Between ToyBiz and Hasbro, we’ve managed to get quite a lot of enemies for our X-teams to fight. With Hasbro’s constant improvents, we’re getting plenty of much-needed upgrades to previously released figures that can often fall prey to the ravages of time, or in some cases just weren’t that good to begin with. One only has to look at the night-and-day different between ToyBiz’s version of classic Mystique and Hasbro’s recently revealed upcoming effort to see how far we’ve come.
Along with much needed redos, along the lines of Juggernaut and Apocalypse, we’re also getting some brand new villains that have never been anointed by the marvel Legends branding. While some, like Skullbuster, appeal to more of a niche audience, others, like Sauron, seemed to unite a universal fire under our collective butts.
While I am always a proponent of getting better versions of figures as often as possible—especially if a decade or more has passed between those figures—I will admit that there is a huge, satisfying jolt of excitement when we get that holiest of holies: the brand new character.
With that said, I present the ten most needed mutant villains that have never ever been made in 6 inch form. With one exception that I believe everyone will agree with, which will start off our list.
Toad
Toad has actually been a Marvel Legend, popping up way way way back at the dawn of the line. But unlike those Marvel Legends that were simply bad figures, Toad, despite coming under the Marvel Legends banner, was an ML in the most technical of terms. Essentially, Toad was a carryover from a pre-ML time that was inserted into the line as a place filler. His articulation was nowhere near the “1 jointillion” points of articulation that the earlier figures claimed. Toad went on to have a pretty high after-market value despite his crappiness. I remember seeing it in my local comic shop’s cheap toy box for a single dollar and passing on it.
For the purposes of this list, I cannot, in good conscience, think of Toad as having been done in good and proper Marvel Legends form. And seeing as how the Toad is a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and has been around almost as long as the X-men themselves, Toad absolutely positively deserves to have a Marvel Legend. He will require a lot of new sculpting to capture his spindly-legged bulbous gutted look, and Doctor Octopus ust won’t cut it.
Black Tom
I don’t know if anybody else has noticed, but my Juggernaut has been awfully lonely without his best friend and traveling companion. While Juggernaut tastes great on his own (what?) Black Tom is the milk necessary to perfectly compliment the cookie that is the Juggernaut. Wow, that made absolutely no sense at all, but I’m not hitting the backspace button, so let’s all just pretend. Black Tom would only need to come with his shilly…his shille…his shillshil…his stick. Because his stick shtick is to blast people with his wood.
I will just sidestep the obvious joke there with all the grace of a prima ballerina and move on to our next choice.
Sebastian Shaw
The Hellfire club is a pretty nifty band of degenerates. While I’d love to get all of them, and hopefully that is in the cards even if it takes another thirty years, I’d like to start off with Sebastian Shaw. First, he was prominent in an actual movie, and second, his power set is a cool one, one that can have him go toe-to-toe with heavyweights.
While he often dresses in some fairly frilly clothes, I’d be happy with Shaw in his battle ready, shirtless look. When a dude takes off his shirt, you know he’s about to kick your ass. I learned that by watching literally every action movie ever made.
Exodus
Exodus has made many appearances over the years, but there was one point in the ’90s where Marvel was really pushing him to be the next big thing. He was shown to be able to do…well, everything, and could pretty much beat up your dad and any other dad on the block. I have to admit it has been a long time since I read a lot of those stories, and I’m not sure if I remember exactly what it was about him that made the X-titles really want him to be awesome, but he’s got a pretty toyetic design and would make a nice figure.
Nimrod
I can’t see the word Nimrod without snickering. I’m terribly mature.
But regardless, it’s a shiny pearlescent pink (or something) super-sentinel from the future with a great design and can kill all the mutants. This is something where you lean into the pink. Yes, I know what I just wrote, but I mean it. Lean into. The pink. You don’t run from it, you don’t ignore it, you don’t “redesign” it to be cooler or whatever. You shove yourself face first into the quasi-pink robot and you just friggin’ make him, because it’s a mutant killing murder machine named Nimrod and that’s why comics are awesome.
Silver Samurai
Hasbro showed off a prototype for Silver Samurai a while ago, but that was plagued by…the Hasbroness of the time. A Silver Samurai made to today’s standards would kick much noble ass. If they can find a way to maintain articulation despite his crotch-hiding samurai armor, that would be cool as well. We’re getting so many Wolverine figures here lately, but I still need a good Silver Samurai figure to slice and dice him with more honor than you can find in a valedictorian’s graduation speech.
S’ym
I know that technically S’ym is a subordinate to Belasco, and therefore I should be asking for a Belasco figure, but S’ym is a super-strong demon and looks extremely cool, and therefore that notches him up in my list. It doesn’t hurt that S’ym played a big part in the first X-men comic I read. Nostalgia, folks; it’s what’s for dinner. S’ym is the kind of large brute that would look great going up against your Colossuseses and your Wolverineseseses and your…well, any other mutant you want to throw at him.
Cameron Hodge/Phalanx
Remember the Phalanx stuff? Again, like with Exodus, I read it but it didn’t really stick with me on any major level. Marvel’s mutant stuff in the 90s was full of storylines that began, got dropped, started again, switched direction, then got bogged down in a lot of what the fuuuuuu. I’m sure if I went back and re-read it I’d remember a lot of it.
Regardless of all that, I do remember the major draw of the Phalanx stuff, which was all the techno-virus infection that they liked at the time. If you were a mutant in the ’90s and weren’t infected by a techno-virus then you didn’t deserve your X-gene. “Techno virus” was the new “brood egg.” basically, mutants are just host bodies for all kinds of crazy shit.
But yeah, Cameron Hodge merged with the Phalanx and made a terrifying techno-humanoid creation that made the ending to Deadly Friend look like your average episode of Golden Girls. He/it/whatever would make an excellent modern toy, much like his 5 inch figure back in the old days.
He doesn’t really need to squirt water this time, though…
Arcade
Weird little creator of various Murderworld concepts, Arcade pops up occasionally to be, in general, a weird little dude. Usually his bad-guyness involves deadly theme parks, which would probably not be feasible for single-carded action, but surely somebody like this that has been a thorn in the X-men’s side for quite a long time desrves his own figure.
Don’t call me shillelagh. I mean Shirley.
Cyber
Number ten here could have been a variety of people, but you know what? Cyber would just make a great figure. I mean, he’s got adamantium skin. Wolverine has an adamantium skeleton, but Cyber had to one-up him. One wonders how the unbreakable adamantium can be malleable enough to function as skin without Cyber being the most indestructible statue ever, but I’m assuming there’s a suitably comic book explanation for it. Personally, I don’t need one. So the dude’s got adamantium skin. Big whoop. His initial appearances were surprisingly entertaining. I don’t know what he’s up to recently, but I’m sure whatever he’s doing, he’s doing the crap out of it, adamantiumally.
Noteworthy exclusion: Shadow King. Left off because mental warriors don’t make the coolest toys. Sue me.
Did I leave off somebody? Do you disagree with some of my picks? Don’t worry, I probably do too! Leave a comment and let us know!
