[Trivial Psychic]

Managed to run into the rest of the Kingpin wave today at Walgreens, so with that said, here's some thoughts on the remaining figures. I've already covered Black Cat, so she won't be featured in these musings.



Night Thrasher: I'm gonna get this out of the way...this guy is the weakest figure in the wave in my opinion. The lack of paint, the fact that two VERY DIFFERENT plastics are used for the legs, and a body mold I was not very fond of to begin with (Udon Taskmaster) really hurt this guy. The bandana doesn't stay where it should, the shoulder joints were loose (a common problem with this mold) and the lack of "roll of the dice" wrist swivels don't do it any favors as well. The ASM2 skateboard making it's comeback is a nice touch, but some paint or sculpted stickers there (like the patches we got on Spider-Punk) would have gone a long way. Granted, I know there's not a whole lot to the character design wise, but the fact that a design so simple was done so poorly really hurts the figure and it falls flat with me.



Symbiote Spider-Man: Hard to really say much about a figure that's basically a slight re-deco of the Sandman wave Symbiote Spider-Man, except that this one has goofy looking eyes (looking like Spidey decided to don some Vegas showgirl peacock glasses), some clawed hands, and monster feet (which is a theme with this wave...we got three characters with monster feet!!!) I hate the feet for this guy, as they look way too big, and upon comparing it to images from the comic that this costume appeared, it's also inaccurate. I swapped mine out with a fodder pair I had lying around. The good news is the spider-logo was very clean on mine, the pattern itself looks good, and the heads from both the Back in Black Deadpool and the Sandman wave Spider-Man fit on him, meaning that I don't need to settle for those goofy looking lenses on the main headsculpt. The BiB: DP clawed hands also work with him, so that's an option, but you might want to save those hands for the next guy I'm gonna talk about....



Red Goblin: Truthfully, I didn't expect much out of this guy, but after making a couple of minor tweaks to him...he's easily my favorite character in the wave outside of Kingpin. I dig the color pattern, and the good use of the Carnage parts. I also really like the headsculpt...although I did think it was a bit goofy looking out of the box. The cat eyes look silly, and the bottom teeth on his underbite not being painted give him the appearance of having a huge handlebar mustache from certain angles. I actually touched mine up with some paint, adding some black to the bottom row of teeth, connecting the black to the jawline and painting over iris to give him solid gold eyes. I swapped out the hands for the BiB: DP clawed hands I mentioned earlier, and now, he just feels much more menacing than he did. My only gripes (besides those paint design choices I fixed) is that he doesn't come with a glider (which seems silly to me that he would have one...wouldn't the noise off of glider engine scare off the symbiote...not to mention the fire the glider is covered in?) as well as a lack of bendy wire in the tail. Thankfully, I have a bunch of Toybiz gliders to spare, and if you give this guy the Classics Hobgoblin/Demogoblin glider, he looks like a hoss on it. Very cool figure, and one that caught me by surprise.



Puma: This is a character I've actually wanted for a while, and Hasbro did an excellent job with him. I love all of the new bits (such as the necklace and the fur on his legs,) and even though he shops from the same store as Night Thrasher (he's wearing the same belt) the color choice and logo on it cleverly hides that. The headsculpt on Puma is amazing...Hasbro knocked it out of the park, right down to his kitty cat nose. He's nearly perfect...except for the fact that they went with some sort of weird engineering choice for the joint connecting his arms. They have great articulation, but the joint on the top part of bicep is way too small for it...leaving a really ugly gap in it. I'm not sure if this was a design choice on purpose, or by accident...but what I am sure of is that it's really unsightly.

Silver Sable: Like others have said, finally, a new Silver Sable, and she's pretty darn good. The silver plastics and paints used here are excellent, and the headsculpt is a really good one, showing off Sable's femininity and beauty while having some powerful, masculine features like her strong cheekbones and jawline. The holsters and pouches are all good choices, and the Nerf gun accessories work well with her hi-tech, mercenary character, although I ditched them for some simple SMGs shortly after getting her out of the box. A very good figure, and one of the better comic based female Legends to have come out over the past year.

Kingpin: Once again, what's to say about this guy that hasn't been said already? The mass is great, the sculpt is AWESOME, and his one lone accessory is done so well, it's hard to find fault. It's actually quite possible he's the best BAF we've received over the past two years. Honestly, the only other thing that I want out of this Kingpin is some interchangeable hands...notably some chopping or open palmed hands so I could simulate Kingpin's sumo fighting style with some palm thrusts. Shame you'll have to get two if you want a separate Shadow King, but at the very least, we finally have the Kingpin we need, and I can retire my old Face-Off figure.

Overall...I've seen a lot of nitpicking at this wave, with people griping about the character selection, but honestly, as questionable as some of the character choices were (another Symbiote Spidey...with another coming soon in the Kraven two pack?) nearly all of the figures were pretty well done outside of Night Thrasher, and are worth picking up depending on your preference.

Oh....and monster feet. Lots of monster feet.