Marvel Legends Death's Head review

Hrn. Death's Head is a freelance peacekeeping agent, not a bounty hunter, yes? He was one of the many highlights of the Marvel Transformers run, hmm? Many would later find out he would encounter other characters either directly or loosely associated with Marvel Comics; Iron Man 2020, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man, as some examples, right? There is also his unique verbal. mannerisms that feel more creative than the usual quirks writers would come up with to be "funny", eh? Previously, Death's Head was handsomely immortalized in the Marvel Universe line, which had 3 3/4 inch figures, and later received a Legends figure in his second form, yes? Now why not look at the highly anticipated Marvel Legends version of the more classic design, you ask?

Here we have Death's Head in hand. Sculpt-wise, this figure is incredible, as it perfectly captures the larger-than-life physique associated with the character. I love that the armor has some battle damage applied to it, befitting the character's role as a freelance peacekeeping agent, though that is used to the shoulder pads while the skirt armor is relatively intact. I find it amusing that said shoulder pads are held together by a tiny like what you'd see in some bra designs. I greatly appreciate that the paint apps we have going on are plentiful and applied properly overall, with no transparency that plagues some of the cheaper Legends Hasbro usually pumps out. That said, the reused parts here are miniscule but they appear to originally come from Colossus according to some sources. I do wish Hasbro could paint the metallic body parts as they have with Colossus, especially at the price we're getting for a figure like this. Not only that, but the cape, as nice as it looks with its textures and the slight damage implemented for the bottom section, is rigid as is the case with many plastic capes on Legends figures. With the higher price tag, I would have at least appreciated either a wash to go with it OR a wired cape to let Hasbro get some form of added competition against McFarlane and other companies. They could get some respect back after stumbling with the poor decisions they made of late. So to summarize, I love the design and the effort put into the new tooling, but the lack of silver paint and the missed opportunities of the cape do knock some points off.

His head sculpt is marvelously demonic, what with the furrowed eyebrows, the piercing eyes, and the blood-red horns, and that's not to mention the tusks and yellow "teeth" on the mouth region! I just wish there was a coat of silver paint applied to make him pop more. His articulation consists of a ball and neck hinge combo, rotation at the shoulders, outward arm movement, bicep rotation, single-jointed elbows, wrist rotation (with said wrists popping off too easily), inward wrist hinges, a diaphragm joint, waist rotation, ball jointed wrists, thigh rotation, double-jointed knees, boot rotation, ankle hinges, and rockers.

After removing the barely-stable hands from the wrist sockets, you are free to give Death's Head clenched fists or one of three weapons. The axe or spike ball can be placed in the right arm, while the left hand can be shown holding the shield, albeit with the grip in addition to the small size.

The other display options include what may be a missile launcher or a punch dildo, and the left hand can still hold the spike ball if you really want. Interesting how there is no right hand to hold weapons. At least you can put all three weapons onto the shield for proper storage.

If you recall my Studio Series reviews, I normally haven't commented on their backdrops in so long because I lost interest in constantly repeating the same scenes that were included...in addition to never including them back in the first two years' worth of reviews, but you can use the backdrop from the box for the figure if you're not going to throw it away. Compared to the Marvel Universe version, I am happy to report that this is more than just an upscale of the 3 3/4 inch figure, though I wish he was painted silver in some areas like that figure. Marbleized plastic doesn't do the sculpt justice.

For a size comparison, here he is in between two of the characters he interacted with, such as Spider-Man and Shockwave. The latter was known for getting killed by him. I find the scale to fit fairly well for either collection, though neither Marvel Superheroes nor Transformers can be put together simultaneously (in addition to Death's Head shrinking after an encounter with Doctor Who). Overall, Death's Head is close to being a perfect figure. I feel this dude has a whole lot more passion put into him compared to the other larger, more Deluxe figures we've had in the same year, whether it's Deluxe Jean Grey's overpriced set that'd make Toy Biz purists laugh, Odin having all marbleized plastic, and Hulkbuster Iron Man being taller more poseable, and including numerous display options than the Select version yet having a weak deco. Death's Head generally looks great, has plenty of fun display options, and represents a great bit of value for money sorely lacking in Legends, but some issues are holding him back right now. I do hope that my copies hands are the only ones that come off too easily, so in case it's a one-off issue, I'll keep this at a slightly higher rank. Let's hope we get a Transformers redeco, yes?

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of five ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐