painted details and there’s a little linework on the top of the head and some on the belt. It’s mostly clean, though there is a blemish on the black linework on the rear of my figure that I’ll probably touch up, but the figure isn’t overly shiny. And mostly it just looks like a cartoon Sentinel. It’s based on the updated look in X-Men ’97 which really isn’t all that different from the ’92 look so if you’re interested in it as a fan of the original series it should work. It also works as a classic, comic, Sentinel if that’s your preference compared with the more modern HasLab and should fit into a comic or animated display without issue. And at 22″ I think it has enough size. Are they usually presented as bigger in the show? Yeah, probably, and my guess is they’re more like 30′ tall, but they’re also pretty inconsistent (compare the first episode with the season finale and, in particular, Wolverine fighting them in the tunnels) in the show.

“This one’s for you, Morph!”

And the sucker is so big that I don’t think I could manage to squeeze it into a display at any other height. Nor do I think I could have found room for more than one, but Hasbro would probably like for people to double, or triple, dip on this release and the accessories aid with that. The Sentinel comes with an optional dome and face plate to display some battle damage. The dome is basically just missing a section so it exposes the “metal” underneath while the face plate is all cracked and broken. The sculpt and paint of the optional face plate looks terrific and I suspect it will give folks pause over how to display this thing. To further aid in the battle damage is an optional vent for the chest. This one has two wires poking out of it and it’s sculpted and painted well. Apart from that, there’s a pair of blast effects. They come in three pieces: a wide burst, a smaller burst to sit inside it, and the plume for the center. One centerpiece is longer than the other for a little variety and the parts are made of translucent, red, plastic with yellow painted on for a little pop. The smaller, inner, burst is actually translucent yellow so there’s a nice mix of color. They look good, but I do wish we got more of a beam effect too since that’s how their blasts were represented in the show. They can plug into the hands or the feet so if you have a means of suspending one of these in midair you could do a flying pose. The port on the hand can also accept the tentacle parts that came with the HasLab which is nice for those who have it, but why not toss one in with this set too? It’s already tooled so what could that possibly cost?

If only the VHS Cyclops came with a blast effect.
Morph may have died, but Beast didn’t make out too well either.
“Surrender, mutant!”

Even though this guy is much larger than your standard Legends release, it still moves like one. I don’t have that HasLab Sentinel, but I know one of the biggest issues people had with it were loose legs. To apparently address that issue, Hasbro put ratchets everywhere on this guy so nothing is loose. If you wiggle it a bit it will jiggle and the arms could move on you, but just don’t do that! The head and neck are separately articulated so there’s good range there. Again, I have some scuffing on the neck of mine, but it wasn’t caused by the articulation though I would still advise being a bit cautious. Shoulders, biceps, elbows, and wrists are all typical Legends articulation. What’s not are the fingers and thumb where each joint is a peg and hinge so you can individually pose each digit which is cool. Toy Biz loved articulating the fingers on the 1/12 figures back in the day and it was awful, but at this size it works fine. There’s a ball-joint at the waist and the crotch piece is a soft material so it can pivot in all directions without worry. Beyond that, we have the hips, thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, boot swivel, and ankle hinge and rocker. Range is pretty fair everywhere. No, he can’t do splits, but he can do walking poses and kick forward, should you want him to. The double joints at the elbows and knees aren’t going to produce much better than a 90 degree bend, but they don’t really need to. They are pin-less, but there’s also exposed screws that are holding things together. There’s no toe hinge, but I’m okay with that as this is more stable. And even with the tight joints, standing him can be a little precarious. I like the proportions, but I kind of wish they made the feet a little oversized to help with that stability, but I also haven’t had this guy topple over either.

If you’re pressed for space, something like this might be the best way to pose this guy.

Is this Sentinel worth $175? Yeah, I think it is. It’s not going to blow you away with how it looks. The lack of paint means it’s not like that giant dragon Four Horsemen solicited last year. It also doesn’t cost the nearly $1,000 that thing did. It’s an oversized Marvel Legends figure with Marvel Legends quality and I think the price is fair. It gets a little dicey post release as Hasbro does have extra product. Since they don’t charge upfront for these made-to-order pieces, consumers are free to cancel and either through that or via extra stock for replacements and such there are some available on the Pulse website at the time of this writing. I don’t know if that will be true when this goes live. They are no longer $175 though and are up to $220. Either production ended up being more than anticipated or those wonderful tariffs jacked the cost up, but it’s now not the same deal it was last year. It could also be part of Hasbro’s plan to reward those who preorder and keep that order with a cheaper rate and upcharge the Johnny-come-latelies. I don’t know, but I do know that $220 feels like a lot more and I’d have serious reservations about that price. I’m glad I don’t have to think about it and locked my order in a year ago, but if you missed it and feel FOMO kicking in then I guess you have a decision to make. Hopefully you got some cash for Christmas or something to make it an easier call. I think the Sentinels are some of the biggest (obviously) and most important villains for the X-Men and I’m so happy to finally get this version of the character in plastic. The HasLab wasn’t for me, but this is. Now where the hell can I put this thing?

Do you need some X-Men ’97 or ’92 figures to battle your Sentinel? 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 Animated Series Morph

This is it! This is the big one! Back on Halloween of 1992 Fox premiered X-Men and we were introduced to a character named Morph. For comic readers, it was a bit of a re-introduction as Morph was based on the character Changeling, but for copywrite reasons, had to undergo a name change. Changeling wasn’t…

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by Joe

Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Jubilee

The television event of 2024 for me was none other than X-Men ’97. I loved that show and I can’t wait for the second season to come around. It’s just a shame we may still be as much as a year away, but to somewhat tide us over until then we have this third wave…

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by Joe

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December 27, 2025

Marvel Legends Secret Wars Iceman

By Joe
Hailing from the pages of Marvel Comics it’s Iceman with his trusty…face…shield?

As a kid in the 90s, there was a social pressure to not choose the obvious when discussing favorite parts of a fandom. It’s basically a method of gatekeeping, a really silly, annoying, habit that’s not exclusive to children. If you enter into a certain band’s fandom there are some who will claim you’re a fake fan if your favorite song is the most popular one. Likewise, if you claim to be a fan of X-Men and say your favorite character is Wolverine there would be kids who would assume you’re a phony. You’re just trying to fit-in and so you picked the most popular superhero on the team as your favorite. No real fan says Wolverine is their favorite. And yet his books are the most read, his action figures sell the best, and it’s plainly obvious the character is popular for a reason.

Iceman (who is not going to be fun to photograph) with the Vulcan-body Cyclops and the Amazing Web-Man who I think he shares a lot of his sculpt with.

Nevertheless, I succumbed to such pressures as a kid. Wolverine probably was my favorite member of the X-Men, but if you asked me back then who my favorite character was I’d tell you it was Iceman. And it wasn’t as if I was lying as I really did love the character of Iceman. He was my introduction to X-Men without me really knowing it via the cartoon series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. There he was teamed up with Spider-Man and the made-for-TV character Firestar. Played by Frank Welker, Iceman had a really neat transformation sequence into his icy form that stuck with me well beyond that show’s expiration date. It was the only thing I really remembered from the show and for a time I wasn’t sure if it was even real or if my brain made it up as TV shows back then had a habit of just disappearing to make way for something else. Iceman didn’t get to be a part of future televised X teams, but you bet your ass I was pumped when he showed up for an episode of X-Men. I can remember the episode title flashing on the screen and knowing it had to be referring to Iceman and the hair on my arms stood up. It was awesome!

The new Iceman with the last ice men I purchased. Kind of crazy this one on the right is still the only Bobby Drake we’ve ever received.

Toy Biz did manage to get Iceman into its X-Men line of figures pretty quickly. It was one I sought, but he proved hard to get. I never did get the original release which had a color changing feature, but I was able to finally score it on a refresh. By then the color change gimmick was gone and replaced by a feature where you put him on his ice sled, filled a cut-out with water, and then stuck him in the freezer. After a little while, that water encased the figure’s feet in a block of ice for you to remove and I guess just slide across a surface. Cool? I didn’t really care as I hated action features so any gimmick that didn’t intrude upon the sculpt was fine by me. A second edition Iceman would eventually follow, modeled somewhat on his Age of Apocalypse look, but I never did find that one. When Marvel Legends became a thing, Iceman managed to see release in the eighth wave. He was pretty mediocre even by the standards of the day being too slight and formless, but he had a neat Sentinel hand base frozen in ice. Toy Biz would do better with the sister line, X-Men Classics, and the Iceman released there. That one was on a standard buck, and while not perfect even back then, was a major improvement. There were also two chase versions one modeled after the character’s appearance in Ultimate X-Men and the other a de-iced Bobby Drake. That Bobby version instantly became my most wanted and I managed to track down two of them. Worry not, I didn’t scalp either and instead traded one for a chase Moon Knight.

I understand why Hasbro would go transparent with Iceman, but I wish we got a figure that looked like the comic art.

That X-Men Classics Iceman is the most recent Iceman purchase I’ve made. Until now, obviously. There was a three-pack released a couple of years ago based on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. I wanted to like that set and probably could have settled if the Firestar or Spider-Man was mediocre, but it was my beloved Iceman who was left out in the cold. The figure was hideous and about the only good thing was the portrait. I just couldn’t do it, even when it hit clearance. Hasbro has come back though with a release of the character for its Secret Wars line. This series is a throwback, an homage, to what was essentially the very first proper action figure line for Marvel. Back then, Iceman received a release, but he wasn’t sold in the US. This new figure is like a long overdue makeup. It also reminded me of the very first Toy Biz one and that was enough to get me to throw down my $28 even if I had some reservations about what I was seeing in those solicitations.

Hasbro elected to give this Iceman a snowball. A nod to his original appearance or just an easy, cheap, accessory?

Iceman stands at around 6.25″ to the top of his head. He is essentially a blank body cast in transparent plastic. The base appears to be the same as some older Spider-Man figures namely The Amazing Web-Man and Cyborg Spider-Man, minus the cybernetic arm. In other words, this is an old mold though it has been updated with pin-less joints. Considering that the figure is transparent, that’s both a blessing and a curse. These pin-less limbs require a different composite of plastic be utilized for the elbows and knees, and as we saw with the Crystar figure last year, the result is the plastic comes out cloudy. With Iceman, it means his elbows and knees have a milky color to them. Had Hasbro elected to add an overspray to the rest of the figure this effect may have been minimized, but they left him almost purely transparent like that classic Toy Biz release. There is a very subtle frosting applied to the chest, but that’s about it. That does mean if you like seeing the inner workings of an action figure Iceman is showing you the goods. He’s got nothing to hide. Even the soft plastic belt is transparent. The only paint is reserved for the X logo and the details on the face – basically eyes and teeth. It’s not a bad look and it certainly makes sense for a man of ice to look this way, but I do wish Hasbro added a little blue tint to the plastic just to dress him up a bit.

My attempt at a throwing pose. Too bad he doesn’t have a throwing snowball accessory.

The approach to the presentation is fine, even if it’s not what I’d do personally (I’d want him painted like he is in the comics, basically white or a very light blue with some shading and squared-off anatomy), but what I can say is poor are the overall proportions. This just isn’t a good looking body. The shoulders sit so low that it looks ridiculous and you get these gaps between the traps and the top of the shoulders. What human being, let alone superhero, has a body like this? The shoulders are also undersized taking away from the heroic look the character should have and the width of the body is comically small. From a straight-on perspective, the chest looks okay. There appears to be a little frosting to the plastic to create the illusion of a cubed-off look to the pecs, but it kind of makes him look like he has moobs instead. Turn the figure to view from the side, and the width of the chest is preposterously thin. There’s no front-to-back bulk to this guy. It’s like a person with an average build drew muscles onto their body. Iceman isn’t supposed to be a behemoth, but he should have far more bulk than this. This is a mold that should be chucked in the trash.

I’m not sure about this thing.

For accessories, we get a mostly typical mix with some new stuff thrown in. Iceman has two portraits: smile and angry. Both are fine, but I wish we had a neutral one too. For hands, he has a set of fists and a set of relaxed hands and he also has a snowball that the relaxed hands can handle. For power effects, we get a small, icy, platform that I wouldn’t consider a proper ice sled. It looks fine, but it’s just way too small in both length and width, but at least there’s some white paint on it to give it a frosted look. He also has two power effects that clip onto the wrist. I like the idea here, but these effects suck. They appear to be designed to clip onto the wrist so that the relaxed hands rest on them. The problem is, they end up pointing straight down so angling them to make it look like he’s creating an ice sled looks pretty bad. They also look bad as just a blasting effect if you want him to shoot at bad guys. Clipping them on backwards actually presents a better angle, but also looks stupid. They also end with a flat surface like they should be contacting the shelf or table you end up putting him on. I think they would have done better if they made the hands part of the sculpt or if they designed them to work with flat palms that get inserted into the effect. This feels half-assed and like a first try that no one decided to spend just a little more time on. If the ice sled effect were wider maybe it could have been fudged more easily, but maybe that would have broke the budget. There’s also an included shield with a lenticular image of Iceman’s portrait on it that shifts to Bobby. This thing is an homage to the old toy line and every figure comes with one. It has a clip and a peg on the back of it so you can affix it to the figure’s forearm or peg it into its back. I can’t imagine anyone would. It’s cheap and kind of lame – into a drawer it goes!

From the front, I think I’m less sure.

The articulation for Iceman is pretty basic, and also pretty frustrating. This mold is the type of figure that seems to have most of the joints one would want, but actually getting the figure into the poses you want is harder than it looks. The head is on a ball hinge that gets no tilt so it kind of sucks. There are butterfly joints at the shoulder, but they mostly provide range going back and not forward. There are bicep swivels, double elbows, wrist hinges and swivels, ab crunch, waist twist, ball-socket hips, thigh cuts, double knees, boot cuts, and ankle hinges and rockers. Range is acceptable at all of the major spots while the ab crunch is certainly antiquated. The boot cut is pretty worthless because it breaks up the shape of the leg when utilizing it. The waist twist is the same, but at least the belt is floating to kind of hide it, granted we’re talking transparent parts here. The transparent plastic does seem to result in tighter than usual knees and elbows, but I could get them to work without heating the figure up. It’s not a terrible action figure from an articulation standpoint, but we can definitely do better, Hasbro.

Do you want to build a snow man? If so, no smoking. Disney doesn’t like it.

If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m not in love with this figure. I even regret buying it to a point because there’s just no posing away some of the issues I have with the sculpt. Those shoulders always look goofy and the body is just way too slight. The included effect parts are a nice thought, but how good is that when they don’t really accomplish what they intend to? The old X-Men Classics ice sled is better than this and that thing was a flat, blue, plastic and kind of lame. At least it worked though. I wasn’t expecting to do anything with the silly snowball accessory, but I think that’s how I’ll end up displaying him because I just can’t look past those blast effects. I waited 20 years for a new Iceman figure, and I’ll be waiting longer for an actual good one. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll show up in X-Men ’97 giving Hasbro an excuse to fix this thing. As one of the first openly gay X-Men, I could see him fitting into the spirit of that show so it’s not impossible, though does Disney have the courage to go there? That I have serious doubts on. This is what we have though and for some collectors out there it might be good enough, but for me it’s not.

If you liked this look at Marvel’s Iceman then maybe you’ll enjoy some of these:

Marvel Legends Marvel’s Crystar

Marvel Legends are still sold primarily at major retailers. This includes the likes of Target, Walmart, and even Best Buy which has been adding more toys to its portfolio over the years. And since they’re made by Hasbro, a company that has been selling toys to kids for generations, they still mostly operate on the…

by Joe

Jada Toys Frosty the Snowman

There are a number of Christmas specials out there that are basically known by all and I’ve written about most of them here. Some have been annual traditions especially when we had more of a monoculture in the US, but the slow death of cable television has made those annual traditions fade away. One holiday…

by Joe

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…

by Joe

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December 17, 2025

Dec. 17 – The Nostalgia Spot Christmas Special Countdown #73 – 64

By Joe

Today should be a day of 90s cartoons because we’re taking it all the way to 64 – Nintendo 64! The Christmas gods do not agree for not only does today not include any 90s properties, but it doesn’t even include a Nintendo one. It does include a video game turned cartoon and there are some 90’s adjacent stuff, but that’s as far as it goes. It’s also a bit of a mix in terms of demographic. There’s stuff here that’s definitely intended for kids and some stuff that most certainly is not. In fact, I would say this may be the darkest installment yet of the countdown and the lead-off special is doing quite a bit of the heavy lifting there as it just may be the darkest Christmas special I’ve ever taken in.

73 – Moral Orel – The Best Christmas Ever

Will it be the best Christmas ever?!

Moral Orel is a stop-motion animated show that aired on Adult Swim about a good-natured boy named Orel and his quest to live life in God’s image. It’s very much a subversive take on Davey and Goliath, just minus the talking dog. Orel, being a young kid, is completely oblivious to his surroundings in which all of the adults in his life are selfish and miserable and there basically isn’t one genuine person in his life. His father is an abusive alcoholic, his mother a bitter adulterer, and even his priest is a sexual deviant. “The Best Christmas Ever” was actually the show’s premiere, though it was never intended to be. If you caught it in the proper order, the episodes started off as a Davey and Goliath parody with Orel misunderstanding some church teaching and doing the wrong thing leading to a trip to his dad’s study to get taught a lesson. Physically. By the time the show reached this season finale, it just got depressing as his dad slipped further into the bottle and was forced to confront the fact that one of his children isn’t even his. And since Orel overhears the discussion between his parents, he gets the idea that his little brother was conceived immaculately and is actually the second coming of Jesus. In reality, the kid is terrible and his own parents regret not getting an abortion. It all ends with Orel and his brother smashing a nativity scene, because he thinks his Christ-brother is bringing about the Apocalypse, only for his mom to tell him that: He’s right that his dad isn’t his brother’s father, and they’re getting a divorce. Orel tracks his dad down at the local bar where his track coach is hitting on him and Orel comes to the conclusion that this is not the best Christmas ever. He notes there’s still two minutes left though and he has faith in the Lord to turn things around! And that’s how the episode ends which just feels even more bleak. This is definitely a very cynical look at the idyllic Protestant family and not the sort of special that’s for everyone. There’s a bit of an “edgelord” vibe to the humor, but the audacity of it all worked on me and it’s one of those specials I return to just to see if it’s as dark as I remember. And, yeah, it pretty much is. The only thing missing is a suicide joke.

72 – American Dad! – Season’s Beatings

That’s not going to go over well.

This episode of American Dad! pairs rather well with Moral Orel as it’s another cynical take on Christmas with some sacrilegious displays of violence. It’s also far more lighter in tone due to the more slapstick nature of the show when compared with Moral Orel. In this one, Stan gets passed over as Jesus for his church’s play only for Roger to get the part. When Stan loses it and beats up Roger on camera over the alien’s disrespect towards his religion, he finds himself excommunicated from his church. Lucky for him though, his daughter and her husband just so happened to adopt the antichrist and if Stan can just kill his toddler grandson it will get him back into God’s good graces! It’s quite the farcical Christmas plot with numerous funny moments and some pretty strong animation from the show. It doesn’t advance the overarching Christmas plot the show has with the Smith family and Santa Claus, but it’s fun.

71 – Smiling Friends – Charlie Dies and Doesn’t Come Back

Ever wonder what the toilets in Hell are like?

Smiling Friends is a much celebrated animated show in the circles I frequent mostly for its brand of humor and rough animation. It’s the latest in what appears to be cheaply produced animation for Adult Swim that turns into a hit. I confess it’s not as big of a hit with me as it is others. I don’t think it’s bad, but the show is just so damn ugly. I feel like I’ve hit my limit with ugly adult animation – why can’t we get stuff that looks nice? This is another Christmas episode from Adult Swim that’s not exactly packed with feels. Charlie dies while out looking for a Christmas tree with his friends and co-workers only to wander through Hell and find himself face-to-face with Satan. If he helps the guy out, he can go back, and since he’s one of the main characters I don’t think it’s a spoiler to acknowledge that the title of this one is a bald-faced lie. The humor is mostly dark, and even though I called this show ugly, there are some spots in Hell that are pretty inventive and surprised me. As I think about it, I probably should have switched this with Moral Orel, but it hardly matters when we’re talking two positions on a 200 episode countdown. This one fits in with a lot of the other subversive Adult Swim Christmas specials so if that’s something you like then you can easily make yourself a solid marathon of content.

70 – Teen Titans Go! – Second Christmas

Second Christmas looks pretty sweet, but of course Robin hates it. He’s no fun.

Here’s one that’s a bit more lighthearted. Our second installment of Teen Titans Go! just confronts what we all hate about the holiday – it’s end. To stave off those post Christmas blues, the Titans invent Second Christmas complete with its own Second Santa and customs. It’s basically just good-natured fun, though at the expense of Starfire who is ignorant of Christmas, and no one really learns a lesson or anything. Instead, they all fall victim to a horrible accident when Starfire is denied a Second Christmas miracle and they get to spend much of the following year in a coma which is actually a happy ending because they get to basically skip right to Christmas again! Take that, Arbor Day!

69 – Spectacular Spider-Man – Reinforcement

Are Spidey and Santa teaming up?!

Spectacular Spider-Man was a short-lived animated series that really did an excellent job of condensing a lot of Spider-Man material into something new and fun. Unfortunately, the Marvel acquisition by Disney seemed to kill it as the House of Mouse wasn’t interested in boosting characters it didn’t have film rights to or that were animated on deals outside of their usual reach. Disney would make its own Spider-Man shows and none of them could hold a candle to Spectacular Spider-Man. In this one, Peter tries his luck at courting not one, not two, but three different women and kind of strikes out with all three (Pete, it’s never a good idea to let a woman feel like she’s not your first choice, pal). It ends up being the least of his worries as he’s soon set upon by the show’s version of the Sinister Six. It’s a lot for Peter to deal with, but he’s Spider-Man so you know he’ll figure it out. It’s basically an episode full of action and holiday puns from our hero and it’s pretty entertaining, just not really a self-contained Christmas special. You definitely won’t get as much out of it if you haven’t watched the episodes leading up to it, but even if you haven’t, it’s still the best Christmas episode any Spider-Man show has had up until now.

68 – All Grown Up! – The Finster Who Stole Christmas

Chuckie and his dad do not see eye to eye when it comes to Christmas trees.

This Rugrats spin-off arrived when I stopped caring about the franchise. I wish it had come earlier as I think I would have enjoyed it in those early teen years where I was still kind of watching Nickelodeon, but not sure if I should still be. The show surprised me in the little bit of time I spent on it as it took Rugrats, a show about babies going on wacky adventures, and made it a teen drama. I wasn’t sure that could work, but what do you know? It kind of does. And the result isn’t a show as reliant on Tommy. He almost feels like an afterthought, but this is a Chuckie centric episode as he mistakenly steals a Christmas tree and feels horrible about it. There are some inconsequential B-plots as well, but the meat and potatoes is Chuckie trying to do the right thing and finding it difficult. It mostly works out in the end and Chuckie gets to learn a lesson about the importance of family or something and it will leave you feeling pretty good about things. It’s sweet and I was charmed by the conflict between Chuckie and his dad. I considered ranking this one ahead of the Rugrats Christmas episode, but nostalgia kind of won out there.

67 – X-Men Evolution – On Angel’s Wings

Sure they are.

We already looked at the Christmas episode from the better, more popular X-Men animated series. Now, we’re looking at the better Christmas episode. That other X-Men special is a “so bad it’s good” kind of special while this one is mostly just plain good. It’s a more grounded episode even though it’s all about a guy with actual wings and dudes with laser eyes and such. It’s more teen drama with the orphaned Cyclops and Rogue being left behind by their peers at the X-Mansion for Christmas. While that does kind of suck, it forces them to bond a bit which is good for Rogue who has a crush on Summers that’s unlikely to go anywhere since he’s all about Jean. Since Wolverine was too old in this show to shoehorn into that love triangle I guess Rogue is a decent consolation. The two end up in the city investigating tales of an actual Angel, which is of course just another mutant. It turns into something of an arm’s race as Magneto wants to recruit him, but so do the X-Men, and the two battle over the reluctant mutant until finally he’s allowed to have a say of his own. It’s just a good-natured Christmas special with some nice action tossed in. It’s not as reliant as Spectacular Spider-Man on the audience being up to date on what is happening in the show and basically all you need to know is contained in this one. It also mostly avoids the slapstick elements of the show and plays it straight. There’s a nice little montage at the end showing how the others spend Christmas and there’s that nice touch of melancholy present in so many Christmas episodes and it’s just the right amount. If you thought the older X-Men Christmas episode was just too silly, this one will likely please you more.

66 – Futurama – A Tale of Two Santas

It just wouldn’t be Xmas without a brutal rampage!

Enough of that sentimental bull crap, let’s cause some mayhem! Futurama is unique in that it turned Santa into a villain. Well, it was unique until American Dad! and Teen Titans Go! came along, but their murderous robot Santa is still his own brand. In the follow-up to the first Xmas special, the Planet Express crew is tasked with finally putting an end to Santa’s murderous rampage and they’re actually successful! A problem arises when they take it one step further and have Bender serve as a new Santa, one that will actually deliver presents to all the good girls and boys. After generations of growing up with an evil Santa, the people of Earth aren’t so willing to accept this reformed Santa and Bender is put through the ringer. He’s eventually jailed and sentenced to death for being Santa and the only way to save him is to free the real Robot Santa whom the crew trapped in the ice of Neptune. Do you believe in Xmas miracles? Well your faith is rewarded! Robot Santa is freed and saves Bender and the two are able to inflict carnage and mayhem on the world just as Jesus intended. Merry Xmas everyone!

65 – American Dad! – Minstrel Krampus

Who could forget such classic characters as these?

If you’re a show that likes to do an annual Christmas episode and you’re on for many seasons, chances are you’ll eventually wind up doing a musical. I wouldn’t call this episode of American Dad! a full blown musical, but it has multiple musical numbers most of which are pretty damn fun (Haley’s is not though, that one sucks). In this episode, we get to further the plot of Santa and the Smiths by having Stan accidentally free the demon of Christmas, Krampus, whom his father had trapped in a copper pot many years ago. Krampus immediately kidnaps Stan’s bratty son, Steve, and demands he send his father to save him. Stan’s dad is a jerk though and ditches him so Stan has to seek the aid of Santa himself. The two form an unlikely alliance and go after Steve who is basically in a parody of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast where he gradually warms up to Krampus and becomes a better kid. There’s a wild battle to end things and a new part of the lore is established in the process. It’s a rewarding episode in that respect for longtime viewers of American Dad!, but for anyone else it’s just an absurd Christmas story that will probably elicit some laughter.

64 – The Cuphead Show! – A Very Devil Christmas

Is it possible for the Devil himself to get on Santa’s Nice List?

This second Christmas episode of The Cuphead Show! dares to ask the question “What does Satan want for Christmas?” Turns out it’s a choo choo as this show’s version of the Devil tries to get onto Santa’s Nice List in order to get what he wants, but the only way for him to do so is to make a deal with the big man and take his place! The Devil as Santa? That’s a worthwhile spin on what is essentially a take on The Santa Clause and the end result is pretty funny. It barely features the titular character of Cuphead, but that’s okay because the Devil is a great character on his own. It’s also really well animated and just looks fantastic for a modern piece of animation. It’s also much longer than a typical episode of The Cuphead Show!, but it doesn’t feel bloated. I was really entertained by it and it’s snuck onto my annual viewing list as a result.

If you can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 17 – A Cosmic Christmas

If you watched a lot of cartoons in the 80s and 90s then you probably remember Nelvana. Their cartoons, like many others, would end with their own production logo which was a polar bear, I think. It was all one color and white and since Nelvana is Canadian it would certainly make a lot of…

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by Joe

Dec. 17 – We Bare Bears – “Christmas Parties”

This year, I’ve taken some time out to watch Christmas episodes of shows I’m pretty unfamiliar with. This is yet another one of those posts, only with this show I did make an attempt to get into it. A mild one. We Bare Bears is a show created by Daniel Chong that aired on Cartoon…

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by Joe

Dec. 17 – Peace on Earth (1939)

Hugh Harman was one of the early stars in the field of animation. In fact, we talked about one of his shorts already this year, but perhaps his most famous and most celebrated is the 1939 anti-war film Peace on Earth. According to Harman, the short subject was nominated for The Nobel Peace Prize, but…

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by Joe

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