We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun, where hot springs flow. The Hammer of the gods, will drive our ships to new lands. To fight the horde, sing and cry: Valhalla I am coming!
Okay, so I am not the biggest Led Zeppelin fan in the world, and even I cannot believe it took them so long to associate that song with the Marvel Cinematic Universe Thor. However, we now have it attached to a trailer for what is one of my most anticipated movies in a very long time: Thor: Ragnarok. Now, I will admit, Thor’s solo efforts in the MCU have not been the most outstanding in comparison to his Avengers brethren, but this new one, I cannot help but get hyped. Director Taika Waititi has already set the stage for something that feels completely different than what we have seen before for Asgard and its people, and if the first couple of trailers are any indication, things are going to get INSANE for Thor. Also, it has (Planet) Hulk. Also, it has Jeff Goldblum. Gods damn!
Anyway, I am pretty much in love with everything from this movie so far, and as you can probably imagine, that includes these shiny new Marvel Legends figures hitting shelves now as part of the ramp- up to November. Like several recent ML series releases, this wave is split between figures patterned off of characters in the MCU and some comic-based offerings. For this feature, I will be hitting the movie figures (sans the Hulk Build-a-Figure), which include shiny new takes on Thor and Loki, as well as Hela, as portrayed by Cate Blanchett, who sports the villainous raven locks almost better than her natural blonde.
To me, Loki still stands as the best villain in the MCU. He doesn’t have a TON of real competition (thin villain characterization is my biggest nitpick about Marvel on screen), Tom Hiddleston is an absolute treasure in the role, and I cannot wait to see what he has in store for us in Ragnarok. We have had an MCU Loki figure in the past, but its quality is nowhere near this new offering. The sculpting and articulation has come a long way in ML even since the last Loki figure release, and this one is so nice, and no detail seems to have been left out.
Blue appears to be the theme color in this new movie, and the costumes of many of the characters taking the screen time. Loki is no exception, and his new costume is highly detailed, but perhaps a bit more utilitarian and less grandiose compared to past movies. The exception, of course, is his giant crown/helmet, and though this one is removable, it fits really well. I wish there was a bit more paint detail on this, but the rest of the figure is so well done, it is hard to complain too much. Additionally, Hasbro’s “photo real” face painting/printing technology has been used to great success here, and the likeness to Hiddleston is great. If you FORCED me to pick one of these three that is not perfect in that regard, I would say it was Loki, but that is more of comment on how good the other two are, and not that Loki is weak.
Thor himself comes in as my second favorite from this group, but I have to be honest, aside from a maddening quibble that all three of these figures are subject to (I will get to that in a bit), this figure is pretty damned perfect. Sure, I could have wished for an alternate no helmet head, but that is being taken care of in the Valkyrie two-pack hitting soon. I really like what they have done with Thor’s look for this movie, and much like his vernacular and diction, his outfit is much less “Shakespearian” and much more “warrior” this time around, with a clean haircut to match. Due to this, the figure design is streamlined and moves well with the articulation.
That is not to say that the costume doesn’t look fantastic, because it does, and I am looking forward to the explanation of the red scrolling on Thor; I am sure that suave Grandmaster has something to do with it. I think the helmet is cool, too, and somehow, the smart and creative people working costume design on these movies find ways to stay loyal to the original spirit, while making this a modern and badass head piece. While you don’t get to bask in the glory of a Chris Hemsworth likeness as much as that aforementioned two-pack version, but the likeness is still very strong, and while he looks intense, he could, at any moment, talk up his “friend from work.” This Thor also comes equipped with his twin swords from the trailer, which he needs because his dear Mjolnir was busted up by …
My personal favorite figure from this group: Hela. Oh yes, the Death God makes her cinematic debut in this new Thor flick, and she promptly crushes the iconic hammer that can only be wielded by one who is worthy with her Hand of Glory. While there are many Jack Kirby callouts in the trailer scenes alone, I am a bit surprised, but over the moon, that Hela’s design, and apparently, characterization, stays so close to the original source. Cate Blanchett looks fan-freaking-tastic in the role, and beware to those who might stand in her way. We know that she has her eyes on Asgard (she says it’s dead, after all), but we are still left wondering how she will interact in the overall plot of Ragnarok.
Obviously, the first thing you notice about this figure is the insane helmet/headdress that, again, is wonderfully true to the source material. Yes, for practicality’s sake, it is ridiculous, but we are talking about comics and Thor here, so it is absolutely fantastic. The weird thing is, of the two heads, it is
actually my least favorite because the Cate Blanchett likeness on the other head is so damned good, I can’t NOT display it. Hasbro, you are going to get me to buy two of these, aren’t you? Aren’t you? Needless to say, this is a great problem to have, and Hela is definitely one of the best ML females ever. Oh, and this figure is TALL, too, and I love that because Hela is, like, over 7 feet tall in the comics, so I hope they carry that over in the movie. Really, though, if you only get one figure from this assortment, make it Hela. She does not disappoint.
Now, I DO want to point out a nitpick common to all three of these figure because they are all afflicted by it, and it is actually kind of maddening. The capes. Oh, the capes. They look great and accurate, to boot, but none of them want to stay on well, especially with any kind of posing. They are different in terms of how they attach to the figures, but none of them work particularly well. The pegs on Loki’s cape are too small, so it doesn’t stay set; Thor’s cape has a weird rigging into the chest strap, so it is hard to plug that in and then into the actual chest; Hela’s cape stays on the best, but it is pretty heavy and it goes askew easily when you move her head. Now, I am seriously considering just gluing them all in and being done with it, because if not, they are just too “fidgety.” This is a pretty small issue overall, but I wish it wasn’t an issue at all because everything else with these figures is so damned good.
I still have to live on a bit of faith that the new Ragnarok movie will be as awesome as I hope, but I can tell you right now, the supporting ML figures are the real deal. I generally gravitate more to comic-based figures in Legends series, but in this time, these MCU guys are the clear winners (Ares is pretty damned awesome as well). However, all of the figures are needed if you want to build the rad Hulk figure, so don’t go skipping any of them. I hope this movie is awesome and wildly successful, and hope this ML wave is, too, I want another Ragnarok assortment, and they MUST include Goldblum. MUST. In the meantime, go getcha some.
