I have a long list of classic characters I want in Legends form, re-dos of older figures, and slight costume variations for some of my favorite characters, but I do love it when the Legends team can introduce me to a variant I never knew I wanted. The shining silver adamantium skull with flames making the shape of Wolverine’s mask was instantly appealing to my inner 14-year-old metal head. In fact, I was a little bummed he was the figure that skipped the BAF part because I wanted this more than some of the other figures with the parts. Let’s take a look at the Weapon of Vengeance, AKA HELLVERINE!
Is this the first wave of the Legends in the new style box? It’s the first I remember at any rate and it’s a little weird to be honest. I’ll get used to it as the figure is still featured nicely and the art is still pretty prominent, it’s just the box feels so weirdly flat and easily stackable. How absurdly convenient! Ah well, it’s all recycled for me anyway.
This figure feels pretty light on accessories with just two sets of hands (fists and claws), and the main thing I would have liked was an alternate head with an open jaw or a hinged jaw, though I could see that hinge not working great due to the flame placement. There is a kind of spoilery alternate head from issue #2 of Hellverine that might have been a nice inclusion. Maybe grip hands so he could more easily ride a flaming motorcycle would have been cool. The flaming claws feel pretty tight, as I tried to pop them off like you can with a lot of Wolverine’s claws and I just ended up pulling the hands out of the sockets. I wasn’t willing to risk damage doing more research on their swapability, sorry.
Sculpting is pretty familiar as this is mostly a tried and true standard Wolverine base body, with the belt from Krakoan Wolverine but the flaming skull and claws are great looking and effective sculpts with translucent plastic that sell the flame effect perfectly. I actually really like this base body, it’s one of the real leaps forward in Legends Wolverines, but I have a metric ton of this figure, so I could see people might have this base body fatigue. Turns out, it might not actually be the best base body to use.
Having not read the Ghost Rider and Hellverine issues prior to buying the figure, I didn’t know that he was more in his Krakoan look in the issues where Hellverine appears. The browns don’t quite match, but you can swap the flaming skull and claw hands on if you like. The gloves almost are a match for the main brown of the Krakoan Wolverine, but his gloves and boots were lighter so they are more contrasty. This does match his look on one of the covers and he is drawn fairly inconsistently in the issues I saw.
The paint is pretty standard legends fare, though there is a slight misalignment to the white teeth that I think could benefit from a wash, but I love the shiny metallic skull and the orange/red lowlights on the flames. I do kinda miss the arm hair. Maybe it burned off. Heh.
I really like the articulation on this body personally. I haven’t been super impressed with the range of motion from Hasbro’s ball and socket mid-torsos and heads lately, so the return of the classic hinged ab and neck from this older body is actually welcome for me, but like I said earlier I can understand the fatigue. I’m also peg-blind so the lack of pinless joints is not a deal breaker for me, though I do feel like the minority in the Legends fandom on both of those scores.
Overall this is a fun, weird variant that fits the theme of this wave and Wolvie’s anniversary nicely. Not a must have, but a good time and he piqued my curiosity to read some comics that I enjoyed. I’m looking forward to Hellverine issue #3 hitting the Marvel App and I like how he pairs with Ghost Rider in this spooky season.
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