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Deadpool and Taskmaster - Marvel's Greatest
Battles
"The
following is a guest review. The review
and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford
or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the
guest author."
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Ridureyu is back with a look at
a great combo pack - tell us all about them, R!
Hasbro has really hit it out of the park with their comic
packs. originally a way to sell G.I. Joes that wouldn't do
well single-carded (as well as drum up some interest in the comics),
they did the same for Star Wars, and it's so successful that other
toylines have followed suit - even Ben 10! Thus, it was only
a matter of time before they started doing this with their Marvel
toyline. Marvel's comic packs tend to include one reused or
slightly altered sculpt with one brand-new character. The
"new" one could be obscure (Marvel's Wrecker) or in high demand (Dr.
Doom). This particular one includes two high-demand
characters - one minor resculpt and one brand-new character (although
made mostly of older parts): Deadpool and Taskmaster.
Deadpool originally had a 3 3/4" figure for the Wolverine movie
line, That was a few years ago, and the figure is pretty high
on people's want lists, so getting a new one is awesome.
Taskmaster has gotten a lot more exposure in the comics lately, has a
history with Deadpool, and this release even coincides with Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, in which both
are playable characters.
Deadpool (Wade Wilson) started out as a blatant rip-off of DC's
Deathstroke (Slade Wilson), who in turn was fairly obviously inspired
by Taskmaster. Crazy, huh? Wade Wilson was part of
the Weapon X project, and has a healing factor similar to
Wolverine's. Unfortunately, he also has pretty extensive
cancer, which for some reason makes him look like Freddy
Kruger. It also drove him insane - and one of Deadpool's
defining features is that he's so crazy, he knows he's
a fictional character. "The Merc With the
Mouth" has spent the last twenty years breaking the fourth wall,
lusting after Bea Arthur, lusting after Cable, using Thor's hammer to play
baseball, dressing up as Marvel Girl, using Street Fighter moves on
Kitty Pryde, kicking Captain America in the nuts, and just pretty much
being the funniest thing alive. He's had a few video game
appearances, all of them funny (You have to see him in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3!), and two movie
appearances. He was in the animated Hulk Vs.
Wolverine, and the less said about his role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the better.
Taskmaster (real name unknown, sometimes "Tony Masters") only has one
super power: He has a photographic memory for reflexes. This
means that if he sees something done, he can imitate it so long as it's
humanly possible. Taskmaster can imitate all of the best
fighting styles with ease, and has mixed it up with practically
everybody - the fact that he can take out Cap in a fair fight and even
hold his own with Thor is pretty amazing. He uses (slightly
inferior) copies of other Marvel heroes' weapons, and for some odd
reason dresses like a pirate. Taskmaster is a smart enough
guy to know that robbing banks just isn't a good use of his skills, so
he has spent his time training villains and henchmen, training heroes,
and doing mercenary work for good and bad guys alike, though he's
usually a villain. He hasn't shown up in any cartoons or
movies, and only has one video game appearance to his name - Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, which does a
pretty good job in capturing both his skill as well as his sarcastic
Brooklyn personality. He has a few other toys, such as a pretty good
specimen in the Marvel Legends line. Also, he predates
Skeletor by about a year.
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Packaging
- ***
I opened mine before remembering to take a photo, so you can tell how I
hastily repacked it for the picture. Sorry! The
packaging is standard for any comic packs - it protects the comic and
the figures while showing both off. There's also a brief bio
on the back for the characters. Both figures' accessories are
held in the tray pretty snugly - too snugly in the case of Taskmaster's
bow. Be careful working it out of the package, as mine
developed a tiny stress mark when I tried, and I didn't even bend it
that much! Other than that, there aren't very many problems
with this, although any packaging that potentially breaks the figure
loses a star.
Sculpting - Deadpool: ****,
Taskmaster: ***
Deadpool is mostly a rehash of his X-Men Origins toy. Mostly. It's got a few
differences - the head is better-shaped and has smaller eye marks, and
his harness is completely different (which allows for better
articulation). He also has a different right hand, in his
characteristic "pinky" pose (He holds out his pinky finger when
wielding a gun. To be polite, you know). Overall, he's more
comic-accurate to most of Deatpool's Appearances than the old
one. The pinky finger is just a hilarious touch.
Taskmaster is mostly pretty good, although the majority of his body is
made up of reused parts. His head seems less removable than
most Marvel Universe figures, and I didn't want to stress the joint, so
his cape and quiver might as well be part of him instead of
accessories. The cape is an original sculpt, although
the quiver is a reuse from Hawkeye. Both are great, and the
cape curves nicely over his quiver. The cape also serves as a
good anchor for taskmaster, which keeps him standing in a lot of really
goofy poses. His head is a new sculpt, and looks
good. Complaint-wise, there are two issues I have with
Taskmaster's sculpt - his neck is too long, and his head hovers above
his cape. It's a hard problem to mask, and just looks
awkward. The other is that his hands are way too wide-open
for most of his accessories. He can hold the bow just fine,
but his sword is fairly lose (although manageable), and his pistol is
just impossible. The pistol absolutely will not stay in his hand unless you
force him to awkwardly grab it from the side, which is a
shame. Those problems are both bad enough for a star, with
the hand issue far worse than his head. What's the point of a
weapon nut if he can't hold his weapons?
Paint
- Deadpool: ****, Taskmaster: *** 1/2
Deadpool's paint is great, with no slop on my figure. He's
mostly cast from red plastic, which some people might find too
"toy-ish," but I don't have a problem with that. Deadpool
would WANT his toys to look like toys! He'd also take them
out of the packaging. In front of collectors.
Before force-feeding them meatloaf.
You know, I should have written his part of the review in first-person
narrative. It's what Deadpool would have wanted.
Let's try it.
"Hey, it's me, Deadpool! Don't listen to this
idiot. He's a grown man and he plays with TOYS! What a loser,
huh?"
...Never mind.
Taskmaster's paint is also mostly good, matching up white, blue, and
orange with only one real problem - a half-star of a problem.
Mine has a pretty big paint slop on the skull, which makes Taskmaster
look like he's got a runny nose. Bah! But yeah, if
you can find one without that problem, he'd be worth four stars.
Articulation
- Deadpool: ***1/2, Taskmaster: ***1/2
Both figures have Marvel Universe-characteristic hyper
articulation. And yet, since both are kitbashed from
completely different figures, they vary. Deadpool has
ball-joint hips while Taskmaster has "pin" hips, for example.
Tasky's wrists are a little harder to pose dynamically than Deadpool's,
whereas Deadpool does not have proper ankle articulation.
Overall both are really good, but both have tiny little flaws in
them. But you can do what matters - you can pose Deadpool in
all manner of whacky (or cool) situations, although you can't make him
Shoryuken Kitty Pride, because his hands are open.
Sorry! Taskmaster is likely pretty good, and the cape does
not inhibit his articulation very much. It actually helps him
stand, so you don't have to snag a base from another figure, like I did
for Deadpool.
Accessories
- Deadpool: ***1/2, Taskmaster: ***1/2
Both have a good number of accessories (more than most Marvel figures,
more than most Star Wars figures, less than any G.I. Joe figures), but
both also miss a few things that would have perfectly sealed it.
Deadpool comes with two katanas, a dagger, and a pistol. They
all fit pretty well in sheathes on his costume, and are pretty good
either way. They also fit very well into both hands, and are
great for a wide variety of poses. So, what's
missing? The older Deadpool figure had an out-of-scale sai,
so I'm not asking for that. But Deadpool never really goes
anywhere without hand grenades, and an automatic weapon would also fit
him, too. Just tossing in a single grenade would have lifted
this to four stars - it's that close!
Taskmaster comes with a lot of his copied weapons: Captain
America's shield, Hawkeye's bow, Black Knight's sword, and Punisher's
machine pistol. That's pretty much his "standard" array,
except with one exception: Taskmaster always carries around a copy of
Daredevil's billy club. Always. If this figure had
the club, it would have been perfect. But that aside, the bow
is the same as Hawkeye's - decent, good for what it is, and he can hold
it well or slip it under his quiver strap to store it on his
back. The shield is the same as Cap's, except without those
elastic bands. it snaps nicely on his wrist, although the
slots for the missing bands do look a little ugly. The sword
fits well into a sheathe on Taskmaster's hip, is well-sculpted and
painted, but just seems a little small. It's kind of short,
and the hilt is too thin to comfortably fit in his hand.
That's too bad, as it was almost perfect. The pistol fits
great into its holder on his belt, looks good, but he can't hold it, as
I said. He holds Deadpool's gun better, oddly enough.
And the final accessory is also the biggest: The comic!
Deadpool and Taskmaster have kind of a hate-hate friendship going on
(they are buddies and work together, but they hate each other's guts
way more than is healthy), and have fought a few times. The
comic here chronicles Deadpool's attempt to rebuild his reputation
after Civil War by taking on
Taskmaster in a fight. It's okay and it has some of
Deadpool's signature humor (such as storming Marvel's offices!), but
honestly, it's not the best showdown the two have had.
Taskmaster got beaten without any real chance to show off or any
explanation why, which makes him look weak. In their first
major fight, Tasky still lost, but he looked cool - and Deadpool was
hilarious, beating Taskmaster purely because he was so random and goofy
that Taskmaster couldn't predict his moves. It's too bad that
we didn't get their more iconic fight, but I can't really
complain that much about this one. It's fun, and it's more
recent than the older one, I guess.
Value
- ****
$15 for two figures and a comic book is pretty good, considering that
single Marvel Universe figures will run you $7-$8. Expect to
pay double online at a bare minimum because both characters are
insanely popular, and Taskmaster has never gotten a good figure in this
scale before.
Fun
Factor - ****
Yeah, they're worth four stars. Both characters manage to
combine "cool" and "hilarious," and they're a great addition to any
Marvel Universe display. Also, they can both carry all their
weapons AND leave their hands free! Isn't that awesome?
Overall
- ***1/2
They're not perfect, but they're
pretty good. Both have a few minor flaws in articulation and
accessories, and some things about Taskmaster's sculpt are wonky -
particularly his wide-open hands. But overall? I'm
not just glad I got these figures, I'd do it again! I'm not
the biggest comic fan in the world, but I absolutely love both
characters. And of course, I play them a lot in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3.
Here's hoping they make toys for the rest of the cast - I for one would
love a Dormammu or Shuma-Gorath, myself!
Where to Buy
Try all the big box stores before breaking down and going
online. Your wallet will thank you.
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This product was purchased for the review by the reviewer.
Photos and text by Ridureyu.
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