Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by for another Dan's ToyBox review. We are continuing our discussion of the Disney + Wave of figures from Hasbro Marvel Legends. Today is another 2 for 1 review as we look at Hawkeye and Kate Bishop from, of course, the Hawkeye television series.
After the events of Avengers: Endgame, former Avenger Clint Barton has undertaken a relatively simple mission: to go home to his family for Christmas. Possible? Absolutely, that is, until Clint sees a ghost from his own past. Someone is running around NY in his old Ronin costume and now, a reluctant Clint, must team up with the person wearing the suit: Kate Bishop. Bishop, herself an archer, dreams of being a superhero and quickly jumps at the chance to work with the Avenger, much to his dismay. Together, the pair are forced to confront enemies from Barton's past as the Ronin. Can the two quit bickering long enough to put an end to the Tracksuit Mafia once and for all? Will Clint make it home for Christmas? Who will take care of Lucky the Pizza Dog should an ill fate befall our heroes? If you haven't watched it, Dude... what's taking you so long? Hawkeye was a fun romp through the MCU continuity with the focus on setting up the next era of heroes by ushering Kate Bishop in to follow her role as the new Hawkeye in Marvel Comics.
As with previous multi-figure reviews, we will look at Accessories, Appearance, Articulation, and Affordability and as before, give a combined score which applies to both figures. The final, overall rating will also be an average for both figures, so as to help you decide if they are worth tracking down to add to your own collections. Let's get after it, shall we?
ACCESSORIES
Hawkeye comes with a detachable quiver, his bow, a pair of fists, a bow holding hand, and an open hand. He also comes with the Infinity Ultron BAF left arm. Kate comes with a pair of bow holding hands, two open/relaxed hands, her bow and her quiver, which is already slung on the figure. She comes with the Infinity Ultron BAF left leg. I guess, I would have liked for them to have each had an arrow that they could hold with the bows. It's nice to see a bit of variety, with Hawkeye and I was kind of surprised that Kate wasn't similarly packed. I suppose the fact that you can place her bow in either hand, leads to the necessity of both alternate hands being open/relaxed. Chances are I'm simply overthinking it and these are the only molds for the hands to this body type. Regardless, I'm actually ok with the extras and give both figures a solid 7 out of 10 for their accessories.
APPEARANCE
Both figures are in renditions of the costumes they sport in the later episodes of the series. It's nice to see Jeremy Renner back in costume and this figure does some justice to the look. I have been a fan of Hasbro's photo realistic tech for quite some time, but I have to confess that these two figures are just a bit of a miss to me. From certain angles, the resemblance to both actors is quite amazing, but from others... it's just a bit off. That being said, the details on both of their faces are really well done. Hawkeye comes sporting some nice bruises, a bandage, and even his hearing aid! The hair sculpt does resemble his look on the show as well, though a wash in it might have brought out more detail. The rest of his body is molded black, with purple paint applications, which are clean and fairly accurate to the source material. I also realized, after looking closely that his shoes are actually a dark brown, which admittedly, surprised me... again, accurate to the series. I also like the attention to detail with his left hand having the black finger pieces, with which he'd draw the bow. Speaking of which... the bow is a simple black plastic with white paint over the handle wraps and though not all have it, there is purple applied to some of the arrow feathers in his quiver. Kate does a good deal of justice to the lovely Hailee Steinfeld. The facial details are applied super clean. The eyes, eyebrows, and mouth are rendered exceptionally well, and the hair sculpt is, again, show accurate. Though, as with Hawkeye, it would have been nice to have a wash for depth, or even a bit of paint around the band for her ponytail. With which there is an issue that we'll discuss in articulation. Kate's costume has considerably more detail applied to it than Hawkeye's which makes for a really nice-looking figure. The multiple shades of purple and metallic shoulder pauldron are really clean and stand out beautifully against the black trim and quiver harness. Her pants are a nice shade of gray and have great textured sculpting. The purple bands around her right leg just stand out enough to show, but not so much as to distract and the black knee pads look great against the surrounding gray of her pants. I also really like the short, topped gloss black boots and the detailed work on the front lacing. Her bow is black and brown, as it was in the show and looks great in hand with the character. There was definitely a lot more detail put into Kate's costume than Hawkeye's and it shows. Yet for all of that, the pair really look good standing together and even with the few minor issues I had, earn a solid 9 out of 10 for appearance.
ARTICULATION
Hawkeye can actually look up and down very well and his head easily turns side to side. There is very little head tilt though, which is ok with me. The shoulders raise out to a solid T pose and rotate a full 360 degrees. Additionally, the butterfly joints work surprisingly well. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of forward and backward range! The bicep swivels are good enough and the elbows which are pinless, bend all the way in. His wrists will all swivel and hinge and swapping hands is very easy. Hawkeye does have the older upper diaphragm hinge which actually works well, with decent forward crunch and back bend. Of biggest surprise to me though was that his waist pivot really looks nice when turned. The design of the body doesn't leave those huge flat areas and looks almost natural! Hawkeye can do better splits than my Spider-Man figures and that's simply incredible. He can kick forward very high, the upper thigh cut works nice and the double-jointed knees, though stiff at first, will bend really, really well. There is no boot cut, thankfully, and both ankles hinge up and down reasonably well and feature great ankle pivot. Kate, on the other hand, does have some issues. Her head is limited due to the ponytail. She can look down reasonably well, not up very much, though the tail is pliable. But the problem lies when turning her head side to side. It will turn easily enough, but the ponytail gets caught up in her quiver, making it difficult to maintain a head turned pose, unless you wiggle the hair and quiver out of the way of each other. That, unfortunately, gives her a very unnatural look, when turning her head to the left. A pleasant surprise though was the addition of butterfly joints at her shoulders. They are so seamlessly laid in though, that I didn't realize them at first. The shoulders will raise out better than a T pose, rotate 360 degrees and thanks to the butterfly joints, have some forward, but better backward range. Kate also has a functional upper bicep swivel and double jointed/pinless elbows that bend all the way in. Both sets of hands will also hinge and pivot easily and can be swapped fairly effortlessly. Sadly though, the upper torso has the same problem that all female Legends face... poor crunch and limited turning/tilting range. Kate will bend backward, somewhat nicely, but the forward crunch is virtually non-existent. She also has no waist swivel, which is frustrating. Fortunately, like Hawkeye, she can do excellent splits, but her forward kick isn't as good. The upper thigh cut is fine and the double-jointed knees also bend in quite deeply. Her ankles also have solid hinge and pivot motion as well. Kate actually drops the overall score just a tad, but I'll still give them a 7 out of 10 for articulation.
AFFORDABILITY
As mentioned in the She Hulk review, I picked these figures up at my local Walmart for $24.99 each. Though I think that's still too high, especially for windowless packaging, my joy at seeing consistent prices for Marvel Legends, was higher than it's been lately. Granted these figures have been out for a hot minute and likely will be the last time I see consistency in pricing, I'm still going to give them a 7 out of 10 for affordability.
Overall, I rather like these figures. I appreciate the work that goes into their MCU renditions and am glad to have these on my display shelf. With that in mind, the pair combine for a very sturdy:
8 out of 10 ToyBoxes!!!
I'm impressed, so far, with this wave and am feeling pretty good about having added them to my collection. The Infinity Ultron BAF will be next up, so until then... GEEK OUT!!!