Marvel Legends Astonishing X-Men Beast review (2025)

Astonishing X-Men Beast arrived too late in 2025 to fairly be included in the Best of 2025 list, which is a shame as it seems like he would have easily made the Top 10 list. Maybe even Top 5?

Cat Beast is hardly my favorite run of Hank McCoy’s blue-furry mutant, but the Astonishing X-Men run was amazing. With the Marvel Legends team getting closer to completing that team, he was increasingly becoming a priority on the wish list.

With his arrival, we’re almost there. Let’s see if this is the only Astonishing X-Men Beast we’ll need or if Hasbro needs to check out their stars and garters.

Packaging: Astonishing X-Men Beast is part of the second wave of mini-comic book figures. This was a fairly anticipated wave as it included several characters that either finished off teams or put us a few more team members away from completing them. Beast is the latter.

This wave is set up like a comic book with the corner box featuring the figure in an action pose. Typically, the light blue color scheme has worked fine with the characters in the two waves. Naturally, Astonishing X-Men Beast doesn’t pop as much thanks to his blue fur. He’s got a bronze tag with his name and the prominent Astonishing X-Men logo at the top.

Over on the back is the cross sell with all of Wave 2. The bio tells more about a key storyline for Beast as opposed to anything else with the character. Despite the colorful presentation, there’s not much to hold on to for this packaging unless you’re an MOC collector.

Likeness: This outfit has always had a weird aesthetic since it looks like Beast forgot to put on a shirt. The default head sculpt features an intense, angry expression that Hank reserves for serious battles. That’s ideal for action poses.

Impressively, the sculpt features some tremendous fur layering with the hair draping down in a natural manner. This is best highlighted with Beast’s wrist bands where the hair is bunched up and flowing over the sculpted bands. It’s a sneaky way to work in the elbow articulation joint.

His outfit does present some sculpting challenges. The outfit starts at his torso with the points of an X beginning just under his chest.

For the figure, it’s more of a U instead of an X depending on how he’s posed. That’s the trick with an action figure — the outfit sculpted sections don’t move when you start posing him.

The paneling is also noteworthy as the lines of the costume are all sculpted along with some piping throughout.

MORE:

• Transformers Studio Series 86 Mixmaster review (2025)
• Marvel Legends Starfox and Champion of the Universe review (2025)
• WWE Ultimate Edition The Steiner Brothers review (2024)
• DC Comics reviews 12/24/25 – JLU 14, Absolute Wonder Woman 15

Scale: In his lion/cat form, Beast was drawn wider and thicker than previous incarnations. His height seems to vary depending on the artist. John Cassady tended to draw him shorter than Cyclops.

The ML team sculpted Astonishing X-Men Beast taller although thanks to his articulation, he can crunch down some to be in a more accurate scale to his teammates.

Paint: Beast has a darker midnight blue compared to some other figures, which is fine as another evolution makes sense for a darker shade of fur. Beyond a blue backdrop, that actually helps him stand out compared to his teammates.

His eyes turned out great while his teeth and gums are moderately sloppy making it look like this is the Savage Beast who’s got some blood left from his last meal. Yellow doesn’t play along well with blues or blacks making for an especially tall challenge with this paint job.

The common weak spot area are the edges of the outfit’s sculpted lines and the piping of his wrist and ankle bands. It’s just the problem with needing another hit or two with the yellow paint.

Articulation: This is where the figure really shows off. Beast needs high level articulation to better convey his acrobatic fighting style. He’s got the normal articulation scheme with the ball-joint upper torso for added poseability and an ab crunch — very helpful for Hank.

This allows him to get into more natural crouching poses without looking awkward.

His center of balance also allows him to hit more dynamic poses as well.

Astonishing X-Men Beast has:

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

Accessories: Astonishing X-Men Beast comes with an alternate head sculpt — that makes him look more a relaxed blue lion. For Beast, this is probably going to be the more commonly displayed version since that’s more of his default nature.

He also has a set of fists for when it’s time to just punch away at an opponent.

Finally, he comes with the mini-comic of Astonishing X-Men. It’s the gimmick so there’s no point in complaining but it’s not my favorite inclusion.

Worth It? Astonishing X-Men Beast runs around $27.99 to $29.99. Most of these figures are using similar bucks, but since he’s got a unique buck with all the details specific to the Astonishing costume the value is better than most.

Rating: 10 out of 10

I had high hopes for this version of Beast, but I still wasn’t expecting to like Astonishing Beast this much. Hasbro did a great job with him and I’m looking forward to completing the team.

Where to Get It? Astonishing X-Men Beast is available at retailers like Walmart, but you can get him from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.

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