I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m not the biggest fan of the 3.75-inch figures (aka 3 ¾. I prefer to use the nomenclature “3.75” for this scale. Stupid autocorrect doesn’t have anything to change that way). But, every once in a while, I get fooled into picking up one or two. Call it an act of desperation on my part, call it being fooled by the packaging, call it what you will… but your friendly neighborhood jman invariably falls for these figures at least a couple times a year.
Take, for instance, Hasbro’s Marvel Infinite Series Cyclops. He’s got the cool, new black packaging. And from the looks of him in the clamshell, he’s got to be fairly articulate. And at $9.99 (this was before Target’s $3 increase) he’s almost a good deal. So what do I do? You know it. I buy him.
As it turns out, Cyclops… he’s one of “those” figures. One of those figures I immediately regretted opening as soon as the plastic parted from cardboard. Contrary to my mantra, “Open your toys,” some toys should not be opened (there’s an exception to every rule). And, unfortunately, Cyclops is the one here.
The biggest problem I have with him is said articulation. Kudos to Hasbro for cramming so much twisting and turning joints into these little figures. It is impressive. Sure… Cyclops has double-hinged joints in his elbows and knees, ball joints in the shoulders, and either pivot or hinge joints just about everywhere else. But all that articulation comes at a cost. He is one flimsy figure. But, it’s not just Cyclops. It’s with all the 3.75-inch figures. The more articulation, the less sturdy the figure feels. And I don’t just mean standing, either. The joints feel loose, the poses don’t hold, etc.
Now, before you 3.75-inch fans start looking around for rocks to toss at me, don’t get me wrong. The sculpt on the figure (and 3.75-inch figures in general) is equally impressive as the articulation. And just like the articulation, Hasbro really crams the detail into these figures, which is how I get tricked into picking them up every once in awhile.
One of the odd things about Cyclops is his left hand. It’s “posed” with his index and middle fingers extended. It’s kinda weird. I mean, I know what he’s supposed to be doing with those fingers. He’s supposed to be firing from his visor, but that hand doesn’t tend to stay in place. So it kinda looks like he’s doing some sort of bad Dane Cook impression. (Did I just date myself by using a Dane Cook reference?)
Overall, I gotta admit, Cyclops is a decent outing for the Infinite Series line. But for the scale and now the price tag on these figures, I’m that much more inclined to just hold out for the 6-inch version of the characters I want.
Now you may begin with the rock tossing.
