X-Men 20th Anniversary

 X-Men 20th Anniversary 

Wolverine, Cable, and Domino

Hasbro - Marvel Legends

What better way to celebrate the death of the Fox X-Men franchise (The New Mutants was good enough, and not deserving of all the hate), than with all-new action figures from it’s 20 year history.  What?!  What kind of sense does that make?!  Well, I for one am glad there are some fans of these movies working on Marvel Legends right now.  I’m always gonna love these films, the good and the bad.  Especially when it comes to the main man, Wolverine.

Wolverine made Hugh Jackman a star, and Hugh Jackman made Wolverine a name in my household.  I never cared much for the character until that first X-Men movie (and the Origin comic the following year) gave him some humanity and depth.  This action figure is as deserving of a spot on the shelf as Chris Reeve’s Superman and Michael Keaton’s Batman.  Not just for the legacy it represents, but it’s been done so, so right.

The head scan is perfection.  The nose, the eyes, the hair...even the whisker detail...it’s all perfect.  Every angle you turn it is undeniably Hugh/Logan.  Plus, you get two portraits:  one neutral, and one rage mode. 

The body sculpt, I believe, is all new...no shared parts for Marvel Legends is pretty rare.  The arms have the appropriate amount of veins for dicing and slicing baddies...the butterfly shoulder joints help, too!  This is the first figure to sport Hasbro’s new pin-less arms.  Neat, I guess, to make it even more lifelike...but why didn’t they do the same for the legs? 

For a plain jeans and beater look, there are lots of detail in the body sculpt:  texturing in the ribbing of the shirt, and the pants have some rough stippling to convey the look of denim.  The jean textures really help the paint do its work, too.  They’ve done some great fading on the upper legs, as a worn pair would have.

The dog tags are detailed enough for such a small accessory.  Not that your can read them, but you get it.  He has the big, Indian belt buckle that makes this figure a dead ringer for Logan’s look from the Mansion attack in X2.  There’s only one small detail Hasbro missed...no wrist watch.  Oh, well, they did throw in a pair of bone claw hands, even if those aren’t scene or outfit accurate.  My only real gripe is the lack of standard, no-claw, hands..but I’m sure I’ve got some spares laying around, or that will be remedied with the inevitable, next Wolverine figure release.

This figure is an Amazon exclusive, available now.  It is priced a little higher ($25) than your standard Legends, but you are getting a unique sculpt with some new tooling and an alternate head.  Again, the head sculpt is amazing...probably the best of the real scans so far.  Though the scans on Cable and Domino are superb as well!  

Cable is a Walmart exclusive, hitting now.  Like the character, the figure is equally as busy looking in design.  Metal detailing? Check.  Lots of gear and pockets.  Check.  

My favorite detail is the teddy bear on his belt.

He has a small firearm that is actually removable from it’s holster.  Shocking, as Marvel Legends are 50/50 for guns sculpted into holsters vs removable.  

His big gun has two swapable attachments.  Not sure what they do...maybe a grenade launcher for the one?  Shotgun? Anyway, while one is ported onto the bottom of the gun, the other fits into another holster slot on his belt.  Wow!  Two holsters with removable weapons on one figure!  Hasbro, we’re going to start expecting this from now on.

Domino also gets a gun that can be removed from a holster!  And two uzis...with tiny bayonets?  I’ll have to watch Deadpool 2 again to see how they make use of those....but looks cool, nonetheless.

Another great likeness here, and the costume appears to be screen accurate. 

She has an alternate head with goggles resting on her brow and a slightly different expression.  I love her hair...it’s made of an almost translucent, gummy plastic that has a unique and potent plastic smell.  Squishy and scented?  Not on the box, but bonus!

So we got a figure from the beginning of the X-Men motion picture saga and two from the end.  There are more coming here and there, but it will be interesting to see which movies and characters Hasbro cherry-picks from.  I could go for just about anyone...except for Fakepool in Wolverine Origins.  If they wanna joke that one out like Jar Jar in Carbonite for a San Diego exclusive, be my guest.