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Marvel Legends 10
Angel

Tonight's ML guest review is from Mapoo, and covers that cool dude with the big wings, Angel.  Take it away, Mapoo!

Tonight I'll be concentrating on Angel from the Marvel Legends Sentinel series, Angel is of course an X-Man.

A couple of years ago there was a short lived line of toys called X-Men Legends, while it only lasted a one series, the line did have a number of good figures in it. My favourite being Archangel, unfortunately due to him being short packed I never managed to pick one up, but my salvation came in the line of Angel. I know he isn’t too similar to the original Archangel but the principal is the same, roughly the same character, with bloody big wings. And I like it.








Packaging - ***
I probably don’t even need to write this section, I’m sure you all know about Marvel Legends packaging by now. It’s a clamshell. It holds the figure all safe and sound. It looks pretty good. So all boxes ticked, but it would be nice if there was a little variation in style, 10 series in and its still pretty much the same as series one. 
On the back of the card insert you get a few nice pictures of the rest of the line, and an even nicer picture of the Sentinel. The one thing that sets this apart from most of the other Legends line is the instructions of how to make the larger figure. It’s on the front of the card insert and sows you simply how it all clips together, but you won’t know this until you have freed your precious toy.

Sculpting - ***
Well it’s up to the usual Toy Biz standard, but it is one of the more basic superhero sculpts. His body is as muscular as you would want for someone intended to save you from untold levels of peril, and his face is also the generic kind of super hero fare you have seen so many times before.

While at this point his sculpt could be described as functional at best, I am yet to mentioned his most vital ingredient, his wings. Not only are they huge, weighing in at over 6” a piece, but they are also intricately detailed, with each feather being marked out in great detail. They look amazing, and truly make the whole piece look great. As I said before, the main figure doesn’t have the most detailed and amazing sculpts, but attach the wings and he shines. Speaking of attaching the wings, it’s simple. There are two jointed knobs on his back and you simply clip the wings on there. They are nice and tight so you shouldn’t find them falling of too often.

Paint - ***
As before; the paint on Angel himself ranks in as functional. What’s there is generally pretty good, but didn’t really stretch the painters with its intricacy. His body is mostly red and white, with a slightly more subtle blue wash over certain points, the blue isn’t always even and there are a few spots where it’s missing all together. The red runs up on to his mask, and is clean throughout, but it’s on his head we find the biggest problems. The paint job seems a little too dirty for my liking and I don’t think it was intentional, and there is even a chunk of paint missing from is nose, but I’m sure that’s just on mine.

Again, it’s the wings that shine through, the paint job is rightly a match for the sculpt and brings out the detail to make it seem even better. The wings have been detailed to make them seem pretty dirty, but hey, he’s a busy super hero and they don’t always have time to spruce themselves up. The individual feathers have been nicely picked out by dry brushing in s few different shades of browny grays and as I said, it looks great.

Articulation - ***
It’s the standard Marvel Legend kinda stuff here, Angel ahs around 36 points of articulation. He has ball neck, shoulders and hips and double pinned elbow and knees. His toes, ankles, wrist and fingers are all pinned and his forearms are cut. His stomach has a joint to give him some more backwards movement, and his shoulders also have the new(ish) internal joint to give him extra upwards mobility, this is probably the only bad joint on him as it does make his shoulders slightly too wide, but overall he has a very high standard of articulation and you will be able to put him into all manner of interesting poses.

Accessories - ***
Angel only comes with two accessories; I’m not including his wings here as I feel they are a necessity in making him look the part.

He does have the usual comic reprint though, now I’m not a huge knowledge of the history of the X-Men but this comic was pretty cool and gives you an idea how much they have changed over the years. His other accessory is a mark of genius but it could so easily have been overlooked. It’s a clear stand that pokes into a hole on his to give the effect of flying. It’s so simple it’s brilliant, and works so well and gives you so much more posing potential.

With Angel I got a leg, a Sentinel Leg to be precise. Now I know this goes to making the Sentinel, but I haven’t got all the other parts yet so I can’t really say too much about him. What I can say though is that the leg is awesome; it’s much bigger than I though it would be when it was in the package, so I can only dream of how big it will all be when put together. And its paint job it excellent, its really made me want to get the rest of the line just so I can lay my hands on a whole Sentinel.

Quality - ***
Generally its good, but a couple of things mark it down. My stand broke just as I was putting it together, which wasn’t nice. I did however manage to get it too work thanks to all those handy twist ties we get. The other thing to keep an eye open for is his paintjob, mine had a problem on his nose and I’m sure it was just mine but its worth keeping an eye open for.

Value - ***1/2
Mine cost £8, and that’s just about the cheapest I have seen anywhere, so that’s all kinds of good. Now if you get all the series at that price you can add that extra half a star as you’ll also get all the pieces you need to make the sentinel, which I’m sure is awesome, I want it now.

Overall - ***1/2
This is easily my favourite Marvel figure in ages, now I’m including everything there, not just Marvel Legends so from me that is praise indeed. I don’t think I could truly get across how much I like him. You must all buy him now.

Scoring Recap
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ***
Paint - ***
Articulation - ***
Accessories - ***
Quality - ***
Value - ***1/2
Overall - ***1/2

Where to buy
Online options include:

- Alter Ego Comics has Angel (and many other ML10 figures) for $9.

- CornerStoreComics has Angel for $10, along with many other ML10 figures.

- YouBuyNow has the Angel and others in stock for $10.

 


Figure from the collection of Mapoo.

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