One of the more surprising recent reveals in Marvel Legendsness is the first member of the Reavers, a gang of cybernetic killers that have tussled with the X-men on numerous occasions. Skullbuster now seems like an obvious choice, reusing much of the excellent Deathlok sculpt with some new bits added on. I don’t remember seeing his name pop up on many wishlists.
But, like when we saw the beginnings of the Serpent Society, I am always super-excited to see more niche-level villain teams, and the Reavers are especially cool. Now all we have to do is hope that they won’t be left hanging in limbo, which is where the aforementioned Serpent Society seems to currently be living.
The best thing about the Reavers is, unlike the Serpent Society, there are far fewer “name” members. It’s always best to keep toy expectations as reasonable as possible, so getting a decent squad of Reavers seems like an attainable goal, especially with the amount of X-waves we’re probably going to be getting.
I’ve always loved the aesthetics of the Reavers. It’s a little bit Mad Max, a little bit Terminator, and a lotta bit so many of those wacked out 80’s straight-to-video science fiction movies that were made on a shoestring budget, cobbling together various bits and parts to make their own lo-fi version of Terminator or Alien or whatever big budget epic. Think Class of 1999.
It helps that I’m a big fan of robots and cyborgs and all of that. The Reavers hit me just right.
For my needs, if I can get a couple more members for a fully rounded Reaver team, I’ll be happy.
To accompany Skulbuster, let’s take a look at a couple more members we could possibly get.
Pretty Boy is a normal looking human head resting on top of a fully robotic body. That’s actually the description he uses on both Tinder and Linkedin, so you know this is a dude that’s dedicated to the lifestyle of being a terrifying science fictional nightmare. 
He can alter parts of his body—like stretching out his arms or turning his arms into weapons—so that has a lot of potential for a great looking toy. Plus I can see the potential in people buying multiples just so they can put that Silvermane head on one. I can also see Hasbro sticking an Ultron head on top of the robot body just to screw with me one more time.
Lady Deathstrike has been an on/off member of the Reavers. She’s thematically linked, but isn’t a hardcore lifer like some of the others. She received a ToyBiz figure, but it’s been a long time since then, and that was a ToyBiz female with all the requisite shortcomings. A brand new Deathstrike with those swanky nails (which were the best part of the TB figure) would no doubt blow the original away.
And finally, we come to my personal favorite of all the Reavers: Bonebreaker. Why is he a personal favorite? Because he’s half-man half-tank. I don’t know what they call that where you’re from, but on my planet we call that “Holy shit that’s the coolest thing ever.” 
Bonebreaker is what you get if Wez from Mad Max 2 mated with one of the robot mall Protectors from Chopping Mall. If you didn’t just think to yourself “holy shit that’s the coolest thing ever” then we’re not going to be hanging out at the arcade any more.
Amaziunbelievablingly, Bonebreaker got a 5 inch figure back in the ’90s, and it was quite possibly the coolest 5 inch figure that was ever made, because it was half-man, half-tank. It was a brief, stunted foray into Reaver figures. I always expected more. They managed to make an appearance on the X-men cartoon, so I guess that’s the reason he got a figure. Man, the 90s were weird.
But yeah, I know Skullbuster isn’t even out yet, but I hope we don’t have to wait too long to get some follow-up teammates for him. And if they only manage a second one before abandoning the concept, make Bonebreaker next, please and thank you.
