Marvel Legends Captain Marvel and Doctor Doom set review

It’s taken way too long to get Captain Marvel into the Marvel Legends line. Yeah, yeah we got Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers in her fourth aliases, but I’m talking Monica Rambeau. This isn’t Monica’s first figure — she had one based on her Photon guise — but finally we get one in her signature attire.

Captain Marvel was very important to the history of the Avengers as the first black woman in their ranks. I’m not sure even at this point how many black woman have joined the Avengers. Anyway, Roger Stern co-created her and made her a pivotal fixture in his acclaimed Avengers run. It didn’t hurt that Monica made the cut for Secret Wars, Marvel’s first major event book.

That boost in her status helped make Captain Marvel a popular choice on overdue Marvel Legends list. Hasbro finally put us out of our misery and used the Secret Wars tie-in as a hook to get her released as part of the Avengers 60th Anniversary.

This is one of the sets I was losing forward to the most this year. Let’s see if it shines a light on one of Hasbro’s best or if this is a secret set best left uncovered.

Packaging: I typically loathe this closed box presentation but I kinda dig the Beyond Earth’s Mightiest setup. I think it’s the mostly white background, which is a nice contrast to the traditional black. The figures are posed in homage to the respective comic book art, which is a cool touch.

For Captain Marvel, that’s her appearance in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16. And Doctor Doom that’s the fairly iconic cover of Secret Wars #10.

The side features more shots of the figures with the back showcasing the minimal accessories.

Likeness: Captain Marvel is a nice-looking figure. Hasbro nailed her head sculpt giving her hair great texture that legitimately looks like a black woman would rock a mini-Afro.

One of the signature aspects of her outfit is the flared drape-like sleeves. While this makes for a unique looking figure, it makes for an impossible outfit to execute properly.

Hasbro did as best they could with it, keeping the flared sleeves just below the bicep. The sleeves could be fuller, but it gets janky when you start bending her elbows too much.

She’s got her flared boots as well and they turned out great. The only puzzling decision is the lack of holes in the boots, which eliminates the option to use foot stands for her. And given her heels that might eventually be a serious standing problem.

Doctor Doom needs no introduction, but he was one of the few characters from the event to actually get included in Mattel’s Secret Wars series. Near the end of the maxi-series, Doom swapped out his standard attire for a more powerful battle suit.

Doom mostly reuses the Iron Man 80th Anniversary figure with the biggest changes being the armored panel-lined torso/tunic and a newly sculpted metallic leg band to stay accurate to his look in the comic/original figure.

Of course, I can’t ignore Doom’s new head sculpt. After defeating The Beyonder and stealing his power, Doom’s first act was restoring his horrifically scarred face.

This head sculpt is fantastic though it looks a tad more sinister than how Mike Zeck drew Doom unmasked. To maintain the proper look, Doom has a separate lowered hood piece.

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Paint:  Hasbro’s ML team is weird sometimes. In her first appearance, Monica’s eyes were colored blue. It’s pretty rare for a black woman to have blue eyes and was immediately corrected to brown with her next appearance in Avengers #227.

So, what does the Marvel Legends team do? Give her blue eyes because of course they did. Sigh.

Besides that extremely avoidable error, the paintwork is fine with just a little fuzziness with the brown skin paint lining up all the way to her left eye mask slot.

The white is nice and bright. Hasbro wisely didn’t go with an off white, just a bold stark white.

Doom is fine. I really like the metallic green used for his tunic. The black lining throughout is very nicely applied.

And the silver for the armor portions is nice and clean. Ironically, Hasbro got Doom’s eye color correct.

Scale: Captain Marvel wasn’t an Amazon. She was about a half shorter than Captain America and taller than Wasp by half a head as well.

Dr. Doom is scaled about the same height as his previous figures, which makes sense.

Doom doesn’t wear platforms in his armor and stands about eye to eye with Captain America, Iron Man, etc.

Articulation: Doom’s articulation is solid thanks to the Iron Man parts. He’s got a bit more range and flexibility thanks to the absence of the cape.

This is Doom’s battle armor and he tended to be more active in fighting instead of using Doombots or his minions.

Captain Marvel is much more of an energy projecting, flying style fighter. The arms are the biggest issue since she’s using the woefully outdated arms with no bicep articulation and single-joint elbows.

That’s easily my biggest frustration with the figure. New figures in 2023 shouldn’t be using outdated parts to this extreme.

I wish her neck had more range to pull off looking up flying poses but otherwise she moves fairly well.

Captain Marvel and Dr. Doom have:

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

* = Doctor Doom only

Accessories: Hasbro hasn’t been especially generous in this category for most figures this year. These two fare in the middle of the road though there was definitely room to add a few more extras.

Captain Marvel gets the least with just swappable energy gesturing hands.

Doom does better here with a separate masked head and hood for your standard Doctor Doom appearance. Then he’s got the mask to simulate when he removed all the scarring to show his flawless face.

And he’s also got swappable fists. Not a bad haul at all for him.

Worth it? This set was originally $50, the usual $25 per figure price point. Two packs with heavy reuse really should be cheaper but Hasbro went a different direction.

In keeping with the theme for this year the set went on clearance dropping as low as $17. That was an easy price for me as I was close periodically on grabbing it for $50.

With this price my grievances with Captain Marvel as largely moot and Doom was always solid so that’s a great purchase price for this set.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Captain Marvel has some annoying issues from the blue eyes, the single joint elbows and missing bicep articulation, but I still like her. Doom surprised me by being one of my surprising favorites of the year.

You can order the Marvel Legends Captain Marvel and Doctor Doom set from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.

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