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Disclaimer: This review contains designs from the 90’s. You have been warned.

Packaging

TRU 13 was a bit of a mixed bag. It featured a couple of 2-packs that seemed to round out box sets, and a couple of 2-packs that featured updates of older characters.
The packaging is the standard affair. We’ve got a bright red box this time with the usual window, design art and our trusty ‘TRU Exclusive’ sticker that lets the scalpers know which sets to target.
On the back we can see the usual group shot and bios, giving a little info about the characters and their mutations.
While the Magma & Mirage set was clearly tied to the New Mutants box set from two years earlier, the Rictor & Boomer set didn’t actually have any minimates to go with them for some time. Although I would display these guys with Feral, Domino, Cable and Deadpool from the first X-Force box set (released as an AFX SDCC exclusive in 2010) at the time, they were actually from a different era of X-Force. The 2010 box set featured looks popularised at the end of Rob Liefeld’s run on New Mutants, while these two figures are clearly based on Greg Capullo’s X-force designs. We didn’t see more of this team until 2015’s X-Force box set.

The Figures

Rictor

Rictor, who’s real name is Julio Esteban Richter, has the ability to generate seismic energy, creating powerful waves of vibration, not unlike an earthquake. Don’t you love it when characters are born with names that predict what their future powers might be?
As stated above, this figure is based on Capullo’s take on Rictor. This costume was what Rictor was seen in the mid 90’s, during the X-Cutioner’s Song story, and right up until just before he quit the team (after the Age of Apocalypse cross-over).
The 90’s always seemed to be personified by X-Force more than any other team. When I think of the 90’s in comic books, I think of long, flowing hair, macho men, shoulder pads, pouches, ridiculously big guns and aggression. X-Force really had it all covered. In fact, short of the guns, Rictor was doing a pretty good job of filling the rest of the criteria all by himself.
DST have done a great job recreating his look as a minimate. Despite being a total C-lister, DST actually went to the trouble of sculpting his trademark shoulder-pads and neckerchief. His chest block has some nice detailing, and the red ‘X’ logo we remember from the comics. They even painted the little green tassels on his sleeves. The tassels don’t go all the way around, but I’m still pretty impressed that they were remembered.
His hair looks to be sculpted just for him as well, so that it flows nicely over his shoulder-pads. He’s got an appropriately stern look on his face.
Rictor’s been drawn with both blue/black and green fingerless gloves over the years. DST have gone with green for their version of him, which I think better suits the vibrancy of the era and the figures. It’s the same green used on his neckerchief, head band and his pouch-laden belt, so there’s a nice sense of consistency throughout the figure. His black pants even have the strange blue pattern on them that appeared in the comics. They seemed to be large ovals that had interescting lines cutting through them from all different angles. Perhaps they were meant to be representative of his power breaking things apart? Whatever they were, kudos to DST for including them.
His boots are a re-use of the pair we saw used for Thunderstrike in Wave 42. Ric was usually drawn in knee-high, brown/ khakee leather boots that were strapped up in a random fashion. These aren’t perfect, but they’re the closest match that DST has in their parts library, and I seriously doubt that anyone could fault them for using them here.

Ric has no accessories. His mutation never really lent itself to an obvious power-signature that could be easily drawn or recreated as a toy. If he were released today, you might expect to see him with the couple of pieces of asphalt that were included with Avalanche in Wave 60, but as a figure, he’s fine as he is.

As a sucker for the 90’s this figure is right up my alley, but more than that – it’s a very accurate representation of the source material. Short of continueing the tassels all the way around, sculpting new boots and maybe giving him some accessories, DST really couldn’t have done a better job on Rictor. I’m giving him 8 out of 10.

MMC Score – 8 out of 10

Boomer

Do you know what else scream’s 90’s to me? Obnoxiously colourful costumes. Boomer has ‘obnoxious’ and ‘colourful’ done and dusted.
Tabitha Smith has gone by a number of codenames over the years: Boom Boom, Boomer, Meltdown and even Time Bomb. As her names may indicate, Tabitha’s mutation allowed her to generate orbs or energy that detonate on command , unleashing explosive force. The bigger the orb, the bigger the bang. She can control the amount of time before detonation, and is often depicted ‘counting down’ to the moment of explosion.

As with Rictor, this is Boomer’s Capullo-era garb. If memory serves, all of the costumes from this period were actually designed in story by Boomer herself. So, if you have any hate-mail, send it to Tabitha Smith, c/o whatever trailer park she currently lives in.
In keeping with the 90’s aesthetic, Boomer has a massive set of shoulder-pads, which appear to have been sculpted just for her. They are an orangey/brown colour here, possibly a little more brown than they were in the comics, but they still feature the yellow highlights and ‘X’ logo. In the comics, her shoulder-pads were connected to a harness that ran across the top of her chest, down the middle of her torso and connected to her belt. DST have included sculpted elements to mimic the top of harness, and the belt, but have opted to paint the section that runs down her torso. It’s a good choice, as it keeps her from looking too bulky… well…. bulkier, I guess.
Boomer’s hair is also a newly sculpted piece. And I don’t see it being used again any time soon. Her shock of blonde hair is well represented, as are her fluro green blade-style glasses. She even has little star-shaped, explosion earrings sculpted on. It’s a really nice touch and shows how much DST pay attention to the source material. DST could have possibly cast the piece in a transparent green plastic, so that we could see the figures eyes under the glasses, but you could never see through her glasses in the comics, so I support DST’s decision here.
Boomer’s hot pink and canary yellow costume is recreated here with remarkable accuracy. Her gauntlets are sculpted, and the colours are consistent with the body of the figure. Her legs have ankle cuffs above the foot to simulate the straps on her costume. DST have even remembered the sun-like pattern on her chest. As a child it didn’t mean much to me, but looking back now – perhaps this was an in-joke about ‘exploding orbs’?
And, just in case you ever forget who this character is, her name is emblazoned down the outside of the left leg of her costume. Just as it was in the comics. Really.

Boomer gets two orange fireballs for accessories. DST could have possibly sculpted some new orbs of varying sizes, but these are already kind of orb shaped. Plus, they fit over hands, which looks cool. Considering the amount of sculpting DST has already done for these two C-listers, I can’t really fault them for not creating new accessories when these already exist in the parts library.
She also had her jaw wired shut around the time of this costumes debut (after a conflict with Skids). So if DST really wanted to go crazy, they could have given her an alternate head block with a wired jaw, but that’d be a lot to ask for a c-lister

This figure is an almost perfect representation of the character as she looked in the mid 90’s. With the exception os a little paint slop on the shoulder pads, I really can’t pick on any of the decisions that have been made in bringing Boomer to life as a minimate. I know a lot of people look at the x-books in the 90’s as something to forget, but just judging this figure on the translation from source material to toy – I really can’t give it anything less than 9 out of 10.

MMC Score – 9 out of 10.

Agree? Disagree? Why not vote for yourself below, or comment further over at the Minimate Multiverse MMC Review Forum.

Review and pictures by Nessex.

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