Hasbro Marvel Legends Infinite Jubilee Series review
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Now that I've gotten a few of the Ninja Turtle movie toys out of the way, I thought I would take a bit of a break and catch
up on a few Marvel Legends releases that have been waiting to join my shelves. (Plus I finally got impatient enough to
break down and buy the last figure that I couldn't find off of eBay.) So first up is the Marvel Legends Infinite Jubilee
series. A Toys R Us exclusive, the Jubilee Series includes five figures: a new version of Cyclops, a modern version of Storm, a
fairly classic looking Magneto and an unmasked Wolverine in his yellow and blue uniform. And as the name implies, the Build A
Figure for the series is the Jubilee figure that was first shown back at San Diego Comic Con in 2013. And considering the
lengthy saga that has led up to Jubilee finally making her way into fans' collections, expectations for the figure are high
to say the least.
I ended up passing up on the Wolverine figure as I already have plenty of versions of Logan already and his figure does not include one of the Build A Figure pieces.
Packaging - 8/10The newer Marvel Legends Infinite packaging is back for the Jubilee series, largely unchanged. I like the look. It's clean. There is little to no wasted space, just the figure and accessories clearly displayed, front and center. And unlike the Green Goblin and Mandroid lines, every figure has his or her own packaging, complete with not only their name, but a brief character description on the back. (Though I am a bit annoyed that I have to sing the praises of the return of something so basic.) I still think that a more colorful design would be more fitting for a line of comic book based figures, but I can't complain too much about the design as it is.
Sculpting - Storm 5/10, Cyclops & Magneto 6/10, Stryfe 9/10The sculpting work on this line seems to be heavily weighted towards the two villains. Storm has a generic female body with no sculpted detail on it. That's not hoorible as there isn't any detail to the costume that really needs the added depth. And the head sculpt is nicely done. Cyclops similarly uses a generic body. But he does at least have a sculpted belt added. Magneto has new boots and gloves and an exceptionally wide belt. They did something interestin for his cape and shoulders. Rather than sculpt the collar of hiscape onto the figure, it is attached to the cape and just rests on his shoulders. But the cape seems to have been sculpted to lok best when it is billowing out slightly behind the figure. So when it hangs straight down, the collar tends to ride up on the figure. It's not horrible, but if that collar had been attached to the figure, it would have eliminated the issue. The face sculpt looks good. And the helmet is a separate piece from the rest of the head, but not removableSo it looks really nice and fits perfectly. Finally there is Stryfe who appears to be a completely new figure. I don't know much about the character, but from what I've seen, the figure seem to capture the design almost perfectly. I almost feel bad that such an obscure character had so much work put into him while two of the heads of the X-men for decades got figures that seem almost like afterthoughts in comparison.
Paint - Storm 4/10 Cyclops 7/10, Magento & Stryfe 9/10The paint work on this series is really impressive. Magneto and Stryfe are almost flawless. They only thing that kept me from giving them a full 10/10 is that both have capes that are completely unpainted. They don't need paint work persay, but a little paint on Magneto's collar to make it stand out from the material of his cape would have been nice. So would a little shading under Stryfe's cape. There are a few more issues in the quality control of Cyclops' paint work. The thickness of the red for the lines of his costume varise a bit and there are a few spots on his back where the red didn't cover or rubbed off. But since they are all on his back, they aren't that noticable. Storm on the other hand, her costume has one bold, distinctive feature, the white area on the front forming a large X across her body. But my figure has a small area on her right breast where the paint is missing. It is a small spot, so it shouldn't be a big issue. But since is is on the most prominent part of her uniform, it becomes a bigger issue. And it seems to be somewhat common from the photos of other figures on eBay. Her hands are also an issue as the paint for them doesn't match the paint on her forearms which should be the cuffs of her gloves. As with the spot, it doesn't seem like it should be a big issue. But it is very easy to see the difference.
Articulation - Storm 8/10, others 10/10Cyclops and Magneto both have fairly standard articulation for a male Marvel Legends figure:
Accessories - Stryfe 7/10, others 0/10The only figure in this series that has an accessory is Stryfe who comes with a sword. (Unless you want to count Magneto's cape which is removable.) Stryfe's sword has a very cool sculpted handle. The only downside is that Stryfe is such a large figure, that the sword doesn't look nearly as impressive as it should in his hand.
Build A Figure - JubileeThe Build A Figure for this series is Jubilee. While I don't think that she was a huge player in the X-men comics, for those that had the 90's X-men cartoon as their introduction to the X-men as I did, she has been topping want lists for many years. Jubilee was originally slated to be a regular figure when she was first displayed at San Diego Comic Con. So as a Build A Figure, she is not as impressive as previous offerings in terms of size or complexity of the sculpt. But both her sculpting and paint work are well done. She also has a couple of accessories in a pair of translucent purple blasts that either fit over her fist or can be held in her open hand. But on the positive side, you only need to purchase the four figures shown in this review to complete Jubilee. So if you are like me and already have a small army of Logan figures, you don't need to spend money on yet another one just to complete the figure you actually do want. Unfortunately, those four figures are not evenly packed. Both Stryfe and Storm seem to be limited to one per case. So there are probably going to be a lot of spare arms floating around with not enough torsos to complete the figures even if fans were willing to buy all four.
Value - Storm 6/10, others 8/10The retail price for a Marvel Legends figure is still hovering around $20 per figure, occasionally dropping as low as $15 when on sale. Unfotunately, this series is exclusive to Toys R Us, and they tend to be priced slightly higher, usually around $23 per figure. And since they are exclusives, they don't seem to be on sale quite as often. While the price is higher than I would like, with the exception of Storm, I am quite happy with all of the figures in the series. And even Storm is not a bad figure, just not a great one.
Happy Hunting:As I mentioned already, the Jubilee series of figures is exclusive to Toys R Us. (I thought it was supposed to be a shared exclusive with Previews, but I have only seen the figures through Toys R Us stores and their web site.) But finding them at a Toys R Us store has not been easy. In fact, this series has been a near textbook example of how NOT to handle exclusives. The series started to hit shelves at almost the same time as the Guardians of the Galaxy series. But I have hunted for months and not been able to find a Storm figure either in stores or on Toysrus.com. I only have one Toys R Us store within a reasonable driving distance from my home, and that store doesn't even seem to stock this series, though they have plenty of the Green Goblin, Mandroid and Groot series. I finally resorted to eBay to get Storm just so I could complete Jubilee and finish this review. It's unfortunate that poor planing and support on the part of the retailer that has this series as their exclusive product had to mar my perception of what otherwise should have been welcome additions to my collection.
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