Hasbro Review – Marvel Legends Legacy Series Black Panther Figures

Posted on November 10, 2022 in Toy Reviews

Recently, Hasbro has been running a line of Legacy Figures, in which they re-release older, desirable figures, with updated sculpts (and prices.)

And with Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hitting cinemas tomorrow, I thought I’d bring you lucky people a deep dive into a fitting set of figures from the early Legacy line-up of legacy.

(RPP: £25.99, ORDER HERE)

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VERDICT: This character has previously only existed as a build-a-figure, which – if you’ve been reading reading my stuff for a while – you know it’s probably one of my least favourite aspects of Marvel Legends. It acts as a gimmick to price lock niché, desirable characters, and if you don’t buy every single part they become unbuildable figures. The fact we now have the cheapest way to get an M’Baku directly from Hasbro in years definitely excites me.

The figure itself is representative of the high standards we’ve come to expect from modern Marvel Legends, with excellent sculpted detail, especially on the fur cape. The face sculpt is amazingly accurate too, and Hasbro’s photorealistic technology continues to treat us well. The articulation seems very good, keeping up expected standards, but an issue occurs when it comes to the hip skirt. I understand that making the cape rubbery plastic allows for greater detail, but it severely hampers leg articulation, meaning M’Baku could be difficult to leave standing up – a soft skirt would’ve been better I think.

On the accessories front, we get M’Baku’s staff, which is impeccably detailed, the highlight being the wood texturing. It fits nicely into his hands and increases the dynamic nature of a relatively static figure. Unfortunately, that’s all he gets, no extra hands, no swappable heads, nothing.

Marvel Legends Series Shuri

(RRP: £24.99, ORDER HERE)

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VERDICT: As for Shuri, she is a recreation of her outfit from the finale of the first Black Panther movie, featuring screen-accurate details including the intricate patterns which decorated the character, the best of which are the torso and face details. While Shuri also features a hip skirt, the shape of it means it has less of an impact on posing than M’Baku. Speaking of which, she has everything you’d expect in terms of articulation, but if I’m being greedy, a bit more leg range might’ve been nice.

An area where this figure begins to really show her age is with the accessories. Her gauntlets are separate rubber pieces that slot over her arms. Don’t get me wrong, they are excellently detailed, but I can bet they would’ve been separate swappable hands on a modern figure. Unfortunately those are her only accessories.

Marvel Legends Series Killmonger

(RRP: £24.99, ORDER HERE)

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VERDICT: Killmonger is a shining example of exactly how to make a Marvel Legends figure. He features painting and sculpting which perfectly recreatea the on-screen design. The subtle details across the torso are picked out by a light dry-brush, which is then heavily contrasted with the occasional punch in the face from the wonderful pops of gold. The best example of this can be found on the necklace and the spectacular mask headsculpt.

For an already excellent figure, what could be more fitting than masterclass articulation to take this figure up another notch? When coupled with his melee weapons (which keep up the aforementioned high level of detail) this figure poses phenomenally. As for other accessories, this figure doesn’t skimp, and comes with two head sculpts, masked and unmasked, along with hands for holding the weapons and dynamic clawed fingers.

It’s fair to say this is the best figure of this wave in my opinion.

Marvel Legends Series Black Panther

(RRP: £25.99, ORDER HERE)

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VERDICT: I felt it only right to end with the main man himself. This figure continues the theme of delivering a highly detailed recreation of the in-movie counterpart. Special mention goes to the details on the forearms and claws picked out with silver paint. He features almost exactly the same articulation as Killmonger, but our copy has an uncomfortably tight head and ab crunch.

As for accessories, the mask sculpt captures the subtle features of the in-universe model, and the unmasked heas captures the likeness of Chadwick Boseman (R.I.P.) perfectly. The alternate claws are seemingly the exact same as Killmonger’s, which is okay, because this figure didn’t need much more of anything else and it meant Killmonger could get more budget.

OVERALL VERDICT: This is a decent wave of figures. Shuri seems like she is budgeted to have originally included a build-a-figure component (bleh), which results in her feeling a little lacking. M’Baku is missing accessories and feels overpriced as a result. I honestly wouldn’t recommend buying either of them.

As for the other two, T’Challa is perhaps a bit lacking, but I don’t see us getting an updated one anytime in the near future, and Killmonger is generally an incredible figure and well worth the price, so I definitely wouldn’t ward you off of picking up these two.

The writer of this piece was: Daniel AKA BrickBuiltDengar
You can follow Daniel on Instagram at BrickBuiltDengar