Marvel Legends Maverick figure review – Build-a-Figure Strong Guy wave
Maverick was one of the plethora of additions to the X-Men series when the various writers were trying to come up with the next breakout character like Cable and Deadpool.
While he never attained superstar status, Maverick does have a cool costume and a Marvel Legends figure. That’s something Gideon, Fenris, Ahab and Maggot can’t say. Let’s see if this figure is worth a flight or if gets goosed.
Packaging: I’m kinda reaching the point where I just want David Nakayama to do the package art for the like now.
His style is a great fit for Marvel Legends and he knows how to capture the core essence of the character. As part of the Deadpool wave, Maverick gets the red and gold color scheme. His bio briefly covers his powers and his connection to Wolverine and Sabretooth.
Likeness: Jim Lee’s first crack at Maverick was kinda bulky and clunky giving him too much of a Cable-lite with a cool mask vibe. Subsequent artists dropped the bulkiness and streamlined his armor more while enhancing his unique elements.
The figure takes cues from the initial makeover. Like a lot of characters, Maverick has had numerous redesigns since then, but I’m glad Hasbro went classic Maverick for the figure. Not coincidentally this is more of how he appeared in the X-Men The Animated Series.
Hasbro did go the trouble of making sure Maverick’s helmet, backpack and tubing was properly done with an original sculpt instead of repurposing it from another figure. Ditto for the armor plated arms and legs.
If Maverick is reusing any parts, Hasbro did a great job of hiding it. I’m impressed they made all this effort for a C-level hero.
Paint: I really like the shade of gold Hasbro used for Maverick’s armor. I helps make the entire color scheme pop. Maverick has a wild combination of colors, but most of the figure is cast in the separate parts.
The only areas where the paintjob could be tricky is the helmet and the tiger stripes along his gauntlet. My figure was fine on both fronts thankfully.
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Scale: Maverick seemed to be a standard height character, but Hasbro sized him up just a tad. He’s taller than Wolverine (naturally), but the bigger surprise is his height compared to Gambit and Cyclops.
He’s a bit taller than them and the armor of course makes him look wider and thicker. He is still looking up at Sabretooth, which is a good thing.
Articulation: Interestingly Maverick doesn’t have the usual arm articulation. He has a swivel joint at the bicep instead of the typical ball joint.
It doesn’t really affect poses, but it is a departure from the norm while allowing Hasbro to maintain the integrity of the armor sculpt.
I would have liked butterfly joints here for tighter gun toting poses, but that would have made for some clunkiness in the armor and this is a fine compromise.
Maverick has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- bicep swivel
- elbow (double jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hips
- thighs
- knees (double jointed)
- ankles
Accessories: Maverick comes with two guns. They’re not the kind to make Cable envious, but they’re a nice size and I don’t think they’ve been used before with other figures.
The bigger of the two is on model from Maverick’s first appearance in X-Men. I couldn’t place the second one, but he is the kind of character who definitely doubles up with his weapons.
He also come with the left arm of the Build-A-Figure Strong Guy.
Worth it? Maverick clocks in at $20. That’s the standard price and he’s well worth it considering all of the sculpted elements at play with him. I feel like Maverick could be the sneaky figure in this wave who becomes hard to track down later.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Maverick is one of those characters Hasbro could have done some shortcuts on and it would have been understandable to a degree. Instead, they really went all out with a figure that takes me right back to the final days of the Jim Lee X-Men era.
Where to get it? This wave has been popping up regularly at Target. You can also get him from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.