Marvel's Gold was a short lived series that was produced by Toy Biz between 1998 and 1999. What made this line unique from others was that ever figure (out of the eleven produced) were limited edition productions (ranging from 7,500 to 10,000 per piece), and were initially released only in specialty shops. The line comprised mainly of figures that had never been produced before, and at the same time didn't fit into any lines that had already been developed. While it's arguable that without this line, several of these figures would never have been made, at the same time it's disappointing the way it was handled.
Each figure was produced by cannibalizing other figures, and slapping a fresh coat of paint on them. While this is common practice in the action figure world, it was so blatantly obvious in the Marvel's Gold line. Especially since none of the figures contained any new sculpts (with the exception of some clothing items).
However, this is not to imply that the line is bad. In fact, it's rather impressive. The fact alone that some of these characters have been immortalized in plastic is enough to get any fan to seek them out. Plus, customized from another figure or not, with the paint job, they look pretty cool.
Due to the high wholesale cost of retaining the figures as exclusives, several shops later sold their overstock to various retail franchises, or lost them in bankruptcy settlements. As a result, what once started out as an exclusive item became fairly common in retail hot spots - until the production numbers ran out that is. This in turn has killed what was otherwise anticipated to have been a high value item on the secondary market - With most figures selling for as little as ten dollars each today.
For those seeking to hunt down the figures, they are as follows;
Black Panther (Limited to 7,500)
Black Widow (Limited to 7,500)
Captain Marvel (Limited to 10,000)
Falcon (Limited to 10,000)
Iron Fist (Limited to 10,000)
Marvel Girl (Limited to 10,000)
Moon Knight (Limited to 10,000)
Power Man (Limited to 10,000)
Task Master (Limited to 10,000)
Vision (Limited to 10,000)
Join us next time when we take a look at Clerks Inaction Figures!
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Interesting. I'd never heard of these. Do you know from what toy line that these action figures and parts were reused?
ReplyDeleteWe unfortunately don't know specifics, but a lot of them were taken from prior Marvel lines.
DeleteI still have a near complete set of these, MIB. From what I can remember, a lot of the figures, especially the male characters re-used the same figures just with different heads and their appropriate accessories (like a cape, cloak or a chain).
DeleteThe original characters that first used these bodies were the "Hercules" and "Ioalus" figures from the 1995 "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" toy line, also produced by Toy Biz.
If you look at "Ioalus" figure, you can clearly see that the exact same body mold is identical when used for the "Captain Marvel", "Iron Fist" and "Vision" figures and the "Hercules" figure was recycled and used by the "Power Man" and "Moon Knight" figures. The "Black Knight" figure was a re-deco of the "DreadKnight" figure from the 1995 "Iron Man" series (also by Toy Biz), the "Black Widow" was a re-deco of the "Jean Grey" figures from the "X-Men" series and "Falcon" was a re-deco of the "Daredevil" figure mold from the "Spider-Man Web Force" series. The "Black Panther" is the only figure who I'm still not sure of which their original figure mold was recycled from.
The ones that use the "Ioalus"
Good info. Thank you.
DeleteWas each one labeled 1 of 7500 2 Of 7500
ReplyDelete