Wednesday 2 July 2014

AOA Weapon X, aka Wolverine

Marvel Legends AOA Wolverine
With the Age of Extinction Transformers movie coming up soon,  thought I would make that a very loose connection to the one series of comics that make me accidentally call the new movie (AOE) AOA instead, leading to much confusion with those involved in the discussion.

Of course it’s the X-Men series Age of Apocalypse.  I covered Sabretooth from this series a while back and quite liked the figure, despite the simplicity of his design.  How will Wolverine pull up?  Actually, that should read “How will Weapon X pull up” as I am led to believe he never dropped the Weapon X moniker in the AOA universe.


Weapon X (or maybe Logan depending how lazy I feel) comes in a lovely blister card that you have to completely destroy to get out of the pack.  It’s pretty standard stuff with a little bio and wave buddies on the back.
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He comes with a foot of Giant man for the almost prerequisite Build-a-figure part.  Have a closer look at the pack and you can see the Astonishing X-Men comic behind him.  What I find rather odd about this, is it’s not actually an AOA comic.  Strange, considering how Weapon X naturally had his own 4 issue run.  It is a general normal universe X-men comic.

The bio picture on the back doesn’t looks like the artwork from the original AOA run either.  I think they revisited it afterwards so perhaps it’s from that?  I heard it wasn’t that good though.  There is a shot of the ‘chase’ variant of Weapon X with his burnt head, I think it also comes with a stump with claws poking out in a representation of what happens at the end of the AOA Weapon X series. Burnt face Weapon X is fairly cheap on the secondary market, but the hairy head is more expensive, but not not by much.  His burnt noggin’ only shows up in the last issue and doesn’t look like Logan, but does look pretty good.

Marvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA Wolverine

Logan’s design, much like Sabretooth’s was pretty plain and basic looking.  Lycra suite and a bit of metal on his stump as his hand was blasted off by Cyclops.  Wooooo!  Luckily though, this means his articulation can shine!

Marvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA Wolverine

His colours are rather plain, but I really like the shading they put to being out the muscle details and things on him.  Considering how in the comics he was a very dark navy blue colour (well that’s what it looked like to me) the shading is good addition.   You’ll notice that he’s missing a hand.  The arm hair on this guy is crisply applied and through and through he feels and looks like a Logan despite his simplicity.  About my only complaint would be the claws, they are soft plastic and as you can see prone to warping. 

His face is great, nice and angry with the red highlights on his forehead and lots of unkempt hair in the ‘ear’ style design of Wolverine.  I love the detail in his eyes and you can that he has a bit of sculpted stubble on his chin.  It’s a shame that it isn’t highlighted a bit more, I guess I could do it myself with a pen… hmmmm.  That’s an idea.  It’s great that you can see that this Logan is a guy who hasn’t yet come to terms with his demons.  He’s still and angry fellow.  I just a great scupt!

Marvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA Wolverine

The metal stub cover is nicely sculpted minus rivets (a Magneto staple by the looks of things) and coloured well, as is the rest of his body.  One odd little thing that has been included is that he has articulated fingers.  Well, a single joint for opening his hands, but the fingers are sculpted into a closed fist shape, so opening it up looks a bit like he is preparing for some monkey-grip.  He still has double jointed elbows, despite the stub arm!

Hey You!Aw, I can't pointMarvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA Wolverine

The paint work on the toy is sparse.  What is there is sharply applied and looks the part and there is  quite a bit of shading on his legs which manages to add texture to his spandex.  The good thing about the simplicity of the sculpt is there is nothing that hinders the articulation.  You can have him in some very nice poses!  I love that he has a lot of articulated joints too the shoulders, even his toes, which when combined allow you to get some incredibly Weapon X / Wolverine like poses.  I like it a lot!

Marvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA WolverineMarvel Legends AOA Wolverine

This is a great figure, he’s small, well articulated and looks exactly like Weapon X from the Age of Apocalypse comics.  Of course that is helped immensely by the simple design Weapon X had in the comic in the first place.  The good thing about that though is this means unrestricted articulation and they have given him heaps of joints through his body.  Sure the only new parts are really his stump and head sculpt, but that’s ok.  this guy isn’t Wolverine, he’s Weapon X.  A bitter mutant (even more so than Wolvey).  If you dig your Wolverines I would recommend this guy, if you dig Weapon Xs I would recommend this guy.  If you dig the Age of Apocalypse I would recommend this guy.  If you comic book hero figures, I would be a bit hesitant as he is a bit plain, but as an action figure he is great!

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