I’m extending Marvel Monday out one more day so I can wrap up this look at the Crimson Dynamo Wave Build-A-Figure today. That’s right! As if opening the last figure in a wave of Marvel Legends wasn’t reward enough, Hasbro lets us cobble together a brand new figure for our efforts. It’s like the cherry on top of a plastic sundae! This time, it’s the Crimson Dynamo from what is coincidently called the Crimson Dynamo Wave! Wow… funny how that worked out! This brute is composed of a whopping nine pieces scattered throughout all but one figure in this assortment. Pieces include the arms, legs, head, torso, two shoulder pieces, and a back plate.

Crimson Dynamo is of course the moniker given to the Soviet Union’s equivalent of the Iron Man armor. Like Stark’s armor, the USSR’s version has turned up in various styles, sizes, and configurations, but unlike Iron Man, the Crimson Dynamo has been manned by various Soviet agents. I think the last time I encountered this bruiser in plastic form was as part of Hasbro’s 3 3/4-inch Iron Man as Dmitri Bukharin. This time we’re getting the more imposing and more recent Gennady Gavrilov’s suit, and boy was this a great choice! It’s big and bulky and the design has that certain primitive but imposing retro design.

The suit is composed of a silver base, which looks like it’s been fitted with maroon armored pieces. The arms and torso have that segmented metal look that I love so much and instantly calls to mind Collosus from the X-Men. The chunkier maroon bits have some organic curves and some sparing panel lines. The result is a detailed suit that doesn’t look too busy. Still, some wonderful details included the ribbed ankles that look like they’re supposed to be made of a more flexible material, the reinforced fronts of the boots for kicking Western Capitalist ass, and those powerful hands that look like they could make short work of one of Stark’s armors if he were to get it in his clutches. Possibly my favorite thing here is the translucent green tubes in the wrists that look like they’re supposed to be some kind of cooling rods for the janky reactor that powers this behemoth. It’s all just so damn cool!

The helmet fits in with the more primitive look of the Soviet design. It’s got what looks like a giant boiler plate mounted ot the front of it with a grill for a mouth and a simple slit for a visor. The giant armored shoulders have bolts jutting out of the front and the surface is sculpted with cracks and fissures. There’s a dual exhaust protruding from the right shoulder, and the Soviet Star in the center of his chest is painted with an almost flourescent glow that matches the paint used for the visor. Spectacular!

As always, Hasbro doesn’t skimp on the articulation for these big figures, although the sheer bulk of this figure’s design does give some of those joints a little less range of motion. But that’s not to say this guy isn’t a heck of a lot of fun to play with. The legs have rotating hinges in the hips and ankles, double hinges in the knees, and swivels up in the thighs. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and single hinges in the elbows. There’s a ball joint under the chest, and the neck is ball jointed. I like that they gave him one hand sculpted into a fist and the other grasping, as they work with a number of different poses.

While I would still love to see some of the other Crimson Dynamo armors get the Marvel Legends treatment, I’m very pleased that Hasbro chose to do this one as a Build-A-Figure. It’s such a damned cool design and it makes for an impressive display piece on the shelf next to the likes of Iron Monger and the SHIELD Mandroid. And boy would it be cool to one day see a version of this guy turn up in the MCU. Although, to be fair, I’ve been really tempering my expectations of what we’re going to be seeing out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Black Widow.

And that’s a wrap for this wave. It was an overall excellent assortment of figures. The Black Widow film was well represented, but we also got some great comic-based figures as well. I’m sure Crossbones was a welcome addition to anyone who missed out on the old Thunderbolts SDCC set and I think we were long overdue for a comic-based WInter Soldier. But seriously, Hasbro, we need a WWII-era Bucky Barnes now. I’d say that Spymaster is easily the odd-man out in this wave, and that’s not because he’s a bad figure, but aesthetically he really doesn’t fit with the rest of the crowd. For next week’s Marvel Monday, I’m going to detour out of Marvel Legends, but when I return for a new assortment, I’ll be checking out the Sugar Man Wave!