Marvel Legends: Arnim Zola Series

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!

The Return of Marvel Legends - Terrax Series

I blame my brother for my Marvel addiction.  It all started in the very early 90's when he got me hooked on two Marvel comics that were just starting off - Guardians of the Galaxy and more specifically the New Warriors.  Even though my interest in the comics waned over the years I always seemed to come back.  When ToyBiz first introduced the Marvel Legends brand I wasn't all that excited.  I bought the Captain America figure at the time because I was (am) a big Cap and Avengers fan.  I bought select figures over the years, but I never went crazy for Marvel toys.

A lot has changed since the introduction of Marvel Legends.  Hasbro took over manufacturing the figures and sales seemed to be good.  For whatever reason (I'm still not sure the reason behind Hasbro's change of direction) the scale was switched from the traditional 6 inch to 3 and 3/4 inch with the introduction of the Marvel Universe line of figures.  Some fans rejoiced while others spoke out in dissatisfaction.  Me?  I straddled the fence.  I like both scales, but since the MU figures cost a little less and took up less space I embraced the line early on.  However I did miss the level of detail and articulation the ML figures brought to the table.  I also missed the whole Build-A-Figure concept as the last few Hasbro BAFs were awesome (Ares, Red Hulk & Fing Fang Foom).

Hasbro has recently resurrected the Legends brand and they are back and better than ever.  The first wave of 2012 is the Terrax wave and features great character selection.  Unfortunately the price has gone up and now retail for about $15 a figure.  Ouch.  I was able to grab the entire wave early on and sell off the individual figures so it didn't hurt me in the wallet much.  Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of everything so this "review" of sorts only covers some of the figures.  By now though I'm sure you've seen all the figures online.

Steve Rogers was a must have for me.  This is the variant of the figure and I really really wanted the regular release, but all I could find at local retail was this one.  Notice his shield?  I think it's the "energy" version he carried in the Heroes Reborn series of comics.  Anyhow, the first thing that impressed me was the packaging.  Hasbro has outdone themselves here.  I love the huge Ed McGuinness art...very nice touch.  To the right of the figure you can clearly see which part of Terrax you're getting.  In this case it is the lower torso piece.  More on Terrax later.

The back of the packaging is equally impressive as the art work is much larger.  You can also see the other figures in the wave.

  

  

Steve comes packaged with 3 accessories.  Of course his shield is one and the others are a pair of silver hand guns.  His hands have been sculpted to hold the weapons.  While this makes holding the gun easier and gives a better look it leaves his hands looking odd when not equipped.  At least he can still somewhat grip his shield as he prepares to hurl it at an evil doer.  The shield has a half circle peg that allows it to be attached to his wrist.  The same peg folds in to allow the shield to fit into the small peg hole on his back.  Sculpting of the figure is really nice, but the head sculpt still seems a bit off to me.  I don't know...it's like his jaw is too squared.  Articulation is up to standards with past figures.  Ball joints galore let you pose your figure in all sorts of ways.  Sadly this is one area where I lack creativity so you'll have to excuse my boring poses!  Overall though this is a very nice figure and one that will fit into my (now) very small Marvel Legends collection.

 

I don't much about Hope Summers as I haven't kept up with anything X-Men in quite sometime.  My older brother tried to fill me in, but I got lost with all the time travel stories so I'll just marvel at the beauty of the art.

The figure really is good figure, but the legs suffer from the way it was posed inside the packaging.  I had a hard time getting the legs in a position where she would support her own weight and stand up without assistance.  She comes with one accessory - a really large gun.  You can probably see that it too was slightly bent in the packaging.  Easy enough fix though with some warm water.  Hope's head sculpt looks beautiful and the removable scarf  is equally impressive.  The green paint has a nice metallic touch which looks great on this figure.  She comes packaged with Terrax's head and giant axe.

  

Like with Steve Rogers I could only find the blue stealth armor variant of Iron Man.  This is Iron Man's Extremis armor.  I won't even begin to try and describe what Extremis is...just read the comics or the Wikipedia page.

The sculpt is nicely done and I wish I had been able to find the traditional red and yellow version as I probably would've kept it.  Both versions of Iron Man come packaged with Terrax's right leg.

  

Klaw is probably the peg warmer in the first wave.  My guess is that a lot of toy collectors may not be that familiar w/ the character so he's the last to be purchase.  I think he was also packaged 2 or 3 per case.

I remember Klaw from the Armor Wars II storyline in the original Iron Man comic.  I always thought he was a pretty cool character and I never understood why he seemed so under used in the Marvel universe.  This is another great sculpt, specifically the head.  I can see how this figure may not be as "sexy" as some of the others, but it's still a great figure.  Klaw comes packaged with Terrax's left leg.

Constrictor was the other figure in this wave that I couldn't wait to get my hands on.  I love the way the character was written during the Siege storyline.  I like the Marvel Universe version of this figure, but some characters just turn out better in the larger 6 inch format.  

Great sculpt, great paint and great articulation.  The coils on his wrist gauntlets are a soft plastic, but allow for some great poses.  There isn't a wire inside the coils which would've been a really nice touch as it would allow for even better poses.  I think I have to give a nod to him as the best figure in the wave...sorry Rogers.  Constrictor comes packaged with Terrax's upper body.

Ghost Rider was the only figure that I never saw at retail...until wave 2 was released.  That said I never bought the guy.  I just opted to buy the BAF parts online.

I never read any of the Ghost Rider comics.  I always thought the character was cool, but I just never got into any of his titles.  The only time I remember reading him in any Marvel stories was way back in the Fantastic Four #347, #348 & #349.  This is great looking figure and comes with a orange flame variant.  Comes packaged with both of Terrax's arms.

Thor is the 7th and final figure in the first wave.  I haven't bought this figure, but I really really want him.  I love his design and there is just something inherently cool about the larger sculpted figures.

Thor doesn't come packaged with a part for Terrax.  His only accessory is his mighty hammer, Mjolnir.  From what I know this is the same figure that was released last year as a SDCC exclusive.  I'm sure this figure will find a way into my collection at some point.

Put all the parts together and you have the very first Build-A-Figure of 2012!  My appreciation of Marvel's cosmic characters as grown immensely since I read the Annihilation story.  However I first learned of Terrax in the pages of Thor #411 & #412 when the New Warriors were first introduced.  I'm still holding out hope that Hasbro will make Marvel Legends of the original New Warriors.  So far only one have been done (Nova) so for now I'll have to pit Nova all alone against Terrax.

Once assembled the weapon packaged with Hope is pretty big and impressive.  It isn't quite as tall as Terrax himself, but large none the less.

Like with a lot of the head sculpts Terrax sports a fantastic looking mug. I love the disgruntled look and the veins in his forehead are a very nice touch.

The size of the BAFs seems to be decreasing, but that doesn't take away from how great Terrax is.  This is easily one of my favorite Marvel Legends hands down.  I hope that more of the cosmic characters get the new ML treatment in the near future.  I know a lot of people have commented of how hard the first wave has been to find at local retail.  Wave 2 just started to show up right after I completed this wave so if you are late to the party good luck finding the characters you want.  No matter who you choose Hasbro has done a great job bringing Marvel Legends back to life.