I have a long list of classic characters I’d like to see in Legend form, reworks of old characters, and slight costume changes for some of my favorite characters, but I do love that the Legends team can introduce me to a variant I never knew I had want to. The gleaming silver adamantium skull with flames forming the shape of Wolverine’s mask instantly appealed to the 14-year-old metalhead in me. I’m actually a little frustrated that he skipped the BAF part of the figure because I wanted this more than some of the other figures with those parts. Let’s take a look at the Vengeful Weapon, aka the Hellbeast!
Is this the first wave of legendaries in the new style box? Anyway, this is the first time I can remember, and it’s a little weird to be honest. I’ll get used to it because the figure still looks good and the art still stands out pretty well, it’s just that the box feels weird and flat and stacks easily. How convenient! Ah well, it’s all recycled to me anyway.
The character feels pretty light on accessories with just two hands (fists and claws), my favorite would be an alternate head with either a flared jaw or a hinged jaw, although I could see the hinge not working as well as to the flame position. There’s a spoiler gimmick in Hellverine Issue 2, which might be a nice inclusion. Maybe holding his hands so he can ride the flaming motorcycle more easily would be cool. The flaming claws felt really tight as I tried to pop them off like Wolverine’s claws, but I ended up just pulling my hand out of the socket. Sorry, I’m not willing to risk doing more research on their interchangeability.
The sculpt is very familiar as this is mostly the tried and true standard Wolverine base with Krako Wolverine’s belt, but the flaming skull and claws look great and are effectively sculpted in translucent plastic that shows off perfectly Fire effect. I actually really like this base body and it’s one of the real leaps forward in Legend of Wolverine, but I have a ton of this figure so I can see how people might get tired of this base body. Turns out, it might not actually be the best substrate.
I hadn’t read the Ghost Rider or Hellbeast special issues before purchasing this character, so I didn’t know if Hellbeast had more of a Krak look in the issues where he appeared. The brown doesn’t quite match, but you can swap the flaming skull and clawed hands if you want. The gloves nearly match the Karakoram Wolverine’s primary brown color, but his gloves and boots are a lighter color, so the contrast is higher. This does match up with how he looks on one of the covers, and he’s been drawn pretty inconsistently in the issues I’ve seen.
The paint is pretty standard legend fare, although the white teeth are slightly misaligned and I think could benefit from a wash, but I like the orange/red lowlights on the shiny metal skull and flames. I do miss the hair on my arms a bit. Maybe it was burned. hehe.
I personally really like the articulation of this body. I haven’t been too impressed with the range of motion of Hasbro’s ball-and-socket mid-torso and head lately, so the return of the classic articulated abs and neck from this old body actually sounds like a big deal to me Welcome, but as I said before, I can understand the fatigue. I’m also blind, so the lack of pinless connectors isn’t a huge issue for me, although I do feel like I’m in the minority among Legends fans on both scores.
Overall, this is a fun, weird variation that fits the theme of this wave and Wolvie’s anniversary very well. Not required, but it was a great time and sparked my curiosity to read some of my favorite comics. I’m looking forward to Hellverine #3 coming to the Marvel app, and I love how he pairs up with Ghost Rider in this weird season.
