GAMBIT

MARVEL LEGENDS (TOY BIZ)

Okay, after a brief interruption in the Flashback Friday Figure Addendums last week, we are back, and we are jumping back onto that Toy Biz bandwagon!  This one strays a bit later than a lot of the Addendums, hitting up Toy Biz’s move to 1/12 scale figures with Marvel Legends.  Let’s look at Gambit!

So, Happy President’s Day, I guess. Um, I don’t really have that much in the way of presidential action figures, so I’m just gonna go ahead as if it’s any other day. But I thought I’d point it out anyway. Just to mess with you.

Looking back at my past reviews, I’m actually a bit shocked by how few reviews I’ve done of ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends. For a while back there they were, like, the only line I really collected, and I’ve done quite a few reviews of DC Direct figures, which I collected about the same time, so it seems odd I haven’t really looked at any of them. I think part of this might be that I have some bad memories of trying to track certain figures down, and part of it might be that the figures just haven’t aged all that well. Or, I’m going by a totally randomized list, and not as many of them have popped up. Who knows? (Well, me but that kinda ruins my intro).

So, in an effort to attempt to correct some slight oversight, I’ll be reviewing the Marvel Legends version of the X-Men’s own resident scum bag, Gambit! Gambit isn’t as big a deal as he once was, but he was pretty big in the 90s, and even into the early 2000s, hence his place in the line. So, let’s take a look at the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Gambit was released as part of the 4th wave of ToyBiz’s Marvel Legends line. He stands about 6 inches tall, and he has 40 points of articulation. The figure depicts Gambit in him classic pink/blue/black leotard and brown trench coat look that everyone thought was oh so rad in the 90s. It’s a truly hideous design, but I can’t help but be so damned nostalgic about it, because being born in the 90s ruined me as a person. The sculpt was pretty good at the time, but now feels like one of the more outdated sculpts in the line, with huge hands, some pretty serious monkey arms, and an overall emaciated look to him. I think the head still holds up, with that perfect floppy Gambit hair, and the totally in character smirk. The coat isn’t the best tailored thing ever, but it isn’t too bad, and it does somewhat mask the odd proportions of the figure. The figure’s paint is pretty good, though it can be sloppy in some places, particularly the face, which I’ve seen have some variance from figure to figure. I do appreciate that this is one of the only Gambit figures to give him the appropriate black sleeves with those weird pink squares, instead of just leaving them pink. The figure had a really nice assortment of accessories that I wish I still had, including: his staff, an energy explosion with a set of cards to simulate his powers, and a base sculpted to look like a fallen Sentinel hand. These pieces were all pretty cool, and I think I still have the stand in a box with some others, but the other two pieces are long gone.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Believe it or not, Gambit was one of my favorite ToyBiz Legends. I’m not really sure why, as I’m not that big a fan of the character, and the figure isn’t that amazing, but I really liked him. I suppose coming early in the line, he got a lot more play time than some of the later figures, and he was one of the figures in the line who you didn’t have to devote all your free time to tracking down.

He hasn’t aged amazingly well, but he’s still held up better than some of the figures, which does give a leg up. And given Gambit’s rather quick decline in popularity, the character has yet to see any kind of rerelease in the more recent incarnations of the line, which I suppose makes this guy a bit more valuable. 

That is a very long intro, and it sure does take a while to get to the point, doesn’t it?  I was still getting the feel for how to jump into things, I think, and I was still doing a lot of call outs for even more minor holidays, which I just don’t do now.  At this point, I was still recovering from being burned by some bad experiences collecting Toy Biz Legends.  Another decade removed, I’m less that way, and generally feel a bit more nostalgic about the whole experience.  Also, I do kind of rag on Gambit for being not really relevant anymore, which is funny here in 2025, when he’s definitely come back around.

Generally, the review proper’s not bad.  I stand by a lot of what I said.  The sculpt has good aspects, but also some issues as well, much like most of the Toy Biz run of this period.  When I originally reviewed him, he was sans accessories.  Since then, I’ve tracked down the stand (which I knew I had when I reviewed him originally, but just didn’t go to the trouble of tracking down), as well as the charged card effect piece (which I was convinced there was no chance at me finding originally, but I was clearly wrong).  The display bases could be a bit of a mixed bag, but Gambit’s is undoubtedly one of the best from the line, and the best of the running subset of damaged Sentinel bases packed with X-Men characters.