Marvel Figure Factory

Review by Loc

Figure what? Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Marvel Figure Factory. Ok, let me take count, that’s one…two…four…alright, grand total of none. Yes, like the tagline says, toys you’ve never heard of. Wait, that’s not the tagline? Whatever, today we’re showcasing a little known line of evten smaller proportions. Marvel Figure Factory hit the aisles several years ago, got through maybe two waves of releases, and packed up shop. There wasn’t a whole lot of consumer support, probably because these three-inch mini-model kits cost you around $6. Spending $2 an inch is not a good proposition, at least not in this context. Snicker snicker.

OK, so what’s Marvel Figure Factory? These sets were packaged in miniature wooden-replica crates. In pieces. You popped them open, ripped the plastic baggy apart, and you were left with a mash of brightly colored pieces of plastic. Now, it took the dexterity of a four year old, but you had to assemble the character and its base to create a beautiful mini-statue. In essence, this was a model kit that required no painting or gluing, or it was a puzzle that required no pictures. Whatever the case, they were alight by me.

Figure selection ran the gamut of marvel luminaries: Spiderman, the Hulk, Iron-Man, the Thing. In addition, more popular characters at the time made their way into the line. For example, the vampire-hunting Blade came in little pieces for your enjoyment, mostly due to his higher profile from the cinematic masterpieces he starred in.

One of the cool things about this line was the packaging. For the majority of each wave, you could see exactly which character you were buying and what pose they came in. However, some pieces were also delivered in “blind” packages, replacing character pictures with large question marks. In essence, you were playing a little game of chance, sorta like buying an unopened pack of baseball cards. Luckily, the majority of these mystery figures were also very cool characters or sweet poses. You might end up with guys like Thor or Captain America. One slightly crappy thing was the mystery figures also included repaints of the regular series. So you might end up with the Gray Hulk instead of the Green one, or an unmasked Wolverine instead of the cowl-clad slasher.

Honestly, these were cool little pieces but not worth the price. I only own a handful of them because one of the online outlets blew these out at $1 a piece. For that price, I happily gobbled these up. For $5 or $6, I can see why they didn’t last too long. You can grab loose pieces in online auctions for around a buck. Packaged ones might run you $4. Hell, you can buy my whole collection if you want. That’s all I have to say about that.