Marvel Legends Kid Nova figure review
Over the years, Nova went from being a Green Lantern rip-off to a fairly popular galactic hero. Naturally, Marvel went and replaced him with a younger version — Sam Alexander. And like Kyle Rayner, some folks didn’t take too kindly to their Nova being replaced.
Eventually, Nova managed to turn the tide and won over most readers. It was fitting then that Sam’s Nova gets a Marvel Legends figure in a Guardians of the Galaxy wave like his predecessor Rich Ryder did for the first film. Let’s see how Hasbro did with Kid Nova.
Packaging: As part of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 wave, Nova gets the purple accents. That’s probably my favorite of all the Marvel Legends colors since it’s so striking and underutilized. Nova has a fun portrait by Mike Deodato along both sides. In keeping with my main complaint, Nova gets an abbreviated bio, which really shouldn’t be the case for ‘newer’ characters.
Likeness: With Rich getting the Nova Prime upgrade, Sam gets the mostly traditional Nova costume with a few adjustments. The best aspect of the figure is the excellent work on the helmet.
It reflects the bucket head style of the Nova Corps’ helmet and has a surprising amount of paneling detail. I was glad to see Hasbro sculpted the uniform’s discs, belt and gauntlets. The boots lines and shoulder points are painted, but they weren’t as necessary as the other areas.
MORE:
- DC Comics reviews for the week of 7/19/17
- Girls Trip review
- 7 reasons why DC Collectibles failed with DC Icons
- Ranking the Marvel Studios movies from Iron Man to Spider-Man: Homecoming
Scale: Kid Nova uses the same teen size buck as Miles Morales Spider-Man. Height wise, he’s right at the same size as Miles and Ms. Marvel. All around the size of this buck is just right for younger characters. I appreciate Hasbro taking the time to get Nova’s size correct. He wouldn’t be nearly as interesting a character if he were the same size as Captain America.
Paint: The pearlescent gold really looks sharp and contrasts nicely with the dark, space blue. There’s a few rough spots where the gold chipped and the blue came through, but that’s not too prevalent.
The helmet has an interesting flat dark blue and the red star didn’t bleed over at all. My favorite part of the helmet paintwork is the faint blue accents around the white eye slots. It’s a cool effect and looks terrific.
Articulation: The smaller body has nice, fluid articulation allowing Nova to do all of the poses you’d want. Flying and power gesturing poses are a lot of fun with him as a result.
Nova has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- bicep
- elbow
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- ankle
Accessories: Nova comes with a cool accessory with fellow Corps member Phlish. He’s not articulated, but Hasbro actually took the time to get the little guy right in terms of sculpting detailing and paint. Those little extras are very much appreciated.
Nova comes with Titus’ torso, the biggest piece of this wave’s BAF. Having gotten Angela, Vance Astro and Darkhawk, I’m very tempted to just grab Yondu and Drax to give this guy some arms. Looks like Hasbro managed to sucker me in again.
Worth it? Right now, Nova is available for $14. Anytime you can pay less than $20 for a quality Marvel Legends figure that’s a win.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Kid Nova is a really fun figure especially when paired with his fellow Champions.
Where to get it? You can still find this wave in stores, but the second set of GOTG Vol. 2 figures are slowly trickling in so don’t wait too long.
Price match up from the Amazon cost if you do find him in stores like Target, Toys R Us and Walmart. If those options don’t pan out, go the Amazon.com route or order the entire set from Entertainment Earth.