MARVEL FAMOUS COVER
Figures
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One of
the true rarities in action figures today is that too few
companies produce figures with real cloth costumes and uniforms.
The figures are made in plastic for the most part with the
outfits sculpted into the figure and then painted over.
Back when action figures debuted in 1964 with GI Joe, all of
the Joes came with real cloth uniforms. Uniforms that you
could remove and mix and match with other Joes. Some action
figure lines like Captain Action and Big Jim would continue
that trend.
Mego World’s Greatest Super Heroes from the 1970s became
cult classics among many collectors with an extensive line
of figures outfitted in cloth costumes representing both
comic book and television characters. They were based on
Marvel and DC comic book characters which eventually grew into
other properties from movies and television such as Planet of the
Apes, Tarzan and Star Trek to name just a few.
The figures were highly poseable with multiple points of
articulation with those beautiful costumes that you could
feel in your hands and fingers.
It would take a couple of decades later for another company
to revisit the concept that Mego had created with this theme
of action figures with such grace and style and wow factor.
Toy Biz owned the license to produce Marvel characters into
action figures and had been pretty successful in the 1990s
with multiple lines of action figures based on Spider-Man,
Fantastic Four, X-Men and the many others and decided to go back to
the Mego idea and expand on it a bit.
They debuted the Marvel Famous Cover line in 1997 and
created one of the most dynamic looking set of action
figures to date.
Each figure would come in its own square/rectangular shaped
box with a recognizable comic book cover on the outside
which had a round circle opening with the figure’s head
showing in the circle. The exterior was a gatefold that one
could open up to reveal the figure which was posed behind
clear plastic.
The
inside gatefold would tell a story about the figure and the
associated famous comic book cover.
The figures themselves are nothing short of incredible.
Most figures stood between 8 inches to 9 inches.
The costumes were top notch. When you look at any figure in
the line you can see just how much effort went into the
figure. They were made with care and a lot of attention to
detail. The costumes look very authentic and resembled the
characters that they portray.
The sculpting of each figure shines through just enough
through their costume to let you know the Toy Biz artists made
great efforts in that area as well.
Some of the figures give you the feeling that they will just
leap right out of the package and into your hands.
Iron Man has cloth parts where possible without taking away
from the character’s armor. His helmet comes off to
reveal Tony Stark, his alter-ego.
Spider-Man’s costume can be removed to reveal his alter ego
Peter Parker as well.
Wolverine’s head gear can be removed to reveal his alter ego
Logan.
Hawkeye comes with a bow and arrows and quiver and the bow
can actually fire the arrows with a little practice by you.
Captain America’s shield can come off.
Thor’s hammer can be taken out of his hand and he has a
flowing cape.
Most of the female figures in the line like Black Widow,
Invisible Woman, Rogue, Phoenix, Psylocke and Aunt May have
rooted synthetic hair.
Each
figure has multiple points of movement. Each figure for the
most part can be adjusted at the head, middle chest, waist,
arms-some a couple of points, elbows, wrists, legs with a
couple of points of articulation and movement in the knees and ankles.
The posing opportunities are great for collectors and fans
allowing them to setup their figures in a variety of ways.
The paint jobs are extremely well done from figure to
figure.
The
packaging as mentioned before is a square/rectangular shape
box and can be stacked in a book like format.
There have been three 2 figure pack specialty figures that
were store exclusives. One was Mister Fantastic and the
Invisible Woman, Black Costumed Spider-Man and Black
Costumed Spider-Woman and Spider-Man and Electro.
With the first X-Men movie in 2000 Toy Biz decided to create
a specialty 2 figure pack with a movie version of Wolverine
with a comic book version of Wolverine, a movie version of
Storm with a comic book version of Storm and a movie version
of the Toad with a comic book version of the Toad.
The comic book Wolverine in this specialty pack differed from the
first Wolverine figure primarily in that there
was no removable mask. The head was sculpted with
Wolverine’s features.
The comic book Storm in this pack differed from the first
Storm figure primarily in that she was
outfitted in her white costume instead of the black costume.
When Hasbro acquired the license to produce and manufacture
Marvel Comics characters into toys and action figures in
late 2006, they revisited the Famous Cover line and produced
a new series called Marvel Signature Series.
The figures utilized the same concepts with cloth costumes
as their Famous Cover counterparts and were in the same size
and scale too.
Hasbro produced several figures including Spider-Man, Green
Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Captain America, Daredevil,
Punisher, Sandman, Cyclops, Mister Fantastic.
These figures add to the Famous Cover line to expand your
collection and they really blend in very well.
During the 2000s Marty Abrams one of the co-founders of Mego brought back to life some of the figures
from the glory years of the 1970s. He’s reintroduced Retro Star Trek, Retro Planet of the Apes,
Retro Horror figures that are pretty close to the same size
as the Famous Cover figures with cloth like costumes and
uniforms.
Mattel joined in as well with Retro style DC Super Heroes
figures of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Sinestro, Lex Luthor, Shazam,
Wonder Woman and many, many others with the same style of
clothing and figures as that of the Mego line from the
1970s.
These only add to the excitement and bring renewed
interest in the Famous Cover line and combined with those
items makes for an incredible collection of figures.
This is one of the best action figure toy lines ever and
those who were lucky to acquire them know how much they mean
to you.
Many other
companies have introduced and re-introduced their own line
of 8 inch figures such as Bif Bang Pow! who owns the
license to Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Galactica.
The Steve
Austin and Sasquatch figures are probably the most popular
with the Rudy Wells and Oscar Goldman not far behind.
Classic
TV Toys has developed their own line and acquired the
license to produce Kiss figures of the famous rock band and
resurrected the Mego figures with Batman, Robin, Riddler and
the Joker with many, many others from the World's Greatest
Super Heroes line that Mego created already on their way.
There are
some options to search and acquire these figures for your
collections. One
source is Amazon.com as they have a diverse amount of sellers
who have their own E-Stores there and the Famous Cover
figures are items that they offer for sale.
There are many product lines that are available on Amazon. I have provided direct links
to the Marvel Famous Cover line on this page where you can click on
the image and go directly to Amazon and read additional
information on the listings.
I have also
included many direct links to figures in comparable figure
lines like Spider-Man Origins, Marvel Signature Series,
DC Super Heroes Retro, Star Trek Retro, Planet
of the Apes Retro, Kiss, Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Galactica.
Another option is
Ebay.
There’s a lot of collectors/sellers/dealers always looking
to move in and out of product and Marvel Famous Cover
figures is a product line that they know will sell for them
since so many collectors want them.
Be careful to check out the auctions and or Buy it Now
listings carefully. Some sellers’ terms are not right for
everyone and sometimes the items are not what you expect.
If condition of the package is important to you, then be
sure to ask a lot of questions. If you don’t get the right
kinds of answers you’re looking for, then move on and try
another listing.
Always check out the seller’s profile to see how their past
selling has been. If they’re new to selling and have only
been buying, ask questions.
You always want to be comfortable with the person you’re
potentially going to be buying from and you really need to
know what it is you’re getting.
Happy Collecting!!!
Johnson's Collectibles
