Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, Brood Series
11.18.07 By Collin DavidI wasn’t gonna buy ‘em. I was really going to let my first wave of Marvel Legends in seven years just pass me by, and I really wasn’t going to care. I was unenthused about the eight featured characters, and I wasn’t that excited about Hasbro’s execution of the line to date, either. Sure, that She-Hulk knocked my socks off, but it’s She-Hulk - it’s impossible for that to NOT happen. Alas, I’m also a complete sucker for a good sale, and when Hasbro Toy Shop handed me a 20% off coupon, I buckled - and they even sent me a sizeable die-cast Hulk figurine for free. You win this time, you purveyors of addictive plastic!
It’s not that Hasbro does a bad job with the Marvel Legends line - it’s just that ToyBiz did such a GREAT job with them. Despite Hasbro’s long history with action figures, they just haven’t been able to really capture 6” scale Marvel characters since they took it over. So, why do I continue to collect them? It’s probably an unhealthy habit, or that pure rush of excitement that comes from exploring a new toy - no matter how shoddy it might be. Maybe, just maybe, I need more social contact that isn’t with things 1/12th the size of me.
Included in this third wave from Hasbro (called HML3 in nerd-shorthand), or ‘The Brood Wave’ (because of a buildable Brood Queen figure that comes in many pieces packaged in with each main figure) are First Appearance Captain America and Bucky, Marvel Girl, Black Knight, Danger, Astonishing X-Men Cyclops, Colossus from the movie X3, and a Hydra Soldier.
Among the eight figures in the set, the quality is all over the road, both in character selection and the plastics used. One might expect that a singular wave of figures would use a consistent grade of plastic, but that isn’t the case, and it creates a kind of schism. Colossus, Danger and Black Knight are made of disappointing hollow plastic parts that feel cheap and don’t take paint very well, while Marvel Girl, Bucky and the Hydra Soldiers use solid, thick, and slightly pliable plastics, and the other figures fall somewhere in between. In the case of 6” scale, articulated figures, going slightly pliable is the way to go - it prevents breakages, seems to take paint better, and allows for a smoother motion along points of articulation. If you go too brittle, you’re just asking for a Krazy Glue accident.
The character choices for HML3 are also all over the place - though Hasbro mostly made up for the weirdness by releasing a whole surprise wave of eight different Fantastic Four figures immediately before the release of these. Still, slopping X3 movie figures into a ‘Legends’ line always leaves me with figures I don’t want to have lying around. Hasbro’s been doing this since their first wave, pushing Jean Grey and Juggernaut into the collection, and into spaces that could be occupied by more relevant folks. Because of this, Colossus is going on eBay pretty soon. I enjoy the presence of Golden Age Captain America and Bucky, but we DO already have two Captain America figures - as well as at least three previous Cyclops figures. Black Knight is a welcomed addition to the lineup, as he’s an important Marvel character - but Danger? She’s relatively new, and while she was the villain in a pretty good story, I can’t say it’s worth making a figure of her just yet no when there’s Machine Man, the Inhumans, and Arnim Zola left to be made.
Strangely, my favorites are the Hydra goons. ToyBiz was trying to work goons into Marvel Legends for a few years before they finally had to give up the license. As I recently spoke to in my ‘Army Building’ entry here, we’ve never had a whole crew of mindlessly loyal Marvel drones to fight and display. From what I understand, the Soldiers were originally an unused ToyBiz design, and since Hasbro has use of all previous figure molds, they’ve brought it into fruition - though allow me to conjecture that the gun holster on the goons’ belts once actually held the gun that they came with, but was sculpted closed by Hasbro to save a few fabrication bucks. I don’t know this for a fact, but ToyBiz woulda given me a place to stick the arsenal. Especially since it’s almost the exact same size and shape as the gun. To date, I’ve found and purchased five goons.
As usual, the big ol’ Brood figure (also an older, unrealized idea) has all of the attention to detail and high quality plastics that’s so random in the rest of the wave. I always love the larger, frightening figures, and the process of assembling them - Blob notwithstanding.
So, consider this a very mixed review, combined with the fact that I’m still excited to see the fourth wave of these - as well as the mysterious Hulk figure line, and whatever Hasbro decides to do with the Iron Man movie. They’re secretive and sneaky that way. Check out a full photo gallery of these in our Community Section!
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Article Tags: Black Knigth, Brood, Colossus, Danger, figures, Hasbro, Marvel Legends, She Hulk, ToyBiz================
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November 28th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Dude, your being too kind. This line has MAJOR flaws and the corner cutting by Hasbro is just abominable. The Black Knight needed a cape and chainmail detailing in his legs and arms. The Hydra goon is WAY TOO BIG in scale, looks freakish in the line up. Sure not going to buy any more of these because of that. Danger just sucks (right hand broke off on mine.) Bucky sucked, way too tall, bad head sclupt, no neck, resued body. X3 Colossus, nuff said. Captain America, shield lame, paint scheme on stripes is wrong…RED stripe is always “Centered”. “A” on forehead is off centered. Hate the plastic…too soft, too shinny. the new ball joint on the elbows and ankles is just BAD. the last wave of the FF figures was just BAD. Hasbro is taking us backwards from where TB was. Toy Biz had it’s problems too but it’s success outweighed any failures. Hasbro is the other way around. My prediction this line will die over the next few years. which is sad. Hasbro should know better. They had the blueprint from ToyBiz to follow. They are changing the plan to cut costs and the quality of the line is suffering. The true mark of the Corporate monster. They really don’t care about the consumer or the line. Marvel should have kept TB for the ML line and had them direct to speciality shops (like the DC stuff).
November 28th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
I really didn’t mind them THAT much - but they’re NOTHING at all like the wonderful stuff that ToyBiz did. I think we’ve been spoiled by the awesomeness. She-Hulk was great - still one of my favorite MLs - but nothing from Hasbro has been that good again.
If I were more familiar with the Knight, I’m sure I would have noticed the whole cape thing - that IS a glaring oversight.
Oh, and FF wave Johnny Storm is pretty durned hideous. Like, Emma Frost hideous. It’s all a step back from ToyBiz, but not so bad as to not get them. Yet. Though the decision to put Astonishing Beast into only LATE shipments of HML4 is bad, bad news. No complete Nemesis BAF from early cases = really, really dumb.
I feel your pain, man.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
OH god wasn’t that Johnny Storm just an atrocity! Reminded me of “Heat Miser” from Santa Claus is coming to Town Christmas special. Mistakes and dumb decisions like that have NO Excuse what-so-ever. Then those schmucks sit up there at places like Comic Con telling us they are doing a fantastic job on the line and they listen to the collectors….RIGHT!. The Toy Biz Legendary Comic Book Heroes line is FANTASTIC. Too bad its of 2nd string comic characters. But they look great. Dark times for the Republic I’m afraid.