Oh look, it’s two Marvel Mondays back-to-back because I really shat the bed again last week and didn’t get to do any content since last Monday. I can keep apologizing, but it was a rough week last week and I have a million excuses from being crazy busy at work, to having to go out of town, and finally getting my car sideswiped by an asshole. This week might not be much better since I have to take the car in to the body-shop, arrange for a rental, and I still have another crazy week at work ahead of me. But we’ll see what we can do. In the meantime, I’m continuing my streak of X-Men Legends content with a look at Professor X and his hoverchair! Holy shit, I’m so happy Hasbro finally got around to this one!

This set is part of Hasbro’s Deluxe Riders releases, the same subset that gave us Deadpool’s scooter and Black Widow’s motorcycle and many more. The box is really long because of the way they chose to package the chair in pieces, like it’s been squished flat. It works well enough, but this is one of the few X-Men boxed sets where I was not tempted to keep the packaging. The window lets you get a look at the figure and all the parts, the lower left hand corner sports the Marvel 80 Years logo and for some weird reason Xavier’s name doesn’t appear on the front of the package, just the X-Men logo. Obviously there’s some assembly required, but nothing too bad.

The chair basically comes in two halves, which get pegged together with the two cushion pieces going in between them and the hover effect part plugging in the bottom to serve as a stand. Everything fits together perfectly and none of the connections are permanent, so if you want to take it apart and return it to the box you can certainly do that. My only real gripe here is that the way it’s constructed doesn’t allow for the front piece to slide open like I remember it doing in the cartoon. Yeah, that’s pretty nit-picky on my part, but I thought I’d toss it out there anyway. With the chair occupied, the cushions aren’t very visible, but Hasbo put a lot of nice detail into them, so I thought I’d show them off. I’ll come back to the rest of the chair in just a bit.

And, I’m not trying to be insensitive, but here’s a look at Xavier before he goes into the chair. And yes, he’s standing, but it was the easiest way to show him off. There’s not a whole lot to say about this figure as it appears to be a re-use of the suited body we’ve seen many times already and most recently as Nick Fury from the MCU Captain Marvel Wave. Hey, I’m not complaining, it works fine for Professor X, and we did get some new hands, which are very character specific. This time around, the suit is painted green, the shoes are brown, the shirt is white, and the tie is a blue and black stripe, which to me really clashes with the jacket, but that’s what I recall him wearing in the 90’s cartoon so it works for me. My figure’s legs are seriously warped, but in this case, that’s not going to matter much because he’s going into the chair and staying put.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sold on this head sculpt when I first saw it, but in hand I’m actually quite pleased with it. The facial detail is very well defined, features a rather stoic expression, and it certainly has tons of personality. And then you have those eyebrows. Did they go to far? Yeah, maybe a bit. I thought they were going to bother me a lot, but I’ve gotten used to them rather quickly. OK, let’s get him into the chair!

Xavier fits into the chair very easily and there’s even a sculpted plastic blanket to tuck in around his legs. Boy is that a great little touch! Unlike the necktie, the chair doesn’t seem based too closely on the cartoon, but to be fair I’m more used to seeing X in the more traditional wheelchair these days. The golden-yellow plastic looks great and is very appropriately used here. The sculpt for the chair features just the right amount of detail to give it that animated/comic look, while at the same time not looking too simple. There are some panel lines, some vents on the sides, as well as a painted panel of components on each side. Besides the spot-on aesthetics, I really dig how big and beefy this chair is. It doesn’t feel like they had to compromise the size at all and I think we owe that to the way they were able to break it down into parts for the packaging. No, the effect part isn’t all that convincing, but it does serve as an excellent stand. Would I rather they just went with something clear? Probably, but I’m fine with what we got.

I would have been perfectly content if that was all there was to the chair, but Hasbro also equipped it with some sliding panels in the arm rests, which open to reveal instruments. So cool!

Professor X also comes with a Cerebro helmet and effect part, and oh boy did this not turn out so great. The helmet looks really awkward on the figure, like it’s supposed to be some kind of breathing apparatus as opposed to a telekinetic enhancement device. A big part of the problem is the point that should be positioned on Xavier’s forehead is down over the bridge of his nose and the cables coming off of it just look weird. And to make matters worse the effect part is just an explosion of white goo that looks shockingly bad. I think the way to go here would have been to do a second portrait with the helmet part of it, and a better looking effect part which is detachable. Is it too much to ask for? Well, they included a second portrait in the box, but it obviously isn’t Professor X.

Nope, it’s the Shadow King. Now, I don’t want to seem ungrateful because this is a beautiful little piece of work, and it’s meant to go on the Kingpin Build-A-Figure. The sculpt is absolutely gorgeous and it has some excellent paintwork to back it up. The tiny glasses are removable, which I promptly found out when trying to remove the head, as they flew off and I had a good time hunting them down on the floor. Now granted, if you didn’t complete the Kingpin BAF, this extra noggin isn’t going to mean much to you, but I’m glad they included it.

Sure, I have a few little gripes with this set, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that I don’t love it. The figure is nothing outrageously special, but couple him with the chair and you’ve really got something here. I think it’s wonderful that Hasbro has found a way to get us some of these vehicles into the line, and while it’s odd to classify Xavier’s chair in the same category as a motorcycle or scooter, it was brilliant to include it as part of this assortment. I’m not sure how much this one originally retailed for, but I picked it up for $30 and it’s worth every damn penny to add Professor X to my X-Men Legends shelf.