Not too long ago, I reviewed 15 – yes, 15 – figures in a single review. That won’t be happening again any time soon. The first wave of LCBH figures from Marvel Toys includes 6 figures (along with 2 variants and a BAF), so I’ll be splitting them up tonight. I’ll be looking at 3 figures here: Savage Dragon, Ripclaw and Judge Dredd. Over at MROTW, I’ll be covering Witchblade, Super Patriot and Madman. And in both reviews I’ll talk about (and have photos of) Pitt, the BAF.
These figures are currently hitting Wal-mart first, and come with two variants in the first wave. There’s a Savage Dragon with t-shirt, and a Super Patriot without the mask. While these are technically variants, they are NOT chase figures or short packs. They appear to be evenly packed with the regular version.
Wal-mart is also getting a series 2 figure in their cases – Judge Death. The regular and variant (clear) version was a special pack out for them.
Expect to pay around ten bucks a pop for these, so if you’re looking to be a completist, there’s $100 you’ll need to spend just on the single figures currently available. The full series 2 should be hitting shelves very soon (if it hasn’t already in some places!) and will include Marv, Star, Darkness, Stryker and Anne O’Brien, who goes with the BAF of Monkeyman. The Judge Death also comes with this wave along with his variant, and there’s a variant on Marv.
Legendary Comic Book Heroes series 1 – Savage Dragon, Ripclaw and Judge Dredd
I’ll state my bias up front – of these three characters, the Dragon is easily my favorite. But will that translate into my favorite in plastic form? You can almost cut the anticipation with a knife…
Packaging – ***1/2
Most of us assumed we’d never see collector friendly bubble/cardback packaging. Why? It’s just not cost feasible for mass market toys, where the bubble/cardback tends to be most predominate.
But Marvel Toys has to be commended on coming up with a package design that IS collector friendly. The bubble is sealed to the cardback only around the top edges encircling the logo. The bottom square section has ‘lips’ that fold back around the cardback where they are taped. Cut the tape in back, and you can lift up the bubble and remove the interior tray without any real damage. If you want to put him back in the bubble, just slide it back in. You can even re-tape if you feel that strongly about it. It’s a nice design, and certainly a nod to the MOCers who would also like to take their figures out and stretch their legs.
BTW, I used a shot of the variant Dragon here so you could see what he looked like in his t-shirt. The rest of the review will show the normal, t-shirtless version.
Sculpting – Savage Dragon ****; Judge Dredd ***1/2; Ripclaw ***
Several figures in this line re-use parts from old Marvel Legends figures, but they do it extremely well for the most part.
You’ll notice some similarities between Judge Dredd and Longshot for example, and he actually has the hole in his back for the old ML clear display stand. But they’ve done such an exceptional job adding in the new armor pieces and additional sculpting that I’d bet if I didn’t tell you he had a re-used body under there, you wouldn’t realize it.
And Dredd looks terrific, with some terrific detail work on the armor and boots. He’s not super meaty, but a young Dredd wasn’t as beefy as Stallone made him appear in the film. All the figures are in a six inch scale, and Dredd will fit in well with the Marvel Legends figures. His hands are sculpted to hold his weapons, although you’ll have the most luck with the one gun and the knife – the other gun doesn’t fit quite as well in either hand.
As good as he looks though, Savage Dragon has him beat. This is a great representation of Erik Larson’s artwork in 3-d form, and is easily my favorite of the wave. The head sculpt and expression are extremely well done right down to the overall size and shape of the fin, and the huge upper body is offset against the thin legs just like on the pages of the comic. The sculpt and articulation don’t work quite as well together as some of the other figures, but I can forgive him that flaw with such a terrific appearance. I liked the Mcfarlane version back in the day, but if i could only own one, I’d pick this one.
Of these three, Ripclaw is my least favorite. He never did a lot for me as a character, and his design and appearance always seemed much too busy. That is true for this version as well, and I suspect only the die hard fans (or those looking to complete Pitt) will be grabbing him. If I had to choose between this version and the one done by Mcfarlane several years ago, Mcfarlane’s would win.
As I mentioned earlier, these are a 6″ scale, and all three will fit in fine with most other 6″ lines including Marvel Legends. Dredd is 6 1/4 inches tall, Dragon is 7 1/2 inches tall (to the tip of the fin), and Ripclaw is 6″.
Paint – Judge Dredd ***1/2; Ripclaw, Savage Dragon ***;
The paint work on this series has generally been above average for the mass market, where it’s not uncommon to see some pretty serious slop.
Dredd is the cleanest of the three, with a paint application that could easily rival most specialty market toys. The colors are clean and consistent, with good cut lines and very little slop. The skin tone is even with no gloppiness, and the visor looks terrific. They’ve went with a wash on the boots and gloves to bring out some of the detail, and while it’s a tad heavy, it’s not terrible.
Ripclaw isn’t quite as clean, particularly in the white piping on the boots. The black tends to show through and make it less white and more gray, unlike the face and body. It’s a fairly minor quibble though, and along with a few less than perfect cuts, is the only real issue.
Dragon’s body hair looks decent, which is always tough to pull off well. Even with wax. Thank God there’s plenty of it too, proving that Dragon isn’t a shaver. They went with a wash on the jeans which is a tad heavy for my tastes, and there’s a bit more slop around the eyes and eyebrows than I’d like to see. But my biggest issue comes from the slightly different green on the torso and arms. This is often due to the different plastics absorbing the paint at different rates and amounts, and is tough for them to allow for. Fortunately in this case, it’s not extremely noticable if you’re not looking for it, so it’s not a huge negative for me.
Articulation – Judge Dredd ***1/2; Savage Dragon, Ripclaw ***
As with Marvel Legends, super articulation is one of the main selling points of the Legendary Comic Book Heroes. All of them have far more articulation than the usual action figure these days, and most of it works great as well.
Savage Dragon has the usual pin/disk neck that allows forward and backward movement, along with turning. It can’t tilt to the side like a true ball joint, but it does tip back and forward quite a ways.
He also had ball jointed shoulders and hips, jointed on both sides of the ball, along with pin elbows and double jointed knees. There’s the pin chest and cut waist, pin/rocker ankles, pin and cut wrists, and not one but two pin joints on the fingers! There’s even a pin joint in the middle of the thumb. Oh, and a half cut foot pin joint…I told you they were super articulated.
Many of these joints are clicky style too, so that they hold poses quite well. The pins on all of them are quite solid and sturdy, and these joints seem to be using a better plastic for their pegs.
Judge Dredd’s neck doesn’t quite have the poseability of Dragon’s, due to the helmet and armor. Like Dragon, he has double jointed shoulders and hips, and they have a very good range of movement even with the armor. The chest and waist are there as well, as is the pin/rocker ankles, and double jointed elbows and knees. He doesn’t have the articulated fingers, but does add cut joints at the calves and forearms.
Ripclaw has all the joints of Dredd, plus each finger has a pin joint. The joints don’t work quite as well on Rippy as they do on Dredd – they tended to be a tad sticky, and I had more trouble getting him to hold interesting poses – but he still blows away most other current action figures on the market in this category.
Accessories – Judge Dredd ***1/2; Savage Dragon, Ripclaw ***
The main accessories with this wave are the six pieces to build the huge – and I’m talking HUGE – Pitt figure. He’s busted into two legs (with chains), two arms (with chains), a pelvis, and an upper torso. You’ll need six of the 8 figures (all unique figures) to complete Pitt.
Judge Dredd gets the high score here, because not only does he come with not only one leg (and corresponding chains) for Pitt, but two guns and a knife as well! The knife fits in a sheath on his left leg, while one gun fits in a holster on his right leg and the other fits in the holster on his back.
The plastic used on these accessories is a little soft, but the sculpt is still decent. The silver paint is a little inconsistent in coverage (as silver is often want to do), but considering these are a mass market item, I’m not too surprised.
Ripclaw only comes with his BAF piece, the right arm of Pitt. The chains come on the arm (unlike the legs), so it’s one complete piece in the package. I’m not sure what else Ripclaw could have had, but if you aren’t interested in Pitt, you might feel a tad ripped.
I didn’t snap a shot of the Dragon with his BAF part (the other leg of Pitt), but that’s all he comes with. The chain and leg are actually separate, and the chains can be removed over the foot even after Pitt is assembled. Again, like Ripclaw, I appreciate just how cool this BAF is, but also realize that folks not particularly interested in the Pitt will find it fairly useless. Interestingly enough though, this is one of those cases where I expect more people to want the BAF parts than want each of the individual figures.
Pitt – ****
I decided to break Pitt out separately – there’s just too much about him that’s cool to not have his own section.
If you need a reason to buy this entire wave, then you’re looking at it right now. Pitt is fantastic, one of the best BAF’s any company has produced to date. Hey, I love my Sentinal too, but Pitt has a truly amazing sculpt, with tons of detail. The paint work compliments it well, although it is a smidge sloppy in spots. Still, once you have him completely assembled, you’ll be blown away by his overall size and overall quality.
Many of the parts are rotocast of course, so he is a tad light. But if you’ve worked with other BAF’s (or even other superheroes in this scale), you won’t be put off by it. It takes a little work to get some of the pieces to snap together, particularly the pelvis and torso. But with enough ummpf, you can get them to pop into their proper position and hold tight. Once they’re actually together you’ll know it – they won’t come apart easily again.
I mentioned that Pitt is huge, but even when I tell you he stands 10 inches tall, you won’t be able to appreciate his bulk until you see him. I’m not even convinced he was this huge in the comics, which would be a true first. Never before have I thought a large sized figure was too big for the scale! I can live with that, and prefer him being too big to being too small.
There’s some decent articulation here too, although the design of the figure makes some of the joints less useful than they might sound. The arms and hips are ball jointed with joints on both sides of the ball, and the neck is a cut joint. Oh, it might actually be a peg and pin joint like other ML and LCBH necks, but the design really only allows it the functionality of a cut joint.
The elbows and knees are pin joints, as are the wrists and ankles. The ankles have the rocker joint as well. The pin chest and cut waist work well, and each of the fingers has not one pin joint but two, allowing them to move independently at the hand and at the first knuckle.
Pitt isn’t going to take any extreme stances, but there’s plenty of articulation here to get him into some great poses and look great next to the other figures. Again, many of his joints are clicky joints, allowing them to stay in place over time.
Fun Factor – ****
Toy collectors are going to love these, and kids are going to love these. That’s the mark of a truly great toy – one that taps the imagination in the kid in everyone. To often companies skip on great sculpting and paint when it comes to a toy that’s ‘for kids’, because they believe either they won’t care or are too stupid to appreciate it. The fact is that kids love great looking figures too, and are certainly smart enough to weed out the crap from the treasure.
Of course, the big question is will kids care at all about these particular characters? And if they don’t, is the adult fan market large enough to make them succeed?
Value – **1/2
At ten bucks a pop though, these are a bit over the usual mass market price. I’m going to cut them some slack here on the sore though, because I realize that the BAF pieces are huge and expensive, and that the run size on these can’t be nearly that of most mass market figures. There is a much smaller market for these characters, and I have no doubt that this was taken in to consideration when the run sizes were set.
Things to Watch Out For –
I had a little trouble with a sticky shoulder joint on the Dragon, and Ripclaw’s articulation was a bit sticky overall, but both freed up with a little work. The joints feel tighter and stronger than the later ML figures too, making them great toys for the kids.
Overall – Savage Dragon, Judge Dredd ***1/2; Ripclaw ***
If the Dragon had no paint issues, he would have been a four star figure. Yes, the articulation isn’t quite as wildly uninhibited as some other figures, but it’s good enough to make me happy overall. Judge Dredd is a close second, with a great overall appearance. I know some folks would have liked a removable helmet, but I think that would have just created a bobble head situation with little extra appeal.
Ripclaw ended up my least favorite of the bunch, although that’s partly due to my general apathy toward the character. While I wasn’t a huge fan of the over posed nature of the Mcfarlane version, I have to admit to prefering that sculpt. Still, if you’re looking for a version to bring him into the same universe as some of these other characters, this one will do just fine.
Where to Buy –
Wal-mart is the first local bricks and mortar store to get these in. Online options include:
– CornerStoreComics has the singles in stock at $10 – $13 (depending on the character) or the full set of 8 including the two variants for just $80.
– Amazing Toyz has them in at $10 – $13 as well, along with the 8 for $80 deal.
Related Links –
I’ve reviewed both of the twin packs, Conan/Wrarrl and Clownface/Panda, and I covered the rest of series 1 as well.
And if you’re looking for other versions of some of these characters, check out the Mcfarlane version of Savage Dragon and Ripclaw.
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