Considering how Wolverine has all but supplanted Spider-Man in recent years as Marvel Comics’ corporate mascot and standout character, the company was surprisingly late to get on board with the character from a merchandising standpoint, and even then there were a few miscues in the early going.
For example, no one ever quite explained why, in this early animated appearance, the famously Canadian Logan was suddenly Australian:
As for the first few action figures from Toy Biz in the 1990s, they weren’t much to write home about either:
In case you were wondering why that mask looks so awful, it’s because it also doubled as a ring. Seriously.
The claws weren’t the most smoothly produced thing in the world, either:
They did eventually get better at it, as witnessed by their second attempt:
And in time turned out some damn fine looking Wolverine toys. I always liked the Space Armor from “The Dark Phoenix Saga” myself:
But the ones that really killed me were the occasional attempts by Toy Biz to market a vehicle for Wolverine. At least the Jeep kind of made sense (although I’m not sure why he’s firing a giant claw):
But the crème de la crème is the Wolverine Cycle:
Not only does the bike have claws, but a closer look at the photo below reveals that Logan’s own face appears where the front headlight should be:
All of a sudden the Supermobile is looking pretty stylish, no?
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