Marvel Legends Titus Build-A-Figure Review Guardians of the Galaxy

The day that Guardians of the Galaxy fans have been waiting for for over two and a half year has arrived at last: the second-ever set of Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel Legends figures has now arrived! I received my GOTG Marvel Legends case I ordered from EE in the mail today, and while I had planning to start my reviews with one of the most hyped figures such as Angela or Yondu, I’m surprising even myself by kicking off with a review of a figure that exceeded my expectations: the Marvel Legends Titus Build-A-Figure!

Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel Legends Titus ReviewThe Right:

Disclaimer: Ordinarily, I absolutely loathe taking indoor Light Box photos for my reviews, as you can see photos of that sort from hundreds of other reviewers out there–and frankly, I just don’t have fun taking photos of that sort.

But ordinarily we also don’t have literally two feet of snow on the ground that I’m not willing to traipse through for natural setting photography, so please excuse the generic nature of most of the photos in this review.

Now then, on to the figure…

Back of Titus Marvel Legends GOTG Vol. 2 Build-A-FigureFew Marvel Legends figures being revealed over the course of the last half-decade have elicited the overall reaction of “WTF” that poor Titus got when he was revealed at SDCC 2016, and as such, there hasn’t been a whole lot of hype for the relatively unknown modern character.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Marvel Legends Titus Build A Figure Kills NovaBut while I’ll admit that I absolutely was not excited about the prospect of buying six other figures to assemble the Marvel Legends Titus Build-A-Figure, that certainly doesn’t make him a bad one. In fact, this Titus Marvel Legends figure is actually pretty great!

Marvel Legends Nova vs. Titus 6" Action FiguresFor those who don’t know him, Titus is as close to an “arch-enemy” as the modern Nova, Sam Alexander, has. He’s only appeared in a handful of comics (and cartoons), but thankfully Titus appeared in this month’s issue of Nova to make him a little more recognizable.

Marvel Legends Space Venom & Titus BAF Comparison PhotoAs you might be able to tell at a glance, the white cyborg Tony the Tiger wannabe is largely composed of reused pieces from last year’s Space Venom Build-A-Figure, which is very obvious when you look at his legs, feet and arms.

But while the molds for these parts may be recycled, they look “right” and make logical sense for this figure. As far as reused pieces go, this gets a thumbs up.

Marvel Legends Titus Figure Head Close-UpBut where this Titus BAF really shines is the new pieces: namely his head and hands. The head looks every bit as cool as you’d expect a killer cyborg anthropomorphic Bengal tiger head to look: nicely texured with lots of great detail and ferocity sculpted in. Love that cyborg eye!

Hasbro Marvel Legends Titus GOTG Build-A-FigureMeanwhile, Titus’s left hand is a fuzzy tiger hand flexed into an intimidating battle pose, and his right hand is a four barrel blaster cannon (because why the hell not?). This character design is absurd, but also incredibly toy-etic and hugely amusing to pose and play with.

Hasbro Marvel Legends GOTG Titus BAF ReviewAnd speaking of play value, let’s talk articulation: Titus features a ball-jointed head, upper torso ab crunch, ball-hinge shoulders/left hand, ball hips, swivel waist/biceps/thighs, hinge elbows, double-hinged knees and hinged ankles with ankle rockers.

Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy Titus ReviewThe lack of a swivel boot and articulation to rotate the cannon arm is a bit baffling, but otherwise Titus is a very flexible anthropomorphic tiger man.

Titus Hasbro Marvel Legends 6" FigureThe paint deco on Titus is mostly simple, but effective. While the organic tiger parts of the figure are beautifully painted–as is the metal cyborg arm–Titus’ costume seems a bit bland by comparison in its mate gold and navy blue. This is a flaw of the character design and not this toy, but it still brings down the visual appeal of what is otherwise an immensely compelling action figure.

Marvel Legends Titus Build A Figure Pieces UnassembledThe Wrong:

As cool as this toy may be, it’s of a character that maybe 1% of casual Marvel fans out there have ever even heard of. As the first wave of a series tends to be heavily-ordered and on shelves for most of the year, I’m not sure Titus was a good choice  to push what’s likely to be the highest-produced set of 2017.

As far as the figure itself goes, my only real disappointment is that Titus doesn’t have an articulated jaw. There’s only a couple pieces of new tooling on this figure to begin with, so having a tiger jaw that can open and close seems like a no-brainer.

Marvel Legends 2017 Titus Build A Figure ReviewOverall: This is a very fun toy of a very unknown character. I actually think that demand for this particular Build-A-Figure may go up a little bit as more folks get him and see how cool he is. While his body is mostly made up of Space Venom BAF parts, the original pieces (the cannon arm, tiger hand and cyborg tiger head) are all top-notch. This is an outstanding figure of a character that pretty much no one was asking for. Hasbro did a stellar job making the first-ever plastic representation of this character, with the only real drawbacks being Titus’s somewhat bland costume and low overall level of public recognition.

GRADE: B+

Comments

Marvel Legends Titus Build-A-Figure Review Guardians of the Galaxy — 14 Comments

    • YES! Whether or not I’ll have it posted before I leave for New York Toy Fair in two days is less certain!

  1. looks really good I have a complaint about marvel legends but not about this just on how my stores haven’t even gotten this years Spider-Man wave I’m not gonna get this wave till may

  2. I knew who the character was thanks to the GOTG cartoon, but even I went What? when he as revealed. Still look like a MOTU character to me.

      • I know, right! I’ve been praying for that $10, $11 price tag. But realistically I doubt we’ll see those mark downs on new series, at least not until next Christmas/Black Friday.

        • Good luck with that.
          Some of those figures are unlikely to EVER drop below MSRP, and will probably just go UP.
          Like Green Goblin, Symbiote Spider-Man, and Ms. Marvel.

  3. surprised you didn’t mention this. the whole upper torso, as well as the part between the knee and foot, is all new. basically the legs are reused and parts of the arms. is the cyborg arm all new? are he lines sculpted?

    • never mind, i thought you said the whole figure besides the head and hands was reused. i misread, my bad

  4. Stopped by my Walgreens today in hopes of finding this wave, and I wasn’t surprised to see the Marvel Legends display was still full of Namor and Punisher figures. Defeated, I walked over to the tooth care aisle and grabbed some toothpaste. As I walked toward the checkout, I looked over to see that within the 2 minutes it took me to pick toothpaste an employ had stocked most of this series where I had just seen the Namors and Punishers. Grabbed Vance Astro, will probably go back for Yondu sometime. Literally got first pick.

  5. Huge pass on Tony “the cyborg” Tiger. To think they do this over much more deserving characters such as Nimrod or Mr Hyde.