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Marvel Legends 7
Apocalypse
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Lestor Wong is back with a review of a figure from the latest Marvel
Legends series, Apocalypse! It's all yours, Lestor! In a line dominated by X-Men characters (whatever happened to the X-Men Classics, by the way?), it’s no surprise that Apocalypse finally made his way into a Marvel Legends assortment. Considered by many as one of the X-Men’s greatest foes, the ancient mutant is one of the short-packed figures in Series VII. The breakdown of the case assortment is quite disappointing, by the way, with no less than three short-packed characters; two chase variants plus a chase figure from a previous assortment. This means it may take you some time before you can find your Apocalypse. Till then, at least you’ve this review.
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Packaging - ***1/2
I guess much has been said about Marvel Legends packaging, so I won’t attempt to repeat. Always good to look at, though.
Sculpting - ****
Apocalypse looks like a midget when you stand him beside Juggernaut, but that doesn’t hide the fact that he’s still one massive toy. He stands about 7” tall, and is a towering presence on the shelf. It helps when he’s in-scale with the rest of the other characters, but most importantly, he’s also very nicely sculpted. There’re plenty of details on him, especially on the body. You’ll find engineered lines on his arms and legs, as well as a nicely defined muscles outline. I particularly like his face sculpt, which has some elaborated “wrinkles” on his forehead. These give him a mean expression, which is always good feature on a villain.
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Paint - ***1/2
The paint on Apocalypse is overall professionally done. Nice shine on the metallic blue parts, and they blend well with the matt finishes on other areas. Some of these blue areas also have dual tone finishes, which is a pleasant surprise. Some smaller areas are conveniently sloppy, for example, on the mouth, but they’re not major, and are not immediately visible. The dirt washes on the grey parts generally look really good, but those on near his boots are
[I]too[/I] dirty for my liking.
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Articulation - ***1/2
34 points of articulation is not the most you can find for a Marvel Legend, but it’s still bloody impressive. Unfortunately, my Apocalypse doesn’t seem to be very stable, despite his relatively large feet. I believe this has got something to do with his rather rigid hips joints. His heavy body may also be the cause for him toppling over most of the times (some pictures in this review were taken with my hands photoshopped away). What I like, however, is the double waist joints on him. One of them is a normal waist joint, while the other is slightly above the waist, nearer to his torso. This joint has some swivel
maneuvers, and can be used to simulate swinging punches. A very cool gimmick, even though it may not be a documented one.
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Accessories - **1/2
Apocalypse has a base, but it appears to be too small for him. With the amount of plastic used to make the figure, I think Toy Biz do have to cut some corners. Still better than Vision though, who, apart from a transparent stand, has nothing else! Still, the base is not the most outstanding one we’ve seen in Marvel Legends, and will, I think, be ignored by most fans.
There’s also the customary comic included in this set, and it’s an issue of X-Factor in which Apocalypse took on all the X-Men, and nearly won. A good read if you’ve the time.
Fun Factor - ***
There’s nothing much you can do with the base, so the bulk of Apocalypse’s playability lies in the figure itself. And the super poseability nature of the toy will always win some points in this area. If you already have other recent X-Men heroes, it’d also be interesting to pit them all against this dude - good fun for both kids and collectors.
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Value - ****
So much plastic, for only $7.99? If that’s not value, I don’t know what is!
Overall - ***1/2
Apocalypse is an impressive toy. He has a good sculpt, a nice paint apps and some good playability. I think that basically sums it up. Highly recommended.
COMPLETE SCORE RECAP:
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpt - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - **1/2
Fun Factor - ***
Value - ****
Overall - ***1/2
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Figure from the collection of
Lestor Wong.
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