The Vintage X-Men Marvel Legends Series I discussed yesterday wasn’t the only heavily-rumored wave of figures that Hasbro officially confirmed at the 2019 Toy Fair over the weekend: the much-speculated 2019 Marvel Legends X-Force Wave is also coming to fruition with an eclectic group of characters including Nightcrawler, Cannonball, Mr. Sinister, Boom Boom and more!

When Marvel Legends rumors spread like wildfire for an extended period of time, they more often than not turn out to be true. Such is the case with the inaugural X-Force Legends series, which is coming our way in the second half of 2019.

There’s at least one more figure to be revealed in the series (in addition to presumably the Wendigo Build-A-Figure Hasbro said was in the same wave as Guardian at NYCC 2018), so stay tuned for the future reveal of the final components of this set.

There’s no need for debate as to who the headliner of this series will be: it’s clearly the new classic Nightcrawler figure that collectors have been demanding from Hasbro for many, many years now.

I half-expected we’d get a grey costume Nightcrawler here to match his actual X-Force look, but I’m just as happy (maybe more) with the classic red and black costume. There’s no beard or anything crazy modern with this figure—just the iconic Kurt Wagner everyone has been asking for.

For those wondering, there’s no wire bendy tail on this 2019 Marvel Legends Nightcrawler figure (the tail is too thin for that), although he does feature interchangeable hands and the tail can be swiveled.

Although he’s being overshadowed a bit by Nightcrawler, the first 6” Mr. Sinister Legends figure in well over a decade is another critical part of this ML X-Force Series. He features a ton of newly-sculpted parts and I think his evil smile is awesome.

That said, literally the minute photos of this wave started hitting the internet, I saw folks complaining about the color choices on poor Mr. Sinister. Fans are pretty vehement about the fact that they DON’T like the black portions of Sinister’s costume, and that they think he should be all-blue instead.

I’m genuinely not familiar with this particular color scheme for Mr. Sinister, as I’ve always just assumed the black portions on this costume were shaded darker blue in comic books and not actually black. I don’t really mind the colors, but I’m sure Hasbro will do a variant or repaint of collectors make enough noise.

Third on the list is the Alpha Flight leader, Guardian, who was announced at Fan Expo in Canada last year. I’m not sure exactly what he’s got to do with X-Force, but he’ll look lovely with the Puck and Sasquatch Figures Hasbro has previously done. (Northstar next, please?)

The last two figures Hasbro had on display for the X-Force Marvel Legends Series at New York Toy Fair 2019 are founding members of the original X-Force team in their original X-Force costumes: Cannonball and Boom Boom (with no effects piece!).

Boom Boom has been on so many teams over the years and such a long-running character that it’s almost unbelievable this is her first mass-release action figure. This is definitely the costume choice for her I’d pick, and I’m I’m excited she’ll have interchangeable heads with and without bubblegum bubbles.

The new Marvel Legends Cannonball seems destined to be the most controversial figure that Hasbro premiered at Toy Fair, as he’s a little bit different from your standard ML figure… in that he has no legs.

What I heard at NY Toy Fair was that it was impossible to cost in both the legs and the huge blast effects lower body, and Hasbro picked the unique blast effects. To me, that’s the right choice and the one that will stand out the most on the shelf.

That said, as with Mr. Sinister, perhaps we can see Cannonball with legs down the road if fans are vocal enough. Hasbro goes out of their way to make us happy whenever possible, so it’s certainly not out of the question.

The Marvel Legends X-Force Wave should be up for order online later this year, and I’ll post updates and pre-order links once we learn more about the series and when it goes up for sale. I don’t think it takes a psychic to see that Nightcrawler and Sinister are going to be two ultra-fast sell-outs in this series. There are still another 1-2 more figures left to be shown for this wave, so it can only get better and stronger!

How do you feel about the inaugural Marvel Legends X-Force series? Did Hasbro hit it out of the ballpark with this quintet, and who are you hoping rounds out the wave?