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Captain Toy/Michael's Review of the Week

Review of Iron Man MK46, Captain America, Nuke, Giant Man
Marvel Legends action figures

Hasbro
Date Published: 2016-06-01
Written By: Michael Crawford
Overall Average Rating: 3.5 out of 4

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Marvel Legends Nuke action figure by Hasbro

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Introduction

The latest wave of Marvel Legends is just starting to pop up, with three Civil War themed figures, and three comic related characters, and of course, one big BAF. Last week I checked out the comic based Red Guardian and Nick Fury, along with the very popular movie based Black Panther. Tonight I'm going to finish up the wave with a look at Captain America and Iron Man Mark 46, both from the movie, and the comic themed Nuke.  The Build-A-Figure this time around is Giant Man, also done up in his movie duds.

These are hitting major mass market retailers right now, although distribution is likely to be spotty for awhile, considering how many full pegs there are out in the wild right now. Expect to pay $18 to $20 depending on the retailer.

Click on the image below for a Life Size version
Marvel Legends Iron Man MK46 action figures by Hasbro

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Packaging - ****
Nothing different here.  The collector friendly package allows you to slip the cardboard and plastic tray out one side, remove everything without any damage, and return it all later for storage or sale. On the back is a short blurb about the specific character, and a nice photo showing the rest of the line and which character comes with which BAF piece.

Marvel Legends Nuke action figures by Hasbro

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Sculpting - ***1/2
All four of these have very solid sculpts, with plenty of detail and definition.

Nuke has the most, shall we say, expressive head sculpt of the group.  He comes with two portraits, one with the standard high and tight hair cut, crazy eyes, and insane grimace.  The second is bald, with some severe damage to the skin. His underlying Terminator like skull is showing through, and if you think the first portrait had crazy eyes, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Nuke also has some terrific work on the body.  There's lots of small details with the ammo and grenades on the vest, and there's a really nice use of multiple textures on the vest, pockets, belt, and other goodies to add tons of visual interest. He's a big boy too, coming in at just over 7" tall.

Marvel Legends Nuke action figure by Hasbro

Next up is Iron Man, and I have to admit it - I'm all Iron Man-ed out. The MK46 suit is cool, but its super sleek design loses some of the mechanical ass whooping appearance of the earlier suits, and I find it less appealing. There's plenty of detail though, and some nicely cut edges on the armor, so fans should be more than happy. He comes in just north of 6 1/2" tall.

Cap also leaves me a little cold. It's not that the sculpt is poor - it isn't. The suit has plenty of textures and detailing, and the masked head looks enough like movie Steve to satisfy. But much like Iron Man, I've had just about all the Cap variants I can take for awhile.  Fans of the character will be happy though, and having a Civil War version to pose against Black Panther makes for a great display.  Cap is also just about 6 1/2" tall.

Finally, there's the Build-A-Figure of Giant Man, based on the Paul Rudd film version. This isn't the first time we've seen Giant Man in a Marvel Legends wave - he was part of the comic based Ant-Man wave that came out last year about the same time as the film. But that was a normal sized Giant Man...but this isn't even the first time we've gotten a Giant Man BAF! He was the Build-A-Figure ten years ago, and back then men were men and BAF's were BAF's. I've included a shot of the older comic based Giant Man BAF with this new guy at the end of the review.

The new guy is quite a bit smaller than his earlier cousin, coming in at about 10" tall. The work on the suit is quite good, once again with multiple textures and lots of small details. I really like the inclusion of the eyes underneath the helmet (the helmet is not removable of course), but I think there could have been a little sharper detailing on the helmet itself, particularly considering the larger size.

One of the overall features worth mentioning is the sturdier plastic they appear to be using. On some recent waves, the joints and limbs felt rubbery and soft.  This wave seems to be consistently better, a welcome change.

Marvel Legends Giant Man action figure by Hasbro

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Paint - Cap, Iron Man, Giant Man ***; Nuke ***1/2
The paint work is solid through out the series, although there's a few issues on all four of these figures.  Iron Man has the most notable, with some marks on the face plate.  Since there's not a lot of damage any where else, I'm assuming this isn't an attempt at battle damage, although I could be wrong. With so few spots, it just ends up looking like a weaker paint job.

Marvel Legends Iron Man MK46 action figure by Hasbro

My other real issue is with Giant Man, who has the swirled look in the plastic of the helmet. The helmet was obviously cast in the gray color, but the dye was not mixed well, allowing this sort of inconsistent appearance.

Cap looks great at first glance, but then on closer inspection you'll notice minor issues, like the skin tone on the chin strap, or the sloppy edges on the silver suit highlights.

Marvel Legends Captain America action figure by Hasbro

Nuke is really the cleanest of the bunch, especially on the face. Both of the portraits have excellent work on the flag tattoos, and the battle damage on the second head looks fantastic.  He could use a few more details or at least a wash on the body to create a slightly less toy-ish appearance from the neck down, but it's a minor nit.

Marvel Legends Nuke action figures by Hasbro

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Articulation - Iron Man MK46, Nuke, Giant Man ***1/2; Cap ****
All four of the figures sport the usual excellent Marvel Legends articulation, and you should be able to get them into just about any fighting pose or stance.  They are also fairly fluid for figures in this scale, although not quite as much as some.

Cap has a great ball jointed neck, plus rotating hinge shoulders, double pin elbows, cut biceps, rotating hinge wrists, ab crunch, cut waist, rotating hinge hips, cut thighs, double pin knees, and rotating hinge (with rocker movement) ankles. While a few of the joints are somewhat encumbered by the sculpt - like the torso - the majority have a great range of movement.

Nuke is just as good, although I did have one problem that was odd.  His neck should be able to tilt and lean just fine, since it's the same ball on top of a lower pin joint that we see all the time with Marvel Legends figures. But when you lean it forward, it wanted to pop back straight up, or you have to lean it all the way down on his chest. I'm betting it's just mine with the issue, however, since it seems likely to be a one off manufacturing problem.

This Iron Man has some suit conflict, more so than a figure like Nuke or Cap, but not as much as you might expect from a figure in full body armor. He has a similar set up, but the ankles, knees, and torso aren't as limber, and of course there's no cut waist.

Last but not least is Giant Man, and he also has a similar set up.  I found his torso to be a tad floppy, but the leg and arm articulation worked great.

Marvel Legends Captain America action figure by Hasbro

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Accessories - Giant Man Bupkis; Cap ***; Iron Man MK46, Nuke ****
Of course, the three regular characters each come with their own Giant Man piece.  Giant Man himself doesn't get any additional extras, but I'm not going to hold that against him. While they will occasionally add in an accessory for the BAF, with only 6 figures in the wave I'm not surprised it wasn't a priority.

Cap has only one additional accessory, but it's an important one - his shield.  This time it has two straps in back that can slip over either forearm.  This is important, because both his hands are sculpted in fist poses, with no way to hold the shield or anything else.  The paint is a smidge sloppy on the circles, but overall it looks great in place.

Iron Man might be a little dull for me, but he does have some nice extras. He comes wearing a fist and a blasting hand, and a second fist and blasting hand are in the package.  That allows you either combination, and there are two large energy blasts that can attach to the palms of the open hands. The hands swap easily, and the blasts pop in and out smoothly, making them very useful accessories for collectors or kids.

Nuke also does extremely well in this category. Along with the largest BAF piece - the torso - he has a huge, deadly looking blade that slips neatly into a sheath on his back, and his massive gun, painted up in silver and blue. He can hold the gun in one or both hands, and the knife can be held in either hand as well. But remember, that's not all!  He also has that second portrait, and regular readers know how much I love second portraits. The heads swap easily, making this another great action figure for kids.

My only complaint with Nuke's accessories is the same one I had with the paint work earlier. The over sized nature of the weapons make them look a little silly, somewhat clunky and cheap. It's a very minor nit however, and overall I'm very happy with the final result.

Marvel Legends Nuke action figures by Hasbro

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Fun Factor - ****
With some very sturdy plastic, great articulation, and truly useful, fun accessories, these make great toys for the Captain America fans in your house, no matter what their age.  Collectors will find plenty of ways to pose them in their display, and kids will have hours of fun battling it out Civil War style.

Marvel Legends Giant Man action figure by Hasbro

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Value - ***
These are still going for the usual $20 that most 6" figures are right now, but with both the BAF pieces and some great accessories, they make for a slightly better than average value.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing. I didn't have any trouble swapping hands on Iron Man or heads on Nuke, and there were no stuck joints or weak pins.

Marvel Legends Captain America action figure by Hasbro

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Overall - ***1/2
This wraps up another wave of Marvel Legends, but the entire set of 6 were well above the average, even for ML's. If you're looking to round out your Civil War set up, you'll need to pick up the whole wave, since what would any Civil War set up be without Giant Man? Thankfully, all three comic figures in this wave - Nuke, Nick Fury, and Red Guardian - are excellent additions themselves.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ****
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - Cap, Iron Man, Giant Man ***; Nuke ***1/2
Articulation - Iron Man MK46, Giant Man, Nuke ***1/2; Cap ****
Accessories - Giant Man Bupkis; Cap ***; Iron Man MK46, Nuke ****
Fun Factor - ****
Value - ***
Overall - ***1/2

Marvel Legends Giant Man action figures by Hasbro

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Where to Buy 
These are showing up at stores like Target and Toys R Us right now, and will run around $20 each. Online options include these site sponsors:

- carries most Marvel Legends figures for around $18 - $20 each.

- Entertainment Earth has the case of eight for $170.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I just covered the first half of this wave last week, 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.

I also have my look at the most recent ML Spider-Man wave, including Absorbing Man, Ben Reilly, Spider-Gwen, and Venom in one half, and Speed Demon, Beetle, Jack O'Lantern, and Morbius in the other. Prior reviews include the terrific Hulbuster  BAF, the Blizzard, Vision, Valkyrie, War Machine, Thundra, Doctor Strange, and Iron Man.

I let the BAF's build up for awhile last year, and covered a whole bunch at once in this review. Prior to that, I covered the Rhino wave, including Kraven, Chameleon, Misty Knight and Ghost Rider and Scarlet Spider, Superior Venom and White Tiger,  the Ant-Man wave in part 1 with Giant Man, Bull Dozer and Grim Reaper, and part 2 with Ant-man, Wasp, and Tiger Shark. and the Avengers (Thanos) wave, in part 1 with Hulk, Hellcat, and Iron Man MK43, and part 2 with Captain America, Batroc and Spider-Woman. Before that is the 'Hobgoblin' series which I've started with part 1 here, and the 'Allfather' wave, including Captain Marvel, Sentry and Thor and Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Machine Man and Iron Fist. I also checked out the Toys R Us exclusive three pack of Coulson, Fury and Maria Hill from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

There's a lot more Marvel Legends reviews than that, and you should also hit the Search Reviews page, to find them. Also, there's likely to be more applicable reviews done after this one was published.

Discussion:
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Marvel Legends ron Man action figure by Hasbro

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This product was purchased for the review by the reviewer. Photos and text by Michael Crawford.

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