Marvel Legends' 2013 Hawkeye...

I'm still pissed off by the fact that collectors over here in Malaysia is taken for a ride by Hasbro. We never got to see any new Marvel Legends figures past the Arnim Zola wave (heck we never even got the chance to complete the Arnim Zola BAF since only half of series actually made it onto our retail shelves! What a bummer....). Wave 3 came (albeit limited quantities) and went in a flash. That's practically the end of the ML adventure for us Malaysians. Wave 4 onwards were mere myths and many collectors had to resort to eVilbay to get their ML fix.

Fortunately there's also this other thing called 'specialty toy stores' scattered around town and some of you might find yourselves lucky for being at the right time and the right place when some of them started to put up the latest ML figures on their shelves. The Rebel is one of those people. Well, I actually happened to be browsing through the fb pages of one of my regular toy haunt in town...and they had just put up the new 'Rocket Raccoon' wave on sale. Since the Hawkeye packaging didn't contain any of the 'Raccoon BAF parts, he's available for purchase separately. I made the call and he's mine. So let's see if he's up to the mark.....

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The packaging's the same as we've seen on previous Hasbro 'Return of ML' series. Great packaging art although I have no clue whatsoever on the artist who drew it. I love it when we're able to clearly see the accessories that we're getting with the figure. That way, we can pick and choose to eliminate those darn pesky 'warped' weapons cause by them packaging guys. Unless the figure is hard to come by, which leaves you no choice but to take whatever's in front of you.....*sigh*. Fortunately mine came in perfect condition.

 

By now most of you would probably be aware that this character is called 'Marvel's Hawkeye'. I'm guessing that Marvel  wanted to avoid any legal complications since 'Hawkeye' is deemed as a common name and cannot be trademarked by anyone. Kinda like what the name 'jeep' is today....or 'yo-yo'...you get the drift.

At the back of the card you get to see a full version of the art we've seen at the front plus a brief bio of the character, which means nothing to most of us. Rather than wasting your precious time reading the useless one liner bio, you'd be better off looking for info on wikipedia. Clint Barton actually died in the comics and became Ronin before taking back the Hawkeye mantle. Ironically his current look was actually inspired by Jeremey Renner's look from the 2012 Avengers movie.....which is not a bad thing really. I very much prefer this look than the 'Ultimates' look.

 

Ok, enough with the history lesson and let's get him out already!

This is by far the coolest looking Hawkeye we've seen from Marvel. Gone are his 'classic' look...no more cover for his head with that huge 'H' on his forehead. He gets to wear a cool purple sun-glasses and he has a very well-groomed blonde hair. What a handsome fella!

 

Hawkeye's uniform is a cool combination of black and purple. Having some purple means he stayed true to his classic uniform albeit a modern update.

 

I love how he comes with a modern 'olympian' bow just like Jeremy Renner's character in the live action Avengers flick. My only grouse is that we should've been able to 'string' the bow ourselves, perhaps with some string or maybe those transparent rubber bands you get from unboxing your MOTU Classics figures. The 'string' Hasbro gave us makes the bow looked pretty fake.  

 

His quiver is one great looking piece of accessory. It looks modern and has some pretty modern design to it. There are some arrows 'lodged' into it but it's a shame that we aren't able to pull any of those out. Hasbro should've given us at least one (1) loose arrow so we'd have the option of displaying him drawing out an arrow.

 

Hawkeye is able to be posed reaching out for an arrow from his quiver but like I said before, it's a pity he didn't come with at least a loose arrow for that added display option.

 

He's everything you'd want from a modern Marvel Legends figure. His articulations is top notch and you should have no problem posing him in every pose imaginable/expected from a 'Legends figure.

 

The paint on this figure is very good too with no sloppy paint work or bleeding anywhere.
 

I still love my classic 'Legends Hawkeye figure by Toybiz but if you want the classic uniform again you'd really have to hunt for the variant version of this figure. I've practically given up on finding any variants of these new Hasbro 'Legends figures....they're mere myths and one should not harbour any hopes of finding them out in the wild.  

 

The sculpt on this figure is pretty amazing and it was such a joy to photograph him under low lights condition. This has got to be one of the better 'Legends figure to have come out this year. Whatever's the fate of the Marvel Legends line is gonna be (by now most of you would have heard that Hasbro's canceling/rebranding the ML line), I can only hope that Hasbro maintain this kind of standard for their future 6" figures.

I don't know about you but this has been on my 'must have' radar since it was first announced many many months ago. My modern 6" Avengers team will never be complete without a modern version of Hawkeye!

What's not to love about this figure then? Yeah, Hasbro's lack of distribution of their ML figures maybe.....*scoff*.

THE REBEL'S VERDICT: This is NOT a figure to be missed if you're into Marvel Legends. Some of you may well prefer the 'classic' version better than this modern incarnation. Toybiz had already given us that version and if you're lucky enough, you might be able to pick up the 'variant' version of this figure though I have no idea when Hasbro would actually release the new variant into retail. A bit sad for us Malaysian action figure collectors since we really have to literally fight our way to getting these newer Marvel Legends figures. This is an action figure that truly deserves to be on collectors' display shelves but unfortunately many would not even find him at retail. If you do come across him anywhere, just take the plunge, he's totally worth it to be added into your Avengers roster. Remember, if you see him, grab him!