There’s no doubt that Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men comic books run was a watershed moment for the merry mutants, and John Cassaday’s costume designs for the x-Men have had enduring popularity as a result. So even though Toybiz released a very nice Astonishing Wolverine in 2005, it’s no shocker to see Hasbro upgrading that iteration of Logan in the 85th Anniversary Marvel Legends series during Wolverine’s own 50th anniversary. The 2024 Marvel Legends Astonishing X-Men Wolverine figure is starting to ship now—is this the ultimate release of this version?

I want to get my minor gripes and nitpicks out of the way here quickly, because there’s a huge amount of good here and I want to focus upon that. First up, I’m of the opinion that the Astonishing X-Men Wolverine costume has a blue belt strap and blue on his mask—that’s what is commonly seen inside the actual comics (not that one iconic piece of art where they’re black), and that’s what I would prefer this toy reflect.

Also, I agree with those who say that it would have been awesome to get a third, neutral-faced masked head with this Wolverine. It’s not a dealbreaker for me because the pair of heads we do get are outstanding, but I don’t doubt we’ll see that third portrait option released down the road.

Now, let’s turn the magnifying glass to what we are actually getting here: a stupendous Wolverine action figure. As part of the Marvel 85th Anniversary Series Legends line, he comes window boxed like the rest of the line, and with no Build-A-Figure piece.

But even though this Astonishing Logan still sports the same $24.99 MSRP as Build-A-Figure wave releases, I don’t feel ripped off in the slightest here. Everything about this figure feels premium, particularly the elaborate modern articulation extensive amount of new tooling used here.

The proportions on this figure all look absolutely perfect, and he is suitably scaled to be a shorter stature than his teammates. Here’s to hoping we get new Astonishing X-Men costume figures for Colossus, Beast and Kitty Pryde in the not too distant future.

The belt is an add-on piece that’s wonderfully tight and an ideal fit, and every paint line is neat and even. Hasbro’s quality here is just so, so good.

85th Anniversary Wolverine has the best-looking modern super-articulation scheme that I’ve ever seen for him from Hasbro. He’s pin-free, which is a monumental upgrade for the aesthetic of Logan’s bare arms, and the pin-less double-jointed knees look great as well.

The two joints on the upper body torso give an amazing range of motion. The butterfly shoulders with swiveling shoulder pads also really deluxe and well-executed for wide attack poses. The now-standard ankle rockers on the feet are as essential and helpful as ever as well. Everything I want articulation-wise for a 6” Wolverine action figure is here.

On the accessories front, we get 5 items that are all valuable: an extra head, a pair of fists, a pointing hand and a splayed hand.

The angry teeth-gritted head is one of my favorite Wolverine figure portraits ever, and is long overdue. It’s a great alternative to the wonderfully sculpted unmasked Logan head.

Meanwhile, the four extra hands really let you change things up so that Wolverine isn’t limited to just dual claw-wielding hand poses. The pointing gesture hand is my favorite, as it adds lots of personality and facilitates poses of Logan taunting in adversaries. From top to bottom, Hasbro has really hit a home run with this release.

Overall: Barring my silly nitpicks about wanting blue detailing in a few places that are black and wishing for an additional neutral masked head, it’s hard to find fault with this figure. The size and proportions are spot on, both portraits we do get are tremendous and the seamless super-articulation is exemplary. Hasbro can easily remix this figure with the changes I’d still like and sell it to me again, but what they’re already giving us here is an essentially perfect figure and one of the best Marvel Legends of 2024.

GRADE: A+