Avengers Marvel Legends Thanos Build-A-Figure Review & Photos

Although there are over 8,000 Marvel heroes and villains, less than 500 of them are characters that most people have ever heard of. And so, with hundreds of figures now released, there are very few major omissions left. And this year, perhaps the most prominent missing villain has finally arrived: Thanos! Is it worth buying five of the Marvel Legends Avengers Wave 2 figures to build the Thanos Build-A-Figure…?

Marvel Legends Avengers Wave 2 Thanos Figure 7 InchThe Right:

FINALLY!! I’ve been wondering when in the world Hasbro was going to produce a Thanos action figure ever since they reignited the 6″ Marvel Legends toy line, and after several years of waiting (and bafflingly being left out of the Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel Legends series), the time has come.

Regardless of the quality of the figure itself, the mere existence of an official Marvel Legends Thanos figure is going to fill a lot of gaps in collections and make many collectors happy. Thumbs up.

2015 Marvel Legends Thanos Build-A-Figure ReviewThe Thanos head sculpt is easily the high point of this Build-A-Figure. With a detailed skin texture and a maniacal grin that’s full of charm, the head sculpt on the Thanos Build-A-Figure is fantastic. The paint wash on his face and his imperfect teeth further bring the portrait together and really make the head pop. Great stuff!

Marvel Legends Avengers Wave 2 Thanos Figure 7 InchThanos is one big dude, and it was important that this Build-A-Figure reflect that–and it does. Standing at an intimidating 7.5″ tall, Thanos is suitably larger than the standard 6″ Marvel Legends figures, but not so much so as to look out of place. In fact, I’d say the scale on this Thanos is near-perfect for his modern version.

On a sidenote: I know some folks will want a classic or bigger Thanos, and for those collectors, I wholeheartedly recommend the excellent Marvel Select Thanos figure (with Death!).

Marvel Legends Thanos Figure Choking BatrocThanos has one fisted hand for bashing, and one open hand for grasping. That is absolutely the way to go for figures that won’t get interchangeable hands, and the sculpting on both hands is top-notch.

I know many people are going to balk about the fact that this figure doesn’t include an Infinity Gauntlet, but I don’t have a problem with it: to my knowledge, this modern Thanos has never had the Infinity Gauntlet while looking like this, so I don’t see why his figure would either.

Marvel Legends 2015 Thanos Build a FigureThe Wrong:

The biggest letdown with the Avengers Legends Thanos is his articulation scheme, with the most blatant offending element being the hips.

Thanos can move his leg forward enough to simulate kicking a rock on the ground, but side-to-side and back movement on the legs are almost non-existent. Thanos has never been the most lithe go around, but this is just ridiculous.

Hasbro Thanos Marvel Legends Action Figure Arms Raised

In addition, while he has ball-jointed shoulders with a great range of motion, raising his arms too high causes Thanos’ collarpiece to pop off incessantly. This collarpiece doesn’t plug in tightly at all, so it flops off constantly. It’s really rather annoying.

Although the costume on this Thanos figure is largely accurate to his appearance in the recent “Infinity” crossover (a story which I thought was downright awful overall, by the way), the look still isn’t perfectly authentic.

Marvel Legends Thanos Action Figure Hasbro CollarpieceThe big inaccuracy I see with this figure is that the silver, ridged areas on his legs go down too far and are way too wide. It’s pretty obvious that Hasbro has designs on reusing these legs for an Apocalypse Build-A-Figure in 2016 (potential spoilers), but having so much silver on a Thanos figure simply does not look correct.

Finally, I think that the gold portions of Thanos’ costume could have used extra shading in the form of a darker paint wash. As it is, the gold portions of the costume look toy-like (in a bad way) because of the lack of paint detail on them.

Avengers Infinite Series Thanos Marvel Legends Build-A-FigureOverall: Hasbro got a lot right with their inaugural Marvel Legends Thanos BAF, as the head, scale and sculpting details are all very nice. But on the flipside, his articulation has a lot of limitations, he could use a bit more paint shading and the silver areas of his legs are inaccurate. Overall, Thanos is a solid figure that I think fans will be glad to have, but I am a bit disappointed that he merely turned out to be “pretty good” and not “excellent”.

GRADE: B-

Comments

Avengers Marvel Legends Thanos Build-A-Figure Review & Photos — 8 Comments

    • Agreed. Just wish Thanos had a Variant head that came with one of the ladies. To give different looks in poses. With the limited articulation and all.

  1. Apocalypse BAF ! I Bet it will be a movie version. Which will be a different BAF for Hasbro. Until we have that Hulkbuster BAF in hand. Can’t wait for the review.
    Pt

    • That would imply Hasbro is going to make movie figures for a Fox film. We’ll be lucky if we even get a comic based X-Men line.

      • Don’t underestimate the power of Marvel Mouse. Prof Fox will succumb and fall in line with a deal same as Samurai Sony did. Huzzah! 3 cheers for getting our X-MEN toys back! 😀

  2. Comparto en que me gusta esta figura de thanos ….. creo que se podria mejorar .. solo que me hubiera gustado que las figuras que integran la serie fueran otros y no un capi y un ironman ya hechos anteriormente pero con otra pintura

  3. Whoa! Thanos is of similar caliber to MIS Black Cat?! Go figure! 😉
    That Dabid! Wow, can’t get a bead on this guy! LoL! There is noting wrong with this Thanos.
    Grade “A” figure here. It’s Marvel Now Thanos. Mind you, I’m a serious fan of ol school classic M.Select Thanos. Thanks for the generous and controversial shout-out of that figure,Dabid! In addition to the three MIS/MU permutations,Hmlis, and MS are the only Thanos action figures a Marvel collector really needs! 😀 Ha-Ha-ha!