When I first heard about the wave, it seems like forever ago now, I was excited. I couldn’t wait to finally add a Nova, a Tigra, an Astonishing Cat-Beast, and a Nemesis/Holocaust to my condensed Marvel Legends collection. I admit, I had some reservations. I’ve never been completely happy with Hasbro’s offerings for Marvel Legends. There were some gems: She-Hulk, Hercules, Shanna, Xorn. But for the most part, I’ve passed on a lot of HMLs. I had yet to complete any of the eight previous Hasbro BAFs for one reason or another. Figures I had really wanted weren’t always up to par. These were all warning signs I guess, but like any good collector – I had hope.
Then, a few weeks back, I found the Nemesis wave. I was excited as I approached. But when I saw them, and really looked at them, I had to leave them. All of them. The only one that looked like it was worth having was Nemesis, but there were six figures between me and him. I just couldn’t pull the trigger.
Flash-forward to two days ago. I was on an extended toy hunt for DCUC9 and ran across a Wal-Mart that not only still had some Nemesis series in stock, but had clearanced them to $5 a pop, or essentially $30 for Nemesis and six extra figures. Striking out on DCUC9 and drunk on finding anything combined with the high of clearanced toys – I drove home ready to assemble Nemesis…
Having had these figures for a couple days, I still don’t know how I feel about them. After posing them, comparing them, playing around with them, I’m just not sure what to think. Some things are good, other things are bad. I think the main thing may be that none of the individual figures are spectacular. No one stands out as particularly neat or cool. Still some of the figures are not without their merits.
Tigra
Out of the six regular figures, I’m going to say that Tigra will be the only one that gets to stay out on the shelf. Her sculpt is nicely done. I think her head might be a tad small, but it seems okay. All of her paint work is sharp, her bikini even has a glossy finish that makes it jump out from the rest of her body. Pretty much all the articulation points are ball-joints and for the most part, they work well. My main issue with her articulation is, something I have with all HMLs, the removed points.
Forgiving her hair blocking the neck joint (par for the course on female figures), the issue is in her thighs and the unusual placement of the pegs in the hips. The hip joint doesn’t peg into the side of the crotch, but up into the abdomen. It makes for some weird twists on the ball-jointed hip to get specific poses. And those twists are even more complicated with the lack of a thigh swivel. It just makes the whole thing awkward from knee to hip and I don’t like it.
Still, Tigra can hang out on the ML shelf, with the other HML bikini babes, and blend in with the other MLs. That’s more than I can say for some of the others.
Nova
Nova is my biggest disappointment. It’s partially on me because I love Nova that much. Probably a top ten Marvel character to me and his Marvel Legend needed to be really well-made for me to be happy with it. Technically, he’s the “best” articulated figure of the bunch. He reminds of the classic MLs with the shoulder blade articulation and the the jointed one-piece fingers and toes. I don’t think he’s bad per se, but his articulation makes him look awkward next to the other less poseable, but more aesthetically pleasing figures. His only new piece, the head, is sculpted well enough, but loses something with the flat skintone and odd-colored helmet.
That’s where Nova falls apart: the color palette. He’s suppsoed to be gold. He could be yellow. But he can’t be a weird maize-dyed plastic yellowish-brown. I think if Hasbro had commited to molding him in the same shimmery gold plastic color as the modern Dr. Fate in the picture above, this figure would have been tons better. Had they even just committed to yellow for his costume, this figure would have been loads better. I may try to repaint him, but I still haven’t fixed my modern Dr. Fate and I’ve had that for four months.
Black Bolt
If you don’t know why Black Bolt is Walking Like an Egyptian, well, neither do I, but he’s packaged that way. Don’t ask. Sadly, his box pose might be the best thing about this figure. Black Bolt makes a case for weakest of the bunch, his paint apps are okay. But the lack of bicep and thigh articulation is a real annoyance on his figure. I don’t mind the waist joint missing on a bikini girl, but I do mind it here. These are three key areas where joints simply must be and the figure suffers for it. Strangely, he does feature swivel calves and ball-jointed ankles.
But Black Bolt’s real claim to infamy is his underarms. I don’t even know what to call those accordion pieces of cloth that are down there. Normally, I like to make suggestions of what I’d like to have seen instead, but I’ve got nothing. All I know, is that the pleated cloth looks terrible. It folds terrible. And it’s connected to the front of his biceps for extra weirdness. I don’t know what Hasbro could have done differently other than to drop it. I know it’s an attempt at accuracy, but they shot too high.
Beast
Beast is Black Bolt’s main competition for the worst figure in the set. The removed articulation strikes again with the awkward biceps and thighs. The lack of a waist really hurts here because Beast is supposed to contort into some awesome poses. Even more frutrating is the joint in his torso has some of the best range I’ve ever seen. If that were combined with a swivel waist, we’d be talking serious posing opportunities, but sadly, that’s not the case. Worse still, the head articulation is made worthless by a longer hair in the back – make him look up too much and his head will quickly pop off.
Sculpted and painted details are mostly fine again here. The detailed fur is nice, but the main drawback is the headsculpt, it looks a little more like a Beast Birthday Balloon than the catbeast head. I still love my non-canon X3 Beast in the picture above. I thought about some type of headswap, but the modern Beast’s head just snaps over a blank ball, so no go there without major work. Continue to Page 2…
That’s a really substandard wave, but you’re right that Toy Biz and Mattel spoil us.
At least in terms of the actual figures.
I WANT A 30 NEMESIS!!!! dangit…
Frikkin’ $30???? That is NOT fair!
These aren’t that terrible. They’re on par with the rest of the HMLs.
“You’re fat”
“I thought you were blind”
“Not that blind”
— best ever
See? I can do comedy.
If you don’t want some of the figures out of that pile in front of Nemesis…
Man, that Holocaust or “Dark Nemesis” is an awesome looking figure. Could care less for most of the others though….
I gotta say, your reviews are great! Always nice pictures and the captions are hilarious.
Thank you!
I haven’t seen these in stores yet and they’re already clearanced. Great.
Just at that one store and that manager seems to like to get rid of stuff. I just wish it were closer to the house.
They sold pretty briskly in my neck of the woods, and I only got Tigra and Nova. I am green with envy (and food poisoning) at a $30 Nemesis.
The whole wave was announced what seems like a decade ago, and they didn’t age well between the announcement and when they finally arrived. That and Hasbro seemed like they didn’t want to completely cheap out on an exclusive wave, but kind of did.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure how long it’s been – but it seems like forever.
That’s pretty cool. I’m jealous.
You’re very lucky! Did you buy a lottery ticket that day??
I got a traffic ticket and a lottery ticket that day.
Didn’t work out my way on either. 🙂
for 30 bucks, i’d get them… but truthfully, i’m going out of my to find them, and i’d only buy if i could score everyone at once. as cool as holocaust is, he’s the only thing cool about that series. i haveto say, i think you’re being generous w/ the punisher there… though admitteld,y i am a fan of tim bradstreet. and his drawing have DETAIL and a lethal VITALITY to them that this figure (the only one i’ve laid eyes on so far) severely lacks. it’s sad when a two deminsional drawing pops more than a 3D sculpture.
and i know you’re a DCU fan noisy, but just to state the obvious… DCU hasn’t come close to toybiz’s bar w/ either marvel legends NOR the lotr line. not even close. between gambit and sasquatch and treebeard and frodo in goblin armor, TB was the ultimate fusion of sculpt and articulation… and scale. and did this while keeping the toys affordable and re-using very few parts… by modern logic, that shouldn’t have even been possible. 🙂
sorry, that first sentence should say i’m NOT going out of my way to find them.
MLs were great and all, but the artic is ugly. The 4H and Mattel have put aesthetics on the DC figures that TB only matched a few times. Granted on the price, but I don’t know how cheap MLs would ne nowadays.
some of the artic was ugly. but for example, the ab hinge, that was TBML first, and now, it’s standard operating procedure for a “deluxe” figure. rocker ankles, you can thank toybiz for that too. clicky joints, lateral shoulders (which will MAKE that new UFC line!), individual fingers, all these things are thanks to TBML. then, come LotR, they got much better about covering joints w/ soft rubber “armor” that didn’t inhibit the range of motion. you’re not getting that anywhere else, even on the MOTUCs and other deluxe figs now, the outfit/armor is too hard and inhibits range of motion.
I can’t speak to the LOTRs, DR, but I did have most of the Marvel Legends.
I will admit to bias for Dr. Fate over Dr. Strange, but the DC hips and the embedded shoulder joints just look a ton better than the obscene balls some of the MLs sport.
I still have about 25 “treasured” MLs and they do deserve their place, but I think DCUC is overall better.
For nearly a two year wait, these figures are a disappointment.
DD has small, salmon colored hands?
the superior Punisher Icon was released how long ago and the figures are nearly identical, but you wouldn’t know that at first glance. can we say “custom thug” fodder?
Black Bolt – this is a gimme. It’s a mute guy in black with radio antenna on his head. Yet they still disappoint.
Cookie Beast. Cookie. Beast.
(on the plus side, the lone Quitely pic on the insert is the obvious source for the sculptor and a great rendition…OF THE ONE PICTURE! Yeah, my XMC Beast is staying in the display.)
Tigra – I’m more disappointed with her articulation than anything else. She should be able to crouch down like a cat. She can’t. Paint is good, tho.
Nova – I bought an extra to custom his red costume from early New Warriors, but instead I’m wondering if I still have the old Silver Surfer line figure to custom myself a decent Nova out for that REMOVABLE helmet.
Nemesis – like you said, worth your $30 find, but not really worth his component’s figures.
Hey! Good to see you here.
I agree with your assessments. Ecah figure just kinda disappointed in a different way.
How’re things up in your neck of the woods?
Having finally read through the breadth of this, I have to disagree about Beast’s head. I think it’s cute and I don’t like the old one.
Also, the joints on these are so stiff, not to mention poorly placed, that it made them a chore to play with. I felt like I had to work to make them move the ways I wanted them to and, after a short amount of frustration (I have no patience), I was done with them. Fail figure, away!!!!
The new one is a bad 3D sculpt. It may look okay from some angles, but from others it loses all depth. You’re more aware than I am, are their pug-faced cats?
The Tigra look cool, but short in that picture.
And when did they make a lawyer She-Hulk??
SDCC exclusive… 2007 or 2008. I forget…