Veebee covered the X-Force side of the wave yesterday and I talked about Nightcrawler last week, so we’re wrapping up our look at the Wendigo wave today with Mister Sinister, Guardian, and the Build-a-Figure Wendigo. Let’s take a look!
The figures come packed on the usual boxes and I like the dynamic, comic-book styled art on the sides and back. It feels like a very appropriate illustration style for an X-Men related wave. The only odd thing is how crowded out of the bubble Guardian is, but that didn’t bug me for long.
Sinister has a snazzy sculpt with an appropriately large frame covered in those metal banded details you see on characters like him and Colossus. The portrait is really fantastic and sports a very (ahem) sinister grin.
My impression of Mister Sinister is almost entirely formed from his appearances in Marvel’s massive Inferno crossover event. My memory of him is basically a lot of standing around looking evil and delivering expository monologues, so this figure with the arch grin and grasping claw hand hits the right notes for me in that respect.
Sinister has a fairly unique cape and they captured it well here. It’s attached securely to his back and holds it’s odd shape well, but is also fairly flexible. His articulation is Marvel Legends standard with:
- Swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Thigh, waist, boot, and bicep Swivels
- Hinged mid-torso
- Double hinged knees and elbows
The articulation all moves well with more than 90 degree bends at both knee and elbow. I also like how they have added the thigh swivel at the boot cut. Paint is awesome as the metallic blue on most of the body has a great shine to it. There was a skuff on the mid-chest jewel on my figure, but it’s otherwise great.
Guardian has a nice medium build body, similar in size to the old Bucky Cap body, but I like the proportions on this one a bit better and it feels appropriate for Guardian. My figure did have a big chunk of extra plastic on his right bicep, so that marks him down a bit.
The head has a stern, no-nonsense expression which feels appropriate for James MacDonald Hudson and I especially I like the detail of all the creases and lines in his forehead. Veebs also pointed out at SDCC how much it looks like a great Batman and I can’t really argue with that. Ears and a repaint and you’ve got a good Bats figure on your hands.
Major Maple-Leaf here is well articulated and all of the POA move well. Guardian has:
- Swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Thigh, waist, boot, and bicep Swivels
- Hinged mid-torso
- Double hinged knees and elbows
I know the paint job on this guy is controversial because we were shown a prototype with metallic paint and though Guardian’s white parts are pearlescent here, the red is more of a slight gloss on the final figure. I think I’m in the minority, but I prefer what we got to the more metallic prototype.
Guardian isn’t a very flashy figure, but he gets the job done for this Alpha Flight fan. I’ve always loved this costume and this version is quite a step up from the previous Guardian figure. Hopefully there’s more Alpha Flight on the way.
Wendigo is based on the Sasquatch base body, but has his own unique hands, furry shoulder and loincloth pieces, tail, and head. The face is a neat design and I love the screaming expression and nasty teeth, but it’s not Wendigo to me.
I think this is a better figure overall than Hasbro’s last Wendigo attempt from the Fin Fang Foom wave, but I prefer that portrait.
The figure moves fairly well, but knee and elbow articulation is impeded by the sheer size of the figure’s arms and legs. The hips also don’t get a great forward range and I found myself popping the legs off quite often when posing. Wendigo has:
- Swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Single hinged ab and elbow
- Double hinged knees
- Swivel tail and thighs
I also don’t love the ab crunch range on this guy. It goes backward well, but forward range is limited. The paint for Wendigo is okay. It’s mostly white plastic with a light blue overspray. It works well enough to simulate the way he was colored in comics back in the ’80s but I’m not a fan of this sort of light blue overspray for white characters. I think I would have preferred a wash to bring out those well-sculpted fur details.
Overall these are solid figures. Sinister and Guardian do exactly what I need a Sinister and Guardian figure to do. Wendigo isn’t quite to my taste, but it is a nice figure for the most part. If Hasbro wanted to be my best friend, they would release a more classic Wendigo head as a pack in with some future Alpha Flight character.
