Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar 2 2012

Marvel Legends: Klaw by Hasbro

Its the fifth day of FigureFan held hostage by Marvel Legends. Today, we’re checking out another of the baddies from the wave: Klaw. Yes, he’s packaged as Marvel’s Klaw as I’m guessing this is another instance where Hasbro didn’t have the rights to the name for the figure and tacked Marvel’s in front of it. Hey, it makes more senese than calling him Autobot Klaw, eh? Klaw is yet another figure in this wave that was previously released in 3 3/4″ format as part of the Marvel Universe line, and one that I actually don’t own, because I somehow missed that Secret Wars pack. Right, let’s check him out.

Paaaaaaaackage Shhhhhhot! I’m running out of things to say about the new Marvel Legends packaging, so I’ll just reiterate that I still like it a lot. Klaw comes with the left leg of Terrax, which is a bit surprising, since he’s the smallest figure in the assortment. I thought he would come with the torso. The character artwork is ok, but not great. I do like the way they got his sonic emitter arm into the portrait on the card, since it is his trademark feature.
Out of the package and wow, this figure is seriously underwhelming. Klaw uses a fairly slight body style, which doesn’t bother me too much. Klaw is sometimes drawn a lot bulkier than this, but the body works well enough for me. What’s not so great is just the near complete lack of original sculpting and paintwork on Klaw’s body. The body is molded all in red plastic with a pair of terrible jaggy purple shorts painted onto him. God, I hate these shorts, or more particularly the heavy outline jagged edges. I’m fine with painted costumes, but this just looks outlandish and fake, particularly when displayed next to other figures in the wave.
There is, however, some original sculpting at work here. Naturally, the head sculpt is new and I like it quite a bit. The eyes and mouth are rather creepy and suits the character well. The other unique piece is his sonic emitter on his arm. It features some nice panel lines and detail work.
Klaw sports decent articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips. He has double hinges in the elbows and knees. His ankles and wrist are hinged and swivel. He swivels at the waist, and he features the ab crunch hinge in the torso. Overall, I’m pleased with the poses I can get out of him. I think its likely this will be a heavily reused body in the line, and I’m perfectly fine with that.

So, Klaw is not a stellar figure, though its possible he may grow on me. My only real issue with this figure is the way Hasbro chose to execute the paintwork for the shorts. In another line it might have worked better, but the realism at play in all the other figures of the wave just make Klaw seem a bit out of place. Maybe the biggest problem I have with Klaw is the price point. $17.99 for this figure, Hasbro? No way, no how! I don’t hate him, but I’m not going to count him as one of the wins for this initial assortment. And if we’re keeping score, Hasbro, that’s three out of five.

Tomorrow… Steve Rogers!!!
Mar 1 2012

Marvel Legends: Hope Summers by Hasbro

Yep, as we’ve seen there are quite a few figures in the initial wave of Marvel Legends that have recently appeared in Marvel Universe. Technically Hope Summers is one of them, but the last time we saw her she was an itty bitty baby attached to Cable. Well, Hope is all growed up and looking pretty damn fine. Let’s check her out on this fourth day of Marvel Legends week.

Bam… Marvel Legends packaging. I’m still digging the overall design of the card in all its obnoxious action-packed comic book glory. I’m not all that keen on the character art on this one. Its not terrible, but I’m not sure it quite does the lovely Hope justice. Hope comes with Terrax’s head and Morg’s axe, both of which are displayed to the left of the figure.
Out of package, and the first thing that strikes me about the figure is the overall excellent head sculpt. Hasbro’s sculptors sometimes have their issues with the ladies, but Hope here is absolutely gorgeous. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say this is one of the best female head sculpts I’ve seen Hasbro turn out in a long while. Ok, maybe that’s a loaded compliment, but I can’t understate just what a great job they did with her. Raaawr!!!
Hope’s body is a nice mix of generic female body, painted costume, and some original tooling. The unique sculpted parts include the armor on her lower legs and forearms, and the cloak that hangs around her neck. The cloak looks good, but it is sculpted in a windblown configuration, which means she takes up more room on the shelf and it can interfere with some poses. Fortunately, the cloak is removable, all you need to do is pop off her head and lift it off from around her neck. The paintwork is a little inconsistant on my figure. The face is perfect, but there’s a wee bit of slop along the yellow striping on her green costume.
The articulation here is pretty solid, but missing a few key points. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips. The knees are double-hinged, but the elbows only have a single hinge. The wrists and ankles feature both hinges and swivels. Hope also has a ball joint in her torso. Besides the conspicuous absense of the double joints in the elbows, I really miss the swivel in the bicep. These two points are primarily to blame for Hope not being able to hold her gun as well as I’d like.

And looky here… accessories! Well, one anyway. Hope comes with her big gun. It looks nice, but I do wish she held it better. Her hands are sculpted so that she can grip the handle with her right hand and cradle the stock in her left hand, but unfortunately she’s prone to dropping it.
I’m counting Hope Summers as another big win for this inaugural wave of Marvel Legends. The figure has a few minor issues, and articulation should have been better. My guess is that Hasbro needed to cut back a few things in order to cost out the extra tooling on figures like Ghost Rider, Thor, and Steve Rogers. The only thing that concerns me is this Hope Summers body will likely be repurposed for more female figures down the line, which means a lot of Marvel chicks may be missing these extra bits of articulation. That having been said I’m really smitten with the head sculpt and the overall look of the figure. She’s certainly a solid representation of the character and I’m glad she got a slot in this initial wave.

Who’s next? …It’s Klaw!!! Er… I mean… MARVEL’S Klaw!!!