10" Moon Knight by ToyBiz (1997)

I was surprised and delighted to find this character among the ToyBiz Marvel Universe lineup from the 90's- I mean, his sporadic presence in comic book history does go back to 1975, but he failed to keep his own title series for long, mostly teaming up with household names like Spiderman, Daredevil, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and West Coast Avengers. Though as a child I had at least one Moon Knight comic book, in which one of the hero's friends got cut down in a city alley by machine gun fire- there in the cars headlights, Moon Knight held him in his arms as he died, exchanging their last words. That seared a brand of the character in my young imagination that I haven't forgotten to this day.

Moon Knight was an ex-Marine turned mercenary by the name of Marc Spector who became the earthly avatar of the Egyptian god named Khonshu, who saved his life after being left for dead in the desert by African mercenary Raoul Bushman. Resurrected by Khonshu, Spector avenges murdered  archaeologist Peter Alraune, defeating Bushman in round two, then returns to America to become the crime fighting Moon Knight.

This toy made a GREAT subject to photograph- very enjoyable! A sympathetic friend mentioned recently that a lot of people aren't crazy about the ToyBiz action figures from the 90's, and I totally understand why- the 10" Marvel Universe series has really limited articulation and features some over-the-top 90's era costumes. I'm not crazy about all of them either, although I like the larger scale of them, that most of them have a cloth cape or jacket,  and the extensive variety of them is impressive- some of the characters have three or four variants! Yes they are somewhat clunky, but they are toys- made to be played with... made to be FUN. And that's ok. Some of the toys you good people spend your hard-earned shekels on are certainly more detailed, engineered works of art- I like these too, and respect the skilled artistry that goes into a Hot Toy or Medicom piece. But understand, I actually (laughs) enjoy the clunky, catoonish look of some toys. Additionally, some of these figures were produced fifteen or more years ago and I missed all that, so it's new to me.

-Moon Knight wiki at Marvel.Com!
-Kickass "Mego-style" custom Moon Knight by Dave McCormick at MegoMuseum.Com/custom
-Moon Knight merchandise from past and present at MoonKnightFan.tripod.com