CHARLES XAVIER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Xavier reveals his master plan … one that will bring mutants out of humankind’s shadow and once again into the light.”

Charles Xavier, more commonly referred to as Professor X, doesn’t, in his default state, tend to make a classically exciting action figure.  Bald guy in a suit and tie, sitting in a wheel chair isn’t exactly getting kids to go crazy for the toys (unless they’re some weirdo kid who wants Xavier before Wolverine and Magneto because he’s far more plot important and is less likely to get  another toy as quickly, and why don’t you understand that, Nana?…sorry, I went places there…).  Because of this, various media does have a tendency to give Xavier excuses to put on slightly more toy-etic gear.  Most recently, Xavier’s ditched the suit and the wheelchair, and is wearing something more classically comic-book-y, I guess?  Well, there’s a toy of it, so let’s check that out.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Charles Xavier is figure 1 in the Tri-Sentinel Series of Marvel Legends, and like Wolverine, he’s officially “House of X” branded.  Xavier is in his current default attire, which puts him in a spandex jumpsuit, and makes the Cerebro helmet a more permanent fixture.  It’s a different visual for the character.  I don’t know that it’s all that different a visual for the formerly-idealistic-now-morally-grey-leader-of-the-team-following-a-relaunch, since it’s rather thematically similar to Cyclops’ Marvel Now appearance.  But, maybe that’s on purpose?  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Xavier is built on the Pizza Spidey body…which is an interesting choice.  I guess it’s not the worst, as Xavier’s been depicted as rather svelte, especially recently, but it feels weird for Professor X to be on a Spider-Man body, to me.  They’ve replaced the hands with ones from the suit body, so that fixes those slightly cartoonier proportions, but the feet remain the same, so that’s still going on.  He’s got a new head sculpt wearing his new helmet.  It’s an okay sculpt, and certainly is the most visually intriguing portion of the figure.  Paint on this guy is exceedingly basic.  There’s paint on the visor of the helmet.  That’s it.  The body’s all black plastic, which isn’t technically accurate; there should be some piping or minor detailing on the suit.  There’s also been inconsistency about whether Xavier has gloves on his suit or not;  I would have preferred not, since it would break up the colors a bit.  Xavier has a decent selection of accessories, with two sets of hands (in relaxed, and pointing/telepathy hand combo), an alternate un-helmeted head with a telepathy effect, and the right arm to the Tri-Sentinel Build-A-Figure.  The alternate head’s definitely the coolest part, especially given it’s potential uses with the previous Professor X figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Xavier’s newest design is one of the more drastically changed ones, but I find it to be too drastically different to really feel like Xavier.  When it comes to more action-oriented Xaviers, I’ve always been more partial to the tactical gear in the hover chair look from the ’90s, and I’m still waiting for that one to get some proper toy coverage.  But that’s not what I got here, and I suppose I shouldn’t hold it against him.  Of course, what I probably can hold against him is the slightly phoned-in nature on this guy.  The extra head’s cool, but there’s not really much else about him that really speaks to me.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure for review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.