Package Description
With his eyes hidden behind the visor that regulates his powerful optic blasts, CYCLOPS gives the impression of remoteness, even coldness. He is forced into solitude by the physical barrier made necessary by his uncontrollable mutant power, yet he feels perhaps more deeply than any of the other X-MEN. No one else on the team is so concerned for the safety of others, or so deeply dedicated to the dream of mutants and humans living together in peace and equality.
This concern for others, like his solitude, is born out of the uncontrollable nature of his power. Without his ruby crystal visor, he must be constantly on guard to avoid injuring others. His life has been structured entirely around preventing himself from doing unnecessary harm. He is a careful thinker and meticulous planner with a brilliant strategic mind capable of analyzing and planning for almost any situation. Combined with his natural leadership abilities, these qualities make him a perfect fit for leadership of the X-MEN. Imagining the team without him is almost impossible.
Appearance
Cyclops's costume is accurate, as should be expected from a relatively simple costume. The yellow striping has sort of a shine on the dark areas on the rest of the body. The yellow stripes are part of the sculpt, with yellow paint being added. They are a little messy at times, and don't have quite the sharpness I would like from this figure, but overall look good because the size of this figure hides the fuzzyness.
The base color of the mold is a dark blue, with a black wash all over to get the darker color. Because of the large dark areas of the costume, the appearance of this figure is made or lost on the outline of his body. In particular, the yellow lines emphasize the fluidity of movement between all parts of the body, so a natural looking body type is essential. A more buff body type would have been appropriate for Cyclops, but most likely would not have worked well with the dark costume, so I'm willing to accept Cyke the way he is.
Cyclops is made from Hasbro's new basic body for Icons. All the shapes and proportions are the same as on the Human Torch, minus the flames and plus the striping and belt. Magneto also has this body with similar modifications. The arms can look a little skinny and awkward, but there's usually a position for the arms that will look good, which just makes positioning him a little more difficult. The only odd thing about this new body is that he looks like he has 8-pack abs instead of six. Whether or not that's a problem is up to you, but I don't really notice
Overall I'm very impressed with this figure. He doesn't have quite the plastic look of Hasbro's earlier Icons, and Hasbro finally painted a skin tone correctly on the face. He's a little short compared to figures like Captain America, but there's not enough of a difference that he doesn't fit in well with all the other Icons figures. The 12" line continues to be where Hasbro is excelling with the Marvel license.
Articulation
For the most part articulation is very standard. Hasbro has settled on a mix between Toybiz and Hasbro joints, with ball jointed wrists, ankles, and neck with double pin joints for the elbows and knees. The only bad areas are the ball joints connecting the legs to the torso. The pin is at an angle, which makes raising and lowering the leg more of a hassle than it should be. In addition, if you twist the yellow striping under the torso, the yellow paint gets damaged from scraping the body. Joint stiffness was a problem with the whole figure when I opened it. The legs in particular took several minutes each to start moving. Overall he's got a good range of motion in everything except the legs, where an awkward twist has to be used to position them.
Poseablility
There are several things that can cause problems here. As mentioned before the twisting motion of the legs makes positioning and balance difficult at times. In addition the arms can look skinny and awkward unless positioned very deliberately to look right. On the plus side Hasbro is listening and gave Cyke a nice fist for punching. Overall there's several good poses to choose from for Cyke, but it can be tedious at times trying to make his body look like its in a natural position. The only thing I would add is that posing him as a leader is not near as difficult as a dynamic fighting pose, which not everyone is going to do with the increasing number of Icons figures out there taking up so much space.
Final Judgment: 8
Cyke get high marks for the quality way he was put together. The paint job is as good as any Toybiz Icon, and the face sculpt is dead on for Scott Summers. He's a little short for over 6', but it doesn't bother me. Overall, the feature that really nudges him into my favorites is that he has the same determined, assuring presence that he conveys in the comics. This figure has the personality and presence of Cyclops as good as I would expect from a hunk of plastic out there.
SCALE
10. My favorite possession.
9. My favorite action figure.
8. One of my favorite action figures.
7. An exceptional action figure.
6. A good, but not exceptional action figure.
5. An adequate action figure.
4. Not worth the money I spent.
3. I'll give it to somebody's kid.
2. I'll give it to somebody's dog.
1. It's going to lose a fight with my car.
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