This week, in a special guest Points of Articulation Column, I destroy any credibility Uli may have had with his articulate, well-thought-out articles! Enjoy!
Incidentally, strap yourselves in for a long one. This review is a doozy. Luckily, there's a handy summary at the bottom for those of you who, like me, suffer from ADD.
I finally bit the bullet today and spent my $50 to get the Apocalypse series. Was it worth it? Well, true believer, read on to find out!
Reviewed:
Astonishing X-Men Wolverine
Bishop
Iron Fist
Maestro Hulk
Sasquatch
X-23
Apocalypse
The Marvel Legends series has shown that action figures can both be ultra posable, making them great for kids and collectors alike, and that they can look pretty good at the same time. For the most part Legends figures have improved since Series 1 oh-so-many years ago; the sculpts generally look better, there's a higher degree of articulation for most of the figures, and they come with much better incentives to buy them: Instead of picking and choosing your favorite characters, you now pretty much have to buy the entire series lest you want a crippled Galactus, Sentinel, or Apocalypse trying to rule the world. To quote Freddy Pharkas, that just doesn't work like that. Unfortunately, despite all of the improvements throughout the series, Legends figures still aren't perfect. Some of the best new articulation points from previous series are strangely absent from figures in later series. For instance, chest articulation has been figured out; having that little gap between the chest and abs of characters allows for a much greater range of flexibility, and yet, in the Sentinel Series, Cyclops didn't have it. Which inevitably leads to a grand ol' WTF? From the buyer. A few problems like that have reared their ugly heads again in the Apocalypse Series. Where, you might ask? Read on, and ye shall see.
Astonishing X-Men Wolverine 
Sculpt: 8.5/10
Posability: 8/10
Coolness factor: 9/10
Overall: 8/10
This is now the fifth Wolverine figure in the Marvel Legends Series; first we had the good ol' yellow-'n-blue, then the brown costume, followed by Weapon X, and now we have Astonishing. Overall, this is a pretty good figure. The sculpt is very good, from the tiny wrinkles around joints to individual seams on the costume. Other than weirdly flat feet, this is pretty much exactly how Cassaday's art in Astonishing X-Men should look as an action figure. You also have to give 'em bonus points for making the figure physically short. He barely comes up to Cyclops' chin when standing next to the figure. I've never seen that in a Wolverine figure before, so kudos to them. The claws are also sturdy enough not to bend all over the place, so they actually look like claws instead of pipe cleaners for once.
There are, however, a few problems with the crazy Canuck, almost all of which fall into the Posability category. First of all, his hands are a waste of two points of articulation. His fingers can open and close, but there's absolutely no point in doing so: the figures are sculpted in a completely curled position, so his hands just look stupid in any pose other than a fist. Furthermore, instead of a smooth chest/abs joint, there are really only two settings: up and down. While this isn't too big of a deal, it's tough to get really precise posing for him. My last little gripe: his waist joint cuts his belt in half. When he's turned, his belt is completely misaligned, which, while a very minor detail, is enough to be noticeable.
Overall, Astonishing Wolvie is a good figure to get; despite a few very minor flaws, the sculpt is great, and I think it's the best Wolverine we've had so far.
Bishop 
Sculpt: 8/10
Posability: 8.5/10
Accessories: 8/10
Coolness factor: 9/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Bishop is one of my favorites of this series. His sculpt is good: he probably has one of the most detailed costumes and body sculpts I've seen. The muscles all look like Barry Bonds' steroidy-goodness, while there are all of the obligatory costume wrinkles to add that extra bit of realism. Or, at least, as much realism as a pumped-up, red-eyed man with a shotgun can have. His guns are also pretty good. He has trouble holding them (more on that in a minute), but the holsters on his back and right leg hold the shotgun and...other thing perfectly. On the posability front, Bishop is pretty good. His fingers are individually articulated, which, for a figure with guns, is a must. All of the usual points of articulation are here, including the side-to-side foot joints (another must), making it possible to get Bishop into all sorts of cool poses.
Now for the bad. Luckily there aren't too many flaws in this figure. The two biggest ones cause problems with his weapons: it's difficult to get his hands to hold the guns, and it's also hard to move his arms as much as one might like. The guns only work in one hand each: the shotgun goes in the right, the plasma doohickey in the left. Each palm has a small peg on it which corresponds to a small hole in each gun. Unfortunately, this isn't enough to hold the guns there, so you have to mess with the fingers until you get one in the trigger guard and three on the 
handle. Otherwise you're screwed. Furthermore, due to the stickiness of the joints that plagues this entire series, moving the elbow can sometimes be enough of a jolt to send the gun flying, making you start all over again getting the guns in hand. The other big issue I have with the figure is the lack of forward and back shoulder joints. The Spider-Man 2 Ultra-Posable figure, along with Sasquatch from this series, have special joints at the shoulders allowing the arms to swing forward further. For a figure with a gun this is a good thing to have, as that allows the figure to have two hands on a gun (one firing, one supporting), or it can also point the guns straight forward rather than off to the sides. Last problem: like Wolverine, Bishop lacks chest/ab mobility. This is partly due to the great holster on his back, but the joint is also just not that flexible.
Overall, though, Bishop is another good figure. The sculpt is very detailed, from working holsters down to tiny details in his gloves, and the figure is pretty flexible. I like 'im.
Iron Fist 
Sculpt: 9/10
Posability: 8/10
Accessories: WTF?/10
Coolness factor: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
My knowledge of Danny Rand is really quite limited. From what I do know, however, fans of the martial arts master should be pretty happy. Parts of this figure are the single best sculpting job I've seen in any Legends figure: his head and chest area are masterfully sculpted, as are his legs; his feet even have individual toe tendons, so the level of detail is really quite impressive overall. Even the little bits of cloth trailing from his belt and mask look great. In terms of posability, Iron Fist rivals most Spider-Man toys in their flexibility; there are a few glaring omissions here, but overall he's got the goods. He also has the greatest degree of confusion in all of Marvel Legend-dom: Iron Fist has mystical powers associated with his hands. As such, Toy Biz nicely includes two fiery accessories for his hands which look really great. The problem is, I can't figure out how the hell to get them on his hands for the life of me. If I could get them on, I guarantee they'd look awesome beyond belief; unfortunately, I appear to be retarded, so my Iron Fist figure is sorely lacking in the mystical hands department. Woe is me.
Once again, like all of the Marvel Legends figures ever made, there are a few issues. Iron Fist, for the most part, has one of the best sculpts I've seen; and yet, for all of that, he looks somewhat idiotic when he's just standing around. This is a direct result of his weird shoulders: instead of being integrated into his chest area, his arms look like they're just stuck onto his body, and stick out strangely as a result. While this does allow for greater flexibility in his arms (they even added an upwards shoulder joint, so that's a good thing), it looks bad when he isn't posed in some exotic manner. There's also a problem with his feet: once again, a very good point of articulation is missing from this figure for no apparent reason. Almost every Legend figure has the side-to-side foot joint that allows the figure to support itself when its legs are going off to the side. Unfortunately, Iron Fist doesn't have that, making a low-to-the-ground martial arts pose trickier to pull off than it should be. I have no idea why that joint isn't there. Maestro Hulk has it, for Chrissakes; you'd think one of the most flexible characters in all of Marvel Comics would be as posable as possible. While the figure is very flexible, it's amazing what this one little omission can do to damage his posability. This is probably the stupidest error of the entire series, right up there with Cyclops from the Sentinel Series lacking a chest pivot.
Despite his few very-noticeable errors, Iron Fist is pretty good. The sculpt is great, though the weird shoulder joints are somewhat distracting. While not perfect, Iron Fist is nothing to laugh at. That's X-23's job, and we wouldn't want to take that away from her.
Maestro Hulk 
Sculpt: 8.5/10
Posability: 7/10
Accessories: 7.5/10
Coolness factor: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
I have no clue who Maestro Hulk is. According to the back of his box, he's the Hulk from an apocalyptic future (fitting for the series, no?) ravaged by nuclear war. Is this the Hulk from Hulk: The End? I really don't know. What I DO know, however, is that the action figure looks pretty cool. The head sculpt is great. If he weren't green, Maestro Hulk's head would look great as Zeus or Poseidon. His body in general is pretty cool, too, with individual veins running up his arms and little warts covering his chest. His helmet is equally cool, though its tendency to fall off his head at any moment knocks it down a few points. Posability is the Hulk's nemesis, though: while he isn't Spider-Man, Maestro Hulk has some trouble moving around.
The Hulk is, well, a hulking creature. You probably wouldn't expect him to be too agile, and you'd be right: While he has all of the absolutely vital points of articulation (beating the pants off of any DC Direct figure you're likely to find), he's also got some issues. Maestro Hulk has the side-to-side joints on his ankles that Iron Fist lacked (Why? I don't know, he's on third, and I don't give a darn.), but he doesn't have the joint on his calves that every other Legend figure I've seen has: his foot has to be lined up with his knee at all times, as he doesn't have a joint that allows him to do otherwise. He also has an utter lack of chest movement (even worse than the rest of the series, which, for the most part, is quite a feat), so he's unable to look up or down without moving his neck. This also means he can't tower over a smaller guy like Wolverine very effectively. The last problem Maestro Hulk has is his hands: they're just awkward. They're pudgy and the fingers just don't look very good. His right hand doesn't quite work as a fist, and it doesn't quite work as an open hand. His left looks pretty good open, but they both look bad when you're looking at his palms.
For all of his articulation flaws, though, I have to say I like Maestro Hulk quite a bit. The sculpt is good , and it's definitely possible to make him look good in a pose. Perhaps not as many options as you'd have with, say, Iron Fist, but he's a fun figure nonetheless.
Sasquatch 
Sculpt: 8/10
Posability: 10/10
Accessories: 0/10
Coolness factor: 7/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Sasquatch is one of the single most-articulated action figures I have ever seen. Bested perhaps only by the super-posable Spider-Man 2 action figure, Sasquatch 
can do pretty much anything you'd like him to. From individual fingers being movable, to the shoulder joints that Bishop doesn't have, Sasquatch is really pretty impressive. He's also HUGE. Poor little Wolverine only comes up to his waist. There's also a really good attention to detail on the figure: the texturing is very well done, making Sasquatch a big, hairy lunk of a guy, and the longer hair looks good, too. Really nothing to complain about on that front.
In fact, I have only one complaint about Sasquatch: his accessories are terrible. If the Silver Surfer can come with Howard the Duck, where the Hell is my Marvel Legends Puck action figure, dammit?! Despite that grievous error, there's really nothing to complain about on this figure. Good one to have, overall.
X-23 
Sculpt: 5/10
Posability: 6/10
Coolness factor: 2/10
Overall: 4/10
I hate to say it, but I really don't have too many good things to say about X-23. Instead of looking like a ruthless killing machine, she looks like an anorexic who could be killed with a gust of wind going the wrong direction. Other than her extendable foot claws (which are actually kinda neat, as they fold under her feet), she's really got nothin' going for her. She has about as many points of articulation as the first Spider-Man classics figures (except 
she can't bend her toes, due to the foot claw), and she doesn't have any kind of hand joints at all. While that would have been OK for Wolverine, it just adds yet another point of patheticity (aren't fake words fun?) to an already-pathetic figure. Unless you're a huge fan of X-23, buy this figure for the Apocalypse head and toss her in a drawer. Disappointing all around.
Apocalypse 
Sculpt: 8/10
Posability: 8/10
Coolness factor: 11/10
Overall: 9/10
I absolutely love the build-a-figures of the last few ML series. While I never got the Galactus series, the Sentinel is far and away one of the coolest action figures I have. Now Apocalypse is right up there with him. This is why it was worth buying the POS called X-23. The giant Apocalypse figure is just really, really damn cool. First of all, he's utterly massive. Sasquatch comes up to his waist. This means Wolverine only hits the tops of Pooky's knees. The sculpt is pretty well done, overall. Though not as detailed as the Sentinel (and what can be?), Apocalypse is nonetheless really good-looking, in a grey-skinned, blue-lipped kinda way. If you're into that kind of thing, that is. The easiest way I can think of for reviewing Pooky is by part. So here goes:
Head/Upper Torso: X-23
Those bastards at Toy Biz forced us into buying X-23 in order to finish up the figure. Luckily it was worthwile. Pooky's head looks downright menacing; though limited somewhat by his well-sculpted collar, it's also rather mobile. The only problem I had with the upper torso was the coloring of the shoulders. The arm pieces are actually only the forearms and biceps, as they attach to the shoulders on the upper torso. The shoulder ball joints are painted a lighter blue, unlike the black of the rest of the figure. While it matched one arm (more on that in a second), the other arm has a blue shoulder and black bicep, which looks kinda weird. Other than that, no complaints.
Arms: Sasquatch (Right), Maestro Hulk (Left)
The arms are probably the most problematic parts of the figure. As previously mentioned, one my figure's arms isn't the right color. My Sasquatch figure came with a blue arm that matched the color of the shoulder joint. The Hulk, however, came with a black arm that matches the legs and rest of the figure. While it isn't horrifically noticeable, be sure to pay attention when buying figures, as you probably want to shoot for all-black limbs. The other issue with the arms is the finger setup: each finger is individually posable, so that's a good thing; however, much like Wolverine, you really don't want to uncurl the fingers or it'll look funky. The fists look great, though, as do the cables that connect to his back. Unlike other Apocalypse figures, these cables are also plenty long enough: it's impossible to pull the cables taught, so fighting with the cables for posing rights isn't really an issue. I always had that problem with the growing Apocalypse figure from the Animated Series, so it's good to see they fixed that.
Lower Torso: Bishop
The lower torso is really kind of strange. Unlike the Sentinel's, which locked with the upper body using a regular one-way connector, this attaches to Pooky's chest using a weird mechanism that, though effective, results in an annoying clicking sound whenever you use the chest joint. Furthermore, much like the Sentinel, the hip joints are both stiff (which is good for figure this heavy) and noisy. I don't quite know why that is, but any time you move Pooky around you'll get some clicks out of 'im. Not a big deal, though.
Legs: Iron Fist (Right), Astonishing Wolverine (Left)
I really have no complaints about the legs at all. They're well-sculpted, detailed, and very posable; any joint you'd expect to be on a regular ML leg is found on Apocalypse's. Another nice touch, which is also found on the arms, is the lack of visible joint bolts: one can usually see were the bolts holding joints together are on a figure, but Apocalypse has little plastic squares on each side of each limb covering up those unsightly joint holes. A little touch, but a nice one, nonetheless.
Recap time!
Astonishing Wolverine: damn good. A few minor flaws, but good sculpt, and he's finally a midget!
Bishop: worthy effort. Detailed, generally good accessories, not a bad buy.
Iron Fist: another good one. A few weird problems and confounding flaming hands, but good sculpt.
Maestro Hulk: not too articulate (heh, heh) but a fun figure anyway. Helmet's a bit annoying, though.
Sasquatch: no complaints. Very posable, detailed sculpt; lack of Puck is terrible.
X-23: horrible. Buy it for the Apocalypse piece and nothing more.
Apocalypse: godly. Huge, very cool looking, and, despite a few problems with the arms, really really good. 
Overall the Apocalypse series is a pretty good one to go out and find. While the character selection isn't the best (do we really need our third Hulk and fifth Wolverine, when there hasn't been a Captain Marvel or Banshee or Hawkeye figure? Sasquatch, Iron Fist, and X-23 are a step in the right direction, at least), and there are a few stupid problems with posability, none of the figures are terrible (with the notable exception of X-23). There are two other problems, though, that apply to this entire series: the first is a lack of bases. The plastic stands that came with the Sentinel Series were brilliant; the Pooky figures don't have them, which is really a shame. Furthermore, I have never seen action figures with joints as stiff as these. All action figures usually require a few minutes of breaking in their joints, but these figures, particularly their legs joints, are really problematic. It's also sometimes a bit tricky to get them to stand up on their own, but that's nothing new. Other than that, though, this series lives up to the expectations that now come along with ML figures. And having a gigantic Apocalypse figure makes up for all of the little details that aren't quite right.
As always, feel free to email me with glorious showers of praise, marriage proposals, ideas, etc. I suppose I'd even read criticism. aswindle@gmail.com
--The Almeister
Originally posted on waitingforwednesday.blogspot.com 3/26/06
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