It’s another Marvel Monday this week as I am working my way through the somewhat recently released Build-A-Russian-Space-Pooch Wave of Marvel Legends. So far I’ve checked out Star-Lord, Drax, and Mantis from the BAF assortment, as well as the Deluxe Groot, which is admittedly a peripheral release but still part of the gang. Today I’m finishing up the Guardians proper with Nebula and Rocket, and that will just leave two more figures to go, plus the BAF.

I’ve said my piece about this packaging. I like it well enough but I’ll also be happy to see the end to these windowless boxes. It also baffles me as to why Hasbro didn’t list the figures in this wave on the back like they used to do, but I bought the wave all in one shot, so I guess it didn’t matter. As for the characters, let’s be honest, it Guardians 3 was Rocket’s movie, and perhaps even his trilogy all along, if a certain line of otter dialogue is to be believed. As for Nebula, I’ve really enjoyed her a lot more ever since Endgame and it was interesting to see her get a bigger role in this one, even over her sister Gamora, who is conspicuously absent from this wave of figures. Anyway… let’s start with Nebula!

It’s Hasbro, so I was expecting Nebula to share a body with Mantis, and that is certainly the case. Still, considering the amount of new sculpting in this wave, I can’t say as I really blame them. I loved this uniformed body on Mantis, and I love it here just the same. There’s some excellent sculpted detail in the costume and the blue and red just pop so beautifully. The belt is a separate sculps from the body and it’s nice and snug around the waist.

Of course, you do get a newly sculpted arm with some really cool detail that looks like some kind of synthetic muscular weave. Like the regular arm, it’s pinless in the elbow and has a really tight bend which I love.

The head sculpt is excellent and reflects the differences from the last time we saw her in the Legends line as part of the Mantis BAF wave. The sculpt here is a little soft but it works fine. Still, I’m not sure I like it more than the metallic paint and Borg-like eye business going on with the previous release. Still, that’s apples and oranges, because we’re dealing with two different versions fo the character. I’ll just say what we got here is fine and leave it at that.

Nebula makes out really well in the accessories department, as she comes with no less than three weapons. The first is this little pistol, which is a cool design, but probably the least interesting of the weapons. Also, it’s so small I almost wound up throwing it out with the tissue paper it was wrapped in.

Next up is a sword attachment for her cybernetic arm. This one just pegs in by replacing the hand for and gives off some awesome Terminator 2 vibes. The sculpt carries on the cyber-sinew pattern of the arm and has some orange paint on the edges. The sword really makes me wish they had given her a right gun hand so that she could wield both gun and sword, but it’s still pretty cool.

And finally, you get a nice big rifle. It’s cast in gray plastic and I love it. She can hold it really well too. I wish they had painted the hole in the barrel black, but I might go ahead and remedy that with a sharpie. Ok, let’s move on to Rocket Racoon!

YES! He finally uses is full name in the movie, and embraces his inner Racooness, which was fun to hear. And yes, this is easily the best Legends Rocket I’ve seen yet. Plus, he looks so damn adorable in his little uniform! Just about all the details survived being shrunk down to racoon size, including the Guardians emblem on his chest and the belt. The colors still look great here although the red is a little more muted. The uniform even has a hole in the butt where his floofy tail juts out.

The articulation here is pretty impressive for such a tiny body. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. The hips are ball jointed, there are swivels in the thighs, and ball joints under the chest and in the neck. He can be a little tough to balance on his tiny feet, but you can always use the tail for support in a pinch.

The head sculpt is by far the best we’ve seen for Rocket in this scale. I’m blown away by the amount of detail in his exposed teeth.

Rocket comes with one accessory and that’s his the huge blaster that he’s been carrying since the first movie. This is such a cool and complex design. It’s also made to work well with Rocket’s tiny hands and has a loop in the stock that goes around and under his shoulder.

With the core team of Guardians assembled, I have to say this has been a fantastic wave. I was a little hesitant to pre-order these as opposed to waiting for clearance, but I’m glad I pulled the trigger, because these are going to get a prime display spot on one of my shelves. But we still have two more figures in the wave to check out and the BAF, so we’ll swing back for one more Marvel Monday next week to have a look at those!