DR. DOOM

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“From the wreckage of colliding universes, Dr. Doom emerges as the supreme ruler of a new domain known as Battleworld.”

Ah, 2015’s Secret Wars, a Marvel cross-over event which had Dr. Doom as the main antagonist.  Not to be confused with 1984’s Secret Wars, a Marvel cross-over event which had Dr. Doom as the main antagonist.  Or 2003’s Secret War, which did *not* have Dr. Doom as the main antagonist.  Or 1985’s Secret Wars II, which also didn’t have Dr. Doom as the main antagonist, but did at least have Dr. Doom in it, so that was a step in the right direction.  No, we’re talking 2015, the source of God Emperor Doom, from when Doom gets a major power up and decides to ditch his shirt, apparently.  As you do.  Shirts cannot contain his power.  But then he loses the power, so he has to go back to his old shirt-wearing ways, like some sort of pleb.  But, at least he gets a toy to commemorate his time amongst the shirtless, right?  Right.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Dr. Doom is the final figure in the Xemnu Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s not officially numbered like the others, as he doesn’t feature a Build-A-Figure part like they do.  He is also the double pack, presumably because he’s really the only villain who’s justifiable in doubling up on.  It’s a good thought in theory, but less so in practice, since last year saw two variations on standard Doom released, which meant that this one had to be a variant look in order to justify his existence.  Hasbro went with the aforementioned God Emperor look from Secret Wars, which is not really a standard Doom look, nor is it an amazingly memorable one, really.  Also, it’s just kind of a weird concept.  Like, the white is all fine and good, but why ditch the shirt?  And also, if you’re ditching the shirt, why swap out the cool metal gauntlets for just regular cloth gloves?  That seems weird, right?  And really, why not just be Doom 2099?  Because you know what’s a cool Doom variant?  Doom 2099.  This should just be Doom 2099.  And now I’ve made myself upset that this isn’t Doom 2099.  Great, now I’m gonna have to deal with this.  I was already luke warm on the whole idea behind this guy to begin with.  Well, might as well just get this disappointingly non-2099 Doom review out of the way, then.  I’m sure I’ll be quite balanced and fair with the figure now.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s very similar to the last two Dooms, sharing the entire lower half, as well as the upper arms, and the modern head from the first figure.  He gets a new torso, lower arms, and cape in order to facilitate his conversion into God Emperor.  They’re fine from a technical stand point, I suppose.  They mesh alright with the older parts, and he looks like the design from the comics, so it checks all of those boxes.  The sculpting on the gloves is pretty nice, with the various wrinkles and stitching being well-defined.  In terms of paint, he’s pretty basic, since most of his coloring is just molded plastic colors.  It does what it needs to.  What paint is there is well applied, so that’s at least fairly nice.  Doom is okay on the accessories front, with 5 different hands (a pair of open gesture, a right wide grip, a right pistol grip, and a left fist), the gun from the last two (in silver this time), and the skull and spinal column of Thanos, which is a direct reference to a sequence from the comics.  The Thanos skull is certainly a more fun and unique piece, so kudos to them on that one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was happy with my Super Skrull Series Doom, and felt no need for a replacement.  Then the retro Doom came along and replaced him, which was a good move on Hasbro’s part, but it did leave this guy kind of in the lurch, because I really didn’t need him.  And then I got him in hand, and I still felt like I didn’t need him.  And then I got to thinking about other Doom variants we could have gotten, which took me down the Doom 2099 rabbit hole, and that just made matters a lot worse.  Admittedly, none of that is this figure’s fault, but at the same time, if they were going to kind of do a phoned in Doom variant anyway, why not just go with the Future Foundation look, which is also an all-white Doom, but one that at least doesn’t need any new tooling.  Because, if I’m honest, the new tooling doesn’t really do this guy many favors.  Maybe it’s just not for me, and there’s a market for God Emperor Doom out there, but for me, this guy’s just a testament to how there *could* have been something cooler in this set.  Which, again, isn’t really his fault.  But I’m gonna be all unreasonable and cranky until I get my Doom 2099, I suppose.

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