Marvel Legends 2024 has been unusually light on Build-A-Figure waves thus far this year, but Hasbro is remedying that in a surprising way with a wholly unexpected mixed wave of 6” figures announced via Hasbro Pulse livestream yesterday: the highly eclectic Marvel Legends Zabu Build-A-Figure series featuring 90s Cable, Wolfsbane, Ka-Zar, Ikaris and more is now up for order!

Individual Figure Pre-Order Links —

Cable ► EE ► Amazon

Wolfsbane ► EE ► Amazon

Superior Iron Man ► EE ► Amazon

Black Winter Thor ► EE ► Amazon

Ka-Zar ► EE ► Amazon

Red Widow ► EE ► Amazon

Ikaris ► EE ► Amazon

If ever there was a bizarre mixture of characters in the modern Marvel Legends lineups that reminded me of the days of Toybiz old, this latest wild assortment unveiled by Hasbro is definitely it.

Bringing together characters from the 90s X-books, the Eternals comics, Ka-Zar and modern Avengers books, we’ve got the Zabu Marvel Legends series, featuring the huge sabretooth cat as its Build-A-Figure.

I loved my 5” scale Toybiz Zabu figure three decades ago, but it was time for a genuine updated Marvel Legends super-articulated upgrade, improving upon the 2008 SDCC box set iteration. The Zabu BAF looks terrific, and it’ll be a real shame if this wave ends up a bust and not many collectors build Zabu.

If there’s a true star of this wave as far as collector sales will go, it’s unquestionably the new Marvel Legends Cable. If you were a fan of Cable’s solo book in the mid 90s or his appearance in the Marvel vs Capcom 2 video game, this is the Cable Legends figure for you.

This ML Cable action figure strikes the right nostalgic chord for me, but I worry that some aspects of its design are a bit wonky. I’m really worried those leg straps are going to slide down uncontrollably (a la Warlock Series Cyclops), and the mixture of one pinned and one pin-less arm is bizarre. I’m definitely buying this figure, but I feel a bit hesitance doing so.

Who I’ll have zero hesitancy buying, though, is the team-completing Marvel Legends Wolfsbane figure I’ve been waiting for. It’s been more a question of when than if we’d see 90s X-Factor Wolfsbane and X-Force Feral to complete those teams, and I’ll be shocked if we don’t see Feral next year now.

Wolfsbane comes with pin-less arms and legs and also the biggest piece of the Zabu Build-A-Tiger(its main body piece). Rahne’s figure here is pretty basic with just fists as accessories
, and that’s fine—there’s really nothing else I can think of as an accessory that I’d want.

The first-ever mass release Marvel Legends Ka-Zar figure (one also came with the aforementioned Zabu mentioned above) makes an appearance in this wave, as is sort of obligatory to have a Zabu BAF make sense. I think we’ll get a Marvel Legends Shanna of some sort to complete the Savage Land trio eventually, though perhaps dressed less risqué than many fans would prefer.

Ka-Zar is a tough character design to make a thrilling toy of, but the pin-less design and butterfly shoulder swivels are a big selling point to me. The spear, knife and non-pretty boy portrait are all also nicely executed. I like this figure a lot, though I’ve heard little buzz about it.

Superior Iron Man is a modern Iron Man armor permutation that’s long overdue, but not exactly perfectly rendered here by Hasbro. While the armor is silver in the comic books, Marvel Legends Superior Iron Man is bafflingly a pure white color. I could have seen and accepted a nice pearlescent white for the armor (maybe), but the straight white used just doesn’t look correct to me at all.

I like Arctic-themed figures more than the next guy, but I’ll likely be giving this villainous version of Tony Stark a pass. I don’t have to feel bad about doing so, though, as he’s the double-packed figure in the case assortment and the sole character in the wave sans a Zabu BAF piece.

Eternals the movie went down in flames as most MCU fans anticipated, and the characters were quickly shuffled off the board in the comic books as well to have some time to air off the stench of failure. But even so, we’re finally getting a comics based Eternal in a mass retail series with this Marvel Legends Ikaris figure.

Ikaris is probably the strongest name that the Eternals have to sell toys, and I’m glad to receive a long overdue six inch comic book figure of the most recognizable Eternal. Thumbs down on no cosmic energy-effect hands or eyes, though.

Black Winter in the form of a Dark Thor makes a surprise entrance in this series, as seen in the criminally underrated Thor Devourer King run by Donny Cates. That was a mind-blowing Thor story that I have no qualms about buying an action figure inspired by.

This largely reuses the Herald of Galactus Thor tooling from a couple years ago, but the cool blue skin, black costume and floating hair really differentiate Black Winter from that prior Thor. Fans of Donny Cates’ Thor comics—like me—are gonna love this “Dark Thor”. Hopefully there are enough collectors familiar with this run to make this toy a success.

Red Widow is easily the most obscure character in this wave, and seems almost inevitable to be discounted down the road if folks decide not to complete the whole Zabu Build-A-Figure tiger. The Marvel Legends Winter Guard roster expands again—this time with the cybernetic, super-soldier serum-enhanced sort-of-leader of the team.

Red Widow has injected herself with She-Hulk’s blood and even temporarily possessed some of the Phoenix’s power, which has made her a formidable opponent in the Marvel Comics universe. Even so, she’s a character largely known only to comic die-hards and is virtually unknown to mainstream fans. Marvel Legends Red Widow looks solid with her pinless body and slick Praetorian Guard-like color scheme. But it’s unclear that there’s a large potential customer base for this toy of her.

The Marvel legends Zabu Wave is now up for order. What figure(s) from this set (if any) will you be buying, Marvel collectors? Who’s planning to build the savage Zabu tiger?