Hey, bub – you didn’t think ol’ Wolverine was gonna sit around and let Ghost Rider have all the fun, didja? Of course not, and the wily (and hairy) Canuck is ready to ride off into the sunset of the Great White North. Broodingly, of course.
After the initial offerings of Ghost Rider (duh) and Black Widow (kind of duh), the Ultimate Riders assortment is continuing and Wolverine finally gets a bike to be the best he is at what he does when he is not hacking and slashing people. There are a lot logical choices in the Marvel Universe for this line, and while I hope to still Captain America at some point, and Professor X and Deadpool are rumored to be up next, Logan is a pretty obvious choice for inclusion, because of his penchant for bikes, and for the fact that he is Wolverine and he ALWAYS sells well.
Much of this set is repurposed from previous releases, but that does not mean it is not pretty damned successful overall. The bike, as you might be able to tell, is the stripped down base of Ghost Rider’s Hell Cycle with new satchel bags added to the back. Honestly, I think this is a GREAT example of reuse because with a different paint job and some moving around of basic new parts (and the removal of the flames and things), this looks like a completely different bike, so it doesn’t feel like a corner-cutting execution, even if it saves money on new tooling. Frankly, if that means we can get more unique sculpts for where we need it in this line, I am perfectly great with this being a serviceable bike for Logan.
The Logan figure is pretty great overall as well, though I have to say that the standard Logan head did not turn out as well in production as I would have hoped. The face is off somehow, and instead of looking brooding or ferocious, Logan has more of a “I just did something really socially awkward and now I am embarrassed” look to him. I don’t know, just something feels a bit off about it. The “Patch” head, however, is very, very nice, and while this is probably not the optimal body for it, it is really cool to finally have some Patch representation in Marvel Legends. I need to find a good base for it, so I am suddenly really wanting a white tuxedo body for Marvel Legends. I will likely dig out my old Toy Biz Astonishing X-Men Wolverine umasked head and see how it looks on this body, because that is still my favorite Logan ML head ever.
The rest of the body is really great, though, and much of it made up of the previous Old Man Logan figure. Well, the legs, anyway. The tank top torso has potential for future reuse down the line, but I am surprised the boots are not reused from Logan, as I really don’t know why they weren’t. These are missing the “cowboy boot” detail in them, so I had to really look to see the difference, but those stitch lines are most certainly missing here. The build is great for Logan, and I have always liked this tank and jeans look for him, so it is good to have an updated version of this look in ML. You can, of course, do some hand swapping with the Old Man Logan with the grips so he can ride the bike as well, but thanks to the somewhat universal peg system of ML, there are a lot of Wolverine mix and match possibilities so you can build the perfect Logan for this bike, if you are inclined.
Hey, I am glad the Ultimate Riders assortments are continuing, and Logan is a solid addition. Aside from the not-as-good-as-it-should-have-been standard head, this is a very nice release overall. This should start hitting all of the usual spots soon, so be on the look out!
