I feel like there is a meme in here somewhere…
Hasbro generously supplied us with an early sample of the San Diego Comic Con exclusive Marvel Legends The Collector and Grandmaster 2-Pack, and while it’s not the most requested of characters, I ended up loving them. They’re just so wacky and weird, two awkward and unique actors captured in awkward and unique plastic form!
I mean, take the arms on both figures. I know there must be an engineering reason for the joint choices, but besides the movie already giving us an asymmetrical design choice of a jacket/robe with only a left sleeve (which is also another subtle clue as to the character’s being somehow related to moviegoers with no comic background) Hasbro took it a step further and made the asymmetrical articulation choice of right arms with double hinge elbows and bicep swivels while the left arms sport just hinge and swivel elbows. It took me a minute to even realize what was going on, but even in those minutes before it dawned I knew there was something off, an odd, awkward feeling. Don’t get me wrong, I would prefer double elbows all around for it’s much superior range of motion, but in this case there is something amusing about it.
And can I say the del Toro head is damn off-putting in it’s accuracy? The Goldblum likeness is no slouch, although it feels it was “de-aged” a bit, but the Collector looks like he’s disappointed by me. He finds no reason for me to be in his collection and he’s not even hiding his contempt. It’s the look we all get when we hit the toy aisle and find absolutely nothing, not even a double or possible army builder or that “Well, I’ll buy it if it’s on sale or if I don’t anything else” item. The look that tells our significant other, after wandering back and finding them in the frozen food section, that the pegs were bare.
Then they get the same look as the Grandmaster from this set. More money for, y’know, food! And bills!
Over the course of writing that I realized like this set even more now. For the wacky fun. And that’s on top of beautiful sculpts. I would usually gripe more about a robe/cape that comes all the way to the floor and bunches into a gorgeous sculpt, but I just need Grandmaster to stand there and melt things with his stick. Same goes for Collector’s left arm being ever so slightly hindered by cape, but all I need him to do is call things beautiful. It’s a set of little Jeff Goldblum and Benicio del Toro.
What. More. Do. You. Want?
The set will be available this week at SDCC for $50 and should hit Hasbro Pulse soon after. Again, thanks go to Hasbro for providing this for review.
Package:
Grandmaster:
The Collector:
Accessories:
Comparisons:
Various:
