Tag Archives: Marvel

#1281: Marvel’s Jackal

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

MARVEL’S  JACKAL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Sharp claws, pointed ears, and super speed turn Miles Warren into the Super Villain known as Jackal.”

Wow, talk about tip of the iceberg.  I mean, sure, those are all words that describe Jackal, but oh boy is he way more complicated than this one sentence bio makes him out to be.  The average person probably isn’t super familiar with Jackal, but he’s actually a pretty integral character in the Spider-mythos.  He’s the creator of both Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker (both Scarlet Spiders) and a major driving force in the infamous “Clone Saga,” but he’s also responsible for the introduction of the Punisher, and has been a major part of several big Spider-themed cross-overs, including “Spider-Island” (my personal favorite Spider-Man story in recent years) and the just finished “Clone Conspiracy.”  Despite all of this, up until recently he’s only had one single action figure, and it was just a crappy repaint at that.  Fortunately, he was among the figures chosen for the most recent Spider-Man-themed series of Marvel Legends.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jackal is figure 6 in the Sandman Series of Marvel Legends.  There are a few different versions of Jackal out there to choose from in terms of design.  This figure more or less goes with the classic guy in a furry suit look, though he looks to take more specific influence from Stefano Caselli’s rendition of him during “Spider-Island.”  It’s a versatile look, fitting in with a large number if different eras, so it’s a good choice.  Plus, you just can’t beat the classics.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Jackal is 100% a new sculpt.  He also appears to be remaining a unique sculpt, at least for the time being, which is a little surprising for a character like Jackal.  I personally was expecting him to get re-purposed as a Perez-styled Beast, but Hasbro themselves have ruled that one out on the basis of him being too small.  Perhaps we’ll be seeing Werewolf By Night and Vermin in upcoming assortments.  So, how is this all-new sculpt?  Actually pretty awesome.  The texturing on the fur parts is really nicely rendered, and the different spots even have the fur hanging different ways. Even lesser-detailed the shorts have some  decent work on the folds and such.  The proportions on the figure The figure’s build feels rather similar to the Spider-UK body, though he’s a bit broader in the shoulders.  The neck is a tad skinny, and the head sits a little oddly on it, but a good crouching pose is enough to hide those issues.  Atop that neck is a pretty fantastic head sculpt, sporting a sharp maniacal grin, and those goofy, pointy ears.  Jackal’s paintwork is pretty solid work; for the most part, it’s just molded green, but he’s also got a little bit of brown accent work, which makes the fur look a bit more believable.  The rest of the work is all pretty clean, continuing the trend of the last few series of Marvel Legends.  Jackal includes no character specific accessories.  To be fair, I’m not really sure what you could give him, and he is an all new sculpt.  Maybe an alternate unmasked Miles head might have been cool? He does come with the right leg of Sandman, which is decent enough for what it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My first introduction to Jackal was via that first action figure of his, included in the big-box store-exclusive Maximum Clonage set.  I knew nothing about him, and that figure didn’t do much to enamor him to me.  I’ve long since parted with that figure (rather foolishly, it would seem, given the aftermarket value of the set).  In the mean time, a subscription of Dan Slott’s run on Spider-Man has given me a much greater appreciation for ol’ Miles Warren, so when this figure was announced, I was actually pretty excited.  The final figure is definitely a strong entry in the line.  Solid sculpt, fun design, and great execution.  The Jackal has finally been given his due!  Now, how about a “Clone Conspiracy” Jackal?

#1280: Marvel’s Shocker

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

MARVEL’S SHOCKER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Herman Schultz suits up in battle armor that produces intense shockwaves, earning him the notorious name Shocker.”

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about Hasbro’s latest iteration of Marvel Legends, it’s that the current development team definitely has some favorite team line-ups, and they sort of have running themes in each assortment to finish up some sets.  One of the favored teams over on the Spider-Man side of things is the Superior Foes of Spider-Man, the stars of the eponymous book by Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber.  It all started with Boomerang (who was himself granted a slot courtesy of being part of Jeff Parker’s Thunderbolts, another favorite team) back in the Ultimate Green Goblin Series.  Then we got both Beetle and Speed Demon (*and* the head of Silverman) in last year’s Absorbing Man Series.  Now we’ve gotten probably the most recognizable member of the team, Shocker!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Shocker (who get’s the “Marvel’s” description, which is sort of amusing to me, since it kind of sounds like Marvel’s flipping me off) was released in the Sandman Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Shocker’s first time as an official Marvel Legend, though he was released in Toy Biz’s Legends-compatible Spider-Man: Classics back in 2006.  Of course, that was 11 years ago, and Shocker was one of the many villains from that line to be hampered by a gimmicky action feature, so a new figure is very much appreciated.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Included in that articulation? Elbow joints!  Shocker seems to lose those a lot, so it’s nice that this figure is different.  He’s seen here in his most recent costume, which is the one he was sporting during his time with the Superior Foes, as well as his tenure with the Thunderbolts a few years back.  It’s different from the classic costume stylistically, but very similar in spirit.  I dig it.  The figure is built on the Bucky Cap body.  While I personally tend to think of Herman as being a little bulkier (especially with all that padding), he’s certainly been drawn a size similar to this on more than one occasion.  In a perfect world, he’d get unique tooling to capture the quilted texture of the costume, but that’s not where Legends is right now, so he makes due with the standard pieces.  He also gets a new head, forearms, hands, and knees.  The forearms and hands add Shocker’s signature vibro-shock gauntlets, which feature a really awesome sculpt; there’s tons of little dings and such that really add character to the figure.  The kneepads seem a little out of place on the otherwise streamlined design of the figure, but they’re true to the comics.  The head is surprisingly well-done.  Masked characters don’t tend to gent noticeable expressions, but Herman’s got something of a bewildered look that just seems perfectly in character for the Spider-Verse’s resident punching bag.  This is how you sculpt a fully face-masked character!  Shocker’s paintwork is passable; it has to handle all of the quilted parts of the costume, which look pretty decent here.  The changes from the yellow to brown could probably be a little cleaner, but they aren’t too terrible.  I do really like the pearlescent white they used for the eyes; it really makes them pop.  There’s a running change on this guy, which adds a belt buckle with the Thunderbolts logo on it, allowing him to officially be the Thunderbolts version as well.  My figure is the earlier, non-Thunderbolts version.  No clue which of the two will be the rarer one, but I’m happy with the one I got.  Shocker includes the energy pieces used by Havok, Wonder Man, and Polaris.  I lamented their overuse in my Polaris review, and it seems even more egregious here, since the pieces don’t actually make any sense for Shocker’s powers.  The gauntlets cause vibrations; there’s no “energy” component to them at all.  I honestly would have preferred an unmasked head, but I guess the that would have cost too much.  Shocker also includes the left leg of the BAF Sandman.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been hoping for Shocker since Speed Demon and Beetle were first announced.  Superior Foes was one of my favorite books when it was coming out, so I’m happy to have most of the team.  With that being said, I didn’t really know what to expect from this figure.  Shocker’s not a particular favorite of mine or anything, but the figure looked kinda cool.  I ended up finding him at the same time as Spidey, for the same low price, which was enough to push me into grabbing him.  He’s sort of the anti-Black Spidey: a figure I wanted but didn’t need, but who ended up being one of my favorites from the series.  I’m glad I picked up this guy, because he may actually be my favorite of the Superior Foes sub-set.  Now, what are the chances of getting an Overdrive?

#1279: Spider-Man

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

SPIDER-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Stealthily dressed in black, Spider-Man possesses incredible web-slinging, wall-crawling powers.”

Hey guys!  Guess what I’m reviewing for the next week!  Something new and exciting and…yeah, okay, it’s more Marvel Legends.  Look, I picked up three series of these suckers last month.  There’s a lot of them sitting here waiting to be reviewed.  So, let’s jump on into Sandman Week, shall we?

The first figure I’m looking at is none other than Marvel’s biggest cash-cow pretty much ever, the Amazing, the Sensational, the Spectacular, the Peter Parker, yes it’s Spider-Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Spider-Man is figure 5 in the Sandman Series of Marvel Legends.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation.  As you’ve no doubt deduced from the images and the bio, this figure is based on Spider-Man’s symbiotic black costume.  Believe it or not, this costume hasn’t been released in Legends form since 2008’s Red Hulk Series.  That figure was built on the Bullseye mold (and not even the slightly updated version that Iron Fist got!), so an update was more than warranted.  More importantly, he’s really the last major Spidey design to be moved to the Pizza Spidey body.  This figure not only makes use of the now standard Spider-Man bod, he also re-uses the head of the Rhino Series’ Scarlet Spider figure, making him 100% recycled parts.  Of course, this is a figure that kind of warrants being recycled parts, doesn’t he?  Pizza Spidey’s not a perfect body, but it’s a solid build for Spider-Man, and it even looks like Hasbro’s tweaked it ever so slightly to offer a little more motion in the hips.  The Scarlet Spider head is a good choice; the change of color is enough to make it look sufficiently different.  The paint on this guy is pretty standard fare for this design.  They’ve gone for the simple black and white, no accenting, which is, in my opinion, always the way to go with this design.  Blue highlights and the like always end up messing the whole thing up.  The logo on my figure is pretty clean, but it’s worth noting that I’ve seen a number of figures where that wasn’t the case, so be careful when grabbing this guy.  Oh, and a cool, minor, almost nonexistent thing I noticed?  The black plastic used for this figure is a cooler black, rather than the usual warmer black used on most figures.  This means if the light catches the figure juuuuust right, he’s got the slightest bit of a blue sheen.  It’s so minor, I’m not even certain it was intentional, but I think it’s cool regardless.  Okay, I love this figure, but there’s one area where it’s a letdown, and that’s the accessories.  He comes with two sets of hands: fists and open gesture.  Yes, just those two.  Not the web pose ones.  Now, it’s true that when Spidey had the symbiote, he didn’t need to do the usual pose to fire his webs.  The thing is, after ditching the symbiote, Peter actual sported a cloth version of this design for a little while, and used his usual web shooters, so the hands would still be accurate.  Plus, he’s already a total re-use, the very least you can do is throw in one more set of hands, especially when they’re already tooled.  Not to mention, the last two Spider-Men on this body both came with all of the extra hands *and* a spare head. There was some hope that this figure might at the very least have that unmasked Peter had we’ve all been waiting for, but no such luck.  It just feels a bit weak.  He does at least include a pair of swap out hands for the Sandman BAF, but he really should have had more.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After the previously reviewed Ms. Marvel figure, this guy was probably my next most wanted from the Sandman Series.  I actually saw him at the same time as Kamala, but I just couldn’t bring myself to pay a premium price for a figure that didn’t actually offer anything new.  It seems that was the right call, as I found this guy at a slightly out of the way Walgreens while they were running their $12.99 sale on all Marvel Legends.  Score!  The accessories are super annoying, and all, but honestly, I was just happy to finally find this guy, and for a price I haven’t paid for a Legends figure in like a decade.  The actual figure is exactly what I’ve been hoping for ever since the Pizza Spidey body was introduced.  I’m glad we finally got him!

#1278: Jean Grey

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

JEAN GREY

MARVEL UNIVERSE 10-INCH (TOY BIZ)

“When the X-Men investigate a rash of mutant disappearances, they find that crime fighter Daredevil is working on the same case. Tracking down clues connected to the crimes takes Daredevil and Wolverine to an abandoned chemical factory while Jean Grey and Professor X use their incredible psi-talents to locate the kidnapped mutants inside. Battling and defeating their captors, the X-Men and Daredevil are able to give the kidnapped mutants back their freedom.”

I know I just got through reviewing a ton of X-Men figures but I’m gonna review another one.  Why?  Because this is my site and I do what I want.  Also because this figure was the next on the randomized list that tells me what figures to review.  Don’t let that undermine my previous statement.  Anyway, today I’ll be looking at founding X-Men member, Jean Grey!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jean Grey was released in 1997 as part of Toy Biz’s 10-Inch-scaled Marvel Universe line.  As the bio might have clued you in, she was released alongside Daredevil and Professor X (the both had matching bios).  Wolverine is also mentioned, but I wasn’t able to find any reference to a specific Wolverine that had this matching bio, so it’s possible they were just counting on kids to already have a Wolverine.  Jean is based on her Jim Lee-designed look from the ‘90s, which was an oddly rare design to see at the time. Not exactly her most attractive design, but it was the one on the cartoon (more or less). This figure stands about 9 1/2 inches tall and has 9 points of articulation.  Jean, like all but one of the female figures from this line, is a repaint of the X-Men line’s Rogue figure (which was a larger scale version of the 5-inch figure I just reviewed).  It wasn’t an ideal set-up, since Rogue and Jean aren’t *that* similar in design, especially in their Jim Lee costumes.  That being said, I suppose it could have been worse.  Jean’s aided by the fact that she ditches the belt and coat from Rogue (which is better than can be said for Polaris or Mystique), which at least gives her a different silhouette than Rogue.  The proportions on this figure are passable.  Obviously, they’re rather off, but in the context of the rest of the line, they don’t look too bad.  The paint carries most of the weight of turing this figure into Jean Grey.  It’s okay, I guess.  They try to use the paint to make her costume look more appropriate.  It’s not awful on the head, where the only real issue is the texture of the headband not matching the rest.  The shoulders should technically be raised shoulder pads, but even that doesn’t look so bad.  It really starts to fall apart with the wrist bands, which not only paint over the cuffs of the gloves as if they aren’t there, they also don’t even try to follow the shaping of the wrists from the comic design.  There is similarly do nothing to hide the tops of Rogue’s boots; I get that new tooling was out of the option, but at least the other figures to use this body did some slight tweaking to try and include the boots organically.  They look really weird totally unpainted.  Jean’s one accessory was a….big…bazooka?  You know, that bazooka thing that Jean always hauled around in the ‘90s!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When I was growing up, my Dad had his own small collection of 10-inch figures (in retrospect, three of them were Jean, Professor X, and Yellow Daredevil, all of whom were part of this same subset).  Eventually, they were passed on to me.  Even as a kid, I always found Jean to be one of the weaker 10-inch figures that Toy Biz released.  Making an important character like Jean nothing more than a cheap repaint was seriously messed up.  She’s alright, I guess, but really, really, really, really disappointing.

Flashback Friday #0012: Green Goblin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , , , ,

Hello and welcome to another Friday at the Figure in Question!  It’s time for another Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!  Today, I’m taking a look at another Green Goblin figure, specifically the one from the ‘90s Spider-Man line.  This is from back *before* he was Willem Dafoe.

Alright guys, after a brief stop over into the strange bizzaro world of The Stapler in Question, we are back at home with the action figures. Yay! So, back in the 90s, the 5-inch scale Marvel figures, produced by the very much at the height of their game ToyBiz were totally my jam. The figures were (at least loosely) based on the then current cartoons. Amongst those cartoons was Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which ended up with a fairly nice toyline of its own, at least for a few series. So, let’s have a look at one of Spidey’s greatest foes, the Green Goblin, as he was presented in said line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Green Goblin was released as part of Series 3 of ToyBiz’s Spider-Man line. The cartoon did this odd thing where Hobgoblin preceded Green Goblin, which resulted in Hobs taking the Goblin slot in Series 1. And Goblins never go for even numbered series. That’s just not how they roll. The figure is about 5 inches tall, with 9 points of articulation. He’s pretty much standard for a ToyBiz figure of the time. He’s based on the character’s animated appearance, which itself was a fairly faithful recreation of the comics design. Mostly, it just comes down to style cues, resulting in a slightly “friendlier” looking Goblin. Surprisingly, Green Goblin got his own sculpt, which shared no pieces with Series 1’s Hobgoblin. I think that may be the only time these two have both appeared in a line with no re-use at all. Impressive. The sculpt itself ends up being quite impressive, with not only some pretty good proportions, but also some killer texturing, especially on the scaly arms and legs. They aren’t super-detailed like some of the sculpts that followed, but they are a great example of using just enough detail to suggest the rest (which, incidentally, is how Goblin was drawn for most of his classic appearances). Also, it’s an odd thing to point out, but this figure has some of the best hand sculpts of any figure from this time. Most were molded in a generic clasping positon, but Goblin has one splayed as if it’s just thrown a pumpkin bomb and one in a pointing position. I don’t know what he’s pointing at, but at least it’s different. Goblin’s paintwork isn’t quite up to the same level as the sculpt, but it’s pretty much on par with just about everything else being offered at the time. The colors match up pretty well to the show’s design. The colors don’t so much match up to themselves, however. The purple ends up changing a few times over the course of the figure, which is rather distracting. There is also some rather noticeable bleed over around the edges of the gloves and boots, and the edges on the shorts aren’t even close to being even. Green Goblin included his faithful goblin glider (which even launched missiles) and a pumpkin, but pesky child-Ethan lost them!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As into the ToyBiz Marvel stuff as I was as a kid, I actually ended up avoiding a lot of the Spider-Man line. The cartoon never really gripped me like the others, so I just never really had the connection. So, Goblin here wasn’t part of my “initial collection.” He was a later acquisition, fished out of a bin of low priced figures at a nearby comic book store sometime around the mid-00s. I don’t know exactly why I picked him up, but I imagine I was just filling in some gaps in the collection at low prices. Going back to review this guy, he surprised me. With most of the 5-inch figures, the nostalgia filter is firmly in place, but not for this one, and yet he still impressed me. That really says something.

Ah yes, this was the first review following 2015’s “Stapler In Question” gag, which was my second April Fools Day post.  I had originally pegged this figure as the subject of that year’s gag post, but I couldn’t come up with any good gimmicks, so he was pushed back a day, and the Stapler replaced him.

My review for this guy was pretty on point.  I had thoroughly shaken the off slump that plagued a chunk of my 2014 reviews, and was back to having some more fun with the writing again.  It probably helps that he immediately followed my SiQ review, which really reignited my writing spirit.  It should be noted that this was my second-to-last review to be published using one of my old catalogue shots.  He still had a Wilson photo I’d shot later, but I apparently deemed the original lead photo as “good enough.”  Not something I’d do nowadays, or even a month after for that matter.

Missing from my original review were his Goblin Glider and pumpkin bomb.  They cropped up during The Find.  Still don’t have the glider’s missiles, and technically there should be a second bomb, but I’m calling this close enough.   The glider is a little on the flat side, but not a bad piece for the time, and it’s honestly not noticeably worse than any of the other pack-in gliders we’ve gotten (barring the Famous Covers one, because that thing is goddamned perfection).  The pumpkin bomb could actually plug into the base of GG’s right hand, allowing for some pretty sweet posing options.  Nice forethought on that guys!

I was pleasantly surprised by this guy when I reviewed him the first time, and I’m still surprised by how much I like him now.  And, as an added bonus, he’s even more complete!

#1272: Wolverine – Old Man Logan

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

WOLVERINE — OLD MAN LOGAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With incredible powers of strength and healing, Wolverine reveals his claws and uses them to slash down opponents.”

Okay, I know I’m trying not to critique the bios, but shouldn’t there be at least some mention of this being Old Man Logan in there?  Just seems a touch generic.  Oh well.

So, back in March, Logan was released, and met with near unanimous praise.  I gotta say, I didn’t really get it.  I mean, it was far from the worst comic movie I’ve seen, but I felt it had a lot of the same problems of the last two Wolverine films, but without Origins’ fun cameos or The Wolverine’s slightly more cohesive story to make up for it.  All it really had going for it was the R-rating, and I’ll be honest, there’s only so many times you can see people getting stabbed in the face before it loses its edge.  On the plus side, it did inspire an action figure, so that’s good.  Since Disney is discouraging licensees from releasing any direct tie-ins to the Fox movies, we didn’t get a Hugh Jackman Logan, but rather a Logan based on “Old Man Logan,” the Wolverine from the bad-future story that Logan the movie drew some inspiration from.  Yay?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wolverine is part of the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s the one figure in the set not to include a Build-A-Figure piece, taking the the loosely movie-themed figure slot from last year’s Deadpool figure.  The package just calls him “Wolverine”; no denotation of the storyline he comes from or anything.  There’s a part of me that wonders if they were initially planning for this to be a more standard civilian Wolverine figure at some point and that’s why the name and bio are more generic.  Who knows?  Anyway, the figure stands about 6 inches tall (just a smidge taller than the Juggernaut Series Wolverine), and he has 32 points of articulation.  Logan is based on OML’s look after he was integrated into the main Marvel universe.  It’s not wildly different from his prior appearances, but this way he fits in a bit better with the main X-Men figures.  He sports an all-new sculpt, which depicts him in his usual civilian garb.  I feel almost certain we’ll be seeing the body again for a 616 Logan at some point, just to get some more milage out of it.  The body is pretty solid; his general build is a pretty close match for the last Wolverine, so it looks more or less like the same guy.  The level of detail on the various bits of clothing is quite nice; not quite Star-Lord level, but given this is supposed to be a comic figure, that’s excusable.  The head is a pretty nice piece of work, and sells Logan as being as old and cranky as he should be.  Once again, the features on the face line up pretty well with his younger counterpart, or at least what we could see of his face.  He loses the wacky Wolverine hair, which makes him look a bit more average, but is also accurate to this take on the character.  The paintwork on this figure is pretty subdued; there’s a whole lot of brown going on here.  That’s pretty accurate, I guess.  The paint is all pretty cleanly done, and there’s even a touch of accent work on his face, to bring out all of those extra wrinkles.  Some of the rest of him could do with a little accenting work as well, but he’s on par with the rest of the line as of late, so I’m not really going to complain.  What I am going to complain about, however, is the complete lack of accessories.  When this figure was first shown, a lot of people were hoping there would be an extra 616 Logan head included.  Not only does he not get that, he also doesn’t even get extra non-claw bearing hands, which wouldn’t have even required any new tooling.  And on top of that, he’s the only figure in the set not to get a Build-A-Figure piece, leaving him feeling very empty for the $20 most places are charging.  Compared to last series’ Deadpool, who lacked the BAF piece but made up for it in spades with all the other extras he included, this is incredibly disappointing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Logan was the third of the figures I found from this series, alongside Sunfire.  I wasn’t sure I was going to pick him up at first, but I sort of got caught up in the thrill of the hunt, and thus he was purchased.  He’s not a bad figure, but the lack of any extras really hurts him when he’s compared to the rest of the series, which makes him the weakest in the set, in my opinion.  Still, weakest in this particular set isn’t the worst thing ever, since the Warlock Series is probably my favorite Legends line-up in recent history.  And with that, my reviews of this series come to a close!

*Want an Old Man Logan figure of your own?  He’s currently in-stock with our sponsors over at All Time Toys!  Click here to check him out!

#1271: Warlock

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

WARLOCK

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

At last!  Self is complete!  Alright!  Now self can interact with all of self’s self friends, in awesome plastic form!  And now self will stop with self’s weird verbal tic, because self finds it hard to keep it up long term.

So, if the weird verbal tic didn’t make any sense to you, then you probably don’t know Warlock.  He’s a member of the Technarchy, an alien race of techno-organic beings.  He’s the son of The Magnus, the Technarch ruler.  He’s primarily a member of the X-Men spin-off team the New Mutants.  He was also the focus of the two-part opener of Season 5 of X-Men: The Animated Series, which is really how I know him.  He’s not the most prevalent character in terms of action figures, but he’s gotten a few.  And now he’s got a Marvel Legend.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Warlock is the Build-A-Figure for—big leap here—the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends, which is the second X-Men-themed series since the X-Men were brought back to the main retail line.  The figure stands about 9 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Warlock is 100% new sculpt, which is, admittedly, the only way I can really see him being handled.  There’s also not really a lot of re-use potential here, which is a little surprising for a character like Warlock in this day and age.  Of course, I’m hardly going to complain about that.  Warlock’s a character who’s design is always in flux, even just from panel to panel.  This figure seems to take a good deal of his inspiration from Art Adams’ version of Warlock seen on the cover of New Mutants Special Edition #1, with a few tweaks to make him a little more polished and symmetrical.  The sculpt on this figure is really impressive; there’s just a ton of detail work, just everywhere.  Clearly, whoever sculpted this figure had a ton of fun with it and it results in a very strong figure.  What I really like about it is how complicated it is, while still maintaining a degree of cleanness to everything.  The head is my favorite bit; like with the Cyclops figure, when I look at this sculpt, I just see Warlock pretty much exactly how I think of him in my head.  There are some minor issues with the sculp. The most notable are the tubes that run from the arms to the back; they’re just a bit on the short side, which means they pop out of place with just about any sort of posing.  Given the alienness of the design, it’s not actually that big a deal, and a few collectors have had pretty good results just gluing both sides to the arms, thus preserving the both the silhouette and articulation.  Warlock figures tend to go with a black/yellow color scheme, but this one actually does things a bit different.  He’s molded in black, with a gold wash.  It’s actually surprisingly effective in replicating how Warlock tends to be depicted in the comics.  There’s some variance from piece to piece, since there’s no real way to get them all in sequence or something, but it’s done with enough overall consistency that he doesn’t look too patchwork.  Most BAFs don’t get any extras, but Warlock actually gets one: a buzz saw attachment to swap out for his right hand.  It’s pretty cool, and a nice way of showing off his shapeshifting abilities.  There’s a part of me that was really hoping for a swappable Cypher to replicate the old Warlock figure’s removable mask feature, but maybe we’ll get a Cypher proper down the line.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Growing up, I had both parts of “The Phalanx Covenant” recorded on VHS.  They’re actually two of my favorite episodes The Animated Series, and they cemented in me a love of Warlock (the old Toy Biz figure was one of my favorites back in the day).  I was super stoked when this guy was confirmed for this series’ Build-A-Figure, and I’ve been anxiously awaiting his release.  This is easily the best Build-A-Figure since the Toy Biz days, and hands down the best Warlock figure in existence.  Putting this figure together was a ton of fun, and I’m just really hyped to have him!

#1270: Marvel’s Colossus

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

MARVEL’S COLOSSUS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Colossus transforms his body into armored steel to become a nearly indestructible force in combat.”

Does he really turn into steel?  That doesn’t seem right.  Sorry, critiquing the bio again.  Gotta stop with that; it only leads to madness. Today, I’ll be continuing my look at the latest X-Men-themed series of Marvel Legends, with a look at everyone’s favorite metal skinned Russian, Piotr Rasputin, aka Colossus!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Colossus is figure 1 in the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Colossus’s third time as a Legends release, but the last one was an X3 figure, meaning there’s only one prior comic Colossus, who was released a whopping 14 years ago.  Needless to say, an update was long overdue.  Colossus is presented here in his costume from the Utopia era of X-Men, which is…well it’s hardly anyone’s first choice.  Hasbro’s released a handful of characters from this era (last series’ Kitty Pryde figure is one, technically), so it’s not like he won’t fit in, but it’s also not one of his more more memorable designs, and looks a tad more generic than some of the others.  The thing that really bugs me about it is the black chevron on the torso.  Why is it there?  As it stands, it really just looks like an arrow pointing to his crotch, which is just odd.  Without that, I think it’d be a lot better.  It’s worth noting that this is the design that got used for Avengers Alliance, which seems to be a major influence on Hasbro’s costume choices.  There’s also a good chance that we’re seeing something of a trial run with this figure, and that a more classic Colossus will show up in short order.  The figure stands just shy of 8 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Colossus is debuting a new base body, which looks to be a replacement for the Wrecking Crew body in terms of scaling.  It’s about at the mid-point between Hyperion and Terrax.  It’s a pretty decent sculpt, with a nice, solid foundation.  It feels a little lightweight to me, but it’s certainly a step-up from the bodies on either side of it.  I look forward to seeing what else it might be used for.  Colossus gets character specific arms and boots, as well as an all-new head.  The arms are really nice, and I quite like the posing on the hands.  The bracers are separate pieces, so clearly Hasbro’s made it easy to swap them out should these arms be used for one of the other Colossus designs.  The boots are a decent enough recreation of the comic design, but for me the best part of them is how flat the bottoms are; this guy is really sturdy on his feet once you get them posed the right way.  The basic head is an okay piece on it’s own, but it sits a little high on the neck for my taste.  Some people have modded it so that the socket for the neck peg is a little further in, and it definitely improves the overall appearance, but it’s a slight bummer that he isn’t quite correct right out of the box.  Fortunately, there’s also a second head included.  This one is based on Piotr’s bearded look from Extraordinary X-Men, which is suitably unique.  The beard’s a good look for him, and the head sits a lot better on the neck.  This will definitely be my go-to for this figure.  The paint on Colossus is pretty solid overall. The best work is definitely on the metallic skin, which is not only clean, but also gets some great accent work.  The costume is a bit more prone to slop here and there, though nothing too bad.  It’s nice and bright, which is good.  In addition to the previously mentioned extra head, Colossus also includes not one, but two pieces of the Build-A-Figure Warlock.  One of them is his head, which means there are three heads in the packaging.  It doesn’t quite top the last Venom figure with his four heads in one package, but still.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I noted in my Polaris review, I called upon the help of my parents to track down the Warlock Series.  While I found a second Polaris, I’ve actually yet to see Piotr at retail, as he’s easily the set’s second most popular after Cyclops.  So, this guy got mailed to me (along with a few other awesome figures that’ll be showing up here in short order).  The Toy Biz Colossus was easily one of my favorite TB Legends, so this guy had a high bar to clear in that respect.  When the figure was first shown, I was a bit letdown by the costume choice, but I think that actually works in his favor.  With the new costume and the bearded head, this Colossus is suitably different from the last one, which means he not so much a replacement as he is just a brand new figure.  That’s sort of forced me to weigh him on his own merits.  He’s definitely a fun figure, and probably my second favorite single release in this series.  I look forward to the eventual classic version down the line, but am content with this one for as long as I need to be.

#1269: Marvel’s Cyclops

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

MARVEL’S CYCLOPS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Scott Summers wears a specially designed visor and shoots beams of energy from his eyes as the optically-gifted hero, Cyclops.”

Ooooooohhhhhh yeeeeaaaaaaahhhh!  It’s Cyclops!  And it’s not just any Cyclops.  No, no: it’s THE Cyclops.  This is the one.  From the ‘90s.  ‘90s Cyclops: tell your friends.

Cyclops is no stranger to Marvel Legends.  He’s actually had six prior Legends figures (and that’s *just* the official Legends-branded releases).  The problem?  None of them were quite right.  Both of the Toy Biz attempts were far less than stellar, and while Hasbro’s attempts have been steadily getting better, they all had something off about them.  Be it the simple misfortune of being released while Hasbro was still learning (the first Astonishing Cyclops), poor design choices (the TRU First Appearance Cyclops), or just an incredibly limited release (the Puck and Jubilee Series figures), he just seemed unlucky.  My personal favorite was the Marvel Now version from the Jubilee Series, but in addition to his (and the rest of the series’s) scarce distribution, he was also sporting a far from standard Cyclops design.  The latest series of Marvel Legends has done its best to amend this.  Let’s see if they succeeded.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cyclops is figure 5 in the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends.  Scott is one of the assortment’s two “headliners” with the other being Old Man Logan.  He’s based on Scott’s early ‘90s Jim Lee-designed costume, which is considered by a lot of people to be the definitive design for the character, thanks largely to its presence on the ‘90s X-Men cartoon.  It’s rife with ‘90s goofiness, with straps and pouches galore.  Nevertheless, there’s just something about this design that is really commanding.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Like the last three Cyclopes from Hasbro, this figure is built on the Bucky Cap body.  Lee’s Cyclops was generally a little bulkier, so I feel like something like the Spider-UK body wouldn’t have been out of place here.  Of course, the last three versions of this guy were all on the same body, so I can definitely see Hasbro’s desire to keep the character consistent, and it’s not like I dislike the Bucky Cap body.  The figure is constructed in much the same way as the Marvel Universe take on this design; all the straps and such are add-on bits.  This is the area where this figure is the weakest.  While the basic sculpts are okay, they don’t sit quite the way they should.  The wrist bits are perfectly fine, and the thigh straps are passable (they pop out of place, but not too often).  The bootstraps fall down a lot, but you can work them up the calf gradually so that they stay a bit better.  The biggest issue is definitely the belt/straps.  They’re too loose and the belt in particular sits at an odd angle.  In Hasbro’s defense, if they made the piece too tight, the torso articulation would be quite limited; apart from a dedicated torso sculpt, their options were limited.  Even with the issues, the right posing and futzing with the pieces gets the figure to the point where he looks pretty darn awesome.  Adding to the awesomeness is the head sculpt; I thought the MU sculpt for this design was pretty on point, and I was also a pretty big fan of Toy Biz’s take, but man does this sculpt blow them out of the water.  It’s clean, and every detail is really sharp.  From the shape of the visor to the flow of his hair, this is a pitch-perfect representation of Scott from the ‘90s.  Easily the strongest head sculpt Hasbro’s put out on a Legends figure.  The paint on Cyclops is really solid.  Not perfect, and he could still use some accent work here and there, but the colors are really vibrant, and this guy just pops.  It’s worth noting that the visor is done in gold, which sometimes annoys me on Cyclops figures, but they’ve matched the shade of the gold to the yellow on the rest of the figure, so it reads as the same basic color, just like it does in the comics.  Cyclops includes no accessories of his own, which is a slight letdown.  Given the prevalence of energy effects with recent Hasbro offerings, I was sort of hoping for an extra head with some sort of optic blast attachment, but alas, no luck.  On the plus side, he’s packed with the other leg of Build-A-Figure Warlock, which is one of the bigger pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Oooooh boy, was this guy illusive.  As soon as the news broke that these figures were hitting Target, I started checking for them.  This guy was by far my most wanted of the singles in this set.  Of course, like with last year’s Rogue figure, I was far from alone in that respect.  For several weeks, I arrived just after someone else in the area, seeing every other figure but this guy.  Word broke that these guys were starting to hit Walgreens a little early, so on a whim, I stopped by one while I was out with Super Awesome Girlfriend.  I wasn’t expecting to find him, but before I even made it all the way down the aisle, I saw his colors, and there he was, right at the front of the shelf.  I may or may not have skipped out of the store after paying for him….

This is my favorite Legends figure to date, which is no small feat.  He’s not a perfect figure, but he’s everything I wanted from a Cyclops Legends figure.  This is the Cyclops I’ve been waiting for since 2002, and I couldn’t be more happy to have him.

#1268: Marvel’s Polaris

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

MARVEL’S POLARIS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Magnetic, electric, and gravitic fields are no match for Polaris, a super being with the ability to control and manipulate magnetism.”

Remember how much of a “finally” figure Sunfire was?  Yeah, he’s about to be topped.  Today’s focus is Lorna Dane, aka Polaris, who may or may not be the daughter of Magneto (they’ve gone back and forth on that a few times).  She’s had only three figures in the past and two of those three were nothing more than Rogue repaints.  And, on top of that, she’s never had a Marvel Legends figure, which has been rather frustrating to me, since she and Havok are two of my favorite X-Men.  But here she is!  Let’s get this figure reviewed!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Polaris—sorry, *Marvel’s* Polaris—is figure 4 in the Warlock Series of Marvel Legends.  Polaris has had a number of rather different looks over the years.  Like Dazzler, there are some dueling opinions about which look deserved to get a figure first.  Hasbro’s opted to go with a more classic incarnation of the character, specifically the more modern take on her original design, from the period when she and Havok were galavanting around in space with the Star Jammers.  It’s a decent choice, since it can work in both modern and classic set-ups pretty well.  I do wish we had a Havok that matched up with her (I’ve become increasingly bummed that the Juggernaut Series Havok didn’t at least include an extra headband-wearing head), but she doesn’t look horribly out of place with the last one.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Polaris is built on the Phoenix body (albeit with a slightly modified upper torso to add a peg hole for the cape), which is a pretty good starting point.  She’s got a brand new head…I think.  A few people have claimed she shares her face with Scarlet Witch.  The facial structure on the two is certainly similar, but I’m not sure it’s identical.  At the very least, the head would have needed some sizable retooling, as the two hairpieces affix differently.  Regardless, the head sculpt is pretty decently handled.  It’s not my go-to look for Polaris, but she matches up pretty well with the depictions of her when she had this costume.  Lorna also gets add-on pieces for her cape and wrist bands.  The cape looks to be new.  I’m not super crazy about how it sits on the shoulders, but it’s a decent piece overall. Certainly one of Hasbro’s better capes. The bands are taken from the ‘90s Jean Grey from the Rocket Raccoon Series, and while they aren’t a 100% match for the comics design, they’re close enough to work.  As far as paint goes, Polaris is about what we’ve come to expect from the recent Legends figures.  The work is all nice and clean, and the colors are pretty vibrant.  my figure’s got a small spot of green in the middle of her left hand, which is slightly annoying, but the placement is such that it’s not super noticeable.  On the plus side, the face in particular is a lot cleaner than some of the prior Legends, and I like the accent work on the hair.  I do wish the hair was a bit brighter, just to stand out a bit more, but the shade of Lorna’s hair has shifted a lot in the comics, and this one is certainly still an accurate choice.  Polaris is packed with a pair of energy effects pieces.  These are the same ones used for both Havok and Wonder Man, and they’re starting to get a little worn, if I’m honest.  I mean, they work alright for Lorna’s power set, and the green is cool, but they feel slightly redundant here.  Maybe if the same pieces weren’t used for Havok, a character she’s pretty much guaranteed to spend all of her time with on the shelf, I’d be slightly more forgiving.  Isolated from the re-use, they’re still pretty cool, so I guess it’s fair.  Lorna also includes the right leg of the Build-A-Figure Warlock.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Technically, this is the second of this figure that I got.  When the Warlock Series first started hitting stores, I enlisted the help of my parents to try and track them down.  They ended up finding Polaris and Colossus for me at a Target nearer to them.  Of course, they live about 10 hours away, which means any figure they get for me has to be shipped down, so there was a bit of a wait involved.  In the mean time, I was looking for the other figures and came across a second Polaris, and since she was the one figure in the set that my Dad also wanted, I picked up the second and let him keep the one he grabbed for me.  Yay?  Anyway, I’m glad to have this figure.  I like Lorna a lot, and getting a Legends version of her, especially in essentially her classic costume, is really great.  Of course, I wouldn’t say no to X-Factor versions of her and Havok, if Hasbro’s feeling generous…

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