In 2008 Hasbro treated us to another set of collector favorites with Ka-ar, Shanna the She-Devil, and Zabu in a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive. Comic-Con exclusives are always controversial — take 2013’s Thunderbolts and 2014’s Thanos Imperative as recent examples. People were up in arms about comic favorites and rarities being released in a hard-to-get exclusive box set. The Savage Land Box Set was not without controversy either.
Ka-Zar is a collector favorite due to his many appearances in Marvel Comics’ Uncanny X-Men. The X-Men use the Savage Land as their personal playground these days. Ka-Zar, the one being reviewed here, was a Jack Kirby and Stan Lee creation from 1965, and there is a 1930s version of Ka-Zar, but that’s an article for another day. Our Marvel KA-Zar is a classic character who, as mentioned, has been around since the start of Marvel. He’s a blond Tarzan wandering about in a fantastic part of the Earth called the Savage Land, a tropical spot wedged into the Antarctic where Dinosaurs still roam our planet.
Zabu is Ka-Zar’s sidekick sabertooth tiger and a huge collector favorite. Everybody loves the big cat and everyone wants to recreate scenes with Zabu and Wolverine tearing each other up or Zabu tearing apart other baddies.
Shanna the She-Devil is a bit younger in Marvel years than Ka-Zar, making her appearance in 1972 by Carole Seuling and George Tuska. She’s been a c-list character at best through the years, never really finding her place in the comics until the last decade when Frank Cho started drawing and writing her. But her relationship to Ka-Zar for all those decades is what made her such a favorite.
The box set was a much-demanded box set. Collectors wanted these figures. To hear that they would part of a SDCC exclusive drew some Internet angst. There was also angst over the sculpt choices.
Ka-Zar was sporting the Face Off Punisher body with some new parts to make him more Ka-Zar-y. These were OK additions: we were treated to bare feet, a bit on the small side, but bare feet. Shanna was sporting the She-Hulk sculpt from the Foom box set with some new parts. Her receptions was pretty good! Most collectors were pleased that we were starting to get an action figure female that looked like a female. Finally, the figure that caused the set to be controversial: Zabu. The collector favorite, the one that people wanted treated with respect and Marvel Legends sculpting lovin, was a re-release of a G.I. Joe Sigma Six tiger.
For those of you that don’t know, Hasbro released a new series of action figures in their G.I. Joe brand, they were 8-inches and mixed in elements of the 4-inch lines and their 12-inch lines. They were “stylized.” They had an angular look to their anatomy, a cartoony look brought to life. The tiger was really cool as part of this line and many people saw the potential in it becoming a Zabu…
… but with a new sculpt. And we did get a new head sculpt. It’s just that we didn’t get a new sculpt for Zabu. They released him on the same exact sculpt, one that just doesn’t fit into Marvel Legends. It was great idea, but it just didn’t hit the mark.
For now, I’ll leave the detailed articulation discussions for the future individual entries, but the articulation is standard Marvel Legends fare. The major fault on all the figure is the heads, the range of motion on all three figures leaves a little to be desired.
For now, this is the only way to add these three to your Marvel Legends collections, there is no planned or known update to any of them, and you will have to live with after market prices.
You can still pick this set up on: