Marvel Legends Retro Rogue figure review

What a difference five years makes. When I reviewed the Jim Lee Rogue from the Build-A-Figure Juggernaut wave, I was ecstatic to have a well articulated Marvel Legends figure of one of the X-Men’s heavy hitters that didn’t require a custom head to look decent.

Naturally that figure’s value is crazy now as one of the first updated X-Men figures Hasbro was able to crank out in years. That feels like a very long time ago, right?

Now we’re at a point where Hasbro can get a highly demanded figure back out there for collectors who initially missed out as well as make some changes to appeal to folks who got the previous figure. And for MOC collectors, the Retro card presentation is even sweeter. Let’s see if this Rogue was actually worth the upgrade.

Packaging: Rogue gets the Vintage/Retro card style in homage of the old school Toy Biz packaging. David Nakayama provides the package art, which is great as Nakayama always does a great job of capturing the essence of characters. This one is no different.

The Retro card is probably the best option for MOC collectors as the presentation is really nice with the appealing color combinations and the figure doesn’t share package space with a Build-A-Figure part.

Rogue’s power tag is listed as power absorption. These descriptions are always a little odd in a charming old school way.

I’m finding the bios on Retro figures are better than the average Marvel Legends figure and this one summarizes her powers and team affiliation in a few brief sentences.

Likeness: To be clear, I missed out on the initial release of Retro Rogue because I didn’t “have to” have a figure with a new head sculpt. Not actually seeing Rogue in stores helped too, but seeing pictures from other collectors quickly made it clear this was an improvement.

If you’re looking for me to bash the old Hasbro figure, that won’t be the case. It’s still a figure I would have been fine with if the Retro Rogue was twice the price.

The first Rogue figure was an improvement in every sense from the Toy Biz figure. That was expected as by 2016, Hasbro had the improve on Toy Biz figures formula down pat. Now Hasbro is improving on their own figures.

For Rogue that means an upgraded head sculpt. The first figure’s head sculpt was pretty — a colossal enhancement from Toy Biz’s figure that looked scary at best. Still, Hasbro’s figure didn’t have the voluminous hair Rogue was known for with this era and outfit.

This new sculpt fixes that with much higher and thicker hair. It sounds minor, but it’s a significant improvement that captures that long, flowing hairstyle Jim Lee made famous with his take on Rogue.

My major “minor” complaint with ver.1 Rogue was her eyes felt set too far apart. They’re better placed here and I love the bangs flowing below her headband. The sculpt doesn’t lose the headband straps casually blowing to the side.

Hasbro didn’t change up anything from the base figure with the flared collar, short jacket, loose fitting belt and flying strap boot cuffs. It’s weird that Hasbro didn’t take the time and glue to the boot straps together this time.

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Scale: When I got Rogue, she didn’t have a lot of team members to compare her to save the brown and orange Wolverine. The original figure was a little shorter compared to this new one thanks to the hair and that seems to put her more in line with her typically portrayed height in the comics.

Paint: Another difference from the original release is Hasbro went for more accurate comic/cartoon colors. The early X-Men figures had a deep almost orange-yellow shade of yellow.

 

It was off, but Hasbro at least stayed consistent with it for all of the figures. Rogue 2.0 has a bolder, pure yellow. The green is flatter and not as metallic and the jacket is lighter.

Thankfully, Hasbro didn’t try and make Rogue’s white hair grey (like the first figure) and it’s a strong, stark white. My first Rogue had very little paint issues, but this one had some black blemishes on the neck and some areas of the green boot cuffs weren’t painted at all.

And Hasbro painted the inner portions of Rogue’s costume to carry on the illusion of the jacket. Now it looks like she’s wearing a very weird vest.

Articulation: Rogue’s articulation really would have benefited from adding a bicep swivel and double-jointed elbows. It’s not realistic to expect a repaint with easy new sculpts to be completely retooled although it does ding her overall score somewhat.

The hair surprisingly doesn’t hinder the neck movement nearly as significantly as I would have thought. It is in the way a little, but not to some major degree.

Rogue has:

• neck
• shoulders
• bicep
• elbows
• wrist
• torso
• thighs
• hips
• knees (double-jointed)
• ankle

Accessories: Rogue gets a few accessories. She’s got the spellcasting open hand — a smart choice. Her other accessory is much cooler though as it’s a left hand clutching the glove she’s removed to steal someone’s power.

Man, remember when X-Men writer Chris Claremont just used to have Rogue kiss someone to take their powers? That didn’t age well.

Considering it’s not unheard of for figures to have alternate head sculpts, I would have loved a second portrait with a smiling Rogue. She’s more of a cheery character than some of her fellow mutants and it would have been in keeping with her personality — note the package art.

Worth It? That’s a loaded question. If you missed the first Rogue figure that’s an easy yes. I still think it’s worth upgrading though thanks to the improved head sculpt and more comic accurate colors.

I’m not the biggest fan of these Retro/Vintage card figures clocking in at the same price as the normal Marvel Legends, which have Build-A-Figure pieces especially as the standard price increases to $23.

Rating: 10 out of 10

This is a pretty major upgrade over the original Rogue. I definitely recommend this one even if you have the original thanks to the improved head sculpt and brighter colors.

 

Where to get it? Retro Rogue was a Target exclusive. Initially, she was the hard figure to find when this wave was in stores. Now you can still get her easily on Target.com.