The Marvel Legends line has a new approach with releasing BAFs as Deluxe figures, which is fine for the most part if we get a few improvements and a reasonable price tag. Some BAFs manage to be pretty good on their own, like Retro Card Kingpin, while others suffer from falling apart easily as we've seen with Monster Venom. At times, they're saved for a multipack similar to the Juggernaut BAF repainted in classic colors with a newly made Colossus. While BAFs are still a thing in their traditional sense, I should point out that the smaller release of figures starting with 2025 means we won't likely see as many BAF waves as we have in the past, especially with the inclusion of the mini comic waves. Let's see what the newest BAF turned Deluxe figure, the Lizard, has to offer. I'm sure you all know who he is, especially with Spider-Man being the face of Marvel, but does anyone notice the DOOM imprinting for the packaging? They want to remind fans of Avengers Doomsday, even with a character who may not appear in it.
Here we have The Lizard in-hand. Straight away, you'll notice that although he captures the hunched posture with animalistic leg structure to boot, the problem is that the legs suffer from having such limited range that keeps his legs from even being close to straight. I know that it's part of his posture, but posing him with the tail as a tri pod almost makes him look like he's taking a dump. The rest of the figure looks fine in terms of sculptwork, but the paint is either inconsistently applied, like the wash on the scales (including the back of the neck being detailed while the front side somehow has no wash added), or it just looks bad (the bottom of the coat clashing with the rest looking pristine). Sure, the torn up areas on his clothes are cool, but that's common on many "ravaged" character designs that do put more thought in the detailing. If he was made to look dirtier all throughout, then maybe the price would be easier to stomach. I say that because most of the figure is generally good, yet the poor paint apps and nearly permabent knees compromise this version of the Lizard. Oh, and the joints are pinless, so for anyone bragging about how much better Hasbro's Marvel Legends is with their pinless system, why do they leave their older figures with pinned joints instead of updating them? Surely, they can spruce up the budget for just a head, imagine them going further with this.
The head sculpt is one improvement I like about this version of Lizard. Instead of leaving him with a single, static expression, this new noggin at least lets you display him with his snout open or shut, and I like the anatomical-accuracy with the reptilian edge strengthened while keeping true with his more ferocious character designs. Wish it was painted even more, though. Articulation consists of a triple neck joint (a peg where the head connects, a ball joint at the top of the neck and another ball joint for the bottom), snout opens and closes as mentioned, the tongue is on a hinge, all of that sounds good, right? The rest of the articulation ranges from standard affair to poor, with the shoulders rotating on the sockets they attach to given this was once a BAF, and the rest of the arms move in and out without popping off when trying not to be hindered by the coat overlay. Bicep rotation is good, same for the double jointed elbows, and the wrists swivel and hinge in and out; that reminds me, why do we not have alternate hands for this figure when the budget could have at least given us a pair of fists? Sure, Lizard's more likely to claw at Spider-Man than punch him, but anything would have helped ease people in paying $40 for this. The ab crunch and waist swivel is already dated yet fairly functional if not for the lab coat restricting some of the possible range you can achieve. Hips are on ball joints, thighs swivel, knees barely bend, and the ankles can hinge as well as pivot. As for the tail, while the base of it is on a ball joint, there are two points meant for a swivel hinge combo: in the middle and near the tip, yet the latter has it bending side to side rather than up and down. I get wanting to pose his tail without making it rigid, but was it hard to get a bendy wire inside there?? Sure, it would be costly to produce, but so is the price you pay for this thing!
He has an alternate head based more on the McFarlane artstyle, which is easily the best the Lizard has ever looked. I'll easily take a horrific monster design like this over the original dopey design he used to have. Sadly, nicely detailed as it may be, there is no articulation for it. And as for the scale, I know Renew Your Vows is slightly taller than normal for most fans, BUT surely that can be fixed by having the Lizard's legs slightly straighter. People will say that we can mod our toys if that bothers us, but as I always say with these issues WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO!!!
For anyone wondering, the original version was cast in darker colors for the green and purple yet still had a mostly pristine lab coat. For as grimey as the scaly skin appears, surely Hasbro would know he's likely lurking in the sewers waiting for his next move against the webhead himself, right? The head sculpt is more dinosaur-like than the newer version, and awesome as it looked, I don't find it too appropriate as for the Lizard as the heads he comes with. This figure should obviously not be confused with the retro Card version that is closer to the classic look with that toothless head (with optional monstrous head included with alternate hands and beakers.
Overall, I really wanted to like this version of the Lizard, especially with Hasbro releasing some of the more desired BAFs for anyone who missed out on the original runs. I can almost see the effort put in this figure with the swappable head and some of the wash used on parts of the toy, but it's more of a case where they added a few improvements, left a couple of flaws untouched, and somehow added more problems. I would say to wait for this to go on sale, but even with the item going out of stock, you got people saying this is the best version of the Lizard for Legends. I'd argue you're better off with the ToyBiz versions for doing the design more favors overall. With the way fans eat up a lot of these sub par releases and claim they're better for their brighter colors, we'll never get any proper improvements for these figures. Part of this is why I plan to retire collecting soon if we keep getting less while they charge more. With all that said, oh no...Doctor Connors' class. I got so caught up with what I was doing, I forgot all about him. He's gonna kill me...
Final ranking: ⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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