Hasbro is doing an outstanding job of capitalizing on blockbuster superhero movies delivering fans and collectors what they want! Yes, here is their Fantastic Four themed Marvel Legends Build-a-Figure series. You get the classic F4 - Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing, along with their super-powered buddies Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Silver Surfer. But that’s not all! Hasbro is sucking us dry by stretching out a 7″ BAF across eight freakin’ figures committed to delivering as many new characters per series as possible, so you get villains Dr. Doom and the Mole Man as well. As if that weren’t enough, if you buy all eight, you can complete the undersized BAF who really should have just been a single-carded release super-awesome cosmic bad-guy Ronan! Yay! —————————————————————

DR. DOOM

Doom! I really had no issues with ToyBiz’ Doom that they released way back in Series 2. But, Mr. Von Doom is such an iconic Marvel villain, I figured I’d give this version a shot. Hasbro’s weird articulation is all there. Doom gets nothing but ball-joints everywhere. Knees, elbows, mid-torso, hips, shoulders, ankles. Not wrists, though! His wrists only swivel. They decided to cut a point out there. It was becoming too much. As was paint, apparently, because I don’t think he got any. But, if you’re into swirly toyish looking plastic and owning diabolical baddies who look like giant robot elves, then the paint probably doesn’t bother you! Doom’s best feature is his gun holster, which has a cool little strap and clip. Also, his mask is removable to reveal his scarred face, and his true identity as the evil captain of the enemy ship from Star Trek: Insurrection.

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SILVER SURFER

He rides the cosmos on his silver surfboard, but he just can’t quite hang ten around those gaseous nebulae because Hasbro didn’t give the poor guy any toe or side-to-side ankle articulation. Oh well. I’m sure plenty of fans are content to have their Silver Surfer merely stand tensely on his board like some politician trying to look cool for a shameless publicity stunt. Moreover, why doesn’t Hasbro give their figures fists? If you’re going to cut out finger articulation, at least sculpt some damn fists. Seriously. Surfer’s palm is getting sore from all the bitch-slapping. And one more thing, Hasbro: Enough with the vac-metal! It looks cheesy! It’s not 1999 any more. Save that shit for Transformers. That style is date-ted.

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INVISIBLE WOMAN

Ah. The venerable Susan Storm-Richards. Marvel’s first-lady. I hope she never needs to scratch her toes or sweep her hair out of her face. ‘Cuz with Hasbro’s sorry-ass articulation, it ain’t ever gonna happen. She’s got a fist, though! Way to go Hasbro! Give the females fists and the males slap-hands. WTF?! Sigh. This figure (this whole series, really) would have been a pass for me, had it not been for Sue’s face sculpt. It ain’t bad, and is a nice step-up from the stylized version we got from ToyBiz in the box sets.

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MR. FANTASTIC

Mr. Fantastic might actually be the best figure from this series for a variety of reasons. First, he has an excellent head sculpt - likely the best representation of Reed Richards so far. Second, Hasbro tacked the issue of demonstrating his unusual stretchy power not by including swappable arms or snap-on pieces, rather they just put him in a constant condition of stretch. And it works. (Mostly because it relieves Reed of suffering the Hasbro articulation fate.) In any event, it’s a nice incarnation of the F4’s fearless leader.

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THING

Thing ain’t bad. He’s got a bit of a Captain Crunch skin-tone going on, but at least he’s reasonably well articulated - and by that, I mean he has the more traditional ‘ToyBiz’ style of artic with bicep cuts, hinged knees and elbows, and *gasp* side-to-side ankle articulation. Yay! If it weren’t for his wee little head, he’d be just about perfect. This is the first Thing figure we’ve gotten in Marvel Legends that is actually in proper scale, not towering above his teammates as past versions did.

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HUMAN TORCH

Okay. Here’s another example of where Hasbro missed the boat. Okay, so they reused their icons sized sculpt for Human Torch and just scaled him down to six inches. Seems like that shoulda worked. Couple of problems though: his torso and legs are ridiculously out of proportion. He seems to be the right height, so I guess his legs should be a little longer and his stomach/chest a little shorter to even it all out. Also, his lower legs seem too short in comparison to his upper legs/thighs. Really, he’s just one wonky looking little toy. Lets add to that the fact that he can’t actually lower his arms to his sides, and is forced to always have that weird 30degrees out to the side thing going on. And then there is the hair. W.T.F. I get that he’s in some weird mid-transformation condition of ‘flame on’, but why does he have a giant orange bouffant? Hasbro. Thou vexes me.

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NAMOR

Oh. My. I want to leave a really scathing review of Namor, but the saddest thing about this figure is that I actually spent money on him. From his infant-in-a-green-speedo sculpt, to his weird orange-spray-tan paint job, to his terrible face design, to his crap-tacular Hasbro-swivel-style articulation, this poor bastard is a just a miss on every significant level. It’s a shame too, because Namor in this outfit was a highly requested figure by fans. But… Hasbro had to come in and just muck it all up. Easily the worst figure far of the year. Big piece of crap.

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MOLE MAN

And here’s the ugly little step child of this series. It’s cool that Hasbro tackled a character like the Mole Man, but he would have been better served as a static pack-in than his own 10 dollar ’superarticulated’ figure. You see, Mole Man has the dubious honor of demonstrating the least articulation of any Marvel Legends figure thus far. He looks more like a 90s Playmates Ninja Turtles baddy than a Marvel Legend. Add to that the fact that he’s way oversized. I know that’s tough, given that he’s pretty little anyways. But Mole Man’s head is easily twice the size of any of other figure at this scale. He’s more like he’s a 1:8 or 1:9 scaled figure than 1:12. So, he kinda just doesn’t fit in. Check the comparison pic.

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RONAN

Ronan is a cool toy, and a pretty decent super-articulated action figure. He is, however, a terrible build-a-figure. He stands around seven inches tall and use about a third as much plastic as was put into several of the larger single-carded figures we got from ToyBiz’ run on Marvel Legends. TBML Series 6 Juggernaut or Series 12 Maestro Hulk figures both easily dwarf this guy, and I picked them up for seven bucks each. All told, I spent more than 80 dollars to put Ronan together. Hasbro really knows how to rape their customers… Aside from the small size and poor overall value as a BAF - Ronan suffers from a very basic paint job, a pretty flat sculpt, and those god-awful swivel elbows Hasbro is so fond of. All in all, this figure is just another indication of the sad steps backwards Hasbro is taking with this once great line…

Tags: dr. doom, fantastic four, hasbro, human torch, invisible woman, marvel legends, mole man, mr. fantastic, namor, ronan the accuser, silver surfer, thing

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