As mentioned in the HML Nemesis Review I’m getting back into collecting toys after a hiatus. I manged to score a set of these for nothing off ebay, but I was not able to get the Black Secret Wars Wolverine, and really there isn’t much to say about the figure. so I’m not really missing out.
Overall I’m, pretty happy with this wave, it’s a better wave than Nemesis overall and there are some significant improvements made to the dreaded Quicksilver buck that Hasbro keeps rehashing. However Hasbro is continuing their shrunken head, it was bad enough under Toy Biz, but it’s getting kinda strange under Hasbro.
Red Hulk BAF
Wow. Ok I really haven’t read an actual comic in many moons, time and interest has kept me at bay, but I’ve been following along enough to know what is going on. Mysterious Red Hulk, who is? What is? Blah Blah Blah. None of that really interests me. What does is the figure.
As a figure this is beautiful. The articulation, sculpt and construction are all top notch. This figure employs the traditional ab crunch we all expect from Marvel Legends. Most importantly this figure has… fists. A HULK WITH FISTS! WHOO HOO! HE CAN PUNCH! I make note of this since there are many a Hulk figure that have slappy hands, or grabby hands or holding swords hands, but no fists. Red Hulk has 2 fists ready to unleash a prime can of whoopass on… well Green Hulk?
My only quibble with the figure is that it is way too artist oriented. Ed McGuinness is a great artist and I enjoy his comic works, but I don’t like seeing his comic art turned 3-D. Recent DCUC Public Enemies and the various DCD figures have never really interested me. Yes I buy them, toy addiction aside, but they are so artist specific that they don’t have a fit anywhere in my collection other than the invisible Ed McGuinness shelf.
The artist specificity and the red coloring keep this Hulk from taking the Face Off Hulk space on my shelf.
Union Jack
UNION JACK! OH YAY IS ME! Another long time Marvel Legend want finally makes it into little plastic form.
I love Union Jack, the character design always catches my attention and I really wish Marvel could figure out how turn this guy into an A-lister.
Regarding the figure… my first impression was “ugh Quicksilver. Crappy Crappy Quicksilver.” But upon closer inspection, not entirely Quicksilver, in fact a very good rehash of Quicksilver. You see, this figure has the upper arms, shoulders, torso, waist, hips and thighs of Quicksilver, but NEW forearms and hands and NEW shins and feet. And WOW! What a difference this makes. It’s turned a crappy Quicksilver Buck into an almost completely new kick ass buck. Colorize me impressed and wanting more of this buck.
I have to mention that while this figure lacks any interesting paint, the painted flag is perfect. Mine has no issues that I know of so I’m jack happy about that, since that’s kinda a key thing with the figure. The costume.
Union Jack also has a belt with a gun and knife, for stabbing and shooting people. Both fit in the shooting and stabbing hands without problems.
And as with all Hasbro Marvel Legends, the head is small. Too small. Someone slap some hydrospan on that little noggin!
Despite the little head, Union Jack is my favorite everything in the wave.
Wolverine – Tiger Stripe
We’ve had a couple of Tiger Stripe Wolverines through out Marvel Legends and X-Men Classics. Since this is not a new sculpt and is just a rehash of the ML6 Brown Wolverine I’m not going to spend oogles and oogles amounts of time reviewing him. If you want the complete review on this figure check out the Toy Biz Marvel Legends Wave 6 Review in the archives.
That said, there is one change to note in this figure, shoulder pads. And the pads themselves look great. But the placement on the shoulders is silly. I know engineering issue, with the shoulders… blah blah. Still they look terrible and ripping them off leaves you with 4 ginormous holes in the chest.
Wolverine – Tiger Stripe Negative Colors
Black and Yellow Repaint of ML6 Brown Wolverine.
Quote from above:
“Since this is not a new sculpt and is just a rehash of the ML6 Brown Wolverine I’m not going to spend oogles and oogles amounts of time reviewing him. If you want the complete review on this figure check out the Toy Biz Marvel Legends Wave 6 Review in the archives.”
Silver Surfer – Savage Surfer
Did I need a Savage Surfer? Not really. Planet World War Red trying to find new ways to revitalize Hulk story lines aside I’m certain I don’t need figures that tie directly into specific story lines. Pretty certain. Ok on occasion it’s cool. But I don’t need Savage Surfer. Pretty Certain.
Not much to say about Savage Surfer. The buck is the Silver Surfer from the Fantastic Four Ronin Wave (Read the review) with some new parts. He comes with a sword, a limp mace, a new surfboard outfitted to act as a shield, leather skirt (someone explain why a silver nekkid man needs a skirt please) and a a removable shoulder harness. The buck is changed slightly with the addition of new forearms with bracers sculpted on and hands for holding weapons and shield. And he has new shins with shin guards sculpted on. All of it works to make Savage Surfer come together.
You might encounter some issues with the shield, it’s a pain to get on, the sculpted straps are a wee too small making his hold on them difficult.
All in all a good rehash of an decent figure.
Spider-man – Black Symbiote Costume
I think we’ve had black Spidey’s before. So…
AIIIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! QUICKSILVER!!!!!!!!!!!
And like Union Jack… not quite Quicksilver. Like Union Jack Hasbro has supplied my least favorite buck with new forearms, hands, shins and feet with pretty good results. I have to admit I more smitten with the Union Jack upgrade to QuickSilver than I am the Black Spidey. The shins feel a little short to me or they are being off set by the incredibly long monkey arms, maybe a combo of both.
The upgrade of the Quicksilver buck in both Black Spidey and Union Jack result in decently sized feet. Yes they are standard Hasbro feet, but I’ve slowly come to accept the loss of the side to side swivel. One of my biggest complaints about the Quicksilver buck is the goofy ass feet. Hasbro rectifies the foot problem with Black Spidey and Union Jack, good job ‘Bro.
Adam Warlock
This is another figure that is high on my request list and Hasbro has delivered him in plastic form. My cosmic collection are finally starting to take shape with Thanos, Watcher, Nova, Silver Surfer, the Captain Marvels, Super Skrull, Skrulls, Silver Surfer, Ronan the Accuser and some others.
As this was a highly requested figure I was very excited to get Adam, and as quickly as I got him I was disappointed. Adam Warlock used the Black Bolt buck and if you read the Hasbro Marvel Legends Nemesis Wave Review you will see that I’m not smitten with the Black Bolt buck.
On to my likes:
Infinity Gauntlet – Perfect. Cool. Excellent.
Lower arms – Love them. Huge improvement over Black Bolt. It’s like 3 millimeters difference but it’s huge. I’d rather see that added to the bicep to bring some length there but I’m not complaining.
Vanilla posing – Perfect. You can get some good strong vanilla posing out of Adam Warlock, and the new lower arms are a bonus in making the vanilla pop. The over all figure from a vanilla pose standpoint is excellent and if your goal is to have the figure stand on your shelf and never pose then it’s pretty darn good.
Head – Nice. This is a good head sculpt and decently sized, it does not seem to be suffering from shrunken head-itis.
All in all Adam Warlock is not a horrible figure. It’s pretty decent, but it still lacks the pop.
Spiral
What a wonderful figure. I’m a big fan of the original Art Adam 6 issue mini series of Longshot and having the Mojo-verse in my ML collection is fantastic. Toy Biz gave us Longshot and Mojo and now we have Spiral.
The figure of Spiral is sweet. I’m smitten with the detail in the sculpt and I love the fabrication on the arms. Bicep swivels would have put her over the top. The head sculpt is not great but then my Spiral will always have a helmet on and how she looks underneath is a minor quibble.
Hasbro continues to manufacture good solid female sculpts. They really are doing a good job and Spiral is hawt, six arms or 2.
My final thoughts on this wave, pretty good. Again Hasbro’s decision not to paint these figures pains me; but all in all the Red Hulk Wave is worth every penny, ebay or otherwise, spent.
