Starting a dedicated thread can be a topic killer, but the discussion has been lush in the Wolverine anniversary thread, that it probably could use a new home here. Let’s reminisce on the best (and lament the worst) of Toy Biz’s innovative run on Marvel Legends.
I still like the Toy Biz Beast. 🙂 I also haven't found the Hasbro one(s), to replace it, but still, the TB one is still great, and even kinda sorta looks good, with Marvel Select. 😀
Toybiz highlights: Constantly trying new things when the 6" figure craze was in its infancy. Figuring out what worked and what didn't with articulation. The BAF model. Bases with as much detail (if not more) than the figure. Heads with personality. Sculpt and paint detail to spare. A trail-blazing toy line who's best figures still hold up 20+ years later.
Low points: Though they tried new things, when things didn't work, the figure typically crashed and burned. Sometimes wonky proportions. The female figures.
The best Toybiz figure is Sandman--wouldn't even think about replacing it.
The worst Toybiz figure is Rogue--most people can't get past the face, and it is awful, but those hips......you have a whole crowd that bemoan ball jointed hips, but those Rogue hips will really give you something to complain about.
Hot take----X-Men Classics Avalanche is a great figure.
Even some of the best Toy Biz figures have left something to be desired. Nothing from Toy Biz was perfect. There's always something that could have been done better. But one of the things that really held up was head sculpts. Disregarding scale, because that was also a problem with a lot of figures, here are some of my favorite HEAD SCULPTS from Toy Biz:
ML1 Cap
ML2 Namor
ML3 Ghost Rider, Thor-tzengger, unmasked Wolverine
ML4 Punisher, Gambit
ML5 Nick Fury, Colossus
ML6 Wolverine
ML7 Vision, Hawkeye
ML8 Dr Octopus
ML9 Dr Strange, Galactus
ML10, ML11 honestly didn't care for any of the head sculpts, wouldn't name any among the best
ML12 Astonishing Wolverine, Iron Fist
ML13 Green Goblin
ML14 Luke Cage
ML15 MODOK
Giant Man series Giant Man, Havok maybe (Capt Britain gets an honorable mention because the helmet shape is better than what Hasbro has done)
Face Off Hulk, Sabretooth
SMC clamshell Rhino, Scorpion, Kraven, Morbius (just kidding)
XMC Magneto, X-Treme Rogue (the lone good female head from TB)
HC Absorbing Man
F4C 'Ringo Thing, Dragon Man
Box Sets Rhino, Vulture
EDIT: Thanks, NORM (my apologies, I'm not certain why I thought Beamish started this thread...). What a thoughtful and contemporaneous response to the ongoing community dialogue.
Some Toy Biz highlights, for me…
The first Punisher TB did is also still a really good figure. I think the hands are probably the only bad parts on it.
And as I said in the Wolvie thread, I too still love that Avalanche.
Did they do the really big Apocalypse BaF or was that when Hasbro took over? Cause I still like that thing too.
Not getting rid of my TB figures either. Great memories finding the Galactus wave on vacation in northeastern Arizona. Or variant waves in Toy R Us or Target when retail actually made an effort to carry the line consistantly. Or stumbling onto the entire Giant Man cube at Walmart one morning and scoring the most figures I've ever bought at once in my life. Great line for it's time.
Off the top of my head.
Abomination, Sasquatch, Captain America, Thing, Human Torch, and Galactus are some of my favorites.
Long Shot and Scarlet Witch were some of the duds. Also movie Daredevil was pretty crummy.
Hot take----X-Men Classics Avalanche is a great figure.
If only it looked like the comic character at all. 😉 😎
Man, I absolutely loved the ToyBiz Classics & ML lines. I don't want to even try to imagine how much gas I wasted hunting those figures down back in the day lol. I trailed off from collecting ML and sold the entire collection when Hasbro took over.
I do kind of regret that, but honestly they would just be in bins and only looked at once every few years, so it was the right move for me space-wise. But man, to echo the sentiments in this thread, it was a revolutionary line for 6" scale action figures, and it really was exciting for us collectors. RIP Toybiz!
I ended up selling off a good chunk of my TB collection over the years as better versions have come along. I didn't want to, but eventually I realized that space was at a premium and there was no real value to me in keeping them all in a box if a better version was on display. I've kept a handful to display, and and even bigger number that I just *like* even though they've since been eclipsed by better versions. ML1 Cap & Iron Man, ML5 Colossus, ML4 Beast & Gambit, Face-off Sabretooth, BAF Sentinels, and at least a dozen others. They're fun and nostalgic and I'll probably never let those go.
That was my conclusion as well. I couldn't justify the space use and slowly sold big chunks of them off but kept a decent sized box with some of my favs. Proudly display some still next to Hasbro; I see no problem mixing and matching. I use some that scale well with MS on that shelf once a Hasbro version kicked them off the ML shelf (MODOK, Super Skrull and Series 2 Thing)
Low point: Scarlet Witch. What a terrible figure for such an important character
Hi point: Prob still MODOK or Giant Man (about to be replaced; sad to think)
Random straggler on my main ML shelf. TB Kraven is still the best classic version. Face sculpt has such personality and the Lion vest covers the awkward shoulders anyway. He remains in my circle of creeps around Spidey to this day. As does Vulture and until recently Lizard.
The only TB figures I've got left in my 6 inch collection are McFarlane Spider-Man, Snapshot Spider-Man, Classics Wave 1 Spider-Man, a Spider-Man 2 Spidey, and ML13 Green Goblin. First four because I have a Spider-Man problem and the last one because it still holds up remarkably well for a figure that's almost 20 years old.
Though, I must admit it's harder to ignore those flaws as time wears on. The big floppy hands, no ankle pivot, lackluster ab crunch, and lack of any head tilt are becoming frustrating. The Hasbro ones certainly get nicer poses, but the sculpt on the TB one still remains uncontested. Not just that head, but TB actually paid attention to the subtle differences between Hobgoblin and Green Goblin's designs such as the direction of the bag of tricks and the boots.
I think that's what gives it the edge over the modern figures more than anything else. If only we could get one that combined the best elements of both.
I'm amused by how easily I (and most of us) can just rattle off the wave numbers and assortments of this line. It was really that big a deal! In making my list above, I only had to google a couple of waves to remember which figures were offered. But I can remember every BAF, wave, like I was collecting them yesterday.
Speaking of BAFs, they were just as hit or miss as the figures. Some things were so great, some were questionable.
Galactus - The inaugural example. Pretty much perfect, except for its size, which was a limit of the times. That and some discoloration of the skirt over time were the only flaws I can think of.
Sentinel - One of their most gorgeous pieces, in terms of sculpt and paint, even articulation. However, why they chose such a specific design to work from baffles me. It was based on the most current Sentinel design at the time, the Rover, by Marc Silvestri if I'm not mistaken. If they had gone with a more classic design, I'd still have it displayed. I wasn't even miffed by the size.
Apocalypse - Absolutely stunning. This is the best looking Apocalypse ever made. I just wish it was a regular sized figure. As is, I never even displayed it with ML. I put it with the 12" Legends collection (did that collection have a name? OH - ICONS) Looked great with Icons figures. Also the only BAF with a variant, just to make it more of a pain to collect.
Onslaught - Really questionable choice in the crab version. I was so relieved when one of Hasbro's earliest BAFs replaced that one with that sleek first version of Onslaught, at least once Kitty Pryde was released with the helmet. But the crab version.. it couldn't hold up its own weight, it was over articulated, had too much paint (like the Sentinel) making it look muddy, and even sticking up some of the joints. My least fav. And a taste of the eventual shrink.
Mojo - Some would say he was too small. I'd probably agree. But he worked for my display. I think I eventually displayed him with my 4" Marvel Universe figures, since Longshot looked so good with it. Another victim of dirty paint. I think this wave might have been the first pegwarming BAF wave. Mojo seemed like the lowest draw, from what I remember.
MODOK - Another "small" BAF, I thought he was perfect in most ways. Funky articulation in the hips meant little since this guy was only going to be in one pose. So ugly, but probably my favorite BAF from Toy Biz. Helps that I found the whole wave including variants at a very out-of-the-way Walmart on a tip. That never worked out for me as well.
Giant Man - Speaking of never working out, I had zero luck finding this in a store. I wound up ordering the whole wave online from some third party vendor.. I can't remember which, or whether or not they still exist. Maybe the Canadian one? The BAF that consisted of the most pieces, including different pieces included with VARIANTS, making this the most difficult and annoying BAF to complete. I still have mine, despite its too-short torso and too-long legs. It just fits so well aesthetically with ML1 Cap, ML14 gold Iron Man/ML1 gold Iron Man, and his wave mate Thor.
I guess the only way for Hasbro to outdo most of those was to make them even bigger and 8-10x more expensive!
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