Jul 13 2015

Marvel Legends (Ultron Wave): Ant-Man by Hasbro

It’s been a little while since I last did a Marvel Monday, so how about we start busting into the latest wave of Legends figures and look at Ant-Man from the Ultron BAF Wave. But wait, isn’t the Hulkbuster BAF Wave shipping too? Damn you, Hasbro! Give a brutha’s bank account a little breathing room, will ya? I’m not sure which of these has priority in terms of release, but I happened upon Ant-Man and Wasp from the Ultron Wave first, so that’s where I’m going and I’ll likely run through this whole wave before I start getting into any of the others.

There’s the packaging and, wait… Ant-Man Wave? With an Ultron Build-A-Figure? That’s a bit odd, isn’t it? In the Comic Universe it wouldn’t be odd, but in the Cinematic Universe it sure is. Then again, this isn’t really much of an Ant-Man Wave anyway. It’s half an Ant-Man wave at best. But who am I to complain? We’re getting a MovieVerse Ultron and I don’t care which figure assortment they choose to bundle him into. In this case you’re getting the head. So, where was I? The packaging… there’s nothing new to say about it, so let’s get to the figure.

Obviously, this is Ant-Man from the soon to be released (This Friday… SQUEEEE!) movie and that makes him Scott Lang and not the Hank Pym Ant-Man that so many of us comic readers know and love. That’s OK, though, because I really dig this suit and I’m really looking forward to the movie. And did I mention I love the suit? Well it’s worth saying twice because this is easily one of my favorite costumes to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It toes the line just enough to be easily recognized as Ant-Man without wandering too close to the Ultron design, which shared similarities in the comics, but shouldn’t in the films, because of obvious changes. At one point in the movie, Lang speculates as to it’s purpose by referring to it as a motorcycle suit and it does indeed give me that vibe. If it’s something that the elderly Pym wore back in the day then the retro feel is certainly appropriate.

The detail on the suit itself is quite well done and includes a lot of silver trim and fixtures. The red and black deco looks sharp and the silver paint exhibits a tarnished look to give the “metal” pieces a bit of an aged patina.

The portrait includes the very detailed helmet and mask, again with the same aged and distressed silver paint. The exposed mouth area is sculpted rather soft, which is a little at odds with how detailed and sharp everything else on this figure looks. I’m curious as to whether the chin strap will double as a microphone that he will lower his mouth into for the man-to-ant communication. From what I’ve seen, it looks like it might just be a telepathy, rather than a vocalized command and I guess I’m OK with that. I’d say the only other thing about the head that’s worth mentioning is the paint for the eyes is a little thin. I’m considering coloring it in with a red metallic Gundam Marker, but I’d like to see how common the figure is before I start experimenting on it. My experiments at customization usually don’t end well.

Articulation is about what I’ve come to expect from the Legends line, which is to say pretty good. 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, hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, and swivels in the thighs. Lang can swivel at the waist, he has an ab crunch hinge in the torso and a ball jointed neck.

In addition to the Ultron BAF part, the figure comes with a handful of extras including a miniature Ant-Man and an ant for him to ride and a miniature Yellowjacket. All are just static pieces and while the Ant-Man and Ant are nowhere near being in scale with this figure, or any figure for that matter, it’s still a nice little bonus. The Yellowjacket, on the other hand, isn’t something I have any use for. Do him in Legends scale, Hasbro, and I promise I’ll buy him. The only thing really missing here is an alternate unmasked Paul Rudd head. I only mention it because we’ve been getting a lot of extra unmasked heads in this scale lately. Iron Man, War Machine, Captain America, Star-Lord… this one really seemed like a no brainer, but I guess if you want that you’ll have to go the Marvel Select route.

There are a lot of furtive whispers about whether or not Ant-Man could be Marvel’s first cinematic flop, but then I seem to recall a number of people saying the same thing about Guardians of the Galaxy and look how that one turned out. Whatever the case, I was honestly worried for a while that we might not see any figures from this film and I’m mighty glad those fears were groundless. Having a Cinematic Universe Ant-Man on my Avengers shelf has made me a very happy camper and I am super pumped to go check out this movie on Friday. It looks like it’s going to be loads of fun.

Jun 1 2015

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

Here we are, finally at the end of the most recent Wave of Marvel Legends and I’m all ready to piece together my very own Mad Titan. I’m sure I’ve already commented about how Hasbro has been killing it with the character selection on these Waves lately and I couldn’t think of a better BAF to hit right around now than Thanos himself. There’s no package to look at, so let’s just go ahead and cobble this baby together.

Here’s all the parts you need to build Thanos scattered across five of the six figures from this Wave. If you bought both Hellcat and Spider-Woman then you’ll find yourself with an extra head and left arm. The doubled up head feels like a missed opportunity to provide us with a second portrait, like they did in The Allfather Wave. Also, the lack of an Infinity Gauntlet kind of sucks. I remember way back when Mattel did the DCUC Collect & Connect Darkseid they were able to get us his an extra hand with a swap out Killing Glove. I’m sure Hasbro is just planning on selling us a new Thanos when Infinity War hits the theaters a few years from now.

This is a fairly modern take on the character, without venturing into the actual MovieVerse territory. He isn’t massive, but he’s certainly big enough. Average size characters, like Hawkeye, only come up to about his shoulders. Thanos is a fairly simple figure, cast primarily in nice, glossy dark blue plastic. I like the silver segmented bits showing through on his legs. The armor bits, consisting of his shoulders, wrist bracers, belt, and the tops of his boots are all separate pieces, which is cool, but the matte gold plastic they used is kind of bland. Some nice metallic paint on these would have really gone a long way. Also, while the shoulder piece does peg into the top of his shoulders, it still has a habit of detaching and riding up when I manipulate his shoulders.

The portrait, on the other hand, is spot on awesome. I love the toothy grin and the texturing and purple paintwork on the skin looks great. The head could have been a little bigger, but then Thanos always was a bit of a pinhead.

Articulation is pretty much in line with the regular Legends figures. The arms have rotating hinges at the shoulders and wrists, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, have swivels at the thighs, and the ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. Thanos can swivel at the waist, there’s an ab crunch hinge in his torso, and the neck is ball jointed.

I can’t tell you the number of times I came close to picking up the Marvel Select version of Thanos just to have the character represented on my Legends shelf. I was hoping that this BAF would justify holding off on that purchase and in the end it sort of does, but in fairness the two figures are very different treatments of the character. I may wind up still picking up that Marvel Select release. I like this figure well enough, but it feels rather “phoned in” to me, especially after how much work clearly went into the Odin BAF. Indeed, I think Hasbro did a much better job on the Marvel Universe Thanos. Even for a little 3 3/4″ figure, that one had some really sharp looking gold painted armor and chunkier boots and gauntlets. If they could have just up-scaled that beauty, I think I would have been happier.

And that’s going to wrap up Marvel Monday for a little while, or at least until I can get my hands on the Hobgoblin Wave of Spider-Man Legends. But, much like Hydra, if you cut off one weekly Feature, two more shall take its place. In this case, I’ll be starting weekly Star Trek and GI JOE features starting this week on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout most of the Summer as I try to get through the boxes of figures sitting over in the corner.

May 25 2015

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Spider-Woman by Hasbro

As The Bangles once sang, “It’s just another Marvel Monday and that’s my fun day!” Or something like that. Yes, today I am closing in on the end of my look at the Thanos Wave of Hasbro’s Mavel Legends line. Spider-Woman is the last packaged figure that I have to open before moving on next week to the Build-A-Figure, Thanos. Sure, these parts are actually doubles of what came with Hellcat, so I could have already built Thanos, but I always save the BAF for last.

Here’s the gratuitous packaged shot. Sorry it’s such a shitty shot, but I bumped the camera and spilled my Jameson. Doesn’t matter. It’s basically the same packaging we’ve seen dozens of times now. If you were here last Monday then you might remember that Spider-Woman shares a slot with Hellcat as the “Ferocious Fighters!” which means that neither characters’ names appear on the front of the package. And like I just said, it also means that if you already own Hellcat that you don’t really need to buy this figure in order to complete your Thanos BAF, and vice versa. There’s been a big “to do” lately about how Black Widow has been snubbed in the Age of Ultron merchandise and a lot of people are making the connection to it being a trend with female figures in general. I’m not saying that’s not an issue, but in fairness Marvel doesn’t seem to have a big problem with getting us other Marvel ladies. In the last couple of waves we’ve had Hellcat, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Girl, two versions of Spider-Woman, and Agent Hill in the SHIELD 3-pack. The Hulkbuster Wave will have Valkyrie and Thundra, and we’re even getting a Legends version of Misty Knight. Seems to me like it’s personal, Natasha.

Out of the package, Jessica is looking mighty damn nice. We get a very shapely female buck with the costume mostly painted on. I feel like the red used for the costume could have been a little more vibrant and crimson, but I’m not hating what we got either. The yellow used for the gloves, boots, and accents really help the figure to pop on the shelf and the black borders are pretty sharp. There are a few minor stray black marks on my figure’s boots and a little visible brush work on her tummy, but otherwise, the paint really sells the costume splendidly.

Hasbro included the plastic web “wings” for under her arms, which was evident from the package shot. What I wasn’t expecting was a pair of collapsed wings as well. That was a nice surprise. These pieces simply tab into the slots on the back of her biceps. The textured plastic pieces have almost a GiTD quality to them, which is very effective, although I kind of miss the heavy handed black webbing pattern, especially since these are rather hard to see against a white backdrop.

The portrait here is a homerun. The lower half of her face is certainly pretty and her lips are well defined and neatly painted. The mask looks great with the large blank white eyes and the hair sculpt is superb and well worth the hit to the neck articulation, at least as far as I’m concerned.

Articulation here is quite good, so long as you can get past those ball jointed hips that require you to work the joint all the way around to attain certain poses. Apart from that you get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists; Swivels in the biceps and thighs; The legs feature double hinged knees and hinged ankles with lateral rockers. The torso has a ball joint just below the chest and a ball jointed neck with no hinge. Sure, Spider-Woman is a pretty limber gal, and this figure isn’t going to be mimicking any maligned cover art we’ve seen recently, but for a Legends figure, it’s not at all bad.

Considering that I still own very few of my original Marvel Legends, I’m very pleased to be able to put Jussica Drew back on my 6-inch scale shelf. But even if I still had the old Toy Biz figure I think I’d still be quite happy for the upgrade. I don’t think the last version was quite as bad as some say, but then it’s been quite a while since I’ve had in hand and a lot of those figures haven’t aged gracefully. Next Monday I’ll put together The Mad Titan himself and have a look at this Wave’s Build-A-Figure… Thanos!

May 18 2015

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Hellcat by Hasbro

It’s another Marvel Monday and that means it’s time to open up another Legends figure. Today I’m going to check out the first of the ladies of this wave, Hellcat. Patsy Walker is an interesting character, or at least she has an interesting print history. She started life in a non-superhero comic and existed that way for almost three decades before being established as the alter ego for superheroine Hellcat sometime in the early 70s. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of her character, although I do really dig her costume, so much so that I came damn close to picking up her Bowen statue from a year or so back before the final production piece showed some unfortunate deviations from the excellent looking prototype. Fortunately, Hasbro stepped in and included her in the Legends line, thus allowing me to put her on my shelf for a lot less money.

Hellcat shares her slot in this Wave with another, in this case that other figure is Spider-Woman. These used to be running changes and it was often a bitch to find both of them on the pegs. Thankfully, Hasbro has since come to their senses and are now including both variants in the wave’s case assortment. Apart from making it far easier to complete the wave, all it means to the collector is that you’re going to have an extra set of BAF parts, in this case Thanos’ head. It also means that Hellcat’s name doesn’t appear on the front of the package. Instead all you get is “Fierce FIghters” and it’s not even in the usual place, but rather all the way down at the bottom in smaller multi-lingual print. This practice really fascinates me, especially when used with lesser known characters like Walker.

Hellcat is another one of those highly recycled figures and that’s more an observation than a criticism. At first I thought this was just the Ms. Marvel body, but that figure had bicep swivels and Hellcat doesn’t. Maybe they’re just different arms. Either way, this is a generic female buck with the costume painted on. And in this case, the paint is a bit problematic, because the bulk of the body is cast in yellow plastic, but the lower legs and feet are black with a little under the knee painted yellow. Unfortunately the paint doesn’t match. Also note the rather obvious use of the sash from Carol Danver’s Warbird costume.

At least the head is new and it’s a pretty good portrait. The mask is great and she has the pupil-less eyes just like I like them. I especially dig the way they did her hair. It spills out of the back of her mask and just kind of erupts down her back in a red fiery explosion. Nice!

Hellcat is a nimble little kitty and the figure does a nice job of conveying that through her articulation. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows and wrists. The hinges on the wrists, however are oddly positioned so she can tilt her hands side to side, rather than front and back. Weird! The legs are ball jointed at the hips, swivel at the thighs, double hinged at the knees, and the ankles have hinges and generous lateral rockers. The torso features a ball joint just under her chest and the neck has both a hinge and ball joint.

Lest you thought I was done with the subject of parts sharing, it appears as if Hellcat stole Daredevil’s batons and painted them black. These are the same two rods that can be pegged together to form a longer fighting stick. I don’t remember ever seeing Patsy use anything like this, but I’m certainly not an expert on the character. I guess they kind of fit her, so I’m willing to give it a pass. Gosh, I’m in a generous mood today!

Yes, it seems like the subject of parts recycling is coming up more and more, and I’ll keep standing by my mantra. There’s nothing wrong with it so long as its done thoughtfully and it’s used to get us a figure that we otherwise might not have seen. I think those criteria mostly fit Hellcat. She’s a solid, albeit not spectacular figure and honestly, I’m just so surprised and pleased that we got her that I’m willing to overlook issues like poor color matching. Does that make me part of the problem? Maybe, but holy crap, there’s a Hellcat figure hanging on the pegs. Isn’t that worth a little recycling? To me it sure is. Next Monday I’ll check out Spider-Woman, the last figure in the Wave I need to open before building Thanos!

May 4 2015

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Iron Man, Mark 43 by Hasbro

I’m just now coming off the high of the Age of Ultron weekend. I actually got out to see it twice, while also viewing some of my Marvel Blu-Rays too and I’m still pretty pumped. If only I had some freaking toys from the movie to look at… Oh yeah, I do! If you haven’t been following along with my Marvel Legends madness, I’ve already looked at two of the three Age of Ultron figures from the Thanos Wave of Legends and today I’m checking out the last one and it is indeed Tony Stark in the Iron Man, Mark III armor! But before jumping in, can I say how disappointed I am that the movie doesn’t have its own line. Yeah, apparently there were some 3 3/4″ figures with five points of articulation that got clearanced out before the film even hit. And you have that weird 2 1/2″ line that feels like Hasbro wanted to do something, but not really commit to it. Well, I suppose I should count myself lucky that these three figures found their way into the Legends line.

There’s the packaged shot and since I’ve got nothing new to say about it, I’ll touch on a few words about Tony’s new armor. So, even a geek like me has trouble keeping up on all of Tony’s different suits, but a few do stand out to me. My favorites are unquestiongly the Mark III and the Mark VII. The Mark 42 debuted in Iron Man 3 and I was pretty iffy on it, mainly because of the saturation of gold over the red. It has grown on me a little bit and I think it looks better in certain formats. The Mark 43 is basically the same armor with the gold turned down a lot and I think to much better aesthetic effect. I think this one is a move back in the right direction, but truth be told, I think I’ve officially reached armor fatigue when it comes to all the new designs.

If you were here for Friday, you may remember that the Age of Ultron Captain America was a repaint and remold of the Winter Soldier figure. Well, in this case the Mark 43 is a straight repaint of the Mark 42. That having been said, it’s impressive how some of the changes make certain aspects of the sculpt stand out as different. I can see collectors who passed on the 42 actually digging this figure a lot. It really is funny how much difference a fresh coat of paint can make.

Obviously articulation is identical to the Mark 42, but let’s run through it anyway. The arms feature 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, swivels at the thighs, double hinges in the knees, and hinges in the ankles. There’s a ball joint in the torso and both a hinge and a ball joint in the neck. What’s here is pretty good, but I would have loved some lateral rockers in the ankles. Also, the right arm on my figure doesn’t want to go all the way down by his side, which is kind of strange since the Mark 42 doesn’t have the same problem.

You do get one potentially nice bonus with this figure over the Mark 42 and that’s the extra Tony Stark head with the opened helmet. Granted, it is not one of the better headsculpts that we’ve seen in the Legends line, and that’s me being generous. It’s actually pretty terrible. I’m not sure if it’s the sculpt or the paint or a combination of both, but it actually looks like a bad mannequin head of Downey Jr. When I think about some of the great portraits we’ve seen in the Legends line over the last few years, this one is just baffling. Hell, in this very wave we got the unmasked Steve Rogers head, which is a work of art compared to Stark’s melon. One cool thing is that since the helmets on the 43 and the 42 are identical, you can do the head swap on the Mark 42 as well.

Repaint or no, I’m happy to have this figure in my collection. Granted, the Mark 43 is only the second of the movie armors that I own in this scale, so my shelves aren’t exactly packed with MovieVerse Starks. It’s a bit of a shame that Hasbro didn’t toss the Mark 45 into this wave, but I’m sure the lure of a quick and dirty repaint was too much for them to resist. The unmasked head could have definitely been executed better, and some extra hands would have been nice, but all in all, this one is still a solid, albeit not stellar entry. Of course, it still feels odd just getting these three and I can’t help but hope we might see some ofther Age of Ultron figures in forthcoming waves of the Legends line.

May 1 2015

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Captain America by Hasbro

It’s Friday, May 1st and that means Age of Ultron is out in the theaters now and like myself, many of you are still reeling from the excitement of having seen it at least a couple of times. Fear not for spoilers, because all I’m going to say is that it lived up to all my expectations and yet a lot of it is still settling in. Better than the first? Hmm… probably not, but still an amazing ride and further proof (as if we need it at this point) that the team of Marvel and Disney know how to bring comic action to the big screen. To commemorate the movie’s launch, I am taking the opportunity to check out the last two of the the three Age of Ultron figures that were released as part of the Thanos Wave of Marvel Legends. If you missed out on Monday, it was The Hulk. Today I’m looking at Cap and when I come back for Marvel Monday, I’ll take a look at the Iron Man, Mark 43 armor. Let’s go. soldiers!

There’s the packaging and I’ve got nothing new to say about it, other than all the movie figures have the Age of Ultron branding up at the top. I will, however, take this opportunity to talk a little about Cap’s new uniform. The evolution of Cap’s costume has been interesting. We got the original WW2 style look in The First Avenger. A very big departure to a modern look in The Avengers. Then in The Winter Soldier he donned the Captain Rogers homage that was the STRIKE Suit before he literally went back to his WW2 costume (albeit ret-conned with some tweaks). And that brings us to Age of Ultron where he’s wearing what I can best describe as a mix of the STRIKE Suit and ret-conned WW2 outfit. I like it a lot, but I’m still deciding whether I like it enough to justify another Hot Toys Cap purchase. Luckily picking up the Legends version is not such a weighty decision.

When I first held this figure in hand, I thought it was a straight repaint of the STRIKE Suit Cap, but comparing the two reveals there are significant tweaks to the mold, mostly in the torso. That’s fine, because I’m a big fan of the former figure and seeing it dressed up in the red, white, and blue is making me love it even more. The belt still seems a bit on the thick side, giving him what looks like a shelf surrounding his waist, but otherwise the contours and proportions are excellent. The new paintwork is overall fairly clean. I like the silver detailing on the buckles of his shoulder rigs and the fingerless gloves are a nice touch. All in all, this is a great looking figure that serves up the best of both worlds, but if you’re looking for a completely new body, you’ll be disappointed.

If you have STRIKE Suit Cap then you obviously know what to expect from the articulation here, but if this is your first time with this mold, I’ll run through it anyway. 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 in the thighs and tops of the boots, double hinges in the knees, and the ankles have hinges and lateral rockers. Cap can swivel at the waist, he has an ab crunch hinge in the torso, and his head is both hinged and ball jointed. STRIKE Suit Cap spent quite a while on my desk before getting put on the shelf and I had a lot of fun playing around with him. The same will likely be true of this guy.

This Age of Ultron release also includes everything that came with the STRIKE Suit figure. For starters, that means you get two portraits, one masked and one unmasked. The masked head looks to me like a straight repaint of the STRIKE Suit Cap, while the unmasked is the exact same head, untouched. Both heads are pretty good. The paint on the masked head could be a tad sharper, but I have no serious complaints. The unmasked head is a good looking sculpt, although I’ve got to squint a little to see the likeness. It probably works better as a comic book head than one matching Chris Evans.

In addition to the two heads, you also get two sets of hands: One pair of fists, one pointing left hand, and one saluting right hand. Again, these are the same pieces that came with STRIKE Suit Cap. I was happy to get them there and they’re welcome here as well.

Lastly, you get Cap’s trusty shield, which is the same STRIKE Suit Cap shield, which has obviously been repainted to the more traditional colors. By now I’ve practically got a drawer full of Legends scale Captain America shields, but I think this is one of my favorites because it actually has straps like the real thing, as opposed to the hinged peg and clip system. The paint job on the front is beautiful and the sculpted straps on the inside can slide onto his arm without even removing the hand. On the downside, there’s no way to attach this thing to his back.

With the crazy number of Legends Captain America figures that are populating my shelves these days, I have to admit that this release didn’t have me all that excited. That having been said, he turned out to be an excellent figure and possibly one of my favorite versions of him in this scale. The sculpt was already a winner and I think these colors work beautifully on it. Plus, getting the extra portrait and hands just sweetens the pot. I’m hoping that when the time comes I’ll be content to own this version of Cap in the Legends scale and save a little money on the Hot Toys, but I won’t know for sure until the time comes and I can see what my bank account looks like.

Apr 27 2015

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Hulk by Hasbro

What? You thought that just because I did a whole week of Marvel Legends last week that you’d be spared Marvel Monday? HA! Just for that I have a good mind to do another Marvel Week. I should, really, because Age of Ultron premiers this Friday here in the US and I am going to be pumped for it all week. But, I do have other stuff to look at so I’ll resist that urge. On the other hand, I can’t promise you won’t see the other Age of Ultron figures from The Thanos Wave appearing here on Friday and Saturday. Anywho, let’s move things along with a look at The Hulk!

Here’s the obligatory package shot. I don’t have a lot new to say other than it’s impressive that Hasbro was able to cram him into a regular sized Legends box and include a BAF part to boot! The top of the package features the Avengers: Age of Ultron logo and the back has a shot of the figure and the usual little snippet about the character. I’ll confess I was really excited to get this figure because The Hulk is another one of those Walmart exclusive Avengers figures that I missed out on last time and I’ve sorely missed having a Legends Hulk in my collection. Of course, this is the Age of Ultron version, so I had to make some compromises. Let’s SMASH the packaging and see what he’s all about.

So, it’s The Hulk. What could they possibly change in terms of design for the new movie? Well, that’s my one sticking minor sticking point here. At some point I guess they designed Bruce Banner some stretchy pants so he doesn’t have to go through all those pairs of torn purple trousers every time he changes. It makes sense, but it departs from The Hulk design that I know and love in a big, big way. I get it, that they’re trying to sell more action figures, but the new pants make me very glad I picked up The Hot Toys Hulk from the first movie and very sad I didn’t get the Legends Hulk from the first movie. Ah well.

Everything else here in terms of sculpt is pretty damn great. I’m going to assume that a lot of this figure is reused from the first Avengers Hulk, which would make sense. The head sculpt is absolutely fantastic. From the broad nose to the gritting teeth, they did a wonderful job captured the Hulk’s likeness for this scale. There are some odd differences in the texturing on the rest of the body, which could tell a lot about Hasbo and their tendency for parts reuse. The torso is totally smooth, whereas there’s a lot of texturing and veins sculpted into the arms. Just for shits and giggles I grabbed my incomplete Ultimate Green Goblin BAF only to find that torso does indeed have some sculpted detail. Why not go with that torso? I’m not sure. Also, the upper legs are textured in line with his new trousers, whereas the bottom of the legs are textured like smooth skin. The part of the pants that extend below his knees are just painted there. No big deal, but worth mentioning.

The articulation here is good on paper, but a little frustrating in practice. First, let’s run down all the points! You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, hips, and wrists. There are double hinges in the elbows and knees. You get swivels in the biceps and thighs. The ankles feature both hinges and some really generous lateral rockers. There is no swivel in the waist, which is a big disappointment, but there is a ball joint in the torso, which helps along with rotation. The head is ball jointed, but sadly there is no hinge, which means that if you put The Hulk in that typical ape-like hunch, you can’t really get him to look forward. Boo! Also, the legs feature a lot of movement, but for most of it, they like to go really wide, giving Hulk a rather uncharacteristic sumo wrestler vibe. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still loads of fun to play with, but there’s some things he just can’t do as well as I’d like.

All gripes aside, Hulk is a great figure, but this is one case where I wish Hasbro had totally cheaped out and just repacked the Hulk from the first movie, especially since that original Hulk is selling for upward of $45 on Teh Ebays these days. Do a pair of pants really matter? Nah. Only when I over think it. The torn pants always represented the unpredictable and savage nature of The Hulk busting its way out of Bruce Banner and it’s certainly a trademark for the character. Giving Hulk a version of a uniform may make sense, but I never saw Hulk as the type to conform, much less allow anyone to brand him with a trademark (in this case, the Avengers “A”). The Thing might wear pants that match his team’s colors, but The Hulk? Really? And yes, I realize these are more creative issues I should be taking up with the movie (and I suppose even the Marvel NOW! comics) and not the figure, but in the end I’m not letting them ruin my enjoyment of either.

Apr 25 2015

Marvel Legends: Agents of SHIELD 3-pack by Hasbro, Part 2

It’s Saturday, my vacation is almost over and that makes me a sad puppy. Hopefully playing with some new Marvel Legends can cheer me up until the dark din of Monday morning hits me and my mood is irrecoverable. Yesterday, I started looking at this Agents of SHIELD boxed set with Agent Phil Coulson and found him to be a fresh and new figure. Today we’re going to be looking at Nick Fury and Maria Hill and things are not going to be so fresh and new. Reuse of parts is common in these multiplacks and that’s going to become pretty apparent today with two recycled bodies. We’ve already seen the packaging, so let’s jump right in and start with Nick Fury.

Before I get going, let me point out that this seems to be a repack of the Legends Fury originally issued as part of the Walmart exclusive Captain America: The First Avenger line. I never saw those figures on the pegs, so I’m coming at this like a new release, or at least new to me. I like this figure, I like it a lot. I think it looks fantastic on its own. But it sure is hard not to look at it and see a head pop-and-swap from the Red Skull a few waves back because that’s almost exactly what this figure is. The only stand out difference is the coat and pants going from grey to black. Does it work as Fury? Absolutely! I think it works better as Fury than the Red Skull. Is it annoying that I can’t unsee it? You betcha! Especially so when the two figures are likely only going to be a shelf apart in my display case. It’s also the same basic body we saw with The Punisher, and that coat was not only previously used for Red Skull and The Punisher, but Fantomex as well (and did that “Marvel Knights” Blade figure ever actually come out? If so, there’s another!). But hey, I absolutely love this coat. It’s wonderfully textured and looks fantastic and next to Frank Castle, I think Fury is the best use of it.

I’m also very fond of the aesthetics of this particular body. Again, there’s a ton of little detail work on the texturing of the pants and shirt. The sculpted and functional holster on the leg looks great and Fury makes use of the extra holster in the shoulder rig that was used with Red Skull. For a line that makes a lot of use of generic bucks and painted costumes, I can appreciate the sculpted detail here. The boots are painted glossy black to stand out from the rest of the black and there’s some fine silver paintwork on the buckles and snaps.

The head sculpt rounds out the package quite nicely. It’s a great likeness for Samuel Jackson, at least in this scale and price range and when you put the whole thing together, I think this figure really captures the character beautifully.

Now, you may have noted that I commented on how I like the aesthetics of this body, well the articulation is another matter. All the points are there, but the way the shoulders and hips work can be rather annoying. The arms can’t really be put down at his sides, so you’re mostly relegated to action poses. The hips can do a little better, but you really have to fiddle with those ball joints a lot and even so, this figure is really tough to stand on his own.

Fury comes with a pair of automatic pistols, which are nicely scaled (particularly when compared to Red Skull’s obnoxiously large red sidearm). They feature decent sculpts and even some blue paint apps, which makes them a little SHIELD-y to me. They fit nicely in both holsters, but unfortunately, Fury only has one hand that’s really designed to hold a gun, but that’s OK, because I can hand one off to Maria Hill. And that brings us to…

Yes, Agent Hill is also a mostly recycled body, in this case taken from the recent Winter Soldier version of Black Widow. Again, it’s a logical bit of reuse, and in this case the body has received an entirely new repaint (blue) to make it a somewhat more distinctive figure. There are also some less added silver paint apps to the fixtures of her gear, as well as the absence of Widow’s trademark emblem on the tummy, that help separate the two. On the downside, reuse of this body means that you also get the holsters with the guns permanently sculpted into them. Still, even with its flaws, I really like that Black Widow figure and this one works a little better because I’m pretty sure that that Cobie Smulders is taller than Scarlett Johansson and this figure is pretty tall when compared to Fury or even the STRIKE Suit Cap. Ironically, Widow’s hair still makes her a smidge taller than Hill.

Speaking of actresses, the likeness on Agent Hill is certainly passable. I don’t think it photographs all that well, but in person it’s quite good. I’m not sure I could randomly identify the head if it were given to me, but in the context of the uniform, it’s pretty easy for me to recognize who it’s supposed to be. She even has her trademark ear piece.

Hill doesn’t come with any accessories, but as I mentioned before I believe I’ll be handing off one of Fury’s guns to her. Her right hand is sculpted to hold these guns perfectly. The left hand is sculpted into a fist, which unfortunately looks more like a ham painted in a flesh tone.

Like I said in the opener, these sets are usually all about parts recycling, so that’s something to keep in mind. Companies like Hasbro and Mattel recycling bodies doesn’t bother me, especially if it helps us get figures that otherwise might not be in the budget and certainly not when its used to this good effect. As far as I’m concerned, every one of these figures would have been a worthy purchase on their own so grabbing all three for fifty bucks feels like a pretty good deal. Certainly good enough that I didn’t hesitate to buy it when I saw it, whereas I waited until deep clearance to buy Hasbro’s last Legends 3-pack.

Apr 24 2015

Marvel Legends: Agents of SHIELD 3-pack by Hasbro, Part 1

Well, I hope you all enjoyed yesterday’s little break from Marvel Legends Week, because today it’s back to business, this time with the Agents of SHIELD 3-pack. This Toys R Us exclusive features Agent Phil Coulson, Agent Maria Hill, and Nick Fury himself. These are, of course, all versions based on the Marvel MovieVerse, which is appropriate as we are just one week away from the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron and I couldn’t be more psyched. In the wake of watching the amazing Daredevil series on Netflex, I actually thought I’d give the Agents of SHIELD series a second go, but I find myself still having to push myself to complete an episode, so I’m not sure how long I’ll last this time.

Much like that far more questionable Captain America, Radioactive Man, Ms Marvel set that I featured a couple of weeks back, these figures come in an elongated window box showing off the goods. It’s totally collector friendly as all you need do is open up one of the flaps and slide out the tray. I thought this set was going to be impossible to get a hold of, but it turned up on TRU’s website fairly quickly and surprisingly enough did not sell out immediately. Quite the contrary, it shortly went on sale. Today I’m going to check out the packaging and Agent Coulson and tomorrow I’ll swing back around to look at Fury and Hill.

Agent Coulson was a great choice for the Marvel Legends series as he’s been one of those common threads trailing along through the films from the beginning. Coulson comes sporting a brand new suited body, which I hear tell was actually created for the up and coming Chameleon figure and yet somehow managed to land on the shelves first here on Coulton. It features the usual vest-style of jacket with the arms sculpted to look like sleeves. The tie is also a separate piece and features a crisp blue and silver diagonal stripe. The paintwork is rounded out with some sharp silver paint on the belt buckle and glossy black for the shoes. I think they could have done a better job matching the black on the sleeves and jacket, but otherwise this body is a really nice piece of work and I can imagine there’s a lot of potential for Hasbro to repurpose it quite a bit. Just think of how much mileage Mattel got out of some of their DCUC suited bodies, eh?

You get two different heads with Coulson, one with sunglasses and one without. The regular head is a fairly good portrait. It’s a little stylized, but I’m pretty sure I could have recognized it as Clark Gregg if I didn’t already know who it was supposed to be. The features are quite well definied and he has a little bit of a smile. The other portrait is possibly even a little closer in likeness. The sunglasses are very neatly painted and this one features a more serious expression. Hasbro rarely has to deal with real actor likenesses in the Legends line, but it’s nice to see they can do it right when they have to.

As for articulation, The Son of Coul is a surprisingly agile figure. 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, swivels in the thighs, and the ankles are hinged with lateral rockers. Phil has a swivel in the waist, a ball joint in the torso, and both a hinge and balljoint at the neck. For a guy in a suit, Coulson is all sorts of limber.

Besides the extra noggin, Phil comes with the weapon he briefly wielded in the first Avengers movie. It’s the one that SHIELD retro-engineered from The Destroyer technology and the one he shot Loki with. It’s a big gun with some really intricate sculpting and a little orange paint on the barrel. He can hold it comfortably in both hands.

Oftentimes these Marvel multipacks, whether they be Legends or Universe, feel like quick cash grabs with thrown together figures, but that’s definitely not the case with Agent Coulson. I would have been totally happy to buy this guy off the peg for the usual $20. He’s an excellent figure and feels fresh and new. The likeness is good, the articulation is great, and the extra head and the weapon just sweeten the pot. We’re off to a great start with this set, so join me tomorrow and I’ll be back to look at Nick Fury and Maria Hill.

Apr 22 2015

Marvel Legends (Thanos Wave): Batroc the Leaper by Hasbro

With the last wave of Marvel Legends behind me, it’s time to jump right into the most recent assortment… The Thanos Wave! This one is split between three straight up comic characters and three figures form the Age of Ultron movie. I’m probably going to get into the Avengers 2 figures next week, what with the movie coming out, so I thought I’d start with something from the comic side of the fence and you can’t get more comic than Batroc. Yes, folks, you know it’s a miraculous time to be a comic book fan and toy collector when you can walk into a Target or Walmart and buy a Batroc the Leaper right off the peg. Holy shit, whoever thought this would be possible!

There’s not much new to be said about the packaing. You get the now standard window box with the Marvel logo up top and Batroc’s name down the bottom. The back of the package has a single sentence about Batroc, which is fine because I would imagine that if you don’t happen to already know who he is the only reason you’d buy this figure is to get the Thanos pieces. Included are Thanos’ torso and shoulder armor and between those and Batroc there isn’t much space left in this box. Batroc, of course, made a drastically altered appearance in The Winter Soldier as one of the French mercenaries who hijacked the SHIELD vessel and took hostages leading to a pretty bad ass fight between Cap and The Leaper. Besides the name, however, the only thing that really survived the transition to big screen was some purple on his clothing and a pencheon for French kickboxing.

Of course, you’d have to be a kickboxer, veteran of the French Foreign Legion, and all over badass to walk around looking like this! With his purple and gold outfit, Batroc is clearly not afraid of having his fashion sense challenged. Batroc’s costume is achieved exclusively through paintwork on a generic figure buck, but it works perfectly fine. There’s a little bit of gold spray on the purple of his left arm, but otherwise the paint lines are nice and clean. The colors are absolutely gorgeous too. This figure really pops on the shelf, even when surrounded by a legion of equally brightly colored costumed heroes and villains.

Ah, but Batroc is all about that face and Hasbro did a wonderful job with it. They pulled no punches with his goatee, classic stereotypical villain mustache and that cheesy grin. Even the nose is so superbly defined. I think this may go down as one of my favorite head sculpts in the modern Legends era, and there have been some great ones, so that’s really saying something!

The articulation here provides plenty of poseability. 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, double hinged at the knees, and there are swivels in his thighs and the tops of his boots. The ankles feature both hinges and lateral rockers. Finally, you get a swivel in the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the torso, and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck. The lateral shoulder crunches that we saw in Iron Fist a few days ago would have been welcome here, but I’m still happy with what we got.

Batroc is a great example of why I’m so excited about what Hasbro has been doing with the Legends line. Here we are on the cusp of Avengers 2’s release and rather than simply stack the deck with movie figures to cash in on that huge media cow, they are still managing to blow a kiss to those of us that read comic books. You have to figure that tossing in an Age of Ultron Hawkeye or an Ultron Drone would have had to sell better than Batroc, and that’s why I consider releases like this to be such a welcome love letter. Don’t get me wrong, I’d still love to see those other figures, along with a MovieVerse Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, but I’m more happy to see a balance struck between movie and comic book characters on the pegs.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: marvel legends