I think it’s a pretty good testament to how wildly successfully the Marvel Legends 6″ line has been the past few years–and how much Hasbro has been spoiling us–that the Shocker has actually risen to the top of many fans’ wish lists. He’s arriving a bit later than the summer date we all expected, but the Marvel Legends Shocker figure has been selling out online constantly for almost two weeks now! But I’m just not as excited about this figure as I wanted to be…

The Right:

After turning up on leaked lists of UPC codes in early 2016 and being anticipated for the summer wave, the Spider-Man Legends Shocker figure is now arriving fashionably late one series after we all thought to close out this year and ring in the next!

Herman Schultz is among my favorite C-List Spider-Man villains, so I’d been looking forward to his first proper Hasbro Marvel Legends 6″ figure for quite a while. But is he up to snuff? Let’s take a look…

Many fans were instantly disappointed when they saw the prototype for this figure, as it’s not a classic costume Shocker–it’s based off his modern look from Marvel NOW!

I think there are definitely some design choices Hasbro could have made that would have made classic fans a little bit happier while still making this a modern version of the character (and I will talk about them shortly), but for what it is, this is a great toy of a costume that’s not quite iconic.

The single best-looking thing about this action figure is the Shocker’s vibro-shock gauntlets. Put simply: they look awesome. The gunmetal grey paint used on them combined with the texture for some really visually-compelling details. These are easily the most eye-grabbing aspect of this figure.

The paint on the rest of the figure is pretty well-done as well. The quilt-like black lines on the yellow part of his costume aren’t quite perfect (which would be really hard in this instance), but they are nearly applied and look good overall.

The body choice for Shocker was a smart decision as well. Shocker doesn’t look like a bodybuilder (nor should he), but he’s also not super thin and lanky. His proportions look just right to me.

Marvel Legends 2017 Shocker doesn’t come with any alternate hands, so he’s stuck with punching or blasting folks. That’s the way it should be, though–it’s not like Shocker should be karate chopping heroes anyway.

Besides the Sandman Build-A-Figure leg piece, Shocker has two accessories: matching energy effect attachments. Now, I’ll be complaining about these accessories momentarily, but I do want to commend Hasbro on including them at all–Shocker’s abilities aren’t demonstrative without effects pieces, so I’m glad Hasbro gave us something to simulate them.

And for the articulation aficionados, Shocker is about what you’d expect from Hasbro Marvel Legends in 2016: very good. We’ve got ball-hinge head/shoulders/wrists; ab crunch; swivel waist/biceps/thighs/boots; double-jointed knees and elbows; ball hips and hinged ankles with rockers. All of that articulation is perfectly suitable except for one part, which I’ll discuss in…

The Wrong:

Shocker is one of my absolute favorite lovable loser villains, so it breaks my heart to do so, but I’m going to have to pick on him a little bit now.

Even before I looked closely at the photos of Marvel Legends Shocker I posted when he was revealed at New York Comic Con 2016, plenty of readers were already analyzing them and griping about the asymmetrical eyes. I heard many say that the figure reused Deadpool’s head mold, but it’s actually completely different from Deadpool’s.

The goofy squinty eye look is directly pulled from Shocker’s comedic demeanor in the “Superior Foes of Spider-Man” comic book that this figure is based off of, but it turns out few collectors seem to like the non-matching eyes on this character.

Also because of the fact that this figure is basically specifically off the Superior Foes Shocker design, there’s no belt included. I kind of think Hasbro should have included one anyway as a removable overlay, as the Shocker really does like weird without it.

I’m also not wild about the yellow concentric circle effects pieces that are the figure’s only true accessories. While the translucent yellow is cool, the cosmic energy circles just don’t make sense or seem right on Shocker (on top of the fact that they’re wobbly and loose when attached to his wrists).

Finally, I hate the style of ankle articulation Shocker has. While ankle rockers are my copilot, hinged ankles with no swivel or ball-joint are a pain to pose with, ankle rockers or no. I should never have to swivel an entire boot to reposition my figure’s foot. I dearly hope this does not become the norm.

Overall: While I really wanted this to be the ultimate, definitive Shocker Marvel Legends six inch figure, it falls short of that wish. The lack of a removable belt means this can’t work as a makeshift classic Shocker, the ankle joints really bug me, the effects pieces aren’t really appropriate for the character, and a lot of fans hate the squinty eye with a passion. This is a solid “Superior Foes of Spider-Man” Shocker figure, but I think it’s going to leave many fans still hoping for a new classic Shocker down the road.

GRADE: B-