While it was a virtual certainty that we’d see a Marvel Legends Black Widow movie series in 2020, I don’t think many folks would have placed money on the Build-A-Figure of the series being Gennady Gavrilov, the 8th Crimson Dynamo who debuted in the 2003 “Crimson Dynamo” limited series! The rationale for the Marvel Legends Crimson Dynamo BAF being included in the Black Widow wave was obviously “Russian”, which is a little bit of a tenuous connection. But does that make this a bad figure? Not at all…

The Right:

It’s been a long time (maybe years!) since I utilized my classic review format of “The Right”/“The Wrong”, but as I messed around with and photographed this figure, the clear dichotomy formed in my mind that made it easy to review him this way.

First off, Hasbro wisely used what relevant tooling already existed for this Marvel Legends BAF Crimson Dynamo—from the Iron Monger figure released years ago—and then paid out some big tooling bucks to make new parts to complete the figure.

This lands in “The Right” since Hasbro is basically paying out for unique tooling that will be very difficult to ever reuse (although those upper arms look like they could be swell for an oversized Age of Apocalypse Colossus). I like seeing that dedication to making their action figures—especially Build-A-Figures that won’t be cheap at all to complete—the best that they can be.

I don’t exactly have a rich history full of nostalgia for this or any version of Crimson Dynamo, but Hasbro must have done something right, because after spending some time with this figure I really love it and nixed my intended plans to sell him off. This figure is just plain fun to play with.

The bulky and somewhat clunky looking proportions are a nice contrast to the slick, streamlined Iron Man armies that we’ve gotten so frequently over the last few years. And rather than feeling light like a rotocast figure, there’s a lot of weight and heft to this figure so that he feels nice and sturdy and quality.

Some figures look rather bland from the rear view, but the back of the Crimson Dynamo Legends figure is actually pretty visually interesting. Your eye goes straight to the bright red thruster, but the whole back is actually filled with a wide variety of textures and sculpted details that most will never see since they’ll display him straight-forward.

The bottom of Crimson Dynamo’s feet also have some cool details (which you’ve already seen if you have the Iron Monger Build-A-Figure).

I like the head sculpt on this figure a ton, as it’s totally inhuman and reminds me enough of Soundwave from G1 Transformers to put a smile on my face. The bright red in the visor pops well, and the helmet of this armor is such a cool design.

The other visual aspects of this figure that really jump out at me are the red star on the chest and the translucent turquoise cylinders on the wrists. The turquoise is such a stark contrast from all the other colors on the figure that I’m instantly compelled by them. The leathery texture on the shoulder pads and gaskets on top of the right shoulder pad are also cool.

The BAF is also solid articulation-wise, although I’ll be complaining about some omissions shortly. The full articulation scheme includes:

• Ball-Hinge Head and Shoulders
• Swivel Biceps and Thighs
• Hinged Shoulder Pads and Elbows
• Ball-Jointed Upper Torso
• Swivel-Hinge Wrists
• Ball-Jointed Hips
• Double-Hinged Knees
• Ball-Hinge Feet with Rockers

The Wrong:

Into every life, a little rain must fall. And onto almost every action figure, there’s going to be some elements that are going to be in “The Wrong”. There’s a couple features of the Marvel Legends Crimson Dynamo figure that stand out to me as things I wish were done differently.

First, while I commend Hasbro for picking such perfectly-colored plastic to mold the parts for this toy in, they didn’t really go any further beyond the unpainted plastic for the vast majority of this figure.

Without at least a wash on huge portions of this Crimson Dynamo figure, it looks really plain and unfinished. Some of the textures on this figure are really nice, like shoulder pads—but without a wash the details are lost from a couple feet away.

Furthermore, the articulation could really use a bit more of an upgrade. Despite being double-jointed, the knees have a poor range of motion—and the single-jointed elbows even less than that.

While I appreciate the heft on this ML Crimson Dynamo, the weight actually works against it in one way because of the wiggly, loose feeling plastic used for the knee joints. Mine ended up falling over many times while I was photographing him because the knees were too loose and his top-heavy nature made him keel over.

Overall: No doubt about it, I have a ton of fun playing with and posing this Marvel Legends Crimson Dynamo Build-A-Figure—but he’s not perfect. The lack of paint wash on the maroon and silver parts of the body leaves him looking a tad unfinished, the plastic for the knee joints feel quite cheap, and the articulation set in the elbows, waist and knees is rather lacking and restrictive.

That said, the translucent turquoise cylinders on his wrists really pop, the head sculpt is great, the heft feels just right, the newly-tooled parts are great sculpts, and this Crimson Dynamo BAF is just plain fun to mess around with. I don’t think this is anywhere near the top of the best Hasbro Build-A-Figure efforts in the past few years, but I do dig this figure and give it a recommendation if you can get it for a good price.

GRADE: B-