ML Sentinel BAF: Angel

If you want to talk about a mutant power that is really cool in thought, we have Angel! Why is that you say? He has wings! He can fly! His body is mutated for the idea of flight! Basically as humans, we aren't meant to fly. There are a lot of factors as to why(I'm no expert so I won't try to sound like one) we can't but Angel's mutant genes gave him those perks to give him flight and to handle wings. It's cool, right? No, not really because… well we have villains who can fly and shoot out beams out of their whatever. So flight is cool but he is pretty useless against a lot of enemies! But as a figure, I have to say, this is Toybiz still demonstrating that they were damn good and Legendary material!

And yes, this box wouldn't stand so I had to resort to lying him down!

So giving credit where credit is due, the paint job on his suit is pretty good. It has some shadowing on the white area, the dirty blonde hair makes him rich white angel man material, and over all there is a vibrant and almost 'angelic' feel to his tights. This is by the way the variant of the red one which I wanted to get but what a bit to pricey compared to this one. So talking about details on paint and sculpt:

It's in his wing that we get the most impressive look on the paint detail, the sculpting, and just over all what Toybiz was about. I mean there is a new Angel coming out for Hasbro for the original X-Men and from the pics I have seen his wings is NOTHING like this one(I could be wrong). As you can tell I had to separate my usual collage because his wingspan is HUGE. Cutting this pic into the others wouldn't have gotten the point across that his wings are majestically sculpted, painted, and given some great amount of thought! His wings MAKE the figure!

As you can tell a stand is a must for him. Not only is he a flier but his wings makes him pretty heavy, so that is the downside of having such a perk. I'm not going to complain that much since the stand is durable enough to stabilize Angel. Oh yes, a Sentinel boot and a pretty aged comic book comes with Angel.

Missing the ankle pivot, Angel is a great articulated figure. Pretty standard mold with lots to offer in terms of articulation. I didn't find myself posing him too much into acrobatic poses or whatsoever because of the wings making some pics look awkward.

The one thing is that the stand sometimes falls too short to truly magnify his flight capability, but there are ways to go about making his flight more believable.

I'm going to get an Archangel toy one day and preferably the ones from Hasbro, but judging right now, this is a great testament of Toybiz Legendary glory. Again as a figure he isn't astonishing but the detail on his wings makes him really worth it. Yes he comes with a Sentinel piece, but this guy really took me by surprise with how cool he is with those wings. Pretty impressive! Glad to have him on my collection!

ML Sentinel BAF: Cyclops

People can say what they want about this guy, but Cyclops has endured, fallen, persevered, and remains to be one of Marvel's most recognizable figures. He is an X-man, an original X-Man at that, an X-Factor, a Phoenix Force, and probably an Avenger! Talking about the action figure realm, well Toybiz has made him plastic material since the greater days and during the realm of the Legendary BAFs. So here he is! The X-Factor variant of Cyclops from the Sentinel BAF wave!

Yes, the picture is crooked due to the fact I was very excited to get him out of the box and into my hands! Toybiz, got to love the way your toys smell after opening them though! Such nostalgia!

I'll admit it right now that I love this suit. Why? It's the first(or one of them) suit I remember ever seeing Cyclops wear. Seeing that one particular trading card way back when I always thought his glasses are cool, then I got to know Marvel and realize that he isn't exactly the one that I should be wishing I should be, but regardless, this figure has its victories in detail. He has a lot of paint work done to him and some good sculpting. Say what you want about the giant boots and gloves, but back then those things are cool! The combination of the white and the blue makes him look like Frozone from Incredibles, but still, it's classic.

Cyclops is NOT a flier, so why is it that he has a stand? That's because Toybiz was generous! As one noticed from the picture before the one above, Cyclops has a hole on his back and it's for this stand! He doesn't fly, yes, but it is for dynamic poses! Cyclops is pretty acrobatic to an extent. And this is standard: comic book and a Sentinel BAF piece.

For articulation, Cyclops falls short here and there. I would say it's the age of the toy and some articulation aren't given back then but that's not the case. He is clearly missing the ab cunch and the ankle pivot that Toybiz gave to some of the toys at this set. Both are pretty critical for some awesome pose, but the one thing they did get right is that he has flexible fingers/hands/arms to get his optic pose; and that's for both hands by the way!

"GENE SPLICE!"

Yes, Cyclops does the shoryuken like Ryu in the Capcom games he appeared in. For some reason he called it 'gene splice'. While he may not be adept in martial arts like Ryu is, he does add his optic blast at the end to make it more… adequate.

He isn't the highlight of the wave, but at the end of the day he wasn't the worst. If it's the costume design that people have qualms over then this figure won't please; he has the Second generation X-Men variant for this toy, but eve that may be a turn off for some people. Over all, I had fun posing him since he complied with most pose I thought Cyclops would do. All in all, I like this figure and it is my first Cyclops 6 inch! So no complaints here!

ML Sentinel BAF: Black Panther

Another piece of the Sentinel BAF comes prowling in and it's none other than the king of Wakanda: Black Panther! So without any need for further intros, let's dive right into the figure and all its contents, shall we?

Toybiz classic box, we all know this. Still a task to pry this thing open but it does keep the toy inside safe and sound for years and years to come.

I will go into a bit more details about the Panther figure comparison since I have two, but I will state this early on that I prefer this figure way more and not because I have a little bit more bias with what Toybiz had offered in the past but because it's just a better figure. First it is a Black Panther! What I mean is the colors adheres to the name that T'Challa's hero identity refers to, and no I'm not just flaunting the idea of the name and the color but the fact that this Black Panther has cape, the gold details on his claws, wrist, belt, and cloak… of course the details on the said cloak along with the mask is fantastic! The mold of course is more than adequate, loving this classic Toybiz detail!

Just like the first review of this BAF, it comes with a stand, a comic book, and a Sentinel BAF piece which is the arm! And not to tangent off towards the incomplete Sentinel, I do want to say that this BAF figure is fantastic just with the two pieces I have. Articulated tentacles! Eat that Constrictor!

His articulation is standard base from Toybiz's well known Legends. He has the finger articulation, the abs, etc. He even has the ankle articulation(minor) but it is still there. The cape doesn't do as much hinderance as one might think from how it looks; it does its justice well enough.

Most/all Toybiz figures come with a hole in the back to allow their trademark stand to Though it leaves a gaping hole on the back of the figure, it does deter the annoying 'clamp' fiasco that most stands I have deal with. It makes dynamic action pose a bit more doable. Part of the reason why I love Toybiz stands; their only downfall is that they are only adequate for Toybiz toys(for the most part).

Between this Black Panther and the one from the Rocket Raccoon BAF, I have to say that my dibs goes on the this one for a myriad of reasons. First it's the added details of the gold, the cape, finger articulation, better sculpting, a better BAF, the stand, and yes, the color.  While I truly do like the Hasbro Black Panther, I still feel like Toybiz has a lot more to offer. That and I'm a bigger fan of the cloaked costume with the whole regal ambiance emanating off of him.

In conclusion, I think if one doesn't have the Black Panther from Hasbro, this one is a must to complete one's Avenger line ups. But if one is truly a huge Black Panther fan then both is a must. Honestly, I could've done without the Black Panther of today and just give that roster to another character(Spider-Woman?!) since the Toybiz one isn't so bad at all. But, I have both and I can honestly say 100% that Toybiz won this character as well.

ML Sentinel BAF: 1st Appearance Spider-Man

Wow, it must be the Spider-Man season all over again! I bought another one? No actually this one's been in my position for a long time now. As I have mentioned in the past I'm still partially a 'in-the-box' kind of collector and the 1st Appearance Spider-Man of the Sentinel BAF was one of those. Not anymore! Toybiz may have stopped becoming part of the Marvel Legends line a long time ago but some of their greatest toys have yet to fill my game room and this BAF is one of those I NEED(want).

Of course the classic Toybiz Marvel Legends case: hard transparent plastic that is anti-silence when opening! These cases are probably the reason why some of my Legends figures from Toybiz stayed hanging for too long. Classic design and good for display, keeps the figures sealed in nice and safe, and they are durable! Check out the fancy stickers on the front and the informative dossier of the character on the back! Health stats, strength, etc! It also shows the figures that completes the BAF. Speaking of the figure…

Right off the get go it's quite easy to see that it's for sure a Toybiz figure with body. I'll go into the articulation in a moment here but the skinny frame, the extra details, and the sometimes awkward fingers definitely screams Toybiz! While I'm not a huge fan of the lanky frame, I do say that Toybiz adheres to how Peter was when he first donned the Spider-Man suit. In fact, everything about this figure does capture the first time appearance of Spidey way back in Amazing Fantasy! The symbol, the eyes, the color, and of course the web pitts(though not exactly the best interpretation because it looks like he is wearing some kind of cloth behind him and not just on his pitts). All in all, it's still a good piece of work, not going to gripe too much about the little things since it is an older figure.

While the BAF series of Toybiz didn't go overzealous on the accessory department, one thing I can say is that they had some decent ones to tag along the figure. A comic book, the stand(I still find myself enamored with these stands by the way), and of course a piece of a BAF(usually a huge one) that happens to be the upper part of the Sentinel. Not much to really say, though I will admit that the comic book is a good icing.

"Uh oh, somebody's been a bad lizard!"

I can't help but think that whenever I put this Spidey in a 'wall crawler' pose! Oh well, let's move on! The articulation is one of the highlights of this figure and pretty much just about every figure that Toybiz came out with! I can almost really say that this Spidey can do whatever Spider-Man can!

The basic articulation that we can all expect from Hasbro(not talking about the newly implemented ons from the Spider-Man infinite series) and then some. Some of the things that some collectors miss are the finger articulation. This Spider-Man for sure has them and I must say that his hands looks odd and having a closed fist is damn near impossible to have. There are times I can do without the finger movements and would just prefer alternate hands and this is one of those said times. He's also missing the ankle pivot that makes certain poses especially for Spider-Man more natural.

Compared to today's brand new Spider-Man toy how does first appearance Spider-Man hold up? If one just looks at the notion of 'first appearance' compared to the modern day Spider-Man, one will truly have an answer. It's not the first appearance of Spidey in the plastic form, but it is ONE of the first few Marvel Legends and I must say it still holds up. Detail wise it still has that intricate and vintage feel to him that doesn't make him look bad right next to the newest mold of Spidey. While missing a few good things in the articulation department, this Toybiz can still be a good competition to Hasbro. All in all, it's a good toy still considering how old it is!

Truthfully, I am in no dire need of any more Spider-Man toys. If he didn't come with the Sentinel piece, I probably would've kept him in the case and displayed. Now don't misconstrue, I am VERY pleased with this guy, it's just that I don't think he will be the first Marvel Legend I'll be looking for every time I go inside my game room!

The Sentinel however might be pretty high up there on the BAF line up… we'll see!