The Hellfire Club

The Hellfire Club

Marvel Legends - Hasbro

One positive of the Coronavirus has been the postponement (And hopefully death of) San Diego Comic-con and their awesome-yet-nerve-wracking exclusives.  Hasbro had their own virtual convention and sold their planned exclusives via Hasbro Pulse.  Shockingly, I had no trouble getting their product...like this fantastic Hellfire Club boxed set.

Arguments for wether or not a period-costumed dude would sell in the standard way aside, I would have fought the usual hordes to get my hands on important X-Men villain, Sebastian Shaw.  He was featured in both the animated series AND played by Kevin Bacon in a movie...I think Hasbro underestimated this character with the 30+ crowd.  However, he does have a unique sculpt that they might not get much mileage out of outside of more Inner Circle figures.

They appropriately double-dip with a new head and paint job for Donald Pierce.

And while I’m glad to have a standard “bad guy’ Emma Frost in my line-up, Hasbro got to double dip on sculpts to make Jean Grey/Selene.  Don’t get me wrong, they all look great, but is this set worth $80?  

“The White Queen welcomes you to DIE!!!”

Character wise, yes.  Presentation wise, yes.  This is another box I am keeping, because it practically folds out into a parlor room diorama.  The gate-fold box is shiny and beautiful, and the invitation to the Inner Circle sealed on the back of the group portrait was a nice surprise.

The negatives to this set boils down to ankles and accessories.  Donald’s ankles in particular can barely support his weight rocking back and forth.  Both girls have high heels that may require special stands for proper posing.

While you do get one alternate head for Jean/Selene, the rest of the accessories are prepackaged/repaints.  It’s disappointing that there are no accessories to demonstrate the characters’ powers.  Not even a single reuse of previous mutant power effects. So, I’ll have to dive into the toy bin to find something to simulate Shaw’s energy absorbtion/rechanneling and Selene’s energy vampirism.  At least Donald has some cyborg hands...ugh...courtesy of Dr. Doom?!

I guess the real accessories to this set are higher priced add-ons...revealed at Pulsecon and for sale shortly after:  Hellfire Guard army builders!  Follow-up coming soon!

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!