Marvel Legends The Rose review – Spider-Man Retro card

It’s crazy to believe The Rose has been around in Marvel Comics since 1984. His origin is pretty clever. Unlike Harry Osborn, Richard Fisk had no trouble getting involved in the family business especially if it meant humbling his father, The Kingpin.

Naturally, this put him into conflict with Spider-Man making for a fun three-way battle.

The Rose hasn’t had a figure from Toy Biz or Hasbro apparently. He’s really a character I assumed was an easy candidate given how little sculpting he required.

Let’s see if this debut Marvel Legends figure comes up sweet or if he’s ready to get discarded with the rest of the bouquet.

Packaging: The Retro brand packaging for this is similar to the vintage cartoon style figures. And while I thought he showed up in the cartoon, I couldn’t find a still from any appearance in the series. The Rose has a largely purple background color. It clashes nicely against the yellow and red logo.

As usual there’s a portrait of the character in the animated style.  It’s surprising how brief, yet informative the bios are for the Retro line. The Rose’s bio explains all you need to know about the character.

Likeness: This is a pretty good take on The Rose. He’s a guy in a double-breasted suit with just one really significant defining visual element. And yet, that’s the one area the Hasbro sculpt comes up short — the mask.

I wasted a good 10 minutes trying to find some reference art for this particular take on the mask. Most Google searches show the classic take on it with eye slots underneath his glasses.

Hasbro didn’t reuse this head sculpt so it’s not like they were just cutting corners using an existing sculpt with goggles. Unless the G.I. Joe Classified Series team was feeling generous with a Snake Eyes option?

Maybe this would have still been OK if Hasbro used a translucent style or even open style glasses like Kid Omega’s figure. That way we could still see the eyes and the visual wouldn’t be compromised.

The suit is pretty good though The Rose tended to have his suit buttoned lower. As a guide, the tie should be visible down to the first row of buttons. This makes Rose look more uptight than necessary. Again, I’m pretty sure this is an original suit piece so Hasbro’s sculptors should have gotten it more accurate to the comic book appearance.

He does have a rose affixed to his lapel. I feel like The Rose is too simple a character to not have certain elements down precisely. The rose should be positioned at the lapel’s “less than” point. This one sits just a bit too low.

His gloves look new, but their level of detail suggests they might be carried over from an MCU figure.

His legs are reused from the Tracksuit Mafia figure (available now on Amazon). They work fine and it’s a nice switch from the two existing suit mold options. Course now that I think about it, the Tracksuit Mafia would make for some pretty handy goons for The Rose.

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Paint: Hasbro went the correct route and gave Rose a vibrant white suit. No eggshell white or yellow-ish white. Stark white, which helps him stand out among the more colorful Spider-Man Rogues.

Maybe the goggles could add a touch of light blue to contrast stronger against the purple mask. That’s more of a preference than an issue. The tie and the gloves typically were the same color in the comics.

Scale: The Rose is a regular guy. This mold makes him a little taller, which is fine. It’s not like his father, isn’t a mass mountain of man. Richard could have some height on him as well.

Articulation: While he’s not afraid to get into some shootouts, The Rose is far more a directing behind the scenes kind of guy. Besides, that’s why he pays his henchman.

Like you’d expect, the suit body is somewhat restrictive. The material is flexible enough that he can hit most poses though it’s tight enough that it won’t necessarily hold the poses.

The Rose has:

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

Accessories: The Rose fares better than some of his wave mates, but he’s not exactly overflowing with accessories.

He gets swappable hands so he can hold some of the extras. He’s got a short stem rose. The leaves are bigger than ideal, but this is a nice touch for the character. This works best with the left pointing hand.

Rose also has two handguns. They’re very similar so you can choose which ones he’ll use.

The big issue is he’s only got one clutching hand — the right hand — so having two guns isn’t very helpful.

Worth it?  At $24.99? Nope.  Once he hit clearance at Target for $13, I was sold.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

There’s some accuracy issues with the look that hold him down and the lack of another gripping left hand for two guns is very silly. Still it’s nice to finally have The Rose in the collection.

Where to get it?  The Rose is done at retail, but you can still grab him through my affiliate Amazon.

As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.