First up, here we have Firelord, once known as a Xandarian naval officer named Pyreus Kril who would later become a Herald for Galactus. He is a fairly simple reuse of a more blank-base buck found on other Marvel Legends. I say that because he is a reuse of the Sunfire mold, which while still fairly modern, it does have the pinned joints and is said to not fit in too well with the other, souped-up Heralds of Galactus. Speaking of, he was one of the centerpieces of a Thor story arc that revolved around the God of Thunder attempting to free the individual, and the character also went up against the likes of other Marvel heroes while having just ONE appearance on the Fantastic Four show. Anyways, as a figure, he's pretty simple in terms of paint apps, having no real sculptwork and instead utilizes paint apps on the red gloves and boots as well as the white on the "belt" pattern, orange neck near the head, and the yellow paint used to go on his leotard-type suit. It's generally transferred onto him pretty well, though I am not a fan of how asymmetrical the right hip is compared to the left.
Head sculpt is pretty good, and likely the best part of the figure thanks to the fade on the hair, on top of the work applied to make the face look more unique thanks to the flaming eyebrows and white eyes. It's a good combination on an otherwise plain figure. His articulation consists the standard ball-peg and neck hinge on the neck, shoulders that move front and back, in and out, bicep swivels, double elbows, wrist swivels and hinges, ab crunch, butterfly joints, waist swivel, hips, thighs, double knees, boot swivels, and ankle pivots as well as rockers. His fire staff seems to be unique from what I remember, though he doesn't really hold it well, even with both hands.
Next up, it's the High Evolutionary, who was once Herbert Edgar Wyndham before he was turned into an evolved human and leader of the New Men/Knights of Wundagore. A superintelligent being, he has a futuristic appearance as well as an influence of the 6th century. A two-colored villain, this character doesn't really have much of a presence next to the Fantastic Four in the animated series but has fought against them in the comic books. His sculpt is great, from the red outfit and the living-metal face of his to the silver on the arms and thighs. The issue is how lacking it feels thanks to the lack of either metallic paint or plastic to make it pop. If you ask me, it's something that the next guy does better. High Evolutionary being a new mold is cool, though he just needs more than the silver dots to make him pop.
Head sculpt is sort of like an evil MCU Vision, albeit with a mohawk crest and silver bordering it in place of the yellow Mind Stone (which is part of the character in that universe). Again, his face should use some paint in order to better present the sculptwork it possesses, especially since it's feels so flat. His articulation is about the same as Firelord, but he does not have the butterfly joints due to the way his torso is sculpted.
And as there is not much else to talk about due to his lack of accessories other than mirrored copies of his alternate hands, let's have him facepalm at whatever the hell his MCU counterpart is supposed to be! I mean, I'm happy that Chukwudi Iwuji is portraying the character since he wore a cool cosplay a while back, but that Captain Marvel military uniform-looking ass shade of blue makes him blend in with the other MCU assthetics, what was wrong with the inaccurate yet still decent purple?!
Up next, it's Psycho Man! He's probably similar to that of fellow Jack Kirby character Darkseid in terms of design yet is much more reliant on advanced intelligent thanks to the Control Box he comes with. He's actually a microscopic being that relies on an advanced body armor when he leaves the Microverse planet Traan. He's also best-known for indirectly helping Susan Storm-Richards change her name of Invisible Girl by replacing the second half with Woman. His sculpt is a bright white body suit that better not yellow, I swear to god! Anyways, complimenting it is a metallic shade of green used on the arms, collar and headpiece, belt, and certain trimming applied on the skirt and legs. It's a pretty nice contrast of colors, and a much better job than what we got with HE. The rings around the legs are thankfully unintrusive towards the articulation.
Head sculpt is definitely a retraced Darkseid, though with how nuche this guy is compared to Darkseid, it's not really that much of a major deal. His eyes are white, his outlines for them and the details on the foreheads are etched in black, and the face is gold. His articulation is about the same as HE's, even the missing butterfly joints. His control box, which consist of the words FEAR, DOUBT, and HATE, prove how his powers are much more honest and upfront than anything an American politician says without those They Live glasses (whoops I made it political).
And last, but certainly not least, here we have Doctor Doom! This guy, who might I add is the first character to pop up before everyone else, is a reuse of a previous iteration of the same character, likely either the 2019 version with a more modern look (i.e. darker colors and sinister mask), or the white Future Foundation cloak. It's a great sculpt, and just having a design that combines the medieval-esque knight armor and green robes with a Silver Age comic book retrofuture influence makes for a pretty cool look on this guy. The green of the robes (not the cloak) and the silver on his arms, legs, and mask are brighter than usual, but they still don't clash too much with the darker hood and cape. The belt and holster are pretty good in terms of sculpting, though I find their shade of brown to be a little too bright. The collar cloth below the chains of his robe is out of place, and it feels out of place. I guess it's meant to fit in with the added budget that this figure has, but it's not really accurate to the suit.
Headsculpt is more based around the classic look for the character, with a sort of primitive mask and prominent eyes that aren't something you'd find in the modern mask. It's a bit bothersome since while Doom was understandably less intimidating in some past works, it looks more silver-age than 90s if I'm being honest. Maybe if the eyes looked angrier, and the mask looking more organic, it'd work. Since we already went over the articulation 3 times with the other villains, here are his of his accessories: two books with dark magic spells throughout the pages, a pair of blast effects, the Ultimate Nullifier used to bring Galactus down, and two effect pieces to go with his hands.
His articulation is more or less the same, so let's go over the way the accessories work. It's a pretty cool way to depict him reading the books while practicing his new powers, as seen with this photo.
The Ultimate Nullifier with his possession means he can remind me of my lack of the HasLab Galactus...which I would buy but there are other HasLab toys that are more important, like Unicron, Victory Saber, and Deathsaurus.
And within his holster is a pistol! It's something bizarre he'd have with his powers already doing the job, but it's something he can use himself if he's content with preserving his powers. He has his thrusters on his back, which are hidden by the cloak, so you can either have them hidden by the cape and burn it up OR put them on the boots. And his effect pieces are neat to have, though a flight stand means he looks even better. Yes, it's a DC Multiverse base for a Marvel Legends figure, but shut up the Hasbro Pulse ones are too clunky.
And that about covers the whole wave of villains. A first-wave villain, two villains that are already part of the rest of the wave, and a fan-channel exclusive repaint of Sunfire. It's surprising how all-in I went with another Marvel Legends wave after the first time with the Spider-Verse/Stilt-Man wave and the NWH/Armadillo wave. I only did that since a lot of the characters were heavily discounted, which is probably due to how cheap the F4 felt and how uninteresting most of the villains were except for Doom because he's an older release and Firelord because of his Fan-Channel status. So yeah, good luck getting them.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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