Hasbro Marvel Legends All New X-men Box Set review
|
Towards the end of Toy Biz's run of five inch Marvel figures they produced three box sets, one of the original Avengers, one of the
X-men in their original X-men in their yellow and blue uniforms and one for the All New X-men as they appeared in Giant Sized X-men
issue. These three sets may have come at the tail end of the five inch format, but even after all these years these sets are treasured by
collectors. So now Hasbro is following Toy Biz's lead and has created their own box set of the original five X-men for the Marvel
Legends line, but this time it is in honor of their return in the All New X-men comic. Toy Biz's set set a high bar, so I'm hopeful
that Hasbro can surpass it.
Packaging - 9/10The X-men box set comes in a fairly large box with a cover flap that can be opened to reveal the figures inside. The box is thirteen inches wide and fifteen inches tall. That gives you a lot of room on the cover and means that all five figures can be spaced out inside to be viewed clearly. The front cover and inside flap use a recent cover image from the All New X-men comic. The front cover then masks portions of the image with a reverse image of the X-men logo so that the cover image is clear under the logo, but masked elsewhere. The back of the box then has a single, large photo of the figures attempting to recreate the comic cover image. The figures themselves are packaged in a clear plastic tray. So the set can easily be opened, displayed and returned to the box for display or storage. The one thing that I don't like about it is that the packaging doesn't contain any real explanation of how or why the original X-men team is back beyond a single cryptic line. And given the amount of space that they had to work with, there's no reason they couldn't have included that as well.
Sculpting - 7/10There is not a great deal of detail work include on any one of these figures, but there isn't any important details that are missing either. Iceman is a completely blank male body. That works. But it isn't very impressive. Cyclops recycles most of the parts from the Cyclops from the Puck series, but with new boots and cuffs for the gloves. Angel uses the same body as Cyclops with different hands and head. I do like that Angel's head sits lower on the neck. It helps to make Cyclops just a bit taller and slender looking. Unfortunately he seems to have a bit of a goofy look on his face. It isn't a real smile, more of a smirk. I would rather have a more stern expression to match the other figures. Beast has a thicker body with unique hands and feet, sculpted to show the more detail including the hairs on his forearms and feet. Marvel Girl takes the female body and adds a belt, gloved hands and feet and a new head. As with the rest of the set, she doesn't really stand out in any way, but is a solid representation of the character. Really I only have two issues with the entire set. First, the belt buckles don't match. Marvel Girl and Beast have large insignia buckles as shown in the artwork. But Cyclops and Angel's buckles are much smaller. It is a small detail, but with so few other details, it stands out more than you might think. the second issue is that Angel's wings are too small. They are easily the smallest set of wings that I have seen on any Angel figure yet. It isn't too much of an issue in terms of appearance. But it is an issue since they don't reach the ground which means that the figure has to support all of that extra weight hanging off of his back, or be leaned up against a wall.
Paint - 8/10The paint work on all of the figures is clean and well done. There is not a great deal of detail work. But there are a few very nice touches that were added. There is some shading on Beast's bare arms and feet that really brings out the details in the sculpt and makes them look much more realistic. Each belt buckle is also painted with a higher gloss, slightly metallic paint to set them apart from the belts. I'm not a fan of the slightly translucent white plastic used for Iceman. I think he might look better with some white painted highlights. But I'm willing to chock that up to personal preference.
Articulation - 8/10The articulation for all five figures is the standard for Marvel Legends figures. That is thirty plus points of articulation for each figure. And all of the joints are fairly tight. I would like to have seen Beast get hinged joints on his toes since crouching poses are such a natural fit for the character.
Accessories - 0/10There are not accessories with the box set unless you count Angel's wings which are not permanently attached to his back. But since they are an integral part of the character, I have to consider them to be part of the figure. There's nothing that feels like it is missing from the set. But some accessories would have been a nice touch, perhaps some of the interconnecting bases from the Epic Heroes series or some ice formations for Iceman.
Value - 8/10The box set is selling for $89.99. That is the same price as the Thunderbolts box set from last year despite the fact that the retail price for the Marvel Legends Infinite line has gone up to $20 per figure. So I'm sure that this set will prove to be as popular with Marvel Legends and comic fans and rightly so.
Happy Hunting:The box set is an exclusive to Toys R Us. I got it as a pre-order from their website. And it is still listed there. It should also be showing up in stores in the next few weeks.
|
|
