More Marvel Vs. Capcom MiniMates 2-Packs

 

Would I try to review three MiniMate 2-packs in one post? Shut ya face- this is the Super-DuperToyBox  :D   Very late into collecting MiniMates, I picked these Marvel Vs. Capcom 2-packs up this summer along with a few others in attempt to get a few of my favorite Marvel characters. I've been unexpectedly surprised by how cool the Capcom mates have been, though I probably never played a Capcom game in my life. 

 

 

The Super-Skrull Vs. Crimson Viper set was a joy to find, mainly due to my fascination with the shape shifting alien race that genetically altered this Skrull warrior, Kl'rt, to defeat the Fantastic Four back in 1963.

 Diamond Select packed the accessories into this killer action figure, giving us a piece representing each member of the Fantastic Four: a swirling base & stretched arm & fist from Mr.Fantastic, the bottom of which is translucent, illustrating Sue's power of invisibility- the Thing's powerful rock hand, and a translucent "flame" gauntlet round out Super-Skrull's adaptation of the Four's powers. This is an outstanding MiniMate!

 

 

 As I said, my experience with and knowledge of Capcom is pretty much nada, but Crimson Viper is a unique MiniMate with another killer hairdo. I like her visor detailed fists, and mischievously arched eyebrows too- T.R.O.U.B.L.E. The cobalt base of her uniform is nice & contrasty against the highlight colors on the figure.

 

Crimson Viper is a character from the Street Fighter games. I read some pretty bad reviews of her on Wikipedia, and that she was introduced in 2008 to appeal to the American audience, based on Capcom's development team research. Her form-fitting suit enables her to perform electrical, seismic, and pyrotechnic moves, hence the translucent "flame" accessory that fits over her hand.

 

What a fun pair to do battle... ! 

 

 Doom & Wesker both came armed with some relatively detailed and unique pistols, Wesker's even enjoying a paint application. They look about the size of most 3 3/4" figure weapons, and I appreciate their inclusion.

 

Doom looks, well, just like Doom- pretty great with all the right details. He can't turn his head with the cloak on, which may have worked better with a separate, slip over hood piece.

 

 

Doom's range of motion is severely limited due to his bulky cloak, gauntlets, and boots, but he's a standout MiniMate- so fun! That holster will hold his gun by the way, loading into the hollow center from the back- a thoughtful touch on a great looking figure. This makes me want to assemble a MiniMate Fantastic Four to go with tiny Doom! Tee Hee Hee  :D

 

This set included the standard MiniMates clear disc base and this translucent orange ramp- I'm unsure if this was intended for Doom, but Wesker rides it better due to his superior range of movement.

  

I felt this set may have been my only chance to get a Doom, but I may like Wesker better for his flared trenchcoat and glossy black finish- reminds me of The Matrix. Mine has stuck right elbow, which luckily looks great outstretched, his pistol in hand. Wesker is from the Resident Evil game who later joined forces with Doctor Doom in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, in which the two build an army of supervillains. Wikipedia explains that he survived his death in the first game by injecting himself beforehand with an experimental virus, augmented with superhuman strength, speed and regeneration upon his revival, but at the expense of his humanity.

 

This is a cool set- much more fun out of package than I thought it would be, with cool sculpt, paint, and accessories. I have a tiny collection of Doom figures, so I couldn't resist, even if only for tiny Doom!

 

 

 This last set I definitely got for the Hulk, a favorite character I've loved since childhood, and a character I'm likely to buy when found. I had some Mego Hulks as a child and loved the 70's television show starring Lou Ferrigno and Bill Bixby. We go way back.

 

 

Some of the earlier MiniMate Hulks didn't enjoy these slip-over torsos and enlarged limbs the newer ones do. Hulk also has shoulder pads that clip over his biceps, another design improvement that opened up the base MiniMate figure for a wider range of body types since their debut.

Hulk is lovably bulky MiniMate, much like the Beast that came with the X-Factor set I posted on back in August, another favorite MiniMate of mine. There are about twenty different Hulk MiniMates, and this is good a representation of the Jade Giant as any in my opinion- I love his bright coloring! I wouldn't mind getting the Avengers Iron Man/Hulk 2-pack however, which features a more subdued color scheme and facial expression.

 

 

  

This set came with two bases, a standard MiniMates clear disc, and an unusual translucent flesh-colored base I can only assume was intended for the Hulk- perhaps a "poof" of dust where he stomps his foot? I'm not sure what to think of this.

 

While most all MiniMates have limited lateral range in the legs, Mike Haggar's have none at all, a figure that would benefit from a little swagger in his stance. I love the pipe accessory and pissed-off,  moustached face, but he's my least favorite of these. That said, I have to hand it to Diamond Select for the great detailing of his gold-buckled shoulder strap. Wikipedia says Mike first appeared in the 1989 Capcom arcade game Final Fight, a professional wrestler turned mayor of fictional Metro City. When the Mad Gear gang kidnaps his daughter Jessica in hopes of forcing Haggar into a reluctant cooperation with them, the mayor recruits the help of Jessica's boyfriend Cody and mutual friend Guy to rescue her and defeat the gang. That's a winning plot formula in my opinion  ;)

Whew! It nearly took me a week to put that all together, but I had fun & hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Of all the mini action figures, MiniMates may have to be some of the most fun, with all variety of characters & liscences from which they have produced. It's a shame they stopped making DC characters, though I do have a lot of DC mini figures from the Mattel DC Action League and Fisher Price Imaginext lines.

 

 

*See my post on the Marvel Vs. Capcom 2-packs: Modock/Akuma & Sentinel/Ryu!

*See my post on the Marvel Vs. Capcom 2-packs: Wolverine/Viewtiful Joe & Magneto/Zero!

*Check out the online MiniMates Database!

More Later- Make It FUN!

Marvel Vs Capcom: Modock/Akuma & Sentinel/Ryu

Like the Wolverine/Viewtiful Joe & Magneto/Zero 2-packs I recently reviewed, these MiniMates are based on a series of video games created by Capcom in which characters created by Marvel Comics and Capcom's own characters appear together. Series 3 are based on the third version, Fate of Two Worlds. While I'm not a gamer, these sets have some colorful characters that look fun to me.

 

Modock is a freaky Marvel creation, first appearing in '67 under the reign of the late, great Jack Kirby. Only Kirby could come up with something that looked like this!

From Wikipedia:

George Tarleton is a technician for the organization Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM). Having recently created the artifact the Cosmic Cube, the AIM scientists use advanced mutagenics to alter Tarleton and create the super intelligent MODOC (acronym for Mental Organism Designed Only for Computing) to study and improve the object. MODOC, however, becomes ambitious and kills its former masters and takes control of AIM. Calling itself MODOK (Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing).

  

 

I stupidly passed on this set the first time I saw it, but had to return for Modock, maybe the most unique MiniMate I've ever seen. He's pretty top-heavy, but the chair holds him upright just fine and looks killer atop it's translucent blastoff base! 

 

The online Street Fighter wiki says Akuma (悪魔 or アクマ, "Demon, Devil" in Japanese), known in Japan as Gouki (豪鬼, Gōki, "Great Devil", "Great Demon" or "Great Ogre"), is a popular fighter as well as a popular villain in the Street Fighter series and UDON comics. He is known as "The Supreme Master of the Fist."

Being Supreme Master of the Fist and all, I assume one of the translucent blast accessories is for Akuma. The sculpt and color on this tiny figure a great! Those are prayer beads around his neck, and the Kanji symbol for "Ten" appears on the back of Akuma's gi top. While I bought this 2-pack for Modock, I think I like Akuma even more- lookit that hair!   :D

 

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Sentinels are the longtime antagonists of the X-Men, introduced in issue #14 in 1965. The 30 foot tall, flying robots fire energy blasts, and become more dangerous each time the X-Men face them due to their tactical thought capabilities, enhancing their counterattack. It would have been nice if he was an oversized MiniMate, more in scale with the rest, but I'll take this. See my post on the Marvel Universe 16" Masterworks Sentinel!

 

I really like that they used the purple & blue color combo from Marvel Comics canon on this. This is a seriously chunky MiniMate, and his articulation is somewhat restricted due to this. One of the boots is not perfectly secure in it's leg fitting, which gave me a little trouble posing him in flight, but I'm amused by him overall. I mean, who doesn't like giant, killer robots?

 

 

According to the online Capcom database, Ryu's first appearance in the original Street Fighter replaced the red headband with a white one and depicted him with bright red hair, gray eyes, and red slippers. I like the shade of red they used, and while I never played much Street Fighter, this is a fun, archetypal, little martial artist. Trivia from the database: Ryu and Chun Li are the only Street Fighter characters that appear in every Capcom Versus game.

 

Ryu's shirt/belt overlay can be removed, revealing his block, yet fit chest- the result, no doubt, of never missing a Street Fighter game  :D

Diamond Select gave us four bases with this set, two flat disc and two flight posts- I'm not sure why since Modock has the chair, unless the Sentinel was meant to utilize both flight posts, but Rtu looks cool flying through the air! While I bought the sets for the Marvel characters, Akuma & Ryu rock hard and will go great with the other Capcom characters I have. I'd recommend these to any Minimate fan!

More Later- Make It FUN!

Marvel Vs. Capcom Minimates: Wolverine/Viewtiful Joe & Magneto/Zero

These MiniMates are based on a series of video games created by Capcom in which characters created by Marvel Comics and Capcom's own characters appear together, Series 3 based on the third version, Fate of Two Worlds. While I'm not a gamer, these two sets had some colorful characters that looked fun to me.

A MiniMate version of blue/yellow Astonishing Wolvie was definitely something I was into, and while I knew nothing of Viewtiful Joe, his fun factor was not lost on me...

Viewtiful Joe is a movie enthusiast whose girlfriend Silvia is kidnapped during a film starring Joe's favorite superhero, Captain Blue. Pulled into Movieland, where Silvia was taken by the villainous group known as Jadow, Joe receives a special V-Watch from Captain Blue, transforming him into the tokusatsu-style persona "Viewtiful Joe", where after he sets out to rescue her. Joe's got great color, a honking, bulbous Kamen Rider inspired helmet, and a mischievous grin on his masked face. The scarf/cape is an odd, bubblegum pink- but it works somehow against the red and white. He brings a smile to face  :D   And the included flight stand is perfect for a jubilant hero like Joe!

Equally hilarious is this impossibly cute Wolverine- I guess there are five or six other blue/yellow Wolverines floating around in the Super-DuperToyBox, and it's because I like that color scheme on him, whether it's classic tiger stripe, Astonishing version, or blue and gold training uniform from 1991. Don't get me wrong: I still love the old brown/yellow, and the X-Force silver/black rocks too, but the blue/yellow works so well that it's undergone the most reinterpretations. See Logan's costume history at IGN!

Perhaps even more interesting was this Magneto/Zero set, full of both personality and great accessories, including to bases, one a flight stand!

According to Wikipedia, Zero is a video game character present throughout the Mega Man franchise, first appearing in the 1993 game Mega Man X for the Super Nintendo. His Z-saber, Z-buster cannon mounted at the end of his right arm, and chunky red and white armor and anime eye treatment give Zero a classic manga feel. Finned ponytail end and Z-saber are echoed in the stylization of his helmet, which give this guy great unity throughout his design. The heft of his arm cannon and shoulder overlay restrict his articulation a little, but the oversized boots add to his stability. Zero has a ton of detail packed into his tiny 2 1/4" frame- Awesome!

Partnered with Zero in this killer 2-pack is classic Magneto, the universally loved Marvel supervillain. As the conflicted mutant, at odds with the X-Men and human race which fears them both, Magneto represents some sort archetypal antihero gone bad that's makes his psychology more interesting than your average comics scoundrel.

Magneto has a lot of great detail in his shoulder overlay and helmet, but I was equally impressed with Diamond Select having painted the inside of his cape a dark red- and understated yet thoughtful touch of artistry. Nice! Along with purple energy orbs that fit over his fists, Mags comes with a great looking hairpiece for days off his evildoer day job. He has the same great helmet as the First Class Magneto I just reviewed, the back of which sports an incised/painted M... I can't pick a favorite.

If you are into MiniMates, I'd wholeheartedly recommend these really fun 2-packs, Capcom fan or not- the colors, unique characters, and great accessories make them well worth the eight to ten bucks you'll likely find them for. So Great!

 More Later-Make It FUN!