Tag Archives: marvel legends

May 21 2018

Marvel Legends (Sandman Wave): Ms Marvel (Kamala Khan) by Hasbro

Oh boy, have I been dreading this review! Kamala Khan is the first Marvel Legends figure in a long while that I was tempted to skip and hunt down the BAF part separately on the Ebays. Why? Because I’m really not a fan of this character or what I’ve read of her books. I also think it’s unfortunate that Marvel decided to go with her as their first major Muslim lead character, doubly so when it feels like a “Us Too!” effort after DC introduced Simon Baz to their Green Lantern lineup a few years earlier. Granted, I didn’t warm up to Baz right away, but I gave him a shot and by the time he teamed up with Jessica Cruz, I was on board. Well, I gave Kamala a shot too, but her books were another brick in the wall between me and what Marvel’s been churning out lately. At least this review has a happy ending, so read on!

I really don’t want to spend a lot of time bitching about the character, but I feel like I should at least clarify why I don’t like Kamala. To me, she’s the epitome of a lot of that’s wrong with Marvel Comics these days. She comes off as a vacant-headed, “OMG, TWITTER AND SELFIES!!!” stereotype fangirl, who to me just isn’t worthy of the Ms. Marvel moniker. It’s another example where Marvel should have allowed the character to strike out on her own with a new super hero identity instead of once again co-opting an existing one. Hell, I would have had a lot more respect for her had they given her her own identity first, allowed her to prove herself, and then passed the baton. Just look at how much angst and maturity Carol Danvers exhibited over taking on the Captain Marvel name. OK, yeah, he was dead, but still. There was a gravitas to about the name that the comic paid respect to. That wasn’t so much the case here. But hey, the initial run of Kamala’s book won a Hugo, so I guess I’m in the minority here! And yes, that was sarcasm. Anyway, let’s take a look at the figure…

And here’s where things turn around, because my dislike for this character lies squarely in the way she’s written, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m not going to like the figure, because I actually do. The costume, which consists of a blue dress worn over what I assume is a red bodysuit is fresh and interesting, and Hasbro did a great job recreating it for the figure. The lower part of the dress is cast in soft plastic with slits up the sides so as not to hinder the hip articulation too badly. Her blue boots are painted on, she’s got a gold arm bracer on her left wrist, and a long scarf, which streams down her back, and is slightly reminiscent of Carol’s waist sash. The coloring makes for a very pretty looking figure, I love the combination of the blue and vibrant red and the additional gold used for the edges, bracer, and lightning bold on her chest really make the figure pop. She even has gold designs at the ends of her scarf.

The head sculpt is fairly solid. I appreciate that the mask is part of the sculpt and not just painted on. The hair looks very much on point and the paint is all fairly solid. I will throw out there that Kamala looks a lot prettier in most of the panel art than she does here, so the resemblance isn’t quite a slam-dunk, but it’s not bad either. I do wish the plastic used for the face wasn’t as waxy looking, but now I’m really looking for things to complain about.

The articulation is right on par with most of the other Legends ladies. The legs feature ball joints at the hips, double hinges in the knees, swivels in both the thighs and the tops of the boots, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. The torso features a ball joint under the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Here’s where I usually complain about the arms not being double jointed at the elbows, but here there’s actually an excuse for that, as the arms are designed to pull out at the elbows so they can be replaced with her stretchy effect arms.

I’m a big fan of characters with stretchy powers. Plastic Man, Elongated Man, Mr. Fantastic, so I’m at least a fan of Kamala’s powers! The arms consist of an enlarged right grasping hand and a left fist. These pieces pop-and-swap very easily, although I’ve seen quite a few reports of the pegs breaking on this figure, so a modicum of care is recommended. There’s no other points of articulation in these pieces beyond the elbow joint, and while I would have really appreciated some wrist swivels, I can understand why they were omitted. The effect isn’t as well done as the recent Reed Richards figure, but it’s not bad.

All in all, this is fun figure of a character I don’t care about. And just to be clear, I don’t want to just pick on Kamala. As a character, she’s probably fleshed out better than most of Marvel’s recent efforts. But like I said earlier, she’s an example of a wider problem in Marvel’s books which has been keeping me out of the comic shops and diving into my backlog of trades and floppies. When the inevitable shake up at Marvel comes, maybe Kamala can get turned around. Or maybe they don’t need to, because her book seems to be selling fairly well in collected editions. In the meantime, at least I got a pretty cool figure out of it.

May 14 2018

Marvel Legends (Sandman Wave): Shocker by Hasbro

I’m going to let one more week go before including the Infinity War figures in my weekly mix, so I don’t have to worry about dishing out spoilers. Yeah, most everyone has probably seen it by now, but I just don’t want to be that guy. In the meantime, I’m continuing to spend Marvel Mondays bouncing between the insane number of Legends figures that make up shameful stack of boxes in the corner. And this week it’s back to the Sandman Wave with a look at Shocker.

It’s been hard to let this wave sit around for so long before digging into it. It sports some solid character selection, and I’ve been more than a little anxious to build Sandman. Hell, pretty much all the Spidey waves have been great in my book. And Shocker was certainly a long time coming, and with how many waves of Spider-Man themed figures we’ve had, it’s surprising Hasbro only got around to him here. I guess that’s a testament to how many versions of Web Head they’ve been doing. I’m sure Hasbro thank god every day for Spider-Verse.

I don’t know what it is about Shocker’s costume, but boy do I love it. The brown and yellow body suit with the brown criss-crossing diagonal lines just does something for me. This was a figure where Hasbro didn’t need to bust out a lot of new sculpting to make it work, but he does have newly sculpted “metal” strips for his gauntlets and ribbed knee-pads. The reinforced pieces on his gloves have a cool used and pitted finish to them and I appreciate that attention to detail.

The rest of this figure makes a lot of use of paint for detail and here’s a costume where a lesser paint job could have really ruined the suit. Thankfully, Hasbro brought there A-game, as the brown net-like lines are pretty sharp and clean. Shocker also sports a gold lightning bolt emblem stamped right where his belt buckle would be. And no, Hasbro didn’t paint in the pegs on the inside of his elbows and knees, so you have brown pegs showing through amidst the yellow on his arms and vice versa on his legs. The same holds true for the hinges visible in his armpits. I know that bothers some people a lot, but I can’t say as I’m one of them.

The head sculpt is pretty simple, without a lot of facial features showing through the mask. There’s just a bit of a bump where the nose and ears are. I do get a bit of a Deadpool vibe from his eyes, as one is slightly popped and the other squinting. The brown skull-cap style piece on the top of the mask is actually part of the sculpt.

At some point I feel like I should just stop going through the articulation points on Marvel Legends, because apart from the differences between the guys and gals, and an occasional surprise, we all know what to expect by now. But here we go anyway… Shocker’s arms feature 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, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs and at the tops of his boots. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers, there’s a swivel in the chest, an ab-crunch hinge in the torso, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

Shocker comes with two accessories and… Heeeeey, we’ve seen these before. We’ve seen these like a dozen times before. Yup, it’s the old swirly circle effect parts that clip onto the wrists, and this time they’re sculpted in orange. Not to be confused with the swirly circle effect parts they use for magic and hex powers. I generally like these pieces, but I think they’re a bit of a reach as a visualizing of Shocker’s powers. But they look good on the figure, so I’m not going to complain too much.

And so I can chalk up another member of Spidey’s enemies for my Legends shelf and that always makes me a happy camper. I have no idea why, but this figure was stupid hard for me to find. Actually, that was the case for a few of the releases in this wave. Normally when that happens, I just hit up old Amazon, but he’s been listed in the high $20’s there for a while now, so that wasn’t an option. I mean, I love this figure, but not quite that much. Luckily, I eventually found him at a Target long after the rest of this wave was gone from the pegs, and even for a bit under regular retail.

May 7 2018

Marvel Legends (Sasquach Wave): Domino by Hasbro

How many waves of Marvel Legends am I behind now? I think it’s like four or five, but I’m trying not to actually look because it’s only going to depress me. These figures seem to be selling really well here, because I keep finding remnants of the more recent waves on the pegs. Hopefully that’s making up for the tons of figures from the first Guardians of the Galaxy Wave that got re-ordered for the second movie and are clogging up the clearance endcaps at my local Target. Anyway, you might say I got lucky on my last trip through and found a lone Domino swinging on the pegs amidst some pieces of the Thor: Ragnarok Wave. And since I just bought my tickets for Deadpool 2 on next Thursday, I’m pretty pumped to look at some Deadpool content.

Domino is part of the second Deadpool-inspired Wave, which is obviously cashing in on the new movie, without actually including any movie-based figures. Part of me is sad that we aren’t seeing any movie figures, but then I see the great comic-based characters we are getting and I don’t mind so much. Also, Hasbro is using this wave to give us a huge Sasquatch Build-A-Figure, and that certainly cheers me up! And as someone who has always crushed hard on Domino, I was thrilled to see her included in the assortment!

And here she is! Domino comes all decked out in her tight 90’s-era black cat suit and looking absolutely fabulous. There are any number of previous female Legends that Hasbro could have raided for this buck, but with the figure in hand, I’m not recognizing any of them. Granted, I’m not the best person at spotting recycled parts, but I do believe what we have here is a new sculpt. The nearly all black buck features some subtle details, like the tailoring seams in the suit, and some not so subtle like the knee and shin armor and arm bracers. She also has sculpted straps and buckles holding on the leg armor and a belt sculpted onto the buck. Additionally, Domino comes with two separate sculpted pieces, a very detailed belt that hangs on her hips, and a shoulder rig, that doesn’t seem to serve much of a practical purpose, but definitely adds to the figure’s aesthetics. As one might expect from the character, there isn’t a lot in the way here of coloring. What you do get is some silver paintwork on the leg armor, bracers, and belt buckle. Her hands also feature finger-less gloves with the exposed fingers painted on.

The head sculpt is definitely a big win for the figure. The face sculpt is very pretty and captures so much of what makes me so smitten with Neena. The short hair is sculpted from a separate piece to give that extra convincing bit of depth in the way it frames her face. She has her trademark black spot around her left eye and some dark electric blue paint for her lips and pupils. This is a great looking portrait!

Articulation is the only place this figure falls short, and I mainly say that because Hasbro still refuses to give the Legends ladies double hinged elbows. Sometimes it’s not a huge deal for me, but I really wanted them here on Domino. The rotating hinges allow for the arm to bend 90-degrees at best. Serviceable, but at this point, it’s just not fair that the dudes are getting the better elbows and the chicks are getting the shaft. Otherwise, the arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, and no bicep swivels. Grrr. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers, there’s a ball joint under the chest, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

Domino comes with two weapons, both of which are very purple and very sci-fi-y. Neither of these things would have been my first choice. I would have much rather had some realistic guns cast in black or gray, but these aren’t terrible. The sculpts do have a lot of nice detail to them. Unfortunately, she can’t hold the pistol terribly well and it tends to droop a bit in whichever hand I put it in. Also, it would have been nice to give her a way to wear these, or at least the pistol. A hip peg on the belt and another on the back of the shoulder rig would have been most welcome.

Nitpicks aside, I am absolutely in love with this figure, which most certainly was not a given. When I dig a character as much as Domino, I’m always afraid of being disappointed when that character’s figure rolls around. Sure, the elbow articulation is a sticking point with me, but that’s been the case with a lot of the Legends gals, so I’m not going to single out Domino over it. Truth be told, when it comes to everything else, I think they really nailed this one, so much so I’m thinking of picking up a second just to keep boxed. I’m excited to see what Zazie Beetz does with the character in Deadpool 2, but from the little snippets I’ve seen of her in the trailers I’m not too worried.

Apr 30 2018

Marvel Legends (Sandman Wave): Black Suit Spider-Man by Hasbro

Oh, man! Infinity War was amazing!!! I really wanted to start looking at some Infinity War figures this week, but I decided to wait a couple weeks so that I can actually talk about the movie with the figures without fear or spoiling it. So instead, I spun the wheel of Marvel Legends on this fine Marvel Monday and it landed me all the way back to the Sandman Wave with a look at Spidey in his Symbiote suit! And holy shit, it’s about time I have this version of of old Webhead on my Legends shelf. Both Secret Wars and ASM #252 hit at that perfect sweet spot for me. I was about 12 years old and I couldn’t get enough of Marvel Comics. Almost every Saturday, I used to pedal my bike to the used bookshop downtown and go through their milk-crates of dog-eared issues, fork over a small portion of my allowance and then pedal home and lock myself up in my room for the rest of the day to consume my new treasures. God, those were great times and seeing this version of Spidey is one of the things that always brings me back.

And it’s about damn time I opened this fella, as I’ve had this wave sitting around for ages. I’ll be tossing some of these figures into the mix in the weeks ahead. Black Suit Spidey was the perfect pick for today, because I’ve had a ridiculously busy working weekend and not a lot of free time to spend on a prepping a review, so I should be able to still do this figure justice, as he’s about as simple as you can get. Seriously… we’re going to be done here before you know it!

Because how much can I possibly say about this figure? Once again, Hasbro gives us the Spidey buck with that little extra bits of articulation in those shoulder crunches, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The figure is cast entirely in black plastic with the white bits painted on. I was bracing myself for that unsightly bleed through we often get when Hasbro slathers the white paint onto a dark body, but there’s not too much of that here. Yeah, the black does soak through in a few spots, but overall, I think the white parts of the deco turned out surprisingly crisp and bright and the lines are rather sharp. The only nit I can really pick here is that I’m getting a little tired of the pancake feet. I mean, they’re really not that bad, but they stand out for me a little more each time.

I love the head and those gloriously huge white eyes. The totally featureless face coupled with those giant peepers gave Spidey a sinister look in this suit. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad this was temporary, but it was pretty damn cool while it lasted.

The only accessories you get here are an extra pair of hands, so that’s one pair of fists and one pair of splayed hands. Nice, but I’m seriously ready for Hasbro to cook up some web effect parts. They could have been bundling them in with all of these figures. Come on, Hasbro… get on that!

As for articulation, I already mentioned the butterfly shoulders and the rest is very familiar. 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, have swivel cuts in the thighs, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a waist swivel, an ab crunch hinge under the chest, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. The joints on this guy are all strong and solid and he’s a pleasure to pose and play with.

Told ya, today’s review would be a quick one! This is just one of those figures that doesn’t require a lot of time to do justice. As simple as he is, he hits all the right spots for me, and then claps me on the shoulders and knees me right in the nostalgia button. It’s hard to believe it took this long to get him in the modern Legends line, but now that he’s here, I’m not complaining. I am, however, reconsidering whether I need to pick up the 12-inch version that’s been hanging around Target on clearance.

Apr 23 2018

Marvel Legends (Lizard Wave): Gwenpool by Hasbro

Writing about new Marvel characters is often tough for me, as it more often than not turns into a mean-spirited rant about how much I hate the comics that Marvel is publishing these days. Fortunately, Gwenpool has been a sort of the exception to the rule. Yes, she’s technically part of the trend that has put me off Marvel’s comics these days, but she actually happens to be a pretty fun character. And while I’ve only read a few issues of The Unbelievable Gwenpool here and there, the ones I did read tended to be pretty good books. I’m pretty sure I remember hearing that her book got cancelled recently, which is a shame because if nothing else, it was better than half the other books Marvel is turning out these days. But even if that is the case, I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of Gwenpool.

And here we have Gwen in her box and looking pretty spiffy against her hot pink themed background and with her snazzy logo down below. She’s obviously a product of the wild, breakout success of Spider-Gwen coupled with the cult of rabid Deadpool fans. But what really sells Gwen as a fun character is her self-awareness at being in a comic book, and her perceived lack of consequences that comes with that knowledge. She’s more than a lazy copycat character and more than a “What if” fugitive from another Earth. Everything about this character is on the nose, and I think that’s what makes her work for me so well. I’d complain that they didn’t shove a little PVC Howard the Duck into the box, but there’s already plenty of stuff in there, so I’ll hold my tongue and get started with this review!

Rather than just slap a pink version of Wade’s costume, Gwenpool’s creators gave her more of a stand out look and Hasbro did a nice job bringing it to action figure form. The costume represents a decent mix of painted details with some new sculpting. Most of her long sleeved one-piece is achieved through some sharp and vibrant white and pink paint, and the white even has a cool pearlescent sheen to it in some areas. She does have newly sculpted arm bracers, as well as sneakers and shin guards over her socks. The legs are bare with an even flesh tone painted on.

Her brown belt is a separate piece and includes her trademark pink “G” belt buckle. The belt features plenty of sculpted pouches, and even a place for her to keep her cell phone. The cherry on top of this outrageous outfit is her big fat cuddly penguin backpack, which includes slots for her to keep her katanas. Everything about Gwen’s costume is beautifully done here. Hasbro obviously poured a lot of love into this gal, and it shows! The articulation is pretty standard for your average Marvel Legends lady. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows, and the wrists are on hinged pegs. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs. The ankles have both hinges and rockers. There’s a ball joint just under the chest and the neck features both a hinge and a ball joint. My usual gripe about the lack of bicep swivels stands, but I can still get a lot of nice poses out of her.

Gwenpool features two different heads. One is a regular smiling head, the other has her sticking out her tongue as if she’s licking her lips. It’s a nice extra, but to be honest, I would have much rather they included an unmasked head. I wound up having to go to Diamond Select for that look, but that’s a review for another day. Besides, I get it, this head didn’t require an entirely new sculpt and it does add plenty of personality to the figure. Both heads feature more of that pretty pink and white paint and the exposed portion of her face is nicely sculpted with some sharp paint.

Along with the extra noggin, Gwenpool comes with three sets of hands, and two of these pairs are very specific. In addition to the katana holding hands, she has a pair so she can make a heart shape with her fingers. The third pair consists of her left hand holding up a two-finger peace symbol, and one to hold her cellphone. The cell phone is a simple black slab of plastic. I’m tempted to say they should have just sculpted it as part of the hand, but then you couldn’t keep it in the nifty spot they provided on her belt. The extra hands are fun and they certainly suit the character, but don’t even get me started on Marvel and their annoying habit of having all their goddamn characters snapping selfie’s all the time. It’s almost as trite as the recap pages using Tweets or social media posts in books like Squirrel-Girl, or using a Youtube show as the basis for an ongoing plot in She-Hulk.

In addition to the cellphone, Gwen comes with her twin katana swords and these are excellent sculpts. While her right hand seems like it’s sculpted more to hold a pistol than it is a sword, she can still hold the pair of them pretty well, and she’s tons of fun to pose with them.

I’m not looking to get a lot of new Marvel characters on my shelf, but I’ll confess that I was quite happy to see Gwenpool turn up on the Marvel Legends roster. And now that I have her in hand, I have to say that she doesn’t disappoint. Everything about this figure feels really fresh and fun. The newly sculpted parts look great and the paint is sharp, clean, and fits the bill perfectly, so long as you don’t mind your anti-heroes looking like an ice cream truck, I think Gwenpool is going to be a welcome addition to a lot of collections out there! And just a quick reminder, this week starts my randomization of Marvel Legends reviews, so don’t expect another figure from the Lizard Wave next week. It could happen, I’m just not saying it’s going to happen! It’s probably not going to happen.

DP: “That’s not even how you hold that. You’re never going to hit anything unless you…”

** POP! **

DP: “OOOooooOOowwww! Right in daddy’s Chalupas!

DP: <groan.”You better make a run for the border, because when I get feeling back in my Chimichangas…”

Apr 16 2018

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

As promised, I’m back tonight to wrap up the somewhat Black Panther themed wave of Marvel Legends with the Okoye Build-A-Figure. Technically, I could have reviewed this figure last week, since the Iron Man I opened this morning did not include any BAF parts, but since this is the last Legends Wave that I’ll be reviewing consecutively, I decided not to mess with tradition.

And here she is all laid out and ready for assembly. The figure consists of the torso, the limbs, the head, and two weapons. This is one of those BAF’s that could have easily been a packaged figure, because she’s so small. I always see a number of fans come out of the woodwork and complain when Hasbro does this. I get it, I still think this wave should have been all from the movie, but if they released Okoye as a packaged figure, I’m not sure what they could have done for the BAF. Maybe the Wakandan throne? Anyway, let’s get Okoye together and check her out.

The first thing that impresses me here is how little of this figure is recycled from Nakia. Without close inspection, I was assuming there would be a lot of shared parts, and while it definitely looks like some of the parts here are likely re-sculpted, there’s enough new sculpting to make it look like a new figure. The upper legs appear to be directly shared, which goes back to how odd I thought they were on the Nakia figure. At least here they’re painted black and not in her skin tone, so the decorative patterns look like part of her leggings and not like they’re carved into her skin. I also like the streamlined look of Okoye’s boots, making her legs look a lot more sleek and graceful. Those clunkly accordian-style tops on Nakia’s boots didn’t do her any favors.

Like Nakia, Okoye uses a soft plastic sculpted belt with the lower half of her coat and it’s pretty convincing in making it all look like one piece. I like that the back of this piece is detailed to look like several layers overlapping, and it’s designed so as not to hinder the leg articulation too badly. The plastic garment features all sorts of ornamental detail etched into it along with a little gold wash to help it stand out. Okoye’s segmented bracers looked to be borrowed from Nakia at first, but these have pieces that extend up to her elbows, so there was definitely some tweaking done here. These are left in a bare gold plastic, which looks OK, but not nearly as good as the gold plastic used for her shoulder armor. It’s a shame they couldn’t spare some of that paint for these.

Hasbro has been killing it with all the MCU Black Panther head sculpts and Okoye here is no exception. This portrait is a tiny work of art. The smooth contours of her face are so beautifully done, the paint is wonderful, and the tattoos on her head look amazing. It’s so hard to believe this is the same company producing those noggins used in the 6-inch Star Wars Black Series.

The articulation is identical to what we saw with Nakia. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists, and yes, I’d still rather see Hasbro go to double hinged elbows and bicep swivels for the ladies. The legs feature ball joints in the hips, double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and both swivels and rockers in the ankles. She has a ball joint under her chest, and both a hinge and ball joint in the neck.

Okoye comes with two weapons: A long spear and a spear head with a very short shaft. The long spear has a textured staff with a spearhead that’s split in the middle giving it a rather distinctive look. Both her hands are designed for gripping, so she can comfortably wield this weapon in either or both of her hands.

I don’t recall the smaller spear-type weapon from the movie. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a unique weapon or a broken piece of s spear. The shaft here is a little too slight to allow her to get a firm grasp on it, so it tends to wobble loose in her hand a bit, but I was still able to get her to hold it fairly well.

I have to hand it to Hasbro, the MCU Black Panther figures have been some of their best work to date. Scoff if you will at the fact that Okoye didn’t need to be a BAF, but I don’t care. I’m not privy to the business decisions that made Hasbro go this route, but so long as we got her, I’m cool. I will, however, keep harping on the fact that the comic-based figures in this wave should have gone elsewhere in favor of Shuri, Klaue, and Everett Ross. Yeah, we’re getting Ross in a two-pack, but what about the other two? I don’t see a big opportunity down the road to release any of these figures, unless they roll them into future releases of the 10-Year MCU Anniversary figures. Unfortunately, we don’t know whether that will be an ongoing thing or not.

On the next Marvel Monday, I’ll start randomizing my Marvel Legends reviews as I continue to hack my way through the pile of backlogged figures in the corner, and there is a lot of them, so what figure will be turning up next week? Your guess is as good as mine!

Apr 16 2018

Marvel Legends (Okoye Wave): Invincible Iron Man by Hasbro

Here we go, folks, it’s the last packaged figure from the Marvel Legends Okoye Wave and it is… Iron Man!?! Oh, Hasbro! Well, I guess you’ve been so good about cutting back on your Iron Man releases, I’ll give this one a pass. And in fairness, Hasbro made it so you don’t have to buy this one in order to complete the Okoye BAF, but even so, I couldn’t resist picking this one up when I saw it on the peg. There’s just so much cool extra stuff in the package!

I believe this is Tony’s armor from a recent run of the “All New, All Different” Avengers, or something like that. As most of you know I’ve been on a sabbatical from Marvel’s current books until they get their collective comic book house in order. But hey, I don’t need context to appreciate another variant of the Iron Man armor, especially when it’s a comic-based one. So, let’s get him open and see what he’s all about!

In the comics, it seems like the more advanced Tony’s armor gets, the simpler it looks. That’s definitely the case here and I really dig that. From memory, this suit reminded me a whole lot of the Extremis Armor figure we got way back in the Terrax Wave. When I put them side by side, it’s maybe not quite that striking, but there are similarities. The limbs here are a little bulkier, the torso less stylized, and he doesn’t have the shoulder armor. I like the economy of panel lining, as most of it resides in his abs, and the crystal-style Arc Reactor is pretty cool. He also has a cool looking spine sculpted into his back.

The coloring here is predominantly red plastic. There’s a little of that swirly effect in it, but not too much. Indeed all the red here has a nice, bright new car luster that makes for a snappy looking figure. Gold paint is used sparingly on the toes, inside of the thighs, the biceps, and the fingers. You even get a bit of matte gray under-suit showing around the neck and under the arms. Also, you may note that the pegs in the elbows aren’t painted to match the gold areas. This bugs the hell out of some people, and I get that, but it doesn’t really bother me at all. There are no repulsors sculpted into the bottom of the feet, but for all I know that’s part of the armor design and not an oversight.

I’m a little iffy on the design of the helmet. The eyes have evolved into almost non-existent slits and the face plate has a sharp angle running down the center. It’s certainly different, and I’m thinking it might grow on me the more I mess around with him. I do like the blue used for the eye slits, as they almost give off a glowing effect under the right lighting.

You also get a really cool comic-based Tony Stark head, which really sold me on this whole package. It’s a beautiful sculpt that borders a bit between comic and animated. It’s got some pretty sharp paint and the sculpting for his hair is especially well done. Gotta dig that pompadour! All in all, I think this noggin looks fantastic on the figure.

The articulation holds no surprises. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, double hinges in the elbows, swivels in the biceps, and hinged pegs for the wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles have hinges and rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge under the chest, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. The joints all feel great and I can sort of get him into an acceptable ground pound pose… well, with an emphasis on the “sort of.”

Iron Man comes with two sets of hands, and these include fists and the open hands for firing off his repulsor beams. He also includes a set of blue blast effect parts, which can peg into the open hands. The effect parts work OK, but they do droop a little because they’re made of soft plastic and that ruins the effect a bit.

Lastly, you get this big cannon that clips onto either of Tony’s arms. At first, I thought this thing looked like one of the goofy oversized missile launchers that Hasbro loves to pack in with their 4-inch figures, but I’m guessing it’s supposed to be something that deploys and retracts from the suit. I actually like this thing a lot and you can plug the effect part into the end of it as well. It’s pretty fun.

I wasn’t really looking forward to it, but this figure turned out to be quite a nice surprise. I don’t think the armor design is going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m happy to be getting some more comic-based armors, and while I wouldn’t want this to be an everyday look for Tony, I can get behind it for special outings. Granted, I’m a pretty easy sell when it comes to Marvel Legends. I’m probably as close to a completionist as you can get without actually being one, so it’s not like this one was a hard sell, but I’m definitely glad I picked it up. Come on back tonight and I’ll have a look at the Okoye Build-A-Figure!

Apr 9 2018

Marvel Legends (Okoye Wave): Black Bolt by Hasbro

I’ve got just a few more figures in the Okoye Wave before I switch over from looking at consecutive figures in each wave to randomizing my Marvel Legends reviews. It seemed only right to wrap this wave one before I make the change and I should be able to do that by next week. So today let’s check out the second to the last packaged figure in the somewhat Black Panther themed Okoye Build-A-Figure Wave: Black Bolt! I’ve had this one sitting around forever, so I’m pretty excited to get him open and see how he turned out.

Last time I gave poor Sub-Mariner a lot of shit for not being Shuri. I don’t feel right doing the same thing here, because I was thrilled to see Black Bolt getting the Legends treatment. Sure, they could have tucked him into another wave and given us more MCU Black Panther figures, but whatever the case, I just can’t be upset over getting this figure. I imagine if that ill-fated Inhumans series had turned out better, we might have gotten an entire wave of Inhumans Legends, but considering how bad the show was received, I’m surprised we got the ones we got. Anyway, he comes with his shouting head on the figure, but let’s start with the regular head.

Here’s Black Bolt out of the box and my first reaction is to be a little underwhelmed. Overall, I think the suit is pretty good. The buck is cast in a dark blue plastic with silver paint to make up the various striping. The paint lines are clean enough, but there some slop on the silver up near his right shoulder where it looks like some hair or other foreign matter got in under the paint. It’s nothing terrible, but a little vexing nonetheless. The gauntlets are formed by plastic cones slipped over the forearms, and I’m n+-ot really happy with the way these look. They’re too chunky and make his fists look extra small to me. They also don’t help the wrist articulation much.

The wings were always going to be a compromise here, and I guess I’m OK with the direction Hasbro went with them. They are firmly attached to the figure, so at least I don’t have them popping off every time I touch the figure like the MCU Spider-Man figure. They actually don’t look half bad when his arms are at rest at his sides, even though it’s not what they’re supposed to look like, I kind of dig the blade-like effect. But obviously, they’re intended to look their best when Black Bolt is standing with his arms straight out at the shoulders, and they do indeed look nice when the figure is posed this way.

I haven’t pulled out the figures to check, but I feel like Black Bolt’s head is a re-working of one of the older Captain America figures. It has a similar soft facial sculpt to it. Whether or not that’s the case, it strikes me as kind of generic and boring, particularly when viewed from the front. The cowl does look good and the eyes are painted well. I also like the tuning-fork on his forehead. Despite being cast in soft plastic, it seems like it won’t have too much problems with warping.

The alternate screaming head is much better, but I still don’t think this is among Hasbro’s better work in the line. That’s not to say it’s bad. I actually like how they did the open mouth with the blue paint to suggest the power emanating from within. The whited out eyes look cool too and the translucent blue energy effect coming off the fork looks fantastic.

The articulation here holds no surprises. The arms have rotating hinges at the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels at the thighs and lower legs. The ankles have hinges and rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the torso and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. I’ll note here how much I wish they had gone with hands that weren’t fists. I think clutching hands or relaxed hands would have worked so much better.

Wow, it feels like I came down really hard on this one, but Black Bolt is not a bad figure. Maybe this was a case of my high level of anticipation working against him. A sharper head sculpt and a different set of hands would have gone a long way toward making me love him more. As it is, he definitely gets the job done, and chances are I’ll be displaying him with his shouting head most of the time anyway. I’m still happy to have this one in my collection and now Medusa doesn’t have to be lonely anymore.

Apr 2 2018

Marvel Legends (Okoye Wave): The Sub-Mariner by Hasbro

After the high I was on from checking out the three MCU Black Panther figures in this wave, moving on to the next installment is like getting slapped in the face with a rotting trout. I’m not here to rag on Namor. I had nothing but praise for the Walgreens Exlcusive that we got last year, which depicted him in full costume. And maybe that’s the point. Did we really need to double dip on The Sub-Mariner so soon? And if so, did it really need to be dropped into this wave? Obviously, my answers to both questions are no, but I’m pressing on with the review anyway.

Here’s a quick look at the packaging, and straightaway I have a few issues to get off my chest. One, the package says Sub-Mariner on the front whereas it should have read Shuri. Second, the figure inside the box is actually The Sub-Mariner, whereas it should have contained a figure of Shuri. Finally, this figure is clearly a fishy-man-gigolo named Namor and not a spunky, tech-savy Wakandian cutie named Shuri. I’m going to do my best to get beyond each of these critiques and appreciate this figure for what it is… not Shuri.

Now, all kidding aside, Hasbro really went all out on this figure and they did a great job. But I don’t know how much I can possibly say about it. The figure itself depicts The Sub-Mariner wearing only a pair of scaly speedos, arm bracers, and he has the obligatory wings on his ankles. This is about as close to a naked dude as we’re likely to ever get swinging on the pegs in the toy aisle, or at least until we get a Hercules. Yup, this one is a special treat for the ladies. The body is muscular, but not bulky, has some great sculpted muscle definition, and I think it suits the character well.

There isn’t a whole lot of paint here, but what we get is quite good. His trunks are painted with a beautiful metallic emerald finish and has a gold belt with a tiny seashell sculpted in the middle. The wrist bracers are painted gold, and the ankle wings are painted white. Otherwise, you get a fleshy plastic, which granted is a bit glossy, but let’s assume Namor just got out of the water and is all wet.

Where Hasbro really went nuts here was with the extras. Not only did they include the swimming hands from the Walgreens Namor, but we also got two heads with this figure, and neither of those are repacked from the earlier release. The stock head looks like a simpler, more comic booky look than the Walgreens head. When I compare the two the previous release looks like it could pass for a realistic MCU version played by a generic actor. I like this new head a lot, the sculpt is excellent and the paint is perfect. Both heads have the hair trailing back a bit, which makes him look all the more streamlined for zipping through the ocean.

The alternate head features Namor all beareded out and looking like Tony Stark co-splaying as an Vulcan. Again, it’s a great sculpt with sharp and beautiful paint, but I think I prefer my Namor sans beard.

Articulation includes all the usual points. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double hinges in the elbows. The wrists are on hinged pegs so they can be swapped out. The legs have ball jointed hips, swivels in the thighs and the lower legs, double hinged knees, and the ankles have both hinges and rockers. The torso has a waist swivel and an ab crunch hinge under the chest. The neck has both a hinge and a ball joint.

If all that wasn’t enough, Hasbro also gave Sub-Mariner a brand new trident. This one is more elaborate than the one that came with the Walgreens Namor. It looks more like a proper trident and less like a spear. This one is cast all in gold plastic and lacks any paint apps, but I really dig it. The sculpting includes a coiled sea-serpent and a pointed fin motif.

If you ever wanted an example of just how delightfully serious and passionate Hasbro is about Marvel Legends, Sub-Mariner here is the figure to look at. I certainly wouldn’t consider Namor an A-Lister, and yet this is the second release of the character in the line in about a year. Does Hasbro know something we don’t? Is Disney going to secretly launch a Sub-Mariner movie to go up against the DCEU Aquaman flick? Probably not, and that’s what makes this release all the more intriguing. Not to mention, they also kitted the figure out with two new heads and a brand new accessory. Now, as much as I admire this figure, I really wasn’t kidding about my feelings that an MCU Shuri should have been in this spot. Hasbro obviously has the likeness rights because they did her in the basic 6-inch Black Panther line. And besides, The Sub-Mariner could have been shoved into any wave and not feel as out of place as he does here. Instead, we have to settle for a comic-based Shuri in one of the upcoming two-packs. That’s not to say I’m not happy to have The Sub-Mariner here, but c’mon Hasbro… Give us a Legends Shuri!!!

Mar 26 2018

Marvel Legends (Okoye Wave): Nakia by Hasbro

Ah, it’s a great time to be a Marvel fan! What? No, they haven’t fixed the dumpster fire on the comic side of things, but we’ve got some amazing trailers for Deadpool 2 and Infinity War, I just picked up the Blu-Ray of Thor: Ragnarok, and I’ve got enough Marvel Legends figures to keep me happy for the foreseeable future. Today I’m pressing on through the Okoye Wave and opening up Nakia from the spectacular Black Panther movie!

Nakia, not to be confused with that brand of famously indestructible Finnish cell phones, Nokia, comes in the typical Legends window box. It’s got some great character art on the side panels, the back panel shows you the rest of the figures in the wave, and the window on the front lets you get a look at all the goodies inside the box. I really enjoyed Nakia in the film, and I’d love to see them explore her character further in the next one, particularly her background with the Dora Milaje, and boy would it be cool for them to work the Malice storyline into it. I can practically see that whole thing unfolding on the screen and it would be awesome.

And here she is out of the package and looking fabulous. Black Panther was a visual feast, and a lot of that came from the pageantry of the Wakandan costumes. Hasbro had a lot to work with when it came to Nakia’s outfit and I think they did a bang up job with it. The top of the red tunic is part of the buck, while the lower half is part of the belt, sculpted in soft plastic, and extends down to hang down the front and back. The effect works really well, and it’s pretty convincing as being one plastic garment. There are a ton of cut lines running throughout the tunic, forming various geometric patterns, some of which are picked out by gold paint. On top of that you get long segmented bracers on her forearms, a large piece of armor on her right shoulder, a smaller piece on the left, and some sharp detailing around her neck, all painted in silver. She also has a sculpted silver belt buckle that looks like a panther emblem. This is some fantastic stuff!

My only nitpick is the legs, which are painted to look like they’re supposed to be bare, but have a lot of the same ornamental cut lines running throughout. Just looking at them makes me wince, because it’s like she went through some kind of ritual and had these carved into her flesh. I’ve only seen the movie twice now, but I don’t remember this being the case, and I haven’t been able to find any reference shots of her costume showing it either. In fact, it looks like she’s just wearing some fairly plain leggings. Okoye’s costume does have these designs, but they’re part of her leather leggings. Anyway, her ensemble is rounded out by a pair of black boots, with some accordion style rings on the top, which look a little clunky, and throw off what is an otherwise pretty graceful figure. If it sounds like I’m coming down on this figure, keep in mind, these are just nitpicks, and I think the sculpting and coloring on this costume look outstanding.

Also outstanding is the head sculpt. More often than not, Hasbro has been on point with their MCU head sculpts, but they’ve really upped their game recently and this is another great example of that. The likeness to the lovely Lupita Nyong’o is certainly there. Granted, I prefer it when she’s smiling, but the stern and solemn look here is more appropriate for the character and action figure. They did an amazing job sculpting her hair and she even has her tiny earrings.

The articulation here is what I’ve come to expect from my Legends MCU ladies, which means good, albeit not perfect. I would still love to see Hasbro go with double hinged elbows and bicep swivels in the arms. Instead, we get the typical rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs fare a lot better, with ball joints in the hips, double hinges in the knees, swivels in the thighs, and both swivels and rockers in the ankles. There’s no waist swivel, but she does have a ball joint under the chest, and she has both a hinge and ball joint in the neck.

In addition to the BAF parts, Nakia comes with a pair of Chakram, which as far as I knew were generally from India, but I’m not going to quibble about it because they’re exotic and cool and movies often play it fast and loose with historical authenticity. Anyway, these are beautiful accessories, with brown textured grips to simulate wood or leather, and silver blades with decorative inscriptions scultped into them.

Black Panther and Killmonger were both great figures, but lets face it the black with gold and black with silver suits didn’t really showcase the movie’s colorful costumes. With Nakia, we finally get to see some of that translate to plastic, and it looks superb. I nitpicked some of the liberties Hasbro seemed to take with the costume, but really I have nothing but love and admiration for the work they did here. From the exquisite costume, to the beautiful likeness, to some really fun accessories, this figure has it all.

And that’s it for the packaged MCU figures. Next week, I’ll start in on the comic-based figures!