Mutant X (Toy Biz)

Mutant X
Toy Biz
1999

Fans of "X" books can't seem to get enough of the numerous iterations of them, and Marvel Comics is more than happy to oblige. One such answer for more was the 1998 to 2001 Mutant X written by Howard Mackie and inked by Andrew Pepoy.

The series involved a story with lead character, Havok, who had been transported to a parallel dimension - The Mutant X Universe. Taking the place of an alternate Havok, he leads a team known as The Six, who are altered version of his companions from Earth-616. I won't spoil any of the plot specific elements beyond that for those of you looking to read the series.

Toy Biz produced a small, fan favorite, set of figures based on the books. While it was well received by Marvel Comic figure collectors, it was sadly never intended to be anything more than a niche series with no life beyond the initial four figures. This was common during this particular era of Toy Biz Marvel related lines. Just a little taste before the company was on to other things.

Bloodstorm*The Goblin Queen

The thing I like most about this particular set of figures is the unique cardbacks. Not only does each one feature fantastic art of the character inside, but it's not your traditional "rectangle" style. The cut to the card follows the character's body, making for a really nice look, but a fragile one at that. I really like when toy companies put that little added extra effort into their packaging.

Havok*The Fallen

The figures aren't too common on secondary markets. However, at the same time, they're by no means "valuable". I've seen them sell for as much as twenty-five bucks a piece, but typically the more common selling price point is around seven dollars. Out of all of them, Bloodstorm and Havok appear to be the most common, but again, they're still few and far between to be found.
 
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X-Men: The New Mutants (Toy Biz)

Before I jump into today's post, make sure you check out all the updates from this weekend. I posted quite a few Order of Battle posts. Additionally, the side bar at the bottom of my Blog has been updated with a link to all of my Order of Battle posts. This is more so a quick reference for myself, but also a great way for visitors to quickly check out my own personal collection as well.

X-Men: The New Mutants
Toy Biz
1998

Marvel was always on the lookout for how to expand its popular X-Men series, and in 1982, this came in the for of the New Mutants. The group made their debut in Marvel Graphic Novel, a series of trade paperback produced in response to DC's DC Graphic Novel. Issue number four to be exact.

The group's origin followed five young mutants who are just starting to learn about their powers. Each one has their own trouble past, but with the aid of Charles Xavier, are given a path to follow.

With the popularity of the book, Marvel green lit a full volume series for the team, which debuted in March of 1981. The series would run for a well rounded out one hundred issues as well as seven annuals before evolving into Rob Leifield's popular X-Force.

This however wouldn't be the last of the team's comic days under the "Mutants" banner. A second volume was published July of 2003 and June of 2004, lasting for thirteen issues. Then again in July of 2019, a third volume would run for fifty issues through December of 2012.

In between it's comic series, Toy Biz delivered a set of four action figures - Well, three actually, as one was a variant of Magik. Each figure featured the quality one would expect at this point from a Toy Biz Marvel line, and as was the case of the era, was pretty cross compatible with other comic lines from the manufacturer.

 Warlock*Wolfsbane

Unfortunately for fans, the series never got rounded out with the remaining team members. It would have been great if Toy Biz would have finished what it started, and delivered Sunspot, Karma, Psyche and Cannonball.

Magik (Red Outfit)*Magik (Yellow Outfit)

Toy Biz's The New Mutants line remains yet another one of the companies numerous "mini" lines which came and went during their desperate attempt to make anything and everything Marvel related. It will be interesting to see if popularity comes back full circle on this one as the New Mutants make more and more of an appearance via television and big screens.

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Earth's Mightiest Heroes! The Avengers (Toy Biz)

Earth's Mightiest Heroes! The Avengers
Toy Biz
1999 

Toy Biz has produced a lot of Marvel superhero action figures and I've covered quite a few of them. To the point where I honestly don't know how much more I can say on the subject.

From Iron Man, to Fantastic Four, to Spider-Man, to Alpha Flight and the entire Marvel Universe as a whole, it's pretty much been covered by Toy Biz. It seemed only natural an Avengers line would eventually come. Granted in 1999, there was obviously no Marvel cinematic universe to help peddel these to.  Still, this didn't slow down sales of Marvel fans who swooped up pretty much every figure they could get their hands on - Especially the female ones.

The Avengers line of course met this call with a nice version of Scarlet Witch. This particular line was actually noteworthy for being the first series to produce and release a Scarlet Witch and Loki figure.

Toy Biz rounded out the series with a fantastic four pack which featured the original Avengers which featured Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant-Man, Giant-Man and Wasp. The package also included six separate ants to accompany your Ant-Man figure.

I also appreciate Toy Biz's attempt at scaling the figures. Giant-Man stands about one and a half times the height of Hulk, Thor and Iron Man. Meanwhile, Ant-Man and Wasp come up only to the knees of Giant-Man. Then of course there are the ants, which are about a third of the height of Ant-Man and Wasp. Overall it's a really nice set.

These days people are practically giving away the entire line. The figures sell for only a few dollars and the Avengers set can sell for as little as $20.00 - All of this of course mint in their packages.

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1st Appearances (Toy Biz)

1st Appearances
Toy Biz
1999

No matter who or what the character is, no matter how brief their appearance may have been, you can pretty much rest assured if Marvel (or any comic book company) created them they have a fan base somewhere out there. That's why it was so great Toy Biz embraced these kinds of characters in the many main and one off line's they created over the course of the 1990's and 2000's.

Today we're looking at a small line which did just this.

1st Appearances came and went in 1999 in the blink of an eye, and featured some of the greatest "B" lineup of female characters in the Marvel Universe; American Dream, Spider Girl, Stinger and Wild Thing. While these characters don't necessarily dominate the pages of mainstream Marvel titles, their impact was felt across the Marvel Universe.

 American Dream

 Spider Girl

 Stinger

Wild Thing

The figures are fairly common on secondary markets. However, the line suffers the same fate as many Toy Biz lines. By this, we mean many dealers simply have them priced too high to  move. While sellers are asking upwards of $20.00 to $25.00 for each one, the reality of the matter is most people are only willing to pay between $5.00 and $7.00 - Brand new in the package. This makes the line a fairly stagnant one.

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Modern Age (Toy Biz)

Modern Age
Toy Biz
1999

In our last post we described what the various "ages" of comics were, and where they fell in time wise. This is key as it sets the era of where these figures fall in. However, with that said, while the title of this series is Modern Age, it's important to note that these technically fall under the Bronze Age now.

Toy Biz released its Modern Age set in 1999, which is actually prior to the Silver Age series (2000) being released. Though there are only a handful of figures, this is a great line for finding some obscure figures you won't get anywhere else - Well, with the exception of Wolverine, which has been done to death.

Captain Britain

Black Bolt

Each figure came packaged with a really nice trading card as well as a handful of accessories. The package itself has an almost Robocop feel to it - At least to us it does.

Shang Chi

Wolverine

The series won't set you back too far these days. At just $5.00 a piece (on average), there doesn't appear to be a high demand for them. Definitely a good time to jump on these if they're on your radar.

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Silver Age (Toy Biz)

Silver Age
Toy Biz
2000

When one collect's Toy Biz Marvel lines, it's key to be thorough and educated in all the various subsets that plastered the market between the 1990's and 2000's. There are so many teeny tiny lines that got folded into the mix that it can quickly become a daunting task just to compile a list of everything to determine what you want to buy.

Today we're looking at the Silver Age line. These figures hit the market in 2000, and were only made available via specialty shops that ordered from the monthly catalog, Previews - Thus the "Previews Exclusive" logo at the bottom of the packaging.

We'll take a moment to discuss the various ages of comic books for those not familiar with them. Though the dates themselves have been argued among collectors, Overstreet appears to have come up with a widely accepted name for them. They are as follows;

The Golden Age - 1938 to 1945

This is the age that gave birth to the super hero, and ushered in the iconic characters such as Superman, Batman, Human Torch and Namor. A good majority of these stores focused on WWII related topics.

The Atom Age - 1945 to 1956

When America became infatuated with the atom, this ushered in The Atom Age of comics. Super heroes were out. Science Fiction and Horror were in. This era issued in the birth of the Comics Code due to the graphic nature of many of the books, as well as their "adult" content.

The Silver Age - 1956 to 1970

Probably the most popular era of comic books to many collectors, The Silver Age was the epic period of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Essentially, it was the birth of the Marvel Universe.

The Bronze Age - 1970 to 1984

Anti-heroes, and in general, darker and grittier books were ushered in with The Bronze Age. Though the anti-hero wasn't created in this era, it was certainly defined. Characters such as The Punisher left their mark in many of the titles encompassed in the Marvel Universe.

The Copper Age - 1984 to 1992

This was the era of many independent publishers trying to break out into main stream comic book publishing. One of the most popular for this era, and the perfect example would be Eastman and Larid's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The Modern Age - 1992 to Current

Artists of this era found that they themselves had appeal to comic collectors, and not necessarily just the characters they were currently working on. The result of this was the birth of companies such as Image Comics, Top Cow, Etc. This era was also burdened with the chase cover variants which eventually led to the implosion of the comic book market.

Though a new era has yet to be established, many comic collectors feel that around 2004 a new era was ushered in. This shift in comics was basically a result of incentive covers that publishers were pushing on the market. These limited edition covers (some as scarce as 1 in 5,000) became more so coveted by collectors than the actual stories contained within the pages of the books. If we had any sway in the market, we would definitely push for 2004 to Current to be labeled as "The Incentive Era".

The point to all of this is that the characters portrayed in the line below are based on comic characters from that particular era of time. So no, you won't find your Wolverines or your Punishers in this series. Instead, what you will find is;

Captain America

The Incredible Hulk

Spider-Man

Gwen Stacy

In terms of Toy Biz sets, this one isn't too bank breaking. A full set mint on the card can be obtained for about $25.00. That's essentially still around retail prices (if not a little cheaper).

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Spider-Man - Vampire Wars (Toy Biz)

Spider-Man - Vampire Wars
Toy Biz
1996

Oh, Toy Biz...How you flooded the market with anything Marvel related that you could...That's really not a bad thing.

During its prime, Toy Biz would release everything and anything it could in hopes that merchandise would keep flying off the shelve. At first it did, but as collectors soon caught on that a lot of stuff was just repainted or retooled items they'd already purchased a hundred times over, things started to taper off in terms of profit.

Fortunately for fans / collectors, Vampire wars was not your average repackaging of prior released figures - Well, in look anyway. Instead, it was a fantastic rendering of Spider-Man and a couple "friends" in an all new style, with bulky costumes, and fun accessories.

The series featured only five figures, and shortly after they were released Toy Biz was on to the next thing in their line up of mini series. As such, the Vampire Wars series was one of those blink and you missed it lines - Much like many of the Marvel related sub series that Toy Biz was releasing.

Anti-Vampire Spider-Man*Air Attack Spider-Man

What's not to love about getting a Blade figure? Especially when he's got a backpack loaded with what appears to be axe head missiles!

Blade

Mobius Unbound*Vampire Spider-Man

Much like many of the Toy Biz Marvel stuff, you can get these figures relatively cheap. They can sell for as low as $5.00 mint on card if you have the patience to wait for the right seller. Otherwise you'll spend three times that.

Join us next time when we take a look at Tomb Raider!

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Fantastic Four (Toy Biz)

Fantastic Four
Toy Biz
1994 - 1996


Stan Lee and Jack Kirby weren't playing around in the 1960's. They're the names behind some of the greatest of the greats; The Hulk, The X-Men, Spider-Man, Nick Fury, Daredevil, Silver Surfer, and so many more we could create a post ten miles long just listing them all. In addition to all of that, we also get from them The Fantastic Four - Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and The Thing. They were the superhero team that in conjunction pretty much had it all, to and include one of the coolest arch nemesis's in the Marvel Universe - Doctor Doom.

The Fantastic Four debuted in November of 1961 under their own comic book banner, and were one of the series credited with ushering in a new era of comic books - The super hero.

What set the FF aside from so many other comic book heroes was that they led relatively normal lives under one roof with each other. They often times squabbled about petty and deep things, which not only helped to build on each character, but also make them a relatable group to the average reader. They were also big on not hiding behind secret identities, but instead used their unique abilities to garner almost a celebrity status - Such as Tony Stark did.

Though it was never a bad thing during the 90's to hear about a new line of Marvel based super heroes being produced by Toy Biz, we can't help but think that Toy Biz was tricked - Shall we say - Into moving forward with this particular line.

1994 was an interesting year for The Fantastic Four. A film was announced to be in the works, and was even shot from beginning to end, edited into a final cut, and a trailer even released in theaters. However, the film itself was never actually produced with the intentions of releasing it. Instead, it was an effort on behalf of rights holder Bernd Eichinger of Constantin Films to simply maintain the rights to the film franchise - Rights which he had obtained in 1992.

With the hype wheel turning of a Fantastic Four movie coming to theaters in 2004, we think Toy Biz got a little more excited than they probably should have, and started churning out figures. Of course, all of this is speculation on our part - Though it is a little coincidental that Toy Biz would randomly throw a ton of efforts and resources into an FF based line in 1994.

***UPDATE***

Reader Chris Mapp wrote to inform us that 1994 was also the year that a Fantastic Four and Iron Man cartoon were being aired on television. This series is actually a plastic iteration of that show which ran for two seasons (26 episodes) between 1994 and 1996.

Regardless, as we said, it was never bad news to hear that Toy Biz was producing something new in the world of Marvel Comics based toys. As such, despite whatever reason they had for developing the massive series they produced, we'll happily take them.

We got a ton of great stuff from this release - Figures upon figures, awesome vehicles, and let's not forget that spectacular massive sized Galactus.

 Black Bolt*Dr. Doom*Mole Man

 Fantastic Four*Silver Surfer*Terrax

 The Thing

 Blastaar*Dragon Man*Firelord

 Gorgon*Human Torch (Flame on Sparking Action)*Human Torch (Glow in the Dark Flames)

 Invisible Woman*Invisible Woman (Transparent)*Thanos

 Annihilus*Atuuma*Namor

 Super Skrull*The Thing*Triton

 Human Torch (Red and Yellow Platform)*Human Torch (Orange and Red Platform)*Medusa

 Psycho Man*The Thing*Wizard

As was common during this particular era of Toy Biz related Marvel Comics lines, the company merged two together to create some fairly unique Walmart exclusive two packs. Each two pack features one Fantastic Four related character with one Iron Man related one. The packaging alone is worth grabbing these for. It's so much fun to look at - Though rather costly these days.

 Dr. Doom Vs. Iron Man*Mr. Fantastic Vs. Iron Man (Hydro Armor)

 Silver Surfer Vs. Mandarin*The Thing Vs. War Machine

 Galactus

Some consider the vehicles to be a little silly in terms of grounding them in the actual Marvel Universe. We say, "Check out all those launching missiles and features!" These toys are pure fun with so much built into them to make them interactive with the figures.

 The Thing's Sky Cycle*Mr. Fantastic's Sky Shuttle

Fantasticar - Cosmo Modular Space Vehicle

Whether you love, hate, or could care a less about the Fantastic Four, one thing can't be denied - Toy Biz hit the mark with this particular line leaving little room for complaint - If any at all.

Join us next time when we take a look at Muhammad Ali!

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Kull the Conqueror (Toy Biz)

Kull the Conqueror
Toy Biz
1997

Kull the Conqueror was a character created by Robert E. Howard, the man behind Conan the Barbarian. The character found mild success in three separate volumes from Marvel Comics between 1971 and 1983, and in 1997 was brought to the big screen by actor Kevin Sorbo (Hercules). Though the film peaked at number nine at the box office, the overall reviews were negative.

It was this particular film that Toy Biz based their concept of the toys they produced on. Unfortunately due to the film thudding hard with critics, only three figures made it to store shelves before the line was halted and cancelled.

 Kull the Conqueror with Blazing Battle Armor

Because the line of toys was so small, we thought we'd take this opportunity to also look at the three volumes of the Marvel Comics series.

Volume one, Kull the Conqueror, (as pictured above) consisted of ten issues, and ran from 1971 to 1973.

Volume 2, Kull the Destoryer, (as pictured in the two photos below) picked up in 1973 where the Conqueror series left off. It even continued the numbering scheme, beginning with number 11. The Destroyer series ran through 1978 ending with issue number 29.

 Kull the King with Royal Battle Armor

Marvel tried to find success with a third volume (as pictured in the below photo - to the right of the figure) of Kull the Conqueror in 1982 and 1983 when they released two giant sized issues (one each year). Due to the lack of the characters overall popularity, and the hefty $2.00 price tag, sales were bleak at best.

Taligaro with War Attack Armor

Though the figures are readily available on secondary markets, sales are slim to none. Figures have been priced as low as $4.99, and still don't get purchased. It's a great line if you're looking for something cheap, but it's not a line that's grabbing the attention of the masses.

Join us next time when we take a look at Space: 1999!

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Spider-Man: Web Force (Toy Biz)

Spider-Man: Web Force
Toy Biz
1997

During the mid 90's, Toy Biz was flooding the market with anything Marvel Comics related that they could. This often times included numerous sub series which utilized old figures with new accessories, or old figures with a different combination of old accessories. Web Force was no exception to this. It contained four figures rehashed from various Marvel related lines, and crammed them into a bubble packaging with as many accessories as they could fit in.

The series featured two variations of Spider-Man, one variation of Lizard, and a random Daredevil thrown in for good measure. To add that extra "oomph" to the series, each character was given a ridiculously long name.

Spider-Smash Lizard

Tank Attack Daredevil

Web Commando Spidey

Web-Swamp Spidey

***BONUS***

Web of Spider-Man
Marvel Comics
1985 - 2012

If you haven't been focusing on the photos, then you've missed that we've also incorporated the Marvel Comics series, Web of Spider-Man. Personally this was one of our favorite Spider-Man series until they started messing with crossover issues that forced you to read multiple Spider-Man titles just to get the complete story.

In total their were one hundred twenty-nine issues of the series which ran from 1985 to 2012. In addition there were ten annuals released between 1985 and 1994. Why there were no annuals produced for 1995 to 2012, we can't say.

Speaking solely from personal opinion, the stories contained in the pages of the series just felt more thought out, and often times featured appearances from characters that the main series (The Amazing Spider-Man) wouldn't bother with. There were also several milestone moments which included the return of the Hobgoblin, Spider-Man appearing for the first time in his Spider-Armor suit, and the reunion with Gwen Stacy (to name a few).

The final issue, number 129, was the first and only time that the series produced a variant cover. A total of three were published. The two variant covers are distinguishable by their numbers, respectively 129.1 and 129.2.

Join us next time when we take a look at Elvira - Mistress of the Dark!

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