Welcome to our review of the Marvel Legends First Ten Years Infinity War 3-Pack. The set, part of the celebration of the First Ten Years of the MCU, was released in 2018 and is the 10th set of the series and is themed around Avengers : Infinity War. The set comprises of 6 inch scale action figures of Iron-Man in his Mk50 armour, Thanos and Doctor Strange. In this review we look at Doctor Strange.
Packaging
The 10th set of the 10 Years of the MCU releases brings us right up to date with an Infinity War based pack containing the main protagonists of the battle on Titan - Iron-Man, Thanos and Doctor Strange.
Like all the 10 Years of MCU packs the usual scooped sided Marvel Legends pack is abandoned in favour of a standard box with the Marvel Studios logo prominent on the top left. A smaller Legends logo sits to the side of this.
The characters are visible in a red framed window, and the character names sit within this as Iron-Man Mark L, Thanos and Doctor Strange. A large Avengers "A" then breaks the frame in the centre and the movie logo for Infinity War is then placed bottom right.
The top flap of the box features a neat grey Marvel Studios The First Ten Years print, similar to the Black Series shadow text.
The two side spines carry further images and info. The right spine carries some images from Infinity War in individual panels as well as the movies logo. These line up with the other 10 Years releases to make a full montage of the MCU as seen from 2008 to 2018.
The left spine has a bold red panel into which is written a synopsis of Infinity War. We also see the numbering for this box as Legends 10 at the base of this panel.
"A THREAT HAS EMERGED FROM THE COSMOS AS THANOS, A RUTHLESS WARRIOR, PLANS TO COLLECT ALL OF THE INFINITY STONES. JOINED BY HIS FORMIDABLE ALLIES, HE WILL BE NEAR-UNSTOPPABLE AT ACHIEVING HIS GOAL. THE AVENGERS, THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, DOCTOR STRANGE, AND SPIDER-MAN MUST JOIN FORCES AND FIGHT SIDE BY SIDE TO STOP THANOS WHILE THE FATE OF THE EARTH AND THE UNIVERSE LAYS IN THE BALANCE."
The rear of the box has a picture of the movie promo poster to the right and next to this three panels, one for each of the characters included in the box. These are headed by a circular panel and a portrait of each character.
"DOCTOR STRANGE
As Doctor Stephen Strange gets accustomed to his new role as a guardian of the Sanctum Sanctorum and sworn protector of the Eye of Agamotto, this Master of the Mystic Arts will soon discover how much further his universe will expand when the cosmos are in jeopardy."
Paint & Sculpt 4/5
Stephen Strange, out of the box, is an instantly good looking figure in terms of his head sculpt. Upon closer inspection it utilises the new face print technology - although they have given the Benedict Cumberbatch sculpt a slight smirk with one side of his mouth raised in a part smile. This then gives the figure an odd look from some angles - with the likeness looking brilliant from one angle, and then severely "off" from a few degrees to the side. The overriding feeling is that the head may be a touch too slim.
The paint/print apps are very clean with Strange's trademark beard clipped and neat. The hair is well done too with a strand of hair creeping over the forehead. The silver side streaks are also present although quite subtle, as they are on screen.
The body is a re-use of the 2016 Doctor Strange, with a new paint job. The cape is a new piece too and is cast in a textured red plastic that hooks over the shoulder and round the head.
The cape is removable, and that gives us a better look at the robes underneath. The main robes are a lighter blue with a wash of darker blue to bring out the folds and creases. The arms are a darker colour plastic with light blue wraps around the wrists.
The trousers are dark blue almost purple and tucked into black boots. There is an element of the body being out of proportion in places, and the boots do look a bit too big for the rest of the body - although with the cape in place this isn't overly noticeable.
I will have to talk about the time stone FX pieces on the right arm now rather than later on in the accessory section. The reason for this is the bizarre decision to fix them to the body. This lower arm is a new piece from the original Dr Strange and the two green translucent rings are fixed in place. The final ring, slotted into an open palm hands fingers, is also fixed.
While it looks great, it doesn't allow the collector to amend the look by removing the rings. It shouldn't be beyond the skills of the Hasbro team to have made these accessories to give collectors the option.
Articulation 3/5
Our good Doctor has 18 points of articulation, just missing out on a torso joint. The head is maneuverable all round with a ball joint and thanks to the cape design is not restricted by the collar. The other torso joint is at the waist. This is a ball joint so does allow rotation and a touch of forward and backward lean.
The arms start with a ball joint shoulder that has full movement up and round. There is then a bicep swivel, double jointed elbow and pivot wrist joint.
Te legs are slightly restricted behind the lower robes. They have a ball joint hip and thigh swivel, but can't do much more than extend to the side for a wider stance. The knees are double jointed and there are a robust set of ankle rockers. Dr Strange stands perfectly well, but needs adjustment when the cape is in place as it makes the figure a bit lopsided with the extra weight on the back.
Accessories 3/5
So we know the Time Stone FX pieces are not removable. But Doctor Strange does get a few other accessories. The Eye of Agamotto is a separate cast piece in a softer plastic. Ths is cast in black with a gold sculpted pendant piece with touches of green seen beneath the crisscross design. The upper strap is grey and wrapped with the rest plain black. It hangs around the neck quite naturally.
The next part is the magical shield piece, another reuse from the original 2016 figure, and to hold it there is a swap out left gripping hand to replace the casting hand fitted to the figure on his arrival.
The shield piece is cast in a slightly translucent orange plastic with inscribed designs and runes across it with some flame effects licking off the sides.
The original 2016 version did have some white etching this detail, but this has been dropped on the rerelease. It slots into the hand piece tightly and holds in place.
Summary
abc Doctor Strange is another figure tweaked to improve on the original release. There has been a few years since we saw our only other Cumberbatch Strange figure, so this will be a welcome addition for most collectors - although plenty would argue his role in the movie deserved a single release (maybe for 2019?)
The head sculpt in the main is very good, you just need to choose a favourable angle - that smirk can look odd from one side. The costume, which was very good back in 2016, is well painted and the cloak designed to sit well over the shoulders.
The choice to fix the Time Stone FX pieces in place is an odd one, and about the only thing that really lets the figure down.
I score the 2018 Infinity War Doctor Strange a 4 out of 5.
Read about the other figures in this Infinity War 3-pack. Check out Thanos and Iron-Man in their own reviews. Or visit our full Marvel Legends archive.