Flashback Friday Follow-Up: Toy Biz's X-FORCE Wave 2
Posted by Curto on February 7, 2009 at 12:00 AM CST:
As a special follow-up to this week's Flashback Friday update, the CTR spotlight remains on Toy Biz's X-Force line all weekend long!
Action Figures - Wave 2
The first wave of X-FORCE action figures focused on the team and their opponents, partially inspired by the artwork of creator Rob Liefeld. Since Rob's not exactly known for capturing accurate anatomy, most of the figures followed that look. However, this all changed in the second wave, when Toy Biz hired artist Bart Sears to design the X-Force toys (as well as the X-Men, but more on that in a later update), giving them his trademark hyper-aggressive look with dynamic anatomy, and a lot of cool gadgets. This was also when Cable became the "Batman" of the line, with multiple figures sporting different combat gear that he may or may not have worn in the comics....they just looked cool.
Cable (Deep Space Armor)
Cable's second action figure features him in a brightly-colored space suit, armed with a rifle that had a sliding barrel. Even at first glance, you can see the improvements in the design and sculpting of this figure. There's not much in the way of special features, but the goal was to create a big, bulky suit for Cable. Mission accomplished.
Cable (Rapid Rocket Firing Action)
This was the "basic Cable" action figure in our displays for the year. The biggest problem is that the rocket launcher was too heavy and the figure fell down all the time, but it was still a great new design and fun to play with. While there were more Cable figures to come, this one remains one of my favorites.
Cannonball
One of the original members of the New Mutants (the team that evolved into X-Force), this was the first (and so far, only) figure made of Cannonball. You can easily see the Bart Sears influence in this figure, from the proportions, facial sculpting, and the bulky flight jacket. This figure includes a handy "launching pad" so that Cannonball can really take off! The initial release of this figure was painted incorrectly, but was quickly corrected. So there are two versions of him: a pink suit and a purple suit. I ended up getting both.
Grizzly
Here's a guy that wasn't part of the X-Force team, but rather a character from Cable's past. Turns out Cable has a history of working with various strike teams, and Grizzly was on one of those early ones, called the Six Pack. While the design is decent on this guy, the figure suffers a bit because he ends up looking somewhat squished....he's wider from the front (good), but seems too skinny when viewed from the sides (not good). Plus, the legs are pretty thin, so he tends to fall over a lot (bad).
Kane (Double Fisted Weapons)
This second version of Kane was inspired from the outfit seen in the John Romita Jr.-illustrated series, and is a lot bulkier than the original. It features some funky weapons built into his hands, including a telescoping left fist, and a fan on his right arm. A fan? I guess he needs to cool down from wearing all that bulky armor!
Krule
Here's an example of a really nice figure based on a really lame character. Come on...Krule? Really? While this X-Ternal is very lame (as almost all of them were), the fgure is actually quite nice. The sculpting is very detailed, and although the long braided ponytail is goofy, it has skulls attached to them. Repeat: SKULLS ATTACHED TO THEM! And not just any skulls...if you look closely, you can see the Alien and Predator elements that were combined for each skull.
I'm in New York reporting from the New York Comic Con all weekend long, so be sure to stay tuned to this site for all the news coming out of the show, including a sneak peek at the future of the Marvel Universe line!
As a special bonus, be sure to stay tuned throughout the weekend for more figures from the X-Force lineup! Because I can't work all the time, and I know you'll want something to read while I'm offline, the rest of the action figures in the toy line will be spotlighted in a series of special follow-up reports. Enjoy!
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