Tag Archives: Marvel Legends

#2464: Jean Grey

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

JEAN GREY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Jean Grey can read and project thoughts and stun opponents with pure psionic force.”

25 years ago, the X-Men went to hell…no, wait, sorry, 31 years ago the X-Men went to Hell.  25 years ago, their entire line was overwritten by an alternate reality, the Age of Apocalypse, where Charles Xavier died before founding the X-Men, leading to Apocalypse conquering the Earth, and generally making it…post…apocalyptic….yeah.  While not high art, the story was certainly a big splash from a marketing stand point, and made a lasting impression on a good number of X-fans.  Every so often, toy companies throw it a little bit of love, and in honor of the its quarter-century marker, Hasbro’s dedicated a whole assortment of Marvel Legends to it.  I’m kicking things off with a look at Jean Grey!  While many characters were left in strange new predicaments in the AoA timeline, Jean wound up being more or less the same, though she did have a lot less hair and 100% more face tattoos.  Yay for face tattos!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jean Grey is figure 1 in the Sugar Man Series of Marvel Legends, which is our first X-Men assortment of the year, as well as being totally AoA-themed.  This is our first official AoA Jean Grey Legend, but we were supposed to get one as a variant of the Jim Lee-style Jean in the Rocket Raccoon Series of Return of Marvel Legends.  That figure was ultimately scrapped, and would have been based on one of her post-event redesigns, however.  This one goes for her look from the main series, which is probably for the best.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Jean’s actually made largely from new parts, at least for her upper half, anyway; the legs originally showed up on the Legendary Riders Black Widow.  Everything else, however is new to Jean.  What impresses me the most on the new parts is the range of motion, especially on those arms.  I was expecting her to be a lot more restricted.  The actual quality of the sculpting is pretty solid, too.  The wrinkles and folds on her sleeves are quite impressive.  Her hair might actually be a touch too short, but it varied between artists, and it certainly doesn’t look too terribly off.  It could definitely be much worse.  The paint work on Jean is pretty standard overall.  The base application is mostly pretty clean, but some of the red’s coverage is a little uneven.  She’s got some slight highlights in her hair, which work pretty well to convey the depth and detail in the sculpt.  Jean doesn’t get any accessories for herself, but she does get the largest piece of Sugar Man, his face and torso, which is so large that Jean effectively had to be posed Vana White-ing it in the box so that they could both fit in.  That was pretty amusing, truth be told.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Jean’s AoA incarnation isn’t one of the more exciting pieces of the story, but it’s got a distinctive look, and is prominent enough that she really was a lock for this set.  She wasn’t at the top of my list for this series, but she wasn’t at the bottom either.  In-hand, I like her a fair bit more than I’d expected to.  She’s still not my favorite piece, but I think she’s solid middle-tier, and that’s not bad at all.

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

#2445: Abomination

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

ABOMINATION

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Emil Blonsky wanted the power of the Hulk, so he subjected himself to massive gamma radiation bursts, becoming a super-strong monster.”

Remember that “Brains vs Brawn” dynamic I was talking about in my Leader review?  Well, sometimes it gets dropped in favor of the slightly more parallel “Brawn vs Brawn.”  That’s really the dynamic of Banner’s second best known foe, the Abomination.  While not quite as much of the dumb bruiser of the original green Hulk, Blonsky’s still more brawn than brains, meaning his face offs tend to turn into more straight forward slug fests.  It does make him a solid opponent from the angle of selling toys, though, which is probably why he’s had more toys than the Leader.  He just got one more, and I’m taking a look at it today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Abomination is the titular Build-A-Figure for Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  Fitting the Gamerverse-theme of the set, he’s based on the character’s appearance in the upcoming Avengers game.  It’s a slight merging of his classic comics design and his film appearance, which is a pretty sensible choice, and probably works out a little better here than on some of the core team.  I’m still not entirely sold on the head design myself, but I’ve certainly seen worse (and, as a fun bonus, the prior, more comic styled Abomination BaF head looks pretty decent swapped onto this body).  I at the very least prefer this look to a full-on MCU adaptation.  The figure’s a pretty sizable guy, standing a little over 8 inches tall.  He’s got 30 points of articulation, which is pretty impressive for such a hefty build.  Essentially, he uses the same articulation scheme as the 80th Hulk, which was a pretty solid, very useful set-up, and it means that these two have an easy time facing off.  While initially I thought Abomination was making use of some of the prior BaF’s parts, there don’t appear to be any pieces shared between the two figures in the final product.  The sculpt is a pretty strong one overall.  It seems to stick pretty close to the game design, at least from the limited shots we’ve seen so far.  The head is at the very least accurate, and the body is designed to match it well.  I like some of the smaller touches, such as the unbuckled belt on what remains of his pants.  The articulation is well implemented, and not nearly as restricted as prior Abomination Legends releases, but without breaking up the flow of things too terribly.  The paintwork on this guy is decent, though not quite as cool as some of the singles in the series.  I like how the subtle changes in coloring on the skin turned out, but there are a lot of sculpted details that go unpainted, which is a real shame.  Abomination doesn’t get any accessories, but given the sheer size of this guy, that’s really okay.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Much like Leader, I don’t have an overwhelming attachment to Abomination as a character.  I mean, I like him maybe a *little* more, because he makes for a little more of an exciting figure most of the time.  The prior BaF hit at a time when I wasn’t really financial viable enough to be buying full assortments for the BaFs.  I was hoping to get another stab at it, and this figure gave me a nice chance at that.  While it’s maybe not my 100% preferred version of the character, the ability to use the prior head really makes this figure work for me.

As a whole, this will probably end up as this year’s most middling line-up of Legends.  While some of the figures contained within it aren’t the most exciting, nothing here is particularly bad, either.  Mar-Vell and Mach-I rank as my personal favorites, but the rest of the bunch is at the very least serviceable, and there are some decent toys throughout.

#2444: Ms Marvel

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

MS. MARVEL — GAMERVERSE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Whip-smart with an optimistic personality, Kamala Khan is determined to combat injustice wherever she finds it.”

In 2014, after deciding to give Carol Danvers a promotion to Captain, Marvel was in need of a new hero to take on the mantle of Ms. Marvel.  They found her in the form of Kamala Khan, a Terrigen Mist-empowered Pakistani-American teenager with shapeshifting abilities.  She was a pretty solid addition to the Marvel roster pretty much from the word go, and has hung on to a decent fanbase since her introduction.  She made the jump to multimedia in 2017 as part of the Avengers Assemble cartoon, and is now going one step further, featuring as one of the playable characters in the upcoming Avengers game.  She had already gotten the Legends treatment once before, but now she’s getting a second go.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ms. Marvel is the final single-packed figure in the Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s the third figure based on the Avengers game, though with how faithful the design is to the comics, she makes for a good middle-ground figure.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  Structurally, she’s mostly the same figure as her first release.  It was a pretty solid offering the first time around, and it’s still a pretty strong sculpt this time around.  The only change-up is to the boots, which are now Nico’s laced-style boots.  It’s a nice change, and I think it makes for an improvement to the overall sculpt.  The figure makes its biggest changes in the paint department.  While the original release was a more bold, comic accurate color scheme, this one is a little more subtle for the most part.  There aren’t any changes to the overall layout, and the general aesthetic is pretty much the same, though.  She does get the face printing in place of how the original was handled, which looks a little bit more realistic, and better fits her in with the game stuff.  I also really like the slightly lighter blue of this design, though I’m not sure how much I like the more washed out gold.  Ms. Marvel is packed with the same set of stretched arms as her original release (updated to the new color scheme), as well as the torso to the Abomination Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I already have the first Ms Marvel figure, and I was pretty happy with it, so I didn’t really feel like I *needed* this figure.  That said, I’m not turning away much Legends these days, so she was getting added to the collection regardless.  I didn’t expect much from this figure, but I think she’s an overall improvement to the original.  If you already have the original, this one’s not necessary, but if you’re just looking to pick up one version, this is definitely the way to go.  I really can’t blame Hasbro for wanting to make sure this character remains easily available.

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

#2443: Iron Man

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

IRON MAN — GAMERVERSE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Tony Stark developed his cutting-edge Iron Man armor and helped found the Avengers to protect the world against catastrophic threats.”

As the MCU moves away from the two of them, the Marvel Legends line has to find new ways to keep new variants of heavy hitters like Iron Man and Captain America coming out.  Fortunately, the two of them are still pretty pivotal to the upcoming Avengers game from Square Enix, thereby guaranteeing the two of them another couple of easy-sell variants.  I took a look at the Captain America yesterday, and I’ll be following that up with the Iron Man figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iron Man is the second of the three game-inspired single-packed figures in the Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  He was actually the first of these figures we saw, before we knew there’d be a full assortment of figures to go with him, back in the fall of last year. He’s again based on the character’s standard design from the game.  While Cap’s design took quite a few more artistic liberties with its implementation, the Iron Man design by and large sticks pretty close to the MCU Iron Man playbook.  It’s a little more streamlined most places, except for some reason the helmet, which is where the majority of the changes happen.  The figure stands just over 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  The movement on this guy is a little stiff, even for an Iron Man figure, with the shoulders in particular being rather difficult to work with.  Also, the decision to give him a torso crunch, instead of the ball-jointed style we’ve gotten with the last several movie Iron Men is rather baffling, especially given that the design has a clear spot for such a joint to be included, but Hasbro still opted for a far more limiting method.  He does at least get to keep the full wrist joints on his arms this time, so it’s not all bad decisions.  This Iron Man is sporting an all-new sculpt, which looks to be fairly faithful to the game.  It’s not bad, and is about on par with the various MCU sculpts in terms of quality and feel.  While I thought Cap’s design translated pretty nicely to toy form, I don’t think that’s quite true with Iron Man, or at the very least his helmet.  It looks fine in the game animation I’ve seen, but I really don’t care for it in toy form.  I think it’s how closely it contours to his face; that visible nose really seems odd for Iron Man, and it ends up making him look fairly alien, which I don’t think was the intended feel.  Other than that, though, the body on this figure does look pretty cool, and the detailing is all pretty sharp.  The paint work is pretty standard Iron Man fare.  The red is molded in that sort of swirly metallic plastic, and everything else is painted.  The application’s pretty clean overall, but there are a few spots of bleed over here and there.  The arc reactor uses the printing technique we’ve been seeing on the faces to give it some more variation, which looks pretty decent overall.  Iron Man is packed with two sets of hands (one in fists, the other in repulser blast pose), two effects pieces, and the left leg to the Abomination Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this figure was first shown off, I really didn’t have much interest.  We’d just gotten the Mark 85, with is really everything I want in a real-world Iron Man figure, and it looked like this guy might be another one-off release like Spider-Man was, so I was content to pass.  Once he was part of a full assortment, the story changed a bit.  Ultimately, I wasn’t expecting much out of this figure, and that’s for the best.  He’s not bad, but I think the 85 or even the Tenth Anniversary Mk VII are stronger modern Iron Men than this one.  He’s kind of a middling figure for me.

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

#2442: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — GAMERVERSE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Injected with an experimental Super-Soldier Serum, Steve Rogers has the peak potential of strength, endurance, and dexterity.”

Alright, I took a bit of a break for the weekend, but let’s jump right back in to Marvel Legends, shall we?  I looked at the comics-based half of the most recent Avengers set last week, so now I’m jumping into the video-game-based segment, all of which hail from Square Enix’s Avengers game, originally due out this May, but recently delayed until September.  I’m kicking things off with the game’s altered take on Captain America!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is the first of the three Gamerverse-specific figures in the Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s based on Cap’s standard design from the game.  All of the core team designs have been fairly highly criticized, and Cap’s probably got the worst of it, with the general consensus being that it looks a little bit low-rent cosplay for a Cap design, especially in contrast to the MCU’s far better recieved “real world” adaptations of his classic comics get-up.  I don’t hate it quite as much as others, but I definitely have my qualms with a few of the design choices.  Still, it’s not the worst choice for toy coverage.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Cap’s sporting a brand-new sculpt to replicate the game design.  It’s a pretty spot-on recreation of the models we’ve seen so far, for better or for worse.  It honestly benefits a bit from being seen in three dimensions, as the depth to the various parts of the costume is a little better viewed this way.  Some of the iffier design choices, such as the larger head wings, also look a little less odd here.  His face does seem maybe a touch square, and his hands seem a little small by my metrics, but I do generally like the look of this figure, and Hasbro certainly took advantage of the extra costume details to help keep the sculpt interesting.  The paintwork on this guy is pretty decent, with a little bit of a caveat.  There’s nothing wrong with it from a technical standpoint.  The application is all pretty clean, and they even used the face printing to make him a little more lifelike.  He’s an accurate recreation of the colors from the game.  There in lies the problem.  While the design looks better on the figure from a sculpting standpoint, the colors don’t translate so well.  They’re really just too muted, and I’m not super crazy about some of the color placement.  In particular, I think he’d look better if the white on the shoulders and the blue on the biceps were swapped, and if he had more red overall on the costume.  As it stands, he looks a bit more like an adaptation of Cap’s Secret War costume, rather than his more classic gear.  Cap is a bit light on the accessories front, with just his shield.  It’s an all-new sculpt, representing the slightly tweaked design from the game.  While it’s not a bad design in its own right, it doesn’t stay on his arm very securely, which is a little frustrating, but it does at least plug into his back without any trouble.  Not giving Cap one of the BaF parts is okay, but it’s a shame he didn’t at least get some extra hands or maybe an unmasked head to help fill out the package a little bit more.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I wasn’t immediately won over by this design, I don’t think it’s the worst thing ever, and I’m a sucker for a decent Captain America, so I was certainly interested in this guy from the get-go.  He wasn’t as high on my list as, say Mar-Vell, but I was a little excited.  Ultimately, he’s not going to win everyone over, but I do think he makes for a really solid Captain America figure, and I think he’s going to look pretty cool alongside Hasbro’s new G.I. Joe line.

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

#2439: Leader

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

LEADER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Gamma radiation turned Samuel Sterns into the hyper-intelligent menace, the Marvel’s Leader.”

Brains vs Brawn is a fairly common trope when it comes to super hero comics, so it’s not a huge surprise that Hulk, kind of the ultimate “brawn” character frequent finds himself facing off against equivalent “brains” villains.  Probably the best example of this is Samuel Sterns, aka The Leader, a character whose story is a pretty clean inversion of Banner, with a gamma radiation-induced mutation that takes him from a man of average intelligence and makes him a super genius.  Well, now he’s a super genius with a new Marvel Legend.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Leader is the last of the comics-based figures in the Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Sterns’ second time getting the Legends treatment, but the last time was under the Toy Biz banner, so it’s been a while.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Leader is built on the Reed Richards variant of the Pizza Spidey body, a fairly reasonable choice of body given how Sterns is usually depicted.  It does have the unintended play feature of removable arms, which makes for some entertaining posing options with other figures.  Leader gets a new head, harness, and belt piece to round out his classic design.  The head’s definitely the best piece, and makes for a solid rendition of that ’70s/’80s pre-further mutation head.  It’s non *quite* as classic as the Toy Biz variant was, but it’s a nice middle ground.  It feels really appropriate for the character.  The paintwork on Leader is pretty bright and eye-catching…though why a green guy decided that orange and yellow were his best options is really anyone’s guess.  The head is again the best work, as they even put some slight shading under his eyes, which really helps them pop, and pushes that whole villain thing a little bit more.  Leader gets no character-specific extras, but he does get the right leg of the Abomination BaF, which is at least a pretty sizable piece, so he doesn’t feel too light.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Leader is one of those characters that I’ve never found a need to own in figure form, so I actually haven’t before this point.  But, since I’m more or less going all in on this Legends stuff, I guess it’s as good a time as any to add him.  There’s not a ton of new going on with this figure, but he’s another solid formula figure from Hasbro, and a good way to add another character to the Hulk’s rogues roster.

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

#2438: Marvel’s Rage

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

MARVEL’S RAGE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Accidental exposure to toxic chemicals as a young man gave Elvin Haliday superhuman powers.”

Okay, I’m gonna be real with you all, I’m going into some uncharted territory here.  Not because of the Marvel Legends thing; I can write these reviews in my sleep.  I’m just doing something I really never fathomed: reviewing a second Rage figure.  I even noted in my last Rage review that I expected him to be the only one we’d ever get.  Now there’s a second one.  What a world we live in.  Well, guess I’ll do the unthinkable and review another Rage figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Marvel’s Rage, as this figure is rather humorously named, is the third of the four comics-based figures in the Gamerverse-centered Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  Like the smaller figure, this guy’s based on Rage’s original costume, which is honestly his best and most distinctive, so that seems pretty sensible.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Rage is built on the Hyperion body, with the new lower legs from Crossbones, plus a new head, and add-ons for his wrist bands, vest, and belt.  The new pieces are all nice enough.  The mask is actually a separate piece from the head, and can be removed if you’re determined, though the underlying head isn’t designed to be looked at; it’s honestly a little frightening.  The other add-ons have some nice, sharp texture work going on, especially the vest (which, incidentally, helps to hide that unpleasant looking torso shelf of the Hyperion mold).  Rage’s paint work is all pretty solid stuff.  Mostly it’s pretty straight forward, but there are some nice smaller touches, such as actually painting his visible gums, and even giving him his chest hair.  There’s definitely some nice attention to detail going on there.  Rage doesn’t include any of his own accessories, but he does get the right arm of the new Abomination Build-A-Figure.  Honestly, I don’t know what else you would give Rage anyway.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rage is one of those characters I’ve always been aware of, but not one I’ve ever formed a major attachment to.  Finding out he was in this assortment was more of a surprise due to the unlikeliness than anything else.  I’m not sure what to really say about him.  I guess it’s nice to get another New Warrior, and he’s a decent enough by-the-numbers figure, but by-and-large the figure just fills me with apathy.  Oh, sorry, *Marvel’s* Apathy.

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

#2437: Mach-I

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

MACH-I

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Abner Jenkins suits up in his Mobile Armored Cyber Harness as Mach-I.”

For the second time in modern Legends, Abner Jenkins is coming in here with a “finally” figure.  We’ve had a surprising number of figures of this guy, most of them under his former Beetle moniker.  It took us four different Beetle figures to finally get Abner’s classic Beetle armor.  His later heroic identity of Mach-I has been teased at as a repaint of an existing Beetle twice before, but is only just now coming to fruition.  Better late than never, right?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mach-I is another of the comics-based figures in the Gamerverse-inspired Abomination Series of Marvel Legends.  He marks our third yearly addition to the founding Thunderbolts line-up, following Songbird and Citzen V.  One of Abner’s gimmicks as a hero was his knack for constantly upgrading his suit, each time dubbing it with a new number at the end of the Mach name.  This figure wisely opts for his earliest design, from when the team first showed up.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  As had been theorized ever since the original figure was released, Mach-I is largely a re-working of the Ultimate Beetle figure, with a more standard set of hands and feet, and a new head and upper torso.  There are definite similarities between Ultimate Beetle and Mach-I (they were designed by the same artist, after all), so the re-use is a sensible one.  The mold’s not quite as slick these days as it was when it was new, but it’s still not terrible.  Replacing the feet makes sense, but I will admit the standard hands are a little odd.  They clearly aren’t gloved and the choice to go with the gripping hands makes little sense, given he’s got nothing to hold.  Not sure why they didn’t just keep the Beetle hands, honestly.  The new parts are decent enough overall, though not without one slight set-back.  For some reason, his shoulder pads are just permanently attached at that very slight angle.  Typically such things are articulated, but that’s not the case for Mach-I.  It’s an odd choice.  The paint work on Mach-I is pretty solid overall.  The varied shades of blue are a lot of fun, and I dig the overall metallic sheen on this guy.  Mach-I has no accessories specifically for him, but he gets the head for the Build-A-Figure Abomination.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been anticipating this figure ever since the Ultimate Beetle figure first hit, and he’s only become more obvious an inclusion as we’ve gotten more Thunderbolts members.  I don’t know that I personally *needed* this figure, but he’s a cool enough design.  Ultimately, he does feel ever so slightly behind the times, like he was a figure that Hasbro had ready to go fairly shortly after Beetle’s release, but kept shelving.  Had he hit a year or two ago, he’d have fit right in, but right now he’s out of place.  He’s still not a bad figure, of course, and he looks great with the team we’ve gotten so far.  I look forward to building more of this set!

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

#2436: Mar-Vell

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

MAR-VELL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The powers of flight, superhuman strength and stamina make Mar-Vell a celebrated warrior.”

First introduced in 1967, Kree captain Mar-Vell took on the moniker of “Captain Marvel” pretty much exclusively so that Marvel could lay claim to the name, which Fawcett Comics had lost control of years prior.  He was a modestly developed character, and helped to really launch the cosmic side of Marvel’s comics line.  Perhaps most notably, however, the character faced his own mortality and eventual death in Jim Starlin’s Death of Captain Marvel, and has subsequently remained one of the few comics characters to truly stay dead (though many writers have found ways to bring Mar-Vell back under very specific circumstances that wouldn’t keep him back long-term).  Mar-Vell found his way into Legends form during the Toy Biz days, but hasn’t seen a release since, even with all of his successors accounted for.  Fortunately, that’s changed.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mar-Vell is part of the Gamerverse-oriented Abomination Series of Marvel Legends, which is one of this year’s Avengers assortments.  He’s officially only called “Mar-Vell” on the box, no doubt to avoid any brand confusion as Marvel continues to push Carol as the true Captain Marvel.  Honestly, I don’t think it matters all that much, so it’s cool by me.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Mar-Vell is built on the Spider-UK body, with the Nega Bands from last year’s Genis-Vell, and a brand new head.  The body is a good match for how Mar-Vell was classically depicted, and is just one of my favorites of Hasbro’s current stock.  The only downside is that the Nega Bands, which were sized to the Reaper body, are kinda loose on this guy.  I’m planning to stick something in there to help them stay in place a bit better, but it’s a little bit frustrating.  I do quite like the new head sculpt, which captures Mar-Vell’s rather ’70s ‘do pretty darn well, and gives us a nice, clean-cut hero look on the face.  Mar-Vell’s paint work is fairly decent overall.  The metallic blue looks really slick, and the application is generally all pretty clean.  There are a few fuzzy spots on some of the transitions on mine, but nothing too noticeable.  Mar-Vell doesn’t get any accessories of his own, which is too bad.  A couple of effects pieces would have been fun.  He does get the right arm to the Abomination Build-A-Figure, though, which is a pretty sizable piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Toy Biz Mar-Vell is definitely one of my favorites of that era, but he was starting to show his age.  If there was one thing I regretted not seeing in last year’s Captain Marvel-centric assortment, it was a proper classic Mar-Vell update.  I was very happy to see this guy crop up here, and he was definitely my most anticipated of the set.  He’s a fairly basic figure, but he’s a solid update to the prior version, and a great addition to my ranks of Captains Marvel.

Mar-Vell was purchased from my friends at All Time Toys.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#2431: Crimson Dynamo

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

CRIMSON DYNAMO

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Hey, remember how I mentioned Black Widow needing to borrow some foes from Iron Man?  Well, she did it again.  It’s okay, there’s more connective tissue this time.  When it comes to Iron Man foes, it’s a bit tricky for them to really stick.  I mean, how do you manage to become the arch enemy of a guy who’s actually just his own arch enemy?  The spot’s pretty much permanently taken!  There have, nevertheless, been a few characters that have hung on for a bit, including one of his two Soviet counterparts, the Crimson Dynamo.  Dynamo’s a pretty early addition to Stark’s rogue’s gallery, and the original Dynamo is definitely interwoven with Black Widow, who was still a villain at the time.  Of course, there’s been twelve different people in the armor since then…yeah, there are a lot of Crimson Dynamos.  It makes getting decent toys a little tricky, because, honestly, where do you start?  Well, let’s start here, I guess.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Crimson Dynamo is the Build-A-Figure for the titular Crimson Dynamo Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Dynamo’s first time as an official Legends release.  He was originally slated to be part of Toy Biz’s Series 13 “Bring on the Bad Guys” line-up, but was dropped before they went to prototype.  The Valentin Shatalov did get a 6-inch release in the Iron Man: Armored Avenger line that ran briefly after Iron Man 2, but proper Legends was on hiatus at the time.  Now we’ve actually got one.  I know.  It’s a pretty big deal.  There have been 13 different Dynamos over the years, so there are plenty of designs to choose from.  Hasbro opted for the Gennady Gravilov version of the character, which was introduced in the early ’00s Epic Comics miniseries based on the character.  While it doesn’t quite have the staying power of Dmitri Bukharin’s more classic armor, it’s honestly not a bad design at all, and it’s at least one that got a little bit of dedicated focus in the miniseries.  It’s also a slightly more natural fit for a Build-A-Figure.  The figure stands 8 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  There’s a little bit of re-use here: he’s got the legs from the Iron Monger/Mandroid Build-A-Figure.  While not a perfect match for the armor design in the comics, they’re close enough to work, and flow pretty well with the rest of the sculpt stylistically.  The design of the articulation scheme is also really great, so I can’t fault Hasbro for wanting to use them again.  The rest of the sculpt is all-new, and it’s quite impressive at that.  It translates the comics design quite nicely into three dimensions, and there’s a lot of really fun little detail work mixed in.  The slight cracking on various pieces of the armor, the texturing on the upper armor, and the rivets all throughout really give this thing a lived-in appearance.  It’s not a sleek, top-of-the-line Stark design; this thing is built for functionality over appearance.  I was also impressed by how well they worked in the articulation.  I liked the Mandroid a fair bit, but it was a little restricted in its movement, at least on its top half.  This guy, on the other hand, is surprisingly poseable.  He’s also incredibly stable, which I’m all about.  The paintwork on Dynamo is mostly pretty basic.  A lot of the color work is just molded colors.  It’s all pretty clean, and replicates the comic colors well enough.  I really like the clear plastic for the vials on his wrists; it adds some dimension to the figure.  There aren’t any accessories for Dynamo himself, but given the size of this guy, that’s pretty easily excused.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really like Crimson Dynamo.  I’d go so far as to say he’s probably my favorite Iron Man foe (although I also quite like Titanium Man).  Perhaps my biggest problem with Iron Man 2 was not getting a proper Crimson Dynamo out of it.  I’ve been waiting for a good Dynamo in Legends form for a while, and I was definitely happy to see him crop up here.  Yeah, I still really want the Dmitri Bukharin armor at some point, but this is a really good design, too, and this figure is an early contender for my favorite Build-A-Figure this year.  He’s really solid, and I really like him.

With the movie being pushed back, I think this assortment is one that people might overlook, and that’s actually kind of too bad.  Crimson Dynamo is the definite star for me, and building him was honestly enough to get me on board, but upon completing the set, I find myself enjoying pretty much the whole thing.  The movie figures are all really solid (even if Red Guardian’s not quite screen-accurate), Winter Soldier’s a fantastic solo release, and Crossbones is a good clean update of a pretty important character.  Only Spymaster’s really a drag, and even then, he’s not a *terrible* figure.  I expected very little from this set, but I’m actually really happy with the final product.