We’ve been told Wave 3 of the Return of Marvel Legends is a filler wave, hastily pumped out to provide a presence in the long break between the premature arrival of wave 2 and the upcoming 2013 offerings. But even though the wave is filled with repaints and quick compilation figures, how does it do? As with most things, there’s some good and some bad. Let’s take a look at the first half of the wave and figure out what’s what.
I’m no Hasbro basher. I’ve never used the term “Hasblow” in any post, but one thing that bothers me about the company is it has a penchant for making us pay for its practice: it often takes them a few tries to do what they should have done up front, whether it be articulation, paint or entire figures. I don’t pretend to know the behind the scenes decisions that lead to some of the more lackluster offerings, but this wave at least tries to rectify a previous shortcoming.
The previous Dr. Doom figure from the Fantastic Four Wave was a decent sculpt, featuring some simplified articulation that Hasbro is, thankfully, moving away from, but its biggest failing was their fear (at the time) of paint. It was cast in a flat gray with weird plastic swirls in the leg casts that added up to a striking figure dimmed by an inability to put out the product in its finest light.
The same Dr. Doom gets a pair of repaints in this wave: a Future Foundation version that has yet to show, and a regular paint job that finally gives Doom the metallic sheen that he deserves. This is a man who has Doombots polish his armor while he plans world domination, so the flat gray was not evocative of the Latverian dictator at all.
This is a worthwhile upgrade to the previous figure, and it is how it should have been done the first time. There’s even some very subtle shading in the green as well. His articulation is what used to be the basic Hasbro style articulation, but it was some of the more functional and less restrictive of the time. For a man encased in armor, there’s less of an issue with awkwardness of muscle placement when the arms are turned inward. While the Future Foundation version is going to be the focus of attention, kudos to Hasbro for making a superior version of a previous figure.
Deadpool is another bare bones repaint/re-release, but as with Doom, Hasbro provides an alternate paint variation along with the straight repaint that will fill out an important team. Unlike Doom, the current release is the repainted costume variation and not the re-release. While the red Deadpool will be showing later, Wade’s Uncanny X-Force costume does something that is increasingly rare in today’s toy climate: finishes a team! With Fantomex and the SDCC boxset, you can now put together an entire current X-force team. Just in time for the team to change.
While the body that Deadpool is on is getting pretty played out, it continues to be a solidly articulated body, hampered only by the ankles that don’t allow for certain poses to be pulled off without strategic positioning. Deadpool looks great in his black and gray color scheme, even though the straight reuse means he’s not one hundred percent faithful to his look in the comics. With Hasbro’s track record, I can’t help wondering if a more faithful version will show up down the road. Deadpool sells, they know it.
Deadpool comes with a pair of guns and a pair of swords. It’s a gun wave. Everybody has a gun. Well, except Iron man, but he’s essentially a walking gun, so we can let that slide.
Speaking of Iron Man, he’s the last figure we’ll cover in this review and the first and only all-new sculpt in the wave. This is an older sculpt finally produced for this wave, and it’s a beautiful figure. The red and the gold jumps out and slaps you in the face with how perky it is. I’m glad they went with gold on this figure instead of yellow. I tend to go back and forth on whether I want the figures represented with the comic colors–which were always red and yellow–or the true to life versions of what they were really supposed to be, which is red and gold. In this case, gold was the perfect choice.
While a great looking figure, there are a couple places where it falls… short. Much like other Iron Man figures, it seems a bit too “height challenged.” I don’t need Iron Man to tower over everybody, but when he’s eye-to-nose with USAgent in the same wave, something’s definitely off. How much that bothers fans will depend on the individual, and it’s not horribly off, but it is noticeable and unfortunate, especially when there’s no reason for it.
Though he has ankle articulation, it’s pretty useless due to the massive boots, but the upside is he’s got a pretty strong center of balance so you can throw him across the room and he’ll land on his feet. **Do not throw across room**
I did have some red bleed on my figure’s paintjob; I’m not sure if that’s widespread or not, but it may be a hit or miss thing. The shoulders look a bit odd in anything other than a neutral position, but that’s part of the problem with designs of this nature, and I’m at least glad the shoulders aren’t stymied by some one-piece contraption that doesn’t allow him to lift his arms.
It’s a great looking figure and the few minor nitpicks are easily overlooked, but the relative shrimpiness next to a lot of the other characters really does detract from him. But, again, that’s dependant on your viewpoint.
Stay tuned as the reviews continue in part 2, where an extraordinarily long-awaited character finally gets his first Marvel Legends figure!
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