Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Sunspot review (2025)
Sunspot took on the role of the newbie entering into the mutant world through X-Men’97 Season 1.
The Marvel Legends team has been hard at work cranking out more figures for the show and now we’re already onto Wave 3. Let’s see if Sunspot proves to be a highlight of a pretty solid overall wave or if he’ll need to adapt another guise to get more love.
Packaging: The X-Men ’97 figures use the retro card style presentation with a large graphic of the show title along with most of the X-Men — sorry Sunspot. He does have a full costumed drawing on the left side.
With the wide-open window set-up, all of the accessories are visible and there’s no hiding any paint flaws.
Over on the back, Sunspot doesn’t get a bio write-up, but there is the cross sell with the other figures in the wave.
Likeness: The X-Men ’97 figures are more Marvel Legends adjacent as they have different bodies than the standard MLs. That works out in Sunspot’s case as he’s using a slender buck that works perfect for a teenage male.
Sunspot has a terrific head sculpt with a nice flow to his hair sculpt similar to the show. He’s got a slight smirk, which is perfectly keeping with the character’s personality in the show and comics.
Assuming you could find a suitable head sculpt and a quick paintjob to color switch his neck, this mold would do fine for a Cypher custom.
The only issue with the figure is a noticeable mold line along the side of his neck on either side and the larger neck hinge joint. They’re very distracting.
Scale: Sunspot was a teenager on the show and naturally should be shorter than everyone save for Jubilee. He is looking up at the X-Men ’97 Cyclops so that scale was properly done. He also scales up well next to his fellow New Mutants that are already in the ML line even if those outfits are based on the 2009 New Mutants series.
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Paint: Sunspot is pretty simple with regards to the paintjob as most of the heavy lifting was done with the plastic molded in the appropriate colors. His yellow seems somewhat muted, which is disappointing as it should be the same vibrant hue as Cyclops. Another paint gaffe is with the black as it’s more like a midnight blue.
That is a very weird mistake as it doesn’t capture the black with blue highlights from the cartoon. The shade of his yellow doesn’t match up at all with the New Mutant girls they did previously, which is more understandable since he’s not from the comic.
Articulation: Sunspot has the usual standard Marvel Legends articulation, which is all he really needs since he’s not a dynamic fighter when he’s not fully powered up.
He does have butterfly shoulders, which are helpful for simulating throwing his fireballs.
Sunspot has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- bicep
- elbow (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso (ball joint and hinge)
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- ankle
Accessories: I have not been a fan of the Retro card setup as it’s always felt like a means for Hasbro to cut down on accessories without the added bonus of building a figure.
Sunspot shines a light on this weak value with his accessories — a set of open hands and two fireballs. One plugs into his fist while the other just rests on his open hand.
To the ML team’s credit, the fireballs are new sculpts with longer flame trails and a throwing arc on the smaller one. They’re done in a translucent red with orange and yellow colors.
That’s it as far as accessories go. For Sunspot, maybe an alternate head featuring him fully powered up would have been something to add more value to the figure. This is one of those instances where Hasbro not doing variants/chases hurts as a powered-up Sunspot seems like an unlikely, but essential figure option.
Worth it? Marvel Legends figures are now $27.99, Its going to be rare to find a figure worth that price tag in specially for Marvel Legends.
Sunspot does not buck the trend and definitely isn’t a good value for the new price point. I got him via a Target deal for $19.99, which is a better deal for such a streamlined figure with minimal accessories.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Sunspot gets an unexpectedly really good figure. I’d love to see at least a Cypher on this body and a Sam Guthrie with slightly longer legs/boots.
Where to Get It? You can find Sunspot at retailers like Target, GameStop or Walmart. He’s also available at Amazon or Entertainment Earth.
As an Amazon and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.