Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure Ursa Major review
Ursa Major is one of a slew of Build-A-Figures that I’ve neglected to actually review after completing. All it took was a decent snowstorm to remind me he was still in the queue.
He was a relatively painless BAF to complete since I actually wanted all the figures besides the Hologram Iron Man. Overall, it was a pretty strong wave with some terrific figures including two better Iron Man variants and one of Ursa Major’s teammates in Darkstar.
Let’s break down the big guy of the Winter Guard/Soviet Super-Soldiers.
Packaging: There’s no separate packaging for Build-A-Figures unless Hasbro decides to revisit him with a deluxe presentation. It’d be nice if Hasbro just threw in a bio at the bottom of every figure in the wave for him and art somewhere on the others’ packaging.
Likeness: Hasbro sometimes gets hits from collectors with lackadaisical efforts with underwhelming sculpts that seem like they took the easy (read: cheap) way out.
Enough artists draw Ursa Major with just a few tufts of fur. For this BAF, Hasbro’s sculptors went all out sculpting all the individual strands of hair. He looks amazing.
The sculpt also does a good job of capturing Ursa’s somewhat hunched over stance. I dig the expression with the ferocious intensity. Ideally, Hasbro would have given him an articulated jaw to allow for a little bit more versatility in conveying emotions.
His paws are nice and large with the claws looking especially dangerous.
Paint: This could have been a cheap paint job, but Hasbro added a subtle black wash to pop some of the fur details. It also helps to provide some depth to the layers.
The more precise details like the tongue and teeth are mostly sharply done. Hasbro did a great job with the dark black around his eyes as well.
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Scale: Hasbro seemed to get the scaling right with Ursa Major. While he can be a towering mass of a bear under some artists, he’s not a giant. He stands about a head taller than Red Guardian, who’s a decent yardstick measure for him.
Darkstar tends to come up to his chest in most artists’ take on the team and he’s just about there. Could he be a little taller? Sure, but his scale isn’t an issue.
Articulation: The engineering for this big guy is pretty special. Whenever I fiddled around to pose him, I never lost sight that this is a figure of a dude who turns into a bear. From the hunched shoulders courtesy of the extra shoulder piece similar to what Hasbro did with the BAF Sasquatch he feels massive.
The fun thing is how smoothly he moves. He’s got a strong enough base foundation that he can be posed on one leg if you needed, which is impressive.
I liked pulling off more mauling, paw strike poses.
Ursa Major has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- bicep
- elbow
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- hip
- thigh
- knee
- ankle
Accessories: Ursa gets a goose egg in this category with no extras. The only obvious one that seems like an option would have been another head portrait.
Worth it? Ursa Major dropped before the significant price increase to the Marvel Legends line so he was the regular $120 for a BAF. That’s a solid price for a figure with so much effort put into it. And it certainly helps when I’m only “forced” to buy one figure I didn’t want to complete him.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Ursa Major proved to be a very fun BAF with a tremendous sculpt and very good articulation. With a hinged jaw and a tad more size he would be perfect.
Where to get it? This wave can be tracked down with a little effort at Amazon for most of the figures.
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