Marvel Legends VHS Cyclops 90s Animated Series review

Good luck not hearing the X-Men Animated Series theme playing right now. Cyclops is not just my favorite X-Man, but easily one of my favorite Marvel characters. Blame Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson, just like I blame Brian Michael Bendis for doing his best to wrecking ball so many X-Men characters during his run.

Hasbro has done some good versions of my guy in Marvel Legends form. The Cyclops/Dark Phoenix two-pack is one of my all-time favorite figures though I wouldn’t complain about a slightly taller, wider version that keeps that awesome comic shading intact.

The 90s version was OK for its time though it probably should be bigger to better reflect the Jim Lee artwork. Hasbro’s already released two versions of this look but cranked out one more with the X-Men Animated Series line. This isn’t just a simple repaint though as Hasbro used the release as the opportunity to make some changes to the old Cyclops mold for one that holds up better with more modern figures.

Let’s see if this one is the ultimate version of the Lee Cyclops or if I’m gonna need to just cave and finally get the Mafex figure.

Package: For Hasbro, this is the main selling point of these figures. The package done up like those massive VHS tapes with one or two episodes from the show.

As a selling point, it’s pretty spectacular with a nice animated-series style shot of Cyclops firing off his optic blast and leading the X-Men into battle. The Blackbird is in the background with the comic book style portrait in the left corner and a reasonably big X-Men logo just off center.

Along either side is a shot of Cyclops with MVL Legends at the bottom. In fairness, these boxes are pretty cool and would probably make for a fun display set even if I don’t get any other figures. The rear is more traditional with the Retro packaging style minus the cross sell of other figures. I really don’t like this trend of using rendered art on the back instead of a shot of the figure itself. That seems somewhat shady.

Cyclops’ bio is well done despite its brevity. It is possible to do a good bio even with a short amount of space.

Likeness:  Cyclops uses the new Vulcan body, the new Bucky Cap base body for Marvel Legends going forward. There’s no pins and this buck is overall thicker and taller as figures are gradually creeping up in height. That’s not a bad thing for the JL Cyclops.

Fixing some of the issues with previous JL Cyclops figures, Hasbro sculpted the harness, glove, thigh and boots straps.

He’s got a new sculpt as well. This one is alright, but I really loved the initial JL head sculpt. Something about this one is throwing me off. I think it’s the hair, which is a little wilder than Cyclops normally had it though it’s more in line with how it was portrayed in the cartoon.

Scale:  Cyclops was slightly taller than the average X-Man, coming in just a bit shorter than Captain America, which seems about right.

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Paint: Hasbro has continually tinkered with the colors of the JL Cyclops. The first one featured a muted blue with orange yellow. The Love Triangle set had a darker midnight blue and flat yellow, which was a better combination.

For this figure, Hasbro went with a much brighter shade of blue and yellow. It pops better than the previous versions without looking dramatically out of place with the other 90s X-Men that aren’t done in this animated style.

Beyond the basic color shift, Hasbro added cell shading throughout. In the cartoon most of Cyclops’ shading was more comic influenced with black in the blue costume area. And the carry over into the yellow elements was more subdued with a darker shade of yellow, not so much a brown or tan that Hasbro used.

Cyclops’ hair is a lighter brown, and this is an area that would have benefitted from a wash instead of cell shading to get darker.

Articulation:  The Vulcan mold is nice and smooth in terms of hitting some dynamic poses.

He can hit deeper crouches without any awkward fidgeting with the straps coming up or sliding down.

VHS Cyclops has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• butterfly shoulders
• bicep
• elbow (double-jointed)
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee (double-jointed)
• ankle

Accessories:  Cyclops comes with swappable hands. A set of grasping hands and the other is a left hand to simulate Cyclops tapping his visor to control his optic blasts.

That’s welcome, but it feels like Hasbro could have added more like creating a slip-on optic blast since they went to the trouble of making a new head sculpt anyway.

Or they could have made an alternate head sculpt with a plug-in optic blast effect.

Worth it?  The sticking point for me with getting Cyclops was the $27.99 price point since the nostalgia aspect of the box isn’t worth the extra dollars. Thankfully, I waited out the Hasbro Pulse sale to get him for a far more reasonable 35% off.

Hasbro is in a tough spot as their figures aren’t worth $25 for this license and it’s more a matter of waiting out sales rather than jumping right when new releases come out.

Rating: 9.7 out of 10

Hasbro has taken a few cracks at him, but the VHS Cyclops feels like the definitive Jim Lee era version. Even the cell shading works and I’m not as bothered by the lighter brown hair since everything else turned out so well.

Where to get it?  The VHS Animated wave is exclusive to Hasbro Pulse, but the sale might have wiped out the supply for now.

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