Sep 19 2016

Marvel Legends (Giant Man Wave): Captain America and Iron Man (Mark 46) by Hasbro

Last week saw the Blu-Ray release of Captain America: Civil War, a film that I thoroughly enjoyed in the theater and have now enjoyed even more in the comfort of my own home. Over and over again! Coincidentally, I’m also doubling back to start my look at the Civil War inspired wave of Marvel Legends. Considering I’m so backlogged on these figures, I’m going to be doubling up on a few of these so that I can get through the wave a little quicker than usual. It seemed only natural to kick it off with Cap and Iron Man.

And here they are in the packaging. Not much new and noteworthy to talk about, other than the movie branding and some nice blue panels on the sides with character art. If I’m being honest, I bought this pair solely for the BAF parts and I doubt I’m alone in that. Let’s look at Cap first to find out part of the reason why…

Yes, this is Age of Ultron Cap from last year’s Thanos Wave with a fresh coat of paint, and the new deco doesn’t really thrill me. The blue is a lot darker and the white bands from the biceps have been replaced with more dark blue and a less notable red stripe. Most of the other minor differences are just areas where red accents have been either added or taken away.

Speaking of other things that have been taken away, last year’s release included two extra hands and an unmasked head. Here? Nope, nada, bupkis! The only accessory Cap comes with is his shield.

It’s the same shield we saw last time, which means it’s got the more realistic straps and detailed sculpt inside. Unfortunately, there’s no way to attach it to his back, unless you use a big wad of blue tack. The bottom line is that unless you’re after a darker, grittier look for Cap, or you want yet another of Cap’s shields rattling around in your accessory tote, the Giant Man head is the only reason to even consider this purchase. Not a bad figure, by any means, but it would have been an easy pass for me. Congratulations Build-A-Figure gimmick. You won this round!

Iron Man’s Mark 46 armor fares a bit better, as I believe this is a brand new sculpt, but I have so many god damn Iron Man figures in my Legends collection, my eyes start to glaze over when I try to remember them all. It’s at least notably different from the Age of Ultron Mark 43, which was mostly a repaint of the Iron Man 3 Mark 42. Oh, god. I need to lie down. F.R.I.D.A.Y. get me an ice pack.

I actually dig the look of this design a lot. The overall figure is a lot cleaner than the last two with a little less panel line clutter and the gold is toned down even more than the Mk 43. The more buff look of the chest is pretty cool and the partially shrouded Arc Reactor at least shakes things up a bit. The paint here is also pretty sharp and clean and the red plastic is shiny and vibrant. Alas, the Mk 46 takes a hit when it comes to articulation. All the points are there, but the shoulders inhibit the range of motion in the arms and the hips don’t have a lot of motion either. He’s a solid figure, but there are only so many poses you can get out of him and that’s frustrating.

Cap may have been cheated out of accessories, but Tony wasn’t. The Mk 46 not only comes with an extra pair of hands (one pair of fists and one pair of repulsor blasting hands), but also a couple of effect parts designed to peg into his palm repulsors. Yeah, they’re blue and that’s odd, but they’re still pretty cool and that’s coming from someone who isn’t generally impressed by effect parts. But even here, there are issues with the articulation. The wrists are limited by the arm sculpt, so getting his hand straight up into the firing position while the arm is held straight out is impossible. You’ve got to bend those elbows!

You can also put them in the peg holes in his feet. It doesn’t quite position the blasts where they’re supposed to go, but it still works just fine.

One last thing worth mentioning is the scale here and how it feels off between them. Obviously kids are going to want these figures so they can make them fight each other. And by kids, I my 43-year old ass. But put them toe to toe with each other and Cap doesn’t just come up short, he looks downright puny. I get it, Tony is a guy wearing a suit of armor, so he should be bigger than you average guy. But this is Steve Rogers and he’s not your average guy. Then again, scale always has been an issue with this line and this Cap is definitely rather demure.

It seems like a while since I came away from a Marvel Legends review and not been on a toy-loving high, but today’s installment of Marvel Monday turned out a little disappointing. Neither of these releases are bad figures, but neither excite me all that much either. Tony Stark obviously comes away as the fresh and new release, but even there I’m starting to feel the effects of iron fatigue. But hey… two BAF parts down!

Sep 5 2016

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

As promised, I’m back to wrap up this X-puppy up. If eight amazing figures weren’t enough, the conveniently named Juggernaut Wave also includes all the pieces you need to build Cain Marko. The Toybiz version of Marvel Legends Juggernaut was one of my favorite figures in that collection, and I hung on to it right until the end. It became one of the last Toybiz Legends figures that I sold off, and even then it was a painful decision. Fast forward to now, and I sure am happy to be getting this character back onto my Legends shelf. Never leave me again, Juggsy.

As you already know, Juggernaut’s parts were spread out across seven figures in the wave, with only Deadpool being left out. Those seven pieces included the two arms, two legs, torso, pelvis, and head. Slapping him together is pretty standard stuff.

Once together, Juggernaut is big and menacing. The costume features sculpted buccaneer boots with heavy treads on the bottom and a heavily pitted and worn belt. The legs are heavily muscled with brown painted pants and the torso features the red and black striped abdomen with the brown painted chest. Alas, my figure has some paint issues on the left part of his chest. It’s just a little scraping and dribble. I’m going to chalk it up to battle damage.

The head sculpt here is outstanding. Hasbro sculpted a full face underneath the domed helmet, making it look like the helmet is actually removable. This adds loads of depth and credibility to the sculpt, which is very welcome in a figure this big. The broad nose, wall of gritting teeth, and wild eyes give Cain a wonderful look of deranged rage. The helmet itself features a glossy brown paint job and some lovely pitting all over to make it look battered. There are also sculpted bolts running along the circumference of lower edge.

The bare arms feature his wrist bracers, as well as the bands around his biceps and knuckles. Those knuckle wraps have always been my favorite thing about Juggernaut’s design. They look simply devastating. All the bands have the same brown gloss paint and sculpted pitting as the helmet. You also get some sculpted veins running throughout the arms.

Despite being a BAF, Juggernaut features most of the articulation we’re used to seeing in the regular Legends figures. The arms have rotating hinges at the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and hinges in the elbows. The legs have rotating hinges in the hips, hinges in the knees, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist and an ab crunch hinge in the torso. Lastly, the neck is ball jointed. As a bulky figure, some of these joints don’t have a really wide range of motion, but what’s here definitely gets the job done.

I certainly didn’t need any incentive in the form of a Build-A-Figure to collect this wave, so Juggernaut really feels like a superb bonus. I don’t think there has been an assortment of Legends figures as solid as this one, both in character selection and execution, since the line returned. And that’s saying a lot, because Hasbro has been knocking it out of the park with this line lately and it seems like there’s no end in sight as wave after wave continues to crash against the toy aisles and threaten to drown my poor wallet. Now that I’m finished with this assortment, I’m going to take a detour next Marvel Monday to check out a statue, and then I’ll be turning my attention back to the Civil War Giant Man Wave.

Sep 5 2016

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Deadpool by Hasbro

Alrighty, folks, it took a whole lot of Marvel Mondays, but I’m finally opening the last figure in this fantabulous X-Men wave. And it’s Deadpool! Who? DEADPOOL!!! One more time? MUTHAF’CKIN DEADPOOL!!!!! And that’s regular red Deadpool, not some bullshit X-Force Deadpool like we got a few years back. I’m just kidding, I love me some X-Force, but seriously, Hasbro, we shouldn’t have had to wait so long for regular flavor ‘Pool. And just so I don’t have to stretch this wave out any longer, I’m going to come back tonight with a look at the Juggernaut Build-A-Figure. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s have a look at Wade’s package. I mean his box. I mean the receptacle he came in. Oh, god. I can’t stop.

It saddens me that this is the last time I’ll set eyes on this delightfully snappy packaging. It also saddens me that I didn’t have the room to keep them all. Thankfully, I’ve snapped pictures of all of them, so from time to time I can pour myself a Jameson and admire the pictures of these figures from before I tore them open like a goddamn savage. There are a few nice personal touches, like the X emblem on the top being replaced by Deadpool’s insignia. As you can see, Deadpool’s tray is absolutely packed with stuff. So much stuff, that there wasn’t even room for a BAF piece. That’s right, Hasbro made it so that you don’t have to buy Poolsy in order to build Juggsy. Why? Because they knew he’d sell anyway. Why? Because he’s Deadpool! Who? ENOUGH ALREADY!!!! Let’s tear open this chimichanga-munchin-mo-fo and see how he turned out.

Deadpool comes to us donning his familiar red and black costume with sculpted wrist bracers, shin armor, belted boots, and a whole bunch of added belts and pouches. This figure is a great example of a measured mix of costume-painted-on-buck with just the right amount of new sculpting and extras to make it feel like a fresh and new figure. The coloring is gorgeous, with a mix of matte and gloss black and some vibrant red. Yeah, I would have liked a little more paintwork on the belts. They sprang for silver paint on the boot buckles, which makes it a little jarring that we didn’t get any on the belt straps and pouch buttons. But hey, this ain’t NECA, it’s Hasbro, and in the end the figure still looks damn great.

From behind we can not only check out Deadpool’s fine caboose, but also the functional double-scabbard harness for his katana swords. There’s also a lot going on around Deadpool groin-ular area, so let’s have a gander at what he’s packing around his nether regions!

Oh, baby! As I said before, you get plenty of pouches, along with Deadpool’s signature belt buckle. The rest of the belt (and pouches) is all cast in one piece of brown plastic. You do get some green paint on the two grenades. I think it would have been cool to have these painted up in the Deadpool style, like Sideshow did with their Sixth-Scale figure, but I suppose I should be happy they weren’t left brown.

On the other side, we can see many more pouches, as well as get a good look at the two functional holsters for his automatic pistols. One is slung across the front of his waist, so he can draw across with his left hand. The other is positioned on his right hip so he can draw with the right arm. Y’all know I love me some functional holsters, so these make me a happy camper.

There are two portraits with this figure. The first is his regular masked noggin and I think Hasbro did a solid job on this one. It’s just expressive enough with the one eye popped and the other squinting, going for a very singular Deadpool look, but at the same time, I don’t think it’s so specific that it doesn’t work as a head for every occasion. There’s some nice sculpted stitch lines in the mask and you can see his furled brow sculpted in there as well. The paint here is sharp and clean.

The unmasked portrait is an absolute work of art. It features all the craters, nooks, and crannies in Wade’s troublesome complexion with a wonderful paint job to back it up. Seriously, the shading and variations in paint that make up the skin here feels totally beyond what Hasbro has ever been capable of in this line. Here, Deadpool offers a maniacal toothy grin with pupil-less yellow eyes. I will note that this head was an absolute bitch to get on, and I may have to go in there with a blade and clean out some of the plastic around the socket. You’ll also see that I rarely used this head in any of the pictures for this Feature. That’s in no way a slight against it. I think it’s magnificent, but it also goes for a very specific look. That having been said, I’ve already pre-ordered another Deadpool so I can display him with this head.

Wade Wilson is a nimble guy, so articulation here is important, and I’m happy to say that the figure delivers quite a bit. 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 double hinges in the knees, and swivels at the thighs and lower legs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a swivel in the waist and an ab crunch hinge in the torso. And lastly the neck features both a ball joint and a hinge. It’s pretty standard stuff for the modern Legends body.

Now, before I get into the accessories, I do have a couple of bones to pick with Mr. Pool and I feel bad doing it because this really is an outstanding and fun figure and Hasbro packed a lot of stuff into this package. Firstly, this is a figure that really needed more hands. If you read enough of my Features, you know that I’m not big on swapping out hands, but here’s a figure that could have used it. He can interact well enough with all his accessories. I’m surprised at how well the gun holding right hand can still work with the taco. But that same hand kind of looks like he’s drinking tea with his pinky out. It sort of works for Deadpool, because he’s a goofball, but at the same time, a more conventional right hand would have been nice.
Secondly, I certainly appreciate all the weapons, but at this point in the game, getting 6-inch scale guns without any paint operations feels super cheap. Take the pistols shown above. The lack of paint there is really obvious to me. Sometimes, it isn’t warranted, many guns look fine just left all black, but the decision to cast these in gray-silver plastic as opposed to black might not have been the best one. I could see leaving off the paint on 3 3/4-inch scale weapons, but not here. OK, enough griping, let’s take a look at Wade’s impressive arsenal…

We already saw the pistols. Great sculpts, nicely sized, needed some paint. Moving on…

The grenade launcher is nice. Pretty good sculpt. I would have been happy with this cast in black plastic. As it is… it needs more paint.

Deadpool: “When it comes to guns, it’s not what you do with it, it’s the size that matters!”

And then you’ve got this thing. I have no idea what it is. If it’s intended as a specific design, I don’t recognize it. It looks like a Cosplayer made it out of cardboard and then spray painted it silver. But hey, it’s a big goofy gun, so I’m fine with it. And speaking of goofy…

Deadpool: “Here’s the part where I hit em with the punch line!”

Yes, it’s a bazooka with a giant comical boxing glove at the end. This reminds me a lot of an accessory that came with one of my Movie Masters Joker figures from Mattel. I think it’s great, but if you want something a little more conventional, the glove on the end is removable and you’re left with just a big bazooka, and who doesn’t love that? And that’s all the guns out of the way, but this is Deadpool. He slices, he dices, he likes him some edged weapons…

First, we have this lovely tanto-style combat knife that can be stored in the sheath sculpted into his right leg. And look! They painted the grip black! Marvelous!!!

And, of course, Deadpool comes with his trusty twin katanas, Bea and Arthur. These appear to be repaints of the ones that came with Hasbro’s X-Force Deadpool from a while ago. They’re nice accessories, and here too we get some paint on the grips. The interior is red and the wrappings are black, because Deadpool likes to accessorize, bitches. Weapons are all well and good, but sometimes you gotta take a snack…

And so Wade comes with a glorious plastic taco. Hey, if Hasbro can bundle a slice of pizza with Spider-Man, than getting Deadpool a taco is a no-brainer. Is this the first time an action figure has been bundled with such a scrumptious looking Southwestern snack? I would have to imagine so. There’s just one more thing to point out before I wrap this up…

Yeah. Remember how I chastised Hasbro for not getting us the traditional red Deadpool along with the X-Force one, since a repaint was such a quick, easy, and obvious cashgrab? Well, sometimes it’s better to wait. I really loved that figure when I got it and I can remember reviewing him quite favorably. But just looking at the two together shows that X-Force Deadpool has not aged well. He’s short and scrawny, and he’s got those terrible ball hips. Damn, it’s crazy what a little time and perspective can do to an action figure. Now I just find myself wanting to repaint this one into X-Force Deadpool. I think that’s irony.

“Everybody wants some!”

Deadpool: “Take him out, but don’t mess up the cape. I want the cape.”

Sinister: “I can hear you. I’m standing right here.”

Deadpool: “Excelsior!!!”

When I read back through this Feature, I thought it sounded like I came down a little harder on Deadpool than I usually do with Marvel Legends. I think that’s mainly because the figure is so good, and I love the character so much, that it just needed those few little more tweaks to elevate it to truly amazing status. A little paint on the weapons, and a couple of expressive hands, and this would have been all the better. But really, I’m talking out of my ass, because this is a still a great figure as is. He’s so great a figure that even after looking at the seven fantastic figures that preceded him in this wave, I’m still ending on a high note by featuring him last. Indeed, you can tell how much fun I’m having with him just by the number of pictures that I snapped, and trust me there were plenty more. This is a figure that will reside on my desk for a long time, because I want him to always be within arm’s reach. And that finally wraps up my look at the packaged figures in this wave. Come on back later this evening and I’ll have a look at the Juggernaut Build-A-Figure! But not before I do a hack job of emulating one of my favorite Deadpool pages (Deadpool #27, 1997).

Deadpool: “You smug little… Speaking of games, ever play Street Fighter?”

Logan: “Kitty!”

**SNIKT!**

Deadpool: “Yay! Now is fighty time! fighty time!”

Aug 29 2016

Marvel Legends: (Juggernaut Wave) Rogue by Hasbro

What’s this? Another lovely X-Lady? Didn’t we just do this last week? Y’all know it was going to come down to either Rogue or Poolsy today, and I guess I felt like a having a little sugah to go with my coffee this morning. We’re in the home stretch now, folks, as I open the penultimate figure in this magnifcent X-Men wave, so before moving on, let me just say a few things about this wave so far… “Lighten up on your speeches, sugah!” Um… right. Let’s look at the packaged shot…

Yeah, it’s all been said and many times over, but damn this packaging is still as sexy as hell. And speaking of which, if there’s one thing I remember most about the 90’s X-Men cartoon, it’s Rogue’s perfect ass and how they never missed an opportunity to show it. I’d like to tell you I was an adolescent at the time, but those were my college years. Apparently, I never lost my thing for the animated ladies. It’s probably safer to leave Rogue behind protective packaging, but let’s tear this baby open and check her out.

Hot damn, this is a great looking figure! It feels like I’ve said that a lot in the past couple months of Marvel Mondays, but it’s never been more true. Rogue has had some rough treatment at the hands of Toybiz in the past. I still have that god awful Giant Rogue figure they did that looked like she’s wearing a fright mask. No, she actually looked like one of those clowns you shoot water into at the carnival. What? Oh yeah, we’re talking about this figure, and she’s none of those things. Nope, she’s gorgeous! Bravo, Hasbro!

Rogue comes donning what for me is her most iconic costume. I’m usually all for experimenting with changes, but I find anything else I see her in positively jarring. Here she has her yellow and green body suit and brown half-jacket with the popped collar, and matching belt hanging off her hips. The paint here is pretty good, with some bright and vibrant yellow plastic and metallic green. Mine does have a stray mark of green on the front of her left thigh. It’s not terrible, but if I happen to come across another one in the wild without it, I’d probably pick her up. The jacket-vest-sculpted sleeve deal here is a little more apparent than usual, because the torso is bright yellow and the jacket is brown. Although, kudos to them for painted along the rim of the shoulder to try to help the illusion along. Naturally, she has the X patches painted on her shoulders.

The portrait is so much better than we’ve seen from this character in the past, but I still have a little quibbles. The eyes seem like they should be just a smidge closer together. Other than that, I’m more than happy with what’s here. The paint on the eyes, eyebrows, and lips is all clean and sharp, she’s got her familiar white streak running through her hair, and her green bandanna sculpted across her forehead. The hair is sculpted so as not to interfere with her neck articulation too much.

And so long as we’re on the subject of articulation, Rogue is sporting exactly what we saw out of the last two ladies in this line. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The hips are ball jointed, there are double hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. The thighs have swivels, but again, no such luck in the biceps. And lastly, there’s a ball joint just under the chest and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck. Not bad at all.

Rogue comes with one accessory, and that’s a bare right hand. I like the way they made the sleeve of the gloved hand removable, so when you swap the hand it really does look like she slipped her glove off.

This figure was certainly looooong overdue and I think she turned out fantastic. But then, that’s been the case with all the figures in this amazing assortment. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited for an entire wave of Legends and I’m happy to report that each and every figure lived up to my expectations. I could get used to getting so many members of a team in one shot like this, and I hope Hasbro will consider doing it more often in the future. And of course, that leaves me with just one figure left to open before getting to the Juggernaut Build-A-Figure. Next week, I’ll wrap this magnificent wave up with a look at everyone’s favorite chimichanga chompin chowder-head, Deadpool!

Aug 22 2016

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Phoenix by Hasbro

It’s Marvel Monday again, and thanks to a little doubling up last week, I’m up to my sixth figure in Marvel Legends‘ oh-so-solid wave of X-Men. Today I’m turning my attention back to the X-Ladies with a look at Jean Grey as Phoenix!

While a number of the characters in this wave are making their modern Marvel Legends debuts, there are a few retreads. Jean Grey is one of those… sort of. She last appeared about three years back as part of the Rocket Raccoon BAF Wave and sporting her Jim Lee look. This time we’re getting the Phoenix version and I’m pretty happy about that. The Toybiz version of Phoenix was among the last handful of figures from my old Marvel Legends collection to get sold off quite a few years back leading to almost instant regret. Needless to say, I’m excited to get a modern Legends update. I’ve said my piece about this wonderful packaging, so let’s rip it open and check her out…

And here she is in that lovely gold and green costume that just pulls on all of my nostalgia strings at once, while also making me feel a little funny in my nether regions. Damn, this is a great looking figure! The costume is achieved with some gold swirly plastic and green and black paint. Also, it looks like Jean has been raiding Carol Danvers’ closet, because she’s wearing the Ms. Marvel sash around her waist. It’s OK. Nothing wrong with that. The paint lines are all pretty clean, especially around the Phoenix emblem on her chest. I’ve just got zero complaints about this lady. And what is it about the X-gene that gives the X-Ladies such wonderful bums? Damn, Jean, you don’t need no telepathy, because you’re blowing my mind with that caboose! Know what I’m saying?

The portrait here is mighty solid. Hasbro continues to be doing a nice job on their 6-inch female sculpts… at least in the Marvel Legends line. Hasbro, you might want to loan out some of these guys to that Star Wars line you do. The paint here is sharp and clean and she has a copious amount of hair. Yeah, all that hair does hinder the neck articulation a bit, but not completely.

Speaking of articulation, Jean’s got it in spades. You get 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. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers, and the torso features a ball joint under the chest and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck. The only thing that’s a little problematic is getting her balanced on her tiny feet.

I don’t think I was quite prepared for how much I was going to love this figure. Like so much of this wave, Jean is just classic X-Men goodness synthesized into bright, shiny plastic. And apart from being just a really solid release, it feels so good to get Phoenix back into the collection again. I’ve always had a thing for this costume and until now I regretted unloading the Toybiz one. Now I just regret unloading that bitchin’ translucent phoenix flame effect piece with her. And with another one down, I’m left with just two more figures to open. Who will it be next week? Merc with a Mouth or Sassy Southern Belle? Honestly, I’m not even sure myself!

Aug 15 2016

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Havok and Iceman by Hasbro

It’s Week Four of my Monday romps through the recent X-Men Wave of Marvel Legends and today I’m knocking out two figures in one Feature. No disrespect to either of these characters or figures, but I’m seriously backlogged on opening my Legends toys and with eight figures plus the Build-A-Figure this wave is a tall drink of water. I’m not complaining, Hasbro, keep them coming! In the end, I think I can do justice to both Havok and Iceman in one shot, because while they are both excellent, they are relatively simple figures.

Once again, the packaging for this wave feels special to me. The bold X-Men logo on the front and the X-symbol on the top panel advertise a wave that given the current state of the comics, shouldn’t exist. The yellow and black deco is striking and you get some beautiful character art on the side panels. Normally, I don’t mind tossing out my Marvel Legends packages, but in this case, I wish I had the space to keep them. Havok and Iceman are two more examples of the great character selection in this wave. Both received the Universe 3.75-inch treatment, but it’s long past time they landed in the modern Legends 6-inch line. Let’s start with Havok…

Havok features his modern look, or at least it’s one of the most recent costumes that I recognize. Granted, I know this look best from the pages of Cable & X-Force and that’s got to be nearly five years old already, so I guess modern is a relative term. Dark and simple is the style on display here and while I dig it, I do prefer the look with the lit lines feeding into his chest. Nearly the entire costume is conveyed through minimal paint on a black buck. In fact, from the neck down the only original sculpting here are the cuffs of his silver gauntlets. You get some more silver striping on his boots, and partially around his waist. The costume is wrapped up with the blue emblem on his chest. This version of Havok was an easy figure for Hasbro to do, no doubt, but it still looks solid.

The head sculpt is quite good. Alex sports a stern and determined look, like maybe he’s sick of Scott’s shit again. The paint lines between the flesh and the black mask are sharp, and the silver bands on his head are crisp.

A rundown of the articulation here shows pretty standard stuff for the modern Legends line. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, have swivels in the thighs and lower legs, and the ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. The torso has a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged. He’s lots of fun to play with, but damn, those ratchets in his shoulders are tight!

Havok comes with a pair of effect parts to simulate his ability to shoot plasma blasts. They’re similar to the hocus-pocus effects we got with Scarlet Witch and Dr. Strange, but new sculpts with a subtle conical shame. I think they look damn good, and coming from someone who usually just tosses effect parts into the dreaded and bottomless Tote of Forgotten Accessories, that’s saying a lot! Moving on to Iceman…

Where Alex Summers got by with minimal sculpting and minimal paint, Bobby Drake gets it done with a surprising amount of new sculpting and virtually no paint at all! Hasbro wisely went the translucent route with this figure, something that they haven’t done in Legends since the Ghost figure in The SDCC Thunderbolds Exclusive set. I love translucent figures! Do I love photographing them? Oh, God no! When I do they always look like piss. In this case, the plastic is a little blued and a little chalky and it looks absolutely fantastic… in person. Honest, you’ll have to trust me on this one. The buck here is recycled from one of the recent Spider-Man releases, but you get new hands, forearms, and lower legs with some jagged ice effects, as well bare feet, which appear to be new pieces. There’s also a removable chunk of ice that plugs into his back.

A bitchin’ new head sculpt with white painted eyes rounds out this beautiful figure quite nicely. He’s also got a great little smirk.

The articulation here is almost identical to what we got with Havok. Iceman loses the extra swivels in the lower legs, but gains the lateral shoulder crunches. It’s a worthy tradeoff!

Havok and Iceman are great additions to a wave that is so good it’s downright… uncanny? It’s true that Hasbro didn’t break the bank on Havok. He’s a simple painted buck with a new head and that’s really all he needed to be. Iceman, on the other hand… well, I wasn’t expecting as much unique sculpting to go into him and the results are quite spectacular. With only three figures left to go, I’m beginning to believe this wave can do no wrong. Next Monday, I’ll be checking out another of the X-Ladies!

Aug 8 2016

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Kitty Pryde by Hasbro

It’s the third week of my romp through Marvel Legends’ recent X-Men Wave and today I’m checking out the first of the three X-Ladies in this assortment, Kitty Pryde! She’s always been a fun character for me, and it’s particularly intriguing to follow her growth as a student of Xavier’s back in the day to a full fledged Guardian of the Galaxy now. As a certain villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe once said, “You’ll. Never. See. This. Coming…” and he’d be right! It would have been impossible for me to predict the path that Kitty has traveled. She’s always made out pretty well in the comics, but not so much in the TV and Film world. I’ll bet she’s still bitter about getting shafted in the Days of Future Past movie.

Here’s the lovely Juggernaut Wave packaging. You get a branded X-Men symbol on the top flap and spiffy character art on the side panels. I like how nobody in this wave has to share a slot with others, hence every figure’s name appears on the bottom of the front panel. The tray here is absolutely packed with stuff, from the giant Juggernaut arm, that probably uses almost as much plastic as Kitty, to the Lockheed figure, and a very nice bonus head for your Red Onslaught BAF from a few waves back. I’m going to let Kitty phase herself out of the package and we’ll check her out!

So, I’ll say straight away that this is a fantastic looking figure and features her more contemporary look, which also happens to be my favorite. Granted, there’s a lot to choose from. Hasbro could do a massive boxed set based on Kitty’s gimmick of wardrobe changes. This one, however captures the feel of the original black and yellow design, with the added style of the V-neck and a modern belt. It translates beautifully into this figure thanks to some sharp paint and the original sculpting on upper torso and gauntlets.

The portrait is excellent. It’s become a common gripe that Hasbro can’t do female head sculpts any justice, but Marvel Legends has been proof positive that it simply isn’t true. Sure, you’ve got your Madam Hydras, but most of the 6-inch Marvel ladies have been great and Kitty here is another example of that. The face sculpt is pretty and I really love how they did her pony tail. The paint on the facial features is excellent, although the paint for the hair doesn’t always line up with the sculpt. Still, not too shabby overall.

The articulation here is everything you might expect in a modern Legends lady. That includes rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. There are ball joints in the legs, double hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. You get swivels in the thighs, but alas, none in the biceps. Finally there’s a ball joint just under the chest and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck. It’s good, but I do have a few quibbles. The lack of swivels in the waist and biceps is annoying, and the elbow hinges don’t have as much range of motion as I would have liked.

Of course, Kitty comes with Lockheed and he is a fantastic little sculpt, cast in a beautiful metallic purple plastic. He’s basically just a squishy little guy and while I dig him a lot, I wish Hasbro had done a few things about him a little differently. His feet are flat as if he’s supposed to stand, but his tail curls down below his feet, so he can’t stand, at least not on his own. The idea here is that the tail is supposed to curl around Kitty’s neck so he can stand on her shoulder. It works OK, but I think they should have taken a page from Kotobukiya’s Bishoujo Kitty Pryde and made it so Lockheed could better clip onto the arm.

The other accessory in the package is the Magneto-style head that is meant to replace the Red Skull head on the Red Onslaught Build-A-Figure, and it is indeed a welcome inclusion. I can’t recall Hasbro ever bundling a piece to improve a BAF from a previous wave, but they were promising that this was coming since before the Red Onslaught Wave shipped and they sure did make good on that promise! The Red Skull head was a damn fine sculpt, but to be honest, now that I have this head, the old one will probably never see the light of day again.

Drax: “Quill, your new girlfriend is a liar. She is not a cat made of shadows.”

Three figures into this X-Men Wave and Hasbro has yet to falter as Kitty takes her place besides Wolverine and Cable as another top notch release. The Toy Biz Kitty was a solid enough effort for her time, but if I still owned mine, she’d be getting replaced right now by Hasbro’s sublime new effort. Is this the Wave that can do no wrong? Check back next Monday as I double down with a look at both Iceman and Havoc.

Aug 1 2016

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Cable by Hasbro

It’s Week Two of my jaunt through the new X-Men Wave of Marvel Legends and for this Marvel Monday, I’ve decided to rip open Cable. Now, what we have here is one of those Good News, Bad News, Good News scenarios. The Good News? He’s Cable! And at last in the Legends scale! The Bad News? It’s not really the version of Cable I would have preferred. The Good News? He’s still an excellent figure! But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with a quick look at the packaging…

I commented last time about how much I dig these boxes with the matching yellow accents and boy do I! Along with the snazzy coloring, the character art on the side panels really make them pop and they look amazing collected together as a set. If I weren’t so hard pressed for space as it is, I would probably display this set packaged and on the wall, but alas my walls and closets and shelves are busting at the seams, so I’m going to have to be content admiring the boxes in these pictures after I toss them all. But before I sadly toss the packaging, let me get the stuff inside out first!

So, yeah, this isn’t really my Cable. This Cable does not scream “bodyslide by two” hijinx with Deadpool to me. This Cable hails from a mini-series from about four years ago. It’s an odd choice to be sure, but knowing Hasbro’s need to recycle parts in this line, they may have been going for a look that they could work with. And while I haven’t looked at the Civil War Wave yet, I’m seeing a bit of the Nuke figure in this one. Ideal? No! Am I OK with it? Yuppers! Because Cable here, no matter the version, is a damn nice figure. One of my favorite things about him is the bulky armor, which features some lovely texturing and scattered bullet holes. Also the segmented metal arm is just gorgeous!

This is also a suitably bulky buck. Even without the barrel chested armor, he’s got a nice presence to him. There’s plenty of detail in the pants and boots. He’s packing dual thigh pouches, a slew of belt pouches. POUCHES! He’s clearly trying to make Deadpool jealous. The shin and knee armor is colored to match his chest armor and also features some dings and bullet holes. The deco on him is nothing outrageously special, but the quality of the paint is superb. That silver paint just can’t be beat. I also love the tat on his right shoulder.

And the portrait!!! Hasbro wasn’t fooling around when they sculpted this noggin. This is clearly a character that offered plenty of opportunities for them to shine and they stepped up to the challenge. The stern jaw, broad nose, and grim expression says it all. The paint apps on the scarring and his one organic eye are sharp and clean, and the exposed cybernetic portion of the head is absolutely killer. Again, some great silver paint and amazing detail work in the segmented lining. What’s particularly cool is the detail on the neck goes all the way down into the armor. I have nothing but admiration for the work here.

Cable’s articulation is a little better than I would have expected from such a substantial buck. I was particularly pleased to see the double hinges in the elbows. The arms also feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and feature lateral rockers. The torso has a swivel at the waist and a very generous ball joint buried under the chest armor. The neck has both a hinge and ball joint. The jointing on this figure feels great and he’s been pretty hard for me to put down.

Weapons! It wouldn’t be Cable without an arsenal and this figure comes with two sizable, futuristic guns. The smaller of the two appears to be a new sculpt. If it isn’t, I can’t place where we’ve seen it before. The larger gun is, appropriately enough, the same gun that came with Hope Summers all the way back in the initial wave of the Legends relaunch. This one, however, has the added bonus of an ammo belt that plugs into the bottom of the stock.

In case you can’t tell, I absolutely adore this figure. And that sentiment shouldn’t be taken lightly, as I’m even surprised at myself how the disappointment of this not being Cable’s more conventional look hasn’t overwhelmed me here. The truth is, this is such an amazing looking figure and so much fun to play with, that I’m easily able to overlook what could have been and just really admire the beautiful work that went into what we got. And for the time being, at least I still have an excellent 3 3/4-inch version of proper Cable from the Marvel Universe line a few years back. So far, this Wave is batting two for two. As much as I’m tempted to go with Deadpool next, I think I’ll check out one of the X-Ladies on next week’s Marvel Monday.

Jul 25 2016

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Wolverine by Hasbro

It’s time to start a brand new wave of Marvel Legends and I had several to choose from in my backlog. In the interest of being current for once, I’ve decided to skip ahead to the X-Men Wave featuring the Juggernaut Build-A-Figure. Aw, who am I kidding? Being current has nothing to do with it. I just couldn’t wait to start opening these! Looks like the Civil War Giant Man Wave will have to wait, and who knows when I’ll get to look at that Rhino Wave. Ah, X-Men… but where to begin? Considering this is perhaps the finest wave of Legends to date, there was no wrong answer. In the end, I decided to start with Wolverine because he’s the best at what he does!

While the Marvel Legends packaging is always attractive and collector friendly, I’ve never really been motivated to keep any of it until now. A combination of spiffy matching yellow coordination and some kick ass character art on the side panels make these look like something special. Together, these just don’t feel like a normal wave of Legends. With a never-ending flood of Iron Mans, Captain Americas, and Spider-Mans, it’s crazy to think that this is only the second time we’ve seen Logan in Legends since it’s return. And the previous release was part of that now impossible to find Jubilee Wave.

Wolverine comes in his oh-so-classic brown suit, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! I should also point out straightaway how relieved I am that Hasbro didn’t recycle the Dark Wolverine body from a while back. This one suits Logan well, features the lovely pointed flares on the tops of his boots, a solid yellow and brown painted deco, and classic wide red belt. When it comes to the comics, this is The Wolverine that scratches my itch. The only disappointing thing here is that he doesn’t have any claws!

Just kidding! Of course, you get a pair of regular fists and some snikt hands. Did we even need the fists? I can see maybe mixing them up at some point with one fist and one clawed hand held up, but even that’s stretching it. Wolvy needs his claws and while I love to have options, I doubt the fists are going to get much use, other than for fist-bumping Spider-Man. The claws are especially nice and not overly bendy or prone to warping. Although since many of my Legends figures get cycled into Totes now and again, I’m thinking I’ll put the fists on him for that so the claws don’t get all bent up or broken during Logan’s down time.

The portrait here is fairly solid. I think the mask portion looks great, especially the expressive eyes. He truly looks like he’s sick of your shit, bub. The unmasked part of the face is a little on the soft side. It reminds me a bit of some of the softer Captain America sculpts. Not bad, but I think that part could have been better. Oh, I suppose I could complain that there isn’t an unmasked portrait. After all, the Jubilee Wave came with one, but then that figure goes for well over $100 now! In fairness, I think Hasbro could have tossed it in here, but I’m not going to hold that against what is otherwise a fantastic classical figure of a character that was long overdue for an appointment with my Marvel shelf.

The articulation here is top notch. You get all the regular points that we’re used to seeing in Legends. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, and swivels in the thighs and again down int he boots. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. The torso features a swivel at the waist and an ab-crunch hinge. The neck has both a ball joint and a hinge. The big addition are those wonderful shoulder crunches that we see crop up from time to time and they make a big difference! I’ll note that the upper elbow hinge on my figure’s right arm has a bit of a pull to it where the pin connects. It’s not too bad, but I might still pick up a replacement.

This figure hits the spot on every conceivable level. It was well past time we got Logan in the Legends line again (and with actual distribution this time!) especially since it seems like a handful of the A-list heroes have been getting more than their share of figures. Given the current state of The X-Men over at Marvel, it’s kind of odd to see this wave hit now, but you won’t hear me complaining about it. This release is as simple and classic as it gets and I have a feeling he’s a pretty good indicator of the figures I’ll be opening over the next bunch of weeks!

Jul 18 2016

Marvel Legends: Namor (Walgreens Exclusive) by Hasbro

YES! It’s a Marvel Monday Double Feature, because I’m buried in a Legends backlog so big it would give Thanos a hernia. And as long as I’m between waves, I thought I’d go ahead and take a look at this lone Walgreens Exclusive release of everyone’s favorite fishy-gigolo. Lock up your wife, Reed Richards… here comes Namor!

Namor comes in a standard style Legends window box. There’s no indication about its exclusivity, but it uniquely branded with his name on the front and again on the top panel. When you think of how many characters get released in shared slots and don’t have their name even appear on the front, but here comes Namor all flash and branded out! It practically looks like it’s branded off of some non-existent Namor movie. Well, give it time… Maybe Phase 8? Anyway… you get some really nice character art on the side panels and the back panel advertises the Civil War Wave, but without any mention of the Giant Man BAF.

Out of the package, Namor is one mighty fine looking figure. A good deal of his costume is painted onto the buck, but what a lovely paint job it is! You get a partially black suit with some brilliant metallic blue scales to spice things up. He even has the trashy, low plunging neck line that points all the way down to his trouser trout. Sculpted bits include his gold belt and bracers, the white wings on his ankles, and a high collar that surely drives all the mermaids wild.

The head sculpt here is pretty fantastic. Just yesterday, I was bitching about Hasbro and their waxy plastic and soft head sculpts in their Star Wars Black line. Well, clearly they know how to do it right, because because this is how to do a 6-inch scale portrait proud. The plastic holds the sculpted detail very well, skin tone looks great and the paint on the eyes, hair, and eyebrows is crisp and clean. I’m thrilled that they can do it for Marvel, but why not Star Wars too?

As a swimmer, Namor needs to be agile and the articulation on this body suits him quite well. You get double hinges in both the elbows and knees, rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, thighs, and lower legs. The ankles have hinges and lateral rockers, the waist has a swivel, there’s an ab crunch in the chest, and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged.

Accessories include two pairs of hands and a rather large trident. The figure comes out of the box with the trident holding hands and the extras are flat with the fingers together for swimming. The trident is cast in a less than stellar gold plastic, but spruced up a bit with some white and metallic blue paint accents.

While the idea of Walgreens Exclusive Marvel Legends figures still sounds really odd to me, I cannot deny that they’ve been landing some pretty big fish. HA! Seriously, though, with hits like Agent Venom, Black Ant, and now Namor, these are going above and beyond the sort of lazy repaints that I would have expected. Now, whether a character like Namor should be an Exclusive is another matter entirely, but it seems as if this one has not been difficult to find in stores. And even people like me, who live in a black pit of despair when it comes to toy distribution, have the option of ordering him through Walgreen’s website. Sure, at $27 because shipping, he’s a little pricier, but for a figure this great, I’ll pay that all day long. Now if only we can get a new Legends Sue Storm to keep him warm at night.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: marvel legends

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

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Deadpool by Hasbro

Marvel Legends: (Juggernaut Wave) Rogue by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Phoenix by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Havok and Iceman by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Kitty Pryde by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Cable by Hasbro

Marvel Legends (Juggernaut Wave): Wolverine by Hasbro

Marvel Legends: Namor (Walgreens Exclusive) by Hasbro

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