Black Panther is the latest release from Hasbro’s Marvel Legends series. He is a part of the upcoming Captain America: Civil War movie, and this movie interpretation is making its action figure debut as part of the Giant-Man Build-A-Figure series.
In the comics, the Black Panther, when not in costume, is known as T’Challa, ruler of the African nation of Wakanda. He’s been in comics for a while, making his first appearance in Fantastic Four #66 way back in 1966. He’s been an Avenger in the comics and has had his own solos series. Black Panther is credited as being one of the first African superheroes (according to the wiki), making him an important character in comics. And cool. I was introduced to Black Panther in the late ’70s as part of the Avengers roster drawn by John Byrne and in his own comic drawn by Jerry Bingham during those runs.
The figure is based on an all-new sculpt, not one seen in Marvel Legends before, and it is amazing. The overall physique of the figure is well-crafted, but the costume details are really what sells this figure. There is a ton of raised surfaces on the costume, and I imagine this was a difficult figure to design and produce. But Hasbro did a great job with this figure. There are very few flaws when a complex design like this could have resulted in many. I’m not certain if is the case with just my Black Panther or with all of them, but I chose to switch the biceps as the arms were sticking out off the bicep. I switched them left to right and vice versa as they seem to be on the wrong shoulder, or the shoulders were assembled incorrectly. Whatever the case, switching the biceps seems to fix the issues.
Black Panther features the standard superposable articulation that we’ve come to expect in Marvel Legends, and the range of motion is great. The ab-crunch allows for some amazing posing, and the front-to-back rotation is made for those collectors who like to pose their figures to the extreme. The only issue I have is there is a lump on the right armpit that prevents the arms from squeezing all the way down. I think a little shaving of the joint will fix that.
There is an extra head and a Giant-Man part in the box (a leg). The head is an unmasked T’Challa head, and I can see many customizers being super excited about this head. It has a strange fit, but I tried various army-builders and it seems to fit most. You might need to do some work fixing it on additional bodies, but it’s another good “generic” head if one wants to use it that way. The leg, when assembled, helps complete an amazing Giant-Man Build-A-Figure.
Whether you like movie figures or not, this is a toy worth picking up. The current comic design and movie design are similar and for the classic-era Marvel collector, and this costume holds true enough to the original that it makes for a nice modern comic update if you are looking for one.
This figure is not available for retail or pre-order at the time of this writing.
