Review of Marvel Legends Hawkeye, Machine Man, Iron Fist & Scarlet Witch action figures

Introduction

The latest wave of Marvel Legends, containing the 'All Father' Build-A-Figure, has been shipping for awhile. In fact, it's out in some pretty serious numbers right now, at most Target, Toys R Us, and Meijer stores.

I've already covered Captain Marvel, Sentry and Thor, and will finish up the regular figures tonight with a look at Machine Man, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, and Iron Fist.  I'll give the BAF his own review in a couple weeks.

As I said, these are already shipping, and you should be able to pick them up for around $20 each at most retailers.

Packaging - ****
This is actually collecter friendly packaging, a rarity with mass market action figures. You can open the box from the side, slide out the tray, pop the figure and accessories out (no twisties, no bands, no nothing), have fun posing and playing, and pop it all back with no muss, no fuss, and no damage.

Well, that's almost true - Scarlet Witch has a very tight fit around her cape, which is threaded through the inside plastic tray. I had to do some damage getting the cape out, but you might be able to manage it safely with more patience than I exhibited.

Sculpting - ****
I'm loving the sculpts on all four of these, although they really do go back to the basics for the most part.

Iron Fist uses the usual Marvel Legends base body, but still manages to look terrific - and unique - doing it. The addition of the yellow ribbon/belt helps of course, but it's the cool head sculpt with the masked face that sets him apart.

Machine Man is similar, although the articulation between the two is a bit different. He does have the more muscled body, with obvious striations, and while he comes with no accessories to hold, he does have a grasping hand sculpt. Like Iron Fist, it's really the cool sculpted stoic expression that makes him pop.

Hawkeye is sporting his old school look, with a sculpted 'vest' over his body. He has the same sort of sharply cut definition to the face and mask sculpt that gives all three of these guys an edge. His hands are sculpted to work with the accessories, and of course he stands great on his own.

Then there's the lovely Scarlet Witch. While some might find the lips a bit too big, I'm a Julia Roberts fan. The sculpted expression is stern and tough, yet pretty enough to go on my ballot for the 2015 Poppies. I really like the hair sculpt as well, and the body is svelt without the usual top heavy proportions. She is tough to pose, no doubt about that, but if you get creative with the stiff cape, you can come up with some good poses. And don't forget the hands, sculpted to work nicely in plenty of magical battle stances.

These are a 6" scale of course, and the men are all about 6 1/4" tall. Scarlet is actually bigger, coming in at about 6 1/2".

Paint - ***1/2
There's plenty of small detail work here, although most of it is in the faces. The eyes are sharp and clean, the cult lines at the edges of the masks is good, and the make up on Scarlet is extremely well done - no mussed lipstick here.

Colors are consistent too, and some of these, like the gold and yellow on Iron Fist or the silver on Machine Man, can be quite tricky. There's a minor slip here, a little imperfection there, but nothing major and certainly nothing to whine too loudly about.

Articulation - Hawkeye ***1/2; Iron Fist, Machine Man, Scarlet Witch ****
All the usual excellent Marvel Legends articulation is present, and there's very little getting in the way of its mobility.

Iron Fist does the best, sporting the super articulated shoulders that allow for all sorts of exceptional ninja poses. With ball hips, double pin knees and elbows, pin/post wrists, pin ankles, a rocker foot, cut thighs, cut waist, ab-crunch, and the usual ball neck that also moves forward and back at the torso, he can take just about any stance you can come up with.

Machine Man isn't quite as good - his body doesn't have all the same joints, lacking the extra articulation in the shoulders. He does add a cut at the top of the boot though, and the ball shoulders and hips work quite well.

Hawkeye is very similar to Machine man, with a slightly restricted upper body. The sculpted outfit tends to make the ab-crunch and waist a bit less useful, and even effects the elbows and neck to some degree.

Finally, there's the lovely Witch. She lacks the cut waist, but her rolling chest joint makes up for it in spades. The rest of her joints mimic the boy's, and you should be able to get some very cool action stances with her.

Accessories - Scarlet Witch ****; Hawkeye, Iron Fist ***1/2; Machine Man ***;
I scored the Scarlet Witch the highest here, largely because she comes with two very good accessories of her own, plus a ton for the BAF. Not only does she have the alternate head sculpt for the All Father, plus his alternate cape, but she also has his large staff.  Add in two energy swirls, designed to clip on her wrists, and you can see you're getting plenty of bang for the buck.

Hawkeye and Iron Fist come close. They each have some critical pieces for the BAF, plus a couple additional extras. Hawkeye has his bow and quiver, while Iron Fist comes with 3 additional sets of hands.  He has a pair of fists, a pair of chopping hands, a pair of tiger claw style hands, and another pair posed for a deadly hand strike. These all swap easily, and are pretty decently scaled.

Machine Man brings up the rear in this category. He has the BAF piece, pluse a pair of extended 'mechanical' arms. These swap with the normal hands easily, but the posts did seem a bit weaker this time around.

Fun Factor - ****
With a ton of great articulation, excellent, useful accessories, and a sturdy, high quality build, these are excellent toys for both collectors and kids. These might not be the Avengers your son is accustomed to, but introduce them and you just might start them on a lifetime of comic book fandom.

Value - **1/2
These are the usual $20 a pop, which seems to be the current going rate for any figures that have a hint of 'collectiblity', from Star Wars Black to Funko Legacy Game of Thrones. I sometimes wish we'd see the return of $15, but somehow I don't expect it any time soon.

Things to Watch Out For -
You always want to take a little care when first breaking in the joints on any Marvel Legends figure, but there was nothing about these that caused any special concern. The wrist posts on Machine Man seemed a little thin, so take extra care when swapping his hands, but that's about it.

Overall - Hawkeye, Machine Man ***1/2; Scarlet Witch, Iron Fist ****
I'm really loving this set of four, much more so than the first three I looked at in this wave. The sculpts are tighter, the articulation works better with the designs, and all four look fantastic on the shelf.

If you have a flight stand for a 6" scale figure, you should try it out with the Scarlet Witch. She has the potential for some very cool levitating poses, if you have the right way to support her.

This is also a wave with an exceptionally cool BAF, and I'll be dedicating a review just to him in the coming days.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ****
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - Hawkeye ***1/2; Iron Fist, Machine Man, Scarlett Witch ****
Accessories - Scarlet Witch ****; Iron Fist, Hawkeye ***1/2; Machine Man ***
Fun Factor - ****
Value - **1/2
Overall - Scarlet Witch, Iron Fist ****; Hawkeye, Machine Man ***1/2

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Entertainment Earth has a case for $160.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I just covered the first half of this wave, including Captain Marvel, Sentry and Thor.

I've covered a million Marvel Legends figures over the years, with the most recent being the Guardians of the Galaxy wave. It's actually in two parts - here and here. I also hit up all three BAF's from last year at once.

Other previouis ML's include part of the Iron Man series, the Arnim Zola series in three parts: here, along with Part 2 and Part 1. Before that, I covered the Terrax BAF wave, in part 1 and part 2; the Red Hulk set, in part 1 and part 2; the last wave of 'icons', the larger scale Legends; the Foom/Hulk wave, broken into one review here and another here; I also covered the early Hasbro ML's, incluidng wave 2 (with a second part here) and wave 1, first at MROTW and then at QSE.

- Earlier Hasbro Marvel Legends Icons included Punisher and Doom, and my favorite, Thor.

And if you still pine for the days Toybiz -

- in the 12? Icons line, there’s Spider-man and Beast, Wolverine and Venom.

- there’s the guest review of the Fearsome Foes of Spider-man boxed set, Urban Legends box set, X-men Legends boxed set, and the Fantastic Four boxed set, along with my review of the Monsters boxed set.

- The previous Sentinel BAF was guest reviewed.

- prior to that there was Wal-mart series, series 12, series 9 (including Galactus), series 8 Captain Marvel and Doc Ock, series 7 Vision, series 6 Juggernaut, Wolverine and Deadpool, series 5 Blade, Nick Fury, Sabertooth and Colossus, along with series 5 Red Skull, Silver Surfer and Mr. Fantastic, series 4 Goliath, Punisher, Beast, Gambit, and Elektra, series 3 Daredevil and then the rest of the series, series 2 Thing and Namor, and finally, from three and a half years ago, the series 1 review.

Discussion:
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