This will be a Strange review. And that will be a painful opening line. And now we begin.
It has been a long time since we got a classic Doctor Strange in the Marvel Legends line. We got a modern one a few years ago, and we’ve had a large amount of movie figures that resemble that Bigglesby Cudgelflog guy to various degrees. But a classic Doctor Strange has been noticeably absent.
Until…now.
The old Toybiz Doctor Strange was more cape than man. It was a definite choice of a figure, with a huge cape that took up a lot of real estate but never felt all that “fun” because of the sheer biggitude of that cape. You could make it work, but…it was just a lot, man.
With Doctor Strange now being a genuine movie star, one had to wonder just when a brand new, classic version would show up. It’s taken quite a bit longer than I would have thought, but now that it’s here, I have to say that I’m probably 90 percent satisfied. There are a couple of things that keep it from being perfect—as insurmountable an obstacle it is for that to happen anyway—but it should be an overall people-pleaser.
The body is a mixture of some new things and some old things, but most of it is new. The legs are from whichever bare-legged body they initially came from. I thought the arms were going to be from Dormammu/Red Skull, but they seem to be brand new. The torso is also new, with a sculpted symbol for Strange’s chest. The cape was used on a previous modern version of Strange. The skirt is new as well. So…there’s a lot new.
There was a lot of talk about the lack of distinction in the blues between the symbol and Strange’s shirt. To be honest, it could definitely stand to have more of a tonal change, but it’s also a lot more noticeable in hand than initial pictures seemed. So it’s not terrible, but a little bit lighter than it is now would have been ideal.
For articulation, most everything works fine, but a few things get in the way. First of all, the skirt would have been better if it had been slit up the side on both sides. As it is, it’s slit on one side, which helps a little, but his legs still feel trapped by the skirt. I think if the same treatment had been given to both sides, he’d be able to more successfully pull off his cross-legged astral magic whammy pose. Of course, you can always cut the other side yourself, but I kind of hate doing that to my figures. I usually like to leave them as factory as I can.
The cape is obviously a big chunk of plastic, and I’ve gone on record as stating that I’m firmly in the “hate plastic capes” camp. Usually you can replace the capes, but this time they glued the cape down into his chest.
Now to be honest, this is good and bad. On one hand, this solves the annoying floating cape problem that a lot of caped MLs have, because those back-pegs just don’t do a damn thing in keeping the capes securely in place. But on the other, if I want to replace the plastic cape with a bespoke fabric option, then I’d have to risk screwing up something in order to deglue the cape from the chest, and you’re left with a hole that might not be covered up by a fabric option.
This is definitely going to be one of those damned if you do and damned if you don’t type of scenarios that will affect you based only on where you come down on the cape issue. Within the language of Marvel Legends, where plastic capes reign, I actually don’t have an issue with the glued down cape. It’s far better than the cape just sliding around willy nilly. So this is a general positive mixed with as slight personal negative, but I can overlook it.
Man, that was a whole thing, wasn’t it?
Strange comes with two sets of hands. One set is a grippy hand/fist combo, and the second is a set of spell hands. These are not just repurposed thwipp hands, but genuine spell-casting hands. They’re not just carbon copies, as one set has closed fingers, and the other has the fingers in the same general position but slightly open. Spell-casting requires precise fingerwork.
Strange comes with three different heads. The regular head is fantastic, evoking an overall broad-era Strange look that still hits a distinctive bronze age flavor. As that’s the Strange I was first exposed to it hits all my nostalgia buttons. The paint printing on comic-based figures is adding a huge amount of quality to the figures, ditching the surprised look of so many figures.
The second head is a sleepy Strange head with closed eyes, perfect for deep concentration. It has a more relaxed hairstyle. I like it for what it represents, but would have liked it even more if it had an opened Eye of Agamotto attached to the forehead, since that was a common thing he did. But for something with a little broader usage, it’s an excellent headsculpt.
The third head is a blue-masked head to represent when Doctor Strange wore a blue mask. I’m not an expert on Strange comic stories, but I think he wore a different costume when he wore the blue mask. If you’re not too anal about such things it’s a nice inclusion, but I’ll be sticking with the regular head as my default.
He comes with a set of magical effects that attach to his hands.
Finally, he comes with two magical accessories. One is the very iconic Wand of Watoomb, and the other is the more recent addition, the Axe of Crackalackin.
Wait, that should be “Axe of Angarruumus.”
On a purely visceral note, I like the idea of Doctor Strange wrecking shit with a magical axe.
Despite the few issues I had, this is overall an excellent addition to the consortium of new figures for iconic characters that we’ve been getting over the past few years. It has felt like a long wait for a new classic Strange, but they waited until they could do it right, and not just rush out a hastily cobbled mess. A few things could be better, but I’m satisfied with the final product. After what…16 years or so, it’s a welcome addition.
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Source: Fwoosh
