It’s been a quiet week for Marvel toy news, so time to dip into my huge cache of 2018 Marvel Legends figures that still need reviews! Having reviewed the most in-demand figure of the series first (the Thanos Build-A-Figure), it seemed appropriate to go for the guaranteed shelf-warmer of the series with my second review. The Marvel Legends King Cobra figure is readily available online for MSRP—but what he lacks in star power, he makes up for in being sheerly awesome!
The Right:
But to my utter amazement, my interest level in King Cobra went up an infinitesimal amount once I busted open the packaging for his new Marvel Legends 6” figure and discovered that it frankly kicks ass.
Did you know King Cobra got his powers when he was bitten by a radioactive cobra…? Yeah—this guy is wicked cool. Let’s start the review…
As they need to be, the head and cowl on the Avengers Legends King Cobra figure are both all-new sculpts. The sinister, teeth-baring expression on Cobra’s face oozes personality, and I appreciate that the cowl is an add-on piece that can be removed if you really want to (although I don’t—it looks terrific).
The ML King Cobra figure reuses the ever-popular “mail” arms and legs that we’ve seen on hits like Dreadknight and the Green Goblin previously. I wasn’t sure how much use Hasbro would get out of this tooling when we first saw it, but once it again it looks fantastic. The scale-like chain-mail arms and legs seem totally on-point and appropriate for this character.
If Hasbro ever decides to do 6” G.I. Joe figures, they’ll definitely be able to steal some of the bits from this figure to make a redesigned Serpentor. The all-new purple cape this guy is wearing just screams “Cobra”, and I love that Hasbro took the care to add tons of sculpted detailing on both the front and back of the cape. The thick horizontal bars on the inside look particularly fab.
As excellent as the mold used for this figure is, it’s the sublime paints Hasbro used that really brings King Cobra to life. The bright metallic green on the arms and legs pops like crazy, and complements the purple tones of the torso and cape smashingly.
The matte grey gauntlets and belt tie everything together. This is one pretty Marvel Legends Serpent Society figure (as weird a statement as that may be).
Articulation is integral to the success of this figure, as King Cobra’s primary super-power is being a double-jointed contortionist. I think this is a character that could have hugely benefited from butterfly swivel shoulder articulation, but alas, that’s the one bit of articulation I wanted that was left out of this mold.
That said, everything else you’d want is present: ball-hinge head and shoulders; ab crunch; swivel-hinge wrists; hinged ankles with rockers; ball-jointed hips; double-hinge knees and elbows; and swivel waist/biceps/thighs/boots. The level of flexibility on this figure isn’t perfect—but it’s close.
And while the 6” King Cobra figure doesn’t come with any weapons of his own, he does get the best Thanos BAF piece: the Infinity Gauntlet (with Thanos’ arm). Wonderful choice by Hasbro, as this is easily the most desirable bit of the Thanos Build-A-Figure and a part that many collectors will buy the Serpent Society leader just to acquire.
The Wrong:
Since King Cobra doesn’t get any weapons of his own, I would have at least liked some interchangeable hands. He’s a master of street fighting techniques (eat your heart out, Ryu), so some fists would have been nice to alternate with his clawing hands.
The metallic purple paint is also just a bit fragile on this guy—mine came with several distracting scratches on his chest right out of the box. Be careful when handling this figure, as it seems it can scratch easily.
I’ll be complaining a lot about add-on bits like belts and leg bands in upcoming Marvel Legends reviews, as I think many are WAY too loose on this year’s figures. King Cobra’s belt isn’t floppy to the ridiculous extent of poor X-Force X-23’s, but it is a hair too loose and can be hard to keep properly in place. A minor annoyance.
Likewise, as much as I love the cape on this figure, it still gets in the way of putting King Cobra into crouching positions and some other dynamic poses, as it’s just rigid enough to limit posing without causing the toy to fall over.
Overall: King Cobra was literally at the bottom of my list of most-anticipated Marvel Legends 2018 figures, but his figure ended up blowing away my expectations and being my surprise second-favorite entry in the Avengers Infinity War Marvel Legends Thanos series. His rigid cape gets in the way of some poses, there were a few paint scratches on mine, and I would have liked alternate hands—but those are minor complaints. Simply put, this is the best damn King Cobra action figure that will ever be made.
GRADE: A-
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Apparently, you have no idea what figures are shelf warming Dabid. All over the country (with some small pockets to the contrary) the “peg warmers” have been consistently the movie figs. Scores of MCU Thor’s ,Loki’s, Doc Strange’s, Karl Mordo’s, Black Panthers and Erik Killmonger’s. Know what we’re NOT seeing (consistently)? Black Bolt, Sub-Mariner, Invincible Iron Man, Aries, Young Thor, Lady Thor etc. All MARVEL figures. Not to mention the ML community has been clamoring for the Serpent Society for years. King Cobra isn’t gonna peg warm. I bet you believe the double packed Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly figs from wave 2 will sell like hotcakes while the Black Knight Will just sit huh?
It’s true that the double-packed movie figures are more accessible, but that’s purposeful—Hasbro wants main movie characters to be available for the masses, and we have to remember that the movie branding is a major selling-point to retailers.
That said, the demand for Serpent Society characters can’t be that high since Cottonmouth is still available for less than half-price two years later. Tombstone, Beetle, Death’s Head II, Sam Alexander, Enchantress, Darkhawk, Jackal, and Speed Demon are also falling off the pegs and going nowhere fast near me, and King Cobra is bound to be joining them soon enough. 😉
Forgive me, I failed to be clear. When I said “all I see”, I didn’t mean just my local stores. In the forums, the MCU vs Marvel debate is on fire, and there are loads of participants not only making the same claim, but are providing visual proof (taking pics of the pegs clearly showing your beloved actors clogging the shelves). It doesn’t matter if I see Majority MCU in my locality or you see majority Marvel in yours. What matters is what’s happening across the country and what I stated is being proven. None of the AoC lovers have provided any evidence supporting their side (other than those making baseless numerical claims like your boy below. Don’t worry, I’m gonna address him shortly). Yes of course there will be figs from both sides warming pegs. We only get “hot” characters every blue moon, but your beloved AoC while admittedly revitalized this line is now killing it. Once the actor lovers get their Chris Hemsworth/Evans and RDJ’s….THAT’S it!
You seem to be taking this very personally. It is true that generally the double-packed figure(s) in each wave tend to be more readily available. Having multiple, very similar looking versions of MCU characters released in rapid succession doesn’t help (Star-lord for example), nor does having visually unappealing characters like Baron Mordo.
At the same time, look at which figures are selling above retail on amazon: at this date, from the BP wave, BP and Nakia. From the Ragnarok wave, Hela and Ares. From the GotG vol 2 wave 1: Drax and Yondu. (skipping Homecoming wave and GotG vol 2 wave 2 as none of the figures are really above retail). So I don’t particularly see much evidence that MCU figs peg-warm at a higher rate than comic characters, aside from double-packed figs.
Reporting what you see in your local stores is anecdotal evidence, and the plural of anecdote is not data. I would suggest that what you see as “beloved actors clogging the shelves” is an effort to make sure that stores have the most recognizable heroes in stock for “casuals” such as parents buying their kid a toy. There is a reason there have been a million versions of Iron man, Cap, and Spider-man released. I’m sure given the choice, stores would rather have a few extra Thors/Star-lords on pegs vs a few extra Misty Knights/White Tigers.
I will concede that MCU-based 2-pack and 3-pack releases/exclusives have largely been a disaster, and that hasbro would be better served by making those strictly for comic-based figs (although those don’t always sell well either – see the vision/sam wilson cap/kate bishop 3 pack, or the hulk/ultron/white vision 3 pack)
The ML community is just a fraction of the people buying MLs 90% of people don’t care about King Cobra. So yes, it IS the Infinity Gauntlet that is selling him to most people.
90% eh? Interesting. Could you PLEASE shoot me that website where you got that figure (since I just KNOW you didn’t pull that number outta ya azz)? Some advice; I understand you want to defend your beloved AoC and make your points, but coming up with unrealistic numbers to make your point…merely kills it. I suggests you already know that’s wrong, but won’t cop to it. Next time try 61%. A bit more believable. IJS
I agree with most of the things you’ve said, but Black Bolt (to my surprise) is the peg warmer in the SF Bay Area. I was at Target and Wal-Mart recently, and there must have been 3 or 4 of them hanging around at both stores.
You’re just flat out wrong about the BP wave. You can find Killmonger but that’s it, Blackbolt and Namor are surprisingly easy to find on the shelves nowadays. Dormammu wave? It was the movie strange that was far and away the hardest to find. Yes, it would be correct to assume King Cobra will warm pegs this time around.
As a reader of Mark Grunewald’s run on Captain America in the mid-80s, I was totally psyched to see this figure come up on the schedule, and he’s the figure I want most from this wave. And yes, he’s likely to be on of the peg warmers once the series gets wide distribution and the comic fans have picked up what they want.
Uhmmm, you can say that about any figure actually. This is about Dabid’s claim that King Cobra is THE peg warmer for this wave. Totally wrong. 2 weeks ago, a local Walmart got in, the Avengers wave as well as the Ultimate riders and Thanos. These items were on the pallet and I was told I’d have to wait for someone to stock them (stupid me, I accepted and waited in my car for 20 minutes). When I came back, The entire case of Thanos was gone, both Ghost Riders gone and as for the Avengers wave? Everything gone…..EXCEPT (guess who) MCU Captain America, BOTH Iron Man MK48’s and Iron Spider. The fact they took every single Thanos (6 to a case) marked them as scalper(s). Why was only Proxima Midnight taken from the MCU side? Because the scalping azzhole(s) knew they wouldn’t sell…not for any big money anyway. More trouble than they’re worth.
Fair enough. So far I’ve seen Iron Man and Iron Spider left on the peg/shelf after all the others have been picked up. It will be interesting to see what happens – especially with Spidey and Cap who are one per case – once the general public who might feel inspired to pick up Avengers: Infinity figures realizes they are out. Meanwhile, still very much looking forward to picking up King Cobra!
I’m hoping for a Hyde BAF to accompany Cobra with my Spiderman figures.
Better to make him a single carded item. He can fit in a box like Colossus, Death’s Head II and the upcoming Thing. I say better because here’s the question; Where do we put him? Not any Avengers waves. The BAF’s are gonna be nothing but movie figs (which probably means after they run out of large characters like Cull Obsidian, they’ll go back to “normal” sized MCU characters instead of giving us a large Marvel character as the BAF). He’s not a Spidey character (didn’t stop them from putting Gwenpool in a Spider-Man wave I admit) and he has no connection to the X-Men or Deadpool. So where? The Avengers are it and Hasbro could possibly have Hyde as part of the 2 (or less) Marvel figures in a wave.
agree that hyde is generally not considered a spidey villain, but they have fought at least a few times.. i recall spidey getting mixed up in a cobra/hyde feud in Spectacular Spider-man back in the 80s and also Spidey helping DD fight Hyde during the Bendis DD run (I think). I think that’s at least as solid a spidey connection as Gwenpool has. Agree that he would be better as a single-card although I’m certainly not excited about the prospect of more normal-sized BAFs, ugh.
Of this particular wave, this is the one I wanted most. Mainly because I had several comics as a kid with him in it, so… return of childhood. After that, I’m liking the look of Songbird. The rest can hang on the pegs for others to buy. Not interested in building another Thanos. Especially if he’s going to look like that in the.. ahem.. face area.
Dabid appears to like the paint job, but I thought it looked kinda lackluster/cheap. But my biggest problem is the rock hard cape. Taskmaster’s cape is also rock hard.
It’s true! The metallic paints are my favorite part!
The cape is sort of rubbery, but it’s definitely not poseable at all. It’s a shame it gets in the way—that was one of my big minor gripes with the figure.
I would agree that there does seem to be a fair amount of movie figs warming pegs but I too have seen the speed demons, misty knights, blackbolt and submariners warming the pegs as well. But, I’ve never been good at guessing those peg warmers anyhow because I go for all the comic based figs and rarely get the MCU figs. But, I have to admit that those MCU figs are bringing money in from non collectors and helping keep the line alive which im all for. Unfortunately retailers rely on those sells so they primarily over order those MCU based waves and those with all comic based figs like the recent spider-man and deadpool waves seem to be still elusive. I think that’s why it’s important for collectors like us to support e-tailers like BBTS and entertainment earth who cater more to us. Especially if toys r’ us closes up and one more supplier goes out.
Why the big debate over peg warmers? As long as you get what you’re looking for …and I’m looking for King Cobra…then to each their own. The only thing I see truly “pegwarming” here in the Houston area are the WALGREENS exclusive figures. I’d love to see Medusa or Mr. Fantastic but black ant and Daredevil are still here.
Medusa is on clearance on the walgreens website for 12.99 right now if you’re interested… although i will agree yellow DD is the all-time WG exclusive peg-warmer.
Thank you my friend for the heads up!
The debate is because Dabid stated “matter of factly” King Cobra was going to be THE peg warmer. It may warm pegs in some of the more AiC oriented places, but overall, THE peg warmer(s) will be the Iron Man MK 48 and Chris Evans figures. Why? Because they always are! The AiC obsessed get butt hurt when that peg warming fact gets brought up.
I call ’em like I see ’em Rukkus. A year from now, two years from now–King Cobra will still be readily available for below retail price, just like Cottonmouth is still available for less than half his original price. While there may be more Iron Man figures available right now, since he’s double-packed in the case, supplies of Iron Man will be gone long, long before King Cobra.
I agree overall but I could definitely see GI Joe fans using King Cobra to create Serpentor (as you mentioned in your review) which could lessen peg-warming to some degree. Personally I think this fig is much cooler-looking/appealing than Cottonmouth or Eel.
As I mentioned in an earlier comment, given the choice I’m sure retailers would rather have a few extra mcu cap , spidey, or Iron man figs on the shelves since those are more likely to be sold down the line to casuals looking to get a present for kids, long after collectors have purchased the wave in full. Casuals aren’t likely to ever buy the yellow dd/misty knight/white tiger figs that have been sitting on the shelves for years already.