Happy Free Comic Book Day and May the 4th be with you, my fellow geeks! To celebrate we’ll take a look at the second Avengers vs X-Men box set. The first set was amazing; this one looks to be a killer!
Packaging
The packaging is the tall window box with control art of Iron Man’s Phoenix Killer Armour at the top and Avengers vs X-Men logo in the middle. The TRU exclusive silver logo sticker is also on the front. The sides have control art of the four figures. On the back is a mini-bio of the AvX crossover event along with a group picture of all figures in this box.
The Figures
Iron Man Phoenix Killer Armour
There may be a few of you out there that have not read the whole AvX crossover event so I’ll give you a summary of the entire story: Cyclops is a douche.
You’re welcome; let’s move on. So what does Tony Stark do if the Phoenix Force is coming? He creates a giant gundam robot to battle it. Sounds legit.
This armor is massive. I should have taken a picture of it next to the Hulkbuster one just to give you an idea of the size of this thing. On top of the base figure is a large torso/head cover. It has wing shoulderblades with a sunspot size uni-beam on the chest and giant thrusters in the back. You even have the little squat head on top. I love the hot rod red and gold metallic paint all over. There’s a big shoulder cannon that attaches to the shoulder part. The cannon reminds me of the Chitauri weapons for some reason; just the way the design flows on it. Anyways all this is spectacular but what’s even cooler is you can flip this cover up on its hinge and see Iron Man inside; but we’ll get to the base figure in a few moments. For the outer Phoenix Killer armor he comes with oversized gauntlets with repulsor rays on the forearms rather than hands. Also included are large boots that have the leg inserts angled outwards to create a bend at the knees. Add this to the thigh and waist cover and you have one massive looking figure.
So strip all the outer armor away and you have a base Iron Man figure (they’ve included extra hands and feet for this). They could have gone the easy route and had a simple red base figure to match the colors for the outer armor; but thankfully they didn’t. We get another extraordinary incredibly detailed Iron Man. The design is sleek, bright and sharp. And I love that we get lots of details all over, from front to sides to back. Bravo! The only thing to watch out for is since the paint apps are heavy the extra arms and feet take some force to slide all the way in.
Included is a clear base stand which you will need for balance. This is a heavy figure and even with the boots it can tend to fall forward or back.
This box set is worth full price for this figure alone; consider the other three characters included as added gravy for your main dish, sprinkles for your sundae … you get the idea. Buy, trade, beg, borrow or steal (don’t steal, stealing is bad) for this figure, you will not regret it!
MMC Score – 10 out of 10
Cyclops Phoenix Five
Here we have Scott Summers/Cyclops in his Phoenix Five outfit (still wondering about what happened, check my summary above).
We’ve seen Cyclops with his cap with visor before but this time his visor is slightly curved; gives that bird beak look. Underneath Scott has a grim expression with flaming eyes. No extra hairpiece is included.
He comes with two torso covers. The first is a translucent orange flame with phoenix logo in front and flames all around his shoulders and head. They did an excellent job with this piece and it also still allows a good amount of movement for his arms. The second torso cover is a slight mistake. It is a gold metallic shoulder cover that again has a phoenix shape to it. But in the comics this piece is red not gold. However being the great company that DST is, they are going to include the correct red color cover along with the Phoenix Five Colossus & Emma Frost in the TRU wave 16 set.
The rest of his outfit is his black jumpsuit. There is some detail for his chest and a bit of red on his waist for his belt. Cyclops also comes with two translucent orange hand fireballs. Included in the box set is a clear flight stand that could be used for Cyclops if you wish. Decent parts for customizing, a mostly black blank is always useful.
Overall a decent Cyclops figure with some great extras. A slight goof was made with the one cover but kudos for making it up to fans in the long run.
MMC Score – 7 out of 10
Scarlet Witch
This is only the second minimate ever released of Scarlet Witch. However at the time her wave 16 version was pretty darn good. That and her outfit has stayed fairly consistent over the years (more so than most characters). Consider this new version an upgrade in details.
She has a new hairpiece with iconic red headband with brown hair. Decent expression on her face and fair detail. Her cape is updated and fits over her shoulders with a bit of wavy ruffles in the back. Her torso design is as I said is similar as we’ve seen before just with more details. The previous versions lighter pink arms and legs looked more purple than you would like to see but this version’s colors are shaded better. Wanda also has red buccaneer cuffs rather than the long gloves that go up to her elbows. She also comes with an extra pair of hex hands. These look fantastic as they did a great job recreating the look of her magic with these translucent pink circles.
For an accessory you can use the included flight base to make her fly. And for customizing those hex hands could be swapped with many characters and the cuffs and cape make useful custom fodder too.
In conclusion her previous version was already pretty good, this one is even better. Actually had I not seen the upcoming version of her with a darker red outfit I probably would have scored this version higher.
MMC Score – 8 out of 10
Protector
They pulled this guy straight out of the late 70’s for the AvX event. And just let’s say he doesn’t do a great job of living up to his name. For a guy I originally had no clue of who the heck he was, he looks pretty cool.
The Protector has a great bug eyed looking mask and also comes with an extra white hairpiece. Underneath on his face is a decent amount of details (love the caterpillar eyebrows). The rest of his body is a base minimate body with white and black details painted all the way around front to back. It looks really good and the black/white contrast really makes him pop visually. His gloves/hands have attached large bracelets but not overly large like Shadowland Iron Fist. He also has a great white belt with gun holsters on the side.
For accessories he comes with two black blasters that would work as a good knock-off blaster for a Hans Solo custom (another Star Wars reference on May 4th, the force is strong with this one!).
So you may not know much about this character or honestly hear much of him after this event but he makes for a good minimate figure.
MMC Score – 8 out of 10
Review and pictures by Lurch77
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If you are unable to get this set from Toys R Us, you can pick it up at Luke’s Toy Store here.
Cyclops isn’t a douche, the whole reason AvX was started due to the Avengers not talking to the X-Men before everything went to hell.
Shut up, Scott
By the way if you look at the early print designs the flight stand was for Scott not SW. :) Also how did you get IM leg armor off. I try and feels like I might break him.
Oh and Scott was right.
Good catch on the flight stand. For IM I took the legs off the waist first then removed the thigh covers and then the boots. With the heavy paint apps the boots can be a tight fit and reluctant to come off.