Wolverine was already a character I've generally bought versions of in the past, and this is no exception. I've been a fan of his character since I first got into the Marvel universe, and I always loved his costume design, his claws, and how much of a badass he is either on his own or as part of the X-Men. I've admittedly sold the Heat Claws version, but that was mostly because I was moreso interested in getting the 85 Years version for how much better it was at representing the Astonishing era costume. Now we're getting into the X-Men 97 reuses with blank bodies and part swaps this time. It's a bit of a duality situation since we got one Wolverine based on a retro design and another based on the then-modern Ultimate Marvel look, but we'll get into that later in the review. Let's see which version of the adamantium-clawed superhero is the best option to choose!
Here we have Secret Wars Wolverine in-hand, who is in the old brown costume design that most fans prefer over the tiger stripe design. The reason why the brown is brighter is to honor how the colors looked on the old toy, which was amusingly made by Mattel back in 1984. Yes, the same company that is set to regain the DC license after briefly losing it to McFarlane for half a decade previously made toys meant for the Marvel franchise back in the day. Other than the trunk detailing on the hips as well as the boots and gloves, the rest of the figure is all deco like with the old toys. Some things never change with Marvel figures. I think the figure generally looks fine beyond that, but I wish the legs were either somewhat bulkier to match the upper body's physique, or the shoulders should be bigger than they currently are. It was fine on the X-Men 97 version, given they had the shoulder pads in place, but these look so out of place next to the rest of the body. Also, the deco for the arm hair looks very amateur, almost like someone tried using a pencil on the biceps to draw on him.
His head sculpt is admittedly the best part of the figure, with the unique shape for the "ears", the smirk he has, the lips looking natural and not like lipstick, and the stubble being better integrated than the arm hair. His articulation consists of a ball and hinge combo for the neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, double-jointed elbows, wrist rotation, inward wrist hinges, an ab crunch, a waist swivel, ball jointed hips, thigh rotation, double-jointed knees, and ankles that hinge as well as pivot. In addition to his claw hands, he also has an unmasked head, seemingly new to this figure. The deco somewhat matches the stubble on the masked head, but not exactly.
As for the Secret Wars gimmick, Wolverine has his own shield accessory with a lenticular pog that can be either the Logan head or the masked Wolverine. It's clever how only the mouth area remains the same while he's got the rest of his face covered up and claws deployed.
As for X-Treme Wolverine, he may look like the Ultimate version, but this is still Earth-616 Logan, meaning he never banged Mary Jane in Peter Parker's body. Thank Stan the main Wolverine never did that. This figure reuses the upper body from the prior figures we covered, but the legs are entirely new, as is the belt. I look at how the straps and added details on the pants make me wish the torso wasn't smooth. If the yellow on the upper body was etched somewhat, or if the X-Men logo was raised in relief, that would have been fine, and the same could be said for the gloves, just so they could look like they were made for a specific costume. It's almost like how the original Ultimate Wolverine had his arms and legs sculpted properly while the torso was smooth by comparison. And do I need to say more about the shoulders being undersized and the legs being a little skinny to some extent?
His head sculpt is well made but is a reuse of the yelling Wolverine head we got in the past. Not only that, but this is the only option we have, so I hope you're happy with having him mouth agape on your shelf in a vanilla pose! The articulation is the same as before, so that's at least good.
He also comes with the alternate hands that came with the 85th anniversary Wolverine figure. If you could add some glasses to him, you could make him look like the nerd emoji if it were angry. With how many parts are reused, would it not make sense to at least give him an alternate Ultimate Wolverine head, even if it may not be the right height for him? I have the Secret Wars version, which sort of matches his facial structure, yet has the somewhat wrong head. It still looks better than his old toy's ugly head. Also, painting the yellow on the butterfly joints can easily mess up the pattern on the torso if you move them back.
For a Logan comparison, here are the two Logans of this review made in-between X-Men 97 and 85 Years. I personally think 85 Years is the best out of the quartet, what with how the physique matches Wolverine the best as well as the shades of yellow and blue being the best. Hell, this is my favorite Wolverine costume out of the ones he's worn, and the Scott Johnson artwork we got from the Marvel Heroes branding helped make it definitive in my eyes. X-Men 97 was good for a version of the character closer to the cartoon, but it's worse in some ways from the Love Triangle or single release versions (the hues being off on 97, for example). Out of the two recent Logans, if you had to pick one over the other, I would choose the Secret Wars version. It's got issues of its own, but I can at least say that the costume design, the association with a specific toyline, and the option to switch his heads give him an edge over the missed opportunities of X-Treme Wolverine.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Secret Wars)
⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (X-Treme)
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