#7 - Colossus/Wolverine
Although our last Minimate Mini-Review covered figures from Series 12, we technically should have done this one first - look at the dates, and you'll see that through some quirk of shipping, Series 13 came out before Series 12.
Series 12 was all New Avengers, while Series 13 was all Astonishing X-Men. Since Art Asylum wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to release a new Wolverine, this series includes one. This is the costume design by John Cassady, before it started mutating (no pun intended) under other artists. They did a very good job capturing the details on his chest - it even goes over the top of his shoulders, despite what the box art shows - but the blue panels are meant to continue onto his legs, and that's barely present here. He has the same hair as New X-Men Wolverine, but it's odd that he doesn't have a mask to replace it - it's just this angry face, all the time.
Colossus had been dead for a few years by the time Joss Whedon started Astonishing X-Men, but since he's a mutant, what does that really mean? It's like a timeout, or being sent to the penalty box. Which just happens to be coffin-shaped. Colossus has really nice paint apps, but his costume is sleeker than the previous release - that makes sense, since the 2000s design is more compact than the '80s design, but it's still a drawback, since the add-on pieces the first release wore gave him that little bit of extra bulk that really made him look great next to his teammates. Still, there's no denying that everything that's been painted onto this figure looks really nice.
This set was the one designated to carry the Series 13 variant. Since "Colossus as a plague-ridden corpse" wouldn't make for a very good action figure, it fell to Logan to be the lucky guy. Of course, there wasn't really anything Astonishing-themed they could do with him, so instead we got a Days of Future Past version. He's dressed all in earthtones, and like the other two figures, all his costume details are painted on - yes, even the fur trim on his coat. His face is painted with an old man's grumpy snarl, and there's a white streak all the way around his head. It's not bad, but they could have easily made a Diamond-form Emma, or a non-phasing Kitty or something.
All the Minimates share the same body with different paint decos, and they all move at the same 14 points: neck, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and ankles. That's a heckuva lot of motion for a 2" tall figure. The ones in this set include the post-C3 innovations, like Lego-compatible feet and holes in the heads to help hold their hair on. Fun fact: a Minimate's arm is comparable in size to a Lego stud, so if you're really determined, you can fit a foot on the end of an arm. Why would you want to do that? Two words: Fastball Special!
Good discovery on that Fastball Special!
Da, tovarisch.
He doesn't have a mask because both waves were total parts re-use, and to that point AA hadn't done a Wolverine mask that could convincingly look like that outfit's mask with just paint. They might have been able to do it with the one from the Secret Invasion set but that was way later.
And I have to agree-good work on the Fastball Special.
yes, they WERE total re-use, but was there anything saying they had to be? No, not really. They could have made a new mask and we'd think of the series differently...