Toy Biz - FERAL!

Marvel Comics -  White's Guide Exclusive - X-Force's Feral - Toy Biz 1998

There's an interesting trope when it comes to superhero team building in bronze and modern age comics. You typically see a big looming muscle guy in the background, a token female, some sort of "alpha male" leader,  and there is almost always an animalistic growling character squatting on the side. I loved the rare occasions when the wild character was female. To me, the most famous example of this is Feral, the runaway Morlock who joined up with Cable and the remains of the New Mutants just as X-Force was forming. I always found her very appealing, even if she could be chalked up to a simple Wolfsbane stand-in. Her backstory is very gritty in a typical 90's style with abuse, death, and drug addiction taking center stage. But I mostly found her design and aggression fascinating. Also, her antagonistic-but-protective relationship with her visually-similar mutant sister, Thornn, was amazing. This Toybiz exclusive figure is an awkward mash-up of the Deathbird head paired with the Tigra body.

Marvel Legends - SIRYN!

Marvel Legends - X-Men: Bonebreaker BaF Series - Siryn - Hasbro 2022

Theresa Cassidy is one of those great characters that combines several of my favorite tropes. For starters, she is practically a direct gender-swapped clone of her father, Sean Cassidy, aka Banshee of the X-Men. Same powers, same costumes, same hair color. I love this kind of character genesis because after all the similarities are stripped away, you are left with a simple gender study of how women and men might approach situations differently - something I always find fascinating. Secondly, Siryn debuted as a villain (in the pages of Spider-Woman in 1981) but quickly turned to the good side. Since her early days, she has been an official member of several mutant teams, but my favorite was her run in X-Force beginning in 1991's X-Force #3 and remaining for years. Aside from a few Heroclix, an Eaglemoss figurine, and a Mini-Mate, she has been surprisingly devoid of any merchandise. So despite this specific costume choice and bafflingly non-screaming head, I adore her. Let's check out Siryn below!

Marvel Legends - DOMINO!

Marvel Legends X-Force 3-Pack - Rictor, Domino, Cannonball - Hasbro 2021

I feel bad for Neena. No matter how popular and iconic her luck-focused alter-ego Domino has become, she is surprisingly unlucky in the merchandizing department.  Her first Toy Biz from 1995 figure actually wasn't bad at all. It was simple but captured the character nicely. Also her Mini-Mates figure from 2014 is pretty good. But the rest of them.. good lord. Why can't they seem to get her right? This newest attempt is the best so far in the Marvel Legends line, but it falls far short of my expectations. It should be easy to get a nice Domino because she has had many unique looks throughout her run in New Mutants and X-Force, and I would think any one of them would translate well into plastic, but they just don't. This newest version has droopy shoulderpads, flat hair, and awkward open mouth paired with dead eyes, and a problematic faceplate. I honestly never even noticed that Domino has an asymmetrical faceplate/tiara, with the left side being a microphone, but it's legit in the early run of X-force.

Marvel Legends - Boom Boom!

Marvel Legends - X-Force (Wendigo Build-a-Figure) - Boom Boom - Hasbro 2019

I have always had a fond place in my heart for Tabitha Smith. As a young comic reader, I was obsessed with The New Mutants. I loved the youthful, rebellious energy and smaller-scale storylines. Two great spin-offs of that comic were Fallen Angels in 1987 and X-Terminators in 1988. I adored both these mini-series and they both starred a young Boom Boom as a major character. In X-Terminators especially, we were introduced to a group of outsiders that I related to even more than the young Xavier students. Boom Boom's teammates were Rictor, Artie, Leech, Rusty, Skids, and Wiz Kid - all of whom went on to become semi-regular recurring characters in a handful of different books. But Boom Boom is the one that really took off. When Liefeld took over The New Mutants in 1990, most of the X-Terminators were present and I thought they would all become part of the team, but a year later when X-Force rolled out, only Tabitha remained. Her outfit and name have changed a lot over time, but the attitude is consistent.