Beast was a part of Marvel Legends Series 4, and yes, having tackled most of Series 1, Series 2 and Series 3, it is time for Series 4. Beast was the third X-Men character to make his way into Marvel Legends and he’s continued to be an ok edition. The look is based more on the Jim Lee era of X-Men comics in the ’90s but still fits as a placeholder for one’s Avengers ’70s lineup.
I’m all about the ’70s comics, I don’t know why but I can go back and read me some Avengers and X-Men from that era and be perfectly happy. Beast was on a couple teams throughout his career getting his start with the Original X-Men. Back then he wasn’t all blue and fuzzy, he’d take that turn later on. And when he did take that turn he was the coolest. I always liked him as part of my Avengers lineups, but there was that brief period when he was rocking it with the X-Men during he Phoenix saga and was cool. Beast was on my radar again during his X-Factor days and continued to be for a while after that. During the 2000’s he underwent some weird changes (cat beast and monkey beast) but has continued to be a great character.
The figure is a great sculpt but it leaves me wanting more. For starters it’s huge, and if you look at Beast’s head it’s easy to see that he his hugely out of scale, if only he were just a bit smaller. Otherwise the sculpt is spot on good, the sculpted hair, the hands and feet are very well done. The hair really seals the deal on this figure, it’s a great feature that keeps me going back to look at the figure. The head sculpt is the real prize on the figure and holds up today as one of the better head sculpts that Toy Biz produced.
The articulation on the other hand is a mixed bag, and not because it lacks, actually there is a ton of articulation on the figure. But if you are going to go all the way like Toy Biz did, then why skip the ab joint? For a character like Beast it makes no sense to skip this joint, the guy is acrobatic and could use a decent joint here. While Beast is one of the figures that sports the hippy-hinge, it’s a good solid joint that works well with Beast and is hidden with the sculpt. And the best part? Beast has a hinged jaw for doing some serious animalistic yelling. Here’s the breakdown:
Hinged toes
Rocker ankles
Hinged ankles
Swivel calves
Double hinged knees
Swivel thighs
Hinged hips
Swivel crotch
Swivel waist
Ball shoulders
Swivel biceps
Hinged elbows
Swivel forearms
Hinged wrists
Hinged fingers
Swivel neck
Hinged neck
Swivel head
Hinged jaw
I keep wondering if it would be worth it to shrink the head down to make a custom beast, but then I’d have to sculpt all the fur on a new figure. Instead I’ll stick with him as is in the hope that one day someone comes up with a new Beast. You ca still pick this figure up at:
