It is the opinion of this humble Marvel Legends fan that Walgreens has been quietly CRUSHING it when it comes to store exclusives. Yeah, I am a big time Fantastic Four fan so I might be a little biased, however, all of their recent figures have been well designed, of good quality, fill some much needed gaps in the modern ML collection, and have been (relatively) easy to obtain. In keeping with that trend, I have to say that the next figure up is pretty RAD. Actually, it is really RADD. Wink, wink; nudge, nudge.
This is a figure of Norrin Radd, of course, and not only does he follow the likes of Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, and the rest in being a great exclusive on his own, but also for that fact that we have never, EVER had a good Silver Surfer figure in Marvel Legends. That is, of course, until now. Yes, Hasbro and Walgreens are fixing the wrongs of the past while making our current collections awesome, and Silver Surfer has been a pain point for me ever since Toy Biz Marvel Legends series five. Yes, we got a cool magnetic surf board, and DOUBLE YES we got a Howard the Duck figure, but SS, well… It’s okay, I am not hating on TB alone for their Roswell Alien face and cruddy base body, because the previous Hasbro attempts were not any good either, so there is a lot of 20/20 hindsight to go around.
However, I think we will be able to (mostly) forget about those previous entries because this new SS is the best there has ever been in ML. Hands down. Period. Yeah, I might not consider this figure to be quite as near-perfect as say, Reed, but it has just about everything going for it, and it fits in well with the modern-take-but-pretty-much-iconic approach that the current ML collection is getting. For being a character that seems to be pretty straight forward for the needs of action figure construction, he is just a “blank” base after all, Norrin has been challenging over the years, but like I said, this one gets it all mostly right. Everything here (save for the head) has been used in ML before, but that is okay by me, especially if they were saving those tooling dollars for the ever lovin’ blue-eyed Thing!
It is funny, as all over the place and not really accurate as the base bodies for previous Surfers have been, the head sculpt have been the worst part, in my opinion. Sure, I would love a classic Jack Kirby-inspired SS, but I would have always been fine with a straightforward take on the likeness, and we have not even gotten that. This time though, we finally have a winner, and it is likeable for, well, not trying to do too much. I don’t think (but I don’t know) that this SS likeness is taken from anything specific, but without being remarkable, it is still a great look for Silver Surfer. Yeah, the original Hasbro figure did not have a terrible look to it as far as the head goes, but it was so tiny and pinched that it was instantly invalidated. This one though, it looks like Silver Surfer in the ML line, and it does a great job. I will TAKE IT!
The base body is perfectly acceptable for Silver Surfer, but again, this will likely cause the most discussion about the figure. The good part is that the talk can be able what build is most appropriate for the character, rather than how ugly the base is. I DESPISE both of the previous bases used for this character in ML, so this new one wins no matter what. The good news is that it is a GREAT base, and one of the most functionally articulated of the modern library. I love the “butterfly” shoulder joints, and those allow for some very nice posing, especially on the board itself. Now, I *might* be one of those people who would like a bit more mass to their Surfer (a la the most recent Namor base), especially standing him close to the Human Torch, but that would come with a bit of articulation limitation. I know, this is getting into nitpick territory, but I guess what I am saying is, we need a bigger base body with those butterfly joints. Really though, once SS is on his board a bit above the rest of gang, he scales just fine.
Speaking of the board, Hasbro knows how to hang onto their tooling because this is the same surf board used for that original Hasbro SS release from many years ago. At least I think it is. It works just fine and has a foot peg to help keep Norrin in his place, but I really wish there was a stand to go along with it, that would really put it over. Also included are two effects that we have seen before, this time in glittery yellow, which are nice to show off some expression of powers. Finally, I really like that we get three sets of hands with this, and while I will likely not get a lot of use out of the fists, the splayed hands are great for the effect, and of course, the flat hands are needed to correctly cruise the cosmos. So, all good in the hands department, and the coming of Galactus can be properly expressed with some very appropriate accessories.
So, even though I am a little sad I have to wait a bit longer to get my mitts on that new Ben Grimm figure, I am thrilled that this Herald of Galactus will be heading to our local Walgreens soon. This figure was gotten a bit early by our pals at Preternia.com, so they let us borrow him to bring this review to you. Because they are awesome. So, go check out the site, and definitely give them a like on Facebook, and a follow on Instagram and the Twitters. Thanks, Jon!
Start looking for Silver Surfer soon, he is likely to land at any time!
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