I’m not a big buyer of Marvel Legends or Marvel Select toys these days, but I do cherry pick the ones that appeal to me, and as a big fan of the character Nightcrawler, whose previous figures have been a disappointment, I was curious to see how this Marvel Select figure turned out.
Nightcrawler is one of the founding members of the “All-New, All different” X-Men and was a mainstay of the team. He was even the leader of his own X-Team (Excalibur) in books that I devoured as a kid.
I loved the demonic look and his swashbuckling adventuring ways. He also had a sense of humor for a good long while, which I appreciated in what can be the pretty dour world of the X-Men. My top Nightcrawler artists are Alan Davis, John Byrne, and Dave Cockrum, so I’d love to get a super-articulated Marvel Legends figure modeled after their artwork.
Sculpt
The sculpt doesn’t directly ape any of my favorite X-Men artist styles, but it does present a very classic Nightcrawler look. He has the classic costume, slim build, and the hands and feet aren’t exaggeratedly large like you sometimes see in the books. Though the body is appropriately lanky, the hips and shoulders stick out a bit too much for my taste and don’t seem as integrated into the body as they could be.
I have a feeling the hips were done this way for posability, so I can forgive that. The shoulders seem a little large for their socket in the body, so the arms don’t completely rest at Nightcrawler’s sides. The costume has some details like raised surfaces for the red sections and little wrinkle lines for the darker sections of the costume.
The face has a very Davis/Byrne-like high cheekboned thin face, and I think with a little more curly hair he would match early Uncanny art by Byrne and early Alan Davis. It’s a vast improvement on the scowling lantern-jawed Marvel Legends Nightcrawler head sculpt.
The ears seem slightly too large for my taste, but it’s in line with how Dave Cockrum (the creator) drew them, so I can’t complain too much. I like that he is baring his fangs, but I do wish he was smiling. I like my fuzzy blue elf happy, though from certain angles it almost looks like a smile.
Accessories
Kurt comes with a semi-translucent base sculpted to look like the residue smoke from his teleportation. It’s an effective sculpt and nice to have, but Nightcrawler seems a little accessory-poor in comparison to other Marvel Selects like Wolverine from The Wolverine, or some of the larger Danger Room bases that came with the other Marvel Select X-Men. I’d have loved a swappable punching hand, a sword and a hand to hold it, and a smiling head sculpt.
Articulation
Nightcrawler features the following articulation:
- Swivel/Hinge shoulders, hips, and neck
- Single-hinged elbows and ankles
- Double-hinged knees
- Ball-and-socket torso joint
- Swivel waist and wrists
- Wired tail
It’s a good amount of articulation and allows for most “Nightcrawler” poses I wanted. The hip design allows for good crouching and leaping poses, but the torso joint is not 100 percent functional.
It doesn’t really rock well side-to-side or crunch forward; it’s mostly good for arching backward. I think the only addition I’d make is to add some ankle rockers, either the new Marvel Legends style or the ones Mattel uses for Masters of the Universe characters like Teela. I do like how the wired tail works; it’s very posable and holds position well.
Paint
Paint is a little odd on this figure. Normally I am whining about figures not having enough washes or dry brushing to highlight the sculpt, but this figure seems to have too much dry brushing, and it’s not really effective. The face has a lighter blue dry brush that’s a little messy and it doesn’t really work. It doesn’t highlight the sculpt or add dimension — it’s just kind of sloppy.
I’m not sure what look they were going for with that. The darker part of the costume also has some messy dry brushing, but it’s not as objectionable as on the face or as noticeable. Also strange to me is that he doesn’t have any eyebrows.
Overall
This is a good Nightcrawler figure. I do have some little nitpicks and there are ways this guy could be improved, but many of those come from my Nightcrawler fandom and preconceived ideas of what a perfect Nightcrawler figure should be.
This figure is a good classic representation of Nightcrawler, probably the best I’ve bought, with a nice sculpt and decent articulation. I ordered this figure for a pretty good price (under 20 bucks!) from Amazon.com.
