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 Kicking off 2010, the Marvel Universe has new sets of two packs hitting stores now. The third wave of Secret Wars is starting to show up at all the major retailers, and they are worth the time to track them down.
This wave of figures fills in some major holes in the Marvel Universe line, from building the Wreaking crew, to filling out the Avengers, to giving the Fantastic Four a leader. Let’s take a look at each of the sets.
Ultron/ Reed Richards
 
We get one great figure and one that needs a bit of work in this set. Reed Richards is a nice addition to the Fantastic Four, matching the darker colors of the Marvel Universe wave one Johnny and wave three Thing repaints. The figure uses the Daredevil body, and for a tall, stretchy character this body is all wrong. The paint is clean and he has a terrific head sculpt, but without some work this is a figure waiting for a redo down the road. The best way to fix the problem is to take a wave three Johnny and remove the arms and legs, swapping them with Reed’s body parts, and you end up with a shorter Johnny and a taller, thinner Reed. This is an adequate fix, but at the high price of these figures having to fix them like this is not acceptable.
 
The second figure in the set is Ultron, which is sending most Marvel Legends fans over a very large cliff. The Marvel Legends collectors have been begging for this version of Ultron ever since the Marvel Legends wave eleven abomination of a figure. That version looked more like the Easter Bunny than his villainous comic counterpart. This Marvel Universe figure is classic and bulky. The head is a perfect representation of the classic character and has a slight shine to the body, just as he should be. The figure also looks to gives the line parts to use for the wave 4 Doctor Doom. Ultron has some of the most detailed sculpting in the whole line. There are little painted details all over his head and even on the bottom of his boots. This figure alone makes the set worth picking up, even if the Reed is below expectations.
Thor/ Enchantress
 
You would expect to get a lot of love from the marvel team for this 2 pack, considering one of the members love for this section of the Marvel world, and you would be wrong. The details for both figures shows how much the line has grown in such a short time. Thor uses a much larger body, which allows him to look down on most of the Marvel U figures. The costume is classic all the way and is not day glow like the other big names in wave one and two. He comes with his hammer, and even the hammer has details; though it is hard to make out, there is a real inscription on the hammer. Things to watch out for are the eyes and paint aps, as well as missing limbs. I ordered mine off Hasbro Toy Shop, and had to wait until they hit retail this week to get a decent Thor. My original one had missing paint on one eye, and when I took him out of the box both his left hand and foot fell off. The limbs were easy to fix but the eye was not, so I had to wait for retail to get a decent Thor.
Enchantress makes up the other half of the set, and she is the weaker of the two. She is a well detailed figure but the body and paint aps make this a figure that will disappoint many collectors. The skin tone of the body is darker then the face, making her look a little odd, and gives her a much more plastic look than the prototypes at SDCC. Enchantress uses the Ms. Marvel body, meaning the legs can warp, and of the lack of thigh swivel makes it hard to position the figure in any dynamic poses. Overall a decent set, but not stellar.
Hawkeye/ Piledriver
This is the set with the most extras to date and it’s worth the time and money to find it. Piledriver is made from a larger Marvel U. Body. The figure can stand eye to eye with Thor, making him one of the more imposing figures in this line. Piledriver is executed well from the waist down, but as you move up the figure there is a bit of over spray on the upper body. This can take away from the overall look of the figure. Again with this set, I recommend waiting until retail to find one with the best paint.
  
Our last figure in this wave, Hawkeye, is tied with Ultron for the best of the Marvel Universe so far. The archer of the marvel world is classic, and though he’s not 100% accurate according to some people, for me it’s close enough. He comes with his quiver, an inserting bow, and an arrow. The unstrung bow gets around the safety issue that the DCUC Green Arrow has, though I wish they had drilled tiny holes so collectors could easily put in a sting. The arrow is the same length of the unremovable arrows in the quiver, but can’t be held by our purple archer. The hand is molded correctly but there is no room for the arrow in the sculpt so you can place it in the right position, but it will not stay on it’s own with only the hand holding it. The body uses parts from the Captain America figures, but has all new parts to make you forget who the figure is using. There are larger boot cuffs, the swapped top, and “skirt”. The paint job on the figure is one of the more striking in the line, with less of the cartoony look that this section of the Marvel Universe line has had, and more of a traditional comic look.
This wave of figures is some of the best Hasbro has offered us so far, and wave four looks to do even better. If you find them watch for paint aps and missing appendages, but the limbs fit right back in once you get the figure out of the box (most of the time) so don’t pass up on them with good paint aps. In this area Thor looks to be the fast seller, while Reed and Ultron sit on the pegs. Grab the God of Thunder while you can, because with a movie coming out soon these might be in demand next year.
More Marvel Universe and Marvel lines Reviews and Links:
Spiderman:
Wolverine:
Iron Man 2
Marvel Universe: Wave One Review,Wave Two Review,Wave Three Review,Wave Four Review, Wave Five Review, Wave Six Review
MU Multi-packs:
Exclusives:
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