Hasbro’s Marvel Universe (now Marvel Infinite Series) 4″ action figure line is famous for giving us hundreds of action figures from across the Marvel Universe, including numerous versions of iconic characters, beloved fan-favorites… and characters that 99.9% of the free world has never heard of. The subject of today’s review is of the latter group. He’s easily the most obscure character Hasbro has released this year, and you can buy him now for MSRP or below online–it’s the Marvel Infinite Series Korg figure!

The Right:

Remember that time that the Mighty Thor fought the Rock Aliens “from Mars”…? You should, because it was in the very first appearance ever by Thor! And it turned out–many decades later–that one of those Rock Men happened to be a guy named “Korg”‘! That’s right–what we have here is (sort of) the first Thor villain ever! Can’t get much more classic than that, can it? Cool, huh?

Getting characters you would never expect is one of the ultra-fun things about the Hasbro 4″ Marvel Infinite Series figures line, and Korg is a model example of this. Character selection points awarded.

If you’re wondering why Hasbro would invest tooling dollars in developing an all-new mold for Korg, the answer is–of course–that they didn’t. This body is actually a half-decade plus old, as it was created for the Marvel Universe The Thing action figure.

But while Hasbro used the body multiple times to give us toys of blue-eyed Ben Grimm, Korg is definitely a creative reuse for this rocky mold! The rocky texture on the body looks outstanding, and the paint wash gives the figure excellent depth and shading.

The Korg Marvel Infinite Series 3 3/4″ figure has an all-new head, and it is as ludicrously silly–in a good way–as you would expect from an alien character that’s over half a century old. Korg looks like a rock-monster breeders with a Conehead–and I love it! Fantastic head sculpt.

Korg also comes wearing an all-new overlay piece of apparel, which consists of shoulder pads, a loincloth, and some crossed straps. Each component is nicely-sculpted, and I especially like the little scratches on the shoulder pads. As far as extra sculpted costume add-ons go, these are pretty slick.

And if you want to build yourself a whole army of classic Rock Men to fight Thor, you can just cut the overlay off of Korg and army-build to your heart’s content! (There may be a way to remove the extra apparel without cutting/ruining it, but I can’t find it.)

Finally, Korg has one true accessory: a gladiator arena battle shield. Considering that Korg’s official first named appearance was during “World War Hulk”, this makes plenty of sense. The shield has a clip to attach to either of Korg’s arms, and has lots of sculpting detail and nice added paint apps. It’s a good inclusion for a character that I can’t think of any other fitting accessory for.

The Wrong:

The biggest thing going against this figure is the fact that it is primarily a 5+ year-old mold. As nice as the sculpting on this Hasbro Thing body is, the articulation is, well… rocky.

There’s no double-jointed shoulders or knees, there’s no swivel calves or thighs, there’s no waist articulation, and there’s certainly no ankle rockers. Korg’s upper-body flexibility is “adequate”, but his lower body articulation is pretty poor. The engineering of this figure is badly dated, and the posing potential of Korg suffers as a result.

The worst part of the articulation scheme, however, is definitely the head. Korg’s head is on a swivel joint–and that’s it. He looks ridiculous with his head tilted diagonally in any direction.

In addition, the clip on Korg’s shield quickly weakened, and after holding it for a few days, the clip is already so weak that it falls off randomly whenever I move the action figure. Considering that the shield gives the Hasbro Korg figure its best dynamic posing potential, this is a big problem.

Overall: I had actually intended to give the Marvel Infinite Series Korg figure a below-average rating, but I warmed up to the toy while I was taking photos of it and writing this review. The articulation scheme on Korg is absolutely dated and sub-par (with the head articulation being particularly dreadful), but the rocky alien body mold and new head sculpt look great. The gladiator shield and apparel overlay are worthwhile additions, and while this figure isn’t perfect, it’s almost unthinkable that a better Korg action figure will ever be made.

GRADE: B-