Review of Thor, Klaw, Hope Summers, Constrictor
Marvel Legends Terrax Wave Action Figures

Introduction

It's been awhile since we saw any Marvel Legends action figures on the pegs. Once the darling of the collector community, the figures took a drop when the Marvel license switched to Hasbro, and about three years ago went on hiatus. Everyone assumed that really meant they were only legends from then on out, but Hasbro has brought them back to the pegs once again.

This first new series includes 7 figures and the usual Build A Figure or Collect and Connect or whatever marketing term you'd like to use. However, you only need six of the figures - Ghost Rider, Klaw, Steve Rogers, Hope Summers, Constrictor and Iron Man Extremis - to complete the additional figure. That would be Terrax, and I'll look at him later this week along with the other three figures. The 7th is Thor, who I'm covering tonight with Klaw, Hope, and Constrictor.

There are also three variants in this wave, which are all packed in the same cases. The Iron Man comes in both regular colors and blue (the variant), while Ghost Rider comes with translucent blue flames or the traditional orange/red (variant). And finally, there's Steve Rogers with the normal Cap shield or with the translucent version (variant). I used the Cap variant as the packaged shot.

I grabbed these at Meijer and Target near home, where they are $14.99. That's the same price I paid for the Red Hulk wave back in 2008. Deja vu all over again!

Packaging - ***
The overall look of the packaging is great, with nice text and some great graphics. I particularly like the heavy personalization, with each card back specific to that character.

The reason I'm docking them is twisted limbs and joints, a problem common with DCUC figures. Here, the worst is Hope, where her one ankle and knee are in pretty bad shape, but all the figures had a potential for warpage in the bubble. Mattel has been doing less posing in the package because of this, and hopefully Hasbro will follow suit.

Sculpting - Thor, Constrictor ****; Klaw ***1/2; Hope ***
All four of these sport excellent head sculpts - it's really the work from the neck down that separates them.

Thor has a very stern expression, but the grimace is still better than the usual open mouth look. The hair, winged helmet, and cape look terrific, and I loved the textured mail on the legs and arms. This is a modern Thor, with a larger sculpt than we've seen with most past figures. He clocks in at just over 7 1/2" tall, giving him some real bulk over the other characters.

Constrictor has a great head sculpt as well, and the maniacal snake-like grin is suitably creepy. While most of the costume detail is painted, I like the sculpted Mohawk-like stripe on top of his head. It's worth noting that the bands coming from his wrists are not bendy, just soft plastic. He's the usual 6" tall.

Klaw is 6" too, using the most standard ML body of the bunch. This body is a bit on the skinny side, and is really best used with the teen characters. There's not a lot of sculpting detail on the body, but the cool sonic cone right hand looks great, and the posed left hand works well for a number of stances.

His head sculpt is where the action is, with the edges of his mask cleanly sculpted, and the pattern on his head has a sculpted edge, rather than just a painted one. 

Finally, there's the lovely Hope. She is very pretty too, something all too rare in the ML universe. The body isn't as attractive as the face though, where the curse of the pencil thin female continues. Her legs and arms are quite gangly, and she does not represent the female form as well as she could or should. This isn't a new thing with ML's, but it'd be nice of we'd get a heroine with a little more meat on her bones.

Paint - Klaw, Constrictor ****; Thor ***1/2; Hope ***
One area where mass market toys have a tough time keeping up with lower run online collector series is paint - it's always the first place to get cut when costs start to overrun.

This series is surprisingly good, especially considering the size and price point. Klaw and Constrictor look great with the nekkid eye, with clean lines on their faces, masks and mouths. This is particularly important for these two characters, since this is the area where all their personality comes through.

Thor is well done, but not quite as clean. There's a little slip on a cut line here or there, and sometimes the coverage on the costume isn't quite perfect. But overall he's much better than most other figures you'll find currently hanging on the pegs.

Hope is a bit more in line with average. The yellow lines on the costume have some rough edges, and her eyes aren't quite as clean and neat as they need to be. She's still good work, just not great work.

The reality is that you could get a great Hope, but a bad Klaw - I'm betting things are pretty hit and miss, depending on who was running the line when your figure went through. But I'm also betting that the median quality across this series is above average, better than the norm right now.

Articulation - Constrictor, Klaw, Hope ***1/2; Thor ***
While I might find the Twiggy sculpt of the body on Hope a bit much, I have to say that the number and design of the joints on all the figures is actually quite good.

That's no real surprise though, since Marvel Legends set the bar for well articulated comic book figures back in the aughts.

All of them have a ball jointed neck, although Hope's and Thor's are a bit restricted by the hair sculpts. Klaw and Constrictor have no such restriction, and can do much more with their melons.

The ball jointed shoulders and cut biceps work well, especially on Constrictor where you have the extra interior shoulder joint to allow for a greater range of movement across the body.

Klaw and Constrictor also have both double pin elbows and knees, while Hope and Thor have double pin knees but only single pin elbows. 

Hope has the usual female ML chest joint, whereas both Klaw and Constrictor have but a cut waist and an ab-crunch.

Hope, Thor and Klaw have the pin/post wrists, while Constrictor only has cut joints on the forearm.

Those three are similar from the waist down, where they have ball hips, double pin knees, cut thighs and pin ankles. Constrictor adds in a cut calf, while Thor has the ball hips, double pin knees, and pin ankles.

My one big problem was with Thor - one hip joint snapped right out of the package. Fortunately, the hip is so deep that I could put the ball in the socket and still get him to stand, allowing me to take a few photos. Still, it's a huge disappointment, and the post is not very thick - take great care with yours, at least until it's freed up and moving smoothly.

Accessories - Hope ***; Thor **1/2; Klaw, Constrictor **
The only accessory with the Klaw or Constrictor is the BaF piece for Terrax (a leg and a torso). I'll give them a couple stars for that, but that's about it. If you're not looking to build Terrax, it's a big goose egg for them.

Thor doesn't have any BaF piece, so his only accessory is his hammer. It's a pretty important accessory, and it's nicely done, but that's still a little skimpy.

Hope does better - she has the head and two piece weapon for Terrax, along with her own cool rifle/blaster. She can hold the weapon in a number of poses, and while there's no paint ops, the sculpt is well done.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
I still don't like the construction of the joints here as well as I do the DC Universe Classics, but that doesn't mean these aren't great fun. Thor, Ghost Rider and Rogers are likely to be the biggest hits with kids, since all three will be most recognizable to them, but the others offer some nice villains to round out the battles.

Value - **1/2
It's funny - three years ago, the last Marvel Legends figures I reviewed were running $15, and got a terrible value score because of it. That's because they were at the beginning of the price rise, and we were just starting to see 6" figures poke around with the fifteen price point.

Jump forward three years, and we've reached a place where it's the norm, not the exception. What was once a bad value is now an average value - it's been a rough three years on the wallet for action figure collectors.

Things to Watch Out For -
As I said, I snapped that Thor thigh right out of the package, so you'll want to be a little careful freeing up the joints. While I didn't have any trouble with the other three, I'd still take care with all of them until the joints are moving freely.

Overall - Klaw, Constrictor, Hope ***1/2; Thor ***
It's great to see Marvel Legends back on the pegs, and Hasbro has done a nice job with this release. Sculpting and paint are solid, and the BaF is one of the better figures in the line.

They need to update some of the basic bodies, particularly the female stick figure and the smaller male body that we see here with Klaw. They could have a winner on their hands for quite a few waves, but they need to put a little extra effort into getting it up to current standards. Better yet, start setting the bar again with this series, like they do with Star Wars and Joes in the smaller scale.

I'll be checking out the other three figures as well as the Terrax BaF very soon - stay tuned!

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - Thor, Constrictor ****; Klaw ***1/2; Hope ***
Paint - Klaw, Constrictor ****; Thor ***1/2; Hope ***
Articulation -  Constrictor, Klaw, Hope ***1/2; Thor ***
Accessories - Hope ***; Thor **1/2; Klaw, Constrictor **
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - **1/2
Overall - Klaw, Constrictor, Hope ***1/2; Thor ***

Where to Buy 
I picked these up locally at Meijer and Targets, where they were $15 each, but you can also find them at Toys R Us for a few bucks more. Online options include:

- Entertainment Earth has the case of 8 for $125.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Back in the day, there were lots of ML reviews - 

- last series I remember reviewing was the Red Hulk set, in part 1 and part 2.

- Then there was the last wave of 'icons', the larger scale Legends.

- before that, there was the Foom/Hulk wave, broken into one review here and another here.

- I never did look at the third wave of Hasbro ML's, but I did cover wave 2 and series 1, first at MROTW and then at QSE.

- you’ll want to check out my review of the other four figures.

- Hasbro released several of the 12″ Marvel Legends Icons, including Punisher and Doom, and my favorite, Thor.

And if you still pine for the days Toybiz you should also hit the Search Reviews page, to find plenty of older reviews, and any other applicable reviews done after this one.

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