After getting the chance to attend Toy Fair a couple of weeks ago, I realized something that I have suspected for a long time: I will never be free of Marvel Legends.
I know on the surface that sounds like I am casting it in a negative light, but it is really quite the opposite because, no matter how much I try to convince myself that I have a perfectly acceptable Marvel action figure collection as it is, Legends just keeps getting better and better. It is one of the biggies that brought me back into action figure collecting so long ago (well, its Spider-Man line precursor was actually responsible, if you want to get technical), and after all these years, I am still loving it. Agent 13, Sharon Carter herself, is the latest Legend to land on my shelf, and here I am, one step closer to completing yet another Build-a-Figure.
Even in its storied history, I still believe that we are seeing the golden age of Legends right here and now. The sculpts, articulation, and character selection have never been this good, and while that is saying a lot, I know it to be true because of my purchasing history. In recent assortments, we have gotten characters or versions of characters who, just a couple of years ago, I would have never dreamed of buying due to lack of interest. Yet, here I am with a non-classic Taskmaster and Scourge to help build an Onslaught, another character that never had a big impact on me. The figures have just been that good.
Now, that is not to say that I have not been thrilled about several of the recent characters because Mockingbird, Whirlwind, Cottonmouth, and an upgraded Captain America were all on my “must buy” list, along with today’s subject, Sharon Carter. I have not found Whirly or Cottonmouth yet, but if you saw my looks at Mockingbird and Cap, you know I am a fan of both of those figures. I happened upon Agent Carter (not that one, the other one) at Toys R Us the other day, and while I am glad to have her and like a lot about the figure, I don’t find her to be as strong as the other two.
It is funny, for a non-powered Marvel character, this is the second time to the plate for Sharon in the Legends line, and while her previous figure wore a costume that I am more familiar with, there is no denying that this new figure is an upgrade at just about every level. The new body type and articulation alone is enough to win me over, and, at this point, I think I even prefer these white togs to the traditional SHIELD look for Sharon. Just about everything came together well here, but some of my nitpicks are long-standing holdovers for this line, so I hope those areas are not harbingers for the lack of future progression.
Like I said, I really dig this costume now, and the thinner and less voluptuous base body fits Sharon well, as do the added tactical details. As you can probably see, this is a repurposed MCU Black Widow base, but it matches up pretty well with Carter’s comic outfit, so it works for me at just about every level, at least from an aesthetic point of view. The primary reuse comes in the legs and upper arms, but she has a new torso that is not so Widow-specific, and it also adds some appropriate height to her frame. Her arms remain a bit too thin, and “elbros” carried over are still limited in their up-and-down range, so that is always a bit disappointing for a character that normally carries a firearm.
The one thing that I absolutely do NOT like about this figure is that she, like many other Legends females, has high-heeled boots. Frankly, I am beyond even caring if they are page-accurate; I really want Hasbro to stop using heels on their figures. It makes dynamic posing REALLY challenging, and the accuracy they afford is pretty minimal. I get that these were ScarJo’s boot, but in this same assortment, Mockingbird has perfectly good flats, and she poses so much better. They are just not worth it for little action figures with tiny feet – there simply is not enough usable surface area to easily pose anything beyond the static, vanilla look. Sharon would have likely fared much better with me if I were able to pose her without going mad each time I changed her position. Please, Hasbro, let’s allow the heels to die; the figures will be better for it.
Former Executive Director Carter gets a new head sculpt (as ALL unique characters should), but it is new in kind of an old way. See, while this head and hair have not formally been released in the past, they are actually reused from the old Hasbro ML X-Men assortment Rogue figure that was never actually released. Aside from it not being the most flattering face sculpt in the world, I suppose I don’t really have much of an issue with it, and it is a case of Hasbro actually getting use out of an expensive steel tool that they have not been able to utilize up to this point. The hair, at least, seems appropriate to me as Carter is often portrayed with a ponytail, so I certainly don’t have issue with it. Now, mine suffers from a bit of a “lazy eye” that is much more prevalent in these close-up pictures, but it is a bit distracting, so hopefully this won’t be a widespread problem with the figure.
Finally, Sharon has two accessories: her Onslaught chunk (leg), and a pistol/blaster of some sort. The leg is what it is and it attaches well to the torso that comes with Mockingbird. Here I am, about to build this sucker when I did not have any plans to do so, but he is going to turn out really nice in the end. The gun thing is fine, if not completely nondescript. I suppose something like this would be standard-issue SHIELD, so it is good for her to have an accessory, though I had to take a hairdryer and cold water to this one to straighten out the warping from the package.
Overall, Captain America’s main squeeze (Steve-o just can’t get enough of these Carter girls) is a cool addition to Marvel Legends and is a nice pairing for Mockingbird in their “Agents of SHIELD” label. Sharon has a lot of the spotlight right now, and I anticipate that we will see her in the upcoming Civil War flick, so the timing of this release is duly calculated. I do wish she did not have the high heels, but other than that, she makes another fine addition to Legends, and after seeing what I saw at Toy Fair this month, there are going to be a lot more great additions as the year marches on.
