Ah yes, I had almost forgotten how well the Marvel Legends packaging captures the obnoxious bravado of your typical superhero funnybook. Hasbro has classified this assortment as the “Epic Heroes!” wave in lieu of there being a Build-A-Figure to tie it all together. US Agent is one of the few figures without a variant in the wave, and he doesn’t share his card art with anyone. Walker comes on his tray with shield and gun in hand, a knife hovering off to the side, and his figure stand to the left. The back of the card has a nice piece of character art with a little tagline and the rest of the wave’s figures pictured at the bottom.

You may be tired of me linking back to previous features this week, but I’m going to do it one last time, but only because US Agent is a repaint and resculpt of Wave 2’s Bucky Cap, and so I’ll be referencing it frequently. US Agent is built off the exact same buck, with a new head sculpt, a new belt, and new gauntlets. Apart from those three areas, the figure is a straight repaint. Now, that’s not a complaint, mind you, Bucky Cap is a great figure to revisit. Besides, we all know by now that toy companies are resorting to heavy parts reuse to defray the rising costs of plastics and to make sure they’re able to make the most profit from your monies. I have no problem with the practice when parts re-use makes sense, and it certainly makes sense here.

So let’s take a quick look at what’s new. The new head sculpt is meatier than Bucky Cap’s, which does seem a little more proportionate to the body. The new hood has beefier wings and his ears are exposed. Walker looks plenty pissed, and while the overall sculpt is a little soft and not the best of what we’ve seen in this line, it does get the job done ok by me. US Agent’s portrait certainly oozes a ton of personality. The belt is a new, separate piece, but it appears to be permanently attached to the figure. Here’s the one stumbling block of the new figure. Bucky Cap had a functional holster and sheath and US Agent does not. Perhaps, Hasbro felt that if they kept the same gear on US Agent than collectors would have complained about too much being the same. Fair enough, but personally I would rather have retained the functionality of Bucky Cap’s belt. I especially lament the loss of the sheath, as I will likely never display US Agent holding his knife.

The new paint scheme is certainly appropriate to US Agent’s first costume. The black and red and white make for an intriguing motif and sets him apart from the Bucky Cap figure. There’s something a little off about the paint on the torso, though. It looks like Hasbro painted over the torso with some glossy paint and it doesn’t look so hot up near the shoulders. It may have something to do with the plastic. I’m not sure what it is, but it detracts slightly from the figure.

Since US Agent shares the same body as Bucky Cap, you’d probably expect him to have the same articulation, and you’d be right. The head is ball jointed and features that delightful extra hinge to help him look up. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps, double hinged elbows, and wrists with hinges and swivels. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, feature swivels at the thighs and the tops of the boots, and have ankles with hinges and rocker joints. US Agent can also swivel at the waist and he features an ab crunch hinge. I can’t ask for much more articulation than this. Well done, Hasbro!

US Agent comes with the same gear as Bucky Cap. You get his shield, an automatic pistol, and a combat knife. The knife is identical and I will likely lose it rather quickly since I have nowhere to put it. Maybe US Agent will trade it to Deadpool for some chimichangas. The pistol is repainted silver and black, which admittedly looks loads better than Bucky Cap’s unpainted, grey gun. US Agent’s shield is a snazzy black, white and red repaint of Bucky Cap’s shield and it features the same wrist clip and peg so that it can be stored on his back.

US Agent holds very few surprises. I knew going in that he was going to borrow heavily from last wave’s Bucky Cap, but it’s logical and prudent recycling that serves the character well. True, I lament the loss of the holster and sheath, but I can sort of understand why Hasbro did it. Otherwise, US Agent is a solid and very fun figure with excellent articulation. Yes, I’d rank him a little below Bucky Cap, but that may be as much because of my indifference to the character, rather than the quality of the figure.

Tomorrow, we’ll check out The Punisher!

I’m off celebrating with my family, then it’s home to enjoy some excellent brandy and watch the Doctor Who Christmas Special, and then early to bed, because I’ve got to be into work at a very uncivilized hour tomorrow.

Needless to say, I’m not doing a new feature today. Nonetheless, to keep the Marvel Legends Wave 3 week moving along, I’ll invite you to check out my features on the first two figures in the wave: Iron Man and Mystique, assuming of course you haven’t done so already.

I hope everyone has a great holiday, and be sure to take the time to enjoy the company of friends, family, or hopefully both.

I’ll be back tomorrow to take a look at U.S. Agent!

Of course, it’s also Christmas Eve, and that’s another reason why I chose to do this week now. I’ve already looked at two figures from Wave 3, so I can do re-runs of those figures tomorrow on Christmas Day. Ain’t I a sneaky bastard? I’ll be officially back from holidays on Wednesday when we check out U.S. Agent!

There she is in the package. I have little left to say about this delightful package deco. As with the Wrecking Crew figures, Viper’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on the package. Instead Hasbro was content on using the “Marvel’s Madams” moniker and illustrations of both characters to allow for the shared packaging. I’ll also go ahead and mention here that this figure comes with a variant of the Arnim Zola BAF figure’s torso with Red Skull’s face projected on the screen. Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not going to pull apart my Zola figure to make this one, so you’ll have to be content with seeing him in the package.

Madam Viper uses a straight repaint of the Madam Masque body. There’s no new sculpting, but I have to say I really dig the paintwork on this figure a lot more than Masque. She has a glossy green outfit and gloves, with lighter green boots painted on, and painted skin tones for her arms. Besides the colors just being more vibrant, I never really cared for the way the blue paint wash looked on Madam Masque’s white outfit. Sure, these are two different characters and each one has their own look going on, but from a purely aesthetic point of view, I just think this figure’s body looks a lot better in both design and execution. The separate belt is still present, and includes a functional holster.

And then there’s the head sculpt, about which I’ve waffled back and forth on so many times. My main concern was that it looked too man-ish, and it still does mostly when viewed dead on. On the other hand, if you catch it at the right angles, she’s a bit more passable. Either way, the face is definitely harsh and angular, but not at all ill-suited to a villain. At the right angles (and with the right number of beers) she can even be somewhat attractive… or not. At least the paint work on the face is sharp and clean, particularly the emerald lip gloss and the eyes. The sculpted hair looks good, although as one might expect it does impede the head articulation to a point.

Madam Hydra’s articulation is solid, although granted she is not one of the most poseable figures in the line. You get a ball jointed neck, ball joints in the shoulders, hinged elbows and swivels in the gloves. The legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, and hinges in the knees and ankles. There’s no waist articulation, but she does have a ball joint in the upper torso that allows her to swivel.

Viper comes with repaints of the same two weapons as Madam Masque. You get the scoped, AR-15 style assault rifle and the pistol. The pistol is repainted emerald green, the rifle has some green accents where the cream colored paint apps were on Masque’s weapon. The pistol fits into the holster on the belt and she can hold both weapons pretty well.

And there you go. I ended up liking this figure a lot more than I thought I would, and ultimately, even more than I liked Madam Masque. The paint is excellent, I dig the colors, and in person, the head sculpt isn’t the stumbling block I thought it was going to be. I don’t think I would have paid a premium to get her, but finding her just hanging there on the pegs was a welcome treat.