Marvel Legends Molecule Man — BAF Puff Adder wave
All you really need to know about Molecule Man is when he’s in his galaxy takeover mode, Doctor Doom always makes sure to bring Owen Reece into the fold. If the dude is good enough for Doctor Doom, that’s good enough for me.
My first exposure to the character was from Secret Wars as he battled his insecurities to become a major league threat. Of the Alpha level villain threats capable of going toe to toe with The Avengers and Fantastic Four, Molecule Man’s absence was becoming noticeable.
Hasbro finally knocked him out although not without some disappointing results, Let’s break this guy down piece by piece to see if Molecule Man needs a better figure.
Packaging: Oh, what a happy day it will be when we’re done with this windowless packaging. This closed box presentation is so boring and of course doesn’t allow you to see any flaws with the figure or missing accessories.
The package art features an image from Mike Deodato, to ensure we know the influence for this take on the figure. There’s no bio now, which is underwhelming.
Likeness: Never let it be said that Hasbro isn’t afraid if reuse regardless if it makes sense. Molecule Man is largely using the Red Skull mold with a new head, torso and skirt piece. The arms, legs and boots carry over, which makes him longer ad taller than he’s typically portrayed.
Another point of contention is the head sculpt. Early on Molecule Man was drawn like a cousin of Mole Man, with a weasel-like face. In the effort to make him more suitable for movies, he recently got a comic glam-up. The head sculpt is based on how Deodato drew him in the modern Secret Wars. That was certainly a choice.
Going with that likeness is one of those deals that really makes me question the ML team’s knowledge of Marvel lore and which look — if just one had to be chosen — that most collectors would want.
The head sculpt is solid and has a somewhat dour neutral expression that works fine with his spiky hairstyle in terms of being accurate to the source material, but it’s a terrible choice.
Hasbro’s sculptors did a nice job with the lightning bolt style shoulder piece that connects in the middle and the separate lightning bolt belt. It’s goofy that the center portion of his chest is missing the wrinkles that are prominent along the rest of the outfit.
MORE:
- Marvel Legends action figure reviews
- G.I. Joe Classified Series figure reviews
- McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Knightfall Batman review
- Image Comic reviews 8/16/23 – Void Rivals #3, The Magic Order Vol. 4 #6
Paint: Green and purple are always a fun color combination with Marvel characters. Molecule Man looks good on that end and there’s no slop with the lightning bolts since they were molded in these colors and glued in.
The lightning bolts on his face look great thanks to the face printing. His lips are probably a shade or two too dark though.
Scale: Molecule Man is typically portrayed as short and non-threatening. Even if you want to give Hasbro the excuse that this is the modern MM, it’s still lame that they used this base body instead of a shorter mold that’s more fitting for the character.
It’s a case where Hasbro should have held out on delivering Molecule Man until they could get him right. We’ve seen them do quicker make-good figures (see Tigra), but this is just bad.
Articulation: Molecule Man is a gesturing character. When he’s feeling himself, he might get into some peacocking braggadocios stances.
The articulation with the base offers plenty of movement although the elbows and knees look somewhat janky because of the folds of the costume. It’s possible I ignored these issues on the Dormammu, Zemo and other figures that use this mold, but my other issues with Molecule Man make them stand out here.
I was able to strike plenty of personality-heavy poses to offer a bit more swagger to him. This would be aided greatly if Molecule Man had a more sinister/cocky alternate head sculpt.
His neck joint does along for some good posing where you can kind of position him to look calmly psychotic with more extreme angles of the neck’s ball joint.
Molecule Man has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- elbow (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge (up and down)
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- shin
- ankle
Accessories: Molecule Man comes with a slight amount of accessories though it’s more than some other recent figures. He’s got an alternate set of fists, unusual choices for a guy who doesn’t like to get into brawls.
He’s also got the energy globs that work best as fireballs. They’re done in a translucent purplish-pink that does look cool.
Finally, Owen has the left leg for the BAF Puff Adder. The onslaught of Marvel Legends lately has made actually completing a BAF more challenging than usual.
Worth it? I got Molecule Man from Target after he got clearanced out for $12.49. The bad scaling ensures he wasn’t worth $25. It’s better at half off though he desperately needed an alternate head sculpt with more personality.
Rating: 5 out of 10
It’s too far into the line for Hasbro to make such questionable choices. Molecule Man’s oddly serene head combined with his way out of scale height and lack of inspired accessories makes for a disappointing release.
Where to get it? Molecule Man was a figure that never made it to stores — or at least Targets. I have seen him at GameStop but not at Walmarts. Target.com still has him in stock for the clearance price. You can still grab him from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.