Tag Archives: Marvel Legends

#1666: Malekith

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

MALEKITH

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The ruler of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim, Malekith the Accursed uses dark magic to bring vengeful destruction to  the universe.”

Oh hey, look, it’s—*snore*….Wuzzat?  Oh, must have dozed off for a second there. Sorry, this happens when I have to talk about *yawn* Malekith.  He’s sort of a walking snoozefest.  Okay, that’s not entirely fair.  He’s a walking snoozefest in The Dark World.  This here isn’t movie Malekith, it’s comic Malekith, who is at least slightly more interesting, even if he is just sort of Loki-lite.  At the very least, his design is far more exciting, and thereby more ripe for translation into an action figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Malekith is the second of the two comics-based figures in the Cull Obsidian Series of Marvel Legends.  This figure is actually just a slight tweak on the Malekith included in the SDCC 2017-exclusive Thor set.  The ease of creating this figure is probably what got him the slot, since this is otherwise a pretty new-tooling-heavy assortment.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Malekith’s build on the Reaper body, which seems appropriate, given the overall larger stature of most of the Thor-themed characters.  He uses the bracer-sporting forearms first introduced on Namor, which follow Malekith’s comics design pretty well.  He’s also got a brand-new head, plus add-ons for his collar/shoulder pads, his skirt, and his belt.  The head’s actually a pretty nice piece.  The main head and the hair are separate pieces, allowing for some more depth, and there’s a great mad grin on his face, which feels right for the character.  The hair’s a bit restrictive, but otherwise looks pretty nice.  The new add-on pieces fit pretty well on the body, and help to differentiate him from all the others on this same base body.  The collar is a little floaty, but the hair helps to keep it in place most of the time.  The pleated nature of the skirt means that hip movement is thankfully left mostly un-hindered, which is a plus with designs like this.  Malekith’s main change from the SDCC release is paint.  The SDCC release was a darker, black and red combo, based on more recent appearances, whereas this figure opts for his classic more predominately red design.  The differences between the two are incredibly minor, just like last year’s Enchantress.  It’ll mostly come down to personal preference.  Malekith is packed with a big blade, which his hooked at one end, and serrated down one side.  It’s doing a lot of damage is what I’m getting at here.  He also includes the arm of the Build-A-Figure Cull Obsidian.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I mostly just got Malekith because I wanted to complete Cull Obsidian, so I didn’t have any real expectations of him.  I’m actually pretty happy with him in the end.  Sure, he’s not gonna wow me like Black Knight, but I chalk that up to not really being that much of a fan of the character.

Malekith was purchased from my sponsors over at All Time Toys.  You can visit them in person on Main Street in Ellicott City, MD, or you can view their sizable online catalogue via their online store or their eBay store front!

#1665: Black Knight

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

BLACK KNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“An expert horseman and superior swordsman, Black Knight has a checkered history as a powerful combatant with no clear allegiance.”

“No clear allegiance”?  Are we all talking about the same Black Knight here?  Because this is supposed to be a Dane Whitman figure, and apart from a case of mistaken identity early into his first appearance, he’s been pretty firmly allied with the side of good for his 50 year-career.  <sigh> I’m critiquing the bio again, aren’t I?  I really gotta stop doing that.

Black Knight’s a character that doesn’t get lots of toys.  I’d chalk that up to him being relatively minor, though he does have a pretty solid fan-following.  To date, he’s had five figures, and I’ll be looking at the most recent of those today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Knight is one of the two comics-based figures headlining the Cull Obsidian-series of Marvel Legends.  He was actually the first figure we saw from the line-up, back in October.  This is Black Knight’s second Legends figure, but it’s been 11 years since the last one, and that one was never particularly good in the first place.  That one was also based on a more modern, and ultimately more forgettable design, while this one goes back to the classic appearance.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Black Knight is similar to the recently reviewed King Cobra, in that he’s *technically* built on the Bucky Cap base, but he uses mostly derivative parts of that.  He’s got the Bucky Cap pelvis and boots; that’s it.  Beyond that, he’s got the Hob/Green Goblin arms and legs, Dr. Strange’s torso, US Agent’s flared gloves, Zemo’s loincloth/belt, and Polaris’s cape.  This is the same construction that was used for the Raft boxed-set’s Dreadnought, which is what was expected.  It’s a good combo of parts, and, like with King Cobra, it shows how far you can get with just re-used parts.  In addition to all the re-used parts, Black Knight also gets three newly sculpted heads.  The first two are based on two variations of Dane’s helmet.  There’s a first appearance-based one with wings on the sides, as well as the more streamlined design that became his go-to later on.  Of the two, the winged one is my favorite, which surprised me a little, since I tend to like the streamlined look a bit more.  I think it’s partially to do with the facial expressions.  The streamlined design has a teeth-gritted, angry expression, while the winged one has a calmer look that I just prefer for the character.  If I had one minor complaint, it would be that the expressions can’t be swapped between the two helmets; I think that would add a lot to the figure.  The third head isn’t Dane, but is instead the fully-enclosed helmet of his Arthurian-era ancestor Sir Percy of Scandinavia.  Technically, it’d not a perfect match for the body, but it’s close enough to work, and it gets us an extra character.  The figure’s paintwork is pretty solid; it’s more subdued than what we saw on the Marvel Universe figure in terms of coloring, but it still works.  The application is mostly pretty clean, though I did notice a few small spots of slop.  My only real complaint is that his neck peg is molded in the dark blue plastic of his torso and helmet, so it sticks out against the otherwise silver neck.  It can be hidden with careful posing, but it’s still annoying.  In addition to having the two extra heads to swap out, Black Knight also includes his Ebony Blade, which is a unique sculpt (at least as far as I can tell).  He has a little trouble holding it in his right hand (since it was originally sculpted to hold a gun), but it’s not terrible, and it can also be stashed on his belt.  Black Knight also includes the leg of the Build-A-Figure Cull Obsidian, who I’ll be looking at later this week.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I enjoy Black Knight a lot as a character, and I’m always down for new figures.  His last Legends release was a disappointment, and contributed a bit to me falling out of collecting the line.  So, the announcement of this guy was definitely exciting for me.  I’ve been anxiously awaiting his release, and was pleasantly surprised to have found him so early!

In addition to the excitement of getting Black Knight, I have another exciting announcement!  Black Knight was purchased from The Figure in Question’s official sponsor All Time Toys.  All Time has been one of my go-to places for all sorts of cool action figures since they opened in 2007, so I’m thrilled to be working with them in a more official capacity.  If you’re local to the Ellicott City, Maryland area, you can visit them in person on Main Street, or you can also view their sizable online catalogue via their eBay store front!

#1661: Thor, Rocket, & Teen Groot

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

THOR, ROCKET, & GROOT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“When a blaster-toting raccoon, a teenage tree, and a Asgardian god get together, the journey is sure to be out of this world.”

You thought I’d slip, didn’t you?  You thought I’d forget about my new favorite running gag!  That I’d review a Thor figure on a day other that Thursday!  Well….I actually almost did.  Yep, had this one queued up for tomorrow.  Like an idiot.  It’s okay, I got better.  It’s been a week since I wrapped up my first round of Infinity War-themed Legends reviews.  Now I’m coming back to it for another multi-pack.  This one’s got the aforementioned Thor, as well as one-third of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket and Groot!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Thor, Rocket, and Groot are another displaced Toys R Us-exclusive.  They were meant to be the follow-up to Vision and Scarlet Witch, and were only confirmed to exist just before TRU announced they were going under.  It’s not known how many of them actually made it to TRU, but it’s certainly less than Vision and Scarlet Witch.  As with the other displaced exclusives, it’ll be available over the summer via Entertainment Earth.

THOR

After taking a bit of a back seat for Age of Ultron, Thor’s right back in the forefront for Infinity War.  Of the many characters included in the film, he’s the first to have a variant confirmed.  This one uses his early-in-the-film appearance, picking up from the end of Ragnarok.  If you haven’t seen that film, his eye-patch-wearing head’s going to be a bit of a spoiler.  It’s a major selling point for this set, though, being the only version of the character available right now with the eye patch.  He’s also sans cape, which is a first for the MCU Thor figures.  I like it.  The figure stands 7 inches tall and has 30 points of articulation.  At first glance, I’d kind of expected this figure to make use of a lot of Gladiator Thor’s pieces, but there doesn’t actually appear to be anything shared between them.  I think that’s ultimately for the best, as I felt there were some minor issues with the last one.  This one has a really solid, hefty construction, and his posablity is actually really great given how bulky he is.  The head looks to be about the same as the un-helmeted Ragnarok sculpt, but with the eyepatch, of course.  It’s a pretty decent likeness of Hemsworth, so I can’t complain.  What I can complain about?  The paint.  It’s perhaps the only thing I don’t like about this figure.  I mean, the basics are fine.  The detailing on the hair works.  But, what I really don’t like is the lightning effects.  The details on the torso in particular look rather cheesy.  I don’t hate the effects on the eye; if it were an extra head, I’d probably find it really cool.  As the only eye-patched Thor head out there?  It’s a little annoying.  Like the Ragnarok two-pack release, he’s packed with Heimdall’s sword.  He still doesn’t use it in this movie, and I still want an actual Heimdall, but it’s better than nothing.

ROCKET

Any Rocket figure is going to have the rather difficult task of surpassing the Mantis Series release.  Hasbro has acknowledged this fact, and pretty much just given us a straight re-release of that figure.  There are some minor paint differences between the two, with the accents being a darker grey this time.  He also only gets the calm head, but he does still get both of his blasters (sadly lacking the cool painted details) as well as his brand-new gun that’s been packed with all of the Infinity War Rockets.

GROOT

I’d say Groot’s the biggest draw of this set, since we’ve not yet gotten this version of the character in Legends form (though we did get a surprisingly good version of him from the basic Infinity War line).  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and he has 25 points of articulation.  Articulation is the main differentiating thing between the two teen Groot figures, with this one being not only far more posable, but also having the articulation better worked into the overall sculpt.  This figure also gets a little more detailing, especially on the smaller details, such as the little twig growing from the top of his head.  His head seems to be a little more accurate to Groot’s Infinity War design than the basic figure (in the basic figure’s defense, he seems to have been based on our brief glimpse of Teen Groot from Guardians Vol. 2), with a rounder face, and an even poutier expression.  He’s not a perfect recreation of Teen Groot; I think his chin’s a bit too pronounced; but he’s still pretty close.  The paint is kind of sparse on this figure, which is a little surprising given the accent work that the basic figure got.  The browns are just left flat, which is a little disappointing.  On the plus side, there’s some slight green representing vegetation, which keeps him from being too monotonous, and his eyes are nice and sharp as well.  Groot includes his gamepad…or *a* gamepad, because I don’t think this is the one he had in the movie.  It’s still a nice touch, though, and I’m glad he got *something*

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I found this set at one of the two slowly dying Toys R Us’s near me.  I thought Vision and Scarlet Witch were just a stroke of luck, but this set popped up about a week after.  Honestly, it’s a set I was uncertain about when it was first shown off, since there’s not a *ton* of new stuff here.  Rocket’s essentially identical.  If you missed his first release, it’s great that there’s a second opportunity, but if you didn’t, he’s extraneous.  I quite like Thor, like to a surprising level, but he’s got a few flaws, and if you aren’t big on lots of variants of the same character, he too can feel a bit extraneous, especially with the fully equipped version from the Cull Obsidian assortment on its way.  A lot of this set’s selling power is resting on Groot.  He’s a good figure, but I can’t say he’s enough of an improvement on the basic series figure to warrant 5 times the price to get him.  Of course, I got my set for 20%, since I got it from TRU, but I can see it being a tricky sell at full retail.  I’m certainly happy I have it, but not everyone’s as willing to drop tons of money on toys as I am!

*Miss this at TRU and still want a set of your own?  It’s currently in stock with our sponsors over at All Time Toys!  Check it out here!

#1654: Thanos

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

THANOS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe. But this… does put a smile on my face.”

Thanos has arrived.  Maintaining my non-spoilery stance on discussing Infinity War, I will say this much:  it’s Thanos’s movie.  The other’s may reside in it, they may all have their moment, but the film as a whole undeniably belongs to the Mad Titan.  Josh Brolin, the Russo brothers,  Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely did the character a lot of justice, and he’s finally more than just a shallow, looming threat.  Also, he’s a Marvel Legend!  How ’bout that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Thanos is the Build-A-Figure for the first Infinity War-themed series of Marvel Legends.  He’s undeniably the best choice for the slot, and it’s nice to finally get the MCU version of the character in Legends form.  He’s using Thanos’s casual look from the film, which I know kind of upset some people, since it’s not the armored look we’ve been seeing over the last several years.  That said, it’s unquestionably his main look from the movie, and in light of that, it would have been silly to do a different look.  The figure stands 7 3/4 inches tall and he has 28 points of articulation.  Thanos is certainly a big one, towering over even the above-average Proxima Midnight.  It’s certainly appropriate to the movie, though.  He sports an all-new sculpt, patterned after the movie design.  It’s pretty decent.  The expression on the head is a little goofy; I get what they were going for with the slight smile, but he ends up looking more like he’s a bit gassy than content with his killing spree.  It’s far from awful, though, and the detail work on the wrinkles in his face is absolutely top-notch. The proportions of the body are pretty good, though his neck seems a little stubby.  Once again, the detailing and texture work is exceptional, especially in his tunic, and what’s left of his armor.  The gauntlet is sharply detailed, and matches up very nicely with the depictions of it on-screen.  One rather frustrating thing I noticed about Thanos when compared to earlier BaFs is how easily he pops back apart after assembly.  This is especially an issue with the arms, which frequently pop out during normal posing.  Obviously, this is a bit of a tricky area in terms of figures that don’t come pre-assembled, but Hasbro’s done better in the past.  Hopefully Thanos is just an aberration on that front.  Color-wise, Thanos isn’t the most thrilling figure, since his movie design is mostly dulled out variations of purple.  The figure captures the look pretty well.  It’s a lot of unpainted plastic, but what paint is there is mostly applied in a clean manner.  There’s a bit of slop on the edges of the Infinity Stones, but it’s pretty minor.  Thanos, being a Build-A-Figure, is an accessory himself, so he doesn’t include any of his own.  For the most part, he doesn’t feel too lacking, but I do think this figure would have really benefited from an extra head with a different expression, just to cover all of our bases.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Obviously, I put this guy together from the pieces included with all the figures in this series.  Going in, I think completing him was my main goal, but as I picked up the individual figures and as I slowly assembled Thanos, I started appreciating the individual figures a bit more.  I mean, this guy’s certainly not bad, and I’m happy to have finished him, but ultimately, he’s sort of middling.

#1653: Taskmaster

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

TASKMASTER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“An expert in mimicry, Taskmaster copies the stunts and skills of his opposition to beat them at their own game.”

To paraphrase Jeff Goldbloom “Uhhh, Hasbro, uhh, finds a way.”  What does that mean?  I’m glad you asked.  See, with long-running lines such as Marvel Legends, you will run into the need to update characters as the line’s style and quality improves.  Toy Biz went pretty deep with their original line-up, but 15 years after the fact, a lot of them are starting to look out of place.  The trouble is, that while some of the heavy hitters are an easy sell for re-do, it can be tricky to get retailers on-board for new versions of second and third-stringers.  So, Hasbro’s doing their best to tie-in with more current media, and get us new figures of old characters that way.  The trouble is, this often results in those characters wearing more recent, less fan-favorite costumes.  And if you’ve *just* gotten a figure of a lower tier character, it’s unlikely you’ll get another shot.  Right?  Well, Hasbro doesn’t seem to think so, if the two Taskmasters in the space of three years are anything to go by.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Taskmaster is figure 4 in the Thanos Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s the third, and final, comic-based figure in the assortment.  Where the last Taskmaster was based on his up-to-date-iest look, this one goes for Taskmaster’s classic design, which is sensible, seeing as he’s spent most of his career with it.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  He’s built on the Bucky Cap body.  There was some campaigning to get him on the Reaper body instead, but I don’t mind this one, and it matches what was used for the last Taskmaster figure.  Taskmaster uses the flared boots and gloves like we saw on Zemo (amongst others), which are as good here as they have been all the prior times. He’s also got a (partially) new head sculpt, and add-ons for his cape, belt, and leg straps.  So, how’s the head only partially new?  Well, the actual head part is new (though, as a few others have pointed out, it does appear to be at least patterned on the head from Red Onslaught, which, coincidentally, was the piece included with the last Taskmaster), while the hood is re-purposed from the skull-styled head from the first Taskmaster.  I’m honestly a little surprised that they didn’t just straight re-use the last figure’s head, but I can’t say I’m upset.  While the belt is re-used from the prior figure, the cape and both leg straps are new to this particular figure.  The cape is a very nice piece, and I’m not going to be at all surprised to see it show back up later down the line.   The right leg strap finally gives us a new leg holster for the Bucky Cap bod, so we can retire that one with all the pouches, while the left matches perfectly with the weird studded thing Taskmaster had in his first appearance.  The color work on Taskmaster is a fairly typical Legends offering.  The molded colors all work well enough, and the paint’s application is mostly pretty clean.  There’s some slight slop on a few of the edges, but he mostly looks pretty solid.  The most impressive paintwork is definitely on his head, which makes use of the printing technique to get the gradations in shading on the skull down just right.  In a somewhat accessories-lite assortment, Taskmaster makes out pretty well, getting a sword, shield, and pistol.  All re-used pieces (the shield is the standard comic Cap shield, and the sword and pistol come from Zemo), but a nice selection nonetheless.  Taskmaster also includes the right leg of Thanos.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Taskmaster was nearer the top of my list of wants for this assortment.  This appears to have been the case with other collectors as well, since only Iron Spider was harder to find than Taskmaster.  On one of my many recent TRU runs, they had just put out a case of this set, and fortunately Taskmaster was still on the pegs.  I was quite a fan of the last Taskmaster, so this one had a high bar set for it.  The two are actually kind of hard to compare; they appeal to separate versions of the character, and each offer their own awesomeness.  But, for classic Taskmaster, you can’t do better than this guy.

#1652: Songbird

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

SONGBIRD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A cacophony of skill and supersonic powers make Melissa Gold the high-pitched hero Songbird.”

It’s generally agreed that ’90s comics, as a rule, all totally suck.  This is a tad hyperbolic.  The decade certainly delved into the excesses of the medium, but it’s less that everything sucked and more that the sudden boom of how many comics were being produced meant that the bad ones were that much more visible.  There are some definite gems from the decade, and one of those is Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley’s run on Thunderbolts.  In the midst of the ’90s turning every hero into a gun-toting anti-hero, Thunderbolts returned to Marvel’s roots of taking villains and turning them into full-fledged heroes…well, some of them anyway.  Perhaps the greatest success story of Thunderbolts is today’s focus, Songbird.  She began her career as the rather forgettable villain “Screaming Mimi” and was chosen by Busiek precisely because of how under-developed she was.  20 years later, she’s perhaps still not an A-lister, but she’s easily the quintessential Thunderbolt, and a very highly ranking character amongst the fanbase.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Songbird is figure 5 in the Thanos Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s the second of the three comics-based figures.  Songbird’s had a bit of a road to finally getting a Legend.  A prototype was originally shown at at SDCC 2013, planned for a future assortment of the pre-Infinite Series line, and obviously meant to tie-in with that year’s Thunderbolts boxed set.  Unfortunately, the line re-formated the next spring, and all of the figures shown were dropped…at least initially.  The figures originally slotted for the infamous “Jubilee Series” all found their way into the Infinite Series branded line, as did most of the other odds and ends figures shown off in 2013.  Poor Songbird was the last completely unreleased figure (though single-packed re-releases of the still boxed-set exclusive X-Force Wolverine, X-Force Archangel, and Moonstone also never materialized).  Fortunately, the character’s loyal fanbase saw her to a victory in 2016’s Fan’s Choice poll, and Hasbro was able to find her a spot in this year’s line-up.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 23 points of articulation.  Where the 2013 prototype used Songbird’s then-current design, this figure instead opts for her classic design, which she’s gone back to in recent years.  It also updates her to a more current base-body; instead of the out-of-date body from the ROML days, Songbird is instead sporting the 2016 Phoenix body, which is a pretty good one.  She’s got a new head, forearms, and hands, as well as add-ons for the shoulder armor and belt.  All-in-all, it adds up to a pretty solid looking figure.  The head capture’s Bagley’s depiction of the character without going too artist-specific, and there’s even a slight smile to her face, keeping her from being yet another vapid face on the shelf.  The armor is sleek and well-fitted to the body; it limits the shoulder movement a bit, but not terribly so.  The gauntlets on her new arms match the shoulder piece in terms of quality; they’re a little slimmed down compared to her usual look from the comic, but I don’t mind so much.  I suspect there’s going to be some re-use in order, though.  The new hands are pretty simple, being a flat-palmed position.  We’ve already got this pose for the male bodies, so it’s good to get the female equivalent, and this pose is definitely better than the Phoenix hands for Songbird.  Lastly, there’s the belt; it’s a pretty basic floating add-on piece.  It does its job.  The color work on Songbird is what we’ve come to expect from a Legends release.  Appropriately colored plastic where possible, and all of the standard painted detailing.  No real accent work to speak of, but the base application is clean, and her colors match well with the comics.  Songbird includes a wing effects piece, showcasing her sound manipulation abilities in the way she most frequently manifests them.  It plugs into her back and looks really cool when in-place.  Here’s hoping we see a similarly-styled Phoenix force effect down the line!  Songbird also includes the right arm of the Build-A-Figure Thanos.  She’s got a better selection of extras than the last two figures I looked at, but I wish we’d at least gotten an extra set of hands.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Songbird was found at the same time as Proxima and King Cobra.  I’m more familiar with her than I am the other two (I mostly know her from Avengers Forever, but I’ve read a decent selection of Thunderbolts as well), so I was looking forward to her quite a bit.  I think King Cobra’s still my favorite from this set, but she’s a very close rival, and I’m glad she finally got made.  Now, here’s hoping for a Genis Vell to go with her!

#1651: Serpent Society

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

SERPENT SOCIETY

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“The leader of the Serpent Society, Klaus Voorhees uses powerful venom to strike down his enemies.”

Okay, let’s just get this out of the way up front: this figure’s name is kind of silly.  As the bio notes, Klaus Voorhees is the *leader* of the Serpent Society.  That’s not his name.  You wouldn’t release a Mr. Fantastic figure and call him “Fantastic Four” now would you?  The trouble with Klaus is that his actual villaining name is Cobra, which is now more closely associated with the terrorist organization fought by G.I. Joe (or healthcare, I suppose.  Also, I hear there’s this animal or something?).  He’s subsequently been renamed King Cobra, but I guess that’s not trademarkable enough?  Not even if we throw “Marvel’s” in front of it?  They do always love that.  Oh well, Serpent Society it is.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Serpent Society (bleh) is figure 6 in the Thanos Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s one of the three comics-based figures in the assortment.  I know, spoilers, right?  I just ruined the twist that King Cobra’s *not* in Infinity War!  How dare I?  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  King Cobra is ostensibly built on the Bucky Cap base, but the only parts he actually shares with Bucky Cap are his pelvis and his feet (Bucky Cap was wearing buccaneer boots, so the non-booted shins showed up later).  He gets the standard shins, plus Doctor Strange’s less muscled torso, Hob/Green Goblin’s scaly arms and legs, and Civil War Black Panther’s hands. On top of that, he gets a new head, cape, belt, and gauntlets to help complete his look.  It’s actually pretty amazing how well all those pieces mesh together to make this guy.  The new parts are fantastic on their own (I especially love that grin on his face), but they combine with all the re-used stuff and make for a figure that might as well be an all-new sculpt.  This is kind of the best you can hope for with this guy, and I commend Hasbro for the inventiveness when it comes to re-used parts, towing the line with new stuff.  Great middle ground.  The paint work on King Cobra is another strong point; the bright metallic green makes this figure really pop, and the purple offers a nice contrast.  Some of the application could be a tiny bit cleaner, but it’s still a lot better than what we were seeing in years past.  King Cobra’s only extra is the left arm of Thanos.  Nothing character specific.  While it’s not quite as frustrating here as it was with yesterday’s Iron Spider (due to this figure being larger, and Cobra having less obviously missing extras), it’s still a somewhat annoying trend of lacking accessories for this Series.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

King Cobra was one of the handful of figures I found all at once from this set.  I wasn’t really expecting a whole lot out of him, being only passingly familiar with the character.  He mostly got purchased for the Build-A-Figure piece.  I was pleasantly surprised, after opening the figures up, to find that he was actually my favorite of the lot.  The simplicity of the design, and the very well-planned re-use just make for a really strong figure of a classic look.

#1650: Iron Spider

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

IRON SPIDER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Advanced technology and high-tech gear are signature marks of the web-slinging hero, Iron Spider.”

After being introduced during another big crisis-cross-over in Civil War, Spider-Man follows suit for his third MCU-appearance in Infinity War.  As he says himself in the film, it’s hard to be “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” if there’s no “Friendly Neighborhood,” so saving the world is part of his game plan.  Also, selling toys, of course, because that’s what Spider-Man does.  There was some odd licensing stuff that kept Peter almost entirely out of the Civil War merch, but it seems that’s been sorted out for the go-round, if his Marvel Legend is anything to go by.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Iron Spider is figure 2 in the Thanos Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s the third of the directly Infinity War-based figures in this assortment.  As the name suggests, he’s wearing his second Stark-designed suit, which we got a preview of at the very end of Homecoming.  It gets brought out in full force for Infinity War, and barring a very brief sequence early on, it’s Peter’s primary look this time around.  It’s certainly less of a departure from his classic red-and-blues than the comics Iron Spidey was, which I’m okay with.  It actually seems to have gotten a fair bit of inspiration from Peter’s more recent Parker Industries-created armor.  The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  While his sculpt is certainly very similar aesthetically to the Homecoming release, it’s definitely a brand new piece.  The texturing and detail work on the costume is all quite impressive.  It takes a lot of the dentils from the last figure, and sort of amps them up.  Apart from the obvious cosmetic changes for the costume’s details, the main difference between the two figures is how the arms are handled.  The kind of stubby shoulders and arms of the last figure were really my only complaint on that one, so the improved design here is a definite plus.  The paint on Iron Spider is quite clean, with sharp detailing, and no noticeable missing details.  I do wish it were more metallic; his suit from the movie was really, really shiny, and this one is a bit dull by comparison.  Given the CGI nature of the suit, I’d guess the duller colors come from Hasbro working from pre-film designs and what we saw at the end of Homecoming.  The biggest failing of this figure is, hands down, the accessory complement.  He’s got the left leg of Thanos, and that’s it.  No spider-arms like we saw in the film.  No unmasked Peter Parker head.  Not even extra hands, which the Homecoming release had.  Absolutely nothing character specific.  I get that he’s an all-new sculpt, but the lack of anything at all is a real blow to the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Iron Spider is by far the most difficult to acquire figure in this set.  This surprised me, given the visual similarities between this figure and the one from Homecoming.  Of course, in retrospect, that figure was never super easy to find either, so I guess it makes sense.  After many times of finding the whole set sans just this guy, I finally did come across him at my closest Target, who had just put out their case.  This figure is frustrating, because he himself is quite a good figure, but his complete lack of accessories is really frustrating.

#1649: Proxima Midnight

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

PROXIMA MIDNIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A lieutenant of the Black Order, Proxima Midnight serves Thanos in his quest for power.”

Okay, so I’ve actually seen Infinity War now.  And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.  No, really, I can’t actually discuss beyond that for fear of spoiling…everything.  If you haven’t yet seen it, please do so immediately.

Infinity War was largely built on assembling all of our favorite heroes, but it did have a few new faces, most of them as part of Thanos’ support team, The Black Order.  The Black Order are a new addition in the comics, showing up during the 2014 Infinity event.  They’re sort of Thanos’s equivalent to Apocalypse’s Four Horsemen.  So far, only one of them’s gotten the Legends treatment, and it’s Proxima Midnight, who I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Proxima Midnight is figure 3 in the Thanos Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s the second of the specifically movie-based figures in the assortment and the first of the Black Order to join the line (Cull Obsidian will be joining her in the next assortment).  The figure stands 7 1/4 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  She’s not quite as mobile as some of the others in this set, but she’s still pretty posable, certainly posable enough to mimic the character from the movie.  Proxima’s film design isn’t too far removed from her comics design.  All the basic design elements are the same; the movie design removes some of the more stereotypically “comic super villain” elements, while also adding some more texturing and such.  I like the head gear from the comics design a little bit more, but I do think the movie made the overall thing a little more visually interesting.  Proxima gets a brand-new sculpt, and while I do like it overall, I do have to admit, she feels a little bit like a step back compared to some of the more recent MCU offerings.  Comparing her to the Guardians Vol. 2 offerings, some of the details feel a little soft, and the articulation isn’t quite as well worked-in.  Still a solid sculpt, just not quite as good as the phenomenal work Hasbro was putting out last year.  Proxima’s paintwork is fairly decent.  The application is all pretty clean, and the colors match up well with what we see of her on-screen.  She doesn’t have the printed face like the more human characters, but given her CGI creation in the film, this doesn’t exactly rob her of her realism.   Proxima is packed with her spear (perfect for being caught by Captain America) and the torso of Thanos.  Given she’s the largest single-packed figure in the set, it’s actually quite impressive she comes with the biggest piece  of Thanos, and it means her box is rather on the hefty side.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting Cap from Super Awesome Girlfriend, I began my hunt for the rest of the series.  I actually didn’t have to search for long, and ended up coming across most of the set while running an errand at Walmart.  I wasn’t certain about picking her up, but finding them mostly in one go got me sort of pumped, so home with me she came.  She’s alright.  More consistent than Cap, though perhaps not quite as exciting or fun.  I think she’ll standout better once we have more of the Black Order.

#1648: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“From the streets of Brooklyn to the intergalactic stage, Steve Rogers defends justice as Captain America.”

Infinity War is here!  Yes, the movie 10 years in the making has arrived.  By the time you, dear readers, read this review, I will have already seen the film, but I’m writing this one in advance.  So, no spoilers or anything to worry about here!  Anyway, I’ve actually managed to track down the last few missing figures from the first assortment of Infinity War-themed Marvel Legends, so, over the course of the next week, I’ll be taking a look at all of those.  Up first, Steve Rogers, the former Captain America!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is the first figure in the Thanos Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s the first of the four IW-based figures in the series (five if you count the Build-A-Figure), and, like his basic-line counterpart, he’s based on Cap’s “new” Nomad look.  Well, mostly, anyway.  I’ll get to that in a bit.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  This guy gets an all-new sculpt, which is definitely a positive.  That Winter Soldier mold was great for its time, but was starting to look a little dated.  This figure’s the same height as that one, but he’s been bulked up a little bit more, which prevents him from looking quite as shrimpy as the prior figure.  Overall, I like this new sculpt for this costume, and I’m hopeful that the 10th Anniversary two-pack Cap from later this year will be making liberal use of these pieces.  I do have some slight issues, mostly to do with the IW-specific pieces, and some questionable accuracy.  The first is the head.  By far, it’s the best Evans likeness we’ve gotten from Hasbro yet, and the face in particular is quite well detailed.  The issue lies with the hair, a separate, and going by what we’ve seen in the trailers, rather inaccurate piece. It looks to be the same styling he had in Civil War, when it really should be much longer.  Maybe he gets an important haircut in the film?  I don’t know, but I think it’s more likely Hasbro made a mistake.  Time will tell.  Another slight oddity to the sculpt?  The glove, or should I say lack of glove, on his right hand.  In all the trailers, he’s quite clearly got them on both hands, but this figure’s pulling a Luke Skywalker.  Again, maybe this is to do with something that happens in the film, but it certainly looks off.  His paintwork is overall pretty decently handled.  The uniform is appropriately dingy and dirty, but the application is still clean.  The face uses the face printing technique, and it’s okay, but on my figure it does seem to be a little slight bit off.  Not terrible, though.  Cap is packed with one of his new shields, a pair of fists to swap out for the hands he’s packaged wearing, and the head of Thanos.  Like the basic figure, just the one shield, despite him having two in the trailers, but it’s at least a well-detailed piece.  The hands run into another issue of accuracy.  They’re now *both* ungloved.  Not an issue for his right hand, but since the left forearm has the cuff from his glove sculpted on it, it looks a little odd with the spare hand in place.  Another rather odd choice.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Cap was the first of these figures I was able to track down.  He showed up at Super Awesome Girlfriend’s work, so she grabbed him for me.  He’s not a bad figure, but I will admit to being a little bit let down by him.  Maybe my opinion will change after I’ve seen the movie, and maybe some of Hasbro’s choices will make more sense.  As it stands, he’s certainly far from awful, but I think the basic figure is a bit more faithful to the film.