Fantastic Four Classics Kang Review!
One of the most wanted Marvel villains to be made in Marvel Legends, it was long speculated that we would never get a figure of the character due to comments by ML mastermind Jesse Falcon that Kang was unlikely to appear in the main line. However, Toybiz, through a bit of lateral thinking, inserted this classically Avengers villain in the second series of Fantastic Four Classics comic-based figures. This information was initially imparted to us via a leaked product mock-up sheet, which contained the troubling info that Kang possessed a dreaded action feature, the quick-draw action. This belief persisted for a very long time, until we heard of reports of the actual figure, and luckily the action feature had vanished.
Sculpt
Excellent. This is a terrific-looking sculpt, with lots of sculpted costume detail. Like the ML13 Green Goblin, this is the classic version of the character(IMO anyway) and like Goblin they didn't make a single mistake. This is the definitive Kang figure, anything better would be hard to imagine.
Paint/Construction
Okay/Good. Paint first, there's no major paint errors on the figure, and the paint scheme in general is excellent, but like all mass produced toys the paint apps are a little sloppy around the fine edges. Frankly unless you look at the figure very closely you won't notice the slop.
Construction is a bit complicated, because there's been numerous reports on the Fwoosh of breakage problems at the hips, but my own figure is rather well made. The plastic is harder than the very rubbery figures of Toybiz in the last half of 2005, so I regard it as a major improvement. However this hardness in the plastic may cause the damage reported, due to brittleness. It's an unfortunate tradeoff. I look at it like this: if the plastic were rubbery, everyone's figures would be bad, with the harder plastic some figures may break, but at least some are good. Of course that's little comfort to someone finding the short-packed Kang and having it break out of package, and being unable to replace it.
Articulation/Accessories
Very Good. I count 31 points of articulation all told, with those being: hinge/swivel neck, ball shoulders, bicep swivels double elbows, forearm cuts, wrist hinges, left hand knuckle hinge, ab crunch, waist swivel, ball hips, thigh swivels(under the hip balls), double knees, pin ankles, hinge toes. The unarticulated right hand will no doubt annoy some, but I prefer them that way, they look better. There's a couple of problems with the way the articulation is designed, in particular the ab crunch has very poor mobility. It bends back and forth, but doesn't click into place, so it's essentially useless. Also the legs are a bit hard to pose without and boot cuts. You really miss that cut when it's not there.
Kang comes with a giant silver gun(not pictured) that I've heard is actually comic-accurate. It fires two projectiles, giving the figure that all-important action feature that suckers kids. I immediately gave that gun to DC Direct's Mr. Freeze, and it suits him much better. So thanks, I guess.
Summation
Buy this figure. See it on the peg? Pick it up that second. Not the figure of the year, or even necessarily the best figure in the wave, but it's a must-have for any Marvel Legends collection, unless you exclusively collect X-Men figures. In which case, you're missing out. Another Toybiz homerun.
posted by Blue at 4:02 AM
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