Magneto

Not everybody gets a second chance to be a good guy. Magneto casts off his anti-human sentiments and carries on Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence, thereby founding the X-Men. Professor X always insisted that the "X" in "X-Men" stood for their "extra" powers, not for his own name. But since Magneto isn't even slightly the geneticist/​biophysician Xavier is, he'd be less interested in that side of things, suggesting his team is just named in honor of his dead friend. Therefore, that means the original reality X-Men and the Age of Apocalypse X-Men may have the same name, but they got them in totally different ways. There's a joke in there somewhere about "homonyms" and "homo superior," but we'll let you find it - we've got a figure to review! Magneto's costume really didn't change much when reality was rewritten: a red bodysuit with purple accessories is a red bodysuit with purple accessories, even if there aren't little cut-outs on the boots and gloves any longer. Looking at it now, it's almost like a "New 52" redesign two decades early: the gloves are a little more armored, there are extra plates on the shoulders, and while he's still got his big ol' belt, he's not wearing alternate-color trunks. He's still got his studded collar, because it's kind of his thing. The cape is a new mold, one that mostly hangs straight down - they couldn't use the ANAD cape like they did the forearms and shins, because the shoulder pads on that one are larger and go over the cape rather than under it. It was sculpted by Gurjeet Singh, as were both new heads. When it came time to reimagine Erik Lehnsherr for the (literally) apocalyptic world where life is a constant state of warfare and death lurks at every turn, someone really said to themselves "you know what this elderly Holocaust survivor needs? Long hair that reaches the middle of his back and is tied into two fancy pigtails that fall over his chest." Ah, the '90s: when everyone made fun of the '70s without being cognizant of how they were actively creating their own future moments of cringe. The figure comes with two heads: one for standing around and talking, the other for fighting. You'll recognize the difference by the fact that the latter is wearing his helmet. It's not the same mold as any existing ones, because the cheek armor comes down way lower than usual (thank Joe Maduriera and his anime influences for that one). The crest on the helmet is still that little devil-horns thing, and the eyes on this head are painted solid white. Don't worry, he still has his elegant hair. But also shaves his face completely clean, because if you have time to spend an hour washing and drying your hair in the ruins of the world, you also have time to take care of your beard. How many innocent people died because Magneto was busy manscaping? Even the hastily-designed animated model was smart enough to make him look like he had more important things to do! AoA Magneto uses the same "butt wrinkles" body the other three have used, so the articulation is the same as you'd expect: abdomen, waist, wrists, hips, elbows, thighs, biceps, knees, shoulders, shins, neck, ankles, and head. Although this mold has a hole in the center of the back, there's no peg to keep the cape in place - it will just hang as far back as the pose allows it to. The figure includes alternate fists, and energy swirls in translucent purple. Magneto is the one figure in this series that does not get a piece of the Colossus Build-A-Figure; maybe they were worried we'd think he ripped the metal guy apart with his powers? You've gotta include Magneto if you're doing "Age of Apocalypse" figures - even when ToyBiz did a series in 1995, he was one of the five characters included. He may not look too different from the standard Magneto, but that's to his credit, not detriment. -- 12/04/21