It's been a tough two weeks. The abridged version is that we bought a house, and are in process of moving. The deep details involved with it all have been nothing short of stressful, annoying, frightening, and overwhelming all at once. Despite this, it was also a time for my girl and I to return to the Lord, and rededicate ourselves to following Jesus. Though this, we've seen him shower us in peace, abundance, and kindness from people who have dedicated their time and resources to us to help get us through.
One such person is George of G.I. Jigsaw, who has spent many nights just letting me vent via text to him, while also providing suggestions and words of encouragement. All the while, he's also been continuing to show up periodically with one of his patented brown bags of joy.
The one he dropped off tonight was nothing short of rad. The X-Men assembled, and joined the fray of Peg People.
As soon as I unwrapped the first one and saw Nightcrawler, I knew this was going to be a great set.
Then came the massive Colossus, which George purposely created on a larger size peg.
By the time I reached Storm, it was obvious that this wave was going to hit hard and deliver.
Turning this one over in my hands I smiled when I saw the missing right arm of Dr. Curt Connors. He was instantly recognizable with this attribute, and one of the reasons I really like this series that George has been creating. He has a way of dialing in to the details of what makes characters identifiable. It's subtle, but key.
This was followed by his son, Billy Connors. Fun fact, Billy was actually killed by Curt Connor's villainous alter ego, Lizard in the very brutal Shed story arc. Well...I don't know why that's a fun fact in hindsight.
Rounding out the family was Mrs. Martha Connors, Curt's wife. There's not much to her. She's a background character in every sense of the word, but a necessary counterpart to the batch.
Then the X-Men continued with Wolverine. I was actually wondering what version George would go with. Would he pick the original blue and black, or the 80's brown and yellow version? Looks like he went with the classic original. Good choice...but, I do like variants, hint, hint.
Another figure which George had options with was Beast. He was originally grey, until mutating to blue in Amazing Adventures 11, volume 2. George opted for the more familiar iteration known today.
He can walk! George said he didn't know how to make the wheelchair for Professor X. That's cool. It's very obvious who the character is, I initially told George that he could use his powers to walk, but after further fact checking this, I was not correct. Still, this iteration is spot on.
1981 - 1991 Cyclops is what we'll call this next one. The reason being, this character went through many costume evolutions since his introduction in 1966. This version is perfect for me because this is the most familiar costume to me.
Another 80's iteration, we have Jean Grey. This is how the character looked leading up to the fan favorite Dark Phoenix Saga.
George then jumped all the way to the end of the checklist, moving past the originally noted 324 characters to the yet shared 325 and beyond with Sentinel. This was a massive Peg People figure, which the picture here does little justice for. It's two or three times larger than the regular ones.
I'd been excited for this one ever since adding it to the checklist. Golden Oldie is Aunt May in one of the most unique Marvel Team-Up issues (137) of all time.
Yes, the series already contained a Scarlet Spider figure, but this iteration is Ben Riley. It's different!
Though the origin of Teresa Parker has yet to be confirmed in the Marvel Universe, she's presumed to be the daughter of Richard and Mary Parker, and the younger sister of Peter. After Peter went to live with his aunt and uncle, it's believed that Teresa was born, and adopted to protect her.
I had to search all over the checklist multiple times before it dawned on me that George was remaking Mrs. Marvel from the original version he made. Oops. To make matters worse, I tossed this version over Captain Marvel, but didn't correct the checklist before posting it. Double oops.
Wakanda strikes when the Black Panther is in town. Did you know he originally started out as a villain?
When I unwrapped Namor I got a little excited. I wondered, is this the original Timely version I had asked George to do? I had pitched to him a request to make the original four super heroes from "Marvels" original history, which included The Angel, Human Torch, and Masked Rider. This version, however, was the version more familiar from the 70's and 80's. No worries. Every time George turns around I'm asking him to expand beyond the list, which has included the likes of Frog Thor, and a red costumed Spider Woman, and so on. The fact that he's done so many already is fantastic enough, and I appreciate them all.
The cyborg Deathlok has been the alter ego of many, but this particular version is the original, who subsequently teamed up with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up 46.
Rounding out the waver were the classic version of Vision...
...and Scarlet Witch. With them, my Avenger's team is relatively wrapped up.
This wave packed one heck of a punch. George delivered another awesome set, just like the prior fifteen that came before them. Also, in this group photo you can see the height difference to the normal size versus that of the larger Colossus and Sentinel, along with the shorter Billy Connors. These subtle changes really make all the difference.
And, with that, the checklist got updated...Well, sort of. Like I said above, there's an error to fix with Mrs. Marvel, and Sentinel is not in this batch of "pages".
Getting this set of Peg People at this specific time was a really nice surprise, and one that I definitely needed. Like I said above, there have been a lot of rough days as of late. It was great to get the bag of figures, and have a moment where everything was just about having fun for a bit. It was a needed distraction from everything.
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