Review: Black Panther (2018) - Marvel Legends T'Chaka and Civil War Black Panther

The second wave of the Marvel Legends Black Panther figures from the movie were ones that I was extremely excited about. I was just looking online for who-knows-what and I saw the prototypes of all of the wave. There was also a silhouette of Shuri who is not part of the wave unfortunately. Maybe hopefully she'll be released later on in the year. I am however excited to have the King of Wakanda, King T'Chaka and his son, T'Challa. What I'm not so excited about is the outdated body that they used and the fact that T'Chaka is just a retool of an outdated mold. 

All of these were found at 2-3 different GameStops in the first two weeks of January... Thankfully there was a promotion that if you bought a $5 bag you get whatever fits in the bag 25% off. So I did. 

T'Challa/Black Panther (Civil War)

The boxes this time around are different, the plastic case is detached from any of the cardboard. You can slide it out and even take the plastic cover out while leaving the figure in the tray which is convenient and might be a clever way to display these figures.

"After the dead of his father T'Chaka, T'Challa must assume

the Black Panther mantle as the next king of Wakanda"

You get really nice artwork on the sides and it doesn't show prototypes of the figure in the back.

I've seen the Giant-Man Civil War Black Panther in reviews and pictures online. I saw that this suit would be a part of the wave but I didn't expect it to be a reissue of said figure. Which is a shame because the 2018 Movie body that they used is superior to this one is many ways. The body looks odd and he has most of his bulk up top. The bicep pieces on my figure are flipped and are on the wrong side, I might fix that at some point but it's unfortunate that the figure was assembled incorrectly.

The detail though, for an outdated figure is good. All of the details of the suit from the movie show and it looks accurate. The helmet in my opinion looks a little off, it looks more like a comic book helmet rather than an actual prop.

As you can see, the necklace and the neck are two separate pieces. I do like the design of this one but the sculpt here doesn't look quite right.

Sadly, he comes with very few accessories, one of them are clawed hands which come attached and a head. He is very poseable even without those butterfly shoulder joints.

There was a bit of warping on the left leg since the extremities are made in a soft plastic.

I'm glad I have some Civil War figures to put him against. This is however, not necessarily a Civil War figure since the suit does show up at the beginning of the movie.

Either way, very cool figure. Let's take a look at the T'Challa head.

 The T'Challa head looks a lot better this time around, it's not perfect however. Have you seen the pictures of the Mafex Black Panther?! That T'Challa head looks amazing! However for a $20/23 dollar figure this is pretty okay. He has a smirk or a side smile much like the Mantis BAF Star-Lord figure, it looks just as silly sometimes although he does do that admittedly. Watch the movie, Chadwick loves doing the side smile.

Okoye: "Just don't freeze when you see her."
T'Challa: "What are you talking about, I never freeze."

 Such as great-ish figure, Ahhh! It could have been so much more but from certain angles it looks great. I hate how the arms flare out due to the sculpt but what can you do.

"Nakia... Hi..."

T'Chaka (Black Panther)

The former King of Wakanda before T'Challa was crowned. He is his father of course who was unfortunately assassinated in a bombing during Captain America: Civil War. He has a very fancy uniform however it's just a retool of the Civil War suit. It has gold accents instead of silver and the helmet design is new.

"As king of Wakanda, T'Chaka assumes the Black Panther identity and with it, the responsibility to protect the sacred metal, vibranium, and the honored history of his kingdom.

You get some artwork of the king on the sides of the box.

So. This figure is just a retool which is incredibly disappointing. I was looking forward to this figure since I didn't expect to see him in action figure form. He only appeared at the beginning of the movie.

And retool yes, the head and the majority of the legs are new. The boot potion is but the foot isn't which I don't understand why they couldn't have just made a new foot piece.

The helmet is distinct from T'Challa's other two helmets. There is a lot of gold on this one and it's fair, he's the king so of course it'll be fancy. Especially at the beginning where he's escorted by the Dora Milaje. He doesn't come with any other accessories but he can use the heads from the other figures, you can get away with those being Atandwa Kani, who is John Kani's son both of which played T'Chaka in the Black Panther.

The robe itself is a separate piece that comes off. It's nicely painted and it has a lot of intricate detail that you can enjoy all around. It's extremely colorful and it's probably my favorite thing about T'Chaka.
It even has detail on the inside of the robe, I'm not sure if it's part of the detail in front or not but it doesn't look like it.

Without his robe, T'Chaka uses most of the pieces that T'Chaka uses. The main different besides his helmet is the legs, they're loose pants that don't have the straps like the Hot Toys figure which looks amazing by the way. The feet are the same as T'Challa's but unpainted.

As much as the robe looks fantastic, it gets in the way, so getting cool and dynamic poses is a pain.

I still hate those bicep and shoulder joints. The robe likes to ride up in certain poses if you raise his legs. As far as his legs go, since the robe is pretty thicc, you don't get much give. I would make a cloth goods robe but it looks so darned complicated.

Let's compare to the Civil War Black Panther.

As you can see, the everything from the hip joint and up is exactly the same.

The feet are not painted on T'Chaka, and I can't really see T'Chaka without his robe, he just feels incomplete.

Here he is with the robe next to T'Challa.

You can see the differences between the 2018 Black Panther body compared to the Civil War one, they should have just retooled the new one and it would have been perfect.

Here he is with The First Ten Years Civil War Steve Rogers and the Wal-Mart exclusives Marvel Legends Bucky and Falcon.

 It goes perfectly with The First Ten Years line and all I need now is the rest of the team. If only I could get Scarlet Witch and Vision for a good price.

The cool part about this is that you get a decent T'Challa head that will fit perfectly with the new body, and if the arms weren't so darned bulky holding his helmet would be easy. 

I just noticed this, his helmet is very small, it looks as if it's just his head and once you put the unmasked head and he's holding his helmet like in the movie, it just looks strange! How does the helmet fit his head?

Anyway, they're good additions to the collection and I regret nothing in buying them! Especially because getting the Giant Man BAF wave won't be easy. Either way, get them now while they're still fresh! As far as I know they're only at GameStop, I haven't seen them anywhere else.