I seriously was not crying out for a new 6” figure of Alex Summers right now when we just got two in the last half-decade, but it appears there was some demand left to be filled, and Hasbro decided to do so while filling out the Bonebreaker Series. The 2022 Marvel Legends Havok figure shipping now  is the most classic comics inspired Havok that we’ve seen so far from Hasbro—is he also the best? Here’s my review…

I regret that ’ve had to be objectively rather unkind to this year’s X-Men Marvel Legends wave so far, as most of the assortment has seemed a mite “lazy” to me with regards to accessory and design choices made.

But Hasbro has a secret weapon to use against me with this release: all-new effects pieces! Are they enough to earn this new Havok Legends action figure a top score?

Well… no. Even with some very new and very cool cosmic energy effects, I’m not totally delighted with this very classic Alex Summers figure (a terrific counterpart to the classic Sabretooth in this same wave).

On the bright side, I think Hasbro made the right move by giving this Havok the iconic headpiece that was part of his earliest costumes (back when he needed to wear a containment suit to control his powers). This is the famous Havok portrait fans remember from so, so many corner boxes on floppy comics over the years, and it was long overdue for some love from Hasbro.

The facial expression chosen is essentially just a neutral, expressionless closed mouth. That’s… fine, since Havok oftentimes is drawn with this “bored” look to him, but a yelling/open-mouthed head might have been more fun given the trio of effects pieces included.

The body for the figure is entirely black besides the chest circles, which isn’t terribly exciting visually, but is accurate to how this figure should look. The lack of paint deco does make the old-style pinned knees and elbows very obvious and unsightly, though.

The body  mold used is nothing new or special, although I am pleased Hasbro went with a mold with butterfly swivel shoulders so that Cyclops’ bro has a good range of motion to fire off energy blasts from. His complete articulation scheme includes:

• Ball-Hinge Head and Shoulders
• Butterfly Swivels for the Shoulders
• Ab Crunch
• Swivel Waist, Biceps, Thighs and Boots
• Double-Hinge Knees and Elbows
• Swivel-Hinge Fists
• Hinged Feet with Ankle Rocker Pivots

It’s a tried-and-true body mold recipe with plenty of uninhibited ranges of motion, and I love how extremely Havok can look up or down.

There is a big issue with the figure’s posing potential, though, and it’s unfortunately a recurring pitfall: terrible black plastic used as a material in the creation of this toy.

Hasbro has been struggling with the factories’ recurrent use of ultra cheap, rubbery plastic for at least six years now (I first remember the issue with a Spider-Man Legends Morbius figure in 2016, but I know there were instances prior to that as well).

Bluntly put, this low-quality plastic outright sucks and substantially hinders this Marvel Legends 2022 Havok figure. His knees and elbows are ludicrously wobbly, and getting him to stand stably for review photos (especially with his effects in place) was nightmarish. The knee and elbow joints are unforgivably gummy, and I hope the new pin-less variety of joints eliminates this issue permanently.

Havok includes both the upper torso of the ML Bonebreaker Build-A-Figure and also three never-before-released “energy circles” effects pieces of his own.

The large effect plugs into the figure’s back tightly and is fun to manually twist to see it in different positions. The translucent blue is an eye-grabber that breaks up the monotony of black on Havok’s costume, and makes the figure s legit standout in a lineup. I love, love this effect.

The wrist/forearm energy effects I’m not as infatuated with. They look tremendously cool as well, but it’s very frustrating that they want to slide and rotate and flop around on Havok’s arms non-stop, since the central opening on them to attack over the forearms is too large and not tight at all. These look phenomenal but are functionally a tad deficient (which might be a good summation of this ML Havok as a whole).

Overall: This is another difficult figure to assign a grade to, because the design for this X-Men Legends Havok figure is outstanding, and the quality control just totally lets it down. The new energy effects are gorgeous, and I hope we see the forearm ones better sized in the future to stop them from rotating and flopping around. The back circles effect is awesome, and I’m hopeful Hasbro has some other great uses in mind for that effect.

The iconic head piece is exactly the iconic look I think most fans wanted, even if Alex’s expression is rather bored-looking.

The major flaw in this release is outside of the designers’ control, as the gummy black plastic is so rubbery that the figure feels cheap overall when being held and is unstable in poses he should be able to stand reliably in.

GRADE: B