Marvel Legends Absorbing Man figure review

My first exposure to Absorbing Man, like a lot of Marvel characters, was through Secret Wars. I liked that he was just a big bruising bully. He wasn’t the guy coming up with the plan, but the thug who’d enforce the boss’ wishes. Not to mention he had a sweet power too.

I wasn’t thrilled Absorbing Man was tabbed as the Build-A-Figure for a Spider-Man wave. He didn’t need to be neo-giant size, but that scale battle was lost a long time ago. At least with this format, Hasbro got to beef him up with a ton of useful extras. Now let’s see if he’s worth tracking down.

Packaging:  As the BAF, Absorbing Man doesn’t come in a package. I still think Hasbro needs to do some sort of write-up for the BAF to further celebrate fully assembling it.

Likeness:  Absorbing Man has always been portrayed as a bit of a pinhead, but the figure gives him more of a conehead look. It’s a little too exaggerated. I like the expression though as it looks like Creel has had enough and is ready to start absorbing.

The ball-jointed hips look out of place with other BAFs having smoother, less distracting sculpts. If nothing else, they’d allow for the belt to not take up half his hips. For me, the best Absorbing Man remains the Marvel Universe version as it captured the character perfectly. This is pretty darned close however.

I love the work on the arms, which capture Creel in mid-absorption. I’ve finally tracked down the other arms, but I’ll have to come back and add them in. There’s great unique detailing on the wooded right arm and stone left arm. These are very impressively done and help to show off his powers beautifully.

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Scale:  As I mentioned earlier, I’m not thrilled about the scale. That’s more a function of Hasbro super-sizing other bruisers, specifically Thor and The Wrecking Crew. It’d be silly for Absorbing Man to be smaller – even if that was the proper scale. So while I wish he were smaller, that’s not his fault. Creel stands taller than the Wrecking Crew so at least he’s not a small giant.

In the perfect world though, he’d be about the same size as the Unworthy Thor from the Battle for Asgard set.

Paint:  I’m thrilled Hasbro went with the prison purple striped pants. They stand out nicely making for a great contrast with his shirtless top.

Due to the intense expression, it was crucial for Hasbro to nail the eye paint. That wasn’t the case with mine as the right eye looks a little too small and off center. It’s meant to give the impression that Creel is looking down at his opponent, but it didn’t turn out correctly.

Articulation:  Even with the goofy ball-jointed hips, Creel can achieve some great poses. Hasbro engineers the BAF bodies so well that you can have a lot of fun trying out different poses and being surprised that the figures can hold them. The single joint elbow restricts deeper, punching poses and the neck joint doesn’t have a lot of up and down movement. Otherwise, Creel is just as poseable as a regular release figure.

Absorbing Man has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• bicep
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee (double-jointed)
• ankle

Accessories:  For a BAF, Absorbing Man comes impressively loaded. First is the alternate head. This is a mid-absorption face with stone gradually enveloping the skin. This sculpt has a more maniacal ‘oh now it’s really on!’ expression.

The main reason it took me forever to get around to this review was because I kept waiting to get the Ben Reilly figure so I could show the other alternate bare and metallic arm. But I’ve already taken too long to get them off eBay so I’ll just add them later.

Additionally, Creel comes with his wrecking ball. I wish this were articulated so the chain had some more range, but I like the heft of it.

Worth it? I assembled Absorbing Man on the strength of a lot of sales for this wave. The value is always subjective with these BAFs if you’re getting 80% of the wave anyway. With Creel paying the usual $120-$140 is worth it thanks to all the extras and display options.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Scale aside, this is a pretty great Absorbing Man figure. I’m always happy to add super villains who can take on teams by themselves.

Where to get it?  Right now there’s an eBay auction where you can get the fully assembled Absorbing Man for around $30. That’s a great price for a really solid BAF.