Tag Archives: Marvel Legends

#3238: Kate Bishop

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

KATE BISHOP

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Uncomfortable with her wealthy birthright, rebellious Kate Bishop’s well-meaning determination sets her on a collision course with her Super Hero idol, Hawkeye.”

Initially introduced in the pages of Young Avengers, Kate Bishop became the second Hawkeye when granted the title by Captain America, who passed it to her during a period when Clint Barton was dead.  When Barton inevitably returned to the land of the living, he initially attempted to take the title back, but ultimately agreed to share, and it was brought to the forefront for Fraction and Aja’s run on Hawkeye, which placed Kate as a deuteragonist. Disney+’s Hawkeye show followed suit, and introduced Kate into the MCU as Clint’s successor to the mantle of Hawkeye.  And, in the process, she even got her second ever action figure, which I’m taking a look at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Kate Bishop is figure 4 in the the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends, where she’s the second of the two Hawkeye figures.  This marks Kate’s second time in Legends form, following up on the multi-pack release for her comics counterpart from 2016.  Like the Clint figure, Kate’s seen here in her finale attire, which seems inspired by her earlier Young Avengers gear.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 31 points of articulation.  Her movement scheme is actually pretty solid.  She gets butterfly shoulders, which we pretty much never see on female figures, but are a great help on the archery poses.  And, in contrast to Clint, she gets a ball-jointed mid-torso joint.  It doesn’t offer quite as much forward and back as the ab-crunch, but it has side-to-side movement, which offers a good deal more variety to her posing.  She’s got the pinless construction for the elbows and knees as well, which adds to her feeling of advanced motion.  Kate’s sculpt is an all-new one, done by sculptor Eddie Mosqueda Jr.  The sculpt is a pretty strong one overall.  The head’s not *quite* a spot-on likeness for Hailey Steinfeld; the face is perhaps a touch too thin, I think; however, it’s close enough that the context sells who it’s supposed to be.  The body sculpt does a rather nice job of capturing Kate’s adventuring gear from the show, with all of its differing textures and folds and such. The costume details also match up quite well with her show design, which is always nice to see on the MCU figures; obviously there was a more finalized design to work from here. The body’s proportions are again just a touch skinny for Steinfeld, but they’re far from the ridiculous proportions we’ve seen in the past; she still looks like a real person.  The color work on this figure is generally not bad; the colors seem a little bit more saturated on the figure than they were in the show, but it’s more than likely it’s a lighting thing.  It’s also a lot of purple, which always looks way different in photos than in person.  The paint application all looks decent enough; there’s a few small spots of slop, but nothing major, and the face printing is on point as always.  Kate is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and relaxed), her bow, and the left leg of the Infinity Ultron Build-A-Figure.  The hands are notably a different selection than she was initially shown with, which was two fists, and a gripping/open gesture combo.  I’m not entirely sure why this changed, but I honestly prefer what we got, so I don’t mind.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been following Kate in the comics since her earliest appearances, and I loved what Fraction and Aja did to work her and Clint into a story together.  I was also really happy when she was confirmed for the solo series, and even more so when I heard they’d cast Hailey Steinfeld, who I feel was a great choice for the role.  The show made her one of my favorite new additions to the MCU, and I’ve definitely been looking forward to the figure.  Like Clint, she’s not quite perfect, but she’s still a lot of fun.

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.

#3237: Hawkeye

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

HAWKEYE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Hawkeye’s only shot at taking down a dangerous criminal conspiracy is an unlikely new partner: Kate Bishop.”

Lest I just fall into a pattern of opening all of my Marvel Legends reviews with song lyrics, I opted to not open this one with the lyrics to “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”  I mean, I suppose it would have been at least slightly appropriate, what with the actual time of year, and the fact that Hawkeye was largely set at Christmas time.  But, I’ve not done it.  Instead, I’ve just spent far too much time talking about a thing I’m not doing.  Yikes.  Moving on.  After playing second fiddle to the rest of the Avengers for most of his movie run, Clint Barton finally got his own central focus in his self-titled Disney+ show, which dropped a year ago this week.  Though perhaps not the MCU’s most subversive or unique offering, it was certainly a fun adventure story, and a good emotional send off for Clint.  It’s also a good excuse to finally give him just a little bit more toy love, which I’m taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hawkeye (or, more accurately, “Hawk-guy”) is figure 5 in the the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends.  This assortment is an entirely Disney+ based set, divvied up between the various Marvel shows, and Clint is the first of the two Hawkeye-based figures.  He’s based on his LARPer-designed costume from the end of the show, which is a pretty close recreation of his long-sleeved David Aja look.  Still no mask, but that’s a battle I’ve accepted we’re never going to win as far as Renner Hawkeye is concerned.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 33 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this guy is generally pretty decent, though not quite as advanced as other recent figures.  He’s still using the standard ab-crunch, rather than the ball-joint set-up, but he does also get butterfly joints at the shoulders, as well as movement at the top and bottom of the neck, which is some pretty solid movement, especially compared to prior MCU Hawkeyes.  Hawkeye’s sculpt is an all-new one, done by sculptor Rene Aldrete.  Clint’s honestly not had the best selection of Legends sculpts, so this one definitely had some ground to cover.  It’s not perfect, but it’s a marked improvement on what we’ve gotten before.  The facial likeness is certainly the best version of Renner we’ve seen at this scale.  It’s not 100% there, but it’s pretty close, and the detailing for the bandaging on the forehead is a particularly nice touch.  The neck’s definitely a touch too long, but past that, the body’s proportions are actually pretty nicely balanced.  The detailing on his outfit is all nice and clean looking, and the folds and creases help to really sell the real-world look for him. I also really dig how you can make out his boots underneath of his pants legs.  The paintwork on Hawkeye is largely pretty basic.  There’s a fair bit going on for the face, but it’s otherwise some standard color work for the purple and the flesh tones.  Nothing crazy, but it works.  Hawkeye is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and a fist/open gesture combo), his bow, a removable quiver, and the arm to the Infinity Ultron Build-A-Figure.  The hands provide some decent variety, and I like the little touch of the wrapping on the handle to the bow.  The quiver’s also got a full stock of arrows, which is more than can be said for other movie Hawkeyes.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been hoping for a decent Renner Hawkeye pretty much since he was introduced.  I’ve not been successful in that hope up to this point.  I was rather disappointed that we didn’t get him from Civil War, since that was my favorite of his film looks, but I did also dig the design from the show, as well as its general focus on giving Clint’s MCU counterpart a bit more depth.  This guy isn’t perfect, but he’s easily the best MCU Hawkeye we’ve gotten in Legends form, and he sure is a lot of fun.

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.

#3234: Mr. Knight

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

MR. KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“An expert on ancient Egypt, Steven Grant is thrust into action as Khonshu’s avatar, Mr. Knight, relying on his keen mind to enact his master’s will.”

Ohhhh! Every day I wake up, then I start to break up, lonely is a man without love!  Every day I start out, then I cry my heart out, lonely is a man without love! ….Are you guys tired of this yet?  Because, I can keep going.  Maybe I’ll just start every review with that.  You know, kick off every day with a with a little bit of Englebert?  No?  Yeah, okay, that’s fair.  Hey, how about just a little bit more Moon Knight?  There sure is a lot of Moon Knight stuff these days, and I’m on board for pretty much all of it, which translates to plenty for me to review here.  So, for the second day in a row, let’s have a look at a Moon Knight!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mr. Knight is figure 1 in the the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends, which is, as noted yesterday, a Disney+ themed series.  He’s the second of the two Moon Knights in the set, and is, as mentioned in the bio, based on Steven’s powered up version, which is itself based on Declan Shalvey’s fancy-suited design for the character from the 2014 re-launch.  It marks the first time that the look has actually been translated into Legends form, though it’s supposedly been on the books since before we got the armored version in the Vulture Series.  Obviously, the figure’s patterned specifically on the show interpretation of the look, but there’s enough wiggle room for it to work either way.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation.  He’s structurally built pretty heavily on re-used parts from the Coulson suit body.  I’m gonna be honest, it’s a body that was decent for its time, but it’s kind of starting to show its age.  To try an update it at least a little bit, Hasbro’s fitted it with a new head, neck, tie, coat overlay, and legs.  The new head gives us his distinctive mask; it seems a little bit on the small side, but there’s at least a decent set-up with the texture work.  The new neck piece is similarly a little bit small, but the texturing matches well with the mask.  The new tie piece is likewise far more textured, capturing the unique patterning of his neck wear from the show.  The jacket piece features both the jacket and its underlying vest, with a lot more going on from a detailing standpoint than on prior pieces.  His new leg pieces aren’t drastically different than the previous ones, but now feature the pinless joints at the knees.  The feet, in contrast to the head, do seem a touch on the large side.  Not like clown shoes large or anything, but noticeably on the larger side.  Paint is rather sparse on this guy, as he’s almost entirely molded in white.  He does get just a little bit of accenting for his eyes and the buttons on his vest and jacket.  It’s enough for a visual pop, but he keeps the clean white look from the show.  Mr. Knight is packed with two sets of hands in fists and gripping poses, as well as his pair of eskrima sticks, which, it should be noted, are two distinctly different pieces, as they were in the show.  That’s impressive.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Obviously, there’s no way I could get one Moon Knight and not get the other.  The Mr. Knight look has been curiously absent from the toy world, and I’ve been waiting to see it show up somewhere.  This one…well, I overall like him.  That’s the most important thing.  That said, some of the specifics I’m not so keen on.  The arms on the old mold are kind of rough, and the new parts do wind up looking a touch piecemeal when placed together.  Ultimately, I was expecting to like him just a *touch* more than I ultimately do, but I still like him a lot.  And it’s another Moon Knight.  Gotta have another Moon Knight.

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.

#3233: Moon Knight

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

MOON KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Clad in the ceremonial armor of Khonshu’s chosen warriors throughout the centuries, Marc Spector is Moon Knight, sworn to obey Khonshu and deliver his vengeance accordingly.”

Ohhhh! Every day I wake up, then I start to break up, lonely is a man without love!  Every day I start out, then I cry my heart out, lonely is a man without love!  …Wait a minute…this all seems very familiar.  Have I been here before?  Yes, yes I have.  Because I totally did this bit at the start of the last Moon Knight review.  But it was also pretty funny, and I was kinda proud of it, so I decided to do it again.  So, you know, there you go.  When last I was discussing Moon Knight, I brought up how thrilled I am about the character going mainstream.  There’s just so much more Moon Knight love going around, and I really am all for that.  It’s, of course, very much centered around the show, and I loved that too.  We’re just now starting to see the main push of actual show tie-in stuff.  I already got all the Pops (yes, Moon Knight got me to buy a whole set of Pops), but they’re not all that thrilling to review.  Marvel Legends, on the other hand, are an entirely different story!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Moon Knight is part of the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends, which is another Disney+ inspired round of figures.  Moon Knight is the unnumbered, no Build-a-Figure, double-pack figure for this assortment, which, given his newfound popularity, feels appropriate.  He’s actually one of two Moon Knights in the set, with this one being based specifically on the Marc personality’s powered-up look.  It’s a design that’s obviously looking to update Marc’s classic all-white costume, albeit with a few other elements mixed in.  He gains some of the armoring from the Now design, as well as some wrappings that give him a bit of a mummy vibe, certainly embracing some of that Egyptian angle for the character.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/2 inches tall and has 28 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this guy is alright, but perhaps not the top of the line.  The hips and the shoulders are a little restricted, but beyond that, he gets overall pretty decent range.  He’s also using the pinless knees and elbows, which are always a treat.  Moon Knight’s sculpt is an all-new one (courtesy of sculptor Rene Aldrete), and it’s quite a good one at that.  There’s one small inaccuracy on the figure, namely the one extra band of wrapping running over his nose; clearly this figure was based on some late stage concept designs.  It’s honestly a pretty minor thing, and I don’t mind it so much myself.  Beyond that, the sculpt tracks well with the show design, and sports an impressive selection of detail work, especially on the texturing for the wrappings.  The figure’s paint work is fairly decent; largely, he’s just molded in the appropriate color of off-white, but the accenting for the gold sections is pretty decently applied, as is the slight grey accent work.  He does strike me as a figure that could possibly use a wash to bring out some more of the texturing in the sculpt, but as it is, the sculpt’s still strong enough to do the heavy lifting.  Moon Knight is packed with two sets of hands in gripping in fists, and a pair of crescent blades, which can be combined into one.  It’s a little on the lighter side, but given the all-new sculpt, it’s not terribly surprising.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Have I mentioned that I’m a Moon Knight fan?  Because I am.  Just a touch.  I absolutely loved the show start to finish, and I’m down for anything that means more figures.  When images of the show costume first surfaced, I wasn’t sure how much I liked it, but I really enjoyed how it looked in the show, and I think that it translated really nicely to action figure form.

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.

Since there are two of this guy in a case, I was also able to snag a second one for my son Matthew, of this site’s Matty’s Corner feature.  He’s gotten quite into Moon Knight himself (though the show was just a little too intense for him), so he wants his own collection.  He insisted on sharing his thoughts on his own figure as well, so here’s what I transcribed for him!

It’s me, Matth-ew!  I like this Moon Knight figure!  My opinion of this figure is really good.  I like it.  There’s one kind of detail on the moon thing that’s kind of off.  I don’t like that they kind of put all the bandages around parts of him.  There’s a lot of gold over all of it, so the moon thing on the chest looks like a whole circle.  But other than that, I do like him, as I mentioned in the first part.  No other thoughts.  I think we’re good.  Now we can end.

#3232: Morph

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

MORPH

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The mutant shapeshifter Morph returns to haunt the X-Men after being captured and manipulated by Mr. Sinister.”

Oh, yeah, it’s all finally starting to pay off, you guys!  Remember all those X-Men: The Animated Series-themed Marvel Legends I’ve been looking at since June?  And remember how up until this point they’ve all just been reworks of other Legends releases?  Well, today, that changes!  Admittedly, it only changes for the one release, and then it’s back to the reworks, but I’ll take the wins where I can get them.  When The Animated Series launched, the creators wanted to show the seriousness of the X-Men’s battle with the Sentinels by having a casualty within the first episode.  So, they dusted off a rather minor ’60s character, Changeling, re-christened him “Morph,” and went forth with their plan of killing the poor guy off just as soon as possible.  They didn’t anticipate him being nearly as popular as he wound up being, so in the show’s second season, he was revealed to be still alive, and under the control of the season’s arc-villain, Mr. Sinister.  Though not completely original to the show, Morph is still a very show-centered concept, so he’s not been quite as privy to all the toy goodness that the rest of the team received.  He got a standard figure, a Metal Mutant, and even a Shape Shifter back in the day, but it’s only now, 20 years into Legends, that he finally shows up there.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Morph is the sixth figure in the X-Men: The Animated Series sub-line of Marvel Legends, and the first figure to debut a character in Legends….well, unless you count his AoA counterpart as his actual debut, but that’s a legal grey area at best.  Following Jean’s precedent, Morph was shown off and put up for sale on his own.  Like the rest of the line, Morph ships in a VHS-styled box (sporting art by Dan Veesenmeyer), and I still really dig these things.  Morph’s is certainly a lot of fun.  The figure stands just over 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Structurally, Morph is built on the Vulcan body, which is a sensible enough starting point, especially if Hasbro’s looking to really cement it as the Bucky Cap’s replacement.  He also makes use of the jacket piece from Old Man Logan and the arms are from Punisher, as well as an all-new head, belt, and altered legs.  All of the new pieces are courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding, and they’re quite an impressive selection.  The head does a good job of capturing the animated Morph’s general character, while also being just a touch more in line with the standard stylings of the line.  The new legs replicate the various ’90s X-Men straps, previously handled via add-on pieces that tended to fall down a lot.  Now, they’re worked into the legs, and it’s honestly so much nicer this way.  Morph’s paint work continues with cel-shading that we’ve seen with the rest of the line, thought this time around it does seem just a touch less present, so that he won’t look nearly as out of place with non-animation based figures.  It’s rather considerate, since this is Morph’s first 6-inch figure.  Morph is packed with a second head sculpt, based on his “evil” look from Season 2, and two sets of hands in fists and relaxed poses.  The extra head is really nicely handled, looking consistent to the standard head, but again capturing the feel of the show design.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Morph is the figure I was most hoping to see in this line, right from the beginning.  He wound up going up for order while I was on the road, actually, but I was able to get him ordered without too much fuss.  I’ve been eagerly awaiting his release, and I’m thrilled to have him in hand.  He’s easily my favorite figure from this set thus far, and he gives me a bit more hope for the line after being a little bit underwhelmed by a few of the mid-run figures.  He turned out really well, and he’s a great update to the original Toy Biz figure.

#3228: Peter Parker & Ned Leeds

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

PETER PARKER & NED LEEDS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Civilians in Spider-Man movie tie-ins are always a bit hit or miss.  The first Raimi film actually did kind of crazy good on that front, with not only civilian versions of both Peter and Norman, but also Mary Jane and J Jonah Jameson.  Since then, they’ve been less invested.  For the latest range of films, we started off with no civilians, but did at least get an MJ for the Far From Home tie-ins and a JJJ from No Way Home.  We haven’t actually gotten a basic Tom Holland Peter, though, nor had we gotten Peter’s “guy in the chair” Ned Leeds.  Hasbro’s celebration of Spider-Man’s 60th anniversary amends both of those.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Peter Parker and Ned Leeds are one of the three two-packs in the “Spider-Man 60 Amazing Years” sub-line of Marvel Legends.  It’s the one movie-inspired part of the line-up, which I suppose is alright.

PETER PARKER

“Peter Parker is a high school sophomore with a big secret. Instead of rushing home to do homework, he spends his afternoons fighting crime as the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!”

Civilian Peter Parker figures aren’t a total rarity when it comes to tie-in lines, but thus far the only Tom Holland version of Peter is in Minimate form.  Legends has also been pretty stingy on the unmasked heads for the MCU Spider-Men, with them only being available in a handful of rather tricky to acquire exclusive offerings.  So, I guess this release just generally makes up for all of that.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  The articulation scheme on this figure is actually quite impressively handled for a civilian figure; he’s not quite as posable as the top-end Spider-Men, but it’s still pretty agile, which is certainly appropriate for Peter.  He’s also got the pinless construction for the arms and legs, which makes him a little sleeker looking.  Peter’s sculpt is entirely new.  The standard head sports a rather impressive likeness of Tom Holland, which is definitely amongst Hasbro’s best.  The body sculpt is patterned on one of Peter’s sweater wearing looks from one of Homecoming‘s school sequences.  It’s a suitably character appropriate look, especially for Holland’s take on the character, and the sculpt does a solid job of capturing the outfit, as well as balancing his proportions in a realistic manner.  The color work on the figure is generally pretty basic, with a good chunk of it being molded colors.  The face is nice and lifelike in its paint application, and the plaid pattern on what we can see of his shirt under the sweater is quite nice for the scale.  Peter is packed with an alternate smiling head, two sets of hands (fists and open gesture), a back pack, and a book.  The alternate head is an interesting concept, and I appreciate Hasbro’s attempt at something a little different, but it’s not quite right, especially compared to the standard head.  He looks more like Marty Feldman than Tom Holland.  The book’s lacking any paint details, and neither set of hands can really hold it, but it’s a decent enough extra anyway.  The back pack’s definitely a solid piece, though.

NED LEEDS

“Classmates and best friends, Ned is the only person at school who knows Peter Parker’s secret.”

While we’ve had a number of Peter Parker figures over the years, Ned Leeds has been completely absent from the world of action figures.  His comics counterpart was honestly never really notable enough to warrant any coverage (though an extra head with a Hobgoblin at some point might be nifty), but movie Ned is far more prominent.  Still not particularly action oriented, but that hasn’t stopped other figures from being made, so why would it stop Ned?  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Compared to Peter, the articulation scheme is a fair bit more restricted on Ned.  He’s obviously a far less agile character, so there’s a degree of sense to that, but I do wish he at least had a better range on his elbows.  Ah, well, you can still get some decent poses out of him.  His sculpt is another all-new set-up, courtesy of sculptor Dennis Chan.  The head sculpt has a likeness of Jacob Batalon that’s pretty much on par with the Peter figure’s Holland likeness.  I particularly like the small trace of a grin on the face; it feels very on the mark for Ned.  The body sculpt puts Ned in an outfit that matches up with Peter, which is definitely nice, and he gets a set of proportions that matches up well with Batalon’s build in the movies.  The paint work on Ned is a bit more involved than was the case with Peter, with some wear on the pants, and a decent job with the stripes on the shirt.  Ned is packed with an alternate head sporting a Spidey mask (as seen briefly in the movie), and he’s also got his own back pack, unique from Peter’s.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up MJ back when they released her, and she’s kind of just been there on her own since then.  I was definitely hoping we might see at the very least a Ned figure.  Getting him and Peter together was something of a surprise, but a pleasant one.  These two aren’t going to be the most thrilling of the anniversary line-up, but they’re both still a lot of fun, and do a great job of rounding out the cast just a little bit.

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

#3224: Toad

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

TOAD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Mortimer Toynbee was a greedy, pathetic little toady when the genetic evil mutant known as Magneto took him in as a member of his original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. But years of hard knocks toughened the Toad’s hide, and the once-sniveling creature grew a spine. Now, a leaner, meaner Mortimer stands poised to exact revenge on all those who mistreated him.”

When Marvel Legends launched 20 years ago under Toy Biz’s lead, it launched with a four figure assortment sporting some of Marvel’s big names….and Toad.  Okay, so, technically, in Toad’s defense, he was actually the only one of the four debut characters to have been in a theatrical film at the time.  But that’s not what got him into the line-up.  In actuality, it was all sheer luck.  Iron Man, Captain America, and Hulk were supposed to debut alongside Dr. Doom, a far more formidable opponent.  However, Doom was delayed, and Toy Biz was in need of a quick replacement.  So, they grabbed the completed mold they had for the comic-style Toad from their cancelled “Evolution of X” line and stuck him in Doom’s place.  To say he was out of place is something of an understatement, and the figure was rather infamous early in the line for how unwanted he was by the fanbase.  While the figure would eventually gain a rather hefty aftermarket value, the poor sales early in the line effectively guaranteed no follow-up release for the character.  And, that’s why, 20 years later, he’s just now getting his second Legends figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Toad is the final figure in Series 1 of the “20th Anniversary” sub-line of Marvel Legends.  He’s a fair bit removed from the other three, both in terms of when he was shown off and when he arrived at retail, which is all rather fitting, I suppose.  The figure stands roughly 6 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  The previous Toad was rather infamously under-articulated, since he was a pre-Legends mold being re-purposed.  This one, on the other hand, is a fair bit better, and is in fact the most posable of the four figures in this subset.  Unlike the prior figure, he can actually crouch and get into generally Toad-like poses.  The figure’s sculpt is largely new, though there’s just a touch of re-use.  I know that the upper arms at the very least are Pizza Spidey; I’m not sure about the lower arms, because they look just a little bit off.  Beyond those pieces, though, the rest of it’s all-new.  It’s….a mixed bag.  The original Legends Toad was very definitely a ’60s Toad in terms of styling.  This one’s something else.  He seems to lean a little bit more on the ’90s vibe overall, but even then, it’s kind of non-committal.  Given how closely Cap and Hulk both stuck to direct updates on their original figures*, it’s certainly an odd choice to change things up on Toad, especially since he’s still got X-Men #4 as his backdrop piece.  Like, he’s not even really in the same costume as the Toy Biz one.  You could be forgiven for thinking they’re different characters entirely.  I will say, I do at the very least like the way the costume is detailed on the body; Toad’s costume was always somewhat in disarray, and I like all the wrinkles and seams on this sculpt.  The part I’m the least fond of, however, is the head, which is the part that really loses the hold on what version of the character they’re going for.  It’s just sort of messy.  Like, the facial features seem to not really jibe with each other, and it’s kind of large for the body, and then there’s the hair, which makes him look a bit like he’s wearing a wig modeled after Leonardo DiCaprio’s ’90s hair.  Just a lot of odd choices.  In terms of paint work, Toad’s alright.  He again removes himself from the first Legends figure by changing up the palette, with the purple in particular being a totally different shade.  He’s not nearly as dirty either, though that’s I suppose a change that’s part of the wider line-wide shift under Hasbro.  I do like the accenting on the main body suit, though, as it really helps to sell the detail work of the sculpt.  Toad is packed with an extra head (with tongue extended), two sets of hands (fists and open gesture), two different toads, and a display stand with a cardboard backdrop.  The extra head still has all the same issues as the main one, which is a little disappointing, but it does at least have some more variety to it.  The toads are a fun reference to the original figure, and I appreciate that a lot.  The stand is the same one included with the other three, and his backdrop has one side with a recreation of the Series 1 figure’s swampy stand, with the other being X-Men #4’s cover.  Compared to the other figures, Toad feels a little light, but he’s also the figure with the most new tooling, so I suppose it evens out.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I never bought the original Toad figure.  I don’t really know why, honestly.  It’s not like I dislike the character, and I had a pretty decent X-Men selection going at the time.  But, for whatever reason, I didn’t, and then he was expensive, and he just didn’t feel worth it.  I did sort of hope for an update, and was kind of looking forward to this one.  I had hoped, with him being so far back from the other three, that Hasbro might have been building up to something truly amazing.  Sadly, in hand, he doesn’t quite feel that way.  In a line-up that gives us definitive takes on Cap and Hulk, as well as a really solid new Iron Man variant, Toad, much like his original release, feels like the odd man out.  He feels like a figure we’d have all been very happy with a few years ago, before Hasbro had really gotten to their current level of quality with the line.  But, with the other three being very on-point, it’s hard not to see this figure as a little bit confused in its purpose.  These figures were billed as proper updates on the Series 1 figures, but Toad’s not really an update or an improvement; he’s just a completely different figure that happens to have the same name.  He’s not terrible by any stretch, but he’s not particularly great either.

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.

*Iron Man gets a pass, since the 80 Years release had already updated the Series 1 design, and he was serving to properly adapt the variant figure from Series 1.

#3223: Galactus

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

GALACTUS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A near-omnipotent being who must consume entire planets to survive, Galactus cares not for the lives doomed by his hunger. His is a power beyond mortal understanding…and an appetite without limit.”

Well, it seems “shortly” was pretty short, huh?

A little over a year ago, I took a look at the Sentinel, the first Marvel Legends entry in Hasbro’s HasLab, a crowd-funding platform for larger and otherwise not retail-ready items.  By the time I’d received and reviewed that figure, Hasbro had already launched and successfully completed a campaign for a second figure, an even larger and more daunting offering than the first.  Yes, this time around, it’s the world devourer, Galactus.  First introduced in “The Galactus Trilogy,” a story which spanned Fantastic Four #48-50, Galactus’s presence brought with a whole host of larger cosmic story telling, and he’s remained a constant in the Marvel universe since then.  He’s been many things over the years, including a cloud, but we don’t talk about that anymore.  He’s also been a toy a handful of times, and was in fact Marvel Legends‘ first Build-A-Figure back during the Toy Biz days.  But nothing was ever quite on the level of the figure I’m taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Galactus is the second Marvel Legends HasLab project, launching in mid-July of 2021 and ending on August 30th.  His initial target was 14,000 backers, more than twice that of the Sentinel, and he wound up finishing with over 30,000 backers, which was almost 10,000 more than what the Sentinel got.  It began shipping out just last month to backers.  The figure stands 30 inches tall (even larger than the Sentinel) and he has 70 points of articulation.  Like the Sentinel, about 40 of those points come from the hands, which feature movement at each of the knuckles, which is really impressive.  Beyond that, the scheme is a little less crazy, but generally not bad given the chunkiness of the figure.  That being said, compared to the Sentinel, Galactus’s articulation isn’t quite as easy to use.  In particular, the legs are a lot stiffer.  Since there were complaints about the knee joints on the Sentinel, Galactus winds up getting ratchets on his knees.  While it does lock the knees in place more securely, I found that on my figure it made getting his legs into that sweet spot for standing was a much trickier prospect.  Once he’s there, he stands alright, but it definitely takes a good deal more doing.  Galactus’s design over the years has somewhat evolved, but he’s certainly kept a consistent general feel since his debut 56 years ago.  He’s a mix of purple and blue, and he’s got that very distinctively shaped helmet.  This figure’s design takes his classic elements and modernizes them a bit.  He doesn’t appear to have a direct comics equivalent the way that the Sentinel did, but it makes him a little bit more all-purpose.  I really like this particular design.  There’s no denying who he’s meant to be, but there’s a ton of detail work to help fill the larger canvas.  As with the Sentinel, this figure’s sculpt is an all-new one (courtesy of sculptor Rene Aldrete), and its got quite a lot of engineering.  There’s a ton of smaller pieces, all assembled over a core figure, making him actually look like a properly armored person.  The segmented assembly of the figure’s sculpt aids with his color work, since it allows for a lot more molded coloring.  That said, there’s still no shortage of paint work on this guy, covering the smaller accent work, which really sells the sculpt work for the design.  There’s just a ton going on here.  Galactus gets a light up feature, which is actually quite an involved thing itself.  Two AAA batteries in his head and two more in the torso allow the chest, eyes, and four spots on the helmet to light up.  It stays on for a surprisingly long time, about 7 minutes on mine.  It’s got a sort of a fading in and out feature, which looks a bit like it’s pulsating.  The button on the chest turns the whole lighting set-up on, but thanks to the batteries in the head, it does actually light itself separately, and there’s even a button on the back of the helmet to allow you to turn the upper lights on by themselves, if you so desire.

Galactus is a quite large and impressive figure in his own right, but he also gets a whole host of accessories.  At the start of the campaign, Galactus included three different faceplates for the helmet.  There’s a standard calm expression, an angrier teeth-gritting expression, and a skeletal one based on his Cancerverse counterpart’s remains from “Thanos Imperative.”  The calm expression’s my preferred of the three, but the options are always a plus.  Based on the success of the campaign, there were four tiers for more accessories.  The first three each added one of Galactus’s Heralds, with Tier 1 adding Frankie Raye, Tier 2 adding Silver Surfer, and Tier 4 adding Morg.  The fourth and final tier added one more piece for the core figure, an alternate Dr. Doom head.  Doom has taken on the Power Cosmic, or otherwise been enlarged on numerous occasions in the comics, but this one in particular seems to be most clearly based on the alternate universe Doom from Marvel 2-in-One.  It’s obviously not going to be anyone’s go to for the figure, but it’s a fun extra piece, and I dig its consistency of design with the smaller Doom figures.

Remember those three heralds I was talking about?  Yeah, let’s discuss.  The first one added was Frankie Raye, typically known as Nova, but not billed as such, presumably to avoid confusion with the Richard Rider version of the character.  Frankie’s a rather classic design, but one that has as of yet not gotten any sort of Legends treatment, though she did get a figure from Toy Biz’s Silver Surfer line in the ’90s, as well as a Minimate.  This figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation…or at least he should.  Frankie’s apparently prone to seized joints, and in the case of my copy, that’s on her neck.  I’ve not yet tried to free it up, so right now I’m just relying on the ball-joint portion.  Frankie is making use of the upgraded female base body we saw on Shriek.  It’s a nice, basic body, and with balanced proportions and a decent articulation set-up.  And it’s also got the pinless elbow and knees, so that’s cool.  Frankie gets a new head sculpt, which is alright.  I don’t know, it’s just maybe not my ideal version of Frankie.  I’m partial to the pointed crown look for the forehead, which this one doesn’t do.  To my eyes, it leaves her a little more generic looking than I’d like.  In terms of color work, the paint is confined to the head, largely the hair, but with some minor detailing for the face.  She’s using molded plastic for the gold, which is a change-up from what Hasbro had originally said they’d planned.  Originally, she was supposed to be painted gold, which honestly would have looked just a little better.  That said, this gold plastic is at least not all swirly.  Frankie is packed with three sets of hands (fists, gripping, and open gesture), and a flame base that allows her to clip onto Galactus’s right hand.

For the second tier, we got Galactus’s best known herald, Norrin Radd, aka the Silver Surfer.  Surfer’s not a stranger to Legends, and was released solo as recently as 2018, as part of the Walgreens-exclusive sub-set of FF-themed Legends.  That figure’s gotten pretty pricey on the aftermarket, so rolling him in with Galactus was pretty sensible.  The figure stands a little under 6 1/4 inches tall and has 34 points of articulation.  He’s using the same basic set-up as the last one, so he’s on the 2099 body again.  I felt it was a little small the last time around, but I’ve warmed up to it a bit more in the years since, especially with Johnny moving to the same base, and with Firelord using it too.  Rather than re-use the last Surfer head sculpt, this one gets a brand new sculpt courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding.  I didn’t hate the previous one, but it still wasn’t one of my favorites.  This one, on the other hand, I really, really like.  Surfer head sculpts are always the downfall of the figure, but this one’s really strong, and easily the best Surfer sculpt we’ve seen in toy form.  His paint work is slightly changed up.  He’s still all silver, of course, but it’s a slightly brighter, slightly more matte finish.  I honestly kind of dig the change.  Surer is packed with three sets of hands (fists, flat, and open gesture), an effects piece (in purple now, contrasting the yellow of the last release), his surfboard, and a flight base designed for Galactus’s left hand.

The final herald in this set, added when the campaign met its third stretch goal, is Morg.  After Galactus relieved Frankie Raye of her duties after deeming her too kindhearted for the role of herald, he found Morg, who was very much *not* too kindhearted.  In fact, he kind of went too far the other direction, leading him to ultimately turn on Galactus and all of the former heralds.  So, Galactus took away the Power Cosmic, and Morg died.  And then he came back.  And then he died again.  And now he’s kind of a minor player, often forgotten.  He’s previously had a Minimate, but that’s the extent of his figure coverage up to this point.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Despite his bulkier stature, Morg is actually pretty well articulated, with double elbows and knees, which don’t even wind up breaking up the sculpt too badly either.  He’s also making use of the pinless construction, which looks a heck of a lot cleaner.  Morg is sporting an all-new sculpt.  It’s a pretty respectable match for his comics counterpart, and it’s certainly got a lot going on.  I like how the proportions work, and he’s certainly as hideous as he’s supposed to be.  The figure’s color work is generally pretty decent.  Not a ton of painting, mostly just molded colors, but it works.  Interestingly, the pants are black, while initial renders from Hasbro showed them as brown.  Both are accurate, and I personally prefer the black, so I’m not upset about it.  Morg is packed with his axe.  It’s not the bevy of extras that the other two got, and he’s also the only one without a way to directly interact with the main figure, but he’s also a completely new sculpt, rather than a new head on an old body.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I don’t *quite* have the same level of personal love for Galactus that I do for the Sentinel, I do still have quite an attachment, stemming back to my original Toy Biz figure, who I got back in the day from KB Toys (he was actually defective and had to have his electronics repaired by my dad and granddad).  My brother Christian was a huge fan, though, and I fondly remember him carrying his Marvel Universe figure everywhere with him back in the day.  That Galactus was, of course, bigger than my Galactus, so it goes without saying that I needed to one-up him.  Right?  Right.  This figure still took just a touch more convincing than the Sentinel, but honestly not by much.  I backed him pretty early into the campaign, before we even knew about the extra figures.  He’s a lot of fun, and so are all the extras.  This one’s certainly going to be hard to top.

As with the Sentinel, I got this guy directly through Hasbro.  However, I’d still like to give a shout out to my sponsors at All Time Toys, who again allowed me use of the back room photo tent so that I could actually get proper pictures of this guy for the review.  It definitely wouldn’t have gone nearly as smoothly without that.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#3222: Firelord

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

FIRELORD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Galactus transforms Xandarian naval officer Pryreus Kril into his newest Herald, the unwavering Firelord!”

How about a little fire!?!  No?  No on the fire?  Yeah, that’s probably fair.  Hear me out, though: what if it’s not *just* fire?  What if there’s inexplicably a “lord” attached to that?  Does that change things up enough?  I mean, it does for me.  And it’s my site.  So, I make the rules.  And I’m looking at Firelord.  It’s been a shockingly short span of time since my last Firelord review, which was just back in May of this year.  Two Firelords in one year.  I don’t know if that’s, strictly speaking, legal.  But, I’m willing to give it a try.  I actually did a respectable job of giving that character’s background in that review’s intro, allowing me to go all meta on this one, and then just sort of jump right into the review.  Onto the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Firelord is a Fan Channel-exclusive standalone offering for the Retro sub-set of Marvel Legends.  He’s a continuation of the retro FF-style packaging from last year, and also clearly meant to tie-in with the arrival of the Galactus HasLab figure (which I’m hoping to review shortly). This marks Firelord’s third time in figure form, following the original Toy Biz and the Minimate.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Firelord is built on the 2099 body, which seems a pretty suitable base for the character.  It’s the same one that was used for the last Silver Surfer, and while I had my reservations about that choice at the time, I’ve warmed up to it over the years since its release.  With a second Herald on the base, it feels more unifying, and it’s honestly a solid match for how he tends to be portrayed.  He gets a brand-new head sculpt (courtesy of sculptor Paul Harding), which is quite an impressive piece; it’s an impressive update of the stylings of the original Toy Biz figure, while also serving to capture his appearance in the comics.  It’s got an appropriately ’70s vibe, and I’m impressed by the flow of his fiery hair.  The color work on this figure is largely on the basic side, at least as far as the “costume” is concerned.  The head gets some slightly more involved work, with transparent plastic for the hair (so it looks really cool when backlit), as well as just a little bit of printing to give the eyes just a little more life.  Firelord is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and gripping, as well as his flaming staff.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The old ’90s figure, coupled with his appearance in Uncanny Origins, which I got not long after, gave me a serious soft-spot for Firelord.  When he wasn’t amongst the Heralds revealed alongside Galactus, I was hopeful that meant he might be getting a standard release.  This guy’s pretty much exactly what I was expecting, and I’m honestly very happy about that!

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.

#3204: Spider-Man & Spinneret

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

SPIDER-MAN & SPINNERET

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Peter and Mary-Jane Parker are partners in marriage and crime-fighting as Spider-Man and Spinneret!”

With the character’s 60th anniversary upon us, now’s as good a time as any to really look into the history of Spidey and his supporting cast.  In 1987, Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson officially tied the knot in not one, not two, but three different venues, which included the mainstream Marvel universe in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21, the Spider-Man newspaper strip, and even a live performance of the marriage held at Shea Stadium and officiated by Stan Lee himself.  Within the main universe, the marriage lasted 20 years, before Joe Quesada, during his absolutely wonderful and not at all the worst thing ever run as Editor-in-Chief at Marvel, decided he didn’t think people could relate to a Spider-Man who was married.  Because, apparently people had been not relating to Spidey for the last two decades at that point.  Obviously, the solution to this issue of relatability was to have Peter and Mary-Jane sell their marriage to the literal Devil in what has got to be the most convoluted sequence of events ever crafted in order to end a marriage.  Very relatable.  “One More Day” went over about as well as a lead balloon at the time of its publication, so there have been plenty of attempts at circumventing its effects.  During 2015’s Secret Wars crossover, Dan Slott and Adam Kubert helmed a limited series exploring a world where Peter and MJ had never sold their marriage to the literal Devil, called “Renew Your Vows.”  The story was generally seen as a good thing, and has spawned itself its own two-pack, Spidey and Spinneret, which I’ll be taking a look at today!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Spider-Man and Spinneret are one of the pair of two-packs in the “Spider-Man 60th Anniversary” sub-line of Marvel Legends.  The pack is officially branded “Renew Your Vows” after the story that spawned it.

SPIDER-MAN

There has been no shortage of standard Spider-Man variants in Legends, but Hasbro is intent on continuing to improve their standard issue Spider-Man wherever they can.  Just under the current run of Legends, we got Pizza Spidey in 2015, and the Retro Spidey in 2020, and now, there’s a whole new one.  Well, I say “whole new,” but that’s not entirely accurate.  I’ll get to that.  The figure stands just over 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 38 points of articulation.  Yesterday, I spend a good portion of my review of discussing how impressive the Amazing Fantasy Spidey’s articulation is.  Today’s Spidey is…well, he’s different.  A lot of it comes down to how this guy is built.  While AF Spidey is an all-new sculpt from the ground up, Renew Spidey is sort of retrofitting older parts into a modern set-up.  He’s taking a lot from the Retro Spidey from 2020, a figure that was himself slightly hindered by his reliance on pieces from the ANAD 2099 figure.  In order to make up for that figure’s older pieces, this one replaces or at the very least alters a few more pieces to modernize things just a bit.  The arms and legs are now adjusted to feature the pinless construction on the elbows and knees, which was a major issue with the last release, since he literally *just* missed the implementation of that feature.  This figure also gets a new set of feet, which see the return of toe articulation, something that was once a staple, but has been absent from Legends since shortly after Hasbro took over the license.  Admittedly, I tended to find the toe articulation overused, but on Spidey it does make a degree more sense.  It’s all topped off with a head that looks like it might be a re-use of the Pizza Spidey head, but there’s enough slight change-up of the width of the jaw that I’m not sure if it’s actually new or if that’s just a slight variation in the mold over time.  Whatever the case, it’s a more current looking Spidey head than the one that was on the retro release.  The whole set-up on the mold is a little bit piecemeal, but it’s greater than the sum of its parts.  The articulation gets the job done, and he ultimately gets a similar range of motion to the AF Spidey.  There are definitely some areas where one articulation set-up is compensating for another, so it’s not as fluid in its motion as the other figure.  Still, it’s not a bad set-up.  The figure’s paint work is generally pretty good.  The palette is a little darker than the Retro Spidey, which fits well with the particular storyline the figure’s adapting.  Spidey is packed with an unmasked head and three sets of hands (in fists, thwipping, and open gesture).  The unmasked head is the same one we’ve seen a few times, though this time with the face printing, which is honestly a notable improvement.

SPINNERET

Within the original run of Renew Your Vows, MJ is still doing the civilian thing, but when it was continued as an ongoing book under veteran Spidey scribe Gerry Conway, he gave MJ her own super hero identity as Spinneret.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and it has 29 points of articulation.  MJ winds up as about as much of a patchwork job as her husband, which is appropriate, I suppose.  She starts with the AoA Rogue-modified version of the Polaris-modified version of the Phoenix torso, which translates to her having two separate ports on her back that don’t actually do anything for this release.  She’s then got the upgraded pinless-style arms and legs from Shriek, an all-new head, and a pair of add-ons for the cuffs on her ankles.  I’m not super thrilled by the extra ports on the back, but otherwise it’s a body with a decent set of proportions and a really nice range of motion.  The new head does a solid job of recreating her masked look from the comics, and manages to do a not so terrible job of a teeth baring grin that doesn’t look frightening or goofy.  Spinneret’s paint work is pretty decent.  I dig the rather unique color scheme, and the paint on the face in particular, which is using the face printing.  The figure’s packed with an unmasked head (the same one included with the Retro Gwen Stacy figure) and three sets of hands (fists, thwipping, and open gesture).  As with the Peter head, MJ gets the face printing, which is again a marked improvement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was on the fence with this set.  I enjoy the storyline and all, but it’s a pricey set, and I’d not really been wowed by the Retro Spider-Man in his first release.  That said, once this set was in front of me, it was harder to turn down, especially when I suddenly found myself getting another item for a lot cheaper than I’d expected, so I had some extra cash to justify it.  Spidey is definitely a bit of a Frankenstein, but it ultimately works out better than I’d expected.  He’s the slightest bit undercut by how well the AF Spidey turned out, but they serve different purposes and they serve them well.  Spinneret isn’t the main draw of the set, but she’s still a really solid figure, and rounds out the pack really nicely.

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.