Hasbro Xevoz Skull Jack Action Figure Hasbro, 2004
Day #634: April 9, 2013
Skull Jack Unnatural
Xevoz Battle Booster Figures
Item No.: Asst. 85500 No. 85507 Manufacturer:Hasbro Includes:Sticker sheet and a ton of parts Action Feature:Swappable parts Retail:$7.99 Availability: January 2004 Other: The Skeleton bits were repainted for Tomb Wraith and Grim Skull figures
I've written a lot of toy reviews, and I've got dozens if not hundreds that never got published - one of which, Skull Jack, I dug out. Here's the opening bit from the review I wrote in 2004. Oh, and these pictures are from back then too.
"Skull Jack is one of the first three Xevoz sets released in January 2004. It has numerous pieces that can create several different figures, such as a basic skeleton or a cybernetic skeleton pirate. Versatile and given many accessories, this set is worth the money if you can find it. $7 at most stores, available as low as $2.00 on extreme Wal-Mart clearances."
I agree with this, minus the pricing thing, as that was a long time ago. This figure came out after Stikfas and the brief flirtation America had with Gundam-style model kits on a large scale. Toys R Us had Japanese Gundam Wing model kits like a decade ago. Can you believe it? It's true! People used to like to build action figures for about ten minutes, but since Hasbro never applied this format to other IP like Star Wars or G.I. Joe, it fizzled in about ten months.
The figure is basically a bag of bones with armor and metallic elements. The off-white color is good because while white yellows, a lot of quasi-white plastics tend to not have discoloration problems. I was a little surprised (and frankly disappointed) that the figure almost looks like it should glow in the dark. (It doesn't.) The basic skeleton is comprised of 14 ball-and-socket joints (15 parts) which can be swapped out from any other figure from any other line. If you like Glyos, you'll probably love these. The stylized skeleton can be turned into a pirate with alternate limbs including a hook for a hand, a tentacle arm, snap-on armor, peg legs, and a metallic robot foot. There's an alternate cyborg skull head too which has a Trap Jaw vibe. I remember telling people that Xevoz was the last 1980s action figure line, and to this day I think that's very true. This was a wonderful experimental toy line where it was pretty obvious stores and Hasbro didn't know what to do with it.
But wait, there's more! The figure includes a word, flint locks, flags, stickers, and an utterly pointless "glyph" system for a game that I never played. So maybe it had a point, but I just flat-out ignored it. I also didn't bother with the stickers, but I admire the customizable nature of these figures.
I bought extras of the figure when they were cheap to give as gifts or trade or whatever, and I popped open one of them to keep on my desk at work. Because I needed one for home and one for the office. Usually this guy is $15-$25 these days, but it's not uncommon to see it for $35. If you can get it for $20 or less, I think you'll have more than sufficient fun playing around with this one.
This is one of my favorite Xevoz figures, just because it has enough going on for it that it's exciting to play with. I'm still crazy about this one nearly ten years later, and this large figure would probably cost you $20 or more if Hasbro made it today. To this very day Hasbro continues its experiments with "constraction" (constructible action figures, and yes this is a term people use in toy industry meetings) with Transformers Constructobots or whatever the heck they're called. I admire the attempt, but to this day I still see Skull Jack and Xevoz as the peak of what Bionicle attempted over at LEGO. So go get some of these! Trust me. If you bought Glyos toys, you're going to love these forever.
...and if you're REALLY nutty, there's a packaging variant. Some of them have a translucent insert, and others... not. See below!
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