Sanji has arrived.

This is the fastest I've ever seen a package from Japan get delivered!

Marvel Legends: Icons - Time Tested

The new Thor figures have come out and I wasn't impressed. Looking forward to the Captain America figures though. So in the mean time, I wanted to do an update review (and regular review) on all the Marvel Legends: Icons that I own.

The first, the one, and the only: Steve Rogers. Captain America. My figures have been kept in various locations in my room. Dusted very rarely over the years. Kept in one pose for most of the time. The room can get very humid. Let's see how it has held up against the test of time.

The articulation worth mentioning. The head can travel down, but can't look up. Each finger has its own hinged joint. The shoulders have nice swivel with ball hinged joints. The foot has the super awesome hinged at the ankle with a swivel to the foot. Time has only claimed one joint. The ball joint of his right leg is immobile. The left knee is also a bit warped. Everything else is in beautiful working order.

The figure is great. I only wish I had the masked version. This "variant" was the only one ever shipped to my store. I never once saw a masked version come out of a box.

Venom. Look at this beast. Ah! Just look at him! Magnificent. Majestic. Just plain awesome. Things worth mentioning about this figure. Just one. The head! The head travels up, but not down. Love it. I'll take up travel over down any day of the week. With the bendable tongue and loose hinged bottom jaw, this is exactly how a Venom figure should look like. Time has not done a damn thing to this figure. Everything articulates well just as if I had just unboxed it from the store.

Dr. Doom is the only Hasbro Icon I own. The articulation that it lacks, the figure's costume (almost) makes up for it. Head is only on a swivel. The fingers are grouped together on one hinge. The forearm lacks a swivel. The feet lack toe joints and the swivel from the ankle joint. Gee Hasbro. Way to charge more for way less. As previously reported, cloth capes are freaking awesome. I love the cape and the hood! Good material choice. Still, not enough to win me over. Hasbro fails. The figure looks good, but in limited poses. The lack of head movement is the biggest offense here. The joints are okay, time hasn't done any noticeable damage other than dust on the cape and hood.

Spider-Man. The skinniest Marvel Legends: Icon figure, and there are many big pluses because of it. The head has the epic up and down travel. It has the same shoulder swivels as Captain America. With it's smaller body, Spidey doesn't have the bulk that the other figures have to deal with. It can do an amazing amount of poses. This figure could only be improved with pallet swaps of the black, 2099, and Scarlet Spider costumes. The unmasked variant was lame. Time has been good to Spider-Man.

Iron Man. This purchase was just a "I didn't want a Wolverine" purchase. His mask comes off, so the variant was a super lame gold repaint. The sculpt of the hands prevent the hand from bending back. The head is on a ball joint with the neck on a hinged ball joint. The ball joint of the head allows a very small amount of up travel. The neck joint allows a good amount of down travel. The armor holds up well. I would still love an Extremis version in this size though. Time has not done any noticeable damage the joints. Some of the paint does have a permanent dust glaze to it though.

So, Captain America is really the only one who has sustained any real damage. Punisher and Thor are the only ones I feel like I might have liked to owned. Them being Hasbro made, however, makes me greatly doubt their worth had I bought them when I had the chance. Oh wait, Wolverine! I need to get me one of those. Toy Biz version of course. Venom and Spider-Man are definitely the most impressive of the bunch.

Marvel Universe: World War Hulk

World War Hulk is hands down the best Hulk sculpt ever to be produced for the mass market. I want this sculpt in a Marvel Legends Icon scale!

Before I begin with the review, I want to take a look back at some of the past Hulk figures I could have bought, but passed on solely based on their terrible sculpts.

The Incredible Hulk movie brought the first Hulk figure I passed on. The sculpt was pretty good. The only problem I had was with the head. The heads of those Hulks were pretty derpy looking. Also, I had not yet encountered the awesome-ness that is Greg Pak's Planet Hulk and had no interest in the Hulk franchise.

The first Marvel Universe figure of the Hulk had a chest that was too big. It's like they modeled the sculpt off a Liefield drawing. The sculpt of the head was not that great either.

Planet Hulk was ugly all over. The head sculpt does a great job at mimicking the cover art of Planet Hulk, but that's not the Hulk I wanted a figure of. The painted arm and pants were too simple. I would expect this level of detail on a bootleg toy, not something branded with "Marvel Legends." The shield, helmet, and shoulder guard are really the only nice things on the figure. I bought a couple of Emmas from this wave. That entire first Hasbro Marvel Legends line was very disappointing to say the least.

I was so excited when King Hulk was among the list of this Hulk only wave. When I finally held it in my hand, I almost bought it....Almost. The sculpt was a huge improvement over Planet Hulk. The head was good and the legs were awesome, but the arm! Oh god, the arm! They actually sculpted something instead of just painting it, but the mold and paint was still lacking. It still looked out of place with the rest of the figure. The shoulder guard missing also didn't help.

Hulk comes with a shield, axe, sword, removable shoulder guard strap, and figure stand. I was very happy to see the shoulder guard return on the chest strap.

The head has excellent up and down travel. The head joint is connected to a small neck piece. The neck piece raises the head up and allows it to look up. It doesn't look all the way up, but the up travel is still good. The sculpt of the head is also perfect. King Hulk's head was good, but this one goes above and beyond. I don't think I'll ever love another Hulk head like I love this one.

This left arm is what sells this figure for me. It's molded and painted beautifully. If the paint on King Hulk was like this, King Hulk would have been buy-able. The arm articulation for these big figures still aren't good. A good articulating Hulk would be able to do a thunderclap pose. When this is possible without it being a gimmick figure, Hulk will be perfect.

The rest of the articulation is pretty good. It's a step above Juggernaut. Juggs is pretty loose now and is hard to put into a good pose. Hulk's hands have a twist swivel joint. I really wanted it to have a hinged joint. The hands also don't hold the weapons very well. You will need to hold the hands closed to force it to grip anything. The legs are double-jointed and his thighs have the weird cut swivel just below the ball-joint. The loincloth and mold of the leg straps is good. The whole body paint is beautifully weathered. The only other paint job that is on the same level of awesome-ness as Hulk is modern Thor.

Overall this Hulk is awesome. This is the biggest bang for your buck Marvel Universe figure. I hope the Skaar figure coming out will be just as good. *crosses fingers*

Pros:

Sculpt

Paint

Accessories

Cons:

Hand articulation

Arm articulation can't do the classic thunderclap

I got Hulkbuster Iron Man during the holiday season too, but he's not worth a full review. He's okay. I think he really needed articulating fingers. His left hand is open for a blasting look, and his right hand is a fist.

Hulk is a larger figure and only needs to pass one pose test, and that is the thunderclap pose. Unfortunately, it fails.

Hulk's hands aren't even close.

Star Wars Vintage: General Grievous

Star Wars Vintage: General Grievous is, like previously stated, the current best Star Wars figure to ever be released. It's sculpt and articulation is amazing. It also comes with the amazing cloth cape. Finally, I can use something other than the Jedi/Sith robes on other figures. He comes with a blaster, two unlit light sabers, and two lit sabers.

First, lets compare it to my first Grievous. It's a little taller and the paint job is much more better looking. My old Grievous has a gimmick action when you press down on its head, his arms would swing. It also has holes in the bottom of his feet for use with a figure stand. Good because it only looks good standing up.

Let's get on with the review. Starting up top, the head is limited in movement to side to side motions. The travel for up and down is like one centimeter, probably a little less. Ever since Iron Man: Extremis, I just wish Hasbro would use that neck joint for most (if not all) of their figures.

Coming down to the body, the shoulders are ball-jointed. The arms are halved and can be moved independently from the shoulder. There is a shoulder-guard piece on the joint that restricts it from moving back all the way. A minor inconvenience in terms of live looking poses. At the double elbows are two smaller ball-joints with full 360 swivel movement on the pegs connected to the ball. There is one final peg swivel joint at the wrist. This little bit can slip off easily when posing. I wish this bit also had a hand swivel. The hands hold the light sabers and blaster okay. The hands need to be bent closed sometimes to get the proper grip strength. The waist has a ball-joint with adequate movement.

Moving to the legs, the hips are peg swivels. Typical Star Wars. The knee is ball-joiiii....wait...is that....double-jointed knees?! What sorcery is this?! Double-jointed knees on a Star Wars figure?! Wow...

And finally, the feet are ball-jointed, but lack holes for a figure stand. The leg above the knee is molded in soft plastic. This kind of helps with the lack a hip ball-joints to make poses look better. The legs can be softly bent to look good, but this figure has no balance. I was tempted to break out the Play Arts Kai stand, but I managed to find balance for all but one of the poses pictured.

Last thing to cover, the cape. God this cape is awesome. It's not made from a dress cloth thankfully. The pattern on the cape is nice, but on the inside is the most awesome detail. They have sewn four little pockets on each side of the cape to hold unlit light sabers. To complete the epic package, the cape is removable! It's not stuck to the figure in any way so I can use this on any other figure in the same scale!!!!

It's not the perfect Star Wars figure, but it's by far the closest one.

Pros:

Cape

Arm articulation

Knee and feet articulation

Can be posed in many different ways and look good

Cons:

Head movement

No hip ball-joints

Has bad balance and can't use a regular stand

No wrist joints

Here it passes the Orton pose test and simultaneously fails the Masataka pose test. (Fails because wrist can't be positioned right.)

This is my new testing pose, the CM Punk pose. Grievous fails. (Because of the wrists and head.) Revoltech Revy shows what a pass looks like.

Top Five Figures of 2010!

I have some time off coming up, and I plan on doing reviews for all the figures I've snagged during the holiday season. Until then, I'll just do a quick top 5 of 2010.

The only criteria for this list: be released in 2010 and bought in 2010.

Number Five: Toynami's Bender


This is a re-release, but it was re-released in 2010 and I did buy it. The awesome eye options and good "bending" articulation made this the best figure, from an American animation, I've ever seen. Every Simpsons and Family Guy figure I've come across never quite got the transition from 2d to 3d just right. Something about it usually off, but here with this figure, they really captured the essence of the great Bender Bending Rodríguez.

Number Four: Marvel Universe's World War Hulk


This figure is one of the figures I picked up during the holidays and will be getting a proper review in the future. This is the first ever proper Hulk figure. The Legends' version of King Hulk and Planet Hulk were lacking the key details that this figure got perfectly. Compared to the first Marvel Universe Hulk figure, this is a fucking masterpiece.

Number Three: Star Wars Vintage's General Grievous


Another figure that will be getting a proper review later. He has no balance on his own, and he has no figure stand holes in his feet. As you can see in the picture, I'm currently using Lightning's stand to pose him. This figure got here for the ingenuity of the arm articulation. Both his arms can split into two while keeping the same wide range of movement whether together or separate. Coupled with the surprisingly magnificent cloth cape, this right here is the Star Wars figure of the decade! Does it have ball-jointed legs? Nope. Is it still awesome? Hell yes.

Number two: Hasbro's Marvel Legends Deadpool



Released just in time to make this list. Upsized from the Wolverine movie release, they made him keep the horrible looking red dot and silver straps harness. I believe I saw a guide on how to make a better one on /toy/. I'll have to find that one of these days. Other than the harness, this figure is fucking fantastic. His articulation is awesome. It has a shoulder blade joint that swivels back and forward. The last time I saw that was in a Gundam Wing model! His head has great up and down travel. The rest is pretty much on par for a Legends figure. The one thing I wish it, and many other figures, had is a double cut wrist joint. The shoulder blade joint is an okay substitute for a double cut shoulder joint, but a simple wrist swivel is only good for face palming.

Number one: Play Arts Kai's Lightning!!!! Take a bow girl!



So despite having one of the ugliest sculpts of hair on a figure, she still takes the top spot for being able to pull off poses like that and keep her balance. And without the help of a stand no-less! This figure does have a full review already. I do have a mini-update. You can't see it in the picture, but the paint is beginning to crack at the bottom of her jacket. One of the downsides of being rubber I guess. All her joints still feel very stiff, and it's still an epic figure overall.

Honorable mentions worth noting:

Marvel Universe Galactus - While epic is size, the skirt kills it (and its articulation).
Big Sister - Unlike the Big Daddy, it was articulating spectacularly. The Little Sister figure it comes with is very awesome too. It narrowly missed the top five.
Slave 1 - If only it were the right (Empire Strikes Back) colors. It would've made the list even though it's a vehicle.
Vintage Boba Fett - While only behind Grievous as best Star Wars figure, Hasbro needs to upgrade the Star Wars line to get on par with Marvel and Joe figures.
Revoltech Woody - Released in 2010, but I haven't bought it yet. This creep-tacular figure would probably have made the list had I bought it. I do plan on getting it sometime this year. Along with...
Figuarts Luffy - My first Figuarts figure still alludes me, and this is one I will be getting this year.

Devourer of Worlds review!

Before the Galactus review, I also got Juggernaut and Mystique to review.



Juggernaut and Mystique. $7.49 each. I liked the sculpt of Juggs and picked him up because of it. I was disappointed that the helmet isn't removable. His bulkiness inhibits the articulation of his arms a lot. His hands can't reach his face or the other hands. His legs are surprisingly articulated. He doesn't come with any accessories, which is fine.

Mystique is a typical female figure. She comes with a rifle. There is one interesting thing about the paint job. It looks like the figure was painted all blue for the base and the white parts painted on top of that. The white paint wasn't applied as well and it makes the blue show through. Particularly, her top looks like it's see through. Not that I'm complaining. It's quite funny. Mystique is my second favorite female figure behind modern Ms. Marvel.

Now for the main event.





Galactus. $49.99. He comes with Silver Surfer. This will be my second Galactus figure and first Silver Surfer. First Galactus was a Marvel Masterworks diorama. Easily the tallest figure I now own. Previously held by the Marvel Icons and 1/60 Freedom Gundam. He has a button on his chest you can press and he'll say a couple of phrases. The sculpt is really nice. There are two blemishes. On the back of the upper arms, there are visible tears from the molding process.


The chest piece and the skirt are rubber. The chest piece is fine, it doesn't hinder any arm articulation.



The skirt, however, prevents him from doing anything but stand straight. His head has excellent up and down travel. His hands are a great let down. For a figure this size, articulated hands is a must. I can't believe his hands are this lame. If he can't look like he's about to crush someone, why have an action figure this size at all! Icon figures are only a third less bigger, but their articulation blows Galactus's out of the water. It's nice to have a somewhat pose-able Galactus, but his flaws pretty much take away from the coolness of the figure. The electronics are mediocre. The light are orange and are not bright enough to look good. They should have just made it so it would light up the blue crystal they already have in the head instead of the orange. I would have loved it if they had some kind of attachable stand to have Silver Surfer flying around Galactus. I don't have the Legends build a figure Galactus, so I can't compare anything but looks. I like the Marvel Universe sculpt way more, but there is still so much to be desired.

Last pic will be size comparison. Galactus stands with Marvel Icons Venom, Play Arts Kai Snake, Marvel Legends (Ultimate) Nick Fury, and Marvel Universe Juggernaut and Mystique.