MOLECULE MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Owen Reece aka Molecule Man possesses near-limitless power to re-order the world around him at the molecular level”

Molecule Man was first introduced during Fantastic Four‘s second year, and was initially a rather formulaic creation from Stan and Jack.  He’s a normal guy, bombarded by radiation, granting him super powers.  So, he puts on a green and purple outfit and decides to become a supervillain, because he was in a book that had somebody else’s name in the title.  Despite his formulaic origins, Reece was a rather high-power-level character, which meant coming up with unique ways to keep him out of commission, which they did for about two decades, before rolling him into the otherwise pretty heavy-hitter driven Secret Wars event.  At that point, it was revealed that the radiation that bombarded Owen wasn’t just random, it was in fact part of the Beyonder’s power, making Molecule Man an even stronger player than he realized.  He plays a key role in getting the people stranded on Battleworld home, and has since then tended to fall into the part of a man attempting to reform himself…sometimes literally.  And now he has a Marvel Legend.  Let’s check that out.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Molecule Man is figure 1 in the Puff Adder Series of Marvel Legends, which is officially branded as an Avengers assortment, though Molecule Man’s place in such a line-up is a little bit iffy, since he’s more FF, or just general Marvel Universe.  I mean, the last FF wave had High Evolutionary, so I guess there’s a degree of trade-off going on there.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Molecule Man uses the Red Skull jumpsuit body as his starting point, which certainly makes a fair bit of sense for the character.  He’s got a new head, torso, and skirt piece, which suitably transform him into a different character.  Molecule Man’s look has made some pretty radical evolutions over the years, as he’s gone from quite deformed and unattractive to something more conventionally handsome.  This one is closer to his more recent appearances, seemingly taking the most influence from Mike Detato’s version of him from Dark Avengers.  It’s not strictly classic, but it’s also not a terrible look, so I don’t hate it.  At least he’s still got funky hair to keep him *a little* weird looking.  Paint is quite minimal on this guy, with the vast majority of his coloring being handled by molded colors.  He still gets all of the important details, mind you, and the molded pieces result in a pretty sharp color set-up for the guy, suiting his classic design nicely.  His face gets some printed detailing, which works especially well with the scarring.  Molecule Man is packed with two sets of hands (in fists and open gesture), two purple energy effects, and the left leg to the Puff Adder Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Molecule Man is one of those characters I’ve always liked in concept, but never definitively latched onto in practice quite as much.  He’s been rare on the toy side, with only the Minimate prior to this.  I did like that one, though, and I was *kinda* intrigued by this one.  However, I was still a touch on the fence up until getting my set to review.  Having him in hand, I actually do really like him.  If I had one complaint, it’s that we didn’t get an alternate, earlier looking head sculpt, just to give him a broader coverage, but beyond that, I do find myself quite enjoying this 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 and their eBay storefront.