Hasbro Marvel Legends Infinite Mandroid and Green Goblin series review (Part Two)
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Action figure collecting can often seem like a never ending game of hide and seek. By the time you manage to track down all of the
items that you want at retail, you hear about new items showing up. That's exactly what happened to me with the two Marvel Legends
Infinite Mandroid and Green Goblin series. It took a very long time to finally track down Black Cat and Carnage from the Green
Goblin series. And within about a week of finding those figures, the second half of both the Green Goblin and Mandroid series began
showing up at retail. Fortunately I was able to track down all six of the new figures relatively quickly. So now it is time to
complete my Mandroid BAF.
Since I have already covered the first half of both series, I'm going to try not to repeat myself too much in this review. But if you haven't already read them, check out the reviews for both the previous figures from the Mandroid and Ultimate Green Goblin series.
Packaging - Goblin Series figures 6/10, Mandroid Series 9/10I like the new Infinite series package design. But it still feels like a better fit for the movie based figures than the comic based figures of the Green Goblin series. But it is the shared packaging for the Green Goblin series figures that I have an issue with. These are not well know characters. I didn't even know who Boomerang was before this series. So to not have any character information, including the character's name is a huge oversight to me.
Sculpting - Toxin 5/10, others 8/10It's rather difficult to judge any of these figures except Black Widow. I'm simply not that familiar with Boomerang or Spider-girl. I have yet to see Captain America: Winter Soldier. And Toxin, being a symbiote, can change his form fairly radically. Black Widow is a bit different from her appearance in the Avengers. I'm assuming those costume changes are from the new Captain America movie, as is the new, straight hair style. The alternate face with curly hair seems like a better likeness, it at least has a passing ressemblance to Scarlett Johansson. Both the new Capatain America and Winter Soldier figures have a similar level of detail. I suppose I could compare them to the tailer and preproduction images that are available online, but I typically don't care to know too much about a movie before I have a chance to go see it. Both Spider-girl and Boomerang have fairly simple costumes, so there isn't a great deal of sculpting work. But both look decent from my passing knowledge of the characters. Finally there is Toxin. While I really liked the new Carnage figure for the tendrils that add visual detail. Toxin is the complete opposite. He uses the same bulkier body as Hyperion with just a few details added to the forearms and claw hands. He is just too plain for my tastes. I prefer the previous Toxin from Toy Biz.
Paint - Toxin 3/10, Boomerang 5/10 Capt. America 7/10, others 8/10The Mandroid series figures from the new Captain America movie all have sharp paint applications that do quite a good job of highlighting the details of the sculpt. Captain America has a small issue with scrape marks on the silver portions of the costume. They wouldn't be that big of a deal normally, but the silver color stands out more than usual. Boomerang suffers from a similar problem with the white stripe on his chest and the paint for his face. Both show a lot of the blue from the plastic underneath. Spider-girl has a much simplier paint scheme. But it is executed well. Toxin has an even simplier paint scheme which didn't turn out well at all. To begin with, Toxin is generally suppose to be red for his upper body and a darker color, either black or blue, for his legs. This figure is a dark red with a brighter red paint for the face and upper body. But they must have painted him after the arms were attached, because the shoulder joints are not painted. In the end he looks more like a mediocre custom figure than a mass market production figure.
Articulation - 8/10They are Marvel Legends figures. In case you haven't caught on by now, that means a lot of articulation. And with years of practice and hundreds of previous figures to refine the designs, quality control issues such as loose joints should not be a concern. The only issue of note with these six figures is that Black Widow's ankles were a bit stiff at first. But working them back and forth a bit took care of that.
Accessories - Spider-girl 0/10, Toxin 3/10, Boomerang 7/10, others 8/10Spider-girl is the only figure of the six which doesn't have any accessories. (Not that she really needs anything.) Toxin comes with the same set of back mounted tendrils as Carnage did. But in his case, adding the tendrils just seems to highlight how dull the rest of the figure really is in my opinion. Boomerang comes with four boomerangs and a pair of boomerang shaped fins that attach to his back and serve as a storage rack for his boomerangs. I'm a bit concerned since the rack seems to be designed to have the boomerangs inserted from below. It seems like that will make them more likely to fall out over time. But they seem to fit snuggly for now. The Mandroid series figures have more accessories. Each comes with an alternate head. Winter Soldier also has a repainted version of the long rifle that came with the Hydra Soldier from the Mandroid Series. Black Widow has a spare set of hands. Captain America also has a spare set of hands and his shield of course. This version of the shield goes back to using two straps to hold it on the figure's arm. While I appreciate the attempt to be accurate to the design of the actual prop, I have to admit that the straps have their drawbacks. They do not attach to his forearms as easily or securely as other shield designs. And this design doesn't provide a means to store the shield on his back either.
Build A Figure (Mandroid) - 6/10As I understand it, Mandroid is less of a character in the comics and more of a weapons system. It is supposed to be a suit of mechanical armor used by various military forces, especially SHIELD. There have been a lot of different designs for the mandroids over the years. But this version seems to be based on the Avengers Initiative video game. And it is a pretty good likeness concidering that most of the Mandroid figure is reused from the Iron Monger figure from last year. The torso and head are new and the arms have new armor and weapons attached. But the rest of the arms, lower body and legs are the same as the Iron Monger. The articulation for the Mandroid is even more limited than it was on Iron Monger. The arms in particular have a very limited range of motion. And the head is difficult to turn simply because there is very little to hold onto while turning it.
Value - Toxin 3/10, others 8/10As I already covered with the two previous reviews of the Marvel Legends Infinite figures, the price has officially gone up to $20 per figure. That is a fairly steep price, but not really that large of a jump. (Toys R Us was already charging $20 or more per Marvel Legends figure in my area.) But for five of the six figures, you are getting well executed figures of either new characters or at least distinctly new versions of a charcter in the case of Captain America. And a movie version of Black Widow is more than overdue. The one low point is Toxin. While I admit that I am not well versed on the character, I do know that this is the least interesting figure of any of the symbiotes that I have. And you can not even use the Build A Figure to justify buying him as you can get the same part from Carnage instead and you will get a better executed figure.
Happy Hunting:The second half of both the Mandroid and Green Goblin series are starting to show up in stores now. I have found them both at Target and Toys R Us stores. And the figures have also been added to Target's web store as well as Toys R Us'. (Though Toys R Us has since taken them down once they no longer had them in stock.) They should also begin showing up anywhere else that carries the Marvel Legends Infinite lines. The one draw back would be that with Boomerang, Spider-girl and Toxin now shipping in the cases of Green Goblin series figures, finding Black Cat, Carnage and Beetle could become even more difficult. From what I have seen, the Mandroid cases still include most, if not all of the figures from that series though.
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