Toys! Toys! Toys!

You know I've been recently reflecting on all the cool toys I've owned at one time, and of the recent cool collection of Marvel Legends and DCUC figures I have. I really like those 2 lines, and can't wait for the return next year of the Marvel Legends line; it's been far too long, but it did allow me to collect choice figures from the DCUC line.

But before those two lines even thought about popping up, one company's line of action figures had me hooked as a kid: Toy Biz.

Yes, back then multiple points of articulation and pose-ability weren't at the forefront, or at the very least, as advanced as today's action figures. Just check out old pictures, or if you were lucky enough to get your hands on some back then, you know what I mean. I was so fortunate that my parents indulged me so much in buying sooo many figures, even if they were probably sick of them. But I was in love with the toy biz figures, specifically the X-Men line. I remember when they 1st started out with the first wave of figures. They weren't the best looking, but they were at least a decent starting-off point.

Remember these? I had everyone but Juggernaut, Storm, and Apocalypse. I guess in part due to an availability problem with Jugger and Apoc, but mostly because I didn't care for they way they were made, and probably because Storm was girl. Yeah I know how sexist of me, but that's how I rolled back then.

As the years went on, the line got better, the figures got better and included more variety. Then the X-Men cartoon started on FOX, and that really got the ball rolling, both for the toy line and for my rapid buying of these figures. God I miss the old X-men and Spider-Man cartoon on FOX. Batman too. How awesome was that show huh? Maybe later I'll devote an entire post about my love of that show. Even my fiancee' loved that show, and she isn't a major comic fan, but she did like Batman.

*On as an aside, I think FOX was fucking stupid for cancelling their cartoon line-up. Yes in later years it sucked, with shows about animated Pinatas, Fairies, and numerous Sonic and TMNT reboots, but they could have dumped all that for more quality shows. It's a shame that the then WB network picked up where FOX left off, showcasing Batman, a new X-men series, and even a LOSH cartoon series. Off course you'd also be stuck with duds like Yu-ge-oh! and Pokemon. I'm sorry, but I just could never get into those shows, and the fads they inspired at the time. I maybe considered a nerd or geek for apologetically loving comic books, but I draw the line at card games and D&D. Yeah, some may say "Hey what's wrong with those?". I say if you like 'em fine, but it's not my cup of tea son.

Anyways, back to the main topic, I loved the X-Men toy line. They made a crap load of Wolverine figures of course, but they did put out figures you wouldn't normally see, and still don't in the ML equivalent. Figures like Cyclops's dad Corsair, Strong Guy, Havok in his X-Factor duds, Forge, Kylun from Alan Davis' Excalibur, Trevor Fitzroy, the X-cutioner, and more. Hell even one of the Reavers, Bone-Breaker, had his own figure!

I also collected some of the figures from the animated-inspired Spider-Man line, collecting Kraven, Hobgoblin, Mysterio, Carnage, Dr.Octopus(he was my favorite from that line), and a few others.

Here's a picture gallery of all or most of the toy biz figures I used to own. Enjoy:

Yeah that's enough! You get the idea, I had alot of these fuckers around the house.

Okay, have a good 4th of July weekend and drive safe!

"Much ado about Morrison"

So I figured I'd talk briefly about Grant Morrison's X-Men run. There's a lot of differences in opinion concerning how he approached the X-Men. Some loved it, others hated it, and others were left wondering what the hell happened, especially concerning Morrison's last arc, Here Comes Tomorrow. I'll admit I don't have his complete run myself. I have E for Extinction, #'s122-123, the 1st part of Riot at Xavier's, all of the Planet X storyline, and 2 parts of Here Come's Tomorrow. But I think I still got a decent handle on where he was going, and I've recently read through on-line opinions about his run, and mostly the only legitimate complaint I see regards how Morrison portrayed Magneto.

Now granted it was confusing for most to see him apparently killed off during E for Extinction, then suddenly return as "Xorn" during Planet X, and I feel alot of that stems from the later retcon job that then EIC Joe Quesada and writer Chuck Austen performed. I get that Magneto was supposedly messed up in the head due to taking the x-gene enhancing drug "Kick", and that somehow he was possessed by the spirit of John Sublime, and that made him go so far in trying to kill off so many humans and ultimately kill off Jean Grey. I guess he wanted to finally get rid of Magneto, even though even he admits he went about it the wrong way.
I'd say overall, he did a fine job doing what he was hired by Marvel to do; namely shake things up and make the X-Men exciting again. He did just that, but unfortunately it seems like Quesada felt he went too far in his changes. Here's how he felt needed to change about the X-Men at the time:
"To make the X-MEN feel fresh once more, we need to take a closer, harsher look at what's not working in this book and the comics field in general. The recent X-MEN stuff has been written in an old-fashioned, overdense style for one, and we need to update, streamline and demystify the storytelling techniques considerably to appeal to modern sensibilities."

- Grant Morrison,
from "Morrison Manifesto"

 Then Qesada went back and let things get stale again and return to the status-quo he was wanting to change so much. Doesn't make sense to me, but then that's corporate thinking for you.


Here's a link to a good article about Morrison's X-Men run by Dirk Deppey of the Comics Journal:
http://archives.tcj.com/262/e_jista.html

And here's another one too. This article runs down what happened to each X-men during Morrison's run.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/400082/the_unofficial_guide_to_grant_morrisons_pg2.html?cat=4

So tell me what you guys thought of Morrison's run.

"What's so civil about war, anyway?"

Hey guys,

So it seems the next big event this summer for the X-Men will center around the difference of opinions between Wolverine and Cyclops. Marvel's pimped this event, calling it the X-Men's "Civil War". Now I don't how bad this is going to get, or even if there's going to be any casualties when all this is said and done(although I wouldn't bet against there being a death or two) but I imagine this isn't what the X-Men and X-Fans need anymore than another rehash of the same old question that's dogged Marvel's merry mutants for decades; is it better to live separate from humans, or integrate with them. Cyclops clearly wants to unite all mutants together to live in Utopia separate from the human race, while Wolverine believes that humans and mutants should co-exist together, as Prof.X believes. So who's right and who's wrong? Time will tell, but I'm hoping for a definitive answer this time, one that'll stick around for awhile.

Now of course right now, Logan and Cyclops are on the same page, but according to event writer Jason Arron, some event occur that divide these two pretty quickly. I wonder what they could be? I know, like in any fight between two people, the past inevitably comes back up, so I'd imagine the fight would sound a little like this:

"Damn your stubborness Logan!"
"You're a dick Bub!"
"Your out of control body hair always clogs up the sinks in Utopia. You know how many cases of Drain-O we go through in a month?"
"You know it's funny that your name's Cyclops, 'specially since you still dribble on the toilet seat."
"That's not me! That's Deadpool."
"Whatever you say bub."
"And you killed Jean too, you jealous son of a bitch."
"You were never good enough for her and you know it. You banging Emma proved that."
"Oh, and I had single movie all to myself, what about you bub?"

And the hits just keep on coming folks!