Marvel Legends Black Panther Hatut Zeraze review
When you run your own nation you need various lines of defense. For Black Panther, the Dora Milaje are the public-facing bodyguards while the Dogs of War aka the Hatut Zeraze are Wakanda’s secret police.
The Hatut Zeraze were part of the incredible Marvel Knights run of Black Panther written by Christopher Priest and artist Mark Texeira. They are basically Wakandan nationalists operating in secret under the rule of The White Wolf, who rocks a similar style all-white attire with a cape and slightly flashier adornment. I’ve always dug their sharp contrast to Black Panther’s attire and had them as cool never gonna happen characters on my Marvel Legends wish list.
Funny what a second Black Panther film will do, huh? It’s great to see a deeper cut in Wakandan lore make it Marvel Legends. Now let’s see if these dogs are ready to go on the hunt.
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 wanted to have some distinction between this figure and the latest comic book Black Panther, which had the new Vulcan mold. To help BP stand out, the Hatut Zeraze gets the older Walmart exclusive Black Panther mold with a new head sculpt, forearms, shins and feet.
The head sculpt is pretty good and I can definitely see it repurposed later for a future Black Panther figure. Adorning the forearms and shins are the vibranium elements Texeira included as part of their design to mirror his modern take on Black Panther.
This is a case where it felt like Hasbro missed a key opportunity to create another two in one figure like Quake and Maria Hill by adding the cape cloak and maybe slightly tweaked head sculpt of The White Wolf.
It wouldn’t have taken that much and would have added another element to an already welcome army builder.
Scale: The Hatut Zeraze stands a tad taller than the new Black Panther. Not that T’Challa is a giant, but I’d prefer his army builder to be shorter than him.
Paint: Clad in all white the HZs don’t have a lot of color options.
There’s an outline around the eyes and the vibranium paneling is cast in a silvery blue that pairs nicely with the stark white. Not surprisingly there’s no issues with this paint job.
Articulation: The Hatut Zeraze are skilled fighters who have no problems getting into battles whether training with T’Challa or defending Wakandan interests.
In essence the Wakanda equivalent to ninjas, the Hatut Zeraze need to be able to crouch and hit various kinds of quick attack strike poses. They’re able to accomplish that with ease thanks to the extremely fluid Spider-Man UK base body.
Hatut Zeraze has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- bicep
- elbow (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- ankle
Accessories: Although lacking harnesses and other cool gear to make them more comic accurate, the Hatut Zeraze does come with some decent accessories.
First, there’s two additional swappable sets of hands — a weapons holding set and a claw strike set.
HZ also comes with the smaller pistol used on various figures and the larger machine gun that’s also been in heavy rotation. That makes sense and it’s definitely not an issue.
I do wish Hasbro included more gear like the harnesses and goggles shown on the box. And finally, he comes with the right leg of the Build-A-Figure MCU Attuma.
Worth it? Marvel Legends are up to $25 now. With more customizable gear options, the Hatut Zeraze would probably be a figure I wouldn’t complain about the price tag. I was able to get my second for $12 and missed Best Buy’s big clearance where they were $5.99. I would have built a crazy army at that price.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
This is an excellent figure. Hasbro just needed to borrow some gear from other figures to allow for diverse looks for them to boost this to an easy 10.
Where to get it? It’s been sparse finding these guys at retail these days. You can still get him easily enough from Amazon, which has him for $18, or Entertainment Earth.
As an Amazon Associate and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.