Thor

Marvel Legends – Smart Hulk Wave – Loki (Comic)

I’m not super keen on Loki’s comic book look. He’s a little too, court jester in style for my liking. Still, he’s kind of a big part of the whole Thor and Asgardian world, being Thor’s brother and all, so not having a Loki to go with my other Asgardians was kind of a hole in need of filling. Plus, frankly, I kind of wanted everyone else in the wave.

I’m sure someone who keeps better track than I do would know which “buck” this is, but it’s pretty much just “Bulky dude in spandex”. The figure is honestly pretty basic overall, though it does match his look. The best part of this figure is the most unique part, specifically the head with the cheese eating grin. The face is goofy and fun. I do kind of hate how his pony tail is permanently swooshy in style.

Loki is the God of Mischief after all.

The only accessory he includes in a sword. I am kind of surprised he doesn’t have a cape or anything, I guess this costume design just doesn’t have one. Some extra hands could have helped flesh out the package as well.

I don’t have much else to say about this figure, he’s a notable character, but it’s just such a boring design.

Marvel Legends – Smart Hulk Wave – Beta Ray Bill

Jun 17th, 2019

by Ramen Junkie.

1 comment

As a fairly popular secondary character of the Marvel universe, it’s kind of surprising that Beta Ray Bill doesn’t have more figures. He has a neat design that lends itself pretty well to being a “cool toy” and his outfit could easily be made from reusing most Thor figures. If you are unfamiliar with the character, you may notice that he looks a lot like Thor. His origin and history is very much related to Thor and the hammer Mjolnir.

He was one of, if not the first character, besides Thor, to be worthy enough to wield the hammer in the comics. His creepy evil looking design was done intentionally to throw readers off. Basically, just because someone is a creepy skull horse man, doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of wielding the hammer. After some battle with Thor he was given his axe Stormbreaker by Odin. Stormbreaker also being the Axe forged by Thor during the Infinity War movie to kill Thanos. The point I guess is that Beta Ray Bill being included in an Endgame themed wave of figures isn’t as random as it seems, certainly not as random as say, Union Jack.

This costume isn’t quite his standard fare, which usually has the larger, more centered circles like Thor has. This has a lot of fans kind of upset at this figure. I don’t personally care enough about the character to be that concerned about it, but it’s something that I’ve seen complained about enough that it’s worth noting. If i am going to complain about something here it’ll be the shoulders, which are pretty limited by the way the shoulder pauldrons hand. It’s extra annoying because the ones on War machine in the same wave are similar, except the ones on War Machine aren’t nearly as inhibiting.

I do like the way the cape operates with the pauldrons however. The cape has little rings that pop over some larger mushroom pegs sculpted onto the front of the pauldrons. It’s a design that I don’t recall seeing used before in Marvel Legends. It certainly holds much much better than other solutions I’ve seen, like pegs in the front of the shoulders. Plus, no ugly peg holes if you remove the cape.

The head is also pretty nice. Beta Ray Bill’s jaw is articulated, which is great for being able to give him a bit of change to his expression when posing him.

All in all, he’s a pretty neat figure, and his design makes him pretty unique among Marvel figures who are mostly just dudes in spandex suits.

Review – Marvel Legends – First Ten Years – Thor the Dark World (Thor and Lady Sif)

Dec 3rd, 2018

by Ramen Junkie.

1 comment

For the ten year anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hasbro is putting out a special sub line of Marvel Legends celebrating the event. These figures all come in special boxes that create a little mural when combined along the edges, and all are themed around different movies from the MCU so far. Its sort of the Marvel Legends equivalent to the Transformers Studio Series line. They are also using it as a chance to catch up on characters who may have been missed over the years in the previous lines. This particular set is for the second Thor movie, Thor: The Dark World. In case you forgot which one that was, since its often thought of as one of if not the worst movies in the MCU so far, its the one where Thor has to rescue Natalie Portman from an infection of Aether, and stop the evil Dark Elf Malekith from using it to destroy the Nine Realms.

This set includes Thor and Lady Sif. I’m going to start with Thor, since he’s kind of the boring figure of the set. We’ve gotten several Thor figures over the years, and several releases of this particular Thor, more or less before. It’s not a bad figure really, and the beefed up paint jobs that the Ten Years line is getting really help bring out the niceness of the sculpt versus the previous releases.

The main weaknesses aren’t anything new. The long plastic cape kind of hinder a lot of more dynamic poses and the long hair is a little thick and weird looking. It’s probably the nicest version of this early style Thor we’re ever going to get in Marvel Legends though, so it’s not a complete loss or anything. His only accessory is his hammer.

Moving on, there’s Lady Sif. Lady Sif is a character whom a lot of fans have been wanting a figure of for a while. She was fairly prominent in the first two Thor films and has appeared in a couple of episodes of Agents of SHIELD as one of the few connecting threads between the TV and Movie world. She never showed up in Ragnarok so she wasn’t wiped out by Hela. It’s possible she could even return for Avengers 4 I suppose.

In the MCU, Sif is just sort of, one of Thor’s friends. In the comics, she is sometimes his girlfriend. In Norse Mythology, Sif is the wife of Thor. The fact that she hasn’t been included in previous lines is kind of a good thing really, she’s being released now, while Hasbro is at a nice peak for paint and sculpt. Also, it’s not like the first two Thor Movies really had dedicated waves. Almost all of the MCU films have gotten some sort of pretty dedicated wave except the Thor films. Thor pretty much just gets figures for Avengers films.

The sculpt on this figure is pretty great too. The head looks like Jamie Alexander. The armor and weapons is full of neat little etching and detailing. The paint work is is very nice as well. Like I said, it’s kind of a plus that she is just now getting a figure. She also has a ton of accessories. She has her little shield, and three swords. Two of the swords are identical, one of the two can peg into the larger one and create a larger javelin sort of weapon. I do have a bit of a nit picky complaint on the swords. There is nowhere to store the swords on her person. There aren’t even any loose belts to let you fake it by wedging the sword under the belt.

Is the two pack worth it? I suppose it depends on some things. How much do you want a Lady Sif? How many versions of the old Thor design do you already have? It’s been discounted down already so getting it cheaper than the usual 2 pack price isn’t too hard. It’s a nice set, but it’s mostly the Lady Sif figure.

Review – Marvel Legends – Gladiator Hulk Wave – Loki

Oct 2nd, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Apparently, in order to get a proper figure, the Loki had to turn into the Hero. Ok, I have not seen Ragnarok, but it sort of feels like Loki was working with his brother again in a few spots int he Trailer. Maybe I’m completely misreading it. Also, that low blow probably isn’t warranted since Hasbro has been pushing out a lot more figures of MCU villains lately. We get Hela in this very wave, Vulture was a pretty cool Build A Figure, and even Ego got a figure. Maybe the voice of the people is finally being heard, maybe they will go back and pick up Trevor or Ronin.

Anyway, there was a figure released years ago for Avengers of Loki but it was kind of mediocre and the likeness wasn’t super good. Thor Ragnarok is getting pretty good treatment for a movie line, a few new Thors, Hela, Valyrie, the new Gladiator Thor, and of course Loki. He definitely has a better likeness from the previous Loki, Hasbro is doing something new with it’s movie lines because all of the heads are looking really good lately, with a good resemblance to the actors. He’s not wearing his older gold armor anymore, so he’s not necessarily a great straight replacement for Avengers Loki, depending on what you want from an MCU Loki. The new armor is still pretty decent and matches his new look for the new movie.

It’s not perfect though. His cape is really funky. A lot of the capes in Marvel Legends are kind of meh, but they tend to at least stay attached. Traditionally there’s a peg hole in the figure’s back and a post on the cape, and you just stick the cape on. Often there are little shoulder bits that curl around and provide at least a little bit of friction based hold to keep the cape attached. Loki does something new. Instead his cape has a pair of pegs on the shoulder bits. In theory this actually kind of makes things look cleaner.

Except the pegs are a pain in the ass to get into the peg holes and don’t stay in the holes very well at all. This isn’t helped by his hair getting in the way at every opportunity. So the cape at best kind of looks off because it isn’t pegged in properly.

The other problem with poor Loki is that he has no accessories apart from his crown. A couple of knives, maybe his staff, even though he doesn’t have it anymore, some sort of weapon would have been nice. Especially since every other figure in this wave got something. Things have been getting better on the accessories front with Marvel Legends, which is why it’s so disappointing that Loki has nothing.

Loki, as a basic figure isn’t a bad figure, he looks good, the sculpt is there and the paint is there and he is a character desperately in need of an update, but he ends up catching a couple of the traps that Marvel Legends have been plagued with on the way.