Marvel Legends Black Knight figure review

Black Knight is one of those Avengers that never gets his due. He was among the earlier Avengers before Black Panther, Hercules, Falcon and Black Widow. But he’s never been held in that high regard despite being an interesting character. Hasbro didn’t help his cause with a lackluster version of his modern look. Now Hasbro makes good with its latest Marvel Legends Black Knight. Let’s see if it’s worth a spot on the shelf or needs to get turned back to stone.

Packaging:  I’m a fan of this Avengers: Infinity War color scheme. This purple and orange looks very sharp. And the bright yellow insert shows off the figure well.

The sides features a nice drawing of Black Knight ready for battle. Hasbro put in a bit more work with the bio than normal although I’d consider his longstanding affiliation with the Avengers as a clear allegiance.

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Likeness:  Black Knight is sneakily one of those characters who has a ton of figure worthy looks. Hasbro went with the right one for this update though and went with the modernized version of his classic attire. This look is more fitting for a knight than the shorts Dane Whitman used in his original costume.

Although I’ve seen some customs that make me want to go more for the classic comic look just from cutting the skirt and switching the belt.

Hasbro reused the base body we’ve seen before with Dreadknight. That was absolutely the right way to go and yet another use of that base body collectors speculated when it debuted. The scale mail looks great, the belt is just the right size and the boots and gloves don’t overwhelm the figure.

Yes, it’s a ton of reuse, but Hasbro makes up for it and there’s no need to complain when such heavy reuse is appropriate.

Scale:  Black Knight clocks in right around the height of a standard figure so he fittingly looks a tad smaller than Captain America or Namor.

Paint:  Like all the other scale mail figures, Hasbro went with a metallic sheen of paint. Black Knight seems like his has a bit of a black wash, which really makes the figure stand out.

I had some brown slop from the belt splash over onto the skirt piece and the red logo had a scratch, but otherwise the paint job is very strong.

Articulation: Like Dreadknight, Black Knight inherits the few limitations of this base body. Namely the harder to maneuver shoulder joints. They get almost the full range of the regular edition, but there is some slight push back on them. Otherwise you can put him in most of the standard melee poses.

Black Knight has:

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

Accessories:  For purists, we get a classic heroic Dane Whitman without the helmet wings. I’m not a fan of the intense expression as I prefer neutral expressions and this looks more fitting for Wolverine than the more relaxed Black Knight.

The third head sculpt features the original Black Knight — Sir Percival. It’s a nice bonus though I probably won’t ever use it. Maybe. It does look impressively cool.

Dane also has his faithful Ebony Blade. There’s nothing fancy here, but I do like the flat black blade as it doesn’t make it look like a standard toy sword.

The heads don’t peg into the neck piece as well as I’d like and feel like they’re sitting a little high when I started swapping them out.

Additionally, Black Knight comes with the left leg to the Build A Figure Cull Obsidian.

Worth it?  I got Black Knight for $20. I’m not sure if he’s gonna be the character in this wave that stays above retail long-term, but the odds look pretty good. I’d recommend getting him as soon as you see him.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

I really wish Hasbro went with the neutral expression for the classic head sculpt, but otherwise this is a really great figure of an Avenger that was over due for such a great plastic representation.

Where to Get It? I found the Avengers: Infinity Wave 2 at Wal-Mart. They were the first in my area to get the first series. Target is still behind so the best bets are Amazon or Entertainment Earth