Truth be told. I was put off many a times already when it comes to the price of these darn Marvel Legends here in Malaysia. At RM139.90 (that’s about US dollars 35 each folks!) this is an ‘out of this world’ crazy price for ONE figure of Marvel Legends here in these part of the world. Toy companies keep blaming the surge in the price of plastic due to the instability of oil prices but that’s not logically/necessarily true because I have never seen a downward pricing of the action figures even when prices of oil drops like nobody’s business. Yay capitalism!
I’ve only since bought several random
ML figures since the great price hike and in the process inadvertently skipped
many of the BAFs altogether due to non-completion of waves. Yes folks, I have
come to terms that I may never complete another BAF again because I simply
couldn’t stomach the price tags of my beloved Marvel Legends anymore. I was
already happy to add the figures that I really want for my display ML shelves
without a care of completing the BAFs, although I came very close to completing
my Ultron BAF wave myself.
So the other day I bought myself
the movie Black Panther figure at retail (in fact I found 4 of him that day
sitting pretty on the retail peg in a row) and resigned to the fact that I’d
never get that sweet-lookin’ Giant Man BAF for my collection simply because I
wasn’t ready to pay heaps of money just to get the rest of the figures in the
wave, especially for some random/obscure dude called “Nuke”(a B-list character
who seldom gets panel time in the comics).
A couple of months down the road
later, something happened. I was able to procure the rest of the characters off
the Giant Man wave or the “Marvel Legends Civil War” wave at only RM60 (or US
dollars 15) each! Seemed that a bunch of un-sold stocks were conveniently
secretly kept somewhere when Hasbro Malaysia decided to clear them off to make
way for more new stuff coming their way. So, with Hasbro selling below retail
price and the chance to finally complete that Giant Man BAF? Nope, not
complaining a bit. Sold!
Now let us look into each of the
action figures before we assemble Gigantor….err Giant Man at the very end of
this review post:
Nick Fury
I missed out on the Toybiz ML Nick
Fury many years ago during my student days, not because I couldn’t find him but
because I was so confident at the time that nobody would eventually pick him up
from the TRU shelf I was visiting, so I made a decision to come back in a
couple of days to get him. Big mistake. I missed out both Nick and Silver
Surfer (really wanted that Howard the Duck!) because of that amateur deduction
of mine so getting this updated Hasbro ML Nick Fury was something I really look
forward to from the wave.
The inclusion of two extra
headsculpts i.e. one belongs to the satirical/parody character Dirk Anger
(Fury/Anger….get it?) and the other is a generic SHIELD agent helmeted head.
Both are excellent alternate heads but I can’t see myself or many collectors
buying more of the figure just to army build. Just not here in Malaysia at
least, because of the ludicrous price point. Anyway, it’s finally great to see
a classic Nick Fury being reproduced for the ML line after being content with
the Samuel L Jackson versions for quite some time.
Civil War Captain America
It’s funny how the same mould was
carried over from one of the previous wave (I think it was from the Age of
Ultron wave with that BAF Thanos) but Hasbro didn’t include the alternate Steve
Rogers head this time around. Not much of a problem for me as I already have
the Chris Evans alternate head from the Winter Soldier wave many years ago. But
for those who want an unmasked Cap head, the only way to do so right now is to
get the Walmart 3-pack action figure set (you’d also get a Tony Stark
un-helmeted head and that new Tom Holland Spiderman action figure).
Personally, getting yet ‘another’
Captain America was just ‘meh’ to me because I have multiple versions of him
already on my display shelf next to my army of Iron Men and Wolverines. For the
record, I still prefer Cap in his blue SHIELD uniform from the Captain America:
Winter Soldier movie the best.
While I am glad that I finally
have an updated movie Captain America figure for my display shelf, I still
prefer to get new un-produced characters that still haven’t been made in ML
form. This figure is necessary though if you want to assemble the movie
line-up.
Civil War Iron Man (Mark 46)
Biggest disappointment for me here
is that I didn’t get the unmasked Tony Stark head with the figure. Seriously I
could go without another Iron Man but I was actually looking forward to get the
Tony Stark head for some simple custom ‘Tony in suit’ figure. I prayed hard
that the rumors that Mark 46 was not to come with an alternate head weren’t
true. But I needed the BAF part to complete Giant Man. So hey…
The Mark 46 armor reminds me a bit
of the Bleeding Edge armor created by Matt Fraction not long ago. I think as
long as an Iron Man suit has both red and gold elements to it, it’ll sit well
with fans. What I do like about this Iron Man figure it its bulkiness. I always
try to think that an actual human being needs to fit inside that suit so
technically it has to be a bit bulkier to accommodate him/her.
Just like Captain America, this is
yet another entry into my long list of Iron Men that I have on my display
shelf. Great addition to your diorama of the hall of armor though.
Civil War Black Panther
T’challa finally gets a headsculpt
and this fact alone makes him a must get for me. This is my 3rd ML
Black Panther in my collection but I safely say that he is the best so far.
Toybiz gave us the classic version while Hasbro earlier gave us an updated
Black Panther somewhere in 2012/13. Black Panther was the fan-favorite
character from the Civil War movie so it wasn’t actually a surprise to him
disappearing from retail shelves the moment they were stacked by your local
TRU/retail store assistant.
I love the design on his suit. One
would think that Marvel Studios could only go so far with the simplistic black
design but they went and decorated it with the silver-ish deco and stuff, which
was translated well by Hasbro onto this figure.
Some collectors were heavily
criticizing the unmasked head sculpt but I’m just glad we finally got one for
T’challa with his 3rd six inch scale figure. This is definitely one
of my favorite figure off the wave.
Marvel’s Nuke
Ok I have a confession here. I
know nuts about this character except for the fact that he was part of the
‘Weapon Plus’ program which included the likes of Wolverine and some other good
guys. Somehow or rather he went to the dark side and became one of Wolverine/Captain
America’s baddie. It’s always good however to get lesser known characters in
your ML line-up especially if he or she comes with tonnes of accessories.
First of all, this Arnie
look-alike dude is a large action figure and I’m not talking about your
standard Spidey buck type of body. He can rival the sheer size of Cable from
the previous X-Men 2016 wave. I love bulky action figures. That much of plastic
makes you feel that you’re getting your full money’s worth.
Nuke comes with a red-blue-white
rifle gun which coincides with the colors of the American flag on his face. He
also gets a giant Rambo-like serrated knife which can be placed in a sheath at
the back of his vest. I’m not done yet…..he also comes with a cool alternate
‘damaged’ head which shows his cybernetic parts inside…..*cough* Terminator
rip-off? *cough*. Oh wait, did I tell you that you need this figure to get the
most important part for your Giant Man BAF aka his torso? Now how about that? A
figure that no one really cares about due to his lack of appearance in the
comics…..but has so many cool factors that comes with it?
This is to be the most under-rated
figure off the wave.
Red Guardian
Now this is to me, simply a
response by the Russians to Captain America. Not long ago, when I used to
collect Marvel Universe action figures, I took a liking to the Red 3.75” scale
Guardian action figure and displayed him next to my Captain America and Captain
Britain.
The figure has a very nice paint
job and he is not simply painted red as he has some nice shading of red and
darker red on his chest and torso. He also comes with his trademark Soviet
shield and can be placed on the character’s back just like Cap’s. Surprisingly,
despite his simplicity in design, I read somewhere that from the wave, this is
one of the best-selling figures through on-line stores in the States and even
the likes of Amazon listed him as one of the fast-moving Marvel Legends in
recent times.
This guy adds color to my display
shelf and I suddenly regret not picking up the new Captain Britain from the
Abomination wave a couple of months ago at a retail outlet to go with him.
And finally….the Giant Man BAF
I really really wanted the Toybiz
Giant Man BAF so much that I tried to purchase the individual action figures to
get the pieces that I need to build him to no success. When I heard that we’re
getting a new Giant Man (although the movie version) I was ecstatic!
And here he is!
I love Paul Rudd’s take on Scott
Lang and he did a wonderful job of portraying Ant-Man/Giant-Man in the Civil
War movie.
My only qualm is that I would have
loved to see an alternate head for Giant-Man or perhaps a feature that allows
us to alternately display him with his helmet half-open.
While still smaller than the BAFs
of yore aka Toybiz era, he is still technically ‘one of the’ or even THE
biggest/tallest BAF we’ve seen thus far from Hasbro’s modern ML line-up. They
can only get bigger from now onwards, right? A bit of wishful thinking from
yours truly.
The Rebel’s verdict?
This is one of the must-have ML
wave for me simply because I get to realize a long time dream of getting Nick
Fury and Giant Man into my display shelf. You should get this wave too if
you’re keen on assembling a movie Civil War line up. Now the challenge for me
is to find a movie Scarlet Witch since I seem to have almost everybody
else…..and perhaps a Tom Holland Spidey too when he’s available on his own in
one of the future ML waves.
Nuff said.
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