It seems like Series 3 of Hasbro’s Secret Wars Comic 2-Packs just hit shelves and now Series 4 is sneaking out, hot on its heels.  The fourth (and final) wave of Secret Wars Comic 2-Packs includes the final three issues of the original 12-issue series and rounds out the cast of the series pretty well.  The series gets us some very in-demand characters making their debut in the Marvel Universe line:  Nightcrawler and Storm, The Thing and Bulldozer, and Dr. Doom and Absorbing Man (with a mini-Wasp pack in).  Let’s take a closer look at the characters…

Nightcrawler and Storm:

The first new 2-Pack gets us two more X-Men in their classic 80’s costumes.  Nightcrawler is one of the more popular X-characters, and it’s good to see him in plastic again.  The figure is in his classic black and red costume, and features a great new headsculpt, along with new hands and feet and an articulated tail.  He’s a good figure, but honestly, could have been better—for one, the body Hasbro chose is the Iron Fist/ Black Spidey buck, which, while appropriately thin, seems too tall for Kurt.  There was some concern about the red “V” shaped vest not being colored on the figure’s lower torso, which was corrected on the prototype Hasbro showed at Toy Fair, but on the final product is sadly, again, painted incorrectly.

Storm fairs better than Nightcrawler, especially since this is the first toy to ever feature Ororo in her 80’s “punk” outfit, complete with leather vest and Mohawk.  The face sculpt is great, and I hope if/ when they do another Storm they keep this head and just change the hair.  Storm’s body is the standard female base we’ve seen on every Marvel woman so far, but it works well enough and slight changes such as the new vest, belt and gloved hands make her stand out from the previous figures.

Thing and Bulldozer:

The next 2-pack brings us The Thing in his classic blue and white trunks.  The upper half of the figure is identical to the Series 2 figure, with the major change being the new bare legs and feet we see here.  Much like the Series 2 figure, the sculpt is fantastic, and it’s great to have Ben in his more classic look, especially one that fits so well with the blue and white Reed and Johnny Storm figures previously released.  The only drawbacks here are the cut neck, which is still disappointing compared to the ball joints we see on most other Marvel Universe figures, and the brighter, more plastic-looking orange color of the new figure.  The last few sets of single Marvel Universe figures have improved in paint apps by leaps and bounds, but sadly many of the Secret Wars figures seem to keep a much more basic and bright “plasticky” look.

The Thing is packed with Bulldozer, the third member of the Wrecking Crew these comic packs have delivered. Bulldozer is just as big and bulky as Pildriver and Thunderball, and features a great headsculpt with a menacing grimace and tons of personality.  Bulldozer’s rivets on the gauntlets and collar are actually separate pieces placed over the standard “big” buck body, and the result is fantastic.  I’m very excited that we’ll have the entire Wrecking Crew very soon, with Wrecker being released in an upcoming wave of single figures!

Dr. Doom and Absorbing Man (with Wasp):

The last 2-pack (or is it 3-pack?) features The Absorbing Man, Dr. Doom and a mini-Wasp figure packed in. Absorbing Man again features a great mean-looking headsculpt that really captures the character’s thuggish demeanor, and comes with his ball and chain weapon.  Like many Absorbing Man figures previously released, Carl Creel is here captured in mid-transformation, with about half his body colored a dull metal like his ball and chain.  My only issue with this is that his metal arm can’t hold the weapon, and it would have looked better if the hand holding the weapon was the one “absorbing” its appearance.

Dr. Doom is one of the top Marvel villains of all time, and obviously has been near the top of everyone’s want list since Marvel Universe launched.  I’m happy to say Hasbro does not disappoint with this guy—this is a great Doom figure, surpassing even the very-good Doom we got in this scale from Toy Biz’s Super Hero Showdown line.  Doom features a new head with an excellent, menacing take on the iron mask, and is based on the villain’s classic look with the cape, armor, and tunic.  The arms and legs are a smart reuse of Ultron from the previous series, and the articulation works just as well for Victor here (he can easily do the classic “villain pose” with his hand raised in the air).  Overall Doom is phenomenal, and easily the best figure in this series.  The fact that this pack also contains the Wasp figure, who is a solid, 1-piece figure with translucent wings, just puts it over the top.

Overall I was a huge fan of the Secret Wars series, especially the final two waves.  It was a great vehicle for Hasbro to keep some of the Marvel “heavy hitters” in rotation while also getting us more obscure figures I’m still shocked we saw at mass retail.  I wish there had been a little more character variety in the earlier waves, switching out the Iron Man, Spider Man or Human Torch repaints in the earlier waves would have made room for Secret Wars era Ms. Marvel or The Lizard, but looking at the set of figures overall it feels pretty complete.  And hey, Hasbro got us the Wrecking Crew!