It's difficult to collect vintage figures sometimes because every once in a while you come across a toy that has little to no redeeming qualities. One of my favorite collecting goals is to get all versions of a specific character and display them in a cluster. Especially when there is a unique costume that I'm especially drawn to. This classic green and yellow mini-skirt look for Jean Grey has always been one of my favorites. She wore it from X-Men #39 in 1967 until X-Men #100 in 1976. The reprints of these stories in Classic X-Men was my first exposure to the X-Men, so it is a very nostalgic look for me. Nothing made me more excited than seeing the return of this costume for 2019's House of X storyline. But at the same time, I just knew there would finally be a great Legends figure made and I would feel compelled to track down all the early awful offerings of this costume. That brings us to this 1997 Toy Biz figure. The first time this costume ever saw life in plastic, and it was pretty tragic. Let's check her out below!
Don't get me wrong, the fact that they found a way to release this costume was amazing. It hadn't been seen, even in reprints, for over a decade. But the execution is one of the sloppiest things I personally own. The "Marvel's Gold" and "Limited Edition of 10,000" packaging seems like a desperate attempt to distract from the figure itself.
Her body was previously used on Deathbird and Wolfsbane and it not a bad sculpt.
It's a little hard to pose with her extended leg, but still a decent body for the 90s.
Her mask is a glued-on piece of flimsy vinyl.
The edges are rough/jagged and the painted eyes on her face are zombie-like black blobs.
Her skirt is a rough piece of green pleather with a gigantic velcro piece on the back. The green does not match and the belt buckle has a crooked "X" of black thread that looks like it was drawn on with an unsteady pen.
I sometimes like the kitschiness of 90's action figures. But then sometimes the re-use of parts and half-hearted add-on details is just disappointingly lazy. This figure could have been great with the tiniest bit of effort.
Marvel Girl comes with a Psychic Blade accessory from Psylocke.
Time for some Group and Comparison Pics!
Here are a few of my Marvel Girls together. From Left to Right:
1997 Toy Biz, 2007 Marvel Legends, and 2009 Marvel Select.
Cheers!
As a huge fan of Jean Grey, I'd always wanted this figure when I was young despite how poorly made she was. Never found her but in the end I think it was for the best. The reuse of the Deathbird body was a strange choice but tacking a Toybiz Xena head on top made it even stranger.
ReplyDeleteAs always, great review!