2011
25.10

There’s no other way to say it: this is a weird pairing of characters.  There’s nothing to connect these two, other then their limited color  schemes—which, I suppose, is a greater connection then whatever logic went behind teaming up Lockjaw, the giant teleporting Inhuman dog, and Psylocke’s brief, ugly, armored look.  Usually, Diamond Select Toys does things that make sense.  Sometimes, they do not.

 

Packaging


 

The Figures

Fantomex

Fantomex traces his origins back to Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, a comic so radical and revolutionary that Marvel immediately distanced itself from it upon its’ conclusion.  Sigh.  Fantomex proved memorable enough to find a second life in the current incarnation of X-Force, a comic I don’t read but which people seem to like.  His costume’s been modified a bit, but he’s recognizable enough from his earlier days so that those of us that think Grant Morrison’s work is the only worthwhile X-Men comic of the last twenty-five years will be glad to have him.  In a perfect world, though, he’d have come with Xorn.  Double sigh.

Strangely, though, DST seems to have made a major mistake in Fantomex’ color scheme; in every picture I’ve ever seen of him, Fantomex is white, not grey.  Even in his X-Force duds, with the added black highlighs, he’s in white.  Looks really sharp too.  I’ve no idea why DST would have decided to make this unfortunate change, unless they decided that they didn’t want to have two essentially black and white figures in the same pack.  Of course, if that’s the case… why package them together at all?

Leaving aside the issue of color scheme, Fantomex turned out pretty well.  He reuses the high collar trench coat we’ve seen on Jubilee, among others;  not my favorite coat, but it fits Fantomex perfectly.  He also reuses the same belt as his X-Force running buddies Deadpool and Wolverine; again, while a reuse, the piece fits his look so well that it might as well have been designed for him.  About the only thing missing from Fantomex is a set of holsters for his guns.  I suppose DST decided that they didn’t want to mess with the design aesthetic of his leg details.  That, or they didn’t want to spring for the extra parts for what is essentially a straight up repeat.  But a nice one, at least.

MMC Score – 7 out of 10


 

Mr. Negative

Mister Negative, meanwhile, should not be confused with the short-lived Matthew Perry show Mister Sunshine, or the Dan Clowes graphic novel Mister Wonderful (aside: I would totally buy a set of Minimates based on Dan Clowes graphic novels.  I would probably not buy any based on the Friends cast).  Rather, he’s a Spider-Man villain, one of the new ones that’s sprung up since the Brand New Day reset (another aside: ignoring the [deplorable] mechanics behind the reset, these have been good comics, particularly the ones written by Dan Slott.  If you like Spider-Man, you should read ‘em).   Humanitarian by day, crime boss by night, Mr. Neg’s hung out in the background for the last few years, even receiving his own mini-series during Dark Reign.  He’s ready to join Menace, Anti-Venom, and Iron Patriot on your modern Spidey villains shelf.

Like Fantomex, Mr. Neg features no new parts, but those reused are so well  chosen it hardly matters.  Particularly noteworthy is his tie accessory, first seen on the otherwise unremarkable Spirit Minimate (I’m still bitter the ‘mates from that !@#$ movie were released, but the comics ones were cancelled).  I love this piece, and think it looks much better then the sculpted suit chestpieces we’ve seen on figures like Professor X, and it goes without saying that it’s a huge upgrade over the suit tampos early Minimates sported.

The suit jacket/tie combo also cleverly hides the tampo on the torso underneath.  While “dressed”, the chest block looks to be plain black; in actuality, there’s a nice bit of chest detail, allowing you to display you’re Mister Negative shirtless, with the included alternate arms, if you’re so inclined.  In fact, the tampos here are simple but subtly effective all around, with the design team using different shades of white to capture his eerie features; it’s really quite nice.  Mr. Neg also comes with his matching sword, for all your Chinatown crime boss samurai needs.

MMC Score – 7 out of 10

Review and pictures by Hellpop

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