Hasbro Marvel Legends Vision and Scarlet Witch Two pack, Thanos and Mr. Fantastic Exclusive Figures review
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The Marvel Legends line has been rolling in high gear for Hasbro for quite some time now and it shows no sign of slowing going into 2018. I've already
reviewed one series of figures that tied into the Black Panther movie. And there are three more series of figures hitting shelves almost simultaniously
now. And just in case those two dozen plus figures don't catch your interest, Hasbro also has a steady stream of retailer exclusives coming out as well.
Three such retailer exclusives that have started to show up recently are the latest Walgreens exclusive, Mr. Fantastic, the Walmart exclusive Thanos
and a two pack of the Vision and Scarlet Witch based on their movie incarnations which is a Toys R Us exclusive. And since this appears to be the
last purchase I will ever get to make at Toys R Us, I wanted to take a look at these figures right away to see if they were worth tracking down while
I had the chance.
Packaging - 8/10If you have paid any attention to the Marvel Legends line, you should be familiar with the packaging design here. Hasbro's consistency is nice for collectors who keep their figures in the packaging. And it is reasonably attractive. In particular I think that the design and black backgrounds work well for movie based figures. The photos used on the back of the packages look great. But the written description given for the Vision/Scarlet Witch set is pretty worthless. By contrast, the ones given for Mr. Fantastic and Thanos actually do give you a decent idea of who the character is.
Sculpting - Mr Fantastic 6/10, Scarlet Witch 9/10, others 8/10With exclusives, Hasbro usually tries to select figures that they can produce with minimal new sculpting. In the case of Mr. Fantastic, that means the default figure is a generic male body but with a new head. The head sculpt looks good though. And the Fantastic Four uniforms don't really need any sculpted detail. Thanos is the same mold as the Thanos Build A Figure from 2015, but this time it comes with the Infinity Gauntlet on his left hand. That was one of the two biggest complaints I had with the figure the first time and was enough to convince me to buy this figure again. For the Vision and Scarlet Witch two pack, Scarlet Witch appears to be the same sculpt as the version that was released in the Abomination Series. But unlike the first time around, this time my figure doesn't have bow legs and extremely warped fingers. The Vision seems to be the only new figure. And it looks like Hasbro did a nice job of capturing his look from Captain America: Civil War. We'll have to wait to see if that changes for Infinity War. There are two minor issues that I have with Vision. The first being that some of the suit details such as the forearm covers and collar for the cape stick out a bit too much. But that is simply a issue with the limitations of the plastic material. The second issue is that his neck is sculpted to be bent forward slightly. Given the character's personality and composure, it would be more appropriate if the neck was more vertical. But obviously both of these issues are quite minor.
Paint - 7/10Both Mr. Fantastic and Thanos have fairly simple and clean paint schemes which are well executed. With this version of Thanos the outfit has been changed from purple to blue and his skin tone has been darkened up quite a bit. The change in skin tone is a welcome change. Both Vision and the Scarlet Witch have a lot more paint work on them. But the color choices seem to be a bit off. For Vision, both his skin tone and the red used for his gloves and boots are too light. And the same issue exists for Scarlet Witch's hair which this time around is a much lighter tone than the previous release.
Articulation - Thanos & Vision 8/10, others 9/10All four figures have the usual Marvel Legends level of articulation. That means thirty plus points of articulation for Vision, Mr. Fantastic and Scarlet Witch. As is often the case for the larger figures in the line, Thanos has only single jointed elbows which also have more limited range due to his bulky arms. Vision has a minor problem with a loose neck joint. It isn't so loose that he can't hold his head up, but it will move if the figure is bumped or moved too roughly. Fortunately Vision's neck is the only loose joint that I ran across on any of the figures.
Accessories - Vision/Scarlet Witch 4/10, Thanos 6/10, Mr. Fantastic 8/10The Vision/Scarlet Witch comes with a spare set of hands for Vision and a new set of energy blast effects for Scarlet Witch. The new energy effects which swirl around the figure's wrists and hands are a welcome change from the same energy blasts that they have been reusing with so many past figures. But that is still not a lot of extras to come with two figures. And Vision could really use a flight stand of some sort. Thanos comes with a second head and a spare left hand and matching wrist guard. The hand and wrist guards are just the ones that were included with the original figure. But it's nice that they included them if you don't want to display him with the Infinity Guantlet. The second head eliminates my other concern with the BAF version of the figure as it has a grim, straight faced expression instead of his big toothy grin. Mr. Fantastic comes with a spare set of arms and the Ultimate Nullifier from the comics. The Nullifier is a nice touch. But the real highlight is the inclusion of the spare arms which replicate his stretching ability. The material is too thick for the arms to hold poses well. But they still look pretty cool.
Value - Thanos 5/10, others 8/10The regular retail price of a Marvel Legends figure is $20. Impressivly, none of the three retailers carrying these exclusives has opted to charge extra for their exclusives. So both Thanos and Mr. Fantastic should run you $19 and $20 respectively. And the two pack sells for $40. The value depends a lot on what figures you already own. Because I already own the Thanos Build A Figure which differs only in the color and the inclusion of the Infinity Gauntlet and spare head. I actually passed on the figure when they first popped up. And I think ultimately I may have bought it more from the fear of missing out on it than actually wanting it. But if you didn't complete the Build A Figure version, then $20 is an extremely reasonable price for this figure. To a lesser extent, I have a similar issue with Mr. Fantastic since I have so many previous versions of the character. But if you are looking to complete your first Fantastic Four team via the Walgreens releases, you certainly aren't going to want to pass up the third member of the team. Finally we come to the two pack. Since I wasn't happy with the previous Scarlet Witch figure I have, I was more than happy to get both a replacement of that figure as well as finally adding Vision to my MCU collection.
Happy Hunting:These are all exclusive figures which should make where to find them fairly straight forward. Mr. Fantastic is available from Walgreens and Thanos is available from Walmart. And if you are having an issue finding them locally, both stores usually make their exclusives available online as well. The challenge comes with the Vision and Scarlet Witch set. It is suppose to be a Toys R Us exclusive. The sets did start to show up in some Toys R Us stores. But with the sudden closure of all US Toys R Us stores, it doesn't look like all of the stock is going to make it to stores. In fact, my local store never received any stock of this set. I was fortunate to find the set elsewhere while travelling for business. It does look like several other online sites may be receiving the sets later this summer as a result of TRU closing. Both Big Bad Toy Store and Entertainment Earth have listed the set on their sites. Though it is hard to say how much stock will be resurfacing, where and when.
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