Marvel Legends Wonder Man review – BAF Puff Adder wave

These days I tend to wait for most Marvel Legends to hit a sale or even better clearance prices. But when it’s a figure of a character in a certain look, like say Safari Jacket Wonder Man, I’ve been anticipating all that patience goes out the window.

Packaging: The new windowless packaging leaves a lot to be desired. It’s thinner and less interesting though the Black Panther purple accent colors are intact. The front features an image of the figure and a drawing of the Hatut Zeraze yet it all feels a bit too cramped and cluttered.

On the right side, there’s a helpful big image of the HZ allowing for easy identification on the side of the pegs. The back features another image of HZ and the included accessories.

That’s helpful so you can see what’s missing in case swappers already got to it. The big shift with the back package is there’s no longer any bio, which is lame.

Likeness: Hasbro was able to get most of the sculpt done using existing parts like the Kang and Baron Zemo over the newly sculpted jacket torso.

Hasbro incorporated the sneaky subtle W design of his jacket pockets. Wonder Man’s jetpack belt retains most of the classic visual with the exception of the missing belt prong. All of the other details like the lining on the front section and small pouches are faithfully captured.

 

The mold re-use means Simon’s pants are less spandex-y and more cargo style.

Maybe the legs from the previous Wonder Man figure would work with a little black or paint remover to strip the red stripes? The jackets collar should be raised as Simon popped his collar long before it became fashionable.

This is one of the biggest misses with the figure as the raised collar definitely helps in easily identifying Wonder Man from the rest of the Avengers.

In lieu of cuffs, the “safari jacket” has gold bands. They probably should be longer with the gold covering just beyond his wrist creating more of a tucked-in appearance.

Again, it seems like the Abomination Wonder Man figure’s bracelets have the proper length and height. The boots could probably be a tad longer as well if we wanted to nitpick.

I really like Simon’s expression, which captures his good-natured personality with a big smile. His hair is also on point complete with the double curl look to one up Superman’s curl.

Scale: Wonder Man is about the same height and width. He wasn’t drawn as physically imposing as Thor and mostly was eye to eye with Captain America and Iron Man. The figure captures that scale right, but he looks slimmer than both Cap and Iron Man. He really needed a wider chest and thicker arms.

Paint: Wonder Man had grey in his hair from the ionic energy flowing through him. And an all grey-haired figure would make him look too old, but it’s a little disappointing he doesn’t have a grey wash at least.

The rest of the colors are solid. His glasses use a red translucent material so you can see through to his eyes in a very nice touch.

There’s not a lot of other paint demands here, but everything is done cleanly with the gold bracelets and belt the same consistent shade of gold.

Articulation: At this point in his superhero career, Wonder Man is a full-on brawler with no laser effects right on par with Thor as the strongest Avenger.

It was important that his figure has enough range for wide, sweeping punches and the ability to hit some powerful poses to shield the rest of his teammates albeit with some reluctance as he worked through his self-confidence issues.

His jacket skirt does limit some movement, but not nearly enough to make him a figure cone.

Wonder Man has:

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

Accessories: As a powerhouse about as strong as Thor, Wonder Man doesn’t need much in terms of accessories. Hasbro did add some useful accessories with few obvious options.

First up is a pair of swappable grasping hands for those moments when Simon needs to catch a fist before throwing one of his own. Those are always nice to have as another option.

Next are exhausts for the jetpack sides. They’re done in a translucent yellow orange color scheme. They’re tiny, but welcome additions. I wouldn’t have complained about another head sculpt with a more serious expression, but that’s not the rule for this line to have two portraits with every figure.

Finally, he comes with the left arm of the Build-A-Figure Puff Adder.

Worth it?  Marvel Legends are up to $25 now. I’ve only seen him at GameStop, which worked out since I was able to use my monthly rewards points to take him back down to the old $21.99 after tax price.

I’ve said this a ton that the $20 price is the sweet retail price. While he might show up at clearance a few more weeks from now, he’s a character and figure I didn’t want to chance playing the clearance roulette game.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

If he were just a tad bit wider and taller this would be an easy 10, but Hasbro did a pretty great job with Wonder Man on all other fronts making for a must-have classic Avenger in his signature attire.

Where to get it?  I haven’t seen the anniversary line at any retail spots besides GameStop. You can still get him easily enough from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.

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