UNRELEASED ACTION FIGURES
These are the figures that were due to be released by the toy companies only to be cancelled for a variety of reasons, such as a lack of retailer support, was cut from a wave or the company itself went belly up. Some prototype figures (including earlier sculpts of released figures) exist and whatever pictures I could find of them I've put up here. I'd really appreciate it if anyone had pictures of these or other unproduced Marvel Toybiz figures to please send them my way.
Toybiz Marvel Figures - I got alot of these pictures from old Raving Toy Maniac pages, I am really glad they kept them up, they are a great historical resource, the rest came from toy magazines or were sent in from some very nice visitors to my site. The Ghost Rider Caretaker, X-Men 2099 Controller 13, Dire Wraith, Generation X Ever, X-Men Gauntlet, Ghost Rider Quick Change Playset, Generation X Hemingway, Incredible Hulk Playset, disassembled Cable prototype, Iron Man Series 5 two-ups, Iron Man playset, Generation X Sack, Fantastic Four Trapster and mini Spiderman prototype images were sent to me by an anonymous source. I really appreciate getting these pictures!
Age of Apocalypse Mr. Sinister - Another casualty of the X-Men Flying Fighters line, this was a perfect representation of the AOA Sinister and would have been a welcome addition to that line. Here's a pic of him in his flying gear
Age of Apocalypse Rogue - thanks to Tommy Garvey for permission in using this image (and to Bryan Simmons for the introduction). This is a prototype 2-up from Tommy's personal collection, more pictures can be seen at his webshots album (under his Age of Apocalypse section - nice collection). Although the AOA Rogue was released by Toybiz (two different figures in fact), this was the first time I've ever seen this particular headsculpt, beautiful but fierce!
AIM Trooper - was to have been a pack-in figure in the Marvel Legends Series 13 "Bring on the Bad Guys" Series, due to the rising cost of plastic the idea was shelved in favor of an Onslaught BAF.
Avengers Animated series 3 - The link goes to a RTM page for Toyfair 2000. The two figures from the unreleased series 3 that I was looking forward to the most was a cool 5" scale modern Iron Man and a Thor
Cable - sculpted by Bill Mancuso - Thanks to Julius Marx for graciously allowing me to post these pictures of an incredibly detailed sculpt of Cable showing the effect of the Techno virus as well as providing the name of the sculptor. Thanks as well to Brother Voodoo for sending me the pictures. Picture 1, Picture 2 and Picture 3 shows the full body image while Picture 4 shows a gruesome close-up of his head. I also just got a nice shot of the disassembled prototype from an anonymous source - thank you!
Caretaker - cancelled from the unproduced Ghost Rider Series 3
Classic Light-up Psylocke - I liked the prototype head sculpt here in a pre-release shot better than the headsculpt from the two commercially released figures (notice the closed lips vs. open mouth)
Controller 13 - Thanks to the anonymous sender for sending this, you can see from the group shot that he was supposed to have been included in the X-Men 2099 assortment but was cut from it and never made. Here's an individual shot of the Controller
Cyclops - underneath all the Flying gear was a great old school skullcap wearing Cyclops
Dire Wraith - this ROM foe was originally supposed to be released in an Alien Races series. From that cancelled series the Meegan Alien survived to make it in the Silver Surfer line. Here's a shot of the Dire Wraith with his tail. Thanks again anonymous sender! Action Figure Insider has a history and a hand painted prototype of the Dire Wraith (by painter Eddie Wire), very cool! Here's a another picture of the Dire Wraith painted in a different color scheme than the one shown on AFI.
Doombot - this "warrior" class of Dr. Doom's robot guards was to have been a pack-in figure in the Marvel Legends Series 13 "Bring on the Bad Guys" Series, due to the rising cost of plastic the idea was shelved in favor of an Onslaught BAF. The figure that the Doombot was supposed to have been packed with, the Crimson Dynamo, was also unfortunately cancelled.
"Gauntlet" - This is actually Dark Riders / Riders of the Storm member Barrage. Minion's of X-Men foe Apocalypse, Gauntlet was their leader. Of the group, only Tusk was produced in the X-Men line. I've been looking for a picture of Barrage forever, thanks to the anonymous sender for sharing this! I just recently received another scan of Barrage in an action shot
Generation X Series 3 Husk - Toybiz unfortunately did not release her along with her fellow teammate M (no proto ever made/shown AFAIK) in order to complete the team.
Generation X Series 3 Ever, and Hemingway - They were also due to be included in this line as enemy members of Gene Nation, a splinter group of Morlocks.
Generation X Series 3 Sack - This member of Gene Nation was to be a small pack-in figure with a detailed inner skeleton surrounded by a rubbery translucent outer skin (solid here). I purchased the prototype from Ebay but since it's a two-up it is too big to fit in with my 5" figures, still it's a unique piece to have in the collection.
Ghost Rider Quick Change Playset - This was a "Cyprus Hills" cemetery, sent in by an anonymous source. Here's a picture of an advertisement for the set.
Homemade Heroes - these look like they'd be perfect for customizers, unpainted parts you can combine yourself to make a figure; wish they'd have gone ahead with this Homemade Heroes pic 1, Homemade Heroes pic 2 - this set looked to have parts to make a female character, Homemade Heroes pic 3
Incredible Hulk Playset - looks like the Hulk was supposed to "burst" out of this playset, sent in by an anonymous source
Iron Man series 5 - this link will take you to Raving Toy Maniac's excellent Iron Man Archive. I also received a picture from the anonymous source, of Series 5 with their respective two-ups. As he notes, there are two sets of two-ups, one without armor. Thanks anonymous!
Iron Man Quick Changing vehicle - Thanks to the anonymous visitor who let me know about this unreleased vehicle. Was supposed to come with a Tony Stark figure dressed in street clothes.
Iron Man playset - thanks again to anonymous, who sent over these pictures of an amazing unproduced Iron Man base. Note the unique armors! Would have been a great way to showcase all of those extra Iron Man figures. Here's a shot of the playset closed up for storage and here's a shot of some of the parts of the playset.
Courtesy of Bryan Simmons aka Darth Bryan, here's a link to his webshots album with some really nice pictures of these Iron Man protos. Besides pictures showing the intricacy of the Quick Changing vehicle set (with a 2-up of Tony Stark), you'll find many others, including a 2-up of a 1st appearance grey "Iron" Iron Man from the Avengers Boxset (they only released the gold and bronze versions) and beautiful pictures of the awesome Iron Man playset. Much obliged Bryan - awesome collection!
Jean Grey from the Flying Fighters X-Men line is the best Jean Grey never made. It was originally scrapped to make room for yet another Wolverine before the entire series was cancelled outright.
Living Laser - Here's some great pics I got from another anonymous source (thanks!), of this unreleased Series 5 Iron Man foe, Back shot and unassembled shot. From the Iron Man series 5
Maggott - this late member of the X-Men had a pretty good sculpt. Was supposed to be part of the X-Men Flying Fighters series. Here's a pic of him with his flying gear
Marvel Legends 9 1st appearance Hulk (street base) only
Marvel Legends 9 Professor X Jim Lee era wheelchair - This one and the base from Gray Hulk were not released because they were part of the "Galactus" BAF (build-a-figure) series and included a piece of the world eater instead of the bases/stands that came with previous waves.
Marvel Legends Fan's Choice Poll - wizarduniverse.com had pictures of several unreleased prototypes for Aurora, Gambit, Lilandra, Magneto, Northstar, Silver Samurai, Storm and Age of Apocalypse Sunfire (which won a reader's choice poll for figure to be made and sold through hasbrotoyshop.com. Here's a link I found with the pictures. Hopefully the other figures will be eventually offered as well.
Monster Armor Wolverine - this figure was released, but the retail figure did not have such a detailed paint job and lacked the shoulder pads seen here in the proto
Spider-Man - this mini figure (2 1/2" - 3 1/2") was sent in by an anonymous source, looked to be pretty articulated for such a small figure
Spiderman Arachnophobia line - released, but Vampider would be painted red instead, Spider-Goblin did not include the cool "spider crawler" (a shame, as it would have made a fine Spider-Slayer robot) and Man-Lizard had a different head sculpt, one not quite so horrific as seen here in the pre-release photo.
Toybiz Marvel Legends - the link goes to an actionfigureinsider.com feature on some the Marvel Legend figures that never made it out thanks to rising oil costs. Would have been awesome to get those Henchmen figures and X-Babies, not to mention Forbush Man and Thor Frog! Hopefully we'll be able to see these figures someday through Marvel Select or Hasbro.
Trapster - this classic foe was cut from the Fantastic Four series 4 assortment
X-Men Evolutions Beast - this unproduced figure was sculpted by Phil Ramirez (thanks again to Julius Marx for the info and for allowing me to use this picture). Brother Voodoo was kind enough to send me the picture
Other cancelled action figures - I was looking forward to these particular figures, it's too bad they were never made
Anubis Warrior - from Jakks Scorpion King line - If you've played the Age of Mythology pc game, you can see how this figure would have perfectly represented the Egyptian Anubite myth unit.
GI Joe Extreme - Mayday and Rampage looked to be pretty well sculpted for this line
Magic the Gathering Minotaur - was supposed to have been made by Resaurus
Magic the Gathering Serra Angel pic 1- supposed to have been made by Resaurus
Magic the Gathering Serra Angel pic 2
McFarlane Skull Queen from Spawn: Dark Ages - released, but you can see in this early prototype that she had a scorpion like stinger tail which was not available in the final production figure. Also was supposed to come with two skeletal minions instead of one (the other was repainted and given to the Spellcaster figure in same series)
NECA Kill Bill Series 1 O-Ren Ishi - this unproduced figure was reportedly axed because of likeness issues with actress Lucy Liu. Here are some more pictures from toy site www.action-figure.com
Quake 1.5 repaint/resculpt line - Marine Lotus, along with an African American Marine Viper figure, creepier Iron Maiden and Tank Commander were cancelled by now-defunct Resaurus due to low orders. The link takes you to figures.com archives on Resaurus (You can also find a Shambler prototype from an unreleased Quake series)
Resaurus circa 1999 - the link goes to a RTM 1999 Toyfare report that shows many cancelled series like Crash Bandicoot and western themed Badlands but the one I wanted the most was the Magic the Gathering figures.
Shi (Unpainted Prototype) - She was supposed to be released as an 8" figure through Crusade Entertainment, with ally Tomoe following
Skeleton Warriors Talyn - it's a shame this female figure wasn't released in either version
Skeleton Warriors Bone Dragon - Great looking undead dragon. Looks huge too!
Teen Titans Doom Patrol - The link goes to a Superhero Times feature on the Bandai-cancelled animated series version of the venerable DC team.
Transformers Unicron - this classic certainly has its charms. I just attended Botcon 2009 in Pasadena, California and were cool enought to have the prototype of Unicron on display. Here's his planet mode, which I've never seen until the show, so that was a pretty big thrill for me to see this live.
Transformers Beast Wars Neo Unicron
Ultraforce Lord Pumpkin, Primevil, Rune and Sludge - from the now defunct Malibu line, here's a shot of Prime Evil
Watchmen - was supposed to be released through DC Direct (sculpted by Tim Bruckner), but disagreements between Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons and DC led to its cancellation. In this second group shot you can see the variant translucent Dr. Manhattan figure as well as the alternate masked Comedian head. Here's individual pics of Dr. Manhattan, the Comedian and the Silk Spectre with their stands.
X Files - We'll never see a Skinner or Doggett figure now :( or that hot dominatrix babe!
