His entire purpose in life is to move Batman into the future.
After pitting the greatest superheroes and supervillains against each other, the Beyonder attempts to discover his humanity - and in the process, becomes an all-powerful, if naive, god.
Hey, that's well-written! The Beyonder didn't appear as anything other than a disembodied voice or a flash of light in the original Secret Wars (which technically means he shouldn't be in this line, but we don't care too much about that), so this bio is written from the perspective of Secret Wars II (published a scant four months after the original maxi-series ended), wherein he comes to Earth. After all the time we've spent belittling Hasbro for their poor choices when it comes to putting copy on their packaging, it's only fair we make an equally big deal when they not only remember to do it, but also do a really good job with it.
Beyonder had several looks during his time interacting with Earth's heroes, but this figure gives us what is easily the most iconic:
an all-white affair with a puffy-sleeved jacket that's open to show off his chest, and regular pants tucked into his boots. It may not seem particularly flashy or memorable, but white is used so sparingly as a color in comicbooks that it really makes him stand out. And the same will be true in an action figure display. When I first saw this figure, I thought it was going to be a repaint of Hank Pym's speed suit, but it turns out that, no, this is its own thing. The jacket and chest are done as separate pieces, like so many open mouths of late - that way the sculptor can make them look like two distinct items without worrying about the torso getting stuck in the mold.
We will say, though, for once the body is a little small. Remember,
Beyonder didn't have a physical body, so he just copied what he'd seen before: specifically, Steve Rogers. He should be as tall and as broad as Captain America, because everything about his body is Captain America. Well, other than the hair; for whatever reason, he eventually decided Steve Rogers' face would look better under curly black hair than straight blonde hair. You don't often see Steve with a big, sinister grin like this, though!
Because of the way the chest is constructed, the Beyonder doesn't get the usual "swivel waist, hinged chest" combo - rather, it's just one balljoint high on the waist. We also only get a barbell head, not
the superior hinge and balljoint, so he can look up and down a little bit, but not as much as he could have. Quite a few of the joints are extremely stiff - the ankles, the thighs, the elbows - beyond even the usual stiffness of ML joints. A true struggle to get them moving. The figure includes fists and open hands, but Beyonder isn't exactly the type of guy to get into physical confrontations - who needs to, when you can simply erase anyone from existence at a whim?
Beyonder gets a pretty dang cool accessory. Years ago, we said the only way to beat Perry White coming with an entire building would be to include an entire city, but now here comes Beyonder with an entire planet! When Beyonder wanted to create an arena for the heroes and villains to fight over, he destroyed an entire galaxy, leaving only one star, and stole chunks from numerous planets that he then jammed together to form Battleworld. This figure includes a large ball, representing the wedges of planets all coming together, as seen in Secret Wars #1. It's molded from translucent orange plastic, to represent the mighty energies at the core of the new world, with the exterior mainly painted dark grey, with a few spots of yellow or green. It's a neat little inclusion! And if you shine a light through it, the clear plastic really fires up nicely! Shame the painted parts block so much light, eh?
The vintage Mattel Secret Wars figures included a gimmick accessory, a shield with lenticular inserts to show the battle happening. Hasbro has brought that back today! Just like in the '80s, the villains get square shields and the heroes get round, which is how we can say with certainty that Beyonder is a baddie. His insert flips between him as a human and him as an energy being, but that's the only one we get: each of the original toys had several, while all we get today is a plain cardboard 40th Anniversary logo.
This isn't the first Beyonder action figure ever - the Minimate came out 15 years ago - but it's the first in a traditional type of line. If Hasbro wanted, they could reuse this head by doing a version of Beyonder wearing his giant stupid armor from the end of Secret Wars II; and if they wanted to create a little bonus value for fans, they could also include an alternate head with the long hair and beard he had when he appeared on the '90s Spider-Man animated series.
-- 12/16/24
What other Secret Wars characters do you want to see Hasbro make in Series 2? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
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