Marvel Legends Ka-Zar review (2024) BAF Zabu wave

Ka-Zar is a fun character. Whenever your favorite character ends up in the Savage Land, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll stumble into Marvel’s answer to Tarzan. That arc doesn’t typically last long and Kevin Plunder always makes sure that his allies are protected no matter what they face in the Savage Land.

I most typically associate him with the X-Men, but Ka-Zar has partnered with most Marvel heroes along with starring in his own title a few times. He’s the kind of character that might not make a Top 20 list, but he’s a legacy character that was overdue for a Marvel Legends update.

Way back in their early days with the line, Hasbro released a SDCC set with Ka-Zar, Shanna the She-Devil and Zabu. The figures have not held up especially well. With this wave, we get Ka-Zar and Zabu knocked out. Hopefully it won’t be years before we see Shanna and even more so that she’s not ridiculously PC-censored.

Let’s take a stroll through the Savage Land to see if Ka-Zar is the king of the jungle or needs to get stuck up a tree.

Packaging:  All the figures in this wave have the signature black with red trim while this time the accent color is orange yellow. Having that in the package insert helps to make most characters pop though Ka-Zar’s “costume” doesn’t clash against it too much to truly stand out.

I don’t understand the trouble with matching up the package art with the figure. The art features a more modern Ka-Zar with spikes on his loincloth and boots as well as spiked gauntlets. I’m glad we didn’t get a modern figure with classic art. His bio is fairly generic though it covers the gist of what he does.

Likeness:  Ka-Zar has a simple look, but over the years Marvel artists have added more elements to his attire to make him look more formidable. Thankfully, the ML team went with his basic, most iconic look. When he debuted Ka-Zar was full on Tarzan with the loincloth and no boots.

Somewhere along the years since his debut, he got boots, which has remained a part of his attire.

He seems to be using a new highly defined muscular mold. This seems like a perfect buck for an updated Namor, whose figure laced butterfly shoulders. Ka-Zar has a great portrait with a focused, serious expression.

We don’t always get second portraits with ML figures, but it might have been a nice touch to also get that yelling portrait that we see on so much artwork with him.

The fur sculpt on his loincloth and boots has a nice texture to it, actually looking like something he got in the wild as opposed to Wal-Mart.

Paint:  As you’d expect there’s not much to paint with Ka-Zar. His hair does have a brown wash, which is appreciated since it breaks up that toy-like appearance of the hair sculpts.

His loincloth and boots have a lighter brown top section to provide some variation as well.

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Scale: Ka-Zar is a regular size guy at 6’2″ placing him an inch shorter than the 6’3″ Cyclops. He should be noticeably taller than the 5’3″ Wolverine. Cyclops needs an update at this point, but at least Wolverine is looking up at him.

Articulation: Ka-Zar is a very athletic hero used to jungle warfare. While Marvel Legends doesn’t have a slew of dinosaurs for him to fight, he’s definitely a character that needs the full allotment of articulation.

Fortunately, this body allows you to get Ka-Zar in all the essential stances and poses you’d need.

Of course, getting him now makes me want more Savage Land dwellers and Magneto’s Savage Land crew although I wouldn’t say no to some smaller dinosaurs either.

Ka-Zar has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders (with butterfly shoulder joint)
• bicep
• elbow (double-jointed)
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• upper torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee (double-jointed)
• ankle

Accessories: Ka-Zar surprisingly comes with a decent number of accessories.

He’s got two additional sets of swappable hands — a set of fists and weapon holding. I wish the weapon holding hands had a tighter grip. They’re both a little wide, which doesn’t make for the most secure grip.

Ka-Zar has two weapons for jungle warfare. First is his trusty spear for long-range attacks. I’m pretty sure the spear is new since the stone blade portion and wrap around it don’t match up with the Black Panther spear Shuri has with her figure.

The other is his knife. I’m less sure if this is a new accessory, but it’s fine either way. It’s got a gold hilt and a blade wide enough to do some damage to any of the more aggressive Savage Land inhabitants.

This fits in smoothly into the loop on his loincloth, which was very helpful as it allows him to hold all his gear.

Not bad for a jungle dude.

Additionally, he’s got the right front leg to his faithful sabretooth companion, Zabu.

Worth it?  Amazon had a great sale for the Zabu wave during the Christmas holiday knocking off $10 for most figures so I was able to get him for $15 instead of the usual $25. Ka-Zar is a bit plain, but he’s an essential Marvel character in the universe so he was a must-get.

Hasbro’s ML team did try to offer enough with a simple figure so he’s not a terrible value at regular price although anything less is an excellent deal.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Ka-Zar is a great figure. The only drawback is the neck range of motion, which impacts him from hitting the most dynamic poses, which are essential for a character running around in the Savage Land.

Where to get it?  You can grab Ka-Zar from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.

As an Amazon and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.