It’s a crazy summer for movies. It seemed like Infinity War was just pushed out by Deadpool 2, and now it’s already getting brushed aside with the release of Solo last week, but I’m still riding high from the great time that El-Poolio’s sequel delivered and I’m anxious to see it again while it’s in theaters. Alas, because of toy-movie-comic-business-politics, Hasbro won’t be including any Deadpool 2 movie-based figures in the Legends line, but we did get a wave of Deadpool-inspired comic book figures and today I’m here to check out the chimichanga-muchin-mo-fo himself, Deadpool. Who? DEADPOOL!!! Can I hear it one more time? Nope, we did that last time. I’m not doing it again. We actually get two versions of the Merc With A Mouth in this wave, both X-Force and regular flavor, and today I’m checking out Redpool.

What the shit-balls is this? Look at how empty the tray is! The last Legends Deadpool came so packed with extras that they couldn’t even fit a BAF part in there. And they didn’t bother with one here either. Yeah, I know, it’s because he’s Deadpool and everyone is going to buy him anyway, but at least the last time I didn’t miss it amidst all the cool accessories. When I first saw this package, I practically did a double-take because the tray is so vacant. I almost thought one of those scalper assholes raided the cookie jar and took all his weapons. Cripes, what a bummer. I wonder if the figure is any good?

Lucikly the figure itself is excellent. The Juggernaut Wave Deadpool (see link above) gave us a more modern take, whereas this version takes us back a bit. Everything about it looks more clean and classic. Gone are the armor pieces on the arms and legs in in their place we get a more streamlined bodysuit, with a red-and-black mix that favors the red. The bulk of the costume is achieved through black paint and some beautiful red plastic that looks like it popped straight out of the comic panels. You also get a good deal of added parts, which include black cuffs for the wrists and ankles, a ring of pouches on his right thigh, a ring of pouches on his belt, a shoulder strap, and the rig of crossed scabbards to store his swords on his back.

I will concede that the added pieces could have used some colors. The belt pouches are left red, which does give him a more streamlined look, but I think these would have been better brown, as would the pouches on his thigh. They did, however, do a nice job painting in the emblem on his beltbuckle, and the buckles on his shoulder rig are neatly painted silver, so it’s not like Hasbro didn’t try. The sculpted detail on these pieces is quite nice, as all the pouches have their little flaps and buttons, and the shoulder straps are studded with tiny sculpted rivets. Again, this is a great looking figure, and I’ll concede that my minor gripes with the coloring of his gear is just my personal preference.

While the last Deadpool came with two heads, masked and unmasked, I’ve already established that this package includes the bare minimum, so we gotta make due with just the one masked head. Hasbro went with a much more serious, kick-ass expression here, and that works for me. The black eye cut-outs are actually part of the sculpt, and there’s some nice wrinkling inbetween the eyes to show Deadpool is not happy about something. Instead of the comical one eye-popped, this Deadpool is kind of squinting as if he’s about to issue a serious beatdown. Or maybe he’s mad because someone took away all his guns.

Deadpool features the lateral shoulder crunches in the torso, which was a very pleasant surprise. Otherwise, the articulation is pretty standard stuff for a modern Legends figure. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in both the thighs and lower legs, double-hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The arms have rotating hinges at the shoulders and wrists, double-hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The torso has an ab-crunch hinge, a swivel at the waist, and the head is both ball jointed and hinged. This is very fun figure to play around with, and I imagine he’ll be hanging out on my desk for quite a while.

Here’s a shot of Deadpool not holding the pistol that he does not come with in his right hand, which is clearly sculpted to hold a gun, and even has a trigger finger for said gun. In case you missed it earlier, there’s no gun. It is absolutely impossible for me to overstate how ridiculous it is that Hasbro couldn’t have taken one of the dozens of pistols they’ve used for this line and tossed it into this goddamn package. Yes, I have plenty of guns that I can give him, but the omission of a simple handgun just reeks of cheapness and penny-pinching. I mean, OK, so a full arsenal of guns didn’t cost out? Fine, whatever. Give him a goddamn pistol!!! Legends is rarely stingy on the accessories, so on those few occasions when they are, it stands out like a sore thumb.

Deadpool does at least come with his swords, but I can’t say as I’m all that happy with these. I’m certainly no expert on Japanese swords, and I’ll grant you that Deadpool’s swords have changed a bit over the years, but I’m not a fan of these shorter straight blades. The long katanas we got with the last Deadpool were more to my liking.

I’m not going to harp on it too much, because they fit well in the scabbard and they did a nice job sculpting and painting the hilts. The blades are left bare gray plastic and would have certainly benefited from some metalic silver paint, but whatever. He’s definitely fun to pose with them in his hands, but ultimately they still feel a bit underwhelming to me.

And so, I’m in a weird place with this figure. The figure itself is excellent and loads of fun, but I’ll say it again for the umpteenth time: I’m beyond disappointed by the lack of extras. I’ll admit that Hasbro went above and beyond with the Deadpool from the Juggernaut Wave, and they can’t do that with every figure, but there’s a chasm between what we got with that figure and what we got with this one. In the end, I’m probably going to go back and take the weapons away from the 2012 X-Force Deadpool (since that figure has not aged well, and he’s getting replaced in this wave anyway), and give those guns to this figure. It’s not like I don’t have enough extra armaments for him, but it’s the principle of the matter.