The Tenth & Esperanza

Ever since I was a kid, I've enjoyed monsters and monster stories. Early on, it was Godzilla (I still remember a movie I used to love called "War of the Gargantuas" or something, about 2 giant monsters fighting it out for an hour and a half), which then turned into Spawn and has eventually morphed into video game creatures. Somewhere in there, I discovered a comic book series by artist/writer Tony Daniel called "The Tenth". It wasn't Shakespeare by any stretch of the imagination, but the story kept me entertained and it was full of monsters, which were revealed fairly slowly over the course of the series. The biggest and baddest of all was "the beast" of the series: The Tenth. His counterpart was "the beauty", Esperanza del Toro. I never thought The Tenth was a particularly popular title (even at the time), so I was pleasantly surprised to learn that newcomer ReSaurus was going to release a series of action figures based on the comics (back in 1999). The figures were released as a series of bubble-carded 2-packs, each featuring a large monster with a smaller female counterpart. I only ever found them at KB Toys, and even then it was only in very limited numbers, but even now, a decade later, I'm still glad I got them!

As far as bubble cards go, I think these are the biggest in my collection (with each pack weighing in close to 2 lbs.). The artwork in great both on the front and back, and there's lots of background information to enjoy. The card itself is super-thick and has stood up well for over 10 years, and 4 moves!

One disappointing thing, for me, is that the pictures of the figures presented on the back (the prototypes, I assume), are fairly different from the final product (and not in a good way). The Tenth, himself, has a shorter jawline and non-protruding tongue in the prototype version, which I much prefer to the final product. Esperanza's prototype has a sterner expression and a different colored shirt. The Mystacina prototype is cleaner, as well, but the rest of the figures came through production admirably.






The Tenth is an enormous, hulking beast of a figure. He stands about 7" tall, and nearly 8" wide, and comes in at a whopping 1 lb. 14 oz. He's fantastically detailed and painted, with lots of bulging veins and ripped cloth. The purple shades are a little overdone, but the sculpt details in the wrinkles of the hands and clothes are great.

His face is a bit more "cat-like" in appearance than I remember, and like I said before, I like the expression and cut of the prototype much better. His poseability is very limited: swivel neck, ball jointed shoulders, swivel wrists, cut waist and cut hips (that's a total of 8 points). You can get him into a couple of poses, but he's pretty limited (the leg articulation is mostly useless and his arms are so heavy they don't stay up too well).

Esperanza stands about 5" tall, and is waif-like. Her face doesn't resemble the comic art character at all, to me, which I always found very disappointing. She only has the basic 5 points of articulation (all cut joints), and her feet are sculpted in a way that leaves her tottering precariously, even when she's able to stand. Her hands are sculpted (poorly) in "grip" poses, and she can hold her pistol, though not comfortably. The sculpt and figure are ok, but could have been so much better. There's an awkwardness to the pose and execution.

Besides her pistol, Esperanza came with a backpack and her trusted companion, Arusa the cat.  Both are nicely detailed and painted, and I can't imagine accessories like those being included with figures at today's price-points (at the time, these figure sets ran $9.99).

I love the fact that these figures were ever even made. ReSaurus did some amazing work while they were around, and for that I'm grateful. I remember wishing for action figure versions of Blackspell and Killcrow at the time (I still think they'd make great action figures!), and despite their shortcomings, these figures are nice additions to my collection.