Thor Love and Thunder premieres in movie theaters next week, so I need to pick up the pace with the second half of my reviews for the corresponding Marvel Legends series that’s available now. Next up is the second Guardians of the Galaxy representative in the wave—the first Marvel Legends Star-Lord figure in half a decade! But those expecting a superior iteration to what’s come before may be disappointed…

The Teen Groot in this same Thor Love and Thunder movie wave was a massive improvement over the prior release, so I was hoping Hasbro’s newest Peter Quill would be similarly improved.

Sadly, while Hasbro has added a lot that’s new here, this figure is very much one step forward and one step back. It’s not bad, exactly, but neither would I consider it a genuine victory.

First and most importantly to many fans will be the new head sculpt. At first side glance, this is a phenomenal likeness of Chris Pratt on a whole other level from what we’ve seen before.

But when you rotate this figure and peer at the portrait head-on, the likeness is almost fully lost and I’d never be able to tell it’s Pratt. Very disappointing, considering some of the great likenesses Hasbro has put out over the past few years.

At first look in my unboxing video, I blundered and legit thought the long jacket was a reuse from the old figure. Of course, I’m also largely blind. That’s my defense and I’m sticking to it. Regardless, the new jacket looks nice and has lots of nifty paint and sculpting details on it. Hasbro probably could have actually reused old tooling here in a pinch, but I appreciate that they didn’t (even if I didn’t realize such right away).

What it definitely reused, though, are the legs and Element Guns accessories. The legs still have glaring unsightly pins in them that can’t be fully hidden by the coat, so they really stand out and look bad in contrast to Star-Lord’s fresh pin-less arms.

The Element Guns recycle the old tooling from a past version, but they’re missing paint deco details they used to have. Given how Marvel Legends prices have escalated since the last time these guns were packed in, any downgrades at all are fully unwelcomed by me.

The only other accessory included is the Thor 4 Korg Build-A-Figure left arm. I’ll review the Korg BAF once I have all the parts, but it’s looking good so far. The complete omission of any kind of Star-Lord helmet or helmeted head is a shock, and is unfortunate since the Chris Pratt head sculpt is not the greatest.

The pin-less arms and overlay vest are new, however, and both seem pretty great. The vest especially had loads of nice detailing all over it, and looks way cooler than the T-shirts on the GOTG Vol. 2 era releases. Looking forward to seeing more of Quill in the movie to get a better idea of precisely how accurate these new parts are, but they seem to pass muster.

The articulation is basically what you’d expect from a retooled action figure, although the overlay vest piece does fully ruin the upper torso ab crunch joint. The complete articulation scheme includes:

• Ball-Hinge Head and Shoulders
• Ball-Jointed Waist and Hips
• Double-Hinge Knees (Pinned) and Elbows (Pin-free)
• Swivel-Hinge Wrists
• Swivel Biceps and Thighs
• Hinged Boots with Ankle Rockers

The legs are semi-restricted by the jacket, but they can be rotated out a bit to allow for some dynamic posing. The legs are intact to allow the Element Guns to be attached as well. You won’t get amazing action poses out of this figure, but you’ll get some.

Overall: this is a very middle-of-the-road release that does equal amounts right and wrong, so I think an average grade is earned here. The new pin-less arms and coat are nice, and the Chris Pratt likeness is a winner from a profile perspective. That said, the reused old pinned legs are awkward, the deco on the guns is a downgrade from previous releases, there’s no Star-Lord helmet at all, and the head-on Pratt likeness is unrecognizable. This is an “okay” release by Hasbro, but I really hope we get a much-improved version next year for GOTG Vol. 3.

GRADE: C-