Tag Archives: Okoye Series

#1564: Okoye

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

OKOYE

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Remember on Wednesday, when I reviewed Nakia?  And I mentioned not knowing a whole lot about the character?  Well, that goes double for today’s subject, Okoye.  I know she’s played by Danai Gurira from The Walking Dead….and that’s really about it.  And, of course, as the Build-A-Figure, there’s no packaging bio for me to fall back on.  A quick glance at her very short Marvel Wiki entry tells me she’s another of T’Challa’s body guards, so there’s that.  Now she’s got a figure, and I’m reviewing it here today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Okoye (not “Okay” as my spellcheck keeps insisting) is, as noted above, the Build-A-Figure for the recent Black Panther-themed series of Marvel Legends.  The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation.  Construction-wise, this figure is very similar to the Nakia figure, which is sensible given their similar employment.  It’s worth noting, though, that she has a completely unique sculpt, which I will admit was rather a surprise to me.  I had really expected some shared parts here, but I’m glad Hasbro went for screen accurate over economical.  I was a little disappointed to find that Okoye’s articulation was a bit more restricted than Nakia, especially at the elbows.  That said, she’s still very posable.  It just makes getting her spear in both hands a little more difficult.  Fortunately, her sculpt is just as strong as Nakia’s, delivering a very detail-filled sculpt that really looks like what we’ve seen of Okoye from the promos.  Her head has a pretty solid likeness of Gurira, which I think is a lot stronger than any of McFarlane’s attempts with their Michonne figures.  You can really tell who this is supposed to be.  I also like that they’ve given her a stern and serious expression that still manages to avoid having her look too much like a mannequin.  I think the paint plays a big part in that too.  Okoye has the face printing again, and she’s by far the best example I’ve seen.  There’s also some really sharp work on her head tattoos.  The rest of the body is also pretty decent, though I do wish there were some sort of accent work on her wrist bracers; they look a little goofy with just the straight gold plastic.  Build-A-Figures being accessories themselves, they don’t tend to be too heavy on extras.  Okoye does include her spear, though, which is certainly a plus, and essentially puts her on par with the rest of the assortment.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Since I don’t really know Okoye, I wasn’t initially sure I was going to complete this Build-A-Figure.  Of course, before I knew it, I’d ended up with all but two of her pieces.  Tim offered me his Killmonger piece, and I found Panther in fairly short order, so there we go.  As with Nakia, it’s a figure I wasn’t really expecting anything from, but one I’m actually rather happy with.  And, for those of you keeping track at home, this is the second Build-A-Figure of a character I don’t know that Hasbro has managed to get me to complete.  I think I’m just too easy a target at this point.

#1563: Invincible Iron Man

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

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Technological upgrades and weapons help Iron Man bring order to any battle.”

Since Tim took the last Build-A-Figure contributing figure in the latest series of Marvel Legends, I suppose I’ll just round the main series out by looking at the only figure in the set *not* to come with a piece of Okoye.  It’s an Iron Man.  I know, that’s very different and unusual.  No, wait, it’s the other thing.  Predictable and highly expected.  Yeah, that’s it.  Iron Man’s been a fixture of Marvel Legends since its start, so there’s precedent, I suppose.  Plus, with his near limitless armor variations, there are plenty of good excuses for new figures.  Let’s go with that.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Invincible Iron Man is ostensibly part of the Okoye Series of Marvel Legends.  Like Namor and Black Bolt before him, he doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with Panther, but I guess Hasbro just really wanted a known quantity in this assortment, sort of like when they did the same exact thing for the first Guardians assortment back in 2014.  Maybe it’ll actually work out for this time and stores won’t still be trying to unload this Iron Man four years from now like what happened with the Space Armor.  Believe it or not, this is actually the first main-series-released Iron Man since the Civil War-based Mark 46 from 2016, and the first comic-based Tony since 2015.  That seems kind of crazy to me. The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  This Iron Man is based his armor from Marvel’s 2015 “All-New, All-Different” relaunch.  I’m actually quite a fan of this design, so I’m happy to see it chosen for this spot.  What makes me even happier is that it got a dedicated original sculpt.  It does a very nice job of translating the armor’s sleek design into plastic form, and also does a pretty solid job of keeping all of the posability up to what it should be.  From a structural standpoint, this figure feels rather similar to the Mk 46, just a bit skinnier.  I really liked the 46, so I’m definitely on board with this figure taking after it.  I only have one complaint about the sculpt, and it’s something totally confined to my figure.  He’s got a divot on the right side of his helmeted head, which makes it look like he’s taken some serious damage on that side.  It’s fortunately not visible from every angle, but once you see it, it’s hard to un-see it.  Still, that’s a one-off fluke, and it can’t be held against the figure as a whole.  I’m not even that bugged by it, since this figure also includes an unmasked Tony Stark head, which I absolutely love, and will probably end up displaying on the figure most of the time.  It’s just such a sharp and character-filled sculpt, and it looks really good on the body.  The paint on this figure is about on par with other Iron Men from the line.  Lots of red and gold.  The application is clean, and I like the warm-toned colors they’ve chosen.  The unmasked head gets the best work really, with a paint job that accentuates the character of the sculpt very nicely.  In addition to the extra head, Iron Man is packed with a pair of hands open for blasting, two blast effect pieces (re-used from the Mk 46), and a clip-on cannon piece.  The open hands look nice, but I was sad to discover they didn’t have wrist hinges like the main hands.  I’m delighted to see the repulser blasts crop up again, and they continue to add to the posing options for compatible Iron Men.  The cannon seems a bit extraneous to me, but it’s not without merit, I suppose.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Heavy hitters tend to be the thorn in any collectors side, but this was an Iron Man I was actually quite looking forward to.  As I noted above, I like the design, and he was the only character missing from the ANAD Avengers line-up.  Super Awesome Girlfirend ended up getting me this figure at the same time as Nakia.  I gotta say, I really like this one.  It’s clear that Hasbro put in the effort to just make a good figure all-around, and this guy’s possibly the best Legends Iron Man they’ve released.  Small QC issues aside, he’s pretty awesome.

Guest Review #0049: Erik Killmonger

Posted by Tim Marron in Guest Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ERIK KILLMONGER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

Aha! I bet you didn’t expect to see me reviewing figures again? Well as it turns out, I just so happen to fill in a very specific void in Ethan’s action figure collection. That void’s name is Erik. Isn’t that a name that just inspires terror? Erik. That definitely ranks near the top of the list for imposing comic book character names: Bloodwulf, Violator, Slayback, and now Erik. What’s that? I mean, yeah, he’s got a last name too, but “Killmonger” isn’t in the least bit scary and makes him sound like an office temp, so let’s stick with Erik. Now, is Erik’s figure any good? Let’s have a look.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Erik is part of the 2018 Black Panther wave of Marvel Legends, just in time for the movie in February. Now, full honesty, I have next to no idea who Erik is in the context of the comics aside from an antagonist to T’challa, but what I do know is that I’m digging the leopard print in his suited-up look from the trailers. Rather disappointingly, this pattern doesn’t show up all that well on the figure. It’s definitely there, or at least an attempt at it, but it’s just too dark, especially on the helmet. Based on the trailers, it also seems like the patterns on his legs should be gold but they are purely sculptural with no paint. Overall, I feel like the gold in his costume is just too sparse and where it is is too dark. His helmet gets the worst of it as it kind of looks like they gave it one or two passes with a dry brush and left it at that. The gold bits on his hips also suffer from a little bit of bleed. The collar is actually a separate piece of plastic laid into the torso. It’s not detachable or loose, but it’s worth noting that is isn’t paint and therefore has a bit of a different look to the rest of the gold on Erik. There’s a lot of sculpted detail all over the figure, the extent of which makes me think he is completely new tooling but if I’m wrong I’m sure Ethan will chime in with a parenthetical. The quality of the sculpt definitely helps mitigate some of the shortcomings of the paint but doesn’t fully make up for them. The tribal-looking dotted line pattern reaches every single major piece of the figure and even some minor ones like the backs of the knees and hunching shoulders, so that’s pretty impressive. Going in the opposite direction as the paint, the head has by far the most sculpted detail. I can’t tell if the symbols on the sides of his head are meant to mean something but it does look a little like someone face-rolled an emoji keyboard and wound up with diamond ring, airplane, Notre Dame cathedral, and the Eiffel Tower. Maybe Erik has a special friend back in Paris? Why not? I’m not above baseless speculation. What’s even better about the sculpt is that it works very well in conjunction with the articulation, all 32 points of it. For a character like Erik, who, let’s face it, is functionally identical to Black Panther, poseability is pretty important and the figure delivers on that. In particular, I appreciate the inclusion of the hunching shoulders which are often reserved for Spider-Man figures. They allow for more dramatic poses, most notably any kind of leaping or lunging poses to which the figure is very well suited. In addition, thanks to Erik’s included accessories, those lunging leaping attacks can be made with either clawing hands or grasping hands so he can equip some slightly more traditional weapons. From what I can see in promo material, the short spear thing looks spot on, aside from mine being a little warped in the package. The sword is close but the one in the trailers and posters has more of a pointed tip rather than being rounded. There’s also some blade detail that’s missing from the toy, but it’s possible, and in fact quite likely that Hasbro had to come up with the tooling based on early pre-production images that don’t quite match the final cut, so I’m not mad about it. Erik also comes with the left leg to the Build-A-Figure, Okoye, but I guess there’s nothing saying he couldn’t just swing it around like some sort of weird club if you really wanted.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve been kind of weirdly hyped about the Black Panther movie coming out. The titular character was easily one of my favorite parts of Captain America: Civil War, so getting a whole movie about him is just fine by me. Now, why didn’t I get a Panther figure? I actually wasn’t as big a fan of the design of the panther costume from the new figures as I was with the Civil War look. The “golden leopard” look, however, I found quite striking in both the trailer and the figure. Interestingly enough, Erik is my first and, currently, only Marvel Legends figure in my collection but I’d say he’s definitely a good one to start with, disappointing paint aside. Maybe if I’m feeling crafty I’ll see about gilding him up myself one day.

#1562: Nakia

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

NAKIA

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A member of the Dora Milage, Nakia protects the reigning Black Panther with strength and poise.”

I will admit, my knowledge of Black Panther’s supporting cast, especially in recent years, is not the most extensive.  So, for most of the movie-based product, I’m just sort of going along with the flow.  Today’s focus, Nakia, is one of those characters I don’t know so well (apart from knowing she became a villain in the comics, a turn that she will supposedly not be making in the film).  But, hey, the MCU hasn’t really failed me yet, right?  Plus, she’s played by Lupita Nyong’o, who already impressed me with her turn as Maz Kanata in the last two Star Wars movies, so I have high hopes.  Onto the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Nakia is the second film-based figure in the Okoye Series of Marvel Legends.  It’s actually somewhat surprising to see her turn up here, since Hasbro has a tendency to leave out supporting heroes from the solo-movie tie-ins.  Sure, the Ragnarok assortment had Loki, but he’s, you know, Loki.  But, in what appears to be the running theme for this series, I don’t really mind what the logic was if it got me this figure.  Nakia stands a little over 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  While the actual articulation count isn’t really any higher than the average Legend (in fact, it’s a little lower), the range of motion on Nakia’s joints is truly an impressive feat of engineering.  Hasbro’s designed a figure that can get into all manner of deep poses, and the best part is it doesn’t really impact the quality of the sculpt at all.  Speaking of that sculpt, it’s worth noting that Nakia’s sculpt is totally unique to her.  It’s also pretty awesome as well.  There’s a ton of texture work all throughout, and a great set of realistic proportions.  The head also has a pretty spot-on likeness of Nyong’o, which certainly outpaces the T’Challa head from the Black Panther figure.  Nakia’s paint work is pretty solid.  I particularly like the brightness of the colors, especially on her tunic.  Nakia is also sporting the printed face we’ve seen a few times before, but I think it looks better here than it has on the last few figures I’ve seen it on.  Th figure is packed with a pair of weapons which are…big hoop things?  I don’t know what they are, but they certainly look cool.  She’s also got a small bladed weapon, as well as the torso of Okoye.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Nakia was grabbed for me by Super Awesome Girlfriend.  Nakia was one of the two figures that her Gamestop got in from this series, and she thought I might want her.  Like I said in the intro, I don’t know the character all that well, but I definitely like this figure.  I’m happy I got one, and I’m excited to see the character in action.

#1561: Sub-Mariner

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

SUB-MARINER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“With incredible strength and swimming speed, Sub-Mariner is a powerful force on land and sea.”

Patience is a virtue.  There’s a phrase that holds a lot of weight in the toy collecting world.  Be it waiting for an announcement of a certain character, waiting to see a prototype, waiting for the figure to make it to retail, or even waiting to find that figure.  Sometimes, it’s the waiting for a specific version of a character that gets you, though.  Take for instance, the Sub-Mariner,  Marvel’s oldest super hero, who has spent the vast majority of his almost 80 year career in a green speedo.  And yet, in 15 years of Marvel Legends, we haven’t gotten a proper speedo-ed Namor.*  Kind of crazy, right?  Well, that’s finally changed.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Sub-Mariner is part of the recent Okoye Series of Marvel Legends, as one of three comics-inspired figures in the assortment.  As with Black Bolt, the presence of Namor in what’s ostensibly a Black Panther assortment is a little baffling, but I’m hardly going to argue with any logic that finally gets me a classic Namor.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Like his Walgreens-exclusive predecessor, this Namor is built on the Reaper body, and makes use of the shared Namor/Wonder Man wrist bracers.  He also uses the shins from the last Namor, allowing him to keep his signature ankle wings.  On top of all that, the figure gets a new head, torso, pelvis, and feet.  I had honestly expected the figure to just use the same head as WG Namor.  While that head has a few issues, I thought it was pretty serviceable, certainly enough for Hasbro to keep using it.  Hasbro thought otherwise, and instead gave us an all-new sculpt that rivals the old TB Namor in terms of perfectness for the character.  This is Namor, no doubt about it.  The hair’s got that perfect square shape, his eyebrows are arched just the right way, and he’s got just the right amount of pomposity.  I expected the torso to be at least slightly tweaked, so that Namor wouldn’t go totally nipple-less, but I was happy to see Hasbro went for a total re-sculpt, so as to keep him consistent with the slightly slimmer build of the WG Namor.  The pelvis is another case of a surprise new piece.  Given the scales on the last figure (and the recent Vintage Captain America) release, I was entirely expecting for those to be painted on.  It’s awesome that they weren’t, and adds a lot to this figure, keeping his sculpt from being as devoid of detail as it could have been.  Lastly, there are the feet.  They’re pretty straightforward, but well sculpted nonetheless.  The paint on Sub-Mariner isn’t super complex, but it’s all pretty great.  The details are all nice and clean, and the metallic accenting on the speedo certainly pops.  They’ve changed the skin tone since the last figure, which is a bit of a bummer if you wanted to swap heads, but it’s not terribly different.  This is also more consistent with Namor’s usual palette.  The figure is packed with an extra bearded head, which more closely resembles the prior Namor, to the point of almost looking like a different person.  He’s also go the same two pairs of hands, as well as his trident.  I was happy that he got a proper trident this time; Odin’s spear just didn’t cut it last time.  This one’s awesome.  Lastly, Namor is packed with both of Okoye’s arms. 

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After the surprise of finding Black Bolt at Walgreens, I was pretty much immediately on the lookout for this guy.  I was not alone in this endeavor, evidently, and Namor was the notable exception pretty much every time I saw the assortment in stores.  I found Namor almost by accident, really.  He was at a Target I check on a fairly regular basis; I’d stopped in to look for him with no luck, so I bought some Black Series figures I’d been looking for instead.  I ended up needing to stop by for something else the next day, and just walked down the toy aisle, not really expecting to find anything, and there he was.  Yay.  I really like this figure.  A lot.  He’s the Namor I’ve been waiting for pretty much since Marvel Legends started.  Now I have him, and I’m content with my Namor sub-set of my collection.

*Yes, I know Hasbro put out a speedo-clad Namor in 2007’s Ronan the Accuser Series, but cutting straight to the point, that figure sucked.  The less said, the better.

#1560: Black Panther

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

BLACK PANTHER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A warrior and defender of Wakanda, T’Challa is the hero of legend, Black Panther.”

That’s definitely a better bio than the last Panther Legends release I looked at.  Maybe a bit on the short side, but at least they mentioned the basics, and didn’t go unnecessarily vague, right?

So, the release of the Black Panther film is just a few weeks out now, and there’s pretty much no way to miss the onslaught of merchandise hitting all of your favorite retail establishments now.  I’ve already looked at one figure from the associated Marvel Legends assortment, but it wasn’t actually a Panther-related character.  Today, I’ve decided to go with a figure that’s about as related to Black Panther as you can be: Black Panther himself!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Black Panther is the first figure in the Okoye Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s one of the three movie-based figures in the set (four if you count the Okoye Build-A-Figure).  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation.  Panther’s gotten an upgrade to his suit since his appearance in Civil War, so this figure gets an all-new sculpt to match the design.  He gains a set of butterfly joints on the shoulders, which adds a fair bit of mobility to the figure.  With that said, the joints themselves are rather tight, so not a ton of extra movement.  The rest of the articulation has also been tweaked from the CW figure, so this figure can get into some deeper stances and the like, which is certainly a bonus.  With that said, I can’t say I like this figure’s overall sculpt quite as much as the CW version.  I think it’s partly due to me not liking the new design quite as much as the first, but also due to the articulation being a little more obvious this time.  It’s still not a *bad* sculpt at all, just not quite as good as a figure that’s admittedly one of Hasbro’s very best sculpts in the line.  Like his predecessor, Black Panther’s paint work is somewhat on the basic side, being mostly just some silver accent work on an otherwise black figure.  It’s all pretty clean, and it’s accurate to the source material, so that’s a plus.  Panther is packed with an unmasked head, an extra set of hands in fists, and the head of Okoye (for the Build-A-figure; it’s not a creepy memento or anything.)  I liked the last unmasked head a lot, and, on its own, I think this one looks a little better (albeit a little on the pale side).  It’s got the printed face that Hasbro’s been slowly working in, and it looks pretty solid.  The real issue is that the head doesn’t sit particularly well on the body, so I don’t see myself using it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Though I’m reviewing him first, Panther is actually the last figure from this set I grabbed.  Admittedly, I was already pretty happy with the last figure, so this one wasn’t high on my list.  But, then I ended up with all but one of Okoye’s pieces, and I was out and about with the $20 Tim had just paid me back for a Nerf gun I’d grabbed for him, and I found this guy, so I just went for it.  From the perspective of replacing the figure I already loved, this guy doesn’t measure up so great.  If you don’t have the Civil War figure, I think this guy would fair a lot better.  He’s certainly a solid figure, and I can see him being a favorite for a lot of people.