Close your eyes, nerds, and close 'em tight.
Now, imagine a world in which skeleton ninja pirates fight fiery mantids, while sabretoothed tigers are off in the alley, shooting craps with futuristic soldiers, and over at the bar, a samurai gets slapped upside his head by a friggin' robot. No, you've not entered my most intimate fantasies. You can tell by the serious lack of free sushi and petite goth chicks.... this place is just a few steps to the left of that place, in the fine, fine world of Xevoz.
Xevoz is one of the newer ventures of Hasbro into the world of interchangeable figure / gaming systems. Where Shadowrun and Jagun Fighters have shot themselves in their respective feet, Hasbro dares to tread. In a lot of ways, the Xevoz are the logical, artistic extension of Stikfas (also distributed by Hasbro) - they employ all of the same rock-solid plastic, smooth and tight ball-jointing, and beautiful simplicity of Stikfas, but this time, it goes a bit more specific. We get bugs, elementals, robots, ninjas, pirates... all of the best things life has to offer, mixed into one big interchangeable action figure system. Tell me that a Mantis Pirate isn't something you've been waiting your whole life to see. Just say it. You can't.
Now, before you point fingers and cry 'gimmick', (as I was originally inclined to do, more out of wallet preservation than genuine inspection), I think that it's best to look at these guys in a fair light. First of all, they'll appeal to the Marvel Legends 'give me posability or give me a wedgie' crowd, with ball-joints aplenty, all solidly hinged. Secondly, they'll appeal to the customizing crowd, as each set comes with a plethora of stickers, weapons, additional body parts (including multiple heads), and perfect swapability with any of the other figures in the line. Third, they'll appeal to people who like toys that are simply neat. I have a dinosaur that shoots red light out of its mouth when you push a lever on his back, so... that's where I'm coming from. (Thanks, Beth!) Fourth, and the last one I can think of off of the top of my head, they're just plain artistic. They call to mind the uber-simplistic look of the popular HK designer toys that are becoming so popular. I'm a member of each of the above listed groups, as well as a few ones that I can't mention in public (thus the 'Anonymous' in the group title, as well as the word 'Fish' in at least two of them), so, there are really working for me.
On a personal note, as far as the stickers go, I've kept mine to a minimum. They're very thin plastic and seem to peel off of the figure if not completely cleanly applied. And, honestly, most of them are kinda goofy. I DID try putting teeth onto Skull Jack, and they just didn't match up. I felt the same way about Stikfas, too. After a couple of days pressing the stickers back on, I just peeled the damned things off. They look better on my computer monitor anyhow.
And you'll have a lot of extra parts floating around - get a box. you'll thank me later.
Not only are these neat figures, but they also can be used to game with. Each figure comes with 7 small prisms with all kinds of data on them. 6 of these are assembled into a Battle Helix, which is rolled in order to remove parts from your opponent, as well as rebuild your own figure. Very simple stuff. The winner is the guy who hasn't been completely dissipated by the end of the match.
So, who do we have here? While my local TRU didn't have the mantis or the fire guy that I covet so dearly (and are thus winging their way to me from Amazon), I did manage to find the smaller packs. This first wave of Xevoz includes seven characters. Three of these are single-pack, $6.99 figures, two of these are deluxe $9.99 figures, and two more are double packed into a $14.99 pack. If you hit TRU NOW, you'll be getting a killer sale in which a 20 dollar Xevoz purchase will net you a free basic figure. It's well worth it. Here's a sampling of the figures.
The first figure I opened was Skull Jack ($6.99 basic figure), because, well, he's a skeleton, which makes him inherently neat. There's a back story to the races of the Xevozverse, but I'll let you get into it when you get the figures. Jack comes with more things than I can count, but most importantly, he comes with the neatest body accessory I've ever seen. He has a squid arm. In this, I am comforted that I am not alone in my intense squid fetish. Now, mix the squid arm in with a pirate, a skeleton, and a pair of samurai banner thingies, and you have the bizarre amalgamation of characters that is Skull Jack. All of these various (and sometimes perplexing) parts are diagrammed in the accompanying instruction manual, letting you know where they're meant to go, as well as the proper placement for the variety of stickers. Of course, you can do whatever the heck you want also, within the limits of the law. I don't want to hear about any doctors removing Xevoz parts from anyone's various orifices after this article, got it?
Add double pistols, a giant comedy-style mallet, a hook hand, a peg leg, an enormous sword, and a metal leg (among other neat things), all of which are swapable for other parts, and you have one helluva neat figure. The mathematical equation for this is as follows:
Xevoz = [fun x 12] + j (where 'j' = youthful glee)
There's hardly any painting, and what's there is perfect. But wait... there's more. It gets even neater when you start adding in pieces from other figures. Here's Jack in his various forms, using only his own parts.
The Alpha Ranger (also a $6.99 basic figure) is your typical army-type guy. Of all of the Xevoz, this guy is Mr. Basic. He's made interesting by his assortment of bigass weapons and armor plating... and his extra, tiny head.
Yeah, he comes with a shrunken head, and it can be swapped with his normal heads. It has a little tuft of hair on the top of it, and I admit, I just don't get it. It's hilariously inappropriate, and it doesn't even have any facial details or stickers that can be added onto it. The neatest of his accessories is a huge gun (complete with bayonet) that attaches to his backpack and can be positioned by a series of ball joints. While the suggested mode of positioning is suggested to be under-the-arm, I prefer the over-the-shoulder look.
Extra cool is the chiseled, squared-off humanoid head that the Alpha Ranger has. It's kinda creepy and kinda artistic. Of course, the more basic something is, the more possibilities for customization exist, so go wild. Among all of the new accessories, there's only one repeat : a small handheld choppy thing of unknown use that Skull Jack also had (though in a different color).
There's a small problem with this guy, and I'm nearly positive it's unique to the one I got. The all-important ball joint at the waist just doesn't fit. It's wobbly and falls out pretty easily, but it can be balanced just fine. Check the pics. He's like Robocop, without the suck, or the 'talent' of Frank Miller messing it up.
With a good handful of Xevoz just begging to be opened, there'll be more on these guys later. For now, let me conclude by commanding you to go out and get a Skull Jack. Just... drop 7 bucks and get one, play with it firsthand, and feel the addiction forming. You know, the warm, soft hand of addiction... the one that clasped your heart when you opened your first pack of Heroclix, or manipulated your first Kubrick. It misses you, my geeky friend.
Xevoz gets a stellar five stars out of five. There's endless possibility, and they're just a ton of fun. Stay tuned for more!
4/7/04 : Okay, so I moved away from Xevoz for a while to cover a variety of different toys, but Xevoz drew me right back in. I should really start dating these reviews in cases such as this. The Xevoz haunt me, looking down at me from the shelf above my computer. They claim that I'm neglecting them. So, here's a few more, before they slap me with a lawsuit of some kind.
Grim Skull requires some discussion. Grim Skull comes in one of the larger, ten dollar packages. These supersized deals contain enough parts for about 1.5 figures. It's pretty clear that Grim Skull is just a recoloration of Skull Jack into black, with all of the Skull Jack accessories recast in translucent purple. Normally, I'd say that recasting and recoloring was a waste of a figure, but I can't argue with having another skeleton in the line with particularly ghostly accessories. Still, he comes with enough accessories to be able to transform him into a completely different figure - one with all kinds of fiery aspects, the coolest of which is a head that's a flaming eyeball, which immediately reminds me of The Residents and gives him my official title of 'Favorite'. It's amazing how little it takes sometimes.
Yes, the flaming accessories are a sampling of the ones that come with one of the other 10 dollar kits, the Inferno Fury, just with slight recoloration, in as much as these are tinged with black edges. Overall, you don't get any genuinely new pieces in form with the Grim Skull set, and this is the most recycled figure of the line, by far - but when it comes customization time (at the end of this article), you can use every piece that you can get your hands on, and this guy comes with a TON. Extra octopus arm? One can never have enough.
If there are any shortcomings, it's in the following two things. First, the flame hands are very ambiguously shaped, and have additional joints on them. I have no clue as to how these are supposed to look or function. Second, the curved bits that compose the flame chestpiece just don't stay on the chest. They're connected weakly, which is a shame, because they're really neat looking.
So, take a gander at Grim Skull. Interestingly, he also comes with a launchable flame missile, but nothing to launch it from. Perhaps this launcher comes with another figure... hmm....
And then there was Sledge Trooper, another entry on the ten dollar level, and completely new in every way. He has a unique body form, about a kazillion pieces to his basic body and a chainsaw arm. A chainsaw arm with a neon green blade!
Truthfully, to assemble this guy's basic form, you should really look at the instructions. He has more panels and plates than any of the other figures thus far, about 24 on the basic body alone (as opposed to the usual 15 or so). In a case where you'd be playing the Xevoz game, this guy would certainly give you a big advantage, almost unfairly so. He's the guy who comes to strip poker wearing 4 pairs of socks and a few neckties. If he hasn't suffocated by the end of the game, he's surely caught a glimpse of a few nice things and more than a few really ugly things. Does that guy really win, in the grand scheme of things?
In addition to his multiple layers of mechanical parts, he has plenty of room to attach more paneling and armour, as well as a variety of hands (including an axe, a pincher claw, a smaller robot hand, the chainsaw and a Frankenstein-looin' humanoid hand), and a backpack that can hold at least 3 more accessories for later use. Among his choice of heads is a cyclops-tube head (with a dent in it, which I can only perceive as a reference to The Iron Giant), and a rounder head with a human brain inside. Top this off with three choices of backpacks (one to hold more stuff, one that seems to be able to pick up radio transmissions and a third that launches missiles), and the Sledge Trooper is totally decked out. He's taller and wider than the other figures, and as a robot, he's just excellent, even in his gunmetal blue color.
The flame missile from Grim Jack will fit into the missile launching backpack, as will a pair of missiles that come with the Sledge Trooper, but curiously, once you pop the missile into place, there's no way to launch them. The mechanism to fire them is just... missing. It's spring loaded, and you can get them to fire by pressing the end of the missile outwards, but it's an inconvenient device, and I have to wonder why no switch was added.
Because he has so many parts essential to his basic construction, he doesn't have the body variations that the other figures have had. Regardless, he's a powerful figure and certainly worth the bucks.
Here's a few shots of some of the other Xevoz for you. All of them are tremendously unique, with the only repeat scenario happening between Inferno Fury and Grim Skull, as mentioned. Here we have Razor Claw (a cat-man who comes with the option of boxing gloves), Inferno Fury (who is translucent orange with a black heart and an arm-mountable missile launcher), Shadow Blade (the ninja guy with the flipper feet) and Bone Cutter (an enormous mantis with four legs, four arms, and three alternate heads - one of which is a big green lightbulb). All of these are solid with no joint problems.
