In 2020, the Hasbro team celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the first Fox X-Men movie with a set of releases from the Fox franchise - including figures from the original X-Men movie, X-Men Origins and Deadpool 2. Originally planned for SDCC 2020 before Coronavirus caused its cancellation, a further part of the anniversary line was the two pack of Logan and Charles Xavier from the 2017 R rated Logan movie. With SDCC postponed, the set became a Hasbro Pulse Con exclusive and went on sale globally during the Pulse Con virtual event in September 2020.
This review covers the Logan figure in the set, don't forget to check out our corresponding Logan review.
Packaging 4.0
On arrival you are faced with a fully sealed box, with a glorious front artwork of a silhouetted Logan kneeling to face Charles in his wheelchair. This is overlaid with an outlined X-Men logo, with the Marvel Legends logo in the centre and the Hasbro logo bottom right. It is worth noting on this front cover that the handles of Xavier's wheelchair do keep catching the eye and look like a scratch. There is also some overstickering used on the EU release in the top left corner covering up what we assume is some US only info.
The side panels of the box follow the other Fox X-Men releases with a coloured ice blue backdrop and then another black silhouetted image. Charles Xavier sits on the right spine with Logan on the left.
The back of the box is a repeat of the front with the addition now of a section of safety and legal text at the base of the image.
This outer cover is actually one of the often used sleeves that hasbro do like to employ on their Exclusive sets. The odd thing here is that the sleeve was taped in place and if you don't look for that and try to slide it off with any force it will damage the box.
Beneath the outer sleeve is the full box design for the X-Men line with that ice blue base colour. The front of the box carries a solid black X-Men logo and the character names in white panels. The names for the set are as seen in the movie - so we have Logan (not Wolverine) and Charles Xavier (not Professor X). The figures are set against a lovely yellow backdrop which does make the whole box pop compared to the usual dark colour scheme we have on most Marvel Legends releases.
The side art is the same as we saw above with the silhouette images of Logan and Xavier. This is repeated on the back of the box. There is no inclusion of background text, movie synopsis or even character bios as seen on most other Marvel Legends releases.
The figures are accessed via either side panel and slide out in an inner plastic tray that itself sits in the yellow cardboard backing piece which we can now see carries another X-Men logo as a black outline.
Charles needs a little bit of extra care when removing him from the box as there are some relatively fragile pieces at the extremities of the wheelchair that are tucked securely into the inner tray. Charles is also packed into a second tray piece that itself is attached to the wheelchair.
Paint & Sculpt 5.0
Marvel Legends have been getting better and better with their movie headsculpt likenesses, and this Charles Xavier head may be one of the best yet. The likeness to this older Xavier / Patrick Stewart is uncanny (pun intended) and is so realistic from any angle - complete with liver spots, furrowed brow and the thin grey beard. Simply spectacular.
The head is sat on a torso piece that looks to be re-use of the shirt from the recent Stan Lee figure and has also been used on the Peter Parker retro figure. It has been cast in a dark blue with a checked pattern applied in a thick light blue and a further thinner purple pattern. This is accurate to the costume in the movie, just perhaps a little too bright and might have benefited from being slightly muted.
The cardigan is a new piece applied as an oversleeve piece in a rubbery plastic. This is cast in the base colour with some detail added to the braces you can see underneath. It is sculpted to sit bunched up at the waist to show Charles in the sitting position - which then works brilliantly with the Wheelchair.
The lower legs are from the Coulson suited body and are cast in a dark grey. Charles doesn't get his slippers, but instead the shoes are painted in a gloss brown.
Accessories 4.0
The Wheelchair piece is the same one as included with the younger Charles in the two pack with Magneto. This is fairly accurate to the Logan movie - but of course the chair in the movie was motorised and Charles had a control box on the left hand side which is missing on this version. It is cast in a grey plastic with brown leather look seat and padding, brown grip handles and black wheels.
Articulation 4.0
Charles has a total of 18 points of articulation. This does mean he has full movement in his legs, although that of course would not be screen accurate. The Coulson legs do suffer from a balance issue where the feet are blocked from some positions when laid flat so ironically, Charles is very difficult to stand up anyway.
Head : ball joint pivot neck
Body : T-Joint chest, rotating waist
Arms : ball joint shoulder, bicep swivel, double joint elbows, wrist pivots
Legs : ball joint hips, thigh swivel, double joint knees, ankle rockers
We get full movement in the arms, which is what we need and this allows Charles to gesture from his chair, to reach down as though propelling the wheels - and with the double joint elbows he can als touch his forehead or stroke his chin thoughtfully.
Charles sits in the chair fine thanks to the waist and knee joints. The feet don't always meet the foot supports, and Charles has a habit of sliding out of the seat far too easily. It will take a bit of work to get him to a pose that you are happy with - and then he may still slide out of it and onto the floor.
Logan cant quite hold on to the Wheelchair handles with his own articulation at the wrists, and the hand shape, not quite getting into the right orientation. You can however prop Logan's hands on top of the handle to achieve the look of Logan pushing Charles in the chair.
Summary
Charles Xavier is arguably one of, if not the best head sculpt Hasbro have produced in the Marvel Legends line to date. The likeness is spectacular and the details in the face are numerous and so lifelike.
The body is not quite as impressive with the cardigan and shirt a little too bright and the legs a re-use and not fully accurate to the screen slippers Charles is wearing when he and Logan make their escape. The chair too has some discrepancies, being a re-use from the younger Xavier set - it should really have some form of controls on the left hand side to be screen accurate.
Charles was always the supporting part in this set to Logan and the two look great posed together. The box is perhaps not as impressive as other exclusives, but with the sleeve removed it is consistent with the other X-Men releases for a matching MIB display.
I score the Charles Xavier from the SDCC / Hasbro Pulse Con 2020 exclusive Logan set a very commendable 4.0
Figure Hacks
When the Marvel X-Men Xavier figures were confirmed by Hasbro, I went out (as am sure many collectors did) and picked up the original ToyBiz movie X-Men Xavier chair. I am pleased to say that with a bit of work our older Charles does sit in the chair and looks pretty good. I do hope his younger self looks as impressive when they finally arrive.
action figures, reviews, review, articulation, marvel, legends, hasbro, pulse, pulsecon, logan, wolverine, charles, xavier, professor X