



The X-Men Legends avalanche, (although not THE Avalanche) continues, with two characters we've seen before by Toybiz, redone in Hasbro's new style. Are they new and improved, or unnecessary rehashes? Let's find out!





Packaging:





The packaging is the standard Legends fare, and it's still pretty great. My favorite feature of this wave is the specialized team names on the packaging. Cannonball and Boom-Boom have X-Force branding, and Nightcrawler and Sinister have plain old X-Men labels. I didn't get a picture of it, because I'm a buffoon, but I'm sure you can imagine it.





Sculpt:





Nightcrawler, I'm pretty sure, is on a modified version of the Pizza Spidey body with a soft plastic addition to give him shoulder pads, and it works perfectly for Kurt. Nightcrawler is one of my favorite X-Men, and Marvel characters in general, and I, like tons of other fans, have been waiting a while for a new take on him.

The hands, feet, and tail are new, of course, and the tail in particular has me excited for another character Hasbro can make with that tail. (cough* Azazel *cough)





Speaking of, I still have my old Toybiz Nightcrawler, since I turned him into a very sloppy custom Azazel. The new Kurt is a bit smaller than the old, and less articulated. Unfortunately, his tail isn't posable wire. On the other hand, he's much sturdier and less "floppy" than the older offering, although that could just be due to the age of the Toybiz figure.









Mr. Sinister is a character I've long admired. I don't know much about him, but I appreciate how on the nose he is. His name is so very unsubtle, and that combined with his space-glam-vampire look is enjoyably ridiculous. If you asked any average eight year old to design the ultimate villain, the result would probably be very similar to Mr. Sinister





I think he shares some pieces with Death's Head II, although I'm not positive. He's got some new tooling, such as the thigh boots, and massive cape, which are great, and give him a near punk rock vibe.





The collar is also exaggerated to the point of awesome, it's taller than his head!





Speaking of tall, Sinister himself is tall. He towers over regular sized figures, and is easily the biggest one in the wave, besides the Wendigo Baf.





Articulation:





As mentioned, Nightcrawler is on the Spider-Man body, and has all the same joints! Including: A ball jointed head, ball/butterfly shoulders, an ab crunch, bicep swivel, double pin elbows, pin/swivel wrists, cut waist, ball hips, thigh cuts, double pin knees, and rocker ankles.





His tail is also moveable, the base of it is a cut joint that can swivel around. His right hand has up and down movement for sword poses, and, believe it or not, his hips actually have more movement than Spidey! A very nice surprise.





All of Kurt's joints came out nice and sturdy, and there's nary a pose he can't make. Excellent job, Hasbro.





Sinister has a surprising amount of articulation for such a bulky chap, including: A ball joint head, ball shoulders, bicep cuts, double pin elbows, pin/cut wrists, ab crunch, waist swivel, ball hips, boot cuts, double pin knees, and rocker ankles. He's not as posable as Nightcrawler, but someone like Mr. Sinister doesn't need to do crane kicks, you know? He can take plenty of maniacal/domination poses, and that's enough for me.





Accessories:





Nightcrawler comes with Wendigo's left arm and four specific accessories! The first is an alternate head, with a big, goofy grin, and it's easily the one I'll display him with this one. Kurt has always been a jokester, and one of my main issues with the old figure was the grim, serious Leno head sculpt they gave him. I massively prefer this new, innocent one.





The second is another head, with a furrowed brow and an open mouthed roar. It looks great; the teeth and tongue have great paint and detail, and the option to have angry Kurt is appreciated.





Third is an alternate hand, this one a more relaxed open palm. You'd swap this hand on if you don't want Nightcrawler to be in fencing mode. I don't think I'll use it, but the option to use it is nice.





Finally, is a cool, long rapier sword. Nightcrawler is a famous swashbuckler, and although the sword is reused from Citizen V, it's great that he get's a sword packed in. The new paint job is great, and makes it look better than V's did.









Also, Blink's portal effect makes a pretty good BAMF cloud, if you were looking for one.

Sinister comes with Wendigo's right arm, and nothing else. Maybe some alternate hands, or evil science gear could've been nice.





His cape is very impressive, and is actually two layered. It's not removable, but the accessory section would be too short if I didn't mention it.





Paint:





Nightcrawler has really good paint! The blue skin is nice and bright, and the famous yellow eyes came out great. The red and black costume is appropriately vibrant, and there's no paint slop. Fantastic!





Sinister has a very complex costume, but the paint does a great job at making it pop. The blue armor has a metal finish, and the gloves, boots, and cape have a matte effect that suggests leather. The Kiss make up came out good, the lipstick and the eyebrows especially. There are two issues; his hairline bleeds into the forehead, and the gem on his chest is chipped on the very center. Not great, but I'll make do.





Overall:

These are some really great figures, of characters I've long wanted to add to my collection. Nightcrawler is a big improvement to his earlier figure, due to a better head sculpt, and, believe it or not, the lesser articulation actually helps. Toybiz Kurt has like 6 joints in his feet alone, and all of them could make him really difficult to pose, or even stand up securely. The new one doesn't have that issue.

I don't have the original Mr. Sinister to compare, but this one, taken by himself, is really cool. I dig the look, and he's been involved in enough X-Men backstories and arcs that he's essential to add to the villain shelf.

I say go and get them, right now. BAMF if you have to, just get them.





Gallery:



























