Boomerang is, without a doubt, one of the key classic Spider-Man villains fans of the Marvel Legends line have been hoping to see in figure form for a long time. So, naturally, when Boomerang was finally debuted last year it was not without a tiny bit of controversy. Rather than his classic blue-purple-white costume, the figure released in the Spider-Man Infinite line was based on his much more recent Thunderbolts costume. The choice to go with this look does make sense, however, since Hasbro released the Thunderbolts set as their Marvel Legends exclusive at 2013’s San Diego Comic Con. While many fans have taken up the “wrong costume!” banner, this figure did turn out quite well for the most part and fits in nicely with the ever-growing roster of Marvel Legends Thunderbolts figures.
Boomerang is a “swap” figure from the second wave of the Spider-Man Infinite line. He trades places with Beetle, another character who many feel had the “wrong” version produced, appropriately enough. Boomerang comes with the Green Goblin’s left leg, a few boomerangs, and he should come with a backpack as well — make sure yours comes with everything he’s supposed to.
The above pic is the first Boomerang I picked up, which was missing the backpack — something I didn’t notice until I got it home and opened it. Thankfully I was able to find another one, and this time I did double check to make sure everything was there before I left the aisle. I doubt this is a widespread problem. I probably just had some bad luck.
The figure does an OK job of depicting Boomerang in his Thunderbolts getup in plastic form. The gloves and boots aren’t exactly right, but they’re close enough for my purposes.
Aside from the head and accessories, there isn’t much here that’s new. In fact, everything from the neck down is basically Baron Zemo from the Captain America Infinite line, which, in turn, is mainly a reuse of the US Agent body. It’s certainly one of the nicer “standard” bodies that’s been seeing a healthy amount of reuse, and it works well enough here for this version of Boomerang.
His backpack (I really don’t know what else to call it, but it’s not really a “backpack,” is it?) is actually a pretty cool accessory. It’s an apparatus that looks like two larger boomerangs, and it securely stores his boomerang weapons while they’re not in use. It works well and it looks cool when it’s all loaded up, so I’m glad I went through the trouble of finding one that had it after my first one came without it.
Now, the paint job on this guy is a very mixed bag. Paints on Hasbro’s Marvel Legends of late have been crisp and near perfect, but on this figure the paint is a bit of a mess. The majority of the figure’s colorings come from the blue/gray plastic used for the body, with some white/pearlescent white used for the details. The white paint, however, is a bit of a mess in some areas, and it doesn’t even match that well from area to area in some cases, like from his chest to his shoulders, for example. Its application seems to be sloppy in general, with rub marks and what look like chips missing in some spots. Even his mask and visor are a sloppy mess. It’s so bad that I almost wonder if it’s intentional because from the looks of what I’ve been seeing online, the sloppy paint on mine is not an isolated case.
It’s not a deal-breaker because on the shelf it looks fine and really only suffers while under close scrutiny, but based on what we’ve been seeing with Hasbro’s paint jobs up until now, this figure is singularly lacking in this department.
Boomerang is nicely articulated, and if you’ve been keeping up with Hasbro’s Marvel Legends offerings at all, then you’re familiar with what you’re seeing here. It’s a fine base body that lends itself well to many dynamic poses, and it looks good while being posed. I’m worried that eventually this body will wear out its welcome like the original Bullseye body did, but for now, as long as each figure comes saddled with character-specific accessories to at lease make it feel unique, I’m fine with it.
Speaking of the Bullseye body, I can’t look at this figure without immediately thinking of Bullseye. It’s probably the colors, but to my eye the two figures look quite similar. Seeing these two together, and as iconic as the ToyBiz Bullseye figure may be, I would not be opposed to Hasbro giving us a new Bullseye on this new body. Having Boomerang in hand definitely makes me want a new Bullseye (as much as I may love the ToyBiz figure).
Aside from a similar coloration to Bullseye, Boomerang displays nicely in a Marvel Legends collection and is a nice contrast to the very brightly colored Beetle figure whose place he takes in the case packs.
The challenge with this figure, in addition to finding one with nice paint, will be just finding one in general. All three swap figures come just one to a case, which shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but the two Spider-Man figures from the first wave come double-packed just as they did in the first wave. In other words, there’s a good chance those Spider-Man figures will start building up on the pegs, which could slow down distribution considerably. So if you see this guy on the pegs, grab him, even if his paints aren’t the greatest — there’s no guarantee you’ll see another one.
Even if this isn’t your ideal version of Boomerang, it’s still a cool figure despite its paint flaws. He looks great with the other Thunderbolts members we’ve gotten so far, and Spidey can always use another villain or two to fight, right?
If hunting high and low for this figure isn’t your cup of tea, then Fwoosh sponsors Big Bad Toy Store and Dorkside Toys have sets and cases of the wave available to order. Check ’em out!
