Marvel Legends 6” Mockingbird

When I bought myself that ML movie Black Panther the other day, I kinda broke my own oath to myself of never buying another Marvel Legends figures ever again as long as the great Hasbro of Malaysia does not mark down their price point. It’s maybe because I have finally come to accept that maybe, just maybe, I don’t need to complete any more build-a-figures (BAFs) unless I really really want the particular character so bad that I’ll lose sleep because of it (re: case in point = The Giant Man BAF). I’m still thinking about completing my Giant Man wave (technically speaking I only still have ONE figure, the ‘Panther, from that wave so I’m pretty far off right now) or perhaps I’ll just settle with purchasing Nick Fury and I’m done with the wave. 

Whatever it is, I’m back into the Marvel Legends game. Sort of. More like a cherry picker now rather than the days of snagging figures by the waves, back when the cost of action figures costs you next to nothing. Those days are long gone. I doubt that we’re ever gonna see such price points again given the attitude of most capitalist profiteers these days. 

Anyway. 

I’ve been eyeing the Marvel ladies from the Onslaught BAF wave for quite some time now. That wave is considered a thing of the past now and one must surely thought that it would be impossible to find them out in the wild now, right? Well, not quite. That is certainly not the case here in Malaysia. Eventually these ML figures will get picked up by scalpers and such but generally they tend to stay longer on retail shelves because of Hasbro Malaysia’s hiked-up prices. So when I saw both Sharon Carter and Mockingbird just now during my lunch time walk about, it took me probably a few seconds to decide that I want Mockingbird to come home with me first (I would totally snag Sharon too if not for the obscene/rude price but I’ll come back to get her soon. I hope). 

So what’s so special about Mockingbird you ask? 

You see, I grew up with a steady dose of Marvel Comics in the 80s and one of those which wildly captured my imagination was the West Coast Avengers (WCA) run. 

I had tones of the WCA comics right up till the early 90s (both images above show what WCA comics I know I still have within my pile of vintage comic collection) but I can’t seem to find most of them when I had that temporary lost of interest towards the world of pop culture when my dad passed away in ’93. I might have to launch a treasure hunt in my comic pile soon.

And we had re-runs of the great Avenger cartoon from the 60s to end our lazy afternoons! Sure they were cheesy and full of characters having no inner monologues (often talked to themselves before committing to an action!) but they were instrumental in shaping my formative years as a pop-culture enthusiast. 

Yes, we had this: 

Before we had this! 

Ok, I think I’ve made my point. I am a Marvel comic fan and the Avengers/West Coast Avengers were a staple in my literary/visual media diet. 
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But I digress. 

Let’s get back to the topic of today’s blog post. We’re supposed to talk about my recently acquired Mockingbird action figure. 

So here she is in her packaging. Nothing much to shout about. It’s the normal modern Marvel Legends stuff. If you’re a MISB collector then you’ll be happy with the window style but for me they get immediately thrown into the recycle bin as 99.9% of my Marvel Legends get displayed on my display shelves anyway. But let us Marvel on the packaging art first before doing so. 

As you can see, Mockingbird came together paired with Sharon Carter in the Ant-Man wave. When I say paired it means that they share the same packaging...not coming together in a 2-pack....hehe.

I love simply love the side box art....

And here it is, the West Coast Avengers line-up (almost everyone) shot I’ve been waiting to do once Mockingbird gets produced by Hasbro under their Marvel Legends line. I’m still missing Tigra since it was near damn impossible to get figures from that Nemesis wave back in ’09. Still hoping for Hasbro to re-issue that one. 

Seriously, while we’re on the subject, I think Wonder Man is long overdue for a new sculpt. Can ya hear me Hasbro?!! 

For youse long-time Avengers comic readers will probably know that the founding members of West Coast Avengers were Hawkeye, Mockingbird, War Machine, Wonder Man & Tigra. Tigra’s absence is sticking out like a sore thumb here….dammit. 

Mockingbird aka Barbara Morse (later Barton) was a SHIELD agent whose job was to expose corrupt SHIELD agents (where the heck was she during the second Captain America movie? Boy, could she weed out those HYDRA scums!) who later got married to Hawkeye aka Clint Barton. She was instrumental in helping Hawkeye to form the West Coast Avengers core team. 

She is an excellent gymnast, martial artist and hand-to-hand combatant just to name a few. Her action figure here comes with her signature steel-alloy poles or ‘Daredevil sticks’ as we Layman like to say it. 

I kind like her without her glasses/goggles on. Although she looked kinda 'angry' but she is definitely one of the most beautifully sculpted female in the modern Marvel Legends line.

Later Mockingbord and Hawkeye became estranged with each other due to some clash of ideology on Mockingbird’s decision to let a villain die. They somehow reconciled sometime later and fought alongside each other although they never remarried. 

Mockingbird is a great addition to my long-list of female Marvel Legends action figures (below is a picture of 'Bird with some of my favorites). Now if I only can tempt myself to also get Sharon Carter into this line-up…..