MULTIPLE MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Not to be duped by duplication, Jamie Madrox uses the ability to clone himself to assign liaisons to travel the world and acquire new skillsets.”

Hey look!  It’s James Franco!  Okay, not quite yet.   And depending on how all the Fox/Marvel stuff shakes out, possibly not at all.  Still, higher chance than that Channing Tatum Gambit movie ever making it out, right? Jamie Madrox, aka the Multiple Man, is one of those fun lower tier Marvel characters who has had quite the history.  His initial appearance had him facing off against the Fantastic Four, and ended with him being put in touch with Charles Xavier, who shipped him off to Muir Island.  He hung around there just mostly being a background character for a decade and a half, before making his way onto the X-Men off-shoot team X-Factor, which was where the character really took off.  He’s maintained a fairly steady fanbase, and believe it or not, has managed to get an action figure in just about every major Marvel scale.  The only one missing was 6-inch, but Hasbro’s been kind enough to fix that this year.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Multiple Man is figure 6 in the Apocalypse Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Jamie’s first Legends release, though he was one of the potential choices in the 2009 Fan’s Choice poll that got us three TRU-exclusive two-packs.  That figure, of course, would have been based on Jamie’s more civilian X-Factor Investigations appearance.  This one instead opts for his ’90s era costume.  I think we can all agree that it was worth the wait to get the actual costume.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Bucky Cap body.  Not a huge shock there; Jaime’s never been a particularly bulky guy, and since they went with the spandex look, this one fits it pretty well.  Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper 90s Multiple Man without the trench coat.  I think there was an expectation that this would be an all-new endeavor, but Hasbro opted for some parts re-use…thankfully it’s not a total re-use of the old trench coat body.  That would have been bad.  Instead, he just uses the coat overlay from that figure, paired up with the jacketed arms from the Netflix Punisher.  It’s honestly a much better combo, and goes a long way to salvage that coat piece.  I still feel like we’re going to need a new trench coat body sooner rather than later, but this is a serviceable substitute.  Topping off the frankenstiened body is not one, not two, but three all-new head sculpts.  The first is your standard Multiple Man design, skull cap and all.  He has a more battle-ready expression, teeth-gritted and everything.  The second head is the same as the first, but with a different face, this time more jovial.  This one’s my favorite of the three.  The last one is the most unique, lacking the headgear of the other two, and with a more neutral expression.  This is the sort of head that would probably look more at home on an X-Factor Investigations figure, so one has to wonder if Hasbro is planning a head with this one.  Multiple Man’s paintwork is fairly standard stuff.  The design on his costume doesn’t have quite as much going on under the trench coat as I’d personally like, but in Hasbro’s defense, the artists on X-Factor were never super consistent about his costume design, and tended to just hide most of the spandex under the coat anyway.  Jamie’s primary accessories are the two extra heads, which are fun.  I do sort of wish he’d gotten some extra hands to go along with them, but alas, it was not to be.  He does, however, include the right leg of the Build-A-Figure Apocalypse.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Multiple Man was my most wanted figure from this set, and, as luck would have it, the first figure from the set I was able to get a hold of.  I came across him, and only him, at my local Target.  I’ve always been a fan of Jamie, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting him getting the Legends treatment.  While I would have been happy with the X-Factor Investigations version shown back in ’09, I’m ultimately much happier to have gotten this variant now.  While not a perfect figure, he’s still a ton of fun.  Now I just need to see how many I can track down!