I've been chasing a good-condition, fairly-priced X-Ray Man for ages and finally got one! This one wasn't packaged, but the story I was told was that it was found in the back of an old Kenner AT-AT and had super-tight joints and looked like nobody ever actually played with it. Well, child of ca. 1980, your loss is my gain. Thank you for being ungrateful and not enjoying your present.
This figure is fantastic, and something of an icon in the toy world. Countless bootleg custom toy makers have riffed on it. Onell Design Rayexx [FOTD #1,665] brought the deco to Glyos, and others were also made in other lines - yet, sadly, no The Outer Space Men yet. But you can get a swell X-Ray Battler, X-Ray Scarab, Bio-Mass Monster Rayexx Spliced, and Zullen X-Ray can be yours, maybe, probably. Maybe on eBay. Hopefully they'll go back to the well on the deco because I was a little short on spare toy funds for some of these and would flip over Toy Pizza or Healey Made or Delphi figures using these colors. But I digress - Fisher-Price even made two Imaginext figures of X-Ray Man, the 2018 X-Ray Man & Dog [FOTD #2,014] and FP-636 [FOTD #2,312] from 2021. It's an iconic look, basically a photo negative of a pinkish human with dark hair. Go ahead and run some sort of "invert" filter on these figures in Photoshop - I'll wait. The blue hair turns brownish, the yellow eyes turn blueish, and you get skin that looks like a pink person has gone streaking. So I'm glad Fisher-Price took their Diver figure and just cast it in clear green plastic with an opaque green head, it looks much less scandalous.
The chest decoration is pretty gorgeous with dials, switches, buttons, and knobs whose functions are known only to people who aren't me. He has yellowish gold belt buckles, bare feet, and on his wrist is a meter to check for water depth. Presumably this man from an alternate dimension digs SCUBA. On the whole, though, the figure shows you the best of what his era of toy design has to offer in that there's clever mold reuse and limited paint applications. Having said that, the chest deco is impressive even by modern standards, comparing it to the "we painted a vest" figures of the 1980s must have blown kids minds. I wouldn't know as I didn't have this one, but the mirrored finish on the Alpha Star pilot certainly impressed me back then.
Articulation is excellent for the figure's age. The original mold predates Kenner's Star Wars line, so the swivel shoulders and hip are to be expected - but those unfamiliar with the line will enjoy the G.I. Joe-esque ball-jointed neck for additional mobility. It doesn't increase the parts count, but gives the figure lots of added personality - he can look up and down, side to side, and mope. It's a great way to make a figure do more with less. Also, the left hand is turned a bit so he can drive a space ship or steering wheel - it makes this figure more interesting to look at, and gives him more personality. Also he can man the big camera thing on your Alpha Star vehicle, if you have one. You do have one, don't you? Go get one before they get absurdly expensive.
Nostalgia may be speaking here, but I wish they still made figures like this. At the time it was supremely cheap, with a nice cardback and it seemed like it could have been off-panel in an old Marvel Star Wars or maybe even Micronauts comic book. I would've loved to have seen these guys in more colors, but back then a successful line could run for nearly 10 years and have only a few dozen releases - many of which were repaints. Seeing Fisher-Price retool a chest and claim it's some alien is a weird sort of brilliance, and the fact that it is a flexible enough design to visit other toy lines makes it even better. If you have the means or inclination, I recommend picking this one up - mine set me back around $20, which isn't terrible given what new 3 3/4-inch retro-style figures can cost in 2023. Wouldn't you rather spend the money on an actual piece of toy history?
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