Wolverine and the X-Men's Colossus

Wolverine and the X-Men was an excellent cartoon. While most kids of the 90's revere X-Men: The Animated Series, I always found the animation ugly compared to the stuff I was used to and it didn't seem to have the same punch as the comics I was reading at the time.

Wolverine and the X-Men on the other hand felt much closer to the source material in tone, if not strictly following the timeline. I was bummed when I learned they'd cancelled the second season because of issues with Marvel's financial partners at the time.

While I loved the series and it's aesthetic, I don't think it translated too well to the toys. Wolverine and the X-Men arrived on Toy Kingdom shelves with no fanfare, and remained on shelves until they were marked down to 50% off  (P250.00 or about $5.50 US). Even in the bargain bin, it was a hard sell since the cartoon wasn't on air on local stations and there were so many other better looking Wolverines in the Marvel Universe line.



Eventually, while looking for a better coat for my Iron Man 2 Nick Fury, I decided to pick up the Cyclops figure from this line which had a molded plastic coat. The Cyclops figure grew on me and I decided to pick up a few more, including Beast (the Marvel Universe line has yet to release a figure of him) and Colossus.

Wolverine and the X-Men's Colossus figure

In package, Colossus looks pretty intimidating. He's bigger than most of the figures in the line, he's got huge arms and fists bigger than most guy's heads. His red costume stands out nicely from the predominantly yellow and blue card and makes him immediately visible to toy store lurkers (which is one of the reasons he was probably the first to go once they hit 50%).

Getting him out is simple enough. The figure is housed in a plastic tray with room in the back for his "I-beam weapon!"You can pop both out easily. If I remember correctly, there were a few of those clear rubber bands to remove.

Token Strong Guy

The "I-beam weapon!" is just a rubbery piece of plastic that he can bend. His hands aren't really molded to hold the thing, but since it's soft, you can easily bend it to fit his grip. Not that he can really do much with it anyway.

The biggest problem with the toy is articulation. Sure, he's a great representation of a character that doesn't get nearly enough plastic attention, but he's got too few joints for him to be fun. Here's his list of points of articulation:

1. Ball-jointed head
2. Swivel-hinge shoulders
3. Swivel wrists
4. Swivel waist
5. Swivel-hinge hips (angled to the side, rather than to the front)
6. Hinge knees
7. Swivel feet

And that's it.

In total, it's 12 points, which is decent. But the fact is, little of it is useful. Because he's got no elbows, both the wrist and shoulder articulation is wasted. Because his hips go out instead of forward, his leg articulation is wasted. He can't kneel, he can't squat, he can't really get into a running pose. Hell, I can't even get him into position to punch out the bad guy.

He makes a fine prima ballerina, though:

I was also thinking I could use his head on another figure, since the sculpt looks decent. No such luck.

His head is on a tiny, TINY ball joint that is appallingly small. Every time I bring this guy out of storage, I'm afraid I'll lose the head after accidentally hitting him on something. The head itself won't fit on any of my other figures. Unless I take a Dremel to it, which I'm unwilling to do since he's no longer available at my local toy store.

Unlike the Hammer Files' Colossus, this toy really doesn't live up to it's potential. I love how it looks, but I really hate how it plays. Even for Php 250.00, it doesn't seem worth the price unless you're a fan of the character (which I am).

I'd say save your money and find yourself a used Superhero Showdown Colossus instead.