HAMMERHEAD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Hammerhead’s skull is reinforced with adamantium, making his head flat on top. All the same, this hard-headed criminal’s frequent run-ins with Spider-Man have caused him no shortage of headaches!”

Alright, we had a little bit of a preview of the latest round of Marvel Legends on Friday, and today we’re kicking a full-fledged week of reviews of that same set.  This assortment is split into two halves: the Spider-Men and the not Spider-Men.  Today, I’m looking at one of the not-Spider-Men, specifically Hammerhead.  Introduced in 1972 by Gerry Conway and John Romita, Sr, Hammerhead was designed as the logical continuation of the likes of the Big Man and Crimemaster, the almost Dick Tracy villain-esque members of Spidey’s earliest rogues gallery.  Though he’s got a distinctive gimmick and visual, he does get lost when placed next to some of the more colorful members of the rogues gallery.  Subsequently, he’s been kind of light on the toy front.  In terms of Legends, he’s previously just been an extra head packed in with the Chameleon figure.  Not exactly the proper figure treatment.  Thankfully, he’s finally getting his proper figure due.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hammerhead is the first of the three villains in the latest Spidey-themed Retro assortment of Marvel Legends.  Of the three included, he’s arguably the most obscure, although he does have a few notable video game appearances under his belt, which does certainly help him out a bit on that front.  He’s yet another guy in a suit, but it’s in an assortment that’s otherwise all the more standard spandex-wearing fare, so it makes him distinctive in his own way.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Hammerhead’s a rather big guy, wearing a rather big suit, so his sculpt needs to reflect that.  As was theorized when Happy was first shown off, Hammerhead makes use of a good number of parts from that release.  It gives him a slightly more reserved build than Hammerhead had classically, but it’s not a bad fit for him by any stretch of the imagination, especially when you remember that Hammerhead is really just supposed to be a normal guy with some modifications to his skull.  Rather than just re-using the piece included with Chameleon, which would have undoubtedly have been too small for the body, he gets a new head sculpt, which is quite an impressive piece.  The sheer amount of detail going into the face is just an impressive feat, especially on a comics-based figure.  Hammerhead also gets an all-new jacket overlay piece, which adds a vest to his attire, making him look just a little more put together than Mr. Hogan.  Hammerhead’s paint work is quite impressively handled, especially given how sharp and clean it is.  The pinstripes on the suit really work, and the sculpt of the face is aided by an equally impressive paint job to really make everything pop.  Hammerhead is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and a fist/brass knuckles combo), and a baseball bat, borrowed from the Punisher.  Certainly a solid selection of extras for a bruiser like Hammerhead.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ll admit that Hammerhead’s not one of those characters I ever really felt like I *needed* in figure form, so I was content with the nod we got to him with Chameleon, at least at the time.  So, he was hardly at the top of my list for this assortment.  That being said, I did like the look of this guy from the prototype shots, and even more when I got a chance to see him in hand.  While he’s still probably at the bottom of the list for this particular assortment for me, he’s still a really solid and fun figure.

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.