Wave 48 Fantastic Four MiniMates

Back to one of my favorite subjects lately here on the Super-DuperToyBox, Marvel MiniMates by Diamond Select! In this post we'll look at three of the four 2-packs released in the 48th wave of these fun 2 1/2" action figures, completing the other half of my Fantastic Four MiniMates team, and adding a couple villains I was interested in, namely Blastaar and Puppet Master!

Right off from the start, I'll say I was disappointed when the ball peg from Reed Richards' neck extension broke off inside his head. Fishing it out of his head so I could have a serviceable Mr. Fantastic left his head wobbly as well. That's a shame because this is otherwise such a great MiniMate, and one I looked forward to getting.

I love the classic blue & white FF outfit this wave featured! Reed came with normally proportioned extra limbs, but his stretched alternate limbs make him great! His twisted base and giant fist are the same as the Super Skrull MiniMate, one of my favorites.

Diamond thoughtfully gave Mister Fantastic the Ultimate Nullifier, which he used against Galactus as a last effort to stop him from devouring Earth. Appearing first in Fantastic Four #50, the exact functionality of this weapon has remained vague, but is described as the most powerful weapon in the Universe, able to wipe out any opponent or his whole timeline if not destroying the one who wields it first.

At first I wasn't so keen on Puppet Master, having read very little about him, but his accessories make him a unique and fun MiniMate. The work apron is a nice piece, but the tiny MiniMate dolls he comes with really make him great, and he can be dressed completely civilian using the additional arms and torso overlay included- really great!

Sue Storm the Invisible Girl, who later went on to marry Reed Richards, also came with great accessories. In addition to extra limbs cast in transparent plastic, Diamond included a force field base and alternate 90's hair piece that is... well, a mullet.  Her alternate limbs were difficult to change, so I'll probably leave them on, as I prefer anyway. 

Sue came with a Moloid from Subterranea, one of Mole Man's minions in her 2-pack. I read about the Moloids in  X-Factor Annual #3 a couple years ago, part of the Evolutionary War title crossover that ran through several Marvel annuals in the summer of '88. More recently, I've enjoyed their antics as children (Mik, Kor, Turg, & Tong) in Matt Fraction and Mike Allred's FF.

So with the addition of Sue and Reed, I now have the complete Fantastic Four!

With parts from Reed Richards and the Flame On Human Torch that came in the wave of MiniMates, I can assemble Johnny Storm, younger sibling to Sue, the Invisible Girl. Now I can photograph him in different phases of his transformation into the Human Torch! Johnny came with a normal head, but the Flame On head is the star, alight with translucent plastic, and blank yellow eyes, under a fiery & furrowed brow. A tornadic swirl of flames circle his bases, cast in the same translucent orange that most his body is composed of...

Flame On Human Torch with Nova Flame Human Torch...

Flame On Human Torch came packed with Blastaar...

Blastaar is a super-villain from the Negative Zone, enemy of the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the Inhumans, and Earth in general. He's a beefed up MiniMate whose blast accessories fit nicely over his over-sized hands. The hair piece on this one is great, as are the Silver-Age armor details on the torso overlay.

Blastaar makes a great enemy for Johnny and the Thing to battle...!

Since I now have such a broad swath of Fantastic Four characters, such as Annihilus, Super Skrull, Silver Surfer, and Dr. Doom, I thought it would be another great opportunity to shoot a group photo with one of my favorite toys, my ToyBiz Cosmic Power Galactus...!

More Later- Make It FUN!

Make Mine Mini Marvel pt.3

In my last post, we took a closer look at the first five Marvel mini figures I picked up at Toys 'R Us this week- now let's examine the other pack!

Wolverine:
Logan is wearing his blue and yellow X-Men outfit here, his left set adamantium claws engaged, which are actually three separate tiny, thin slivers of plastic. Wow! How did they do that? Some smudging in the paint job, but lots of detail in both the brushwork and the sculpt. He's as tall as IronMan, which he really shouldn't be, but his scale in toys always seems to be taller than his original comic book stature.

Silver Surfer:
The Sentinel of The Spaceways seems much larger that most of the other mortals, mutants, and monsters in the group, but hey- he's an alien. His musculature definitely alien, but I like him. Nice face sculpt on this guy. I was really inspired to find out more about this seminal Marvel character recently, and scored a 10" ToyBiz version on E-Bay the other night, along with Marvel Essentials Silver Surfer Vol.1 from Amazon. It's gettin' crazy over here! J

Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman:

This is one of the coolest in the series, maybe the best. Some genius over at Marvel Toys said "Let's make the legs on the girl translucent, and then we'll fade into her outfit colors for her torso and head". Good idea.

I've never seen this approach on another action figure, and it works great! Both an excellent body sculpt paint job on this tiny cutie! Bravo!

Green Goblin:

Another stand out in this group of mini figures, this bad guy has an excellent sculpt with a lot of detail. One of only two villains in the series, the other being Magneto, Green Goblin shares the a unique distinction of a themed base with Silver Surfer. While Silver Surfer naturally sports a surfboard for his base, Green Goblin rides his bat shaped goblin glider- FUN!

Daredevil:

Matt Murdock is totally stooped over, so at eye level he's useless. His body is also noticeably larger than even Silver Surfer, making him completely out of proportion with the rest of this series, though I knew what to do with the photo opportunity!

...Oh, just a couple more... J

Overall, I was really glad to find these guys, and had a fun time visiting the toy store for the first time to buy TOYS as an adult! I had a lot of fun photographing and writing about them, though at $7.99 a five pack, they really should have thrown another villain or two in each pack. And if this series is said to be suffering from from a glaring design problem, it's inconsistency to my eye. It seems that two or three artists worked on these, painfully evident in the Daredevil figure, but also body sculpt detail across the board. They aren't bad or anything, just styled really differently among one another in the series.

Until we meet again, remember: enjoy yourself, take care of one another, play with TOYS and have FUN with your life! Next Week: Marvel Famous Cover Action Figures by ToyBiz!