VULTURE (w/ WINGS)

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A nefarious villain with his eyes set on ultimate technological dominance, Vulture suits up in an enhanced suit that makes him nearly unstoppable.”

For me, one of the greatest highlights of Spider-Man: Homecoming was its portrayal of classic Spidey foe Vulture.  While I’ve always been okay with the character in the comics, he’s never really grabbed me.  Homecoming’s more conflicted take on the character gave him some real gravitas, which made him almost as relatable as Peter.  It also didn’t hurt that he got one of my favorite redesigns of the MCU, which means he made for a pretty darn awesome toy.  And now I have that pretty darn awesome toy, so I’m gonna review it.  Alright!  We made it to the finish line!  I’ve completed Vulture!  Yeah!  Let’s do this!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Vulture is both a single release figure and the Build-A-Figure of the “Vulture Series” of Marvel Legends.  How’s that work?  Well, Adrian himself is sold on his own, and it’s his wings that are parted out to the rest of the figures in the assortment.  Normally, I review single releases and BAFs separate from one another, but it seemed a little silly to stretch this over two days, so I’m looking the complete Vulture in one go!  The basic figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  The wings add 10 points of articulation and a 15 inch wingspan to that mix (plus spinning turbines to boot!).  The sculpt is all-new, and it’s definitely amongst Hasbro’s best.  I was a bit disappointed with the smaller scale Vulture figure, which was off-model and lacked a lot of detail work.  That’s definitely not the case here.  Not only is he a pretty much spot-on recreation of Vulture’s on-screen design, but he’s also got a ton of awesome detail work all throughout his outfit.  I particularly dig the head sculpt, which uses a multiple part assembly to replicate his visor and visible illuminated eyes, which is a super cool look (and one of the things I was most disappointed to see missing from the smaller figure).  By virtue of the whole Build-A-Wing concept, this Vulture’s wing pack is a nice change from the smaller figure, being both properly scaled to the actual figure and actually articulated.  I will say, they feel a tad thin, and a little under-detailed, and I feel the joints are a bit obtrusive, but I think they’re pretty decent overall.  Vulture’s paint work is pretty decently handled overall.  The colors actually match up with the movie this time, and the application is all sharp, with very little slop or bleed over.  A little more accent work would probably help to make him pop a little more, but it’s still pretty decent as-is.  The basic Vulture figure is packed with the mid-section of the wing pack, as well as a clear stand to help keep him steady once the wings are completed.  It’s too bad he didn’t include the handheld controls from the movie, but it’s possible they were working from an in-progress design for the character in that respect.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Oh boy, this guy.  I actually got the basic Vulture figure at the same time as Beetle, meaning he was one of the first two figures I got from the series.  He’s just been sitting on my desk waiting for his wings since July.  When I finally got all of the figures to assemble him, I was pretty excited, because it meant I could finally review him.  Completed, he’s one of my favorite figures in this series.  And given that this series contains two slam-dunk versions of characters who have been on my wish list for a while, that’s quite a compliment to how well this figure turned out.