Apr 17 2017

Marvel Legends (Space Venom Wave) Ultimate Peter Parker Spider-Man and Space Venom Builf-A-Figure by Hasbro

Here we go, folks, it’s time to wrap up another wave of Marvel Legends. I’m doubling up today by opening up the last packaged figure in the assortment, Ultimate Peter Parker, and then I’m going to check out the Build-A-Figure, Space Knight Venom. I think Venom would have probably been a more apt fit for the Guardians of the Galaxy Wave, but then we would have missed out on Titus, so I’m perfectly happy with the way this all played out. I’m also happy to finally be putting this wave to bed so I can get started on that Titus Wave… and the Sandman… Oh, and the Warlock Wave. Holy shit, I’M SO FAR BEHIND!!!

Here’s one last look at the packaging for this wave, although it’s not really remarkable in any way. Well, except for the fact that one of Spidey’s hands fell out of its spot on the tray. Peter shares a slot in this wave with Miles Morales under the name, “Ultimate Spider-Men!” and if I’m not mistaken that means that every figure in this wave was in a shared package. Seems like that’s a first, but maybe I’m mistaken. There are so many damn Legends waves flying at me these days, it’s hard to keep them all straight.

Now, before you roll your eyes at another Spider-Man, consider the fact that we really haven’t had a Peter Parker figure since “Pizza Spidey” back in 2015. Also, this Ultimate Parker is built off the smaller teen body that we just saw used for Miles Morales. And that alone makes this a very worthy release for me. The paint on this figure is immaculate, with some sharp web patterns and just the right shades of blue and red. On the downside, like “Pizza Spidey,” the pins in the elbows aren’t painted to match the blue of the inside sleeves. Personally, it’s not a big deal for me, but I know it was a bone of contention for a lot of collectors out there. Whatever the case, I really dig this costume a lot and translates beautifully to this figure.

And we finally get a fully unmasked Peter Parker head! Sure, it’s Ultimate Peter, but I’m content to use it for 616-Parker until the real thing comes along. It’s nicely sculpted, appropriately goofy, and an all around great piece of work.

In addition to the extra head, Spidey comes with the usual sets of hands we’ve come to expect from the Legends Spider-Man figures. These include fists, thwip hands, and hands with splayed fingers.

While this teen body lacks the shoulder crunches from most of the previous Spider-Man figures, the articulation here is still plenty good. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in both the thighs and lower legs, double hinges in the knees, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and wrists, the elbows are double hinges, and there are swivels in the biceps. The torso has a waist swivel, an ab crunch hinge, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. While the hinges on my figure are nice and strong and not at all gummy, my Spidey’s right shoulder hinge has barely any give at all. I’m pretty sure a little heat will fix it, but I haven’t had the time to give him the treatment yet.

Of course, Ultimate Peter Parker also includes the final piece I need to build Space Knight Venom! Venom: Space Knight gave us a brand new chapter in the Flash Thompson continuity. I’ve only read the first few issues, but it was a pretty great read that will definitely bring me back some day when I’m caught up on my other funnybooks. You could probably argue as to whether or not Venom needed to be a BAF, but if he wasn’t, I fear that we’d just get a straight painted buck, and not some of the extra sculpting we got for this figure. As far as BAFs go, Venom is as simple as you get. There are six pieces, including four limbs, a torso, and a head. Everything goes together very easily.

Ah, but put all those pieces together and what you get is a work of monochromatic art! As simple as this design is, I absolutely love it. He’s a beefy, black buck with a surprising amount of sculpted detail. The white Spider-emblem on his torso? That’s all part of the sculpt. While subtle, he’s also got some cut lines on his forearms and his legs, as well as some exposed ribbing in the area just below his head. The white paint is so bright and beautiful, without much in the way of the black bleeding through, and he has patch tampos on his shoulders. For what is essentially just a black and white figure, Venom is quite pleasing on the eyes.

This beefy buck includes some solid articulation. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and wrists, have hinged elbows, and there are swivels in the biceps.The legs have rotating hinges at the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. The torso has a waist swivel, an ab crunch hinge, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. All of these points conspire to make Space Knight Venom not just a great looking figure, but one that’s lots of fun to play around with.

It’s hard for me to quibble with this wave. It gave us some classic villains, as well as some new heroes from across the Spider-Verse, and there isn’t a stinker in the assortment. Indeed, it doesn’t even feel like there’s a budget figure in this lot either, despite the fact that we got straight body recycling between Ashley and Cindy and again between Miles and Peter. Yeah, I could still harp on the fact that Electro lacked some regular hands, but I’ve already beat that drum enough. On the next Marvel Monday, I’ll be switching my attention over to the statue side of things. My Marvel statues have been building up, and I might have to start looking at them on another day of the week so I can keep from getting too behind on Legends. Either way, I’ll be coming back the following week to kick off a brand new wave Legends of figures. If only there were a new movie coming out that first week in May that I could tie in with. Hmm…

Apr 10 2017

Marvel Legends (Space Venom Wave): Silk by Hasbro

I make it no secret that Marvel and I are at odds these days when it comes to most of their comics, but thankfully, there are some that I have remained unshaken on, and those are The Amazing Spider-Man and some of the related off-shoots. I’ll confess, I never wanted the awesome pages of Superior Spider-Man to come to an end, but I was happy to find that Peter Parker getting his body back wasn’t the end of the ride for me. It wasn’t a clean break and there was plenty of great stuff carried over and even some cool new characters. One of those was Cindy Moon, aka Silk!

Silk shares her slot with Ashley Barton, Spider-Woman, as the “Web-Slinging Heroines” and she was a great choice of character for this wave. Spider-Gwen may be the most popular breakout Femme Web-Fatale of the Spider-Verse, and while I enjoy Gwen’s book well enough, I actually think Silk’s is a lot better and the character deserves a much bigger piece of that spotlight. Her book started very strong, tugged at some of those loose strings from Superior Spider-Man, and hasn’t disappointed me yet. I still think it would have been cool to get a figure of her in her original webbing “costume,” but this one works for me too.

Silk not only shares the packaging with Ashley, but also uses most of the same buck with paint applications used to reproduce her costume. The only key difference that I can see below the neck is the chest piece, the sculpt of which left less to the imagination than this one does. Oh yeah, and Silk has one fist and one splayed hand, rather than the double dukes we saw on Barton. The paint on my figure strikes me as a pretty average effort, with some unfortunate slop between her chest and her neck, but the rest of the lines are pretty sharp. The gray and black deco doesn’t really pop all that much and I’m not a big fan of the lack of transition from the red webbing to the black, which looks more gradual and better executed in the comic. Still, it’s a presentable paint job and some of the fault here may be in what I feel is a costume design that tends to look better in the art than on a figure.

Hasbro graced us with two different heads, one masked and one unmasked, although these look to be more variants that completely different sculpts, and that’s fine. Both of these are great sculpts, but it probably goes without saying that I’ll be getting the most use out of her masked head. That is unless the slop on her chest bothers me enough to buy a second figure and then I can have the best of both worlds. That’s cool, because one of the things these two noggins have in common is a set of beautiful eyes.

I think the unmasked portrait is particularly stunning. As for likeness, well, here’s where there’s a bit of a disconnect. Obviously they went for a look that would fit in with the Legends line more than the stylized art of Lee, Ford, or Fish. But beyond that, I think she looks too old. Also, while I love the dimension and complexity that they gave her hair, I would have liked Cindy’s shorter look better. This may sound like a lot of gripes, but rest assured, I really do like these head sculpts. Although, I can’t deny that a Goblin-Serum alternate head would have been pretty damn rad.

Because Silk shares most of Ashley Barton’s body, the articulation is the same. She has rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. There are swivels in the thighs, but none in the legs. The knees are ball jointed, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s no swivel in the waist, and just a ball joint under the chest. The neck has the usual ball joint and hinge combo. Like i said with Ashley, the articulation here is serviceable, but feels a little lacking for a Spider-Verse character. I just expect my Spider-babes to be a little more limber. Nonetheless, there’s fun to be had with her.

As a fan of the comic, Silk was pretty high on my list of anticipated figures for this wave, and overall I’m pretty happy with what we got. Whichever head sculpt I go with, they both do a lot to elevate the figure and make it really shine. Indeed, for what is essentially “Yet Another Spider-Man Wave” Silk is just another addition to what has been an impressive assortment of figures. Next Monday, I’m going to wrap up this wave with a look at the Ultimate Peter Parker figure and the Space Venom Build-A-Figure!

Apr 3 2017

Marvel Legends (Space Venom Wave): Electro by Hasbro

If you follow me on Twitter, than you may know how I enjoy my leisurely Sunday mornings with a pot of coffee and my Marvel Legends figures. That’s when I usually write the next day’s Marvel Monday feature and it’s become one of the few specific times that I set aside to write and photograph. Alas, I’m going on a vacation this week, so I spent most of Sunday at work getting things wrapped up. As a result, I had to work on today’s review rather late Sunday night and didn’t have a lot of time. So, sorry if today comes out as rushed. Anywho… Last week, I checked out Hobgoblin, the first of this wave’s pair of Spider-Man’s “Evil Adversaries.” This week, I’m wrapping up this devilish duo with another figure that I was extremely excited to get my hands on. It’s Electro and he comes to us in all his comic-inspired glory!

There sure is a lot of stuff packed into that bubble. You got an extra head, those effect part hands, a BAF part. And… oh, hey… they must have put the normal hands on the bottom of the tray, behind the logo. That’s weird. Let’s just open him up and… OH, SWEET JESUS… HE DOESN’T HAVE ANY NORMAL HANDS!!!! Now to be honest, I’m so late opening this figure that I knew coming in that Electro doesn’t come with normal hands, but my outrage over this omission is so powerful, I had to communicate it in the form of drama. Knowing that this guy has a major strike against him going in, let’s see what we’ve got…

Firstly, I’m so happy Hasbro delivered on a classic comic version of Electro and there’s definitely a lot to love here. The bulk of the costume is achieved entirely through paint, but it looks terrific. His yellow lightning bolts are crisp and sharp, and the black, yellow, and green deco is fabulous. He’s built off one of the Spider-Man bucks, which means he certainly sports some excellent articulation. The legs feature ball jointed hips, double hinged knees, swivels in the thighs, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and wrists, double hinged at the elbows, and have swivels in the thighs. The torso features a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge, and you get those wonderful lateral crunches in the shoulders. Finally, the neck features both a ball joint and a hinge.

The figure comes packaged with the more modern head, complete with the burned on “mask.” I gather that this look wasn’t terribly popular with the fans, but I actually dig it. It helps that the head sculpt here is absolutely phenomenal. Hasbro loves to go all out with their villain portraits, and here’s another one that’s just brimming with character. Of course, I said I dig this look, but that doesn’t mean that this head is going to spend any time on this figure while I’m displaying it. Nope.

Because I can never get enough of his classic masked look. This is the Electro I know and love, and this is the head he shall wear. Yeah, I always feel kind of bad tossing a work of art into the Tote of Forgotten Accessories, but I don’t see myself buying a second figure to display both heads.

Ah, but then we have the hands. These are the same hands we saw quite recently on Marvel’s Eel and even then they were recycled from the Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s version of Electro back in the Ultimate Green Goblin Wave. Don’t get me wrong, I like thee hands, but even Eel got some fists. How is it that Hasbro couldn’t pony up for some god damn fists here? Just use the same ones and paint them black. IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK FOR??? I should also note that these hands are kind of a double fail, because even though I shot this figure with the hands he came with, I like the look of Eel’s yellow effect hands on this figure better, so these will probably go to him.

Electro is a great figure and he could have been a total home run. He’s got fun articulation, the costume and classic mask does the character proud, and the option of the more modern portrait is always nice to have. But it all comes down to those missing hands. And their absence is only compounded by the fact that not including them seems like such a stupid and cheap oversight on Hasbro’s part. Well, Eel is pretty cheap, I suppose I could pick up another one of him, bust out a Sharpie and customize my own set of fists.

Mar 27 2017

Marvel Legends (Space Venom Wave): Hobgoblin by Hasbro

It’s another Marvel Monday and I’m continuing with my very untimely slog through the Space Venom Wave. Will I ever be current with this line? Well, I’m no math expert, but I think the numbers are against me. Maybe I’ll do a Marvel Legends themed week at some point and bust out a whole wave to help get caught up. In the meantime today I’m checking out Roderick Kingsley as The Hobgoblin!

And here’s a quick look at him in the package before I tear it to shreds. You’ll note that his name doesn’t appear on the front, as he shares this slot with Electro as one of Spider-Man’s “Evil Adversaries!” It feels like only yesterday that we got the Phil Ulrich version of Hobgoblin as a Build-A-Figure, but that was back in 2015. Wow… how time flies. No wonder I have so many of these damn things waiting to be opened. I wonder how many unopened Marvel Legends they’ll be pulling out of my home after I die? Anyway, the Ulrich Hobgoblin was a fantastic figure, but it seemed like a lot of fans were crying foul that we got that version released before this one. Well, everybody can calm down now, because Kingsley Hobbie is out and he’s pretty damn fantastic.

If you were expecting a lot of reuse here, you should be pleasantly surprised to find that’s not the case. This Hobbie looks appropriately beefier and features a good deal of new sculpting. Most notably, the scale-mail on his arms and legs is all sculpted in and looks great. I think he borrowed it from Deathstroke. I dig the amount of detail in the gauntlets and buccaneer boots, particularly the sculpted fraying of his boot cuffs and the upturned toes. Finally, you get a wide belt sculpted onto the tunic. There isn’t a whole lot of paint on the buck, but the metallic blue looks fantastic and it compliments the orange nicely.

Hasbro did a particularly nice job on the cape. It’s ragged and shredded and it’s painted with a grimy wash to match the hood perfectly. It’s also removable simply by popping off the head.

The stock head is a fantastic sculpt and appropriately less stylized than the Ulrich Hobbie head. The vacant red eyes are awesome, and while the paint on the teeth could certainly have been better applied, It doesn’t really detract from the portrait much for me. The hood is completely separate from the head itself and you can even take it off. But, what’s that? This head isn’t maniacal enough for you. You want a fully cracked-out look with more tongue. No problem!

The alternate head features a protruding tongue flanked top and bottom by walls of vicious looking teeth. This head also features some yellow pupils painted in on the eyes. This is some great work, and it pains me to say that I’ll probably never really use this head for display, but it’s nice that Hasbro through it in there.

Overall, the articulation here is pretty good, although I have a tiny quibble about the shoulders. The rotating hinges there feel a bit ratchety and there’s really no reason for it that nonsense in a figure this scale. Otherwise, the points include: Double hinges in the elbows and knees, swivels in the biceps, thighs, and boots, rotating hinges in the wrists, ball joints in the hips, hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, a swivel in the chest, an ab crunch hinge, and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck.

In addition to the extra head, Hobgoblin also comes with some excellent accessories. You get his satchel, which hangs off his shoulder. It’s a great little sculpt and features some silver paint on the buckles. Hobbie’s metrosexual man bag allows him to carry his spare bombs, and maybe a few sundry items for when he wants to freshen up.

Yup, bombs! Hobgoblin comes with a single glowy yellow bomb, which he can hold pretty well in either hand. And no, you can’t put it in his man bag.

And finally, he comes with his glider. Yes, it’s a very simple piece, molded in pretty soft gray plastic, and maybe a little undersized, but he looks great on it. There are loops to stick his feet through and the upturned toes of the boots help lock them into place.

Other than a few tweaks in the shoulders I’ve got nothing but praise for Hobbie here. He’s no doubt an important figure, and when you consider how many Spidey-themed waves we’ve had, it’s surprising that it took Hasbro this long to get to him. It’s even more surprising that they released the Ulrich Hobgoblin before this one, and both of them before The Green Goblin. What? No, the Ultimate Green Goblin BAF doesn’t count! Honestly, though, the priority of releases here really doesn’t bother me. I’m in Marvel Legends for the long haul, and at the rate Hasbro is pumping out the releases, they’ll get around to everyone sooner or later. I just hope that Squirrel Girl is going to be sooner rather than later.

Mar 20 2017

Marvel Legends (Space Venom Wave): Spider-Woman (Ashley Barton) by Hasbro

If you’re a casual comic fan and collector of Marvel Legends, then sorting out the who’s who with some of these Spider-Man themed figures is likely to bring on some migraines of epic spidey-sense proportions. A lot of this confusion can be blamed on Spider-Verse, which threw together a wide range of characters from a wide range of universes. I found it to be a great read and I’m really stoked that we’re getting our share of figures from the fallout. Enter Ashley Barton. Bad-ass descendant of Peter Parker’s daughter and Clint Barton from one of them other universes, and who’s figure I happen to be opening today!

Ashley shares her slot with Silk, so her name doesn’t appear on the front of the package, instead it just says “Web-Slinging Heroines.” In fact, her name doesn’t really appear on the back either, so this figure is aimed at people who are up on their funny books. Everyone else is just going to be scratching their heads. And as expected, Hasbro opted to not go with printing “Spider-Bitch” on the package, although seeing that in the toy aisles would have been a hoot and certainly would have brought a whole herd of outraged Florida moms out from their dens. Oh yeah, see all that empty space in the bubble above the BAF part? That would have been a perfect place for some extra hands, but let me come back to that point, because I’m getting ahead of myself.

I really dig this character design and I think Hasbro did a fine job translating it to action figure form. Granted, this is achieved mostly through paint, and I would have liked to see some sculpting to separate the bare shoulders and biceps from the sleeves, but what we got here still works well enough. The darker tones of red and blue really suit the character and I’ll confess to being a little envious of where the spider emblem has parked itself. There are a few smudges on my figure, but overall the paint is pretty sharp, and that’s impressive seeing as how intricate the web pattern is. Hell, even the pins in the knee joints are painted properly, something that we can’t always take for granted with these figures.

And speaking of details… I’d know that Barton family ass anywhere. Spectacular!

The head sculpt is something else that I really dig about this figure. They captured Ashley’s look perfectly, right down to the multiple earrings. Here we do get some sculpted lines separating where the mask ends and her skin begins. I love the way the sculpted hair covers over part of the mask. I’d definitely rank this portrait pretty high on the list of greats.

The articulation here is pretty standard stuff for the female Legends bucks, which means its serviceable, but not exceptional. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. There are swivels in the thighs, but none in the biceps or lower legs. The knees are ball jointed, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s no swivel in the waist, and just a ball joint under the chest. The neck has the usual ball joint and hinge combo. This buck seems a little lacking under normal circumstances, but when its a member of the Spider-Family, it just doesn’t feel agile enough. I can’t even get her leg up for those really high kicks.

And then there are the hands. Hasbro got me used to expecting a passel of extra hands with my Spidey figures. Ashley here has no extras, just the one fist and one accessory-holding hand with no accessory to put in it. If they weren’t going to give her multiple hand options, I’m not sure these were really the way to go here. It just seems oddly limiting.

It may sound like I’ve had more than my usual share of complaints here, but truth be told I like this figure. She looks great on the shelf and lately I’m all about picking up the figures based on characters that are new to me. It’s all about the Universe building, right? Or in this case, the Spider-Verse building. I would have liked to see Hasbro retire this female buck by now in favor of some double-hinged elbows and bicep cuts, but at this point, I don’t think its going to happen any time soon. And when a figure looks this good, I guess I’m OK with that.

Mar 13 2017

Marvel Legends (Space Venom Wave): Miles Morales Spider-Man by Hasbro

Alrighty folks, after a brief detour to Bishoujo Town last week, Marvel Monday is back to Legends and it’s time to kick off a brand new Wave! Well, a brand new, um… old wave. It’s the Space Knight Venom Wave and these figures can only be considered new because I haven’t opened them yet. In case you ever wondered, nine times out of ten I do actually wait to open figures until I’m ready to review them. As you can imagine, there’s quite a stack of unopened Legends boxes in the corner, not to mention a bunch of other things. I am soooooo far behind! Anywho, I’m kicking off this wave with Miles Morales, because I was particularly excited to get this figure, and because he’s long overdue.

I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging, other then that Hasbro could have wrapped this figure in an old newspaper and I still would have forked over the cash for him. This is yet another Spider-Man themed wave, and I hope you’re not tired of them, because we’ve already had another one hit the pegs since and there’s no end in sight! On the subject of Miles Morales, it’s staggering to me that someone out there in Hollywood didn’t realize that they could have avoided the whole issue of reboot fatigue by putting Miles up on the big screen instead of another Peter Parker. It would have been perfect timing and it would have spared us those terrible Amazing Spider-Man films. But it all seemed to work out because Homecoming looks like it’s going to be excellent and it’s certainly paying respects to Ultimate Spider-Man in the way they Ganke’d Miles’ best friend for the movie. Eh? See what I did there. Spider-Puns! Ok, let’s look at the figure!

I wouldn’t have put it past Hasbro to deliver us Miles on the usual Spidey buck, but instead we got a smaller, more age appropriate build and I love it. I also love this costume design. It’s a more minimalist approach to Spidey 616’s duds, consisting of a nearly all black suit with the crimson deco only appearing on the arms, chest, back, and head. It’s clean, it’s simple, and the red looks striking against the black. I also really dig the way the Spider’s front legs on his back seem to morph into those shoulder stripes. This is one slick Spidey suit! The paint on my figure is overall quite good, with just a few minor stray red marks on what is otherwise pretty neat and sharp.

You get two heads with the figure: Masked and unmasked and both are excellent. The masked head features sculpting around the large white eyes and the web pattern just painted on. The unmasked head is just an all around great sculpt. They did a nice job capturing the comic art and I really like the little grin Miles is showing.

The articulation here is certainly solid enough, although it is missing the shoulder crunches that we have been getting with most Spider-Man Legends figures. Yes, I would have liked if those points were included, but I think it’s a worthy trade off for getting Miles on the smaller teenage buck. Why couldn’t we have both? I dunno. Budget? Either way, the articulation here is pretty standard stuff for Legends. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels at the thighs and lower legs, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the chest, and ab crunch hinge in the torso, and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The joints are solid and feel great, making it damn hard for me to put this figure down.

In terms of accessories, Miles comes with the usual passel of hands that we’ve been seeing in a lot of Legends Spidey releases. You get a pair of fists, a pair of thwippy hands, and a pair of hands with splayed fingers. It’s still amazing to me that Hasbro hasn’t cooked up some web accessories for these figures yet. I’d happily take an accessory pack priced at $20 with a crap load of different webs, but from what I hear accessory packs are usually death on the shelves. Then again, NECA has been releasing them for their Alien and Predator lines, and DC Collectibles for their DC Icons line. I know, those are both more collector-orientated companies, whereas Hasbro has to make the retailers happy in order to get space on the planograms. A con exclusive, on the other hand, would be cool. Just repack one of the million recent Spider-Man figures with a bunch of web accessories and slap forty bucks on it. If the webs are good, I’d buy it.

To those of you who are getting all Spidey’d out, all I can say is I’m sorry. I get it. But with the lasting popularity of Spider-Verse, a new Spider-Man flick on the horizon, and Hasbro’s natural inclination for variants, you pretty much have to expect that they’re going to milk that spider for everything its worth. I certainly don’t mind, especially when it gives us a character like Miles, who I’ve been hoping for almost all the way back to when the Legends rebooted. And that’s probably why I resisted the urge to review both Ultimate Spider-Man figures together. Yeah, I’m trying to get caught up, and doubling up figures helps me get there, but I just thought this dude deserved his own day in the spotlight. I’ll probably wind up pairing up Ultimate Peter Parker with the Build-A-Figure when I get to the end of the wave.

Feb 27 2017

Marvel Legends (Abomination Wave): Eel and Abomination Build-A-Figure by Hasbro

Here we go… it’s time to wrap up the Abomination Wave with a look at the last packaged figure, Eel, and then I’m going to stick around and put together The Abomination Build-A-Figure. I’m doubling up today, partly because I’m falling so far behind in opening my Legends figures, but also because I don’t have a whole lell of a lot to say about Marvel’s Eel.

Now I don’t want to piss all over The Eel. His alias (two characters have held the name) is not without some pedigree, with the original incarnation going all the way back to the 60’s in the pages of Strange Tales, where else? Throughout the decades, he’s served any number of teams from the Thunderbolts to the Serpent Society and he’s appeared in a number of relatively recent Marvel event books from Civil War to Original Sin. The blurb on the back makes it sound like he has an innate power to conduct electricity, but as far as I knew, he’s just a dude in a special suit. But hey, I’m no Eel expert.

Based on the costume, this is most likely Eddie Lavell, as opposed to Leopold Stryke who had a simpler deco on his mask. Obviously Eel is the budget-saving figure in the Wave. Although when you consider that Wonder Man and Cap got by with mostly painted bucks and Iron Skull was a repainted Mark 42 Armor, it feels like Hasbro did a lot of budgeting in this assortment. Nonetheless, for me Eel is the one figure that really smacks of being easy-peasy-cheap-and-breezy. The buck features zero original sculpting and it’s possible that we’ve even seen that masked head before. If not, then that’s the only original sculpting on this figure. Even the electro-effect hands came from Electro.

Still, I have to say I love what Hasbro does with these masked head sculpts. You can really see a lot of cool details in the facial features underneath. In this case, the chin and the nose are hinted at, and it looks like he’s snarling. The pupil-less yellow eyes are a nice touch.

With that having been said, the coloring is somewhat attractive and the paint is clean. With the almost neon splashes of purple and blue, he looks like my Freshman Year Trapper Keeper from 1986. Articulation is standard for the line and he has a pair of regular fists if those effect-part hands aren’t to your taste.

Personally, I really like the effect hands, and as you may know, I’m generally not really into effect parts, but these are fun and add a little something extra to a figure that really needed it. In the end, I’m going to have to surprise even myself and say I kind of like this figure. Eel is well done for what he is, and if this is the worst I have to buy to get a BAF part, I’m OK with that. And speaking of BAF parts, let’s move on to Abomination.

Yup, this is about as simple as a Buid-A-Figure can get. Six parts consisting of two arms, two legs, a body, and a head. Everything goes together super easy.

Like The Enchantress from the Dormammu Wave, Abomination was originally released as part of last year’s SDCC Exclusive Raft set. Wait, wasn’t Dormammu previously released as an SDCC Exclusive too? Wow, Hasbro is making a habit of this. And yet still no retail release of Magick. BOO!!! Anyway, the sculpting on the two figures is identical with this version only being set apart by a brand new paint job. The sculpt is genuinely superb. I feel like Hasbro could have cheaped out here and reused parts from the Ultimate Green Goblin BAF, but this looks all new to me and I really like it.

The detail in the craggy skin is phenomenal as are all the disgusting warts and bumps scattered about his body. The scales and ridges on his shoulders and back are also excellent. You get pretty standard Legends articulation here, with the only real cut being single hinges in the knees, as opposed to doubles.

The head sculpt doesn’t disappoint either. I do have one tiny nitpick and that’s the seam that runs above his eyebrows is a little obvious. If this were a high end figure, I’d say that was a legitimate gripe, but here I think it’s entirely forgivable, especially when every other thing about the portrait is so damn good.

As for the paint job, I think it’s terrific. It’s far more dynamic than what we saw on the Exclusive version. You get gradations of green starting mostly dark on the extremities and back and lightening up on the chest and face. I’m kind of torn on it. On the one hand, I think it looks a lot more interesting, and ironically more like a premium figure, than the SDCC version. On the other hand, I think I’d have to say the Exclusive is more accurate to most of the comic art I’ve seen. I definitely prefer this one, with my only issue being the paint on his shorts looks really flat compared to the rest of the figure.

And there we have it, another Wave of Marvel Legends in the bag. While this assortment tends to get crapped on, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. The Abomination, Wonder Man, and Captain Britain are all characters that I’m very happy to have on my shelf. The MCU version of Scarlet Witch was long overdue, and the rest are just solid universe builders. Of course, I seem to be in the minority on that opinion, because with the exception of Scarlet Witch, Amazon was blowing these figures out for as little as eight bucks a pop at one time. But hey, more for me. On the next Marvel Monday, I’ll be taking a break to look at some Marvel goodness from a line that I haven’t shown in a long while, and then I’m going way back to check out some Spidey villains before moving on to the Space Venom Wave. Oh boy, am I behind!!!

Feb 20 2017

Marvel Legends (Abomination Wave): Wonder Man and Captain Britain by Hasbro

Yesiree, folks, I’m doubling up on another Marvel Monday so I can try to get caught up with opening Legends figures before we hit the middle of the year. I’m about a wave and a half behind when it comes to opening what I’ve got, but I still need to pick up the Sandman Wave and the Guardians of the Galaxy v2 Wave is starting to hit stores along with the second X-Men Wave. Jeepers! Anyway, today I’m checking out the last two heroes from the Abomination Wave and these happen to be two characters I’m very happy about getting on my shelf: Wonder Man and Captain Britain!

There’s no doubt that this wave feels like a collection of odds and ends and this pair continues to drive that point home. Not that I’m complaining. So far, this wave has given me the MCU version of Scarlet Witch and some pretty cool and obscure variants of Captain America and Red Skull. Simon Williams’ release in the modern Legends line feels rather overdue, especially since his brother, Eric hit the line a couple years back as part of the Ultron Wave, so let’s start with Wonder Man!

To be honest, there isn’t a hell of a lot to say about this guy. As expected this is a pretty basic figure, and when it comes to original sculpting there isn’t a lot to be found here. With the exception of the wrist bracers, everything else below the neck is achieved through a painted buck. That’s not to say it doesn’t work splendidly. The paint is pretty clean and sharp and the black and red deco of his costume looks fantastic.

Of course, the head sculpt is new and I really dig it. The red paint apps for the eyes look fantastic and the facial details are well defined. I’d definitely rank this among the better portraits in the modern Legends line, and that’s saying a lot because there have been some great ones!

Wonder Man comes with a pair of charged ionic energy fists, which can be used in conjunction with the energy effect parts. Yup, we’ve seen these before, now cast in translucent purple. The effect parts fit a little loosely on his wrists, but they still look pretty rad when combined with the ionized fists.

Ultimately, I’ve got no complaints with this figure. He’s just a great example of how Hasbro is able to do justice to a character without having to go nuts with brand new tooling. And that’s not a little thing, because cost saving figures like these are a big part of how Hasbro is able to churn out so many figures and even hit on some of the characters that aren’t exactly A-Listers. Moving on to Captain Britain…

Brian Braddock sports his Union Jack-inspired costume and actually features a lot more sculpted detail than I was expecting. He’s built on one of the beefier modern Legends bucks and includes sculpted wraps on his forearms, boots with three sets of buckles running up the fronts, and a wide belt. The coloring on this figure is superb. The white is very clean and the combination of red and metallic blue really makes the figure pop. Toss in a little gold on the buckles and the printed crests on his shoulders and you’ve got a damned great looking figure.

The head sculpt also shines on this guy.I really like how they sculpted and painted the eyes even though they are set pretty deep in the mask.

The articulation on both Captain Britain and Wonder Man are both identical. The 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 swivels in the thighs and tops of the boots, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers, the waists have swivels, there are ab crunches in the chests, and the necks are both hinged and ball jointed.

Prior to these figures, I only owned these characters as part of Hasbro’s 3 3/4-inch Marvel lines. Captain Britain was part of the Captain America: The First Avenger line and Wonder Man was released through Marvel Universe as a completely ionized energy version. Although I think they did a regular version too. Needless to say, I’m thrilled to get these 6-inch versions for my Legends shelf. Now, the only question is with Captain Britain done and Marvel’s recent interest in giving the X-Men their proper due, does this mean I may be able to start putting together the Excalibur Team? I sure do hope so! Next week, I’ll wrap up this wave with a look at Eel and The Abomination Build-A-Figure!

Feb 13 2017

Marvel Legends (Abomination Wave): “Secret War” Captain America and Iron Skull by Hasbro

Welcome to another Marvel Monday, folks, and as promised I’m tackling two figures from the Marvel Legends Abomination Wave today, and both are interesting choices on Hasbro’s part. We’ve got Cap in a one-off costume that is pulled from a Bendis comic that’s got to be about almost a decade old by now and Red Skull donning a stolen suit of Iron Man’s armor, which I believe appeared in the animated series, Avengers Assemble.

Both figures come in packages branded “Captain America” and I’ve seen a lot of confusion and tepid reactions to these figures. While I’ll admit that I wasn’t jonesing to get a figure of Cap in this uniform and I don’t watch the Avengers Assemble cartoon, I’m actually really happy to be getting this pair. Cap is one of my favorite Marvel characters, so I welcome any and all variants of him, and as we’ll soon see Iron Skull is not only a cool idea, but he’s just plain bad ass. Let’s check out Cap first…

Obviously, a super-special top secret mission for SHIELD deserves a super-special new outfit, and that was the case with most of the heroes appearing in this book. Cap’s outfit is pretty rad, in that it preserves his love for the red, white, and blue, while still presenting something different. The bulk of the costume is a very dark blue with a large white band around the middle of each arm, two white vertical stripes flanking both sides of his abs, and a white pin stripe running down the middle of his chest and the front of each of his legs. He’s got a large silver star emblazoned on his chest and an American flag tampo’ed on his left shoulder. The whole ensemble is tied together with some silver knee pads and a silver belt.

In terms of fresh sculpting, we get some fabulous buccaneer boots and flared gauntlets, with red striping. I really dig these, as they add a significant touch of classic to what is otherwise a brand new look. I also like the silver stripes on the joints of his fingers.

The head sculpt features a very distinctive hood with red and white pin stripes running from front to back and some damn cool wings painted on the side that almost look like sickles. And as long as we’re on the subject of paint, the quality of application here is pretty solid. There’s a little bleed through evident in some areas of the white, but overall it isn’t too bad. It’s also nice to see that they painted the pins in the elbows to match the white.

The articulation here holds no surprises. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinged elbows. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels at both the thighs and the tops of the boots, double hinges in the knees, and the ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel at the waist, an ab crunch in the torso, and both a hinge and ball joint in the neck. The joints all feel great and he’s tons of fun to pose.

You get two accessories with Cap, although they are designed to go together. First, you get a pretty standard shield. It’s got both a peg and a clip, so he can wear it on his back or equip it on his wrist.

The other accessory is an extra right hand and effect part that you can peg the shield into and give him a throwing effect. I didn’t have high hopes for this thing when I first saw pictures of it, but in hand, I’ve found it to be lots of fun. Moving on to Iron Skull…

The idea of Red Skull getting a hold of one of Stark’s armors just tickles me in all the right ways, so I’m not going to jump on board with the haters screaming that this is just an excuse to re-use and re-sell an Iron Man body. This is the Mark 43 figure, to be specific, which was the same as the Mark 42. And damn, does it look great here. It’s been given a properly eeeevil black finish with some bitchin red panel lines. Seriously, I love this thing.

The head sculpt here is absolutely fantastic. It retains that creepy, yet super-stylized look that I love so much. It also features some fantastic paint. It’s too bad I’ll probably almost never use it, because the figure also comes with…

THIS! It’s the helmet with a Red Skull motif and oh my god, I love it so much! Seriously, while collectors everywhere scream, WTF, HASBRO? over this figure, I’m just loving it to pieces.

I’m not going to go over the articulation, as I’ve already looked at this body not once, but twice. I will say that while it’s overall decent, there are some things that bug me about it, like the restricted range of motion in the ankles.

I was pretty happy about getting these figures ever since they were first revealed and I’m just as happy to have them in hand. They’re both nice nods to very specific aspects of the Marvel extended universe and that’s exactly the kind of thing I like to get in my action figure collection. The remarkably prolific nature of Legends has made this line all about universe building for me these days, and that’s what these figures are all about.

Feb 6 2017

Marvel Legends (Abomination Wave): Scarlet Witch by Hasbro

Marvel Legends continues to both amaze and befuddle me. Obviously, it’s being driven by the marketing juggernaut (HA!) that is the Disney-Marvel cinematic machine. And yet when it comes to Legends figures, the comic-based and often more obscure characters have outnumbered the cinematic counterparts. Now, I’m not complaining… not really. Having figures like Shocker, Batroc, and Eel swinging on the pegs is a wonderful thing. But I’m still surprised that Hasbro has been so slow in giving us MCU versions of many main characters.

Case in point, I’m only now getting a Legends MCU Scarlet Witch, with Hasbro passing over her premier in Age of Ultron and going straight for Civil War. And here, she’s seemingly thrown into an otherwise totally comic-based wave like an afterthought. It’s weird, but nonetheless welcome. What’s more, this figure turned out so damn amazing… it’s almost magical! All puns aside. I love this figure!

I really love the evolution of Wanda’s costume in the movies. She starts out with the almost gypsy-like outfit in Age of Ultron (which I happily have represented in Hot Toys form) and streamlines it to something that looks similar, but a lot more polished and more suited to super hero scuffles. Hasbro really nailed it here in their 6-inch version. I really dig what they did with her corset. It’s got that vertical ribbing and some great stitching down the front. The slightly metallic red they used for it looks fantastic and the front lacing is neatly panted in black.

The jacket, however, is the real star of this little plastic costume. I’ll be the first to admit that the whole trench coat look is getting more than a bit tired, especially in super hero films, but I think this just works splendidly. Every little detail is sculpted in from the overall texture to the stitching on the belt and the reinforced patches on the elbows and shoulders. I also really dig the way it fans out at the bottom. It creates a nice dramatic look and also helps keep it from interfering with her articulation. Even the color is just perfect. They also did a wonderful job on her finger-less gloves.

And then you have the portrait. Would I recognize this as Elizabeth Olsen? Nah, probably not. If you tell me this is Elizabeth Olsen can I see a little of her in there? Sure, why not. Either way, I think it’s a fantastic looking sculpt. I’m tempted to say they went a little too heavy on the rouge, but then I think it adds a little warmth to the face. It’s certainly miles better than what they did to poor Daisy Ridley with the 6-inch Star Wars Black Rey figure. The sculpted hair here looks great too, although it does work against the neck articulation.

Speaking of articulation, Wanda’s stacks up pretty well. She’s got rotating hinges in her shoulders, elbows, and wrists, but sadly no bicep swivels. Her legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivel cuts in the thighs, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. She’s got a ball joint just under the chest, and another in the neck. Yes, this is case where I really do miss those bicep swivels. They would have allowed for a lot more spell-slinging poses, but I’m still having a good time with what we got.

About the only knock I have against Scarlet Witch are the crappy effect parts she came with. No, I’m usually not one for effect parts in the first place, but these just look terrible. There’s no subtlety or craft about them. They’re just giant swirls of transparent red plastic. If I didn’t know anything about her character and I saw these, I’d guess her power was shooting flames out of her hands. Here’s a case where I like the comic-style hex effects much better.

Good thing I have about a thousand pairs of those in almost every color of the rainbow! I went with the pink ones! It’s appropriate, because I think those are the ones that came with comic-based Scarlet Witch.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to this wave. In fact, the only reason I picked up most of the figures in it was because they were $10 each on Amazon, and if I had waited, I would have found they went even lower. Of course, Scarlet Witch was the exception. I actually wound up forking over $25 for her, but it was worth every penny. She’s a fantastic figure and a long overdue addition to my MCU Legends shelf. And while Wanda deserved her own slot on Marvel Monday, I can’t say the same for the rest of the figures that make up this Abomination Wave. There’s nothing terrible here, but nothing terribly exciting either. So I’ll be doubling up on a lot of the rest so I can get in and get out a little faster than usual.

And just a reminder, I’m starting my new (hopefully for keeps this time) update schedule this week with new content on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I’ll still be rotating Saturdays, but I do believe I’ll have an Anime Saturday ready for this week.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

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