Packaging - ***1/2
The usual ML style packages, but I have to admit to really liking the
Hulk colors and logo. The back gives personalized data on the
specific figure encased within, along with a run down of the other 8
and which piece of the big guy they include. They've even
thrown in some basic instructions for putting Triple F together, as
well as a mini-product catalog.
There is a bit of weirdness on
the Wendigo package. It shows the Savage Hulk, Samson and
Absorbing Man blacked out on the back, with the words "Coming Fall
2008". Hmmm.
Sculpting - Wendigo,
Hulk ***1/2; Absorbing Man, Samson ***
I'm probably being gullible here, but I like Hulk's sculpt.
There's good detailing in the face and veining of the arms, and I like
the comic book proportions. If anything, the arms are a bit
too veined in front, and not in back.
The calves are a bit weird
looking, with some odd muscle striations, but when viewed as the big
picture, the overall sculpt is pretty solid. The hands are
both sculpted in interesting gesture poses that work great with the
anger in the facial expression.
Wendigo is the most technically
nice of these three, and he's certainly the largest at about 8"
tall. There's some reasonable detailing no the fur, but even
that's inconsistent. For example, there's lots of texture
detail on his calves, but far less on his thighs.
Wendigo is probably the most
desired out of these four, largely because he's not a character that
has been done to death. People did their own customs using
the Sasquatch in the past, but this version is a bit closer to proper
scale.
Absorbing Man isn't bad, and I
suspect he'll be more popular with fans of the character than with
I. There's some good texturing along his 'stone' side and
arm, as well as decent detailing in the brick left leg. Both
of his hands are sculpted in grip poses to work with the ball and chain
accessory, but they also look good empty.
Doc Samson is the most basic,
with muscle and wrinkle texture, but nothing too unique for the
line. On the plus side, the boots are nicely done, and the
shirt has sculpted edges on the sleeves and neck, rather than just
painted. His facial expression is stern without being goofy,
and the gripping and fisted hand sculpts look good. On the
negative side, the hair is a bit tootsie roll in it's level of detail.
These are the usual ML scale,
but all three are pretty tall. Both Samson and Hulk are 7"
tall, while Absorbing Man is about 6 3/4". Wendigo is the big boy of
the bunch at 8" tall.
All the figures stand great on
their own. Probably the biggest issue most folks will have
with the sculpts is that the plastic feels cheap. The torsos,
especially Hulk's, are made from a very hard, brittle plastic, while
the arms and legs are made from a softer plastic. This
difference may be an issue for some.
Paint - Absorbing Man
***; Samson, Hulk **1/2; Wendigo *1/2
While I like the sculpts well enough, there's something quite off
putting about the paint jobs. Some of it is obvious, but some
of it is more of a 'feel'.
The Hulk issues are
obvious. The teeth are sloppier than they should be, and the
weird wash they used on the body looks poor. Most of the gray
body parts were cast in the color, making them look cheap.
On the other hand is Absorbing
Man. The work on his pants, brick leg, and stone sections is
actually pretty well done, and there's far less slop than the
others. While there's still some of the cast coloration, it's
not as prevalent.
Samson is some place in the
middle, more of that 'feel' situation. The cut lines are
clean, and there's not really any slop, but the cast plastic colors are
more annoying here, especially the red shirt. The yellow of
the boots isn't much better. While he's clean, there's a
cheapness about the paint work that bothers me.
Wendigo is the big
disappointment to me, because he was the one of these four that I was
most looking forward to. And while his sculpt isn't perfect,
the awful paint job takes away what potential it had.
He's been cast in a gray
plastic, and then at least one, maybe two washes were
applied. These look terrible, with all kinds of inconsistency
in the color and application. The thighs on mine are much
darker than the rest of the figure, and all the joints and pegs are
much lighter. In fact, many of the disks and pegs are the
very light gray of the cast plastic, with no paint at all.
This is one of the ugliest paint jobs in person that I've seen in quite
awhile.
Articulation - Hulk,
Wendigo ***1/2; Absorbing Man ***; Samson **1/2
All the ML's are getting less articulation, but some are losing more
than others. And some work better with what's left as well.
Wendigo is the closest of these
four to the old ML articulation. He has the same neck as
usual, plus both ball jointed shoulders and hips. The
shoulders are just the post/pin style that are only jointed on the
torso side, but the elbows are pin and post as well so the arm can turn
at the elbow. The wrist is pin and post too, as is the ankles.
Wendigo's ball jointed hips are
jointed on both sides of the ball, just like the old days.
There's double jointed knees as well, and a relatively decent ab crunch.
There's no tail articulation,
and he has no half foot or waist joint. But of the four, he
has perhaps the best overall articulation.
The Hulk still poses pretty damn
well too, even with fewer joints than his older Marvel Legends
cousins. He still has the usual neck joint, and because
there's no restrictive hair or sculpt, it tilts back and forth pretty
well. The arms are ball joints with a joint on both sides of
the ball, the elbows are single pin, as are the wrists, ankles and
knees. The elbows, knees, ankles and wrists are all pin and
post style, so the turn as well as move forward and back.
The hips are pin and post too,
or as often called, ball jointed with a joint only on the torso
side. The leg turns, and moves back and forth on the disk,
but there's no sort of cut joint. This isn't too big of a
problem for the Hulk though, as the knees turn.
He has a good ab crunch joint
too, but there's no cut waist at all. That means turning the
upper body in relation to the lower body is pretty restricted.
The Absorbing Man is exactly the
same as the Hulk, with one less joint - the shoulder does not have a
joint on the arm side. While the elbow turns, the lack of the
upper bicep cut joint is a big loss.
While he doesn't have the waist
joint either, his ab crunch joint turns side to side better than the
Hulk, making it's loss less of an issue.
Samson ends up with even
less. Like Absorbing Man, his shoulders are less articulated
than the Hulk, and rather than having the pin/post knees, he has double
jointed pins. This is an issue because the pin/post style at
least allowed the lower leg to turn - without it, there's no way to
turn any part of the leg toward the outside.
He also has that restrictive
hair, which makes his neck joint less useful. You'll need to
use that ab crunch to get him looking forward.
Accessories - with FFF:
Wendigo, Hulk, Samson **1/2; Absorbing Man *** - w/o FFF: Hulk, Samson
Bupkis; Absorbing Man **
This is one of the categories where Fin Fang Foom makes a
difference. If you care about the BAF, you're getting a
better deal.
That's because Wendigo, Hulk and
Doc Samson only come with one accessory, the FFF piece. The
Hulk's is only the left leg and foot, but at least Samson comes with
the huge tail and lower torso. Wendigo has the one arm and
wing.
If you aren't buying these to
complete Foom (or are one of the unlucky ones that never find all eight
pieces), they're just worthless hunks of plastic.
Absorbing Man has the other leg
and foot, but he also comes with a ball and chain that he can use as a
weapon. It's not much, but it's something.
Foom (so far): **1/2
I separated out the actual FFF pieces here, because they deserve
discussion on their own. Obviously, I only have three of the
eight so far, so I have no idea if my final view of Foom will be better
or worse. However, with the two legs, upper tail and lower
torso, here's the situation.
The articulation and sculpt are
looking good, but the paint is awful. The torso and tail are
that same very hard, brittle plastic that we have with the Hulk torso,
and the paint work on it is very poorly done. The light green
is sloppy and inconsistent, and the entire thing feels and looks
cheap. Let's hope that with some arms and a head, he looks a
lot better.
Fun Factor - ***
While they might not be quite the collector's line they used to be,
they are still mighty fun toys. Only Samson really lacks in
the leg articulation, and all of them have the quality for hard play.
Value - FFF Fans
**; FFF Haters *
The price of a Marvel Legend mass market action figure has risen to $15
a pop. Yep, that's right - the same kind of price you might
pay for a specialty market toy at Hot Topic. Now, I'll admit
the FFF BAF is pretty damn cool, even with the cheap plastic
torso. But if you're not interested in the BAF, you're
getting royally hosed on this wave. Even if you are, the
value isn't nearly what it used to be.
Things to Watch Out For
-
You'll want to pay attention to paint, just like any other mass
produced action figure these days. But once they are open,
they are sturdy enough to handle basic play without fear of breakage.
Overall - with FFF:
Hulk ***; Samson, Absorbing Man **1/2; Wendigo **; without FFF Hulk,
Absorbing Man, Samson **; Wendigo *1/2
Whether you care about Foom or not is a huge consideration for these
individual figures. Why? Because of the huge
cost. Paying $15 each is bad enough to get Foom, but if
you're not interested in him, you're really getting hosed.
Yea, the scoring is more
complicated, but the basic result is this - if you want to complete old
Foom, Hulk is a decent figure with just some wonky paint
wash. Absorbing Man and Samson are mediocre at this price
point, and Wendigo is ruined by an awful paint application.
If you don't care about Foom,
all those scores get even worse. Paying $15 for a figure like
Wendigo with that awful paint job should be a crime.
If these were $10 Marvel Legends
figures, I probably would have even dropped the Triple F caveat. But at
this new higher price point, it's hard to ignore the difference he
makes. And even at ten bucks, you deserve better paint than
you're getting with the washes on Hulk and Wendigo.
Score Recap:
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - Hulk, Wendigo ***1/2; Samson, Absorbing Man ***
Paint - Absorbing Man ***; Samson, Hulk **1/2; Wendigo *1/2
Articulation - Hulk, Wendigo ***1/2; Absorbing Man ***; Samson **1/2
Accessories - with FFF: Wendigo, Hulk, Samson **1/2 Absorbing Man ***;
w/o FFF: Hulk, Samson Bupkis; Absorbing Man **
Foom (so far) - **1/2
Fun Factor - ***
Value - FFF Fans **; FFF Haters *
Overall - with FFF: Hulk ***; Samson, Absorbing Man **1/2; Wendigo **;
without FFF Hulk, Absorbing Man, Samson **; Wendigo *1/2
Where to Buy -
These are hitting Toys R Us first, but other retailers should get them
in. Online options include:
- Entertainment
Earth has the case for $128.
- for the Australian
collectors, try out Shopping.com.
- or search ebay with MyAuctionLinks.
Related Links -
I've reviewed a lot of
ML's:
- I never did look at the third
wave of Hasbro ML's, but I did cover wave
2 and series 1, first at MROTW
and then here at QSE.
- you’ll want to check out my
review of the other
four figures at MROTW.
- Hasbro has also released
several of the 12″ Marvel Legends Icons, including 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.
- The Face Offs series 1 (with
Hulk/Leader in one
review and the other two sets in another)
and series
2 both had guest reviews.
- 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.
- then there’s the various
series reviews, including the Wal-mart
series, series 13,
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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discussing it!
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