@enigmaticclarity Only thing I don't like about him is his shoulders seem rather bulbous and seem to sit lower than they should slightly. I assume this is so they can be swapped out with jacketed arms though. Upon closer inspection of your pic is the black "animation line" on the lower lip in the middle of the lip rather than on the lip line? I haven't gotten mine yet to see if that's the norm of them all.
Upon closer inspection of your pic is the black "animation line" on the lower lip in the middle of the lip rather than on the lip line? I haven't gotten mine yet to see if that's the norm of them all.
My pic is pretty huge (3024 x 4032 pixels) if you open it up in its own window so you can see it almost more clearly there than I can in person. There are two animation lines--one that is going midway through the lower lip, and another that's completely below the lower lip. I really don't know what they're communicating with those shadows so I don't know what to think about where they should be...
Another pic with the jacket. The arms are relatively hard to pull out, but not too bad. The hands are another matter entirely--they're EXTREMELY hard to pull out. I'm getting them, but it usually takes a few tries and when I do it takes so much force my pulling hand flies forward a foot or two. Obviously heat helps there, and all of my attempts so far have been without it. Usually I would heat anyway just not to stress the plastic, but the Mondo plastic is so thick it feels safe although I'm probably wrong and it isn't, who knows.
The jacket and big optic blast are what sold the figure for me...those are by far the best limited edition extras I've seen from any of the Marvel Mondo figures.
@enigmaticclarity Appreciate the clarification. I'm glad he can stand on his own, as I know multiple people complained about Magneto being top heavy between the torso and giant cape. I followed up on the lip line issue and checked out some of the promo images and the few folks who do have him already online. It does appear to be a misprint of the lip line as all the ones I saw had the line printed between the lips rather than across the lower one. If it bothers you you may want to reach out to Mondo, as they took care of me with my wall-eyed Rogue. They just ask that you send pics and specify what's wrong with the part, in my experience. If it's not something that bothers you then no biggie. I'm also worried about the rigidity of the blast effects over time, so I'm probably going to keep him in his jacket with his ruby quartz glasses, similar to how he looked when he'd win in Capcom games. It is nice to be spoiled for choice on options though. I don't collect any of the Mondo BTAS stuff, but everything that comes with Clayface has me considering at least that one. Hopefully TwoFace and Riddler can be staved off until 2026 for the sake of my wallet.
If nothing else, I'm still in w/ Mondo for the remaining RGBusters, the 97 Wolverine and the 200X 1/12 scale He-Man, so they'll get plenty from me this year.
I'm contented with Rogue, Gambit, Cyclops and the approaching Wolverine. I doubt I'll get any others unless they truly wow me. Maybe Storm, likely Nightcrawler if they make him.
After around 18 hours of having Cyclops posed what I'm impressed with the most is the stability of his joints. Magneto's ankle rocker is easily moved with a gentle touch that doesn't stand up to the weight of the figure in many poses, but Scott's ankles take so much force for me to pivot them that I haven't found any pose that the limited articulation can achieve that the ankles can't easily handle.
The other thing I hadn't noticed until this morning is that while Magneto has single-jointed knees and elbows Cyclops has double-jointed on both, and both joints get a really good range of motion. The main disappointing part of the articulation is that his legs BARELY swing forward, maybe 30 to 40 degrees max. That severely limits his poseability, but he's still far more poseable than Magneto.
For you guys who have multiple Mondo figures--have they switched to double-jointed knees and elbows on all figures now, or do they still use single-jointed on some figures? I'd like to think they're slowly improving to a Legends level of articulation range, but maybe they pick and choose it depending upon the character.
I followed up on the lip line issue and checked out some of the promo images and the few folks who do have him already online. It does appear to be a misprint of the lip line as all the ones I saw had the line printed between the lips rather than across the lower one. If it bothers you you may want to reach out to Mondo, as they took care of me with my wall-eyed Rogue.
A few hours ago I noticed that the unmasked Scott head has the top line between the lips and bottom line between the lower lip and chin as you noted so I guess you're right. I barely care, but thanks for the tip on contacting Mondo for a replacement. I'll probably end up doing it.
Does anyone know what the head in the pic below is supposed to be? When I ordered it I thought this was just a masked cowl, but now I see that it has severely angled cheekbones, jaw line, and nose that looks robotic. Was there a robotic Scott in X-Men '97 I'm forgetting? I saw the whole series, but maybe I'm forgetting something.
Tried a kneeling pose and got slightly more forward range from the leg by forcing it up further, but it's still very limited and this pose looks really unnatural. Plus I'm sure I'm scratching paint on the upper leg. The torso has very little range as well so it couldn't compensate for the lack of forward range on the legs.
I followed up on the lip line issue and checked out some of the promo images and the few folks who do have him already online. It does appear to be a misprint of the lip line as all the ones I saw had the line printed between the lips rather than across the lower one. If it bothers you you may want to reach out to Mondo, as they took care of me with my wall-eyed Rogue.
A few hours ago I noticed that the unmasked Scott head has the top line between the lips and bottom line between the lower lip and chin as you noted so I guess you're right. I barely care, but thanks for the tip on contacting Mondo for a replacement. I'll probably end up doing it.
Does anyone know what the head in the pic below is supposed to be? When I ordered it I thought this was just a masked cowl, but now I see that it has severely angled cheekbones, jaw line, and nose that looks robotic. Was there a robotic Scott in X-Men '97 I'm forgetting? I saw the whole series, but maybe I'm forgetting something.
I believe this is from the season 2 two-part premiere episode where Logan skips Scott and Jean's wedding and fights a Sentinel-looking Cyclops in the Danger Room. It's supposed to be a robot head. Very deep cut.
https://images.app.goo.gl/Cyogw1TcVoAL6Szf9
@enigmaticclarity they have started to incorporate double-jointed elbows where they deem them necessary. Alex Brewer, the sculptor of Cyclops, said he needed them to be able to reach his visor. Spider-Man will have them as well, though I think Venom may be single-jointed. They all have double-jointed knees, even Magneto, but Cyclops is using a more conventional setup (like Jubilee) where as Magneto and Wolverine have swivels above and below the knee with their setup.
The other thing I hadn't noticed until this morning is that while Magneto has single-jointed knees and elbows Cyclops has double-jointed on both, and both joints get a really good range of motion. The main disappointing part of the articulation is that his legs BARELY swing forward, maybe 30 to 40 degrees max. That severely limits his poseability, but he's still far more poseable than Magneto.
I'm risk-averse to breaking my $200+ "doll" I swore I'd never get into, but my Gambit is rigid as heck. That rubber/plastic creaking noise that comes with posing him scares me from doing much else than keeping him in a standard non-super-articulated pose for fear of testing the limits of that plastic too much. Plus the early BTAS figures, like Mr. Freeze suffered from cracking to some of the rubber on his suit, so that was another reason I swore I wouldn't get into Mondo's stuff. Live and learn. I appreciate the deep-cut obscurities they include with their figures though. Making Wolverine 97 able to be "battle damaged" in appearance is a major selling point for me considering how often his costume got destroyed in the show and comics. Plus the heads look way better than the initial release Wolverine. My hope is if they DO release a Nightcrawler, and I'm sure they will under the guise of '97, that he comes with a head or two that harken back to the old animated series look and not just the '97 one. Predicting at least one saber to come with him as well. Maybe a bendy tail capable of holding a sword?
I would guess if they do Nightcrawler he'll have '92 and '97 portraits as that seems to be the goal going forward. And probably a swappable tail that is holding the saber. That would probably be a lot easier than creating a tail that could hold an accessory. Maybe his limited edition would have the monk robe he wore in the original series, or that's where the extra sword accessories would go. Either way, he'd be a fun one. And I love that they're redoing Wolverine just so we have a consistent look. I think he's the only one Brewer didn't sculpt which is why he looks different. I think Brewer is far more dedicated to making these look like the reference art, where as whomever did the original (I don't have my box handy to check) may have been going for more of an artist's interpretation of the character. I still like the figure, but there's no denying he's probably the least accurate of the bunch. And that unmasked head looks pretty dreadful compared with the Logan figure that came out earlier this year.
My Cyclops, at long last, finally cleared customs yesterday though to my surprise he's now in Baltimore. Usually, they go right from Ohio to Boston for me. I'm only slightly annoyed because I've been working from home all week due to a medical procedure I had early in the week so I was really counting on him getting here so I could sign for the package. I'll have to reconfigure my office schedule next week if he slips to then. Ordinarily, I'd just release it without signature, but since its prime porch pirate season I'm reluctant to do so. My office is about a half hour away, but if someone is stalking delivery vehicles in my neighborhood that day then it won't matter. Though, knock on wood, it hasn't been a problem at my residence in the past (probably because I'm on a dead end street).
I'm only slightly annoyed because I've been working from home all week due to a medical procedure I had early in the week so I was really counting on him getting here so I could sign for the package. I'll have to reconfigure my office schedule next week if he slips to then. Ordinarily, I'd just release it without signature, but since its prime porch pirate season I'm reluctant to do so. My office is about a half hour away, but if someone is stalking delivery vehicles in my neighborhood that day then it won't matter. Though, knock on wood, it hasn't been a problem at my residence in the past (probably because I'm on a dead end street).
Carrier mis-delivery is FAR more of a risk than porch pirates in the vast majority of places. I've probably had 100+ mis-deliveries in my life, and no clear porch piratings even though I've lived in an urban neighborhood with a public sidewalk 20 feet from my front door for over a decade. Concern about porch pirating is valid, but you should fear mis-delivery FAR more. And signature confirmation doesn't prevent that because carriers don't care at all who signs or what they write.
I'm so, so tired of carrier mis-delivery in this age of GPS. EVERY delivery service knows when their carriers mis-deliver to a single-residence address, i.e. not a building where lots of people live. But none of them do much to prevent it or address the issue when it happens. In my experience the service that mis-delivers the most is now USPS, although before Louis DeJoy became the USPS Postmaster General and cut service costs dramatically FedEx mis-delivered the most. And both of those companies know the exact GPS coordinates that every package is dropped off at, so them letting it happen as often as it does is really, really annoying.
Delivery to the trunks of our cars is the best solution I've seen for reliable package delivery, and it can't come fast enough.
Ordinarily I'd agree, but my town has had issues in the past Decembers where people seem to stalk delivery trucks and swipe whatever is left unattended. Hasn't been a problem for me, but I know it has in town. Conversely, I've never had a misdelivered package since I move into this house almost 10 years ago. I think the dead end helps for accuracy. I've received packages that should have gone to my neighbor, but as far as I know they've never received anything of mine. Coincidentally, that happens because the driver is only looking at their GPS and not at a house number. GPS is only accurate to 30 or so feet most of the time and I know my phone gets my own home address wrong routinely by one house. That's why it always pays to have good relationships with your neighbors. Now, when I lived in a condo years ago I'd have stuff get misdelivered to the wrong mailbox all of the time and the mail carrier couldn't even tell which mailbox it went into by mistake and never did I have a friendly neighbor rectify it. When I lived there, I stopped having packages delivered and would just schedule for pickup when possible. It's much nicer now to have a house where that isn't an issue. It felt liberating.
EDIT: Cyclops hopped a plane from Baltimore to Boston this morning and arrived at 12:15. Now he's out for delivery so that was unexpected. I figured today was out of the question, but maybe because it's Christmastime DHL just has a bunch of couriers on-hand to get stuff out as soon as possible. I live about 35 minutes outside of Boston, when there's no traffic, but it's Friday and the interstates are already jammed up so he may not get here for a little while, but at least I know I'll be home.
I ordered Cyclops during the sale last week and I'm hoping he ships soon so he's in-hand before I leave for the holiday.
I took Cyke out last night, but didn't do much with him as I wanted him to warm up after being on a cold truck. This morning was when I really put him through his paces. I continue to be fearful of these Mondo hands which include the ball joint in each individual hand. I prefer how Banda and Medicom do their hands where the ball joint stays in the wrist and you're only removing the actual hand. Those fists were pretty terrifying to remove. I ended up heating the forearm to make it easy, but it still took some effort to pull them out. I guess they know what they're doing since nothing broke. Heads and arms were comparatively much easier to swap and I honestly can't decide if I prefer the figure with the jacket on or off. Portraits on mine all look fine as far as paint goes with the black lines on the mouth in the proper place. It might be slightly off on the uncowled portrait, but not enough to be noticeable unless under enhanced scrutiny. Paint is all excellent and if my figure has one oddity it's the right knee joint is a little wide. You can actually see daylight between the inner knee and the kneecap. I did dunk it in some hot water to try to push it in, but it will take a lot more heat than that I think to move that thick a piece of plastic. It's one of those things that isn't particularly noticeable, but once you see it it cannot be unseen.
I do like all of the extras. That giant blast effect definitely has some weight issues. I probably would only use it if as a display piece if the other end was contacting another figure, like a potential Sinister or something, for some support. Otherwise, the smaller blast works great and I like the multiblast as well. The glasses for the uncowled portrait definitely feel flimsy and putting them into the proper position felt risky, but they went on and I like the look of that portrait as well. Really happy with how easy it is to swap visors and the other hands seem to come off easier than the stock fists. I haven't removed the ungloved fists from the jacketed arms yet and I'm assuming that will be as challenging as the regular arms. It's too bad the Logan figure didn't come with non-fist hands that lacked the channels on the backs as that would have basically given Cyclops more hand options as well, but it's fine. I think he wore gloves with the jacket more often than not in the show anyway. Overall though he's great, one of the strongest releases in the line. My only criticism is that I think he could have been beefed up even further in the abdomen area, but it's certainly a nitpick. He was often called "Slim" after all. He's still a massive human and the proportions align very well with the model sheet. And the leg straps are a bit annoying since they will fall on your when posing. I'm curious if we'll see this body reused since they made those leg straps separate along with the belt. It would work as a "blank", but I don't know if that's really how they operate at Mondo. I don't think these figures share many parts. The most obvious use would be for a 92 Morph, but since this line is trying to be bother a 92 and 97 line I would think they'd scale Morph down a bit from his 92 model to something in between his appearance in the two shows.
That giant blast effect definitely has some weight issues. I probably would only use it if as a display piece if the other end was contacting another figure, like a potential Sinister or something, for some support.
My current plan is to push that blast up against Magneto's magnetic circles to support the weight of the blast. That's a particularly fitting pose since both the 1963 X-Men #1 and the 1991 X-Men #1 covers feature Cyclops blasting Magneto's shield.
I haven't removed the ungloved fists from the jacketed arms yet and I'm assuming that will be as challenging as the regular arms.
They are just as hard to remove, and there's a surprise under there you can't easily see until they're out--the ball joint is yellow. They must have used the gloved fists for the ungloved hands, but then just painted the fist a skin color. It's definitely painted because there are some subtle skin tones on the fists that look great.
You can barely see the ball joint under the jacket sleeves so I've got no issue with those ungloved hands having a yellow ball joint.
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