Marvel Legends San Diego Comic-Con exclusive sets are famous for bringing us some off-the-wall characters that we’d likely never see at mass retail, and I think that’s epitomized by the subject of today’s review: Marvel Legends Dreadknight! While Dreadknight is actually selling for surprisingly cheap on the aftermarket, he surpasses the Enchantress as my favorite figure in the con exclusive set this year…

The Right:

“Freaking DREADKNIGHT!!” Those were my words upon seeing the figures Hasbro selected for the SDCC Marvel Legends The Raft set–and a fair indicator for my enthusiasm for this particular figure.

While he may not be getting nearly the hype that the Marvel Legends Enchantress figure I reviewed earlier in the week is, this is easily the figure I’m most excited about.

We’ve reached the point where D-Listers are the new never-before-done A-Listers in th Marvel Legends 6″ figures line, and I for one am thrilled with the depth and breadth of character variety that Hasbro is aspiring to. Wonderful choice, Hasbro–mad props.

Of course, excellent character selection would be meaningless if the Dreadknight figure itself sucked. Luckily, that’s the farthest thing from the case here. The Marvel Legends Dreadknight figure isn’t merely “good”–it’s outstanding.

While the only part of the action figure itself that’s actually new is the head, the mold choices (primarily from the Hobgoblin figure) look so spot-on that you’d think they were created specifically with Dreadknight in mind (which I sincerely doubt).

The textured “chainmail” armor on Dreadknight’s arms and legs are real highlights of the figure both sculpting-wise and paint-wise. A shiny, almost metallic blue with a dark wash over it was chosen for these limbs, and it looks marvelous.

The shiny blue of Dreadknight is nicely complemented by the matte silver of his winged helmet and the matte purple of the gloves, boots and tunic. The darker belt and cape being the whole figure together and make this ridiculous villain a real eye-pleaser.

On the articulation front, seeing as how the Dreadknight is a character that Hasbro will only ever produce one version of, you’d hope that his articulation scheme would be strong. And it is strong–virtually perfect, in fact!

Marvel Legends Dread Knight features a ball-hinge neck, both an upper torso ab crunch and swivel waist, double-jointed elbows and knees, swivel boots, thighs and biceps, ball-jointed hips, ball-hinge shoulders and wrists, and hinged ankles with ankle rockers. Basically, the flexibility on this figure is supreme!

As is often the case with caped figures, I feared 6″ Dreadknight’s cape would limit his poseability. But surprise–the cape is short enough that it doesn’t get in the way of crouching poses and light enough that it doesn’t make Dreadknight back-heavy! And I love having both waist and upper torso articulation.

The Dreadknight Marvel Legends figure comes with two weapons, and both are great. The first is a medieval-looking sword that’s not a new mold, but looks good enough in Dreadknight’s hands that you won’t mind. The sword slides snugly into the tiny sheath on Dreadknight’s belt.

The other accessory included here is a huge lance that’s longer than the figure itself is tall! The six-inch plus lance looks familiar to me, but I can’t recall ever getting it with a Marvel Legends figure before. Anyone remember this piece from elsewhere?

The handle of the lance can be tightly grasped either one-handed or two-handed, and both the lane and sword have a nifty black wash on them so that they look worn and not shiny and new.

Dreadknight’s cape fits tightly, but is removable if you want to pose him battle-ready without it, and it’s a nice visual alternative if you want the chainmail to really pop.

The Wrong:

Usually, I can find some quality-control issue on a Hasbro action figure to nitpick, if nothing else, but it turns out in this case that all of the joints are nice and tight and none of the paint applications are anything but perfect.

I’d like to find something about this Dreadknight Marvel Legends figure to complain about–because that’s how I roll–but in this instance, Hasbro has got me beat. I commend you, gentlemen.

Overall: As I said earlier, Dreadknight is the kind of character that Hasbro is only going to do once ever as a six-inch figure–and Hasbro absolutely did right by him. From the mold selection to the exquisite paint deco choices to the superb weapons and working sheath, everything about this Marvel Legends Dreadknight figure is perfection. This is the character I was most excited about in the SDCC 2016 Exclusive The Raft set, and I’m not disappointed in the slightest. In fact, I couldn’t be more impressed. Highly recommended.

GRADE: A+