Toy Biz Weapon X – Random Toys

In the early to mid 90’s Toy Biz ruled the aisles with their X-Men toyline of 5″ figures. Today we’re looking at one of my favorites from back then, Weapon X (AKA: 4th Edition Wolverine)

 

Late 1992/early 1993 saw the release of Weapon X in the 3rd series of Toy Biz’s X-Men toyline. This figure is also labelled as “4th Edition Wolverine” because Toy Biz had already put out 3 completely different Wolverine figures! (Brown & Gold outfit, Yellow and Blue classic outfit & X-Men Strike Team Yellow and Blue outfit) Since the main bases were already covered, why not make a figure of Wolverine’s origins (The comic chronicling this story, Marvel Comics Presents #72, was only a year or two old at the time so this was a pretty topical idea)

The main figure is a semi-nude Wolverine with a lot of wires and such sculpted on the body. He comes with a “High-Tech Training Helmet” and removable harness belt along with two wires. This is the first Wolverine figure to have claws permanently glued to the backs of his hands (The previous 3 Toy Biz versions had spring out claws and the first ever Wolverine action figure, Secret Wars Wolverine, had clip on claws)

 

The “High-Tech Training Helmet” (which is the kid friendly way of saying control helmet forcibly put on Wolverine to make him a slave) can be easily removed and shows Wolverine’s head underneath. There are more of the sculpted green wires on his face. I always liked the detailing of the helmet as it felt close to how it looked in the comics, however, it is a bit too large for this figure.

 

Both the helmet and battery harness are removable. Weapon X also came with two thick green wires (about the size of hoses) that I unfortunately do not have. The two wires could be plugged into holes on the bottom of the three batteries and into two different holes on the back of the helmet.

 

Here I’ve used some actual wires and twist ties to simulate how the original wires would plug into the various parts.

 

Like many kids in the 90’s, I was hooked on the X-Men cartoon and was a fan of Wolverine. I hadn’t read the comics about his origins yet, but had known about the story due to trading cards back then. Because of that, this figure became a must have for me, I loved the Barry Windsor-Smith artwork reused on the figure’s cardback and while this toy wasn’t an exact recreation of that, it was close enough for me back then. Add in the fact that the helmet was removable (One of my favorite play features of action figures) This figure has held a place in my heart for many years (Even though that helmet is almost comically too large for Wolvie’s head)

There were three different versions of this particular figure (including the first store exclusive figure from this toyline) The Weapon X I’ve shown you is the original regular release, there was also a Kay Bee Toys exclusive that had red wires (Removable and painted on the body) Grey shorts, a red visor on the helmet and lime green batteries. At the same time, there was another regular retail version that had silver wires, Blue shorts, a yellow visor and orange batteries (The silver wires version appears to be the hardest to find, while the other two versions are pretty common and easy to obtain)