It may have taken a few years and a few false starts, but Hasbro has definitely hit their stride with the 6-inch Marvel Legends line. From sculpts to wave assortments, fans of the line have been downright spoiled the past couple years. While the ToyBiz years are still considered the line’s glory years to some, there are a handful of figures that would benefit from a Hasbro overhaul. Here are ten such figures carefully selected by The Fwoosh’s themanintheanthill!
10. Deathlok
The only thing greater than the collector communities excitement at getting a 1:12 scale Deathlok was their disappointment in the final product. While the sculpt still looks great today, poor quality control and articulation choices ruined the figure right out of the package. Ball hips pegged too far out into the pelvis gave the figure a wide-legged stance, while loose joints ensured that even if you could wrestle him into a standing position, he would drop like a marionette with cut strings. And let’s not even get started on the gun attached to his chest like a gas-pump nozzle. This guy needs a redux yesterday, Hasbro.
9. Moon Knight
While a character like Deathlok might be daunting for a company looking to save on tooling costs, someone like Moon Knight should be a gimmie. The figure could be done fairly easily using the Bucky Cap or Grim Reaper body as a base. If Hasbro wanted to be really cheap, they could even re-use the head from Blizzard and the batons from Daredevil. Not that I want them to cut corners, mind you, it’s just that Hasbro could produce an improved Moon Knight with a minimum of effort, and I could replace the tacky-caped hot mess currently haunting my shelf.
8. Captain Mar-Vell
Believe it or not, Marv here was an A-lister for a while. He had his own comic book, appeared in loads of Marvel promotional materials — he even had his own car. Then Marvel decided to kill him off, an impulsive decision they’ve attempted to undo ever since. While later iterations of the character are popular with comics readers, long-time fans want to see the original Captain return, at least in plastic form. The ToyBiz figure had a decent head sculpt, but in-hand the figure felt undersized and had some seriously weird hands. A new version of the Captain would be greatly appreciated.
7. Professor X
I’m not an X-Men fan, but I certainly don’t wish them ill. As far as I’m concerned, the Professor X figure they’ve been saddled with since 2005 has been a hard burden to bear. While the figure looks decent enough in the above promo shot, the final product fell far short of that image. The paint choices on the face left him looking like we’d caught the Professor between numbers at a drag show, with drawn-on Morticia eyebrows, heavy mascara, and glossy pouting lips. Less is more, especially when it comes to a no-nonsense fellow like Xavier here, so a basic skin tone and slightly darker paint to outline the eyes would have been more than enough. The fact that the wheelchair-bound Professor has as much articulation as Spider-Man can be chalked up to intended reuse, but one wishes some of that tooling money had been spent getting his head right.
6. Blade
Well, he’s a movie figure, isn’t he? That’s enough for most collectors to consign him to the back of the shelf, if not the storage box. Classicists simply can’t process a non-comic figure when it comes to their displays. Hell, I’m laid back and even I’m bugged by having Pocket Snipes among my comic heroes. That said, Blade has been a pretty big player in supernatural events over the past 40 years and could benefit from a comic interpretation. While an update was pretty far along a while back, I’m not sure it ever reached American shores, cementing the Daywalker’s place on this list. As cool as that update was, I’d much prefer something a bit more classic. I’m not saying I expect Hasbro to give us a figure with a green trench-coat, sunglasses, and an Afro, but, hey, a guy can dream.
5. Wonder Man
Time to beat this dead horse again. Simon Williams Wonder Man blah blah blah. You’re sick of hearing about it, I’m sick of talking about it, and Hasbro isn’t making it any easier. With reports Joss Whedon alum Nathan Fillion is joining the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 as Simon Williams, its clear this long-time Avenger is ready for his closeup. Let’s hope Hasbro has Wonder Man in their sight for a future wave. And yes, I know there were rumors about him showing up in a future Captain America wave, but until we get official confirmation, Simon is on the list.
4. Silver Surfer
ToyBiz certainly made an effort here. The Surfer came with his ubiquitous surfboard, magnets in his feet to allow for a wide variety of poses, a flight-stand, and a Howard the Duck pack-in. That’s a commendable amount of work, yet one can be forgiven for feeling disappointment in this guy. With musculature so defined he appears to have been skinned before being sealed into his silver jammies, not to mention oversized ball shoulders and a nasty blue overspray. ToyBiz overcomplicated what should have been a home run. But what prevents this guy from even leaving home plate is that face. I get it, Surfer doesn’t have a lot to work with when it comes to facial details, but all we needed a bald stoic dude and this . . . isn’t that. Probably the second-most important update on this list.
3. Vulture
This is one instance where a figure isn’t being replaced so much as produced to meet demand. While characters like Venom and Green Goblin have multiple plastic representations across many Spider-Man lines, poor old Vulch was given one measly slot in a box set most people never even saw. That’s kind of a raw deal, considering the Vulture first appeared waaay back in Amazing Spider-Man #2. We’ve received two Beetle figures from Hasbro in as many years, but old Adrian Toomes here is left sucking his lozenge in the old folk’s home. I get it, tooling for wings is expensive, but if Hasbro has the budget to craft RC cars for disembodied mobster-heads then surely we can get one of the web-heads oldest adversaries.
2. Falcon
And we can reuse those wings right here. The Falcon’s name recognition is through the roof right now thanks to Captain America: Civil War, but the only figure currently on the slate is wingless. I know, the figure is Falc as Captain America, but he still wears his wings, yes? I’d sooner have those wings and scrounge for a shield myself than have to cut up a Titan Hero to make a figure look right, but what’s done is done. Better for Hasbro to make some new wings and then attach them to the Bucky Cap mold than worry over what might have been. With his high profile and low-rated figures, Sam earns the penultimate spot on this list.
1. Fantastic Four
Just . . . look at them. Look at them and tell me we don’t need the whole gang, again. Yes, that Thing is still a beauty. Yes, that is a H.E.R.B.I.E. action figure. But other than that, what do we have but a set of figures that looked wonky straight out of the package and have aged much faster than their other ToyBiz contemporaries? Sure, part of it is the artist-specific head sculpts. Of course, the reused, oddly proportioned bodies don’t help matters. For all of that, these figures still far fall short of what we would expect from Marvel’s First Family. The Invisible Woman looks like she’s wearing a diaper, for Kirby’s sake! I know that legal issues and petty squabbling have kept the FF in action figure limbo for years, but something’s gotta give. A retail exclusive, a box set, sell them to me out of the back of a windowless van — I don’t care. Hasbro and Marvel need to step up and at least produce the basic Four in matching costumes. As no less a Legend than Wilford Brimley once said, “It’s the right thing to do!”
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