Marvel Legends Morlun review – BAF Armadillo

Morlun has wildly already been around 20 years. He was created by writer J. Michael Straczynski and penciler John Romita Jr. in an underrated great run. After his initial appearance, his next big spotlight moment came as the lead villain in the Spider-Verse saga, which solidified Morlun as one of the stronger modern Spider-Man foes.

With an ever-expanding collection of Spider-Men that basically is now a Spider-Verse shelf, it’s great to have a villain capable of fighting multiple versions of Peter Parker through the timeline.

Let’s see if this energy vampire has the power or simply sucks.

Packaging:  As usual with the Spider-Man focused figures, the accent color is red on the standard black. The art features Romita Jr.’s artwork in a nice touch. I wouldn’t be opposed to the package art featuring the artist that created the look for the character.

The bio sums up Morlun just fine explaining his purpose and his vendetta against Spider-Man. It almost seemed like a wasted opportunity to mention the Spider-Verse, but that might have been confusing to folks who only know of the Spider-Verse from the animated movie.

Likeness:  Morlun looks like he could be part of the Hellfire Club — the vampire chapter. Actually, maybe Selene could sponsor him for membership? He’s got a suit jacket, which I think is a new piece complete with an ascot with a jewel in the center.

Initially I thought this was a reuse of the Hellfire Club Shaw and Pierce body, but the suit jacket and vest are different. Morlun has amazing sleeve cuffs. If there’s any reuse, it might be the legs to the knees.

His head sculpt is ominously sinister with his eyebrows raised and eyes sculpted in a devious manner capped off with a sly smile like he’s sizing up his latest meal. This is one of the more villainous smiles Hasbro has done in a while.

Also, Morlun has unique hands with exaggerated nails and energy draining suction points to sell the vampire visual. He’s got some prominent mold lines along the left side of his head, which is distracting.

Paint: In what’s become a bad trend the second half of 2021, Morlun’s paintwork isn’t as precise as I’d like. The silver on his vest has heavy streaks and looks caked on.

That resembles more of what it would look like if I painted it. There’s missing paint on the jewel and the left eye. I’m more lenient with the suction marks on his hands, but ideally, figures with higher price tags would not have issues with the basic paint applications.

And I wish Hasbro went with the purple shirt and pants look from Morlun’s earlier appearances.

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Scale: I feel like Morlun was taller in the comics. The figure has him just a tad taller than most of the Spider-Man figures.

Articulation: For the most part Morlun’s articulation is what you’d expect from the line at this point.

Despite his classy gear, he definitely favors getting physical with his prey so he needs all the possible movement available.

Like the GI Joe Classified Series figures with the flak vests, Morlun’s vest restricts some of his ab movement. Thankfully his hands are sculpted wide enough to be able to throttle Spider-Man and drain the various characters of their energy.

Morlun has:

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

Accessories: Morlun comes with an alternate head sculpt with a fierce enraged expression.

I always appreciate getting an extra portrait like this as it allows for more display and action shot options although this one has his teeth gritted like he’s determined instead of a bloodthirsty villain.

He also comes with the right arm of the Build A Figure Armadillo.

Worth it?  It’s going to be hard for many Marvel Legends to justify the $22.99 price after being $19.99 so long. They’re just not a good value at that price. The good news seems to be that most of these recent waves see price cuts taking them back to the standard price. Morlun is currently for $16.79, a much better price.

Rating: 8 out of 10

I’m worried about the sloppy paint apps as that’s becoming more prevalent with figures. Morlun could have used a pop more color, but that’s totally my preference. It’s nice to get a newer Spider-Man villain in the fold.

Where to get it?  You can still get Morlun from online retailers like Amazon, Target and Entertainment Earth.

As an Amazon Associate and Target/Entertainment Earth affiliates, I earn from qualifying purchases.