Nightcrawler is my hands-down, favorite X-Man, if not my favorite comic book character altogether, but I have never really loved any of his action figures. This version looked to top all previous versions, so I had to (over)pay for it when I saw it at a vendor last weekend at SDCC. Let’s take a look at the Marvel Legends Nightcrawler!
Nightcrawler comes in the regular Marvel Legends box which didn’t even make it home with me because I had to open this figure up ASAP and try and streamline what I’m carrying around the show floor with me as much as possible at SDCC. The above box pic is from Hasbro’s marketing team.
He comes with an alternate right hand, three heads, a sword, and Wendigo’s left arm.
Wendigo’s arm is a pretty bright white but that blue overspray has me a little nervous. I’m not sure I like it, but will reserve judgement until I get him built.
The sword is a fairly solid plastic and the design has the feel of a cutlass, which is perfect for Kurt.
The sword itself does remind me of a sword Kurt holds in an issue of Amazing X-Men and in general I’d say the portraits are reminiscent of Ed McGuiness’ take on Nightcrawler from that book.
The faces have three great expressions, perfect for the character with a more neutral face, a more demonic scream, and a dashing smile.
I think some artists tended to draw Kurt with more aquiline nose or stronger jaw, but these portraits feel like a better match for Cockrum’s work on the original Nightcrawler mini-series or the above mentioned McGuinness.
The sword grip hand actually has such a tight grip it almost works well as a fist and the splayed hand option is so perfectly Nightcrawler.
The body also features some great sculpting. The torso, hands and feet all appear to be new and Nightcrawler specific and the overall build strikes a good balance between the thinnest Spider-Man body and the bulkier medium build bodies like Winter Soldier and Spider-Man 2099.
The sculptor captured the look of Kurt’s costume shoulder flares perfectly and I like how the red portion of the costume is slightly raised from the black. It gives the thing a bit more of a detailed feel while keeping the integrity of the simpler lines of a bronze age costume.
The articulation is also very good. Kurt has:
- Swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, hips, wrists, and ankles
- Double hinged knees and elbows
- Swivel waist, tail, and biceps
- Hinged mid-torso and pectorals
The ab crunch has a nice range of motion, though I wonder if it could have worked better with a combination more like the one we saw in the recent Beast figure with a lower torso hinge and upper torso ball and socket.
The tail is not bendable, but I really like the flair with which it is sculpted and I think adding the swivel actually gets all the tail movement I absolutely need for Nightcrawler.
The only real flaw for me on this figure is paint. There is some sloppy application on the eyes, and the white/red section of the gloves is messy too. The teeth have a little slop that I don’t notice in hand but becomes more obvious with close up photos.
I also had a bit of paint from the sword come off on the hands. The sword blade paint in general is pretty chipped too.
I also don’t really agree with the concept of painting the shadows onto his face like they have done on the screaming face. The eyes could also stand to be a brighter yellow.
Despite all my paint gripes, this figure is a blast and is inching up on figure of the year territory for me as it’s a great, classic representation of one of my favorite characters with a ton of posing and play options.
Three included portraits puts this figure over the top for me too. Go get Nightcrawler and the WenDEEgo wave at Dorkside!
