HERCULES

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The hero of Olympus, Hercules uses his mythic strength to prove he is worthy of immortality.”

Hey, let’s just move from one Marvel-ized interpretation of mythology to another.  We started with Norse mythology, and now we’re moving over to Greek mythology…sort of.  There’s a bit of Roman in there too, since Marvel calls him Hercules, when his proper Greek name is actually Herakles.  All of the other gods keep their proper Greek names, though.  Marvel are hardly the only people to do this, of course, but I do like giving them a hard time about it whenever it comes up.  Anyway, after going 12 whole years between Marvel Legends releases, Herc’s having a good decade, I guess, and getting another one just two years removed from the last one.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hercules is the latest release in Hasbro’s Retro Collection sub-line of Marvel Legends.  He, like the last handful of them, is a Fan Channel-exclusive solo release, and just started hitting in the September/October area.  Hercules has had a few different looks over the years, all sort of revolving around the same basic design elements.  The two prior Legends releases each went with a distinct look, and this one continues that trend, with yet another look (although technically one that was already done in Marvel Universe).  This Herc is based on his shoulder-harness-sporting look from the ’80s, which he notably sported during his tenure with the Avengers under Roger Stern, amongst other things.  It’s a good look, and, like I said, one we haven’t gotten at this scale before.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Structurally, Herc shares a lot of his parts with the last Hasbro version, with the entire upper torso being shared between the two of them.  It was a really strong sculpt the first time around, and I’m a fan of anything that removes us further from re-using the Hyperion body again.  He gets a new set of legs, as well as new add-ons for his harness, belt, and wrist bands.  Additionally, he also gets not one, but two new heads, both of which are more closely patterned on his ’80s design.  The two heads are fairly similar, with the difference between them being expression.  There’s a more serious one, and one with a goofy grin.  I’m personally more a fan of the goofy grin, but both of them work very nicely for the character.  The new legs notably use the pinless construction for the knees, which is certainly a plus given the whole lack of actual pants and all.  Herc’s paint work is generally pretty decent.  The hair from the last figure’s chest has now spread to the arms, which I guess works pretty well.  The application on the change-over from the headgear to the hair is a little sloppy on both heads, but overall things are decently handled.  No major slop or anything.  In addition to having the two heads, Herc also gets two sets of hands (gripping and fists, like the last release), as well as his rather distinctive mace.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really, really liked the last Herc Hasbro put out, but he was an admittedly very modernized take on the character.  Something a little more classic’s never really a bad thing for him, so I was actually pretty happy that Hasbro circled back around to him relatively quickly.  Even more so that he’s actually another distinct look for the scale, which allows all three versions to maintain their validity.  I think this one’s honestly my favorite of the three we’ve gotten so far, which is no small feat.

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.