AVALANCHE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Brotherhood of Mutants veteran Avalanche can generate powerful seismic waves from his hands.”

When the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was reformed under Mystique’s leadership in the ’80s, they got a roster of characters with well-established traits, personalities, and arcs…and they also got Avalanche.  You know, the guy who was only ever really compelling on X-Men: Evolution, where the approach was essentially rebuilding him entirely from the ground up.  The guy whose backstory before joining the Brotherhood could be best summed up as “wasn’t in the Brotherhood yet.”  Essentially, he’s really just a glorified accessory for Pyro, a Brotherhood member who actually does things of note and whom people actually care about.  Honestly, he largely only gets figures to accent Pyro figures, too.  We got an updated Legends Pyro in 2020, so I guess we might as well get a proper Legends Avalanche.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Avalanche is part of the latest retro-inspired X-Men series of Marvel Legends.  This is his first time getting an official Legends figure, though he was previously offered up in the scale in Toy Biz’s X-Men off-shoot line.  Like most of the assortment, he’s got a vintage 5-inch counterpart, with the caveat that Avalanche was in the X-Force line, not the main X-Men one.  The figure stands just shy of 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Avalanche uses the Reaper base body as a starting point.  It’s alright for the build, since he’s usually a little stockier, but the articulation’s rather stiff compared to more recent figures, and it’s still got the visible pins in the elbows and knees.  But, it’s just Avalanche we’re talking about here, so it’s not like it’s the end of the world.  Avalanche gets a new head, torso, forearms, and boots.  The head sculpt isn’t really doing it for me, honestly.  It’s a more recent take on his helmet design, with visible eyes, rather than the pupil-less look, and I just don’t think it works as well for the character.  Furthermore, the expression seems too neutral for what little characterization Avalanche has, which tends to see him as being rather brutish.  The body sculpt is alright.  I’ve seen complaints about how the shoulder pads stick out, but they don’t bug me.  The color work on the figure is almost entirely molded plastic, which works fine enough.  He gets a little bit of paint on the face, and I’m not crazy about the darker lips, but it’s other wise alright.  Avalanche is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture.  That seems rather light; it would have been nice to at least get an unmasked head, or possibly an alternate style of helmet.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I can’t say I was incredibly compelled to get Avalanche, but I did already have Pyro, and he could do with a guy to stand behind him and make him look cooler by comparison.  Also, we’re getting close to wrapping up this incarnation of the Brotherhood, so team building and all that.  This figure isn’t bad, but he’s not terribly exciting either.  I’m not big on the choices with the head sculpt, and he feels kind of bland.  But he’s alright, I guess.

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.