Marvel Legends Mach-1 figure review – BAF Abomination wave
The Gamerverse wave of Marvel Legends has been very helpful in terms of adding to the ranks of two of my favorite teams from the 90s – The New Warriors and Thunderbolts. Today I’m looking at one of the core members of the latter — Mach-1 — the hero formerly known as the villain The Beetle. Confused? Just check out Thunderbolts Vol. 1. Mach-1 brings my Thunderbolts crew to three. Let’s see if he flies high or crashes and burns.
Packaging: Nothing new with this wave. It features red and blue accents. The side portrait captures a Mark Bagley feel so it’s a big win for me. The bio is very brief without detailing anything with The Thunderbolts or his past as The Beetle.
Likeness: Fittingly, Mach-1 is mostly a reuse of the Ultimate Beetle figure. The only change is an overlay torso, belt, feet, helmet and wings.
Naturally there were a few compromises from the source material given the heavy re-use. Mach-1 lacks the unique wide blaster gauntlets and the circles along his inner thigh are missing. Mostly, Mach-1 showcases very smart part choices based on existing materials that made for a pretty close to accurate comic book appearance.
My only “real” gripe is I wish Hasbro made the visor translucent so we could see Mach-1’s eyes as they were transparent in the comics. The wing blades have that unique star-like pattern as well. It’s fun looking back and seeing all the visual cues of the Thunderbolt’s villainous alter egos in the costumes.
Paint: I’ve already mentioned the visor section, but something that seemed off to me from the first showing of the figure was the stark white armor. I always thought it was more silver, but after checking reference art, it was white that benefited from shading to give it more depth. That’s not the kind of thing I would expect Hasbro to add with their figures although casting the material in a pearlescent white might have done the trick?
I was impressed that Hasbro actually did the two-tone aspects of the blues in Mach-1’s costume. Again that was something I only noticed after checking old comics. BTW, the original Thunderbolts was a fascinating read and well worth checking out if you’ve never followed it back in the 90s.
Scale: Mach-1 was average height and shouldn’t tower over anyone. I do appreciate that the helmet is sized like a human head is enclosed.
Articulation: The Ultimate Beetle body works well for flying poses and ranged attacks. Mach-1 is a flyer so that’s the most important aspect of his articulation. The shoulder pads are made of a flexible enough material that they don’t restrict any of his movement so he can hit all of his blast gestures,
Mach-1 has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- bicep
- elbow (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hips
- thighs
- knees (double jointed)
- ankles
Accessories: Mach-1 doesn’t have any additional accessories beyond the wings. Considering that’s part of his costume I won’t consider that an extra. Maybe an unmasked head sculpt would have been a nice bonus.
He does have the head of the Build-A-Figure Abomination.
Worth it? I got Mach-1 for $20, the normal rate for the line. I think he’ll be discounted later on, but you know someone from this wave is going to be the super expensive one.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Where to get it? This wave is showing up at retail. I’m not making figure runs yet so my purchases since March have all be online. Mach-1 is currently available on Target.com, Entertainment Earth and Amazon.