Had not seen these up here before now, but later last night saw the remnants of the wave at a local Walmart. ( I got a better deal at my LCS anyway!
)This was one of the better ML wave to come along--I like and welcome every single figure, but I gotta say this....
If you asked me, years ago......what Marvel would do for this line, and casually mentioned characters like.........oh, Man-Wolf, Arnim Zola, Batroc......etc. I'd have laughed at you. I'd have been intrigued for sure, and would want all those characters ( and heaps more) as figures but I wouldn't have believe it possible to ever see them.
I've noted along the way, fellow fans and collectors calling out their want-lists, and invariably, it'd be characters from Jim Lee's X-men, or something quite contemporary. The older, odder characters not so much.
The nice thing about Toybiz/Hasbro and their consistent take on ML is that they aren't afraid to visit the odd.
Batroc is right in there and I LOVE the figure. I mean........it's BATROC, zee Leaper!
The other thing that Toybiz/Hasbro have done over the years is when they revisit a character, they tend to step their game with the next iteration. I cannot recall any revisit character that was weaker as a figure the second time around. There's probably some, but I just can't ping any on my mental radar right now.
Spider-Woman, in this wave, is such a figure. This new version beats out the original version in most every way. Great sculpt, better pose-ability/POAs, good paint. The only drawback, if you will is that she cannot hit the "Milo Manera" pose. You know the one I'm talkin' about.
Hellcat is another 2nd-string older character that has been a long time coming. Glad to have her too, and she does fill a needed slot in the Avengers roster.
The movie Avengers proper are figures I've not been able to get before ( 'cept for Iron Man) and I'm digging finally having their on-screen looks. Hulk is my fav, as he's surprisingly pose-able, and able to get a lot of brooding, bristling poses out of him. Tony and Steve look fine too, but I think that Tony's face paint apps skew just a bit sloppy. The open mask distracts from that a bit, so it's okay.
Thanos........the BAF. After having the Marvel Select figure for a number of years, I can now fuly understand the size disparity that people talked about. This BAF figure is bigger than a "normal" human--using Captain America as a comparison--but not the gigantic proportions of the MS Thanos.
Nice sculpt, plugs together without any real problems--we''ll see how he looks when put with my villains display. I like the figure a LOT, and I remember it being said that Thanos was NOT a character that Marvel Legends had any real intention of bringing to the line. The movies clearly changed that mindset, and we won out.
For the curious: Thanos is bigger than the DCSH Darkseid, but is smaller in proportion that the DCUC CnC Darkseid.
If you pair him with the MS Thanos Death accessory figure, she still works just fine with the new BAF. Thanos is still taller than Death, but not gigantically so.
