Hot on the heels of Hasbro's Marvel Legends: Terrax Series comes the 2nd wave featuring a Build-A-Figure (BAF) of Arnim Zola. This wave of figures features 10 figures counting the variants, but the Spider-Man figure doesn't include a BAF part. I've been sitting on these for quite some time and when I saw the price tags the other day at Walmart for the Iron Man 3 series of Marvel Legends, I figured it was time to get this post up on the blog.
We won't necessarily look at these figures in any particular order, but we'll start with Captain America. If you follow the line then you'll know Steve Rogers was in the first series. This Captain America is none other than the Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes. Donning a new costume, Bucky Cap looks a bit different, but equally as awesome.
Hasbro didn't change up the packaging from series 1. Ed McGuinness again supplies the art and has done a steller job. Bucky Cap comes with Zola's right leg.
The new Cap figure looks fantastic. The sculpt is very comic accurate and the shiny metallic paint is the cherry on the cake. Bucky cap comes with the iconic shield and a pistol. There is a removable soft plastic belt with a holster on each hip. The pistol can be stored in either holster.
If I'm being completely honest, I much prefer the Bucky Cap over the Steve Rogers figure. It's smaller, but offers better articulation, better paint apps and just looks better overall.
Perhaps my favorite figure in the line (or at least the most anticipated for me) is Drax. Now you'll notice the packaging calls him Marvel's Drax most likely due to trademark or copyright laws. Hasbro had to do something similar with the names of many Transformers characters. Drax comes with Zola's left leg.
While the figure may look bland when compared to others in the Marvel Legends family, Hasbro did a great job capturing the essence of the character. Now we just need a figure of his daughter Heather (Moondragon), the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy and a good Marvel Legends scaled figure of Thanos so Drax can do the job he was born for!
Fantomex is the one character in the line that I had no idea who he was. Most of my comic reading is of Avengers or cosmic type characters so I had to ask my older brother who this mutant character was. Even after looking up his profile online I'm still confused about this character! Fantomex comes packaged with Zola's right arm.
Despite not knowing much about the character, he's a pretty cool looking figure. The molded jacket looks great, but does hinder some poses. Fantomex comes with two pistols and they can be held in the holsters attached to his belt.
Dark Wolverine, aka Daken, is Wolverine's son. He features many of the same mutant abilities such as a healing factor and retractable bone claws. Until the Siege storyline in the comics, Daken went by the name Wolverine as part of the Dark Avengers. There is also a variant of this figure where he has his mask on. Daken comes with Zola's left arm.
I'm not a big Wolverine fan so this character never really appealed to me. The variant masked figure looks better in my opinion, but this is still a pretty nice figure. Articulation is on par with most modern Marvel Legends figures. The tattoo on his arm is nicely done. My gripe with most Wolverine figures are the claws. For safety reasons the plastic used for the claws is usually so soft the claws end up warped right out of the packaging. With these claws being "bone" they are thicker and work much better.
In order to get the most bang for their buck, Hasbro decided to use the female mold to make two different characters. Thankfully however you didn't have to buy both figures to complete the BAF. Madame Masque is the easier to find of the pair with Madame Hydra (Viper) being the other figure. They are basically the same figure sans the paint apps, the head and the accessories. Madame Masque comes packaged with Zola's torso. In an interesting twist, Madame Hydra comes packaged with Zola's torso, but instead of Zola's face you get the Red Skull! I was really tempted to to build my Arnim Zola using the Red Skull torso, but eventually left it alone since I didn't need the added cost of buying another figure.
I didn't end up keeping this figure, but in hindsight I kinda wished I did...especially after buying the new modern Iron Man ML figure from the Iron Man 3 line that is now on shelves. I'm not versed on all things Marvel Legends, but I believe this is the same female mold used for the Black Widow from the Toys R Us 2 pack a year or so ago. Madame Masque comes with a very cool assault rifle as well as a gold pistol that is held in her one holster. The best thing about this figure though is the head sculpt. I've never been a fan of the character, but it's a great looking figure.
Similar to the ladies, Hasbro wanted to use the large figure in the line to create not just one member of the Wrecking Crew, but two members! Thunderball is the easier of the two to find with Piledriver being the alternate figure. Both figures come packaged with Zola's head and control rod accessory.
This figure is huge and I love it. Thunderball won't win any awards for best costume or best weapon, but man is this a great figure. First off Hasbro did a great job with the paint applications to make Thunderball look like he just leaped out of a comic book. His signature weapon is also well done. It's not so heavy that you can't pose him swinging the ball and chain above his head if you so wish.
Just to give you a better idea of the size of Thunderball (and Piledriver) here he is along side of wave 1's Build-A-Figure, Terrax. They are just about the same size!
Piledriver is equally as awesome as Thunderball, but I can't get past the goofy expression molded on his face. He also comes with Thunderball's ball and chain accessory which doesn't really make sense, but oh well.
As with Thor from the first series, Spider-Man is the lone figure in this series that doesn't contain a BAF part. Spider-Man also comes in two varieties. The standard release has Spidey in his Big Time costume while the alternate has him in his white and black Freedom Foundation costume. As much as I love Spidey, I decided to skip both versions to save a little money, however the FF version looks so freakin' cool.
While Arnim Zola may be an odd choice for a Build-A-Figure, Hasbro has done a great job with the figure. He looks exactly like how I remember seeing him in the pages of Captain America. It would be cool to have both the Zola as-is and the Red Skull version, but I'm happy with the figure as you see it.
I skipped over series 3 since Hasbro decided not to include a Build-A-Figure character, but now that this post is out of the way bring on the new Iron Man 3 figures!
