In the toss-up for which of the Wolverines from the X-Men Classics line is best, it’s between Stealth and Ninja Strike. As mentioned in the earlier Airstrike Wolverine review, the only reason I bought him was for his backpack. Stealth here was bought for the cool-looking costume that I thought would make a cool Micron Commander Rann custom. About the same time, SOTA was advertising their modern take on the Micronauts, and then nothing ever happened with my custom idea. I was gonna use Airstrike’s backpack and then make a new head that could sport a modified Magneto helmet. Yeah, I had high aspirations for what I could accomplish at the time.
This is another beautiful figure, not so much as a Wolverine (too tall), but a beautiful figure nonetheless. It’s got all the articulation and good sculpting that makes these things fun to look at and play with. Yes, in similar fashion to Airstrike Wolverine, Stealth does suffer from extreme “heroic proportions.” I refer to this in the Airstrike Wolverine article and I’ll expand on it a bit here.
Andrew Loomis was an American illustrator who is best known for his art books Fun with a Pencil and Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth from the ’40s. These are great references for drawing human beings and great resources for artists on human proportions. It’s from Loomis that the term “heroic proportion” comes, and many artists still use Loomis’s work as a standard.
Stealth Wolverine looks to be another variation of Dave Cortes’s Marvel Legends Black Panther, only this version is more refined and came off the production line better. The hips are the giveaway as they look closer to the Black Panther prototype. Most of the figure is new parts and really well done new parts. I love this figure and it would make a fantastic generic figure. In fact, Hasbro agreed as they plopped a Cable head sculpt on this figure and released him in a 2-pack. The head sculpt is a masked Wolverine sporting his classic black and yellow mask; it is one of the better head sculpts they’ve done of the runt, but it is scaled for a 6-inch figure and would need a pretty husky smaller figure to look right. Putting this head on Astonishing Wolverine doesn’t look right as the head is too big for that scrawny body. I never tried putting it on a brown Wolverine. Hmmm…
Wolverine here comes with a gun, a pretty cool one, and it would be even cooler if the holster had been designed correctly. Somehow it came out backwards? At least that’s how it looks compared to the prototype. No matter, it is still a fun figure and can kick some serious toy ass.
Standard articulation here, most of it is solid and there are no out-of-the-box issues with the joints. There is a shin swivel, which, looking back and playing with it now, is unnecessary. Completely worthless. Otherwise, no complaints. Here’s a breakdown of the joints:
- hinged toes
- rocker ankles
- hinge ankles
- swivel shins
- double-jointed knees
- ball-jointed hips
- swivel waist
- hinged abs
- rocker shoulders
- ball shoulders
- bicep swivel
- double-jointed elbows
- wrist swivel
- hinged fingers
- hinged neck
- swivel head
Another good figure, maybe not a Wolverine figure, but a good soldier-type figure that you can army-build if you wanted. Wait. Hmmm…
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