After a brief recession to enjoy this bounty of new Marvel Legends 2013 figures that Hasbro has bequeathed upon us, I’m fully recharged and ready to review the second half of Marvel Legends Wave 5! This time, it’s the penultimate member of the Wrecking Crew–its leader and most famous member–Marvel Legends The Wrecker!

The Right:

Before I begin, let me pause for a second and commend Hasbro on the feat that we are seeing here: we are now just one figure away from a completed lineup of a 6″ Marvel Legends The Wrecking Crew team. That is way cool and something I thought impossible just two years ago, and absolutely worthy of some praise. Bravo, Hasbro.

While The Wrecker shares much of the same tooling as the 2012 Marvel Legends Thunderball and Piledriver figure, he also features some all-new pieces and even some improvements. The Marvel Legends The Wrecker action figure features an all-new mold upper torso, along with an all-new head and belt.

The texture on the new collared upper body mold that The Wrecker uses is fantastic, and clearly sets The Wrecker apart from his previously-released teammates. The paint wash on the Wrecker–particularly the blue wash on the purple portions of his body–goes a long way to bringing out the detail and depth of the sculpt.

The angry, growling head sculpt on the Wrecker Marvel Legends action figure looks totally authentic to the character’s appearance in the comic books, and is a great contrast to the cockiness of the Marvel Legends Piledriver figure and the sneer of the Marvel Legends Thunderball figure.

The one big thing that cheesed me off about last year’s Marvel Legends Wrecking Crew variants was how loose and floppy the belts on both figures were. Well, that’s not as issue with The Wrecker figure–at all. The Wrecker’s all-new belt is a perfect fit, which locks into place and fits super snugly at his waist, just the way it should. This may sound like a minor thing, but it’s actually a major improvement that greatly enhances my appreciation of the Marvel Legends 2013 Series 2 Wrecker.

Of course, what’s The Wrecker without his legendary enchanted crowbar? Hasbro did a knockout job with the Wrecker’s crowbar, giving us a new sculpt with lots of wear and tear sculpted into it, along with some well-done paint deco. This is a crucial accessory for the Marvel Legends Wrecker figure, and Hasbro pulled it off without a hitch.

Despite the fact that The Wrecker is easily the largest and heaviest figure in 2013 Marvel Legends Series 2, he also comes with the most accessories of any of the new figures. Not only does he come with his trademark crowbar, but we also get the best and most important of the Marvel Legends Rocket Raccoon Build-A-Figure parts with The Wrecker figure: Rocket Raccoon’s head and Ray Gun! Both are very nice pieces that I discussed at length in my Marvel Legends Rocket Raccoon review last week, and should ensure that The Wrecker never warms a retail store shelf.

The Wrong:

The Wrecker is a really terrific action figure, but he does have a few vices that I want to bring up regarding his articulation scheme. While the Marvel Legends The Wrecker figure does have a sort of ankle rocker articulation, the joint isn’t nearly as flexible or effective as your usual ankle rockers. Given the Wrecker figure’s height and mass, the sub-par ankle articulation causes problems getting The Wrecker Marvel Legends figure standing stably in some poses.

In addition to the ankle articulation, I’m disappointed in the lack of any kind of wrist articulation on The Wrecker. This didn’t really bother me on Piledriver (as he doesn’t wield any weapons), but it can make it unnecessarily difficult to get The Wrecker’s arm into good crowbar-thrashing poses without a bit more hand articulation. The swivel forearm is helpful, but swivel or ball-jointed wrists would have been much appreciated. Otherwise, the articulation on the Marvel Legends Wrecker is terrific.

Finally, I utterly hate that Hasbro didn’t find a way to get the Marvel Legends Bulldozer Wrecking Crew variant figure into the same case assortment as The Wrecker. Did we really need to have a repacked Captain America and a Thunderbolts Punisher in the Marvel Legends Wave 5 cases instead?! (Don’t answer that.) The demise of the 6″ Marvel Legends as a standalone line has left a big question mark hanging over the Marvel Legends Bulldozer variant figure’s head, and who knows when we’re going to be able to complete our Marvel Legends The Wrecking Crew teams now.

“Where Can I Buy It?!”

I got my Marvel Legends Wrecker figure as part of the case of Marvel Legends 2013 Series 2 I purchased from BigBadToyStore. Thus far Marvel Legends Wave 5 has only turned up in online stores, and most of those stores are not selling The Wrecker individually (as he’s only packed at one-per-case). So if you’re looking to purchase The Wrecker as an individual, your best bet right now is to pick up The Wrecker on ebay, where he’s plentiful right now.

Overall: I loved the Piledriver and Thunderball figures that I reviewed from last year’s Marvel Legends Wave 2, so it’s no shocked that I’m hugely satisfied with the Wrecker figure as well. While the paint deco on The Wrecker isn’t quite as creative as the work done on the Marvel Legends Black Panther, and The Wrecker isn’t as requested as the Jim Lee Jean Grey Marvel Legends figure, he still ends up being the most overall solid and well-done figure in the entire series. Whether you’re building the whole Wrecking Crew or just want a super villain for Thor to pound on, the Marvel Legends Wave 5 Wrecker figure is a must have. Now, if we can just get Hasbro to release that pesky Bulldozer figure to complete the team…

GRADE: A