Apr 9 2012

Vintage Vault Returns Tomorrow With M.A.S.K.

Phew… its been a long week and since I doubled up on content yesterday, I’m making the unorthodox decision to take a Monday off.

So no new feature, but as today’s title proclaims, I’ll be back tomorrow with FigureFan’s first look at Kenner’s wonderful 80’s toy line: MASK. Last year I dabbled with featuring some vintage toys here on FigureFan and this year I’m going to try to do a little more of that. There were only a total of five Vintage Vault features throughout 2011: Two were for Toy Island’s Robocop figures and the other three were for Coleco’s Sectaurs. While I plan on revisiting Sectaurs in the very near future, I’ve decided to spread some loving to MASK.

For the uninitiated, MASK (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) was the story of a secret organization of peacekeepers (and by peacekeepers I mean people who engaged in furious deadly and highly irresponsible combat on the roadways) called MASK and their never ending battle with the terrorist group VENOM. Besides being a poorly spelled acronym, the name MASK was something of a double entendre, as not only did all the characters wear masks (ok, more like helmets) with some kind of high-tech weapon or gizmo, but all the vehicles transformed from everyday vehicles into fighting machines. It was a world where illusion was the ultimate weapon… well, illusion and a Chevy Camero that could turn into an attack jet and drop bombs on people.

The MASK toys hold a place near and dear to my heart. You see, it was the last toy line that I got as a kid to actually play with (as opposed to as the toys I collect now as a middle-aged functional alcoholic). I can remember getting half of the Series 1 toys for my birthday and the rest for Christmas (except for Boulder Hill… never had that one!) and I was pretty smitten with these things. Series 1 came out in 1985 and the figures and transforming vehicles struck an obvious chord in the GI JOE and Transformer lover in me. I never did get any of the toys past Series 1, as I was gradually gravitating away from toys and onto other pursuits (i.e. girls).

Naturally, I watched the cartoon religiously, and while I still think it has one of the best opening sequences of all the 80’s cartoons, sadly I don’t think the episodes themselves have held up all that well. I can still gleen enjoyment out of watching Transformers or GI JOE or even Thundercats, but I can’t say as I enjoy watching MASK all that much anymore. Maybe I just need to try a little harder.

As for the rest of the week… It’ll be back to business as usual. In other words a hodge-podge of goodies. I will be dropping my bucket in the Marvel Universe at least one more time… sorry… and I hope to finish up a two-part piece on a Transformers toy I’ve been meaning to get to since… well, since I started doing this nonsense. Also, hopefully by next weekend, I should be able to get back to finish up DC Universe Classics Wave 20 with the last two packaged figures and the C&C Nekron.

And I’ve gotten rather long winded for a day off, so I’m going to cut myself off there. Until tomorrow…

Apr 8 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2 Build-A-Figure: Arnim Zola by Hasbro

As promised, I’m back with the prize at the bottom of the cereal box. All them parts we’ve been collecting from tearing open six of the seven figures of Wave 2 (Sorry, Spidey, no parts for you!!!) pays off and we can finally piece together Arnim Zola. He’s that kooky Nazi geneticist who dared to dump his brain into a cloned body. I seriously love that shit! The whole idea that Nazis were engaged in all this secret Frankenstein mumbo jumbo never gets old for me and Zola, in all his ridiculousness, is the posterchild for it.

Let me cut right to the chase and say how much I adore this figure… I adore this figure! You could argue its because I’ve wanted a Zola figure for a long time, but then you could also say that because of that I should be more demanding and less forgiving. Truth be told, as far as I’m concerned this figure is perfect. I’m not really sure it needed to be a Build-A-Figure, as he’s rather an average size and I tend to think of the BAFs as being larger figures, that couldn’t be offered in standard packages. There’s no reason why Zola couldn’t have come carded. But I digress…

The screen in the torso showing Zola’s face is extremely well done. The graphic is behind a piece of plastic, which really conveys the illusion that its a projection on a screen, rather than just a sticker stuck onto his chest. I think it would have been cool if Hasbro used some kind of lenticular image, but that’s ok, I’m perfectly happy with what we got here. Its a great illustration with Zola peering out and giving you the evil stink eye. The ESP Box sits atop the shoulders, where the head should be. There’s some cool additional details on the figure like the gemetric patterns on the front and back of his pelvis, the sculpted rumples on his shirt and segmented lines in his legs, and the orange, purple and gold deco really makes the figure stand out.

Zola’s articulation is a bit more limited than the regular figures, but for what he is he’s still fairly poseable. You get a ball joint in the ESP Box, his arms feature ball joints at the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and ball joints in the wrists. His legs feature ball jointed hips, double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the ankles. His torso swivels at the waist. Like I said, quite a few points missing from what we’re used to, but overall not bad.

Arnim Zola is really fun figure and a great representation of the character. Sure, he could have just as easily been packaged as part of the wave, rather than as a BAF, but considering he’s probably a very high demand character, it was a pretty crafty move to deliver him this way. Chances are we’ll revisit him again when I finally track down Viper with the variant torso.

Marvel Legends Wave 2… Epilogue:

And that wraps up Marvel Legends, Wave 2. This time, I didn’t do a running score of the assortment, but I tried to be pretty clear in which figures I thought were hits and misses. Overall, I think this wave was almost as good as the initial one. The only real letdown here was Spider-Man, as I think that figure deserved better paint apps. better scaling, and a few more points of articulation. The rest of the figures were perfectly solid additions to my collection. Then again, apart from Zola, I don’t thnk there were any five-star figures like Thor or Steve Rogers. I don’t want to take anything away from Terrax, but Zola was a really high demand figure for me and I’m glad to finally have him in my collection.

If Marvel figures aren’t your thing, I’ll thank you for your indulgence this week. With only one more wave of Marvel Legends due out this year, my guess is you won’t see another ML week here for a little while. You will, however, likely see this wave pop up again here at FigureFan, as I’m still committed to tracking down Piledriver and Viper.

Apr 8 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Thunderball by Hasbro

Happy Easter, everyone and welcome to the end of this week-long slog through Marvel Legends, Wave 2. Today we’re looking at the last packaged figure in the assortment, Thunderball. Just like Madam Masque, Thunderball’s slot is shared by a variant that makes up a totally different character: Piledriver, and I do believe I’ll be trying to hunt that figure down as well. In the meantime, if you’re going to take one thing away from this look at Thunderball, know this: He’s freaking huge!

Just like with Madam Masque and Viper, Hasbro uses some clever packaging trickery to get away with releasing two figures in one package slot. The sticker on the bubble just reads “Marvel’s Wrecking Crew” and the character art up top shows both Thunderball and Piledriver. The package uses the huge-ass bubble we saw with last wave’s Thor. Why? Because this is one freaking huge figure with a freaking huge accessory. Because of his bulk, Thunderball comes with just the tiny ESP Box and remote control for the Zola BAF. I still think Thunderball’s BAF parts should have come with Spider-Man, though.

Thunderball continues the trend of solid head scupts in this line. There’s a decent amount of detail in his face, the mask looks great and the paintwork around the eyeholes and his eyes is well executed. I like the contrast between the texture of his hair and the mask and he just has an all around grim and determined expression that suits him. The rest of the figure’s sculpt is a pretty simple mix of muscles and wrinkling in his costume. The costume mostly gets by with paintwork contrasting the green of the suit with the yellow of the gloves, boots, and mask. He also has a yellow belt that hangs loose around his waist. He’s a big, bulky satisfying hunk of plastic.

Articulation is fairly standard for what we’ve been getting. The head is ball jointed and features the extra hinge to allow him to look up and down. The arms have ball joints in the shoulder, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels at the biceps and gloves. His legs feature ball jointed hips, double hinged knees, swivels in the thighs, hinged ankles, and the extra hinge in the middle of the foot. I think the foot hinge works well here because the figure is so big and there’s room to accomodate it more naturally. The torso swivels at the waist and features the ab crunch hinge.

Thunderball includes his giant ball and chain weapon. It looks great, with a nice worn-looking metal finish. I was hoping the chain would actually be an articulated plastic chain, but it is just sculpted in one piece. Still, he can wield it pretty well in either hand.

Thunderball is another one of my favorites in this wave. His design suits the character really well, he looks imposing on the shelf, and he’s a big enough figure to go head-to-head with last wave’s Thor figure, and that’s saying something. Plus his sheer bulk of the figure and the accessory really helps to justify the price tag. I’m anxious to hunt down the variant Piledriver and I’m hoping that Hasbro puts Wrecker into the line sooner rather then later.

And that’s it for the packaged figures. I’m going to go off and enjoy some Easter festivities, which means I’ll likely be getting hammered drinking shots out of plastic eggs. I will, however be back tonight to take a look at Wave 2’s Build-A-Figure, Arnim Zola, so we can wrap this baby up without bleeding it into next week.

Apr 7 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Fantomex by Hasbro

Marvel Legends week is in the home home stretch, so hang in there. Just two more packaged figures and the BAF to go. Today we’re looking at Fantomex, child of the Weapon Plus program and someone that I have not encountered a lot in my frequent travels through Marvels funnybooks. I used to read a lot of X-Men comics, but most of that was in the 90’s and I’ve only read a few issues of New X-Men, so Fantomex here is the one character in this wave that I was least familiar with. Nonetheless, the figure looks badass and seeing as he’s the brainchild of Grant Morrison, I was still pretty anxious to add him to my collection. Let’s take a look…

I thought it odd for Hasbro to include two such monochromatic figures in the same wave, but in fairness Future Foundation Spidey was a variant and Fantomex is one of the few figures in this assortment without a variant so what you see is what you get. Did any part of that sentence make sense? I need more coffee. Anywho, Fantomex fills out the bubble very nicely with his flowing trenchcoat and brace of automatic pistols. Mounted beside him is the included BAF piece, Arnim Zola’s right arm. The character art is pretty cool. Its a nice action shot!

Here’s one of the few examples of the new Marvel Legends where I don’t have a lot to say about the figure’s head sculpt. Fantomex is wearing a mask so its not a big venue for detail. The eyes and bridge of the nose are exposed and nicely painted. The black deco paintwork on the mask isn’t quite as sharp as I would have liked and is mostly fuzzy around the top. Its perfectly passable, but not up to what we’ve been seeing on a lot of these other figures.

Mediocre head sculpt aside, Fantomex is a really great looking figure. Its like he comes from some bizarre alternate dimension where GI JOE’s Storm Shadow and Firefly merged together and joined the X-Men. The black and white deco looks really nice here, particularly with the black gloves, boots and the red X belt buckle. Apart from the boots and gloves, there isn’t a hell of a lot of original tooling for this figure’s body. You do get some sculpted straps on his legs.

Fantomex features a sculpted, sleeveless high collared trench coat that looks absolutely smashing in the figure. The ripples are wonderfully sculpted and it fans out beautifully on the back. You get the same black deco on the back and much like The Dude’s rug, it really ties the room action figure together. He also has a separate belt that hangs around his waist and features two functional holsters for his pistols.

Speaking of pistols, Fantomex’s brace of automatics are amazing little sculpts. They’re cast in grey with no paint apps, but tons of little details for such small accessories. I do find it a bit odd that both have their magazines partially ejected, but it doesn’t change the fact that they look great. He can hold the one in his right hand really well, but unfortunately his left hand doesn’t hold the pistol very well at all.

Fantomex features the same articulation that we’ve been seeing in most of the male figures in the line. You get a ball jointed neck with the extra hinge. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, double hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs have ball joints in the hips, double hinged knees, swivels in the thighs and swivels and hinges in the ankles. The torso swivels at the waist and features the ab crunch hinge.

Even with all the Marvel comics I read, I still can’t be familiar with every character. Nonetheless, I don’t need to know a lot about Fantomex to appreciate that this is one really cool figure. The deco is really cool, I love the trench coat and he’s an all around fun figure to pose and play around with. I don’t know what’s up with the sculpt on his left hand not being able to hold his gun straight, but that’s really the only stand out issue I can take with this guy.

Apr 6 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Dark Wolverine by Hasbro

With four figures behind us, we’re over the hump of this Marvel Legends week, but we still have three more packaged figures to go, plus the BAF, so let’s keep pressing on. Today’s figure is none other than Logan’s son, Daken, who served under the guise of Dark Wolverine as part of Norman Osborne’s Avengers. Daken is yet another one of the variants in this wave, with the figure being available in masked and unmasked versions. I was hoping for the unmasked, and that’s exactly what I got… cool!

The figure is packaged as “Dark Wolverine” and features a nice piece of character art in the upper left hand corner. This is among my favorite card art used for this line so far. Daken fills out the bubble fairly nicely along with the help of his BAF piece, in this case Arnim’s left arm.

The head sculpt is the only thing really different between the variants of this figure. One has the Wolverine Mask on and the other has it off allowing Daken to let his mohawky freak flag fly. I think its possible they could have tuned down the mohawk just a little bit, but apart from that this is an excellent head sculpt. I’m particularly happy with the way Hasbro included a separate sculpted mask to hang around his neck. Its something I totally didn’t expect and just the kind of nice extra touch I love and expect when paying $18 for an action figure.

Besides the mask, there isn’t a lot of original tooling on this figure outside of a standard buck. His vest is sculpted around the shoulders, and I like the way his boots flare out at his calves. Naturally, his bone claws are sculpted in the deployed position and look great. Daken does have a separately sculpted belt that hangs around his waist. The rest of the costume is executed with paintwork and looks good and the painted tattoo on his left arm is sharp.

Dark Wolverine features the same articulation we’ve been seeing in the male figures, with a couple of nice surprises that we haven’t seen yet. The neck is ball jointed with the additional hinge. His arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the wrists and biceps, and double hinged elbows. His legs feature ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs and calves, and double hinged knees. His ankles are hinged and also have an additional rocker hinge to keep his feet flat in wide stances. He also has hinges in the middle of his feet! Those of you collecting Marvel Legends back in the Toy Biz days will no doubt remember these. I’m still on the fence over whether I like them or not. I never really saw them as crucial and they do require the feet to be larger than usual. Daken’s torso swivels at the waist and he has the usual ab crunch hinge.

Overall, I’m very happy with the way this figure turned out, and doubly happy that I was able to get the unmasked version in my case. I probably won’t be hunting down the masked version, although I’d say its a pretty good bet Hasbro will be reusing a repainted version the masked version as a regular Wolverine release down the road, so I’ll be happy to pick it up when they do that. I think its awesome that Hasbro is going for some of the Dark Avengers so soon in the line, as it allows collectors who have been buying these figures since the Toy Biz days a break from having to see the same characters over and over again.

Tomorrow, we’ll keep the X-Men ball rolling with Fantomex!

Apr 5 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Madame Masque by Hasbro

Dipping back into those pesky variants, today’s figure is Madame Masque, which also shares the slot in Wave 2 with Viper. But to complicate things even more, this variant comes with a variant of the BAF piece too! Madame Masque is the regular version, which comes with Arnim Zola’s torso, but if you pick up Viper you get the torso with Red Skull’s face on it instead. Oh, Hasbro… you’re killing me with this stuff!

Hasbro got rather cheeky with the packaging this time, as the name on the package is simply “Marvel’s Madames” with the card art showing both Madame Masque and Viper (aka Madame Hydra). It was a clever way to go, considering these variants are completely different characters. MM is packaged in a rather neutral stance, holding her assault rifle across her chest and with her pistol mounted on the tray right beside her head. The BAF piece, Zola’s torso/face rounds out the contents of this bubble rather nicely.

No one need ask Madam Masque where she got her name, as she a copper colored mask stuck to her face to avoid showcasing her horrible scarring. You could argue that MM’s head sculpt is a little lacking compared to some of the other figures in the line, but I think its more because of the simplicity of the mask than anything else. Personally, I think Hasbro did an excellent job here, as the eyeholes are clearly defined with flesh paint around the holes and the eyes, and her ears are even sculpted way back under her hair. The hair is soft enough so it doesn’t interfere with her neck articulation too badly.

The rest of MM’s body is fairly simple, both in terms of paintwork and sculpt. Her gauntlets are sculpted, but the tops of her boots are just painted on. You get sculpted shoulder straps on her torso, but they aren’t painted. You do, however, get a sculpted and painted zipper running up to her neck. I’m not all that crazy about the blue wash used on the white parts of her costume. I suppose its better than leaving it completely white like they did with Spidey, but the overall affect doesn’t look all that great. It kind of reminds me of the blue wash Hasbro used on the Stormtroopers in their Star Wars comic packs.

MM has a separately sculpted belt that hangs around her hips and includes a functional holster for her pistol. I really like the pistol as its cast in the same color plastic as her mask and looks a bit like a Luger. She also comes with an assault rifle with an equally impressive sculpt and paintwork on the stock, grips and magazine.

As with Hope Summers in Wave 1, MM reflects a slightly lower standard of articulation for the females in the line, and this will invariably bug some people to no end. She has a ball jointed neck, minus the additional hinge present we’ve seen in Spidey, Drax, and Bucky Cap. Her arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and in her gloves, but only one hinge in the elbows. Her legs feature ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinged knees, and hinges and swivels in the ankles. Her torso has a ball joint, and no waist articulation. Honestly, you can still get plenty of cool poses out of MM, but she’s definitely missing a point of articulation here and there.

Madame Masque is a solid figure, but not necessarily a stand out in the line. She looks good, has some nice weapons, and a passable level of articulation. I think the character was a good choice, as she hasn’t appeared in Marvel Universe and she’s a relatively high profile villain that was in desparate need of some action figure loving. On the other hand, she is a bit bland, and I’m not overly impressed with the paintwork here. She’s definitely one of the few variants in this wave that I’m actually going to make an effort to hunt down at some point during the future, as Viper seems like an overall better looking figure.

Tomorrow… Daken, aka Dark Wolverine!

Apr 4 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Captain America by Hasbro

Its Day Three of Marvel Legends week and today we’re looking at Captain America. Or more precisely, Bucky Cap! Just like Drax, Cap here doesn’t have a variant to worry about, although one wonders why Hasbro didn’t just toss in an unmasked variant to make us go even more crazy. Some may argue getting Cap in Wave 2 is overkill after getting Steve Rogers in Wave 1, but I would disagree. Then again, I love me some Cap, and Hasbro might as well ride the popularity of the character right through the Avengers movie.

If this figure hanging on the peg doesn’t catch your eye, I don’t know what will. Besides the awesomely obnoxious package design, Cap himself is just screaming “look at me” from behind that bubble with his bright red, white and blue deco. He fills out the card very nicely with shield and gun in hand and his knife mounted on the tray beside him. Off to the side you can see the BAF piece, in this case its Zola’s right leg. I’m really digging on the character art here too. Its a great all around package that screams, “BUY ME, YOUNG PATRIOT!!!!”

So, before getting into the sculpt, let’s talk scale, because Marvel Legends is having a few issues here. Last wave, I complained about Iron Man being too small, well this time its Cap. He’s looks ok standing beside the 6-inch movie figures, but put him next to Steve Rogers from the last wave and he looks like he belongs in a different line. Now, I’ll still give credit to Hasbro for trying, because its nice to see diversity in the body types and characters as opposed to say DC Universe Classics, where outside of the C&C figures all the characters are basically the same size and build. I just think that Hasbro needs to watch out for under scaling some of these figures.

Size aside, Cap is a truly great looking figure, with just one minor stumble. I don’t think the head sculpt is quite as good as what we’ve seen in this line so far, as its actually much softer a sculpt. It still looks ok, but its not up to the standard we’ve been seeing in other figures in this line. The rest of Cap’s body is a pretty standard sculpt, that mostly utilizes the paintwork to convey his costume. There are pouches sculpted directly onto his waist, rather than on a separate belt, and his boots and gloves feature unique tooling, but that’s pretty much it. The paintwork is pretty sharp and I really like the mix of high gloss and slightly metallic type of paint used for the red, white and blue on his torso. He is, no doubt a flashy looking figure with nice proportions.

During the last Marvel Legends week, I may have commented on how I wished Steve Rogers had some working holsters for his guns, well I’m happy to report that this Cap does! Not only does he have a functional holster for his automatic pistol, but he has a functional sheath for his knife too! Awesome! Both accessories are fairly simple, yet functional sculpts. The shield is the same accessory that came with Steve Rogers, so it can either clip onto his wrist or it can be pegged onto his back.

Cap has what seems to be what is becoming the standard for the line. The head is ball jointed and features that wonderful additional hinge for better range of motion for looking up or down. The arms feature ball joints at the shoulders, double hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the wrists. His legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels at the thighs and boots, double hinges at the knees, and hinged ankles. The torso swivels at the waist and has an ab crunch hinge. You can certainly get cap into some very fun poses.

Undersized or not, I love this figure! Cap’s sculpt is solid and the paintwork is downright awesome. His articulation makes him a fun figure to play with and I’m really thrilled with his accessories and the way everything he comes with can be stored away on his person. He looks right at home standing next to Iron Man or the 6-inch movie Thor and Nick Fury. Unless the size issue is a severe sticking point with you, I’d definitely recommend him as a pick up.

Next up… Madame Masque

Apr 3 2012

Marvel Legends: Steve Rogers by Hasbro

With five figures behind us, we’re well over the hump in FigureFan’s Marvel Legends marathon. One would have expected Captain America to turn up in this wave, but instead it was Steve Rogers as he appeared when back when Bucky was running around as Captain America. Not to worry, Cap fans, he turns up in Wave 2 and that’s fine by me because I was much more excited about getting this figure.

And… packaged shot. Damn, this is one packed bubble of goodness. Between the figure, the shield, the guns, and Terrax’s pelvis, you’re getting a fair load of stuff. I’m still a bit iffy with the character art, but its starting to grow on me.

Out of the package… is it me or does Steve’s head look just a little bit too big? Well, that was my initial thought, but after fiddling with him a bit, the possibility stopped bothering me because this is one amazing figure. Let the gushing begin! First off, possibly a tad oversized or not, Steve’s head is a great sculpt. First Hope Summers, now Steve Rogers, Hasbro has a cracker of a team working on these head sculpts and they are amazing.

The rest of the figure is a great mix of a standard painted costume buck with some bits of unique sculpting here and there. He has sculpted leather straps on his shoulders and right thigh, his belt is a separate piece that hangs around his waist. He lower leg bracers are also sculpted in separate pieces. And finally, he has sculpted fingerless gloves and amazingly detailed treads on his boots. Combine all this with the nice painted deco on his chest and the striping down his legs and you get one great looking, and unique figure. Once again, its just a great blend of standard figure buck, paintwork, and sculpted bits that make this figure shine.

Accessories! Steve comes with a pair of pistols and his trademark shield. The shield clips on to his arm and features a peg so that it can be stored on his back. I tend to like this shield design better than the one that came with my 6-inch movie Cap solely because it can be stored on his back. The pistols are cool sculpts and he can hold them in each of his hands. Some working holsters would have been nice, especially since most of the time, I’m going to have him posed with his shield and one pistol drawn.

Steve Rogers features some excellent articulation. His neck is not only ball jointed, but it also has an added hinge to help him look up and down even more. Hasbro, make this the standard, I love it! His arms feature ball jointed shoulders, double-hinged elbows, hinged wrists, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. His legs feature ball joints at the hips, double-hinged knees, swivels and hinges at the ankles, and swivels in the upper thighs. He swivels at his waist and he also has a hinged ab crunch in the torso. Nice!

I was pretty smitten with this figure when Hasbro first showed it off, and now that I have it in hand, I’ve got to say he lived up to all my expectations. He looks fantastic and he is so much fun to pose and play around with. Not to take anything away from Hope, Ghost Rider, or Constrictor, but Steve Rogers is definitely my favorite figure in the wave that we’ve looked at thus far. He was a great choice for the initial wave and a great example of what this new Marvel Legends line can offer when its going with both barrels blazing. And for those of you keeping score, this makes Marvel Legend, Wave One four for six.

At this point, we’ve looked at all the figures in the assortment that include the BAF pieces for Terrax. In the interest of finishing up by the end of the weekend, I’m going to look at the last packaged figure, Thor, and the BAF figure, Terrax, both tomorrow. That will allow me to do a fresh start for the new week on Monday.

Apr 3 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Drax The Destroyer by Hasbro

Drax has been getting a lot of love in the comic books and toy shelves lately. He had a good run a couple years back in the Guardians of the Galaxy funnybook and was recently released in the Marvel Universe 3 3/4″ line as part of the multi-pack with the same name. And now, of course, he’s got a slot in the second wave of the Marvel Legends 6-inch line! I still think Hasbro should be staying away from figures that have recently been given the 3 3/4″ treatment, as it kind of feels like double dipping, but considering how cool Drax turned out, I’m not going to complain here.

Once again, the Marvel Legends packaging is an assault on your eyes, but in a good way! I’m still digging the presentation here as it really draws in the eye and epitomizes everything there is about comic books. I’m even warming up to the style of character art that Hasbro is going with here. Most of the time, I still prefer the Marvel Universe character art, but I’ve got to admit, Drax looks nice and menacing. Unlike Spidey, Drax and his BAF piece, Zola’s left leg, fills up his bubble very nicely. He’s packaged in a fairly neutral stance with his two knives in his hands. Ok, let’s rip this badboy open and check him out.

One of my favorite things about the first wave of Marvel Legends was the head sculpts, and Drax here shows the trend is continuing. He’s got a stern, grim face that looks like he’s ready to kick some major ass. The face is really packed with detail and gives the figure a lot of character while perfectly suiting someone who’s title is “The Destroyer.” Drax’s body relies mostly on a generic muscular sculpt and paintwork, although he does have sculpted trousers and a cool knife strapped to his right wrist. Its a permanently attached piece molded as part of the arm, but its so well done, it looks like it can be removed. Drax’s skin is molded in a satisfying green with his tats painted sharply in red. He has a belt sculpted in a separate piece that hangs loose around his waist and has loops on the back to hold both of his knives.

Drax features a solid level of articulation. The head is ball jointed and features that an additional hinge in the neck to allow the head to better look up and down. The arms feature ball joints at the shoulders, double hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the wrists. His legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels at the thighs, double hinges at the knees, and hinged ankles. The torso swivels at the waist and has an ab crunch hinge. Sure, there are some extra points of articulation on a few other figures in this wave, but I’m not complaining because I can still get Drax into a bevy of great action poses.

Did I mention knives? Drax likes him some knives. Besides the aforementioned sculpted wrist knife, he has a pair of knife accessories cast in soft plastic with silver painted blades. He can hold them really well and they fit into the loops in his belt.

Drax was not one of my most highly anticipated figures in this wave, mainly because we don’t have a Guardians team to go with him. And yet I was pleasantly surprised by him. He’s a very cool character, although I still haven’t picked up his 3 3/4″ version, so this is the first time I’m able to put him up on my Marvel shelves. The sculpt and paintwork really stand out for what is basically a fairly simple figure. While he isn’t the most articulated figure in this wave, he’s still loads of fun to pose and play with, and the knives that stow away on his belt are a big plus. When all is said and done he ended up being one of my favorites in this wave.

Tomorrow… Captain America!

Apr 2 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Future Foundation Spider-Man by Hasbro

Here we go with Wave 2, folks. We’re kicking off Marvel Legends week with a looksy at Spider-Man. This is one of the many figures in this wave that shipped in two different versions. The main release, which I’m identifying as such by the artwork on the package, is the so-called “Big Time” Spider-Man sporting the new costume that appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #650. My case, however, contained the variant, which is Spider-Man in the Future Foundation outfit. What a coincidence, seeing as we just looked at the Marvel Universe Future Foundation variants of the Fantastic Four last week!

The packaging hasn’t changed since Wave 1. I still love the look here. The overall deco is nice, although the coloring on the character art is a little perplexing. I seem to recall the costume featured in Ish 650 to be black with a red deco, not green. Doesn’t matter, because its not the figure under the bubble, and I doubt I’ll spring for the version pictured. No, I was very happy to get the FF version instead, since I’m such a Fantastic Four whore and I liked Spidey’s appearances as well as the designs of the FF costumes. You’ll note that there’s no BAF piece under the bubble, Spidey is the one figure in the wave that doesn’t include a BAF piece, so if you want to build Arnim Zola and don’t want Spider-Man, you’re in luck, you can skip him. The lack of accessories and a BAF piece really makes him seem kind of small and lonely in that big package.

Word has it, this figure is supposedly a repaint of last year’s SDCC Exclusive Spider-Man figure. I’ve only seen a few shots of the Exclusive and I don’t see a lot of similarities, but then I suppose the deco makes all the difference. Either way, Spider-Man is a very simple sculpt and apart from the head and the webslinging left hand, there’s not a lot of unique tooling at play here. I do think he’s scaled too big for other figures in the line, particularly when standing next to Iron Man from the last wave or Bucky Cap from this wave. Pete isn’t exactly a big guy. The paintwork on this figure is also extremely simple. He’s molded all in white with a black painted deco. It works ok, but it seems lacking when you compare it to the paintwork on the Future Foundation costumes for the 3 3/4″ Marvel Universe figures. It just seems like the larger and more expensive, 6-inch figure should have at least as good a paintjob as the far less expensive and far smaller figures. Maybe I’m splitting hairs, because I do actually like the way the deco on this figure turned out. It just could have been better.

As a rule, I expect good Spider-Man figures to feature above average articulation and this figure does a fairly good job of pulling it off. You get a ball jointed neck with an additional hinge to help the head look up and down with greater range. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, double hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps, and swivels and hinges in the wrists. His legs feature ball joints in the hips, double hinged knees, hinged ankles, and swivels in the thighs. The torso features a swivel waist, a hinged ab crunch in the torso, and hinges in the sides of the upper torso that give him some additional lateral movement in the shoulders. The articulation is perfectly fine, but it is curiously missing some points that are present in some of the other figures in this wave.

How much will Spider-Man cost you? I’m not going to gas on a lot about price points throughout the week, so let’s get it on the table now and be done with it. The retail on these figures seems to average around $15.99 to $16.99. However, if you buy them at Toys R Us or specialty shop, you could wind up paying as much as $20 each. The breakdown of my case with shipping makes the figures average out $17.99 a pop. It’s a good deal considering the convenience of getting one of each of the BAF parts, but then you don’t get to pick and choose the variants. So there’s some give and take there.

Now having said all that even at the lower range of the spectrum, about fifteen bucks, its hard to justify Spidey’s price tag. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a cool figure and I love him, but he features very little original sculpting, a very simple paint job, he comes with no accessories, and you don’t even get a BAF piece with him. It seems like Hasbro would have been better off giving him a BAF piece and letting one of the bigger figures, say Thunderball/Piledriver ship without one. Spidey is a solid effort, but he’s definitely lacking. Where are the extra points of articulation that we’ll see later on in Daken? Where’s the paint shading we see on the white parts of Madam Masque? Where’s a hunk of web I can stick on his arm to make like he’s shooting? At ten or twelve bucks I would have been perfectly happy with him, but at about eighteen? Still a solid figure, but a pretty bad value.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Monthly Archives: April 2012

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Marvel Legends Wave 2: Future Foundation Spider-Man by Hasbro

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