As we have taken a look at the 6 Marvel Legends figures from this wave, we now have the Stilt-Man Build-A-Figure to take a look at! As far as character backgrounds go, the name Stilt-Man has been used for Wilbur Day, an unnamed successor, Michael Watts, and Callie Ryan taking over as the lady version. The character of Stilt-Man is pretty much another sign of his time, as he was a supervillain that wanted to do some of the more basic tasks that villains in the Marvel Universes would do compared to the more complex likes of Doctor Doom, Magneto, Loki, etc, and he was able to use his impenetrable armor to extend his limbs, taking on the likes of Daredevil, Spider-Man, and even the god of thunder, Thor! So he's pretty much a paint-by-the-numbers villain in the Marvel universe that does mean making the most out of him as a BAF would work well. Many would probably prefer someone like SP//DR, Kingpin, or Scorpion (the latter would be perfect), but the former two were developed before in the traditional comic appearances back in 2018 and 2019, so having a villain with some connection to Spider-Man in a sense is perfectly fine, and it's now time to see the BAF assembled...
...but first, let's rank the characters in this wave, staring at the bottom two with Prowler and Frog-Man. The former is ranked 6th due to the underwhelming aspects of the toy; its arms don't move in as nicely and come off if you attempt to do so, the lack of accessories hurt the display potential, and the ab-crunch doesn't work as nicely as I'd like. Prowler's sculpt doesn't really match the CGI model, but that'd be forgiven if it wasn't for the other issues being present. As for the latter figure, Frog-Man is a pretty good reuse of the Doc Ock figure despite having the ports for the tentacles somewhat in the back, and while the character's design is not as cool as Prowler, he at least has more bang for your buck and has some very nice quality control by comparison. My favorite part is the inner face having some intimidation compared to the goofy frog mask.
In fourth place is the Hand Ninja and in third place is Spider-Gwen! The former might look like a generic ninja toy but does have a bit of charm to him by the sculpting, articulation, and accessories he has. Maybe if you have a comic Daredevil or a ninja Wolverine at your disposal, then army-building some Hand Ninjas would do you wonders. As for the latter, Spider-Gwen may be the only figure with a reuse in terms of the trio of Spider-Verse heroes available, and she might seem like a reuse of the Target version, but her new hood, head, the shoes, the deco, and the proper Gwen Stacy head make her feel a lot more fulfilling by comparison. And if that's not enough for you, she's got a sweet bonus in the form of Spider-Ham!
In second place is Peter B. Parker, who has quite the amount of personality to help him stand out from the other figures while also having a crisp head sculpt that is spot-on to the CGI model. The sculpt is perfect for the guy, and it helps him stand out from the rest of the Spider-Men in any Marvel Legends collection...but the true winner is Miles Morales! The character's Spider-Verse incarnation was already one that I loved from the movie due to his soul and influence as a fish-out-of-water within the Spider-Verse, but this figure does the character justice beautifully; the outfit combined with the suit screams Miles Morales. Now let's see if a more suited character would give him an alternate "hey" headsculpt.
And here we have the Stilt-Man BAF completed! Putting the pieces together is pretty easy, though the chest and back armor combined with the head's flexible antennae did make it hard to not warp them. And the resulting figure we have is...interesting. The aspect of him having the stilt-legs is interesting, but it does mean making use of the stand that he comes with. The silver plastic may make him shiny, yet it is actually marbly as most metallic/chrome-like Legends figures tend to have. I do wish the figure would have a little more color variety since it does have the feeling of being unpainted. As for the head, it's paint apps look very bad compared to the rest of the face paint used on the other figures. The eyes look a little lop-sided while the flesh paint for the mouth region could almost use some shading to make the skin look a little more naturalistic. That especially goes for the lips, which do have a smile but are a little lacking in terms of paint (not that it needs lip stick). And yeah, it does have the weird look of a bootleg 60s-70s Batman.
His articulation is very interesting, as most of it is the same with the shoulders, torso, and hips, but his head can't really move anywhere without risking his antennae getting bent, there are no knees present, and the thigh swivels are kind of useless unless you want his ankles to bend as if he is walking. Oh and he has no knee articulation. You can not only give him the briefcase and his pistol, but you can also play around with the leg stilts. If it was possible, I'd have another Hand-Ninja or two to give him some extra height, but for now, he'll be in a pickle as he extended one leg at the cost of shortening the other. Alternatively, you can make him into a midget by removing the stilts and have his ass kicked by Spider-Man or Daredevil.
And here he is with the entire wave! This has been a rather interesting way for me to get into an entire wave of Marvel Legends, as I usually get figures that don't come with BAF pieces or are mostly standalone in terms of theme. It's something that is hard for me to get into since I'd require getting most of the space that fans like ShartimusPrime, Glenn Webb, etc would have, but I was pretty happy with collecting the 6 Marvel Legends figures that made up the Stilt-Man wave. I was already willing to get the Spider-Verse characters, but having Frog-Man and Hand Ninja was pretty surprising in terms of quality. Definitely happy to own them both.
Overall ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.2 out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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