Marvel Legends Vault Guardsman review – BAF Ursa Major wave

Vault Guardsman is a pretty intriguing entry in the Marvel Legends ranks. You can use him in multiple ways — as a turnstile for Raft prisoners or as a villain of Iron Man. Considering the recent price hikes with Marvel Legends, I know which way I’m going, but it’s cool that Hasbro came up with a multi-purpose character.

Let’s unlock the Vault Guardsman and see if he’s worthy of inclusion in the line.

Packaging:  Nothing exceptionally new here although since this is an Iron Man focused wave, it features the Iron Man logo on the front. I don’t think the artwork is from any particular comic book cover.

This bio is helpful in this case for Iron Man readers who didn’t catch many of his exploits before the Vault Guardsman were just security staff at The Raft. See? These can be helpful even to longtime comic book readers.

Likeness:  Vault Guardsman isn’t the most exciting looking figure, but he reflects an arguably better design time when a streamlined, simple look was most effective. And honestly, after that sweet villainous helmet everything else is gravy.

The helmet design has always been a favorite of mine with the open halves and the slit in the middle. While it’s probably not practical, it looks cool and the stern eyebrows convey a more villainous persona. Hasbro did an outstanding job on the head sculpt and captured the open feel of the helmet.

There’s sculpted aspects to most of the armor with the torso and waist area breakpoints (including the V-shaped area around the trunks) actually sculpted instead of being handled by paint.

That’s a big deal as that would have been a shortcut that wouldn’t seem overly egregious. The glove sculpt isn’t plain either as there’s some lining throughout. I’m not sure if this is repurposed from another figure, but I like it.

Paint:  Hasbro didn’t shortchange the two-tone aspect of the armor with a nice dark green for the helmet, torso, gloves, waist point and boots.

There’s a lighter green for the inner lining areas of the armor. Both received a pearlescent mix to suggest a sheen and shine from armor.

The lighter green portions don’t benefit as much as it makes that area just a bit too dark. Hasbro also could have gone with a slightly more yellow green for the inner lining. I won’t argue too much as the darker hue works better for a villain than the Raft guard style. I wonder if Hasbro wouldn’t revisit this figure with lighter green and put on Hasbro Pulse for army building purposes?

Scale: Vault Guardsman is about the same height as Iron Man, which is fine since he’s just a regular size guy in a suit of armor as well.

MORE:

• DC Comics reviews 10/26/21 – DC vs Vampires #1, Checkmate #5
• Hasbro PulseCon 2021 – Day 2 – Marvel Legends reveals
• Marvel Legends action figure reviews
• Superman: The Complete Animated Series Blu-Ray review

Articulation: Just like the Iron Man figures, Vault Guardsman has seamless, smooth articulation that should allow him to give Iron Man plenty of problems in a fight.

 

With no pads or other restrictions to the shoulders and hip area the only hindrance in posing is your imagination.

Vault Guardsman has:

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

Accessories:  Vault Guardsman doesn’t need a ton of accessories. Although some handcuffs and power restraint gauntlets and neck collars would have been very cool. He does come with a pair of swappable fists.

And when the prisoners get unruly he’s got a blaster to help restrain them/get overwhelmed and call the Avengers for backup.

Finally, he comes with the left arm of the Build-A-Figure Ursa Major figure.

Worth it?  I got Vault Guardsman for cheaper than the $24 I paid for Stealth Iron Man and was thrilled to find him for $17. Given the high rate of Marvel Legends going on clearance quicker it might be worth the waiting game on him especially considering his army building potential.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Sometimes simple is better. We get a classic Iron Man villain that doubles as an army builder. Either way we get a high quality figure on our Iron Man displays.

Where to get it?  I got Vault Guardsman from Walmart, but you might get lucky with your local Targets as well. You can also order him from Amazon and Entertainment Earth.

As an Amazon Associate and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.