“It’s CLOBBERIN’ time!” And it has been since 1996.
Throwback Thursday at the Fwoosh is all about celebrating those figures from the past. Usually that means featuring an insane figure or toy line from the 1980s that has faded into obscurity. Sometimes, though, you just have to shine a light on those characters that have been action figure stalwarts for decades. Case in point is the subject of this week’s feature: the 1996 Toy Biz Fantastic Four series II Thing. Mr. Grimm has certainly had his share of toys (and I think I own 95 percent of them), but I look fondly at this one because he is from a brief era when I was not collecting figures.
Yep, in 1996 I was 15 years old and not really interested in collecting action figures at all. By that time, it had been a few years since I finally left the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles behind for all of those dumb things that teenagers are into, things that I don’t even remember. I would not get my toy-collection groove back until my sophomore year of college, but even in the face broads and booze, my love for the Fantastic Four never wavered. I have not missed a single issue of the proper F4 comic series since I was 7 years old, and this Thing is one of only a handful of figures I collected during my four or five year hiatus.
Ben Grimm has always been my favorite Marvel character, and even if my personal story of this figure was absent, I would still count it as one of the better Ben figures ever produced. Sure, it is antiquated by today’s standards of articulation, but he does have the standard scheme for the time of his origin and his sculpt is very good in terms of being faithful to his animated series look. His “baby blues” shine through in nice contrast to the bright orange of his rocky hide and this figure has something that seems to elude many modern Thing figures — clobberin’ fists. Yes, they ARE that important.
Sure, I would have loved it if he had been in my more preferred blue-and-black costume, but you cannot argue the fun of the trench coat, fedora, and sun glasses disguise, something that Ben has been known for for most of his existence. The hat, coat, and glasses all fit surprisingly well considering this figure predates the late ’90s/early ’00s push to make action figures more than just toys. I really love the look of Ben in his disguise, so I actually own two of these figures now, one for his crime-fightin’ look and one for takin’ Alicia out on a date incognito.
I know, it is easy to scoff at figures like this in today’s action figure environment, but this figure is really more than just an endearing nostalgia piece for me. I mean, my preferred scale is most definitely 1/12 (that’s 6-inch) scale, and if I look through my collection, it is kind of depressing because there really is not a good 1/12 classic Thing figure. How can that be? C’mon, Hasbro. So this little gem remains one of my favorite Ben Grimm figures, and I have always loved him. Even enough to have picked him up at a time when I really wasn’t collecting.
Like what you see? You can get him on eBay at a very reasonable price.
