Tag: marvel legends

Hela – Thor: Ragnarok

Here is a figure of Hela, from her appearance in Thor: Ragnarok:

This figure I kind of missed in stores, then had to pay UK RRP when I saw her in a figure store, and didn’t want to let her out of my grasp again. I love Hela’s look, and was happy to have an opportunity to have a larger figure of her, as I only have the Eaglemoss figure prior to this. 

In the box, she definitely looked the part, out of the box… let’s see. When I first got this figure, I put her on the kitchen table, but with no stand. She then ended falling over (on the table, not off it) and all four parts of her headpiece came out. And then they were a bugger to get back in, requiring the assistance of a hairdryer. So, erm, be careful of that. And that’s why I borrowed the Demogorgon’s stand for this photoshoot. 

Face:

I love the helmet, and the face is painted well. What I love less… is her cape. They’ve made it floating so it doesn’t restrict the movement of the arms, and so you can use it to hide her arm joint, but… it has a habit of going into a mess like in this photo. I’ll probably have to heat and then “freeze” it to get it to stay in a halfway decent spot :/. 

The green paint on her top is done very nicely, and it is a nice, appealing (and shiny!) shade. With the lined pattern of her top though, I wish they didn’t bother with a cut joint tbh – figures like this always look stupid when it’s not properly aligned. 

Left:

The horns on her helmet have a good amount of depth to them, which makes them have an impressive look to them. Her sleeves are painted nicely, and she seems not too big in the chest area. 

Right:

Here you can see the cut joint being a bit blergh. Can we have extra foot/hip articulation and do away with this cut joint? Face looks nice though. 

Weapon:

A nice pattern to it, but fairly simple. Doing some quick web research, it is supposed to be just black, so we can let them get away with not putting paint accents on the weapon this time :). We can also see her painted fingernails here, which is a nice touch.

Back:

Cape looks decent enough on the back. Texture isn’t too plasticy and we have some shiny bits up top. Overall, probably one of the better capes I’ve seen on a PVC figure.

Overall, I’m glad I finally got her, and can see why she was a popular figure. She’s a decent bit ahead of other figures of this type, though she has a couple of annoying flaws. Wish the cape was a bit different so it wouldn’t float about like it does. Maybe have some kind of fastener on the ends of the loose parts so that they can be clipped in when you’re done posing? Also some glue for the helmet horns wouldn’t have gone amiss. 

Groot Evolution – Marvel Legends

Visited a nearby Toys R Us, and found they were having a closing down sale, so decided to pick up a couple of items – first being Groot:

His face sculpt is really nice, and the body is… mostly nice. It does give a wooden feel, but… it’s also plasticky too. 

Here’s the close-up of his face:

His eyes look really nice, and his face feels woody and detailed. 

Back of his head:

The head is nicely sculpted , and here you can also see the twiggy parts on his arms, which help hide the shoulder joints. They’re not super-effective though. 

Let’s “zoom out” to his back:

Not much hiding that back joint, but the wooded texture is nicely spread throughout. You can see the extra bits in his arm joints, which help to hide the joint when flexed. 

Side shot:

Head looks good from all the angles. This angle does rather show the sculpting off – it’s nicely detailed so it doesn’t feel entirely “action figure”. I could imagine if Mattel made this, it would look much flatter. 

He is also decently poseable:

He’s reaching out for you! Groot! Maybe if I watched the film I could come up with a decent tagline here… Or maybe just more “groot”. 

Upper shot of the above pose:

Being the evolution set, it also came with kid Groot:

I used a macro lens here – you can see the print dots in a couple of places, but these aren’t really visible when you’re looking at him.

And baby Groot:

D’aww. Ditto for the print dots. 

The pot Groot stands up nicely, and is a good display piece. The kid Groot is somewhat harder to stand up, and is annoying, which is a bit of a shame. It would’ve been nice if they provided a clip base for him to stand in. When I decide where to display him, I’ll likely stick him down with a glue dot. 

Overall, I am happy with this figure. Due to the fact his legs come as separate pieces, he can lose his lower legs when you’re trying to pose him, but it’s not a massive issue. I don’t think I would’ve paid full price for him, but he’s definitely good if you pick him up for a discount. He certainly has the height compared to other similar figures, due to the aforementioned separated legs – it allowed Marvel to make him tower above figures in the same line, yet keep the same box format.