Review of Kid Nova, Angela, Vance, Darkhawk, Titus
Marvel Legends Action Figures

Introduction

New Marvel Legends are popping up all over the place in my neck of the woods. To go along with the Titus wave and the Warlock wave, we know have the Sandman wave hitting (yea, I know other areas got it awhile ago, but we can be slow sometimes). That makes for a lot of ML love right now.

To try to keep up, I'm finishing off the rest of the Titus wave, also know as the Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 wave.  I looked at Drax, Star-Lord, and Yondu not too long ago, and I'll cover Kid Nova, Darkhawk, Angela, Vance Astro, and the BAF, Titus, tonight.

These are hitting a variety of retailers, but I found the majority at Target. They'll run you around $20 each.

Packaging - ***1/2
Same package, different day. It's collector friendly, and requires no real damage to get the figure and accessories out.  The back has a short bio, there's decent character personalization all around, and they include both the wave line up and the graphic showing which BAF piece comes with which character. As time has gone by, I've found that an overall flat, rectangular design would have be even better (lose the curve to the top and sides), but it's a minor nit.

Sculpting - Nova, Vance ***; Titus, Darkhawk, Angela ***1/2
Let's have a little background on all four of these characters, since they are comics based, and not movie based.

Angela is my favorite in this particular category. McFarlane fans should recognize her, and she was a very popular character in the Spawn universe. McFarlane Toys created a number of figures based on her, but in one of several legal battles Todd has lost over the last decade, co-creator Neil Gaiman won control of the character. He sold her off to Marvel, and she has become the 'lost' sister of Thor. Sometimes the road twists and turns, and sometimes it's full of plotholes. Er, potholes.

This figure is based on her current Marvel comics look of course, but you can still easily see her Image roots. The sculpt is detailed, and the portrait is quite beautiful. She's still a bit gangly - most Marvel Legends females are - but overall it's a terrific looking rendition. I'm not a huge fan of the long, swirling scarf however, so I'll probably pop the head off and toss it in the drawer.

Up next, Darkhawk. He's been around since the early 90's, and fans have been requesting an ML of him for quite some time now. I suspect he'll be the favorite of the comic characters in this wave. The projected wings on his arms look terrific, although the tips on mine did come out of the package a little warped. It's nothing a bit of hot water/cold water can't straighten out. His biggest issue is the plastic - it seems softer again, something I've not noticed in recent waves. It's not at the weak levels we saw a couple years ago, and I'm hoping it's not an indication of cost cutting that could lead us back there.

Vance Astro the Astronaut is next. If you think calling an astronaut 'Astro' is bad, then you'll love his nickname, Major Victory. Seriously. And you thought Captain Chaos and General Disarray were funny.

Vance doesn't sport much in the way of sculpting, or at least unique sculpting. The portrait is good, but rather basic - he's a bald dude. The basic body is a re-use of course, so most of his personality comes from the paint, which I'll discuss in the next section. The plastic here also felt a little on the brittle side, a departure from recent releases.

The final regular series figure is Kid Nova. This is the Sam Alexander version, and it uses the smaller teenager body we saw with the Morales Spider-Man. Again, the plastic was weak, particularly in the legs. I'm hopeful I merely ended up with a bad batch, since the other three movie based figures from this wave didn't exhibit the same issue.

Sam has a good head sculpt, and the sculpted details on the chest look reasonable. It's a nice use of the smaller body as well, although the articulation didn't work as well here as with the previous Spider-Man. More on that in a later section.

This is a 1/12 scale line of course, and Angela, Darkhawk, and Vance are in that 6 1/2" range.  Obviously, Kid Nova is shorter (about 5 1/2"), but that's appropriate to the scale.

Paint - Vance, Nova, Titus, Darkhawk ***; Angela ***1/2
The paint work is slightly dicier with these five as well, although some of that is due to the heavy reliance on the paint to create the look.

Angela is the best, once again. While some of the colors are a bit too consistent and drab - like the hair and breast plate - there's enough detail and subtle coloration in the rest of the costume to make up for it. Lines are clean, and the all important work on the lips and eyes is great.

My least favorite is Vance, due to quite a bit more slop around the cut edges between the white and blue sections of the costume. There's a lack of consistency in the blue and white as well that makes him look cheaper, and even the emblem on the chest has some scratches and dings.

In between we have Darkhawk, Titus, and Nova. Sam sports some issues around the gold edges as well, especially on the sculpted harness on his chest. Darkhawk isn't bad...but there's not a lot of paint here to talk about. The same is true with Titus, who has an relatively clean paint job on the head, but a really bland looking costume.

Articulation - Nova **1/2; Angela ***; Titus, Darkhawk, Vance ***1/2
These are Marvel Legends figures, so there's plenty of joints. Oddly, not all of them worked particularly well this time around.

Sam had the biggest problems. I don't recall having any issues with the joints on the Morales Spider-Man, so I'm not sure what happened here. The ankles are particularly annoying and I couldn't get much movement in any direction out of either side. To get him to stand upright, he had to be very duck-footed. Even the hips lacked a good range of movement, and posing was effected by it.

Angela poses pretty well, but there's some expected restriction from the hair and costume. My biggest nit was with the cut thighs. Even a slight turn outward gives the thigh a weird look, hurting the overall aesthetic for a ton of poses.

Darkhawk poses well, and the normal ML articulation works nicely. The wings can be a bit restrictive, and they do throw off the center of gravity in some poses. But he was my favorite to work with out of the three, and I think fans will be happy with his level of articulation.

Titus and Vance have the same ML articulation that every figure using these base bodies has, and it works pretty much as you'd expect. Titus' jaw can move slightly as well, and overall posing either was easy.

Accessories - Titus Bupkis; Darkhawk **1/2; Vance, Nova ***; Angela ***1/2
Titus IS an accessory, since each body part comes with one of the other figures. Because of that, he won't take a negative hit for not having any accessories of his own. However, it's worth noting because there are BAF's that have gotten something of their very own. Titus is not one of them.

Darkhawk gets the basic **1/2 average score, since his only extra is the Titus piece. Clearly, Hasbro saved a little money here.

Astro and Sam have one extra each, on top of the BAF piece. Vance comes with the lost shield of Captain America, which he was searching for in a particular comic book arch.  Guess he found it. This is a straight up re-use, but it's still a great shield.

Sam has...a giant Gummi Bear. Actually, it's a character called Phlish, another of the SuperNova. It's cute, and I can almost guarantee that your Marvel friends will have no idea what it is, thereby allowing you to show off your superior nerdiness.

Angela does the best, getting her sword (which slips inside the scabbard on her back neatly) and two bladed weapons that can be held in either hand. While the paint ops are in short supply, the sculpts are quite nice.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
Marvel Legends are nothing if they aren't fun. Let's be honest - very few collectors are going to be excited about Titus. But kids? Are you kidding? He's got a tiger head, man!

Value - ***
Some of these are a little more iffy on the paint and plastic quality, pulling this score down slightly from the last couple reviews. Still, at $20 a pop, you won't find a better action figure value at the local store.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing. While the plastic is a little cheaper feeling, it's still sturdy enough to handle normal play and posing.  The hands work with the accessories, and I never had any fear of breakage or damage when working with any of these five figures.

Overall - Nova, Darkhawk, Vance, Titus ***; Angela ***1/2
While the three movie themed figures in this line were quite nice, the comic based characters drop the ball a bit.

For me, Angela has the best overall quality. I'm not sure that fans were clamoring for her though, so she might not end up all that popular.

I'm betting Darkhawk is though, even though the figure is generally decent, but not exceptional.  Fans have wanted an ML of him for quite some time, and I'm betting they'll be pleased with the result.

The other three? Meh. Titus is probably one of the least interesting or desired BAF's they've ever produced.  Vance might not be an awful character, but he makes for a pretty boring figure. And Kid Nova isn't bad, but I'm not sure how popular he'll be, particularly with a BAF that is unlikely to drive sales.

Now if I can just find my Cyclops, I can finish up the Warlock wave...

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - Nova, Vance ***; Titus, Darkhawk, Angela ***1/2
Paint - Vance, Nova, Titus ***; Darkhawk, Angela ***1/2
Articulation - Nova **1/2; Angela ***; Titus, Darkhawk, Vance ***1/2
Accessories - Titus Bupkis; Darkhawk **1/2; Vance, Nova ***; Angela ***1/2
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***RF
Overall - Nova, Darkhawk, Vance, Titus ***; Angela ***1/2

Where to Buy 
These are hitting mass retailers right now (Target seems to be getting them first), and will run you around $20 or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I've already covered the first half of this series, including Drax, Star-Lord, and Yondu, and started the Warlock wave with a look at Sunfire, Shatterstar, and Polaris and Dazzler, Wolverine, and Colossus. Prior to that was the three BAF's, Space Venom, Dormammu, and Juggernaut. Prior to that, I covered the two halves of the Dormammu wave, including movie Strange, Mordo, Nico, and Iron Fist, and Astral Strange, Brother Voodoo, comic Doctor Strange, and Enchantress. Before that was the back half of the Space Venom wave, including Miles Morales, Silk, and Electro. The first half of that wave included Hobgoblin, Peter Parker Spider-Man, and Spider-Girl. Before that I had the Juggernaut wave with one review of Cable, Havoc, Kitty Pryde and Phoenix here, and the other half with Rogue, Deadpool, Wolverine, and Iceman here. Before that I ad the back half of the Giant Man wave (with Giant Man, Captain America, Iron Man, and Nuke), but in between I've looked at one of the 12" figures under the banner - Spider-Man - as well as the new full scale prop replica Captain America's Shield.

I covered the first half of the Giant Man wave as well, including Red Guardian, Black Panther, and Nick Fury. Just before that I covered Red Skull (BAF), Taskmaster, Sharon Carter, and Demolition Man. The other half of that wave included Captain America, Mockingbird, Whirlwind, and Cottonmouth.

There are a TON of additional Marvel Legends reviews before that, so you should hit the Search Reviews page to find those, and in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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