MARVEL LEGENDS: ICONS Wave I

By Daniel/Julius

For any of you that have been to Comic Con and seen a hand painted 2-up prototype of a Marvel Legend figure you know that you have considered a bit of larceny to get something that cool into your collection. Well now Marvel Toys (Toy Biz) has taken everything they have learned from the Marvel Legends line, their roto-cast lines and their previous 12" figure lines to create a beautiful new line of 12" scale figures called "MARVEL LEGENDS ICONS." The first wave is just starting to hit stores and let me tell you these are worth tracking down!

These are NOT roto-cast figures. They are solid, not hollow. Iron Man and Wolverine are completely new sculpts. Captain America appears to be a 2-up of the Captain America from the Marvel Legends Face-Off 2-packs.

The Icons figures feature the d-tents in the joints much like many of the recent Marvel Legends. This works really well on the 12" figure to prevent floppy limbs/joints and to help the heavier figures hold their poses. Also with the figure being denser and heavier than the 6" Marvel Legends they have a better center of gravity to be able to put them in cool poses on your shelves.

While the future of this line is uncertain past wave III when Hasbro takes over the details of the box art give us some clues as to other Marvel characters we could see in this line.

Each figure comes with an "Evolution of a Legend" comic book that has a bio and many famous covers and panels featuring the character.

WOLVERINE- Sculpted by Phil Ramirez

Astonishing X-Men Wolverine is the debut version of Logan in the Icons line. In the 12" version they have packed in a lot more costume detail when compared to his 6" counterpart. In this version they have hidden the waist articulation under the belt instead of splitting the belt. The claws are sturdy and hold their proper shape well. Wolverine is appropriately scaled to the other figures. In other words he is the shortest of the bunch.

Variant version is unmasked with his hood down.

Wolverine articulation: ball jointed head, ball shoulders with swivel, double elbows, glove swivel, wrist, fingers and thumb, torso, waist pivot, ball hips with swivel, double knees, boot swivel, ML ankles, mid-foot.

CAPTAIN AMERICA- VARIANT- Sculpted by Dave Cortez

Captain America translates really well in this format. The figure looks like it is ready to kick ass even in static poses. These photos are of the unmasked version. Cap comes with his trademark shield that can clip onto his arm or be strapped to his back.

The metallic paint wash in the plate mail is extremely effective and the overall paint washes bring out a lot of great detail on the sculpt.

The regular version of Captain America has his mask on.

Captain America is articulated at: ball jointed head, ball shoulders with swivel and pivot, double elbows, glove swivel, wrist, fingers, torso, waist pivot, ball hips with swivel, double knees, boot swivel, ML ankles, mid-foot.

Iron Man - Sculpted by Dave Cortez

I think I have to vote for Iron Man as my favorite figure in this wave. he jut looks great in every pose and the added detail in this scale is dynamite. Iron Man has a removable mask and comes with two "fire bursts" that can plug into his repulsors or his boot jets.

In this scale the figure has a better range of motion in the joints than his 6" counterpart, especially in the wrists.

This red and gold deco is the variant figure. The regular version is red and yellow. I think the gold gives a more realistic look to the figure.

Iron Man has the following articulation: ball jointed head and neck, ball shoulders with swivel, double elbows, glove swivel, wrist, fingers, torso, waist pivot, ball hips with swivel, double knees, ML ankles, mid-foot.

The set I got had the hole in the top of the box open without any clear plastic which could be a problem in mass retail stores with things like Iron Man's mask and fire blasts or Cap's shield falling out in shipping or being stolen in the stores. Just something you may want to watch out for.

Here are a couple of size comparison shots of the Apocalypse Build-A-Figure for scale.

All in all, I am really impressed with line and wish that it had started earlier so we could have potentially gotten a wider range of characters in this style and scale. These are great figures for the proce point and I think that ML fans will find them worth tracking down,

Coming Soon:

Series 2: Spiderman, Venom, Hulk
Series 3: Thing, Lizard, Beast

You can order this set and all the newly released Marvel Legends from LegendsAF.com or YouBuyNow.com.