[Trivial Psychic]

Sabertooth: I was highly anticipating this figure, saw the prototype and all the pictures, and was hyped when I pulled him from his plastic prison...only to discover this...



So the head-sculpt to this figure is apparently two pieces, with the jaw being a separate piece that is glued on. Why Hasbro did it like this is beyond me. It's unsightly and ugly. It looks like he actually sat and listened to how Ledger's stories about "how he got those scars..." And it's also common, after watching a few reviews for this figure. It's damn shame, because it ruins the look of one of the best looking figures out of the wave. Despite using the Hyperion body mold, everything else on this guy is perfect. The paints on mine were crisp, the clawed hands are awesome, and the shawl looks great.

For those of you wondering...you can swap the fur shawl with the previous Legends Sabertooth if you happen to have that one. The head from that figure also works with this new Sabertooth for different display options as well. Really glad that Hasbro allowed this to happen without having to mod any of the two figure's components.



Storm: I LOVE this Storm. I know everyone wanted Jim Lee's awful costume design, but this is the Storm I was first introduced to...the one beating down Scott for leadership of the team. I love the smirk, and the sass she gives off, and the sculpted collar corset top are awesome. The lightning effects look great with her too. The only gripes that I can think of is that the bottom part of the corset is painted on the body, and the paint is a bit shinier than the top. It's hard to tell in pictures, but in person, it's quite noticeable. That and those boots (the feet in particular) look comically big. Then again, she's supposed to be a punker, so maybe that's the intent. Can't wait to throw this one in a couple of shots with Spider-Punk.

She's the winner of the wave for me...although I wished that Hasbro would have given her an alternate head featuring a a flattened faux hawk fade for a more modern and contemporary look.



Psylocke: This is the one most of us have been waiting for, and she's a good one. Out of all the figures that I picked up, she's got the cleanest line-work, and the colors and skin tone are really well done. All of the accessories are bad ass and work well. The waist sash is a new piece, and the figure incorporates what looks like the Wasp legs onto the Silk lower torso, meaning that the figure has better articulation at the hips, allowing her to throw kicks and do better splits. The head-sculpt is pretty (I have the black haired version) but it's also my biggest gripe...it feels a bit small to me and sits a little high on the neck, so I'll have to dremel it out a bit for a better fit. It also looks a bit cartoonish at some angles while looking distinctly Asian from others. I also wish she had tabi boot feet like the original X-Force version did.



And because I'm sure some of you will want to know...yes...you can do this...



I actually think the Psylocke head mold works better for Cindy, while the Silk head mold works better for Psylocke. The Silk head though fits a little loose on the Psylocke body (but that can be fixed with a small piece of napkin,) but it also fits lower, and while it's not perfect, the skin tone is fairly close, so that's also an option.

Apocalypse: This guy makes up for my disappointments in the wave, because he's really everything I wanted out of the BAF. Apocalypse is my favorite mutant character, hero or villain, and I love this guy. He's posable (though could be better at the elbow bend, but ehh...whatever at this point...) the armor is a nice blend of loose pieces and stationary ones, and the sculpt is terrific. I'm not sure exactly what version of the character this is, but I really like it. Granted, mine is not complete (he's missing the arm-tubes that came with Wolverine...since I haven't found him yet,) but for a 95 percent complete BAF...I'm very happy with it. I think a lot of you will be too.



All in all...while I bitched a lot about this wave (to the point where it sounds like I'm hating...) it's actually a pretty good wave, and it's gonna make a lot of people happy, as they'll be finally getting the versions of the characters that they want. It could have been an EXCEPTIONAL wave though, if Hasbro would have just put a little bit more TLC into it like they did with the previous two X-waves. The amount of QC issues that I had with this wave were bad, and were right up there with the Sandman Wave in terms of staggering. I sincerely hope that Hasbro slows down just a bit going forward and staggers these better, because it's really starting to hurt the quality of the line, and it shows here.