Tag Archives: Deadpool

#3752: Colossus

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

COLOSSUS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Though quite successful at the box office and rather ripe for merchandising, the first two Deadpool movies weren’t granted any direct merchandising at the time of their release.  The second film did get a handful of figures a year after the fact, as part of Hasbro’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of the first X-Men movie, so that was at least something.  However, Colossus, notable player in both films, was absent from these delayed tie-ins, which was certainly a bummer.  The third film, Deadpool & Wolverine has been granted a more direct tie-in, as well as a few “legacy” figures, which means we finally get a Colossus!  Yay!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Colossus is a single deluxe-sized Marvel Legends release.  He was designed to coincide with the release of the main Deadpool & Wolverine tie-ins, but he wound up hitting just a bit before them, which winds up actually making him a pretty nice bridge between the Legacy re-releases and the new figures.  The figure stands 7 3/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  As far as Colossus figures go, this one’s actually got pretty decent articulation, with no real issues of restriction, a nice change of pace from the last few Hasbro’s done.  I did have an issue with his knees being a bit stuck out of the package, but they freed up without too much trouble.  This guy gets a brand-new sculpt courtesy of Dennis Chan, based on Colossus’s largely unchanging look from the three films.  It’s overall a very nice offering, with only one real complaint from me, which is that the arms are a tad too long.  Beyond that, though, it’s a solid recreation of his look from the movies.  In particular, I really like the head sculpt, which just feels appropriately Colossus-y to me (and, bonus points, it’s the same shade of silver and the same neck peg size as the 80th set version, so you can swap it to the classic body if you’re so inclined).  Colossus’s colir work is reasonable.  The silver is the same used on the 80th figure, and the rest of the application is generally pretty clean.  He’s packed with an alternate head, two sets of hands, and his pocket-sized X-Men rule book.  The alternate head has his teeth gritted and some slight damage, indicating it’s from his fight with Juggernaut.  The rule book has two of the rules actually written out so you can read them, which is a very fun little touch.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was kinda “eh” on the first Deadpool (I know, sacrilege), but I absolutely loved how they handled Colossus, and enjoyed his expanded role in the second film immensely.  Him being left out of the first round of coverage really bugged me, so I was really hoping the third one might bring this guy around.  The Toy Biz Colossus remains one of my favorites from their Legends run (he’s maintained a spot over my desk in my office for several years now), and I was always a bit let down by how middle of the road the 80th figure was.  This one may be movie-based, but he’s the best Legends Colossus we’ve gotten from Hasbro, and I do love the extra cross-compatibility.  Even on his own, though, he’s just a fantastic 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.

#2913: Deadpool & Negasonic Teenage Warhead

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

DEADPOOL & NEGASONIC TEENAGE WARHEAD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Wisecracking Wade Wilson and stoic Ellie Phimister team up to defend all mutants.”

Almost an entire year ago, I looked at Domino and Cable, who made up either half or two-thirds of Hasbro’s slightly late tie-ins for Deadpool 2.  Notably, I did *not* look at the title character, which did seem a bit odd, didn’t it?  Yeah, it seemed that way to me too.  I assure you, it wasn’t an intentional slight; I really did mean to review him, and his packmate Negasonic Teenage Warhead, right around the same time, but, as you can see, that didn’t happen.  Which I guess makes these tie-ins a bit more than slight on the lateness scale.  My apologies.  I guess I’ll just get to them now.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Deadpool and Negasonic Teenage Warhead are the second of the two standard release two-packs for the X-Men Movie sub-line of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends.  They were supposed to be released at the same time as the Magneto and Xavier set, but that didn’t really seem to happen.  A small amount of them shipped to people who’d placed online preorders, and a small amount showed up in stores, but there were no notable signs of stocking the way the rest of the line dropped, and most retailers had them continually pushed back for the better part of a year.  It seems that they’re finally starting to truly make their way out, now, though, so that’s good, since this was probably the most in-demand item from the whole sub-line.

DEADPOOL

Deadpool has no shortage of action figures, but the less than stellar relationship between Fox and Disney the last decade or so meant that actual proper movie toys weren’t a thing, at least until now…or last year, I guess, if you want to be more technical.  Deadpool’s movie costume was not only quite comics accurate, it also changed very little between his two films, meaning that this one figure can also pull double duty for both movies, which is exactly what it does.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  His articulation structure is pretty darn good, working in a set of butterfly shoulders, and making sure he’s got the pinless construction on the elbows and knees, making him a rather slick figure.  His sculpt was initially all-new to him, but was subsequently re-used for the single-release ash-covered Deadpool that was an Amazon-exclusive last fall.  It’s quite an impressive sculpt, which does a strong job of capturing the costume design from the movie.  It’s rather distinctive and it translates well.  I quite like how they’ve handled all the texturing on his outfit.  The figure’s paint work is generally pretty solid.  It follows the slightly toned down scheme of the film’s design, but it again looks pretty good as a toy, and the application’s all pretty clean and sharp.  Deadpool is quite well accessorized, with four sets of hands, two pistols, two katanas, a knife, and a small stuffed unicorn.  The hands are all in different poses, but two pairs are all black like in the first movie, and two have the silver stripes from the second.  While it’s nice to have the options, it does somewhat limit what you can do with him, since you have to make sure the style of gloves match.  I feel like the original plan was probably to do a full set of hands in both styles, but it probably didn’t cost out.  The two pistols are Forge’s sci-fi styled gun, which isn’t really true to the movie.  Also, there are more film accurate pistols in the holsters, even, but they aren’t meant to be removed.  They’re separate pieces that have been glued in place, so you *can* remove them, but I gave it a fair try, and didn’t really want to force it.  Presumably, this is some sort of a request from Disney, who are trying to downplay the use of real firearms with Marvel figures.

NEGASONIC TEENAGE WARHEAD

While Deadpool may be no stranger to action figures, Negasonic Teenage Warhead has thus far only had the one.  Admittedly, prior to being featured in the first Deadpool, the character struggled to be considered even D-List, so there wasn’t much call for toys before this.  While Deadpool had more or less the same look between the two movies, Negasonic had two fairly divergent designs for the two films.  This figure opts for her Deadpool 2 design, which is really the more fully formed and actually toy worthy of the two.  The figure stands 5 3/4 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Negasonic breaks from the movie X-Men norm and is largely re-using parts, specifically the Spider-Girl body.  It’s really not a bad match, and it’s just a decent starting point in general, plus, with as many new parts as the X-Men Movie figures had, it was a good way to save some money on tooling.  She still gets a new head, upper torso, upper arms, and a belt add-on piece, which help to keep her fairly movie accurate.  The head’s got an okay likeness of actress Brianna Hildebrand, at least from a sculpting standpoint (paint’s perhaps a different story), and the rest of the parts are all pretty good matches for her on-screen design.  The paint work is a bit of a mixed bag; the base work is okay, but the face paint on mine’s not quite right, resulting in her looking a little bit doofy.  Her eyes are definitely not pointing the same way, and that’s not ideal.  Negasonic is packed with two sets of hands (fists and open gesture) as well as Scarlet Witch’s effects pieces, presumably to emulate her powers in some fashion.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wanted this set, not so much for Deadpool, since I’ve got plenty of figures of him, but actually for the Negasonic figure.  But, then I got both Domino and Cable, and so it made sense to have Deadpool too, so I decided I was down for both parts.  And then I patiently waited for the set to arrive….and that was a lot of waiting, now wasn’t it?  When I found out these were coming in, I honestly expected some sort of diabolos ex machina sort of a thing to ensue and prevent me from getting them yet again, but it didn’t, and now I have them.  How about that?  Sure, I wish Negasonic’s face paint were better, but otherwise, it’s quite a nice set, and I’m happy to finally have them.

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

#2654: Venompool

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

VENOMPOOL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Alright, I guess I might as well get to reviewing the thing I’ve been literally building up to.  Yes, it’s the veritable merchandising gold mine that is “Venompool.”  A pretty straight forward mash up of Venom and Deadpool, Venompool’s not exactly an original concept, since we’ve been seeing variants on the basic idea since 2010.  Heck, we’ve even gotten another take on the concept in Marvel Legends previously, when they did the “Back in Black” design.  But, the particular version that’s been getting all the love in the last couple of years is not any of the plethora of comics-based designs, but rather the version that appeared in Marvel’s Contest of Champions mobile game, which is this hulking brute that I’m taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Venompool is the eponymous Build-A-Figure for the “Venompool Series” of Marvel Legends, built from parts included with 5 of the 6 figures included.  As noted above, he comes from Contest of Champions, and is the first Legends figure to explicitly based on a design from that game.  He’s also the third figure based on this particular design, following the Pop and the Hot Toys.  Like with Miles last week, I’m not super big on this design as a whole.  It feels less symbiote-y and more like a monstrous version of Deadpool.  And boy is he monstrous.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 28 points of articulation.  In terms of mobility, he’s pretty restricted, given his rather bulky build.  He can get some okay poses, of course, and covers pretty much everything you’d expect from a character of this size.  He’s also not too hard to keep standing. He’s an all-new sculpt, which gives me a frightening sort of feeling like Hasbro’s going to try and get some sort of a variant release out of him, just to double down on the mold.  It’s an accurate recreation of the game’s design, and there’s certainly a lot of detail going on there.  They’ve somewhat followed in the steps of the movie design and given him a lot of texturing on his costume, which does at least keep things somewhat visually interesting.  It was a touch disappointing that the chain links on his wrist and ankle bands were solid to the bands, and not separate, but I guess the line had to be drawn somewhere.  The paint work on this guy is pretty good.  It gets all the important details down, and application is all pretty clean.  Venompool is notably well accessorized for a Build-A-Figure, getting two sets of hands (open and gripping), two swords, and a removable pair of sheaths for his back.  The sheaths are a little tricky to get in place, and not the most secure.  I’m not sure why they didn’t just do a peg to connect them, but maybe there’s a very important reason that I’m missing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wasn’t big on the Venomized stuff, and I’ve been suffering from some serious Deadpool fatigue the last few months.  So, this guy, not really for me.  Still, I decided I may as well build him, just to see what all the fuss was about.  He’s a decently put together figure, but there’s just nothing that really grabs me.  The design is so-so, and I have no real spot for him in my collection.  Ultimately, this really isn’t one I see myself hanging onto.

This assortment is one that I was iffy on from the beginning.  Only Phage really jumped out at me from the start.  But, I went into it with an open mind, because the last Venom assortment wound up impressing me a lot more than I’d expected it to.  This one just really didn’t change my mind.  I like Phage, and Carnage is cool.  Even Ghost-Spider is at least a neat visual.  The rest of the assortment left me cold, and even the presentation didn’t really sell it.  It’s notably a small set, and ultimately feels more cobbled together from left-overs than other recent assortments.  Without so much connective tissue, the assortment relies more heavily on the individual figures, and they’re all fine from a technical stand point, but are largely “meh” from a design standpoint.  I’m probably the outlier on this one, though.

#2557: Domino

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

DOMINO

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

 

“With the mutant power to manipulate probabilities, the odds are always in Domino’s favor.”

Luck?  That’s her power?  Pretty sure luck’s not a super power.  I mean, what could luck as a power possibly do for you?  I mean, what’s gonna happen, is a character that’s B-list at best get a mass-release single-packaged figure from a movie where the title character and the arguable deuteragonist wound up in a two-pack and as a store exclusive respectively?  Wait, that’s…that’s exactly what happened.  Maybe luck’s a pretty good super power…which is my roundabout way of saying “let’s look at this Domino” figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Domino is a single-release in the X-Men movie sub-line of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends.  She’s one of three standard release single figures in the line-up so far, the other two being Mystique and Wolverine, both of whom seem much further up the list than Domino, who completes the main Deadpool trio whose other two pieces are currently not quite as readily available.  What a weird set-up, right?  Hey, I’m really not going to complain too much myself.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme is really solid here.  It’s not terribly far removed from prior Legends female base bodies, but the range on the joints is generally a lot better, and they’re very well toleranced, meaning she keeps the poses without too much trouble.  She also stands pretty well, which is always a plus in my book.  The sculpt is an all-new affair, patterned on Domino’s main action-oriented appearance in Deadpool 2.  She’s got two different head sculpts,  one standard and one with goggles.  Both have a pretty solid likeness of Zazie Beetz, but I personally find the one with the goggles has just a touch more personality to it, and is subsequently my preferred of the two.  The body sculpt is fairly realistic and well-balanced in terms of proportions, and the detail work is nice and sharp.  Her costume details all look to be fairly spot on, and the articulation is well integrated.  In terms of paint work, I find Domino has a bit of a leg up on Cable, whose paint was a little uneven.  Here it’s pretty strong from start to finish, with clean work on both faces, as well as all of the important details being covered on her costume.  In particular, I really like the hair, which has been molded in a semi-translucent plastic and then been given some accent work on top of that.  It really helps to prevent the usual unnatural thickness that occurs with fuller hair styles, and allows light to pass through in a quasi-realistic way.  In addition to the previously mentioned extra head, Domino includes two sets of hands (gripping and fists), two MAC 10s, and a pistol.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When Domino’s look was first shown off back before the movie’s release, I was a little iffy on some of the design choices they’d made, as I felt there were definitely some shortcuts taken that made her less of a comic-accurate creation than Deadpool himself had been in the prior film.  Because of this, I wasn’t sure what I’d think of this take on the character.  Then I saw the movie, and I was really impressed with Beetz’s take on the character, and she was ultimately one of my favorite aspects of the final product.  I was definitely happy to see her show up among the earliest X-Men movie stuff, and I’m even happier that the figure’s as solid a final product as it is.

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

#2514: Deadpool

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

DEADPOOL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Just got the suit back from the dry cleaners. I hear blue and gold is the new red?”

Okay, yep, there’s another Deadpool.  Still gotta review the other Deadpool.  It’s okay, there’s just this one more review, and then I get to review something I actually care about.  Come on, Ethan, you can do this!  I believe in you, me!

What good would a Deadpool wave be with only a single Deadpool variant?  That would be downright preposterous, wouldn’t it?  Well, we covered the zanier side of things with Pirate Deadpool, so let’s have a look at something that’s a bit less out there, and a bit more…umm…what’s a more exciting word for bland?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Deadpool is technically figure 1 in the Strong Guy Series of Marvel Legends, but I’m over here looking at him last.  Why?  Because I kept putting him off, that’s why.  And, I guess I can’t keep doing that?  Yeah, okay, I’ll stop stalling.  I swear.  Look at me: quitting stalling.  For realsies.  Totes quitting.  Stop the madness!  So, what we have here is Deadpool in one of his X-Men uniforms.  It’s not the first one we’ve gotten.  It’s not even the first figure of this particular design, which cropped up as a variant in Hasbro’s 2008 fan choice two-packs.  The figure that I’m putting off reviewing is 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s a mash-up of prior Deadpools, using the Juggernaut Series head, the 2099 body and the wrist, neck, and ankle bands of the Sasquatch Series figure, and the harness from the Corps set.  It’s fine, and it gets the job done.  Everything is about as accurate as it should be.  He’s got the same issue as the last, slightly more comical X-Men costume Deadpool figure, which is that the Juggernaut Series head doesn’t quite sit properly on the neck of the 2099 body.  It just sits a bit too high and doesn’t look right in most poses.  Additionally, the harness was originally sculpted for the old Bullseye body, so it sits a little off kilter on the torso.  The whole assembly just ends up looking a little poorly conceived.  In terms of paint, this guy’s main appeal, for lack of a better, blander word, is his changed up color scheme.  Instead of his usual red and black, he’s blue and yellow.  It’s very blue and yellow, so I guess that’s good?  Application’s clean, so there’s that, I guess.  Deadpool is packed with two sword, a handgun, a shotgun, and the head to the Strong Guy Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t have any interest in this costume the first time it got a Legends figure, and I can’t really say my opinion on it changed by the time of the second go-round.  This costume’s never been one that’s excited me all that much, and I’m really starting to feel some hardcore apathy to all of the Deadpool variants we’ve been getting as of late.  I wasn’t much for Pirate Deadpool, but at least he tried something different.  This one’s just so…meh…

Blandness aside, thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2512: Pirate Deadpool

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

PIRATE DEADPOOL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“It’s a pirate’s life for Deadpool with plenty of adventure. Oh, and doubloons. So many doubloons.”

Remember how I mentioned that the latest round of Marvel Legends was half-X-Force/half-Deadpool?  Well, I already covered the X-Force, so I guess I might as well get these Deadpools out of the way.  We’re firmly going for the “isn’t he so wacky and goofy and off the wall in the most predictably meme-esque way possible” side of Deadpool with today’s figure, Pirate Deadpool.  Why is he a pirate?  Oh boy he’s wacky, that’s why.  Yeah…just go with it, guys.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Pirate Deadpool is figure 7 in the Strong Guy Series line-up of Marvel Legends.  He’s the first of two Deadpool variants in this assortment, and definitely the wackier of the two.  He’s based on Deadpool’s appearance on the cover of issue 14 of his mid-00s solo series, which is a thing, I guess.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  This Deadpool is based on the Bucky Cap body, which is fair I guess, since about half of them are.  He gets a new head, torso, left forearm, and add-ons for his cape and the skirt of his jacket.  The new parts are mostly pretty decent, but for some reason, he loses out on the movement mid-torso for the new piece, which is rather limiting.  The skirt piece is also a little softer in terms of detailing than I’d prefer, especially around the two (frustratingly non-removable) pistols.  It’s also really thick, and rather restrictive.  I do rather like the new head, though.  The hat’s permanently attached, which ultimately works out better for scaling, and he’s got a slightly goofier expression going on, which works pretty well for the character.  All in all, the parts amount to a pretty respectable recreation of the illustration from the cover.  His paint work follows the trend of all of the post-Juggernaut Series Deadpools, so he’s got that much brighter red as a base color.  It’s certainly eye-catching.  The paint work is all pretty decent, with the application mostly being pretty clean.  There’s a little slop around the bandana on his head, but it’s otherwise not so bad.  Pirate Deadpool is packed with an appropriately pirate-y cutlass and flintlock, and…a katana?  I mean, I get that he’s Deadpool and all, but boy does that katana stick out as being weirdly off theme for this release.  He’s also got the left leg for Strong Guy, which isn’t very pirate-y, but I’m less likely to complain about that one.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t really want a Pirate Deadpool when there wasn’t a confirmation of a Pirate Deadpool, and once there was, I still didn’t really want one.  I did, however, want a Strong Guy, which required buying a Pirate Deadpool.  Yeah, get used to this concept.  There’s going to be a bit of that this week.  Just as a heads up, on that one.  In-hand, I guess he’s not terrible.  If you want a Pirate Deadpool, this one’s not bad.  I just don’t really want one…

Mixed feelings aside, thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy for review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2256: Deadpool

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

DEADPOOL

MARVEL LEGENDS VINTAGE (HASBRO)

Boy howdy am I running out of compelling ways to start Deadpool-themed reviews.  To say he’s overdone may be something of an understatement.  There’s *only* been three figures of him this year for Marvel Legends though, so I guess that represents Hasbro backing things off a little bit.  Lucky us.  I’ve managed to pick up all of them so far, so why stop now, I guess.  So, here’s one more Deadpool.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Deadpool is a standalone Marvel Legends release, done up in the retro style cardback packaging.  Like the Grey Hulk I reviewed earlier this month, he was originally slated to be a con-exclusive release, before being moved to the fan channel.  This Deadpool is designed to be an earlier in his career Deadpool, specifically patterned after the ’90s Toy Biz figure whose packaging this one mimics.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation. Sculpturally, he’s essentially identical to the classic Deadpool figure released in the Sasquatch Series last year.  The only difference between the two is that this one adds a second strap of pouches to the left leg so as to better mimic the old figure.  He’s using the 2099 body, which is a solid starting point, especially for a character like Deadpool.  He then has add-ons for his webgear/belt, the pouches on his legs, and his neck, wrist, and ankle straps.  He’s also got the classic Deadpool head, which fits the body a lot better than the Juggernaut Series one did for the X-uniform Deadpool.  Ultimately, it results in a pretty solid figure, especially if you missed the Classic Deadpool like me.  The figure’s paint mixes things up a little bit as well.  This is in part to more closely match the old toy, so things like the belt and torso gear have been left red like on that figure.  However, they’ve also changed the black parts of the costume to a dark metallic blue, which is honestly a pretty cool look, and really feels like it hearkens back to those early ’90s appearances of the character.  The application is all very clean, and the colors really pop off of each other.  Deadpool is actually pretty decently accessorized for a vintage-packed release, with two swords, two small machine guns, a pistol, and a larger assault rifle.  Given that the Classic Deadpool only included the swords, that’s actually kind of surprising, and I’m definitely glad they went the extra mile.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Much like Hulk, when this was still planned for a con release, I paid very little attention to it.  I passed on the Sasquatch Series release numerous times, and this one, while certainly a neat look, didn’t feel any more essential than that one.  The shift to Fan Channel meant that he more or less arrived in my lap, and going in with no expectations, he’s another figure I ended up liking quite a bit.  Honestly, that’s kind of been the case with all of this year’s Deadpool figures, so maybe I should just stop complaining about them.

#2208: Deadpool & Hit-Monkey

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

DEADPOOL & HIT-MONKEY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The most bodacious team-up this side of Miami: Deadpool & Hit-Monkey make being an internationally feared assassin look easy.”

There’s no denying that Deadpool has popularity and recognition behind him, which makes him an easy pick when it comes to merchandise.  It also makes him useful leverage for getting retailers to support other items, meaning that for every time that we get the likes of yesterday’s Havok and Polaris, we also get the likes of today’s offering, a Deadpool-centric two-pack, pairing him off with one of Marvel’s many attempts at spinning other goofy characters out of Deadpool, Hit-Monkey.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Deadpool and Hit-Monkey are the other half of the Fan Channel-exclusive assortment of Marvel Legends that contained Havok and Polaris, also bearing the “80 Years of Marvel” branding, and clearly meant to capture a more modern piece of Marvel history, though if it’s a reference to a specific comics occurrence, I will admit I’m not familiar with it.

DEADPOOL

There have been quite a few Deadpools in the last two years of Legends, but this one does manage to actually be a little more distinctive, mostly by being in something other than a variation of his standard costume.  This one embraces the vague Miami: Vice theme of the set by sticking Wade in an all-white suit, which is admittedly a pretty striking look for the character.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Wade makes use of the newly re-worked suit body that we got with Nick Fury, which is a pretty decent upgrade on the prior body, and now scales a little bit better with Bucky Cap-sized heads like Deadpool.  Topping off the body, he’s got a selection of three different heads: fully masked, fully unmasked (both from the Juggernaut Series Deadpool), and half-masked.  They make for a nice variety of options, and it’s good to see Hasbro really taking advantage of that bank of existing parts for stuff like this.  Deadpool’s paintwork is pretty straight forward and clean, and keeps with the striking nature of the design.  The reds are very bright, keeping with the Sasquatch and Sauron assortment coloring, which I’m okay with, even if they don’t quite match the Deadpool Corps release from earlier this year.  The unmasked head actually gets pupils this time, and while I myself prefer the prior deco, I do like getting a change-up here.  Deadpool is packed with a solid selection of accessories, which includes two katanas (same as prior DPs), a pink zebra-patterned handgun, a guitar (re-used from Spider-UK, and in a funky Madcap color scheme), headphones (re-used from Star-Lord), a Captain America shield with Deadpool’s face painted on it, and a re-worked RC Silvermane with Headpool in Silvermane’s place.  There’s no new parts in here, but that doesn’t change how impressive it is to get this many extras.

HIT-MONKEY

Not long after Hit-Monkey’s debut in the comics, he found himself chosen as one of Hasbro’s smaller-scale BaFs from the tail end of the pre-Infinite Series Legends.  As with everything from that period, distribution was spotty, making completing him either woefully easy or near impossible, and crafting quite an odd after market.  Whatever the case, I suppose Hasbro felt they should give fans another chance at the character, so here he is.  The figure stands just shy of 3 1/2 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  His sculpt is the same as it was the first time around, which is reasonable enough.  Hit-Monkey’s really only had that one look.  The sculpt is a little bit more stylized than Legends tend to be these days, but for a character like this, that’s honestly not a bad thing.  Given the alternative being the rather bland and off looking Spider-Ham we got last year, I’m more for this.  The figure changes things up from the last release by swapping the color of his suit from black to white, and the tie from blue to red, all in order to match the Deadpool.  Again, no clue if Hit-Monkey’s ever looked like this, but it works out alright for him.  Hit-Monkey includes the same accessories as the first time around: a pair of pistols and a pair of submachine guns.  Not quite as impressive as Deadpool, but two sets of guns is still pretty good.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wanted Havok and Polaris, and this set just sort of came along with them, I suppose.  I wasn’t exactly expecting much of anything from either of them, and that probably worked out in their favor, because it allowed me to really approach them with fresh eyes, and just enjoy them for what they are.  What they are is pretty fun.  It’s a cool look for Deadpool, a second chance at Hit-Monkey, and a boatload of really fun extras between them.

This set was purchased from my friends at All Time Toys. And, if you’re looking for other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2002: Deadpool Corps Scooter

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

DEADPOOL CORPS SCOOTER

MARVEL LEGENDS: LEGENDARY RIDERS (HASBRO)

“Vroom vroom, baby.  It is I, Deadpool, and my merry heard of fluffy-tailed friends. All aboard, dirty-pawed brethren!  It’s ride-off-into-the-sunset time.”

It’s been exactly 200 reviews since I did my last Deadpool-centric review.  Time for another one?  Might as well be.  So, why a Deadpool review?  Well, let’s put some context on this one: just a little over a year ago, Hasbro launched the Legendary Riders sub-set of their popular Marvel Legends line.  It’s focus is, as you might expect, on providing some of their Legends with their rides.  Deadpool is just one of the lucky ones to get focussed on for this last go-round.  But, it’s not just Deadpool all by his lonesome, he’s bringing some of his Deadpool Corps teammates with him!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Since his re-appearance in the Juggernaut Series, there have been no shortage of Deadpool figures in Hasbro’s Legends line-up.  Just last year, he got four separate 6-inch releases.  Now he’s gotten one more.  This one’s another go at a default Deadpool, though he’s wearing a different derivation of his costume than the Juggernaut or Sasquatch Series releases.  This one goes back to Deadpool’s appearance from around the mid-00s, right about when his popularity really started to spike.  This is most clearly denoted by the y-shaped harness that he sported at the time, which is also seen on this figure.  I’m not as big a fan of this particular look, but it’s been a few years since it got a Legends release, and at least it’s something different.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation.  As you might expect, he’s largely made up of re-used parts.  The bulk of the figure uses the same construction as the Juggernaut Series release, though he swaps out the harness piece for the one from the 2008 figure.  That figure was built on the Bullseye body, so the harness isn’t a perfect fit, but it’s close enough that it doesn’t look out of place on this figure.  The one new contribution here is the head, which is stylistically consistent with the prior DP head, but now depicts his eyes wide-open, and his mouth clearly agape under the mask.  It suits the incredibly goofy nature of this entire set very well, and I think it may well be my favorite of Hasbro’s Deadpool heads.  Deadpool’s paint work is a bit of a conundrum.  On it’s own, it’s a nice paint job.  It’s clean and bright, and suits the character well.  So, what’s the problem?  It doesn’t match either the dark red of the Juggernaut Deadpool or the exceedingly bright red of the Sauron Series Deadpools, meaning that there’s no way to swap the various expressions between the figures.  It’s a definite missed opportunity if you ask me.  Deadpool is armed with a pair of katana, which he can stow in the sheaths on his back.  They’re gold instead of the usual silver, which is a nice change of pace.

THE VEHICLE ITSELF

Deadpool may not be defined by his ride, but the image of him looking super goofy while riding around on an appropriately color-matched vespa has become fairly common place in the cultural lexicon, and is a sensible choice here.  It measures 4 inches tall by about 5 inches long.  It’s got working wheels and can properly steer, and all that jazz.  It’s also got a working kickstand to keep it upright most of the time.  The sculpt is actually really nicely handled.  The shaping is clean and sharp, and everything flows together quite well.  It’s also a very unique looking item, with less re-use potential than Widow’s cycle had.  It also doesn’t have the obvious screws that the cycle had, which I count as a very definite plus in this vehicle’s favor.  The scooter has it’s own specific accessory, a little horn to mount on the handle bars.  It also includes a sheet of stickers for customization, but I don’t see myself using that much.  The most important extras, though, aren’t for the scooter, but instead accent the included Deadpool.  We get figurines of both Dogpool and Squirrelpool.  Dogpool is articulated at the arms and neck, and can be mounted on the scooter.  Squirrelpool is unarticulated, but can be placed on Dogpool’s back.  Also included is an extra head, for a figure that’s not even in this set.  Whose head is it?  Why it’s only Deadpool’s bestest sidekick ever, Bob: Agent of Hydra!  It’s perfectly matched the standard Hydra Trooper from the Agents of Hydra two-pack, which is still quite readily available, making this a rather ingenious extra.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Okay, so, admittedly, this set wasn’t at the top of my list or anything when it was shown off, because it was shown off at the same time as the outwardly more impressive Professor X.  Also, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little worn out on Deadpool.  That being said, I did used to be a fan back in the day, and the confirmation of the extra head for Bob really swayed me quite a bit.  Plus, I was also getting an Xavier, and I felt compelled to grab them both at once.  I’m actually really happy I did.  This is probably the best package deal of all the vehicle sets.  You get a solid, unique variant of a main character, a quite well-crafted vehicle, and a bunch of fun little extra characters.  I dig it.  I dig it quite a bit.

This set was purchased from my friends at All Time Toys, and it’s currently available from their store, here. And, if you’re looking for other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#1802: Deadpool

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

DEADPOOL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“So I didn’t make the cut for the school super-mutant team — so what?  I’m my own yellow-clad, spandex-wearing, most popular-girl-in-school cheerleader.  My mom would be so proud.”

Why settle for just one Deadpool variant when you could just as easily have two?  That would be totally ridiculous…again…man, I gotta work on diversifying my phrasing.  Or get way worse at it and just start actually repeating reviews in their entirety.  Admittedly, that second one would be way easier on me…which is why I totally am going with that first one, because why would I go with the easier thing?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Deadpool is figure 2 in the Sauron Series of Marvel Legends.  Numerically, he’s the first of the two Deadpool variants.  He’s based on one of the handful of times that Deadpool was attempting to join the X-Men by way of showing up in one of their uniforms.  This one’s kind of at the mid point between the not all that comical variation of Cyclops’ Astonishing suit and the really quite ridiculous short-skirted Marvel Girl costume.  It’s a fairly distinctive look, and it’s also not too far removed from the X-jersey look he sports for part of Deadpool 2’s run-time.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  This variation of Deadpool follows the model of the First Appearance Deadpool from the last series, putting Wade on the 2099 body.  It’s actually a pretty reasonable choice for him, and it’s honestly a shame they couldn’t have just been building him on this body from the beginning.  Those butterfly joints definitely come in handy for him.  He gets the head and shoulder harness from the Juggernaut Deadpool, the belt from the X-Force Deadpool, and the wrist and leg straps from the Jim Lee Cyclops.  It’s overall a decent selection of pieces, and they work well enough, but there are some slight compatibility issues, since all of the pieces were originally intended for the Bucky Cap body, and the fit isn’t quite the same.  The head’s the biggest issue, since the necks between the two bodies are slightly different lengths, so it sits a little bit too high on the head.  What’s weird is that all of the prototype shots for this figure were using the 1st App head, which was actually sculpted for this body and as such would be a better fit.  Not sure why they made the change for production.  It’s not terrible, but it’s a little off.  This figure’s paintwork is pretty decent stuff overall.  He’s certainly bright and colorful and the application is all quite clean.  Deadpool is packed with a pair of katanas, a large rifle, and the head of Madcap.  The Madcap head is definitely the most intriguing…he’s quite a minor character and not one I ever imagined having a figure of.  Now we’ve just got…his head?  No body to go with it, but I guess it looks reasonable enough when placed on this body.  He’s also packed with the tail of the Sauron Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Of the two Deadpool variants in this series, this is admittedly the somewhat less exciting of the two, and in addition the one with the slightly lesser execution as well.  That being said, if you’re a Deadpool fan, this is certainly still a pretty solid figure, and feels like less of a waste than some of the major character variants we’ve gotten in the past.

Like casual Deadpool and Lady Deadpool before him, this figure belongs to my friend Max from All Time, with whom I split this case.  If you’d like one of your own, He’s still available through All Time’s store.  And if you’re interested in buying other Legends figures, or are looking for other cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay Store.