As The Bangles once sang, “It’s just another Marvel Monday and that’s my fun day!” Or something like that. Yes, today I am closing in on the end of my look at the Thanos Wave of Hasbro’s Mavel Legends line. Spider-Woman is the last packaged figure that I have to open before moving on next week to the Build-A-Figure, Thanos. Sure, these parts are actually doubles of what came with Hellcat, so I could have already built Thanos, but I always save the BAF for last.

Here’s the gratuitous packaged shot. Sorry it’s such a shitty shot, but I bumped the camera and spilled my Jameson. Doesn’t matter. It’s basically the same packaging we’ve seen dozens of times now. If you were here last Monday then you might remember that Spider-Woman shares a slot with Hellcat as the “Ferocious Fighters!” which means that neither characters’ names appear on the front of the package. And like I just said, it also means that if you already own Hellcat that you don’t really need to buy this figure in order to complete your Thanos BAF, and vice versa. There’s been a big “to do” lately about how Black Widow has been snubbed in the Age of Ultron merchandise and a lot of people are making the connection to it being a trend with female figures in general. I’m not saying that’s not an issue, but in fairness Marvel doesn’t seem to have a big problem with getting us other Marvel ladies. In the last couple of waves we’ve had Hellcat, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Girl, two versions of Spider-Woman, and Agent Hill in the SHIELD 3-pack. The Hulkbuster Wave will have Valkyrie and Thundra, and we’re even getting a Legends version of Misty Knight. Seems to me like it’s personal, Natasha.

Out of the package, Jessica is looking mighty damn nice. We get a very shapely female buck with the costume mostly painted on. I feel like the red used for the costume could have been a little more vibrant and crimson, but I’m not hating what we got either. The yellow used for the gloves, boots, and accents really help the figure to pop on the shelf and the black borders are pretty sharp. There are a few minor stray black marks on my figure’s boots and a little visible brush work on her tummy, but otherwise, the paint really sells the costume splendidly.

Hasbro included the plastic web “wings” for under her arms, which was evident from the package shot. What I wasn’t expecting was a pair of collapsed wings as well. That was a nice surprise. These pieces simply tab into the slots on the back of her biceps. The textured plastic pieces have almost a GiTD quality to them, which is very effective, although I kind of miss the heavy handed black webbing pattern, especially since these are rather hard to see against a white backdrop.

The portrait here is a homerun. The lower half of her face is certainly pretty and her lips are well defined and neatly painted. The mask looks great with the large blank white eyes and the hair sculpt is superb and well worth the hit to the neck articulation, at least as far as I’m concerned.

Articulation here is quite good, so long as you can get past those ball jointed hips that require you to work the joint all the way around to attain certain poses. Apart from that you get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists; Swivels in the biceps and thighs; The legs feature double hinged knees and hinged ankles with lateral rockers. The torso has a ball joint just below the chest and a ball jointed neck with no hinge. Sure, Spider-Woman is a pretty limber gal, and this figure isn’t going to be mimicking any maligned cover art we’ve seen recently, but for a Legends figure, it’s not at all bad.

Considering that I still own very few of my original Marvel Legends, I’m very pleased to be able to put Jussica Drew back on my 6-inch scale shelf. But even if I still had the old Toy Biz figure I think I’d still be quite happy for the upgrade. I don’t think the last version was quite as bad as some say, but then it’s been quite a while since I’ve had in hand and a lot of those figures haven’t aged gracefully. Next Monday I’ll put together The Mad Titan himself and have a look at this Wave’s Build-A-Figure… Thanos!

It’s another Marvel Monday and that means it’s time to open up another Legends figure. Today I’m going to check out the first of the ladies of this wave, Hellcat. Patsy Walker is an interesting character, or at least she has an interesting print history. She started life in a non-superhero comic and existed that way for almost three decades before being established as the alter ego for superheroine Hellcat sometime in the early 70s. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of her character, although I do really dig her costume, so much so that I came damn close to picking up her Bowen statue from a year or so back before the final production piece showed some unfortunate deviations from the excellent looking prototype. Fortunately, Hasbro stepped in and included her in the Legends line, thus allowing me to put her on my shelf for a lot less money.

Hellcat shares her slot in this Wave with another, in this case that other figure is Spider-Woman. These used to be running changes and it was often a bitch to find both of them on the pegs. Thankfully, Hasbro has since come to their senses and are now including both variants in the wave’s case assortment. Apart from making it far easier to complete the wave, all it means to the collector is that you’re going to have an extra set of BAF parts, in this case Thanos’ head. It also means that Hellcat’s name doesn’t appear on the front of the package. Instead all you get is “Fierce FIghters” and it’s not even in the usual place, but rather all the way down at the bottom in smaller multi-lingual print. This practice really fascinates me, especially when used with lesser known characters like Walker.

Hellcat is another one of those highly recycled figures and that’s more an observation than a criticism. At first I thought this was just the Ms. Marvel body, but that figure had bicep swivels and Hellcat doesn’t. Maybe they’re just different arms. Either way, this is a generic female buck with the costume painted on. And in this case, the paint is a bit problematic, because the bulk of the body is cast in yellow plastic, but the lower legs and feet are black with a little under the knee painted yellow. Unfortunately the paint doesn’t match. Also note the rather obvious use of the sash from Carol Danver’s Warbird costume.

At least the head is new and it’s a pretty good portrait. The mask is great and she has the pupil-less eyes just like I like them. I especially dig the way they did her hair. It spills out of the back of her mask and just kind of erupts down her back in a red fiery explosion. Nice!

Hellcat is a nimble little kitty and the figure does a nice job of conveying that through her articulation. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows and wrists. The hinges on the wrists, however are oddly positioned so she can tilt her hands side to side, rather than front and back. Weird! The legs are ball jointed at the hips, swivel at the thighs, double hinged at the knees, and the ankles have hinges and generous lateral rockers. The torso features a ball joint just under her chest and the neck has both a hinge and ball joint.

Lest you thought I was done with the subject of parts sharing, it appears as if Hellcat stole Daredevil’s batons and painted them black. These are the same two rods that can be pegged together to form a longer fighting stick. I don’t remember ever seeing Patsy use anything like this, but I’m certainly not an expert on the character. I guess they kind of fit her, so I’m willing to give it a pass. Gosh, I’m in a generous mood today!

Yes, it seems like the subject of parts recycling is coming up more and more, and I’ll keep standing by my mantra. There’s nothing wrong with it so long as its done thoughtfully and it’s used to get us a figure that we otherwise might not have seen. I think those criteria mostly fit Hellcat. She’s a solid, albeit not spectacular figure and honestly, I’m just so surprised and pleased that we got her that I’m willing to overlook issues like poor color matching. Does that make me part of the problem? Maybe, but holy crap, there’s a Hellcat figure hanging on the pegs. Isn’t that worth a little recycling? To me it sure is. Next Monday I’ll check out Spider-Woman, the last figure in the Wave I need to open before building Thanos!