X-MEN

History

The X-Men cardboard figures were the most fun to make since I had to prototype their specific powers. Each of the 5 inch X-Men toys from ToyBiz had some action feature or gimmick. I was looking to make their features fit the character and showcase their powers instead of a kick or punch. Making character powers that flew up, shot out, flipped over, or fanned open were the highlight of the collection. My favorite was Cyclops and the optic blast effect.

I loved Jim Lee's artwork for the Marvel X-Men comic series in the early '90s and wanted figures that looked like they jumped off the pages. The entire X-Men collection took a few years to make as I was an avid comic book fan at that time and they had some great stories and art. The X-Men animated series was also my favorite show as it told the stories that were in the comics in a unique way. X-Men '97 on Disney+ is such a great sequel to the show.

My only regret is that I never made Apocalypse who was my favorite X-Men villain in both the comics and the animated series. Originally, the idea was to give Apocalypse some shoulders with velcro to swap out for the arm canon and claw. He just never made it into the CardFigures line before I moved on to my Robotech nostalgia.