Marvel Legends Doctor Doom/Firelord/High Evolutionary/Psycho-Man review review

A while back, the Fantastic Four took the spotlight as they were obtained at cheaper prices, while the same can't be said for the villains. See, Doctor Doom was the priciest, followed behind Firelord as second-priciest, before Psycho-Man and then High Evolutionary took the spotlight. It's something that you can expect depending on who gets the attention, though as we'll get to, some of these figures do get unique treatment from one another in terms of overall quality. With all that said, let's get into the review of these four villains of the Fantastic Four.

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 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Legacy Dead End review

After we covered a solid Deluxe in the form of Dragstrip and a not-too-hot one in the form of Wildrider, we're now set to see what Dead End has to offer. if you ask me, there's not much else to talk about with someone like G1 Dead End, since he's a bunch of misery guts that you really can't pity. He's probably best known for having a Cyberverse counterpart that has more personality than in G1, which I did want to buy before Kingdom, Studio Series, etc took up my attention. But after 7 years of owning Combiner Wars Dead End, let's see what this guy has to offer.

Here is Dead End in his vehicle mode, a Porsche 928-esque alternate mode with a decent amount of sculpted details and good proportions to the actual car. The red plastic used doesn't look too bad, and I am happy to see we have a handful of paint apps for the headlights, wheels, and stripe, the latter being toy-accurate yet making him feel complete (it's even given a subtle sculpt to make it easier to apply). The black for the front bumper weirdly reminds me of a neckbeard, and if the rest of the front was painted, it'd make a weirdly British face. The black for the windows is glossy, which helps its contrast with the rest of the car's more matte finish on the reddish plastic.

The back of the vehicle mode looks a little weird due to it having the legs of the robot mode sort of present from the bottom, but the rest of the proportions and side profile work well. I do not like how the back portion of the alternate mode, specifically, the parts that become the feet, do not tab in that well, especially when both legs are combined together.

The twin guns he has are pretty solid thanks to the paint apps and the unique design they have from both Dragstrip and Wildrider, even if they're once again black and purple like with Dragstrip.

For a vehicle mode comparison, here he is next to his Combiner Wars counterpart; I'll be honest and say that I prefer the look of the CW version, just because there is a bit of a badass look to his alternate mode, from the bigger wheels to the sleeker design; I know the Legacy version is cartoon-accurate and all, but Combiner Wars is definitely cooler in terms of looks, even if the elbows have the broken-up part in the middle of the doors.

And for a group shot in vehicle mode, here he is with fellow Stunticons Motormaster, Dragstrip, and Wildrider. All four of these characters have their own unique strengths and weaknesses, though I feel like Dead End's alternate mode might be the weakest, just because it doesn't look as cool or sleek as the others. It's not a bad alternate mode, but it can be a little more generic.

Transformation is sort of like the Combiner Wars version in terms of how the steps work; the front becomes the backpack, the arms are made from the sides of the doors, and while the legs may not open the same way or transform with a waist swivel, they function in a similar manner nonetheless. In actuality, it uses the same type of engineering found in Dragstrip without making him a heavy retool, as the transformation scheme is almost identical between the two different robot designs. The robot mode definitely feels like a blockier version of the CW design! The upper body looks pretty cool, what with the color break up between the torso and arms, in addition to the nice use of silver and black to make him look more complete than had it not been there. The legs, on the other hand, suffer quite a bit due to the thigh-shin balance ratio being slightly thrown off on top of the feet looking almost nonexistent. I also do not like how unpainted the lower legs look. Maybe some gold on the rectangles would help a bit.

Head sculpt is pretty much Dead End's, with the typical black helmet and visor+mouthplate combo found on some lesser-known Decepticons that aren't close to Soundwave's popularity. The purple is metallic yet the orange is glossy, but they help add an extra bit of color. His articulation is the same as Dragstrip's, with a neck swivel, shoulders that move front and back, in and out, bicep swivels, elbow bends, waist swivel, hips that move front and back, in and out, thigh swivels, knee bends, and ankle pivots.

For a robot mode size comparison, he is shorter than his Combiner Wars counterpart and has the closest resemblance to him among the other Stunticons in both CW and Legacy. I mean, Dragstrip looked pointer in CW, Breakdown's proportions aren't wonky in Legacy yet comes at the cost of being a mold mate of Wildrider, and Wildrider either had the unrelated Offroad or a reuse of Dead End! And then there's Motormaster. But that being said, I think I like the overall look of CW Dead End more just because he felt better proportioned and cooler than his Legacy counterpart if I'm being honest. Hell, his legs might be better proportioned, though they both have tiny feet.

And for another group shot with his teammates, he's about equal in height with the other Deluxes and obviously shorter than Motormaster. I know Breakdown's going to be a reuse of Wildrider, so following what PvP said, the top half of Dead End is as good as Motormaster and Dragstrip while the lower half is about the same as Breakrider.

The figure splits in half similarly to Dragstrip, and much like him, he can only become an arm (a left arm, so no Scramble City abilities, sorry). As an arm, he's got the same results as Dragstrip: connecting onto the skeleton frame for Menasor and becoming the left arm while keeping the articulation intact. Overall, Dead End is an okay figure that feels like the middle point of the Stunticon quality. As the fourth and last new mold of the team, he's pretty much necessary to complete Menasor but is otherwise lacking on his own in a way similar to the other Wave 3 Deluxes.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Transformers Legacy Skullgrin review

Some characters don't get as many toys as others, and that also applies to the Pretenders in the franchise. Bludgeon has been a pretty popular dude, getting a shitton of figures since the Revenge of the Fallen line, while certain characters like Splashdown never got any love from HasTak. I'm still not that interested in Pretenders since they feel like Playskool toys that would only add a little if done right. If Hasbro was willing to take advantage of the engineering that's reached over the years rather than make bricks with blocky proportions to activate the neurons of the average 80s manbaby, then MAYBE I'd give the idea was chance. Until then, I'm sticking with the approach that these characters have of combining design traits of each mode, which is continued with Legacy Skullgrin.

Here is Skullgrin in his tank mode, taken from the inner robot's alternate mode yet being much more refined (or so you would think). You know how people say that the alt modes for Cybertronian characters in the Movies look like robot parts performing yoga? Megatron's first two designs, The Fallen, and Shockwave are described as having alt modes that don't look like anything, but I'd argue they're much better designed than Skullgrin. The design of this tank mode is messy; there is no real flow between the front and back, the white parts of the tank are exposed between the more armored parts of the figure, and the front looks blocky as hell and looks unfinished like on Titans Return Megatron, the back has the tank treads but the front doesn't (unless they're hidden underneath), and the back is cluttered apart from the twin barrels of the turret. This guy is such a mess in vehicle mode.

The turret can rotate, and the barrels can move up and down. The swords/bayonets, which are PVC as many pointed out, can peg onto the sides to try and add some bit of flow, but they're moreso meant for added firepower.

For a vehicle mode comparison, I think it's amusing how despite being a Core Class figure, Iguanus manages to remain as a better designed figure than compared to Skullgrin, what with the alternate mode looking a little less compromised by comparison.

Transformation feels like a mix of something new and vaguely familiar to Studio Series Brawl in some way, shape, or form. The tank treads being part of the back of the legs is cool, and the shoulder assembly within the chest is not too bad. The robot mode takes elements of the Pretender shell that have been a common trend for these characters; it's a pretty cool approach that they've done with these designs, resulting in a much more refined figure that works much better than expected. Still, it does feel pretty blocky and reminds me of a cosplay that someone would make if they wanted to do a Transformer with a bull-skull type of head. I'm not a big fan of how the color scheme reminded me of Titanium Megatron, the worst Transformer reviewed by the Plastic Addict. The generic look of the torso is contrasted by the spikey hips, shoulders, and knees as well as the tank treads on the back of the legs. Oh, and I like the twin-barrel cannons, even if Onslaught started that trend. He also has a little tail, too.

Head sculpt is the coolest part of the design, as it's got a pretty sinister look with the teeth and tusks, and those horns are pretty solid on him in terms of look rather than the materials, though the pink eyes are a little unusual. Oh, and I forgot to flip up the smaller horns. His articulation consists of a ball-jointed neck, shoulders that move front and back, in and out, bicep swivels, elbow bends, downward hand movement if you count it, a waist swivel, hips that move front and back, in and out (though the hip armor means you have to try to wedge it into the hips), thigh swivels, knee bends, and ankle pivots.

For the accessories, his twin bayonets have the ability to be either used as guns or swords and again, while they're sculpted and painted nicely, was the decision in making them rubberized materials really smart? The back cannons can peg underneath the forearms as underslung firepower, OR you can remove the tail so you can combine the weapons to make some impressive weaponry. He's kind of like a Weaponizer or even Thrilling 30 Whirl and Roadbuster!

For an unexpected reuse, this is the G2 Cybertronian, aka the foot soldier of Jhiaxus. The upper body is retooled while two alternate heads are available to use: one with a Punisher skull helmet design with gray horns, and one with white horns and a green upper portion of the head.

For a robot mode size comparison, he's a Deluxe. Iguanus is a Core Class. Nuff said. I think I like the latter more just because his design is much cooler than what we've seen with these inner Pretender robots. So yeah, Skullgrin's okay if you're interested in having some of these more obscure characters, though the PVC materials and the messy tank mode make him pretty mediocre for different reasons from Pointblank.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐