Marvel Universe 3.75" Mutant Leaders: Ultimate Magneto & Cylops

No peeps, this ain't no two-pack--I just happened to snag them at the same time and thought it would be more fun as a double review. :)

Props to the Rangerlord who hooked me up once again.  I swear, he's somehow become my full-time plastic crack dealer.  He also happens to to have me by the short hairs (to use the polite term)--no reviews, no hook ups!

Ok, so maybe he didn't put it in so many words.  But he did say he wanted to "speak to me" about picking up my review slack.  Now that's a veiled threat if I'd ever heard one!

So that's yet another reason to double up--I don't want to be found frozen to death from withdrawal symptoms outside a Toys R Us, my fingers bloody to the bone from trying to claw my way in.  *Shudder*

I'm kinda starting to feel fidgety and stuff...so...*scratchscratch*...*sniffle*...yeah, let's move on to the review!

Magneto

Like: Magneto's Ultimate uniform colors!  They could easily be modern Mags colors.  I like that there's black added to his color scheme.  Makes the Master of Magnetism lots more foreboding but with just the right amount of purple to remind us that it's the Maggie himself.  There's also a heavy wash over the blue areas of the costume but it's not overdone.  Me likey.

Dislike: What the heck did they decide to do to the face?!?!  They tried to wash the flesh tone with black to give it a shadowy look.  In theory this works.  But in order for it to go off without a hitch, the flesh paint has to be perfectly within the lines so that it doesn't look like he's got, well, soot on his face.  And as you can see, the flesh shows up in places like the seems between the helmet and cheekbones where it shouldn't. Now that makes the "shadow" look really weird.

Head Swap!

Like: On the bright side, the eyes are painted a real piercing blue and shows through the shadow from beneath the helmet really well.  In fact, if you look at Maggers' face from far enough off, it looks terrific.  And I suppose at this 3.75" scale, his face is always kinda "far off" unless you have him right up close.

Like: The use of the A.I.M. soldier body for dear old Eric.  It's a great re-use of the uniform and has the added bonus over the old Secret Wars version of a neck hinge and thigh cuts!

Cyclops

Like: That Cylops has the new base body that Steve Rogers shares with him--it's got great proportions and all that new-fangled articulation like thigh cuts, a neck hinge, and those hinge/ball ankles!  I can't say it enough--the head and the ankle joints are probably the best I've seen on a figure in this scale.

Like: That with a few simple separately sculpted pieces in the harness/belt and thigh bands, this looks like a completely different figure from the aforementioned Steve Rogers.  And of course, the head sculpt is a doozy.  Lush, wavy-brown locks and that groovy one-piece shades are just perfect for the 90's look that this figure is representative of.  But the head can be any modern version of Cyclops. Heck, it doesn't even need a costume.  Just pop that head onto a regular-clothed 3.75" fig and you got yourself Casual Wear Cyclops!

Dislike: That his right leg keeps popping off at the slightest touch.  This is especially frustrating because the other joints on the rest of the leg are nice an firm.  But that's the precise reason that the leg keeps popping off--it's the one that gives way first when I move the leg.  Fix these weak leg/hip joints, Hasbro!

Dislike: That he doesn't come with and eye-blast accessory!  The only saving grace is that if you have or can get our hands on the Iron Man 2 line Crymson Dynamo, who has an eye blast accessory.  But it's just weird that the perfect thing for Cyclops come with a character who doesn't have any eye blast powers.  Go figure!

Like: That like the previous versions of Cyclops (Secret Wars, X-Men 5-Pack), I can use Iron Man 2 Comic Series Crimson Dynamo's blast for him!

Like: The pointing/eye-blast activating left hand.  We love expressive faces on our figures so why not on their hands too?  Ok, so maybe most times we'd rather have them available for gripping accessories and let those do the talking.  But once in a while a repulsor palm, a mind-focus hand, or even a good ol' fashioned fist are more desirable.  This is one of them.

Dislike: That for some reason, Hasbro decided to use blue ankle joints in his otherwise yellow-molded lower legs and feet.  This has not been the case for Steve Rogers but many Star Wars Figures also have mismatched joints to legs.  It looks so out of place and I can't for the life of me figure out why they've donw this... 

RATINGS

Magneto

Aesthetics: 7.5/10 - He's got great colors for his uniform but he face ruins it, though not as badly as I thought it would when I first got him in package.  The first time the Rangerlord handed it to me, my initial thoughts were how I could somehow repaint or replace the head.  But now I don't think it's necessary.  What's needed at the very least is a paint touch up because as you can see, the shadows work very well in the pictures.  And a lot of it is also down to how well they painted the eyes.

Poseability: 7.5/10 - It's really refreshing to have a Magneto other than the Secret Wars version, which is practically naked except for his Magno belt, helmet and cape. With the added clothes comes the added articulation of this AIM soldier body and boy, that sure is welcome!

A couple of things to watch out for though: his head can't fully utilize the hinge because the collar of the soft plastic-cast cape gets in the way partially, and the cape itself tends to weigh down on his chest pivot and also gets in the way of the his legs during "stance poses."

Fun: 8/10 - I quite enjoyed this figure despite my initial misgivings.  He's got good articulation and so can hit many a pose.  But his lack of accessories makes the "hours of fun" just maybe an hour of fun.  Lol.  The great thing is that he's got two gripping hands.  They're caught somewhere between wanting to hold something and magnetizing other objects.  So if need be, he can be posed "using" his powers or using a couple of machine guns.  (I kid.  But not really.)

Value: 7/10 - At the S$18 or so I got him for, he's just about worth it.  I especially like that lots of him is painted and/or washed.  It's a pity he doesn't come with a magnetic effect or an alternate, un-helmeted head, or even a removable helm.  Those certainly would've added to the fun as well as the figure's value.

Overall: 7.5/10 - A good toy all round with some minor flaws - Not a bad figure by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I think he' pretty cool if you can look past the flaw of the painted shadow on his face.  At the very worst, you can pop off this head and throw on the Secret Wars one.  They're the exact same head so actually all you need to do is to repaint!  If not, the SW head looks fine on the body anyway.  In fact, if you have a spare AIM Soldier and the Secret Wars Maggers, all you have do is put Magneto's head and cape onto the AIM's body and remove the bandoleer the AIM has, and viola--Instant Banana Fudge Magneto!  You could then repaint him whatever colors you desire or eat him like a banana. :)

Cyclops

Aesthetics: 8.5/10 - Kudos to the 'Bro for developing this base body sculpt.  Whichever character it's used for looks great and Cyclops is no exception.  Throw on some calf and wrist bands and add he unique harness/belt combo, paint the figure up the right colors and pop on the right head and there you have it.  It's a cheap way for them to produce figures that we wouldn't mind paying for despite the re-use, as long as it's a good, effective re-use!

Sculpt aside, the yellow and bluw are spot on with the 90's look and the painted and molded yellows are as close in color as they've ever been, which is excellent.  The wash used on his blue parts are also very well done though his face old be painted a little sharper.

Poseability: 9.5/10 - Best body by far and the great articulation to go with it. As with the Steve Rogers figure, the only PoAs missing from this figure are hinged wrists!  I originally thought I would be less impressed by Cyclop's articulation because I'd already seen it on ol' Steve.  But the thing is that you won't find Cyclops doing too many high kicks or throwing too many punches.  Scottie Summers will be doing more crouching, turning, twisting and "looking" (as he fires his eye beam), so while their PoAs are the same, what you want to do with them is different.  And the PoAs don't disappoint because they are able to cater to both types of posing and more.

Fun: 9/10 - There's no doubt that better articulation makes for more playability and hence more fun. I'm glad I'm finding this guy as surprising as I am despite all the great reviews about him that are out there already.  The only problem I have is the gimp leg which keeps popping off.  That is not fun.  And having paid good money for it, it's not something I think I should have to deal with.  For now, I'll be using the ol' mail polish trick.  But that' temporary.  I hope Hasbro improve those hip joints.  I'd like to play with my figures worry free.  

Value: 9/10 - I've noticed that the Marvel Universe line tends to have less accessories these days. And if they continue to produce with this sculpt and the excellent separately sculpted bits then I'll have no complaints.  More money spent on sculpting, less on accessories.  But if they still use the old sculpts without thigh cuts and hinge necks, it'll be tough to justify not having a whole bunch of accessories with them. As for Cyclops himself, I want an eye blast accessory to come with him, dammit! ;)

Overall: 9/10 I'd take an arm and a leg for this figure! - It's nice to see Hasbro finally get to roll out all new bodies for their figures--we got the bulky World War Hulk sculpt, the Cyclops sculpt here, and the slim Doctor Strange sculpt.  Now all that's missing is a new female body.  We've already got a new female head with the Invisible Woman from the Fan Four 4-pack, so I suspect that's next in offing.

With these bodies hopefully becoming "standard" bodies for our figures, characters like Cyclops get boosted from their ho-hum versions to amazing must-have for fans and temptingly great buys for people like me, who like him enough but would hold off on a less than great version.  Make no mistake about it: if Cyclops is hard to find in your area, it's probably because he's that good and not because he's suddenly become everyone's favourite Marvel superhero.  Oh yeah, and he goes well with Cable too. ;)