It’s been a long time since Taskmaster first showed up in the ToyBiz’s Legendary Riders series. That was 2005, and Marvel toys have come a long way in the past 11 years. Taskmaster has had a handful of costume changes over that time, moving from his classic costume to the UDON costume and back to the classic and then on to another more tactical version and so on and so forth. So nobody knew quite what to expect if Hasbro put out a new and improved Taskmaster.
As it turns out, they went in a weird direction and produced the version most well-known for being on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. This is similar to what was done with the more robotic-looking Beetle figure that was red and silver instead of green and purple. So this was unexpected but not without precedent.
I have no idea if this costume has shown up in the comics or not yet, so as of right now I’m going with the fact that it’s just appeared on the animated series. It’s similar to a recent update of his costume, so it’s possible this will get absorbed into the comics if it hasn’t already.
Taskmaster seems pretty schizophrenic on whether or not he wants to wear a cape or not. While I dig the cape look, a capeless uniform is good for a merc like him who gets into plenty of acrobatic fights with other people. Of course, wearing armor seems like it would get in the way of that also, but who knows.
This figure features a lot of newly sculpted parts positioned around the regular Buckycap/Black Panther-style body that we’re all used to by now. There’s been a lot of speculation as to whether or not the new bits can be used for an Iron Man of some kind. It’s not quite perfect for any one Iron Man — maybe closer to the recent Superior Iron Man — so who knows. I’m sure we’ll be seeing these pieces again.
Either way, they work very well. They match the Buckycap torso well and end up giving him some extra height as well, bringing him nearly up to the new Grim Reaper/Captain America-sized body in stature. That’s good because if they were to make a classic Taskmaster, many, including me, would probably like him to be on the Grim Reaper body, so this would give him some consistency. All the parts are in place for that version now.
He does have a slightly different ankle scheme featuring a ball-jointed ankle that plugs up into the shin along with the standard Marvel Legends offset peg that we’re used to. I doubt this will be a new standard as it would only work with pants or shins with flared parts like this one, but it does add a whole new dimension to his poseability and adds a “foreign action figure” vibe to him. Since a mid-shin cut would have been unsightly and he has no boots for a boot cut, this was a nice addition. It proves that the Marvel Legends team isn’t quite content to stagnate and are still looking at new ways to improve the action figure experience.
Taskmaster has one of my pet peeves with figures nowadays: sculpted guns in holsters. I’m sure logically I know I can’t expect to have working guns and holsters on every figure, but I’ve grown to hate having the frozen, static sculpted solid things like this. I’ve been spoiled by actual working holsters on too many figures, so whenever I see these solid things it irks me that I can’t pull the guns out and have my figure use them —especially when Taskmaster could use a nice pair of guns for the killing and the shooting.
Guns aside, he does come with some accessories. He comes with a shield that features the standard dual snap-clip we’ve come to expect on shields nowadays. It plugs easily into his back or snaps securely to his arm.
He comes with what I’m assuming is a light . . . I mean, a “laser sword.” It’s a nifty-looking little item with a partially translucent red blade. He looks pretty badass holding it.
Taskmaster comes with two heads. One is the standard skull-faced head from his classic appearance with a more metallic paint scheme, complete with white hood. This is the head that is supposed to be “standard” as it’s the one he’s packed with and the version on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon.
The second head we can call a “thrown bone” head, which is an UDON-styled head for those clamoring for an UDON-styled taskmaster. While the body itself isn’t technically UDON, there is an obvious overall flavor to it that harkens back to the UDON look, so for some this may be good enough, and for others it may be the head they need to make their own version. Either way, they’ve been doing a decent job of adding in extra heads where needed, and while I think I’ll be keeping the metallic skull and white hood as my default for this figure, I appreciate the extra option. Both heads work very well on the body, so whichever one you choose will work out nicely. Or buy two and use both heads. What the hell, right?
My initial knee-jerk reaction was to be put off by this Taskmaster, as he was from a cartoon more so than a comic, but I ended up enjoying him. It’s a good design and a fun toy. While I still wouldn’t say no to an updated classic version — and who knows, one might be coming at some point (hint hint, Hasbro) — I can’t look at him and say “that’s not Taskmaster” like I did with the previous Beetle figure that was taken the the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon.