NewsReview

Having a Blast With Mezco’s Cyclops One:12 Collection Figure

As leader of the X-Men it seems Scott Summers gets no respect. Fans, and even his own girlfriend/wife (depending on your timeline) prefer bad-boy Wolverine to this original founding X-Man.

Cyclops finally gets his due, though, with Mezco’s incredible One:12 Collective figure.

You would probably expect a Cyclops action figure to be fairly basic. After all, he doesn’t use weapons and he’s not a martial artist–he just shoots concussive blasts from his eyes.

Leave it to Mezco to find a way to overload this figure with a lot of accessories.

This One:12 Cyclops comes with two heads, but a total of seven interchangeable visors.

In an inventive bit of engineering, Mezco made the visor removable on both heads. This allows you to swap out the visors onto either head, giving over a dozen possible expressions.

First, each head comes with a basic visor. Then there is another basic visor in the package, but I believe the red bit is slightly thinner on the third, giving Cyclops a squinty, scowl impression.

Then there are two “smoking” visors, with a little tendrel of translucent plastic coming off the side. This little piece feels a bit fragile, and I don’t see any difference in the two included, so I think Mezco sent a spare in case your smoke effect snaps off.

Finally there are two “optic blast” visors–one with a minor blast that stretches about two inches, and one with a major 4-inch blast for when Cyclops gives his full power.

I’ll admit…I’m not a fan of blast effects on most toys. The “normal” optic blast falls prey to that as, to me, it looks like a half-eaten watermelon Jolly Rancher. It’s been sucked on a bit too long and taken on the texture of a tongue. It’s so thin, also, it looks perhaps more brittle than it actually is.

The larger blast effect looks better, but it still looks like a large chunk of plastic, not like a laser beam. But the great thing is Mezco has given me options–if I don’t like blast effects I can just put them in the “spare parts baggie” they sent.

Again, all those visors can go on either head. Your basic head has a fairly neutral expression, common for Cyclops. Yet perhaps Cyclops should see a therapist because quite regularly he goes into screaming rages (maybe it’s just because his girlfriend dies again and again). For those moments we have the screaming head, which pairs perfectly with the massive optic blast.

I do wish the figure’s articulation allowed for his head to go fully back and fire that blast straight into the sky, as Cyclops has in many pieces of art. But the good thing is the major blast effect is fairly lightweight. I did have to bend the figure back a little to maintain a good center of gravity so he didn’t fall forward, but looking at the blast I’d think you’d need the included figure stand to display. No, Cyclops can stand on his own.

So why all the translucent effects? Because Cyclops has something I’ve never had on any Mezco figure before–a light-up feature! If you remove Scott’s head you’ll see a tiny red LED. Twisting the peg counter-clockwise and pulling up and you get a battery compartment with an on-off switch. The red LED shines out the head and gives all these visors a very cool glowing effect.

I must compliment this feature. Having owned many light-up Hot Toys figures I know the process of battery removal/replacement is tense. You need a tiny screwdriver and a steady hand and hope you don’t scratch the toy. More, the Hot Toys instructions say the screws are not intended for regular removal–you wear down the plastic threads each time.

Same with Hot Toys figures’ on/off switches, they are usually hidden under snap-on panels that feel ready to break every time you remove them.

Mezco has a solution for ALL of that. The battery compartment in the neck slides out. You don’t need any screwdrivers to insert or remove batteries. And the on/off switch is at the bottom of the neck…small for adult fingers, but no smaller than Hot Toys’ switches.

But, unfortunately, I’m not able to say Mezco’s solution is perfect. I was not able, as of press time, to provide any of my own photos of the light-up feature. The second time I went to turn it on I found the neck joint was so tight in the body I couldn’t remove the compartment. I will need to get some jewelry needle-nose pliers that won’t harm the plastic to fix this. So be warned–don’t tighten the neck peg too much or you’ll be in the same boat.

Beyond the eyes, Cyclops comes with six hands (relaxed, fists, and two fingers up to fire the optic blast). He also has a jacket (more on that in a minute) and a logo base with display arm.

Another amazing thing about this figure is the outfit. Look at the photo above–the figure looks plastic. I mean that as a huge compliment.

Many times collectors complain about soft goods. Even on high end figures like Hot Toys, sometimes soft goods can hang weirdly and look like pajamas.

Mezco’s taylors have avoided that on almost every figure I’ve seen, but Cyclops may be the best yet. The blue outfit is a cotton-type fabric, but it also has large sections on the chest, arms, and legs that have a vinyl feel (I’m not an expert in textiles so I can’t tell if it’s printed on or attached). These pieces are also flexible so posability isn’t hampered, but it prevents too much bunching or sagging of the outfit.

Add to that the leg bands (which are tight and don’t fall) and the belt/chest strap (which has incredible paint and weathering) and this isn’t just one of the best looking Mezco figures I’ve seen, it’s one of the best figures I’ve seen period.

The outfit also has the removable jacket. It has a texture that makes it look like real leather and, let’s face it, Cyclops always looked awesome when wearing the jacket to break up all the blue in his outfit.

But the jacket does have one of the flaws of scaled soft-goods figures: the zipper is way too large. The coat is intended to actually be able to be zipped up, but to do that required a way out-of-scale zipper. Were this figure full-sized the zipper would be about the size of a Hot Wheels car. Imagine that next time you zip up your coat…

Despite those minor issues, this figure is cool and, more importantly, fun. With the lights and the posing and all the different visors, I had lots of fun posing and photographing the toy and I still can’t decide which to display. (No lie – I may buy a second one so I can display him both coat on and coat off).

I think Mezco made the ultimate Cyclops figure here. I am jealous that the PX exclusive version came with an unmasked head wearing shades, it would have been a nice add here, but to have Cyclops in the classic Yellow and Blues makes it the Cyclops figure to own.

Strong recommend.

Show More

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button