Where I felt Hasbro fell short with Thor, they seem to make up for with Mighty Thor in this wave of Marvel Legends Action Figures. I still haven't pulled the trigger on any other figures in this wave yet but if I do, you'll all get to enjoy those reviews. For now, let's get a better look at Jane Foster or as we now know her: The Mighty Thor!
In comic book lore, while Thor was off world fighting Gorr the God Butcher, Jane learned that she had breast cancer. Upon his return, Thor invited Jane to represent Midgard (Earth) in the Congress of Worlds on Asgard while she underwent cancer treatment. Jane accepted the position but refused magical treatments. During a battle against Nick Fury, Thor lost the ability to wield the mighty hammer, Mjolnir. Left behind on the Moon, Mjolnir telepathically sought Jane out. Eventually, Jane responded to the hammer's call, and requested Heimdall to take her to retrieve it. Arriving on the moon and discovering the hammer, Jane picked up Mjolnir, gaining Thor's powers and transforming and improving her physique. Ironically each time Jane would transform into the Mighty Thor, her cancer treatments would be rendered useless and the cancer inside her would return with a vengeance.
Given that we haven't seen Jane Foster in the MCU since the events of Thor: The Dark World, and trailers for Love and Thunder depict her carrying what appears to be a repaired version of Mjolnir, it will be fun to see how she comes to wield the hammer when the movie is released in July.
For regular readers of Dan's ToyBox, feel free to gloss over this section and jump into the review. If you're a new reader though, first off, thank you for stopping by! In an effort to remain as objective as possible, Dan's ToyBox bases reviews on four categories and determines an overall grade from those. We discuss Accessories, Appearance, Articulation, and Affordability. Once those factors are weighed, we offer a final grade on a scale of one to five toyboxes, with one being the bottom and five being the best.
In the leadoff position, let's take a look at the Accessories packed with Thor: Love and Thunder; The Mighty Thor action figure. She comes with... Mjolnir and two head sculpts; one helmeted and one un-helmeted. She also comes with one leg from the Korg Build A Figure and that's all. Typically I bemoan the lack of accessories with Marvel Legends and while it would have been nice to have different hands, I am actually very impressed with the un-helmeted sculpt and with Mjolnir. I will likely offer the Korg BAF piece up to anybody in need of it, given that I'm very unlikely to finish this entire wave. The relative lack of accessories means that this figure isn't going to earn an A for this category, but the care that went into the sculpt and design work is another story.
The Hasbro Marvel Legends Thor: Love and Thunder wave has one big thing going for it, thus far. Both figures I have look absolutely amazing! The amount of detail and accuracy to the MCU costume and look is simply stunning. Let's start with the helmeted head sculpt. The design of the helmet is very well done and the detail sculpted into it, including the wings and seams on the helmet looks great. The red paint highlights are applied cleanly and stand out well against the silver. I was also pleased with how nicely the eyes are painted though the openings for her mask. I've seen quite a few figures in which the eyes are slightly crooked or off-centered but these are positioned correctly and stand out nicely. The flesh tone and the red lips round out a very nicely designed face. Even her hair is of a softer plastic, allowing for a bit better movement of the head, which we'll discuss later. I think, my only real complaint, would be the lack of a brown wash over the hair. The Thor I purchased had an amazing hair sculpt with great paint apps and though, in the comics Jane is a blonde, stills from the trailer for this movie show Jane still being more brunette, though appearing to have some highlights in her hair. The same can be said for the un-helmeted sculpt, however, the photo realistic tech used is getting better as her facial features are rendered beautifully. the paint applications for eyes and lips are solid and as with the helmeted version, both her eyes are centered correctly. In fact, I like the un-helmeted version even better and have chosen to display her with that head. Moving on, the cape is also a soft, pliable plastic and is sculpted very nicely. The wrinkles at the top and the flowing lines do help to give the appearance of motion to the cape and it looks great in different flight poses. The costume design contains very intricate detailing right down to the studs and buckles as well as the riveting on the armored portions. The silver, black, and brown color scheme is applied super clean. I didn't see any paint slop or bleed from the silver or the browns and I honestly just cannot get over how Hasbro has stepped up their game for this wave of figures. The other piece that I'm actually most excited to discuss though, is Mjolnir. Looking closely at the hammer, you can see the cracks from the re-assembly after Hela destroyed it in Ragnarok. The handle is highly detailed with the leather and silver alternating. My only... complaint... for lack of a better word would be the lack of wash over the hammer itself. That would have really brought out the damage done to Mjolnir and made this an even more detailed prize. I wouldn't have even minded seeing some of that electric blue paint applied in the cracks to replicate what we've seen in the trailers so far, showing the power glowing through. That being said though I really do like this version of Mjolnir and think it is a solid addition to the overall aesthetic of the figure. The Mighty Thor definitely gets an A for Appearance.
When I reviewed Thor from the Love and Thunder Marvel Legends wave, I was fairly disappointed with the problematic articulation due to the design of the figure. I have to admit that I'm much happier with how The Mighty Thor moves. Starting up top, thanks to the relative soft pliability of her hair, you can tilt her head upward to a degree and she can also look down quite nicely with both head sculpts. Even with the longer hair, you can also turn her head left and right with ease, which makes for more expressive posing. Both arms can be raised out to a really nice T pose and her shoulders easily rotate the full 360 degrees. Her upper bicep swivels both work easily and her pinless double jointed elbows are a dream to articulate. She can bend in very deeply at the elbows, though the upper joints on both of mine did need heating up. Her right wrist is on a horizontal hinge for holding Mjolnir, while the left wrist is on the vertical axis, with the flat of the back of her hand hinging upward. Both wrists also pivot with ease. The Mighty Thor has a really nice upper diaphragm joint which allows for both forward and backward crunching, side to side tilt, and circular pivot. Unfortunately, she does NOT have a waist pivot, which is kind of disappointing. The "skirts" are a very soft material which doesn't impede her leg movement either, much to my joy. She can kick upward quite well and back to a small degree. Her legs will do exceptional splits and the upper thigh cuts move easily. She also has pinless double jointed knees which can bend a bit better than 90 degrees but are limited due to the sculpt of her boots and upper legs. There is no boot cut rotation, but her ankles hinge up and down quite well and she possesses that very generous Marvel Legend ankle pivot. Overall, the Mighty Thor's articulation is considerably better than her counterpart from this wave and I'm happy to give her a definite A for Articulation.
Lastly, let's discuss affordability. I found The Mighty Thor at my local Walmart, retailing for $24.99. As I've mentioned previously, I'm concerned at the rapidly rising costs of Marvel Legends and would have been somewhat accepting of paying even $22.99 for these figures. To see a price hike and nothing additional included, or worse, moving forward having windowless boxes has the potential to harm the collector industry. I want to say this figure is worth the amount I paid, but I feel like I'm paying more and getting less. Sorry, Mighty Thor, I cannot in good conscience say you are necessarily worth the price.
Overall, I will say there is more to like about the Marvel Legends Thor: Love and Thunder; The Mighty Thor Action Figure than there is to dislike. She certainly has more play and posing options than the armored Thor figure does, but like him, suffers from a decided lack of accessories and an excessively higher price than what we're accustomed to. With that in mind, where Thor earned a fairly low grade, I do like this figure enough to double the score and give her 4 toyboxes out of 5.
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