Marvel Legends Omega Red figure review – Build a Sauron wave

Omega Red was a quintessential 90s X-Men villain. He had a cool look, a mysterious backstory and a mad on for Wolverine. No surprise he became a popular villain despite his lack of memorable stories. Still, that is a very cool look.

With Hasbro on its mass upgrade every Toy Biz Marvel Legend kick, Omega Red was starting to become an obvious candidate for a makeover. Like most of the Toy Biz figures from that era it was a magnificent upgrade from the original 5-inch line, but time had passed him by. The gangly proportions looked bad and his plastic shoulder pads were showing signs of degrading.

Packaging:  It’s the standard ML packaging though to break up the Deadpool wave from the Spider-Man series, the side portraits feature full color. The bio is pretty comprehensive as well though I still think Hasbro needs to write up the common adversaries for the characters in the bio.

Likeness:  No shocker, but Hasbro’s take is a massive improvement. The main thing is the body. Instead of a wide torso, broad shoulders and tiny legs, this version is much more solidly constructed. He’s got the girth, but it doesn’t slim down anywhere.

This looks to be a new base body and it’s a great fit for Omega Red…and characters like Venom and the Wrecking Crew. Fortunately, Hasbro can still use this body for a classic Thor (hint hint) figure.

Toy Biz’s head sculpt had the edge in terms of intensity and looks like a Jim Lee drawing. Hasbro’s version is less detailed, but I prefer the less dynamic hair sculpt. The biggest difference between the two is honestly a lack of a paint wash on the Hasbro version.

Hasbro’s update also reduces some of the bulkiness of the outfit with a tighter fit of the shoulder pads and harness.  The gauntlets also came out nice despite not being as detailed as the Toy Biz figure.

Again, some of this is a matter of paint choices. Toy Biz went with a metallic red for the gauntlets while Hasbro opted for a flat red.

The knee pads/shin guards aren’t half as intricate on the Hasbro version compared to its Toy Biz counterpart. Oddly, there’s definitely some elements of the Toy Biz figure that Hasbro still wasn’t able to top.

Scale:  Omega Red has been portrayed as wider and taller than the average size character without being a giant. He scales nicely next to Sabretooth and Wolverine.

Paint:  Thanks to Omega Red’s white and red color scheme the lack of paint details is more noticeable. Maybe a light blue wash to bring out some of the veins on the white skin would have been helpful? A wash was definitely needed on the hair and the silver harness and shoulder pads would have benefited from that as well.

Articulation:  Posing this updated figure is a lot easier of course. There’s no janky movement and the articulation is as fluid as ever. This is where Hasbro gets the big win and the major incentive to upgrade.

The one weird aspect of the figure is the head doesn’t sit flush in the neck peg so random movement will lead to it popping off. It won’t fit snugly so be prepared for a little frustration on that end.

Omega Red has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• biceps
• elbows
• wrists
• torso
• waist
• hips
• thighs
• knees (double-jointed)
• boot
• ankles

Accessories:  Hasbro made a brilliant decision here and provided both short and long tendrils. The length of the tendrils made the Toy Biz figure a challenge to pose without being a shelf hog.

MORE:

• WWE alumni lawsuit means you won’t see these figures from Mattel
• Disaster Movie review – never been a better film title
• Meeting Kurt Angle
• Ranking the Marvel Studios movies from Iron Man to Avengers: Infinity War

Hasbro’s figure allows the option to showcase his power without taking up too much space. These swap in and out with no problem. The longer tendrils lack articulation, but are poseable enough that you can work them into some solid action poses. Unlike some of the other Toy Biz updates, we’re not able to swap out the longer Toy Biz tendrils in the slot.

Additionally, Omega Red comes with the left leg of the Sauron Build a Figure.  From all accounts, Sauron looks to be one of Hasbro’s all-time best BAFs so I’m looking forward to completing him.

Worth it?  I got him for $20. Right now, earlier 2018 figures are around the $15 price range. I don’t love his odds of getting him for that price so I’d recommend getting him at retail price.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Besides some of the missing outfit details this figure is superior to the Toy Biz version on all fronts. It’s a fantastic update and another example of the roll Hasbro has been on in 2018.

Where to get it?  I haven’t seen this wave at either Target or Wal-Mart yet. I’ve seen it plenty of times at GameStop as far as retail goes. Otherwise, online is the way to go here whether from Hasbrotoyshop or Amazon.com.