Wave 19 Cyborg or FTC ?

[Frenchy99]

I was taking a look at the last years preview pictures of the wave 19 Mego Cyborg compared to the FTC Cyborg.

Here they are:

503126142_2597320340610644_3775725595821825661_n.jpg 503507051_2597320320610646_4856304059950626177_n.jpg 002.jpg 001.jpg

I personally like the FTC version better !

What`s your opinion on the 2 ?

[BudgetMego]

It's a split opinion. The arms and legs on the FTC are better, more metallic looking, but I like the head sculpt on the Mego better.

[Z-man 307]

I do have the FTC version, but I'm not a huge fan of the fists and lower legs. I think the forthcoming Mego (although I assume the pic is a prototype) is much more Mego-ey with the gloves and boots. A little similar to a custom I made several years back.

[Frenchy99]

It's a split opinion. The arms and legs on the FTC are better, more metallic looking, but I like the head sculpt on the Mego better.

The Mego head sculp seems a little big and doesnt seem to sit right on the body. It might be just the proto type mind you.

[Frenchy99]

I do have the FTC version, but I'm not a huge fan of the fists and lower legs. I think the forthcoming Mego (although I assume the pic is a prototype) is much more Mego-ey with the gloves and boots. A little similar to a custom I made several years back.

Cool custom!

Yours looks more like the Mego proto type but you added the upper arm bands. Can I ask what you used for the upper arm bands ?

[Dan2Dan]

I have the FTC version, which I bought many years ago only because Cyborg has always been one of my favorite super heroes. But candidly, the actual figure is not among my personal favorite FTC figures.

As you may be able to see in the attached photo: (1) when you look at the figure from a slight distance I think it looks really great and I think the head schulp is really good, but (2) his clothes are starting to disintegrate, despite me keeping the figure in a plastic case in a closet for many years, only taking it out to display briefly maybe 3-4 times ever, and (3) his 'metal' hands look cool from a distance, but they are actually plastic overlays on top of human hands, so they're really bulky for the figure and when you have the figure in hand, this technique is kind of obvious.

[Frenchy99]

I have the FTC version, which I bought many years ago only because Cyborg has always been one of my favorite super heroes. But candidly, the actual figure is not among my personal favorite FTC figures.

As you may be able to see in the attached photo: (1) when you look at the figure from a slight distance I think it looks really great and I think the head schulp is really good, but (2) his clothes are starting to disintegrate, despite me keeping the figure in a plastic case in a closet for many years, only taking it out to display briefly maybe 3-4 times ever, and (3) his 'metal' hands look cool from a distance, but they are actually plastic overlays on top of human hands, so they're really bulky for the figure and when you have the figure in hand, this technique is kind of obvious.

Nice line up!

That is so weird that you say yours is starting to disintegrate. I currently have two Cyborg figures, one carded and one box and both are OK ?!? Could it be that the storage in the plastic case could be a cause ?

do you have the same problem with other figures ? Can you check ?

I store all my figures in wine carboard boxes and never had this problem mind you never had FTC figures before the last year..

I dont mind the slightly larger hands. personal taste.

Here is the box version.

003.jpg 004.jpg

[PNGwynne]

Modern pleather, no matter how carefully stored, will degrade over time.

FTC should have used silver cloth, not white pleather.

And Wave 19--will it actually be produced?

[Dan2Dan]

Modern pleather, no matter how carefully stored, will degrade over time.

FTC should have used silver cloth, not white pleather.

And Wave 19--will it actually be produced?

Totally. I've had this same problem with only two other figures: (1) a modern Mego flocked Jimmy Hendrix: his jacket is doing the same exact thing: essentially 'flaking' apart over time, and he was in a cardboard box in another room, and (2) the yellow Daredevil outfit from the Diamond Select retro Mego-style set from years ago. I have several of these Diamond Select sets. When I bought them originally, not long after they were released, I bought a bunch of spare bodies, too, and used all the alternative clothes and heads in each set. The one exception was Yellow Daredevil. Only because I was one spare body short at the time. Well, a couple of months ago, I found another spare body (identical to the ones I had used back then), and so I decided to open my Daredevil box and put on that Yellow Daredevil suit and head. And in the 2 minutes I was handling the figure to put those clothes on, the 'pleather' began to flake.

In theory, it could definitely be environmental. But I live in super-temperate coastal San Diego, California, and these figures were all inside my house, and no other figure (of any sort or style or brand or size, including all my vintage AT GI Joes and Big Jim) has ever had any problem at all. The one exception is this 'modern pleather.'

[Z-man 307]

Cool custom!

Yours looks more like the Mego proto type but you added the upper arm bands. Can I ask what you used for the upper arm bands ?

I used the upper arms and thigh armor from the Wizard of Oz Tin Woodsman (Tin Man)

[PNGwynne]

Environment affects the speed of the degradation, but ultimately it's chemical process, instigated by modern manufacturing and choice of materials. Those vintage Mego tunics hold up!

MOMA & some costume archives store vintage and bespoke pleather clothing in gas-infused cabinets to preserve them.

[Dan2Dan]

Environment affects the speed of the degradation, but ultimately it's chemical process, instigated by modern manufacturing and choice of materials. Those vintage Mego tunics hold up!

MOMA & some costume archives store vintage and bespoke pleather clothing in gas-infused cabinets to preserve them.

This is actually super-fascinating insight: thank you!

To reply with an underinformed quip: the only thing keeping my modern Mego collection intact is my heartbeat. When I die, my entire collection will promptly go into garbage bags, regardless of the condition of the modern pleather!

I once tried to suggest to my (now young adult) daughter that my entire collection of all my 'childhood stuff' (and related modern purchases) could, with patience and effort, be sold piecemeal on ebay for $100K-$200K or more, and that, if she did so, she could, when I died, use that money to put a down payment on a home, or pay off debts, or whatever life threw at her as an adult. And when I said that, my wife immediately responded sardonically that, in the run-up to our marriage nearly 25years ago, which we were paying for ourselves, she sold off a bunch of my action figures on ebay at the time (without my knowledge or consent - but she didn't know at the time that the stuff I really loved wasn't immediately available to her), hoping to raise money. But after like 20 transactions, the buyers were so 'anal retentive' about 'missing guns' and the like (which completely mystified her as a California beach girl), that she had to refund most of the purchasers' money and gave up.

I suspect we all recognize that collector dynamic. And their 'attitude' preserved the rest of my collection from a pragmatically-focussed (but money-desperate) young woman who viewed those toys like a somewhat-valuable desk lamp in a spare bedroom, or some old LPs in an era long past record players.