Written By Dan Hickman • Toy Editor
Hasbro’s retro figure wave and tremendous packaging really brings back the nostalgic feel of the Nineties Toybiz figures and the 1994 Fantastic Four cartoon. As much as I like the regular packages for Marvel Legends, the retro card style is a lot of fun to look at and much easier to hang on the wall after opening. Today’s review will focus on the retro wave Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman action figures.
Launched into space in an experimental rocket, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Susan Storm (later Richards, after marrying Reed) and her brother Johnny were forever changed after exposure to cosmic rays.
This incredible spatial phenomenon gave each of the four unbelievable superhuman powers.
Reed’s body became extremely pliable and rubbery and he gained the ability to stretch it to great lengths.
Ben Grimm’s physical appearance suffered the most as he underwent a transformation which turned his body rocky and orange in appearance.
His physical strength and endurance increased far beyond normal human range, thus making him the physically strongest member of the team.
Susan Storm gained the power of invisibility and the ability to project invisible force fields and blasts.
Johnny Storm’s radical change allowed him to entirely turn his body into a living flame, giving him the ability to generate massive amounts of heat, fireballs, and the freedom of flight.
With these newfound powers also came newfound fame and media recognition.
As the newly minted Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and The Thing, the Fantastic Four are truly Marvel’s First Family fighting evil wherever they find it!
Review: Marvel Legends Fantastic Four Retro Wave Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman Action Figure
As previously mentioned, our two for one review today will cover Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic and Sue Richards aka The Invisible Woman.
The first iterations of these figures were originally Walgreens exclusives and are packed with roughly the same accessories.
I am really happy that Hasbro released this version with the darker blue and white costumes as those are my favorites of all the team’s uniforms over the years.
We have seen these body types before, so we’ll be familiar with the articulation aspects.
Following our formula, we will take a good look at these figures to see if they both can receive the full Triple A for Accessories, Appearance, and Articulation.
In looking at Mr. Fantastic, he comes with a lab coat overlay piece, extra arms with the white lab coat sleeves, 1 pair of normal grasping style hands and 1 pair of hands with “stretchy” fingers.
We’ve seen the stretched finger hands on the Super Skrull BAF Wave from a year ago.
The Invisible woman comes with her force field projecting hand, a relaxed hand and a pair of fists as well as an “forcefield” shield effect that fits on her fingers.
We’ve also seen these before with each of her previous figure releases.
I do like the lab coat with Mr. Fantastic and the fact that all four hands are interchangeable on his lab coat sleeved arms and the blue costume arms.
I am, however, disappointed that the stretchy fingers are the only indicators of his power.
I liked the longer stretched arms from the Walgreens exclusive and I think a set of those with this figure would have been better.
Overall, the lab coat gives a bit of a boost, but we’ve seen the rest of these accessories before, so yeah, I’m not impressed enough to give them their “A” for accessories.
Not a particularly positive beginning, so let’s move on to appearance.
Review: Marvel Legends Fantastic Four Retro Wave Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman Action Figure
Both of these bodies have been seen before.
Mr. Fantastic is the exact same body as both previous configurations and the head sculpt is the same as the Walgreens Exclusive.
However, the paint applications on this figure are particularly nice.
As I mentioned, I’ve always been a big fan of the white and blue costumes and the design works great with this figure.
The white lab coat looks really nice and matches the sleeved arms surprisingly well.
I was a bit concerned that the white paint over the blue body might be a bit more transparent, allowing the blue to seep through, however, there are enough layers of white to give it a solid appearance.
I really was impressed with the black number 4 on the chest logo.
It’s painted very cleanly as are the rest of the white sections.
I was pleased to not see any smudging, or uneven paint lines on the boots, belt or gloves.
My only real issue with the belts are the seams on the sides of both Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman.
There is a definite break line in the seams and that’s difficult to cover up.
I would have also liked to see a bit more detail on the lab coat, maybe have the buttons painted, but I can’t complain too much because it really does look nice on the figure.
Reed’s head is also very well done, with the raised eyebrow and the gray temples.
I feel like the paint applications on this head are better than the previous versions.
The same can be said for Sue’s paint applications.
Her costume paint applications are all very clean, very vibrant, and look stellar.
My biggest issue is with her head and face.
I believe this is supposed to be a younger version of Sue as the hair style is reminiscent of her mid-80’s look but the face sculpt is very different from both of her previous versions.
The paint apps look great from the bright red lips to her eye details and even her blonde eyebrows.
The problem is that she looks very severe and has a very square jaw.
When I first looked at her, it drove me nuts trying to figure out what actress she looked like.
Then it hit me…this facial sculpt looks just like Jessica Chastain’s character “Vuk” from the movie “X-Men: Dark Phoenix.”
I was floored and shared this with Mrs. ToyBox who agreed with me.
After realizing that my figure looked like a blonde Jessica Chastain, I developed a greater appreciation for it.
That all being said, I do really like how both of these figures look and to be honest, as much as I liked the Walgreens exclusives and the Super Skrull BAF wave set I really prefer these new retro style figures more.
Reed and Sue both earn their “A” for appearance.
Review: Marvel Legends Fantastic Four Retro Wave Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman Action Figure
So, these figures are one for two on the Triple A factors.
Let’s talk about how well they move.
Because they are Marvel Legends, we are very familiar with their articulation, so the quick rundown on Reed… his head can look up and slightly down, and turns side to side.
Shoulders on both arms rotated 360 degrees and can raise out to very nice T poses.
He has upper bicep swivel, double jointed elbows which bend in very nicely and both pivoting and hinging wrists on all four hands.
Reed has a diaphragm crunch which goes forward well and does bend backwards nicely.
Coupled with the less muscular design of his sculpt, this hinge looks good when moved both ways.
Reed’s waist will pivot and sadly, his legs only split to maybe 45 degrees.
He has a good upper thigh swivel and very deep bending double jointed knees.
Lastly, his ankles have terrific hinging action and that wonderful Legends rocker.
Sue on the other hand has some articulation limitations.
Her head will look down somewhat, but the hair sculpt limits movement all around.
Her head will turn and the hair is soft enough to move over the shoulders.
Her shoulders will also rotate 360 and she can hit an almost perfect T pose.
Sue lacks an upper bicep swivel but her single jointed elbow, which goes to about 90 degrees can also rotate. Each of her hands will hinge and pivot.
Sue has an upper diaphragm joint which doesn’t crunch forward or backward very well but can hinge and tilt side to side to a degree.
She has no waist pivot (which is common for this body type) and like Reed, her splits are limited.
Her upper thigh cut works and her double jointed knees will bend in quite well.
Also like Reed, her ankles hinge nicely and have great rocker action.
I am more disappointed with her articulation than Reeds, so I’m going to give him an A, while she earns an A-.
I would like to see this female body mold gain a waist swivel, which would help considerably.
The Marvel Legends Fantastic Four Retro wave Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman are both solid if unspectacular versions of previous FF releases.
That being said, I do think the biggest redeeming grace is the uniform color schemes.
I can honestly say that these are my favorite versions of all three Fantastic Four waves.
I found mine at a price point of about $22 each and with affordable pricing like that and the overall figure attributes, I am comfortable giving Mr. Fantastic 3.75 out of 5 toyboxes and the Invisible Woman 3.5 out of 5 toyboxes.
You can find these and other Marvel Legends figures at Big Bad Toy Store.
Thanks for checking out the toybox and, until next time… Geek Out!
Related: Review: Medicom Mafex #143 Ben Reilly Spider-Man 6 Inch Action Figure
