| Marvel Comics - The Mandarin |
| 1994, 1995, 1996 Toybiz |
| I was walking around the local Wal-Mart one day, and I came across the Wal-Mart Exclusive Fantastic Four / Iron Man Collectors Edition two-pack set of the Silver Surfer and the Mandarin. Now, I don't get into comics, and I had never heard of the character called the Mandarin, but I pretty much assumed that this guy was Asian. He is apparently a villain, with greenish/yellowish tint in his skin. He's got long hair that is in a pony tail, and he has a "fu-manchu," or a pointy beard and thin mustache. He has very slanty eyes, and pointy ears. He has a compartment in his back that can hold two watch-batteries which will make his translucent hands light up. He has rings on all of his fingers, which apparently has something to do with his evil power. |
| The Mandarin | images coming soon | This guy has been released three different times. He was in a Wal-Mart exclusive two-pack with the Silver Surfer, and he came packaged alone in a Kay-Bee exclusive Marvel Universe set, and an Iron Man set. I assume that he is one of Iron Man's mortal enemies. Since he is actually the same EXACT figure in every release, I will just say that this is a really bad stereotype. Now I know I don't know anything about this character, but just by looking at his yellow-green skin, fu-manchu, slanty eyes, and his evil persona, it just brings back too many images of the "evil Asian" mentality, the one that personifies Asians as evil and sinister, sneaky and untrustworthy. I guess I will have to start reading Iron Man comics to find out more about the Mandarin. |
| CreeD |
| 1997 Skybolt Toys |
| Yet another comic I have never seen before. I believe this comic is created by a young teenager, and it has a strong following. I came across the toys over the Internet. The main character of CreeD is a young White kid, who battles this alien monster thing. The reason I included it is because there is a female warrior who helps CreeD with his battles. The figures in this set are PVC-style, that is, they are "Action Posed Figures" instead of poseable action figures. They come packaged on a horizontal card, which makes them a little unique to display (remember that most action figures come packaged on a card that is longer vertically than horizontally). |
| Mai-Ling | Click here for image | This is the warrior that saves CreeD often, and who sometimes is saved by CreeD. I think there is a love interest between her and CreeD, which would NOT surprise me, but I could be wrong. Like most women warriors, she is wearing practically nothing. In fact, you can't even see the thin part of her thong! There are two cheeks that are covering it up. As you might have guessed, this isn't your common Toys R Us special. In fact, this set wasn't even released officially here in the United States. I bought mine over the Internet, but some comic shops purchased and sold them too. She's got blue hair, with pink and purple streaks all throughout. She also has some body markings or tattoos on her body that are different. Her eyes are slanted downward, but she has plenty of eye liner and makeup on. I wonder if she's trying to hide her Asian eyes? Since she's carrying a sword, I won't ask her. |
| Hari Kari |
| 1997 Blackout Comics |
| This has GOT to be the ugliest and most stereotypical action figure in my collection! Why I even purchased it is beyond me. In fact, I got it in a clearance sale, so I guess that answers my question. This figure represents the main character in a comic book about a girl who comes back from the dead, or something like that. Again, since I don't get into comics, I cannot tell you much more, but once you hear my description of the action figure, you probably won't want to hear more. |
| Hari Kari | Click here for image | This figure has so many problems with it, where do I begin?! First off, she has the distinction of being the first action figure to offer a "nude variant." Ooooh, that's what we all need isn't it? But anyway, I purchased the "regular version," opting NOT to introduce Penthouse to my other action figures. The problem is that when I placed this figure on the shelf, her breast plate fell off! The only difference between the "nude variant" and the "regular issue" figure is that there is a little more glue that affixes the breastplate to the regular figure. Notice I said "a little," because it just popped right off without any force. The other major problem with this figure is that the face is flat! It looks like it was smashed in! I don't know if this was a sculpting error or done on purpose, but it is VERY stereotypical. The paint job is something left to be desired, and overall I do not like this figure. As a side note, in the comics she does look pretty decent. |
| The Legends of Sharkman |
| 1997 Everbright Toys |
| "The beautiful islands of Polynesia are threatened by the effects of off shore drilling, toxic waste, acid rain, and ozone depletion. The delicate balance of the elements; earth, air, fire, and water are in peril. And now a new threat has come to the islands in the name of the Green Manta, who would enslave all people and creatures of the sea. The legend is told that Sharkman was created at the behest of the Goddess Hina, to serve as her earthly representative of the elements to fight the powers of evil. etc.... SHAKA MALU!" This is what the card back said, and I still have no idea what The Legend of Sharkman is all about. Is this a real "legend," or is it just a ploy to sell another off-beat comic book. And if so, what's with all these action figures?! I liken them to the StreetSharks line, which are short and stereoid-packed humanoid figures with hge shark heads. At least this series has an environmental mission to do away with toxic waste, ala Captain Planet. And I'm sure all the toxic waste manufacturing companies really pay attention to all these comics and cartoons that teach the next generation what's good and bad. 8-) |
| Iniki | Click here for image | Iniki comes with Beach Patrol Hanglider, plus dive knife and "rectracting-action" lifesaver. Did anybody else catch that little typo, i.e., superfluous "c" in retracting??? Sometimes I think toys today teach kids poor grammar and spelling moreso than they teach good enviornmental disposal techniques, but oh well, nobody's perfect (including me with all my spelling errors). Anyway, this gal has eight points of articulation, but don't let that fool you. Her arms move like their attached by a string. Her neck, indeed her entire torso have no articulation at all (sometimes the waste or neck can move, but not hers). And although she comes with a little plastic mound of sand molded in the shape of her left foot, she still cannot stand worth a darn. But as far as women action figures goes, she doesn't hold back at all with the form. She is cut better than many male action figures. She almost has an "eight-pack" set of abs, and her biceps put any Star Trek figure to shame. But she has to be strong as she is a Bay Watch style life guard. Her hair sculpt is quite interesting. It's like a big thick wave. As for facial features, well, her eyes are just two colors, white and black. Actually, the more I look at it, I think they did a fairly decent job for a Pacific Islander. There's nothing really stereotypical from what I can tell, but I do feel it's another attempt at depicting Asian Pacific Americans as exotic and mysterious. And I don't know what's up with the hanglider that looks like a manta-ray jet, but accessories seldom have to make sense. |
| Maui | Click here for image | This gusy is intersting. He looks like Junior Seau, the Pacific Islander NFL football player. I mean this guy is HUGE! He also has eight-point articulation, but not in the places he could really use it, like the arms. And there's this really freaky feature about him --- if you push in this button on his back, his mouth opens?! He's supposed to have light-up eyes and breastplate, but I think my battery is dead as nothing's lighting up on him. But why, oh why, does his mouth have to move?! This just really freaks me out. Actually, at second look, he just reminded me of a He-Man figure! Wow, He-Man has come back to life as Maui! Watch out skeletor (who may very well be "Doc Toxic," the evil villain understudy in this series)!!! Anyway, his accessories are just as weird as Iniki's. He does have a cool surf board, which I think I will give to the Keanu Reeves action figure because he always sounds like a surfer dude. His helmut doesn't even fit him, and it looks like a skull from a Pokemon for some reason?! |
| Spawn |
| 1997 McFarlane Toyworks |
| This is another popular comic series that I have never gotten into. I think it's safe to say that I don't like reading comics, but that's just me. So anyway, a lot can be said about this series. First of all, the artwork is amazing. I have seen some episodes of the Spawn cartoon on HBO, and I know the comic art is even better. As for the toys, McFarlane pretty much revolutionized the art of toy making with extreme attention to detail and sculpting. Most of these toys are gory and disgusting, but the detail is fantastic. So why did I include a Spawn figure in my collection? That's a good question, and consequently, I do not have a very good answer to it. 8-( |
| The Goddess | images coming soon | This Manga Goddess is part of the Manga series of Spawn figures in which each character is sculpted in a Japanese Animation style, usually with heavy armor and huge medieval weaponry. The Goddess is another name for Angela, who is the antagonist against Spawn. Antagonist isn't really a good word since Angela represents the good side of death, but anyway, it's not important in the context of this web page. With many McFarlane toys, there exists many variants, or different versions of the same figure. The Goddess variant I have has gold paint and Japanese Kanji characters written on the armor. The characters spell out the artist's name and her birth date, so obviously they are there just for show, but with her helmet on she looks like any Manga character, so that is why she is in my collection. Another reason is because I have always wanted a McFarlane figure in my collection, and she was the LEAST offensive one available. Go figure, eh? |
| The CORPS! |
| 1996 Lanard Toys, Ltd. |
| The CORPS! are the World Force Response Team. They are super cheap GI Joe knock-offs, and they come in many many different combinations and sets. There are roughly 50 of these GI Joes, errr, I mean CORPS! figures out there, and only two of them are Asian, even though they are the "WORLD" Force Response Team. At last count, I thought I heard that Asians comprise more than 50% of the world's population. Hmmm, I guess when it comes to our World security, the guys at Lanard know best. Actually, I shouldn't be too critical of these toys. I mean, they are specifically marketed for lower income families with multiple children. For this purpose, Lanard has done a wonderful job in providing cheap entertainment, but why is it that whenever Asians are represented in military units, they MUST be martial arts experts, covert operations, top secret assassins, or the like? Has anybody heard of the special South Korean military unit who are considered some of the world's MEANEST and most FEARED soldiers? They don't necessarily specialize in martial arts or ancient weaponry, but if you talk to anyone who served during the Korean War with South Koreans, they can tell you that NO ONE would want to be interrogated by this special unit. Oh, and what about the 100 Battalion or the 442nd Combat Team during the Second World War? These Japanese American nisei (and some other Asian Americans in the 100) used bravery, cunning, determination, and hard work to win their battles against the German Nazis. They did not use Karate, Aikido, Taekwondo, or any other martial arts to fight. And there are many more examples, but why, may I ask, are all Asians in military toy lines masters at the art of something, or specialize in covert operations? Does Lanard Toys, Ltd. really have to maintain this stereotype just to offer cheap toys? At least GI Joe offered Asians like Tunnel Rat who did heavy weaponry and combat engineering, but I guess the cost of offering less stereotypical action figures is too high to bear for some toy manufacturers. |
| Dragon Han | images coming soon | Dragon Han (Dragon being such a typcial Asian name, NOT) is on the Recon Task Force which is comprised of Black Belt Ninjas. He is a hand-to-hand combat expert in devastating martial arts techniques. He served as advisor and karate trainer for the U.S. forces in Asia, and he is a Grand Master in Taekwando and Aikido. This figure had a big head, with flat face and high cheek bones. His hair looks a LOT like Bruce Lee's, and his weapons include an elongated sai, and a pair of nunchukos. He also comes with a rifle/crossbow, as do all of these Black Belt Ninjas, but he is the only one who doesn't come with a backpack of arrows. He probably makes his arrows as he needs them by performing the sacred technique of Wax On - Wax Off to a tree. I'm being sarcastic, by the way. |
| Hiro Yamata | images coming soon | Hiro is another member of the Black Belt Ninjas Recon Taks Force. His tactical profile shows that he specializes in covert and silent operations, especially early reconnaissance intelligence gathering. Now here's something different: he is a member of an ancient and secret Ninja clan, and has trained since birth in ALL martial arts skills. His action figure has the exact same eyes as Dragon Han, but he wears a hood and mask that covers the rest of his face. He has a pair of nunchukos and the rifle/crossbow, as well as a pack of arrows. I guess he doesn't know how to fashion arrows on a need-only basis, commonly known as Just-In-Time. |
| X-Men Robot Fighters |
| 1995, 1996, & 1997 ToyBiz |
| I have to thank Paperson for letting me know about Jubilee, of the X-Men, being a Chinese American adoptee, and about the Japanese-European Psylocke. I've mentioned several times already that I don't get to read comics, but I have seen the X-Men cartoon show and it never alluded to the fact that Jubilee was Asian American. Actually though, I believe this is positive. In a Utopian society, issues affecting specific groups of people based solely on skin color, eye shape, native language, or whatever simply do not exist. There is no need for identity-related issues in a Utopian society because everyone is aware of everyone else's own identity with respect and encouraging support. HOWEVER, as many of you may already know, we do NOT live in a Utopian society, and people do not always respect other people's identities and traits. So basically, what I'm trying to say is that I don't mind the fact that Jubilee's ethnic origins were not revealed or even mentioned in the cartoon X-Men series, her ethnicity doesn't even have much to do with her character, BUT I do see the importance of making sure people do know her identity because: A) think of all the Asian adoptee children who would have someone they can relate to and identify with if they knew about Jubilee, B) think of the stereotypes of Asians that would be erased if everyone found out about Jubilee's ethnicity (in the cartoon, Jubilee was a rebel, liked to go to the mall instead of study, and was a typical teenage girl) and C) I would have picked up Jubilee's Generation X action figure when i first saw it in the toy store, but now I cannot find it because it's so hard to get! In either case, the way people identify themselves is important, and everyone should respect it. I know many Black Americans who prefer to be called Black or Black American instead of African American because they have no connection to the continent of Africa. HOWEVER, I do NOT automatically assume that everyone of African descent prefers to be identified as Black American because I know that everyone is different and unique, and everyone deserves to be identified the way they prefer to be identified. I make mention of this in response to the countless number of critics to multiculturalism who complain about not knowing what to call certain groups of people of color. How ignorant and insensitive our society has become! Our country is based on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and regardless of how you interpret our Freedom of Speech, all of us are responsible for each other's happiness in addition to our own. What I mean is that according to our Constitution, although we should pursue happiness, our pursuit of happiness should NOT intrude upon other people's pursuit of happiness. This is a simplistic example, and rather ethnocentric since I am assuming the majority of people who are reading this are citizens of the United States of America, but it really does pertain to all people. We should respect those who have historically been oppressed in one way or another by fellow human beings. This brings me to another point. I recent read in a 1980's survey among Japanese parents and American parents, the one major wish that Japanese parents had for their children was to be successful. In contrast, the one major wish that American parents had for their children was that they would find happiness. Is it any wonder why the Japanese became such a technological and industrial world leader, and why the United States began to fall behind Japan in areas such as automobile manufacturing and personal electronics development, despite the tremendous increase of personal wealth and well being among Americans? Try to justify Japan bashing and the Vincent Chin case to me now. |
| Jubilee | images coming soon | Jubilee's Robot Fighters figure pits her against a Sentinel's hand. She is part of the Generation X team, which are a younger version of the X-Men. I never could figure out why they were called the X-Men even though several women were on the team. I guess that explains the predominant amount of male fans, but anyway, this is a really cool action figure. The graphic on the card is a little more revealing of Jubilee's ethnic orgins than her actual figure, but her hair is a shiny jet black. Actually that doesn't say anything, but I just wanted to use the words shiny and jet black together in a sentence. Her eyes are just a bit over exagerrated for my tastes, but the one major problem with her figure is that I cannot find a way to stand her up! Her legs are in wild angles, and her feet are too narrow to be effective foundations. The Sentinel's hand makes up for this because it comes with a poseable claw that grabs onto Jubilee. The fingers are nicely articulated, and the index finger shoots out like a projectile. It nearly put my eye out when I first found out is could shoot, but it is very powerful. I don't know if the Sentinels in the comic series could shoot fingers at the X-People (I'm being P.C. here) but I think that the reason ToyBiz did this was to prevent the hand to be able to give you the bird! If the index finger was as articulated as the other fingers, I bet you money that the first thing kids would do would be to extend the middle finger in the vein of flipping somebody off. At least you can make this hand give the peace sign! 8-) Jubilee's Generation X figure is kind of cool. She comes with roller blades that can fit around her feet. She has a rubber trenchcoat on, which makes me believe that she would be safe against rain in the case that I accidently left her outside. She has this really weird action feature that allows her to fling an electric spark (which looks like a glob of bubblegum-flavored ice cream) at some unsuspecting foe. Watch out you X-Men antagonists! She's armed with ICE CREAM!!! |
| Psylocke | images coming soon | As I aforementioned, I knew nothing of Psylocke before Paperson clued me in on her. She has quite an intriguing story. There are TONS of fan sites about her, so I won't go into detail, but I will say that she was "created" by combining the soul and mind of a European woman with the body of a Japanese woman, which resulted in the ideal assassin and ninja master. I read at one fan site that if a movie were to be made with Psylocke, Charlotte Lewis (who was in the Golden Child with Eddie Murphy) would be the best person to protray her because she is European and Asian. I think I will need more time to really figure out what Psylocke is about, but I must say that this is NOT how multi-racial people are formed. I, for instance, did not used to be a European until my mind was thrown into some poor Taiwanese man's body! But anyway, back to her action figures, these are really cool. Both her Light Up Weapons figure and her Ninja Force figure are the same, accept for some paint differences. Her Light Up Weapons figure comes with an ingenius device that has a conducting metal on the handle which, when inserted into her hand containing a metal conduit, lights up at the press of a button on her back. Basically, she's got a real cool light up weapon! Her Ninja Force figure comes with a black cloak and a funky backpack that has two hand-held devices on it that have pychic pulses emminating from them. Yeah, I didn't get it either, but anyway, the absolute BEST thing about her figure is the leg articulation. She has six points of articulation in her two legs, alone! The sixth point is a hinge on her ankles that allows her to look like she's really jumping or kicking someone without being flat-footed. I don't know, it's a minor detail but I think it's really cool. The wrost thing about her Light Up Weapon figure (which is different than her Ninja Force figure) is her head sculpt. Her hair, which is pinkish-blue by the way, is all swooped to one side. It's like an eternal wind is blowing her hair, or she got trigger-happy with he industrial-strength hair spray! I do want to give props out to Rod at Rod's Caroussal for trading me the figures. Check out the LINKS page for his site. |
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from their respective creators.
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Revised: June 18, 2000
