Welcome back to another installment of “Nola Yells About Action Figures,” also known as a preview of Hasbro’s upcoming Marvel Legends! This week saw another livestream from Hasbro—their last of the year—in which they dropped an entirely new line of X-Men figures, a couple of online exclusives, as well as some other very cool mentions. 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the X-Men, and it looks like Hasbro’s going to be celebrating that in a big way.
They started the stream by recapping something I haven’t gotten to talk about here yet, which is the 60th Anniversary 5-Pack. Featuring box art by Ken Lashley, this five-pack does something very interesting: everyone in it is a villain, or was at some point, with nary a main X-Men cast member to carry the set, unlike the Wolverine 5-pack from last year.
Usually, these sets will have at least one, because of the value-add. If a set is entirely deep cuts, it can sometimes be hard to move, because potential buyers may not wish to spend 5-pack prices on obscure characters only. In this case, though, the trick works, because the star of this pack is the infamous Stryfe, clone of Cable, and one of the early ’90s most omnipresent X-Men villains. On top of that, Stryfe’s only had a Marvel Legends figure once before, and that was a vanishingly rare Toys R Us exclusive. Remember Toys R Us? Yeah.
To round out the pack, Stryfe comes with Zero, his resident teleporter in the Mutant Liberation Front; Vertigo, from Mister Sinister’s original Marauders team; 90s X-Factor nuisance Random; and finally, Pretty Boy, one of the last faces from the Reavers, the team of mutant-hating mercenaries that plagued the X-Men’s Outback era. This cast list makes the set a very clever bridge for building teams of X-Villains. I for one am very excited about (mostly) finishing out my Reavers roster, and while Stryfe and Zero are the first members of the MLF to see figure form, it seems likely the rest of the team might show up down the line. Meanwhile, Vertigo makes the second member of the Marauders, after the original-flavor Sabretooth released earlier this year. So what does that mean?
Well, consider this cover. Here you see Sabretooth up front, with Vertigo on the left side. Up above is Mister Sinister and next to him is Madelyne Pryor, who was part of that HasLab Hell Ride project that unfortunately failed to fund. Still, we know the model of her exists, and she’s enough of a potential draw that we might see her down the line anyway—maybe with a Darkchylde version of Magik? That’s not a rumor, I’m just putting that out into the universe. While some of the Marauders members are more obscure, two characters of note on that cover are John Greycrow, who has had a chance to shine in the recent Hellions series, and Malice, she of the giant wedge of green hair in the back right. Malice (not to be confused with Sue Storm’s Dark Willow phase) is none other than the possessed Lorna Dane, aka Polaris, so another version of her would be very cool. Another cool touch would be a Build-A-Figure of N’astirh from the Inferno crossover, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, hm? The point is, I just love these weird 80s villain teams, and I’d love to see more of them in the Marvel Legends line.
Still on the subject of teams, you remember last time, when I mentioned the reveal of Storm and Banshee to match the Retro Wolverine? I didn’t have any official images to share then, but now I do, as the full box sets for both characters were revealed! Here is a comprehensive gallery for your viewing pleasure:
This honestly might be a record for the shortest time Hasbro has completed a team since the Original Five box set back in 2014. In addition to completing the iconic Jim Lee cover to Uncanny X-Men #275, these figures are interesting in their own right, making use of a mix of reused and new molds. This is, for instance, Forge’s third Marvel Legends outing in a version of this costume. The last one is very similar to this one but features brown boots with fringe and the square-buckled x-belt rather than the round one all of these figures sport. That’s not to say this is the same figure though, and there are two clues. They appear also to match the updated sculpts of the legs from the Cyclops figure I discussed last time, designed to keep the leg straps in place rather than falling down around the ankles, which is a great touch. Also visible here are Hasbro’s new pinless joints, meaning the limbs are constructed differently from the last versions. Being on a teen body, Jubilee has the peg-and-hinge elbow joints that female figures have historically had, but the adult bodies of Storm and Psylocke both feature updated pinless double elbow joints, which means an increased range of motion in those arms. Additionally, the new pinless limbs seem to have given Hasbro the opportunity for a new sculpt of Forge’s cybernetic right thigh, which is much more detailed and interesting, and the costumes even feature the high snap-collar Lee drew for all of these uniforms.
There’s a lot of part/mold recycling in these figures, which makes sense if they’re mostly going to match, but what’s notable are the parts that aren’t reused. Storm has an entirely new headsculpt, which makes sense, as none of the previous releases match this look’s hairstyle, but so does Psylocke, featuring a very ’90s ponytail-with-side-part. I had expected Hasbro to perhaps save on costs by reusing Psylocke’s prior headsculpt with just a new hairstyle, but it appears to be entirely new, as it doesn’t match any of her multiple previous releases. The same is true with Jubilee. This will be her fourth figure in recent years, but the head here looks different than prior releases, which is pretty neat! It would’ve been easy to reuse them, but they didn’t, as evidenced by the shape of the eyebrows alone.
Finally: Banshee! Perhaps the most exciting release in the set, Banshee hasn’t had a figure since Hasbro’s very first Marvel Legends line. For reference, here you go:
As headsculpts go, it’s not the worst, especially given it’s nearly old enough to vote! Still, Hasbro’s designs have come a long, long way from this old sculpt, inherited from Toybiz and featuring hips that are literal balls, strangely sculpted chest muscles and the infamous diaper pelvis, which might not have looked so bad had the necessary waist articulation not emphasized the hips in a strange way. By contrast, the new one features two different headsculpts, one screaming and featuring a more timeless hairstyle, the other stoic and sporting the most impressive muttonchop sideburns since Logan himself.
Hasbro had another couple of treats for us as well beyond this matching team. First up was a brand new Blob sculpt, to replace the Build-A-Figure version from 2007. The original villainous version of Blob is certainly a character who was not always very well-handled, but this figure is a great iteration that will fit in with a classic Brotherhood of Evil Mutants roster, as recently filled out by updated Pyro, Toad, and Avalanche sculpts. That means the 80s team lineup is missing only Destiny and a young Rogue, from before she joined the X-Men.
Hasbro did some clever work with his neck joint here, allowing him full range of motion without going the previous version’s route of sculpted flab just sitting strangely against the collarbone. On the whole the figure does a much better job representing a fat body in a way that doesn’t feel quite so much like it’s jeering at the concept of fatness (at least, any more than his entire character was made to jeer at the concept of fatness in its original incarnation). This seems like a low bar to clear, but many folks have failed to clear it with this character specifically. I also particularly like the inclusion of freckles along the skin of his face, legs, and arms! It’s a really neat extra touch that suits him well.
Hasbro’s next treat is one I’ve been hoping for for a while! After a couple of 90s versions and her Legacy-era suit, they’ve finally gone back to the well and given us an 80s Outback-era Rogue! Given the building of the Reavers, as well as recent Longshot and Dazzler figures, I’m very excited to add this one to the collection. Hasbro once did the suit just prior to this look in their smaller-scale Universe line, but she’s never had a Marvel Legends release of this look before.
Prior to SDCC I was nursing a theory that Hasbro might drop an SDCC exclusive featuring a few of the missing Outback era team members, but that didn’t pan out. Still, it’s very cool to see this team start to get updates! I’m definitely hoping to see a Psylocke from this era, and the recent Age of Apocalypse Colossus figure means that Hasbro has a shirtless sculpt of his torso on hand to do his Outback look too. I do wish this Rogue’s hair had stronger ties to her punky looks from the 80s, specifically the boxy, voluminous look Silvestri often drew her with, but this is acceptable at the very least.
These reveals plus the retro wave I talked about last time already make for a lot of upcoming X-Men figures, but amazingly, the team at Hasbro weren’t done! They also revealed another full seven-figure series, this one featuring Astonishing X-Men era Cyclops and Emma Frost, Cyclops’ dad and famous space pirate Corsair, Krakoa-era Kid Omega, Fang of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard. The last two figures lead off another new team, with Chamber and Monet from Generation X. The team didn’t announce the Build-A-Figure for this series, but they did promise another Starjammer in 2023, and ended the stream with a tease of what looks to be Cr’reee, the small mammalian pet of Ch’od, the massive reptilian bruiser of Corsair’s crew. Ch’od hasn’t had a figure since the 5″ X-Men line of the 1990s, so a figure of him would be a massive update—literally, given the size a Marvel Legends version of him would be. Unfortunately, I don’t have any hi-res photos of those figures to show you yet, and probably won’t until that BAF is announced, but you can check out the stream yourself if you like, and I’ll absolutely be sure to I’ll share images when I have them.
