The latest incarnation of Megaman action figures is from a company called Jazwares. Just recently, Fall of 2003, they've released a set of figures based off both the original and X series. So far, there are only six in the set, and I haven't heard of any plans to release more.
To some, however, that may actually be good news. Most people didn't seem too impressed by this set of figures, and I have to admit that I too am a bit shakey after seeing pictures of them on eBay as to whether I want to buy any or not. Here's what I do know on each figure, based on what I've seen.
Megaman: Comes with an interchangable arm cannon and a figurine of Eddie. For the most part, he doesn't look too bad. At least, he shouldn't. But for some reason, he doesn't look quite right...
Protoman: Comes with an interchangable arm cannon, his trademark shield, and a figurine of one of those little Springer enemies in MM2. Quite possibly the best-looking in the set. Then again, I may be biased, since Protoman is obviously my favorite character in the series, in case you haven't figured it out yet ;)
Bass: Comes with an interchangable arm cannon and a Metool figurine. He looks really awkward for some reason. His head seems shaped kind of funny, and so is his arm cannon. No bias here though, since I like Bass too :)
Megaman X: Comes with an interchangable arm cannon, a beam saber, and a jet pack. I guess the reason why he has the jet pack is to emulate one of his armor suits. The beam sword looks just wrong. It's way too short for one thing (looks more like a large knife than a sword), plus it's blue when it's supposed to be green.
Zero: Comes with an interchangable arm cannon, a beam saber, and a figurine of one of those little spider-looking wall climbers from later X games. So far, his biggest problem seems to be the short beam saber, like X's.
Vile: Comes with his shoulder-mounted cannon (It's apparently detatchable), and a little grenade; at least, that's what I think it is. He looks pretty good, only his arms look somewhat longer than they should be. It looks that way on all of the figures, but it seems to stick out the most here.
Mind you that I don't actually have any of these figures; this review is mainly based on the pictures I've seen. I'll be able to say more once I actually have at least one of them.
In late spring of ’04, Jazwares released a second wave of figures, and I have to say, this is more like it! The figures are done up much more nicely than the first series, and their weapons even fire, bringing back fond memories of the TV show figures from Bandai. I don’t have the Megaman figure, so I don’t know how interchangeable the other weapons are with his arm cannon, but I can say that Quickman’s boomerang doesn’t fit in Bass’s arm cannon. Oh well, moving on, here are the figures I know exist in the second series. Let me know if there are others and I’ll post them too.
Megaman: Comes with an interchangeable arm cannon and a plasma ball to load and fire from it. Also includes a Beat figurine.
Remote Mine Bass: Bass’s armor is colored to match his Remote Mine in Megaman & Bass. Comes with an interchangeable arm cannon and a Remote Mine that fires from it. Also includes a Heli-Metool figurine.
Quickman: Comes with a Quick Boomerang that can be fired from the launcher on his right arm. Also includes a Needle Harry figurine.
Megaman X: Comes with an interchangeable arm cannon and a plasma ball that fires from it. Also includes a beam saber and a Robbit figurine from X1.
Nightshade Zero: Zero is re-colored in his black armor from the later X games. Comes with an interchangeable arm cannon and a firing plasma ball, along with a beam saber and a Bospider figurine.
Axl: The newcomer from X7 is in the new set as well. But I’m not sure about the details on him. More on this later.
So Megaman and X were redone, and Bass and Zero were re-colored, but Protoman and Vile were snubbed in this set. I hope they do a series 3 where we see them again in a redone format. I also hope to see more robot masters from the original series, along with Sigma and some Mavericks from the X series. But anyways, good gob on this one, Jazwares! Keep it up!
It's late fall of '04, and I thought I'd give a heads up. I was in KB Toys recently and I discovered a couple of "new" figures. They're actually just recolors of previous figures, with no new goodies, but I thought I'd mention them anyway.
Napalm Bomb Megaman: Megaman is recolored in his Napalm Bomb armor colors. I like the metallic look it has, but I was disappointed to see that the projectile he shoots is exactly the same as the regular Megaman; just a plain ol' plasma ball.
Bass: It's the same as the Remote Mine figure, just repainted to match Bass's normal color scheme. It even comes with the same Remote Mine Projectile.
