Doing more catching up on another 2017 Marvel Legends. This time, it's Phoenix from the Juggernaut BAF wave. Let's get right into the review and check her out!
When a box has a lot of negative space, it's usually an ominous sign that we are going to have a figure that is going to lack some accessories. A large BAF piece does not count in my opinion. On a side note, you'll have to forgive me with this photoshoot; sometimes the backdrop is a bit wrinkled.
I actually have Iceman, Rogue, Kitty Pryde, and Havoc. I never had the intention of finishing Juggernaut. Maybe I should though.
Again, a lone BAF piece as an accessory. Yes, it's the biggest part of Juggernaut, but it still doesn't count as an accessory.
The body isn't bad at all. In fact, it's a nice and accepted body for Jean Grey. We've seen it before so it's not like it brings something astonishing on the table. That's not where my qualms are. The first real problem is that the feet is problematic. First, it's pretty small, which, looks odd proportion wise. She also has this wedge deal going on as if they were going for a hybrid with high heels and flat, which doesn't work. It take a little more work to make her stand, which shouldn't be that way. The rest of the body is alright but the face...I'll go into more detail in a little bit, let me just get through the body.
Paint is clean. It may not be bold or something out of the safe zone for Hasbro, but it does its job. A metallic paint would look better or maybe some shadowing but it's adequate. The hair is the only thing that gets shadowing.
Again, the body isn't bad but to see that the hair is the only thing that gets some special attention is a bit underwhelming. It's a nice hair piece though, that much is certain but it's missing something. Compare to the picture here drawn by Artgerm, it's really inferior. Maybe they should have added some 'fire' translucent color like they did for Dark Phoenix?
The face is my other main problem with the figure. I might have been able to forgive the other body flaws or 'lacking depth' with paint, but the face doesn't settle well with me. And the fact that I had to resort to this:
With me adding other Action Figures' accessories to make this figure tolerable means that there was a problem to begin with.
So I ended up borrowing Dark Phoenix's second head variant. I might have gone with the 'plain Jean' one, but it lacked the flare that this one does. She's the Phoenix Force for Uatu's sake! She has to stick out like a campfire in the dark!
Articulation-wise, she's pretty standard so there's not much to say. Even with her original head though, she was lacking some movement since the hair got in the way.
Despite all my complaints, she's still a better figure than the classic Toybiz Phoenix from way back when. The original head on Hasbro's Phoenix looks ten times better than the Toybiz one and the body mold doesn't looks so distorted. But the Toybiz Phoenix provided me with the Phoenix Force that I am using for display on Hasbro's Phoenix and I used it for the photoshoot on the Dark Phoenix. Also, I like the orange/fire-like hair on the Toybiz better than Hasbro's default hair color.
And right next to the 2-pack Dark Phoenix, some glossy looking green would have done this figure more justice. Also, the fact that I am using another figure's head isn't exactly doing this figure any good. One thing I have to say is that I'm not sure if I like the Dark Phoenix's emblem design better than this Phoenix. I can appreciate both but I like regular Phoenix's better.
At the end of the day, I can't say I recommend this figure as much as I would want to. This is a testament of Hasbro's lingering issue: lack of accessories and the lack of attention to a character's detail. Now it is by no means that Hasbro's Marvel Legends hasn't improved over the years. They HAVE! It's one of the reasons why I'm back to really getting into Marvel Legends again because I see the improvement. But when we get figures like this though, it's hard to dismiss it. At least I have the 2-Pack of Dark Phoenix & Cyclops along with the classic Toybiz Phoenix to help spruce up this figure. Also, for anyone wanting to build Juggernaut, Phoenix is a must. She's an easy catch these days so it shouldn't be a problem. Just be aware of these flaws. Well, that's about it.
Until Next Time!
