{"id":16522,"date":"2014-07-27T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2014-07-27T04:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/?p=16522"},"modified":"2025-07-19T22:27:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T02:27:51","slug":"minimate-mini-review-188-marvel-minimates-series-48-fantastic-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/2014\/07\/minimate-mini-review-188-marvel-minimates-series-48-fantastic-four\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimate Mini-Review #188 - Marvel Minimates Series 48 (Fantastic Four)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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#188 - \"Flame-On\" Human Torch\/Blastaar<\/h3>\n

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Believed dead following a battle against Annihilus in the Negative Zone, Johnny Storm was recently revealed to be alive and well, and has resumed his position with the Fantastic Four.<\/i><\/p>\n

Well that certainly dates this set to a specific point in time, doesn't it? Johnny's \"death\" is what prompted Reed to form the Future Foundation<\/a> (although that group continued even after he came back).<\/p>\n

Getting a Human Torch in mid-\"Flame On\" is nothing new<\/a>, but this one is very nice. He's done all in translucent orange, but is painted with vertical lines on his arms and legs and a little bit of blue costume on his chest. He has new hands and feet, molded with flames on them, and a new fire frame to go over his shoulders. There's also a large base of swirling flames that wraps up around his legs.<\/p>\n

Johnny has two heads. The one he's wearing in the package has yellow eyes and GREAT FLAMING EYEBROWS. The hair is fiery - if it were painted black, it could pass for Wolverine hair. The alternate head is calmer, with a fully human face, and a new blonde hair piece that comes down just a little too low below the edge of the head.<\/p>\n

Blastaar is nicknamed \"the Living Bomb-Burst\" because he can fire concussive blasts from his hands. An enemy of Annihilus, he once ruled his own kingdom in the Negative Zone.<\/i><\/p>\n

Blastaar was created by Jack Kirby in May of 1967 - just three months after he created Ulik the troll<\/a>, which may explain why one just looks like a palette swap of the other (to say nothing of the fact that Ulik and Kalibak<\/a> look exactly alike). Blastaar is a large brute of a character, so he gets a lot of the bulky add-on pieces: boots, thighs, waist, hands, biceps, and chest. His costume is metallic blue, contrasting with his gray skin. His chest is painted with armored scales and anatomical shadows, and his bushy hair\/beard combo are a single new mold. To show his blasty powers, he comes with two trans orange energy effects that fit over his hands.<\/div>\n
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#189 - \"Stretch Punch\" Mr. Fantastic\/Puppet Master<\/h3>\n

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Reed Richards leads the Fantastic Four, each whom was given strange powers by cosmic rays. A brilliant scientist, Richards can also stretch his body into any shape.<\/i><\/p>\n

Yes he can! And this figure offers more new pieces to show how he can do that than any Reed before him: there's the stretchy legs and the inflated fist that the Super Skrull<\/a> came with, but also a stretched out right arm that ends in a big clamp wide enough to grip a standard Minimate<\/i> torso, and a stretchy neck. It reminds me of Dr. Impossible from Venture Bros.<\/i> (before Stephen Colbert got too big to voice him anymore): \"try to beat up a man of living rubber<\/a>!\"<\/p>\n

If you want him to look more normal, the set includes standard Minimate<\/i> arms and legs. And a clear disc base to keep him standing if you want to give him one of the weird arms (which would otherwise unbalance him). Be warned that the stretch-neck peg is slightly larger than the normal neck peg, so when you initially put the head back on the chest, it will be loose until the plastic \"relaxes.\" But the coolest part is the little silver device included in the lower tray. It's the Ultimate Nullifier, the extraterrestrial weapon that even Galactus<\/a> is afraid of! It's very difficult to get the thing into a Minimate<\/i> hand, but the size is good enough for either 4\" or 6\" figures to hold it, if you want.<\/p>\n

With his radioactive clay, Phillip Masters can control the actions of others by making and manipulating small puppets. He has controlled the FF on numerous occasions.<\/i><\/p>\n

Wow, I never made the connection until now that the guy's supranym is Puppet Master<\/b> and his real last name is \"Masters.\" I'm dumb. And he's creepy. When Jack Kirby designed Puppet Master, he made him look like a ventriloquist's dummy, with weird, doll-like eyelashes; smooth, arching eyebrows; and an inhuman mouth (all features that this Minimate retains). He's wearing a dark grey apron, and thick brown-red gloves.<\/p>\n

If you want a more casual look for your terror-faced kidnapper, he includes replacement arms and a green suit jacket that's been borrowed from his fellow bald mentalist, Professor X<\/a>. The set also includes two very cool accessories: tiny Minimate<\/i> puppets! They're solid gray, and have no details other than what a plain blank Minimate<\/i> body would have, but they're really neat.<\/div>\n
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#190 - \"Force Field\" Invisible Woman\/Moloid\/Alicia Masters<\/h3>\n

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Believed to be the most powerful member of the Fantastic Four, Susan Richards can make objects invisible, but she can also create invisible force fields using only her mind.<\/i><\/p>\n

It's surprising that in more than a decade of Marvel Minimates<\/i>, this is the first time we've gotten the FF's \"Negative Zone\" costumes - the ones with dark bodies and white accents, which first appeared in Fantastic Four<\/i> #256. Being an Invisible Woman toy, she naturally comes with a few extra \"invisible\" bodyparts, in this case arms and legs. They're perfectly clear at the extremities, but blue fades in as you near her torso. She also has two haircuts: the normal one, which she's wearing in the package, and the utterly unfortunate mullet that John Byrne foisted upon her for some unfathomable reason.<\/p>\n

[Because it was 1983. --ed.]<\/p>\n

The figure is officially named \"Force Field Invisible Woman,\" but she doesn't just come with one of the small shields like all the Sues before her. No, this one goes all out! See, this figure represents the era when she went from calling herself the Invisible Girl to the Invisible Woman, and was also marked by a drastic increase in her power levels. So rather than a little shield, she comes with a giant, irregularly shaped half-shell that's big enough to cover her from head to toe. More, in fact: there's a footpeg in there so she can stand slightly off the ground. It's a fun piece, but a bit too opaque to really qualify as \"invisible.\"<\/p>\n

The Moloids are a subterranean race, discovered by the Mole Man<\/a> and frequently used as an army in his attempts to conquer the surface world.<\/i><\/p>\n

Aww, cute little Moloids! They're the armybuilder for this series, which makes sense since there was always a horde of them crawling all over everything. They're bright yellow, and wearing the same loincloth as Weapon X Wolverine<\/a>. They have the short \"slipper\" feet, but could have really used the \"child\" limbs<\/a> to make them even shorter than they already are. They share Panthro's<\/a> head, so the Thundercats<\/i> parts were clearly up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Blinded in the accident that took her father's life, Alicia is a talented sculptor, a skill she shares with her step-father the Puppet Master. She loves the Thing for his inner nobility.<\/i><\/p>\n

It's kind of appropriate that Alicia is the variant of Sue, since at least twice in the comics it's been a plot point that they looked nearly identical<\/a>. She's wearing a pink sweater and a purple skirt, and her hair is slightly more orange than Sue's. Her irises are pale blue, and instead of a black pupil, she's just got a dot of white to convey her blindness.<\/p>\n

<\/a>As the bio mentioned, Alicia is a talented sculptor, and the Thing is one of her favorite subjects (it's been suggested that being around her father's radioactive clay gave her a low level version of Daredevil's<\/a> radar sense, which is why she can sculpt such accurate likenesses). To show her talent, the figure comes with a 2\" tall accessory, depicting a bust of Thing on a pedestal. The torso has sculpted stones, but in true Minimate<\/i> style, the head is smooth. It's the same size as a standard Minimate<\/i> head: you can tell, because it's got a stony cap like Things have been coming with since Series 5<\/a> - and yet it's a new sculpt. The heck?<\/div>\n
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<i>And now, some more OAFEry:<\/i><\/H5>