Marvel Select has been on a bit of a hot streak over the last half year, delivering stellar releases such as Super Skrull, Red Hulk and Vision. Things have been a little slow on the X-front, but earlier this month DST released one of the biggest X-Men villains of all! The Marvel Select Apocalypse figure is now shipping out—will the fittest mutant survive my review?

Apocalypse is definitely in the upper tier of popular X-Men villains, but he’s never been able to quite break through to the top echelon of merch-getters like Magneto, Sabretooth and Juggernaut.

As such, it’s taken nearly two decades for the big A to catch up to the aforementioned rogues, but he’s finally got his own Marvel Select action figure by Diamond Select Toys! Does the inaugural En Sabah Nur Select manage to stand above the other most popular mutant villains?

When the prototype of this figure debuted last year, fans immediately decried the portrait, with many saying it outright ruined the figure as a whole.

As a final production action figure, the head sculpt doesn’t bother me as much, but I admit it’s not ideal. If you have a spare Hasbro Marvel Legends Apocalypse head around, you can pop it on the neck post here with a bit of heating (though I won’t do that in this review, as I don’t want to misrepresent this release or confuse those scrolling through quickly without reading). I review figures only as they come, and the head here is ultimately not a success, in my opinion.

For the $29.99 MSRP, the size on this DST Apocalypse figure is fantastic—a full 9” that towers over Hasbro’s Apocalypse figures (and even more over standard 6” figures like poor Longshot and Zombie Scarlet Witch in the photos). Apocalypse is as large and imposing as you’d hope, which isn’t a shock since larger figures are one of Diamond’s specialties.

MS Apocalypse includes a whopping five accessories, all of which alternate hands and weapon attachments. Fists and open hands are the most basic of options, but also always welcome and useful. Popping these hands on and off are pretty simple and easy.

The spiked ball l, drill and claw are all really distinctive and greatly change the aesthetic of the figure when attached, but the latter two are also more difficult to set up since they require popping off a whole Apocalypse forearm and not just a hand.

I didn’t have any breakages making the swaps, but I am wary of joints possibly coming loose or even breaking from frequent changes. In-hand, the plastic quality of this figure feels a lot more brittle than Hasbro counterparts.

Apocalypse’s signature metal coils/tubules plug into his forearms tightly and have the appropriate colors and sculpted details. They look nice, but are very rigid, which actually ends up making them one of the biggest low points of the figure as a whole.

The coils’ stiffness hugely inhibits the arm articulation, making it near-impossible to achieve much beyond the most basic of poses while they’re attached. And when disconnected, the tubes just hover there awkwardly, looking bizarre and out of place. If the coils had been made with just a bit more flexible plastic, this figure would improve dramatically overall.

The hip joints on my Apocalypse felt ever too slightly loose straight out of the box, whereas his elbows were so stuck that even after heating and moving them a few times, it feels like they want to rip each time I bend or straighten them. The ankle rockers work well enough, though the wobbly hips make A’s balance less stable than I’d like.

The complete articulation scheme is as follows:

—Ball Hinge Neck and Shoulders
—Ball Jointed Hips and Upper Torso
—Ball Hinge Knees and Elbows
—Swivel Hinge Wrists
— Hinged Feet with Rockers

It’s a more than workable amount of total articulation, although majority of the joints vacillate between either feeling too tight or too loose.

Overall: Marvel Select Apocalypse is a good figure and an overall solid value but isn’t quite up to the highest level of some other DST action figures. The large 9” size is greatly appreciated, but the head sculpt is a let-down as expected. The tubes that plug into Apocalypse’s arms aren’t flexible at all, and greatly inhibit posing potential (while also looking odd when not attached). For those who like to mod their figures, popping on a Hasbro ML head can greatly improve the appearance of this one. The swap-out weapon arms are super fun, but the plastic quality on the figure makes me worry too many swaps will eventually break or loosen something. An overall good toy of Apocalypse with some flaws and an okay substitute for those lacking a Legends Apocalypse.

GRADE: B-