While the upcoming MCU movie this fall may be called “Thor Ragnarok”, the characters everyone is interested in talking about are Hela, Hulk, Loki and Valkyrie, with the titular character nowhere to be found. So it’s not a big surprise that, even in his own 6″ figure series, the Marvel Legends Gladiator Thor figure is readily available for MSRP and easy as pie to find online. But while he’s not exactly a hot commodity, it turns out that this 6″ Gladiator Thor Ragnarok figure is one of best figures in the wave…

The Right:

Poor Thor! Upstaged ever in his own movie franchise. First, nobody wanted to talk about anything in Thor The Dark World except the return of Tom Hiddleston Loki, and now the God of Thunder is eclipsed by practically the whole cast of main characters in Ragnarok.

But while Thor himself may not be the most-loved character in his own movies, he’s still getting plenty of love from Hasbro–including this lovingly-crafted Marvel Legends Gladiator Thor figure that’s packed at two-per-case in the Ragnarok series.

While the body here is going to be shared with a future Target exclusive, for the moment I believe it’s a 100% new unique sculpt. And as such, Hasbro went all-out with lots of sculpting details on the costume, including seams, wrinkles, pockets and so forth. This gladiator attire isn’t really a classic look for Thor, but it is well-designed and likely to be popular for pairing off against the Gladiator Hulk Build-A-Figure I reviewed earlier this week.

Although the head sculpt on this figure isn’t the spitting image of Chris Hemsworth that we get from Hot Toys or anything (nor should anyone expect it to be), I can actually see some Chris Hemsworth likeness in the portrait. Compared to most Hasbro MCU heads, this is a huge winner.

Whereas the Ragnarok Loki Legends figure that I reviewed earlier in the month had major issues with getting the rubbery pegs on his cap to stay attached, there’s no problem like that for Ragnarok Thor. His cape attaches firmly at his shoulder and hip, and I’ve had zero incidents where it fell off accidentally.

With any kind of action figure wearing armor, I worry that the articulation scheme is going to end up paying the price for the aesthetic of the armor. But in the case of the 6″ Gladiator Thor Legends figure, the armor ends up not being a real problem at all.

Thor’s arms and legs have a full range of motion, with his soft skirt only getting in the way a tiny amount. Meanwhile, the armor on his shoulder and leg don’t inhibit anything, so he has full use of his double-hinged knees and elbows. Ankle rockers are present, as are the ab crunch and ever-popular swivel biceps/thighs/waist.

Other than perhaps swivel boots/calves, there’s not a point of articulation I’d want that isn’t covered here.

In case you don’t like Gladiator Thor’s right leg armor for some reason, it can easily be snapped on or off. I think it adds color and looks quite cool, and since the Target exclusive Thor coming soon doesn’t come with this armor piece, I’m leaving it on this particular Thunder God.

In addition to his Gladiator Hulk BAF piece, the Gladiator Thor Marvel Legends figure includes two additional accessories: twin swords for him to wield in the arena.

I’ll be complaining about the plastic quality of these swords shortly, but I do really like the sculpting details on the swords and the fact that Hasbro painted the hilts instead of giving us unfinished-looking one-color weapons (such as the trident poor Mattel Justice League Aquaman comes with).

The Wrong:

I expected my main complaint with this figure to be that “it’s boring”, but that turned out to be a fallacy–this Marvel Legends Ragnarok Thor action figure has been well thought-out all-around and is actually much more fun to pose and play with than I had expected.

What lets this figure down, however, is some of the plastic quality. I know, I know–I’m starting to sound like a broke record here, but there are just too many occurrences where poor plastic has led to issues in the Marvel Legends toy line in 2017.

Thankfully, the rubbery plastic is only present in a few places on Thor: his helmet, his swords, and his knee joints. But while his swords warp easily (I managed to heat and straighten one–the other won’t stay straight no matter what I do) and getting his helmet’s prongs to stay straight is annoying, it’s nowhere near as disappointing as Hulk’s flaccid hammer or Loki’s nearly unattachable cape. The bad plastic is a hindrance, but not a deal breaker.

The only other thing I’d like to be different about this figure is the lack of an interchangeable head. I know we’re getting unhelmeted Thor in the Target exclusive Valkyrie two-pack this fall, but if you want Thor with face paint and no helmet, you’re out of luck. A minor gripe, but something I would have liked.

Overall: While he’s far from being the most hyped figure in the Thor Ragnarok Legends series, the Hasbro Gladiator Thor 6″ figure is actually a very solidly-executed figure with great sculpting, paint deco and articulation. I’m annoyed by the rubbery plastic on the helmet, swords and knee joints, but otherwise this is a fantastic movie figure. With better plastic and an interchangeable head, this would be an ‘A+’. Excellent work by Hasbro.

GRADE: A-