OLD TOY LINE FLASH BACK VOLUME TWO - Marvels BEFORE Legends !!!

This second volume of OLD TOY LINE FLASH BACK is not a look at a certain toy line, but a certain toy license before it became another toy license . In other words , a look at Marvel action figures before they became Marvel Legends . This article is a summary over a few Marvel figures that are NOT Marvel Legends that came out before Legends . ( NOTE ) All of these toys are also done by Toybiz . Also I am able to name a few characters but not them all . Here goes .

I forgot this character's name .(  UPDATE ) I just recently discovered that the above character is named Feral . I think I remember getting her as a Toy Fare magazine exclusive . This is an old pic of her by the way . I could not find her removable pink cloth outfit for an up to date pic.

Another old pic of this version of Felicia Hardy AKA The Black cat . I can't find her accessories. However here is the card packaging she comes with , both front and back .

As you can see the bios of characters were around long before Marvel Legends .

All I have left of this version of Elektra is her and her sword .
Now can anyone tell me what is the name of the upcoming Dr. Doom variant figure ?

Okay I know it's Dr. Doom . That much I know . But what is with the extending arm feature ?
Now for a pic of Snow Bird from the team known as Alpha Flight . Plus her box art .

Pluck comes as a bonus figure . I could not find him in time for this article . Snow Bird also comes with two animal versions of herself, a polar bear and a white owl .
Now here's a look at The Black Queen .

Now for a look at Typhoid Mary and Stegron . These two can fit in scale wise with Marvel Legends, especially Typhoid Mary . Stegron is just a little bit shorter than what he should be to fit in with six inch scaled figures .

Despite limited articulation , Typhoid Mary is a cool figure with some nice accessories. A removable skirt and fishnet leggings, a sword and shackles . The best thing that I like about Stegron is that his mouth can open and close . Also you can see that Typhoid Mary and Stegron are in the same toy series , " Marvel Super Villains Vault ".
Now for a look at Lady Deathstrike before she became a Marvel Legend .

As you can see this version of Lady Deathstrike looks more human compared to the cyborg looking Marvel Legend version . I think I like this look of Lady Deathstrike better than the Marvel Legend one . Don't get me wrong , I love the Legends version too , however I think this look of her above would have also looked great in six inch scale .
Now for a look at two Marvel characters I have no idea who they are . Does anyone know the name of these two guys ? They both have the words  Marvel and Toybiz imprinted onto them .

Finally , Jubilee before she became a recent " Build a Figure " in Legends .

She almost fits in scale wise with Legends but not quite . The roller skates are removable .
That's it for now folks I hope you enjoyed this brief summary of  a few Marvel Figures before the existence of Legends . One thing you may notice with the Marvel figures that came before Legends, is that a lot of these figures have not been converted into Legends just yet . At least not at the timing of this article . Typhoid Mary, Stegron , among others are just a few of the figures not converted into Marvel Legends at the timing of this article . I hope that these Marvel figures among the Marvel figures before Legends not featured in this article will be Marvel Legends someday . Someday soon I hope . The majority of these figures I purchased at flea markets and thrift stores . Therefore the majority of them are used , thus explaining why I do not know the names of a few of them .

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ACTION FIGURE IMAGERY !!! A look at what may be ahead for 2015 !!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!! I hope 2015 ends up being a great year for you all, not just in the toy world , but life in general . But since this is a toy website, here's a New Year's day Tribute to what us collectors can or may expect in the world of toys this year . In no particular order .

( 1 ) MASTERS  OF  THE  UNIVERSE  CLASSICS - This is the year that this line will finally complete all of the vintage figures from the 1980s according to Mattel . Lizard Man will arrive later this month . Plus we may see a new subscription for 2016 later in the year .

( 2 ) SIX  INCH  G.I. JOE FIGURES ??? - We've been hearing rumors of a possible 6" Joe line last year, but are the rumors true ? If they are 2015 could be the year 6" Joes actually happen .

( 3 ) THIS YEAR'S COMIC CONS - I can't wait to see what the 2015 comic conventions will bring . Starting with the New York Toy Fair , then the San Diego Comic Con and the New York Comic Con.

( 4 ) MORE COOL STUFF ONE THE WAY FROM JAKKS PACIFIC ??? - The reason I make notation of Jakks is because this is the company that Scott" Toy Guru " Neitlich now works for . If you head on over to the He-man.org message boards, you'll find this out . Let's hope Scott can do some things just as good with Jakks as he did as Brand Manager over the Masters of the Universe Classics line from when he was at Mattel .

( 5 ) NEW  STUFF  FROM TODAY"S CURRENT HOT TOY LINES - Finally , I'm looking forward to more goodies this year from these toy lines - ( a ) Masters of the Universe Classics ( b ) WWE Mattel ( c ) Marvel Legends ( d ) World of Nintendo  ( e ) Stars Wars Black Series 6" version .

That's it for now . As you can see this article is a little different from others , because it is just all words and no pictures . Again let's hope for a great 2015 and Happy New Year once more and may God bless you all !!!

DECEMBER 2014 CONTEST !!! WIN a FREE Carded Marvel Legends Hope Summers figure !!!

Win a FREE ( MIB ) Mint in Box Hope Summers figure in this month's contest. This figure was part of the Return of Marvel Legends campaign back in 2012 . Here are a couple of looks at the figure that you can win .

Now here's the   TRIVIA  QUESTION 

( 1 )  Give the name of the character / figure . 

( 2 ) Give the name of the franchise / company . 

As always you have 30 days to come up with the correct answers . This contest will expire January 30 , 2015 . Good luck to everyone !!!

WWE ELITE - SERIES 32 - Daniel Bryan Review !!!

I purchased  this figure of Daniel Bryan at a local Walmart for around $ 19.99 . I have stopped watching wrestling at the time this wrestler made his debut , but was interested in purchasing this figure because of the jumpsuit that he came with . However the jump suit is not said to belong to Bryan . Instead on the packaging it is said to belong to the Wyatt family . This situation makes Bryan one of the few figures to be featured with an accessory that is not even his. This version of Daniel Bryan is one of the newer Mattel WWE figures to come out this year.

Notice that the back of the packaging is different this time than previous packaging. Instead of a short biography on the wrestler , there is statistical information instead . Statistical information such as height, weight, etc. are displayed . Also I love the insert art located behind the figure while in the packaging . I think the white streaks surrounded by dark blue trim are very decorative .

Mattel has again done a fantastic job in making these figures look like the actual person . Daniel's beard is made out of a hard plastic, making it tough to make him look downward . However it looks great along with his hair with excellent attention to detail . The figure's knee guards are removable but probably can more easily be taken off with a pair of scissors. You may be able to pry them off if you want to, so good luck with that .

As you can see Daniel is right at six inches tall . I also like the fact that one hand is a closed fist and the other is an open palm, as if he is ready to grab something to use as a weapon . I feel that all wrestling figures should have both hands displayed differently . Since they are fighters, I feel that one hand should be a fist for punching poses, and the other a partially open palm for grabbing and holding items . Thus making this Daniel Bryan figure perfect for those particular display options .
Now on to the accessory, the jumpsuit .

As you can see the suit comes in a clear plastic casing when you remove it from the packaging. The suit itself is shiny and glittery . Now for instructions on how to fit the jumpsuit onto Daniel .
( 1 ) The top half of the suit opens up . First you start by inserting one leg at a time into the opening for the head.
( 2 ) Once both legs are inserted, pull the suit upwards toward  his lower back .
( 3 ) Position his arms one arm at a time into the sleeve openings. Pull the jumpsuit up to his neck and there you have it .

                                                           FINAL    THOUGHTS  
( 1 ) ARTICULATION - Daniel Bryan has the same normal articulation of any average WWE Elite figure .

( 2 ) STANDING  ABILITY - There are no balance issues with this figure .

( 3 ) WHAT  I  LIKE  BEST  ABOUT  THIS  FIGURE ? Love the mountain man beard look. This look has become pretty popular with a lot of famous guys, such as Rapper Rick Ross and NBA player James Harden . I also love the fact that both of his hands are displayed differently, allowing for a variety of display options . The jumpsuit is a nice accessory and is the primary reason I purchased this figure .

( 4 ) WHAT  I  LIKE  LEAST  ABOUT  THIS  FIGURE ? Although the jumpsuit is a cool accessory, it is rather tough to get it onto Daniel . Just follow the instructions I gave above to properly fit it onto him .

( 5 ) WHAT  COULD  HAVE  BEEN  DONE  TO  IMPROVE  THE  FIGURE ? Maybe the beard should have been made out of a soft rubbery plastic for smoother head movement .

( 6 ) GRADING  SCALE - Without the jumpsuit I give the figure only a 9.8 . The minus is for the hard beard making it impossible for him to even slightly look downwards. With the jumpsuit he is a Perfect 10 .

( 7 ) FINAL  ANALYSIS - Although the jumpsuit is the main selling point for me with this figure, the figure by itself is pretty cool too . I have not yet tried the jumpsuit onto other figures just yet, only on Bryan . For you customizers out there, if I were you I may be interested in buying an extra Daniel Bryan figure because of the jumpsuit. One to keep as is and the other to be dyed orange . Dyeing the suit orange will make it look like a prison jumpsuit . Then all you'll need are those serial numbers on the front and all of a sudden the suit goes from being a regular jumpsuit into a prison jumpsuit . I also know that Daniel Bryan is one of the most popular wrestlers with WWE fans, so for all of you WWE fans out there that like to collect these figures, Bryan is definitely worth adding to your collection .

DOLLAR STORE FINDS - PART THREE !!! Special Force Action Playset

I purchased these four soldier figures at a local Dollar Tree . These guys were not given names, so I'll have to describe them via descriptions throughout this summarized review . Unlike most dollar store and discount store toys, these guys are made of hard sturdy plastic that is not easy to break . All of these figures have the same basic articulation . All of the figures arms and legs move up and down, no outward movement . The heads turn side to side and all around . Each figure comes with a good number of accessories .

As you can see each figure comes with no less than three accessories . Nice accessories at that . These weapons can easily fit in with your six inch scaled super hero figures such as Marvel Legends or DC Universe Classics, just in case if you do not want to use the accessories with these guys but with another toy line . Now for a look at all of the figures and their accessories out of the packaging .

Since these figures were not given names, I'll refer to the above figure as " the Red Head Guy " . The five weapons you see in the pic below him belong to him .

The above " Ninja looking Guy" comes with all of the accessories in the above pic .

The " Silver Armored Guy " comes with the three accessories you see above .

Finally , the " Guy with the moustache " came with the two guns combined with the suitcase . As you can see the suitcase opens and closes, plus it is one of my favorite accessories out of all of the figures. Also notice that the name of the toy company is imprinted on the exterior of the suitcase, Greenbrier International Inc .
Now for a group pic of all of the figures together .

While in the packaging , I thought that all of these guys were the same height . However that assumption does not appear to be true . The "guy with the moustache " seems to be the shortest of the bunch . The " silver armored suit guy " seems to be the tallest .  If you want some extra weapons for your Marvel Legends or any other super hero line, then pic these guys up if you can find them .  Despite being dollar store toys, they are definitely worth the purchase in my opinion because of the variety of accessories. Plus the figures are pretty neat too . They are very colorful and can blend in well with both five inch and six inch scaled action figures .

MERRY CHRISTMAS from Action Figure Imagery !!! A look at Action Figure Imagery's CHRISTMAS WISH LIST of action figures !!!

Merry Christmas everyone . I've decided to pay tribute to this Christmas Day of 2014 by explaining what I wish to see happen in the world of action figures in 2015 . Here is a list of things I wish to see in the forthcoming year , in no particular order . Here goes .

( 1 ) SIX  INCH  G.I. JOE  FIGURES - I've heard rumors about a possibility of six inch Joes . Don't know if they are true or not , but I hope they are . Since Hasbro can do Star Wars in this scale , why not the Joes too ? For the first wave I'd like the following . For the first made Joes I want Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes , and General Hawk . For Cobra I'd like to see Cobra Commander , Baroness, Destro,and Serpentor . Cobra Commander could come with two alternate heads . One head is his mask with the holes cut out for his eyes, and the other with his helmeted mask that covers his whole face .

( 2 ) DIFFERENT  BODIES  FOR  THE  WWE MATTEL  FEMALE  FIGURES - This is more about how I want certain figures to be made than about a particular figure . I wish Mattel would start giving the female wrestlers different bodies . The male wrestler figures do not share the same bodies, but a majority of the female wrestler figures do. The female figures are still cool in my opinion but I want them to have different bodies just like the men do .

( 3 ) THE  RETURN  OF  DC UNIVERSE  CLASSICS - Please Mattel bring this line back immediately . Us fans must think of a way to convince Mattel that we want this line to return . But how? Start a petition ???

( 4 ) MY  CHRISTMAS WISH  LIST  FOR  MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS - Too many to name but here are a select few . Snake Mountain , The Meteorbs , Granita , Veena , More Filmation characters, more mini comic characters, just to name a few .

( 5 ) MORE  SIX  INCH  SCALED  FIGURES  FROM THE  WORLD  OF  NINTENDO  LINE - Some day I would love to see six inch scale figures of all of the boxers from the Punch-Out franchise, including Mike Tyson himself . And don't forget about Doc Louis and Little Mac .

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed my little run down of what I'd like to see happen next in the world of toys . MERRY CHRISTMAS again and may God bless you all !!! Before I go, here's a small group pic to keep this article from being just all words and no pictures .

WWE Elite Series 29 - Andre the Giant

I purchased this Andre the Giant figure for around $ 19.99 at a local Walmart . Even though I don't watch pro wrestling anymore , Andre was a must buy for me for the following reasons . I wanted to have one of the tallest pro wrestlers ever in my collection , and Andre is probably the second tallest pro wrestler in history with only the Giant Gonzalez being ahead of him . If you remember the 1980's cartoon called " Hulk Hogan's Rock N Wrestling " than you may remember that Andre was part of the good guys team on that toon . I would like to have action figures of all of the wrestlers that were in that toon . Recreating the toon with the figures . Also for you customizers out there , you can purchase a second Andre the Giant figure and make a custom made Big Foot figure, a character that Andre played as from the Six Million Dollar Man television show . And finally , his hairpiece is another reason to purchase the figure, allowing display options on how Andre looked when he first appeared on the wrestling scene, and how he looked in his later years with shorter hair .

As for Andre the character, one piece of noteworthy information in his bio on the back packaging is that he remained undefeated for almost fifteen years . I did not know he went without a loss for so long . As for the figure itself , it stands a little over seven inches tall as you'll see in the pics below . A perfect scale since Andre was 7"4 inches tall .

I've displayed Andre both with and without the hairpiece . The only thing I don't like about the hairpiece is that in my opinion , it looks more like a hat than hair when you place it on the figure . Alone by itself it looks like hair , but when on a figure, any figure not just Andre, it resembles a hat . I think I know the reason why the hair looks more like a hat when displayed on the figure . The hairpiece is made of a soft rubbery plastic , whereas Andre's sculpted on hair is made of the same hard plastic that the figure is made out of . If the hairpiece was made out of the same hard plastic as the sculpted on hair, it would resemble what it's supposed to be .
Now since I finally have this Andre the Giant figure in my collection , the very first figure I wanted to compare him to is the Big Show . Since Big Show is like a modern day version of Andre , being a giant himself . However Big Show is listed at an even seven feet tall, compared to Andre being seven feet four inches tall . Now let's see how the toys stack up against one another .

As you can see these two figures do NOT share the same body, and I'm glad they do not . Before I purchased the Andre the Giant figure, I was thinking that Mattel was going to give him the same body / mold as the Big Show, since they both are so similar in stature and size . But if you look real closely, you'll notice that even the Big Show is somewhat a little dwarfed by Andre . Not so much in height but in size and stature . Andre's feet look bigger than the Big Show's feet, his chest looks wider and even his head looks bigger than the Big Show's head . Andre literally was what he was referred to as, a giant .
Now back to the hairpiece or wig, whatever you prefer to call it . Can it fit on other figures you ask ? I provide that answer in the pics below with two different Mattel WWE figures, a figure of the Rock and that same Big Show figure from the above pics .

As you can see the hairpiece is way too big for the Rock, definitely proving that Andre had a large head . Whereas it's almost a perfect fit on the Big Show, since he is closer to Andre's size than a lot of the wrestlers of today .
                                    FINAL   THOUGHTS  
( 1 ) ARTICULATION - Andre has the same normal articulation as all other WWE Mattel Elite figures .

( 2 ) STANDING  ABILITY - To keep Andre from falling bend his upper back backwards for that sturdy stance so that his upper body weight does not make him top heavy . Because as we collectors all know, any top heavy action figure may have balance issues because of excess weight .

( 3 ) WHAT  I  LIKE  BEST  ABOUT  THIS  FIGURE  ? - The hairpiece , Not to mention to finally add another Hall of Fame legend to my collection . Plus the figure is weighty, is fun to hold in your hands and since he is a giant you can display him in power fighting poses, such as picking up people and throwing them , etc .

( 4 ) WHAT  I  LIKE  LEAST  ABOUT  THIS  FIGURE ?- My only complaint is that the hairpiece does not look like hair when you display it not just on Andre, but any figure . It looks like a big hat instead of hair in my opinion when displayed onto a figure .

( 5 ) WHAT  COULD  HAVE  BEEN  DONE  TO  IMPROVE  THE  FIGURE ?- Nothing in my opinion is wrong with the figure, it's just his accessory . The hairpiece I think should have been made out of the same hard plastic as the sculpted on hair .

( 6 ) GRADING  SCALE  - On a scale of one to ten I give this figure a perfect ten . Excellent figure I could not find any flaws . But this is just the figure by itself . Combined with the hairpiece the score drops to a 9.8 , because of what I mentioned earlier about the hairpiece looking like a hat . So the score or scores goes like this , ( figure only a perfect 10 ) . Figure plus accessory a 9.8 .

( 7 ) FINAL  ANALYSIS - It feels good to add this figure to my collection for the various reasons I've mentioned above . Even though I've complained about the hairpiece not looking 100% like hair, it is still a nice accessory that can be displayed onto other figures that are giants like Andre . And on a side note , I would love to see any customizer out there transform this guy into his Six Million Dollar Man counterpart , Big Foot . Not my figure of course , but their's, lol . Also you do not have to be a wrestling fan to like this figure , you'll like him for the various reasons I've already mentioned , both in the review and the Final Thoughts .