There’s a bit of a double-edged sword when I look back at the character of a highly anticipated character. On the one hand, I tend to like this character, but on the other hand, I’m more critical than usual because I really want to see this character do more justice than usual. Let’s see what they do with the Marvel Legends Death’s Head!
I love the packaging of this figure. While I don’t collect these cards, they were common in my comic collecting days, so I have a lot of nostalgia for the style. I love that they even copied the background of the Death’s Head card art for the packaging insert.
The figure has four hands (two fists, a right open hand, and a left closed hand), a shield, an axe, a spiked mace, and a rocket. Maces, rockets and axes attach to hand sockets and can be stored on the shield. Now, I say it’s a rocket because I saw him firing one from his arm, but I think it could also just be a different shaped mace. The accessories fit securely into the handheld socket and are made of fairly sturdy plastic except for the axe. It’s more unstable than I’d like. Rubbery.
These three weapons can also be stored on the shield, which he can also hold in his hand. The shield fits into the rear peg hole, but the plastic is a bit rubbery, so the connection isn’t as secure as I’d like. It stayed there okay, but it drooped a bit.
I do like the option of opening the hands for different poses, and the grip hands are great for holding weapons or shields.
Death’s head is sculpted very solidly, with clever reuse of the Colossus and recent Ronan figures as well as some richly detailed new work. I don’t think the glove is 100% accurate, but it’s pretty close. The reuse of the Colossus’ torso does result in an extra line in the center of the yellow part of the costume, and Death’s Head is often drawn with metallic abs in this costume, so it’s not 100% accurate, but I can accept that this one is one too. I really like the silhouette and texture of the cape and the frayed ends. There are also some nice combat damage sculpts on the new armor, boots, and shield pieces. There’s a little difference between his face and the panel, so this looks like the model to me, I just wish his horns were a little sharper.
The articulation is pretty standard Legend fare for a larger figure, I was disappointed with the single articulated elbows. I like that the grip hinges up/down and the rest hinges in/out. The skirt is soft, but it’s one piece, so it hinders leg movement a bit. I wish the center tab was a separate piece so it would open up a bit and allow for more movement. In fact, the skirt can go up a bit so that the legs can move forward more. Death’s Head has:
- Rotate/articulate shoulders, wrists, hips and ankles
- Double hinged knees
- Rotate biceps, waist and boots
- Single hinge elbow and ab crunch
- ball head attached to articulated neck
The paint is nice, I like that they put a bit of a black wash on the battle damaged parts of his armor and boots, but I wish the silver was done with metallic paint and a wash over the metal lines. It’s mostly that metallic plastic, which looks pretty good, but nowhere near as nice as the metallic paint. I do like the metallic blue on the costume.
As you would expect based on Ronan/Colossus’s part, he’s a big boy, and although he’s slightly bigger than the character, in my opinion, it worked for me. He is listed as 6’10” in OHOTMU, so 7 3/4″ is pretty close in Legends which is not exactly 1/12 scale.
Overall, I quite like this guy. He’s a large, impressive figure that represents Death’s Head very well, the only thing that really annoys me is the less metallic metallic plastic. If it were painted a nice metallic color he would be almost perfect for me. I might try a water wash and a metal dry brush to stain him down and polish it a bit. The figure is available first at SDCC, but he will be available to order on Pulse next week (August 5, 2024) at 7pm ET.
