By Loran
Alright, so after a few more articles on Joes and whatnot, it’s time to go back to another figure from Toybiz’s Marvel Legends days. Let’s look at another girl, and the first lady of the Avengers… Wasp.
Wasp came in series 15 of the Toybiz Marvel Legends, packaged with the legs for the MODOK Build-a-Figure. And like a lot of other figures in the later years of Marvel Legends, she came with a variant. Two, in fact! Two really nice variants. Neither of which I have. One came in blue and the other in red, both with the classic hairstyle, with the mass release coming in her most recent outfit with short hair. The variants proved pretty popular, and fetch pretty decent prices on the aftermarket, with the mass-release being very easy to find. And with good reason.
At its core this figure isn’t bad at all. For the most part, the body is well-designed and she’s as posable as you’d expect any Legend to be. But there are a few problems with the sculpt that I’ll be getting to.
I found the proportions of the body Psylocke used to be much more… befitting I guess. Something about Wasp’s body seems off, particularly around the waist. She seems to be suffering from a severe case of diaper-crotch. It doesn’t really hurt her from a functionality standpoint, but it just looks off. I think most of the problem is due to the paint applications. The solid black just makes it look weird. I thought black was supposed to be slimming!
Thanks to the simplicity of her paint scheme, her paint applications aren’t that bad, certainly not the trainwreck I had with Psylocke. The neon green is an attractive shade and it looks great against the black, like some of the stuff from the G.I. Joe movie toyline.
But then we get to my biggest problem with this figure: the head. I’m sure there’s a good head sculpt under there, but the gloppy paint applications kind of ruin it. It looks like she’s wearing too much eye makeup. I’m sure that could have been drowned out if I had the version with the longer hair, but this just doesn’t look right, and I can’t quite explain it. Really, I think if there’s one reason why the variants sold so much better than regular version, it’s this.
However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that would have to be her wings. They’re mounted on clicky joints like a Revoltech figure, so they won’t droop or anything. While the shape is too… manufactured for my tastes, they work very well from a functionality standpoint, and that’s what matters.
I was really disappointed with the Marvel Legends Wasp, and unfortunately we still don’t have a full Marvel Universe figure to make up with it. If you’re REALLY dying for a figure of her at this scale, skip over the main release and go for one of the variants. She’s not a TERRIBLE figure, but the variants blow it out of the water. If you want some version of her, drop by FPNYC and look for one yourself!
