Longtime readers know that before I drank the “the Jonathan Hickman X-Men era is the best ever” Kool-Aid, X-Men Age Of Apocalypse was my jam for about a decade and a half. And so, I’ve been waiting about that long for a proper 6” (or even 5”) Age of Apocalypse Rogue figure. I worried such a thing might never occur when anecdotes indicated poor sales for the first series of X-Men Marvel Legends Age of Apocalypse figures. But the AX-Men Marvel Legends OA Wave 2 Colossus Series is now available, including the “Bride of Magneto” version of Rogue! Is the 6” Marvel Legends AOA Rogue figure all I could have dreamed?

Although she became among the most popular and well-known X-Men of all-time once the X-Men animated series came out in 1992, Rogue became even more high-profile in the Age of Apocalypse, where she was prominently featured as Magneto’s wife and the leader of the Astonishing X-Men.
Even in the the 90s it was clear that Rogue was a key character that needed to be represented in any Age of Apocalypse lineup of action figures. And so, Toybiz went ahead with a half-assed attempt to create an AOA Rogue figure using the tooling from their Generation X White Queen Emma Frost action figure. The results were unspectacular, but still the best Age of Apocalypse Rogue figure (bigger than a 2” Minimates figurine) for over two decades.

I think the portrait on AOA Rogue is actually a very faithful representation of the source material. My wife asked why the figure had the face of an 8 year old when she first picked Rogue up, but conceded the head was accurate when I showed her the covers from some vintage Age of Apocalypse X-Men comics.

Her hairdo is a little strange, but it is also comics-authentic. Hair style culture may have been slightly different in the eugenics-driven Age of Apocalypse.

Rogue can be a difficult character to conceive of accessories for, but I feel like Hasbro did not try very hard in this instance. Along with arm and fist build-a-figure pieces of the AOA Colossus BAF, Rogue’s only accessories are an assortment of interchangeable hands. Given that Rogue’s power revolves around her touching other characters and making skin contact, you might expect at least one of the alternate hands to be an ungloved hand, with perhaps another hand holding a glove that has been pulled off. Your expectation would not be met. Although Hasbro has included those sorts of hands in the past, they chose not to go with them this time out. Instead, Rogue has gloved hands that will enable her to punch, hold, or reach out to do a Force push.

This is a baffling decision on Hasbro’s part, and further limits the posing possibilities for a character that is always a little bit difficult to think of dynamic poses for.

Rogue can’t even properly recreate the cover of X-Men Alpha and stand around next to her husband, Magneto, because she doesn’t include the cape she wore on that iconic cover.

Rogue is further limited in even brawling poses because of omitted biceps articulation. Her full articulation scheme includes:

• Ball-hinge Head and Shoulders
• Ball-Jointed Upper Torso and Hips
• Pin-less Double-Hinged Knees and Elbows
• Swivel-Hinge Wrists
• Swivel Thighs
• Hinged feet with Ankle Rockers

The pin-less arms and legs again look great, and although the elbow joints were a bit stiff at first, they work terrifically. My AOA Rogue Legends figure feels very sturdy with little chance of plastic ripping or breaking. The colors on this toy are also spot-on perfect, with the greens and yellow of the costume intermingling beautifully.

While the plastic quality control and paint apps are all very good, Rogue does have some stability issues. I had a tough time getting her balanced into dynamic poses with her treaded boots feet, so she’s mostly just standing around in my photos. She scales well with Magneto and looks nice with other AOA X-Men, but I have a difficult time thinking up poses to put this action figure into that it can stably balance doing.

While Rogue’s costume did require some add-on pieces overlaid on top of her basic body mold, they all fit at least adequately snugly to not flop around uncontrollably in the manner I absolutely loathe. Her studded collar (held in place by Rogue’s hair), wrist cuffs and leg band are all add-ons. I accidentally pulled the leg band down while I was taking my review photos, but it stays up decently on its own.

Overall: While this is a very competent action figure of Rogue in her Age of Apocalypse costume, it’s also a very basic action figure. Rogue can be a tough character to create interesting poses for besides just bashing stuff, and this figure doesn’t come with any accessories that will easily change that. The pin-less knees and elbows rock, but the lack of biceps swivels, cape and ungloved hand(s) hold this figure slightly back.

GRADE: B