Pros : Great head sculpt likeness. Great body design with textured outfit. Good accessories and alternative hands. Articulation is spot on
Cons : The only gripe you could throw at the figure is the lack of an unmasked Matt Murdock head?
In late 2016 Hasbro announced that they will be releasing 6" Legends figures based on the popular, but grown up, Marvel Netflix shows. The wave, called the Marvel Knights wave, would include figures from Daredevil and Jessica Jones alongside comic book figures of Blade and Bullseye and a comic book Man Thing Build-a-Figure.
Like the content of the shows, the packaging is a lot darker than we are maybe used to from Marvel Legends with a deep blood red theme around the box and a more grown up style of artwork on the scooped side panels. The top panel carries the DD (Daredevil) logo, also in deep red.
Round the back is the usual figure image and a checklist for the whole wave. The bio piece is brief and touches on the way Matt Murdock was blinded as a young boy and his evolution into Daredevil.
Despite there involvement in the show, the Netflix log is not on display anywhere on the box.
Out of the package we now see the blood red card insert is more than just a plain piece with an intricate illustration of some New York style buildings. The figure sits in the inner tray and is surrounded with his batons and two alternative hands. The Man Thing head sits down to the figures right.
Despite being in a mask, with only his mouth exposed, the head is a brilliant likeness for Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and is employing the face print technology to do so. The mouth is naturally shaded and the stubble on the chin is not heavy hand, and is subtle and realistic. The mask/helmet around the head is also brilliantly done with its devil horns and relief sculpted panel lines.
From some angles on display it can look like Daredevil is a little too happy in his work with the mouth, exaggerated by that mask over the nose, looking like it is grinning.
The rest of Daredevil's costume is as impressive as the helmet, and the colouring is superb with that deep red almost burgundy colouring against the contrasting black panels. Look closely and the suit is not smooth, but carries a texture that is part of the sculpt and there are other nice touches like the painted silver clasps around the torso straps, belt and holster.
The only thing spoiling the look is round the back with a coding number of some kind printed on the back of the leg in bright white.
Daredevil is a prolific martial artist and the figure has 19 points of articulation to try and let you replicate some of his stances and movement from the show - although to get into the more dynamic fighting poses you will need a stand of some kind.
The head is ball jointed, while the torso beneath it has the T-shaped ratchet joint, and this allows the figure to be hunched over into a boxers pose when squaring up to the Hand or Wilson Fisk. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulder, followed by a bicep swivel and then double jointed elbows which further enhance those fighting poses by letting the arms bend back on themselves past the 90 degree mark. We finish the arms with a wrist joint that is a pegged hand with a small pivot, although this is virtually impossible to move.
If you need to swivel the upper torso the waist is jointed, and we then move down into ball jointed hips, thigh swivel, double jointed knees and a wide ranging ankle rocker. Daredevil can stand perfectly well in a number of poses and the joints feel tight.
As well as his hand to hand combat, Daredevil also employs a pair of billy clubs. These are individual sculpted with one shorter than the other, as seen in the show. They do come out of the pack a little misshapen having been cast out of a softer plastic. They are not easy to straighten out.
The billy clubs fit into either gripping hand
If you don't want Daredevil fighting with his billy clubs, then these can be stowed in his working thigh holster. The fit is tight, but they slot in and stay in place. You can then swap out the gripping hands to a pair of fists which are included - and unlike a lot of fists on other lines, these are perfectly scaled to the body.
I was also pleased to see that Daredevil scales well against the other male Netflix release of Punisher. Charlie Cox is the same height as Bernthal, both just under 6ft. But it seems the perception from other toy companies is that Cox is a smaller guy and the Select version for example was heavily undersized.
I cannot find much wrong with this figure, particularly at its £22 or so price point. The sculpt is detailed, particularly that texturing on the suit that matches what we see on screen. The head is brilliant using the face print technology. And of course he comes with an appropriate set of hands and accessories. Short of an unmasked head there is not much else Hasbro could do to improve Daredevil and I give him a 5 out of 5.
I now look forward to see if Hasbro will build on this debut Netflix wave and give us the other half of The Defenders.
