Marvel Legends Vintage Wave 2 The Wasp figure review

Binging on Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes has rekindled my appreciation for The Wasp. The MCU version is cool, but not how I think of the character. Since I still have that 7-year-old mentality of cartoon = figures, the Marvel Legends Vintage Wave 2 Wasp immediately shot to the top of my to-review list. Funny how that’s still so effective.

Let’s see how this version of The Wasp flies.

Packaging:  I’m not sure how this line appeals to collectors who weren’t old enough to remember getting Toy Biz Marvel figures pre-Marvel Legends. I dig the presentation with the grey and white Marvel Comics panels in the backdrop and a dynamic Wasp logo.

There’s something really eye catching about the light blue top and the yellow stars and the burst at the bottom touting the accessories. It’s so different from the regular Marvel Legends packaging that it really stands out. And I keep finding it funny how short, sweet and effect Hasbro made these bios.

Likeness:  We’d originally gotten Wasp in the Ant-Man wave. That figure was fine and featured Jan in her more popular modern attire, but I wanted more of a classic looking Wasp.

That’s exactly what we get with the Vintage Wave version featuring Jan’s trademark bob and a more colorful attire. The head is a repurposed Domino head sculpt. That’s one of those smart repaints Hasbro can get away with and no one can complain. I’d argue it might even be a better head sculpt for Wasp than Domino even if it’s missing the slight smirk of the other Wasp head.

As far as I can tell, the head sculpt is the only difference from the first Wasp figure, which is fine as that body worked well for Jan.

Wasp also has the nearly transparent pink wings attached to two plugs on her back. They’re a little unsightly if you want a non-powered Wasp, but it’s the best way to make it work in this case in order to have an in-scale Wasp.

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Scale:  Wasp doesn’t have high heels and stands appropriately shorter than her fellow Avengers per the source material.

Paint:  I actually like Wasp’s yellow and black outfit, but it seemed too boring to be the only outfit for a character known for constantly swapping out attires.

Plus, it wasn’t as colorful as some of her other choices. This Vintage figure takes care of all of those issues for me with a costume that really stands out from the other Avengers.

The blue, white and black color scheme pops. Despite the somewhat complicated line work with the Ws, Vs and arrows, there wasn’t any paint issues at all with this figure. That was the big worry, but Hasbro knocked it out.

Articulation: Hey look, I’m about to start complaining about the missing bicep articulation again.

I’ve tried, but there’s just no female figure that benefits at all from it being absent, especially those whose powers involve projection blasts.

Besides the missing bicep point, the rest of the figure has great articulation and I can knock out a ton of effective Wasp poses.

Wasp has:

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

Accessories:  The Vintage Series doesn’t come with any Build-A-Figure, the one thing holding them back from another level of greatness. This line seems ideal for repaints or slight modifications of some existing BAFs.

Wasp doesn’t come empty handed though as she’s got a mini-Ant-Man figure. I’ve got this exact figure from another Ant-Man set, but it’s a nice addition for anyone who missed out. The colors are nice and vibrant with a pretty sharp paint job considering the scale.

And since you can take them out, we can include the wings too. For display purposes, you’ll probably want the wings off anyway.

Worth it?  Due to the lack of the BAF part, getting these Vintage Wave figures for around $15 is the sweet spot price point. The first wave was great on that front as they all clock in now (save Wolverine and Spider-Man) for less than $15.

You can get Wasp for just over $20 as the trend on this wave is that the figures aren’t going to be dropping in price. To get a classic version of a founding Avenger I don’t feel that bad about paying full price however.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Where to get it?  Wasp is available on Amazon.com or HasbroPulse.