Cyclops led the mutant-heavy Marvel Legends Sentinel series. The assortment consisted of Angel, Mister Sinister, Mystique, Omega Red, plus non-mutants Black Panther, First Appearance Spider-Man, and the Sentinel Build-a-Figure. It was a strong lineup with a much-appreciated equal ratio of heroes to villains. In spite of this, the actual offering was kind of dodgy. The long-awaited Black Panther sported an all-over texture that made him look like a plucked chicken, Spider-Man had a head shaped like a Q-Tip, and for some odd reason the Angel had Brad Pitt’s face. And then there was Cyclops.
This figure gets a lot of flack, and you know what? Most of it is deserved. Reuse of an older Toy Biz wrestler body mold means “Slim” Summers is now built like a brick Scheißhaus. While it kinda worked once before for series 2 Namor, this time its a definite strikeout.
The reuse means the figure is shortchanged on articulation, making normal human movements almost impossible to replicate. This frustrating step backwards in progress, coupled with perhaps the sloppiest Toy Biz paint job ever, meant that Cyke here quickly found his way to the bottom of most collector’s storage bins.
Sculpted by Dave Cortez, Cyclops sports a characteristically dour head, which works in both neutral or battle poses. The visor is nice, though some might argue it’s oversized. Personally, I think it looks about right, but I’m not an optician, so don’t hold me to anything. The mask sports twin seams running parallel down the forehead, a modern touch that’s inconsistent with the rest of the costume.
Below the neck is where things get goofy. While the torso is nicely sculpted for a piece of its time, it’s a bad choice for Cyclops. Even if Cyke did somehow get himself a set of abs from Hell, he’d never be able to find a shirt that fit him tightly enough to show them off like this. I mean, I can see his freakin’ navel. Unless that’s a secondary mutation, I call shenanigans. But coming off like an overly buff body-paint enthusiast isn’t Scott’s only problem. It’s his limbs — they just don’t look right on that torso. Don’t take my word for it, judge for yourself:
He goes from having a body-builder’s torso to skinny dad legs. This weird mismatch of parts is exacerbated by the nicely sculpted, but unfortunately oversized, gloves and boot cuffs. The boot cuffs play a pivotal role in bringing down this figure — literally. The tops of the boots swallow Scott’s calves, making him appear stumpy. It’s a scene, man.
Judging from the black sludge all over him, Cyclops has been cleaning up an oil spill. I admire his civic pride, but I also like my figures not to look like something that passed through Lockjaw’s lower GI tract. Now, I get what Toy Biz was going for; if you squint, the dark blobs of paint are suggestive of comic-book style shading. At least they might be if they weren’t so slap-dash and random.
Anyway, the blue they chose was nice. The wash over the yellow elements does, in fact, make them appear more realistic but also emphasizes the goofiness of wearing this sort of getup. It comes with the “X,” I suppose. Anyway — paint. There’s slop, crooked lines, overspray, the whole nine yards.
At least Toy Biz gave Scott a nice shade of lipstick. I’ve always thought he was an Autumn.
The figure stands 6.5 inches tall. I touched on articulation before, but this is the full breakdown. Cyclops has a ball-jointed head, pin-and-hinge shoulders, double-jointed elbows, hinged knuckles, a torso pivot, pin-and-hinge hips, double knees, and single-hinge ankles. That’s right. No bicep swivels. No wrist rotation. And no t-crunch. These deficiencies, along with his Doc Samson hips, turn posing Cyclops into a frustrating experience.
The lack of biceps and wrist swivels means getting Cyclops to touch his visor is nearly impossible. With most approaches, you can only get so far until you’re bending plastic, but I managed to just about do it. Now think about that for a second. Touching his visor is what this guy does. That’s it. If he’s going to use the one mutant power he has, Cyclops has to be able to do that one thing, and it’s damn near impossible. It would be funny if I weren’t the one trying to get the stupid picture.
Cyclops comes with a bit of Sentinel leg. It’s not as good as getting the head, but they can’t all come with a head, now can they? Ironically, the leg sports a choice paint job. Speaking of paint jobs, ol’ Cyke here pulled his name out of the hat and got to be a variant for this wave.
In spite of all of his shortcomings, the blue and yellow Cyclops is the version I display. Weird, right? I spend 800 words picking it apart and yet it’s my go-to version of the character. I’m a classic costumes kind of guy, and in spite of being too big, sloppily painted, and maddeningly hard to pose, this figure really nails the era it’s meant to represent. He’s a dead ringer for John Byrne’s Cyclops, so for me he skates on nostalgia. At least, until a better version comes along.
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