Speed suit!
In the treacherous jungles of a hidden Antarctic valley, Charles Xavier finds himself without his powers alongside Magneto amidst a slew of prehistoric creatures.
If you're expecting us to tell you what issue that story happened in, don't: it never did. At least, it never did in the comic. This, it turns out, is a toy based on the '90s X-Men cartoon. Frustrated by production delays in Season 1, Fox Kids demanded that Season 2 have more episodic stories and fewer running plotlines; the producers did this by making the main plot of each episode a standalone, but having an ongoing secondary plot about Charles and Eric in the Savage Land. It was never explained why the Savage Land made Xavier able to walk again, and if the writers ever had a reason in mind (beyond "it's hard to write around a wheelchair in the jungle"), they don't remember what it was.
You only need to catch a passing glimpse of this figure to know exactly what it's going to be: the Hank Pym jumpsuit body in green with new forearms. That's not a point against the toy, mind you, since the entire point of a jumpsuit like this is that anyone at all can wear it and the cut will be the same; it's merely a fact about the toy's construction. It would have been nice if they'd redone the upper legs so this mold would no longer be too tall, but that's the sort of thing that would have had to be taken care of right after the first time they apeared if it was going to be economically feasible.
Professor X's head is a little weird - not "creepy 'James McAvoy in Split' face" weird, but definitely not as welcoming as previous versions have been. Maybe it's the way they painted his lips a different color than the rest of his skin, so now it looks like he took time to put on lipstick before going through a dangerous walk through the dinosaur jungle?
The green used for Charles' outfit is very green, which is something taken right out of the cartoon. Remember, when he dressed like
this in the comics, the color was more like that seen on the Minimate, with more tan than green. His boots, belt, and gloves are a slightly different shade, so they won't blend in with the rest out the outfit. His belt buckle is red, and there are red and black X logos on the shoulders. Of course, as is the flaw with many modern action figures, the various types of plastic don't actually match hues, but that's just lack of quality control, not intentionally different colors.
These legs may be too long, but they at least were created before the Marvel team was no longer allowed to include shin swivels. The rest of the joints are the usual stuff (ankles, knees, thighs, hips,
waist, chest, wrists, elbows, biceps, shoulders, neck, and head), but the chest hinge barely moves forward or backward at all - maybe a centimeter of range, max? It's not very good. If you have Hasbro's first Professor X, you can let this one use the wheelchair; good thing there was so much wasted space in that piece! Also, a major downside to the barbell head instead of a balljoint/hinge: while you can trade heads, the socket on the older ones is just slightly smaller, which means when you try to take it off the body, it's going to pull the joint with it. Go back to the old neck joint style, Hasbro!
In addition to fists, this figure gets a pair of holding hands and a left hand with two fingers extended. There are no weapons for him to hold, making the pair pointless, and he didn't have his psychic powers at the time, so the "mental posing" hand doesn't mean anything, either.
But nobody's limiting you to only playing with this the way the back of the card says you should. After all, without telepathy, how would he use the included Cerebro helmet? The helmet, by the way, is specifically designed to look like the cartoon's version, in case you were still doubtful about what this toy represents. There's a hole in the back of it that would conceivably allow you to use the mental cloud from the regular Xavier, but the shape of the two Cerebros is too different to let that happen. So now there's just a hole for no reason.
This figure is a Target exclusive, and it actually showed up in stores for a change! I didn't care much about it, honestly, because I knew it would be overly tall and the comic colors look better for the suit. Wasn't worth the inflated $25 pricetag. But it hung around long enough to get markdowns that brought it into a more reasonable range. This isn't the most iconic Professor X around, but it's a classic look we haven't had before.
-- 09/15/24
Why could he walk? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
|
