Out of the Box: Union Jack (Toy Biz Marvel Universe)

Toy Biz Union Jack.

When the "All New Invaders" series ended a few weeks ago, I found myself in the mood to pick up a couple of tie-in figures.  The first of which was the Hasbro Union Jack that I posted about last month.  Having that purchase in my browsing history lead me to some of the older figures of the same character, and somehow (*cough*) one of them ended up in my cart.

On the opposite size of the size spectrum as the Hasbro figure, this 1998 Union Jack stands just over 10" (25cm)  in height.  The Toy Biz Marvel Universe figures are strangely light weight for their height (they appear to be made of a fairly light plastic), and have fairly minimalistic features.  I think the features would have been a turn-off on a non-masked character, but since Union Jack's look is minimalist on its own, it works for this one.

The figures in this series are packed in brightly coloured boxes with a yellow and red colour scheme and a front plastic window to show off the figure.  The sides of the box depict other characters (not all of which seem to have been made into figures, which seems to be an odd choice), while the back describes the storyline that the depicted version of the character is inspired by.

The front of the box.

The back of the box.

Once opened, there's a bight yellow inner-sleeve to which the figure is secured.  I was happy to see that the figure was held on with just a few simple twist ties, and thus was very easy to remove from the packaging (some other lines could learn from that!).

The inner sleeve.

The figure has eleven points of articulation (neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, ankles), and has a right hand that's sculpted in a semi-open fist which allows him to hold the plastic knife accessory that is also included.  Aside from the knife, the only other accessory is a faux-leather utility belt (the simplicity of the belt is the weakest point of the figure - at this size, they could have done something more detailed).

Holding the knife and showing off his articulation.

The body sculpt is fairly detailed, while the head sculpt is very simple.  The screening isn't perfect, but again this is an issue that's easy to ignore on a figure with such a simple style - it's not an encouraging sign for any of the more detailed figures in the line though.  Another issue that's worth noting is that the thin, hard plastic of this figures head and body are significantly more reflective of light than their smaller counterparts, which made it incredibly challenging to photograph this guy without some part of him producing serious glare.

Look at the glare!  And that's without a flash!

If I had to summarize this figure's appeal, I think I'd just have to call him "fun".  He's not a quality display piece and  his plastic is a little to thin to hold up to serious play, so I'm not sure who the original market was supposed to be, but he's big and bright, and I like the way he looks on my desk (especially with the smaller Union Jack on his shoulder), so I'm happy with him, relative weaknesses and all.

Holding onto his smaller twin.