Marvel Legends Retro The Thing review
I appreciate Hasbro delivering all of the Fantastic Four in one wave. Yeah, it limits the amount of FF villains and allies, but we need matching outfits of the FF before we expand too much. I’m wrapping up the FF portion of the Retro wave with The Thing.
He was the final member of the Walgreens separate releases so I figured it was appropriate to save him for last here was well. Let’s see if Aunt Petuna’s favorite nephew’s Retro figure deserves praise or a trip down Yancy Street.
Packaging: I love the packaging. It seems like it was designed to fit The Thing first and foremost as he takes up far more space than the others.
I do find it funny that Hasbro went with the far inferior first season graphics compared to one of the all-time best second season.
For a one sentence bio, it’s pretty effective.
Likeness: This is Hasbro’s third modern crack at The Thing and I think they’ve gotten a little better each time. He’s still big and beefy and all set for Clobberin Time.
For the most part, this is the same base Thing figure we’ve gotten from Hasbro with some slight adjustments. I do appreciate that each Thing figure has some changes so it’s not just a basic repaint. He’s got shorter shorts this time and more classic head sculpts thanks to the more prominent brow.
I’ve seen a decent amount of complaints online (shocking!) about the wide-open mouth sculpt, but I think it adds a lot of character to the expression and fits after Ben got stumped after Reed Richards used some $50 words describing some new discovery.
Scale: The Thing has constantly been portrayed larger over the years. This isn’t a new phenomenon as he was drawn Hulk-size in Secret Wars so it’s hardly a point to complain about him being way larger than Reed and the others at this point.
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Paint: In the comics, Thing is colored with more of a yellow orange shade and Hasbro has been working to get it right since the initial Walgreens figure. One area where the Walgreens one still shines is the application of a dark wash along the lining of his stone panels.
This figure is similar to the modern one where there was some weird yellow shading along the shoulders, upper chest and forearms. The shading isn’t a bad idea but needed to be more consistent throughout and not just specific areas.
Articulation: Thing is a brawler so he needs to be able to handle any and all clobbering and lifting poses.
He’s missing the bicep joint and I’d love his elbow joint to have more range, which are my big gripes. It’s the common issue with the female figures but one we rarely see with the male figures.
Ben has a great center of balance and can be posed on one leg.
The Thing has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- elbows
- wrists
- torso
- waist
- hips
- thighs
- knees (double-jointed)
- boot
- ankles
Accessories: The Retro figures lack Build-A-Figure pieces, but Ben does get some additional accessories. He’s got a fierce head sculpt with gritted teeth. I like this one a lot and allows for some nice versatility for posing.
He also comes with swappable fists, which are extremely necessary for The Thing. These are reused from previous Thing figures but were needed. I wish Hasbro could have done like Toy Biz and made an incognito version option with a cloth trench coat, hat and glasses since Thing rocked that so often in the cartoon.
Worth it? I was able to get Ben through a Target sale of ‘Spend $100 and save $25.’ That worked out really well. With the increase to $22.99, the value has dropped a bit on these. It’s definitely best to get him on a sale like all of the Retro card figures.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
The odd paint coloring effect aside, this is another fantastic Thing figure. I’m still down for a trench coat version though.
Where to get it? I’ve spotted The Thing at both Target and Walmart. He’s also available on Target’s website.