Say what you will about the state of the world overall, but we are living in a time when we have a Quasar action figure, so 2021 has had its high points.
In much the same way the character has usually been just outside of the dealings of the main protagonists of the Marvel Universe, Quasar has been flirting with joining the Marvel Legends line for several years now. He has had a tendency of fluctuating in and out of the upper echelon of our Top Ten lists, but he was also a choice for an official Hasbro Fan Vote a few years ago. Which he should have won, by the way – I will fight you. However, like many under-appreciated characters, Quasar needed a little more help to finally get off the schneid, and that help came via Walgreens.
Ah, Walgreens – several years ago you would have likely scoffed at a discount pharmacy chain being a haven for action figure exclusives, but after years of countless exclusives, here we are. The store brought me my first GOOD Fantastic 4 team ML collection and other important characters over the years, so I will always be grateful for their Marvel Legends partnership. I must admit that, over the past year or so, finding these figures has not been as easy as it once was (indeed, I bought this figure from a seller in Asia), but it seems like stuff does make to their shelves eventually, it just takes a bit more work.
In the past, Walgreens has actually been the best when it comes to new/unique tooling for their exclusives (heck, we got a FULLY new Ben Grimm from them), but Quasar is one of the more straightforward Legends they have taken on. For the most part, this figure is built on pre-existing base body parts with swappable hands and flame effects we have seen before, but the head, cape, and Quantum Bands are new, and that is really all it takes to get us to a good ML representation of Quasar. 2021 has had a cosmic theme to the Walgreens exclusives, so Wendell here keeps that going nicely.
Traveling all the way from Wisconsin to Uranus (ha-yuck!), Quasar has fought cosmic threats from Ego and Galactus alongside some of Marvel’s greatest heroes. He has no inherent super-human abilities in and of himself, but his Quantum Bands give him the ability to rumble with the best of them – so those are obviously important parts of this figure. Quasar also made his debut in the 1970s, so getting that iconic coiffure just right was important, and Wendell looks like he stepped right out of your parent’s high school yearbook. With big bracelets and feathered hair, even heroes who venture to the furthest reaches of the galaxy can still be stunning time capsules.
The coolest part of this figure is the cape, though, because Quasar has a really cool cape. You can forgive the Return of the Jedi-era Luke Skywalker hair (even though Wendell did it first) because: star field cape. This has always been a really neat design to me, and it most certainly sets him apart from other heroes on your shelf. My Legends are mostly “vanilla” posed on my shelf, so I like the shape of this cape for my purposes, but it would have been neat to get an alternate one that was more open to see the star field better, but I understand that would have been a lot of added cost to an exclusive.
Between Nova, the upcoming Binary, and Quasar here, the Walgreens cosmic theme has been pretty darned solid this year. I love getting new and viable characters added to the Legends roster, so hunting challenges aside, I am always one for unique additions over variants. Hopefully Quasar will start to show up (better late than never) like Nova as he is getting easier and easier to locate at Walgreens now. It might be well into the new year before Binary gets that chance, though. Regardless, welcome, Wendell, we are glad to (finally) have you on the shelf.
