Marvel Studios’ first Guardians of the Galaxy was one of the most unlikely success stories of the past several years. The general public was introduced to a handful of Marvel characters who previously had about zero mainstream exposure outside of the comics, but succeed the movie did, defying expectations all over the place. One of the more interesting secondary characters in the movie was Yondu, brought to life on screen by Michael Rooker. Fans of the comics knew Yondu as a founding member of the Guardians, but for the purposes of the movie, Yondu lead a crew of space pirates known as “The Ravegers,” of which Star-Lord was a member before establishing the Guardians we all now know and love. We didn’t get a Yondu figure in the 2014 Marvel Legends Guardians wave, but Hasbro has righted that wrong by making sure we got one this year. So let’s take a look at the long-awaited Marvel Legends Yondu!
Yondu’s packaging is standard for the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 waves (there will be two waves). I like that he actually gets his “own” packaging, rather than sharing with a similarly themed wavemate. It kind of adds more weight to the character’s perceived importance, but that’s probably just my own bias speaking since I really really like Yondu.
Yondu’s original comic design was much more lithe and athletic-looking (this original comic version was recently released in the 3.75-inch line), while this cinematic version of Yondu almost looks like a blue-skinned Hellboy, due to the long duster jacket and color scheme of his uniform. The overall sculpt is incredibly detailed, right down to textures added to parts of this shirt and jacket. Movie figures have really come a long way since the ToyBiz days, and Yondu here is an excellent example of Hasbro’s ability to effectively translate characters from the screen to plastic. I have no trouble adding figures that look this good to my collection, which is saying a lot since there once was a time when I wouldn’t touch them.
A nice touch here is that Yondu comes with two unique head sculpts. One resembles his look from the first movie, so he can be posed with the 2014 crop of Guardians figures. The second has a much larger mohawk, which I do believe is straight from the new forthcoming movie. The second head also portrays him “whistling,” which is how he activates his “killer arrow” weapon. His larger mohawk is even given paint highlights to indicate his weapon has been activated (you’ll notice in the movie that when he whistles, his mohawk lights up). I love the attention to small details like that.
The grin on the smaller-mohawk head reminds me of the scene at the end of the first movie when Yondu realizes that pesky Star-Lord has pulled another fast one on him. The likeness of both heads definitely suggests Michael Rooker, but I’ll be honest here — while I think the “whistling” expression is a nice touch, it also looks a little like a “kissy face,” or like he’s posing for his Myspace profile pic, and I do wish the larger mohawk head came suited with a more neutral expression. But I guess I can live with it as it is, but I also wish I could have my cake and eat it too here — like maybe make both expressions possible for both mohawks? That could be easily achieved if the larger mohawk was a swappable piece, but I also feel as though I’m being insanely nitpicky here, so I’ll stop.
Speaking of Yondu’s “killer arrow,” Hasbro managed to render the movement of the arrow in plastic, and the effect is pretty cool. The orange “trail” can be plugged into the holster on his belt so it looks as though it’s floating through the air en route to its next victim. Yondu activates this weapon by whistling, so the larger mohawk head pairs perfectly with this. Unfortunately, the “trail” can’t be manipulated and posed, so it’s forever locked into this one pattern, but it’s still a cool effect when in use. I like that Hasbro is doing some outside-the-box thinking when it comes to accessories like this. They could have very simply included just an arrow with no effect, and it would have been even lamer here than when it happens with a character like Hawkeye. So they get definite points for creativity here.
Yondu’s articulation is standard modern Marvel Legends, and his coat only hinders him a little bit. The coat is a soft plastic, yes, but it’s not so soft that it doesn’t get in the way. The coat can be removed easily to make him more poseable, but then he wouldn’t really look like Rooker’s Yondu.
Finally, Yondu comes with the Build-A-Figure Titus’ “cannon arm.” I don’t have much to say about this since I don’t plan to build Titus and have no exposure to the character, but for a cannon arm, it looks pretty decent.
I normally do not collect the movie figures in these modern Marvel Legends waves, but for some reason I am much softer on that rule when it comes to Guardians of the Galaxy, especially when they’re as good as Yondu here. Yondu was my most anticipated figure from this wave, and I am completely happy with him. Naturally I’d love to see a comic version at some point, but for now, this is absolutely my preferred version of the character, and I really hope he has even more of a presence in the upcoming sequel.
Yondu will probably be among the more popular figures in this new Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel Legends wave, so if you see him out in the wild, I’d snatch him right up without a second thought. In the meantime, he can be pre-ordered at Amazon.
