I’ve recently been re-reading my Jonathan Hickman Fantastic Four; particularly the stretch leading up to The Future Foundation and it started bugging me that I still didn’t own Hasbro’s Inhumans set. Actually, “bugging” probably isn’t the right word as I was in a bit of a state, good and lubed up on Jameson, and in fact rather outraged that I didn’t have these figures. After a quick trip to Ebay and throwing down a little more money than I should have, the set was soon on its way to me. Drinking and Ebaying… shouldn’t there be an organization with an acronym devoted to stamping this out?

We’ve looked at a number of these Marvel Universe multi-packs here on FFZ and packaging presentation here poses no surprises. It’s a window box that shows off the three figures in slight action poses, which happily does not seem to warp any of their joints. The character art on the box is quite nice and you get a little blurb about the Inhumans on the back of the box. It is collector friendly and while I was saving these for a while, they’ve all been trashed in my effort to keep downsizing and so this one too will soon be on its way to the landfill. You get three figures in the box: Black Bolt, Medusa, and Karnak, so let’s just go ahead and take them in that order.

Black Bolt is a character that I felt was sorely missing in the MU lineup and easily the best justification for picking up this set. He’s a relatively easy figure to do, but I’m happy to say that Hasbro even went a little above and beyond on this one. Besides the painted costume buck, we also get the sculpted “wings” on his biceps similar to the way they did Spider-Woman’s webbing. The head sculpt is quite well done with the tiny “tuning fork” emblem is actually sculpted onto his mask. The silver paintwork on the costume stripes and wings is neatly applied and really makes this guy pop on the shelf. I think the “wings” will be the sticking point on this guy for a lot of collectors as they can look awkward in some poses. Still, I can’t think of a better way that Hasbro could have done it. Still, I think Black Bolt turned out to be a rather beautiful figure.

Speaking of beautiful… next up is Black Bolt’s wifey, Medusa. I have only one minor gripe with this figure and that’s the head sculpt seems a tad too thin, and even that may just be my own personal hang up, otherwise Hasbro really did a wonderful job here. Her costume, gloves and boots are all just painted on, but the metallic purple on the boots and gloves looks nice and the black lines on her one-piece are sharp and clean. I really get the feeling that Hasbro has gotten their act together on their MU paintwork. I remember back to the days of slop like I saw on my Warbird figure, and I’m happy to say I haven’t seen anything like that lately. Anyway, moving past the paint, it’s obvious to see where all the sculpting on this chick went. Dat hair! Medusa couldn’t have been the easiest figure to design and Hasbro just went with having her copious mane falling down her back and I dare say it works quite well. I think an attempt at having her hair in some kind of action pose would have been disastrous. Either way, there’s practically enough plastic in her hair alone to make another figure.

And then there’s Karnak. You could argue that there were better choices for this slot, but I’m fine with getting Karnak, particularly after seeing how well Hasbro executed this figure. He uses a slimmer buck than Black Bolt, which is appropriate and adds a nice bit of diversity to the set. His painted costume features some beautiful shades of green and is enhanced by the sculpted belt and sash. The head sculpt really drives the figure home with his pencil thin pervy mustache and jiffy pop head. Wonderful!

The fellas feature the excellent modern MU articulation, which consists of ball joints in the heads, shoulders, hips, and torsos. The elbows are hinged and the knees are double hinged. You also get swivels in the biceps, thighs, and wrists. Karnak’s ankles are ball joints, whereas Black Bolt has a hinge with lateral rockers. Lateral ankle rockers in a 3 ¾” figure… always a nice touch! Black Bolt features added swivels in the lower legs and an additional hinge in the neck. Medusa shares her hubby’s articulation, with just one exception: She doesn’t have the bicep swivels, a point of articulation that is sadly often omitted form the female bucks.

Hasbro has a track record of sometimes including a small PVC piece with these sets. With the Fantastic Four we got HERBIE, The X-Men set had baby Cyclops, and Guardians of the Galaxy came with Rocket Raccoon. So I think omitting Lockjaw from this set was a major misstep. I suppose you could argue that he would have to be bigger than the previously included PCV pieces, but I’d rather have been granted a slightly undersized Lockjaw than none at all. Afterall, I doubt there will ever be another opportunity to release that figure.

Apart from whining about Lockjaw and what could have been, I’ll happily admit that Hasbro did a wonderful job with this set. It’s been on my want list ever since I first saw the pre-production photos and now that I have it in hand, it certainly has lived up to my expectations. I ponied up $30 for it, which is more than I usually have to pay for these, but not a bad deal at all when it breaks down to just ten bucks a figure. And these are indeed excellent figures!