Skip to main content

Hasbro Marvel Legends Retro 375 Waves 1-6 and the Exclusive Phoenix/Wolverine two pack

 


Admittedly, it took me awhile to warm up to this line but once I did, I was all in. Wow, these toys are great. They may not be super articulated or come with great accessories but these look and feel like actual toys. That might seem like a silly statement, but think about it. In modern years, we have moved ever forward into the adult collectible genre. Everything is hyper detailed, hyper articulated, hyper accurate, and hyper expensive. Excluding price, that is all really cool but as the pendulum swung ever more toward that direction, the other side, the toy side, seemed to be left in the past. 

That has been a huge bummer for me. I don't know about anyone else, but as a kid, I always wished I was an adult with a job so that I can buy all the figures, vehicles, and playsets I wanted. Having adult money promised to remove the boundaries set on me by Christmas lists, Birthday surprises, and gift certificates. Then when I became an adult, toys shot up in price. Not all at once, mind you, but it's to the point now that finding 5 figures for $20 is a distant memory. In fact, finding 1 figure for $20 is now a stroke of luck. I know I have been kind of on a rant here, but these 3 3/4 figures from Hasbro not only look and feel like toys, they can be purchased like toys! I was able to get most of these figures for $9.99 each! That is definitely not 1995 Kenner Star Wars prices ($4.95) but it definitely feels like it and I absolutely love it!. The prices are so great that I was able to completely catch up on the line in less than a month with my adult money. I love that. But even more, I love the way these figures look. 

These toys seem to jump right out of the comic books that I grew up reading and they evoke memories of finding Secret Wars and Toy Biz Marvel Super Heroes figures in stores. I love the imagery of the blister cards and I love the era being showcased with the figure designs. If I could have one main gripe, it would be the pose of the figures. Every figure has that 1978 Kenner Chewbacca pose. The 'waiting for the bus' pose. It is so static and boring. I don't mind the lower articulation but if these toys had the hunched, battle ready poses of Secret Wars or even some of the poses of the POTF2 figures, it would help bring just a little more life to these super heroes. Another complaint I have is that the female figures all share a high heeled boot sculpt. That is fine when appropriate, like Storm and Jean Grey but figures like Elektra and Sue Storm would have definitely benefited from a separate sculpt. However, if it keeps the prices at toy prices, I can totally look past it.

Okay, enough words for awhile, here are the toys!

The X-Men


























Fantastic Four



















The Avengers





















































Marvel Super Heroes

















Anti Heroes and Villains 

































Whew! That's a lot of toys! And I bought them all with my adult money without having to miss a meal. This is what I want as a toy collector. More toys and at toy prices. And this line seems to be far from over. We already have the next wave teased along with a deluxe figure! Excelsior! 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Toy Biz Batman Batmobile

 Recently, I learned that the Toy Biz Batmobile was a two seater! Talk about a game changer. I loved my Kenner Batmobile, it had the engine missile, machine guns, and the pop out/rotating fire effect, but it could only hold Batman. As a 1966 Batman devotee, I always wanted Robin to ride batarang so that he could hear lectures about automobile safety as he approached his 16th birthday. It took a bit of searching but I found a pretty good one in $50 range on Ebay. The stickers were included but I decided not to apply them. I love the chrome features over the gold hubcaps on the Kenner Batmobile. The passenger seat is everything for me with this. The gear shift opens secret missile launchers in the front.  The Bat Trunk was an interesting feature. It has a lot of depth, which I guess can be useful for taking criminals to Arkham, or disposing of their bodies. I guess everyone has competing views of the Caped Crusaders thes...

Carry Cases - X-Men, Batman Returns, Marvel Superheroes

Since I got back into collecting a few years ago, I have been keeping my figures in boxes or tubs but within the last few months I decided to go with something different. I always loved having Carry/Collector Cases growing up. It was the ultimate way to say that not only do I have these toys but I'm a HUGE fan as well. It definitely gave you some street cred on the playground and during sleepovers. Using these now, there are some pros and cons. The pros being how great they look. The art on these things were always wonderful. Having these on your shelf rather than tubs just adds a little bit of flair to your collection. The cons, however, is the fact that they don't hold very many figures. Most Cases have two trays that are made to hold 6 figures each. That gives you 12 per case if you follow the suggestion. Luckily, there is always more wiggle room than they mention and a lot of us were able to get up to 24 figures in some of our Carry Cases. I decided to go ahead with getti...

Star Wars Power of the Force Red Box Vehicles X-Wing, AT-ST, and Speeder Bike with Scout Trooper

Speeder Bike with Scout Trooper This was the only one of these three vehicles that my brother and I had as kids. We had two vintage scout troopers so finally having a speeder bike was a big deal. An added plus was that it was the same mold as the vintage line so our original scouts could finally feel the air fog up their goggles. The new scout figure introduced one of my least favorite things about the new Power of the Force line: wide stance, bending knee figures. They just look awkward off of their vehicles and besides the speeder bike, no one else could ride unless they had similar legs. Say what you will about the vintage vehicles and beasts but the trap door mechanism made it possible for most anyone to ride. Thankfully, like I mentioned, this was a vintage mold so we didn't face that issue YET. AT-ST My best friend had the AT-ST so I never felt the rush to go buy one. Though, if it had been in stores longer I probably would have. Return of the Jedi was my favorite Star Wars m...

Toy Biz Marvel Superheroes The Thing

Christmas time this year saw some great additions to my Toy Biz Marvel Superheroes collection. This time in the form of the Thing. The Human Torch was one of the first MSH's I owned as a kid. Six years ago, I was able to add Mr. Fantastic. This past year, I added the Invisible Woman but now the collection is complete! Ol' Blue Eyes If you can't smash the Yancy Street gang, might as well clobber their sign. The family is finally together! You don't want to be on the other side of this fight. Size comparison of my current heavy hitters.

GoBots: Crasher, Sparky, Rest-Q

Let's just get it out of the way. Transformers is the better show, series, story, idea, etc. Hasbro and Marvel just really knocked it out of the park. The action, drama, and depth of the franchise is pretty unparalleled. Honestly, outside of Iron Giant, how many companies made you genuinely sad about the death of a robot. Skyfire and Optimus, we're looking at you. Moving on, I always loved the GoBots toys. I loved their look, their scale, and their articulation. Yes, they rarely came with accessories but they didn't come across as a brick with moving forearms either. Sorry, Hound. And, for better or worse, they almost always looked like their animated counterpart or better. I won't get into Ironhide or Bumblebee because I'm really not try to put down the Transformers. I'm just suggesting that the GoBots definitely had some strengths. They even had playsets and vehicles, which I'll get into later. (How great would it have been to have a pl...