Grr. Arrgh. Rage.
Rage is a character that I’ve been wanting to see make it to Marvel legends ever since he got a 4-inch figure in the Marvel Universe line. It’s taken a while, but here we are. I actually haven’t read that many stories with Rage. He’s been a New Warrior and an avenger, both teams I am a fan of, but he seemed to pop into those titles at times when I wasn’t diligently reading them. I think the first time I ever saw him was as a “Rookie” in the second series of Impel’s Marvel trading cards back in 1991. I’ve gone into my love of those cards in a previous article, and I have a gigantic soft spot for pretty much anybody and everybody on al of those cards.
Rage could only have been designed in the 90s. Marvel characters wore various types of leather jackets back then either black or brown. The Avengers wore jackets, Nomad, Rage, Probably even Aunt May. Any hero that didn’t wear a leather jacket of some type got ostracized at the hero conventions.
Rage continues the trend of the wave in that he’s minimal with some new tooling and no accessory outside of the BAF piece. And that’s perfectly fine, because Rage doesn’t need anything but those two fists that are full of Rage. Pow pow pow.
He’s on the Hyperion body. That body is divisive among fandom. For me, it might be showing its age a little, but I’ve never had the big problem with it that others have. Newer bodies (like the criminally underused so far modern Hercules body) have surpassed it, but for a character like Rage I don’t have an issue, especially since the jacket hides most people’s glaring issue, which is the chest shelf. Add to that the fact that he has boots to remedy the other complaint—cankles–and this works very well overall for Rage. I don’t know, maybe I’m simple-minded but it poses well and he looks good so that’s pretty much all it takes to make me happy.
The jacket is a little on the stiff side, but it doesn’t seem to impede much of what he can do. It’s very well sculpted, and has a nice leathery sheen to go with the sculpt, so it looks quite a bit like actual leather. He also has a studded belt to go with his cleeveless leather jacket. This dude is unafraid of any type of leather daddy stereotyping. There’s nothing but attitude as far as the eye can see.
The elbows, knees and even ab crunch on this body have always done a decent job at allowing a wide range of motion, so Rage is capable of getting into a nice array of poses.
Rage comes with a headsculpt that evokes his name. This is one angry dude. Outside of the Hulk, few Marvel Legends figures are baring their teeth this hard. He’s going to chip a molar if he gets any Ragier.
I’m glad they went with with this look over some of his later costumes. I don’t have an issue with his later looks, but this one feels the most like Rage to me. It’s simple. The nose looks a little pinkish, but maybe the mask is cutting off the circulation to his nose. Or something. I have no idea. The eyes and teeth are actually painted very well. Everything is where it’s supposed to be, which can be a colossal crapshoot sometimes.
Since you don’t get hands options, Rage gets fists. I love a toy with fists. All my toys are punchy.
Rage might seem to have some hurdles to get over: body choice, character choice, whatever. But if you get past all that, you end up with a satisfying figure of a character that makes his debut in the line. Redos of old figure are fine and great, but getting a new character is always welcome.
