Written By Dan Hickman • Toy Editor
She-Hulk and Nova Marvel Legend Action Figures! Sometimes lightning strikes twice. In this case, I happened upon She-Hulk in the wild and immediately had to grab her. Then, two days later, while in Walgreen’s I was completely stunned to discover that the exclusive Nova figure was finally in stock!
Naturally I had to grab one and decided, in the merry Marvel tradition, that a Team-Up review would be fun.
So, strap in and enjoy the ride as Dan’s ToyBox takes a page from the house of ideas and shares a look at both the She-Hulk and Nova Marvel Legend Action Figures!
Jennifer Walters, attorney at law and cousin to Dr. Bruce Banner nearly met her end at the hands of a mob assassin.
The bullet wound was so severe that Jennifer needed a blood transfusion to survive.
Banner, without thought or hesitation, donated his own gamma irradiated blood to his dying cousin.
The transfusion was a success and in addition to saving Walters, mutated her in much the same way as her cousin.
However, in her transformation to the She Hulk, Walters retains her intellect and will to do good, while also gaining incredible strength, stamina, and resistance to injury.
Review: Marvel Legends Team Up! She Hulk And Walgreen’s Exclusive Nova 6 Inch Action Figure
Teenage Richard Rider was living a rather uneventful life in Hempstead NY, until the day the dying alien Rhomann Dey, the sole surviving Centurion of the destroyed planet Xandar’s fabled Nova Corps, randomly chose him to receive his power and become the new Nova Prime.
Rider was injured in the transfer and while in the hospital was telepathically told of his new powers by Dey.
Dey also sent Rider one last gift, his uniform. Rider found that he could now fly, possessed near invulnerability, super strength, and to his surprise learned the suit also had a sealed life support system.
Unfortunately, Dey died before he could properly teach Rider how to use these powers.
So, Richard set out on his own to become a hero and do whatever he could to help people, all the while learning how to use and hone his new skills.
Eventually Rider would be called off-world to serve as a protector for the reconstructed planet Xandar.
After some time though, Rider longed to return home to Earth and was stripped of his powers then sent back.
While trying to get by, taking whatever jobs he could, Rider was grabbed by the masked hero Night Thrasher and thrown from a roof.
Before he could splatter, Rider’s powers kicked back in and after confronting Thrasher, learned that the hero had been studying him and had theorized that an intense jolt of adrenaline to his system would help restore the powers.
Thrasher then asked Rider to join his new super-team, the New Warriors.
Nova would play a key role in several adventures both with the Warriors, solo, and teamed up with the Amazing Spider-Man throughout his career.
Image: Marvel Comics Group
Finding both of these figures, literally within two days of one another, was a very pleasant way to end a busy work week.
Getting them out of their packaging and posing them around was very rewarding, for the most part.
I do have some gripes with She Hulk, but am absolutely thrilled with Nova.
So, with that in mind, let’s see how these two heroes fare when seeking the coveted Triple A : Accessories, Appearance, and Articulation.
Figure inclusions
She Hulk comes with two head sculpts and two pairs of hands; one fisted, one grasping.
As this She Hulk is based on the grey skinned (she) Hulk figure previously released, she has the savage face sculpt with hair flying all around and a second, relaxed, very beautiful sculpt of the calmer version.
I’ll get into the appearance shortly, but suffice it to say, I really like what they did with both head sculpts.
Nova comes with two pairs of hands, one fisted, one karate chop (for flight poses) and the Xandarian Worldmind, a sentient computer possessing the knowledge and experiences of deceased Nova Corps members as well as the planetary population of Xandar.
There is also a clear plastic stand for the Worldmind.
As far as accessories go, both figures are a little light, however, getting two amazing She Hulk head sculpts and the Worldmind are pretty nifty additions that make both figures worth having.
I’m pleased with what was packed with both figures and can say that the first A is definitely earned for both figures.
How do they look? In a single word… Magnificent.
That being said I do have some gripes with both figures and will share where appropriate.
She Hulk’s two head sculpts are incredible. The hair coloring is layered and really gives depth to her.
What I really enjoyed most though was when examining the savage face, I discovered that She Hulk’s eyes were yellow, whereas the calmer face sculpt gave her normal green eyes.
The paint detail applied to her mouth and lips is very precise and the teeth on the savage face are painstakingly painted with no overspill or excess application.
The torn white short is sculpted nicely and looks great on the figure.
Of course, we’ve seen it before on the previous grey skinned (she) Hulk figure. This body is simply a re-use but still looks fantastic.
The torn pants are a gloss black with no other paint detail applied but still look great with the amount of textured sculpting applied.
My biggest complaint though, with this figure is the different green on her body.
She Hulks abdomen and upper thighs were merely painted green, over the previous grey sculpt, which renders a more muted look to those body parts.
Meanwhile, her head sculpts, hands, upper torso and shins/feet are a much brighter green.
It’s very disappointing to look at and see the difference when posing her around.
I’m uncertain as to whether those brighter parts were cast with a green plastic, which I’m assuming happened and if that’s the case, why not just do the same thing with the abs and upper legs?
The worst part though is that the distinction is very visible where the upper and lower torsos come together.
The white, torn shirt is meant to hide it, but unfortunately doesn’t fully cover the joint.
The frustrating point though was the fact that I noticed the differences almost immediately upon opening the figure.
It probably shouldn’t bother me as much as it does, but… it does and that’s a source of contention for me with this figure.
Review: Marvel Legends Team Up! She Hulk And Walgreen’s Exclusive Nova 6 Inch Action Figure
Nova, on the other hand, looks very nice.
The ONLY problem I noticed on mine was a slight scuff on one of the nova bursts on his chest.
Otherwise the figure looks good. The body is molded all in blue with gold paint apps on the torso and legs.
The arms and hands are molded in gold, with blue paint apps around the wrists.
The helmet, to me, more closely resembles the gold paint applied over the blue body, in terms of it’s dullness.
The red nova flare on the helmet is muted and the flesh tones on his jaw are applied evenly.
The Worldmind is molded in the same gold as his helmet and the red and black paint appliques really highlight the accessories appearance.
Otherwise, the sculpting is typical of what we get for the Bucky/Cap body mold and the Worldmind itself is minimally sculpted with little other detail.
I suppose that a wash could have been applied over the body to give more depth and illusions of shadow to the sculpt but overall, Nova is still a nice looking figure.
I’ll give him an A for appearance, but in spite of the good things with She Hulk, that mismatched green disappoints and lowers her appearance rating a few notches for me.
As always, we round out our review discussing the figure articulation.
I can tell you right now… things don’t look too good for She Hulk. First off, her long flowing hair, on both head sculpts, severely limits her head articulation.
She can look side to side, but you have to move the hair itself over her shoulders to do so.
She won’t look up at all with either sculpt and only the savage head sculpt can look down much, again due to the hair sculpting.
Her shoulders will do very nice T-Poses and rotate 360 degrees.
She has a very nice upper bicep swivel, single jointed elbows which bend in very, very deeply and wrists that hinge and pivot on both pairs of hands.
She Hulk’s upper torso will turn side to side, but has very little forward crunch or back bend.
She can’t tilt very well side to side either.
She has no waist swivel, nor does she have any lower ab crunch either.
Her legs will split very, very nicely and can kick forward quite far.
Unfortunately, her rather shapely rear end prohibits her legs from kicking back at all.
She Hulk has and upper thigh cut, which is very tight on mine and double jointed knees which really bend nicely and give her a tight calf to quad stretch.
Unfortunately her calves’ thickness prevents her from kicking her own backside.
Lastly, her ankles hinge up and down and do have a decent pivot to them.
Sadly, aside from some decent punching poses and running/kicking there’s not much to get excited about with She Hulk’s articulation.
The limitations due to body sculpt make her more of a shelf ornament than a key diorama piece for me.
Review: Marvel Legends Team Up! She Hulk And Walgreen’s Exclusive Nova 6 Inch Action Figure
Nova, on the other hand, moves like a dream.
His head articulation is solid, with unhindered side to side and very deep head forward and backward hinging.
He looks amazing in flight poses!
The shoulder pieces rotate separately from the shoulders themselves, and thereby allow for full 360 degree rotation, and give him the ability to raise his arms higher than 90 degrees out from his body.
His upper bicep swivel works very well, double jointed elbows which bend beyond 90 degrees, and fully hinging and rotating wrists allow for spectacular arm poses.
Nova features an upper diaphragm crunch which bends forward and backward very far, again lending itself to some great in flight and landing poses.
His waist swivels but has no crunch, which is fine.
His legs do very deep splits.
I was astounded by how far out his legs kick to the sides.
They kick forward very high and backward somewhat.
He has an upper thigh cut which turns easily, double jointed knees which bend in far enough to almost give him heel to butt action and ankles that hinge up and down, with plenty of ankle pivot.
This figure is exceptional when it comes to posing… punching, flying, landing, you name it… the posing is effortless and really looks incredible.
I’m quite pleased with this Nova!
So, there you have it folks, Dan’s ToyBox first ever Marvel Team Up Review.
While I really enjoy both figures, objectively, She Hulk overall was a disappointment to me, really only earning a single A.
At the price point of about $22, I am sadly giving She Hulk a 2 out of 5 toyboxes.
Nova, on the other hand, earned his Triple A and also at the price point of $22 is well worth 4.5 toyboxes out of 5.
As mentioned earlier, Nova is a Walgreens exclusive, but you can find She Hulk online at outlets such as Big Bad Toy Store.
Thanks for checking out the toybox and, until next time… Geek Out!
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