ToyBiz released Warbird as part of the Walmart-Exclusive Giant Man Series to collector joy. Ms Marvel — can we call Carol Danvers “Ms Marvel”? The whole “Warbird” thing never worked for me, neither did Binary. Ms Marvel — it works, it rings, it pops. Ms Marvel is a great character in the Marvel Universe, getting her powers from the original Captain Marvel. She became Ms Marvel and joined the Avengers during one of my favorite runs on the book in the ’70s. She had a rebirth in the comics world in the late ’90s early ’00s and has been a regular staple since then.
Recently she took on the mantle of Captain Marvel, after seeing the reborn Mar-vell sacrifice himself during a recent bout with the Phoenix. She’s got a spiffy new costume that looks great, which is being planned for a future Marvel Legends series: the Odin Build-a-Figure series. We saw her at SDCC 2014 as well a redo of her classic Ms Marvel look! And both of them look fantastic! I’m certain we’ll be reviewing them down the line.
Giant Man Series Warbird is on the Series 6 Phoenix buck, which is a part of the Series 4 Elektra buck. It’s a good, solid figure, but has a marionette quality with the mix of the sculpt and articulation. It’s ball shoulders and the updated ball hips, they don’t integrate into the sculpt smoothly and look stuck in. This results in the look being very “ballsy” or marionette-ish. The head sculpt is pretty good as well, but it’s not a hard look, maybe a bit soft for Carol Danvers. The hair is big and fluffy, very ’70s/’80s Farrah Fawcett and is made of a softer rubbery plastic that doesn’t hinder much of her movement.
The articulation is great! It’s all that you expect from Marvel Legends, and the updated hips that were premiered on Phoenix continue to look great. The ankles are a bit loose and the articulated hands are a bit loose as well. But there isn’t a pose that she pretty much can’t do: action, flying, sitting, squatting — she can do it all. Here’s the breakdown:
•Hinged toes
•Rocker ankles
•Hinged ankles
•Shin swivels
•Double knees
•Ball hips
•Swivel waist
•Hinged ab
•Rocker shoulders
•Ball shoulders
•Swivel biceps
•Double elbows
•Swivel forearms
•Hinged wrists
•Articulated fingers
•Hinged neck
•Swivel head
The paint on this figure is pretty good. It’s a simple costume and translates easily to an action figure design. The skin color is great. When you have half-naked action figures, you tend to focus a lot on the skin tone: too brown, too red, too pink too white. It’s a great skin color. I’m also liking the hair, ToyBiz could have easily gone with a big drop of yellow on her hair, but instead they made decent coloring and shades, which make the hair pop.
Ms Marvel is a key character to Marvel Legends. She’s a core Avengers character, a core Earth-bound cosmic character. For those that don’t like the healthier-looking female figure coming out, you should add this classic figure to your collections.
You can still pick her up today:
