Hot take----X-Men Classics Avalanche is a great figure.
If only it looked like the comic character at all. 😉 😎
Yes, it doesn't look at all like the comics. But they put a lot of effort into the paint, sculpt, and coming up with a fun gimmick that doesn't interfere at all with the figure itself. Tons of fun. But no, it looks NOTHING like the comics. 😎
I still appreciate and have some sentimentality for the toybiz figures (i had everything aside from the ultra rare figures (like phasing phoenix/silver cage/crimson dawn psylocke/ annihilus/ blue wasp, etc) But they just haven't stood the test of time and just have no place in my display anymore, so they've largely been sold off.
I kept some around like all of wave 1 though.. just for nostalgia sake. they just sit in bins
I do still have a few things on display though
X-men
- Angel (though not for long)
- Sentinels
- Doop
Fantastic Four/Cosmic
- Franklin Richards
- Frightful Four Hydro-Man
- Dragon Man
- Impy the Impossible Man
- Doombots (wave 2 not the video game)
- Howard the Duck
- Beta Ray Bill
Avengers
- Hulkling
- Wiccan
- Patriot
- Iron Lad
- Mark 2 "Gold" Iron Man
- Mandarin
- Baron Zemo
- Nick Fury (i love the head sculpt too much)
- Mecha Hulk
- Abomination (sorry the hasbro one is too small and select is too big)
Spider-Man
- Man-Spider
- Manga Spider-Man
- Mark III Beetle (Leila Davis)
- Spider-Hulk
- Man-Wolf
- Jack-O Lantern (though not for long)
Supernatural
- Werewolf by Night
- Dracula
- Zombie
- Frankenstein
- Dan Ketch Ghostrider (PLEASE REDO)
- Vengeance
- Blackheart
- Honorable mention: I still have them but no longer have a multiverse shelf (House of M Torch, Wolverine, Hulk, Thing, Ironman)
I recently sold astonishing kitty,colossus, and beast.. betting we get hasbro versions sooner than later
I think out of the remaining ones i have, Dan Ketch, Wiccan, Hulkling, Man-Wolf, Mandarin, Classic Beta Ray, and Zemo are the most likely to get remade next, and i'm pretty still ok with Vengeance, Blackheart, Beetle, Man-Spider, and Mecha Hulk
Does anyone have a TB Abomination who's arms can move? I've owned two of these guys and on both of them the arms were fused in place to the point that I tore them right off the peg. I want to try my luck with another but not if I'm going to get burned again. Besides that, TB Abomination is pretty sweet.
@yojoebro82 Mine do move, or did, I'll go check again, and get back to you. 🙂
Just checked, and yes, they still move. Really ratchety, but they both move.
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!
The questionable design choices were a hallmark of the times - I can't remember the specifics, but I do remember Jesse Falcon chiming in at times (sometimes on Fwooshnet itself!) and basically saying they were prioritizing interesting looks over everything else - series 11 "bunny" Ultron (before they changed the head) being one of the most egregious examples.
The BAFs really blew my mind when they got introduced, and their staying power as a hallmark of the line has been pretty remarkable.
Galactus, Mojo, and Apocalypse eventually all got sold - the first two because they had obvious upgrades, and Apocalypse because I was never sold on displaying him as a big guy.
The BAF Sentinel really is amazing, but I can't help but wish they didn't go with that one-and-done design from a future story at the tail end of Morrison's X-Men run. I ended up building several when the wave was clearanced out and I love them, but if they were all classic designs it'd be even better!
MODOK I kept even though Hasbro knocked their classic version out of the park! I just can't bear to part with any MODOK once I get it.
Giant-Man I'm holding on to even with the Haslab on the way - mostly for nostalgia, but also for versatility in the size.
I also still have crabby ol' Onslaught despite the Hasbro classic version being superior in every way. He's weird enough and a different form of the character that I can justify holding on to, if only barely.
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
So many great head sculpts in that line and you named most of them. I'd add a couple of figures to that list:
Iron Man--I loved the face under the mask of ML 1 Iron Man (and its variants) and the Silver Centurion they released later on was the same.
SMC Sandman--The level of painted and sculpted detail was already high, and THEN they added sculpted-in sand grains? Come on!
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!
The questionable design choices were a hallmark of the times - I can't remember the specifics, but I do remember Jesse Falcon chiming in at times (sometimes on Fwooshnet itself!) and basically saying they were prioritizing interesting looks over everything else - series 11 "bunny" Ultron (before they changed the head) being one of the most egregious examples.
The BAFs really blew my mind when they got introduced, and their staying power as a hallmark of the line has been pretty remarkable.
Galactus, Mojo, and Apocalypse eventually all got sold - the first two because they had obvious upgrades, and Apocalypse because I was never sold on displaying him as a big guy.
The BAF Sentinel really is amazing, but I can't help but wish they didn't go with that one-and-done design from a future story at the tail end of Morrison's X-Men run. I ended up building several when the wave was clearanced out and I love them, but if they were all classic designs it'd be even better!
MODOK I kept even though Hasbro knocked their classic version out of the park! I just can't bear to part with any MODOK once I get it.
Giant-Man I'm holding on to even with the Haslab on the way - mostly for nostalgia, but also for versatility in the size.
I also still have crabby ol' Onslaught despite the Hasbro classic version being superior in every way. He's weird enough and a different form of the character that I can justify holding on to, if only barely.
The BAFs were such a game changer. I mean, they were making them literally as big as the individual packaging would allow. Galactus (at the time) was mind blowing, then they followed it up with Sentinel and Apocalypse....so awesome. Giant Man himself is a great figure but they killed the joy by 1. Making it a Walmart exclusive 2. Breaking him into much smaller parts (arms and hands and legs and feet all separate) and 3. Packaging in needed parts with chase variants. That was no fun.
Does anyone have a TB Abomination who's arms can move? I've owned two of these guys and on both of them the arms were fused in place to the point that I tore them right off the peg. I want to try my luck with another but not if I'm going to get burned again. Besides that, TB Abomination is pretty sweet.
Mines fairly stiff, but moves
Toy Biz was something else. The continuous innovation leading to better and better figures. Their detail and paint was amazing. They drove me crazy with their misses - the proportions were nuts and I didn't like the ball hips. But overall they had such detail and somewhat of a real world take on them with the headsculpts and costume details as if they were real people wearing the outfits. It's a shame it ended when they figured it out.
Hasbro has the consistent scale and I think the figures seem to pop off the page a bit more in terms of comic accuracy, but lack the individuality and insane sculpts/paint in my opinion. I don't think we're getting any Marvel Legends that make me forget:
Sentinel (I love the Silvestri design)
Blackheart
Vengeance
Pitt
Savage Dragon
McFarlane Spider-man
Venom (2005)
Sandman
Abomination
Mr. Sinister
Face Off Cap
And I don't think anything like Hulk Classics will be made again. Mecha Hulk. Holy shit. I had so many figures, but sold pretty much the last of them a couple years ago. McFarlane Spider-man and Pitt are like $600-700 on ebay.
You know the "phasing" Vision cape looks kind of neat on the new Vision. I don't like the stiff-as-a-board cape on the new one.
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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.
To be fair, there was a lot less rattling around in my brain back then. Now I just bounce from one piece of content to the next like someone in 1984.
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!
The HasLab's pricing doesn't look so bad in retrospect. Toy Biz's Giant-Man was like 4x retail price because he was technically an eBay exclusive. Nobody found that thing at retail.
I plead guilty to completing Giant Man all from retail. Back in the day when I still shopped retail for toys.
Woolworths got me the entire Giant Man wave including all the variants in one fell swoop.
An expensive day!
Ive still got Toy Biz Vulture and FA Sabretooth in my lineups.
Mecha Hulk and Spider-Hulk. Blackheart.
Giant Man. Abomination.
Kept their Hobgoblin as one of the characters many aliases.
As much as I need the new Hasbro Angel, might swap for the Toy Biz Brad Pitt head
And one of my personal faves...Movie Carter Slade Ghost Rider!
Honorable mentions: X-Men Movie Collapsible Cop, Spider-man Movie J. Jonah Jameson
I ordered mine through my local comic book store, and got the entire Giant Man wave.
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