I’m a fan of the Marvel Netflix shows, but I wasn’t sure I needed to buy the Marvel Legends Defenders SDCC exclusive 5-Pack. I really wanted a few of the figures, but not all of them, which is a fairly common problem with a multi-pack set. I decided to let fate decide and only buy it if the Hasbro line dwindled down to nothing while I was nearby. Fortunately for me, it was completely dead Saturday afternoon and I was able to walk right up and grab a set. Let’s take a look!
The 5-Pack comes in a pretty snazzy box, designed to look like a subway car, with drawings of the Defenders fighting on the windows.
When you take the sleeve off, it reveals a scene of the Defenders lounging in a stylized subway car interior.
It’s a fun little set and I want to try to remove the plastic trays to use for pictures. It’s very stylized, so the style of the packaging clashes somewhat with the more realistic style of the Defenders. I think it might look pretty boss with some cartoon Ninja Turtles.
The set comes with the five figures (Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Danny Rand and Colleen Wing), an alternate head for Daredevil and a sword and sheath for Colleen Wing.
Jessica looks to be mostly re-used from her Man-Thing wave figure, except they swapped the arms out for some Elektra bare arms.
The paint is nice with some interesting printing on the pants that makes for a decent approximation of jeans. I also think this Jessica Jones face printing worked a little better than the one in the Man-Thing wave.
Her articulation is Marvel Legends Standard with:
- Swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and ankles
- Ball and socket head and mid-torso
- Swivel thighs
- Double hinged knees
I think it’s an effective representation of Jessica, I just like the original figure a bit more.
Daredevil also appears to be completely re-used from the Man-Thing wave figure, except he has a new unmasked head sculpt.
I think the Matt Murdock head is quite good with an accurate likeness and effective face printing. Unfortunately the face on the masked figure looks really off.
The print was misaligned so badly I can’t tell for sure if this is the same sculpt as the original Man-Thing figure wave sculpt. Here’s a comparison with the original on the left:
He looked a little smirky in that original figure and I think this new one might be less so, but like I said the detail is just obliterated by that printing issue.
Daredevil also has standard ML articulation with:
- Swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Ball and socket head and mid-torso
- Swivel thighs
- Double hinged knees and elbows
An interesting bit about his ankles is that the ankle hinge joint swivels at the calf and the foot allowing for a bit more poseability.
While I really like this Matt Murdock head sculpt, this is probably the weakest figure in the set. I think I would have preferred him on the suit body with some glasses and a cane. His head is easily transferrable to the suit body. Here I have him on the recent Everett Ross figure’s body.
Luke Cage looks to me to be a new figure, though it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some re-use in there I just didn’t recognize.
They are pretty clever over at Hasbro with that sort of thing. His sculpt is pretty awesome and Luke has an appropriately muscular build while still maintaining a fairly realistic look.
I think the head sculpt is dead on and I love that they included a little removeable wrist watch. The hands do pop off fairly easily, which is a little annoying, but that’s the one flaw I spotted on this guy.
Luke has the standard ML articulation and it all moves really well. I’m impressed at the range of motion of the ankles since it’s boots against pants and that can often lead to blocked movement. I think the face printing and the prints meant to indicate faded jeans are both really effective.
I know Luke is coming out now in a two-pack with Claire Temple (exclusive to Wal-Mart), but I think I prefer the colors on this figure more. I think I’ll still get both because I like the figure and the character enough to want two outfits for him. I would have liked it if they included a soft goods hoodie for Luke to wear or sculpted this figure with a hoodie since he wears those a lot in the show.
How do you know that Danny Rand is the Immortal Iron Fist? Don’t worry, he’ll tell you. Often. I’m an old school Heroes for Hire fan, so I want to like the Netflix Iron Fist show so much, but I do not love it.
That kind of translates into how I feel about this figure. The likeness doesn’t quite hit the mark for me, he almost seems too calm and genteel for this version of Danny Rand. Iron Fist on Netflix seems to be in a constant state of petulant disbelief bordering on disgust.
It does match fairly well with one of the promotional photos where he is wearing the suit and striking that fist/palm pose, but the old ML suit build seems a little thick for the wiry Iron Fist.
The articulation is Marvel Legends standard, though his shoe sculpt does have a little better range of motion than the shoes usually found on that body.
He only comes with the Iron Fist and a knife-hand, but I found I was able to swap out other fists and hands I had in my Legends extra pieces bins. It doesn’t feel like an Iconic representation of Iron Fist, but I think that’s more of the show’s fault than Hasbro’s. Still, there’s something about it I like and I ended up having fun with the figure.
Finally, we’ve come to the highlight of the set for me, Colleen Wing. I don’t love Iron Fist on Netflix, but I do like Jessica Henwick as Colleen quite a bit.
Henwick is on a bit of a franchise roll with small roles in Marvel, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones. The figure is based on the jump suit she wears in one of her first fight scenes and I don’t think you see again, but I like it because it’s similar to some of her comic book looks and is probably the closest thing to a costume on that show.
I think it re-uses pieces here and there, like Elektra’s hands, but it appears to be mostly new sculpt. I like the likeness and I think the face printing works pretty well with the sculpt. She has standard ML female figure articulation with:
- Swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Ball and socket head and mid-torso
- Swivel thighs
- Double hinged knees
The sword and sheath look familiar and come from previously released figures, but it works well here in white. I may end up adding a string so she can wear the sheathe over her shoulder.
Like I said before, I’m a heroes for hire guy so I love me some Coleen Wing and Misty Knight action and would like a Simone Missick Misty Knight figure to go with this Colleen Wing.
Overall, the set is a bit of a mixed bag, but I think the good outweighs the bad. I love Colleen and Luke, like Danny and Jessica, and I ended up neutral on Daredevil. The set is still up on Hasbrotoyshop.com.
