Retro Toy Week: Nightcrawler!

You know I wouldn't let a Retro Toy Week go by without a Nightcrawler figure: this time, we're going about as far back as we can...sort of.

This 1990 PVC isn't the oldest in my collection of Nightcrawler items: the lead figure from TSR predates it by six years. But it may have taken me the longest to get: I was a senior in high school in '90, and the nearest comic shop was about 80 miles away. 'Course, in Montana, that's usually 'bout an hour's drive. These PVC's had shown up in ads in comics of the time: I believe this was the second series of them.

So, one relatively fine day, my friends and I made the drive to get McDonald's and comic books...and Nightcrawler was already sold out by the time I got there. Apparently there was two per case or box or whatever, and they went immediately. Although I'm pretty sure my friends were less than sympathetic, I was crushed. I bought an Iron Man PVC, a feeble second-best. And I went back to that comic store many times, and others; and other PVC's were produced in staggering numbers, but I never saw a Nightcrawler one. Not once.

Years later...and I have to admit, I am completely unsure how long. I think eight years, but for some reason thought fifteen, and I know that's wrong. Anyway, that missing PVC was one of, if not the first thing I ever bought on eBay. He's not articulated. The balance on his three-point stance is a little iffy. The paint is slightly better than you could do yourself; ditto the sculpt.

I love it so much I have two.