I had some problems with another version of this character, but White Star Gamma X works slightly
better for me than the clear colorless $31 version and the
fully-painted $26 version for one reason: met expectations. The clear
one costs twice as much as this one - why? I have no idea. But this
one has about the same amount of paint applications, and at half the
price actually looks pretty great. The parts more or less all fit in
place and while there aren't any options for customization like
alternate elbows or fists, it was also $16.00.
[ READ THE FULL REVIEW ]
This
ability for a classic figure line to grow is both exciting and
terrifying. So many action figure lines are revived without the
original cast seeing plastic, new entrants are sometimes seen as
unwelcome pests - but not Jack Asteroid. Not only did he debut after we saw evidence of the original 13 Outer Space Men
were hitting plastic, but the design was a clever twist on existing
figures - the body is Metamorpho, from 2010. The helmet, backpack, and
weapons are recycled from the Terra Firma design, which debuted in early
2012. The only completely new element is his human head, one of very
few mass-produced people noggins in the Glyos-compatible toy world (so
far.)
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While Terra Firma was revealed to the world first, Jack Asteroid
worked out well as a variation on the theme. For all intents and
purposes, Mr. Asteroid is the 21st Century Major Matt Mason stand-on.
The original Outer Space Men were made by Colorforms to be
compatible with Mattel's line, and since Mattel isn't doing anything
with Major Matt Mason (and indeed may never) it's reasonable that this
Space Race toy line needed its token human white male astronaut. The
orange-suited figure is an insanely clever reuse of Terra Firma's helmet
and accessories with Metamorpho's body and a new head. One of the big
selling points of figures (like this one) that use the Glyos system is
that you can swap around parts, but it seems this is mostly used for
customization purposes or color-swaps. With Jack Asteroid, they're
giving us what amounts to a completely new figure just by using paint
and existing accessories - kudos.
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I was pretty surprised to see Terra Firma
at a New York event for The Four Horsemen a few years ago - not only
was she the first new member of this group in decades, but she was
rather shapely. Having a fairly limited background in such things I
thought her form looked a lot like Little Annie Fanny character I saw in
a Hake's Auction catalog that got mailed to me, which I later found out
was a Playboy cartoon character, which I wasn't interesting enough to
know already because... when you meet my parents, it'll all make sense
to you then. This nifty new figure draws heavily on real-world space
program elements like her orange suit and the overall coloring on the
figure, plus builds on the 1962 cartoon character's built-in 1960s-ness
from Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder. Borrowing from that which came
before is smart - the original Outer Space Men aliens were
derived from the back pages of films showcased in the likes of Famous
Monsters of Filmland, so it's only appropriate to have Terra's origin
come from contemporary magazines.
[ READ THE FULL REVIEW ]
Back in May of 2010, I was blown away when I saw the announcement that not only would I be getting some Outer Space Men
figures, but they'd be 3 3/4-inch scale, Glyos compatible,
fully-poseable, and made by the Four Horsemen. That first batch was
glorious - each figure was well made, freely able to stand or sit and
everything just plain worked. Figures could sit in vehicles, the
glow-in-the-dark figure glowed quite well, and they were a very
reasonable $10 each - despite being super-low-run figures. A few years
on, edition sizes of 200 struggled to sell out and by the time we got to
Gamma X, it feels we just limped over the finish line to update the classic Mel Birnkrant action figure property. Some were good - Colossus Rex,
for example, was an exceptional figure and arguably the apex of what
Glyos compatibility has given us - but as the line went on, each year we
saw new problems. Figures may tumble off your desk due to weak hip
joints, or they couldn't quite sit, or in the case of Gamma X... I've
got a lot of complaints.
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The inspiration for Horroscope
started as one of many original designs over the years, the name of
which came from an old movie monster projector toy. (It's true, I
asked!) Sketches of the character originally started out as an
alternate head for Xodiac, but instead ended up has his daughter.
Building on Terra Firma's parts, Horroscope has a unique chest not yet
used on any other figure - note the lack of the flat surface used to
mount a helmet. Her accessories are cleverly repurposed from Xodiac,
and her new 2-part head was designed quite nicely. This is a keeper.
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I will always have problems spelling Ohpromatem
but I will say this - she's impressive. The concept originated from
some Mel Birnkrant sketches that seemingly were made for the male
Metamorpho body, but instead the development bent the gender into
something just as creepy and arguably more interesting. She's also the
kind of thing I think I need to hide, because this is the first and
only figure I can name that actually has light-up breast functionality.
How am I supposed to explain this to visitors?
[ READ THE FULL REVIEW ]
