23.07
After a couple of Marvel movie-inspired waves, wave 23 contained more obscure characters taken from the pages of Marvel comics. Up for review are teenage runaways turned mutant experiments Cloak and Dagger. As these characters are so tied in to each other, it makes sense to package them together.
Packaging
The latest Marvel packaging debuted with this wave, and has remained the template for other lines such as Terminator 2. The windowed area to view the actual Minimates in the package is really nice, but I will always have a fondness for the smaller boxes used between waves 4 and 13. There are “concept art” headshots underneath the windows and as usual, each side is dedicated to one character, allowing a better, more dynamic look at the whole figure.
The back of the pack features the whole wave together and also the welcome return of the mini-bios. Very handy when dealing with the less well-known characters, which Cloak and Dagger definitely are.
The Figures
Cloak
The first figure in this set is Tyrone Johnson, who ran away when he was 17 to New York City, meeting up with Tandy Bowen and then falling prey to illegal science experiments which activated latent mutant genes. Ty became Cloak, who can teleport via his link to a dark dimension which feeds off life.
Cloak has a very evil-looking face, as befits someone being consumed by dark hunger. His cold white eyes stare blankly as his face is contorted into a grimace. He really does look like a bad guy!
The body is very, very simple. It’s effectively a black blank with no detailing lines at all. I would have liked to see some shading done on the chest block but it would be tricky to pull off at this scale so I can understand why DST didn’t.
The signature piece for Cloak is obviously his cloak. This has been recreated well in Minimate form, being one of the largest and most voluminous cloaks yet seen on a Minimate. I love the way it flows around his feet, which adds mass to the cloak. The black lines are actually sculpted on and not just painted, giving the cloak a lot of depth. Also important is the fact that the hood of the cloak is a separate piece, allowing Cloak to move his head from side to side.
Cloak has no accessories.
In conclusion: A simple yet effective version of a fairly obscure figure.
MMC Score – 6 out of 10
Dagger
Subjected to the same experiments that created Cloak, Tandy Bowen became Dagger, able to generate daggers of light. She helps Cloak’s hunger by using her light powers to satiate the darkness. The two are almost always a team, their abilities intertwined.
Dagger is your standard Marvel “early 80s hot heroine with big hair costumed in revealing spandex”. The X-Men were chock full of them at the time. Suitably, Dagger sees the one millionth reuse of New X-Men Jean Grey’s hairpiece. You know the one, everyone from Ms Marvel to the Black Cat has featured the hairpiece. But I have to admit, DST keeps using it because it works. It’s perfect for Dagger. The hairpiece seems to have acquired a peg since its use in wave 10, as Ms Marvel and Dagger both feature a hole in the head.
The detailing is very clean. Dagger has big blue eyes and a small mouth, her expression is fairly neutral. The white jumpsuit is split around the full bust and the stomach to show the outline of a dagger, whilst also showing off a lot of cleavage. Good work! The rest of the figure is very plain. There are no details on the legs at all, and the arms are all white. The hands have some more white costume on them.
Dagger has no accessories. It would have been nice to get some kind of translucent slip-over hand piece to show off her powers.
In conclusion: We’ve seen this kind of figure many times in the Marvel line. They are easy to crank out as they all use the same hairpiece and require minimal extra sculpted pieces. However, because of this, they each seem to just work as a representation of the character and Dagger here is no exception. To get both Cloak and Dagger in the same set is cool because the characters are rarely shown apart. A worthwhile set to get to bolster your Marvel heroes ranks with some new characters.
MMC Score – 7 out of 10
Review and pictures by Danny Mills
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