“COLOSSUS! FASTBALL SPECIAL!” Those were Wolverine’s words to Colossus when we wanted the big metal Russian to chuck him across the yard during a fight. ToyBiz was happy to oblige collectors with a Colossus figure that could make a fastball special with Wolverine in their Marvel Legends Series 5 lineup.
Colossus is one of those really old comic book characters from Marvel, appearing for the first time in the famous Giant-Sized X-Men #1 along with Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Banshee, and Thunderbird. Unlike Thunderbird, Colossus survived the first issue, going on to have a long and storied career. He’s been one of my favorite characters. He is tall both in human and transformed mode, and I related to that part of the character being a bit of a small giant myself. Plus, he had super strength, and who doesn’t like a guy who’s skin can turn into near invulnerable metal armor and is super strong? Of late, the character struggled in Marvel (actually, mutants in general have struggled), but Colossus has seen his share of character struggle of late. But, I think, Marvel found a voice and place for him again. We’ll see.
ToyBiz’s action figure is based on Art Adams’ art, at least that is what my memory is telling me, and was received with love and hate from collectors. There was no middle ground, you either love this figure or hate it. Scale-wise it is large, maybe too large for a character with a 7-foot 5-inch frame, or not; ToyBiz relied heavily on relative scaling and Colossus here fits that.
The sculpt in general is fantastic. He is bulky, losing that long and lean look from the classic comics while gaining the bulked-up look in more modern comics. The arms are bit oversized and the head can still draw out long discussion among collectors. The armor lines are sculpted, or etched, into the skin and it looks great. Overall I love this figure. It’s a great look for Colossus and as a part of my Marvel Legends X-Men collection it looks great.
The articulation on this figure is amazing; it has all the right kinds of joints that a figure like this needs. Additionally, the range of movement is fantastic; however, the tightness of the joints has deteriorated over the years and the figure is very loose and it is difficult to maintain poses. The neck articulation is very limited, so when crunched, Colossus cannot look up. The figure needs the modern ball-on-a-disc joint to increase the range of movement.
Overall the paint on the figure is excellent. The wash on the armor is a thick and was a turn off for many collectors, but personally I like it. It makes him look a bit gritty and like he’s been fighting the Brotherhood of Evil.
Colossus comes with a base. It’s a Sentinel chest and is small compared to the other Sentinel pieces that came with Magneto and Gambit. I know it would be impossible to include a chest in actual scale with the other bases, but it would have been cool to have.
For any classic Marvel Legends collection, Colossus is a must. Firstly it’s the only comic figure released outside of a modernized version in X-Men Classics, and secondly it is a great sculpt and figure to display. You can still get him at:
