Marvel Legends Sabretooth figure review – BAF Apocalypse wave

In my first introduction to Sabretooth, he was gleefully eviscerating Morlocks along with his fellow Marauders. They were unlike any opponent I’d seen the X-Men face and have remained some of my favorite X-villains. And it was impressive seeing someone go toe to toe with Wolverine. Barring these later versions, I was fine with either of Sabretooth’s first two attires. With no Marauders in sight, the Jim Lee costume made the most sense for his updated Marvel Legends figure. Time to sink our teeth and claws into this review.  

Packaging:  Hey look! It’s the same packaging as always. Thanks to his size, Sabretooth doesn’t get lost in the package despite a somewhat similar color scheme. Of the figures I’ve looked at so far, Sabretooth has the most fitting portrait art on the side panel.

His bio is simple and lacks the ties to Wolverine, but otherwise covers the important parts of the character.

Likeness:  It helps to look at Lee’s art and the original Toy Biz figure to fully appreciate this figure. Despite the major upgrades from Toy Biz to Hasbro, Sabretooth didn’t stand out as a figure badly in need of an update. But one look at the Hasbro version and it’s no question this was badly needed.

The sculpting is much truer to the original design with the flowing mane of fur along the shoulders. It stands taller and is fuller than the TB version. Sabretooth is broader and more physically imposing than the slender TB figure. The clawed hands and gloved points look great as well.

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Of course the most noticeable aspect about the figure is that killer head sculpt. Sabretooth looks like he’s ready to go into his own berserker rage on an X-Man. The head has some odd molding as if the jaw was articulated. That’s the one glaring aesthetic issue, but it’s not a big deal overall.

Scale:  Sabretooth uses the Hyperion mold. This is the best choice of the available options for him and it allows him to look imposing against Wolverine and the rest of the standard size X-Men.  

Paint:  I really liked the paintwork here. The figure sports a more comic book accurate shade of orange and brown and the wash done on the fur lining is really sharp. I expected some stray line work with the points of the outfit, but everything came off well.

Again the head sculpt gets the extra level of attention and care. Sabretooth hair has a subtle brown wash and there’s some terrific pink shading around his eyes to suggest the wild bloodlust. The detail work for the teeth and mouth are mostly on point with just a little pink runoff on the teeth.  

Articulation:  Make sure your X-Men have good hiding spaces. The Hyperion body isn’t the best for extreme poses, but it will more than suffice for Sabretooth on stalker predator mode. His fur neck piece is soft enough that you can move it as needed while you’re setting him up for that ideal pose.

Sabretooth has:

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

Accessories:  I can’t think of anything that would make for a fitting accessory for Sabretooth. Hasbro was equally stumped and didn’t give him anything besides the left arm for the Build a Figure Apocalypse. I won’t hold that against them in this case.

Worth it?  I grabbed Sabretooth for $20. I can easily see him becoming cheaper as time goes on, but I wanted Wolverine’s arch rival right away not at some random point in the future. On a sliding price value scale, I’d say he’s worth $15-$17 thanks to the lack of extras.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Sabretooth is a major improvement on the original Toy Biz figure. I liked this guy a lot more than I thought I would and he’s one of my favorites from an already impressive wave.

Where to get it?  Check Target and GameStop first since they’ve really been on top of this wave retail wise. Failing that you can always try Amazon or Entertainment Earth.