MR.X & TYRANT 103

 The third serires from the "Videogame Super Stars" of ToyBiz that was designed to expand into the Resident Evil 2 line comes to a close with the fourth figure: a character that was one of the most misteryous and classic elements of the game, Mr.X. It was imposible not to be intrigued by this character back then and given he is actually the second final boss of the game (from Scenario B) naturally he comes all alone on his blister.

He is as tall as William G-2, soo a head and a half smaller than G-3 wich makes him not too menacing as expected. He can stand on his own perfectly and is articuated on the head, shulders, waist and legs, all cut joints, extremelly basic from the 90s it was pretty imposible to come out with more than one pose for him tough given the stoic nature of the character i guess its OK.

The sculpt is OJ as well, he have a blanck stare and veings on his forehead tough i got the feeling he have very strong  face feature and his eyes are too big, losing the lack of features of the original. His gloves are really good looking as well as his metalic boots, with a very good metal paint on them. I admit tough i like a lot his strong red eyes but i dont remember him having red eyes at all...

His jacket is tailored in real fabric and the design is very basic and at times it looks e little too big for him, but in the end section is way too short, revealing Mr.X legs and looking mor elike a skirt than a jacket. Also the piece was made with leather imitation, soo after 24 years the material has been desintegrating leaving an anoying black dust and loosing its leather texture.

He have the same action feature than Williams G-3: He transforms into Tyrant 103 tough this time his transformation is less Transformers and is much more simplistic. Remove his boots and belt and the button on his neck soo the jacket come off, leaving him nude!! Then clip on the Tyrant claws around his arms and the Tryrant helmeth and there you have, the final boss of Scenario B.

His nude body have a really good texture, full of wrinkles with veins and the upper part looks like made of stone. The arms sections are a little bit difficult to clip on his muscly arms but it works just fine.

The pale blue with pale pink veins contrast nicelly with the dark grey on his upper body with some lava loking coming our from the crevice in different sections. Of course this is not lava, but blood. Also theres blood on his claws as well and around his protected heart.

As Tyrant 103 he actually looks a little bit better than on his Mr.X version (mostly for the silly jacket) but he is not as imposing as his game version, he is still too thin and short soo in the end, and despite the fabric jacket, he is kind of boring too look and play, specially after William G-2 and Ivy.

Up at this point, ToyBiz continue doing videogame figures like Tomb Raider, Marvel Vs Capcom and Darkstalkers leaving Resident Evil behind but despite making some really good ones (the Zombies, William) and some really bad ones (Leon and Ada) and despite being draged by kids toys traditions (lousy action features and giant arms), ToyBiz managed to build a collection that felt complete and creates an amazing display based on the games, something no other brand would do until 10 years later.

I was left waiting for a Resident Evil 3 Nemesis serires next that never happend, but something much much bigger and impresive was waiting for the third game.

SHERRY BIRKIN & WILLIAM G-2

 One of the elements that disturb me the most in Resident Evil 2 was the Brikins. Seen the little Sherry runing around and hidding from her demented and deformed father in order to escape him impregnate her with his offspring was really offseting and very different to the more classic zombie horror from the first game, it was very Aliens (tough is well known that Sherry was actually based on Knewt).

ToyBiz captured all this with the third two pack from theyr "Videogame Super Star" line based on Resident Evil 2 Platinum, the PC port of the game. Sherry Brikin and Willaim G-2, daugther and father transformed into an actual boss, this was the second boss in the Resident Evil line and he wasnt alone this time.

Sherry is tiny, like super small....Claire and the rest are small figure but Sherry is in perfect escale with them soo she is super tiny and can stand on her own perfectly. She is articulated on the neck, shoulders and legs with cut joitns, soo she only can mode her arms forward and backward and is almost a statue. She has no action frature just like Ada.

Her legs are sculpted twisting and her pendant with the G-virus sample is also sculpted moving at the side, perhaps giving her ain air of doubt, she is turning around. Her face esculpt have a really concerned sculpt on her eyes and the paint work here is excelent, just like Claire, her lips and blue eyes are perfectly painted and much better than modern figures (Tygra from Super 7....).

The color on her sailor outfit is just white and deep blues, pretty simple and strong colors but enough for such a small figure like her and theres not much to say about her, she fits the whole collection pretty good and is really cool to have her in display being protected by Claire. Also, this is pretty much the only figure that exists of Sherry, another important factor in this.

Her father William Birkin on his G-2 form is really big, taller than Ivy but smaller than his G-3 form and can stand on his own perfectly. He is articulated on the shoulders, elbows, waist and legs, all cut joints except his smaller arm that have a ball joint on the shoulder. Not much movement freedom really but i dont think we can ask for more given the nature of the character.

The sculpt is stuning!! Soo full of details and textures, with the flesh ripping apart in front and his back and revealing all muscle tissue, muscle tissue opening and revealing bones, everything full of sculpted veins and other imposible to identify fleshy tissue growing around. I wish his claw was sharper but adide of that this sculpt is really perfect.

The paint have the same quality of diverse detailing, with some flesh opening - like on his stomach - having whiter tones to give an impression of dead skin, while other sections having a brown coloration to look like already stablished new flesh. The blue and red veins around the muscle tissue, the sirty pants ripping apart, this is as beautfull ad Ivy.

No accesorys at all but the action feature consist on a level on the back of William G-2 giant arm, move it and his giant eye move as well. The giant eye sculpt is amazing, full of veins and made with soft plastic in a vibrant orange and covered in a trnasluscent plastic to give it a....weet look, like the eye is covered in slime.

The action feature is a nice touch but even without it, this two figures looks soo good together and alone, specially William G-2, since even in 2023 i seen him being sold at very high prices under the Moby Dick Tiys label, he looks this good even for ToyBiz standars.

ADA WONG & IVY

 

With the big succes that was the "Videogame Super Stars" line with Resident Evi and Resident Evil 2 and taking advantage that Capcom released Resident Evil 2 Platinum a year later - the PC port of the game - , ToyBiz expanded its line using the same tittle: Resident Evil 2 Platinum, and added more fgures to the collection in expectation of the eventual arrival of Resident Evil 3 (the wait felt eternal...).

Reelasing figures in 2 figures packs (except for bosses), the first figures on the new line was Hunk and Zombie. I never been too much of a fan of Hunk and the Zombie was just a generic one, reusing most pieces of the Maggot Zombie from the first line, so i skipp this first pack tough now i regret doing it.

The second figure was Ada Wong and Ivy, of course Ada had to be included since she is also playable for a short while in Leon game. Ada is the same size all human figures, smaller than your modern Figma figure, much more in escale than the old Kenner toys and she cant stand on her own ata all given the weird feet sculpt, she is sculpted walking in some way soo finding a balance spot for her is really really difficult.

She is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, legs, knes and ankles, all cut joints, even the shpulders soo theres not much option to pose her around, she have a very basic movement classic from the 90s. 

Honestly, along side Leon, i find this Ada figure the most dissapointing. Her sculpt is kind of weird....she is soo incrediblly muscly, with a wide shoulders line, muscle arms and her boobs and ass are huge, yet her face sculpt have almost no face features, soo generic and looking bland. The paint is very basic too and specially on the face it dosnt help her, is just.....basic, incredile basic, theres nothing badly painted on her face but just looks too much like a toy.

Her dress is made of real fabric tough, a first for a ToyBiz figure. I guess they didnt want her dress to get in the way of her legs movement but its the section that takes most of the attention with her. The dress and her wrist clock, is painted pretty ncie tough is not sculpted at all. 

She also have comes with a gun that fits on her hands barelly but thers not much to say about this gun, is just a generic pistol and also is the first figure in the entire lines that dosnt have any kind of action feature (no ugly lever on her back finally!!).

Now we go to the opposite side of the coin, the Yang of Ada´s Ying: Ivy. Ivy is big....like bigger than most of other creatures tough not reaching Tyrant or William size, this plant is actually pretty bulky and makes Ada look like an accesory, i am susprised they didnt packed Ivy all on its own.

This creature is articulated on its shoulders and legs, just standar cut joints tough the arms are made with soft bendy plastic with a wire inside soo theres many ways to move the antire arms and the vines around in different forms.

The sculpt in this creature is just beautfull, is just a beauty!! Is soo full of details with the muscly texture on its torso and arms and the open sections on its shulders, the octagon attern on the leafs on its head and the petails on its hands, the figure is soo rich in texture and details!!

The paint is at the same level of perfectiona s the sculpt, with pretty strong greens and darker greens to add shadows to the muscles and roots sections, the red tissue peeking out from in between the roots and the vibrant and strong irange of the flowers on its hands with some dark shadows to make each detail stand out is just beautifull. Also, the quality of the paints in the hard plastic of the body is the same as in the bendy arms, with matching colors wich is an impresive feat.

His entire head is amde in very soft plastic thats nice to the touch but also conect with tis action feature. Aside of the bendy tetacles and arms of this beast there is a huge button on its back (the only obnoxious part of the figure), push  it and the petals of his head open to reveal a vibrant orange inside with some yellow veins and red pistils coming out from its mouth!!

This 2 pack is like day and nigth, i was soo dissapointed with Ada but Ivy  is just such an impresive figure, the level of detailing and paint is actually more impresive than William and Tyrant and adding two action features on it makes it stand it a lot! They released another figure of Ivy later but it didnt reach the level of perfection this figure have and even 25 years later is still impresive.

WILLIAM G-3 & WILLIAM G-4

For a kid in the 90s there was only one thing more exciting than playing Resident Evil: Play Resident Evil and once done, hop to keep playong it but with the action figures and thanks to ToyBiz we had the chance to do that. Part of the "Videogames Super Star" line, the Resident Evil 2 line was actually smaller than the original game line, with only 3 packs to get since ToyBiz skiped the smaller monsters and just after Leon and Claire, they went dirrectly to the final bosses of the game! William G-3 and G-4!!

To start, this guy is HUGE!!! He is much bigger than Tyrant from the first serires and really really heavy!! Seen him all by himself in the blister was very awesome but once out of the blister he was extremelly intimidating!!! He is as tall as a modern Play Arts Kai tough sadly, given to how huge and heavy he is and how articulated, he cant stand at all....he keeps falling over and over again soo i had to use Ryu´s base for this pictures.

He is articulated on the shoulders, legs, knes, ankles and half feet and his back arms are also articulated on the union with the back, elbows and wrists. All are cut joints soo despite being soo articulated he dosnt have too much posing options and thats a big shame. His back arms and theyr knes are ball jointed tough soo that gives them a lot of movement freedom but also makes them prone to falling at the sides given how heavy those arms are.

Despite his weak articulations the sculpt is really cool, with all the musuculature and veins on his arms as well as giant eyes erupting from different areas. His lean and slim complexion makes him imposing as well and it was soo amazing to have such a closer look at him in this toy, since in the game he was...well, way too pixelated and always triying to kill you.

His head is soo puzzling...is pure bone and looks kinda like a fish but human as well (specially with those big teeth), there is some grey shadows here and there and red bulguing eyes with crimson lips, the paint is simple but really good. Same for his body, brown body with dark shades to higthligth his muscles but my favorite parts are those eyes coming out from his legs...they are soo vibrant red, full of dark veins and the eyes coming out from the arms on his back are pretty awesome too.

But where is Willaims G-4?? And waths his actual action feature??? Well, the feature is actually mutates from G-3 to G-4 in pure Transformers fashion: move his arms up and bent his legs, push his back arms down and a spring will push out his head, making room for his G-4 head!! This transformation is really simple but it works soo good it was the coolest thing ever back in 1998!!!

The G-4 head have the same level of sculpt and paint tough the greys on his head is darker and the while section is cast in soft plastic. In his G-4 form he is still as massive as his G-3 form but in a horizontal way, tough given to the weigth of the open mouth, his back arms use to open up soo he is mostly standing on his mouth but thats hard to notice.

Overall, he is masive compared to Leon and Claire and plays the final boss role way too good!! Back then this figure was trully impresive, despite his weakness, we Resident Evil fans could not ask for more. Also this is, in 2023, pretty much the only time we got a Willaim G-3 figure and that makes this guy even much more special.

CLAIRE REDFIELD & ZOMBIE COP

 

Along side the release of Resident Evil 2, ToyBiz released as well an action figures serires based on the game under the label "Videogame Super Stars". Following the same footsteps as the first Resident Evil series, figures came in pairs and had an action feature just like all kids toys from the 90s tougj, unlike those same toys, this ones were extremelly gory and dark and sometimes, way too detailed for kids as well.

The first figure on the serires was Leon S. Kennedy and a Licker and the second figure was, evidentlly, Claire Redfield and a Zombie Cop, the perfect pair for Leon. This time around both are the same size and they are not too big, they are smaller than your average Figma or SH.Figuarts (wich make the deatils really impresive) and this time around both can stand on theyr own perfectly.

Calire is articulated on the neck, shoulders, waist, legs, knes and ankles while the Zombie Cop is only articulated on the shoulders. All cut joints traditional from the 90s soo there wasnt too many options of movement in here (specially for the Zombie Cop) tough Claire have ball joints on her shoulders.

Claire is EXTREMELLY pretty, missing the cartoonysh anime look Jill had in the first serires, Claire have much more realistic face features that are really delicate, specially on her mouth. Her body is pre-sculpted into a pointing pose with one of her elbows bent and with her weigth on a single leg tough her pose is not as awkard and as Leon´s and looks much more natural and flows nicelly.

Since she is cast on red and skin color plastic theres not much paint here so she have a pretty clean look. The "Made in Heaven" design on her back is there tough moved a side thanks to the ugly lever on her back. Her face paint is as pretty as her face sculpt, with pretty soft pink on her lips and ain impresive and perfect aint on her eyes with eyelashes and blue pupils, looks fantastic given her tiny size. Also i almost fogot, her pony tail is aslo articulated to give her more dinamism in the display.

The Zombie Cop is not the one on the official artowkr tough, this is much more like an original design of ToyBiz (unlike the Maggot Zombie from the first Resident Evil). He is fat and have a donut on his hand for an really humorous and cartoonish result tough the broken jaw and missing fingers on his hands are quiet disturbing.

His stomach is wide open to give a full view to his rotten guts...very very gory for a kids toy and i loved it. His body is sculpted in a twisted walking pose, heading towards Claie with his neck broken, pretty classic view for a 80s-90s zombie.

The paint is not that pretty tough, with reds on the wrinkles of his clotehs that gives the impression of rust and his face being not that detailed and looking like a green mess. The green on the skin is not bad tough since looks weet, like he is completelly rotten.

He have noa ccesorys tough Claire have the magnum. Thats rigth! The best weapon of the game and unlike the guns of Chris, Jill and Leon, the Magnum stands out thanks to its silver painting  and black and fits into Claire hands perfectly. She also have the bowgun tough.....this bowgun is HUGE. The sculpt and paint arent that bad but the size is just gigantic, like Chris and Jill rocket launcher and flamethrower and Claire arm really cant hold it at all.

The bowgun have a giant arrow tied to the weapon with a black cord and with the push of the button on tom, the arrow is shot with a spring action. The cord is nice soo the arrow dont get lost but it gets on the way a lot....thos whole weapon looks like dosnt belongs to Claire but to a much bigger figure.

Claire action feature is the same of the other human characters: push the lever on her back and she moves up her arm and  turns her head to point her weapon to the Zombie Cop, but unlike Leon´s, this feature works much much better but only with the magnum of course.

The Zombie Cop have a brand new feature tough: push his guts and he is cut in half and he also lose his cap with his brain inside. The missing of the brain and cap is for Claire´s magnum effect i am sure and the cut in half reminds me a lot an scene of The Return of the Living Dead.

Overall i liked this two much more than Leon and the Licker, Claire is just way too pretty and while the Zombie Cop is not as nicelly detailed as she is, he is such a classic interpretation of a zombie cop form the 90s and fits really well with other toys but even more importan, this two looks really good and fun together.

LEON SCOTT KENNEDY & LICKER

 After the big succes of the first "Videogame Super Stars" action figures series based on Resident Evil, ToyBiz didnt doubt a second to launch the serires based on Resident Evil 2, this time both action figures and games will launch at the same time, and even in the videogame boocklet we say previews of the figures. Releasing packs of two figures and a stand alone boss, this time tough the series was much more smaller only consiting on 3 packs.

The first pack comes with Leon S. Kennedy along side a Licker, the brand new and spectacular enemy of Resident Evil 2. In a pretty small scale - the standar for back then - this guys are even smaller than modern Figmas and given the position of theyr bodys they are smaller than Chris or Jill as well. 

While the Licker stand on his own liying on the ground like a roach, Leon really cant stand on his own at all. Given the weird pisition of his legs, small feet and bent back, is extremelly difficult to balance him!! He is articulated on the neck, shoulders, elbows, legs, knes and ankles with very basic cut joints that only let him bend each section on a single direction and even this time he dosnt have the ball joints in the shoulders that Chris and Jill have.

This make him even more difficult to pose aside of a couple pointing at front pose, also the shape of his legs dosnt help either since once you find the rigth spot to balance him, is adviced to leave his legs alone.

The sculpt is weird....all the details on his unniform are very accurate, even the wrinkles on his clothes looks good tough his entire shape is pretty strange. Instead of give him his towering position from the game, he is bent over a little and i am not sure wath he is doing with his legs....sure he is not runing, but just standing as a frog. I cant see anyone pointing a weapon in such position.

Also his legs are soo thin. His face is extremelly generic and his hair line too high soo he have a hufe forehead. Thanks to his blanck face features and silly hair he looks more like a "Karen" than Leon. I can see the resemblance with the CG opening of the game but i think the hair position really ruins the whole ffect.

Paint is OK tough with his body cast on navy blue and only the shoes, belt and hands are painted as well as the R.P.D. logo on his chest. The logo on his shoulders is extremelly good looking and his face with blue eyes and pink lips is perfectly painted tough he have ligth brown hair, again to mimic the CG version of him but i think it looks more orange.

Licker looks good with his body close to the ground and the big claws, i specially like the bones on his back that looks like wings and unlike the Cerberus dog and the Web Spinner spider, this guy is actually articulated on the shoulders and legs with cut joints. This lets him stand a little bit but not too much since his knes are sculpted bent, but enough for him to haras Leon.

The paint on his body is excelent, with blacks and pretty deep reds, he looks like a fresh skined body, like bloody muscular tissue while his hands gradually turns into ligther brown. Tough i wish the same details had been put on his brain and teeth, his teeth are just white and the brain too with very little ligth blues here and there, they looks way too clean compared to his body.

Leon accesorys consist on his base gun from the game with the modfied parts for easyer handle. Theres no paint and the sculpt is kind of bland but the detail of the chstom parts is nice. Then theres the always trusty shotgun and this time the sculpt and paint are really good looking. I am really glad they didnt give him a gigantic ridiculous weapon like the characters from the first serries and while the gun is a little troublesome to put on his hand, the shotgun fits perfectly.

As ToyBix figures this two need action features. Leon have exactly the same as Chris and Jill´s: and ugly level on his back than once pulled make him turn his head and raise his arm to point his weapon towarss the Licker togh like Jill´s, the mechanism dosnt work too well.

With the Licker you puch a small bone on his back and he twists his tongue with a sping action to attack Leon. Twists his tongue back to repeat. This feature is a little strange, i understand he shoting out his tongue from his mouth but twistsing it like a drill???

Overall, i think Leon is the figure i like the least from this series, he is not very good looking and not very fun to play and the Licker is much better tough back in 1998 we didnt care, this figure was as exciting as the rest and be able to crossover Leon with the STARS was pretty exciting as well.

Besides back then Leon wasnt even one of the popular characters, we actually expected him to fade and never seen him again like Rebecca. World wasnt in love of him yet.

TYRANT

 As silly as the look comapred to now days standar, the ToyBiz "Videogame Super Stars" line based on Resident Evil was one of my favorites toys in the 90s. They were the coolest toys to have along side the coolest and most stuning game form 1997. ToyBiz really knew how to keep close to the original game design and artowkr while at the same time add all the fun of a 90s toy.

Releasing packs with two figures, a big one and a smaller one, to add more fun to the display, we could not ask from more....except for a final boss: Tyrant. The ginal boss of the game was soo huge that comes all on his lonesome on the blister and he looked stuning comapred to the rest of the line.

Twice the size of Chris or Jill, Tyrant dosnt reach a Play Arts Kai scale but he deffinetly towers against the rest of the serires and makes it clear this is a totally different beast. Sadlly, while being too tall and articulated, he is extremelly difficult to stand and keeps falling over and over again.

He is articuated on the shoulders, elbows, waist, legs, knes and ankles. All this are cut joints that moves on only one direction excet the shoulder of his giant arm, that one is a ball joint and have a big freedom of movement but aside of that he is extremelly estatuesque, is pretty difficult to give him a good pose aside of the base one.

This is sculpted entirelly based on the Capcom artwork soo he is looking at a side just like in that art and the gesture of his hand is the same. The sculpt is nice, he have a weird wrinkles texture on his flesh and all veins looks really good tough the material of the plastic keeps it looking like a toy.

His head follows the original design perfectly and the paint is pretty clean on the teeth and eyes. The blue skin have some purple shades here and there and darker blue to give it a little shadow and ligth effects but the result is still kinda cheap. The balls on his leg as well as his heart are made with transluscent red plastic. The heart actually is trabsluscent clean and makes it stands out a lot.

Not only he is huge but he have not one, but two action features!! One is a heart pumping action: push a button on his back (nicelly camuflaged this time as a tube part of his anatomy) and you can see the blood pumping up on his transluscent heart. The blood is of course just red paint but sadlly....after 26 years, the blood has dried completelly soo no more blood effect....

The second action feature os the same as the Hinter: turn his body and it will goes back to his place with a sping motion, slashing everything on his path with his giant claw, but juts like the Hunter, the feature dosnt works at all sicne his arm is way too heavy and slows down the spring motion.

Despite his failed action features, lacks of articulation and not pretty impresive paint or sculpt he manages to have an impact back in the day. 

I think it was due more to ToyBiz idea to release the entire cast of the game. Sure, we were missing Wesker and Barry and maybe the giant snake Yawn, but in the end, once you got all the figures of this series you could make an amazing display based on the game. This was very unique because this was the only time a brand made figures of the complete cast of a game, it would never happend again even if figures got higher quality.