Marvel Legends Night Thrasher figure review BAF Kingpin wave

The 90s were a fun time to be a comic book fan. The X-Men were going strong, the Avengers were rocking some cool leather jackets and we had a pair of fun new teams that would become fixtures of this era. Between The Thunderbolts and New Warriors, newer readers had their own team like the Fantastic Four, Avengers and X-Men to follow right from the start. I was partial to the New Warriors largely because of their leader, Night Thrasher. He was a Batman/Punisher clone that had enough unique elements to stand out. And the fact that he was one of the rare black characters in Marvel at the time didn’t hurt either.

We’ve reached the point in Marvel Legends where more of the fringe characters are getting made, which means I can finally check a Marvel Legends Night Thrasher off my Top 20. His inclusion in the Spider-Man Build-A-Figure Kingpin wave makes sense as he’s partnered with the Web-Slinger occasionally. Not that it mattered to me if he were in an X-Men wave. I’ve got Night Thrasher. Now let’s see how his figure turned out.

Package:  No changes here from the standard Marvel Legends black and red packaging for Spider-Man. The side features a bit more color instead of the all black and red scheme. It is still a bit weird that the plastic insert isn’t glued to the front of the package anymore. MOC collectors might need to keep an eye out for that if possible. Hasbro isn’t adding any more lines to these bios, but they’ve gotten better at summarizing the character in succinct sentences.

Likeness:  Night Thrasher doesn’t have the flashiest costume, but it looks cool. Sometimes keeping it simple works. That said, I’d still happily pick up Night Thrasher’s second outfit with a tad more red to break up the black, but if I could only get one, this would be my choice.

 

A lot has to do with that oh so cool helmet. It always struck me as such a cool design as well as his ‘world title style’ belt and random 90s obligatory flair — in this case a wrap around his thigh. The only thing missing is the pouch Night Thrasher had on the right side of his belt.

Hasbro re-used a lot of the Beetle figure for Night Thrasher and it works pretty well. A minor gripe is NT has his kneepads angling up as opposed to going down like this figure.

Scale:  Night Thrasher stands about regular height from most characters. The New Warriors were younger heroes, but not young teens and stood eye to eye with the older Marvel heroes. That’s reflected properly here.

Paint: Night Thrasher wears armor so the metallic sheen the top half looks great. It’s weird then that Hasbro went with more of a matte black for the legs. There’s no problem with the linework on the helmet, which was most important for me. No paint issues inside the helmet either, which was an admittedly small space.

The belt needed another coat of red paint as the black is coming through. Although it does kind of give that comic book inking/shading effect so it’s not terrible.

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Articulation: The Beetle body was a good choice for Night Thrasher and it’s not too restrictive in terms of movements. You’ll be able to do a lot of cool poses for him in sending him into action.

Night Thrasher has:

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

Accessories:  Hasbro really went all out for Night Thrasher. I figured his batons were a lock. They’re the same as the ones we’ve seen with multiple Daredevil figures. Can’t knock what works, right?

It’s the extras that really make him fun however. Night Thrasher also has a backpack to attach the batons and my favorite accessory — his skateboard. The cool thing with Night Thrasher was he didn’t just use it as a quick means of transportation, this was another offensive weapon for him.

He also comes with the left leg for the Build A Figure Kingpin.

Worth it? I happily paid $20 for this guy. Night Thrasher was one of my favorite characters in the 90s. The only thing that will make him better is Hasbro revealing more New Warriors are slated for 2019.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Where to Get It?  I’ve yet to see this BAF Kingpin wave at retail so going the Amazon route might be your best choice. Want to know more about the New Warriors? This omnibus has you covered with some of their best stories.