Dan's ToyBox 200th Article! It's a Marvel 2 in 1: Let's Discuss: Hasbro Marvel Legends X-Men '97 Cyclops and Jean Grey Action Figures

Thanks for checking out Dan's ToyBox! Today's article is kind of a big deal as we bring you our 200th blog since launching the website! What better to celebrate than to drop a Marvel 2 in 1 review on the same day that X-Men '97 debuts on Disney+?

I purposely scheduled this article to be release on March 20th in order to coincide with the release of the new cartoon on Disney+. I'm hearing a number of different things about the show but will wait to reserve judgement until after I watch it for myself. In the meantime, we can enjoy imagining what the show holds with Hasbro's X-Men '97 inspired wave of Marvel Legends. As of this writing, the second wave has been released and I'm waiting for Nightcrawler. I skipped Magneto in the first wave and am not sure if I'll finish the rest of this wave either. I suppose it hinges on whether or not I can find them for reasonable prices. Though I've seen the preview trailer for the show and know the premise, I'm not going to speculate much on the storyline. Instead, we'll do a quick origins recap of Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops and Jean Grey.

Cyclops and Jean Grey are two of the founding members of the X-Men, a team of mutants who fight for peaceful coexistence between mutants and humans.

1. Cyclops (Scott Summers):

• Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops, first appeared in X-Men #1 in 1963. He was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby.

• Cyclops is a mutant with the ability to emit powerful beams of concussive force from his eyes, which he cannot control without special visors or sunglasses.

• Orphaned as a child, Scott Summers' mutant powers manifested when he was a teenager. Due to his inability to control his optic blasts, he was taken in by Professor Charles Xavier, the founder of the X-Men.

• Cyclops became the field leader of the X-Men, leading the team with a sense of duty and responsibility, often struggling with the weight of leadership and his personal relationships, particularly with Jean Grey.

1. Jean Grey (Marvel Girl, Phoenix):

• Jean Grey made her first appearance in X-Men #1 alongside Cyclops in 1963, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby.

• Initially known as Marvel Girl, Jean Grey is a mutant with telepathic and telekinetic abilities. She is one of the original members of the X-Men.

• Over time, Jean's powers grew exponentially, and she became one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe. However, her powers also attracted the attention of powerful cosmic entities.

• Jean's most significant storyline involves her transformation into the Phoenix, a cosmic entity of immense power. This transformation led to her assuming the codename Phoenix.

• As Phoenix, Jean's powers reached god-like levels, but she struggled to control the entity's dark side, leading to some of the most memorable and tragic events in X-Men history, including the "Dark Phoenix Saga."

• Despite her struggles, Jean Grey remains a central figure in the X-Men mythos, known for her compassion, strength, and enduring love for Cyclops.

Both Cyclops and Jean Grey have been central characters in numerous comic book storylines, adaptations, and media interpretations, cementing their places as beloved and iconic figures in the Marvel Universe.

Accessories: 8/10

The combined scores of both figures together give us a nice average for the pair. Jean actually gets a 7/10 as she comes with two different head sculpts, one with her hair down and one with a ponytail. The ponytail is actually removable and can swivel, which makes head articulation much better. She also comes with one fist, one relaxed hand, and a pair of the typical splayed fingered hands which we see with most all female Legends figures. I'll discuss the head sculpts more under appearance, but let it suffice to say that these are gorgeous. Cyclops hits an actual 9/10 in terms of accessories. He comes with two different head sculpts, one with a slight smirk and the other with a yelling expression and an opening in the visor to slot in his next accessory: a bright red optic blast. Cyclops also comes with a pair of fists, one open/relaxed hand, one semi-grasping hand, and one optic blast activating hand, which can also double as pointer fingers. Even in these retro packages, Hasbro is showing they can fit extra accessories with the figures. Pricing was unaffected as well, which we'll also discuss later.

Appearance: 8/10

There is a part of me that, out of sheer nostalgia, wants to give both figures solid 10's each. But I have to try to be objective and while I do really enjoy how nice both of these figures look. There are some issues I'd be remiss not to point out. Starting with Jean... it's actually difficult to find anything negative to say. I think, the only real issues I have are with the orange on her torso and the hinges on her hands. It seems to be just a bit of a different shade than her arms and legs. It's very difficult to see in the pictures, but in hand the shades are just a bit off. This goes for the blue on her costume as well. The torso is a deep, matte blue, while her shoulder pads, gauntlets, mask piece and arm pieces are glossy. Her belt isn't attached in the front, which helps with articulation as you'll see soon enough. The red X design on her belt is clean and is highlighted by the black background. All four of the hands have blue wrist pegs and hinges, which is hidden by the gauntlet design on the back of her hands but is highly visible on the palm side. I'm not sure why the peg wasn't flesh toned because of the paint app covering the hinge on the back of her hand, but as we get them, they just don't look good. Of both head sculpts, I can only say... WOW. The paint apps really do this figure justice and bring the animated Jean to 3-D life quite nicely. I actually prefer the hair down sculpt as it evokes both Jean and Madeline Pryor with the style. That alone is what will likely lead me to tracking down a Goblin Queen figure. After all of that, the sculpted details on the costume are done in such a manner so as not to be overpowering, but instead to convey the look we've come to know and appreciate for Jean. This all makes for an easy 8/10 for Jean Grey.

Cyclops has a lot of good and just a couple of small concerns. The smirking head sculpt... I'm struggling with. I just don't like the smirk as it's not Cyclops. He's a very reserved, stoic character and the whimsical expression just seems to be a bit out of place. The blast firing sculpt, on the other hand, is done quite well. His mouth is open and the paint work on his teeth and lips is really applied super cleanly. Even without the blast plugged in, if you are back far enough, the red inside the visor kind of camouflages the opening a bit. I'm really not sold on either hair sculpt though for him... maybe a bit of a darker wash to break up the flat look would help. As it sits, Cyclops appears to have melted chocolate on his head. I think the head sculpt from the cel shaded version offers a more realistic hair appearance. I do, however, really like the lighter gold of the visor, which stands out amazingly well from the bright red ruby crystal lens. Moving onward, man... this is my absolute favorite version of Cyclops' costume. The Jim Lee design just jumps off both page and cartoon screen and looks spectacular. The greatest improvement Hasbro made to this figure was sculpting the boot, and thigh straps on his legs. The previous free-floating straps were a nuisance as they kept falling down and eventually required a spot of glue to hold them in place. What paint there is on his uniform is applied cleanly... the red on his chest piece and belt is solid and stands out nicely against the yellow and black of the X emblems. As with Jean, Cyclops also earns a standalone 8/10. Overall, these are both two absolutely spectacular figures and they complement one another beautifully.

Articulation: 7/10

When we break down Articulation, unfortunately, Jean's engineering is going to drop the overall pair a bit. While Hasbro did solve one issue, they opted to go cheap and in so doing, created another. Starting at the top... Jean's ponytailed hair sculpt can easily turn side to side and look up and down. The ponytail can also rotate as it's plugged into a port on the back of her head. Sadly, the hair down version suffers major limitations. Jean can look down a small bit, has very little side turning capability and cannot look upward at all with this sculpt. Her shoulders move nicely given that the shoulder pauldrons are attached directly to her arms. I rotated the arms a full 360 and the blue shoulder pieces moved with them but did look a bit crooked when her arms were back in the proper position. Both arms can raise out to a very nice T pose and the bicep swivels work without any hindrance. Her elbows are pin less and double jointed, allowing for a very nice, full bend. As mentioned in the appearance sections, her hands are on hinged wrist pegs, which rotate easily and hinge up and down nicely. Now... one of my long-time complaints on Hasbro's female Marvel Legends is the limited upper torso joint and no waist movement. They reversed course on this figure and have eliminated the upper joint while putting a ball into the waist. Jean can pivot nicely, has a small bit of side-to-side tilt, can bend backward very well, but has virtually no forward crunch. I guess I don't understand how Hasbro can put both of these joints into their female G.I. Joe figures but choose not to do so with Marvel. On the plus side, at least her belt doesn't limit the waist movement too badly. Her legs can reach decent splits, will kick forward reasonably far, but not back much at all. The upper thigh cuts work fine, and her double-jointed knees have a very nice range of bend to them. Her ankles hinge up and down very well, but the rocker motion on mine was tight, as was her left knee. A little bit of heat helped immensely though. By herself, Jean garners an average 5/10 for articulation.

Cyclops, on the other hand has much better overall range of motion, which surprised me. Both head sculpts can look up and down nicely, turn side to side easily, and have a small degree of tilt for attitude. His shoulders work better than expected, in terms of the butterfly joints. There is a greater range of forward and backward motion than we've been seeing on this body mold which is really nice. The arms will rotate a full 360 degrees and can hit just above a T pose! The bicep swivels work fine, and his double-jointed elbows allow his hands to touch his head. All of the wrist pegs swivel and hinge without issue, which is also a good thing. The upper torso crunch has the sculpted harness, which helps eliminate the previous issues with crunches and back bends. His range is solid for the forward crunch, but he really doesn't bend back as far. The waist swivel works just fine as his belt is attached to his lower torso. His splits are equal to Jean's... which means they are better than most of the Spider-Man figures Hasbro has released. His legs will kick forward to just about 90 degrees and the upper thigh swivel turns easily enough. The knees are also double-jointed and can bring his heel up to touch his backside. There is a boot swivel, which is hidden just beneath the straps at the top of his boots and doesn't look bad when used. His ankles hinge and pivot nicely, with good range on both. Cyclops alone earns a pretty solid 9/10... not a score I generally give Marvel Legends, but he really does move surprisingly well.

Affordability: 8/10

For me, the affordabilty scores for both figures come down to, really, one thing... Accessories. I paid $25.99 for each at BBTS and in the past, I've lamented the pricing, when considering how little is packed with the figures. Given that each has multiple head sculpts and multiple hands, along with Cyke's optic blast effect, I feel like we finally got a little more bang for our bucks. Would it have been nice for Jean to maybe have some kind of telepathic energy effect? Absolutely... alone, she gets a 7/10 for pricing. Cyclops, though, really impressed me with the amount that was packed in. I am slowly leaning toward this being my favorite Cyclops figure and feel he's good with a 9/10 for pricing!

Overall, I'm much happier with these two figures than I expected to be. Yes, Jean has a few more issues than Cyclops does, but still, they don't hamper my enjoyment of having them both. I'm finding myself to be pleasantly surprised by the '97 X-Men waves and am really looking forward to Nightcrawler when he arrives. So... as a pair, I'm very happy to give Scott and Jean an outstanding:

8 out of 10 ToyBoxes

Next to the '97 Wolverine, these are easily two of the best offerings from this series, in my opinion. Thank you, as always! I hope you enjoyed our 200th article and I'm looking forward to bringing you the next 200! Until next time... GEEK OUT!!!