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July, 2019:

Marvel Legends – Smart Hulk Wave – Union Jack

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I am not always too familiar with whom these Comics characters are. Especially when they go off into people like union Jack here. That said, I often don’t mind picking them up for the sake of a BAF that I do care about. Or sometimes just because they seem neat. Union Jack pretty much falls into the latter, though there is a bit fo the former there.

What I can gather from reading some summaries of his story online, he’s sort of like a cross between Captain America and James Bond. There have been a few different people who used the mantle of Union Jack, so some of them were more Bond than Captain America, and visa versa. One thing that seems to be regular, aside from the very United Kingdom Flag themed suit, is his knife and handgun.

The base figure is pretty standard fare, nothing super detailed on his sculpt or anything. I do rather like the paint job of the Union Jack flag on his outfit. What helps him stand out is his belt, which has both a sheath for his knife and a holster for his gun. Both function well. He only has one set of hands, but they function well for his weapons. Which is kind of the point.

All in all, he’s a pretty decent figure. Nothing super noteworthy, but there could be worse figures in the line and at least he’s more notable than Rock Python.

Studio Series – Rampage

The second in the multipart, multiyear release of figure from Hasbro to produce an accurate Revenge of the Fallen Devastator is Studio Series Rampage. The first release was Studio Series Scrapmetal, who was a pretty good all around transformer, and sort of an original character for Studio Series, who didn’t get a release in the original Revenge of the Fallen line. Rampage here is a little different though, he was a leg for the old Devastator that didn’t have individual robot modes and he got a single packed Deluxe release that didn’t come with a limb mode.

Rampage is also notable as one of the few Constructicons with actual screen time in the movie beyond becoming part of the whole. He kidnaps Sam’s parents in Paris (or wherever) because a bulldozer driving through a European city isn’t conspicuous AT ALL. Later he shows up again to pogo around the desert in a death match against Bumbebee, who rips the spine out of Ravage and beats Rampage to death with it.

The Pogo mode is the most interesting aspect of this guy really. He doesn’t have any sort of traditional legs at all, not even optional ones, just a monopod leg and a stand for the toy to keep itself upright. His bod does have a few joints to let it compress and look sort of springy, but his neck and head are kind of limited and he can’t really crouch too much without looking weird.

He also has two huge claw arms, but the articulation is really limited. All of the joints are pretty much fingers or near the shoulder, so the longest part just sticks out all weird and straight looking.

Other problems? Oh yeah. On mine, he head pops off super easy, partially due to the way it ball sockets on to the join sort of in the back. He also had some trad bits that hang off his arms to emulate the character’s whips in the movie, but there isn’t enough joints or length to make them look particularly cool in any poses. Especially with the limited arm articulation.

Rampage does have a lot of nice little details all over his body, he looks cool, he just, doesn’t DO much. He looks like he will make a pretty amazing Devastator leg one day. Fortunately, from what we have seen so far of the other Devastator limbs, he looks like he is going to be the most compromised and weakest design, so it can only really go up from here. As a stand alone toy, Rampage is pretty weak unfortunately.

Marvel Legends – Smart Hulk Wave – Rescue

A neat little surprise of sorts in Avengers: Endgame, though not totally unexpected, was the appearance of Rescue. Rescue is the name of Pepper Potts, when she dons her own Iron Man style armor. She sort of does this briefly in Iron Man 3, though not voluntarily, since Tony was protecting her from the collapsing Stark mansion. At the end of that film, thanks to the Extremis formula, she also gets a bit of a taste for being the hero. Plus, Rescue is a “thing from the comics”.

Basically, it’s not a huge surprise or stretch that Pepper Potts would eventually wear her own suit, especially after the extreme events of Infinity War. We got a comic version of Rescue a few years ago as an exclusive for Marvel’s comic subscription service, but this MCU iteration doesn’t share any of the same components. The design follow the design shown in Endgame pretty well, the whole suit is very sleak, which also fits in with the evolution in design philosophies we saw Tony go through over the course of the films. Unlike Tony’s armor colors of red and gold, Rescue is blue and gold.

For accessories, she is a little light on parts. She has no alternative repulsor hands, which is a bummer. Even more of a bummer is that she lacks and unmasked head. They even have a Gwyneth Paltrow head available from the recently release Iron Man 3 boxed set. Maybe they are saving it for a future line or boxed set, maybe it just didn’t seem important enough, but it kind of sucks that it’s not there. I don’t have the boxed set myself to test if the head fits on this body. What she does have is a swap out backpack part, to give her her little jet pack wings. This was also a look that Tony gained during the recent movies. I suppose from an armor evolution standpoint, it’s useful to be able to control your flight without relying on the hands and feet.

Also notable, the label on the back lists Rescue as 0049, so does that make it Iron Man armor 49? Or Rescue version 49?

So, on a basic level, there isn’t a lot wrong with this figure aside from the anemic extra parts. It’s somewhat to be expected since they probably won’t get a ton of reuse out of the mold, though if they ever bring iron Heart into the MCU, there could definitely be potential. I have to say despite that I really like Iron Man and his various armor, I actually find this figure really really kind of dull. She is plenty pose able, she even has double elbows and knees. I think it’s mostly just all the weird blue color or something. Plus the fists only kind of limits some of her posing since fists aren’t always appropriate for some action posts.

Marvel Legends – Smart Hulk Wave – Rock Python

So, this one will be pretty short and to the point for sure. Rock Python is definitely a beyond nobody level character in the grand scheme of things. Hell, I keep wanting to call him Rock Viper.

There’s not anything particularly new or special aside from his goofy snake helmet head. It’s not even particularly snakey either, unlike say King Cobra or Cottonmouth. Aside from the Smart Hulk BAF piece, he is mostly notable for being part of the Serpent Society.

I really think it’s neat how they keep slipping these guys in, since they also are kind of a big group of nobodies. But a band of snake themed villains hits the right notes for me on the goofyness level, so I’m trying to pick them up as they come out to build a little squad of Snake themed dudes.

So, there isn’t really much else to say about Rock Python. He’s not particularly snake-like and doesn’t have any accessories. His most notable traits are the BAF part and being an accessory to King Cobra.

Figma – Widowmaker

I never thought I would actually manage to get caught up on something around here but here I am, caught up on Overwatch Figmas. The last of the four released so far that I have yet to talk about is Widowmaker. I almost didn’t order Widowmaker. I hate Snipers in the game and don’t really play Widowmaker at all. I wanna say it was a slow month anyway for pre orders, so I decided to go ahead and let it ride out.

I’m kind of glad I did, because she’s a really great release for the line. She has all of the Aesthetic balance of say Reaper, with proper pose-ability like Genji, minus the weird quirks of Genji. Plus a ton of really nice and appropriate accessories. Hell the accessories are really kind fo what makes this figure for me.

The rifle is the big one. In the game, Widowmaker’s Sniper Rifle coppalses into a machine gun. It probably would have been easier to just include two guns I suppose, but instead, you get one gun with interchangeable parts. The barrel swaps on and off and there is an attachable scope piece. It all fits together great and works well for the effect.

Another one of her abilities is her arm mounted grappling hook. The figure includes a separate forearm piece with a hook attached. The nice part is this makes it really stable to allow her to hang from it for posing if desired.

She also includes her poison spider mine and an additional swap out part for her X-Ray thermal goggles ultimate ability. There aren’t a ton of parts, but they handle the gamut of her abilities superbly. She also has enough pose-ability to properly handle all of the various accessories properly.

So, regardless of my problems with Snipers in game, the figure is really nice. She also fills a nice roll along side Reaper and Sombra to filling out the Talon team.