Let's Discuss: Hasbro Marvel Legends: Marvel's Angel Action Figure

Hey all, thanks for checking out our review on Hasbro Marvel Legends: Marvel's Angel Action Figure. I happened upon this in a GameStop and saved a few bucks by cancelling my BBTS order and grabbing it right then. I don't always have the best of luck finding figures in the wild in my area, so this was a very pleasant surprise.

Warren Worthington III is a millionaire playboy as well as a mutant gifted with wings that allow him to soar into the skies as the high-flying Angel of the first class of X-Men. Parallel to his angelic persona, Worthington also operates as the death machine named Archangel. Wishing to put his abilities to help those in need, Angel started to avenge crime by himself as a vigilante before being found by Professor Xavier and recruited to his X-Men. He stood by the X-Men in times of need, until departing after no longer recognizing Xavier's dream in face of aggressive new mutants joining his class. Wishing to finance super heroics, he was also an inestimable supporter and founder of the Champions, the Defenders and X-Factor. Angel first appeared in X-Men #1, September 1963, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

(Biography courtesy of Marvel Fandom.)

This is a great figure, though not without some flaws. Let's dive in!

Accessories: 6/10

Though I suppose you could call the wings "accessories" because they are detachable, it would defeat the essence of the character. For review purposes, we'll only count the two head sculpts and two pairs of hands. Both head sculpts are done nicely, with a stern look on one and a smiling, relaxed look to the other. The open hands are different sculpts, with one being more of an open/action hand and the other more of a relaxed pose. The fists... well, we've seen them a few thousand times before. I know there's not much else you could add to the character, because the main feature is his mutant power, so I'm all right with giving a slightly above average score, due mainly to the excellent head sculpts.

Appearance: 8/10

I'm actually going to break the appearance section into two parts, the first will be the main figure and the second will be devoted entirely to the wings.

While Angel is a decent looking figure, for the most part the paint apps are done well, I do have a few small issues, which I'll reveal shortly.

His skin tone is consistent on both head sculpts and the detailing around his eyes, eyebrows, and mouth are applied very cleanly. I do like the hint of reddish/pink at the mouth, the paint on his teeth on the smiling face, and am very impressed by the fact that his eyes are painted blue. There is a lot of detail on both facial sculpts which you have to look close to find, but it's worth the effort. The halo symbol on his chest is also applied cleanly, which is always good to see. The white trim on the costume is the beginning of the problem. Let's start with his upper body. The torso is molded in a deep red, which is semi glossy, so the white paint had to be applied in multiple layers, in order to be opaque enough to the eye. I actually do like this a lot because the white portion more closely matches the white of his boots and gloves, even though those were molded in white plastic. The only real issue is a small dot of red on his lower right side. The problems arise with the arms and legs. When I first started examining the figure, there was something off and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then I realized that the arms and legs are molded with a different red plastic than the torso. They are just a shade lighter and much more matte red. This is highly evident when putting light directly on the figure, you can see a glossiness reflecting off the musculature, while the shoulders, biceps, and legs are flat. The issue really comes in with the white paint applications on his shoulders, the tops of his gloves, and the tops of his boots. There isn't enough white paint applied, allowing the darker red underneath to change the shade of white. This results in a mismatch of whites for the gloves and boots, which throws the look of the figure off. I think what bugs me the most is that the torso could be painted properly, but I feel like the arms and legs were "good enough" and, quite frankly, they aren't. At cursory glance, the figure does look good, but if you intend to pose it for photos, eventually, you'll notice these discrepancies as I did.

The wings, on the other hand, are incredible. The plug into Angel's back, which prohibits him from having butterfly joints, and that's ok. I don't even know how to begin describing how amazing these wings look. The amount of sculpting is absolutely beautiful. We get sculpts of individual feathers throughout both wings and even those are very realistically detailed. The wings, themselves, are molded in an off white, but have white highlights, which look to be drybrushed on, though it could be a wash. Either way, they pick up the lighting nicely and give the wings a solid look of depth and authenticity. For me, the wings and face details are the saving grace to this figure and why the score is as high as it is.

Articulation: 7/10

Angel's articulation is nothing really spectacular, in fact, due to the wings, we lose out on butterfly joints. I'm actually ok with this though, because the wings themselves are articulated. I'll run through Angel first and then the wings. His head turns without difficulty and can look up quite far, which helps with flying poses, and down almost as good. The shoulders will raise to above a T pose and can rotate a full 360 degrees, even with the wings plugged in. The bicep swivel works fine, without in limitation and the double jointed, pin-less elbows bend in very deeply. Both sets of hands are on hinged pegs, allowing for rotation and up/down motion. His upper diaphragm joint bends forward into a pretty good crunch and can actually bend backward well, even with the wings. The torso joint turns, but as it's on a peg, there is no side-to-side tilt or crunch associated. His splits are decent, better than most Spider-Man figures, but not even close to what the G.I. Joe figures are capable of. His legs will kick forward to about 90 degrees and the thigh cuts work fine. His knees are also pin-less and can bend in to bring his heel to his backside. The boot cuts work fine but look awkward with the paint design. His ankle rockers work great, but the up/down hinge is very tight, so maybe warm them up, or hit them with oil if you run into the same issues.

The Wings are on a hinged peg and plug into ports on his back. The peg allows you to rotate the wings up and down and the hinge allows you to "fold" the wings back behind him. The three pieces of the main wing body are connected at a pivot point, which allows you to open the wings to their full width. As you can see in the pix above, his wingspan is pretty impressive. What really shocked me though, is that he can stand reasonably well, with the wings spread, or folded down. About the only issue is if you have them rotated directly behind him, then the weight will make him tip backward. You can see in the last picture above that I've got him crunched forward to counterbalance.

Affordability: 8/10

Given that this is considered a "Deluxe" figure, I had expected it to be higher in price. I found it at GameStop for $34.99, which actually surprised me. I'm thinking that Hasbro has remained fairly consistent in their pricing structure, perhaps we're seeing a levelling off of material pricing. I also believe that going back to window packaging turned out to not be as expensive as they claimed. Either way, no matter the reason, if prices have actually stabilized, collector's may be able to breathe a sigh of relief. I really figured with the wings alone, the cost of this figure would push into the $40 range, so I'm pleased to give it a decent grade for price.

Overall, in spite of some of the issues I have with the figure, notably in the white paint apps, I do enjoy having Angel and am now trying to figure out how best to incorporate him into my X-Men display. I think he's worth:

7.5 out of 10 ToyBoxes

For diehard X-Men fans, this is definitely a solid addition to any "X" team display. For fans of Legends or even the character in general, there's enough good to outweigh the negatives to make purchasing this figure worthwhile. Thanks again for visiting Dan's ToyBox and as always, until next time... GEEK OUT!!!