Hasbro Hits Their Target With Marvel Legends Three-Pack

Captain America, Ms Marvel and Radioactive Man come to Target, ready to continue 2014 as the best year ever for Marvel Legends.

Seriously, this has been an amazing year for Marvel Legends!  Some of the best figures we’ve seen in the history of the long-running toy line have seen release since January, and we’ve enjoyed our fair share of surprises along the way, as well.  One of those was the new Target exclusive three pack, first revealed at San Diego Comic Con, which is now starting to hit stores nationwide.

The new pack includes Radioactive Man, providing a home for yet another MIA figure from the past, as well as a great all new Carol Danvers Ms Marvel, and a tweak on the ROML Ultimate Captain America to anchor the set with an A-list hero.  Overall, this is a great set, and even the reissued Cap feel unique enough to warrant a purchase.

This Captain America serves as sort of a hybrid of the Ultimate and 616 Steve Rogers, and while a lot of people hate on the “Face Off” Punisher body, I think it works for the star spangled hero.  What we get here isn’t of the quality of, say, Marvel Now Cap from the Winter Soldier Legends collection, but he’s another solid variant, and I love that Hasbro has tweaked the neck joint so this Cap can either sport his masked or alternate unmasked head.

Really, though, Cap is more of a pack in than anything. The real stars of this set are his two companions.  I thought I’d be most excited about Radioactive Man, but while he’s great I have to admit he’s a runner up to the best figure in the box.  Let’s start with the villain, though– in his own right, he’s quite cool.  Making smart use of the big, burly Hyperion body, this figure has the perfect heft for the massive villain.  His head, while similar in appearance to Luke Cage, is an all new piece, and I love the scowl on his face.  Chen’s tunic is rendered with a paint app on his chest and a rubber overlay below his waist, which works well to convey the overall effect.

Aside from the green tunic and chest insignia, Radioactive Man doesn’t get much in the way of paint apps, due to the translucent green plastic used for his skin.  Here’s the thing– some collectors are not happy with this effect, since Chen’s skin was never really see-through in the comics.  And from an accuracy angle, I get that… although as far as I’m concerned, the clear plastic skin gives the perfect kind of otherworldly appearance to the figure to convey his nuclear powers in toy form.  Plus, I’m always a suck for a clear plastic figure, so Radioactive Man is kind of a win-win for me.

The biggest surprise of the set is the all-new Ms Marvel figure, who none of us knew was even a thing until Hasbro showed her off at SDCC.  Carol looks great, another Hasbro upgrade that is a step above the Toy Biz figure in every way possible.  The Moonstone body works perfectly to convey the strength of this hero, while still allowing a fantastic range of motion for flying, fighting or standing poses.

Ms Marvel is awesome, totally sturdy and cool looking and loads of fun to play around with.  I’ve been a Carol Danvers fan since forever, and it does my heart good to know that Hasbro really nailed it with this toy version of her most classic costume.  And the fact that we’re going to see her modern look as a figure in the Avengers Legends next year makes this release all the sweeter.

I’m totally impressed by this box set, especially since we’re getting all three figures ranging from good to great for just $50.  Even if you’re rolling your eyes at the notion of yet another Captain America variant, he’s essentially only adding a couple bucks to the price tag on top of what we’d be paying for Radioactive Man and Ms Marvel on their own… and as far as I’m concerned, they are both must own figures for any Legends fan old or new.

It took some time, but Hasbro has really come into their own with the Marvel Legends collection.  They have a good pulse on what collectors are interested in seeing with this toy line, in regards to both character selection, quality and overall fun.  I hope they continue to surprise us with exclusives and unannounced figures like we’ve seen this year with this set, Toys R Us’ X-Me Legends and Walgreens’ Agent Venom.  It adds another layer of fun to the collecting experience, and when the end result is a set of figures this good, it’s hard not to wonder what other surprises Hasbro has in store for us without smiling.