The latest Kamen Rider action figure from Hasbro Marvel Legends is fantastic. If only. No, this is no Kamen Rider action figure; this the Marvel Ultimate Universe version of the Beetle. Like the Ultimate Universe Green Goblin, and, like the Ultimate Goblin, I have very little knowledge of the character. I do know more about the 616 Marvel Beetle Abner Jenkins.
While I don’t know much about this Beetle, I can tell you that I have seen him in Ultimate Spider-Man, the current cartoon running our TV’s. And it’s a great character. No, it’s not Jenkins. And it is a bit difficult to deal with the change in colors — red and silver ain’t purple and green, but it works.
The figure is a ton of fun to play with. It’s got a great sculpt and the standard articulation scheme of a Marvel Legend, but the sculpt is really good. I thought I wouldn’t like this figure because it wasn’t a classic Beetle, and I thought that it would look stupid in my Marvel Legends collection, but it looks great. As I mentioned, there is this whole Kamen Rider-thing going on with it, even down to the colors.
The figure comes with a removable backpack that has wings. The wings are slightly rubbery and pop on and off with ease.
The feet are two-toed feet. I’m certain there is a comic-related explanation for the look of the feet, and at first I was a bit put off by them. At first I was tempted to cut off the toes and apoxie them over and make them look like normal boots, but as the days wore on, the feet and I had a mutual understanding, and they have since become one of the favorite aspects of the figure. They complete that “bug” look that makes the Beetle a beetle-based villain.
The articulation is your standard 30+ points of articulation. There is nothing to complain about regarding the articulation; it’s solid and does everything that you want it to, maybe more. The forward-to-backward movement of the hips is great. You can really get a monster pelvic thrust pose out of him, although the hips come in handy more for flying poses. His head even cranks all the way back, making for good flying poses or getting-punched-in-the-head poses. For some reason, my figure can’t arch his back; the ab-joint seems stuck and can’t bend backwards.
As I’m playing with the figure, I realize that the hip movement won’t let Beetle stand with this feet together. The Bleeding Edge Iron Man figure had this same problem, it’s the bottom part of the hole on the inner thigh. That hole isn’t cut low enough, so you’d have to dremel or cut the hole to be a bit lower.
This is a great figure for any Spidey collection. And if you want to throw in a customizing, aspect you can probably convert this figure into a Thunderbolts Mach One with relative ease. You can pick him up today at:
