The Hasbro Marvel Legends releases have been coming so fast lately that I can barely keep track of it all. I know I’m behind, but I’m not completely sure how far behind I am. Thankfully, I pre-ordered the X-Men wave when it was first announced, and a big part of the motivation for that pre-order was this Wolverine figure. Let’s take a closer look at Wolverine!
I’m a kid of the ’80s, so nostalgia is fueling a lot of my love for this figure. This is the Wolverine I remember from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, from Spider-Man Versus Wolverine and, of course, from The Uncanny X-Men by artists like Byrne, Romita and Smith. This is the Secret Wars Wolverine figure I always wanted.
Sculpt
The first thing you notice about this figure is that he’s shorter and stockier than a lot of recent Wolvies. It’s not a huge difference in height, but it makes for a big difference at a glance and is so nice to see. I like that his torso is also really thick and solid.
Sometimes they can make waist too skinny on these figures. The ears are a little shorter than your Silvestri/Lee style, but not so short as most modern versions of Wolverine. It’s a take I haven’t quite seen in figure form, so it’s really refreshing.
The claws are short, but the length makes sense to me as being able to sink back into his arms. The sculpt on the claws looks decently sharp, but they are cast in a pretty light silver plastic, so they are harder to see.
Accessories
Wolvie comes with a spare set of hands where the claws are not popped. I honestly never thought I needed this, but it’s a fun feature for posing.
It takes me back to all of those issues where Logan holds his hands up to people and threatens to pop those claws through the person’s head or neck or chest. He also comes with a Juggernaut piece that looks great. I’d love an alternate “berzerker” head sculpt for this figure.
Articulation
Wolverine has the standard Marvel Legends articulation, for the most part:
- Swivel/hinged neck, shoulders, wrists, hips and ankles
- Double-hinged knees and elbows
- Swivel bicep, waist, thighs and boots
- Ball-and-socket head
- Hinged pecs
The addition of the hinged pecs allows for a lot more interesting movement in the stabbing and slashing poses. Movement is great on this figure and he can hold a lot of great crouching stalking poses well. The way the head sits a little high on the neck peg allows for good forward movement that looks good in crouching and forward leaping poses.
Paint
Paint is not remarkable. They hit the lines right, but I’m not seeing any flourishes like muscle shading. They also skipped the hairy arms paint op on this Logan. That effect can be hit or miss, so I don’t mind that it’s missing.
There is one bit of costume detail missing as there was oftentimes a portion of Wolvie’s lats underneath his armpits that were not covered by the orange tights. It’s not a big deal to me because a lot of artists forgot to draw those two extra lines.
Overall
This is the Wolverine figure I’ve been waiting for and I look forward to someday completing an ’80s-era lineup of similarly nice figures. I’m also really looking forward to sending this Logan up against a horde of Articulated Icons Ninjas and a certain shiny samurai.
How about a little Spidey VS Wolvie homage?
