Marvel Legends Boom-Boom figure review
As a longtime X-Factor fan, I’ve always had a soft spot for Boom-Boom. She was the original teen with a ‘tude in the X-universe before Jubilee came to the forefront before becoming a mainstay in the New Mutants as they evolved into X-Force. With Hasbro on team completion mode, Boom-Boom became a more essential figure to wrapping X-Force. Let’s see if this Marvel Legends figure is explosive or just fizzles.
Packaging: I really like the yellow accent with the X-Men figures as it gives them a great pop especially with a figure like Boom-Boom with her bright color scheme. The side portrait does a great job of capturing her personality.
This wave suffered from some weird positioning of the bio and figures in the wave with all of the various legal mumbo jumbo. As a result her bio is one very tiny sentence that barely begins to touch on her history or team affiliation.
Likeness: Hasbro has done some amazing likeness that capture an artist’s take on a character while still being functional enough to co-exist with figures that don’t look so specific to a particular artist. Boom-Boom is another great example as she looks just like a Rob Liefeld drawing in figure form.
It’s the wild spray of the hair that sells the Liefeld look, but the head sculpt has so much attitude and personality. Boom-Boom really exuded the 90s extreme presentation with the vests, needless thigh strap of pouches, random hanging belt that doesn’t hold anything up and small gloves and boots. As usual, superglue will be your friend to keep the glove cuffs and thigh strap in position.
Paint: I love Boom-Boom’s color scheme. It circles from obnoxious to awesome and back again every time I look at it. Pink and brown isn’t a color combination that should work, but it does with her and the lime green shades finish off the look perfectly. And you have to appreciate the lipstick matching the pink of her outfit.
Hasbro included a wash in her hair, which was very important to avoid the hair blob look. The green doesn’t cover the bottom portion of the glasses, but that is the only paint issue — and it’s really minor.
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Scale: At this point in the character’s history, Boom-Boom was a young adult. She wasn’t short like the teenage Jubilee and is around the same height as characters like Domino. Maybe she could be a tad shorter, but around characters like Cable and Warpath this won’t matter.
Articulation: Boom-Boom would naturally benefit from the bicep articulation to accomplish wind-up poses for her time bombs. Otherwise her articulation is very solid and works for her powers. This slender body is one of the better athletic female figure choices and Hasbro typically uses it when appropriate.
Given Boom-Boom’s powers, I also found the lack of double-jointed elbows more of a problem than with some other figures, which I wasn’t expecting.
Boom-Boom has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- ankle
Accessories: Before Jubilee, Boom-Boom was the mutant most synonymous with the constantly present bubble from her gum. Thankfully, Hasbro went the same route with Boom-Boom that they did with Jubilee with a plain and a bubble blowing head. I love having the option, but it’s gonna be hard not to keep the bubble blowing head displayed.
Additionally, Boom-Boom has two boomer effects. One is attached to the default left hand. There is a swappable regular left hand as well, which is always the preferred way to handle that kind of power display. Hasbro also included a separate effect blast for Boom-Boom’s right hand.
Finally, she comes with the left leg of the Build-A-Figure Wendigo.
Worth it? Boom-Boom and the rest of the Wendigo wave sans Nightcrawler are staring to go on sale on Amazon, which means you can get them cheaper at retailers that price match like Target and Wal-Mart. I got her for $16, which is a great price for a really strong addition to the X-Force lineup.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Boom-Boom was a lot of fun and she really stands out well with X-Force. She just needed a little more range in the elbows and biceps to go all the way as one of my 2019 favorites.
Where to get it? I got Boom-Boom from Target as I kept waiting out to find her in stores. GameStop and Wal-Mart also have had the waves in stock, but they might be harder to track down now. You can always go the online route with LMF affiliates Amazon or order the solo figure or the full Build-A-Figure Wendigo wave at Entertainment Earth.
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.