Tag Archives: Marvel Legends

#0920: Whirlwind

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

WHIRLWIND – FORCES OF EVIL

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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The Marvel universe has a lot of pretty amazing super villains, but for me, the best sub-set of villains they have are the laughably terrible ones. The ones that keep showing up, getting their butts kicked, and generally being ineffective. The likes of Shocker, Stiltman, Batroc the Leaper, and even today’s focus character Whirlwind. He initially started his career as the Human Top, which isn’t as cool a name as Whirlwind, but is probably more fitting for the character. There’s actually one thing that sets Whirlwind apart from the other lame villains: he’s actually the got an arch-nemesis. Yep, ol’ spinhead here is the arch enemy of the Wasp (also her chauffeur, but that’s a whole other story). I mean, he still kinda sucks, but that’s part of the charm. Amazingly enough, Whirlwind has a whole three action figures in his tenure as a villain, the latest of which I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Whirlwind2Whirlwind is another figure from the third series of Captain America Marvel Legends(why he’s in a Captain America-themed series instead of getting a slot in last year’s Ant-Man Marvel Legends is anyone’s guess. Maybe Wasp finally got that restraining order). He’s been dubbed “Forces of Evil,” which is a name he shares with the Serpent Society’s Cottonmouth. The figure stands about 6 ½ inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation. Whirlwind is presented in his classic costume, after he’d added the chainmail (before that he’d just been shirtless, which was weird). He uses the slightly larger male body, introduced with Grim Reaper. To aid in making him more “Whirlwind-y” he has a new head, torso, and forearms. The head is actually two pieces: face and helmet. This results in a figure with the proper level of depth to his eye and mouth slits, which looks pretty neat. The actual helmet does a very nice job of capturing Whirlwind’s comic look. The torso also does a decent job of handling Whirlwind’s weird chest armor, and the forearms feature actual spinning blades, which is a nice touch. It’s a bit of a shame that he doesn’t have any chainmail detailing, but that would have meant giving him a 100% new sculpt, which seems like a bit much to ask for whirlwind3Whirlwind. Whirlwind’s paintwork isn’t particularly complex, but what’s there is fairly clean. I especially like how well the eyes turned out. Also, the choice of a metallic finish takes what could have been a slightly bland figure and gives him some pop. Whirlwind’s only accessory is his Build-A-Figure piece, which is the left arm of Red Onslaught.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

On my search for the other three figures I wanted from this series, I saw quite a few Whirlwinds, and passed several times. It’s not that I don’t like the character, nor is it that I wasn’t excited for the figure, I guess I was just prioritizing the others. After finding the other three, I broke down and got Whirlwind. I’m glad I did. He’s a very well-put-together figure. He sticks to the established formula of a few new parts on a base body, but he’s the sort of character that really lends himself to such a concept.

#0919: Sharon Carter

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

SHARON CARTER – AGENTS OF SHIELD

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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Hey look! It’s Agent Carter! No, not that Agent Carter! This is Sharon Carter, the other secret agent with the last name Carter who dated Captain America. I can understand the confusion. See, after Cap spent 20 70 years on ice, he still needed a love interest, since Peggy had gotten up there in years. So, they introduced Peggy’s sister niece, Sharon, who worked for SHIELD under the code name “Agent 13.” She’s been a fairly important part of Cap’s supporting cast since her introduction in 1966 (apart from being dead for a few years). Technically, she’s had two action figures, but one of them wasn’t actually named, so I’ll be looking at the first officially named Sharon Carter figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SharonC2Sharon Carter is part of the third series of the Captain America Marvel Legends Series. She uses the “Agents of SHIELD” title, which she shares with the previously reviewed Mockingbird figure. It’s certainly appropriate for the character, so that’s good. The figure is a little under 6 inches tall and she has 26 points of articulation. From the neck down, Sharon is identical to last year’s Maria Hill figure, which in turn means she shares some parts with the Winter Soldier version of Black Widow. I’ll admit, the body isn’t one of my favorites. While the Widow figure was fine, the pieces used don’t gel exceptionally well with the Maria Hill parts. Also, I still don’t like the gimpy, misshapen fist for the left hand. However, I will admit that the body seems to work a little bit better for Carter than it did for Hill. Maybe it’s the coloring or maybe it’s that there’s not a real person to compare it to. It could possibly SharonC3be the new head, which seems to sit a little better on the body. It’s not super stand-out work, but the piece does a decent enough job of capturing Sharon’s look from the comics. I’m actually tempted to pick up a second figure to use as the beginnings of a classic Mockingbird. Sharon’s paintwork is decent overall, but has a few drawbacks. Some of the smaller details are a little misaligned, which is a little annoying, but the most present issue is that the whites on the arms and legs don’t match up with the torso and hips, creating an odd contrast that shouldn’t be there. Sharon comes packed with a silver version of the weird sci-fi gun that came with Red Skull (I would have preferred something a bit more normal looking, but oh well), as well as the right leg of Red Onslaught.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After Mockingbird, Sharon was my second most-wanted character from this line-up. Currently, she’s one of the more difficult figures to find, so I had to do a bit of searching. My dad ended up finding her for me while at a small convention a few weekends ago. She’s not as strong a figure as Mockingbird or Taskmaster, but she’s reasonably well-done, and a good enough figure that I don’t feel like I wasted my money on her.

#0918: Taskmaster

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

TASKMASTER – MERCENARIES OF MAYHEM

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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Superhero comics like foes who mimic the abilities of the heroes. Marvel in particular seems to like this concept, as they have several different characters with this gimmick (including one who’s actually named “Mimic”). Generally, such mimicry comes from some sort of mutant or otherwise built-in power. Not the case with Tony Masters, better known as Taskmaster. His mimicry was all based on him being a really good tactician with a photographic memory, allowing him to duplicate the physical movements of anyone he sees. Sure, he can’t mimic actual super powers, but he comes pretty darn close. He started out as a pretty straight villain, but has become more of an anti-villain, gun-for-hire sort of character over the years. Since his introduction in 1980, he’s gotten seven action figures, the latest of which I’ll be reviewing today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Taskmaster2Taskmaster is part of the third series of the Captain America Marvel Legends Series (the Infinite part’s been dropped on all Hasbro’s Marvel lines; should we be concerned that they’re all finite now?). His official title is “Mercenaries of Mayhem,” which is a name he shares with Demolition Man. The figure stands about 6 ½ inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation. The origin of the costume worn by this figure is somewhat complicated: in the early 2000s, UDON Studios redesigned Taskmaster, taking him out of the more classic superhero-styled costume he’d been wearing and replacing it (and the creepy skull face that went with it) with a much more tactical get-up. That look lasted for a while, but he eventually switched back to the classic costume. On the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, he was given a sort of an amalgam of his two looks, which is what this figure’s primary look is based on. As far as I know, it’s not a look that has appeared in the comics, so this figure is technically cartoon-based. The figure uses the torso, pelvis, and hips of the Bucky Cap body, along with an all-new head, arms, and legs, as well as add-on pieces for his shoulder holster and belt. The new arms and legs feature some cool, almost knight-like armor, and add a nice bit of heft to the figure. It’s nice that Hasbro didn’t just paint the basic Bucky Cap arms and legs silver, and it kind of makes me wonder what other figures they could get out of these parts. I certainly wouldn’t mind these being used as the starting point for a Doctor Doom. Taskmaster actually gets two all-new heads. The one he comes wearing is more classically inspired, with a skull-face and white hood. It’s true to his Ultimate Spider-Man design, but could also make for a nice classic Taskmaster, should someone want to build a full version of his original costume. The second head is based on the UDON design’s masked look, which allows you to sort of have Taskmaster as he appears in Captain America & Iron Man: Heroes United. He doesn’t have the hood there, but this way you can essentially have the UDON costume. I find myself preferring the UDON head, but I’m not 100% sold on the hood; both heads definitely have merit. Taskmaster’s paint is all pretty solid, and he’s probably got the cleanest paint I’ve gotten on a Hasbro figure in a little while. There’s a little slop on the hands, but other than that, everything’s pretty sharp, especially on the two heads. In addition to the second head, Taskmaster includes a shield (with exceptionally clean paint), a laser sword, and the head of Red Onslaught, the Build-A-Figure for this series.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I picked up Mockingbird from Cosmic Comix, they also had this guy. However, I decided to hold out to see if I could find him elsewhere. After two weeks of looking, I didn’t find him, and Cosmic Comix still had him, so I went ahead and got him. I’m glad I did, because this is a pretty darn fun figure, and possibly my favorite from this particular series.

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#0906: Mockingbird

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

MOCKINGBIRD – AGENTS OF SHIELD

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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How many comic book characters can say that the only lasting effect of a mega-crossover event was bringing them back from the dead? Well, a lot, actually, given that death’s a revolving door in comics. That said, it’s usually big name characters who get brought back, and as much as I like Mockingbird, I can’t say that she’s particularly big name. After dying in the early 90s in order to make Hawkeye more “edgy” (because that’s a thing we needed), Bobbi Morse was returned to life at the end of Secret Invasion, after it was revealed that the Bobbi what died was actually a Skrull impersonator. Bringing her back was far from the main purpose of the event, but it was a nice benefit, and, as I said, one of the few things to actually stick after the story wrapped. Bobbi’s found her way into the spotlight as of late, getting her own comic, serving as a supporting character in Spider-Man’s main series, and even serving as a fan-favorite character on Agents of SHIELD (and she was even popular enough to get a spin-off. Go her!). Through all of that, she’s only managed to get two action figures, the latest of which I’ll be looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mockingbird2Mockingbird is part of the third series of the Captain America Marvel Legends line (counting the two released for Winter Soldier). Her official title is “Agents of SHIELD,” a name she shares with Agent Sharon Carter. For once, the shared name is 100% appropriate for both characters using it, and not super generic like some of the others. Bobbi began her career as the SHIELD agent assigned to Kazar in the Savage Land, and has intermittently worked for SHIELD since then. The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation. She’s based on Mockingbird’s costume immediately following her return in Secret Invasion. It’s not a bad costume design, and it’s one she wore up until fairly recently, so it’s pretty relevant. I personally still prefer her classic design to this one, but this is still a nice design, and it does a good job of balancing the distinctive elements of her classic design with the more superspy nature of the modern incarnation of the character. Plus, it means she fits with the Heroic Age version of Hawkeye released last year! Bobbi appears to be an all-new sculpt. That’s pretty awesome for a character of her stature. Her proportions are all nice and balanced, and the costume specific details are nice and sharp, and a pretty spot-on match for what she looks like in the comics. Her goggles are removable; her hair sculpt has a spot on each side for them to slot into. When removed, you can clearly see where they were, but it’s not super distracting. On the plus side, when in place, they don’t look oversized at all, and they stay where they’re supposed to. Bobbi’s paintwork is a little on the sloppy side. Most of it looks okay, and the change from white to black is nowhere near as bad as it could have been, and the face is actually really clean. However, the area around the collar is really sloppy. On the plus side, a lot of it’s hidden by her hair. Mockingbird includes her battle staves, which are just a re-painted billy-club from Daredevil (though the quality of the plastic is much better this time around). She also comes with the torso of this series’ Build-A-Figure, Red Onslaught.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Mockingbird has been one of my favorite Marvel characters for a while, and I’ve always been kind of bummed by the lack of action figures. Her last figure was okay, but not super exciting, so I was happy when she was one of the first three figures announced for this series of Legends. I ended up picking this figure up from Cosmic Comix. She’s not my preferred version of the character, but she’s still a really good version of the character, and a pretty awesome figure to boot!

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#0902: Yondu

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

YONDU

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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Before the title passed to the likes of Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot, the Guardians of the Galaxy were rather a different.  They first appeared in January 1969, created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan.  The team was hailed from the 30th Century, and each of its four members (Vance Astro, Martinex, Charlie-27, and Yondu) was the “last of their kind.”  Now, those of you that only know the team from more modern appearances will probably only recognize one of those four names: Yondu.  Yondu was fortunate enough to turn up as a (sort-of) ally of the movie Guardians, albeit with a bit of a personality change.  Still, he’s become the original team’s most recognizable member, and became the first of them to get a proper figure (though Vance ended up hitting right around the same time in a two-pack).  I’ll be looking at Yondu today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Yondu2Yondu is one of the six single-packed figures in the first series of Hasbro’s 3 ¾-scale Marvel Legends Series.  He actually manages to not be the most obscure character in the set (he can thank Ulik and Triton for that).  The figure stands almost 5 inches tall (counting the Mohawk; he’s 4 ¼ without it) and he has 19 points of articulation.  He still lacks some of the articulation we came to expect during MU (waist and wrists are the standouts), but thanks to some parts re-use he ends up more articulated than several of the more recent small-scale figures.  Yondu is built on the new mid-sized body, which is the same one we saw used for Machine Man.  He also uses the lower legs and quiver of the MU Hawkeye figure, with unique pieces for his head, belt, and right forearm.  The pieces do a pretty nice job of capturing Yondu’s design from the comics.  The head seems to work in a little bit of the film version’s surliness into his expression, but it doesn’t feel too far removed from his comics look.  I will note that it’s a little jarring that his wrist band on his right arm is sculpted, but the armband further up is not, but that’s what happens when you have a specific budget for the number of new parts allowed.  Yondu’s paintwork is pretty solid all around.  The colors are pretty nicely handled (though I wouldn’t mind them being a little brighter), and all of the application is pretty clean.  Yondu is packed with a bow and a single arrow.  Both are re-used from the MU Hawkeye, but cast in a bright yellow/orange.  Seeing as Yondu is a fellow archer, the re-use is warranted, and it helps that the pieces were pretty good to begin with.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve mostly moved away from the 3 ¾ inch Marvel figures, so I wasn’t really sure I was going to pick up Yondu.  I found one at Toys R Us, but that one went to my dad, who’s more of a classic GOTG fan than I.  He decided to return the favor, however, when he came across the whole first assortment of figures at Target.  They had apparently not put the figures into their system yet, so the store manager ended up selling Yondu here to my dad for $3, which is a pretty great deal.  Yondu’s not an outstanding figure or anything, but he’s solidly done.

#0896: Machine Man & Iron Man

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

MACHINE MAN & SUPERIOR IRON MAN – MECHANICAL MASTERS

MARVEL LEGENDS (3.75)

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As much as I love what Hasbro’s been doing with the Marvel and Star Wars lines, I do have to admit to being baffled by their recurring choice to give multiple lines of figures the exact same title. When they first started doing Marvel figures in both 6 inch and 3 ¾ inch scales, the larger figures were Marvel Legends and the smaller were Marvel Universe. They also offered some 12 inch figures, under the heading Icons. Well, by the end of this year, all three of those scales will be titled Marvel Legends. I’m sure that won’t be at all confusing. The 3 ¾ inch line has officially switched its title over, and the first product to hit is a series of two-packs. Today, I’ll be looking Machine Man and Iron Man from that particular series.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair was released in the first series of two-packs in the new 3 ¾ inch Marvel Legends line, under the name “Mechanical Masters.” When these figures were shown off at last year, the assumption was that they would be single figures with a shared name, since that’s a pretty common practice for Hasbro. Then they just kind of showed up in two packs, which certainly caught me off guard. In addition to the figures, the set is also packed with a reprint of Superior Iron Man #1, which makes sense for one of the two figures, but not the other.

MACHINE MAN

MechanicalMasters2If you had told me five years ago that I would own two figures of Machine Man, I would have had a long hard laugh. Seems pretty out there to think that such a minor, low-tier character would warrant multiple figures, within a year of each other, but hey, here we are. The figure stands roughly 4 inches tall and has 19 points of articulation. This Machine Man is decidedly more modern take on the character than the larger figure. He’s based on his Tron-styled post-Nextwave design, which I believe is still his current look. More specifically, the character-unique parts (his head and forearms) are directly based on Daniel Acuna’s Avengers 50th Anniversary poster. The real tell here is the forearm configuration; he’s got a buzzsaw and a Sci-fi blaster sort of thing, which are lifted right from the poster. The sculpts are all pretty solid work; the technical stuff on the arms is particularly sharp. The head’s details are a little soft, but they stand out well enough for the scale. All in all, the parts look good, and match up with the mid-sized body that the figure is built on. Machine Man’s paintwork is passable; the general application is pretty clean, though the face is a bit sloppy. The metallic purple is pretty cool, but it probably would have looked a bit better if it were a little brighter, so as to stand out more from the black base color. Machine Man includes no accessories, not even an extra set of normal forearms, which ends up being a little bit limiting.

SUPERIOR IRON MAN

MechanicalMasters3This figure is the required heavy hitter of the set, and…yeah, that’s really all I got. I can’t really figure why this guy got packed with Aaron, since the two don’t really have any history. Retailers just like Iron Man, I guess. The figure is a little over 4 inches tall and has 24 points of articulation. This figure is based on the “Superior Iron Man” design, from the comic of the same name, after Tony became more of a jerk than usual. This figure gets a new head sculpt and uni-beam and re-uses the body of the Marvel Universe line’s Extremis Iron Man (which was also used for Iron Patriot). That was a decent Iron Man, but it wasn’t even the strongest of Hasbro’s Iron Man sculpt when it was new, and it feels really dated now, especially in terms of poseability. It was also pretty under-sized, and that’s made even worse by the fact that the new head is larger than the original. What’s more, the Extremis armor had a number of major deviations in design from the Superior armor, so it’s not even a particularly clever re-use. The paint is really what the figure hinges on to sell it as Superior Iron Man. Unfortunately, even that’s not really great. In the comics, the suit is bright white and sleek (it’s kind of similar to something produced by Apple), but here it’s mostly a dull silver. Also, while the design in the comics has the black sections, they seem to stand out way more here. With the base colors being darker, the light blue details also tend to be easily lost, which is a shame, because they could have helped to sell the differences in the armor a bit more.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was obviously planning on getting this set as soon as they showed it, though I didn’t initially realize I’d be getting both figures. I got the set from my Dad, who found them while running an errand at Target. Machine Man is definitely the selling point; he’s got some really cool new parts and he’s a really fun version of the character. I do still hold out hope that we might see a Nextwave version down the road, but this one is definitely a welcome addition. Iron Man is kind of a waste of space, if I’m honest. His body is inaccurate and out of date, and I wasn’t much of a fan of the concept to begin with. But who cares? I got another Machine Man!

#0889: Absorbing Man

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

ABSORBING MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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Marvel has something of a tradition of passing foes between their heroes. Kingpin, now Daredevil’s arch enemy, began as Spider-Man foe. Similarly, Sabretooth first appeared in an issue of Iron Fist. Today’s focus character, Crusher Creel, aka the Absorbing Man, made his debut as a foe for Thor, but has spent a pretty sizeable portion of his career menacing the Hulk. He’s also faced off against a few other Marvel heroes, including Spider-Man, which I guess was Hasbro’s justification for having him be part of a Spider-Man themed series of Marvel Legends.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Absorbingman2Absorbing Man is the Build-A-Figure for the fourth series of the Spider-Man Marvel Legends Series line. Absorbing Man has had a few different looks over the years, but for the most part, they’ve all just been slight variations on the same basic theme: a bald, shirtless guy, wearing a pair of pants from a prison. Here, the pants are purple; not the most common color for prison garb, but certainly common for a Marvel character. The figure is just shy of 8 inches tall and has 29 points of articulation. As with most of the Thor-related characters that Hasbro has released, he’s much larger than he’s usually depicted. Creel’s still supposed to be a roughly normal-sized dude, and this figure’s a giant. However, his size is comparable to that of the equally over-sized Wrecking Crew, so he isn’t horribly out of place. Creel is built on the Terrax body, making its second appearance in the last year (it was also used for the SDCC set’s Dormammu). In his “clean” look, the figure uses the Terrax torso, pelvis, hips, and arms. He gets a new head and legs, as well as an add-on piece for his belt. The legs are suitably detailed, and the belt is a very nicely handled piece. The basic head is okay, but I will admit, it’s not my favorite of the two. To simulate his absorbing abilities, Creel has an extra head and arms. The head is similar to the basic one, but the left half now has a rocky texture, and his expression is an open-mouthed scream, which looks a bit better than the regular head’s slack-jawed sneer. The new arms are wooden and stone, respectively, and have some pretty awesome texture work to help sell that. Prior BAFs had some difficulty being taken apart after being assembled, but Absorbing Man goes together and comes apart without too much trouble. The paintwork on the basic parts is pretty straight forward. He’s molded in the appropriate colors where possible, but he’s still got a bit of detailing on the face, pants, and lower right arm. The pants are nice and clean, and the metal detailing on the arm is pretty cool. The face is alright, but the eyes are a bit wonky, which throws the whole head off. The extra pieces make out the best in terms of paint; the texture work of the sculpts for the arms is accented really nicely, and the face is way cleaner and more detailed on the second head. If I had one complaint, it would be that the torso has no marks of any absorbed substances, which makes the extra head a bit jarring. That said, it’s understandable, since the extra pieces necessitated going one way or another. Creel includes his ball and chain. It’s a re-use of Thunderball’s wrecking ball, which isn’t technically accurate (in-universe, it’s actually the ball and chain that Creel had attached to him when he got the powers), but it works reasonably enough that complaining about it seems petty.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

If you’re a faithful reader, then you already know where this guy came from: he’s constructed from the pieces included with this series of figures, which my parents picked up for me a few weeks ago. I’m not the world’s biggest Absorbing Man fan or anything, but I do have enough of an appreciation for the character that I wanted to complete him. His size is a bit of an issue, and the normal head looks a bit off, but this figure is actually a pretty great one.

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#0888: Spider-Gwen

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

SPIDER-GWEN – EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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Death in comics, particularly superhero comics, has long been considered a temporary thing. However, there are few characters that are more or less guaranteed to stay dead. For a long time, the list was Uncle Ben, Bucky, Jason Todd, and Gwen Stacy. Well, Bucky and Jason Todd have both found their way back to the world of the living, so they’re out of the club. Marvel’s pretty much never going to back down on Uncle Ben, and bringing back Gwen would, I guess, be viewed as a mistake. Fortunately, regular universe Gwen being all corpsified and gross doesn’t mean Marvel can’t use a Gwen Stacy. First they brought her back in the Ultimate universe, and more recently, an alternate, spider-powered version was introduced during the “Spider-Verse” event. She’s made a pretty speedy jump to action figure form, getting both a Minimate and a Marvel Legend n fairly short order. Today, I’ll be looking at the latter figure.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SpiderGwen2Spider-Gwen is the second figure in the fourth series of the Spider-Man Marvel Legends Series line. She’s titled “Edge of Spider-Verse” on the front of the box, a name she shares with Ben Reilly Spider-Man (also, she’s named “Marvel’s Spider-Gwen” on the back, which I found a bit silly. Is there another Spider-Gwen that this one might accidentally be confused with?). The figure has a height of 5 ¾ inches and features 29 points of articulation. Gwen makes use of the Spider-Girl body as a base. Proportionally, this is still one of Hasbro’s best, so I’m always happy to see it turn up. It’s a good fit for Gwen’s design, too. She gets a new head and feet, and uses the right hand from the second Spider-Girl figure, as well as having an add-on piece for her hood. The hood has a little bit of trouble staying in place, but aside from that, the pieces are very nicely handled. Gwen’s paintwork is alright, but nowhere near as good as some of the other figures in this series. There are some nice touches, such as the slight pink misting around the eyes, and the overall look isn’t terrible. That said, there are more than a few sloppy lines, and the transitions from white to maroon are incredibly sloppy. Also, after keeping the webbing clean on their last few Spider-Men, it’s kinda slipped up here. There are also some spots with uneven coverage, particularly the black areas on the upper chest, which are a bit distracting. This is the sloppiest paint job I’ve seen from Hasbro in a while. Gwen was packed with an extra, unmasked head, as well as a pulled back hood piece to go with it. They’re both pretty nice, and they swap out fairly easily. I do wish that Gwen’s face was a bit more expressive, though. In addition, Gwen includes Absorbing Man’s ball-and-chain.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Spider-Gwen was definitely at the top of my want list for this series. I haven’t really followed the character’s solo adventures, but she was a lot of fun in “Spider-Verse,” and she’s got a pretty awesome costume design. Plus, she’s on the Spider-Girl body, which has resulted in some pretty awesome figures in the past. The sculpt is great, but the paint leaves a lot to be desired. I had thought this would be my favorite figure in the set, but she ended up being a bit lower on the totem pole. Overall, I enjoy this figure, though, and that’s the important part.

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#0887: Morbius

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

MORBIUS – VILLAINS OF THE NIGHT

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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Following Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent, which was published to warn the public of the connection between immoral comics and the delinquency of young adults, the comics industry as a whole was forced to make some changes. These changes manifested as the Comics Code Authority. There were fairly strict standards which had to be met in order to acquire the Comics Code Authority seal. While comics could be published without the seal, those without it wouldn’t be carried by newsstands, and therefore had no actual market. Amongst the things forbidden by the code were any sorts of undead monsters or creatures that weren’t directly based on literature. So, while you could have Dracula, or Frankenstein’s Monster, generic vampires or zombies were not allowed. In order to use these sorts of characters, work-arounds had to be created, such as Morbius, the Living Vampire, who wasn’t in violation of Code, because he wasn’t undead. And thus, a classic Spider-Man foe was born. Morbius has had a decent amount of success over the years, which has netted him his fair share of action figures, including a recently released Marvel Legends figure, which I’ll be reviewing today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Morbius2Morbius is the third figure in the latest series of the Spider-Man Marvel Legends Series line. He is the other half of the “Villains of the Night” title introduced with Jack O’Lantern. This is actually Morbius’ first time as a Marvel Legend, and only his second 6-inch figure, with the first being part of Toy Biz’s Spider-Man line, a whopping 14 years ago. Morbius uses his original, 70s appearance, rather than the more amalgamated look of the prior figure. The figure stands about 6 ¼ inches tall and has 32 points of articulation. He uses the Bucky Cap body as his base, which seems a good fit for a proper classic Morbius. He also makes use of the clawed hands from Spider-Man 2099, as well as brand new pieces for his head and upper torso. The head is a pretty great piece, and a fantastic improvement over the guaranteed-to-deteriorate rubber-face of the last figure. The new upper torso adds his oh-so-70s popped collar, and generally looks pretty sharp. I don’t know if it’s already on the books, but this piece would be a good starting point for a classic Iron Fist, should Hasbro feel like updating that figure. The paint on Morbius is good as a whole, but does have a couple of standout issues. The red/black changeover on the collar is rather sloppy, as is the application of the finger nails. However, I quite like that his skin isn’t a straight white, but rather has a slight bit of grey brushed over it, to simulate some texture. The shiny black of the jumpsuit is also quite striking, especially in contrast to the skin. Morbius includes two different cape pieces: one outstretched, like wings, and the other hanging straight down. Both are nice pieces, but I prefer the straight one; it works for more than one pose. Morbius also includes a second pair of arms for Absorbing Man.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wasn’t initially sold on Morbius. I don’t dislike the character, but he’s never really been one of my favorites (I blame the horrible figure from the 90s for that). Plus, he wasn’t even a necessity for completing the Build-A-Figure. However, with the whole set available, my completist nature kicked in, so I got Morbius. I’m glad I did, because he’s right up there with Venom in terms of quality and definitiveness. He may very well be the best figure in the set.

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#0886: Venom

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

VENOM

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

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They say a hero’s greatest foe is in some way a dark reflection of themselves. Generally, this is meant to be more of a metaphorical sort of reflection, but sometimes, it’s taken a bit more literally, resulting in a pretty straight evil counterpart of the main hero. This is the case with the original Venom; his powers were all variations of Spider-Man’s, and Eddie Brock, host of the Venom symbiote, was even a freelance photographer like Peter Parker. However, where Peter gave up the symbiote when it started to lead him down a darker path, Eddie embraced the darkness (at least initially). Venom’s gone on to become one of Spidey’s most popular foes, with all the toys that such a role entails, and amusingly enough has gotten a few “dark reflections” of his own.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Venom2Venom is the third figure in the fourth series of Spider-Man Marvel Legends. After three series of sort of teasing at this guy, Hasbro’s finally gotten around to giving us a proper Eddie Brock Venom. The figure stands about 7 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation. Like Toxin and Anti-Venom before him, Venom is based on the Hyperion body. It’s not a bad base, though it still has a few minor issues (the neck being so far set back is the most major of them). The body’s pretty well-sized for Venom, and that’s really the important thing here. Venom gets not one, but two new head sculpts for this body: with and without the tongue. This way, you can choose between early (no tongue) and late (tongue) appearance Venom. He comes packaged wearing the tongue-less head sculpt, which is a pretty spot-on recreation of his early McFarlane-drawn appearances. It’s a lot smoother and geometric. It sits a bit high on the neck, but in the right pose, that negligible. The second head isn’t just the first one with an added tongue, it’s actually a totally different sculpt. It’s based on Venom’s mid-90s appearances, after his appearance Venom3started to get a bit exaggerated, but before it went too off the rails. This head is much more organic in design, and has a lot more fine detail work. It also sits a bit lower on the neck, and just feels like the stronger of the two sculpts. As far as paint goes, the vast majority of Venom is just molded in black. However, there’s more than a little white detailing. The application’s okay, but not super great. The chest logo in particular has really rough edges. The two heads are both very nicely done, though, to the point of almost seeming like they belong to another figure. In addition to the extra head, Venom is also packed with two sets of hands: fists and clawed. The claws are far more subdued than those of Anti-Venom and Toxin, which suits this figure very well. Venom also includes two different heads for the Build-A-Figure Absorbing Man. There are a lot of heads in the box.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Man, if you’d told me I would be anxiously awaiting an Eddie Brock Venom, I wouldn’t have believed you. But, after getting all the Venom spin-offs over the last year, this guy was a key missing player. In a series of more modern characters and short-lived variants, Venom kinda feels like the natural star of this set, and is a clear, definitive take in the character. His figure isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty darn good, and certainly a long time coming.

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