Marvel Legends Doctor Strange (No Way Home) review

Doctor Strange may be pretty prominent in the MCU quite a bit, given that he's been one of the characters in the MCU, popping up in the last two Avengers movies and being one of the main characters in No Way Home (who thankfully does not act as another mentor to Peter but instead acts as a bit of a rival), and now has his Multiverse of Madness video. It's no surprise that they want to make a character like him to be as prominent as ever, especially since the contracts for RDJ and Chris Evans are kaput by this point. I guess it's neat to see the guy himself expand the already big MCU with the multiverse, though some of it does have the mindset that this is Marvel using older media to win people over if they have a bigger attachment to the non-MCU stuff than the normal MCU stuff. Anyways, let's Scooby Doo this shit (that was a stupid ass line) and review this figure.

Here is Doctor Strange in-hand. Now MCU characters are best known for having various degrees of altering the appearances of their comic counterparts. Some like Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther, and Thanos make straightforward adaptations while still being live-action, others change things here and there to be a little more distinct as is the case with Falcon, Ultron, Ant-Man, and Thor. And a handful of characters, like The Mandarin and the Spider-Man villains before No Way Home, fit in the "you're kidding" section. Doctor Strange fits in the former category alright, but the way he's written does make him more on-par with the tropes main characters in the MCU have. As far as the suit design is concerned, it's a good design that manages to blend the comic tropes with the ancient master look that Stephen Strange possesses with his suit. The blue appears to have a wash applied to make it look multilayered and worn, while the cape, despite lacking a wash, at least is in a proper shade of red and doesn't skimp out on any sculpted details. He has a few paint apps that help point out the brown straps on his forearms and his belt. His amulet has the Eye of Agamotto, which is missing the Time Stone as was depicted in one of the later MCU ones. Probably the one where Thanos takes it from Strange and said that it was like taking candy from a baby.

Head sculpt is one of the better looks for the character since he better resembles the actor, Benedict Cumberbatch. It's got the improved face accuracy technology Hasbro began using in recent years, and I don't think we'll be done with Strange anytime soon. As far as the articulation is concerned, his head is on two ball joints, shoulders that move front and back, in and out (though the left shoulder is inhibited somewhat), bicep swivels, double elbows, wrist swivels and hinges, a torso joint that serves as both a diaphragm and waist swivel, hips that don't really move front and back or in and out, thigh swivels, double-knee bends, boot swivels, and ankle pivots. Apart from the two pairs of spell-making hands and a slightly-looks-like-it's-meant-for-accessory-hands, he has two distinct Tao Mandalas, shield-like powers that he uses from time to time. They're nicely sculpted and are of different sizes, too. Very nice touch, Hasbro. He also comes with the head of Armadillo, which we'll cover when I get his left foot.

It should be worth mentioning that this isn't the first time Strange has popped up in the Legends line for MCU releases, with the first version being for 2016 with the first movie, another being based on the Infinity Saga where he is in a 3-pack with Iron Man and Thanos' the two appear to be very similar to one another apart from a redesigned cape and a more accurate head sculpt, and the Multiverse of Madness version has newly made parts yet keeps the costume design fairly intact in terms of its spirit. Honestly, if you don't have the original 2 versions, this Strange or the MOM version are both pretty decent figures based on a character I kind of liked in the MCU, but good luck finding either one in stores if you aren't stuck with a glutton of Eternals merchandise.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐