JILL VALENTINE & WEB SPINNER

 

When Resident Evil exploded in the Playstation at the end of last century, ToyBiz took that same excitment to the toys epartment (i am shocked how fast they did it...now day figures based on a game or movie comes out like 6 years after the game or movie release) with the debut of theyr "Video Game Superstars" line based entirelly on the cast of Resident Evil.

One of the most memorable parts of the collection was how they release two characters together: sometimes a main character and a villain or sometimes a big character with a smaller one, but this always helped to build a diorama or a nice display set up from the very start. Of course the very first figures in the line were Chris Redfield and the Cerberus dog but following pretty close was the second protagonist (or first....back then 100% of us played with her and not Chris): Jill Valentine and the Web Spinner.

Jill is a little bit smaller than Chris while the Web Spinner is the same size the Cerberus dog. Jill have the scale of the figures from back then soo its the same size a modern Figma and she can stand on her own perfectly as well as her spidery friend.

She is articulated on the neck, shouders, elbows, legs, knes and ankles while the Web Spinner is completelly static. Just like Chris, Jill articulations are "90s articulation", just cut joints with movement to a single direction except for her shoulders that have ball joints. The shoulders are the best articulated area but still her shoulder pads really keep in theyr way soo this dosnt give a lot of change for different poses.

Again, back in 1997 we only had Jill,s blurry 3D render and the artwork used on the boocklet of the game and ToyBiz took the artwork as base.Jill is very cute looking tough not specially curvy, her face is very basic tough her hair is nice sculpted. Unlike Chri, her legs are not preposed soo she is on a pretty neutral look. There no texture here, just basic plastic.

The paint is very basic too with strong plain blues and greys tough the STARS logo on her cap is perfect as well as her big anime girl eyes, and just like Chris, she dosnt have too much of an expression.

The Web Spinner is hairy and its legs really needs a more edgy sculpt but this is just a big ass spider soo theres not much else to see here. The radioactive hgreen eyes looks really good against the black head with the red hair around it and the red and yellow legs are pretty odd looking.

The thing here is this: while we have a lot of Jill action figures by now, this is pretty much the only figure based on the Web Spinner, one of the most classic monster from the game. Despite not being the most exciting creature, this makes this little guy pretty special.

Unlike Chris, Jill have no knife but she comes with her M9 gun with no paint and a very generic sculpt and i have she have problems holding it as well, maybe because her hands are smaller? She also comes with a big ass flamethrower!! Though this weapon is smaller than Chri´s rocket launcher and looks a little bit "normal" is still nto game accurate and looks more generic than anything.

The glames misil is made with transparent plastic and looks really cool and once inserted on the weapon and pushing a button on top, the flames are trhwon with a spring action. All those from back then had to have thos weapons for some reason.

Another must on this toys are the action feature and jill share the same with Chris, an ugly huge level on her back that onece pushed down, make her rise her arm and turn her head to auto aim to an enemy. Sadlly for some reason this time this feature dosnt works too good and her arms dosnt move too much. Maybe the her body is too small for the mechanism??

The Web Spinner works much better tough: push its head and its main body opens up and catapult a green web with tiny spiders to Jill!! The spiders arent painted and are made with elastic plastic, but the feature works soo well it looks pretty cool.

As simple as this toys looks by now, this were the very frst time we see in plastic this characters and even with theyr flaws, having both Chris and Jill on the desk figthing against a Cerberus and Spider while playing the actuall game was one of the best feelings ever for a 90s kid.

CHRIS REDFIELD & CERBERUS

 When Resident Evil came out it was such a big deal: it was edgy, gritty, grotesque, dark, the characters had all the Capcom charm and the storyline was much better than any Hollywood horror movie (and in 2023 RE is still way too much for Hollywood), basically it was a pulse stoping experience that carved on the mind of anyone who played it and just in the middle of that storm, ToyBiz released the Resident Evil action figures to start theyr "Videogame Super Stars" serires.

And those toys where also a big deal just as the game since i remember many people keep asking me where i got my figures. ToyBiz was such a huge name back in the 90s, along side Kenner, Galob, Hasbro, Mattel, they made a huge collection of toys based on Marvel, the X-Men, Spiderman, but the Resident Evil figures where pretty different.

They had the wonderfull idea to release them in pairs: two figures together in one pack for better interaction tough they were not specially big, they came in the same scale the Kenner figures did and of course, the very first pack of the collection was the main character and the first enemy to be seen in the game: Chris Redfield and Cerberus dog.

This two can stand on theyr own tough Chris needs a little bit of balancing, specially with his weapons but they can stand with no problem. He is articulated in the neck, shoulders, elbows, legs, knes and ankle in a 90s way: all cut joints that move ony in one direction except the shoulders, that are ball joint and have a good range of movement, but the rest of the articulations dosnt offer too much freddom aside of a very basic battle stance.

The Cerberus is only articulated on the jaw and of course is much more smaller than Chris (something also pretty present on ToyBiz figures: add a big character and a samll one together) and the sculpt and paint is really really good. His doggy shape is pretty stylish and the black fur looks really good. The ribs can be seen as well as maggots crawling on his inside. The dark body with brown paint on his paws and belly is really nice looking for such a small scale.

Deffinetly the best part are the damaged areas, looks wet and the skull and bones looks white full of very realistic looking blood and love his protunding white eye. For me this the best part of the package, this little toy doog is soo damn good looking even for now day standars.

Is not like Chris is bad looking either tough, he is just less realistic, more cartoony since back in 1996 the ony thing we had about Chris was the 3D render of the game that didnt had too much detailing soo this is entire based on the Capcom art that came in the boocklet. I am not sure who was the artists but the art looked a lot like the standar SF art wth a pretty clean and cartoony look.

Chris have a super heroic shape with big pecs and shoulders and a thin waist, his face is pretty basic tough his hair matches the one on the artowk pretty good. One of his legs is sculpted like he is going to be ready to give an step and the entire figure dosnt have any kind of texture and looks pretty plastic. For some reason this is more evident on him than in the dog.

The paint is very basic as well to match the cartoon look, pretty strong colors specially on the green vest and redish hair. The paint work on his face is pretty good tough, the eyes are small but well defined as well as his mouth and hair line, the logo of STARS on his shoulders is perfect as well.

Chri´s accesorys are his knife that can be removed from his chest, his gun and a rocket launcher. The knife is pretty tiy looking and made with soft material and the gun dont have any kind of color, is just a black chunck of plastc but the sculpt is OK and fits on his hand pretty nicelly.

The rocket launcher tough is HUGE and dosnt looks at all like the one of the game!!It was like some kind of tradition that all toys in the 90s comes with this huge and grotesque weapons with a soring shooting action. Push a button on the top of the gun and it shot its rocket (a little too much to face a Cerberus dog). The sculot and paint of this weapon is standar from back then....and its pretty difficult for Chris to hold this grotesque weapon thing.

This are toys of the 90s designed for kids (despite how fory and horrific they look) soo this guys have an "action feature": Chris have this huge and horrible level on his back, move it down and Chris rigth arm moves up and his head turns to the same direction to automatically aim to an enemy. I hate the look of the level on his back but this feature is cute looking and works good with Chris normal weapon, not the rocket launcher.

The Cerberus dog head can be pushed down and then his literally explodes in half and you end with his lembless carcass...all blood and full of maggots. Pretty much like the Scoprion Alien from Kenner but in a much more detailed way. This was the coolest thing but isnt it a little too creppy for kids??? I dunno,....i dont have a way to know since when i was a kid i loved gory stuff.

Move Cerberus head up again and put back his half peices together and he is as good as new. In 2023 this figrues are kind of silly looking...pretty plastic, not very well articulated and with huge and cartoon weapons, yet back in 1996 this was the coolest thing to have around.

BIOLOGICAL OUTBRAKE

 When i got the first Playstation i was eager to get games, specially Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22, it was the game that made me want a Playstation actually, soo my parents went to the mall that very same day and get me a game: Resident Evil.

The game scared the shit out of me soo i spent hours looking at my parents play it: the tank controls, the "tik tak" of the clock in the dinning room, the closed doors, the sounds of foot steeps in the corner outside of the camera view, it was the very first time i saw a 3D game and while i didnt finished since it was too difficult to me, i was diying to play Resident Evil 2 for some reason.

And i was also excited for the brand new toys as well since i dont remember any other videogames having toys back then. Toys that looked really gory and grotesque,i took the silly idea to collect all the RE figures in existance tough that prooved way too much for me pretty fast.

While i didnt got all the RE figures i got plenty and it became one of the biggest collection i have since soo many brands toom the licence and the game turned out one of my all time favorite videogame series pretty fast.

Soo i will try to review and take pictures of the Resident Evil part of my collection from now on soo excuse me if theres a lot of Biohazard around here  from now on.