Marvel Legends Fabian Cortez figure review (2025) – BAF Nemesis wave

Fabian Cortez was the Starscream of Magneto’s Acolytes cozying up to his leader just long enough to stick the knife in his back.

Since The Acolytes were part of the top selling comic book of all time it’s somewhat surprising that Hasbro hasn’t made a few over the years. It makes sense to start with Fabian Cortez since he acted like the default field leader of the team.

Let’s see if Fabian can win over more support to getting additional Acokytes in the line or if his proclamation should fall on deaf eras.

Packaging: The Nemesis wave was one of a handful of Build a Figure waves for 2025. This wave features the boxier packaging style with a predominantly black color scheme with yellow and red accents and an orange burst with the BAF info. There’s no dedicated Acolytes logo, so Fabian Cortez gets the basic X-Men logo.

Again, the packaging just features the same artwork on the sides and back. It looks like Larry Stroman’s artwork though I couldn’t find the reference art.

The bio isn’t too bad as it explains Cortez’s rivals though it doesn’t mention his powers, which seems like it should be a prerequisite.

Likeness: Fabian Cortez gets his first figure here, which is wild seeing that Toy Biz made a couple of Acolytes. They have a fairly simple uniform look so there’s the possibility that Hasbro could make at least Chrome with most of Cortez’s costume.

Cortez has a harness with large shoulder pads. His cape is positioned underneath the shoulder pads on his back along with the usual plug in the back. He’s got oversized ribbed gauntlets and thick boots.

Jim Lee should be proud of this Fabian Cortez head sculpt as it looks like his artwork come to life in a way we haven’t seen with any of the 90s era Psylocke figures yet. The sculpt has plenty of intensity like he’s bellowing orders to his fellow Acolytes.

I wouldn’t mind if we’d also gotten a disarming smile head sculpt as well. Cortez does get his signature flowing ponytail, which looks like it’s getting caught in the breeze a little as opposed to just hanging straight down.

His helmet harness has solid detailing including the clips that extend past his ears.

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Scale: Fabian Cortez is the standard height though he’s taller than the X-Men 97 Magneto that I’m using as my mainline Magneto. While he’s had some good figures, we haven’t truly gotten an iconic, definitive version of Magneto yet.

It’d be nice to get some other Acolytes to best measure his height.

Paint: Fabian Cortez has a colorful paint job with the midnight bodysuit, the gold head piece, shoulder pads and harness along with the read gloves and boots.  vibrant blue costume with brown for the leather armor, belt (with a gold buckle), knee pads and boots. This makes for a nice visual contrast with his reddish orange/brown hair and purple cape.

For reasons, the Acolytes rock an upside-down A on their costume with the stems continuing into the harness/shoulder pads. There are just some very minor areas of the points that have a slight overspray but given the space the paintwork is fairly crisp. Maybe the gold or the boots/gloves could have a wash, but that’s the biggest “issue.”

His head sculpt paint job is excellent with the hairline, eyebrows, lips and teeth all coming off very clean.

Articulation: Fabian Cortez is more of a posturing leader than a frontline combatant.

The Vulcan body always provides stellar articulation all the same, so he is able to hit some dynamic poses even if he’s not going to be going toe to toe with Colossus, Rogue, Gambit or Wolverine.

Thanks to the cape’s placement, it’s not as annoying or in the way of most poses even if it’s not necessary in his case. Naturally, the shoulder pads create some limitations, but not to any great extent since again, Cortez isn’t trying to get his hands dirty in a fight.

Fabian Cortez has:

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

Accessories: Fabian Cortez doesn’t get a ton of accessories although he has everything he really needs. but has the essentials.

He’s got an open right hand and a clutching left hand. His powers are mutant amplification, and he doesn’t really have his own energy effects. To give him something, Hasbro gave him the fiery flame bursts that’s the norm with fire-tossing characters.

Finally, Fabian Cortez comes with the left leg of the Build-A-Figure Nemesis.

Worth it?  With the wave getting trickier to find, I decided to stop waiting for a sale and just grabbed him for the base $25 price point. Fabian has enough newly sculpted parts that create the base for more Acolytes and has a BAF piece, so his price was fair.

Rating:  9.5 out of 10

Cortez gets a very well-done figure. The neck articulation limitations due to the hair sculpt are understandable. Hopefully the ML team will add more Acolytes to join him in 2026.

Where to get it?  This wave didn’t show up at any retail spots in my area beyond GameStop. I got Fabian Cortez from Amazon.

As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.