The first time I saw Hellverine, I thought it was yet another half-assed entry in the continuing modern trend of mash-up characters. After reading Benjamin Percy’s comics about the Wolverine X Ghost Rider character, I was fully sold and ready for a toy. Luckily, I didn’t need to wait long: the Hasbro Marvel Legends Hellverine figure is now starting to ship as part of the Strange Tales Blackheart Series! Here’s my review of the first toy ever of the Weapon of Vengeance…

Wild mash-ups of characters like Masters of the Universe crossed with the Ninja Turtles or Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are absolutely not for me, and I generally feel similarly about superhero mashups. But only a Sith deals in absolutes, and there are exceptions to most rules. For me, one of those guilty pleasures is the Benjamin Percy-created Wolverine x Ghost Rider mashup, Hellverine!

Originally born of Mephisto, the demon Bagra-Ghul ended up possessing Wolverine when Logan and Ghost Rider teamed up to pursue the demon. Bagar-Ghul would eventually transfer to Wolverine’s dead son, Daken, who will be getting an ongoing comic book series starting this December.

But before those adventures begin, the inaugural Hellverine has now received his inaugural action figure, care of Hasbro! Let’s have a look…

For what I assume are PC reasons, Hasbro is referring to Hellverine as “Weapon of Vengeance” on the box. This is an online and specialty store exclusive release, but I guess Hasbro didn’t want a slightly spicy word like “Hell” attached to this figure anyway (even though “Daimon Hellstrom” is also in this same Strange Tales wave). The box is the new style window box, which consume a bit less resource-wise and take up less space. These can be opened at the bottom to slide out the figure tray, unlike the old boxes that easily opened at the sides.

Although Hellverine (no, I will not refer to him as “Weapon of Vengeance” again in this review) is technically part of the Blackheart Build-A-Figure series, he’s unfortunately the one character in the set without a Blackheart BAF piece. I imagine I’m not alone in being perturbed I’ll have to buy a Brother Voodoo figure for a 3rd time to build the essential Blackheart, alas.The Hellverine figure itself is basic, utilizing now-obsolete pinned arms and legs. The visible pins are ugly and apparent, and I may need to transfer the head and hands from this figure to a more modern Logan in order to be satisfied. Hasbro did a real disservice here using the outdated limbs for this character.

The big selling points here are the new flaming claws and flame effect adamantium skull head. I think these are a ton of fun, especially the hellfire claws. The color gradient on these is so killer.

Articulation-wise, we’ve got standard super-articulation, including ball-jointed head and hips, ball-hinge shoulders with awesome butterfly swivels, ab crunch, swivel waist/biceps/thighs/boots, double-hinged knees and elbows, swivel-hinge wrists and hinged feet with rockers.

Ab crunches are falling out of fashion, which (combined with the visible pins) makes this figure feel a mite antiquated.

There’s also a pair of fists without claws included as the default hands, but let’s be real here—nobody is gonna display those claw-less hands on their Hellverine toy.Overall: As much as I dig this Marvel Legends Hellverine figure, I have to ding the score a bit for the couple outdated points of articulation. That said, the hellfire skull and claws are hella fun, and who knows when or if we’ll see an update to this design (or a Daken version) in toy form. If you like this character at all from the recent Benjamin Percy comic books, this 6” figure gets a huge (and biased) recommendation from me. It won’t make my list of best Marvel Legends figures of 2024, but I love it nonetheless.

GRADE: B