Black Panther hit the big time in Captain America: Civil War, and his time in the spotlight hasn’t diminished, thanks to his own upcoming solo effort. The trailers have been hitting all of those MCU high points, so it looks like they might have another winner on their hands.
As with any new Marvel movie, we know we’re guaranteed toys. With a Black Panther movie, we’re all left wondering Wakanda toys we’ll be getting.
Hey, who the hell threw that tomato …
While Black Panther’s own wave was a little skimpy on actual Black Panther characters, there have thankfully been other avenues to get more BP-centric action figures. Hopefully this trend continues because not getting a Man-Ape out of all of this Black Panther hype is kind of like not getting a good Ultron out of all the Age of Ultron hype. Yes, I managed to work those sour grapes into a completely disconnected article. Yahtzee!
Fwoosh has already taken a look at the recent Shuri/Klaw two-pack, and now we’ve got a look at yet another comic-inspired take on Black Panther that should be nailing Walmart shelves near you. Having this figure in hand, it’s not hard to see how it is really really hard to screw up the Black Panther. Thematically his costume has not changed much over the years. You have to keep the cat theme, you have to keep the black. How you work within that boundary is where the differences come in, and so far he’s been very lucky, both comically and cinematically. This time around, something a little different than simple gold accents or intricate weaving comes into play.
Today’s Black Panther apparently manifests a glowing Vibranium energy in his suit, in the form of a detailed pinkish pattern. My first reaction was to wonder why he did it, but then I shrugged, because I really like the effect. Black Panther has been weaponizing Vibranium more and more over the years, using them for energy blasts, daggers, and so forth, so it seems like a natural evolution.
When initial pictures debuted there was some pushback against a powered-up version showing up as an exclusive before a regular, powered down version without the pink lines. I’m pretty positive a depowered version will show up in some way — maybe as part of an SDCC set. Either way, as a Black Panther fan, I had to have this, even though the last pure black Walmart exclusive Black Panther pretty much delivered my personal “iconic” Panther.
As it turns out, I really, really love this figure. It uses a different body than the previous comic Panther releases, and this actually feels like the “right” body for him, and I say that as someone who has always loved the BuckyCap body. This Panther feels sleek, athletic, and lithe. It feels like a jungle cat. It moves easily, it poses great, and it does it all fluidly. Good grief, I actually want the previous Panther to be remade on this body. Am I never satisfied?
The figure isn’t quite as detailed as some of the artwork I’ve seen, but it still pulls off the effect nicely. Thankfully they didn’t try to go the overspray route with the energy effect. Of course, that just leaves him looking like he has regular lines on him and it doesn’t suggest “energy” as much as a glowing effect, but it also means that some errant spray job doesn’t turn him into a literal Pink Panther. For the purposes of the figure, it works well. I’m usually a fan of “____ against black” combinations, especially colors that are on the more neon-ish side of things, so I really like this sprinkling of color up against the normal black background of his outfit.
Other than the snazzy body upgrade, this panther gets a brand new head that also modernizes his look. The main design difference on this head is that the ears lean further back. If anybody has ever owned a cat, you know that when the ears go back the claws are about to come out, so the flattened-back ears give a much more aggressive sillhouette to his head.
Black Panther came with two versions of the same head. One was powered up, and one was depowered. He looks okay with the powered-down head, but since the rest of him is powered up, it doesn’t really fit. The head fits (with some slight difficulty) on the other classic-styled Black Panther if you want to update that figure a little. For me, I like the classic head on the classic body and the powered-up head on this one, so I’ll be waiting for a powered-down version of this figure.
He comes with two pairs of hands: fists and claw hands. They swap in and out easily and both continue the detailed paint design. These are the perfect accompaniment to a Panther figure For the fist hands, he comes with two energy bursts that attach easily. Like the actual design work, the fuchsia/pink energy bursts look good coupled with his mostly black.
If you had ever asked me if I would need a Black Panther with some pink doodles on him, I probably would have looked at you weird and wondered why you were talking to me in the cereal aisle, before politely pushing my cart away from you. But having it in-hand, this figure is the purest form of hand-candy there is, and really shows how Marvel Legends are currently operating at a very high level for mass-market action figures.