Tag Archives: Mindless One Series

#3538: Mindless One Series Wrap-Up

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

IRON MAN, LADY BULLSEYE, FIST NINJA, & MINDLESS ONE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0017:  The “Marvel Knights” branding exists because of Marvel’s bankruptcy in the late ’90s, which caused them to hand over the publishing rights for a handful of lower tier characters to Event Comics.  The line proved a success, allowing the characters and attitudes of the stories to be folded back into the mainstream Marvel Universe in the mid ’00s.

As someone who’s been following Marvel Legends for pretty much the entirety of its over 20 year run, I’ve encountered an issue more recently where I don’t really feel the need to own *everything* Hasbro puts out for the line.  But, I do still have access to review most of it, so, I’m embracing my new format I launched last summer, and folding it into my tweaked format I launched at the beginning of the year, and here we are with another series wrap-up, where I throw all the figures I opted not to keep into a blender single wrap-up review.  So, let’s jump into another one of these!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Iron Man, Lady Bullseye, and the Fist Ninja are figures 1, 3, and 5, respectively, from the Mindless One Series of Marvel Legends.  There are the last three figures that contribute to the Mindless One Build-A-Figure, which is built by collecting parts from 6 of the 7 figures in the series.

IRON MAN

2022 saw the release of Marvel’s Midnight Suns, a tactical RPG which is *sort of* related to the Marvel comics “Midnight Sons” but only passingly so.  They share some of the same characters and a vaguely supernatural flair, so there’s that.  Since they wanted heavy hitters that the Midnight “Sons” line-up couldn’t provide, the game added some typically less supernatural characters who are nevertheless bigger names.  That included this dude, because you gotta have an Iron Man.  Despite being a kind of forced addition, Iron Man has turned around and also been most of the merchandising for the game (Ghost Rider got a limited release Pop!, but even then, Iron Man got 2 of those, so he still comes out ahead).  And Legends is just another piece in that arsenal.  The figure stands just over 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  He’s a largely parts re-use figure, making use of most of the first  Gamerverse Iron Man body.  It’s a kind of stiff body in terms of articulation; it felt out of date when it was new, and it’s only gotten more so in the years since.  The details also don’t quite match up with the game model, but they’re close enough to fudge it, I suppose.  He does at least get a new head, torso, and shoulder pads, courtesy of sculptor Dennis Chan, to move his design a little closer to the game look.  I generally like them more than the prior pieces, but it feels like there’s something off about the way the neck works, so his head sits up too high.  You can pose it to look a little better, but it remains somewhat awkward to work with.  His color work follows the game aesthetic, making him black and gold.  It’s similar to his Marvel Now! design from the comics, and doesn’t look terrible here.  It’s at least somewhat unique.  The application of the paint is pretty cleanly handled, and isn’t missing any major details, which is a plus.  Iron Man is packed with two sets of hands (in open and fists), as well as two blast effects in red, and the right leg of the Mindless One Build-A-Figure.

LADY BULLSEYE

Hey, you know Bullseye?  Well, make him a woman, and you’ve got Lady Bullseye.  Okay, it’s a touch more involved than that…but not as much as you might think.  Lady Bullseye was introduced during Ed Brubaker’s Daredevil run and hasn’t ever really had anything of note done with her; mostly, she just gets used to stand-in for Bullseye proper when he’s not around.  At the very least, she gets a pretty cool and unique design, rather than just being stuck with some derivation of Bullseye proper’s costume.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and she has 29 points of articulation.  Lady Bullseye’s base is the same combination of existing body parts that Spinneret used.  It’s not a terrible set-up, since it’s got a good articulation scheme and fairly balanced proportions.  It’s only rather frustrating point is how many holes there are on the back of the torso, just from all of its prior uses.  The WCA Spider-Woman had used the Dagger torso to avoid this issue, and it honestly worked pretty well, so it’s a shame they aren’t doing that more.  Lady Bullseye gets a new head sculpt, which is a pretty nice piece.  It matches well with her usual comics depiction, and manages to give her an expression that doesn’t look totally devoid of emotion, which is always a plus, especially for female characters.  Her paint work does a pretty solid job of capturing her distinctive design, and doing it cleanly.  Lady Bullseye is actually pretty well accessorized, with two sets of hands (in fists and gripping), a katanna, two sais, and two fans, as well as the torso piece for the Mindless One Build-A-Figure.

FIST NINJA

The Hand was lacking in derivatives, apparently, so in addition to the ones we already have, we also got “The Fist.”  You know, it’s like a hand, but more violent!  Do you get it?  Do you?  It’s edgy, right?  All joking aside, the Fist may be a pretty tried concept, but they’re part of Chip Zdarksky’s recently wrapped up DD run, which I did actually enjoy.  Also, it ties in well with the King Daredevil figure from this same assortment, which is cool.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  As a derivative of the Hand, the Fist Ninja is, unsurprisingly, using most of the same parts as the standard Hand Ninja.  Honestly, apart from the visible pins, it’s a good set-up of pieces.  The Hand Ninja was a pretty fun figure and, by extension, so is the Fist Ninja.  He gets a new torso, which looks similar to the prior release, but upgrades the articulation scheme, and he also gets a new belt/loincloth piece, which gives him a new spot to stow his sword.  With his sculpt being largely the same, the figure relies on tow things to distinguish him, the first being colors.  He’s not drastically removed from the Hand Ninja, but there’s a fair bit of black accenting the Hand’s predominantly red palette.  I did find the general application of paint to also be sharper on this guy, especially on what we can see of the face. The only thing that slightly annoys me here is the red being ever so slightly different from King Daredevil’s shade.  Why does that annoy me?  I’ll get to that in a moment, when I discuss the other notable change-up from the Hand Ninja: the accessories.  He gets the same sword, as well as one of the two kama from the Hand Ninja, but they’re joined by two sets of hands (in fists and gripping, with the gripping being shared with DD), and an alternate skull head with its own removable hood.  Now, here’s the thing: I’m glad this guy gets the two sets of hands, and it’s cool that the gripping ones are even shared with King DD.  The trouble is that with the shades of red being slightly different between the two, you can’t also use the fists for King DD, which is kind of a bummer.  Ultimately, it’s not really this figure’s fault, though.  In addition to all of his own parts, he also includes the left arm and an extra hand for the Mindless One.

MINDLESS ONE

The Mindless Ones are perhaps one of the more ingenious creations of the early Doctor Strange stories, being a great pre-made army for just about any bad guy to make use of if they so chose.  Despite how tailored they seem to be to unending army building, they’ve never gotten any action figure coverage before this point, which is kind of crazy.  The figure stands just under 7 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  The Mindless One is sporting a brand-new sculpt, which is honestly a touch surprising for a character of this caliber, but certainly welcome.  The sculpt patterned on a more modern incarnation of the Mindless Ones, specifically seeming to be patterned on one of the illustrations from the Marvel: Avengers Alliance game, a frequent source of inspiration for Hasbro’s Legends over the years.  It’s a good sculpt, with plenty of texturing.  He’s big and stocky as well, and the articulation is surprisingly mobile given his size.  His color work is rather on the basic side, since he’s mostly just molded in a dark grey plastic.  He’s got a separate bright red piece for his “eye,” as well as some rather subtle brown accenting on the body.  The Mindless One gets two sets of hands in fists and open gesture, as well as a really cool energy effect piece that plugs into the eye (and is also patterned on the AA illustration).

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

This set was an interesting one for me, because I was honestly not very interested at first glance, but it kind of evolved.  My initial plan was to just get DD, Clea, and Power Man.  Then I decided I wanted to keep the Build-A-Figure.  Then, after getting the set in hand, I was invested in Blade enough to keep him as well.  Then I shot the photos, and divvied up the reviews and set up the schedule, and felt really confident about what I was keeping…and then I broke on the Fist Ninja too.  I know, I broke the format!  Ultimately, I like this set a lot more than I’d expected to.  The Mindless One is a ton of fun, as is Clea, and they’re both great debuts for the characters.  Blade and Luke are great versions of the characters, and DD is a solid, fun variant.  And, clearly the Fist Ninja was cool enough to push me to keep him.  Honestly, Lady Bullseye only got cut because I have no real attachment to the character.  Iron Man is the only one that I feel is truly a weak figure, and that’s really just because there’s so many Iron Men to choose from.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with these figures to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3535: Clea

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

CLEA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0014:  Despite how many figures her husband Stephen Strange has received over the years, this marks the very first action figure for Clea.

My comics reading is, at its core, very heavily influenced by my dad.  In part, that’s based on what he would buy me to read as a kid, which frequently included copies of some of his favorite stories from when he was growing up.  However, it’s also due to us effectively sharing a reading pile when I was growing up.  This resulted in some quirkier books that he was following becoming my first real introduction to certain characters.  In the early ’00s, Kurt Busiek had a run on Defenders, which eventually spun into The Order, where the “heavy hitter” Defenders went rogue, and it was up to the second stringers (namely Nighthawk, Hellcat, and Valkyrie) to stop them.  At one point, they assemble a team of distaff counterparts to Dr. Strange, Hulk, Namor, and Silver Surfer, which, amongst others features Clea as the counterpart to her husband.  It marked my first introduction to Clea, and it’s stuck with me since.  It sure has taken a long time for a figure of her to finally show up, but here we are.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Clea is figure 6 in the Mindless One Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s the final of the singles, and something of an outlier, being a more mystically-themed figure in a set of otherwise Marvel Knights and street-level heroes.  On the flipside, however, she’s the only one that’s got any real ties to the Mindless One Build-A-Figure, so she’s got that going for her.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  She’s making use of a decent little bank of re-used parts, largely centered around a slightly upgraded Phoenix base body.  She’s got a new head, upper torso, and sash piece, which add up to a solid approximation of Clea’s classic design.  All in all, a nice selection of new parts, though her hair on the head sculpt is perhaps a touch flat.  Still, overall not bad.  Clea’s color work is fun, because it’s a lot of purples, and you don’t see those shades quite as often.  The face get’s some very clean, very lifelike work, and the patterning on the legs is surprisingly well handled.  Clea is packed with two sets of hands and two of the swirly effect pieces in purple, as well as the right arm of the Mindless One Build-A-Figure.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I don’t know that I’d say Clea’s a character I had an undying need for or anything, but at the same time, it’s kind of surprising that she’s never gotten any sort of figure before.  So, in that regard, this figure is pretty cool, and she also turned out pretty nicely on top of that.  But mostly, she makes me want to put together a full line-up of the distaff counterparts from The Order.  What are the odds we might see a Ardina?  Probably really low, right?

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

#3533: Luke Cage – Power Man

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

LUKE CAGE — POWER MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0012: Luke Cage’s first Marvel Legends release was in Toy Biz’s second-to-last series during their run on the line.

When I sat down to write today’s review, I thought to myself “should I maybe review the original Toy Biz Legends Luke Cage?”  And then I remembered that I *already* did, way back in the first year of the site.  Look, you write 3000 of these things, and you start to forget some things.  I looked back on that old review and saw that I was actually pretty brief on its “Me Half” segment.  I didn’t even mention where I got it.  The thing about that particular series was that it’s one of the ones that I actually wanted all of the figures from, and it’s also one where I didn’t want the Build-A-Figure at all.  They hit right around Christmas, so I actually got a good chunk of them as gifts.  Luke is one of two I didn’t get, but I used some of my Christmas money to buy him at Cosmic Comix, and I was actually pretty happy to get him at the time.  That figure held up better than some of the others from the set, but he’s still more than 15 years old, so you need some updates from time to time.  And I’m certainly not one to say no to a classic Luke Cage!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke Cage Power Man is figure 4 in the Mindless Ones Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s a pretty natural fit for the overall Marvel Knights theme of the set.  This is actually Luke’s first standard release Legends figure since the Toy Biz days, as well as his first proper update to the ’70s look.  The figure stands 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  Luke’s sculpt is an all-new one, which is a pretty solid offering.  It’s clean and well defined, and definitely gets the outfit down.  The head’s a little bit bland in terms of expression; I don’t mind a Luke that’s slightly less angry than the first Legend, but this one feels like it dials things back maybe a touch too far.  Still, it’s hardly a bad sculpt.  The only other quirk to the sculpt is how the shirt works; the torso portion is a separate piece from his actual chest, which isn’t generally a bad look, but the holes for the arms are cut a little too large, revealing the chest beneath.  It’s looks a little awkward during certain posing.  Luke’s color work is a lot of molded colors, which works well to keep him clean looking.  He gets paint on his face, which is clean and lifelike.  Luke is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture, as well as the left leg to the Mindless One Build-A-Figure.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I’ve not gotten any Legends Luke Cages since the first one, because I just never found one that I liked in the mean time.  I’m not opposed to his more recent designs, but I guess I just hadn’t found the right toy version of any of those looks.  Whatever the case, I’m always going to have a soft spot for this look, so its announcement was definitely cool.  In hand, he’s not perfect, but still solid, which makes him a pretty spot-on successor to the original.  Now, I’d really love a ’70s Iron Fist to go with him.

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

#3530: Blade

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

BLADE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0009: Blade’s first Marvel Legends figure was movie based, and it would take until 2017 for him to actually get a comics-based Legend.  At least the follow-up wasn’t *quite* that bad.

My first introduction to Blade was Spider-Man: The Animated Series, a depiction that made me not jive so much with the Wesley Snipes version of the character from the first movie.  In my defense, I was also kind of 5, and an R-rated super hero movie really wasn’t for me.  Whatever the case, it’s kind of created a division between me and the character, so I never really got into him, beyond perhaps the novelty of him and Moon Knight being each other’s equivalent marks in Marvel’s ’70s horror books.  I do really like his ’70s design, hokey as it may be, but that one’s been rather light on the toy coverage.  As it stands, I haven’t actually owned a Blade figure at all…until now.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blade is figure 2 in the Mindless One Series of Marvel Legends.  It’s a Marvel Knights themed set, and he definitely vibes with that (enough that he’s been in both of the two Knights assortments).  Despite including a Build-A-Figure piece, Blade’s this assortment’s double pack.  It makes sense, given how popular his prior figures have been, but it definitely feels like it may have been a late call on Hasbro’s part.  The figure stands just shy of 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Construction wise, he’s using the torso from the last Blade, as well as the arms from ’90s Havok.  Beyond that, he appears to be an all-new set-up.  The sculpt for this guy is pretty solid.  The only real downside I can really find is that his arms can’t really sit flush with his torso, but that’s always been an issue with this mold.  The design here looks to be an amalgamation of a few Blade designs from over the years, settling on something that generally approximates the overall vibe of his early ’00s appearances, post live action movie redesign.  It’s not first appearance Blade, but it’s certainly a very memorable take on him, so I get it.  It’s also very definitely a post-bitten by Morbius Blade, as the headsculpt so clearly shows, with his vampire teeth-baring expression.  It’s certainly a far cry from the last figure’s very pointedly calm expression.  It’s quite dynamic, to be sure.  Blade’s color work is very dark, as expected.  It’s not all strictly black, though.  The jacket and boots are, but the body beneath is a dark grey, and he’s even got a red lining on the coat.  There’s not a ton of paint, with it mostly being limited to the head.  What’s there is very cleanly applied, though.  Blade is packed with a sword, two stakes, two hand-held blade thingies, two pairs of hands (gripping and fists), and the head and energy effect to the Mindless One Build-A-Figure.  That’s actually quite a lot, making Blade one of the few Legends recently to not feel at all light on on extras.  I’d personally have liked an extra head, but I can’t fault them for going with what they did.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I was prepared not to be all that into this figure.  Like I said, my attachment to Blade is minimal.  But, I get *why* this figure got made, and I do like this design more than any of the prior releases.  Ultimately, I was pleasantly surprised by this one.  He’s actually pretty fun.  I’m still holding out hope on that ’70s style Blade sometime soon, but until then, this guy’s a respectable stand-in.

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

#3528: Daredevil

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

DAREDEVIL

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Fun FiQ Fact #0007:  This is the 20th Daredevil figure I’ve looked at here on the site! Sub-FiQ Fact, I know I just used this for Nightwing last week, but it’s also amusing that the two baton boy acrobats are so close in numbers, right?

I’ve been off and on with Daredevil’s comic runs pretty much since I started reading comics.  Waid and Samnee’s run from a few years back is one of my absolute favorite comics runs ever, and I dropped off the book for a bit after that because, well, how do you follow that up?  I jumped back in with Chip Zdarsky’s run when it started, and while it didn’t hook me quite the same way as the Waid/Samnee run, it was still a strong run in its own right.  It removes Matt from the title role for a while, granting Elektra the spotlight, but when Matt came back, he got a swanky new look, and I’m pretty much always down for a new Daredevil look.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Daredevil is the unnumbered figure in the Mindless One Series of Marvel Legends, which is our second Marvel Knights-themed series, following up on the Man-Thing Series from way back in 2017.  Curiously, while DD is the unnumbered figure and is sans-BaF piece, he’s *not* the set’s double pack in the case, which is a bit of a change-up to how things normally are.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  His articulation set-up is notably a little stiff, especially for a character like Matt, but its generally comparable to the Bucky Cape base that he’s been on previously, I suppose.  It’s also pinless, so at least it looks pretty smooth.  Matt gets a brand new sculpt, based on his “King Daredevil” look from the comics.  It’s essentially taking the costume Elektra was wearing during her time with the mantle and adapting to Matt, which isn’t a terrible way of handling things.  Since taking up the look was preceded by Matt doing a stint in prison, he grew out a beard, which is probably the biggest real visual change, though he also gains a lot more black, as well as adding wraps on the feet to the handwraps that have become a go-to for modern updates to the DD look. The sculpt generally translates the look into figure form pretty decently, with the only specific nit being that his collar piece is missing the hood section from the comics. It sort of came and went there, though, so it’s possible it was actually meant to be a separate piece. Otherwise, the sculpt conveys the book design well, and there’s plenty of depth of detail mixed in. His color work is pretty basic, largely relying on molded colors. Weirdly, his shoulder joints are molded in red, despite them only being visible in sections of the shoulder that are black, which is annoying. Also, his ears wind up being painted to match his beard, which is just plain incorrect. At least the red/black break up is very clean. DD is packed with his usual two piece billy club set-up, as well as a longer bladed staff. It definitely feels light. At the very least, some extra hands would be appreciated, but a hood piece would also have been nice.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

This guy felt pretty inevitable once we got the Elektra version, and it was ultimately his announcement that truly sold me on that figure. I dig a good Matt DD variant. This one isn’t as strong as other recent DD figures, but he’s still a respectably fun figure in his own right.

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