THANOS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The Mad Titan Thanos seizes control of the hallowed Infinity Gauntlet and wields near-omnipotent power. Who can stop this vicious new overlord?”

Over the past few years, Thanos’s presence in the cultural lexicon has certainly increased a bit, and likewise, his tendency to get coverage in the various Marvel toy lines has likewise become more frequent.  However, in the midst of all of this, the majority of the product has still be centered on his movie incarnation, rather than his comics counterpart.  In the case of Marvel Legends, Thanos was still just at two comics-based figures, and one of those was a repaint, even.  That’s pretty rare in the grand scheme of things.  Fortunately, Hasbro’s getting around to amending that, at least somewhat, adding an all-new version of Thanos to the line as part of their Deluxe price point.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Thanos is the first Deluxe-sized Marvel Legends release of 2021.  He continues the trend set by last year’s Apocalypse and War Machine, he’s an all-new figure, rather than being a re-working of a prior Build-A-Figure.  This Thanos is based on his classic attire, circa The Infinity Gauntlet, rather than one of his more modern appearances.  It’s the first time we’ve gotten a proper Legends version of this design, which is pretty notable.  The figure stands 7 1/2 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Thanos is sporting an all-new sculpt, and a pretty darn good one at that.  It’s got a lot of common thematics with the Marvel Universe sculpt, albeit scaled up and with some slightly better implemented articulation.  The MU sculpt is pretty great, and by extension, so is this one.  In fact, I’d say it’s better.  The details on his outfit are clean and sharp, and the proportions nicely match Ron Lim’s depiction of the character from Infinity Gauntlet.  Also matching nicely with Lim’s work is the head sculpt.  It takes the insane grin of the prior comics Thanos, and dials it up even further, into a full-on mad cackle.  Remember what I said about the last sculpt perfectly fitting the “Mad Titan”?  I retract that, because this goes even further with it.  It’s pretty fantastic.  Thanos’s paint work is likewise pretty impressive itself.  The colors are a bit brighter than prior releases, which I quite like, and there’s some pretty impressive accenting on the blue sections, giving the whole set up some rather nice depth.  Thanos is packed with three different left hands, one in a basic fist, one in an open gesture, and one about to snap the fingers.  They all offer some great options, but that snapping hand is really just the tops.  It feels kind of amazing that this is the first time we’ve gotten such a piece.  Thanos also features a second head sculpt.  This one’s not from the original story, but is instead from the “Thanos Wins” storyline, which depicts an older Thanos after he’s conquered the Marvel Universe.  Technically, it doesn’t match with the body, but it’s still a great sculpt and a fun extra.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really liked the Thanos Build-A-Figure from 2015, but there was no getting around the fact that he wasn’t actually a classic Thanos, as cool as that more modern design may have been.  This guy’s felt pretty inevitable ever since the character took off in the movies, so what’s more surprising about this release is how long it took to actually get him.  He’s a really nice figure, and certainly one of the nicest uses of the deluxe format.  He gives us a great core figure, with a few fun extras to really sweeten the pot.

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.