GROOT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“I AM GROOT!”

At the end of Endgame, Thor continued his journey by venturing out with the Guardians of the Galaxy.  Rather unsurprisingly, the Guardians are playing at least some sort of supporting role in Love and Thunder.  From the trailers, it appears the whole team will be along for the ride, but with their third film on the horizon, it doesn’t make quite so much sense to fill an entire Thor line-up with Guardians.  So, Hasbro picked some favorites, including everyone’s favorite walking tree with limited vocabulistics, Groot!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Groot is figure 6 in the Korg Series of Marvel Legends.  Between him and yesterday’s Ravager Thor, there’s also a new Star-Lord, but I opted to skip that one, on the basis that I’ve got a bunch of Star-Lords.  This figure is based on Groot’s “Teen” look.  It’s been given the Legends treatment once before via the Infinity War tie-ins, via the (supposed to be) TRU-exclusive three-pack with Thor and Rocket.  That one had gotten pretty pricey on the aftermarket, and with it looking to be more or less the standard version of the character going forward, it’s a sensible choice for a re-do.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 25 points of articulation.  He’s using the body from the prior Teen Groot.  It’s not 100% ideal, mostly due to how the arm articulation works, but it could be worse.  Generally, it’s a nice sculpt.  I was never super sold on the head sculpt to the old one, and, hey, would you look at that, it’s the one thing they changed.  The new head is a lot more sharply detailed, and just generally looks like a better match for the animation model from the films.  That chin is much less pronounced, and the leaves and such at the top are much more leaf-like.  The figure’s color work is also a slight improvement.  He’s more in line with the adult Groots from the first movie, being molded in a slightly lighter brown, and with a fainter green detailing.  I think it works a lot better than the prior version.  Groot also gets a slightly better accessory selection, by virtue of not being stuck in a pack with two other figures.  He gets two standard hands, an extra right hand with a trigger finger, two branch-looking effect hands, a blaster rifle, and the torso to the Korg Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a bit lukewarm on the first Teen Groot.  Being stuck in a big, expensive boxed set, he just didn’t feel worth the price, and I always had some issues with the actual sculpt, especially the head.  I wasn’t initially sure about this release, as I’d expected it would be a pretty straight re-release.  But, I wanted Korg, and the new hands looked fun, so I grabbed him.  While he’s not drastically different, the new head does a lot for the figure, and I’m ultimately much happier with him than I’d expected to be.  This definitely feels like the definitive Teen Groot.  So, they’ll clearly be changing his design entirely for Vol 3, right?

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