Iron Fist is the next character to get the spotlight from Marvel’s Netflix endeavors and I’m pretty excited about what I’ve seen so far. It seems only natural to keep him in the spotlight on the toy aisles to, and so Hasbro dropped Iron Fist into this Doctor Strange Wave. The mystical connection is certainly there, but I could think of a few more appropriate figures that they could have slotted into this wave. I would have particularly loved a wide release of Magick. But then I think… hey, it’s Iron Fist… he’s cool!

There’s no actual Doctor Strange branding on the package and Iron Fist actually gets his own logo down at the bottom. If you’re getting a twinge of Deja Vous from this release, it’s because we just saw Iron Fist (in his white outfit) about a year ago in the Allfather Wave. But don’t roll your eyes just yet, because…

If you were grumbling about getting a straight repaint of the last Iron Fist, you should be pleasantly surprised, because this one is all new. I liked the last release a lot, it’s an incredibly fun figure, but it did use that carry-over body from Hasbro’s old Legends line, which included those terrible ball hips, but I’ll get back to those when I talk articulation. This body sculpt strikes me as more fluid and natural, and less like one of those pose-able artist’s anatomy dolls. It’s just a lean, mean kung-fu-fighting machine.

Of course, the costume is achieved mostly through a painted buck, and even with that having been said, the paint is minimal. You get a mostly green body with yellow painted boots and his emblem printed on his chest. The fists and wraps are new sculpts and the belt is sculpted as a separate piece.

The previous Iron Fist head was passable, but this one is excellent. Granted, it’s a very different style. The exposed lower half of the face features some sharp detail and the mask looks great and features the long, loose ties streaming off the back.

This is the Pizza Spidey buck, so the articulation is both familiar and excellent. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and about halfway through the forearms. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinged knees, swivels in the thighs, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The torso features a swivel at the waist, an ab crunch hinge, and those wonderful lateral crunches in the shoulders. The head has both a hinge and a ball joint.

While this version of Iron Fist doesn’t include the plethora of extra hands the last release had, you do get a pair of glowing fists, achieved through translucent yellow plastic. You also get two translucent yellow effect parts, which can be used over either pairs of fists to give him flaming fists of fury!

So, some may cry foul at getting another Iron Fist so soon, but it’s hard for me to argue when the figure is this good. And, boy is he good! Throw in the fact that I relate to his green costume a lot more than his white one, and this figure is actually a very welcome variant-slash-do-over. Next Monday I’m going to wrap this wave up with a look at both variants of the MCU Doctor Strange and follow it up with Dormammu himself!

And now is as good a time as any to declare that my new posting schedule is not working out so well, so next month I’ll be changing it up, hopefully for the last time, and going to a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday rotation. Yes, it’s only adding one more Feature a week, but I’m afraid I was going to fall too far behind if I continued with just three. Hopefully this will be the happy compromise I’m looking for I have been getting a lot more time in on my backlog of video games and comics, and I think the one day off in the middle of the week will be enough to keep that going.

And no, I haven’t forgotten about the occasional Anime Saturdays, I’ll have another one of those ready for the end of this week. 

While there are changes coming to FFZ this year, Marvel Mondays will not be one of them. I now have two complete Waves waiting to be featured, unfinished business with a third, and yet another that I haven’t even started buying yet. And with that, let’s continue through the Doctor Strange Wave and kick off the New Year with a certain little Witchy Woman… Nico Minoru!

Nico is the other half of the “Mystic Rivals” slot, sharing it with The Enchantress, so her name doesn’t actually appear on the front. It’s a pretty ballsy move on Hasbro’s part, because let’s face it, Nico probably isn’t a household Marvel name. I’m sorry to say that I’m not a big fan of the current run of The Runaways. She has, however, appeared in a number of other event books, but I remember her most fondly as Sister Grimm in the Mystic Arcana mini-series. She certainly fits this wave quite well, as she’s not only part of Marvel’s mystical side, but was one of the runners up to possibly become Sorcerer Supreme before the job fell to Brother Voodoo.

Looking every bit the *ahem* runaway from Father Flanagan’s Home for Unwanted Goth Kids, Nico presents as one of the most unique looking figures to come out of the modern run of Marvel Legends, and I absolutely love that! With her black dress, chunky belted boots, black and purple striped tights, and long black gloves, she looks like she’d be more at home in the pages of a Zenescope book than a traditional Marvel comic. The sculpting on this figure is all new and it’s great that Hasbro is willing to invest this kind of tooling on someone like Nico.

The outfit features some nice little details, like the painted lace on her sleeve and the sculpted fringe at the hem of her dress. Her corset-like top has all the stitching sculpted in and the rows of buckles on each of her boots are individually painted silver.

While the costume is great, I think it’s the portrait that really makes this figure shine. It’s a beautiful face sculpt with some very sharp paint for her lips and eyes. And, oh, those eyes! Her red pupils and heavy mascara are totally Goth Chic!  The hair is also particularly well sculpted.

The articulation here is pretty spot on, despite being a rather unconventional new buck. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs as well as at the tops of the boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint just below the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. Even the dress isn’t too restrictive on the hip articulation.

Despite including the rather beefy lower half of Dormammu’s torso, Nico also comes with some pretty cool accessories. First off, you get an interchangeable left arm, which is the same sculpt, but this time partially cast in purple translucent plastic as a spell effect. You just pop out the stock arm at the shoulder joint and pop this one in.

Nico also comes with the Staff of One, which has a removable effect part cast in the same purple plastic as the extra arm. The staff is a very simple sculpt and cast in gold plastic. It’s also, unfortunately, a little bendy and it can be a little tough to get her to hold it once the effect part is wrapped around it. Still, a cool accessory, nonetheless. I really dig that they made the effect part optional.

Nico may just end up being the breakaway figure of this wave for me, despite having only limited exposure to the character. I love everything about this figure and it both surprises and delights me to see Hasbro willing to invest so much in what is very likely to be a one-off buck. I just can’t see any of this going to another character. In a line that is often content (and usually justifiably so) to get by with just repaints of basic bucks, Nico is a stand out release and a real treat in this wave!

While Doctor Strange has been in theaters for a little while now, this wave of Legends is still topical for me, as I just got around to seeing the film for the first time a few weeks ago. I don’t want to turn my blog of toy ranting into a blog of movie ranting, but I’ll just say that I liked Doctor Strange, but I did not love it. It was certainly enjoyable and I think they did a pretty good job with the character, but it was probably my least favorite MCU release so far. As negative as that may sound, it’s worth noting that I’ve loved them all, so taking last place in this case is nothing to be ashamed of. With that having been said, I’m kicking off this wave with the figure in the assortment that I identify the least with Doctor Strange… The Enchantress!

Enchantress is one of the “Mystic Rivals,” sharing her slot in this wave with Nico Minoru. As a result, her name does not appear on the front of the package, only the back. There’s no actual Doctor Strange branding on this package, but you get the same orange colored side panels, which feature some really nice character art of both Nico and The Enchantress, one on each side. As always, these window boxes are collector friendly, but I’m about to shred this thing to pieces and pitch the remnants.

Behold! The Enchantress! This lovely lady uses the exact same body as The Scarlet Witch, back in the Allfather Wave, but it totally works and so I won’t hold that against her. I will, however, hold anything else against her, if she’s up for it, because she’s quite the knock out. The bulk of the outfit is achieved through paint. You get black leggings that end in high-heeled boots. Her rather iconic ring patterns are painted on the fronts of her legs in metallic green. Her painted top is dark green and her painted arm bracers are metallic green to match those leg rings. The paint on this figure is very sharp and clean and the colors look great.

The newly sculpted piece for her outfit consists of a soft plastic green skirt with a gold painted belt. The skirt is designed so as not to hamper her hip articulation. Her hands are the same ones used for Scarlet Witch as well, giving her those wonderful spell-slinging fingers.

I really dig the portrait here. The paint work on her lips, eyes, mascara, and eye brows is all nice and clean. She has a wonderfully slight smirk on her lips, which gives her a little extra personality. Her tiara is sculpted onto her hair, and the hair does its best to not inhibit the neck articulation too badly. My figure does have a weird scar above her chest that looks like came out of the molding process. It’s not a big deal, but worth mentioning. I thin it looks a bit like a battle scar.

Since they share the same body, the articulation here is identical to Scarlet Witch, but I looked at her a long time ago, so I’ll do the rundown again. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint just below the chest and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The hinges are all strong and tight and she’s surprisingly easy to stand, even with those heels.

Enchantress comes with the same magic effect parts we saw with Scarlet Witch. Actually, we’ve seen these several times since as well. They seem to be Hasbro’s favorite accessory, based solely on how many times they’ve recycled them. This time they’re cast in a wonderful neon green plastic, which practically glows under a good light source.

I was absolutely thrilled when Hasbro revealed Enchantress would be in this wave, not only because I love the character, but because for a brief time it looked like she would be a limited release. She was originally included as part of the 2016 SDCC Exclusive Marvel Legends boxed set and that made me very angry collector. While I was pretty confident she’d eventually see a retail release, they don’t usually follow too soon after the exclusives. Fortunately, Hasbro showed pity on us fans who don’t like hunting exclusives, or paying through the nose for them, and the lovely Enchantress got a wide release after all. She was definitely one of my most anticipated figures in this wave and I think she turned out great.

I’m back from my little post-Thanksgiving hiatus. The turkey has been gobbled and I’ve worked a lot of hours, but it’s time to get back in the saddle again on this wonderful Marvel Monday. I’m coming into the final stretch with my unfashionably late look at the Marvel Legends Rhino Wave, so let’s jump right in and have a look at Misty Knight!

You get the same old packaging and Misty shares the “Heroes For Hire” slot with Ghost Rider, who I looked at a few weeks back. Misty was a peg warmer around these parts, which is ironic because she was one of my most anticipated figures in this wave. Not only has a version of the character gotten a lot of screen time in Netflix’s Luke Cage series. But more importantly, she was prominently featured in alongside Valkyrie in The Fearless Defenders, a comic run that I enjoyed quite a bit. And it’s pretty cool that Hasbro has hit a lot of the gals in that lineup with Marvel Legends lately.

And isn’t she lovely! Misty’s buck features a mostly featureless body suit, showing off some sculpted muscle definition in her abs, a plunging neckline with gold piping, and a high collar. She also has a sculpted shoulder rig with armpit pouches… ARMPIT POUCHES!!! Even Deadpool, Lord of the Pouch, never thought to wear armpit pouches! She also has a belt that rests on her right hip and plunges down to a low slung holster on her left hip, complete with thigh strap.

And like a lot of the Legends ladies, she’s got a fine caboose! In terms of sculpt, this design strikes a really nice balance between plain buck, new sculpting, and some added bits. The red plastic used for the body suit has a nice, subtle metallic sheen, the straps and belts are all brown, and the gold paint is applied very neatly even on the tiny buckles.

The sculpt on the portrait here is fantastic, even if the paint has a few flubs. The eyes on my figure are a bit askew, and there’s a chip on the paint on the back of her head. It’s nothing I can’t fix with a little Sharpie action, but I shouldn’t have to. Either way, she’s got a beautiful face and the epic 70’s style afro that spills out behind the red headband is superb. The gold painted hoop earrings are a nice touch too! And speaking of gold, Misty is sporting her cybernetic arm from Stark Industries. Only the hand is exposed, but it’s a cool little sculpt and has some more of that nice gold paint.

The articulation here is in line with most of the modern females we’ve been getting. Sadly, that means the arms lack bicep swivels. They do, however, have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, with swivels in the thighs and double hinges in the knees. The holster strap does restrict the left thigh swivel a bit. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There is no waist swivel, but she does have a ball joint just under her chest and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck. Misty can be a little daunting to keep standing up, which makes me doubly thankful they didn’t give her heels.

Misty comes with one accessory and that’s her gold revolver. I’m not a big fan of this piece. The sculpt isn’t very detailed, the barrel tends to warp, and the matte gold plastic used for most of it just doesn’t look that good. It does, however, fit nicely in her hip holster and she can hold it in her left hand.

Despite a few hiccups on paint and a crappy gun, I’m very happy to have this lady in my collection. In fact just seeing an action figure like Misty, oozing that 70’s funk and swinging on the pegs in the toy aisle makes me happy. I just wish there weren’t so many Mistys swinging on those pegs, because that suggests she didn’t sell well. And that makes me sad.