I have always had a fond place in my heart for Tabitha Smith. As a young comic reader, I was obsessed with The New Mutants. I loved the youthful, rebellious energy and smaller-scale storylines. Two great spin-offs of that comic were Fallen Angels in 1987 and X-Terminators in 1988. I adored both these mini-series and they both starred a young Boom Boom as a major character. In X-Terminators especially, we were introduced to a group of outsiders that I related to even more than the young Xavier students. Boom Boom's teammates were Rictor, Artie, Leech, Rusty, Skids, and Wiz Kid - all of whom went on to become semi-regular recurring characters in a handful of different books. But Boom Boom is the one that really took off. When Liefeld took over The New Mutants in 1990, most of the X-Terminators were present and I thought they would all become part of the team, but a year later when X-Force rolled out, only Tabitha remained. Her outfit and name have changed a lot over time, but the attitude is consistent.
Boom Boom comes with two heads. The non-bubblegum one has some pretty extreme plastic flashing around her jawline. It makes her look angry or double-chinned. Luckily this is easily remedied with a steady hand and an Xacto Blade.
Boom Boom comes with two heads, a (loose) fireball effect, and a second left hand with an (attached) fireball effect.
Boom Boom has the power to create little time bombs that she can throw. She can adjust the power and "fuse time" of these bombs. The power effects on this toy are really cool, but to me they don't really exemplify her power. It was usually depicted a small glowing ball that she would toss.
Boom Boom comes with the Left Leg Build-A-Figure piece for Wendigo.
The Wendigo Build-a-Figure is awesome. He's a redeco'd Sasquatch figure with new feet, new "loincloth shag", new shoulder shag, new head, slightly new hands, and an added tail.
Boom Boom has had a lot of costume variations over the years. Her character fancied herself a fashionista and regularly resigned her costume (as well as her teammates'), but I'm very happy with this choice for her first real action figure. She wore it on the cover of X-Force #1 and it perfectly captures her essence without looking too dated (with too many shoulderpads or pouches).
Time for some Group and Comparison Pics!
Here is the X-Force team so far: Cannonaball, Cable, Warlock, Boom Boom, and Shatterstar (I forgot Domino, but I think we need a new X-Force-specific Domino anyway).
And here she is with the other mutant mallrat, Jubilee.
Cheers!
I still cannot find Boom Boom anywhere at local retail. It's driving me crazy!
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