Marvel Legends Herald Thor review – BAF Controller wave

I’m not overly familiar with everything that’s going on currently in Marvel Comics. They lost me a few years back, but the premise of Herald Thor, serving Galactus is kinda interesting. It feels like a What If? premise turned into a full story arc.

Either way, Thor is a Marvel Legends A-lister and it’s important for Hasbro to cycle in new looks to keep him in rotation.  While I’d argue there’s some classic looks that need to get made, for fans of the current Marvel product, they deserve some figures as well. And at least this version of Thor can hang with the HasLab Galactus and the other near full shelf of heralds.

Let’s see if this take on the thunder god goes out with a whimper or delivers a thunderous boom to my collection.

Packaging: The Build-A-Figure Controller wave is the final one to feature the window packaging unless it’s a retro carded figure. Beyond consistency, it’s nice to be able to look at the figure and do a spot check of paint applications and to ensure all the accessories are in place.

This window is full of accessories, so it doesn’t look like he’s coming up short on that front.

Thor’s bio helpfully explains the concept of this figure and what he’s about. I think one thing that would be very useful would be to add a note about the comic this look debuted so intrigued fans could check it out.

Likeness:  Of the Avengers Big Three figures, I’m finding the Thor offerings to be some of the most consistently strong as Hasbro puts the effort into the little details of the costume to make it as accurate as possible with unique sculpted elements.

While Hasbro doesn’t tend to sculpt figures based on a particular artist, this head sculpt of Herald Thor favors Olivier Coipel’s cover art with the round head and square jaw, the long flowing hair draping over his chest and a stoic, focused expression.

His tunic has outstanding textured detail with the white stripes on his chest actually sculpted.

The outfit has spiked gauntlets and boots with sculpted boot tips. Additionally, he’s rocking armored chainmail on his arms and legs. His large shoulder pauldrons lead into the cape nicely as well. This is very impressive work for Thor.

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Scale:  Hasbro has thankfully sized down Herald Thor so he’s not towering over everyone. I don’t know who all Thor interacted with in this look so I just kept the comparison simple to previous Thor figures. He matches up perfectly with the Marvel 80th anniversary Thor so he didn’t magically shrink/get taller from getting infused with the Power Cosmic.

Paint: Herald Thor has a nice amount of various colors with this attire. Most of the figure’s paint is accomplished from the plastic used. There are no washes, which would have really helped set off the armored arm and leg portions.

The red belt and boot tips help to break up the white, black and silver. It’s a bright red that really captured my attention.

His hair would definitely benefit from a darker wash as the platinum blonde paint used looks too flat and dull. It’s the biggest toy indicator on the figure.

I couldn’t find any reference art where Thor’s eyes weren’t whited out, so I guess that’s part of the Power Cosmic upgrade? Also, the strips across Thor’s tunic are typically portrayed as glowing to show off his constant lightning coursing through his body. This is more of an off white where it needed a gradient blue to better convey that illuminated look.

One area that is missing is the starfield on the tunic. It’s the kind of thing that fans of this look would notice right away and it’s not like Hasbro will keep revisiting this look. They need to do right by these costumes on the first go instead of hoping collectors won’t care that the costume is inaccurately painted.

I do love the gradient work on the cape with purple and red converging.

The paintwork is nice and clean with the lone exception of a bit of runoff from the belt disc.

Articulation:  The most important aspect of all Thor figures is being able to do wide sweeping gestures for swinging and raising Mjolnir. And a cape that doesn’t significantly weight him down or limit articulation.

Thor’s head/neck doesn’t have great range so he can’t look up and down all that well.

It’s too bad that Herald Thor lacks butterfly shoulders as that should be a mandate for all Thor figures at this point. He lacks double-jointed elbows, but his range is good enough that I didn’t miss it.

Herald Thor has:

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

Accessories:  Thor comes with a better than average allotment of accessories. Throw in another Thor portrait and I’d feel like this number of accessories goes a long way towards closing the value gap with the latest price hike.

He comes with Odin’s ravens, Huginn and Muninn. One in a flying position with the wings outspread and the other in a perching pose. That’s a nice addition and will be useful whenever we finally get a comic version of Odin.

Herald Thor also has swappable fists, which are always necessary for him.

Naturally a Thor figure has to have Mjolnir. This one is cast in a translucent blue to match the included lightning effects.

Finally, Thor has the head for the Build-A-Figure Controller.

Worth it?  The Controller wave was available at some spots for $22.99, but more commonly at the $24.99 price point. Some fortunate collectors have been able to find these guys at clearance price for under $8. That’s a tremendous deal.

I got Herald Thor as a birthday present, so he was free for me. I don’t mind the $22.99 price, but it’s hard to justify $25 for most Marvel Legends figures especially since they tend to drop in price eventually.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Herald Thor might not have been a figure I needed for my collection, but it’s a terrific Thor variant with good size, unique sculpting and a great number of accessories. With better range in the head and the starfield tunic he would have been even stronger.

Where to get it? Online is the best route for Herald Thor. Amazon and Entertainment Earth are probably the easiest options.

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