Tag Archives: wolverine

Jun 14 2021

Marvel Legends (Tri-Sentinel Wave): Wolverine and Cyclops by Hasbro

Howdy, Toyhounds! This week I’ve got Marvel Monday right back where it belongs… on a Monday. I had a fairly relaxed weekend and plenty of time to open some toys, so let’s jump right in with two more figures from the House of X-inspired assortment of Marvel Legends X-Men figures! Last time I had a look at Professor X and Magneto and I came away a little lukewarm, if I’m being honest. Let’s see how we make out with Wolverine and Cyclops!

Once again I really dig the packaging this time around. The boxes are perfectly branded to the books, complete with the futuristic X-Men logo on the front and the characters’ names in the Krakoan language beneath it. The figures themselves also look quite stunning against the backdrop of the red and white illustrated panel behind the clear tray. And if you lift your eyes to the top, you can see that when all is said and done we’ll be building a Tri-Sentinel, although Wolverine does not come with a BAF part. Let’s go ahead and start with him!

Wow, do I love this figure! The design takes the classic coloring of Wolverine’s brown suit and mixes it up with the tactical accents of his X-Force suit, and the result is something rather spectacular. Now I’m not saying I prefer brown and mustard to blue and yellow, but I still dig it a whole lot. Gone are the flared boots and in their place rugged combat boots with matching heavy gauntlets. I’m pretty sure this figure just recycles all the body sculpt from the Wendigo Wave Wolverine, which in turn borrowed a lot from the Juggernaut Wave Wolverine. Damn, I’m really terrible about keeping all these Wolverines straight! There sure have been a lot of them!

At least the belt looks new! It’s a simple brown belt with a leather-like texture and a red and yellow X-branded buckle. The belt is sculpted separately but fits the waist quite snugly and stays in place. Also worth mentioning are the beefy battle claws! We’ve seen some rather frail and anemic claws on Wolverines in the past, but these are just great. They’re nice and straight, not too bendy. Sure, you only get the one pair of popped-claw fists, but that’s all I need!

Only one set of hands, but two heads! You get a younger Wolverine portrait with Logan grinning a broad and toothy grin. I dig this portrait a lot as it looks like Wolverine is smiling as he’s imagining what he’s going to do with his adversary’s entrails, but he’s not letting anyone else in on the joke. The paint around his skin and the cowl could have been a little tighter here, but the sculpt is top notch stuff. Just look at how deep the eyes are set! Awesome!

And you also get future Wolverine where he’s sporting a beard and looking a lot more grim, dour, and crotchety. Hey, Mother Mold… Come get your damn Sentinels off my lawn, bub! Everything I said about the paint and sculpt on the previous head rings true here. The paint around the cowl could have been a little sharper, but everything else is fab. They didn’t go nuts on the beard, but I think it looks good. And yeah, this is likely the head I will be using to display on the figure most of the time.

Here at FFZ we recognize that Legends Wolverine Fatigue or LWF is a real syndrome, but it’s just not one that I happen to suffer from. Wolverine always makes for a fun figure, especially since he’s always got those extra shoulder crunches. Whenever I get a new one, he usually hangs on my desk for a while before getting retired to a shelf or tote. I just love playing with them, and this figure is no different! Let’s move on to Cyclops!

Cyclops’ costume got a rework in this book as well and while I wasn’t especially impressed by it in the comic panels, I have to say I’m really liking the way it turned out on this figure. The dark body suit has very little in the way of sculpted detail, but those bright blue stripes look really spiffy. Cyclops is also sporting a pair of silver arm bracers and an X-branded belt with some pouches. I never really think of Scott as a pouch kinda guy, but the belt looks good and I guess he has to carry around his smug self-righteousness somewhere. The tiny snaps on the brown pouches are painted silver and the buckle is red and silver. Like Wolverine, Cyclops only comes with one set of hands: A right fist and a left visor activating hand. Which brings us to…

A pretty solid head sculpt! There’s nothing crazy going on here, but the lower half of his face looks great. Unlike Wolverine, there are sharp lines between his face and the cowl, and the visor looks like it might be sculpted separately from the head.

Cyclops comes with a second head with gritting teeth, some effect parts around the corners of the visor, and a slot for the really big effect beam. I dig the way this looks, and despite being pretty substantial, Scott can still stand just fine with it inserted into his head. Pretty damn cool!

I really wasn’t expecting too much out of this pair, but once I got them opened and in hand, I fell in love with them pretty fast. Neither is my favorite look for the characters, but they do make for some cool variations. And besides, it’s nice to have figures from one of the best Marvel books that I’ve read in quite a while. Yeah, that’s not exactly high praise, considering my stance on Marvel’s offerings these days, but it was meant as a compliment! As for next week’s Marvel Monday, I may be taking a slight detour of the 3 3/4-inch variety before getting back to the Legends and the rest of this wave…

Apr 12 2021

Marvel Legends (80th Anniversary): Hulk Vs. Wolverine by Hasbro

Yeah, yeah. I don’t usually miss a Marvel Monday, but I sure did last week, eh? I have no real excuse, other than I was a lazy do-nothing shit on Easter, and just hung out with the cats stuffed my face with food and watched Star Trek all day. We’ll just call it an impromptu Holiday Vacation. So, picking up where I left off, I’ve been going through some of the Marvel 80 Years boxed sets and today I thought I’d roll out one of the big ones. Celebrating The Incredible Hulk #181, which introduced us to The Wolverine!

Alas, I was only two years old when this issue hit the news stands, and I was probably more occupied with not shitting myself than reading comics. Or reading anything. Indeed, I wouldn’t actually read this one until I was already well acquainted with Wolverine. Although, this one might have introduced me to Wendigo, but I can’t remember. The box is big and beefy and while it isn’t terribly flashy like some of the X-Men sets I’ve looked at recently, it doesn’t need to be. The figures in that big window do all the talking. Let’s start with The Hulk!

It’s crazy to think that with all the Marvel Legends figures that I have, this is the first comic-version of The Hulk in my Legends collection. Yup! There are three MCU versions of The Hulk up on my shelves, but dozens upon dozens of Iron Mans and Captain Americas, and Web Heads, but just this one lonely Hulk. But his singular look has remained pretty standard over the years, so I guess that makes sense. And nope, I don’t even have a Red or Gray Hulk either. But that’s OK, because this figure is so damn gorgeous, it’s all the Hulk I need!

In terms of sculpt, you just get acres and acres of muscle, which is a given because he’s THE FREAKING HULK! On top of all those muscles, you get some veins popping in his arms, and some nice detail in his giant feet. Most of the real detail in the sculpt here comes in his semi-shredded pants, which have actually survived the transition surprisingly well. Apart from some splitting here and there, they don’t fall to rags until below the knees. You also get the remnants of his shredded shirt, which did not survive nearly as well as his trousers. This piece is sculpted in rubbery plastic and pretty much just lays on his shoulders. I dig it a lot, but tend to cast it aside once I start playing around with this big boy. But as great as the sculpt is, I’ll confess it’s the colors on display here that just tickle my retinas and make me all giddy. The brilliant green mixes with the metallic purple sheen of his pants to create a feast for the eyes. Why are his pants metallic? I have no idea, but it was clearly the right call to make.

The portrait is nothing short of perfection. The face features a broad nose and beady but surprisingly life-like eyes, accompanied by a wall of teeth. The rage is literally drawn right on his face with deep lines, creases, and a wrinkled brow. Meanwhile, the sinews in the neck bulge to meet his strong slab a jawline. Egads, I adore this head sculpt. It’s absolutely phenomenal.

The articulation is right in line with what we’re used to seeing with the bigger figures and Build-A-Figures. You do only get single hinges in the elbows, but considering his bulky arms, that’s to be expected. Double hinges in the knees, however, do make him a rather agile giant. The big differences here is the addition of lateral hinges in the back of the shoulders, allowing him to shift his arms back more. Hulk comes packaged with one fist and one grabby hand, but you also get an extra of each so you can mix and match till your heart’s content. Let’s switch over to Wolverine!

Despite being introduced to him in the 80’s, the 90’s Jim Lee Wolverine has long since supplanted any early versions of Logan as my personal iconic image of the character. Now, with that having been said, I still love this early look. Not that it’s that different from the neck down. He’s still got the yellow suit with the blue boots, gauntlets, undies, and shoulder bands going on. He’s still got the tiger stripes and the red belt. But this just looks a bit more unpolished and savage to me. It’s very likely that opinion is colored by looking back on it from his future appearances, but it’s still a look that I can get behind. So much so, that even with the dozen or so Wolverines on my Legends shelf, I’d still rank this one pretty close to the top.

Of course, the biggest departure here is the head and this crazy proto-hood. It instantly reminds me of a luchadores mask, and that ain’t a bad thing. The brow-wings aren’t as pronounced and I kind of dig the “whiskers” that run from his nose down the sides of his mouth. The combination of eyes and teeth make him look absolutely bonkers in the sense that I’d instantly piss myself if he was coming after me. It’s both a great and historic look for old Logan and I’m very happy to finally have him in my collection.

Naturally, Wolverine comes with two sets of hands, one being regular fists and the other having popped claws. My figure’s claws aren’t all perpendicular with each other, and I’m afraid to straighten them too much because I don’t want to stress those tiny stems. But all in all, they aren’t bad. The articulation includes the shoulder crunches, which as far as I’m concerned are an absolute must for the character. Everything else is pretty standard stuff. While his elbows are double jointed, I still can’t get any more than about 90-degrees out of them, which is a tad disappointing, but when you’ve got bulging muscles like these, it goes with the territory. Otherwise, this figure is loads of fun to play with.

Can this set be both obvious and genius? I think it can! At least I can’t think of a better way to get my first comic-based Hulk onto my Legends shelf. And it was especially nice to not have to collect an entire wave to get him! Both of these figures are a direct hit for me, which is why I pre-ordered this one the moment it got solicited. Surprisingly, this set is still available at a number of retailers for about the original price it sold for, leaving the opportunity for anyone who slept on it to nab it without getting raked over the coals by secondary sellers.

Mar 9 2020

Marvel Legends (Caliban Wave): Weapon X by Hasbro

Hey hey, it’s another Marvel Monday and I’m happy to say this week I’ll be wrapping up another wave of Hasbro’s ridiculously prolific Marvel Legends series. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to say that, and I’m beginning to think that Random Mode has been holding me back, and maybe I’m better off going back to tackling these figures one wave at a time. Or perhaps an even mix of the two is in order. We’ll see. In any event, today I’m opening the last figure in the Caliban wave and I’ve saved one of my more anticipated figures in the assortment for last.

Weapon X Wolverine! This one had me excited because somehow I’ve never owned a figure of this version of Wolverine before! That’s even including the old Toybiz X-Men figures and I must have had nearly all of them! So why not? Well, to be honest this version has always creeped me the hell out. Because who doesn’t want a figure based on one of their heroes suffering horrific surgeries, mental conditioning, and general all around excruciating pain and suffering. Kids comics, folks! Yeah, this version pretty much defines the character, but it’s not something that I like to be constantly reminded of. I guess it falls into the same argument that I don’t really need a Steve Rogers (After getting the shit beaten out of him in an ally before the Super Soldier Serum) figure either.

But holy shit is this figure iconic. I can’t argue with that. Straightaway, I’ll toss out there how much I hope this is as close Hasbro ever comes to releasing a completely naked action figure. I think this one even gives Namor a run for his money. Habro invested a lot of great sculpting into this buck, providing Logan with lots of muscle tone and even painting in his patches of body hair. And they went so far as to use the extra articulated body with the shoulder crunches, which is always a welcome treat. Mercifully, there is a pair of skimpy black underwear painted onto his groinular region to leave something to the imagination. And it’s no mistake that this design leaves Logan sans clothes. It’s a vulnerable look that really helps to communicates the horrible and invasive shit that they did to him.

Everything else is Logan is wearing is actually sculpted as separate pieces and attached to the figure. The gear consists of a chest harness, which is cast in brown plastic and features silver paint on the buckles, a belt with some of the Weapon X devices attached, and two brown wrist cuffs. There are tubes that connect from the boxes on his belt to the wrist cuffs and these are cast in translucent plastic, which makes them look like they’re conveying blood. Personally, this adds a lot to the creep factor, because I can watch the most horrible gore in horror movies, but I still get squeamish around IV tubes and seeing blood being drawn. Go figure. The tubes are made of super bendy plastic and have enough slack to them that they don’t impede the articulation.

The control boxes on his belt are big and bulky and something that I always thought looked weird about the design here. They seem like they would have been more appropriately placed on some kind of master control box in a backpack. But I guess the design they went with looks more experimental and kind of thrown-together. Either way, these boxes have some sculpted details as well as some paint applications for the instruments and they look pretty good.

Logan comes with two heads, the first of which features the helmet, which encompasses the top half of his head and has a tube running down to one of the boxes on his belt. The helmet looks great, with some panel lines and extra bits and bobs and a single red bar that makes up a visor. The way the helmet is sculpted with the hair spilling out the bottom makes it almost look as if it’s removable. But instead of going that route, Hasbro just gave us a second head without all the Weapon X gear.

The second head gives me some mixed feelings. First of all, it was ridiculously hard to get onto the ball joint. I had to use a crazy amount of force to finally get it to pop. The portrait is supposed to reflect Logan in a state of unbridled rage, and I guess it does that, but there’s something about it that just doesn’t sit right. There’s nothing wrong with the quality of sculpt or detail, and even the paint is pretty solid. Maybe it looks a little too cartoony compared to some of the other Legends portraits? I honestly can’t put my finger on what it is, but I don’t think I’m going to be using this head for display a lot.

Considering the myriad versions and variants of Wolverine that we’ve seen so far, it’s amazing to me that it took this long for Hasbro to give Logan the Weapon X treatment. But we’re finally there and I think they did a pretty fine job with the figure. But it’s still not going to be a favorite of mine. Indeed, in the fight for precious space on my Legends shelves, I’m not sure Weapon X Logan will find a permanent spot for display. Or if he does, it may just be in the back corner of one of the X-men shelves. He is, however, a pretty cool figure and I’m happy to finally have him in the collection. And with all the figures from this wave in the bag, I’m going to come back tomorrow and wrap things up with a look at the Caliban Build-A-Figure!

Dec 30 2019

Marvel Legends (X-Men): Wolverine, Jean Grey, and Cyclops by Hasbro

Hey, folks! It’s the last Marvel Monday of the year! I keep wanting to wrap up that Wendigo Wave, but distractions keep coming my way. In particular, I had several X-Men-themed boxed sets hit my stoop by way of Santa himself, and I thought I’d knock out one of these before the end of the year. Today I’m checking out what I like to call The Apology Pack, wherein Hasbro says they’re sorry and makes good on a new Jean Grey figure. But they can’t be too sorry, because they’re making us buy two other re-do’s with her! Well, sort of. Trust me, it’s all worth it in the end.

Because there’s nothing about this glorious set that would even make me hesitate buying it had I not received it as a Christmas gift. Sure, I don’t consider “Bomber Jacket” Summers essential, and sure Hasbro could have just thrown in the extra Logan heads with a single Jean Grey release, but just looking at this set makes me so happy, I don’t care. I don’t know if it’s the snappy blue color of the box that makes that X-Men logo stand out. Or maybe it’s just seeing this much 90’s-Jim Lee-glory in one package. Either way, it’s hard to quantify how much greatness is packed into this box. There’s a lot of stuff to look at, so let’s jump right in! And going from left to right, we’ll start with Logan!

If you collected the Apocalypse Wave then surely you recognize this figure, or at least the body, which appears to be completely recycled here. I haven’t gotten around to opening all of that wave yet, so that makes him relatively new to me. Although, to compare him to a figure I have opened, he does still share a lot of the body used for Wolverine from the Juggernaut Wave. You get those wonderful flared boots, a belt with an X-buckle, and shoulder armor. The coloring here is absolutely exquisite, with the bright yellow leggings and top, complete with tiger stripes. The boots are blue with black trim, and his gauntlets, undies, and shoulders are all matching blue. Toss in the bright red belt and you’ve got a feast for the eyes. This figure comes out of the package with Logan’s bone claws equipped, which is a little something more to set it apart from the Apocalypse Wave Logan.

The figure also comes with the battle damaged head sculpt, and man is this thing great! The flared out “ears’ are tattered, and rips in the top of his mask have his sculpted hair spilling out on top. Couple all that with an absolutely raging expression, and this makes for one badass portrait. Between this head and the bone claws, there’s definitely good incentive for double-dipping on this version of Wolverine, should you already own the previous release.

The articulation here is identical to what we’ve seen with the past two Wolverines I mentioned, so I won’t go through a whole run down. I will, however, point out that he features those shoulder crunches, which adds to the posing possibilities. To be honest, if the damaged mask head and bone claw fists were all he came with, I think it still would have been a very worthwhile variant for my collection, but there’s still more to talk about.

If you don’t have that Apocalypse release, you also get the regular masked head and the regular adamantium claws seen on that figure, which certainly adds to the value of the set. The claws are included in separate fists, so you don’t have to pull out and swap each one. The middle claw on my figure’s right hand angles a little funny, but they are pretty fragile and prone to warping.

The regular masked head sculpt appears to me to be identical to the one included with the Apocalyse Wave, and that ain’t a bad thing because it’s a fantastic sculpt. But wait, we’re still not done!

You also get a completely unmasked head with a mask that can be worn down the back of the neck. I think these are the same that were included with the brown suit retro release, another figure I haven’t gotten around to opening yet, but still a nice bonus. So with three sets of heads, two different sets of clawed hands, and the mask, I sure don’t feel bad about having to buy what is essentially a figure that I already own. Let’s move on to Jean Grey.

For many, Jean Grey will be the star of this set, because the last Jean that Hasbro released in modern Legends wasn’t so great. I didn’t have a big problem with it at the time, but looking at it now, I can certainly admit that it hasn’t aged well. Here we get the same Classic 90’s look for the character, but completely redone. Gone are the hideous ball-shaped hips, and in its place a body that looks a bit better proportioned and less awkward. The suit has a bit more of a mustard color to it than the brighter yellows of Logan and Scott’s costumes. And while I will admit to liking the metallic blue they used for the original figure, the more subdued darker matte blue they used for this suit is a lot more sensible. And the bracers still have a glossy finish to them to satiate my love of shiny things. The thigh panels are also more subtle here, and the shoulder pads are redesigned.

The figure comes out of the box with a brand new head sculpt depicting Jean’s voluminous flowing red coif, which mostly conceals her form fitting partial hood. And I have to say this portrait is a little hit and miss. The hair looks great, the eyes look great, and the lips… well, that’s where it starts to lose me. I’m sure they were going for full and sultry, but what we got is just a little off. I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly it is, but I think the mouth is the one part of this portrait that lets it down.

You also get a second portrait, this time with her hair pouring up out the top of her headpiece in a sort of pony-tail affair. This portrait is also overall pretty good, but once again, there’s just something about the lips. Here I think it’s just a case of them being too big. I don’t know. I’m not totally hating on either of these heads, but Hasbro has been doing a great job with the female portraits lately, and these two just feel like they missed the mark a bit.

Other than the improved hips, the articulation here is right in line with all the other Legends gals. That means no bicep swivels and rotating hinges in the elbows instead of double-hinges. It’s worth noting that Jean comes up the lightest of the three figures when it comes to extras. There are no extra hands or anything other than the second head. Moving on to the final figure…

I said earlier that Jean Grey was probably going to be the star of this set for a lot of collectors, but I have to imagine Cyclops is coming in a close second. Sure, we just got him a little while back in the Warlock Wave, but that figure has gone on to command some ridiculous prices on the second hand market. Hell, you can buy this whole set for less than what you’re likely to pay for that earlier release of Scott Summers. As a result, the fact that this guy is mostly a recycled release maybe ain’t so bad. Obviously the big change here is the bomber jacket with newly sculpted arm sleeves, otherwise the rest of the sculpt seems to be the same, albeit with a brighter shade of yellow paint and plastic. The jacket is a great new sculpt with nice detail in the stitching and even the zipper. There’s also an X-patch on the left shoulder. I will note that the thigh and boot straps stay on a bit better on this one, but the peg that holds his belt on in the back will not stay in at all. Fortunately the jacket covers it, so you can’t really tell that it’s popped. I may just go ahead and glue it together.

The figure comes out of the box with the same head sculpt as the Warlock Wave with only the paint being notably different on the visor. Last time it had something of a glossy gold finish, now it’s straight up bright yellow to match the rest of the costume. They’re both fine, but I think I prefer this one. And while Scott comes with two fists, he does have a swap-out left hand so he can activate his visor.

The box also includes two more heads for Cyclops, each with a different style of eyeware. These include a set of red conventional shades, and a set of visor-type shades. Both are good looks, but the painted hairline on my second head is a little off and the red glasses paint on my third head is too. Neither are huge issues for me, but worth mentioning nonetheless. Ultimately, I like this figure a lot, and I haven’t decided which Scott Summers I’ll use for my regular X-Men display, but either way I think this is a fine alternative for collectors who missed out on the previous Cyclops and don’t want to drop a lot of money grabbing him from a second-hand seller.

I’m glad I was able to wrap up my 2019 run of Marvel Mondays with something special, not to mention a triple-figure review. This three-pack is an example of a box set done right. It gave us a brand new Jean Grey, a variant of a figure that is very tough to get at an affordable price, and a fan favorite with plenty of extras bundled in. And while I toss 90% of my Legends boxes because of space considerations, I was really tempted to keep this one, just because the presentation is so damn pretty. Indeed, I had such a great time playing around with these figures, I think I’m going to keep the X-Men love going a little longer. Next week, I’ll check out Beast! In the meantime, that’ll be it for me for this year. I’m going to try to make it back on New Year’s Day, but if that doesn’t happen, I’ll catch you all on Friday!

Aug 24 2018

Marvel Gallery: X-23 as Wolverine (SDCC Exclusive) by Diamond Select

It feels like forever since I reviewed a statue here. That’s probably because I’ve been cutting waaaay back on buying these things as my available display space becomes more and more tight. I don’t have a problem with putting action figures away, because I can always take them out and play around with them, but if you can’t display a statue, then what’s the point of buying it, eh? And since there’s a nice sense of balance to beginning and ending the week with Marvel content… let’s check out Diamond Select’s new Marvel Gallery release of X-23 as Wolverine.

I’ve been an avid fan of both the Marvel and DC Gallery lines, even way back when they were part of the Femme Fatale’s line. These are roughly 9-inch scale PVC budget pieces, which seldom disappoint. As always, the statue comes in a collector friendly window box, with windows on the front, top, and side panels to let in plenty of light. The figure itself comes suspended between two plastic trays and displays fairly well in the box.

Diamond produced two versions of this statue, the regular retail features Ms. Kinney wearing her mask, whereas this unmaksed PX Previews Exclusive was available at San Diego Comic Con and afterwards at select retailers. The box itself denotes that it is an exclusive along with the addition of the “Unmasked” call-out at the bottom. There’s also a piece of silver tape over the top flap stating this release is limited to 4,000. Not exactly a strict limitation, but I presume it’s at least less than the production quantity of the masked retail version. There’s no assembly required here, so let’s get her out and see how she turned out! And just to put cards on the table, I’m not a fan of this book, but I sure do love the way X-23 looks in the Wolverine costume!

Diamond has been all over the place with the poses for this series lately. Sometimes you get something exciting and dynamic, other times you get something more reserved. X-23 here certainly leans toward that later with what I would consider to be very museum-style composition. Ms. Kinney stands with her right hip thrust to the side, her right arm down by her side, her left arm held up at the elbow, and both hands balled into fists and popping her her claws. The skin-tight suit shows her shapely form from all angles beautifully, and every bit of detail in the suit is incorporated into the sculpt. That last bit is a big deal for me, as with the fairly low price point of this line, I would have expected them to squeak by with just paint lines to make up the bulk of the costume. Other details include the belt, complete with signature “X” belt buckle, and the flared tops to her boots.

Budget statues tend to succeed or fail based on the quality of the paint applications, and I’m happy to say that the paint work on this piece is overwhelmingly good. The yellow is bright and vibrant, and the blue is deep with a beautiful high-gloss metallic finish. The belt is painted matte brown with a gold frame for the belt buckle and a black “X” on a red field. The paint lines for the costume itself are all pretty sharp. There are just a few very minor areas where slight improvements could be made. Indeed, the biggest flaw on my statue’s costume is a little blue showing through on the yellow trim at the top of her left boot, and even that isn’t so bad.

The portrait here is solid, but maybe a bit unremarkable. Ms. Kinney is certainly pretty and she’s sporting a serene expression with just a hint of a smirk, like she’s about to dive into some action. I think the expression works OK with the very reserved nature of the figure’s pose, but I tend to expect a little more emotion out of X-23. The hair also looks pretty tame from the front, although it does fan out at the back, which is about as much energy as the composition here is putting out. The paint on the facial features is overall solid, but there’s an area on her top lip that could have been sharper.

I really dig the base they designed for her. It’s basically a sloping black oval with a raised “X.” The “X” features a gold border around translucent red plastic, which would look particularly nice when displayed on a light up platform. There are also a couple of scratches etched across the “X.” Oddly enough, Diamond continues to call these “PVC Dioramas” on the boxes, and while every now and then they do something that could be called a diorama base, most of the ones I’ve picked up lately are more stylized stands like this one. There’s nothing diorama-like about it, but I suspect the label is a way to get around licensing and what Diamond is allowed and not allowed to do. I can’t think of any other reason for it.

In the end, I really like how this piece turned out. Granted, it’s not the most exciting of poses, but then it wasn’t meant to be, so I think a lot of the appeal here will come down to personal taste in that regard. I do like some energy in my statues, but at the same time I find that more classic poses like this one are easier to display with other releases. They take up less space and usually look great together. I debated hard over whether to go for the masked or unmasked when I set about to pre-ordering and I ultimately went with the unmasked Exclusive, because I figured the regular release would be more readily available later on down the road should I decide to get both. Besides, at $45 the Exclusive was only five bucks more. Either way, it’s pretty cool to be able to get a statue like this for under $50, especially when they turn out this good.

Sep 18 2017

Marvel Legends (Warlock Wave): Wolverine by Hasbro

After an abbreviated week due to epic storm complications, I’m back and ready to return FFZ to regular operations with Marvel Monday, and today I’m checking out the final figure in the Marvel Legends Warlock Wave with Wolverine! I’ve been on this wave for what seems like forever and Irma has already cost me enough time, so let’s just jump right in and check him out!

The package is beat to hell, but here’s one instance where it wasn’t from shipping. This figure has been kicking around this place for a while and got hastily packed away with a bunch of other stuff before the storm. It’s OK, I don’t save these boxes anyway. And yes, the package says Wolverine, but this figure will be better known to fans as Old Man Logan. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a decade since this version of the character debuted in what was a truly memorable comic. It’s also sad to see how far Marvel has fallen since then. I can’t imagine them putting out a book as amazingly creative and well-written these days. Ah, but let’s pretend to be this Logan living in a hellish future and look back on happier times.

And here he is in all his geriatric glory. He comes out of the package with his claws popped, but they are the same removable type that we saw with the last Wolverine release, so you can recreate Logan’s refusal to use them by just pulling them out. The fact that they leave behind holes in his knuckles isn’t ideal, but at least we have the option. Just be sure to put those claws in a safe place if you take them out, because I’ve almost lost one already! As far as the buck goes, this looks all new to me and I love how short and stocky it is. Logan sports his retired civvies in the form of brown trousers and a red shirt with a sculpted button collar.

The bomber jacket is the usual “vest with arms sculpted to look like sleeves” trick and it looks great on the figure. The fur-lined collar has some nice texturing and the zipper tracks are neatly painted. Even the belt buckle is beautifully detailed and painted with a nice gold finish. It may not be the most striking costume around, but Hasbro did a wonderful job recreating it in a buck that I doubt will ever get much re-use.

And just check out that head sculpt! I love the crotchety expression and all the little wrinkles and age lines sculpted into his face. This portrait is just packed with detail and oozes character. The gray mutton chops look great, as do the very expressive eyebrows. You can practically hear him yelling at the Hulk Gang to get off his lawn.

This Logan may be old, but he’s still nimble, as evidenced in the articulation. 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 swivels at the thighs, and double hinges at the knees. The ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a swivel at the waist, an ab crunch hinge in the torso and the neck is both hinged and ball jointed.

If I were a betting man, I would have bet against ever getting this figure. The sculpting required for the buck seems like a dead end, and we all know how Hasbro needs to weigh each new sculpt against possible recycling down the road. It’s also a version of the character that was more or less promoted in a Fox Film and not tied to the usual MCU. The last time Hasbro promoted one of the non-Disney Marvel films was Amazing Spider-Man 2 and I got the feeling that the wave didn’t do so well for them. Nevertheless, here he is and Hasbro did a beautiful job with him.

And opening Old Man Logan last places a very tasty cherry on the top of what was an amazing assortment of figures. Sure, I could have come up with a bunch of better characters for the BAF, but I’m certain that there are New Mutants fans out there who are happy to have Warlock, and I’m not going to begrudge them that. All I can say is, keep these X-Men themed Waves coming, Hasbro, because you’re absolutely killing it with them! Next week, I’m going to take a brief detour from Legends figures to check out another one of Diamond Select’s Marvel Gallery statues and then I’ll start digging into another Legends Wave on the following 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!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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!
Feb 9 2011

Marvel Universe: Wolverine and Jean Grey by Hasbro

So, I picked up a case of Marvel Universe figures the other day. Actually, I pre-ordered them last year and they finally came in. I just got tired of hunting for some of these figures and even though it netted me doubles of Classic Cap and Modern Thor, I think it was still worthwhile. It also netted me that shitty looking, and yet oh so desireable Phasing Vision, which I promptly put up on Ebay so I could get the proper one. Today, we’re going to kick off looking at some of the figures in this case with two of the assortment’s X-Men, Wolverine and Jean Grey.


It’s the same old MU packaging we’ve been seeing for a while. This pair are still part of the Norman Osborne reign with the HAMMER insignia, as opposed to the SHIELD insignia on the older and now the current packages. The character artwork on the cards is as awesome as ever and the figures are really displayed well in the bubbles.


Wolverine is a decent looking figure, and pretty much exactly what I expected. His classic costume is well executed, mostly via paint apps and with a sculpted belt buckle and separate straps for his legs. There’s a wee bit of slop here and there around the blue and yellow borders, but I’ve definitely seen worse. Wolverine’s claws are produced in soft plastic, so as not to break easily. The real shining point of this figure, though, is the head sculpt, which Hasbro really nailed. I doubt we’re going to see a better one in this scale any time soon. The only thing I’m not crazy about here is the really weird sculpt of his neck and shoulders. It’s always been a bit weird on Hasbro’s modern GI Joes, but it’s really off putting here when you view the figure from the side.


And then there’s Jean Grey. From the neck down, I’m pretty happy with how she turned out. She uses the basic female body for the line with some sculpted detail to make up her shoulder pads, belt buckle, and arm bracers. The yellow and blue look good and overall the paint apps aren’t at all bad. From the neck up is a little bit of a different story. It’s hard for me to put a finger on exactly what’s wrong with her head sculpt. On the one hand it looks too small and the face is a tad wild eyed and generic. I also think they should have gone a different route with her hair sculpt. Between the hair and the shoulder pads it looks like she’s hunching really awkwardly. I’ve seen a lot of hatred for this figure among collectors circles, and while I can certainly see where it all comes from, I can’t say that I really hate her. Did the character deserve better? Yeah, most definitely. What we wound up with is just kind of average and awkward.

Both figures come with the Top Secret packet containing her file card and and secret document. They also both include figure stands, which is always a welcome treat. Wolverine doesn’t come with any other accessories, but Jean Grey comes with a little ball of energy that can fit over her hand.

All in all this is a decent pair of figures, but neither one really blew me away, which is disappointing because I’m usually a pretty easy sell on X-Men figures. Wolverine edges out Jean as my favorite of the pair, but I can’t summon up the hatred that some people seem to have over Jean Grey. I’m certainly not sorry I added them to my collection.

Dec 30 2010

Marvel: X-Men Origins Wolverine Comic Series Deadpool by Hasbro

Holy crap. This Deadpool figure is easily the coolest surprise I got this Christmas. I guess I’ve been gassing on about Deadpool a lot since I’ve been reading Deadpool Corps, and that’s got me going back and re-reading the original ’97 run of the Deadpool comics. I guess, a buddy of mine took it as a hint and sent me this figure and I am in love with it and totally blown away by its very existence, since I’d never seen it before. I think it’s amazingly ironic that a movie that completely butchered the Deadpool character just happened to spawn an action figure line that gave us this awesome guy under the comic series sub-line. And to think that whenever anyone mentioned the Wolverine Origins Deadpool figure, I was just thinking of the horrible movie version.

Ah, the X-Men Origins Wolverine cardback. It’s the same artwork of Hugh Jackman as Logan snarling at you on every generic card, complete with the unnecessarily long movie title, and practically screaming, “BUY THIS FIGURE, BUB!” About the only thing I can say good about this movie was that it was better than Elektra. If you think that’s really a compliment than you should know that I once spent a three hour flight opting to stare at the seat in front of me than watch the in-flight showing of Elektra. But now I can say something else better about the Wolverine movie… it gave me this figure, almost as an apology for fucking up Deadpool so badly in the film. It’s also worth noting that the back panel has one of the lamest possible bios for Deadpool that could possibly written. If i were writing that bio, I would most definitely have mentioned the time when Deadpool sucker punched 16-year-old Kitty Pryde right in the stomach. [Volume 1, Ish 27, I believe. -FF] Now, that’s classic Deadpool. Fortunately, everything on display under the bubble is pure love.


After ripping open the package, and thoroughly destroying it so that I can pretend this is indeed a Marvel Universe Deadpool and that I never actually owned a figure in any way associated with the Wolverine movie, it’s easy to see that Deadpool is indeed glorious. Deadpool is one hundred percent compatible with the Marvel Universe figures, as he uses a very similar body type. The paint apps are immaculate, which is more than I can say for a lot of the MU figures. Deadpool’s belt and harness are a separate piece of soft plastic and includes two scabbards for his swords. It would have been nice if it were easily removable to offer up some more display options, but I can’t see any easy way to remove it without disassembling the figure.

Articulation includes a ball jointed neck. His arms feature ball jointed shoulders and elbows and swivels in the wrists. His legs have ball jointed hips, double hinged knees and swivels in the ankles. His torso features the swivel/ab crunch that is common in most of Hasbro’s MU and GI JOE figures.


Deadpool comes with a nice array of weapons. He has two ninja swords, both of which fit in the scabbards criss-crossing his back. He has an automatic pistol that fits in his holster, and he’s got a si that you can tuck into his belt. He’s also got a folded-stock AK-47. Alas, there is no figure stand included.

It’s amazing to me that Hasbro hasn’t repacked this figure into a Marvel Universe card. What’s even more amazing is that when I called my friend to thank him profusely for such an awesome gift, he just shrugged it off and said that the figure cost next to nothing. So, why is it that I can’t get a MU Bullseye figure for under $35, but Deadpool here can be had on the cheap? What’s that all about?