Marvel Legends Speedball review – BAF Controller wave

Right from their debut, I was a huge fan of the original run of New Warriors. The team played out like a superhero version of a 90210 with less silly drama and much more action. Speedball was one of my favorites since he was the fun-loving, jokester character who wasn’t nearly as angsty as some of his teammates.

Hasbro has been chipping away at the team in the Marvel Legends line with Night Thrasher, Firestar, Rage, Nova and Darkhawk. We’re getting close to completing the team Speedball’s inclusion so I can start demanding Namorita, Marvel Boy and Silhouette to complete the squad. No need to start bouncing around on wish lists though, let’s see how Speedball turned out.

Packaging: David Nakayama handles the artwork for this wave as well. Nakayama’s greatest trait is capturing the essence and signature look of every character.

This has become amusing over the last few years as it seems like Hasbro should use Nakayama’s work as the model for their figures.

I don’t like the use of the red accent for this wave since it’s already in use for Spider-Man. The bio is OK as it explains his powers, but there’s no mention of the New Warriors.

Likeness:  Hasbro’s sculptors always get in trouble from choosing random designs of figures instead of the most popular take on characters. Speedball is another great (bad?) example.

During the peak of his popularity aka the New Warriors era, he didn’t wear goggles. His eye piece was a continuation of his mask with eye holes and a sharper black outline.

In more recent takes, the eye mask was replaced by goggles. That wouldn’t be an issue if Hasbro managed to pull that look off. Instead, the outline of the goggles comes off very thick — the transparent yellow gold section is big enough, but the goggles’ black outline gives the illusion that they’re thicker.

This feels like Hasbro went through more trouble than it was worth to go with goggles instead of Speedball’s main NW look.

The head sculpt is alright though, like Nakayama’s art, a big wide smile was clearly the best choice than the half smirk of the figure. His hair is spot on though.

Hasbro went with the Sunfire/Spider-Man 2099 body, which is bit too muscular for Robbie as he was more of the lanky, awkward looking teen superhero.

Paint:  Sometimes Hasbro makes weird design choices that make me feel like they’re either negligent or intentionally don’t do the figure right to release the corrected version down the road. Neither is really acceptable at this point.

Speedball’s costume isn’t accurate to the original run of New Warriors. His spotted neck collar area should come down to his shoulders and his belt should be higher along his waist.

I’ve already covered the goggles section. I am impressed with the paintwork for the spots and balls of Speedball’s costume. This is really clean work and makes me think Hasbro absolutely could have done the eye mask right.

Robbie’s hair does have some brown in it to further bring out more detail.

MORE:

• WWE Action Figure Reviews
• Uncharted review
• She-Hulk: Attorney at Law – Is This Not Real Magic? review S1 E4
• Superman and Lois – Worlds War Bizarre review S2 E14

Scale: As the youngest member of the team. Robbie wasn’t towering over anyone. He should be about half a head shorter than Night Thrasher. He’s taller than Nova and Daredevil. Sigh.

It felt like Hasbro had scaling down right after they stopped giving the female figures super tall high heels, but this is a big oversight.

Articulation: The Sunfire mold is perfect for Speedball thanks to the butterfly shoulders, which allow him to stretch back a bit for deeper bouncing poses.

I wish he came with some alternate hands to show him more flailing around.

Speedball has:

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

Accessories: Speedball gets a goose egg here. That’s always annoying and even more so with the price increase. Speedball easily could have had some flat/flying hands or another head sculpt with a wide smile.

He does come with the torso for the Build-A-Figure Controller.

Worth it?  Finding Marvel Legends on sale has become a bit of a fun game. Speedball had a coupon, so I got him for $17 instead of $22.99, which is a big win.

 

Rating: 8 out of 10

Speedball needed a smaller, less defined body and some accessories to show his power in action. He’s a barebones release that is a much better purchase getting him for under $10.

Where to get it?  Check your local Targets. Speedball has been plentiful in my area shelves thanks to the single case pack outs. Of course, you can also get Speedball from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.