Marvel Legends Nighthawk figure review – BAF Armored Thanos wave

Oh look another Marvel Legends review. Considering I’m still about oh…64,124 figures back it might take a while for me to catch up. Today I’m looking at Nighthawk, a character who may as well be in DC for as convoluted as his history tends to be. The important thing for this review is we complete the core Defenders with his addition. Let’s see if he flies or plummets now that I’ve got him in hand.

Packaging:  This is part of the Avengers: Endgame BAF Thanos wave meaning we get some nice blues to compliment the black packaging. The side portrait kinda looks like a Greg Horn drawing/painting. It’s a nice style for Nighthawk and shows him off nicely.

 

Surprisingly, Nighthawk warrants his own logo on the front package. Clearly, Hasbro has grown more confident in putting out fringe characters or maybe they’re just afraid of putting out anything under the Defenders banner?

 

Hasbro’s team wrote a comprehensive background covering Nighthawk’s early stint as a member of the Squadron Sinister before joining with The Defenders. This is my ideal kind of bio as it explains the character and their allegiance. If only it also explained his powers this would have been perfect.

Likeness:  Nighthawk has had several outfits over the years with various changes to the main design. Hasbro chose the best attire since we’re likely not to get multiple Nighthawk figures. This look features a raised cape like Thor with feather like points at the bottom, eye wings, gloves with claws and buccaneer boots. It’s a busy look that Hasbro’s sculptors pulled off pretty well.

This isn’t the first take on the character as he got a nice Marvel Universe figure as well. The only area where the smaller scale version beats out this version is the eye mask, which is spread out further and doesn’t hug the side of his mask. I wonder if Hasbro was concerned about breakage at this scale?

The gloves seem like newly sculpted pieces just for Nighthawk and while the baby claws won’t intimidate Wolverine, they look good as well.

He’s got tiny feet, which only bother me in the sense of bigger feet would almost certainly have helped him maintain more poses and reduce the risk of toppling over.

I’m most impressed with the execution of the cape. It’s raised at that extreme angle and the feather tips came out great. Even if you weren’t familiar with the character he really stands out. Hasbro couldn’t work in the rocket pack on his back, but the cape plug does a pretty good job of staying in place even without superglue.

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Scale:  Besides the boots and gloves, this looks to be another figure making use of the Bucky Cap body. At this point it might be time for a new regular guy mold, but it’s not bad or anything.

Paint:  Nighthawk’s colors don’t lend themselves to easy paint applications. Hasbro went with a darker yellow instead of the brighter shade used in the comic. Maybe this yellow orange sticks better?

As you might expect there’s still some bleeding of the dark blue coming through weaker sections of the yellow along the chest and head, but there’s no sloppiness. The gloves feature a nice golden shade to differentiate them from the gloves.

Articulation:  Nighthawk isn’t as ridiculously unstable as I imagined given the heft of his cape. Once you find a solid stance, he should hold it without buckling and bowling over the rest of your display.

Naturally the cape prevents some of the more exotic poses you might try and deep stances past the cape’s length are perfectly worthless. Still, you can get more than enough poses for this guy and he’s very fun to pose even with the cape peg’s knack for coming out when I get too creative.

Nighthawk has:

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

Accessories:  Nighthawk’s cape can come off so if you were desperate for something in this category that would be it. He does come with the right arm and bladed weapon of the Build-A-Figure Armored Thanos.

The weapon kinda looks too much like a toy thanks to its lack of any coloring or weathering. Blood was way too much to ask, but it looks a tad cheap.

Worth it?  To basically complete the core Defenders in a manner that doesn’t feel cheap while getting the appropriate new pieces for $20. That’s a good deal for me although I expect Nighthawk to be a guy who will eventually be much cheaper come November.

Rating:  8.5 out of 10

Nighthawk is another solid addition to the line and a well executed figure. I wish the eye wings were better and he used a different body, but there’s no real issues here.

Where to get it?  By this point you should be able to find most of this wave as Target, Wal-Mart, Gamestop, Walgreens and Best Buy have them in stock. Online you can try Hasbro Pulse and Amazon.