While there’s ample hype for this summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy movie, the most talked-about and most-anticipated figure in the Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel Legends Infinite Series isn’t from the movie at all! In fact, it’s not even a character new to Hasbro Marvel Legends. Instead, it’s the star of the most successful cosmic Marvel comic of the past decade. The last basic figure in this series left for me to review is the Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy Nova figure!

When Hasbro unveiled the Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy figures the week before the 2014 Toy Fair, it got fans intrigued. But it wasn’t until the actual weekend of the New York Toy Fair 2014 when fans became absolutely rabid for the series.

…Why? Because it was at the actual NYTF 2014 that Hasbro debuted the Marvel Legends Modern Nova figure that Marvel collectors had been demanding for the past decade!

And while several of the figures in this GOTG Marvel Legends wave have been disappointments (poor Marvel Legends Rocket Raccoon!), the Marvel Legends 2014 Nova figure is virtually perfect!

Though the Nova Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy figure utilizes mostly old tooling (primarily from the Marvel Legends Bucky Captain America body), the mold has been retooled a bit to make it ideal for the Annihilation Nova character design with armor plating. The result is that this recycled tooling looks like it was created just for Marvel Legends Modern Nova.

It would be nice if every figure could have totally unique tooling, but the 2014 Marvel Legends Nova figure is proof that you don’t always need fresh tooling to make a perfectly accurate-looking figure.

Also, the paint deco on the new Marvel Legends Annihilation Nova figure looks downright awesome. The shiny blue paint is the same as that used on the excellent Iron Man 3 Marvel Legends Iron Monger Build-A-Figure from last year, and it looks spectacular on the Guardians of the Galaxy Nova Marvel Legends figure. This is one seriously great-looking figure.

About the only fault that I can find with this 6″ Marvel Legends Nova action figure is that some of the paint applications are a mite sloppy. When your figure’s primary colors are gold and dark blue, any botched paint applications are going to show up like a sore thumb, and that’s the case on this Marvel Legends Nova figure.

By no stretch of the imagination does this Modern Nova Marvel Legends action figure look bad, but the paint applications are the weakest aspect of an otherwise outstanding figure.

And that’s a wrap for the basic Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy toys! (And yes, I am aware that there’s a Build-A-Figure for me to discuss, though he’ll have to remind me of his name.) Mega thanks to bman for giving us the exclusive on these early-release Marvel Legends GOTG figures.

Having seen the finished product, what do you think of the most-anticipated figure from the Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy series, Marvel fans? Does Nova top your list of must-have figures from this series, or do you have your eyes on a different member of the Guardians of the Galaxy lineup?