The Avengers: Endgame Marvel Legends wave trickled out in my area this last week and I was able to grab all of the comic based figures from the line. Today we’re going to take a look at my most anticipated figure from the wave, Hercules!
Herc comes in the now familiar Marvel Legends box with some nifty artwork on the sides and back.
The sculpt of the figure matches his modern incarnation perfectly from the artwork I’ve seen, though I haven’t read that book.
Admittedly, if I had my way, Hercules would have been in his ’80s look with the trunks, giant “H” belt buckle, sandal/boots, and green harness. That said, I actually like this modern design quite a bit. It captures the feel of that look if not the detail and the color scheme matches the green/brown/tan scheme of his classic looks. I can imagine that the man-bun must infuriate a certain stripe of serious comic-book fans, but it honestly doesn’t jump out at me.
The sculpt is fantastic as Herc is huge and bulky, but not overly large straying into Hulk range. His shoulders are a little odd for a Marvel Legends figure as the shape is very defined and doesn’t fit the usual shoulder shape.
I like the look, but the arm movement is somewhat limited and when you lift the arms up and out to the sides, the spherical part of the ball joint looks a little odd under the arms. The head sculpt is also phenomenal with just the right amount of smirk in his expression.
Hercules has pretty typical ML articulation with:
- Swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, hips, wrists, and ankles
- Double hinged knees and elbows
- Swivel waist, thigh and boot cut
The double knees and elbows have pretty good range of motion, getting mre than 90 degree bends. The belt, shoulder straps and cod piece is all one piece and cast in a soft material that doesn’t impede articulation.
Herc comes with an extra pair of grasping hands, a sword, and a mace. I love that the weapons store neatly on the back straps, though I’m not sure if I like the mace more handle up or handle down.
The sword is a fairly soft plastic, and wasn’t bent out of shape, but the detail does look a little soft.
The mace details are a little sharper, but the shiny brown plastic of the handle isn’t very convincing. Some flat brown paint might have helped there.
Paint is good on Hercules, though I think his eyes aren’t quite painted right on mine as they are just big blue dots. The little chest hair decoration paint job isn’t perfect, but it works for me too in hand more than in photos. I think his gauntlets and weapons could have used a little TLC in the paint department, but admittedly I’m spoiled by the beautiful metallic paint and washes from the Mythic Legion line.
Overall this is a really nice figure. In general, I do wish they would skew more towards costumes that stuck around for a bit for these figures. Sometimes the new looks are gone when the next creative team comes along, so I’d prefer something from older books that I actually read. That said, even though it’s not my Hercules, it’s a fun figure to play with and feels right.
