[Trivial Psychic]

My patience paid off, and I was able to take advantage of both the recent ebay coupon and a general lack of interest in the Legends collecting community to nab the SDCC Defenders box set for well below retail. It arrived yesterday, and hot damn...this packaging is something else. I kinda don't wanna open it now...lol...it looks that good.

Add to the fact that I haven't even gotten around to posting on some of the other figures I've picked up lately, so here's a quick catch up of thoughts.

Ronan 10th anniversary: Boy...Hasbro dropped the ball with this guy. Great sculpt (although a bit boxy) but that issue with the head being attached to the shoulder armor really kills any of the cool posing options one might be able to come up with. It feels like a better articulated version of their titan heroes figures because of it. I haven't seen an armor glitch this bad since the early days of Skyrim...and it really ruins the aesthetics of the figure.



X-23 Wolverine: I had absolutely no attachment to this version of the character, and truthfully, picked it up originally because I was only interested in the alternate headsculpt, but in hand, it's actually a lot better of a figure than I gave it credit for. The colors pop (they did a really good job with the paint QC on most of this DP wave...) and most of the line work is really crisp. I love the boot cut (can we give the women figures this please...) and the best part, I don't need to make toe claws for this one because Hasbro took care of it for me. My only gripes with the figure though lies in the reason I bought it...the unmasked headsculpt. She's pretty, but she also looks like Michael Jackson from certain angles. My figure also has thousand yard stare that could make Rambo blush, as the eyes were painted kinda wonky and lifeless with no where near the amount of detail that we've received with recent female figures like Dagger or Typhoid Mary.

Deadpool and Chill (AKA. Boxers Deadpool): Gonna be honest, I've avoided almost all of the DP related figures in the wave, but I really wanted to finish Sauron and the torso was the only piece up to this point that I was unable to trade for or purchase cheaply. (There was no way I was paying 20 bucks for the torso alone!)

Which brings me to picking up this DP figure when I saw it in hand yesterday. It's okay as a figure I guess, but the excellent paint QC that the rest of the wave had took a real dive with this guy, as his linework is fuzzy and all over the place. The headsculpt on mine was poorly painted as well, requiring me to touch it up a bit. I don't mind the laser nerf weapons, but what's really unfortunate about them is that they're a bit small, and wouldn't work with many of the characters they make the most sense with (Bishop or Cable for example) as their hands are simply too big to hold them. He also has a holster, but no weapons that can fit in it. Shame Hasbro...shame.



At least my wife likes the figure, so I gave it to her, so it doesn't feel like a total waste. Plus, it allowed me to complete Sauron so....

Sauron BAF: This is a very cool BAF and fills a collection need for many, as we haven't received a Sauron since the original X-men animated toys from Toybiz. It might have been my BAF of the year thus far, however there's one HUGE glaring problem with it for me, and that it's 85 percent reissue of the Amazing Spider-Man Movie Lizard figure. The upper and lower torso and legs all come from that figure, and therefore, inherit some of the issues that came with it, such as the thigh rotation being blocked by the crotch of the figure, and the loose upper torso joint that mine has, which is exacerbated by the heavy amount of weight it bears thanks to the arms and head. Speaking of the head, the head on mine pops off a bit easily when I try to adjust the neck. Not sure if this is a widespread issue or just mine, but it's there.

Still though, Sauron is somehow able to make that ugly Lizard body mold work for him better than it ever did for Rhys Ifans, and I like how the front part of the wings can detach from the arms easily allowing something more dynamic that doesn't get in the way when Sauron is posted up on the ground. The tail and neck joints still worry me though the way that they did with the original movie Lizard, but they do give him some nice posing options. All in all though, mold flaws aside, this is a cool one from out of left field, and it leaves me wanting more Marauders and Mutates members like the Vertigo, Zaladane, Whiteout, and Lorelei...