Tag Archives: marvel legends

Jun 26 2023

Marvel Legends (GotG v3): Nebula and Rocket by Hasbro

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!

Jun 19 2023

Marvel Legends (GotG v3): Drax and Mantis by Hasbro

Hey, it’s another Marvel Monday, how about that! A couple of weeks ago I started my look at the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 figures with Star-Lord and Deluxe Groot, and today I’m pushing things along with Drax and Mantis!

This wave comes in the fully enclosed boxes, which Hasbro promises will be going away soon in favor of a return to the window boxes. I actually really like the look of these boxes. You get some nice character art on the side panel and the photos have been matching the figures pretty well. My only real complaint here is that it doesn’t show all the figures in the wave on the back like the window packages did. I’m not sure why they dropped that here, but it can be confusing if you aren’t sure which figures you’re looking for to build the Space Doggo. It just seems like weird omission. Let’s start with Drax!

It’s still kind of weird to see Drax wearing a shirt. I was half expecting him to yell, “Your flimsy cloth materials cannot contain me!” and rip it off at some point in the movie. But as I said last time, I absolutely adore these uniforms and they look great on the figures. Drax is as chonky as ever and the body uses an interesting mix of pinned joints for the knees but pinless joints for the elbows. The detail in the uniform is quite nice with just about every detail included in the sculpt rather than just being painted on. I particularly love the raised bronze Guardians insignia in the center of the chest. And the colors here are to die for. The vibrant blue and red mixed with the black just looks so damn snappy! All the usual articulation is here and all the joints feel great.

This is undoubtedly Hasbro’s best Drax head sculpt, but that should be no surprise since it’s been six years since we got the last MCU version of Drax in the Legends line. The likeness to Batista in the make up is spot on and his facial markings are part of the sculpt as well as painted in. The expression is pretty neutral, but everything about this portrait works for me.

Drax comes with his fighting knives, which have been included with each of the two prior releases of the character. I’m not sure if these are the exact same sculpts, but they look very similar. They are cast in pale gray plastic and have details sculpted into the grips as well as some markings on the blades. And despite the new uniform, I was happy to see that he still has the scabbards in the boots to stow them when he’s not in full-on stabby-stabby mode.

Drax is just another fantastic figure in this wave, and I have absolutely zero complaints. Sure, it’s a departure from his iconic look, but what can I say? I just love the uniforms! With the price hike forever in the back of my mind, this is one figure I did not mind paying the full $25 to get. The sculpt and paint are both top notch and pretty much everything you get here is brand new. Moving on to Mantis…

Here we get our first look at the ladies version of the uniform and once again it looks great! The finish on Mantis’ outfit is more matte than Drax’s which has a bit of a sheen to it. I’d also say that her red striping is a little less vibrant too. Neither issue is enough to bother me when they’re standing side by side, but worth pointing out nonetheless. Mantis sports pinless joints in both her knees and elbows, and I’m happy to see both double hinges in the elbows and swivels in the biceps. She also has a ball joint under the chest instead of the ab crunch hinge we see on Drax and Star-Lord.

And like Drax, we get a brand new head sculpt for Mantis. It’s still crazy to think that she was a Build-A-Figure when last released. This new noggin is a huge improvement over the last one, which wasn’t bad. You get a softer and more natural face with a far more realistic skin tone. The eyes are also phenomenal this time around and I like the sculpting on her pronounced eyelashes. The hair looks good and has some green highlights, and her antenna have a slight lilt to them. This is all around great work!

Mantis does stumble a bit because of her complete lack of extras. Yup, apart from the Cosmo BAF part, she has no accessories whatsoever. Now, I can’t off hand think of any accessories that she should have come with, but maybe at least give her an extra pair of hands. The hands she comes with are very specific with the right hand gesturing with two fingers, as if she’s focusing her telepathy, and the left hand just relaxed. She’s a beautiful figure, but at the $25 price point, she just needed something extra to justify the cost.

With four figures down, I still have four more to go before we can put together the Russian Space Pooch, but I have to say that I am really digging these figures a lot so far. Sure, I was a little lukewarm on Groot, but maybe he’s growing on me. HA! These figures are definitely helping me to come out of the general malaise I’ve felt about Marvel Legends for most of last year, and I’m genuinely excited to open up the next pair so let’s shoot for another Marvel Monday next week and check out Rocket and Nebula!

Jun 5 2023

Marvel Legends (GotG v3) Groot and Star-Lord by Hasbro

How about we do a nice Marvel Monday like the good old days, eh? At the beginning of the year I said I was pulling back on the Marvel Legends figures, and I’ve mostly been sticking to that. The Guardians Vol 3 Wave is the first complete wave I’ve picked up this year, and this is the first time I’m actually doing a Marvel Legends review since January! I am going to be covering this entire assortment and the Build-A-Figure Cosmo over the next month or so, and today I’m starting with the Deluxe Groot and Star-Lord himself. So lets fly away together into the forever and beautiful sky!

The figures come in Hasbro’s plastic free packaging, which means no windows, and yes word is we’re going back to window boxes at some point soon. Groot is not technically part of the Guardians 3 Wave and while Star-Lord is, he doesn’t come with a piece to build Cosmo. How did I like the movie? I liked it quite a bit, but I could have done with less of the animal misery porn peppered throughout. I appreciate that they were trying to give weight and tragedy to Rocket’s backstory, but it really messed with the tone of the movie. I particularly found the cybernetically grafted animals to be pretty ghoulish and upsetting and I wish they had confined it to the beginning of the movie so it could be easily skipped. As it is, I doubt I’ll re-watch it a lot. Let’s start with Groot!

OK, so this is without a doubt my least favorite version of Groot from a design standpoint. If I’m ranking the Groots they pretty much start at the top with the original and decline in my favorability until we get to this one. In a movie that was absolutely dazzling in its overall visual creativity, this Groot just looked like a guy in a rubber suit. He also didn’t sport a lot of personality either, but whatever. Hasbro’s take on this version is OK, considering what they had to work with, and they certainly invested some effort into the sculpt, but I don’t know. He kind of looks more like a chocolate sculpture than he does a tree-person. There’s plenty of detail to be had, and I appreciate the odd springs that jut out here and there and the patches of moss and greenery. They did a pretty cool job blending muscle and bark to make it look genuinely organic, but like the on screen version, this looks more to me like an animated Groot then one from an MCU film.

The portrait is a pretty good approximation of the movie, but there’s something about this design that I really don’t like. That having been said, they did a really nice job on the eyes. They’re well printed and actually look like they have a spark of life to them.

The articulation here is quite good, and despite his odd anatomy, he sports most of what we’re used to seeing in a standard Legends figure. The shoulder bark doesn’t inhibit the movement there too badly, and I was pretty pleased at the range of motion in those elbows. Most of the joints are fairly well mixed with the sculpt, although the ball-shaped hips stand out a bit. Groot comes with two sets of hands: Fists and relaxed.

Groot comes with a pair of wings, which we saw him flex in the third act of the film while escaping The Great Evolutionary. The wings come in two pieces, which plug together and then go into the hole in his back. There’s no articulation, and while the sculpt is decent, it follows the very cartoony aesthetic theme of this figure. They look decent, but I think most people would have wanted the extra arms with guns.

And finally, Groot comes with a baby version of Rocket, which is a cute accessory, but it also looks like it’s made of chocolate, and doesn’t look anything like baby Rocket in the movie.

Groot isn’t really a bad figure, but he ain’t great either. I think a lot of the blame goes to the movie design for just not being very interesting. As mentioned, I would have preferred extra arms to make his full-on berserker mode, especially since they made this a Deluxe release. Hell, it was originally listed at $50 before it settled down to $40, and either way that’s just too much. Let’s move on to Star-Lord.

Straightaway, it’s awesome to get a figure of Star-Lord in uniform, but as this movie giveth, it also taketh away. And as Quill finally dons an iconic Guardians uniform he also loses his helmet. It’s the MCU’s equivalent of Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown at the last minute. Now, with that having been said, I really dig this figure a lot. The sculpt features a bit of the panel lining we’ve come to expect from the MCU costumes, but the blue and red combo is simply gorgeous. His hands look a little chunky, but everything else is just top notch. The belt is actually a separate sculpt worn by the figure and the insignia on his chest is sculpted as well as painted gold.

The portrait is quite good, and I think it’s safe to say this is the best Chris Pratt likeness that Hasbro has given us. It’s crazy to think how far they’ve come since the figure from the original movie. The printing on the beard does break down a bit as you zoom in close, but it looks fine with the figure in hand.

And with standard male Legends articulation, Star-Lord is lots of fun to play around with. I probably would have preferred a ball joint under the chest to the ab-crunch hinge, but that’s just me coming off a bunch of DC Multiverse figures and going back to Marvel Legends. It’s fine. One thing that I felt was odd was how deep set the pins are in the knees. They’re set so deep it almost looks like they’re black.

Quill comes with his trusty pair of blasters, while they’re pretty simple they get the job done. Likewise, he only comes with one set of hands to hold the guns, and that’s fine because I’ll likely always display him with his weapons drawn.

Suffice it to say I dig Star-Lord a lot more than I do Groot. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I have buyer’s remorse, because I still want to put him on display with the other figures, but I definitely should have waited for him to hit clearance. It’s possible he will grow on me… no pun intended! As for Star-Lord, he’s a great looking figure and I’ll have to dig out one of the other releases to see if I can swap the masked head on this body to create the look that the movie robbed from us. And speaking of robbing things, I gotta steal away Wednesday’s review, as I’ll be busy with other stuff for the next couple of days, but I will be back on Friday with something for sure.

Jan 30 2023

Marvel Legends (Bonebreaker Wave): Sabretooth and Bonebreaker Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

This is it, folks. It’s the last Marvel Monday and I’m wrapping up my look at the Bonebreaker Wave. Sabretooth gives me the last pieces I need to cobble together my half-tank, all bad-ass Reaver, Bonebreaker, and I am pretty damn excited about that. As for the end of Marvel Monday? Well, I’ll swing back to say a few things about that at the end.

Here’s Sabretooth in the package, and this is actually the third time I’ve added this character to my collection since Legends returned. The first was as part of the Apocalypse Wave, which I don’t think I ever got around to reviewing here, and the second was as part of the Age of Apocalypse themed Colossus Wave. I don’t really mind, because he’s come in a few different shapes and sizes over the years, but this one sticks fairly closely to the characters’ original roots.

And to be honest, I don’t have a whole lot to say about him, other than there’s some things that makes me like him more than the Apocalypse Wave version and some that fall short. Comparisons are tough because it’s too different takes on the character, and I think my preferences falls somewhere in-between. Taken on his own, I dig the proportions here, especially the huge claw hands, which give him an eerily long reach, and the furry fringe on his collar, forearms and lower legs all look great. The feet have fully realized claws, which is a first for him in this line, and makes him look a lot more intimidating, especially the way his fingers and toes pop out of the gloves and, um… socks? I can’t say I ever remember his fingers and toes being colored like that in the comic panels, but I’m certainly no expert on Sabretooth’s appearances. The rest of the costume is just painted buck, which features a pleasing yellow-orange with some brown undies and a brown stripe running up the middle.

The head sculpt is pretty good, but not as bat-shit savage as the Apocalypse Wave version. Still, he looks plenty angry and scary. The definition in the face sculpt is quite good with plenty of lines and creases as he bares his teeth in rage. Ironically, it’s the teeth that I think lets the sculpt down the most, as they’re rather soft and lack the definition in the rest of the face. It’s even kind of hard to make out his fangs at all, as it kind of just looks like a bunch of white mush. In that sense, I’d say it’s a step down from that earliest release. Still, I overall like the portrait and the hair is especially nice.

The articulation is fine and Sabretooth is fun to play around with. It’s a shame we couldn’t get him with the shoulder crunches that we saw in Havok, Vulcan, and Darwin. Still, I think this guy turned out pretty great and as the last packaged figure for Marvel Monday, I certainly could have done worse.

Since I didn’t review the earliest release, here’s a quick comparison. I like the costume on the earlier figure the best, with the wide brown stripe down the middle and the fur collar that doesn’t connect. On the other hand, I wish he had the foot claws. They’re both decent figures, and intentionally different takes on the character, but I think I’m going to give the nod to the Apocalypse Wave version. OK… let’s move on to Bonebreaker!

Hell yeah! Just look at this magnificent bastard! While each Build-A-Figure has its own charm, there is a certain amount of sameness to them. You get a torso, you get arms, legs, and a head, and sometimes one or two additional pieces. Bonebreaker shatters that with his half-tank, half-humanoid design. The parts consist of the two halves of the tank chassis, the two barrels on the back, the engine, a net-cover for the back, the upper torso with the arms attached, the head, and the sort of pelvic piece that connects the torso to the tank chassis. Pop it all together and you get the most unique BAF that modern Legends has put out!

The detail on the chassis is absolutely fantastic! It’s got textured plates and panels, scrapes and scars and weathering, and while the tank treads don’t actually roll, they’re actually separate soft plastic bands and not sculpted with the wheels as one piece. The detail in the engine alone is superb, and even the barrels on the back have some pits and pockmarking. There are two opened hatch doors where Bonebreaker’s body attaches, and a machine gun poking out the front of the chassis. You also get a pair of foot pegs near the back for other figures to catch a ride! Egads, I love this!

The upper body also sports some great new sculpting in the form of the five-point chest harness, wrist cuffs, and the neck collar.

You’d think being half a tank would be all the personality Bonebreaker needs, but Hasbro also packed plenty into this head sculpt. Bonebreaker has his mouth agape in a ridiculous joyful expression that shows how much he’s loving life and carnage. His flamboyant mohawk flutters a bit in the breeze, and his cool black shades can be flipped up or removed entirely to show off his lovely Reaver eyes. Every damn thing about this portrait is an absolute homerun!

The torso includes all the usual articulation, with a hinged ball joint in the neck, a swivel at the waist, and an ab-crunch hinge under the chest. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double-hinged elbows, and hinged pegs for the hands. You get two pairs of hands, which include a set of fists and a set to hold his rifle. The rifle itself is a wonderful sculpt that’s simply packed with detail.

It’s impossible to imagine a better Build-A-Figure to end Marvel Mondays with. Hasbro just poured the love into this figure in terms of sculpt, design, and coloring, it all comes together into one absolutely unique figure, and it’s hard for me to imagine them ever outdoing this one. Now that I have him assembled and in hand, it even forgives what seemed like an over abundance of budget figures in this assortment. Quite frankly, I’m fine with whatever Hasbro had to do to make this work!

And there we are, Marvel Monday has had a great run here on FFZ. I started it because Marvel Legends was so damn prolific, that I needed to lock myself into one Legends review a week or else I would get hopelessly behind. And even with that schedule, I still managed to develop quite a backlog. I can’t stress enough that I’m not done reviewing Marvel Legends figures here on FFZ, nor am I completely calling it quits on collecting the line. I have no bad feelings about the line, other than the price hikes, which have been a factor in this decision. Sure, I spend a lot more than $25 on other figures, but at that price it doesn’t seem like the value is consistently here anymore. And with a single Spider-Man Legends figure hitting $36, it seems like it’s time to send a message to Hasbro. But even without the price hikes, Legends has become too much to keep up with, both in terms of purchasing and reviewing, and I want to diversify my content a bit more. You’ll see a return to regular DC Comics figure content, as I start to try out some McFarlane DC figures, but I’ll pledge to do at least one Legends review a month going forward, and I’ll even try to make it land on a Monday for old time’s sake.

Jan 23 2023

Marvel Legends (Bonebreaker Wave) Darwin and Siryn by Hasbro

I gave notice on New Years that Marvel Monday’s days were numbered in 2023, and since then I’ve decided that I’m going to pull the plug after I’m done looking at the Bonebreaker Wave. That means that next week I’ll finish off this wave with Sabretooth and the Bonebreaker BAF and then that will be that. Just to clarify, that doesn’t mean I’m done with checking out Marvel Legends figures here, but rather the line will no longer have a dedicated day, and Marvel Legends reviews will be few and far between. The goal is to be more selective in what I buy from this line, but I’m not quitting entirely. Case in point, I did pre-order the Franklin and Valeria figures, but then I’m always going to go for the Fantastic Four stuff. OK, so let’s get this penultimate review started with a look at Darwin and Siryn…

These figures each come with a half of Bonebreaker’s tank chassis, and it makes sense that these would be bundled with the figures with the slightest build. Seeing these also make me really excited to see how Bonebreaker’s assembly is going to work. For the most part, BAFs are pretty much all the same: plug the limbs and head into the torso and you’re good to go. Bonebreaker is a whole different thing, and that intrigues me. Anyway, let’s start with Darwin, because I’m going to have the least to say about him.

Darwin is yet another figure that primarily makes use of a painted buck, in this case one of the Spider-Man bodies, for the bulk of his costume. Indeed, like Vulcan the only original sculpted piece here is his belt. Does it work for the character? Yeah, it sure does. Darwin is one of those Mutants who’s ability isn’t really visible or tangible and the slight build of the body is certainly appropriate. But, at the same time, this is the third “budget” figure in this wave and this is a big part of what’s making me grow tired of this line. As the price goes up, Hasbro is going to need to cut this shit out and find a way to give collectors something more, or else they’ll continue to lose people like me. I suppose you could argue that the BAF in this wave required a lot more tooling and maybe that’s the case, but still. The paint is appropriate, but nothing special. At least the pattern of the suit makes the colors of all the pins match.

The head sculpt is certainly decent enough, with his bug eyes, sunken cheeks, and atrophied ears. It conveys the creepiness of his appearance pretty well and it’s quite reminiscent of a Roswell alien.

You get two sets of hands: One pair of fists and one pair of grasping hands. Their enlarged size adds to Darwin’s creepy aesthetic. It’s kind of interesting that between Darwin, Vulcan, and Havok we got three different bodies and all three of them have the shoulder crunches. That extra bit of articulation is always nice, but we’ve seen this body countless times, so I won’t run down all the points here. I don’t know, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this figure, but it’s nothing special either and with the $25 MSRP, I could never have justified buying Darwin had I not found him on Amazon for $17. It’s kind of funny that as Hasbro raised their prices, I’ve subsequently lowered what I’m willing to spend on these and $17 or less seems to be my new sweet spot. Let’s move on to Siryn.

After the drab colors and tired sameness of Darwin, Siryn offers something a little more interesting. I could go into how outrageous it is that we get Siryn before Banshee, but Sean quickly followed in a 60th Anniversary set with Gambit and Psylocke in the blue and yellow uniforms. It’s a great looking set, but I’m trying to get out of this line so I’m going to give it a pass unless it goes on discount somewhere. But, back to Siryn… She’s certainly a nice looking figure with some beautiful colors. The hunter green and the bright canary yellow look so great together, and the yellow paint looks pretty fresh and doesn’t suffer from much in the way of bleed through. Sure, the body doesn’t utilize much in the way of fresh sculpting, apart from the tops of her gloves and boots, but the addition of the cape goes a long way to make her distinctive.

I like the head sculpt a lot, but I’d like it a lot more if it weren’t the only one we got. Yup, no shouty head and it’s like Shriek all over again. And honestly, if we’re only going to get one head, I would rather it be the one that shows off her super power. It’s an especially egregious omission when the shouting portrait is featured on the freaking box art. With that being said, what we got is still a fine effort. The hair sculpt is rather dynamic, giving the sculptors a chance to strut their stuff. It looks great, but I would rather it was blowing back, like she’s flying. I don’t want to be too hard on it, because I do think it’s overall some very nice work.

The body is one of the newer female bucks, which means we actually get the double-hinged elbows. Maybe there’s some irony in the fact that Hasbro is finally addressing one of my big gripes after I’ve decided to scale way back on buying these figures. You get a pair of fists and a pair of open hands as display options. That’s nice, but I’d rather they just included the open hands and poured the fist plastic into a second head mold. The joints all feel great, and she’s lots of fun to play around with, but the cape can be problematic.

The cape is what it is. It’s made of a thin, almost papery fabric and attaches to the figure at the shoulders and wrists with holes for those joints to pass through. The shoulder attachments seem fine, but I’d be worried about the wrist holes tearing if I were changing the hands out a lot. As it is, I’ll likely just keep the open hands as opposed to the fists. The cape is difficult to work with when it comes to posing her. Sometimes it looks great and sometimes it just looks awkward. I’m not going to make a big deal out of it, because it’s hard for me to come up with a better way to do it. It’s just a fact that some things that look great on a comic panel aren’t always going to translate well to a figure.

If Siryn came with a second head, I would have loved this figure, but as it is I just like her. I’m at the point with Marvel Legends where I see all the new releases through the filter of the new price tag, and it isn’t usually kind. And I gotta tell you, Hasbro, if you’re asking $25 for this figure, you really needed to toss in that second head.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, and it’s fear of doing just that which is a big reason as to why I’m scaling way back on my Marvel Legends buying and reviews. And that’s no way to start every week. I can still get enjoyment out of these figures, but more often than not it just feels like reviewing them is becoming a chore. That wasn’t so much the case with Siryn, but it sure as hell was with Darwin. It’s just the same old body over and over again with a bit of paint and new head and new hands slapped onto it. I want to be excited about what I write about here, and maybe by cutting way back on the frequency of these reviews I’ll be able to be excited about writing about Marvel Legends now and again. Next week, we’ll wrap this whole thing up with Sabretooth and Bonebreaker!

Jan 16 2023

Marvel Legends (Bonebreaker Wave): Havok and Vulcan by Hasbro

Well, it was an eventful weekend here at FFZ Central, with the computer that I use to do all the work for this blog crashing after a forced Windows update. I do backups every week, so it wasn’t a catastrophe, but I had about three reviews worth of photos that are now locked away on the HDD. After a few long and unsuccessful recovery attempts, it looks like I’ll have to wait a few days to borrow a boot USB from a friend and see if I can save them. In the meantime, I got myself set up for work on another computer and I’m ready to go… so let’s get this Marvel Monday rolling with a look at some Summers Brothers!

It seems like you can’t swing a mutant cat around the X-Men Universe without hitting a Summers, in this case Alexander and Gabriel. This is Alexander’s third outing in Hasbro’s current run of Marvel Legends, but it’s the first time we’re seeing Gabriel, so that’s cool! Both of these are pretty simple figures, so even though I’m doubling up, I don’t think today’s review will take all that long… let’s start with Vulcan.

So, when I first saw this wave solicited, I noticed them extra shoulder crunches in Havok and Vulcan and instantly figured these shared the same body. Imagine when I got them in hand and realized how wrong I was. On the contrary, the Vulcan body appears to be entirely new to me, so I’m not sure if this is the debut of a new buck or I just missed it’s premier on another figure somewhere along the way. I’m actually pretty bad about spotting recycled parts on these figures, so either one is certainly possible. With that having been said, I think it’s a great looking figure, even though the costume is achieved almost entirely by paint… yes, you get a sculpted belt, but that’s it. The dark blue and bright red coloring is certainly appealing, and the gold boots and belt add that extra pop. The proportions seem great, I like the sculpted muscle definition, and while the feet are still kind of pancake-y, they’re not nearly as bad as the ones from that recurring Spider-Man buck… oh, you know the one!

I do really like the head sculpt here! Gabriel features that unmistakable strong Summers jawline, a giant slab of chin, a broad mouth, and some excellent lines of definition in the face. I also dig the golden paint used for his rather deep set eyes. The hair is sculpted separately from the head, giving it a sharp hairline and some excellent detail as it juts out over the forehead. This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite Legends portraits in a while, and that’s saying something because they’re generally pretty good.

I don’t have a lot else to say about the articulation, as it doesn’t really offer much new, apart from those shoulder crunches, which we see from time to time. The double hinges in the elbows and knees have some excellent range of motion, it’s nice to see swivels in both the thighs and the tops of the boots, and the rockers in the ankles keep his feet flat in wide stances. All the joints feel nice and solid, and he is loads of fun to pose and play with. You get two pairs of hands here: One set of fists, and one set of sort of grasping hands. Vulcan really could have used some effect parts, but when we turn our attention to Havok, it’s easy to see where all that money went.

As I mentioned, this is the third version of Havok in this line, which seems a tad excessive to me, but I’m sure there are fans happy to see him again, especially with his rather iconic helmet. But, when looking at these two figures together, they both seem like budget figures for the wave. Like his brother, Havok’s suit gets no sculpted details, and in this case very little paint either. Instead, you get a completely black body with his power emblem printed on his chest. It all looks fine, but it’s still a very low effort figure on Hasbro’s part. It’s a different body from the Juggernaut Wave release, this time with the aforementioned shoulder crunches.

I was interested to see how this rather distinctive helmet design would look out of the comic panels and on an actual figure, and I think it turned out pretty good. The rest of the head, however, is kind of messy. I like that the hood is actually part of the face sculpt, including those two strips that run across his cheeks, but the paint lines here are really sloppy, and my figure even has some stray black marks on his chin. I also have to call out the halftone printing for the facial features. This method always looks blurry up close, but it’s so rough here, that it even looks blotchy from afar.

While Vulcan got cheated out of effect parts, Havok here is loaded up. You get two pieces for his wrists, and a big piece for his back. All of these appear to be brand new and look great. The wrists pieces are cast in transparent blue plastic, and are similar in principle to the ones that came with the Juggernaut Wave release, but these are flat, smooth on one side, and have some raised edges to the circles on the front. They’re a lot heavier than the old style, but if you press them up the arm a bit, friction will usually hold them in whatever position you want. The large one plugs into the hole on the back. It’ll be interesting to see if these get recylced as much as the older style. I would love a set colored for Scarlet Witch.

I’m happy to have Vulcan and a Classic Havok for my collection, and this pair does the trick, while not exactly blowing me away either. If the Vulcan body is indeed a first, than I suppose that’s a big deal, as it’s a great looking figure, but as someone who is trying to ween myself off this line, introducing new bodies at this point isn’t a big deal to me. I suppose if this line were sticking to the $20 price range, than simpler figures like this would be fine, but as the price creeps ever upward, I’m looking for a little more for my money. Luckily, I was able to grab this pair off Amazon for $17 each, which also gave me two more pieces for my Bonebreaker BAF, and to be honest, if it weren’t for those, I would have likely passed.

Jan 9 2023

Marvel Legends (Bonebreaker Wave): Maggott by Hasbro

It’s time for me to open and start looking at a new wave of Marvel Legends, and as I laid out in my New Years Post, it may be the last complete wave of Marvel Legends I look at here. And then again, it may not. I completed this wave sometime at the end of November when it started going on sale, but even if it hadn’t I really wanted the Bonebreaker BAF, admittedly more than some of the figures I had to buy to get it. But then that’s just one of the reasons I’m scaling back on collecting this line. Now, with that having been said, I’m starting this assortment on the highest of notes with Maggott, a character that I thought would never, ever be made into a figure, and one that will likely be the high point of this wave for me.

Maggott represents both the pinnacle of Mutant weirdness and the epitome of underused characters. I remember re-reading some of his earlier appearances maybe ten years ago and then hunting to see if I had missed any story arcs with him, and sadly the answer was no. And the odd cameo here and there just served to whet my appetite and get my digestive juices flowing for more Japheth. His bizarre symbiotic relationship with his slugs Eenie and Meenie are exactly the kind of repulsive body horror that I love to encounter in my funnybooks.

And even if all that weren’t true, I’d still absolutely love this figure because of the great colors and the unique sculpting. Maggott is built on one of the beefier Legends frames, showing that his slugs have been keeping him well fed. The torso is just a generic buck with a white painted shirt, but just about everything else on this figure features some great sculpted detail. His outfit is characterized by a a pair of dominating shoulder pads with a forge hammered finish and some nicks and scrapes, along with giant yellow studs, and a long textured trench coat, with some really nice detail work in the stitching and pockets. He’s got rolled up yellow sleeves and red, fingerless gloves, which match his textured trousers. His chunky boots are blue to match his coat and he has a pair of studded gray knee guards. Wow, this figure is a looker!

The head sculpt is also excellent and packed with personality. He sports a broad nose and an even broader, toothy grin. He has a prominent brow, jutting chin, red eyes, and a shock of white hair protruding from above his forehead.

Articulation holds no surprises. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double hinges in the elbows, and hinged pegs in the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged in the knees, and have swivels in the thighs and at the tops of the boots. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. You get a swivel at the waist, an ab crunch hinge, and the neck is hinged and ball jointed. All of the joints feel solid, and the trench coat doesn’t interfere with the range of movement too badly.

And for accessories, you get the slugs, Eenie and Meenie, and these are wonderfully creepy. One is sculpted in a coil so you can wrap it around one of Maggot’s arms, while the other is arched, so you can hang it on his shoulder. Both have a whole bunch of little stubby legs, and three red eyes.

I was originally going to save Maggott for the last review of this assortment, because I was pretty sure no other figure in this wave was going to live up to him, but to be honest, I was just too excited to get him out of the box and check him out. He’s a fantastic figure, and clearly Hasbro through some money at him, because I’m willing to bet he was the most costly boxed figure in this entire assortment, not counting the BAF. I’m certainly not complaining, but it’s hard to wrap my head around what Hasbro is thinking sometimes. I can rattle off at least ten X-Men that are far more prominent then Maggot here that got far less attention when it came to their figure. Maybe it’s a case of Hasbro knowing that people are going to buy a more well known character so why bother? I honestly don’t know, but I’m glad they put the effort in here.

Jan 2 2023

Marvel Legends (King in Black): Knull & Venom by Hasbro

If you read yesterday’s post than you know that Marvel Mondays are living on borrowed time. I’m planning on phasing them out in a couple of months and will try to get through as much of my backlog as possible before the end. After that whatever is left will just get tossed into the usual daily rotation of whatever strikes my fancy. And boy is today a perfect example of why I’m trying to ween myself off my Marvel Legends habit.

It’s safe to say that King in Black didn’t grab me when I tried to give it a go, and that’s no big surprise since I’m definitely not a fan of Donny Cates as a writer. And yet at some point during the Holidays, this set got discounted enough to get me to buy it. I was mostly drawn in by the Venom figure, but Knull looked like an interesting figure too, and so here we are. I’m positive booze was involved. It usually is. The set comes in Hasbro’s plastic-free packaging with the figures and accessories wrapped in tissue paper. Let’s start with Venom…

Venom comes out of the box sans wings, so we might as well start there! It seems like a while since we last saw a regular Venom as part of The Absorbing Man Wave, but we’ve had a number of different Symbiotes since. This fellow isn’t anywhere near as beefy as the Space Venom BAF, but he’s still pretty sizeable with a lot of upper body bulk and borderline scrawny legs. Still, overall I like the proportions here, especially once we get the wings attached. And speaking of those wings, you can see the sockets in the back where they will get connected. I would have liked to see a couple of filler pieces for those, but oh well. The black finish on this figure has a nice sheen to it, and I really like the fact that it isn’t all smooth, but rather rippled in places, especially up near the shoulders. It’s like a crinkled trash bag look and it’s really creepy. So much better than just painting a muscled buck black and calling it a Symbiote! As for the white markings, I don’t think I’ve seen an instance of white painted over black on a Legends figure that looked this clean and fresh. There’s a wee bit of bleed through on the backs of the hands, it isn’t perfect, but overall it’s a very nice job. I also love his disgusting alien feet.

You get two head sculpts with the figure and both are quite good. The standard portrait has his rictus grin and white inkblot eyes, while the other option has his mouth open and his tongue lashing out. The second head adds a lot of red to the mix and the way the jaw line extends all the way up the sides of his head is just awesome. I’m really torn on which one I’m going to display him with the most. Tongue head definitely goes for the biggest impact, but there’s something marvelously creepy about the more subdued head.

The articulation here is pretty standard, with double hinges in both the elbows and knees, rotating hinges in the shoulders, pegged hinges in the wrists, ball joints in the hips, swivels in the biceps and thighs, ball jointed neck, and hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The biggest departure is the use of a ball joint under the chest instead of the usual ab crunch hinge, and it works fine. You also get two pairs of hands, which include fists and grabby hands.

And then you get these absolutely majestic wings! They have a black framework with red flaps in-between and some tattered holes throughout. The red only shows on the interior of the wings, whereas the backs are all black. The wings attach to the back via pegged hinges, and they also have hinges at the midpoint of each wing. Those mid hinges don’t really do a lot, as the sculpt makes them separate if you try to close them up too much. I’m almost convinced they were added just so that the wings could be disassembled for the box, rather than for actual useful articulation. I am, however, really impressed at how well the connections to the body support their weight, as I have not had them droop at all while posing him. They do of course make him extremely back heavy, as they are some pretty substantial plastic appendages. With all that being said, I was able to get some decent poses out of him without the use of a stand.

Sure, the whole, “Oh look, now all Symbiotes can just sprout dragon wings” seems like a stupid marketing ploy to sell action figures, and sure enough it worked well on me. I just love the way this guy looks, and I sure didn’t need to be a fan of the comic to want to add him to the collection. OK, let’s move on to Knull.

To me Knull was just the other figure that came in the box, but when I got him out I was kind of smitten by how much he looks like he could stand in as a Kain figure from my beloved Legacy of Kain video games. I know NECA made one a while back, but I only wound up getting Raziel and not Kain. Yeah, you can tell how much affinity I have for this character by the fact that I’m going off on a tangent about the Legacy of Kain games, but it really is an uncanny resemblance. And the figure certainly ain’t bad. He’s big enough that it feels like he could have been a BAF, but most of his size is in his height rather than bulk. The armor sculpt is well done with some pitting, and I like that his chest emblem is sculpted and not just painted on. I also think they did an exceptionally nice job with the tattered edges of the skirt and the sinewy texture in his upper legs. I wish they had done a little something with the paint to vary things up a bit between the armor plating and the sculpted cloth.

As with Venom, you get two head sculpts for Knull, one is just plain perturbed, while the other is a maniacal grimace. The highly stylized and exaggerated contours of his face definitely up his creepy appearance, and there’s some absolutely fantastic detail in the lines of definition in his face. The dramatically blown hair is sculpted separately from the head to give him a sharp hairline, but it’s too bad that he has a seam running across the top of the hair. The second head dials up the creep factor quite a bit with his toothy grin and adding even more severity to his facial features. I also dig the red beady eyes. This sculpt is a spectacular piece of work!

Knull comes with the Necrosword, which is big and beefy weapon. It’s black, almost amorphous body has an organic flavor to it and there are gross red tendrils all over it that resemble a circulatory system. It’s a shame that it’s cast in very soft plastic and I had to put some work into unbending mine, but it eventually straightened out pretty well.

In the end, I have no regrets at having picked up this set. I don’t have to necessarily have any attachment to the source material for me to appreciate a pair of outstanding figures, and these two are indeed that. The set originally retailed at around $69, which is right about in line with Hasbro’s ever increasing prices. I think I wound up getting this set on sale for about $52, which certainly makes it a lot more palatable. Both figures are decently sized, but it’s the sheer enormity of Venom’s wings that adds the most value here, and thereby probably justifies the price.

Dec 28 2022

Marvel Legends (The Controller Wave): Blue Marvel, US Agent, Speedball, Thor, and The Controller BAF by Hasbro

Welcome, friends, to the last Marvel Monday Review of 2022… and it’s on a Wednesday! Yup, instead of being productive, I decided to be really lazy on Christmas and just drink, eat, loaf around, and watch a bunch of videos and I can’t say as I regret it. But, I didn’t want to crap out on the last Marvel Monday Review, so not only did I bump it to today, but I’ve decided to speed-review the rest of The Controller Wave, so as not to end the year in the middle of a wave! So, that’s four figures plus the Build-A-Figure to check out today. LET’S DO THIS!!!

I already checked out Madam Hydra and Quake, and I didn’t buy the Iron Man from this assortment because he didn’t come with a BAF part, so that leaves us with this happy band of four figures to open. That’s a lot to cover in one sitting, so I’ll be brief where I can. We’ll go ahead and start with Blue Marvel!

I was very happy to see Adam finally get a figure in modern Legends, and I think this one turned out great. The costume is mostly comprised of a painted buck, but you do get fully sculpted boots with laces, plus a belt and a jacket. The coloring on this figure looks pretty sharp, with a mostly blue suit and black and white trim. The paint lines are clean, and thanks to the design of the suit, the unpainted pins in the elbows and knees don’t create a mismatched eyesore. I really like the sculpted stitching on the jacket and the chunky collar.

The head sculpt is excellent, with some great definition in the facial details. The hair is sculpted separately to create a clean hairline and I dig the creasing around his eyes and the prominent brow.

Blue Marvel comes with two sets of hands, one being fists and the other being what looks like accessory holding hands, but he doesn’t come with anything to hold. He does, however, come with some energy effect parts. These are cast in clear blue plastic and fit over his fists. I’m never going to complain about extra hands, but I think Adam would have been fine with just the fists. Either way, I love this figure and he’s definitely one of the highlights of this assortment. Next up… Speedball!

Speedball is a pretty simple figure, at least from the neck down, and built off what appears to be one of the Spider-Man bucks, as I’m pretty sure I recognize the pancake feet, plus he has the lateral crunches in the shoulders. The costume is achieved entirely through paint, but I have to say I really like what they did here. The molecular pattern on his boots, gloves, and belt looks really cool, especially against the blue of the suit.

I do like the head sculpt as well. The goggles are extremely well done, with yellow lenses that show his painted eyes behind them. His tuft of hair is certainly distinctive and you get the same cool molecular pattern on his hood. Very nice!

I’m glad they went for the extra articulated body here, but I think Robbie could have used an extra pair of hands, certainly more so than Blue Marvel. As it is, he’s the only figure of these four that doesn’t come with a second set of hands, so you know I gotta call him out. He only has fists, and I think either relaxed hands or the running kind with the fingers tightly closed into a chop would have suited him really well. Still, a very cool figure! Next… Thor!

This is Herald Thor and of all the figures in this assortment, this is the one I would have liked to single out and review solo if I had just one more Marvel Monday before the end of the year. I really dig everything about this figure. The black tunic and armor pieces over the traditional checkered silver armor looks great, especially with the red belt and bands on the boots and the white added to the tunic. The cape also has some great paint on the interior going from purple to red at the bottom. The spikes in the knee pads and arm bracers are a nice touch too!

The portrait is easily one of the most unique looks we’ve had for the character. He sports extremely long pale blonde hair, a black head band, and his eyes are light blue with white pupils, giving him a really creepy affect. The chiseled facial features give an awesome severity to his expression. This is great stuff!

Thor comes with a translucent blue version of Mjolnir with a lightning part that wraps around it and makes for a really cool effect! You also get two pairs of hands, one being fists and the other including a right hand to hold the hammer and a left hand that looks like it’s poised to cast forth a bolt of lightning.

And we aren’t done yet, because Thor also comes with the Ravens, Hugin and Munin, each of which are unique sculpts. One is posed at rest with his wings tucked in, while the other is in flight. This is an absolutely awesome, and easily my favorite release in this wave! The last figure to open is US Agent!

Yup, I saved the dud for last. I think this is the second release of US Agent in the modern Legends line, as I can recall getting the first release way back in 2012 as part of the third wave. Heck, I even remember also reviewing that figure the week after Christmas, so how’s that for serendipity! And I honestly can’t figure out what the point of this release is, because it’s practically the same costume with just a few tweaks. You get the same red gauntlets and buccaneer boots, the same pattern on the chest, which is a little wider here, and a simpler and cleaner belt, which I think works a bit better for a classic comic look.

The head sculpt appears to be lifted directly from that previous release, and if it’s not well it’s pretty damn similar. I don’t think it’s aged well, nor do I think it’s a particularly great sculpt to begin with. The bulbous nose is off-putting, and the facial features are really soft. I just don’t like it.

You get two pairs of hands, which include one set of fists, a right hand to hold the shield from the edge and a relaxed left hand. These later two hands are perfect for displaying him about to throw the shield. The shield itself has a new paint job and omits the star in the center that the previous release had. It’s equipped with both a peg and a clip, so he can wear it on his back or attached to his wrist. This is an OK figure, but nothing for me to get too excited about. It’s marginally better than the original release, but I’m not sure why we got him again at all. TO THE BUILD A FIGURE!!!

The Controller is your reward for buying six out of the seven figures in this assortment and he goes together exactly like most other BAFs do. Plug the arms and legs and head into the torso and you’re good to go. I’ll freely admit that this BAF was what compelled me to hunt down all the figures in this wave and I’m overall pretty glad I did, as it’s a really nice looking figure, even though the reuse of the collar and shoulder piece from the Deluxe Thanos release is super obvious. The two-tone blue costume looks good and I do like the super glossy finish on the Thanos piece.

The portrait is a real winner too! The Controller’s craggy face looks fantastic and they did a wonderful job with his expression. The deep set pupil-less eyes and the downturned mouth showing a flash of teeth looks like he’s about to kick some serious ass.

And hey, you get two pairs of hands too! And guess what? One of those pairs is a set of fists! The other pair includes a relaxed left hand and a right hand clutching a pair of Slave Discs. Very cool! I will note that while this big guy features all the usual articulation I expect to see in a BAF, the elbows have almost no range of motion because of the way they’re sculpted. You just get the teeniest bit of bend there.

And there you have it, the last wave of Marvel Legends for 2022. Overall, I think this was an excellent assortment with just US Agent there to offer up one slot of mediocrity. The ladies were great, Thor is amazing, I’m very happy to have Blue Marvel, and Speedball was there too! On a side note, this is actually the second to the last complete wave of Marvel Legends that I have in the pipeline to review, although I have quite a few multi-packs waiting to be opened. This coming weekend I’m going to be putting up some of my collecting resolutions for 2023, and one of the big ones is centered around Marvel Legends, so you won’t want to miss that! In the meantime, I’ll see you all back here on Friday for the last review of the year, and I have no idea yet what that will be!


Dec 19 2022

Marvel Legends (The Controller Wave): Quake and SHIELD Agent Two-Pack by Hasbro

It’s the second to the last Marvel Monday of 2022 and I’m continuing my jaunt through The Controller Wave! Last week I checked out the new version of Madame Hydra, so let’s just get both of the ladies of this assortment front and center. And that brings us to Quake… or is it Maria Hill? It’s both! And since this seems like a good opportunity to toss in the SHIELD Agent two-pack that Hasbro released a little while back, let’s have a look at those figures as well!

While this release is intended to be either Daisy Johnson or Maria Hill, Daisy wins out and gets the name Quake on the front of the package, and that’s the head that comes on the figure. Maria’s head is off to the side, as well as two pairs of her hands, and the BAF parts. We’ll start with Quake…

Here’s a great example of a pretty simple figure that works very well. Quake consists of a blue femme buck with painted white boots, sculpted shoulder straps that are also painted white, and a belt and two thigh straps, which are sculpted separately and worn on the figure. You also get a zipper pull running down the front of the top, which reminds me of the zipper pull from the original Madame Hydra that they left off the one in this assortment. Did they leave the zipper pull off of this Madame Hydra figure just so Viper and Quake wouldn’t look so similar? Maybe! You do get a spiffy SHIELD insignia printed on her left shoulder. The only thing I really have to nitpick here is that the chest doesn’t run very flush with the lower abdomen. It’s no big deal, but it does give the figure a little bit of a mismatched appearance.

The portrait is pretty good, although I don’t have a huge attachment to this character so I can’t really comment on the likeness. I can barely even remember what she looked like in the comics. I do like the hair sculpt’s tussled look. The printing on the eyes and lips do their usual thing of looking blurry when you get in close with the camera, but it looks fine with the naked eye. The seam running down the center of her throat is a little unfortunately placed.

Quake’s gauntlets are very well done, consisting of sleeves that fit over the forearms and the hands that peg in afterwards. They’re sculpted with the fingers opened and spread as if she’s working her mojo. And look! Quake is sporting double-hinges in the elbows and bicep swivels! It’s always nice to see a female Legends figure get this articulation upgrade. The rest is right in line with what we usually see in the Legends ladies, making Quake loads of fun to pose and play around with. And with a quick swap of head and hands, you can turn Quake into…

Maria Hill! And I think the transformation works pretty well. Sliding off the gauntlet sleeves reveal white painted gauntlets underneath, and you get a choice of splayed figure hands or gun holding hands. The gun is a compact automatic pistol and serviceable but not really special. I do think it would have been cool if Hasbro included an attachable holster or something, because Agent Hill doesn’t have anywhere to put her shooter when she’s not holding it.

The Maria portrait is pretty decent, with a shorter and more tidy coif. I like the stray strand that crosses over her forehead. She also has her trademark earpiece and microphone on the right side of her cheek. I like this look enough that I probably would have picked up a second figure to display as both, but this one has crept up in price a bit lately, and it’s more than I’m willing to spend now. It does make me wish Hasbro would release a female SHIELD agent two-pack. I’d be all over that! And speaking of which…

Here’s the SHIELD Agent two-pack that Hasbro did release. I’m pretty sure this was a Pulse Exclusive, and I got it back in the beginning of the year along with the Skrull Soldier that released at the same time. The figures come in a fully enclosed box with some nice artwork on the front, and you get a tissue-paper bag with all the extra stuff to customize your agents.

I gotta be honest, I was not thrilled with these when I took them out of the box. The joints are horrifically gummy and it took a lot of work just to get them to stand naturally without looking weird. They are identical, with the same blue buck with painted white boots and gauntlets and SHIELD patches stamped on their shoulders. They also share the exact same gear, which includes a shoulder strap with a chest holster and non-removable pistol painted silver, double waist belts with plenty of pouches, and a double thigh strapped holster on the left legs with more pouches. The gear looks really bulky and awkward, and why include a faked out gun holster on the chest when they have functional holsters on the hip? All this stuff bothered me at first, but the more I played around with them, the less irksome it became, and eventually I was able to have some fun with them.

The figures come out of the boxes wearing full tactical helmets with painted visors and breathers. One visor is painted red and the other is silver, which in itself is kind of weird. I appreciate the desire to make them look a little different, but why would you have two different color visors? Maybe I’m over thinking it. Besides, you also get three unmasked head sculpts to mix things up.

To show SHIELD’s ethnic diversity, the heads include Caucasian, African-American, and Asian portraits, all of which are excellent sculpts, especially considering they’re just supposed to be generic dudes. I’m not sure if these are based off of Hasbro employees or just completely made up, but I think they did a great job on all three, making me wish I had a third body to display them all on. Oh, I get it! Hasbro wants me to buy another two-pack! Well, that’s no going to happen, but I do like these unmasked heads better than the helmets.

As for the other extras, you get some pairs of hands, and some weapons. You get a pair of gun holding hands for each figure, but you only get one pair of fists between them, which I thought was really cheap. You also get a set of gesturing right hands, one pointing with one finger, and the other pointing with two. They’re all good choices, but not including a pair of fists for each figure really cheeses me off. As for the guns, each figure gets an identical pistol, which is kind of a futuristic design, or at least not like any pistols I’m familiar with.

Additionally, you get two identical rifles, a third with a foregrip, and a BFG with a red magazine. The guns are OK, but I don’t really love any of the designs. I would have rather had some real-world weaponry included with these guys, but at least it’s a pretty generous assortment.

These figures all go together very well, which makes it rather serendipitous that I waited to open the SHIELD agents until now. Quake works great as either Daisy or Maria, and I even liked trying out the Daisy head without the gauntlets as a generic female SHIELD agent. Yes, the SHIELD agents took a little time to grow on me, and I’m still not a fan of how bulky their equipment looks, especially the pouches on the thigh straps, but in the end they won me over and I’m glad I picked them up.