Tag Archives: Talos

#3497: Talos

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

TALOS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Talos, a celebrated Skrull warrior, grapples with what it means to be a leader as he finds himself at odds with those closest to him.”

2008’s “Secret Invasion” storyline, which ran through most of the Marvel line for that year, isn’t a favorite of mine.  Coming from an era of moving from one sweeping status quo shift to the next, with no room to breath between, it represents a middle point of me growing very tired with the direction of the Marvel universe.  The MCU’s plan to adapt the crossover into a television miniseries wasn’t one that initially *thrilled* me, but they’ve made me enjoy other stories I didn’t much care for in the comics, so I was hopeful.  Unfortunately, the end results the first time I’ve truly, thoroughly disliked an MCU project from start to…well, technically not finish because I stopped watching after episode 4.  One of the things I was honestly looking forward to the most was lead Skrull Talos, who was my favorite part of Captain Marvel, getting more focus.  While Ben Mendelsohn does the best he can with the material he’s been given, and Talos’s character arc is at least one of the show’s least compromised, it’s still a little bit disappointing.  At the very least, he got an action figure out of the whole thing, so I guess that’s a consolation prize.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Talos is figure 2 in the Hydra Stomper Series of Marvel Legends, which serves as the fourth Disney+ centered assortment of figures.  The line-up is a grab bag of characters from different shows, and Talos is one of two figures from Secret Invasion.  This is Talos’ second Legends figure, after his figure from Captain Marvel.  This one depicts him in his more relaxed civilian garb.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  He’s using a pretty basic set-up for articulation, overall, but he does notably get a ball-joint at the base of the neck, rather than one of the more typical set-ups for the line.  It’s not a bad set-up, mind you, just different.  Talos is using the jacket and arms from Jimmy Woo, but it appears that everything else is new.  It’s honestly a bit surprising.  Obviously, the head I expected to be new, but the legs are kind of the sort of thing I would have expected to see re-use on.  Not that I’m complaining.  The new head is a marked improvement on the old one; the prior figure was working from preliminary designs, while this one gets the finalized ones, including a really solid likeness of Mendelsohn under all of the prosthesis.  The figure has a second head, based on Talos’ human guise, portrayed by Mendelsohn sans make-up.  It’s another really solid likeness, putting Hasbro’s previous attempts of the actor as Krennic to shame.  The other new parts are more standardized in appearance, but work well in terms of quality.  Talos’ color work is a lot of molded colors, which works well enough.  He gets a ton of detailing on both heads, however, and they look really nice, and very lifelike.  In addition to the aforementioned alternate head, Talos also gets the same hands as the standard, but in peach to match his alternate head, as well as the right leg of the Hydra Stomper Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like I said in the intro, I really liked Talos in Captain Marvel, and while his figure from that movie was passable at the time, it’s not aged incredibly well.  While I didn’t care for the source material, there’s no denying that this Talos is a real improvement to the original, and just a really strong figure in his own right.  The only downside to him is that the new neck connection means that I can’t swap his heads onto the old Talos or Krennic figures to let them benefit from the improved likenesses.

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.

#1965: Talos

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

TALOS

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Talos, perhaps the most cunning spy in all of the Skrull Empire, is a master of shape-shifting and international espionage.  An integral leader in the bitter Kree-Skrull war, the fearsome Talos will do whatever it takes to protect his own.”

Back in late 2011/early 2012, when we were eagerly trying to squeeze out ever possible detail we could about the upcoming Avengers film, the identity of Loki’s then-unconfirmed army (referred to in promotional materials as simply “REDACTED”) was one of the biggest sources of fan theorizing.  A very common guess were the Skrull, a well-established alien race in the Marvel comics, who were just coming off of a pretty big popularity boost thanks to 2008’s “Secret Invasion” cross over.  When the identity of the army was revealed as the Chitauri, the Ultimate Universe’s equivalent to the Skrull, it was confirmed that they were chosen due to the Skrull being tied up in the Fantastic Four licensing, and that the MCU wouldn’t be seeing their own Skrull Empire any time soon.  What a difference seven years makes.  Now, we’re not only getting our first taste of the MCU Skrull in Captain Marvel, but also getting toy coverage, courtesy of the film’s villain Talos, who I’m looking at today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Talos is numbered figure 2 in the Kree Sentry Series of Marvel Legends, and is yet another Captain Marvel film-based figure for the assortment.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and has 30 points of articulation.  Talos is kind of the antithesis of the Nick Fury figure from yesterday in that, while he looks all-new at first glance, there’s actually a sizable chunk of re-use going on.  His torso, pelvis, and legs are all re-used from the Ragnarok version of Loki.  While the two designs aren’t exactly matches for each other in the films, the use of a new overlay piece on the torso, plus a new head and arms means that the only exposed similarities between the two are the legs, and they’re honestly close enough to the movie design that it works out okay.  The new pieces are pretty nicely rendered, with the head really being the star piece of work.  It seems like it’s a pretty solid match for Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos make-up, and the details are nice and sharp.  The jacket overlay piece is a little on the bulky side, but it’s far from the worst we’ve seen at this scale, and is nowhere near a limiting as similar pieces have proved.  It’s also removable, should you want to mix up his look, or possibly have a few non-Talos Skrull soldiers.  The paintwork on Talos isn’t anything super involved, but it’s still pretty nice looking.  The subtle purple lining the uniform works quite well, and there’s a nice lifelike quality to the way the face has been handled.  Talos includes no specific accessories of his own, but does still have the leg of the Kree Sentry BaF.  It’s a shame we couldn’t get anything character-specific, especially given the re-use on this particular figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Skrull have a very distinctive design, but it’s one I’d yet to get as a Legends figure, so when this guy first surfaced, I was certainly intrigued.  Talos presents a nice update to the classic look, and the figure represents a decent repurposing of parts, and is another nice and unique figure for this assortment.

Like the last two figures, Talos was purchased from my friends at All Time Toys, and he’s still available here.  And, if you’re looking for other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.