Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Toys R Us Minimates Wave 11

When I was looking for Legos I found the Toys R Us Wave 11 Exclusive Marvel Minimates! I skipped the First Appearance Iron Man & Hulk, because I've got like four 1st Appearance Iron Men already and so, so many Hulk minimates.

But what I did pick up was:


Fantomex and Mr. Negative: Two characters that have nothing in common whatsoever! Fantomex is an X-men character created by Grant Morrison whose mutant power is basically to be ironically amazing. Mr. Negative is a multiple personality Spider-man villain whose secret identity is an Asian philanthropist. He got his powers the same time and way as Cloak and Dagger. Basically Mr. Negative is his dark half who has mind control and Marin Li is his light half who can heal people. Each side is aware of the other but does nothing to stop the other's plans. The figures are very basic, almost entirely defined by their paint jobs. The Fantomex is in his X-force Grey costume and works okay in a dull, muted way. I kind of wish we had gotten his white original costume. Mr. Negative meanwhile looks just as he does in the comics, like a photo-negative, which is a reference people aren't going to remember if digital photography completely replaces film stock. He even comes with a photo-negative sword, which makes no sense to me but is a neat concept. He also comes with alternate Black arms, so you he can go around wearing just a shirt and no jacket.


It's Betsy Braddock & Nightcrawler. They're both X-men characters, or at least now they are. Betsy originally started as a Marvel UK character but was eventually moved to the X-men. Meanwhile Nightcrawler would leave the X-men proper to hang out with Betsy' brother, Captain Britain, in the Excalibur comics. This is the third figure for both, although Nightcrawler is actually just the exact same minimate that came in the Excalubur box set. The only difference is that his BAMF base is a slightly different shade of purple and a little more transparent.

Meanwhile the last two (or three) Betsy figures have all been of Psylocke, her superhero alter-ego. This is the second British version of Besty, before she became a sexy Asian ninja. I think this minimate reflects her original look, but I can't be sure. It might be the look she had during the Psylocke/Dazzler/Rogue/Longshot era of the X-ment team. It's the poofy sleeves that make me think that. And hey, to reflect the poofy sleeves they created a new arm piece.... that's got to be showing up on another figure soon. They can't have just made that for this figure.

2 comments:

  1. Wasn't Fantomex inspired by or based off of Diaboilk?

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  2. Supposedly that was one of his mutant power's misdirections. He made people think he was based off Diabolik but the similarities in his backstory were all based on lies he told someone.

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