Superhero Times: a service of Action Online
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The latest wave of Marvel Legends is Hasbro's Queen Brood build-a-figure wave, or Series 3. Eight figures round up this batch and include the following:
1. X3 Colossus
2. Cyclops
3. Danger
4. Marvel Girl
5. Black Knight
8. Bucky
X3 Colossus is the fourth figure released by Hasbro to represent the third X-Men film. I’m actually happy about it since there was no toy line representing the film during its release. Colossus joins Beast, Jean Grey, and Juggernaut.
The Queen Brood build-a-figure follows Annihilus, Blob, Sandman, and Ronan "The Accuser" as a Hasbro BAF and I think she holds up pretty well. It’s great to finally get the Queen Brood as she has encounters with nearly all of the Marvel heroes at some point.
Hasbro’s take on the Legends has mostly been disappointing for me, as the figures have quasi-bastardized articulation and poor paint applications, but we’ll see how these two compare.
PACKAGING: The card and bubble is the standard Legends packaging now and it works really well for this line. The card features graphics front and back of the character along with a short bio and stats. The card also shows the build-a-figure along with each of the other figures you’ll need to complete the collection.
There are four "grabs" including one on the blister card of the character pulled from the comics which I really appreciate, though I do miss having an actual comic included.
SCULPT: I’m impressed with both the Queen Brood and X3 Colossus. Both are incredible sculpts and look great. I was a bit afraid of more movie figures after seeing the abomination that is X3 Jean Grey, but whoever did Colossus knew what they were doing.
Queen Brood is sculpted to perfectly match her menacing parasitic appetite. Well done, Hasbro.
PAINT: With good sculpts it requires a solid paint job to turn the figure into a piece of art. Unfortunately, Hasbro’s paint methods appear to be aimed for the mass market and it shows.
Colossus is mostly silver and black with some highlights on the costume, but of course without a wash, the colors are dull and flat. For a movie figure, a little bit more realism is necessary. It’s disappointing mostly because Colossus needs to have the skin like metal, but we don’t even have an illusion of shine that the Toy Biz comic version did.
Queen Brood actually looks fairly good. There’s not a lot of color here but being an insect-like creature, she doesn’t need it. Still, it would be nice to have a tiny bit more detail here and there.
ARTICULATION: We’ll start with Colossus who has a pretty good set of points. Clocking in at about 36 points of articulation, he fairs better than most of his fellow Legends, but still not as good as the majority of Toy Biz Legends.
But not to worry as the only thing holding Colossus back from being on par with the Toy Biz Legends is his left hand, which is sculpted into a fist. The other hand is open palm with articulated fingers – thumb is not articulated.
The Queen Brood has far fewer points of articulation than Colossus, but you have to take into consideration that she’s a massive insect. She stars 22 points of articulation. There’s two points in the neck allowing the Queen to look left & right, up and down; Joint in the lower jaw for the mouth to open and close; A pair of wings; Tail; and eight limbs on a ball joint which makes 16 points of articulation. The longer limbs in front are bendie so I suppose that can count as 24 points.
That still doesn’t cut it for me as her legs only have joints where the leg meets the body. There aren’t any other joints so her legs are forever positioned in the same way. I see this figure as a Star Wars Aklay that you put together and even that one had more points of articulation.
ACCESSORIES: I do miss the comic books. X3 Colossus comes with nada… just the Queen Brood appendage. However, I don’t know what else he could have come with. Oh, how about a set of regular head and arms?
COST: Marvel Legends figures will cost you $10 at retail. Queen Brood, in essence, requires $80 to build.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: I’m personally a fan of having good movie figures and X3 Colossus is a solid hulking figure with the only negative side being his dull paint applications. But comparative speaking, his dull paint job doesn’t look as bad as many of the others since he’s in a black outfit. Black plastic of course looks more realistic than any lighter shade.
The Queen Brood is a splendid choice for a build-a-figure. My main gripe is perhaps her smaller size and low articulation count. I would have liked to have seen more joints in the legs to allow more flexibility in poses. I also hoped to see a bigger Queen, but she works okay in this size. Despite the lacking points of articulation and a somewhat flat paint job, Queen Brood works out pretty good overall.
Series 3 stars only a few good figures (Colossus, Black Knight), some horrible (Hydra Soldier) and plenty mediocre ones (Captain America, Danger, Bucky, Marvel Girl). It is starting to wear down on me. Paint is the biggest problem in this line and with these figures looking awful next to the well painted Legends made under Toy Biz, the Legendary Comic Heroes of Marvel Toys, and Mattel’s DC Superheroes, I’m really going to start reconsider where my money is going to go in 2008.
It’s sad because I do love my Marvel heroes, but at $10 a pop, I don’t want horrible plastic looking figures if every other company is churning out better looking toys for the same price.
CLICK HERE for a Marvel Legends Series 3 image gallery tour!
Review and Photos by David Yeh