This X-Men Legends Wave has been full of figures of characters that I either didn’t care about getting or hadn’t even considered picking up. The new costume Cyclops? Not on my list. Liked the figure. Jubilee in any form? Naw, pass. Liked the figure. New costume Storm? MOHAWK, gimme! Can’t stand, but I like the figure. Classic Magneto? Eh, okay, I guess. Kinda like the figure. Stryfe? Man, I haven’t thought about him in more than 15 years, why do I need a figure of him? Turns out, I did need a figure of him. I like the figure.
Packaging! Yay! Moving on…
While the figure does reuse a little bit of Sabretooth, surprising he’s mostly new sculpt. The only reuse is both upper and lower torso, crotch, hips, and the upper calf below the knee and above the boot cut. And maybe the feet but the seams lines are different so I can’t be sure. His upper gloves are just loose overlays so the metal banded arms could be reused for someone else if needed. Like, say, Cable? Please!
The head is fantastic in that 90s overdesigned kind of way. In fact, all of the new sculpting work is great. It takes a great base and makes it better looking with more detail work. You can’t beat that and this should happen way more often.
There isn’t a lot of paint. Most of the pieces are just molded in the appropriate color. A couple of face paint applications. The factory did a great job of matching what paints there are on the body to the actual plastic colors. The only thing that will stick out is the boots being a glossy metallic sheen while the other silver armor pieces look more like plastic. Not terribly, but the boots are more of a smooth surface.
For accessories, Stryfe comes with a sword that I’ve heard he has only used once and pieces of the BAF Jubilee. The sword has no paint but from pics I’ve seen I think it is supposed to be just one color. There is a head sculpted into the handle but I can’t tell if it’s supposed to resemble someone. The BAF Jubilee head is prefect, at least I think so. I’ll talk about her more when I get to her review.
The great thing about Stryfe is that he’s big and imposing. With the armor and cape he overpowers Creed, and next to the Bucky body he just overwhelms it. This is so a good thing. Add the blades and spikes and you have a downright dangerous looking figure.
Like I said, the toy isn’t one I was clamoring for. Hell, I didn’t even know I needed him until I got him. But that’s one of the joys of this hobby, discovering things you didn’t know you wanted that makes you want to go back and learn more about. One of the other joys is finally getting things that you’ve been wishing for since before the toyline even started.
