I pre-ordered Jean and Maddie. I'll probably end up with that Magneto too for the 80s shelf; close enough.
I appreciate two full heads for Jean, but considering what they're doing in Classified with hair pieces for Lady Jaye, Zarana, Shooter, I'm surprised that ML doesn't go that route. I plan to use the hair down with this figure, the ponytail for the VHS figure.
Despite recent conversations about ToyBiz' Legends line and the rose coloured glasses with a VERY thick lens, it is worth showing people who may not know the final scene of the original X-Men The Animated Series:
Despite the dire change in animation studio''s, the writing, dialogue and voice acting are so top tier and the Professors goodbye completely covers each X-Men's story perfectly in so few words. This is the legacy they should continue from.
I guess I don't get what the Toybiz thread has to do with anything, but yes, that is a very good scene. I need to make my way though that whole series. I have all the seasons on DVD but have never seen them all. I've seen zero of the final season.
(I don't think I could look at a half dozen people standing around my death bed and come up with something profound and tear-jerking to say to each of them. What if I look at one of them and draw a blank? I'd almost have to have it prewritten. And then what if someone I didn't expect ends up popping in unannounced? Too much pressure. I'm probably just going to go with, "Catch ya all later.")
ToyBiz' Legends look goofy and the animation of the final season of X-Men The Animated Series looks goofy.
Sorry I didn't make that connection clearer!
Most the animation in the series is pretty flat and generic. I don’t think the design is why people like it. It’s a shame Marvel never established a true style and point of view for its animation. Something DC learned to do.
Yeah, the animation style of the show was a big turnoff for me at the time, as well as the over-the-top nature of *some* of the vocal performances (sorry, Storm, but yikes). It was hard to have it up against Batman: The Animated Series with its essentially timeless style and top-grade voice acting (which, I’d contend, has a lot to do with top-grade vocal direction from Andrea Romano). The story arcs on X-Men were fantastic, but it always came in a distant third for me after B:tAS and Spider-man (which also had similar issues to X-Men but usually felt smoother). I was definitely more about the figures and the comics then, but also I was a teenager when it aired. I think another component was that the show leaned so heavily into the hyper-busy 90s Jim Lee aesthetic, which felt messy in animation, in comparison to the comparatively simple Spidey aesthetic and the deliberately-streamlined DCAU style. I honestly have more nostalgia for the goofy Marvel Action Hour shows with Iron Man, Hulk and the FF: they were obviously inferior, but they have a scrappy charm that appealed to me.
I’m truly curious how a modern lens will work with what is being billed as a direct continuation of a decades-old show. It is exciting.
I missed out on the cel-shaded Cyclops so he's the only one I ordered from this line. Really looking forward to posing him with that optic blast effect and the grimacing head, looks great. Would rather have a neutral head than the smirking one but nbd, I'm sure I could borrow an older ML Cyclops head and maybe repaint it a tiny bit to match.
"And finally, Maggott...wait, who let you in? Maggott? Fuck this, Xavier OUT!"
Just checked the livestream again and yes, Dwight specifically calls out the pinless and sculpted limbs, as well as "torso butterflies". So it does seem like he has at least a little new articulation.
The Wendigo wave Nightcrawler had butterfly joints too, though......
For the record, Wendigo wave Nightcrawler also has butterfly joints. They just get blocked by his costume. This is not new or exclusive to the ‘97 figure.
Oh my stars and garters, you're right. It had been so long that I've taken a good look at that figure I completely forgot.
Yeah, the animation style of the show was a big turnoff for me at the time, as well as the over-the-top nature of *some* of the vocal performances (sorry, Storm, but yikes). It was hard to have it up against Batman: The Animated Series with its essentially timeless style and top-grade voice acting (which, I’d contend, has a lot to do with top-grade vocal direction from Andrea Romano). The story arcs on X-Men were fantastic, but it always came in a distant third for me after B:tAS and Spider-man (which also had similar issues to X-Men but usually felt smoother). I was definitely more about the figures and the comics then, but also I was a teenager when it aired. I think another component was that the show leaned so heavily into the hyper-busy 90s Jim Lee aesthetic, which felt messy in animation, in comparison to the comparatively simple Spidey aesthetic and the deliberately-streamlined DCAU style. I honestly have more nostalgia for the goofy Marvel Action Hour shows with Iron Man, Hulk and the FF: they were obviously inferior, but they have a scrappy charm that appealed to me.
I’m truly curious how a modern lens will work with what is being billed as a direct continuation of a decades-old show. It is exciting.
I would be surprised if you could ever find an animator who would classify Spidey's design as a "simple aesthetic."
The difference between BTAS and X-Men can essentially be traced back to the money. Warner funded BTAS and optioned it to Fox Kids. They handed it over to an artist and a writer in Timm and Dini so it had its own style and voice. Saban paid for X-Men, and they had a bunch of cooks in the kitchen that needed to be paid as well and they mostly hired people with little background in animation. Where Warner spent money on the best animation studios in Japan and Korea, the best voice actors they could get, full orchestration by Shirley Walker, etc.; X-Men went to Canada for stage performers who (most) had never done voices before to avoid unions. They hired the cheapest animation studio they could get (Akom) and were also saddled with Marvel's demands that the characters sport their popular Jim Lee looks, which many were not friendly to animation. They did bring on some good writers at least, though few had any ties to the comic. They were also very wordy and aside from the obvious budget constraints, the biggest weakness for that show is sometimes there's just too much going on in a single episode. Just watch "Red Dawn", the Omega Red episode from Season Two, as that's a pretty complex story they're trying to tell about the fall of the Soviet Union in a 23 minute kid's cartoon. Spider-Man was also a Saban production, but by then the company actually knew a thing or two about making an animated show and was able to bring more of that in-house. I believe they got more money from Marvel too, if I'm not mistaken, and they made a full episode order right away which helped for consistency.
I consider it a testament to the writers, actors, and those that championed X-Men that the show was the success it was. It was definitely setup to fail, and there were a lot of studio politics to work around just to get it up and running. The animation looks mostly poor beside Batman, but just about everything did in 1992 aside from the Disney Afternoon and Tiny Toon Adventures. X-Men looked way better than the 80s Marvel shows so to me as a kid in 1992 I didn't always notice how bad it was and the stylized nature of Batman made them hard to compare for me. I can without question say that Batman is the better show, but to a kid in the early 90s, X-Men was the best.
Yeah, the animation style of the show was a big turnoff for me at the time, as well as the over-the-top nature of *some* of the vocal performances (sorry, Storm, but yikes). It was hard to have it up against Batman: The Animated Series with its essentially timeless style and top-grade voice acting (which, I’d contend, has a lot to do with top-grade vocal direction from Andrea Romano). The story arcs on X-Men were fantastic, but it always came in a distant third for me after B:tAS and Spider-man (which also had similar issues to X-Men but usually felt smoother). I was definitely more about the figures and the comics then, but also I was a teenager when it aired. I think another component was that the show leaned so heavily into the hyper-busy 90s Jim Lee aesthetic, which felt messy in animation, in comparison to the comparatively simple Spidey aesthetic and the deliberately-streamlined DCAU style. I honestly have more nostalgia for the goofy Marvel Action Hour shows with Iron Man, Hulk and the FF: they were obviously inferior, but they have a scrappy charm that appealed to me.
I’m truly curious how a modern lens will work with what is being billed as a direct continuation of a decades-old show. It is exciting.I would be surprised if you could ever find an animator who would classify Spidey's design as a "simple aesthetic."
The difference between BTAS and X-Men can essentially be traced back to the money. Warner funded BTAS and optioned it to Fox Kids. They handed it over to an artist and a writer in Timm and Dini so it had its own style and voice. Saban paid for X-Men, and they had a bunch of cooks in the kitchen that needed to be paid as well and they mostly hired people with little background in animation. Where Warner spent money on the best animation studios in Japan and Korea, the best voice actors they could get, full orchestration by Shirley Walker, etc.; X-Men went to Canada for stage performers who (most) had never done voices before to avoid unions. They hired the cheapest animation studio they could get (Akom) and were also saddled with Marvel's demands that the characters sport their popular Jim Lee looks, which many were not friendly to animation. They did bring on some good writers at least, though few had any ties to the comic. They were also very wordy and aside from the obvious budget constraints, the biggest weakness for that show is sometimes there's just too much going on in a single episode. Just watch "Red Dawn", the Omega Red episode from Season Two, as that's a pretty complex story they're trying to tell about the fall of the Soviet Union in a 23 minute kid's cartoon. Spider-Man was also a Saban production, but by then the company actually knew a thing or two about making an animated show and was able to bring more of that in-house. I believe they got more money from Marvel too, if I'm not mistaken, and they made a full episode order right away which helped for consistency.
I consider it a testament to the writers, actors, and those that championed X-Men that the show was the success it was. It was definitely setup to fail, and there were a lot of studio politics to work around just to get it up and running. The animation looks mostly poor beside Batman, but just about everything did in 1992 aside from the Disney Afternoon and Tiny Toon Adventures. X-Men looked way better than the 80s Marvel shows so to me as a kid in 1992 I didn't always notice how bad it was and the stylized nature of Batman made them hard to compare for me. I can without question say that Batman is the better show, but to a kid in the early 90s, X-Men was the best.
Very well said. The X-Men animated series definitely doesn't hold up to the Batman series for all the reasons you mentioned, BUT the show captured the early '90s look and vibes of the X-Men comics really well and had very complex stories for a kid's cartoon. And they did a great job of taking elements from the "best of X-Men" stories (mostly the Claremont stuff) and adapted into a 20-something-minute kids cartoon.
To be fair, I said the Spidey series was *comparatively* simple in style when set against X-Men. It is certainly jumbled and “busy” compared to Batman:TAS.
I think perhaps being 14 when the show debuted colored my perception: I did like it a lot, but it was a distant third to toys and comics for me at that time when it came to X-Men. It just didn’t “grab” me.
Still looking forward to the reboot, though: I love cartoons as a medium, and I’m guessing I’m going to be more excited about this modern read on the material.
Mostly thought I’m excited to get X-Men toys based on classic characters and situations.
For the record, Wendigo wave Nightcrawler also has butterfly joints. They just get blocked by his costume. This is not new or exclusive to the ‘97 figure.
Oh my stars and garters, you're right. It had been so long that I've taken a good look at that figure I completely forgot.
Well, that changes things. Now I have to decide if the pinless joints and sculpted glove/boot details are worth replacing the previous figure. I was going to use the old head anyway.
I decided to get the new Nightcrawler just to put with Excalibur. The previous one stays with the GSXM team.
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