During last year's
Retro Toy Week, we took a look at
the Goblin Queen, Madelyn Pryor; from the 1998
Mutant X series. This time around, we have that universe's Warren Worthington the Third; no longer Angel, or Archangel, now the Fallen.
As opposed to the typical
What If? timelines for Marvel, where one domino tipping changes everything; in
Mutant X several things appeared to have gone wrong in succession, or at least drastically differently. Storm had been transformed into the vampire Bloodstorm, the Beast's experiments caused a more drastic mutation and loss of intelligence, and Warren's transformation at the hands of Apocalypse was less...techy here. Instead of metallic wings, the Fallen would get green, lizard-like ones, and the ability to breathe fire. If I'm not mistaken, here Warren went bad and generally stayed that way, even if he broke Apocalypse's control.
Since these figures were Preview Exclusives (and predating Marvel Legends) there was a lot of re-use--modern toy fans may see a bit of re-use in buck-based lines like DC Universe or Masters of the Universe Classics, but this is straight-up slapping on a new coat of paint and new head. (Well, and the wings, which draw the eye away from some of the flaws.) I'm pretty sure the Fallen's body is Quicksilver's, which had a somewhat undersized left fist. The wings are a nice sculpt, though, being about the only new pieces here. I don't know about that head, though: the hair is a bit clumpy. And of course, the articulation is of it's time, that is, not so great.
I don't know if
Mutant X was a huge seller; and the book seemed to have an unfortunate tendency, like a lot of
What If? stories, to have to drag in versions of every super-hero they could for unfortunate, dramatic demises. And by the time a book gets to their own version of the Beyonder, well, maybe it's run its course. Still, I think it was cancelled less because of sales, and more an editorial mandate from Joe Quesada to stop the dilution of the X-Men brand. You can make your own call to how well that worked...
During last year's Retro Toy Week, we took a look at the Goblin Queen, Madelyn Pryor; from the 1998 Mutant X series. This time around, we have that universe's Warren Worthington the Third; no longer Angel, or Archangel, now the Fallen. 
As opposed to the typical What If? timelines for Marvel, where one domino tipping changes everything; in Mutant X several things appeared to have gone wrong in succession, or at least drastically differently. Storm had been transformed into the vampire Bloodstorm, the Beast's experiments caused a more drastic mutation and loss of intelligence, and Warren's transformation at the hands of Apocalypse was less...techy here. Instead of metallic wings, the Fallen would get green, lizard-like ones, and the ability to breathe fire. If I'm not mistaken, here Warren went bad and generally stayed that way, even if he broke Apocalypse's control. 
Since these figures were Preview Exclusives (and predating Marvel Legends) there was a lot of re-use--modern toy fans may see a bit of re-use in buck-based lines like DC Universe or Masters of the Universe Classics, but this is straight-up slapping on a new coat of paint and new head. (Well, and the wings, which draw the eye away from some of the flaws.) I'm pretty sure the Fallen's body is Quicksilver's, which had a somewhat undersized left fist. The wings are a nice sculpt, though, being about the only new pieces here. I don't know about that head, though: the hair is a bit clumpy. And of course, the articulation is of it's time, that is, not so great. 
I don't know if Mutant X was a huge seller; and the book seemed to have an unfortunate tendency, like a lot of What If? stories, to have to drag in versions of every super-hero they could for unfortunate, dramatic demises. And by the time a book gets to their own version of the Beyonder, well, maybe it's run its course. Still, I think it was cancelled less because of sales, and more an editorial mandate from Joe Quesada to stop the dilution of the X-Men brand. You can make your own call to how well that worked...
1 comment:
I never got the figure, but was a fan of the series. Angel has always been a favorite, mostly due to the cool figures he's had. I used to the savage land verson, both blue and red versions of his costume when he had blue skin; an archangel one with no mask, but soft,silver wings, and I used to have the original archangel figure.
And yes, Marvel definately got alot of milage out of those Quicksilver figures huh? I had one myself, the one with the costume he had during The Crossing storyline. Not bad for the times, but I really like the ML figures better; The DCUC ones too. Best improvement for action figures yet!
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