As you’re reading this, I’m somewhere (hopefully not lost) in South Dakota on vacation. Vault’s got the reigns this week, but I didn’t want to leave you guys without a Marvel Legends review (or get too far behind)! How about Drax today? Should be interesting since I know nothing about him…
One of my favorite things about the BAF/C&C is that it can push collectors outside of their comfort zone. Let’s face it, as collectors we sometimes are the pickiest of picky eaters. We prefer one company’s product over another regardless, we reach an age where little quality product can be produced to our liking, we have a laser-like focus on what we enjoy and tend to stop venturing outside of it.
For most of us, that simply wasn’t the case when we were young – we liked new things, we wanted to find out about the guest starring character, we didn’t roll our eyes when we had to buy an issue from another title to finish the story. We kept right on buying comics and action figures, but some of us left a bit of that open-minded innocence behind.
There were always completists and “cherrypickers”, but the BAF changed the geography between them a bit. For me, I will always tend towards completism with DC (there’s that favoring one company over another), but Marvel Legends proved to be a real challenge. I had to have that Sentinel. Giant Man was too cool not to build. And yet, to build them I had to buy all figures of characters that I had almost no clue who they were. To some that was annoying (& cost prohibitive to boot), but I tried to view it like an opportunity to learn about the new characters. Omega Red, Sentry, & Ms. Marvel are all characters that I bought figures first and learned to love their characters second.
I mention all this, because that is precisely the case with our man Drax here. I’ve made no secret that I’m buying this wave for Arnim Zola. I want Bucky & the Wrecking Crew, I’m unopposed to Fantomex (though he should be all-white), but I haven’t got the first clue about Drax, Daken, & the Madames.
I’ve read Drax before – I dabbled in Annihilation, but couldn’t keep up because I didn’t have the money to spend on that many comics at the time and Marvel books went before DC books did. Drax was a main character in Guardians of the Galaxy, but thinking back – I couldn’t tell you anything about him from that book. He was a badass, that’s about all I recall. So it was off to Wiki and Comicvine for this review.
What I found was actually interesting – I didn’t even know he was human. Drax was formerly a dude named Arthur that was minding his own business on a family drive when Thanos blew up his car. Arthur and his wife died (his daughter survived and became Moondragon, I’ll have to read up on that later), but Arthur was later resurrected and given the sole purpose of destroying Thanos. This tends to be a full-time job in comics because characters never die (and that’s particularly true of Thanos). His original costume is actually pretty swanky and I’d love to get that as a figure, but in recent years he’s taken on a more Fast & Furious appearance which how I found him in Guardians of the Galaxy and is the look Hasbro went for with this figure.
They captured the look with mixed results. They used the same back as they did for Steve Rogers (did we ever decide, is it FO Punisher?) with a few new add-ons, namely the lower legs and feet, the hands, the belt, and the head sculpt. It kinda works, but the buck does have some sculpted fabric details on his bare skin chest (oops) and it creates some odd disparities like his pants being super-tight on his crotch and thighs and then loose below the knee. And, like Steve, I just feel he’s too scrawny. Mattel has a slightly wider, brawnier second male buck (though the 4H unfortunately sculpted it to be uneven) and I think that’s something Hasbro should invest in. I think the limbs look great, but the torso just needs a little more width/brawn to it. Continue to Page 2…
Too many variants this wave… Hasbro will kill our pockets like Toy Biz did with a few waves full of variants. Enjoy your holidays! I’ll follow Clark directions by the way, he sound more DC friendly 😉
Like you mentioned, Drax is a little too small. I just think in general Hasbro’s basic heroes are too scrawny. At this point, people have gotten used to the buck system and parts reuse, so that isn’t the issue…as I said about Constrictor, the bodies Hasbro is choosing to reuse are just not suitable for comic book heroes. The Bullseye body has seen more reuse in the Hasbro Marvel Legends than any and it is just too scrawny to be anyone other than Spiderman, IMO. This FO Punisher body has been reused quite a bit now, and should be retired. The issue isn’t the parts reuse, it’s just that they’re choosing the wrong bodies to reuse and the product is suffering because of it. The DCUC bucks look great, which softens the disappointment of seeing it 100 times…but when your superheroes all look like teenage boys (in Hasbro ML), that sort of amplifies the disappointment and enjoyment of the product.
i would agree and disagree w/ this… while i don’t think too many teenage boys look like the constrictor/bullseye buck, i will eagerly agree that they’re re-using the same bucks too often. and really, don’t they have a plethora of bodies to re-use at this point? the black panther/wonder man buck immediately comes to mind, we saw it a lot in TBML, but hasbro bought those bucks, right? all the bucks they’re using initiated in TB, so it stands to reason that they have a huge library of body parts to use. that buck is more “average super hero” to me, but it’s a tad short compared to the bullseye. but maybe they could pull the kraven the hunter/namor buck, and retool some parts like they have for the hulkling parts, or perhaps they could use the original punisher body? that thing has some dope parts, and for the techno heroes, or urban squad, it could sure work. i loved the daredevil we got from the urban legends pack too, that was a well articulated, thick bodied musculature. i would happily re-purchase the hercules body, if we got some new legs for it. i also LOVE the ultimate cap/FO cap buck, and would love to see more figs use that especially USAgent. hell, if they reworked the arms, i’d re-buy the first elektra buck too. and the sue storm body from the boxed set, i LOVED that female buck.
of note, if they never dip again into the FA bucky buck, or the black knight buck, that’ll be fine by me. 🙂
I’m not sure Hasbro has all the bucks, because Marvel Toys used some of them (in particular that Black Panthor body) for their Legendary Comic Book Heroes.
I just wish there was a little more mix and matching between the bodies. It seems like they always have the same upper arms and legs to go with the torso. Could they not have just slapped a larger chest on Drax and improved the way he looks?
Pretty sure Hasbro doesn’t have many of the old Toy Biz bucks. These things originate in China and for the most part, stay in China. Besides large companies like Hasbro, many companies have trouble keeping track of the tools once lines have been shut down or particularly when the manufacturing companies go out of business. I think a combination of these factors contributed in Hasbro not obtaining all of Toy Biz’s old tools.
” people have gotten used to the buck system and parts reuse, so that isn’t the issue…”
Yeah, it is still an issue.
We worried about it when Marvel Legends first started because ToyBiz had a nasty habit or reusing bodies, and sure enough, by ML series 2 we saw it (Human Torch on SMC Spidey body) and no matter how widespread the practice becomes, there will always be folks like me that find it mostly unacceptable.
If I bought a comic and the artist drew Madame Mask and Madame Viper to have the exact same body, then that’s an artist that has very limited abilities or is very lazy. Same thing with toys.
But certainly as soon as we saw the Kraven figure built in Namor’s body (which was built on an old wrestlers torso) we saw it could be done well, and with good results. Like you say, this is a case of doing it badly.
Hasbro showed all those protos of Nuke, Terror Inc, Bag-Spidey, Brother Voodoo, White Phoenix and more that we’re all on reused parts and almost all well-done, but Drax here is a dud. Oh well, most ML waves have at least one.
Is is a trick of perspective or is Spidey actually taller than Cap? Because, ya know, HELL no. And why does he have Gambit’s coat?
ARRGGH I know NOTHING of these comics/characters anymore!! 🙂
And yeah, Drax could sure use some Dermasage, he’s got some alligator-like skin going on!
that’s actually Ultimate Nick Fury’s coat.
It is? With that collar and all? Huh. Then I stand corrected. 🙂
Pretty sure that’s Fantomex’ coat. He’s coatless in the same picture.
That’s actually Bucky Cap, not Steve Rogers. Bucky is 5″9′, Spidey is around 5″10′, so the scale is perfect, actually.
Yeah, that’s Fantomex’s coat, but at the same time its the same as Nick Fury’s but with a different colour.
I usually don’t complain about having to buy the figures I don’t want for their BAF pieces, but Drax is definitely one I’m not looking forward to. I would buy the BAF piece off e-bay, but most people probably only bought him for that piece, and would be selling him .
Should have come with a Rocket Raccoon acc!! ha ha
Great review!
Why does Piledriver have gloves? He’s supposed to have oversized bare hands. *facepalm* They’re giving us the Wrecking Crew, and they’re STILL not gonna look right.
The group shot above is just reinforcing my concerns about Hasbro ML scale. I don’t recall the Wrecking Crew being significantly larger than ordinary humans, and I don’t recall Thor being THAT much taller than Captain America.
I guess you could say MY Drax was the Infinity Gauntlet/90s Silver Surfer era version, which got a 5″ figure in the 90s SS line. I think I was peripherally aware of him from OHOTMU before that? I thought about jumping into that Annihilation saga, too, but having like half a dozen titles right at the start and the promise of more in the future was too much. The various unnecessary redesigns for most of the characters haven’t held up, either.
This guy is too scrawny and unimpressive. Maybe parents and some less informed collectors will mistake him for another Hulk variant? or repaint him into Generic Thug #37? Like drrampageo suggested, they could have repacked the MU GotG Rocket Raccoon just to add a fun “selling point”. This guy definitely needs one.
Hasbro does need to update their bucks, as I was going to suggest they could have given us modern Luke Cage, but this would probably be the same figure with minor modifications. Meanwhile, as noted above, the Wrecking Crew are way too tall and Piledriver doesn’t have gloves (even given he’s a new head and redeco of T-ball). :/
Have fun on your vacation. I saw the pics on FB and was wondering what was going on. Despite passing thru, you didn’t even stop here and say “hi”! 🙁
😉
If there’s one design Annihilation hit out of the park, it was Nova. I loved his Nova Prime look, and I demand Hasbro re-do him in Marvel Legends.
for anyone interested, YES, the current steve and drax figures re-use the buck first deployed for the punisher seen in the two pack w/ jigsaw… w/ some mods. you’re welcome. 🙂
Cool figure! Glued the belt as it was too annoying and aside from the loose hip-ball joint I love this figure! Hope Hasbro releases modern NOVA and STAR LORD!
The Wrecking Crew are completely out of whack there. They’re almost the size of MOTUC! I do believe Piledriver is being drawn with blue gloves now. (His knuckles probably needed a breather?) I know Thunderball wore a hoodie or something in one the latest Bendis mega cross-overs. But those bucks are still way too huge for MU! Major fail here unless they want to make the Crew look like real badasses.
As for Drax, I grew up with the original Starlin version and that’s the guy I’d like to see in this line. This is his third reincarnation since he was Hulked up in the 90’s and by far the most lackluster.
man, the crew are bigger than a motuc. vikor looks puny next to thunderball.
I’m just saying…Annihilation, as an event, was one of the best things Marvel has done in the last twenty years. Even the Silver Surfer book.
Annihilation: Conquest wasn’t as good, but the original? Fantastic.
Yeah, everyone needs to read Annihilation and at least the Nova tie-in. Any comic fan who doesn’t wish to read this story is doing themselves a great disservice. I’d go further and say they need to read everything from Annihilation to Thanos Imperative, including all tie-ins, Nova’s solo title, and the Guardians of the Galaxy title.