Marvel Legends Luke Cage Power Man review – BAF Mindless One
Luke Cage in his Power Man guise has been long overdue for an updated Marvel Legends figure. For the classic comic book appearance version, I’ve had to rely on the 2006 Toy Biz figure. Clearly it was time to retire that one as Hasbro continued upscaling their figures.
Finally, we’ve got a classic, mostly old-school Power Man figure. He’s got some issues, but let’s see if this Hero for Hire is good enough for a prominent spot on my figure payroll.
Packaging: Hasbro is done with the windowless packaging so I can see Cage with no problem. That was helpful as my comic book store had several in stock and a few had some misalignments with the tiara.
I’ve missed being able to choose the best-looking figure on the shelf. The package artwork features Dave Cockrum’s cover from Power Man and Iron Fist #50 (Amazon link).
It’s probably the most iconic image of the two, which seems like a waste considering this could have been saved for a two-pack. And the obvious visual changes from figure and cover.
The bios are back (!). This one is simple but explains Power Man’s backstory just fine.
Likeness: Power Man has one of the signature attires from Marvel’s 70s heyday with the flared collar, low neckline, puffy sleeves tucked into silver bracelets, a chain belt and buccaneer boots. And how could I forget the tiara?
This costume might get scoffed at now by modern fans, but I can dig it as it’s something only a dude as confident and tough as Luke Cage could pull off.
His hair sculpt looks good capturing that Richard Roundtree/Jim Brown look. I like the head sculpt as it looks like Luke is considering taking a gig and sizing up the risk/reward aspect of it.
The thing is Luke is not a character that is this thoughtful all the time. Given that most of his covers and the packaging art feature a more animated expression, Hasbro should have included another portrait.
Hasbro’s ML team took a page from earlier WWE Ultimate Edition figures with jackets. With the WWE figures the jackets were removable so seeing into the jacket was at least understandable since that wasn’t the main look.
And you could hide it based on how you posed the figure. With Power Man, you can see the flesh in the cutaway circle. Considering the lack of concern for the figure’s articulation (more on that in a second) this was a really poor design choice.
MORE:
- G.I. Joe Classified Series Outback review – Stuart Selkirk (No. 63)
- Marvel Legends The Sentry review – Walgreens exclusive
- Scream (2022) review
- Power Rangers Lightning Collection Dino Fury Red Ranger review
Paint: Power Man’s colors are a great combination that contrast against each other nicely to help him stand out. When it’s the best color scheme. Even on the packaging, Power Man is rocking his blue pants. Black pants are canon and were even used for the Toy Biz figure. Does someone at Hasbro hate Cage with blue pants? Stay tuned to this channel.
But really, blue was the way to go here. The only reason I can imagine for them going black pants for this release was for a hopefully inevitable two-pack with Iron Fist with blue pants.
Considering Hasbro has never painted the pins on Spider-Man figures to match the outfit I didn’t have any expectation of a dab of yellow paint to cover the flesh tone to maintain the shirt illusion.
That major issue aside, the paintwork is nice and clean with Power Man.
Scale: Power Man was drawn relatively tall like around Thor’s height. He’s not nearly that tall yet is taller than Doctor Strange and Nighthawk, his occasional Defenders teammates.
Articulation: Hasbro’s ML team has had some hits with implementing articulation and then there’s some misses. Even in handling a line they’ve been doing for over a decade now.
Power Man sadly is the latter. The ML design team decided they didn’t want to break up Cage’s shirt/torso visual by adding torso articulation.
I’d argue that could have been solved by making the torso and the shirt separate pieces. And giving Luke’s torso at least a floating mid-torso articulation point.
Instead, it’s all one piece with the waist section carrying the burden for all of the movement. That’s not the best approach since at least the mid-torso joint could still work in terms of providing more dynamic posing.
With that disappointment out of the way, Power Man has most of the expected movement points. For some reason he’s lacking the boot swivel.
These decisions are so baffling since there’s clearly the hidden sculpted area to allow for that movement without breaking up the aesthetic. Right or wrong, I can at least understand the thought process with the torso.
Power Man has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- bicep
- elbow (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- ankle
Accessories: Power Man gets the obvious accessories – a set of swappable grasping hands. That makes sense for a character who largely relies on brawling and flinging bad guys around.
I’ll say it again. A better or at least additional worthwhile accessory would have been an alternate head sculpt. One with some intensity with Power Man fed up and ready to bust some heads.
His other accessory is the left leg of the Build-A-Figure Mindless One.
Worth it? My local comic book shop, Third Eye Comics, had a Black Friday sale so I was able to get Power Man for 50% off. Despite his issues, he’s a good figure for $12.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Power Man has too many problems to go higher than an 8. Admittedly, my bias for the character might be ranking him higher. There’s certainly ways for Hasbro to improve him, but this is a decent enough stand-in for me.
Where to get it? This is another wave that’s not available at retail. You can order Power Man from Amazon and Entertainment Earth.
As an Amazon and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.