Toy Biz X-Men Series 2
Right on the heels of yesterday's news that the DC figures were hitting stores, look what I found in Wal-Mart this morning--X-Men series 2!
Juggernaut from this series is just awesome. He's huge, scary looking, and not too far off his comic book model; in fact, he's probably got more detail than ever appeared in a comic book, but at least his colors are right.
The other figures, unfortunately, aren't much to look at. I'll not discuss the needless accessories, since I'm not sure how many times I can mention that Cyclops doesn't need a gun before the Universe implodes over the obviousness of the statement. Angel, Beast and House of M Wolverine (who's not actually called 'House of M Wolverine', despite his outfit being spot on from House of M) are decent, but the outlandish costumes take away from what could be some nice figures. Also, the paint applications on the ones I saw were all over the place from figure to figure, so if you have more than one to choose from, make sure you take the time to pick the best one, since they're by no means identical.
And then there is the pain that is the Cyclops figure. Again, gun. It plugs into his arm, and lights up when you press the button that lights up his visor. So not only is it an unnecessary weapon, but it only activates when he shoots his optic blasts; what is the possible play-pattern they're going for there? Also, his head is far to small, and his face looks stretched at the jawbone, like he's being attacked by Beetlejuice. Oh, I shudder at the pain that is the Cyclops figure. I'm almost tempted to buy it just to take pictures and ridicule it in detail, but I don't have $8 to waste.
* - Maybe the gun is like a Proton Pack, converting Scott's optic blasts into some kind of occult-killing mojo.
When it comes to buying toys, there is little more I hate than "blind-buying" (buying figures packaged so that you can't see which figure is inside). It's not so bad when the blind-buy is a bonus figure, but when it's the only item you're buying, I generally refuse to play the game - if I wanted to have a hobby like that, I'd go back to baseball cards.
