Marvel Universe

Mogwai, Superheroes of BMX

Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 (2005)

I got this cool custom playset thing that is practically the size of a city for 1:18 action figures.  It will be popping up a lot in my action figure posts, I'm sure.  But to break it in I busted out some of my Marvel Universe guys.  I saw these guys all the time when I was out hunting for Star Wars and GI Joe guys, and I finally broke down and started getting a few.  My collection is far from complete (biggest hole in my collection: Galactus, who I could've got for $20 once but, stupidly, passed), but I've got most of the guys I'm interested in.  Anyhoo, take a look.

First off, this is Apocalypse, and he is my favorite Marvel guy, and is easily in my top ten of all the figures I have.  He's just really cool.  He fights the X-Men.

These aren't really Marvel Universe guys; they're guys from the Captain America movie, but close enough.  I've got another one of those Hydra Agents somewhere still in the package but I can't find it.  They came out in comic color variants (bright green and yellow) and I got one, but I had to trade it away for a Flame On Human Torch, which you will see below.

Here's some big bad guys.  You've already seen Apocalypse.  The other guy behind him is a Destroyer; he's from the Thor movie.  He has a little button on his chest and when you push it he lights up.  And then up close is Thanos.  He is cool because you can take one of his  hands off and replace it with the Infinity Gauntlet.

Here's Daredevil and Bullseye, hanging out on some stairs.  The Daredevil movie sucked, didn't it?

Speaking of sucky movies, here are the Fantastic Four.  I have always thought these guys were super lame, but I read a couple of TPBs and kind of got to like them, even though they are super lame.  Johnny Storm a.k.a. Human Torch gets killed (he just barely came back) and gets replaced by...wait for it...it's Marvel, so you know it's either Wolverine or Spider Man...Spider Man.  They ditch the blue suits and get these white suits and change their name to the Future Foundation.  I've got the Future Foundation variants of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Girl, and Thing, but I will not display them until they make a Future Foundation Spider Man.

Here's the aforementioned "Flame On" Human Torch.  They made a Flame Off version, but it looked like shit and didn't match the other three.  I'd seen this variant three or four times but figured they'd never get around to making an Invisible Girl, so I never bought it.  Then when they put out a set with all three, I had to chase down the Flame On version and, like I said, trade away a comic variant Hydra Soldier.  Totally worth it, though.

Here's the X-Men, which is what got me in trouble with this line in the first place.  I saw the Wolverine on clearance and got it for like two bucks.  I told myself I would just snag a couple of guys and round out the X-Men, and then be done.  But the Cyclops only came in a two-pack with Hulk, and since I had Hulk, I figured I might as well round out the Avengers, and then it just kind of snowballed from there.  I think that Archangel is kind of tough to find.  And I want to upgrade both my Cyclops and my Jean Grey, which is convenient because they are in a two-pack that I saw at Toys R Us not too long ago (with my luck, they'll be all gone by now). I waaaaay overpaid for my Colossus and Kitty figures, by the way. When I was looking for them, they were nowhere to be found, then after I paid a premium for them off of eBay, I started seeing them all over the place.  That kind of shit happens to me all the time.

Here's the Avengers.  I deliberately tried to keep them kind of old school; there are much more updated versions of Thor and Iron Man, but I like them hokey.  I need to get a much hokier version of Captain America, which shouldn't be too hard.  Fucking Wasp and Ant Man, by the way.  I had to buy figures I didn't really want just to get those little suckers, so I hope you appreciate them.

See Dr. Strange back there?  Not technially an Avenger (no, I'm not counting the New Avengers), but woo~ ooh~oooooooh~oooooohhh...straaaaaaaange.

Here's Ghost Rider.  I don't know what the crap I'm supposed to do with him.  They're never going to make any of his bad guys.  That motorcycle isn't a real accessory, by the way, but I bought a bunch of them to go with my Dreadnoks for my GI Joe collection and loaned one to Ghost Rider for this photo shoot.  I actually bought this figure just so I could use the head in one of my GI Joe photonovels (see it here--and yes, that's Red Skull's head, too.  Now you've killed the magic).  I also bought Silver Surfer to use in a scene where I was going to have Baroness walk in on Destro naked (see, his body's totally silver...get it?  But Destro's head doesn't fit on the Silver Surfer body.  Sorry.) but I lost his surfboard and don't want to display him without Galactus anyway.

You know this guy, it's Magneto.  Not too keen on the weird spooky face paint job, but whatever.  He came out in more traditional colors, but was in a two pack with black costume Spider Man, and I knew that if I ever got that, I'd just wind up collecting Spider Man guys, too, and really, I don't need that (I came really, really close to doing just that today; I had Rhino and Venom in my cart but better sense prevailed and I put 'em back because I know I'll never find the Electro now that I need him, even though I used to see all the damn time).

Here's a couple of Magneto's minions from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Juggernaut and Mystique.  My Mystique has kind of a lousy paint job, but I was lucky just to find her; she was kind of tough to get (female figures with humongous boobs are a hit with nerds...go figure).  Alex, if you're reading this and want me to open up your SDCC Sentinel and display it with these guys, I totally will.  Just say the word.  Those are Skrulls standing back there behind Juggernaut.

Finally, here's Dr. Doom.  He's one of the guys I had to buy to get Wasp.  That bald guy behind him is Absorbing Man; he may have actually been the other guy I had to buy--I honestly can't remember but once I can get a 1:18 Loki I'll be glad I have him.  I guess I'm glad I have Dr. Doom, but they released him in cooler colors recently and I kind of wish I had that version instead.