Tag Archives: marvel legends

Apr 7 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Fantomex by Hasbro

Marvel Legends week is in the home home stretch, so hang in there. Just two more packaged figures and the BAF to go. Today we’re looking at Fantomex, child of the Weapon Plus program and someone that I have not encountered a lot in my frequent travels through Marvels funnybooks.  I used to read a lot of X-Men comics, but most of that was in the 90’s and I’ve only read a few issues of New X-Men, so Fantomex here is the one character in this wave that I was least familiar with. Nonetheless, the figure looks badass and seeing as he’s the brainchild of Grant Morrison, I was still pretty anxious to add him to my collection. Let’s take a look…

I thought it odd for Hasbro to include two such monochromatic figures in the same wave, but in fairness Future Foundation Spidey was a variant and Fantomex is one of the few figures in this assortment without a variant so what you see is what you get. Did any part of that sentence make sense? I need more coffee. Anywho, Fantomex fills out the bubble very nicely with his flowing trenchcoat and brace of automatic pistols. Mounted beside him is the included BAF piece, Arnim Zola’s right arm. The character art is pretty cool. Its a nice action shot!
Here’s one of the few examples of the new Marvel Legends where I don’t have a lot to say about the figure’s head sculpt. Fantomex is wearing a mask so its not a big venue for detail. The eyes and bridge of the nose are exposed and nicely painted. The black deco paintwork on the mask isn’t quite as sharp as I would have liked and is mostly fuzzy around the top. Its perfectly passable, but not up to what we’ve been seeing on a lot of these other figures.
Mediocre head sculpt aside, Fantomex is a really great looking figure. Its like he comes from some bizarre alternate dimension where GI JOE’s Storm Shadow and Firefly merged together and joined the  X-Men. The black and white deco looks really nice here, particularly with the black gloves, boots and the red X belt buckle. Apart from the boots and gloves, there isn’t a hell of a lot of original tooling for this figure’s body. You do get some sculpted straps on his legs.
Fantomex features a sculpted, sleeveless high collared trench coat that looks absolutely smashing in the figure. The ripples are wonderfully sculpted and it fans out beautifully on the back. You get the same black deco on the back and much like The Dude’s rug, it really ties the room action figure together. He also has a separate belt that hangs around his waist and features two functional holsters for his pistols.

Speaking of pistols, Fantomex’s brace of automatics are amazing little sculpts. They’re cast in grey with no paint apps, but tons of little details for such small accessories. I do find it a bit odd that both have their magazines partially ejected, but it doesn’t change the fact that they look great. He can hold the one in his right hand really well, but unfortunately his left hand doesn’t hold the pistol very well at all.
Fantomex features the same articulation that we’ve been seeing in most of the male figures in the line. You get a ball jointed neck with the extra hinge. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, double hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. The legs have ball joints in the hips, double hinged knees, swivels in the thighs and swivels and hinges in the ankles. The torso swivels at the waist and features the ab crunch hinge.

Even with all the Marvel comics I read, I still can’t be familiar with every character. Nonetheless, I don’t need to know a lot about Fantomex to appreciate that this is one really cool figure. The deco is really cool, I love the trench coat and he’s an all around fun figure to pose and play around with. I don’t know what’s up with the sculpt on his left hand not being able to hold his gun straight, but that’s really the only stand out issue I can take with this guy.
Apr 6 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Dark Wolverine by Hasbro

With four figures behind us, we’re over the hump of this Marvel Legends week, but we still have three more packaged figures to go, plus the BAF, so let’s keep pressing on. Today’s figure is none other than Logan’s son, Daken, who served under the guise of Dark Wolverine as part of Norman Osborne’s Avengers. Daken is yet another one of the variants in this wave, with the figure being available in masked and unmasked versions. I was hoping for the unmasked, and that’s exactly what I got… cool!

The figure is packaged as “Dark Wolverine” and features a nice piece of character art in the upper left hand corner. This is among my favorite card art used for this line so far. Daken fills out the bubble fairly nicely along with the help of his BAF piece, in this case Arnim’s left arm.
The head sculpt is the only thing really different between the variants of this figure. One has the Wolverine Mask on and the other has it off allowing Daken to let his mohawky freak flag fly. I think its possible they could have tuned down the mohawk just a little bit, but apart from that this is an excellent head sculpt. I’m particularly happy with the way Hasbro included a separate sculpted mask to hang around his neck. Its something I totally didn’t expect and just the kind of nice extra touch I love and expect when paying $18 for an action figure.
Besides the mask, there isn’t a lot of original tooling on this figure outside of a standard buck. His vest is sculpted around the shoulders, and I like the way his boots flare out at his calves. Naturally, his bone claws are sculpted in the deployed position and look great. Daken does have a separately sculpted belt that hangs around his waist. The rest of the costume is executed with paintwork and looks good and the painted tattoo on his left arm is sharp.
Dark Wolverine features the same articulation we’ve been seeing in the male figures, with a couple of nice surprises that we haven’t seen yet. The neck is ball jointed with the additional hinge. His arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the wrists and biceps, and double hinged elbows. His legs feature ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs and calves, and double hinged knees. His ankles are hinged and also have an additional rocker hinge to keep his feet flat in wide stances. He also has hinges in the middle of his feet! Those of you collecting Marvel Legends back in the Toy Biz days will no doubt remember these. I’m still on the fence over whether I like them or not. I never really saw them as crucial and they do require the feet to be larger than usual. Daken’s torso swivels at the waist and he has the usual ab crunch hinge.
Overall, I’m very happy with the way this figure turned out, and doubly happy that I was able to get the unmasked version in my case. I probably won’t be hunting down the masked version, although I’d say its a pretty good bet Hasbro will be reusing a repainted version the masked version as a regular Wolverine release down the road, so I’ll be happy to pick it up when they do that. I think its awesome that Hasbro is going for some of the Dark Avengers so soon in the line, as it allows collectors who have been buying these figures since the Toy Biz days a break from having to see the same characters over and over again.

Tomorrow, we’ll keep the X-Men ball rolling with Fantomex!
Apr 5 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Madame Masque by Hasbro

Dipping back into those pesky variants, today’s figure is Madame Masque, which also shares the slot in Wave 2 with Viper. But to complicate things even more, this variant comes with a variant of the BAF piece too! Madame Masque is the regular version, which comes with Arnim Zola’s torso, but if you pick up Viper you get the torso with Red Skull’s face on it instead. Oh, Hasbro… you’re killing me with this stuff!

Hasbro got rather cheeky with the packaging this time, as the name on the package is simply “Marvel’s Madames” with the card art showing both Madame Masque and Viper (aka Madame Hydra). It was a clever way to go, considering these variants are completely different characters. MM is packaged in a rather neutral stance, holding her assault rifle across her chest and with her pistol mounted on the tray right beside her head. The BAF piece, Zola’s torso/face rounds out the contents of this bubble rather nicely.
No one need ask Madam Masque where she got her name, as she a copper colored mask stuck to her face to avoid showcasing her horrible scarring. You could argue that MM’s head sculpt is a little lacking compared to some of the other figures in the line, but I think its more because of the simplicity of the mask than anything else. Personally, I think Hasbro did an excellent job here, as the eyeholes are clearly defined with flesh paint around the holes and the eyes, and her ears are even sculpted way back under her hair. The hair is soft enough so it doesn’t interfere with her neck articulation too badly.
The rest of MM’s body is fairly simple, both in terms of paintwork and sculpt. Her gauntlets are sculpted, but the tops of her boots are just painted on. You get sculpted shoulder straps on her torso, but they aren’t painted. You do, however,  get a sculpted and painted zipper running up to her neck. I’m not all that crazy about the blue wash used on the white parts of her costume. I suppose its better than leaving it completely white like they did with Spidey, but the overall affect doesn’t look all that great. It kind of reminds me of the blue wash Hasbro used on the Stormtroopers in their Star Wars comic packs.
MM has a separately sculpted belt that hangs around her hips and includes a functional holster for her pistol. I really like the pistol as its cast in the same color plastic as her mask and looks a bit like a Luger. She also comes with an assault rifle with an equally impressive sculpt and paintwork on the stock, grips and magazine.
As with Hope Summers in Wave 1, MM reflects a slightly lower standard of articulation for the females in the line, and this will invariably bug some people to no end. She has a ball jointed neck, minus the additional hinge present we’ve seen in Spidey, Drax, and Bucky Cap. Her arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and in her gloves, but only one hinge in the elbows. Her legs feature ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinged knees, and hinges and swivels in the ankles. Her torso has a ball joint, and no waist articulation. Honestly, you can still get plenty of cool poses out of MM, but she’s definitely missing a point of articulation here and there.
Madame Masque is a solid figure, but not necessarily a stand out in the line. She looks good, has some nice weapons, and a passable level of articulation. I think the character was a good choice, as she hasn’t appeared in Marvel Universe and she’s a relatively high profile villain that was in desparate need of some action figure loving. On the other hand, she is a bit bland, and I’m not overly impressed with the paintwork here. She’s definitely one of the few variants in this wave that I’m actually going to make an effort to hunt down at some point during the future, as Viper seems like an overall better looking figure.

Tomorrow… Daken, aka Dark Wolverine!
Apr 4 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Captain America by Hasbro

Its Day Three of Marvel Legends week and today we’re looking at Captain America. Or more precisely, Bucky Cap! Just like Drax, Cap here doesn’t have a variant to worry about, although one wonders why Hasbro didn’t just toss in an unmasked variant to make us go even more crazy. Some may argue getting Cap in Wave 2 is overkill after getting Steve Rogers in Wave 1, but I would disagree. Then again, I love me some Cap, and Hasbro might as well ride the popularity of the character right through the Avengers movie.

If this figure hanging on the peg doesn’t catch your eye, I don’t know what will. Besides the awesomely obnoxious package design, Cap himself is just screaming “look at me” from behind that bubble with his bright red, white and blue deco. He fills out the card very nicely with shield and gun in hand and his knife mounted on the tray beside him. Off to the side you can see the BAF piece, in this case its Zola’s right leg. I’m really digging on the character art here too. Its a great all around package that screams, “BUY ME, YOUNG PATRIOT!!!!”
So, before getting into the sculpt, let’s talk scale, because Marvel Legends is having a few issues here. Last wave, I complained about Iron Man being too small, well this time its Cap. He’s looks ok standing beside the 6-inch movie figures, but put him next to Steve Rogers from the last wave and he looks like he belongs in a different line. Now, I’ll still give credit to Hasbro for trying, because its nice to see diversity in the body types and characters as opposed to say DC Universe Classics, where outside of the C&C figures all the characters are basically the same size and build. I just think that Hasbro needs to watch out for under scaling some of these figures.
Size aside, Cap is a truly great looking figure, with just one minor stumble. I don’t think the head sculpt is quite as good as what we’ve seen in this line so far, as its actually much softer a sculpt. It still looks ok, but its not up to the standard we’ve been seeing in other figures in this line. The rest of Cap’s body is a pretty standard sculpt, that mostly utilizes the paintwork to convey his costume. There are pouches sculpted directly onto his waist, rather than on a separate belt, and his boots and gloves feature unique tooling, but that’s pretty much it. The paintwork is pretty sharp and I really like the mix of high gloss and slightly metallic type of paint used for the red, white and blue on his torso. He is, no doubt a flashy looking figure with nice proportions.
During the last Marvel Legends week, I may have commented on how I wished Steve Rogers had some working holsters for his guns, well I’m happy to report that this Cap does! Not only does he have a functional holster for his automatic pistol, but he has a functional sheath for his knife too! Awesome! Both accessories are fairly simple, yet functional sculpts. The shield is the same accessory that came with Steve Rogers, so it can either clip onto his wrist or it can be pegged onto his back.
Cap has what seems to be what is becoming the standard for the line. The head is ball jointed and features that wonderful additional hinge for better range of motion for looking up or down. The arms feature ball joints at the shoulders, double hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the wrists. His legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels at the thighs and boots, double hinges at the knees, and hinged ankles. The torso swivels at the waist and has an ab crunch hinge. You can certainly get cap into some very fun poses.
Undersized or not, I love this figure! Cap’s sculpt is solid and the paintwork is downright awesome. His articulation makes him a fun figure to play with and I’m really thrilled with his accessories and the way everything he comes with can be stored away on his person. He looks right at home standing next to Iron Man or the 6-inch movie Thor and Nick Fury. Unless the size issue is a severe sticking point with you, I’d definitely recommend him as a pick up.

Next up… Madame Masque
Apr 3 2012

Marvel Legends: Steve Rogers by Hasbro

With five figures behind us, we’re well over the hump in FigureFan’s Marvel Legends marathon. One would have expected Captain America to turn up in this wave, but instead it was Steve Rogers as he appeared when back when Bucky was running around as Captain America. Not to worry, Cap fans, he turns up in Wave 2 and that’s fine by me because I was much more excited about getting this figure.

                                       
And… packaged shot. Damn, this is one packed bubble of goodness. Between the figure, the shield, the guns, and Terrax’s pelvis, you’re getting a fair load of stuff. I’m still a bit iffy with the character art, but its starting to grow on me.
Out of the package… is it me or does Steve’s head look just a little bit too big? Well, that was my initial thought, but after fiddling with him a bit, the possibility stopped bothering me because this is one amazing figure. Let the gushing begin! First off, possibly a tad oversized or not, Steve’s head is a great sculpt. First Hope Summers, now Steve Rogers, Hasbro has a cracker of a team working on these head sculpts and they are amazing.
The rest of the figure is a great mix of a standard painted costume buck with some bits of unique sculpting here and there. He has sculpted leather straps on his shoulders and right thigh, his belt is a separate piece that hangs around his waist. He lower leg bracers are also sculpted in separate pieces. And finally, he has sculpted fingerless gloves and amazingly detailed treads on his boots. Combine all this with the nice painted deco on his chest and the striping down his legs and you get one great looking, and unique figure. Once again, its just a great blend of standard figure buck, paintwork, and sculpted bits that make this figure shine.
Accessories! Steve comes with a pair of pistols and his trademark shield. The shield clips on to his arm and features a peg so that it can be stored on his back. I tend to like this shield design better than the one that came with my 6-inch movie Cap solely because it can be stored on his back. The pistols are cool sculpts and he can hold them in each of his hands. Some working holsters would have been nice, especially since most of the time, I’m going to have him posed with his shield and one pistol drawn.

Steve Rogers features some excellent articulation. His neck is not only ball jointed, but it also has an added hinge to help him look up and down even more. Hasbro, make this the standard, I love it! His arms feature ball jointed shoulders, double-hinged elbows, hinged wrists, and swivels in the biceps and wrists. His legs feature ball joints at the hips, double-hinged knees, swivels and hinges at the ankles, and swivels in the upper thighs. He swivels at his waist and he also has a hinged ab crunch in the torso. Nice!
I was pretty smitten with this figure when Hasbro first showed it off, and now that I have it in hand, I’ve got to say he lived up to all my expectations. He looks fantastic and he is so much fun to pose and play around with. Not to take anything away from Hope, Ghost Rider, or Constrictor, but Steve Rogers is definitely my favorite figure in the wave that we’ve looked at thus far. He was a great choice for the initial wave and a great example of what this new Marvel Legends line can offer when its going with both barrels blazing. And for those of you keeping score, this makes Marvel Legend, Wave One four for six.

At this point, we’ve looked at all the figures in the assortment that include the BAF pieces for Terrax. In the interest of finishing up by the end of the weekend, I’m going to look at the last packaged figure, Thor, and the BAF figure, Terrax, both tomorrow. That will allow me to do a fresh start for the new week on Monday.
Apr 3 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Drax The Destroyer by Hasbro

Drax has been getting a lot of love in the comic books and toy shelves lately. He had a good run a couple years back in the Guardians of the Galaxy funnybook and was recently released in the Marvel Universe 3 3/4″ line as part of the multi-pack with the same name. And now, of course, he’s got a slot in the second wave of the Marvel Legends 6-inch line! I still think Hasbro should be staying away from figures that have recently been given the 3 3/4″ treatment, as it kind of feels like double dipping, but considering how cool Drax turned out, I’m not going to complain here.

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Once again, the Marvel Legends packaging is an assault on your eyes, but in a good way! I’m still digging the presentation here as it really draws in the eye and epitomizes everything there is about comic books. I’m even warming up to the style of character art that Hasbro is going with here. Most of the time, I still prefer the Marvel Universe character art, but I’ve got to admit, Drax looks nice and menacing. Unlike Spidey, Drax and his BAF piece, Zola’s left leg, fills up his bubble very nicely. He’s packaged in a fairly neutral stance with his two knives in his hands. Ok, let’s rip this badboy open and check him out.
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One of my favorite things about the first wave of Marvel Legends was the head sculpts, and Drax here shows the trend is continuing. He’s got a stern, grim face that looks like he’s ready to kick some major ass. The face is really packed with detail and gives the figure a lot of character while perfectly suiting someone who’s title is “The Destroyer.” Drax’s body relies mostly on a generic muscular sculpt and paintwork, although he does have sculpted trousers and a cool knife strapped to his right wrist. Its a permanently attached piece molded as part of the arm, but its so well done, it looks like it can be removed. Drax’s skin is molded in a satisfying green with his tats painted sharply in red. He has a belt sculpted in a separate piece that hangs loose around his waist and has loops on the back to hold both of his knives.
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Drax features a solid level of articulation. The head is ball jointed and features that an additional hinge in the neck to allow the head to better look up and down. The arms feature ball joints at the shoulders, double hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinges in the wrists. His legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels at the thighs, double hinges at the knees, and hinged ankles. The torso swivels at the waist and has an ab crunch hinge. Sure, there are some extra points of articulation on a few other figures in this wave, but I’m not complaining because I can still get Drax into a bevy of great action poses.
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Did I mention knives? Drax likes him some knives. Besides the aforementioned sculpted wrist knife, he has a pair of knife accessories cast in soft plastic with silver painted blades. He can hold them really well and they fit into the loops in his belt.

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Drax was not one of my most highly anticipated figures in this wave, mainly because we don’t have a Guardians team to go with him. And yet I was pleasantly surprised by him. He’s a very cool character, although I still haven’t picked up his 3 3/4″ version, so this is the first time I’m able to put him up on my Marvel shelves. The sculpt and paintwork really stand out for what is basically a fairly simple figure. While he isn’t the most articulated figure in this wave, he’s still loads of fun to pose and play with, and the knives that stow away on his belt are a big plus. When all is said and done he ended up being one of my favorites in this wave.

 

Tomorrow… Captain America!
Apr 2 2012

Marvel Legends Wave 2: Future Foundation Spider-Man by Hasbro

Here we go with Wave 2, folks. We’re kicking off Marvel Legends week with a looksy at Spider-Man. This is one of the many figures in this wave that shipped in two different versions. The main release, which I’m identifying as such by the artwork on the package, is the so-called “Big Time” Spider-Man sporting the new costume that appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #650. My case, however, contained the variant, which is Spider-Man in the Future Foundation outfit. What a coincidence, seeing as we just looked at the Marvel Universe Future Foundation variants of the Fantastic Four last week!

The packaging hasn’t changed since Wave 1. I still love the look here. The overall deco is nice, although the coloring on the character art is a little perplexing. I seem to recall the costume featured in Ish 650 to be black with a red deco, not green. Doesn’t matter, because its not the figure under the bubble, and I doubt I’ll spring for the version pictured. No, I was very happy to get the FF version instead, since I’m such a Fantastic Four whore and I liked Spidey’s appearances as well as the designs of the FF costumes. You’ll note that there’s no BAF piece under the bubble, Spidey is the one figure in the wave that doesn’t include a BAF piece, so if you want to build Arnim Zola and don’t want Spider-Man, you’re in luck,  you can skip him. The lack of accessories and a BAF piece really makes him seem kind of small and lonely in that big package.
Word has it, this figure is supposedly a repaint of last year’s SDCC Exclusive Spider-Man figure. I’ve only seen a few shots of the Exclusive and I don’t see a lot of similarities, but then I suppose the deco makes all the difference. Either way, Spider-Man is a very simple sculpt and apart from the head and the webslinging left hand, there’s not a lot of unique tooling at play here. I do think he’s scaled too big for other figures in the line, particularly when standing next to Iron Man from the last wave or Bucky Cap from this wave. Pete isn’t exactly a big guy. The paintwork on this figure is also extremely simple. He’s molded all in white with a black painted deco. It works ok, but it seems lacking when you compare it to the paintwork on the Future Foundation costumes for the 3 3/4″ Marvel Universe figures. It just seems like the larger and more expensive, 6-inch figure should have at least as good a paintjob as the far less expensive and far smaller figures. Maybe I’m splitting hairs, because I do actually like the way the deco on this figure turned out. It just could have been better.
As a rule, I expect good Spider-Man figures to feature above average articulation and this figure does a fairly good job of pulling it off. You get a ball jointed neck with an additional hinge to help the head look up and down with greater range. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, double hinged elbows, swivels in the biceps, and swivels and hinges in the wrists. His legs feature ball joints in the hips, double hinged knees, hinged ankles, and swivels in the thighs. The torso features a swivel waist, a hinged ab crunch in the torso, and hinges in the sides of the upper torso that give him some additional lateral movement in the shoulders. The articulation is perfectly fine, but it is curiously missing some points that are present in some of the other figures in this wave.
How much will Spider-Man cost you? I’m not going to gas on a lot about price points throughout the week, so let’s get it on the table now and be done with it. The retail on these figures seems to average around $15.99 to $16.99. However, if you buy them at Toys R Us or specialty shop, you could wind up paying as much as $20 each. The breakdown of my case with shipping makes the figures average out $17.99 a pop. It’s a good deal considering the convenience of getting one of each of the BAF parts, but then you don’t get to pick and choose the variants. So there’s some give and take there.
Now having said all that even at the lower range of the spectrum, about fifteen bucks, its hard to justify Spidey’s price tag. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a cool figure and I love him, but he features very little original sculpting, a very simple paint job, he comes with no accessories, and you don’t even get a BAF piece with him. It seems like Hasbro would have been better off giving him a BAF piece and letting one of the bigger figures, say Thunderball/Piledriver ship without one. Spidey is a solid effort, but he’s definitely lacking. Where are the extra points of articulation that we’ll see later on in Daken? Where’s the paint shading we see on the white parts of Madam Masque? Where’s a hunk of web I can stick on his arm to make like he’s shooting?  At ten or twelve bucks I would have been perfectly happy with him, but at about eighteen? Still a solid figure, but a pretty bad value.
Apr 1 2012

Marvel Legends Week… Part Deux… Starts Tomorrow!!!

Holy, hell, didn’t we just do one of these? Yes we did, and yet Hasbro is churning out the new Marvel Legends figures faster than J. Jonah Jameson can suck down a cigar. Wave 2 is already out and I’ve had the figures in my hot little hands for about a week now, and so starting tomorrow we get to do it all over again with a look at this second helping in Hasbro’s new 6-inch line.

Once again, Wave 2 features a total of seven figures, only six of which come with BAF parts. Simple enough? Oh no, because out of these seven figures, more than half of them will ship as variants. If you’re one of those unfortunate completists, you’re looking at 11 figures to chase down now. I ordered a case, so it’ll be fun to see which ones of the variants I got and we’ll go over the other possibilites as we discuss each figure.

I’ll confess I have some mixed feeling about this assortment. On the one hand, I don’t think the character selection is quite as good as the first wave, but I must say at first glance the figures look mighty fine. Still, a couple of these might have been easy passes if it weren’t for the sheer awesomeness of the Build-A-Figure being Arnim Zola.

We’ll kick it off tomorrow with a look at… Spider-Man!
Mar 4 2012

Marvel Legends: Build-A-Figure: Terrax

Sometimes I have to swallow some pretty bad figures in order to build a Collect & Connect, Build-A-Figure, or whatever you want to call these things. Hell, just look at the unspeakable depravities I had to purchase to complete my Hall of Justice. [Oh yes! Its finally complete. But more on that next week! -FF] But I’m happy to say that I didn’t make out too badly on the road to completing Terrax. His parts were spread out over six figures in Marvel Legends first wave of seven figures. As we’ve seen not all of them gems, but the great definitely outweighed the mediocre. So let’s see what we got…

If you’ve ever assembled a C&C figure from DC Universe Classics, you’ll be right at home snapping together Terrax. The head and pelvis plug into the torso and the arms and legs plug into that. The only thing that’s a little more complex here is attaching the soft rubber pieces of his garment together, which plugs in by the front belt buckle. His socket joints are nice and solid and he holds together great. In terms of size, he’s not one of the biggest BAFs/C&Cs we’ve seen, but he’s not small either. He easily stands shoulder to shoulder with C&C Darkseid from DCUC.
The sculpt here is pretty solid, with a lot of original sculpting and extra bits. The soft plastic chest armor and skirt are worn on top of Terrax’s body, which gives the figure some cool extra depth and complexity. His gauntlets and boots feature unique sculpting and the buck has good sculpted muscles.

Of course, the head sculpt is where a lot of the figure’s character lies. If there’s one common theme to the new Marvel Legends figures, it would be the excellent head sculpts, and Terrax is no exception. Its wonderfully detailed and he looks royally pissed.
Terrax’s articulation is pretty consistant with what I’ve come to expect from the line. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders and hips. The arms feature swivels in the biceps, hinges in the elbows, and the wrists have hinges and swivels. The legs feature double-hinged knees and the ankles have hinges and swivels. The torso swivels at the waist and features an ab crunch hinge. Thanks to the softer separate armor, he can still work his chest articulation pretty well.

Terrax also comes with Morg’s axe, which is as tall as most of the packaged figures in the line and actually comes in two pieces by itself. He can hold it in his right hand.
I can’t say as Terrax was top of my list for possible Build-A-Figures, nonetheless, when I heard it was going to be him, my reaction was, “ok, that’s cool.” When I actually saw him I was more excited, and now that I have him in hand, I’m pretty damn satisfied with him. He’s a great looking figure that really captures the spirit of the character and makes for a mighty nice treat for completing my collection of this assortment.

Marvel Legends: Epilogue:

And that wraps up the first wave of the new Marvel Legends. If Marvel figures aren’t your thing, than I appreciate your patience and indulgence. Its been a fun ride, and there’s no doubt that Hasbro put up a good showing with this initial assortment.

In the end, there were only two figures here that I wouldn’t outright recommend and those were Iron Man and Klaw. Besides his scale issues, Iron Man just paled in comparison to the other figures in this line and frankly should have had more attention paid to sculpt and paintwork. Klaw just looked too inconsistant with his cartoony paintjob. Neither of those figures are terrible, but considering the price tag, they just aren’t worth the money.

But let’s not go out on a negative bent because all the other figures were at the worst very solid and worthwhile efforts, and at the best superb. Wave 2 is already starting to turn up at retail and I’ve already got it pre-ordered, because I’m really excited to build my Arnim Zola figure.
Mar 4 2012

Marvel Legends: Thor by Hasbro

I’ve got a double feature today, so I’d best get cracking. I’m starting off today with the last packaged figure in the initial wave of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends lineup. Its Thor! Thor has had no shortage of figures produced off him this past year so does this one stack up? Does it stand out? Are we all Thor’ed out? Let’s see…

Package shot… oh, hell, after a week of the same packages over and over, I’m spent. I’ve said all I’m going to say about it. The character art is ok, but everything else looks great. Thor also fills the bubble nicely even without the BAF piece. In fact…
Holy hell, this is one big, meaty hunk of plastic! Thor is not only big, he’s big enough to have been a BAF figure all by himself. In terms of pure bulk, he’s probably a smidge bigger than Terrax himself. And the sculpt? Oh, the sculpt! Those of you who saw or even picked up this figure when it was first offered at SDCC last year will not be surprised, but I was completely taken aback at just what an amazing looking figure this is. There’s a ton of detailwork in Thor’s armor, particularly all the checkering in his arms and legs. The sculpt is really well done, too, as it doesn’t hang down far enough to destablize him or to inhibit his articulation. It just blows a bit off to the side so that it looks good, but doesn’t interfere with the figure.
Once again, I have to give kudos to the team doing the head sculpts, because Thor’s noggin looks fantastic. I love the iconic winged helmet, the hair, and the stern but noble visage on his face. Beautiful!

Thor features solid articulation. You get a ball jointed neck, although the sculpted hair does inhibit his head movement, leaving it mostly just turning side to side. That extra hinge that Steve Rogers had would have been really great here. His arms feature ball joints at the shoulders and elbows, swivels in the biceps, and the wrists have swivels and hinges. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, feature double-hinges in the knees, and his ankles have swivels and hinges. Lastly, you get a ball joint in the torso.
Thor comes with just one accessory. Can you guess what it is? Sure, its Mjolnir. This is one of the better scaled versions of the mighty hammer at least in proportion to the figure. Its a good sculpt too right down to the weathering on the head and the leather wrapping on the handle.
No doubt about it, Thor ranks in as one of my favorite figures in this assortment. In fact, I’ll go ahead and say he’s tied with Steve Rogers as being my favorite. This is just a fine example of an action figure perfectly embodying everything about a character and its about as iconic as they come. I have no qualms with Hasbro releasing figures based on the movie version of Thor, lord knows I have a bunch of them, but its awesome to see them releasing so perfect a comic version on the eve of Avengers movie madness. If you’re going to buy only one of the figures in this wave… well, you’re going to miss out on a some great figures… but if so, I’d make it this Thor. He’s amazing.

I’ll be back later today to take a look at Terrax!