Namor (Marvel Legends)

Marvel Legends Namor (Series 2)

To be quite honest, I could never get myself to like this guy. Yeah, I know he is one of the toughest antiheroes in the Marvel universe but it's just something about that ego of his that makes me hate this character. I'm glad he only exists in fiction. Okay then... let's talk about the figure! Behold the Marvel Legends: Series 2 Namor. I believe it was 2002 that this figure was released but, man, I never expected this figure could compete with our more recent action figures we see today.















Nothing much can be said with regards to the paint work. Namor's vest and skin tight pants are all painted black. There are streaks of blue paint drawn and designed like fish scales over his vest. At the back of his feet you can see what appears to be a window! Interesting! Apparently, this looks like as if Namor wants to spread his little ankle-wings (or fins because he is fishboy) by making a couple of tiny windows which also exposes his flesh, but... is this really necessary? I would rather have them simple and neat with just black and white around these areas.

The sculpt on Namor is probably what gives him a more stunning look than the later Marvel Legends figures. This Johnny Bravo-esque type of body (big chest + chicken legs) may look kinda weird for people who are very particular with sculpt but for me, it's just a minor issue. I like how they added some creases over his pants. Namor got this well engraved insignia over his huge belt. You can see some great details over his muscles with all these folds and cuts. Last but not the least, the head and face sculpt captured that Namor we've always imagined with his sleeky hair and his 30-degree angled eyebrows.

Namor comes with two accessories namely his base stand and his trident. This "water" base stand is entirely made of translucent blue plastic almost like the Marvel Select Silver Surfer base but has some blue and white colour shading on it to have the look of an ocean whirlpool. Namor's trident is a complete... fail. Although I'm not too bothered by its flat bronze-like colour but the sculpting is ridiculously a work of an amateur. It's bent and crooked, and it will actually snap if you try straightening it up.

For an early 2000 action figure, the articulation is almost close to the newer Legends figures. His head is on a ball-joint and so it can rotate 360 and could look up and down. Mine has got a loose joint and it's very wobbly, and I'm kind of pissed off about it. Namor's arms got ball-hinges to the shoulders, swivel to the biceps and wrists, double-jointed elbows and Toy Biz's trademark finger articulation. He got no ab crunch like most Legends figures but has waist swivel behind his belt. His hips are on a T-joint with hinges at the sides that lets you raise his legs forward, back and to the sides. He got upper-thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, and hinged ankles with ankle pivots. Unfortunately, no ankle rotation.

"We're the kings of our own realm."

For most part, the sculpt and articulation of this figure are the true winners. This toyline has never failed to its loyal fans the articulation and the detail they always want. He stands at about 6.5 inches tall and in good scale with both old and new Legends figures. If you want to get a Namor for your Legends collection, I definitely recommend this one.

Abomination (Marvel Legends)

Marvel Legends Abomination

Halloween is the perfect time to think about some of the scariest and wackiest costumes that may get your friends flip out into amazement. And it's the perfect time for me, as a collector to show some ugly and those gruesome looking action figures that I currently have in my collection. Last year, I had Spawn and Pitt figure as my Pre-Halloween Monster Treat and this time I got none other than the most monstrous villain in Marvel's roster, the Abomination and it is from Toy Biz Marvel Legends. I personally call this dude "the merman on steroids" apparently because of his gills and oversized muscles but make no mistake, he is one of those baddies that could go toe to toe with the green Goliath. From that reason, he is a must-grab for me to face-off with my 8-inch scale Face-Off Hulk.











To be accurate, Abomination stands about 8.2 inches tall and he is like 2 millimeter taller than the Hulk. Notably, this guy has always been known to be a lot bigger than his archenemy, and so for a Marvel Legends figure at this height is perfect!

Compared to the Marvel Select Abomination, you can see that the paint application on this version is not that complex and highly detailed. Though you might see a bit of colour shading around his arms and other areas but the entire figure is dominantly painted with darkish green. The paint job on his face, however, is well done with those dirty-whitish teeth, glowing yellow eyes and dark pigmentations on top of his head making the face just look crazy.

Adding more monstrosity, you can see some bumps sculpted over his head and that signature fish-like fins around his ears... it's just an "abomination" when you have all these creepy looking parts around his face! Looking at his arms, legs and chest, you can see some skin warts randomly distributed around his scaly body, in which the scales are done by just having lines and ridges geometrically sculpted across his body- again, not as impressive as the Select Abomination. This guy is wearing a black speedo (very classic) and he got like these Ninja Turtle-like toes, however, he got an extra one sticking out at the back of his heel, which I honestly just realized when I got this figure.

Coming down now to articulation, I think it's not very "Toy Biz" of them for not incorporating some important joints that seem to be already a standard to this toyline. I still think it got some decent poseability though but this Abomination doesn't have wrist swivel, ab crunch, mid-calf or ankle rotation. The neck is on ball-joint that lets his head move side to side but hard to have him look up. He got ball-hinged shoulders, swivel to the biceps, single-jointed elbows, hinged wrists with hinged fingers! He got waist swivel, T-jointed and ball-hinged hips that lets his legs kick forward, back and to the sides. He got swivel to the upper-thighs that does the rotation of his legs. Single-jointed knees, ankle hinges and pivot are also incorporated.

The Marvel Legends Abomination is part of the Onslaught BAF Series, which comes with the arm; another reason why you need to grab this figure beside the fact that, like I just said, he is in perfect scale with any Legends Hulk you have in your collection. The poseability may not please you but this action figure is recommendable.

Giant Man (Marvel Legends)

Marvel Legends BAF Giant Man

Action figure collectors and combiners like me would search every corner of the planet to become proud owners of the rarest of the rare or become champions of an ultimate toy hunt. Some toy hunts are effortlessly easy to accomplish while others are more of a challenge, but here's a build-a-figure (BAF) action figure that is easy yet costly to complete the fact that you gotta purchase 10 action figures that each come with Giant Man-body part. Fortunately, you'll get them all in eBay but with varying price tags; depending how hot the demand is regardless of whether it's new or used.


















For Marvel Legends collectors, especially the ones specializing Toy Biz Legends, Giant Man is undoubtedly a must have figure. I brand myself a "selectionist"- I choose and pick the best version created by either one of these companies because, honestly, not all of Hasbro figures or Toy Biz figures are great. But if I rank all the BAF figures out there, Giant Man would be like "2nd runner up" next to my all time favourite build-a-figure, Sentinel (by Toy Biz).

Giant Man's most beaming feature is actually not the size, but rather the head/face sculpt. I have to say that this almost turns out to be like a real face with the perfect size and symmetry. The grimace over his face is sculpted with precision, and it definitely doesn't have that cartoony look. The size and shape of the muscles of this athletic body type are sculpted sensibly as to what Giant Man would probably look like if he shrink himself down to Hank Pym. However, I find the length of the legs awkwardly long, and it's actually not in perfect proportion as per relation with his upper torso. Looks like Hank here got his daddy's long legs!

In comparison with Hasbro, the paint application done by Toy Biz with their action figures is way more phenomenal. As you look at Giant Man closely from head to toe, you'll notice, maybe 2 or 3 different colours applied together in some muscle areas, which basically had something to do with contrast. Just as the sculpt bares realistic features over his face, the application of shading on this area further enhanced it.

No other words to describe the articulation of this action figure but... fantastic! Giant Man got a ball-hinged neck that lets his head move all the way up and way down, and turn 360 to the sides. Each arm got ball-hinged shoulders along with these scapular joints, like the ones on ML X-Force Wolverine, that goes forward and back. Also, he got double-jointed elbows, wrist swivel, and individual finger articulation (except the thumb), which I am truly impressed with. Furthermore, these fingers don't have that knuckling joints which, in most cases, ruin the sculpt on the hand. His torso has an ab crunch, a waist swivel and a couple of ball-jointed hips. Then to his legs, we got our upper-thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, thigh cuts, ankle pivots and last but not its least, toe articulation.

Out-rivaled by the Sentinel's size, the Marvel Legends BAF Giant Man stands about 13-inches tall, and can go with any action figures from any of these toylines, Marvel Select, Marvel Universe or even those ML Icons Series, but I would rather have him being in the Marvel Legends group because that's where he belong ideally. Without any further advice, just grab this figure if you like Marvel Legends.

Hulkbuster - Iron Man (Marvel Legends)

There's just alot of things I love about that movie and alot of interesting turn of events as well, so definitely you gotta check out Iron Man 3 if you haven't seen it yet. In the mean time, I got someone here I'd like to sign up for a football tryout and this guy is from Toy Biz Marvel Legends: Legendary Rider Series. It's the Hulkbuster! This guy just looks kick-ass! Massive from head from head to toe! A monster of a machine!

Marvel Legends Hulkbuster (Iron Man)

Again with the red and yellow Iron Man colour scheme, obviously, the only difference is Hulkbuster's height, body mass, and feature that made him stand out from the many versions of Tony Stark's Iron Man suits. This suit is, of course, designed to take on the Hulk just like every single means and methods out there which seem to underestimate the power of the Green Goliath. I personally think Hulk could still beat Iron Man even with this suit.

There is little much to talk about the paint detail on this figure but the fact that it's glossy, shiny and everything, and this is why I have to move forth towards the details around his sculpt and special features.

I don't blame you if you think he's like the Juggernaut (another muscle-freak) in a different costume, but it's actually just the head that determined Hulkbuster's likeness to the guy. Try replace it with a "regular Iron Man-head" and maybe you'll have a different opinion. An interesting feature I'd like to point out is the sculpt on Hulkbuster's shoulder guards that have these tiny "power cells", which I believe gives him added power besides his arc reactor. Hulkbuster further enhances his defenses with these huge arm guards and mighty mechanical hands that got some great details on it. While these added robot-like aesthetics make him look cooler, the contours and the size of his muscles are merely just an upscale or a "bulking up" to give it a much more intimidating look.

Hulkbuster comes with this power glider, which is probably inspired from Green Goblin's glider but has a Tony Stark touch in it. The glider has a total of three pegs- two little pegs that goes right under his feet and a big one in the middle that goes right into his spine. This is the only accessory I've seen so far that can be used as a base stand as well as a carry-around item. With his glider attached behind him along with the right camera angle, it's easy to get the illusion of looking at it as being one.

The articulation on this action figure is a bit of a pain in the ass, and this is probably the result of having all these added features and extra muscle mass around him that kept me from getting some desired action poses! In no such huge deal, I still like the fact that Toy Biz maintained its trademark individual finger articulation and ankle pivots. Besides, we don't need a Hulkbuster that is as poseable as an acrobat or something. Take note that you cannot turn his head or move it side to side, however, you can flip this head up and... behold, Mr. Stark himself!

Truly, I'm amazed by how Tony's head got some pretty decent articulation along with these details inside his Hulkbuster armour. The torso got both diaphragm and waist swivel, which lets him rotate and lean forward. With his shoulder guards on the way, it's hard to raise his arms up but both these arms got single-jointed elbows and wrist twists. The legs can twist and turn to the sides with the help of its ball-jointed hips and upper thigh swivel. He got double-jointed knees but are rendered almost non-functional because of all these "muscles" around the area. Sadly, Hulkbuster doesn't have that lower-calf swivel.












To compare him with his arch-nemesis, Hulkbuster stands a little shorter than the Face-off Hulk. However, the Hulkbuster is still the bigger guy because, generally, he got a much wider girth.

The Hulkbuster Iron Man is probably one of those action figures out there that rarely show up inside your stores and I would totally grab him if I were you, especially if you're someone who's crazy about collecting Iron Man stuff.

Iron Fist (Marvel Legends)

Marvel Legends Iron Fist (Toy Biz)

I feel there's like a "yin-yang energy" surrounding this action figure when I had examined the sculpt, paint detail and articulation. These are mostly positive though but then these negative features just surface right before my eyes and I say, whoaa, what's wrong with that! This Marvel Legends Iron Fist is part of the Apocalypse BAF Series by Toy Biz. He comes in two different types- the original type where he wears the yellow and green colour scheme, and the flaming-Iron Fist type (this one here), which I like better!













However, this guy is not immune to my ever judging stare. First, his shoulders are exaggeratingly swollen and round! It just looked odd and unnatural but viewing from the side, these shoulders may not look obviously silly. Though satisfied with the sculpt of his angry face, I am not very happy with these little "flaming stuffs" on top of his head. Toy Biz could have used that red glowy plastic like the one used to create his accessories, or better yet not have them there! It look some kind of bump on the head or some bird poop.

The paint detail is actually not bad. I see some dark shading between each muscle areas to help with the contrast. This flaming Iron Fist got this dragon symbol tattooed nicely over his chest. He is one of those superheroes I find having the strangest outfit, and I'm just glad Marvel redesigned his uniform into a more appealing one (should I say).

Now the best part- articulation. This, in my opinion, is probably one of Toy Biz's highly poseable action figure. You can really see those hinges and joints around the knuckles and toes. Iron Fist got a ball-hinged neck, ball-hinged shoulders and he got this armpit joints that let him extend his arms further sidewards. He got swivel to the biceps and mid-forearms. The fingers are also poseable and lets you get his right hand into a punching pose while a judo chop on the left hand. He got the ab crunch, swivel to the waist, ball-hinged hips, double-jointed knees, hinges to the ankles as well as on the toes and got ankle rockers that doesn't really do a nice job.

He comes with couple of these red-orange glowy plastic shaped like flames, which you can latch unto his fist or at the tip of his toes. Don't hesitate to use it with your other action figures or with any kind of props you have.

Despite all the issues I have with this figure, for a Toy Biz Marvel Legends collector, it is a great figure to have. Nowadays, it's very cheap if you buy it on your local comic book stores or even on eBay.

Apocalypse (Marvel Legends)

Marvel Legends Apocalypse BAF

When building the ML Apocalypse, never commit this mortal sin of buying all the action figures without checking the build-a-figure pieces that comes with it, because there are two versions of this guy- the original (blue) version and the black version that came months after the original one. What's more terrifying and apocalyptic is when you make a mistake of joining a blue piece with a black piece, and realize that it can't be undone (sorry bud, I guess you have to go all the way back to square one). A friend of mine almost pulled his hair off and offered me $6.00 for a blue-black upper & lower torso when he made this mistake. Out of curiousity, I considered the offer and tried dry brushing the ball-jointed hips with royal blue that can match Apocalypse's colour. Although you might notice it as you look closely, but it isn't really bad.











Marvel Legends Apocalypse (Series 12) is one of those big build-a-figures by Toy Biz; just standing an inch shorter than the ML Sentinel. Also, he's one of the exciting BAF's I have completed in my toy collecting experience. Like any other BAF's, you need to buy the action figure that has the correct part in it: X-23 (Upper Torso & Head), Bishop (Lower Torso), Sasquatch (Right Arm), Maestro (Left Arm), Iron Fist (Right Leg), Astonishing Wolverine (Left Leg).

The first thing you'll notice and that's unique with this figure are his two super bendable cables that go from his back to his elbows. The cables doesn't impede with any arm movements you make on this guy, which is great! The sculpt on this figure is not really that bad. Personally, I wished he would looked more like a body-builder (bulkier legs and arms) than a sprinter but I think he looks fine. He got a pretty decent paint app with some black shading over his blue uniform, which adds emphasis to his muscles. And of course, my paint-customized hips stand unlike anything else. One minor issue though is the sculpt on his fingers, and it's odd to look at these "gorilla hands" when you have those palms opened.

The articulation on this guy is simply outstanding and I never had such a big action figure with this high level of poseability! It's actually him and Giant Man (another big guy) that have articulations this great.


These articulations include:
- ball-jointed neck
- ab crunch
- bicep swivels
- single-jointed elbows
- hinged wrists + swivel
- finger articulations (to the knuckles)
- ball-jointed hips + swivel
- double-jointed knees
- calf swivel
- hinged ankles
- ankle rockers
- hinged toes





I wouldn't expect him to be taller than the Marvel Legends BAF Sentinel. Apocalypse has a humble height of 14 inches; just in scale with his fellow Marvel Legends figures and can blend pretty well with the Selects.

Like the Sentinel and Giant Man, this build-a-figure is a must have for every Marvel Legends collector. Eventhough I already got this BAF Apocalypse, I am still looking forward to completing the black version just for the thrill of it.

There will be more action figures that I'm gonna be dealing next year and hopefully everyone will have a 

peaceful and joyful 2013!

Hulk - Face Off (Marvel Legends)

Marvel Legends Face-Off Hulk

Now this, in my opinion, is the "Perfect Hulk" but it's quite distasteful that he comes with the Leader in this Two-Pack: Face Off Series. Like, I only want the Hulk you know? So you can either individually buy this action figure cheap but loose, or with that archenemy of his (that some people doesn't care about) along with its nice packaging and pricey tag. Either way, you may be amazed not only because of the perfect sculpt this Hulk got, but also you can get this big guy to SMASH! It's a smashing Hulk! ...and we'll get to that later.
















Toy Biz did an amazing sculpt on his entire head. You can see he is one angry beast! I don't like the Avengers movie action figure Hulk because he looks kinda anemic; it just lacks rage and power. Now the Series 9 Hulk, also made by Toy Biz, is a good figure to have in your collection considering the fact that it has a classic touch- the square-head ala-Frankenstein face. However, if I'm gonna be assembling an entire Avengers team, I prefer this guy over the classic type. I think the head sculpt is the main reason why I like this guy.

And lets not ignore Hulk's monstrous body. Everything from his torso to his arms and legs is well proportionate. I know some Hulk figures have arm lengths that goes right down to the knees, some got short legs while some need beefing up, but this one here doesn't give you that odd feel. One of the little complaints I have with this guy though are those shimmering holes that fasten the joints on his elbows, knees and ankles. I wish Toy Biz did a better job covering it, but it's no big deal.















Like I've mentioned just awhile back, this is a smashing Hulk having just enough articulation to get this Green Goliath to grip, bash, crush, stomp, pound and pulverize! Have him lift a rock, break an iron bar, or punch a hole on the ground- just do as you please. Another complaint I have with this guy is that open palm on his right hand, how I wish it would be just a punching hand. But with this open palm, I can actually have him do like what he did in the Avengers movie when he "high fived" an alien air unit.

WHAKOOOM

This Hulk got ankle pivots, single-jointed elbows and knees, finger articulation, toe articulation, ball-jointed head and waist swivel. I don't mind not giving him the ab crunch cause he is perfectly fine with his given articulation, and having it may destroy the definition of his body ...so I'm cool with it.

 

I definitely would recommend this Hulk, either get him loose or brand new. He is in perfect scale with most Marvel Legends action figures and some Selects. I wish I have that BAF Red Hulk (by Hasbro) so I can give you a really good size comparison between the two figures from different toylines. Overall, I got no regrets getting this guy.

 

 

Pitt (Legendary Comic Book Heroes)

Legendary Comic Book Heroes Pitt

Enter Pitt!! Tonight's "Pre-Halloween Monster" that I'm gonna be talking about is not from Marvel Select nor DC Direct but from the Legendary Comic Book Heroes (LCBH) toyline by Toy Biz (yep, the guys that created the original Marvel Legends). And for those people who haven't had any clue what this action figure is, Pitt here is a build-a-figure (BAF), and stands about 9 inches tall! He is part of the Image Comic Universe, the company that brought us some real awesome characters like The Crow and Witchblade, and other cool comic book heroes that can "wow!" even the most undesirably die hard Marvel or DC fan.













To tell you a little bit of background about LCBH, when Toy Biz lost its ownership rights over Marvel Legends, they started this new toyline that is based on non-Marvel and non-DC comicbook characters. It basically follows the same framework with Marvel Legends; stuffs like BAF's, 2 Packs, special editions and so on.

To build Pitt, you need to purchase each of his parts individually together with the action figures that comes with it. I just bought him on eBay already in one piece so I didn't go through the hustle of finding each of them month after month. But if you want to experience the thrill of the hunt, then this will be one challenging task for you. It's actually not hard to find a cheap price for Witchblade, Savage Dragon, Madman & Superpatriot, but Judge Dredd and that elusive Ripclaw... goodluck!

What made this action figure really an eye-catcher is this sort of intimidating look he carries over his face and physical features; he is massive and the hands are almost the size of your 2-year old kid. Pitt got this large talons or claws that could probably deal some damage with its ripping power! The details on his arms, legs and feet are lifelike, and this is the reason why I respect Toy Biz even more than other toy companies, cause these guys are just serious at doing their job.

Like I said, he is 9 inches tall. He stands an inch taller than the Marvel Select Hulk. What I thought was the biggest action figure, the MS Hulk stands a little shorter than Pitt. Click this link to see a size comparison.

You know, I honestly thought this action figure was a Marvel Select action figure but then I realized that his fingers are articulated individually. I thought maybe he is Marvel Legends but found no Pitt action figure listed when I dig through some of the websites. After awhile, I knew this was a Toy Biz figure before I purchased him on eBay. With all these amazing detail and articulation, I knew there is only one company who can put these all together.



Toy Biz Pitt vs. MS Colossus

Sentinel (Marvel Legends)

If you happen to know guys who collect Marvel Legends, ask them if they own the Sentinel, and mostly, they gonna say "are you kidding me? Got an army of them!" Some guys will tell you they just got one of these 15-inch toys towering over the rest of their collection. There has been hundreds of reviews on blogsites and YouTube about this Sentinel because this action figure is just so cool! This is one of ToyBiz's masterpiece, and one of the reasons why Hasbro was still standing on its shadow for quite a long time.

Marvel Legends Sentinel

I started collecting action figures for already 10 months now, and this Sentinel here came out around 2005, so... I can understand why you'll probably just look at all the photos and skip reading all the features and description about this toy, especially when you already had one a long time ago.

Anyways, this action figure is a build-a-figure (BAF), and the first BAF I completed. Parts like the legs, arms, torso and head comes with the action figure that has been designated to them. So like the Right Arm comes with the Black Panther and the Upper Torso comes with Spider-Man; and there is actually a list you can find online that can guide you in assembling Sentinel.

The paint detail and the sculpt on this guy is amazing. It's got a realistic feature that is unique and distinguishable to that of the Marvel Universe Sentinel. In other words, this is way better looking than the MU version. It's got a fine metallic wash on its armour, and you can see the wires and cables exposed around its sides.

The poseability on this Sentinel is neither impressive nor something of a letdown. I think some of the areas needs a bit of articulation to be added. Starting from the top, Sentinel's head can rotate 360 but cannot look up and down at full range. Underneath this pliable shoulder guards are ball-hinged shoulders and bicep swivels. He got double-jointed elbows, wrist rotations and the fingers are articulated individually, and you can stick these robotic tentacles to its palm- truly, I love this part here. At the torso area, Sentinel has diaphragm swivel, waist swivel and ball-jointed hips. Now the problem with Sentinel are its legs. Although it got double-jointed knees and swivel to the upper thighs, but the movement around his ankles are limited.

  

Marvel Legends Sentinel (Series 10) just towers over any Marvel Select action figures out there that ever existed. Truly, a masterpiece by Toybiz and, for me, building this figure is one of my greatest accomplishments.