MARVEL’S COLOSSUS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Colossus transforms his body into armored steel to become a nearly indestructible force in combat.”

Does he really turn into steel?  That doesn’t seem right.  Sorry, critiquing the bio again.  Gotta stop with that; it only leads to madness. Today, I’ll be continuing my look at the latest X-Men-themed series of Marvel Legends, with a look at everyone’s favorite metal skinned Russian, Piotr Rasputin, aka Colossus!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Colossus is figure 1 in the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Colossus’s third time as a Legends release, but the last one was an X3 figure, meaning there’s only one prior comic Colossus, who was released a whopping 14 years ago.  Needless to say, an update was long overdue.  Colossus is presented here in his costume from the Utopia era of X-Men, which is…well it’s hardly anyone’s first choice.  Hasbro’s released a handful of characters from this era (last series’ Kitty Pryde figure is one, technically), so it’s not like he won’t fit in, but it’s also not one of his more more memorable designs, and looks a tad more generic than some of the others.  The thing that really bugs me about it is the black chevron on the torso.  Why is it there?  As it stands, it really just looks like an arrow pointing to his crotch, which is just odd.  Without that, I think it’d be a lot better.  It’s worth noting that this is the design that got used for Avengers Alliance, which seems to be a major influence on Hasbro’s costume choices.  There’s also a good chance that we’re seeing something of a trial run with this figure, and that a more classic Colossus will show up in short order.  The figure stands just shy of 8 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Colossus is debuting a new base body, which looks to be a replacement for the Wrecking Crew body in terms of scaling.  It’s about at the mid-point between Hyperion and Terrax.  It’s a pretty decent sculpt, with a nice, solid foundation.  It feels a little lightweight to me, but it’s certainly a step-up from the bodies on either side of it.  I look forward to seeing what else it might be used for.  Colossus gets character specific arms and boots, as well as an all-new head.  The arms are really nice, and I quite like the posing on the hands.  The bracers are separate pieces, so clearly Hasbro’s made it easy to swap them out should these arms be used for one of the other Colossus designs.  The boots are a decent enough recreation of the comic design, but for me the best part of them is how flat the bottoms are; this guy is really sturdy on his feet once you get them posed the right way.  The basic head is an okay piece on it’s own, but it sits a little high on the neck for my taste.  Some people have modded it so that the socket for the neck peg is a little further in, and it definitely improves the overall appearance, but it’s a slight bummer that he isn’t quite correct right out of the box.  Fortunately, there’s also a second head included.  This one is based on Piotr’s bearded look from Extraordinary X-Men, which is suitably unique.  The beard’s a good look for him, and the head sits a lot better on the neck.  This will definitely be my go-to for this figure.  The paint on Colossus is pretty solid overall. The best work is definitely on the metallic skin, which is not only clean, but also gets some great accent work.  The costume is a bit more prone to slop here and there, though nothing too bad.  It’s nice and bright, which is good.  In addition to the previously mentioned extra head, Colossus also includes not one, but two pieces of the Build-A-Figure Warlock.  One of them is his head, which means there are three heads in the packaging.  It doesn’t quite top the last Venom figure with his four heads in one package, but still.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in my Polaris review, I called upon the help of my parents to track down the Warlock Series.  While I found a second Polaris, I’ve actually yet to see Piotr at retail, as he’s easily the set’s second most popular after Cyclops.  So, this guy got mailed to me (along with a few other awesome figures that’ll be showing up here in short order).  The Toy Biz Colossus was easily one of my favorite TB Legends, so this guy had a high bar to clear in that respect.  When the figure was first shown, I was a bit letdown by the costume choice, but I think that actually works in his favor.  With the new costume and the bearded head, this Colossus is suitably different from the last one, which means he not so much a replacement as he is just a brand new figure.  That’s sort of forced me to weigh him on his own merits.  He’s definitely a fun figure, and probably my second favorite single release in this series.  I look forward to the eventual classic version down the line, but am content with this one for as long as I need to be.