Marvel Legends Starfox and Champion of the Universe review (2025)

Starfox adds another 80s Avengers and Eternals member to the roster, but he’s not alone in this Marvel Legends two-pack with Champion of the Universe. It seemed like Starfox would have shown up in Marvel Legends a lot sooner after his post-credit scene in The Eternals, but he had to wait way longer.

Champion has a passing connection to Starfox from the comics, but this pack is really more about building out the cosmic side of the Marvel Legends collection.

The Marvel Legends team has done a few of these seemingly deluxe Build-A-Figures size figures in a two-pack with a standard size figure. I’m a fan of the concept when the pairings make sense. Let’s see if I fall in love with this two-pack or if it makes me want to step in the ring and scream.

Packaging: The previous regular/deluxe two-pack was the Drax the Destroyer/Moondragon set. That one was done with the old window-less packaging so it’s nice to be able to see these two. Champion definitely looks imposing next to Starfox.

One side features smaller photos using the artwork from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe series while the other has Starfox’s debut in Avengers 232. I can’t place the Champion image.

That carries over to the back as well with different art panels — a very nice touch — although the lack of a bio writeup is lame especially since there is nothing to explain how the two are connected.

Likeness: Starfox was a relatively simple character for the ML team to knock out. The most important aspect of his look is his head sculpt, which the team knocked out with a slightly cheesy grin.

I appreciate the head sculpt not shying away from the more controversial aspects of his powers as it gives him a bit of a “hello, what have we here?” vibe.

Starfox’s costume seems simple, but the ML team took the effort to actually sculpt the white sections of his costume. Beyond the flared shoulder pads, the inner section including the section for his shorts is all sculpted. That’s usually left for the paint team to handle, but it’s all sculpted here including his fox logo and separate collar.

He also wears bracelets, which have the appropriate bands on either side. His default hands are a right grasping sculpt while his left is a C-grip for when he’s entertaining a lady friend no doubt. Starfox is the epitome of a character the ML team would have had to work hard to mess up and it’s nice to see them make good on a layup character this simple.

Champion is a bit more complex, making the pairing such a smart set. He’s largely using the Drax the Destroyer mold, which was a solid blank body for larger characters, with a few alterations and newly sculpted parts.

His head sculpt is the most prominent. Champion has his unique mullet with very little business in the front as it’s a free-flowing party in the back. Champion doesn’t have a fore- or five-head so much as he basically has a George Jefferson style hairdo. His expression is excellent with a smug look suggesting no one should want to challenge him.

The ML sculptor added the raised collar to the sculpt without making it look awkwardly added on. In a welcome surprise, the panel lining of his shirt is actually sculpted on and not left up to the paint job.

He also has bracelets with the comic accurate intricate design on them. Ditto for his “world title” belt, which is loaded with ornate sculpting detail. These are the kind of design elements the ML team has glossed over in the past, so they deserve credit for including here.

Scale: Starfox is a regular sized individual and should be right about eye to eye with Captain America and Hawkeye.

Champion of the Universe is shown to be fairly towering. His early appearances reflected his OHMU stats of being 9’2″, but different artists have him at various heights. While he could be bigger it’s not necessarily inaccurate. He’s taller than The Thing, Thor and Thanos at least.

MORE:

• Zootopia 2 review (2025)
• One Battle After Another review (2025)
• WWE Ultimate Edition nWo Macho Man Randy Savage review (2022)
• G.I. Joe Classified Series Hawk with MMS action figure review No.182 (2025)

Paint: Starfox has a basic color scheme with the majority of his costume either red or white. The sculpted lines for the white sections of his costume makes the paint lining easier to distinguish and prevents easy run offs or overspray.

As one of the few teeth-baring smiling heroes, along with the Secret Wars Captain America, Starfox’s teeth and subtle paint around his lips came out clean. His bracelets have more of a sheen to them in the comics, which is why the ML team’s choice to make them gold seems like the right idea. All around, Starfox has a very neat paintjob.

Champion is more colorful thanks to his flowing red hair paired with his light blue skin tone. In more recent appearances, his hair is colored a magenta shade, but early appearances had the hair about the same shade of red as his pants and boots. His belt and bracelets are also done in a gold tone though there is a hint of a brown wash to help bring out the sculpt details in a nice touch.

The yellow on his collar and panels on his darker blue shirt could have benefitted from another hit of yellow paint, but it doesn’t look sloppy or too weak. Champion’s head sculpt looks great with the black around his eyes and the darker blue shade on his lips. Both characters are very simple costume wise so they shouldn’t have paint issues, but that isn’t always the case so it’s nice to see both got solid paint jobs.

Articulation: Starfox is your basic Marvel Legends figure using the Vulcan mold. His shoulder pads are soft enough that they don’t limit flying poses and he’s able to hit all of the poses a psionic wielder with some degree of invulnerability and strength should be able to achieve.

Champion is much more of a brawler who’s all about using his strength to overwhelm opponents. The use of the old Drax buck means he doesn’t have the very helpful butterfly shoulders to better accommodate lunging punches poses or double-jointed elbows. Upper torso articulation would also be useful for him, but he’s still able to hit a good number of poses.

While Champion’s articulation setup seems outdated compared to most modern Marvel Legends, his size helps to make up for what he’s lacking in terms of the most fluid movement scheme.

Starfox and Champion have:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• butterfly shoulders
• bicep
• elbow (double-jointed)*
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso hinge
• hip
• thigh
• knee (double-jointed)
• ankle
  * = Starfox only

Accessories: This one is sadly the easiest category for both figures. Starfox and Champion of the Universe have just one very basic accessory — a swappable set of fists. Granted, Starfox isn’t a character with a lot of obvious accessories and the ML team nailed his essential head sculpt, but a neutral expression could have been useful.

Ditto for Champion, who absolutely could have used an alternate intense/raging out head sculpt.

Worth it?  The Drax/Moondragon set was a crazy value at $49.99. This set feels more like a pricing course correction with the inclusion of a deluxe figure as it’s $57.99, which is wildly the same price as other two-packs. That still makes it feel like a serious value when factoring in Champion’s size.

Rating:  9.5 out of 10

Starfox is a really fun figure and Champion is pretty decent despite the limited articulation.

Where to get it?  This is a shared exclusive so you can get it from Hasbro Pulse as well as from online partners like Amazon and Entertainment Earth.

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