X-Men Teams - “Love Triangle” 3-pack

X-Men Teams - “Love Triangle” 3-pack 

Marvel Legends - Hasbro

There have been so many Marvel Legends X-Men figures as of late, that its hard to document them all, blog to blog.  So, I’m throwing up a couple of team pictures to include an updated Colossus, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Jubilee, Beast, Gambit, Iceman, Storm, and Professor X.

The Professor was a deluxe figure because of the massive chair.  (Poor taste to include him in the “Legendary Riders” theme that ML had going with the deluxes...at least there’s no mention of that on the box or promo materials.)  He comes with a Cerebro helmet, and a rather gross looking telepathy effect.  The arm panels on the chair slide open to revel some fun gadgetry, and Charles has a plastic, half blanket to keep his legs warm.

Colossus and Iceman complete a Nintendo game roster.  The game sucked (Oh, LJN!), but you can’t complain much about this group.  Still need a classic Storm to complete the X-Men Arcade team.  C’mon, how do you make “Legend of Billie Jean” Dazzler before that one?!

I’ve also got a complete 1992 X-Men animated series line-up.  And thanks to the extra, pony-tail head for Jean, the look is pretty accurate.  Jean also completes the gate-fold Jim Lee relaunch comic cover...which others have already recreated and I am too lazy to do.  I’m not futzing with Beast all day to get him into a proper crouched action pose.

Jean is from a “Love Triangle” 3-pack that features a bomber jacket Cyclops and a truer blue and yellow animated look for Wolverine.

If getting Jean wasn’t enough, the set comes with two unmasked heads for Scott, an unmasked Logan, a battle-damaged Wolvie, and bone claws!  No malleable adamantium tendrils to help your Magneto figure to recreate “that” scene, though.

Dark Phoenix and Cyclops

Dark Phoenix and Cyclops

Marvel Legends - Hasbro

Toys 'R' Us Exclusive

I'm a little behind on this one, so if you're looking for this TRU exclusive on shelves now, you may have missed it.  In fact, you may not even have a TRU any more with all the recent store closings.  Makes you wonder why Hasbro would bother giving so many exclusives to a chain constantly on the edge of bankruptcy.  Oh well, I got this 2-pack, and it was worth the trouble... if you love classic X-men stories and don't mind some character variants.

 

The Phoenix is the same body sculpt as the Juggernaut wave Jean Grey, but red in place of green. Makes sense, but needs something more than paint and some red eyes for a sale?  Well how about 3 different head sculpts and fire effect?  That's more like it! 

First, you get a calm, standard Jean.  They could have just repacked the head from the green release, but you get an all-new hairstyle.  The next head gets a little wild with the hair and her face has changed to a malevolent smile.  The final head is the same sculpt as the previous, but with fiery eyes and translucent red highlights in the hair.  Pretty neat little transformation they pulled off there.  The firebird effect clips to her wrist.

 

Cyclops is era accurate and a step up from the old Toy Biz attempt.  TB didn't do a bad figure... but his torso was a holdover from an old WCW Buff Bagwell figure that didn't have an ab crunch.  As an update, its pretty damn good.  They did a nice job with some black detailing in the lines of the blue suit.  The only things missing that would put this from a "maybe" to a "must-have" would be an alternate screaming head and an optic beam effect. 

 

$40 for some variants sounds steep, but these looks are iconic and will probably be my go-to versions of these characters on my shelf.   They do not disappoint... unlike the first attempt to bring the Dark Phoenix saga to the big screen.  I am 100% sure that these figure will top the next attempt as far as enjoyment.  Skip the movies and buy these figures!

X-Men Legends Warlock Wave

X-Men Legends

Warlock wave

Colossus, Polaris, Firestar, Dazzler, Shatterstar, Cyclops

The X-Men are back!  Well, in toy form at least.  Yes, if you were thinking that last year's Juggernaut wave was a fluke, think again...Hasbro must have talked Marvel out of punishing action figure fans (Disney/Fox movie pettiness) or something.  Wave 2 is here with some classics, long-time favorites, and a great build-a-figure.  

Jim Lee Cyclops!  It's the 90s all over again!  Tactical gear! Utility harnesses!  Gloves!  Useless pockets!  Um, yeah...if the X-Men comic relaunch wasn't one of the biggest selling comics of all time and the cartoon weren't so great, I probably would just stick with a classic interpretation of this guy.  Great looking figure, though.  The real gripe is that the leg "belts" aren't glued in place and tend to slip down.

A C-list X-Man, Polaris isn't all that exciting to me.  She's got Magneto's power of magnetism and dates Cyclops' brother, Havok.  To make her less exciting, they gave this figure the same power effects as Havok but molded in translucent green.  Still, she's got a decent sculpt.  

Back to the A-list with an updated Colossus!  I haven't followed Marvel books in a long time (Age of Apocalypse and the Spider-man Clone Saga had me jumping ship) so I have no idea when/where this new jumpsuit made its debut.  Not a bad update.  I really dig the alternate metal beard head.  Very Lenin-esque, comrade!  The silver metal paint looks great, especially on the arm detail.

Yuck!  The 90s threw up on my blog!  What could be worse than a Jim Lee design?  A Rob Liefeld design, of course!

Shatterstar has the mutant power of being an expert military strategist and blah blah blah...a badass with swords,  How original!  But we didn't have one with pseudo-cowboy boots, old-timey football headgear, and samurai-meets-glam-rock hair!  As lame as he is, Hasbro still nailed his jump from page to articulated figure.  "Did I mention he has swords?!  Two of them!  And one of them has two blades on it!  I bet he could totally take Darth Maul in a fight!"

Dazzler here is definitely a step up from Shatterstar, even if Disco is long dead.  Lots of figures have swords, but how many have roller skates?!  And bell-bottomed jumpers?!  Feathered hair?!
Give her a break...she was created as part of a late-70s record cross-promotion because of the success of KISS.  I dig this earlier look, but am more familiar with her mid-80s, arcade game style...which I hope Hasbro gets to somewhere down the line.

Quality control issue!  One of the skates was missing its front wheels in-package.  I didn't see it as this part was tucked away from view behind the cardboard packaging.  These collector's figures are hard to return to stores for an exchange as its hard enough to find them in the first place! And Hasbro customer service?  I bought an Admiral Ackbar figure from the Force Awakens last year that I didn't notice had two right arms.  They sent me a new figure, free of charge...but it was General Hux (pronounced: peg warmer).

Oh, well...made due temporarily with some blue (s)ticky-tack.

Classic Sunfire was probably the figure I was most excited for in this wave.  I say "Classic" because there has already been an attempt at Sunfire in the 6-inch scale a decade ago.  Age of Apocalypse Sunfire was the winner of a fans choice poll against updates of Gambit, Magneto, and Storm as well as never-before-in-this-scale figures of Silver Samurai, Lillandra, Aurora, and Northstar.  Are you kidding me?!  People were crying foul then, just as they are now:  I still don't have a Silver Samurai!

Anyway, this Sunfire comes with two rubbery fire effects that fit over his fists.  Like the various "magic" and "mutant power" effects, expect this one to be repurposed/overused by the end of the year.

Build-a-Figure Warlock!

Warlock, of the 80's New Mutants, would not be one of my top priorities as a toy want.  However, having one in-hand, he sure makes an awesome figure.  He towers over the other figures in this wave by a couple inches, has decent articulation, and great dirty-metallic gold paint job.  Another great leap from the page to the third dimension!  He even comes with an accessory...an interchangeable saw hand!

These were standard $20 figures, and I paid just that for them for fear of poor distribution like the first wave of X-Men.  They are just now hitting online and retail stores.  I found them months earlier, as Walgreens had first dibs for some reason.  It was a toy hunt just like the old days...hitting 8-10 locations in and around town, finding them piece by piece or 2 at a time for the most part.  Good times!  I'm caught up and ready for more X-Men love, Hasbro!