One of the most recent waves that has been showing up at GameStops this month is the M'Baku Build-a-Figure wave with all MCU versions of characters from Black Panther which was one of the first MCU movies that I watched in theaters while it was still out. I paid about $5 total for myself and my family! AMC Stubs rewards can be convenient, although I haven't been going to AMC enough to have a lot of rewards lately. Around that time, I only had a single Marvel Legends figure and that was Pizza Spider-Man since it looked cool, awesome articulation and many accessories! At that point I only had a couple Figuarts and they're expensive and I wanted a good Spider-Man figure. However! I had heard that Hasbro bought the rights for Power Rangers and they would eventually make the toys. And in order to see if these were up to par to the 5" figures and the Legacy Collection ones I got two figures. Black Panther and Erik Killmonger. This was before I saw the movie so I thought that Erik was just an "evil" version of the Black Panther... boy was I wrong. Anyway, I love the movie and these figures are pretty awesome so let's take a look.
"A warrior and defender of Wakanda. T'Challa is the hero of legend, Black Panther."
The main draw for this was, it was out and the movie had just come out. I had seen an animated Avengers movie where he appeared and I thought the character was cool. His other appearance that I was aware of was in Captain America: Civil War and I thought the suit looked amazing! It was very Tokusatsu since it was a full body suit and it reminded me of the Gekiranger uniforms. This particular one is from his own movie, it's the upgraded suit that they use and the whole uniform is stored in the necklace which you can see is sculpted an painted with a nice silver paint. The uniform is a basic matte black and the only paint applications are done in silver and a bit of white for the eyes. The claws of his boots are the only things I have in mind that aren't painted which is unfortunate.
The suit has a lot of little details throughout that give it a slightly armored or plated look but it's not distracting. It's a lot more than I would have thought of putting for a live action Black Panther suit. Looking at the scene, this figure captures the details a lot better than i thought, the detail is even on the plating and not just in between plates. If you look closer it's textured throughout.
The helmet is probably one of my favorite parts of this figure, the ears are feline in their appearance and the silver outlines just make it stand out. It even has the little black panther nose. The triangular designs along the forehead, seriously, pictures don't show how nice the details of these figures are.
As for accessories he comes with fists, claws and an unmasked head.
The head... looks nothing like Chadwick Boseman, not one bit which was disappointing even when I first bought the figure. The face printing is done well although it doesn't look like him, he's not as scruffy or the hair isn't as poofy. I feel like the hair is slightly offset to the left since the widow's peak isn't center.
The fists have detail on the back hand and aren't painted. You can use them for a Wakanda forever pose since the shoulders are on butterfly joints. The clawed hands have the same detail on the back and they're actually patterned on the palm as well, the claws are painted a nice silver color but it isn't perfect. The shape of the hand is weird and the claws are sloppy.
Erik Killmonger
"A warrior of physical and mental strength, Erik Killmonger slashes into battle with unrivaled intensity."
Initially when I saw him I just thought he was an evil version of the Black Panther since the suit doesn't look that much different and honestly looks like a zombie. Looking at it much closer there's a jaguar print throughout the suit.
The solid gold accents on the claws, instep, and back hand of the gloves look amazing. I think this is where most of the effort for the paint went instead of T'Challa's suit. It even has painted claws on the boots! The necklace and neck seem to be a separate piece but it seems faded since it's probably gold-ish plastic. The teeth on the necklace are silver instead of tooth colored.
The head is a different story, it's messy and all over the place. The jaguar print isn't as prominent as it should be. The gold along the lines is a little too strong and sloppy with the teeth. I can't believe this was one of Shuri's designs, it just looks so... evil? I wonder what the backstory to this suit was.
Killmonger comes with quite a few accessories, open hands, holding hands, a sword and the broken spear. The claws on this are longer and a lot more menacing! These hands don't look as weird as T'Challa's.
The holding hands can be used as a loose fist hand or a "clawing" hand if you get what I mean but they're meant to hold his weapons.
I love these weapons, they're not a generic sword and spear. They're very different from all the weapons I see in other figures. The broken spear stands out since it has the most amount of paint. Gold detailing with some brown accents in the wooden tip at the bottom and the rope holding it together (?).
The overall articulation is really good, double jointed knees and elbows, butterfly joints, thigh and bicep swivel. Ankle rocker joints, wrist swivel and hinge. Shoulders and hips that go in and out, forward and back. Very poseable, I am used to Bandai hips, which mean full splits and much like my disappointment with Pizza Spidey's hips which was my introduction to Marvel Legends... they cannot do the splits! Which is essential to any superhero! Especially Spider-Man and the Black Panther!
Here it is in comparison to the Legacy Collection Metallic Red Ranger, they're in the 6" scale and I think the quality control is a lot better overall, I have seen some funky figures and I have a couple figures with janky bent legs but nothing as bad as I've seen in the Legacy Collection line.
I'm excited for the Lightning Collection coming out in a couple months and hopefully a good mix of characters.
In the end, the two together look amazing! The ankles can be annoying at times but that's a small issue, they can do what they need to do and I don't have a lot of issues standing them up, at least most of the time. I do wish T'Challa had come with holding hands so he can hold Killmonger's weapons but it's okay. They're not as easy to find in stores as of late but I have seen them in Best Buy or even online they should be cheaper. I got these at full price when they came out and at the time it was very much worth it, it led to this Marvel Legends rabbit hole which keeps growing and growing...
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