Wolverine in Other Media - Action Figures

Action Figures

Wolverine has often been rendered in plastic, either independently, or in conjunction with other media. Mattel was the first, with the 1984 Secret Wars line, supported by five points of articulation, including the neck, shoulders and hips. Among other notable figures, started a controversial trend in toys: the variant. His claws came in two different color options, one set silver, the other set black. When collectors began trying to complete their sets for Secret Wars, the silver set was readily available, while the black set was found to be rare.

While Wolverine was the first to be rendered in plastic, the other X-Men would go several years with no interest, until 1992 when "Night of the Sentinels" was shown in animated form. With a toy line in stores retailing at roughly five inches, they had a modest roster of seven figures. The sculpts were a cross between DC's Superpowers line and GI Joe. The points of articulation included on these figures were relatively standard, but many of the figures also include action features as well.

Out of the twenty-eight waves of the X-Men line produced by Toy Biz, starting with 1991s series 1, only two series of the line did not feature a Wolverine (Counting Albert, because his package clearly states; "Robot Wolverine"...) Twenty-six figures were eventually produced, but with; repaints, two-ups (10" figures) or reissues, the total count is uncertain.

In 1998, Marvel had begun producing X-Men: Evolution in '99, and that line of toys yielded a net of six Wolverine action figures. But at the same time of the movies release, Wolverine gave us another nine figures. The toy line performed well, as Toy Biz began producing figures in 6" to support the character's animated exploits. In 2003, they featured a figures with twenty-six POA. X-Men: Classics were 6" and they added three Wolverines...

Marvel Legends started in 2002, releasing two solid waves with no Wolverine. Toy Biz boasted 26+ POA (points of articulation), extreme detail, and excellent paint applications. It seemed that Marvel wanted to create iconic versions of all their characters with the collector in mind. Gone were the days of colorful, childlike toy packages. They were replaced with; impenetrable clamshells that flattered the characters in general.

During Toy Biz's production of Marvel Legends, there were a total of 13 Wolverine figures produced. These included Classic costume (with unmasked variant), Brown costume, a Weapon X figure, a "Days of Future Past" Logan figure (with younger variant), an "Astonishing X-Men" costume (with unmasked variant), an "Age of Apocalypse" figure (with burnt face variant), another unmasked Classic costume model (With a different head sculpt included in an X-Men 5-pack boxset) and an original costume model included in a 2-pack with Sabretooth (a variant "raging" model was also produced). Toy Biz as well produced a short-lived X-Men Classics toy line which included two more Wolverine figures. Another X-Men line was released in 2005 which included Ninja Armor Wolverine, Stealth Wolverine and Air Strike Wolverine action figures.

In 2007, Hasbro took over production of Marvel Legends. The 2nd wave of figures produced included an "Ultimate" Wolverine figure. Also they produced a 25th Anniversary Wolverine exclusively to Toys R Us. The figure itself is just a repaint of Toy Biz's Marvel Legends Series 6 Wolverine painted silver. The package comes with no BAF and features a picture of his famous solo series.

Diamond Select began a Marvel Select collectors line-up. They promised even more detail than the X-Men and Marvel Legends lines. Although they were not in scale with the other figures, offered more Wolverines, three to date. Marvel Legends has provided 13 different figures, including variants, including deluxe scale figures and Icons.

Wolverine is the second figurine in the Classic Marvel Figurine Collection. It is notably the shortest figurine in the collection at 77.5 millimeters.