FULL REVIEW: Hasbro's Marvel Legends, series one: Hercules

They say it’s a bad idea to put a word like “incredible” or “wonderful” or “fan-friggin’-tastic” in the name of your product, as to do so invites negative comparison. If someone were to buy, say, “Utterly, Staggeringly Phenomenal Wallpaper Paste,” they might be heading for disappointment. But Toybiz’ Marvel Legends line may well deserve to have “legend” in its name; it is an extremely popular line, very well-regarded among many action figure enthusiasts for its sculpts, articulation, and so on.

Or so it was. Now, in 2007, Toybiz’ Marvel Legends is a thing of the past; the Marvel Legends line is now run by Hasbro. And Hasbro, well, Hasbro does uneven work. Their Star Wars line alone demonstrates this; some figures therein are spot-on likenesses of the characters they represent, with more points of articulation than your body, while others are…well…let’s just say, not as good as that.

And so, in the months leading up to the Toybiz / Hasbro transfer, some fan anticipation has been what you might call “concerned.” Many have taken a position of cautious, slightly worried optimism. Others have opted instead for total, shrieking panic. But now the anticipation is over. Hasbro’s first line of Marvel Legends is readily available at your neighborhood Target store. And so it’s time to see if all the worry, and also terror, was justified. Have things gone downhill? Is the Marvel Legends line dead?

Hasbro’s first wave of Marvel Legends is the line’s sixteenth, and features figures of Emma Frost, Ultimate Iron Man, Beast (as he appears in the film X3), Banshee, ‘Planet Hulk,’ and Hercules. It’s that last one we’ll be discussing here. Hercules is a superhero who enjoys what he does, and who thus is a refreshing diversion from all the angsty mooning about that most superheroes seem to like. Also, your Marvel Legends “Champions of L.A.” collection may now, at last, be completed!

PACKAGING

Packaging for Marvel Legends, back in the day, was very nearly austere: blue, rectangular card, rectangular-solid plastic containing the figure. Not so for Hasbro. This new packaging is a riot of curves and sculpted plastic and paintings of the character. It’s the Xtreme sports of action-figure packaging! The card is basically white, with a painting of a tooth-gritting Herc in the upper left (from the viewer’s perspective). And the plastic is alive with curves and angles. There’s a sculpted bit on the right that sports a montage of images of the character, and another on top just for a new, jazzier Marvel Legends logo. All of this obscures the viewing of the figure a bit more than does some figure packaging, but beyond that, it’s perfectly snazzy – the pictures are especially nice.

One vast improvement in the packaging has to do with the twist-ties that hold the figure in position. A Toybiz Marvel Legends figure would typically have hundreds, nay, thousands of these, and as such it would take ages to remove it from the packaging. This figure, on the other hand, has none. None! The plastic packaging is sculpted to hold it in, and you can just pop the figure right out! One hesitates to use the word “miracle,” but really, it’s a whole new age!

SCULPTING

The sculpt here is excellent; there’s really no part of the figure where one could reasonably hope for more detail. Now, granted, this is a figure of a bearded man with no shirt and bizarre banded leggings. Which is to say, there’s not a very great deal for the sculptor to work with. Perhaps this is why said sculptor opted to include huge, bulging veins on the arms, which your humble reviewer just finds disturbing. Still, overall, one cannot complain.

It bears noting, however, that there are no holes in the soles of this figure’s feet. This means that you cannot use a standard action figure peg-stand to assist it in standing up. Now, Hercules here stands up just fine on his own, but this will not be true of every figure, and Hasbro would be well-served to reintroduce this feature to the line.

PAINT APPLICATION

The bleeding of colors outside of their appropriate areas has always been a problem with this line, and it hasn’t disappeared with the new management. There are several points – right wristband, belt buckle, the meeting of the headdress and hair – where bleed is visible. None of these points, to be fair, are particularly egregious, and the casual observer won’t even notice, and might perhaps look at you strangely for calling attention to them. You know how those casual observers are.

There’s little shading, but then, little need for it. Only the ‘skirt’ is anything other than a simple, bold color, and it’s handled perfectly well. There’s also a bit of shading to the muscles, and this is where the biggest problem with the paint job arises: Hercules looks kind of orange. Not good.

ARTICULATION

It is in this category, more than anything else, where the Marvel Legends line has earned its good name, and therefore in this category where Hasbro must prove itself. So let’s count up them points: three at each shoulder and hip; a double-joint at each knee and elbow; two at each wrist; one at each foot; two at the head; and a twisting waist and bending lower-ribcage. If this looks like just a whole truckload of articulation to you, you’re right. If it looks like less articulation than you’re used to for the line, you’re right about that as well. The customary articulation points in the middles of the hands, feet, and thighs (rotating the foot, in that latter case) are no more. And hence, this is a step down, but then, it’s a step down from an already dizzying height.

Several of the joints – particularly the elbows – are very tight, and make little snapping sounds as you move them. This makes little beads of sweat fly from your humble reviewer’s head, but it seems to be okay, really – it’s very tough plastic, perhaps moreso than we’ve seen before from the Legends. And the tight joints mean that the figure holds its poses very well indeed.

ACCESSORIES

Hercules comes with his hittin’ stick, or “club,” which boasts a simple but effective sculpt and paint job. It’s also got a transparent bit through the middle, which is nifty, and is slightly curved rather than straight, which is not nifty.

Also in the package is the left wing of Annihilus, despot of the Negative Zone and build-a-figure for this wave. (Collect all six figures, and build your own Annihilus, you see.) And it’s a pretty great-looking wing; what it is not, however, is very large at all. One gets the impression that they could just as easily have fit Annihilus onto a regular-sized card of his own. And this is a pity; the build-a-figures used to be huge, colossal! They would block the sun’s life-giving rays, so massive were they! But no more. Alas.

Due to the new packaging, neither Hercules nor any other Legend is packaged with a comic book anymore. And this is hardly a deal-breaker. But still, it was a nice touch, back in the day (where “in the day” here means “two months ago”). And it was always helpful for the truly hardcore collector to be able to refer to the comic, to answer the sometimes-burning question, “Okay, just who is this guy I’ve just bought?”

COST & OVERALL IMPRESSION

Where cost and availability are concerned, the bad news is that the price has gone up – at Target, anyway – to $9.99. The good news is that Hasbro most likely has a more robust distribution system than did Toybiz. These are out right on time, and there seem to be plenty of ‘em.

So, then. Judging by this figure, where does the Marvel Legends line stand? Have things gone downhill? Is the line dead? Well, things have gone downhill, just a bit. The lost articulation; the feet without stand-holes; the weird orange color – these are all bad points, and ones that one would not have expected from Toybiz’ Legends.

But the thing to remember is that Toybiz set the bar incredibly high. Taken out of the context of the history of the line, this is actually a good-looking, well-articulated hunk of plastic; not a standout, but still perfectly good for either displaying on the shelf, or playing with (or, as adults call it, “posing”). It is human nature to be unhappy about any loss, even if things are still generally quite dandy, and this would seem to be the general situation here. But if you want yourself a Hercules figure, and you can put aside the line’s history, and the orange-ish tint, this figure would be a very worthwhile addition to your collection.

REVIEW and PHOTOS by Matt Kessen