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Zob's Thought on Marvel Infinite Series Death's Head
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Zobovor
Jun 22, 2015, 10:47:38 PM6/22/15
to
Apparently a batch of these toys showed up at work while I was on vacation. I tell you, my department only gets the good stuff in when I'm away!
Death's Head was originally created by Simon Furman in 1987 as a throwaway character for the UK Transformers title. Much as Bob Budiansky had previously done with Circuit Breaker, Furman recognized potential in the character and didn't want Hasbro to be able to claim ownership of him if he made his debut in the Transformers comic. Thus, he was quickly worked into a single page of a non-Transformers comic, thus preventing Hasbro from staking their claim. (Of course, the Circuit Breaker decision proved disastrous, as it prevented her from appearing in the IDW comics. The same likely applied to Death's Head.)
The character was a non-affiliated bouty hunter (he called himself a "freelance peace keeping agent"), originally contracted by the Decepticons to capture and kill Rodimus Prime. In the end, he made a counter-deal with Rodimus, who paid him to begin hunting Cyclonus and Scourge instead. He became an immensely popular cult character, particularly with UK fans. Surely his quirky manner of speech had something to do with it, yes? He also appeared in Doctor Who comics, where he was shrunk down to a more human-sized form. He's continued to make guest appearances in assorted comic book titles, off and on, with his most recent one in 2014.
Well. I must confess that Death's Head was never part of my childhood Transformers experience. I only became aware of his existence later on, mostly due to fans like Liane Elliot with whom I became pen pals after discovering the larger Transformers fan community (but before stumbling onto alt.toys.transformers). In fact, I don't think I ever actually read the comics in which he appeared until Titan Books started sending me their collected volumes of the reprinted UK issues. So, in some ways I really have no business buying this toy. However, I recognize that he's a unique piece of Transformers lore, and this is probably the only toy he's ever likely to get.
He's part of the Marvel Infinite Series, sort of the Star Wars Black of the Marvel action figures. They're still cranking out the simplified action figures with five points of articulation for around $5.99, but this is a more sophisticated toy, targeted towards collectors (he ships with fairly obscure characters like Whirlwind and Beta Ray Bill), with more articulation but also a higher price point ($9.99). The toy is officially called "Marvel's Death's Head," which is what Hasbro does for Marvel characters when the standalone character name doesn't pass a trademark check.
For starters, he's disappointingly small. Not even five inches in height. When news of his release first came out, I think I had conflated the Marvel Infinite Series with the Marvel Legends toys that stand closer to six or seven inches, since that's kind of what I'd been expecting him to be. As it stands, I don't think Death's Head is sufficiently to scale with any existing Transformers toys. MegaSCF Rodimus Convoy, I guess. Not that being to scale with the G1 stuff is a dealbreaker, but it would have been nice for display purposes.
He comes with a little spiked cudgel and a little spiked axe (tools of the trade, yes?) both of which seem like the handles are too short. I had thought there would be an extension to attach them to, but there was nothing else in the package. In an undocumented feature, both his fists can pop off and can be replaced by these weapons. He also comes with a yellow shield, which can clip to his forearm. When he's not using it, it can attach to his back. The packaging shows that he's capable of weapon storage, too; there are two small clips designed for each weapon. They attach somewhat loosely, but they'll stay if you stand him up for display.
The action figure has 25 points of articulation. His head can swivel and pivot up and down; his shoulders can pivot and swivel; there's a swivel joint in each bicep; the elbows are hinged; the wrists rotate; his upper and lower torso are connected by a universal joint; his legs are attached by ball joints; each leg has a mid-thigh swivel; each knee has a double joint; and his ankles can both swivel and pivot. His legs are painted in metallic silver, and the knee joints got stuck while the paint was wet, I think. I had to kind of work them to get them to unstick, but after that they functioned normally. He can achieve nearly any dynamic pose you can think of; the pelvis armor hinders his leg movement somewhat, but his cape helps to support him even when he's only got one foot touching the ground, so there's that.
Curiously, the toy pictured on the photograph is of a slightly different design. The prototype in package photos shows the shoulder pads as separate pieces from the rest of the body, which were probably held in place with pegs or glue. On the finished toy, the shoulder pads, cape, and entire front of his chest are all one piece, which is hooked over the character's head during assembly, almost like the capes and clothing on a lot of the 1990's Star Wars: Power of the Force 2 toys. For Death's Head, this means he has a set of faux pectoral muscles (part of the cape assembly) over top the real ones (which are still sculpted underneath the fake ones). Oddly, there are two peg-holes in his back and two more in his chest, ostensibly to hold the cape assembly in place, but there are no corresponding pegs on the cape assembly. It does sort of wobble around a little, but it's not going to fall off because his head keep it in place, and the head is not removable.
I don't know enough about the character to be able to identify this specific costume or when he started wearing it. It's not the design for the character that Geoff Senior drew when the character appeared in Transformers or Doctor Who, so it must be a later, updated design. (This is one of those times when my lack of familiarity with the source material serves me well. A huge fan of the character might be able to nitpick the specific details of the costume design, the color scheme, the accuracy of the sculpt, etc. but not me. He looks like I remember Death's Head looking, and that's about all that matters to me.)
Zob (also got Headdroppin' Michaelangelo and Headdroppin' Raphael today... why, yes, it IS still 1991, thanks for asking)
Death's Head was originally created by Simon Furman in 1987 as a throwaway character for the UK Transformers title. Much as Bob Budiansky had previously done with Circuit Breaker, Furman recognized potential in the character and didn't want Hasbro to be able to claim ownership of him if he made his debut in the Transformers comic. Thus, he was quickly worked into a single page of a non-Transformers comic, thus preventing Hasbro from staking their claim. (Of course, the Circuit Breaker decision proved disastrous, as it prevented her from appearing in the IDW comics. The same likely applied to Death's Head.)
The character was a non-affiliated bouty hunter (he called himself a "freelance peace keeping agent"), originally contracted by the Decepticons to capture and kill Rodimus Prime. In the end, he made a counter-deal with Rodimus, who paid him to begin hunting Cyclonus and Scourge instead. He became an immensely popular cult character, particularly with UK fans. Surely his quirky manner of speech had something to do with it, yes? He also appeared in Doctor Who comics, where he was shrunk down to a more human-sized form. He's continued to make guest appearances in assorted comic book titles, off and on, with his most recent one in 2014.
Well. I must confess that Death's Head was never part of my childhood Transformers experience. I only became aware of his existence later on, mostly due to fans like Liane Elliot with whom I became pen pals after discovering the larger Transformers fan community (but before stumbling onto alt.toys.transformers). In fact, I don't think I ever actually read the comics in which he appeared until Titan Books started sending me their collected volumes of the reprinted UK issues. So, in some ways I really have no business buying this toy. However, I recognize that he's a unique piece of Transformers lore, and this is probably the only toy he's ever likely to get.
He's part of the Marvel Infinite Series, sort of the Star Wars Black of the Marvel action figures. They're still cranking out the simplified action figures with five points of articulation for around $5.99, but this is a more sophisticated toy, targeted towards collectors (he ships with fairly obscure characters like Whirlwind and Beta Ray Bill), with more articulation but also a higher price point ($9.99). The toy is officially called "Marvel's Death's Head," which is what Hasbro does for Marvel characters when the standalone character name doesn't pass a trademark check.
For starters, he's disappointingly small. Not even five inches in height. When news of his release first came out, I think I had conflated the Marvel Infinite Series with the Marvel Legends toys that stand closer to six or seven inches, since that's kind of what I'd been expecting him to be. As it stands, I don't think Death's Head is sufficiently to scale with any existing Transformers toys. MegaSCF Rodimus Convoy, I guess. Not that being to scale with the G1 stuff is a dealbreaker, but it would have been nice for display purposes.
He comes with a little spiked cudgel and a little spiked axe (tools of the trade, yes?) both of which seem like the handles are too short. I had thought there would be an extension to attach them to, but there was nothing else in the package. In an undocumented feature, both his fists can pop off and can be replaced by these weapons. He also comes with a yellow shield, which can clip to his forearm. When he's not using it, it can attach to his back. The packaging shows that he's capable of weapon storage, too; there are two small clips designed for each weapon. They attach somewhat loosely, but they'll stay if you stand him up for display.
The action figure has 25 points of articulation. His head can swivel and pivot up and down; his shoulders can pivot and swivel; there's a swivel joint in each bicep; the elbows are hinged; the wrists rotate; his upper and lower torso are connected by a universal joint; his legs are attached by ball joints; each leg has a mid-thigh swivel; each knee has a double joint; and his ankles can both swivel and pivot. His legs are painted in metallic silver, and the knee joints got stuck while the paint was wet, I think. I had to kind of work them to get them to unstick, but after that they functioned normally. He can achieve nearly any dynamic pose you can think of; the pelvis armor hinders his leg movement somewhat, but his cape helps to support him even when he's only got one foot touching the ground, so there's that.
Curiously, the toy pictured on the photograph is of a slightly different design. The prototype in package photos shows the shoulder pads as separate pieces from the rest of the body, which were probably held in place with pegs or glue. On the finished toy, the shoulder pads, cape, and entire front of his chest are all one piece, which is hooked over the character's head during assembly, almost like the capes and clothing on a lot of the 1990's Star Wars: Power of the Force 2 toys. For Death's Head, this means he has a set of faux pectoral muscles (part of the cape assembly) over top the real ones (which are still sculpted underneath the fake ones). Oddly, there are two peg-holes in his back and two more in his chest, ostensibly to hold the cape assembly in place, but there are no corresponding pegs on the cape assembly. It does sort of wobble around a little, but it's not going to fall off because his head keep it in place, and the head is not removable.
I don't know enough about the character to be able to identify this specific costume or when he started wearing it. It's not the design for the character that Geoff Senior drew when the character appeared in Transformers or Doctor Who, so it must be a later, updated design. (This is one of those times when my lack of familiarity with the source material serves me well. A huge fan of the character might be able to nitpick the specific details of the costume design, the color scheme, the accuracy of the sculpt, etc. but not me. He looks like I remember Death's Head looking, and that's about all that matters to me.)
Zob (also got Headdroppin' Michaelangelo and Headdroppin' Raphael today... why, yes, it IS still 1991, thanks for asking)
Cappeca
Jun 24, 2015, 10:47:36 AM6/24/15
to
Em segunda-feira, 22 de junho de 2015 23:47:38 UTC-3, Zobovor escreveu:
> Death's Head was originally created by Simon Furman in 1987 as a throwaway character for the UK Transformers title. Much as Bob Budiansky had previously done with Circuit Breaker, Furman recognized potential in the character and didn't want Hasbro to be able to claim ownership of him if he made his debut in the Transformers comic. Thus, he was quickly worked into a single page of a non-Transformers comic, thus preventing Hasbro from staking their claim. (Of course, the Circuit Breaker decision proved disastrous, as it prevented her from appearing in the IDW comics. The same likely applied to Death's Head.)
>
Maybe they should have taken the Lockdown approach with Circuit Breaker, recreating the same character and having someone responsible officialy stating that it was *not* meant to be the same character.
> Death's Head was originally created by Simon Furman in 1987 as a throwaway character for the UK Transformers title. Much as Bob Budiansky had previously done with Circuit Breaker, Furman recognized potential in the character and didn't want Hasbro to be able to claim ownership of him if he made his debut in the Transformers comic. Thus, he was quickly worked into a single page of a non-Transformers comic, thus preventing Hasbro from staking their claim. (Of course, the Circuit Breaker decision proved disastrous, as it prevented her from appearing in the IDW comics. The same likely applied to Death's Head.)
>
A half-naked half-crazy woman destroying robots, we'll call her Motherboarder. DIBS!
> As it stands, I don't think Death's Head is sufficiently to scale with any existing Transformers toys. MegaSCF Rodimus Convoy, I guess.
> I don't know enough about the character to be able to identify this specific costume or when he started wearing it. It's not the design for the character that Geoff Senior drew when the character appeared in Transformers or Doctor Who, so it must be a later, updated design.
Ultra Magnotron
Jun 25, 2015, 3:12:33 AM6/25/15
to
I have information relevant to this conversation! Death's Head is
officially no more. He has been wiped out of existence by Marvel.
"How can this possibly be?" you ask. I totally heard you think
that.
Marvel is currently going through their first ever continuity reboot.
Now if you Google this you will see articles specifically stating
that they refuse to call it a reboot, but when you erase 75 years of
established continuity--and replace with an "All-New Marvel"
continuity--you're rebooting your universe. End of discussion.
So what happens to Death's Head? The same thing that happens to any
character that is now "dead." Marvel have to find a way to bring them
into this new universe or they just... kind of... stay dead.
Never to be heard from again.
One the bright side, when Death's Head appeared in the recent Iron
Man comics it was awesome. Maybe he'll pop up in another Iron Man
adventure. Only time will tell.
R.I.P. Death's Head. 1987 - 2015.
officially no more. He has been wiped out of existence by Marvel.
"How can this possibly be?" you ask. I totally heard you think
that.
Marvel is currently going through their first ever continuity reboot.
Now if you Google this you will see articles specifically stating
that they refuse to call it a reboot, but when you erase 75 years of
established continuity--and replace with an "All-New Marvel"
continuity--you're rebooting your universe. End of discussion.
So what happens to Death's Head? The same thing that happens to any
character that is now "dead." Marvel have to find a way to bring them
into this new universe or they just... kind of... stay dead.
Never to be heard from again.
One the bright side, when Death's Head appeared in the recent Iron
Man comics it was awesome. Maybe he'll pop up in another Iron Man
adventure. Only time will tell.
R.I.P. Death's Head. 1987 - 2015.
Zobovor
Jun 28, 2015, 4:53:12 PM6/28/15
to
On Thursday, June 25, 2015 at 1:12:33 AM UTC-6, Ultra Magnotron wrote:
> Marvel is currently going through their first ever continuity reboot.
> Now if you Google this you will see articles specifically stating
> that they refuse to call it a reboot, but when you erase 75 years of
> established continuity--and replace with an "All-New Marvel"
> continuity--you're rebooting your universe. End of discussion.
I'm not really what you would call an informed comic book fan, so perhaps my opinion doesn't hold much weight. With that said, we seem to be seeing this more and more with franchises spanning decades of continuity (Transformers, Star Trek, Ninja Turtles, etc.) It's just easier to wipe the slate clean and tell whatever stories you want instead of actually taking the time to research the characters, their history, and so forth. Nobody wants to throw together a story only for some mob of random fanboys to rip it apart because it contradicts some obscure comic issue from 1963. It would not be extraordinarily difficult to bone up on the characters' history (indeed, it's easier now than ever before, with online encyclopedias exhaustively detailing every appearance of every character; you don't even have to own the comic issues!) but this just seems to be an excuse to not have to do the research and just tell whatever stories they want without fear of contradicting something that came previously.
> Marvel is currently going through their first ever continuity reboot.
> Now if you Google this you will see articles specifically stating
> that they refuse to call it a reboot, but when you erase 75 years of
> established continuity--and replace with an "All-New Marvel"
> continuity--you're rebooting your universe. End of discussion.
Zob (in some ways, permanently archiving information has ruined us)
Ultra Magnotron
Jun 29, 2015, 1:32:53 AM6/29/15
to
On 6/28/2015 1:53 PM, Zobovor wrote:
> I'm not really what you would call an informed comic book fan, so perhaps my opinion doesn't hold
> much weight. With that said, we seem to be seeing this more and more
with franchises spanning decades of
> continuity (Transformers, Star Trek, Ninja Turtles, etc.) It's just
easier to wipe the slate clean and tell
> whatever stories you want instead of actually taking the time to
research the characters, their history, and
> so forth. Nobody wants to throw together a story only for some mob
of random fanboys to rip it apart because
> it contradicts some obscure comic issue from 1963. It would not be extraordinarily difficult to bone up on the
> characters' history (indeed, it's easier now than ever before, with
online encyclopedias exhaustively
>detailing every appearance of every character; you don't even have to
own the comic issues!) but this
> just seems to be an excuse to not have to do the research and just
tell whatever stories they want without fear of
> contradicting something that came previously.
>
>
> Zob (in some ways, permanently archiving information has ruined us)
>
I would definitely agree, but I have been following this event and
> I'm not really what you would call an informed comic book fan, so perhaps my opinion doesn't hold
> much weight. With that said, we seem to be seeing this more and more
with franchises spanning decades of
> continuity (Transformers, Star Trek, Ninja Turtles, etc.) It's just
easier to wipe the slate clean and tell
> whatever stories you want instead of actually taking the time to
research the characters, their history, and
> so forth. Nobody wants to throw together a story only for some mob
of random fanboys to rip it apart because
> it contradicts some obscure comic issue from 1963. It would not be extraordinarily difficult to bone up on the
> characters' history (indeed, it's easier now than ever before, with
online encyclopedias exhaustively
>detailing every appearance of every character; you don't even have to
own the comic issues!) but this
> just seems to be an excuse to not have to do the research and just
tell whatever stories they want without fear of
> contradicting something that came previously.
>
>
> Zob (in some ways, permanently archiving information has ruined us)
>
Marvel are telling a terrific "this is how we are hitting the reset
button" story. Not only is the main event unfolding pretty well, but
the related one-shots that they're releasing along side it are
awesome!
I mean they've brought back 90's era X-Men, married
Peter Parker/Spider-Man, told Age of Apocalypse
from a different perspective and all of this has
just been fantastic! The nostalgia! The feels!
I am reading X-Men '92 right now. It's awesome!
So... yes. This is just an excuse to tell whatever
stories they want without comic book nerds flying
into nerd rage mode, but this is also an opportunity
to tell some very creative new stories with characters
that just wouldn't have been possible to write otherwise.
...I am also really enjoying seeing Peter Parker and
Mary Jane married again. It's... I completely disagreed
with Marvel's decision to retcon their marriage out of
existence, and to be reading this story just
feels like home. This is the Peter Parker/Spider-Man
I grew up reading. Couldn't be happier to have him back.
I know this won't last because everything will reset.
A new Marvel universe awaits... just glad they ended the
Peter Parker story right. This is how it needed to end.
Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats
Jun 29, 2015, 4:56:44 AM6/29/15
to
On Sunday, June 28, 2015 at 10:32:53 PM UTC-7, Ultra Magnotron wrote:
>
> ...I am also really enjoying seeing Peter Parker and
> Mary Jane married again. It's... I completely disagreed
> with Marvel's decision to retcon their marriage out of
> existence, and to be reading this story just
> feels like home. This is the Peter Parker/Spider-Man
> I grew up reading. Couldn't be happier to have him back.
> I know this won't last because everything will reset.
> A new Marvel universe awaits... just glad they ended the
> Peter Parker story right. This is how it needed to end.
I felt the same way about the brief Superman side story in DC's Convergence -- Lois was not only married to Clark, she was about to have a kid. It was great to see a recognizable version of the character again.
>
> ...I am also really enjoying seeing Peter Parker and
> Mary Jane married again. It's... I completely disagreed
> with Marvel's decision to retcon their marriage out of
> existence, and to be reading this story just
> feels like home. This is the Peter Parker/Spider-Man
> I grew up reading. Couldn't be happier to have him back.
> I know this won't last because everything will reset.
> A new Marvel universe awaits... just glad they ended the
> Peter Parker story right. This is how it needed to end.
It was a pity it was all in a series where everyone had to fight to the death or something and I'm sure the slightly rebooted DC universe continues with the Superman and Wonder Woman couple. Maybe they made the baby fight some other baby to the death -- no, that's too dark, can't kill babies that way, so they probably aged him in a pocket universe where he was raised by cannibals and then had him fight someone to the death.
Ultra Magnotron
Jul 10, 2015, 2:06:55 PM7/10/15
to
I am so far out of touch with DC comics.
Honestly I had no idea Lois and Clark
were no longer a thing. That started
with New 52?
One day I will get back into reading
DC Comics... I hope...
Honestly I had no idea Lois and Clark
were no longer a thing. That started
with New 52?
One day I will get back into reading
DC Comics... I hope...
Gustavo Wombat
Jul 11, 2015, 5:11:29 PM7/11/15
to
Ultra Magnotron <ultra.m...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I am so far out of touch with DC comics.
> Honestly I had no idea Lois and Clark
> were no longer a thing. That started
> with New 52?
Yup. I don't like it. The relationship to Lois helps ground the character
> I am so far out of touch with DC comics.
> Honestly I had no idea Lois and Clark
> were no longer a thing. That started
> with New 52?
of Clark, and make him human (even though he is obviously not). But now he
doesn't have that.
> One day I will get back into reading
> DC Comics... I hope...
capture my imagination at all -- its just a dark and gritty retelling of
what came before, with new changes to make things worse.
--
I wish I was a mole in the ground.
Ultra Magnotron
Jul 15, 2015, 4:10:56 PM7/15/15
to
Good news! I think. Marvel is indeed
bringing Death's Head into the new
rebooted continuity.
...no one knows if he will get his
own series or be part of some team
book. I'm excited. If he gets his
own series I will be reading it for
sure.
bringing Death's Head into the new
rebooted continuity.
...no one knows if he will get his
own series or be part of some team
book. I'm excited. If he gets his
own series I will be reading it for
sure.
Zobovor
Feb 4, 2016, 11:18:10 PM2/4/16
to
On Monday, June 22, 2015 at 8:47:38 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> However, I recognize that he's a unique piece of Transformers lore, and this is
> probably the only toy he's ever likely to get.
If anybody missed out on this action figure and still wants one, this guy is selling them on eBay for surprisingly reasonable prices and has, like, 10 of them:
> However, I recognize that he's a unique piece of Transformers lore, and this is
> probably the only toy he's ever likely to get.
http://tinyurl.com/deathshead-ebay
Zob (he's also got Combiner Wars Scattershot for below MSRP)
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