Jan 25 2016

Marvel Legends (Hulkbuster Wave): Hulkbuster Build-A- Figure by Hasbro

Six figures and a whole lot of Marvel Mondays later and I’m finally ready to build my Hulkbuster. I always find the Build-A-Figures to be a nice slice of pie for desert after a hearty meal of regular Legends figures, but this time it’s different. I don’t think I’ve anticipated a BAF as much as this since way back to Terrax. Maybe Groot. Either way, I’m excited… so let’s see what we’ve got…

Obviously there’s no packaged shot because this guy’s parts were spread out over seven releases, but there he is all laid out and ready for assembly. Most BAFs consist of six parts (four limbs, torso and head), but Hulkbuster is made up of two extra pieces. Instead of one torso you get a pelvis and front and back halves of the torso. Assembly may be a little more complex, but everything still goes together easy peasy.

And what a beast he is! Now this is a BAF! It brings me back to the days of the truly giant DCUC Collect & Connect figures like Stel or STRIPE. The scaling on this guy feels really good, especially when standing next to the Age of Ultron armor, which was worn by Tony while wearing this armor. The proportions are appropriately chunky and he just looks like a powerhouse. A couple of my favorite points of interest include the contours of the lower leg armor, the giant slabs of armor on the forearms, and the curved plates that make up his shoulder armor. There isn’t an over abundance of panel lines, so it doesn’t quite give off that hyper-detailed movie look, but it works just fine for me.

The bulk of the figure is cast in luscious red plastic, which sports a nice sheen, with minimal amounts of those swirly patterns that rear their ugly heads in Hasbro’s plastic sometimes. I hate those. Some of the gold, like the forearm pieces, are bare plastic, while other gold parts are painted. There’s a slight difference between these parts and overall I would have liked a more consistent metallic finish throughout, but then I feel guilty about complaining because so much about this guy is just magnificent. The deco is rounded out by some nice touches of gray.

Articulation is pretty close to what we’re used to seeing in regular Legends figures. Obviously, the chunky sculpt of the armor is at odds with some of the articulation. Let’s face it, the Hulkbuster suit isn’t supposed to be an acrobat, so I’m pretty happy with the level of posability here. If there’s anything that nags at me, it’s the way the pelvis hooks to the upper torso. There’s a ball jointed post to make the connection, but the ball joint doesn’t swivel. The socket grabs it too tight and if you try to do the swivel it just twists the post. With that having been said, he is an amazingly fun figure to play with.

Despite a few really minor and picky little issues, I think this figure is a total home-run. It’s exactly the kind of release that the BAF concept was created for. Take a figure that is too big or too complex for a regular release and get him to the collectors by parting him out. Hasbro has given us some real treats since the Legends line returned back in 2012, but it’s hard to think of too many that impressed me as much as having this beast on my shelf. He was worth the wait, and he’s probably going to spend a long time on my desk getting played around with before he finally migrates to my Legends display shelf.

And that’s finally a wrap for this wave. I’m going to spend the next handful of Marvel Mondays going through the Age of Ultron Avengers boxed set and then we’ll start digging into the Rhino Wave!

Nov 2 2015

Marvel Legends (Hobgoblin Wave): Hobgoblin Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

“Getting tattoos of Norman Osborne doesn’t make you tough, just stupid!”

~ Phil Urich, aka. Hobgoblin

Wow, I started looking at this Wave way back in August and thanks to some detours, I’m only now wrapping it up with a look at the Build-A-Figure. Obviously, there’s no packaging to show you, as this guy is pieced together from parts collected through this wave of figures, so let me take a moment to say that I was really excited that we were getting this guy. I don’t tend to mingle in a lot of comic-book reading circles, so I was rather surprised to find that the Phil Urich version of Hobgoblin is so polarizing, because I enjoyed him and the associated run of Spider-Man. Some may accuse me of believing that Dan Slott can do no wrong at the Amazing Spider-Man helm, and I’ll concede that there might just be something of truth in that. Either way, Slott’s run got me reading Spider-Man again on a regular basis so it’s obvious where my feelings lie.

And there he is in all his glory. I seriously love this design as I get a strong Renaissance vibe off of it, between the period style of the outfit and the fact that the wings look like something cobbled together by Da vinci. As far as BAFs go, he’s not exactly a big character, but with those big wings, it’s easy to see where all the extra plastic went. I’ll toss this out there to anyone building him. I put the arms on before the backpack and realized my mistake too late. I was still able to get the wings on, but it would have been a lot easier if I had placed the backpack first before pegging in those arms.

The coloring is pretty accurate to the character art and the mix of orange and blue with a little silver thrown in makes for a pretty attractive figure and one that certainly feels suitable for the Fall months we’re in. If I hadn’t had NECA’s Leatherface to look at, I probably would have used this guy as a Halloween Feature. I also really dig the way you get an extra sword hilt that plugs into the top of his wing assembly. That’s a really cool touch that you don’t often see in the Legends line.

The headsculpt is quite good and I like that it’s independent of the hood as it adds a lot of depth and credibility to the sculpt. The paint on the teeth, on the other hand, is a little rough. I’m not entirely sure that it isn’t on purpose though as Hobgoblin looks pretty haphazard and manic in the art and the paint kind of reflects that. Of course, I may be giving Hasbro a little too much credit on that one.

The articulation here is great. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and his skirt is split in two places front and back so as to not inhibit the range of movement there. The legs are double hinged in the knees, with swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have generous lateral rockers. He can swivel at the waist and the torso has an ab crunch hinge. The neck is both ball jointed and hinged, but because of the hood, there’s some restriction there. The only downside? The wings aren’t articulated, but that’s understandable to me.

In addition to the sword hilt, Hobgoblin comes with an ignited sword and a flaming bomb. The flame sword is quite a work of art and is cast in a beautiful blend of translucent red and orange plastic. I can’t say as I’ve seen anything like it since Mattel’s Draego-Man from the Masters Classics line. He can hold it comfortably in his left hand and he looks great wielding it. Alas, I can’t show you the flaming bomb, because it fell on the floor and the cat dragged it under the sofa into his Lair with all his other plastic pretties.

Hobgoblin is a fantastic BAF and a great way to cap off what was a very solid wave of Legends figures. I can’t say as there was a bad figure in the bunch, My only real gripe at all was my Spider-Woman losing her arm and to be honest, I’ve since decided to go ahead and replace her. I’ve also decided that I really need to go back and finish off that last wave of Spider-Man Legends. The Ultimate Green Goblin isn’t really a “must have” BAF for me to complete, but at the same time I can’t stand seeing him lying in the corner missing some limbs.

Aug 17 2015

Marvel Legends (Ultron Wave): Giant Man and BAF Ultron by Hasbro

It’s been a long trip since starting this wave with Ant-Man many weeks ago, but now I’m finally up to the final boxed figure and, oh what the hell, we’ll check out the BAF today too just so that I can finally put this wave to bed. The final figure is Giant Man and he also gives us a right leg, the last piece needed to put together the BAF Ultron.

And look! It’s actually Hank Pym! Yes, while all the packages in this wave have Ant-Man stamped on the top and very ant-y illustrations on the side panels, only a select few (Wasp and Ant-Man) of these figures until now could really be considered Ant-Man related. Unless you want to argue that the three villains have all had run ins with The Avengers, and there’s your rather tenuous connection. And since I don’t think we’ll be seeing a Michael Douglas figure anytime soon, Giant Man here is as close as we’re likely to get to Pym for the time being. I find all this pretty ironic since you could practically build an entire wave of figures just out of Pym’s knack for changing costumes and identities.

Giant Man is a very simple figure, with his entire costume being achieved via a painted buck.. Normally, that would be fine, I actually really dig this costume, but unfortunately, the craftsmanship just isn’t here. The red plastic that they used for a good portion of this figure feels exceptionally gummy and it doesn’t seem to hold the black paint very well. There’s chipping to the black as well as some transfer from the black onto the red. What’s more, the lower boots are sculpted in black plastic and it bleeds through the red paint, which doesn’t match the rest of the figure well to begin with. You also get a cape hole in the back from whatever character this buck was originally used for. Besides looking a bit off, the figure feels rather cheap in hand, which is rather unusual for the Legends line.

The real shame here is that as rough as the body is, the head sculpt is quite good. The definition in the face sculpt is fantastic and the paint lines are all crisp and clean. I especially dig the soft plastic antenna. This head really needed a different body to attach to.

Articulation is standard stuff for this line. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, the elbows are double hinged and there are swivels in the biceps. THe legs are ball jointed at the hips, the knees are double hinged, the ankles have hinges and rockers, and there are swivels in both the thighs and at the tops of the boots. The torso features a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. While he can take and hold a lot of good poses, the elbow hinges are all rubbery, which is always disappointing.

I’ve got no problems with Hasbro painting costumes on bucks as opposed to throwing in a lot of new sculpting, but if you’re going to do it, you have to do it right. Giant Man, from the neck down, looks like a barely competant custom job and that’s too bad, because I was really looking forward to this guy, especially to use with my Universe scaled figures. But hey, at least he gave us a leg, so let’s put that sucker in and check out…

ULTRON! Yes, this is indeed Marvel Cinematic Universe, James Spader Ultron and if you’ve collected this entire wave than you have the head, torso, arms, and legs needed to assemble him. He’s a big guy, easily a head and shoulders above your average Legends figure. It wasn’t until seeing this figure (and the Hot Toys one) that I realized Ultron was so damn big and it certainly justifies his existence as a Build-A-Figure. I’ve only seen Age of Ultron a couple of times and I’m really anxious for it to hit Blu-Ray so I can start scrutinizing it a lot more for details such as this. It’s a busy movie and there’s a lot of stuff to see.

The sculpt here is pretty good with a lot of detail to the armor. Yeah, in some areas it doesn’t quite live up to all the fine points of the movie design, but for a Legends BAF it gets the job done and it looks really nice on the shelf. I do like that both of his hands are sculpted to look like they’re shooting beams out of his palms.

I also really dig the head sculpt. What the body lacks in some details, I think the figure makes up for in the portrait, which captures the movie look perfectly. The paint does feel a little flat in some areas. You get a base grey plastic with some silver sprayed over some areas and a little red here and there. A more deliberate deco would have helped a lot, but again, what we got is serviceable and when the light hits it just right the silver paint does look exceptionally nice. I certainly like what they did here a lot better than if they had just sprayed the whole thing silver, or used the crappy looking plastic that they did for the last Legends Ultron.

The articulation is overall pretty good. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinged elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels at the top of the thighs, double hinged knees, and hinged ankles with lateral rockers. Ultron can swivel at the waist and has an ab crunch hinge. The neck is ball jointed and hinged. The cut through the waist looks rather awkward when swiveling, but that can’t really be helped.

The movie version of Ultron is a design that really needs a higher end figure to do it justice, but I think what we got here is pretty damn good. I can’t say as there are any figures in this wave that I would have passed on if it weren’t for needing the BAF part. It was overall a solid assortment, which happily added quite a few villains to my shelves while also expanding my Marvel Cinematic Universe Collection by two. I’d say that Giant Man was the biggest let down here, and it’s possible that a lot of that has to do with the QC on my specific figure. Either way, with this wave down, I’ve still got a lot of figures to pick up to stay current, including The Hobgoblin Wave, which I initially passed on, The Hulkbuster and Rhino Waves, which are just starting to trickle out, and I’m still considering going back and finishing up that Amazing Spider-Man 2 Wave just so I can finish up that Ultimate Green Goblin. Phew! You’re killing me, Hasbro, but don’t stop!

Jun 1 2015

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Thanos Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

Here we are, finally at the end of the most recent Wave of Marvel Legends and I’m all ready to piece together my very own Mad Titan. I’m sure I’ve already commented about how Hasbro has been killing it with the character selection on these Waves lately and I couldn’t think of a better BAF to hit right around now than Thanos himself. There’s no package to look at, so let’s just go ahead and cobble this baby together.

Here’s all the parts you need to build Thanos scattered across five of the six figures from this Wave. If you bought both Hellcat and Spider-Woman then you’ll find yourself with an extra head and left arm. The doubled up head feels like a missed opportunity to provide us with a second portrait, like they did in The Allfather Wave. Also, the lack of an Infinity Gauntlet kind of sucks. I remember way back when Mattel did the DCUC Collect & Connect Darkseid they were able to get us his an extra hand with a swap out Killing Glove. I’m sure Hasbro is just planning on selling us a new Thanos when Infinity War hits the theaters a few years from now.

This is a fairly modern take on the character, without venturing into the actual MovieVerse territory. He isn’t massive, but he’s certainly big enough. Average size characters, like Hawkeye, only come up to about his shoulders. Thanos is a fairly simple figure, cast primarily in nice, glossy dark blue plastic. I like the silver segmented bits showing through on his legs. The armor bits, consisting of his shoulders, wrist bracers, belt, and the tops of his boots are all separate pieces, which is cool, but the matte gold plastic they used is kind of bland. Some nice metallic paint on these would have really gone a long way. Also, while the shoulder piece does peg into the top of his shoulders, it still has a habit of detaching and riding up when I manipulate his shoulders.

The portrait, on the other hand, is spot on awesome. I love the toothy grin and the texturing and purple paintwork on the skin looks great. The head could have been a little bigger, but then Thanos always was a bit of a pinhead.

Articulation is pretty much in line with the regular Legends figures. The arms have rotating hinges at the shoulders and wrists, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, have swivels at the thighs, and the ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. Thanos can swivel at the waist, there’s an ab crunch hinge in his torso, and the neck is ball jointed.

I can’t tell you the number of times I came close to picking up the Marvel Select version of Thanos just to have the character represented on my Legends shelf. I was hoping that this BAF would justify holding off on that purchase and in the end it sort of does, but in fairness the two figures are very different treatments of the character. I may wind up still picking up that Marvel Select release. I like this figure well enough, but it feels rather “phoned in” to me, especially after how much work clearly went into the Odin BAF. Indeed, I think Hasbro did a much better job on the Marvel Universe Thanos. Even for a little 3 3/4″ figure, that one had some really sharp looking gold painted armor and chunkier boots and gauntlets. If they could have just up-scaled that beauty, I think I would have been happier.

And that’s going to wrap up Marvel Monday for a little while, or at least until I can get my hands on the Hobgoblin Wave of Spider-Man Legends. But, much like Hydra, if you cut off one weekly Feature, two more shall take its place. In this case, I’ll be starting weekly Star Trek and GI JOE features starting this week on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout most of the Summer as I try to get through the boxes of figures sitting over in the corner.

Apr 21 2015

Marvel Legends (Allfather Wave): Odin Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

Ah, the Build-A-Figure! On the one hand it gives you an extra reward for being a good little collector and completing a Marvel Legends wave. On the other hand, sometimes you’re beholden to buying figures you don’t want just so you can get an arm or a leg. In the case of The Allfather Wave, I was perfectly happy buying all the figures in the assortment so that I could could build me an Odin. And yes, I said Odin as opposed to King Thor. You do get two different choices on how you want to go with this figure. The “Maidens of Might” variants gave you different heads, capes, and weapons and the “Avenging Allies” variants gave you the two different sets of arms. The obvious choice is, why can’t I have both? Well, if you’re welling to do a little boiling and popping, you could probably have your Asgardian cake and eat it too, but without applying some heat, it’s pretty tough to get those arms out once they’re in. I’m mainly only interested in Odin here so that’s the route I’m going. Of course, there’s no packaged shot, but let’s take a look at the pieces instead.

If you’ve completed the wave then you have all eight pieces needed for the build. That’s a head, a torso, two arms, two legs, a cape, and a staff. Everything locks together beautifully and the resulting figure is as solid as any of the individually boxed releases. Most of the time I tend to associate BAFs with larger figures that wouldn’t have been cost effective as a single release, but in this case Odin would have had no problems fitting into a Marvel Legends box. Then again with past precedents like Rocket Raccoon and Hit Monkey, Hasbro has certainly been redefining what it is to be a BAF and these days it isn’t just all about size anymore.

This is possibly my favorite look for The Allfather to date. It’s a nice cross between comic book style with some groundings in gritty historical garb. The plate armor that makes up the torso, shoulders and lower legs is just gorgeous. Not only is it sculpted with all sorts of different plates and rivets, but also with scrapes and weathering. The paintwork here is also quite amazing and creates a convincing patina that makes it look like genuinely well used armor. It’s hard to believe that this is the same company behind some of the shoddy or non-existant paintwork we’ve been seeing in the Transformers line, although I concede that it’s been getting better. In addition to the armor plate, you get a soft plastic “leather” skirt with a detailed belt, wraps for the wrists and a blue cape that pegs into the back. The shoulder pieces peg in pretty securely while still offering the luxury of detaching rather than breaking if you put too much stress on them.

And then you have this wonderful head sculpt. Odin oozes personality with the tip of his grey beard gathered into a… what is that, a beard pony tail? Honestly, I have no idea about the proper terminology here, but it looks great. The winged helmet is cast in a somewhat dull goldish plastic with two mighty ram horns coming off the sides. Odin sports a fierce expression with one eye patched and the other narrowed on his foe. Brilliant!

Despite being a BAF, the articulation here is more or less in line with what I’ve come to expect from the current Legends line. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, as well as swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, and double hinged at the knees. There are swivels in the thighs and the ankles feature hinges and lateral rockers. The is a ball joint in the torso and another in the neck. I expected the costume to impede articulation a lot more than it does. The slits in the “skirt” actually allow for a decent amount of leg movement and if you cast off the cape, you can get more in the shoulders.

Of course, Odin wouldn’t be complete without his kingly staff and one included certainly fits the bill. It’s a great sculpt, although I can’t deny I would have liked some more paint apps on it. Maybe they blew the budget on that beautiful armor.

If you decide to go for King Thor Odinson, you get all the great work that went into the body with just a few changes. The Thor head is excellent, albeit not as elaborate as Odin’s. You also get the artificial left arm with the right one being identical to the one used for Odin. Finally, the cape is the same sculpt only red in keeping with Thor’s traditional color of garb, and instead of the staff you get his Axe. The Axe is probably the only thing I would consider disappointing here. It looks too scrawny to me. It’s definitely going into the Masters of the Universe armory.

There’s no better way to wrap up a fantastic wave of figures then by following it with a fantastic BAF and Odin is certainly that. He was a great choice of character and I think they did an absolutely… dare I say it? Marvelous job on him. He also means a little something special to me as I still kick myself every once and a while for not picking up the Hot Toys Odin when he was first released, but at the time Hot Toys were just something I admired from afar. Obviously, that version of Odin is a whole nother beast entirely, but it’s still nice to fill that Odin shaped hole in my collection, even if it is in a different scale.

Jul 1 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy Legends: Rocket Raccoon and Groot by Hasbro

So, last time I mentioned that I usually like to save the Build-A-Figure for the end of the wave, but I’m breaking tradition here, mainly so that I can look at Rocket and Groot together and complete the core Guardians team. And maybe just because I honestly couldn’t wait any longer to open the rest of the figures and assemble Groot. So, without any further dilly-dally let’s take a look at this duo of “thugs” er, I mean, unlikely heroes.

There’s the packaging and despite Rocket’s demure size, Hasbro did their best to beef up the content of the box. In addition to Rocket you get the head and torso of BAF Groot, Rocket’s rifle, and a huge BFG weapon that can be passed off to Star-Lord. So, yeah Rocket is tiny, but as long as you’re buying the whole wave of figures (and why wouldn’t you?) I don’t think you’ll feel cheated based on what’s in the box. It’s funny to think that Rocket Raccoon made a lot of fans nervous when this movie was revealed. Would the casual masses accept him? He seemed to be one of the big unknown quantities of the Marvel Movie Universe. I think it’s safe to say that all the worry was for naught because he seems to be playing incredibly well to the crowds. It’s also crazy to think that this is the fourth time we’re getting a Rocket figure. He was originally released as part of the Marvel Universe Guardians boxed set, that figure will be re-released single carded in Marvel Infinite, and he was a Build-A-Figure a couple waves back in Marvel Legends. That’s a lot of space raccoons!

And there’s the little fella out of the box and ready for action. Rocket sports quite a superb sculpt and now that we’ve got to see plenty of him in the trailers, I think I can comfortably say Hasbro nailed his big screen likeness. The portrait, the proportions, and even his adorable orange space onesie all appears to be spot on. All of his fur is sculpted in too! The paintwork is fairly good. There are some rough spots on the face, but because it’s supposed to be patterns in his fur, it really shouldn’t look perfectly sharp anyway. Ultimately, it doesn’t feel as if Hasbro skimped just because he’s a little guy, and I appreciate that a lot.

I’m tempted to take issue with Rocket’s articulation. It is limited and apart from the tail he has absolutely no points of articulation below the waist. I’d argue that if Hasbro is capable of making super-articulated 3 ¾” figures than Rocket should have at least had some basic leg articulation. On the other hand, I don’t know that it would have made a huge difference with the figure, other than getting him to stand more comfortably on Groot’s shoulder. At least what is here is quite good. Rocket’s head is ball jointed, as are his shoulders and elbows. He has another ball joint in the waist and his tail is on a swivel. The tail swivel does concern me. I don’t know what’s holding it in there, but I have a nagging feeling that it might twist off if I play around with it too much. Then again it could just be that the joint is naturally loose and I’ve got nothing to worry about. I guess time will tell. The tail does make for a nice support to keep Rocket standing up.

Rocket comes with two accessories. First off, you get his rifle, which is beautifully sculpted and as tall as he is. It’s also designed so that there is a hook around the stock so you can loop it around his shoulder. Is this a custom raccoon rifle? I don’t know, but that idea is awesome, so I hope it gets addressed in the movie. I thought getting the little critter to hold it would be difficult, but I’ve had a lot of success with him wielding it in different poses.

The other accessory is a gigantic personal cannon that can be handed off to Star-Lord. I can’t remember whether we saw this in the trailers, which is odd because I’ve watched them a thousand times. Either way, I really dig this weapon. It’s a complex piece and beautifully sculpted. The base goes up against Star-Lord’s torso and he can hold the gun by two handles. It does make him rather front heavy, so it’s nice to have some stands from a few waves ago.

And that brings us to the BAF figure Groot. Unlike previous waves of Marvel Legends, you do need to buy all six figures in order to build Groot, and I think it’s well worth sucking down that superfluous Iron Man figure to complete something as awesome as this guy. Not only is he super tall but the sculpt is absolutely killer and again Hasbro totally nailed his look in what we’ve seen from the trailers. If I had one complaint about Groot it would be that he could have used a few more paint apps or possibly a tastefully done paint wash to bring out some of that great detail. As it is he relies mostly on his brown plastic for color with the occasional green spray. I’m really just quibbling here, I think he’s fantastic.

Ah, but Groot isn’t just there to stand tall and look imposing. He actually sports some very nice articulation. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, the elbows are double-hinged, the wrists are ball jointed, and there are swivels in the biceps. His legs are ball jointed at the hips, again at the knees, and his ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. Groot has a generous ball joint in the torso and again in the neck.

And that rounds out this team of Guardians of the Galaxy. While not all of these figures dropped my jaw as much as Star-Lord did, they’re a great tribute to a movie that I am absolutely dying to see. I currently don’t have many of my Marvel Legends on display, but I’m definitely going to be making room for these five figures in a prominent place. And I’m not done yet. I’ve still got two more figures in the wave. When I come back to it next week we’ll check out Iron Man in his space armor.

Jun 16 2014

Marvel Legends Infinite: Black Widow and SHIELD Mandroid by Hasbro

So, in my excitement to get to Star-Lord last Monday I failed to do the right thing and wrap up the Winter Soldier wave of Legends first. And since I didn’t want to load this week down with three Legends figures, I decided I’d look at Widow today and then get back to the next Guardians Legends figure on Friday. Sound good? Black Widow was an absolute bitch to find and I eventually wound up buying her online for $35 shipped. It’s a lot for a figure that theoretically should be available in stores for $20 or less, but I never saw her on the pegs. Anyway, Widow also gave me the last piece I needed for the SHIELD Mandroid Build-A-Figure, so we’re going to look at both of them today.

Hasbro packed a lot of stuff into this box. In addition to the figure, you get an extra pair of hands, extra head, the huge Mandroid torso and his shoulder cannon. Like I said, it’s a lot of stuff, and yet it still seems like something is missing. We’ll come back to that.

Widow comes clad in her updated SHIELD bodysuit and looks fantastic. I’m not sure they did justice to her caboose, but as for the rest of her, Hasbro obviously put a lot of effort into detailing this sculpt. You get all sorts of stitching and piping on the suit itself, along with the zipper, the Widow insignia, and her bracelets for delivering her shocking Black Widow Sting! The coloring is also quite exceptional on this figure. What could have been just a simple black outfit features a wonderful mix of matte and gloss blacks to give the costume a lot of depth. The use of fine silver paintwork also picks out the buckles and zipper quite nicely. You also get the SHIELD emblem tampo on her shoulders and her individual fingers are painted to show off her fingerless gloves. The holsters are also nicely recreated, complete with the guns sculpted into place.

Wait, what? The guns are sculpted into her holsters? Well, where’s she going to put her real guns? Not a problem, because she doesn’t come with any guns. This omission has got to be one of the greatest WTF moments in recent Hasbro history and that’s really saying something. I cannot in any way imagine where that decision came from. Could it have been a cost cutting move? It seems unlikely, since there is any number of pistols that Hasbro could have repacked with this figure. Nonetheless, that’s the only reason I can possibly come up with. Sure, I have a lot of weapons in this scale I can loan her, but that’s hardly the point. Why even give her the extra pair of gun holding hands if you aren’t including any guns? It’s madness, I say… MADNESS!

As mentioned, you get two swappable heads so that you can make Avengers Widow or Winter Soldier Widow. Yeah, it’s not the same costume she wore in Avengers, but I still give Hasbro points for letting us do this since it’s as close to an Avengers Widow as we’re going to get. Both portraits are pretty good, although I would have preferred painted faces as the plastic looks a bit too waxy for my tastes. Despite shooting most of this feature with the Winter Soldier Head, I think the Avenger’s head is a slightly better likeness. But, I’m still happy with either one.

Widow’s articulation holds no surprises. The arms are ball jointed in the shoulders and at the elbows and wrists. Sadly, there are no bicep swivels, but I’m coming to expect that omission in Hasbro’s female figures these days. The ball joints in the elbows make up for that a little. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double-hinged at the knees, and feature swivels in the thighs. The ankles have both hinges and rockers. There is no waist swivel, but you do get a ball joint in the torso and again for the neck.

The SHIELD Mandroid is a formidable looking figure that recycles the legs from the Iron Monger BAF. I love both the design and execution of the sculpting on this guy. He has all sorts of panel lines and bolts and he brandishes a nice big SHIELD emblem right on the middle of his chest. His right arm features twin gatling guns and his left arm a bladed weapon and both have cables connecting them to the figure’s biceps. There’s also a shoulder mounted weapon that is easily removable. I also dig the plastic used here. It’s not that swirly shit they’ve used in the past. It looks and feels good.

Aesthetically, I give the Mandroid high marks, but when we get down to articulation, he fails miserably. The legs are fine, but the arms are severely limited. The points are there, but the sculpting interferes to inhibit any decent range of motion. I also found that once the head was attached, it was impossible to turn it, despite it being connected on a ball joint. He’ll make a fine display piece on the back shelf, but while I remember having loads of fun playing around with the BAF Iron Monger, I was quick to retire the Mandroid from my desk.

Black Widow continues to be a scalper’s dream and I’m not just talking about Ebay. She still hovers at between $45 and $50 on Amazon because, yes Amazon has long ago joined in on the scalper trade by inflating the prices of those harder to find figures. I’d cry bullshit, but then if they didn’t they’d probably just be sold out all the time, so at least it gives collectors a chance to buy her if they want to spend all that money. Word is that she is still due to get shipped in greater numbers this summer, so anyone hunting may still want to hold out for her resurgence on the pegs.

Nov 5 2013

Marvel Legends: Hyperion and Hit Monkey by Hasbro

Today I’m finally getting around to wrapping up the triumvirate of Marvel Legends figures needed to build Hit Monkey. We’ve looked at Protector and Red She-Hulk, so now it’s time to give Hyperion his due. As a character, Hyperion has existed in many versions across the multiverse, and as much as I’m enjoying the current run of Hickman’s Avengers, I’m both perplexed and happy that Hasbro chose to do his more classic look over his current appearance. A buddy of mine told me this is close to his appearance on the current Avengers Assemble cartoon, but I wouldn’t know, as I’m still boycotting that show over the outrageous cancellation of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Yeah… take that Disney! Feel the wrath of my lone boycott in your pocketbook! I’ll be waiting patiently for an apology and a return of my beloved show when your damn mouse is begging on the street with a tin cup.

Oh, look, it’s another variant figure package in which we will likely never see the variant figure. Hyperion shares the same card with Sentry, or at least he does so hypothetically, since I’ll only believe that figure will be produced when I see it on the pegs. It seems like Sentry wasn’t done all that long ago in the Legends line, but I don’t have him on my shelf, so I’d welcome another release should it ever happen. Either way, Hyperion looks great on the card and he shares the tray with a couple of monkey arms and a pair of automatic pistols. Let’s get him out of the package…

Have I mentioned how glad I am that Hasbro went with this version of the character? I don’t mind his darker Marvel Now look, but this right here is far more appealing to me in action figure form. It has that colorful Golden Age style goodness baked right in. It’s a nice powerful buck that suits him quite well, although it looks familiar as I’m pretty sure my Wrecking Crew are comprised from some of these parts. There’s not a lot of unique sculpting on this guy as he gets by with a painted costume. The red is vibrant and beautiful, the gold, I would have liked to match the yellow in his boots, and there are a few minor flubs, but overall it looks Ok.

I’ve gone on record many times about how much I dig many of the head sculpts Hasbro is turning out for this line and Hyperion is no different. He’s a bit pissed and severe, but it’s a portrait that is absolutely brimming with personality. I’d set it up there with some of the best work we’ve seen out of this line this year.

The only thing that really mars this figure for me is the execution of the cape. It’s sculpted in two parts and pegs into two places. The bulk of the cape looks fine, it’s the top piece that just kind of hovers over his right shoulder. It seems like they should have just glued the cape into place, particularly the shoulder clasp. I might even go ahead and do it myself.

Hyperion sports some great articulation. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, double hinged at the elbows, swivel at the biceps, and have swivels and hinges in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, hinged at the ankles with additional rockers, and swivel at the thighs and boots. His neck is ball jointed, he can swivel at the waist, and he has a nice ratcheting joint for an ab-crunch. He’s a solid figure and loads of fun to pose.

Hyperion is a very cool figure and definitely another win for Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line. When I think back to the dark days when they first acquired the line from Toy Biz, it continues to astound me just how much they turned this bus around. But wait, we’re not done yet. We still have to talk about a certain monkey. Hit Monkey was a pretty obscure character until some foul-mouthed little girl named Chloe played him in a movie and now nerds everywhere seem to love him. Wait… what? Let me double check my facts on that and get back to you. Most people seem to attribute Hit Monkey’s debut to the pages of Deadpool, but I’m pretty sure Hit Monkey got his own one-shot book before gracing the pages of The ‘Pool. Either way, he’s the creation of Daniel Way, so the two are practically brothers.

Whether you know the character or not, it’s hard to deny the charm of this little guy. He’s a monkey… in a suit… wearing sunglasses… and dual wielding a pair of pistols. He’s hilarious and cool and I would imagine that if I never picked up a Marvel comic in my life, let alone one with Hit Monkey in it, I’d still want this guy on my shelf. The paint and sculpt for the head are very well done and the jacket is a soft plastic vest-like piece with the arms sculpted to look like sleeves. His guns are great and he can hold them in both his hands quite well, which is more than I could say for Protector or Fantomex.

Hit Monkey has great articulation for a little guy. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, wrists, and ankles. His elbows and knees are hinged. His legs have swivels in the thighs and he has another swivel in the waist. My only gripe here is that it’s really tough to get the ball joints in the shoulders to peg in securely. Mine still pop out from time to time when I’m playing with him.

So, yeah… Hit Monkey is an entertaining enough character, and I’m glad he got a figure, even if I’m not sure this was necessarily the best way to do it. I still prefer Hasbro save the BAF slots for figures that are too big or complex to fit in the single release price point. You could argue Hit Monkey falls in the opposite end of that spectrum, but they could just as easily slapped him in a box set… maybe with that red and black Deadpool variant that we still haven’t seen released around these parts. Just saying.

And yeah, technically I’m still not done with this wave, as I’ve yet to pick up the X-Force Wolverine. I haven’t found him on the pegs yet and I haven’t been going out of my way to hunt him down. But I’d be willing to bet you’ll see him turn up here eventually. If nothing else I need him to keep my X-Force Deadpool company.

Sep 28 2013

Marvel Legends: Hawkeye and Rocket Raccoon by Hasbro

I started this week with Marvel Legends, so I might as well end it that way. Hawkeye is the last carded figure in this wave that I have yet to cover, and I’m long overdue putting this assortment to bed. I usually look at the Build-A-Figures in a separate feature, but Rocket Raccoon is a pretty small and simple figure, so I’ll tack him on at the end.

Here’s the Marvel Legend’s packaging. Hard to believe this stuff has been out for so long already. I still dig the presentation here a lot, but the character art seems to be taking a dive on the recent release. The art for Hawkeye makes him look more like a Sigma Six character to me, rather than Marvel’s famous master archer. Oh well, it’s all getting chucked in the garbage anyway. Hawkeye fills out his bubble quite nicely, particularly with his compound bow and quiver situated on either side of him. You’ll note that he comes with no raccoon parts.

Obviously, this figure references the modern version of Hawkeye. I’ve seen a lot of hating on this design, but I have absolutely no problem with it at all. It definitely leans more toward the feature film Hawkeye than the Classic version of the character we all know and love, but change isn’t always a bad thing. Hawkeye is built on a slight muscular buck, which gets by mostly using the paintwork in order to define his costume. In fact, apart from the new head sculpt, the only new sculpting here is in the belt and shoulder harness, which are separate pieces. The bulk of the buck is black with some really snappy metallic purple paint for the chest and boots. His gloves and arm bracers are painted on as well.

As for the head sculpt, I really like the portrait on this figure. Maybe there’s a little Jeremy Renner in there, and maybe it’s intentional. Either way, I just dig the quality of what Hasbro did here. The hair and glasses are particularly well done. Why does an archer wear sunglasses? Duh! They’re special anti-glare specs with a built in LCD display by developed by Stark Industries to further enhance his already uncanny marksmanship skills. All that was complete bullshit, but I like the sound of it!

Hawkeye features a great level of articulation. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, double hinged at the elbows, swivel at the biceps and have both hinges and swivels in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs and boots, double hinges in the knees, and the ankles are hinged and have slight rockers. His torso features an ab crunch hinge, a swivel at the waist, and his neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The figure does suffer a bit from soft hinges in the elbows and knees, making posing him feel tad mushy at times.

Obviously, Hawkeye comes with his bow and quiver. The quiver pegs into the hole on his back. The bow is my only real issue with this figure. It looks great, but it’s kind of hard to get him to grip it well. It doesn’t look like there’s any specific area where he is supposed to grip it. Obviously, I know jack shit about compound bows, so I’m sure it’s just my ignorance at work here. I’m just glad they didn’t sculpt it with an arrow already nocked.

Soft joints aside, Hawkeye is probably my second favorite figure out of this batch, right behind Wrecker. I don’t mind the modern look of the character and I think this figure pulls it off brilliantly. What’s more he is lots of fun to play around with and I think he looks great posed alongside Steve Rogers, Black Panther and Modern Age Thor. Hopefully we’ll get that Legends scale Black Widow soon.

And, as promised, here’s a quick look at the BAF, Rocket Raccoon. You only needed to buy three figures (Jean Grey, Black Panther, and Wrecker) in this wave to build him. His parts consist of a head, two arms, a body, a tail, and his gun. The figure is quite similar to the tiny Rocket that came with the Marvel Universe Guardians of the Galaxy boxed set. His articulation is limited to ball joints at the shoulders, neck, and tail… and a hinged mouth!!! All in all, he’s very well sculpted and a nice looking piece. He also displays quite well next to Drax, but in the end he just makes me want a comic accurate Legends scale Star-Lord all the more.

Phew, and that finally puts an end to this wave of Marvel Legends. All in all, I think this was a solid wave. Even Scarlet Spider, my least favorite in the bunch isn’t a bad figure if you take away the scaling issues. Anyway, with these guys behind me, now I can start going back and picking up the rest of the Hit Monkey wave. I’ll likely be doing that one figure at a time, so it may take a while.

Jul 23 2013

Marvel (Iron Man) Legends: Iron Monger Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

So, I was originally planning on doing Iron Monger next Monday and making that the last Marvel Monday, but I got an unexpected invite to The Pub tonight and I needed a feature that wouldn’t require a whole lot of time. Iron Monger is just that figure, so that’s why I decided to bump him up to today. Iron Monger’s pieces were spread throughout the Iron Man Legends wave, so to build him, you needed to buy Classic Iron Man, Heroic Age Iron Man, Mark 42 Iron Man, both versions of Iron Patriot and Ultron. We’ve got all the parts, so let’s pop him together! And by “pop him together,” I mean, almost break all the bones in my hand trying to get his legs attached to his torso. Holy hell, this guy ain’t coming apart again anytime soon!

Sweet Christmas, I love this figure! He’s not all that much taller than your average Marvel Legends, but what he lacks in length, he makes up for with girth. Giggity! Let’s start out with the plastic. I’ve given Hasbro some grief over their quality of plastics lately, particularly the crap they used for Ultron in this very wave. This stuff is glorious. It’s a deep, midnight blue with a subtle metallic sheen. Yes, it has that swirly pattern that I generally don’t like, but on the darker plastic, I think it looks phenomenal. Like Ultron, this figure has almost zero paint apps. You get a little red for his chest and visor, and some black on his arm cables. The look of the plastic was crucial, and the result is glorious.

As a comic based figure, Iron Monger is a great mix of minimalism and hyper-detail. You get large smooth surfaces like his shoulder armor, his chest and even his head. But then you also get some wonderfully sculpted detail on his lower abdomen and the access port on his back. The sculpting for the segmented fists are crazy detailed and even the soles of his feet have detail and thrusters. The particulars of the sculpt are all wrapped up in a figure that is superbly proportioned. You needn’t bother with any crazy poses, because he looks amazing, just standing right there on the shelf.

What’s that? You do want to bother with crazy poses? Well, that’s Ok, because Iron Monger brings some solid articulation to the table. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles. The arms have swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs feature swivels in the thighs and double hinges in the knees. Lastly, you get a very versatile ball joint in the torso. No doubt, this is a fun figure to play around with.

As far as I’m concerned, the whole point of BAFs and C&Cs is to deliver figures that are too big to fit in a regular carded figure’s package and price point. I’m looking at you Hit Monkey… You should have been a pack-in!!! Iron Monger was a good choice, because he’s certainly a big bulky slab of a figure. He’s a fantastic looking piece that will find a prominent place on my Iron Man shelf and while not every figure in this wave was a hit, even the weaker ones were worth buying to piece together this bad boy!

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: build-a-figure

Marvel Legends (Hulkbuster Wave): Hulkbuster Build-A- Figure by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Hobgoblin Wave): Hobgoblin Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Ultron Wave): Giant Man and BAF Ultron by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Thanos Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Allfather Wave): Odin Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

Guardians of the Galaxy Legends: Rocket Raccoon and Groot by Hasbro

Marvel Legends Infinite: Black Widow and SHIELD Mandroid by Hasbro

Marvel Legends: Hyperion and Hit Monkey by Hasbro

Marvel Legends: Hawkeye and Rocket Raccoon by Hasbro

Marvel (Iron Man) Legends: Iron Monger Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

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