Looking Back on Marvel Legends (The Hasbro Era)

After the trip down the Toy Biz era of Marvel Legends, it's Hasbro's turn at bat:
Fans were afraid that Hasbro would do 1 or 2 waves before shrinking the toys to Joe Scale.

Wave 1: Annihilus
This wave consists of:
Ultimate Iron Man
Planet Hulk (The Gladiator Hulk from said mini series)
Frasier Beast (X3 United Beast)
Hercules
Banshee
Emma Frost

Let's get this out of the way: Emma Frost is Almost as crappy as Scarlet Witch. The reduced Articulation and paint job hurt Emma a bit... Also her ugly face sculpt and super small head that look Off.
Banshee is also looking Kinda bad. His sickly flesh color, lack of a neck flap on his suit that makes his actual neck look freakishly long and last but not least the "wings" are partially wrong: The thinner stripes are meant to be the black ones while the thicker ones are Yellow. Also his hair should have been more orangey...
The best of the 3 figures I bought from this wave (Due to being the only ones I found... Later on I saw a Frasier Beast Peg Warming, but with no Hulkdiator, or Ultimate Evil Spock Robot I gave up on the wave... Though I got to play with an Annihilus and he was sweet!) is HERCULES!!
He's very MOTUC Like for a figure made years before MOTUC.

Before Wave 2, Hasbro relaesed some TRU Exclusive repaints:
Silver Statue Wolverine: A Completely Silver Repaint of The ML VI Wolverine.
Diamond Emma Frost: A Repaint of the second ugliest ML EVER!! They sucked so much that TRU had trouble getting rid of them at the marvelous price of $1! That's no Typo... They had Trouble getting Rid of Diamond Emma Frost even at ONE DOLLAR!

Wave II: The Blob!
She-Hulk
Ultimate Abraham Lincoln... I mean Wolverine
Asgardian Armor Thor
YellowJacket
Xorn
X3 Jean Grey
X3 Juggernaut
Quicksilver

Blob Loses Articulation due to his girth. Sadly his flesh tone is molded plastic with little shading.
YellowJacket (Looks better in his slightly more golden looking variant. The default one is too lime yellow for my tastes) is one of the best of the wave. He kinda looks like he shares parts with Series 1 Banshee and QuickSilver.
QuickSilver Is pretty cool sculptwise, but the lack of shading kinda hurts him... He has a Green Variant, which I saw one but wasn't interested in it. (My Quicksilver was not going to wear his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants clothes.)
X3 Jean is Very crappy. Her face competes with Emma Frost on bad Hasbro faces. I think she became Custom Fodder... She has a "Dork Phoenix" variant...
X-3 Juggernaut, while not a bad figure I bought it as Custom fodder.
Ultimate Wolverine... Aw Hell no! I popped the head out of that sucker and popped a spare Ultimate Peter Parker and made a crappy Havok custom.
Now The Next Two figures ARE Pretty Cool: She-Hulk and Asgardian Lord Thor
The only thing I don't like about Thor is that Mjolnir looks like a Cinderblock...
The Last Figure of the Wave is Xorn.
He's pretty good, but he needed Swappable heads instead of a Helmet.

Wal-Mart (who rarely stocks their exclusives) got a Special Silver Surfer:
A Reused ML V Silver Surfer with a new board with pegs instead of Magnets.

Now cause Marvel Legends is a Hasbro Property and Hasbro is Large enough to go to San Diego Comic Con, ML got some SDCC Exclusive Action!
Lawyer She-Hulk (Swappable hands/Feet, Removable glasses, dress, a suitcase ) Without the dress and the correct parts on she's Fantastic Four (Backup Member) She-Hulk!
Stan Lee! With an Extra Peter Parker Head You can make a Stan Lee, a Peter Parker, or a Spider-Man with this figure. (The best use for him would be an unmasked Spidey)

Well, Hasbro struck with a Fantastic Four Themed Wave and a Spider-Man Wave with a Sandman BAF. Both waves that I NEVER SAW IN PERSON!!
This wave consisted of:
-Doctor Doom: While a bit less detailed than the Toy Biz version, he looks cleaner and has Torso Articulation.
-Human Torch: He has the "QuickSilver/YellowJacket/Banshee" buck, which is a plus. I don't know if his flames are removable, but I wish he had another non-flamed head... Seriously he looks like Vegeta.
-Invisible Woman: Something about her face/hair seems off. Other than that is the first time The invisible Woman shows up on a wave. Not too fond of that suit though.
-The Mole Man: Hasbro could have taken the easy way out and reuse the Doc Ock Body from the SMC line/Sinister Six set with a new head, but they made a brand new Mole Man...
-Reed Richards: Now in Super Stretchy Mode... I'm not too fond of the stretched out body, but that's the BEST Richards Headsculpt I've seen... I'd say he has the ICONIC Reed Richards look.
-Namor The Submariner: Iconic Namor with his green Speedo. Looks better than the Toy Biz version.
-Silver Surfer: His headsculpt is less Ailen looking unlike the previous versions of him. He has a Vac Metal Board... I'm surprised that he didn't get Vac Metal... (On him it would be awesome)
-The Thing: It looks like a new Buck but reusing the House of M Thing head... not too fond of this one.

Now for the Sandman Wave:
This wave looks like a LOT of repaints...
- S-M2 Doc Ock: First Repaint of the Superposable Ock
- S-M Green Goblin: Repaint of the Super Posable Green Goblin from the First Movie Toyline (Minus the Removable Helmet)
- S-M2 Mary Jane: Finally! A new sculpt. She's got wood and her sculpt is a bit meh...
- S-M3 Green Goblin Jr.: I refuse to call him New Goblin, but I should call him White Rocket Racer... Looks Pretty good, but it's a shame that his mask isn't removable so we could have our very own James Franco.
- Normal Sandman: OK it's 3 New Sculpts... Looks OK. At least we have an option between Mega Sand Monster Sandman and Normal Sandman.
- S-M2 Spider-Man: He's a Repaint of the best movie Spider-Man Figure.
- S-M3 Symbiote Spidey: I bet he's a repaint of the other Spidey except with a new Torso... Nope! He's a new sculpt... With LEss Articulation than Normal Spidey...
- S-M3 Venom: Obviously he's a new Sculpt... Looks OK-Ish, but I'm not a fan of movie Venom...
Hey! it has less Repaints than expected!
Still Hasbro was striking hard... While these 2 waves were around they also released a couple of 2 packs AND a TRU Exclusive!
-Cable and Marvel Girl (Jean Grey)
This Cable has a new look and I think only his arms are reused from his Toy Biz version.
The Jean Grey looks like she uses most of the Rachel Summers body from the Brood Queen Wave (more on that wave later.) with a new head that has a resemblance to her Toy Biz ML6 head. (Nice move Hasbro!)
-Domino and Cannonball
Cannonball is a Reuse of the ML7 Ghost Rider... That's why he looks so "wimpy"
Domino is pretty much a reuse of the XMC X-Treme Rogue... (The only not ugly Rogue figure...)
-The TRU Exclusive is The Black Queen: Sadly it's a Repaint of Fugly White Queen with a new head... and a Whip. She looks a lot better than Emma frost, but that buck is not that good.

Now after that Onslaught we got the Brood Queen Wave:
The Wave consists of:
-Bucky: He's pretty cool and reuses some pieces from the Young Avengers set
-Captain America (WWII): It's a Decent Cap, but I wish his reds were darker
-Black Knight: Looks pretty good, though I wish he had a bit of more articulation on his thighs.
-X-3 Colossus: Not too fond of X-3 Figures, but he's OK... If it had been X-3 Shadowcat I would've been more excited.
-Astonishing Cyclops: I like him better than the XMC 90s style Cyclops. The only "flaw" is that his lime yellow should be more golden=like!
-Rachel Summers: She's got her more recent look which is slightly more stylized compared to other figures. (She has a Phoenix Force Variant)
-Hydra Agent: He's got a screaming variant which I own. His Articulation is OK.
-Danger: She's a new sculpt but her massive wings make her fall back. Also she would have been a lot better with a metallic finish.

Diamond Select got an ugly exclusive: Blue Ultimate Wolverine! a Repaint of HML2 Ultimate Wolverine.
Target got an Exclusive as Well: Movie Hulk (The one with Ed Norton)

The next Set I never saw... Have you noticed the trend of HML and me?
The Fin Fang Foom Set:
Starring:
-Absorbing Man: Sadly his ball does not sport a real chain...
-Doc Samson: He looks OK.
-Savage Hulk (Both Gray and Green) I still prefer the Hulk vs Leader Hulk!
-"The End" Hulk... This is from a parallel universe AFAIK. He's the last being on an irradiated Earth or something. If he turns to Banner he dies. Looks pretty cool though. It's Hulk in a Loincloth.
-King Hulk: I guess this is part of the Planet Hulk Saga... I actually think that a Gladiator Hulk looks pretty cool...
-"Savage" She-Hulk: She- Hulk in a manner Similar to her First Appearance... Her Torso will be reused soon...
-Skaar (Son of Hulk): Another Hulk-Like character who has a MOTU vibe to him.
-Wendigo: Pretty Cool Looking, looks better than a White Sasquatch.

SDCC brought a cool 3 pack: Ka-Zar, Shanna The She-Devil and Zabu the Sabretooth-Tiger.
Shanna's buck is the Savage She-Hulk buck, Ka-Zar seems to be wearing clothes? Zabu is a Sigma Six Tiger reused. It's a cool set, but Zabu would have knocked it down a few points if I were to review it...

There was a new wave of 2 packs... as well.
Elektra vs Ronin:
It's a Better Elektra than the one from TBML IV... She has swappable hands and head (for both of her looks) There is a Skrull variant with no extra head.
Ronin comes with an extra Clint Barton head.

There's the Reed and Thing pack
Thing is the same one from the Ronan Wave and the Reed is the ToyBiz ML F4 Pack head on the ToyBiz MLV Reed Body. Waste of pack...

The Third pack is Smauel L. Jackson with Ultimate Captain America (WWII Version)
I'm no fan of Ultimate Nick Fury, but he's a pretty cool looking fig. The Cap is not that bad either.

The Last Pack is Forge and Wolverine (X-Men Training Clothes) Could you believe that Wolverine was what made me skip this one? He's too tall and I'm not fan of both headsculpts?
On the other hand Forge is pretty cool... He shares the same buck as Wolverine... Except the right leg.

The Red Hulk Wave: Since I'm Targetless I freaking Hate this!
First off , I don't care about "Rulk" and I'm only interested in Warlock and Spiral... or should I say was...
-Warlock: He's pretty cool and he has the Infinity Gauntlet...
-Spiral: She looks awesome, but Hasbro did cut some key POA for her... Bicep swivel... She kinda needs those!
-Wolverine (yet again): Looks OK. He has a Black Variant (x-Force I think)
-Symbiote Spidey: Looks OK, but I miss the hand Articulation.
-Union Jack: Looks OK, but I'm not that interested in him.
-Silver Savage: Silver Surfer as a Gladiator... I really don't care...

The Ares Wave is next: I've already given up on Hasbro... Most of these figures I NEVER SAW!! (as you can see on this rant.)
Saw them ONCE at a Wal-Mart... Not the Entire Wave though... but Torch, Ben Reilly and Heroes Reborn IronMan.
This wave has:
-Heroes Reborn Ironman: Ironman, the Dragster edition...
-Ben Reilly the Spider-Clone:He's better than the one we got on SMC...
-Human Torch: Who has the best Johnny Storm head I've seen... but completely flamed on! (and has another more flamed on variant...) Seriously doesn't anyone think that Human Torch should get a flamed off variant by default!?
-Vision:Eh... TB's Vision is good enough for me... Wasted opportunity. A White vision would have been better.
-Crossbones:He's a Punisher Character, right? Not much to say about him... He seems to be roughly the same size as the BAF though...
-Kang: A Repaint of the F4Classics Kang.
-Guardian:He's OK and helps Sasquatch to increase the number of Alpha Flight people to 2...
-Ultimate WarMachine: Repaint of Ultimate Ironman

HasbroToyshop Exclusive AoA Sunfire: Looks Pretty cool, but I'd prefer NORMAL Sunfire first...

The Holocaust Wave: (I refuse to call him Nemesis!) was another Wal-Mart Exclusive that I never Saw... No wonder I gave up on ML...
It consisted of:
-"Cat" Beast: Not a fan of that look... and no he can't haz a cheezburger
-Black Bolt:His wing things look BAAAAD!
-DareDevil (Red and Yellow versions): Expected to have those variants with DareDevil in ML...
-Punisher (Jungle Camo variant): It's closer to the Tom Jane look... Prefer the Jungle Camo variant.
-Nova:Nothing to write Home About... He looks almost DCUC-like...
-Tigra:Looks OK except for the lack of fur...

Now ML has been reduced to a few sets of 2 packs and it seems that it's going the way of the dinosaur due to the appearance of the 3 3/4" Marvel Universe line...
-a Hand Ninja vs a SHIELD Agent (or Nick Fury)
-The Variant of this pack has a white Hand Ninja and an Agent (or Dum Dum Dugan)

-We also got an Invisible Woman And Human Torch pack:
The Sue seems to be new... but she looks like a man, baby! Torch is a repaint of the Ares Wave Torch... It's the closest we'll ever get to a flamed off Johnny!

-We have an Ironman vs Female Shield Agent pack:
The Ironman has a Stealth Armor Variant. (More poseable than the First ML Ironman from ToyBiz) Each pack has enough pieces to make either Sharon Carter or Maria Hill... So Hasbro is nudging ya to get both...

Last but not least, the Skrull vs Kree pack!
The Skrull is a repainted Super Skrull.
The Kree seems to be made on the Quicksilver buck with a few new pieces.

Hasbro still fired off one last wave of 2 packs before announcing that Marvel Legends would be back in Full-Force by 2012... Part of me does worry about it being too little too late.

The last set of 2 packs consisted of:
Black Widow vs The Winter Soldier:
The Black Widow is what makes the variant: The black suit that is more popular and a gray suit.
For the Winter Soldier there is no variant.

Deadpool and Warpath:
Both characters have a different colored variant and Sneaky Hasbro found a way to nudge you into buying both!
-Red and Black Deadpool with X-Force's silver and Black Warpath.
-Blue and Yellow Deadpool with the Old School Red and Blue Warpath.

The last Pack is Valkyrie and Hulk:
Incredibly enough Valkyrie was a very wanted figure, but the end result was a bit underwhelming. The Hulk is kinda cool in theory, but the body looks a bit too cartoony...

And that is pretty much the END of Marvel Legends... Until their Return...
And this is what the return of ML starts with:
2011 SDCC Thor!
If this is what Hasbro is bringing up to the game with ML 3.0 it's no wonder Mattel is crapping on their pants! Now if Hasbro can make ML and keep them at a lower cost than Mattel's DCU All-Stars (The new re-branded DCUC) and have them look that cool... without the constant QC issues that plague DCUC... Then, Mattel's only hope to survive the 6 inch Superhero toyline battle is the Mattycollector.com branch of DCUC!