Sometimes, I try to avoid getting figures with BAF parts if I wanted to own certain versions of characters, as while I am a big fan of Marvel lore, there are certain characters I could care less for. For example, looking back at the Stilt-Man and Armadillo reviews, I obviously wanted the Spider-Verse characters as well as Doctor Strange and possibly Shriek, but if there were some figures I'd want to avoid, they'd probably be Morlun and possibly Frogman. This similar thing was going to happen for the Puff Adder wave, as I wanted to avoid getting into a complete BAF series after getting figures that had no BAF parts for the most part, but after accidentally getting Orb, I realized it wasn't going to be easy to have just the two Avengers that I wanted the most and an obscure villain most commonly known for going against Ghost Rider. With that said, however, let's get into the review featuring two intended purchases and one fluke, which I'll get to why I call Orb a fluke.
Here we first have Iron Man in-hand. This figure is based on the Extremis design that has been done in Legends form every once in a while, but the last time we got such a figure was back in the 2012-3 Epic Heroes wave, which is something I always value when they make a more updated figure in the wave. I honestly don't have much intent on getting the Puff Adder wave at full price, so I decided to get a new mold, one that is based on a suit I really like. Long before the MCU over-saturated the market and when promo art would always try to resemble the MCU designs or RDJ, this leaner design pre-dated the appearances of the characters and was prominent in the marketing back in the 2000s, especially for the Extremis comic arc that was praised by fans back in the day. The figure itself has some nice gold paint while the red plastic doesn't look as metallic as I was hoping it would be. Especially after getting Modular Iron Man where both the red and gold were metallic. The proportions are skinnier than the previous armor models, though it makes sense given the modern marvel Stark obtained with making suits.
His helmet is pretty faithful to the way it looks in the source material, though there is this small white triangle I can't seem to remove from the figure without damaging the plastic. The black linework above the eyes is a bit higher than it should be, but everything else should be crisp on this figure. His articulation consists of a ball joint for the head and a neck hinge, shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out (with shoulder pads that are pliable enough for outward movement, bicep swivels, double-jointed elbows, wrist swivels as well as inward hinge movement, a diaphragm joint on the torso (which is common on half of Iron Man's figures, usually the ones with leaner proportions), hips that move front and back as well as in and out (with the disks being able to move back to allow better range), thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, and ankle pivots to boot. Iron Man's got alternate hands and repulsor blast effect pieces that can be used either on said hands...
...or on his feet for flight poses, like with a lot of Iron Men in the past. I do wish he came with a Tony Stark head, though. At least as an incentive for those who wanted this figure only and didn't care about the Puff Adder pieces. For a comparison with my favorite Iron Man armor of all time in the comics, you can tell how much leaner this Extremis armor is compared to the Modular armor. One captures the bulkier, muscular look of the 20th century era of superheroes while the other represents the then-modern aesthetic that predates the way Marvel would MCU-ify the comics later in the 2010s. It's interesting how the Extremis armor, much like Ultimate Nick Fury, would both exist before they would appear in the first Iron Man movie with the live-action aesthetics (since Extremis Iron Man inspired the Mark III design as well as Samuel L Jackson playing Nick Fury taking things full circle after Marvel designed the Ultimate version after the actor).
For a comparison with past versions, uhh, I have a Burger King toy that may or may not be the exact same look...probably not but it was a neat figure for what it could offer. Its blast effect missile is more dynamic than the one that came with the Retro-Style Iron Man that Hasbro Pulse sold for the Proton Cannon AYO!!!! But for a more believable comparison, the Terrax-wave version of Iron Man made back in 2012 during the Return of Marvel Legends waves was the previous attempt at making the character design come to life in plastic form. It appears to be missing some additional gold for the mouth and had even skinnier proportions than the already skinny modern figure, but it seemed to be a good figure for what it could offer at the time in spite of the pre-posed hands. One thing the original version does win would be the metallic paint, although some say that the duller colors are accurate to the source material with the Hasbro figure. I say your mileage may vary.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Speaking of, we're going from Earth-616 to the Ultimate universe with Captain America. This figure is an entirely new sculpt, sharing no reused parts from the past anniversary Caps. Apart from being more of an asshole in the Ultimate Marvel universe, Cap's main differences in terms of cosmetics include a gray inner detail for the armpit area as well as a bulkier belt to go with the thicker arms and boots, the latter of which have some shoelace detailing that isn't present on a normal Cap. I like the sculpted stars on the front and back as well as on the shoulders, as they go nicely with the textured torso that Captain America figures were missing before. Combining all this onto the classic template for Captain America generally makes this a win, but I will admit that I wish he had a wash to make these colors darker on him than normal. Ultimate Cap was one of the edgier takes of Marvel characters in that universe, so I was hoping that he wouldn't look as plastic and bright compared to the main Marvel Cap, but as it stands, it's weirdly in-between the two. Feels more like how modern Caps would be depicted with a hint of MCU. Some say that the arms look a little scrawny, mostly the shoulders, but everything else is otherwise fine.
His head sculpt is much slicker than on the average Cap, giving him a more helmeted look rather than a traditional mask that Captain America normally has. I like that the sides of the helmet are sculpted with linework added to contrast the smoother surfaces surrounding the eyes and forehead where the A lies. The skintone and lips look better than on most figures made recently, but the fleshtone paint could be a bit less wonky. At least it all looks crisp on him. His articulation is about the same as Iron Man's, but there is a waist joint to go with the diaphragm joint that is present with this Cap. The boots swivel on Ultimate Cap while the lower legs couldn't on Extremis Iron Man. You can give him his angry face to make him ready to fight against evil while his shield is clipped on his left hand. This shield has the details painted on with no sculptwork whatsoever, though I do wish that the blue and red were the same shades that were used onto this figure. It'd go well with making him appropriately harsher than the regular Captain America from Earth-616.
You can place the shield on the back with his left hand looking as if it is about to grab it from there, and it can also use the same peg used for the back to be held in the right hand as he is about to throw it. IT does look a little less goofy in some angles, though.
He is one of the two figures in this review that comes with pieces for Puff Adder, with the head included with the First Avenger likely because Cap decapitated him with his shield. If you don't plan to complete the BAF, you can at least pose Steve holding the head as he says "Alas, poor Adder...I knew him well..."; alternatively, the socket is a little tighter but you can have the villain wear Cap's undersized body to make a more comedic look. For those who don't know the backstory of this guy (unless you'd suddenly care about him if he appears in the MCU), he is a member of the Serpent Society with the ability to bulk up his body thanks to his strength and abilities reminiscent of the snake he is named after. This version of Gordon Fraley is depicted as African while other artists depict him as Caucasian.
For a comparison with the Earth-616 version, here he is next to his classic counterpart from the very first wave of Retro Marvel Legends. Ultimate Cap is a slightly taller figure than his Earth-616 counerpart, who has used the mid-2010s era Grim Reaper body mold that had been used on a handful of other figures like Whirlwind and Namor. The retro figure also has the chainmail texture printed on rather than sculpted, which is okay but not as nice as a sculpted torso. His shield is a little smaller but it does have the star and stripes circles sliglthy raised in relief from each other in contrast to the printed-on details of the Ultimate Cap. Ultimately, it's a case of one figure having a more dated mold but has somewhat fitting comic proportions vs the newer figure that has slightly weaker proportions (especially if you have seen AnthonysCustoms ramble about them). But neither Cap will take center stage as my definitive version of the character. Stay tuned for a future review...
And here he is with past Ultimate Captain Americas, one created by ToyBiz and the other made by Hasbro back in the Terrax wave, IIRC. The old ToyBiz figure is a retool of the Face-Off 2-pack version that came with the Red Skull, replacing the Earth-616 bits with the Ultimate details in addition to a darker, more realistic paintwork. While that figure is very dated in terms of proportions, I will say that the paint apps and sculpted details are exquisite, something that makes Hasbro's look severely flat by comparison. If it had some of the dry brushing that ToyBiz added to the sculpt work, this newer Hasbro figure would be even better than it already is. The first Hasbro version was a weird hybrid of Earth-616 and Ultimate, though this version came with gray legs and a vest; a later version tried to better resemble Earth-616 Cap but it kept the belt and chest harness in addition to still retaining the weird ball-hips that make articulation more awkward to work with compared to the hips Hasbro made for their figures. So in short, give the paint detailing of the ToyBiz figure onto the Hasbro one and we're all set.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
And going back to Earth-616, here we have Orb. Now, I never intended on getting this guy, but I got him by accident because the Amazon shippers sent me this guy instead of Ultimate Captain America. Yes. He looks like the Marvel Legends figure that would warm pegs easily either because it is poorly made or it is a super-obscure character Casuals won't care about. The giant eyeball head is actually a helmet that is worn by the evil motorcycle stuntman who had a rivalry with Ghost Rider, though he did fight against Spider-Man as well as Hawkeye. His name was Drake Shannon, and he died by some Plantman's stimuloids. This figure doesn't look too great compared to the others. It feels like a worse quality version of the Bucky Cap body it's reusing, which I thought was retired by this point, but the joints feel more flexible while the thigh swivels are unusually loose as well a the hips looking a bit discolored. It's quite unusual seeing this in a lot of Marvel Legends of late when they're lower-tier releases. I know people like to go "HASBRO BAD" when they're ranting about their current stuff and treating it like they were never good the same way IGN does with Sonic, but this is pretty weak. No other paint apps or sculpt work, the blue straps and the stars on them look poorly applied without a second transfer, and there are not enough stars. The eye got a lot of attention with the paint work as well as a slightly-raised iris, but beyond that, the gloves, the belt, and the collar, it's nothing all that new from what I can tell.
Since we went over the eyeball head being the best part about this figure, his articulation is the same as every Bucky Cap, including the pinned joints as well as the ab crunch and waist swivel combo. His accessory is a sole gun, with no alternate hands for him to speak of. He does come with the right arm of Puff Adder, which appears to use the same tooling as Caliban from 2019.
The Puff Adder arm comes with an alternate open hand that can hinge downwards, though without it you can have it do some Haunted Mansion malarky as it tries to creep out Orb.
Overall, this wave currently has Puff Adder in an incomplete state due to the way a lot of the figures are turning out being mediocre. Orb is one of them, what with his quality control and basic reuse nature. Shame because I do dig the jackass motorbike stuntman aesthetic combined with the eyeball helmet, but he feels like an afterthought made solely for whichever Ghost Rider is currently available to beat him up. At the very least, Extremis Iron Man and Ultimate Captain America are worth getting overall, so I can't complain too much if Amazon refunded me so I can use the money on Cap again. Still, how the fuck do you confuse a guy with a predominantly red outfit with an eyeball head for a guy who's mostly blue and has a shield, Amazon?!
Final ranking: ⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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