Marvel Legends Sabretooth – BAF Bonebreaker wave

Toy Biz managed to cast a heavy shadow on Hasbro with its last few waves of Marvel Legends. Arguably some of Toy Biz’s finest work came through the last year highlighted by the stellar Face Off series. Sabretooth vs. Wolverine was one of the standouts for the amazing take on Sabretooth’s original costume.

Maybe Hasbro was a little worried about matching the quality of Toy Biz’s figure as it’s taken many waves for the long-awaited classic Sabretooth? When the figure was revealed during a livestream, it seemed Toy Biz’s version might remain the champ. Let’s see if Hasbro’s version has some claws after all…

Packaging: David Nakayama is back to handle the package art, which is definitely a highlight with any wave. It’s due to Nakayama fully capturing the character’s essence with one portrait.

This one shows the danger and threat of Sabretooth and his massive size. The X-Men don’t typically have a red accent on the black backdrop — normally it’s yellow orange — which might bother some MOC collectors.

Sabretooth’s bio is short but is one of the better ones I’ve seen lately as it summarizes his powers and his arch-enemy Wolverine.

Likeness:  A lot has been made about Sabretooth using the Grim Reaper buck and how this doesn’t really fit him. Back in his earlier appearances, he wasn’t drawn like a brick tank, but he still was thicker and wider than this figure. In fairness, that doesn’t bother me nearly as much having the figure in hand although Hasbro could have used a buck somewhere in between the Reaper mold the Jim Lee Sabretooth figrure.

The Age of Apocalypse mold probably was too big for Sabretooth classic, but I keep wondering which in between mold would make the most sense.

Hasbro’s sculptors did a good job with the fur collar, which seemed to vary in width with each artist. It’s stretching over to the shoulders as is the more consistent portrayal.

The furry forearms were done in a more interesting manner as they’re just part of an entirely new sculpted section with Sabretooth’s extended claws. Again, the length of the fur section is wildly inconsistent so I’m not taking points away from that either. Ditto for the furry shin/ankle section.

I will knock the execution in the sense that Sabretooth’s arms seem a little long. The outstretched claw hands don’t help either.

Now for that head sculpt. This didn’t look great in any picture I’ve seen. It’s way too “wait, you didn’t tell me you were about to take the picture!” as opposed to a ferocious mid-attack expression. With this one, it’s almost like he’s grinning weirdly for a class photo.

His hair is wilder, which is probably more fitting for the character, but Sabretooth seemed to style his hair somewhat while letting his sideburns grow out. That’s a big point for the TB figure.

Paint:  Hasbro made a few avoidable mistakes on this front as well. Sabretooth typically was portrayed with whited out eyes…just like the Toy Biz version.

The hue of his costume should be a slightly more muted orange although Hasbro did add a wash to the fur sections, which is definitely a positive. As far as the black stripe down his torso goes, the TB figure had it right in making it a bit thicker and dovetailing into the black tights section more seamlessly.

Sabretooth’s gloves and boots/shoes shouldn’t have any exposed fingers/toes. These were fully brown. It’s a draw with the TB figure on this front as the TB version has an iced coffee shade of brown while Hasbro went with a dark, almost black, shade of brown instead of the more basic brown.

Scale: My hope is one day I’ll have a full collection of Marauders to pair Sabretooth with, but for now the only real scale frame of reference is Wolverine and a ready to be updated Iron Fist and Daredevil. He’s taller than all three as he should be, but again the lack of bulk doesn’t make him look as menacing.

It almost seems like Hasbro should have just reused the BAF Apocalypse Sabretooth mold for some consistency.

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Articulation: Sabretooth is all about the slashes, quick strikes and barreling into his prey. I’d love for him to have butterfly shoulders to fully take advantage of his fighting style. He’s got a decent amount of range, but nowhere near as exciting as it could and probably should have been for a 2022 figure.

Sabretooth has:

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

Accessories:  Sabretooth gets the full goose egg for accessories. He does come with three sections of the Build-A-Figure Bonebreaker. Swappable hands would have been nice, and this is definitely a case where an alternate head was essential.

Worth it?  Like the rest of the figures in this wave besides Havok and Siryn, I got Sabretooth on clearance so I paid $8 for him. That’s a far better price than the going rate of $24.99 for this wave. This figure definitely isn’t worth that price. Despite the shortcomings, I was OK paying less than $10 for him.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Sabretooth doesn’t feel like the significant upgrade over the Toy Biz figure, which still holds up well. He needed a better head sculpt, wider base body and more accurate paint to be the definitive classic version. If nothing else he’s a decent start to my Marauders.

Where to get it?  Check your local Targets, which have already put this line up for clearance. This is the best route in terms of the price for this underwhelming figure. Failing that, you can get him from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.