You can’t have an Age of Apocalypse without Apocalypse, so luckily Hasbro decided to not waste any time getting one out there.
I’d assume most of us probably figured that Apocalypse would be the build-a-figure of a second wave since sugar Man usurped the BAF slot in the first wave, but instead he got his own deluxe fan channel release. I’ve really been enjoying the fan channel stuff. While I’m generally all-in for every wave and end up with complete BAFs regardless of who they are, it’s nice to get a big chunk of a figure without having to buy an entire wave.
The Age of Apocalypse figures are something I’m surprised I’m willingly collecting. I skipped most of them in the five-inch era (I still have a mint-on-card five-inch AoA Apocalypse that I got for free back then. Never opened it because I already had the Apocalypse I wanted) and I was a little resentful of having to get alternate-timeline versions of characters when they were shoved into waves and “taking up slots.”
“Taking up slots” is a thing that was a big deal when there was only one wave or so per year, unlike the 500 waves per year we’re getting now.
I read AoA when it came out but never felt I had to have the characters. But now I’m digging the variety. Whatever happens over time to smooth out opinions obviously happenated all over me.
I’m not sure if this is a recurring thing, but my Apocalypse has a super wobbly torso. It’s got quite a ragdoll thing going on, so that made taking pictures a little hard. So if it looks like he’s hunched in some shots oddly, it’s because he didn’t want to cooperate at all. I’ll probably figure out some way to tighten it, but right now he’s got less spine than a jellyfish.
Outside of the quality control problem on my figure, everything else about him is very nice. Without the upturned nose of “this ain’t my Apocalypse” clouding my judgment, I can say that I like this look for him. I like the bolder colors, the brighter blue, the splash of red. It’s got a regality to it. If the era is named after you then clearly you won, so brightening up his colors feels like a thing he would do.
Also, he added a cape. That’s actually the first thing anybody does when they win: they add a cape. One time I won a game of checkers and wore a cape or an entire week.
If you have the previous BAF Apocalypse then you know that Apocalyptian figures have some issues with the range of motion in their elbows. Apocalypse likes big gauntlets (and he cannot lie) so you’re not going to get the full range of motion with those giant things at the end of his arm.
All of his other articulation works very well though. The hips, thighs knees and ankles all work great. His torso has a huge range, which I can tell very easily because he flops back and forth like those big balloon things that flap in the wind in front of used car dealerships. I’m sure they have a name. Balloon flappers.
The head(s) have a nice range, but the neck harness gets in the way of it some there. But there’s still a lot of movement.
The shoulder pauldrons are jointed, but the cape kind o keeps them in place. He looks good with or without the cape, so if you want to leave it off, you can. The cape plugs into the tops of the pauldrons and stays put okay enough. Like with most things with a plastic cape nowadays I’m considering switching to a fabric cape. The cape is nicely sculpted and has a slight windswept feel to it. It’s a decently soft plastic, so I haven’t decided yet.
For accessories, Apocalypse comes with an alternate non-manic-grin head. The manic-grin head comes as default, but I like the more serious expression, so that will probably become my default head for him. As a bonus, the serious head does fit on the regular Apocalypse, though the colors obviously don’t match.
Apocalpyse comes with a swappable right fist for the left hand. The open hand is for evil gesturing and holding the skull he comes with. When you’re evil and have taken over the world, you do a lot of standing around and holding the skulls of those you have destroyed. That’s pretty much standard world dictator shtick. I know if I took over the world the first thing I’d do is get a skull to hold. Maybe I’d put it on a chain and dangle it from my neck Flavor Flav style.
Overall, despite the torso glitch, Apocalypse is a great looking and colorful figure that is obviously absolutely necessary to an Age of Apocalypse collection.
