In the ’90s, Onslaught was a concept born out of the suppressed guilt and rage that sprung from two diametrically opposed viewpoints. Red Onslaught is a different twist on the concept, with a cloned Nazi implanting a dead mutant’s genetically gifted brain into his own (red) skull in an attempt at world domination and all the ensuing chaos that comes from that.
What you end up with after all of that is the Red Skull’s head on top of Onslaught’s body. How you feel about that as a concept is a whole other story.
A long time ago we got another version of Onslaught as a Build-A-Figure in a wave of Marvel Legends. This was a severely controversial decision, as it was a version not thought of as “definitive.” The figure we got back then represented an evolved look that deviated from what many considered the “standard” Onslaught. While it was a great-looking and nicely sculpted piece, you don’t want to mess around with what people consider “definitive,” and to many this was an oversight that filled them with blinding rage and many shaking fists.
I can sympathize with the a collector not getting his “definitive” version, so it’s nice that finally, this figure mostly gives us a definitive Onslaught figure. I say mostly because of the Red Skull head perched atop the body. However, the good news is that the original Onslaught head that resembles Magneto’s helmeted head will be arriving in an upcoming X-Men wave, meaning that those who have been patiently waiting for around a decade need to be patient a few months more before they will finally have their definitive, standard Onslaught.
I’m not super keen on the entire Red Onslaught concept, so I hadn’t bothered popping the Red Skull head onto the body until I needed to for this review, and then I’ll be promptly popping it back off again while I wait for the upcoming standard head. If I’m going to have an Onslaught figure, I’d rather have him be the original standard version anyway, but if you were a big fan of Remender’s Uncanny Avengers and the AXIS storyline that featured the Red Onslaught concept, you’re probably bigger on this version than I am.
As for the figure itself, it’s a brand new sculpt. Due to the design and his ginormous shoulder pauldrons, he has some articulation issues, but the pauldrons are at least movable, which alleviates some of the issues. Just know going in you’re not going to be raising his arms above his head.
He has both swivel-hinge “elbros” and a regular bicep cut at the shoulder, so he has a decent mount of arm motion. The hands are nice and expressive.
His torso is ball-jointed and has a decent range back-and-forth and side-to-side. When done well, I like this torso setup and it’s especially nice with armored characters as it can be hidden very nicely among the armor detailing.
His hips are ball-jointed instead of the sleeker hip joints that are standard on most of their figures now, which is an odd choice, but they’re pegged at 90 degrees so at least there’s no weird 45 degree Rubik’s cubing that needs to go on in order to pose him.
He has double-jointed knees. I had a little bit of an issue getting his ankle joints to move right; the sculpt gets in the way of the motion a little bit. It’s not a huge issue, but you might run into some trouble there.
He has a decent amount of balance despite his size, so he can get into some nice poses without toppling.
His shoulder pauldrons and his back panel piece are both removable. He’s a good size — not overly tall, but tall enough that he dwarfs most of the standard figures, which is how Onslaught should be.
The Red Skull head fits on the Captain America body, so it should fit on any Reaper body and look nice. It does have a slightly oversized look, but he’s been depicted as both having a literal red skull and as wearing a mask, so if you want to go with “he’s wearing a mask,” the slightly larger head makes more sense. As far as using this body for him, In the past the Red Skull has been depicted as having the cloned body of Steve Rogers, so it figures that he’ll be the same size as Captain America. There ya go.
Onslaught, regardless of head, has relevance in two major storylines, and the inclusion in this wave gives the vast majority of Onslaught fans about 95 percent of the version they wanted many years ago. With that alternate “classic” head on the way (and I can’t believe I’m using the term “classic” in relation to Onslaught), a perceived wrong will finally be corrected. So this is a good day for Onslaught fans.
The Red Onslaught Series is available at Big Bad Toy Store here or here
