Marvel Legends Corsair review – BAF Ch’od wave

I always appreciate when Hasbro’s Marvel Legends team makes a concerted effort to quickly build and complete a team. This latest X-Men focused wave is all about team building. While I could argue no entry actually completes some teams that just need one or two members to finish at least teams got two entries in this set. For The Starjammers, the duo is assembled a little differently with the leader Corsair and assembling the Build-A-Figure to add Ch’od.

I won’t complain how it gets done so much that it gets done. Corsair has always had an incredibly fun design and I’ve always enjoyed the random Starjammers appearances in any title. If anything, getting both Corsair and Ch’od has me reconsidering skipping that Walgreens exclusive Binary figure now.

Let’s see if this Corsair figure is a star or he’s going to leave me so upset I’m going to go supernova.

Packaging:   The windowless packaging era is nearly over. That means the endless concerns that your figure is intact and doesn’t have a jacked-up paint job will be a thing of 2023, but not beyond.

The images/renders of Corsair look cool posing him in a manner befitting a swashbuckling space pirate. I don’t think Hasbro’s ML team made the right call in using Lenil Francis Yu’s art.

Yu has more of a sketch heavy style that makes Corsair look rough. The better choice for artwork would have been John Byrne, whose art is more classic and fitting a character like Corsair.

Bios have now been ported to the Pulse website so at least they haven’t been forgotten totally:  Cyclops’ world is forever changed when Starjammer Captain and cavalier space pirate Corsair reveals he’s Christopher Summers, Scott’s long-lost father.

This isn’t a bad summary as it explains Corsair’s role and his connection to Cyclops. Hard to ask for much more with this one.

Likeness:  Corsair is basically Tom Selleck as a pirate or at least that’s always been my fan cast for the role. He’s got swagger as evidenced by his 70s-inspired attire with the flowing headband, the popped-up collar, cutlass held via this thicker cummerbund and thigh high boots. He’s got the kind of outfit that modern artists just tweak since there’s really no way to improve on it. I do like the gold earrings.

Christopher Summers’ head sculpt is also very nicely done. It’s a neutral expression, which is probably the most sensible choice though I wouldn’t have minded getting a smiling one of gritted teeth alternate portrait as well.

Of course, I’d like it if his boot tips were sculpted, but his flared gloves were more important and Hasbro did make sure those were intact.

Paint: Corsair’s paintjob is just fine as well. There’s some brown overspray with the face printing. I’m not sure if it was to help give him an aged look, but it doesn’t look great up close at a macro level.

I was impressed with the amount of detail work for Corsair’s emblem, which seems like a crossbones version of a Phoenix? Some foreshadowing back in the day? There are no bleeding edges with the red lining up against the black and the shade of blue for the headband, collar and cummerbund help make the figure pop.

Annoyingly Hasbro had to Hasbro and throw in an out-of-pocket weird choice just to be a tad inaccurate. Corsair’s headband should be blue based on this otherwise classic look for the character. If they wanted the modern appearance like the package, the collar needed to be flared much higher and wider. So, either way it’s wrong.

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Scale:  Corsair is making use of the Vulcan mold, which makes sense seeing as how Vulcan was the secret child of Corsair. X-Men continuity gets a little weird over the years. Anyway, that means he’s going to be a little wider and taller than Cyclops particularly the John Byrne-style Dark Phoenix version.

The scale of the figure is fine until you get to the head, which is sized up twice as big as it should making him look much taller/larger than his sons.

It’s a good thing he’s mainly going to be posed with aliens that won’t look nearly as bad as say the ridiculous melon on the Molecule Man figure.

Articulation:  The Vulcan mold allows for some pretty smooth movement even if it’s slightly tight.

Better tight joints than overly loose ones. Corsair can hit a nice variety of swashbuckling/scoundrel poses with either his sword or gun while looking perfectly credible in hand-to-hand battles as well.

Corsair has:

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

Accessories:  Corsair makes out like a bandit…er pirate with his accessory haul.

He’s got his cutlass complete with a very nicely detailed hilt.

He’s got his blaster as well and I think this is a newly sculpted piece. He’s also got a set of swappable fists.

Finally, he comes with the right arm of his pal and wave’s BAF, Ch’od.

Worth it?  I wasn’t rushing to get this wave given how quickly Marvel Legends waves have started hitting clearance. I held out on Corsair until the clearance hit and grabbed him for $12.49 but was able to get him price adjusted to an even cheaper $7.49. It’s really hard to be too upset with many Marvel Legends at that price.

Rating:  8 out of 10

With a properly scaled head and era-accurate colored headband, Corsair would be pretty much a lock for a 10, but those avoidable issues hold back what’s otherwise a solid figure that will benefit from hanging with aliens instead of humans.

Where to get it?  Check your Targets first to try and get him for clearance pricing. Otherwise, he’s still available at Amazon or Entertainment Earth.

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