Were Thor as popular as his fellow Avenger teammate Iron Man, our Marvel Legends display would be overflowing with the valiant heroes and vile villains of Asgard and the nine realms.

That’s not the case though so instead of being one of the showcase figures in a dedicated Thor line, Odin was relegated to Build-A-Figure status alongside King Thor.

Buying the full wave would allow collectors to make either Odin or King Thor, but to have both on your shelves you needed to buy doubles of a few figures. Let’s see if this is a BAF worthy of the effort.

 

Packaging: Odin was packed in the rest of the wave so nothing to judge here.

Likeness:  The great part of a character like Odin is he doesn’t have that one signature look you immediately think of when you picture him.

If I had a preference, it’d be more of a Walt Simonson version with more of an armored look and less Asgard in summer with the bare arms. This figure is intended more as the King Thor version, which explains the T on the belt.

The headsculpt is probably my favorite part of the figure. Odin’s all beard and helmet anyway and the figure captures that well right down to the little pony beard. What most impressed me though was how even with one visible eye, Odin has a commanding expression. That’s some outstanding sculpting there.

King Thor mirrors his father with an eye patch on the left eye. His stern expression looks more like Thor’s ready to plunge into battle one more time. And his half Destroyer left arm has some great sculpted details.

Scale: Considering this is The Allfather of Asgard, Odin isn’t quite as imposing stature wise as I’d like. He’s got the height as he’s much taller than your average sized Marvel Legends figure, but he lacks the width I normally associate with Odin.  Maybe he’s using Weight Watchers? Odin definitely would have benefited from having one of the beefier bodies Hasbro used for the Wrecking Crew.

King Thor matches up just right compared to the standalone Thor from this wave with the helmet being the only difference in height.

Paint: All of the line details is crisp with no overspray and messy paint. That’s the great news. It’d be crummy taking all the time to assemble Odin to find a lot of botched paint work.

The armor areas of the torso, shoulder pads and boots look like they’ve been through a number of battles with some nice washes. It could probably be even more dinged up and detailed, but this isn’t bad. Now for the not so good.

Odin was the one BAF in the 2015 lineup that really would have benefited from some extensive paint applications and washes.

The helmet and staff in particular look far too toy-like and plastic-y for a figure that otherwise looks like a regal leader of gods. I’ve seen some fantastic repaints to the figure that further bring out the details that are somewhat lost in the more generic paint job.Without the big helmet and horns to distract, King Thor’s paint job seems lacking. There’s a number of age lines and possibly scars along the forehead that get lost in the flat paint applications.

The beard likewise is nondescript and dull. Like the rest of the armor, the Destroyer arm has a solid wash to bring out the details of the sculpt. King Thor’s axe also has some great paint work with the edge chipped and battle worn.

Articulation:  Odin isn’t one of those characters that needs to be hyper articulated. He’s a leader, not necessarily a fighter these days. Still, his articulation scheme kind of hurts him in part due to the character design, but also due to the stiffer plastic used.

You won’t be able to have that dynamic Odin on the throne picture as the centerpiece of your Asgard display since he can’t sit down.  King Thor would benefit from more range in his legs as well, but more for action poses than sitting.

The figure has:

• neck
• ball jointed shoulders
• bicep
• elbows (hinge and swivel)
• wrist (hinge and swivel)
• torso
• abdomen
• hips
• knees (double-jointed)
• ankle

In addition to impossible sitting poses, the shoulder pads are going to frequently look a bit goofy since they connect to his shoulders instead of the armor.

Odin’s top half is a bit looser than I’d like what with the cape struggling to stay on when you start to pose him around the shoulders. Somehow King Thor’s cape, the red one in case you’re curious, is even worse as it falls with very minimal contact.

The lower half is also problematic as the skirt greatly restricts the figure’s side to side leg movement. Considering the nightmare getting the legs in proved to be — they wouldn’t stay on until I dipped them in hot water before attaching — I’m not that inclined to screw around with them all that much.

It’s fortunate I wasn’t planning to do any intricate dioramas with Odin/King Thor in action as they have a very limited range of movement.

Accessories: I was impressed that even as the BAF, Odin/King Thor has more accessories than Sentry.

Odin comes with his trusty staff. It’s a good size as it fits in both his hands allowing Odin to battle from more of a distance. I always envisioned Odin as more of a melee fighter for whatever reason. King Thor has his battle axe and the sword from the standalone Thor figure.

Worth it? Odin/King Thor’s value is tricky. For me, this was a strong wave with some welcome updates to existing characters that I would have bought anyway.

Of the first wave, I probably wouldn’t have felt the need to buy Sentry and possibly Iron Fist due to the outdated body without the BAF hook, but I’d say Odin/King Thor was worth the extra costs since neither figure was so terrible I regret buying them. That’s when the BAF format works at its best.

Rating: 7 out of 10

This is likely the only way we’ll get Odin/King Thor unless Marvel Select decides to take a crack at them. Hasbro tried to give us the best of both worlds in fudging a couple of details in order to get both Odin and King Thor released. The articulation is really lacking though so for display sake, I’ll probably stick to Odin.

Where to get it? You’re gonna have to get all the figures from The Allfather wave Lyles Movie Files affiliates. Order Avengers Marvel Legends Action Figures Wave 1 Case from Entertainment Earth!

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