X-Men Classics was a fantastic supplement to ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends line. It was a way to cover one of the most popular Marvel properties without clogging up the Marvel Legends Series with countless X-related figures.
Jim Lee is credited with creating this costume. It was part of the ’90s relaunch of the X-Men that united a team divided. The original five had been running around as X-Factor, the Giant-Sized team was, hell, does anyone really remember where they were? Limbo? Dead? Australia? Tahiti? The X-verse was a mess and needed a relaunch and got one. Out of the ashes came some great ’90s X-Men books, along with some new designs, as well as a few returns to classic designs. Cyclops in particular was in need of a redesign.
The condom headed, swashbuckler boots and gloves were really dated. X-Factor started off well, and Cyclops had the classic yellow and blue. He dropped the yellow undies and held onto the yellow boots and gloves. He still had the condom some, but it was a good look. In fact, recent variations of Cyke kinda fall into this look. Eventually in X-Factor, Cyke adopted the same costume but in white and blue and added boot cuffs. Totally unnecessary, but what can you do? At some point, Cyke lost the condom top and let his brown locks flow, and then, before the X-Men launch, he went back to yellow and blue, but kept the flowing brown locks and lost the boot cuffs.
And then pouches and straps became cool in the ’90s. Actually, it had already started — Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns Batman started wearing pouches, which made perfect sense. I mean, Batman had all sorts of crap that he needed to carry around. Enter the ’90s and Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee. Pouches were the norm. Cyke got pouches and straps. I’m not certain what the purpose was, but they looked cool. And still do. Watching my youngest play LEGO Marvel the other day on the PS3, Cyke does look commanding in his Jim Lee outfit.
The figure is also commanding. Almost. ToyBiz decided to build the figure on a super slim base, one that fit the Wolverine reference of Cyke as Slim, but never fit the Jim Lee look of Cyke in X-Men. Lee beefed him up, maybe not to Cap levels, but definitely to Black Panther levels. He was a big, fit warrior of a leader. But the figure looks like it was made for a teen buck, maybe better fitting for an original five appearance and not the adult version we expected.
The sculpt is otherwise dead-on, all the pouches and straps are beautifully laid out. The head sculpt, while large for the base figure, is perfect and holds its own against modern Hasbro Marvel Legends. Spot on. It’s too bad as this was/is a definitive look for Cyke, one that resonates with the old goats like me and the kids that grew up watching X-Men cartoons afternoons after school.
The articulation is all there. All of it, almost. The head is a standard swivel, and there is a light-up action feature for the figure that allows Cyke to have glowing eyes. The engineering means no ball-jointed neck and limited swivel in the head. Otherwise, there are very few complaints to be had about the articulation; it is standard for Marvel Legends, Marvel Classics of the time. The breakdown is as follows:
Rocker ankles
Hinged ankles
Shin swivels
Double knees
Swivel thighs
Ball hips
Swivel Waist
Hinged abs
Hinged lats
Ball shoulders
Swivel biceps
Double elbows
Swivel wrists
Hinged wrists
Swivel neck
I don’t remember the accessory for the figure, nor is it important. I do recommend this figure as it is the only Jim Lee Cyke available today. But I would love to see an updated base figure, preferably using the new Black Panther as the base figure. There’s already been a version of Cyke made on this buck, the AvX version of Cyke, which is a good costume, except the blue shoes — yellow would be cooler.
I found one listing on
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