Cyclops (One:12 Collective) Review

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Cyclops (One:12 Collective) Review

Cyclops
One:12 Collective (Mezco)Mezco's One:12 line has been putting out a lot of cool figures, ranging from licensed to original, but I'll admit I haven't been picking up anything from it. I have been thinking about getting the Ghostbusters set and Alien (especially because I can get the latter for cheaper now), and the upcoming Mask looks great, but for now, I only own two. I already covered Jason Voorhees long ago, and the other one is Cyclops from X-Men.

As with most One:12 figures, the packaging is very simplistic with blue and yellow colors, along with figure photos and an accessory layout on the back. This is the slip cover, and underneath it is a window box that makes use of various trays to hold everything inside; no tape or ties to be removed. It's all collector-friendly, but if you don't plan on keeping the box, there's a ziploc bag provided to hold all the accessories.

Cyclops has had many costumes over the years, but the one Mezco chose reminds me most of the Saban animated series. Rather than a hood over most of the head, it only covers the lower back, with some nicely detailed hair being on full display. The default portrait has a stoic look, with his usual visor, and the face is quite detailed and realistic. He also comes with an alternate shouting portrait, with a slightly different look for the hair, and it fits well for battle scenes. Both heads have pretty clean paint, but I would've liked a more matte finish for the skin tone.

Standing 6 1/2" tall, Cyclops gets what every One:12 has: tailored clothing. The body suit is made out of a stretchy fabric, and it doesn't limit the articulation much. It's not all soft goods, though; the belt and harness, glove cuffs, and thigh straps are a somewhat soft plastic, and they get clean paint and details. The hands get a bit of texturing on the palm, adding onto the realism Mezco is going for. I can't really say anything about the underlying body, since you can't remove the outfit, but the proportions are good, and the scale means you can fit him in with your Hasbro or even Toy Biz figures.

There's plenty of articulation with Cyclops, allowing him to achieve many poses. The head is a ball-joint, but unfortunately it doesn't get too much tilt, and I'll explain why it's designed the way it is in a bit. The arms move great with swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, double-hinged elbows, and swivel/hinge/swivel wrists. They pose great, but be mindful of tight shoulders. The chest is a double ball-peg while the waist is a single ball, allowing the figure to tilt and lean a bit. And for the legs, we get ball hips and (I assume) ankles, swivel thighs and shins, and double-hinged knees. This is the only area where the outfit really restricts things, as the hips can't go all the way out to the side. Still, you'll be able to pull off a lot with him.

Now what's with the limited head range? Since Cyclops' whole thing is heat vision, Mezco saw fit to include a light-up feature. Activating it is simple: just pop off the head, turn the neck joint to the left and slide it out, and turn on the little switch at the bottom. The light-up feature works fine, and batteries are included, but mine are starting to die out, so I'll need to replace them. The heads have a slot behind the visor for the light to shine through, and the feature works better for certain visors more than others.

And yes, there are alternate visors. You have your choice of a standard one, a "smoking" one, an optic blast effect, and a larger optic blast. They swap easily but fit in tight, and duplicates of the standard and smoking ones are included should you lose any. There's also the extra head I've already talked about, and six different hands - two fists, two grasping hands, a flat palm right, and a visor-using left. My favorite extra is the leather jacket, which fits on the figure just fine and can zip up as well. Lastly, Cyclops gets the usual One:12 base, designed with an X emblem, and the foot peg can be swapped out for an articulated arm for more dynamic poses.

If you're a fan of X-Men, this is definitely a figure you'll want to pick up. He looks and moves great, comes with enough stuff to change up his look a bit on the shelf, and has a neat, but not perfect, light-up feature. I'm enticed by the Wolverine they put out a while back, and I hope we get more characters from this license. Rogue or Professor X would be great.

- 12/11/23