It appears we’re actually going to have a complete Terrax to review eventually, but it is slow going getting there. Noisy’s still looking for a blue Ghost Rider, but our biggest obstacles are the characters neither of us really want… Enter Klaw!
Ulysses Klaw is a scientist that created a sonic emitter capable of transforming sound waves into physical mass, but there was a catch – he needed vibranium to power his device. That brought him into conflict with the Chief of Wakanda and a battle that resulted in Chief T’Chaka’s death and the loss of Klaw’s right hand after being attacked by T’Chaka’s son, T’Challa (you might know him better as Black Panther).
Klaw replaced his hand with the sonic emitter and surfaced as a supervillain, often coming into conflict with the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and, understandably, Black Panther. Through the years, he underwent other changes including the destruction of his human body and being converted to pure sound. He played an important role in Secret Wars and is still causing havoc around the Marvel Universe whenever a writer calls upon him.
Klaw’s figure is an interesting mix of simplicity and detail. I’m not sure if the body is a new sculpt, but it’s a perfect basic superhero “buck”. His legs and arms have a muscular sculpt to them, while his chest is totally ripped with bulging pecs and a six pack. But these details aren’t so overly stated that they become distracting.
His head and sonic claw are brand new sculpts. The head is in a screaming pose with just enough detail to look dramatic, but not so much that it looks out of place on the body. But his sonic claw is an incredibly intricate piece that really stands out from the organic looking figure with its industrial design. It’s much more impressive in person than the promotional pictures lead me to believe.
The feeling of simplified organics with complex mechanics is also continued in the figure’s paint job. Nearly the entire body is molded red, with a touch of purple and black to break up the monotony. They did a great job of giving Klaw a Kirby feel with all those zigzag lines and that mechanical mouth guard piece. But again the detail is shown off most by his sonic hand, which was given a nice dry brush look. This gives it a nice weathered metal feel and brings a focal point of realism to this vibrantly colored figure. Continue to page 2…
I believe this sculpt was first used with the Silver Surfer in the Ronan wave of ML.
Im in agreement…this body was used before. I think it’s an original Hasbro ML body. I wouldn’t exactly call it a “perfect super hero body”. I think it’s a little scrawny and lean…and I absolutely hate the feet and the ankle articulation.
Good review though. Makes me want to open my Klaw now.
poor klaw… like you guys on the swamp thing front, i’ve lobbied for years for klaw, and apparently, should have been more specific. this is not bad, but he’s far from great. i don’t like the diminutive buck, this might be fine for a sidekick character (i’d take a rick jones on this buck and not have a moment of gripe), but it doesn’t suit a full-on supervillain. and as you point out, a power construct would have been great here. the thing is, if they’d planned ahead, and devised a universal plug point for constructs, we could have re-released constructs for guys like living laser, deathurge, klaw, quasar, etc… in different color schemes in future weapons packs and resold the fanbase those same molds again and again… but that’s not what happened here.
for example, we equip klaw w/ a blast and a hammerhead, quasar gets a vise-type gripper and a flyswatter, dethurge gets skis and a polearm, and living laser gets a bear trap and a giant fist… then later on, we release an accessories pack w/ quasar’s bits in klaw’s colors, deathurge’s bits in LL’s colors, etc… and include one of two new pieces to really drive home the pack. the following year, we rotate color schemes again, and add in two more new pieces, and etc… they’re improving on the buck sales model to expand both their sales and our shelves w/ cool shiz.
if they really wanted to be tools about it, the point of attachment could be designed to be compatible w/ the lantern attachments from last year’s lanternpalooza and they could do a mail away gimmick that if you buy all the figs in a set and enter the code on the boxes, you get a set of marvel constructs in emerald… that’d be dirty… but a buttload of fun.
There’s some sort of “sonic blast” that comes with (at least) one of the multitude of IM variants and a couple MU’s that could have worked with Klaw. (and Wendell is in my Top Ten, hoping they give him his costume from the end of his own series, not the Annihilation War spiky thing.)
That said, Klaw’s a Z-lister and his simplicity works in his favor. Altho I keep thinking his sonic cannon is on his LEFT hand? Maybe this is because I was wondering what to do with a spare AoA Logan with his left stump and Klaw was the first thing to come to mind. Of course, now I’m wondering if they hadn’t had Klaw “screaming”, would his head been a great double for Classic Machine Man? hmm….
Always liked Klaw. The MU version had a lot of paint issues and I hope this isn’t the case again. He’s a simple character in terms of design, so you either dig him or you don’t. Nice to see him getting two figures in different scales within just a couple of years.
Him and Constrictor seem to be the peg warmers of this wave where ever I go, but I think he came out pretty cool. It is only the first series, so I am hoping that as the series goes on, we will see more accessories added like Sonic Blasts, etc. Even if it mean recycling guns like the did with Hope who uses Forge’s guns I think. I am sure Hasbro is seeing how these sell before going all out or at least adding more accessories later on (like the Punisher we have seen pics of with about 6 guns).
I remember playing with the Secret Wars figure as a kid before I had really ever read any comics, so I’ve always had an affinity towards ol’ Klaw. 🙂
But yeah, a little less-spindly body (and not so plasticky looking red) would’ve gone a long way.
Yeah, the body was also used for the Ben Reilly Spiderman figure from the Walmart exclusive Ares wave near the end of the initial demise of ML.
http://marvelousnews.com/database/index.php?itemid=1205
I’m going to be blunt… I hate this buck and the only reason that I have the Scarlet Spider is because it was the only way I would have had that Scarlet Spider design in my Spidey collection. I think that the solid molded red makes this figure look very cheap and the painted hulk style shorts just cheapen it further. Thank you for reviewing it, as you did bring up a few good points, but I still don’t like it. On a brighter note, I love your reviews, and IAT is one of my favorite websites 🙂
I went ahead and decided to complete Terrax, and Klaw was the figure that I absolutely had no interest in owning. Ghost Rider ended up being a bit of a disappointment for me, but Klaw is a nice surprise.
I was never a fan of this body, I have the Silver Surfer and it just doesn’t look good. Since I have no affections for Klaw as a character; though, I don’t mind him being super skinny. It adds to his creepiness. Plus his crazy face, fun sonic blast, and great pose-ability add up to make a pretty decent figure.
Hasbro got Klaw down pretty well in the Marvel Universe 3.75 inch line, but for me, failed in the Marvel Legends version. First, the Sonic Blaster is WAY too big for the figure. Second, the build of the body is just to slim everywhere. Look at the art on the ML figure’s card; the body is buff and the Blaster is just perfect in relation to the villain’s physique. Put the art up with the MU and ML and LOOK! The MU Klaw is in the best proportion to the art. This ML Klaw is a major disappointment for me and I wanted him to be made.