Review: Marvel Legends Mister Fantastic, Reed Richards, from The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Mephitsu
- Jul 6
- 5 min read
“It’s my fault. I stretched the bounds of space…”
Our reviews of The Fantastic Four: First Steps Marvel Legends wave is written ahead of the movie release. It contains no spoilers other than the imagery used on the packaging and figures, all of which has been seen in the trailers.
The first MCU Fantastic Four figures landed on the 1st of July 2025 to collectors worldwide, a six figure wave that incorporated the full Fantastic Four team as well as a ‘flame on’ version of Johnny Storm and the new Silver Surfer. The packaging mirrored the dimensions and layout of the current Legends packaging but completely redesigned everything else. The look of the Fantastic Four figure boxes moves away from the usual sleek black to an off white base colour, with deep blue logos and nameplates, and even a blue colour to the ‘Legends’ wording of the Marvel Legends logo. This is very much intended to give the figures, the same feel as the movie, as though coming from an alternative timeline with a 50s and 60s vibe. This even extends to the use of the old Hasbro logo bottom right.
The artwork on the box side is retained but shaped in an offcentre blue frame. These are realistic illustrations against deep orange-coloured backdrops. The full image is placed on the box reverse, where we find the character posed against a bold orange circle. Unusually, there is no background text or synopsis for the movie itself. The figure is set against a blue card back which incorporates the four circular designs that are applied to our four main characters - designs that are also used on the box itself around the character nameplates, apart from on the Silver Surfer.
Mister Fantastic, like his family members, is wearing his version of the Fantastic Four uniform. Like Sue Storm, the Reed Richards suit is blue with a ridged texture that is more prolific around the chest and shoulder area. The gloves and boots are white with black trim, as is the belt. The Fantastic Four logo is applied to a central circular chest panel either as a print or decal, and Reed also features the same wrist device as the other Fantastic Four team members, a silver piece on his right wrist.
The head sculpt is a very strong likeness to actor Pedro Pascal, and very much wipes the floor with those we have seen from Hasbro over in the Black Series Star Wars line in recent years. The face is intensely detailed and sculpted into that ‘look’ that Pascal gives in many of his performances, intensity but bordering on a smile. The facial features are printed onto the head with a particularly realistic set of eyes and some equally impressive facial hair. The main hair piece is cast individually and joined onto the head. It features a base brown colour, but with those greying sideburns that Richards is famous for.
Mister Fantastic, in the base figure configuration, sports 19 points of pinless articulation. These, like the others, are missing a butterfly shoulder and a more extensive torso joint, but we get enough to put Mister Fantastic into some positions, either getting ready for battle or more standard poses as he works out a problem or talks to the press. You can alternate the hands between a pair of clenched fists and a pair of open hands, providing different gestures depending on the pose.
The elastic powers of Mister Fantastic are often recreated using elongated limbs, and Hasbro has gone down that same route with this newest iteration of the figure allowing the full arm pieces on both sides to be popped off at the shoulder and replaced with two stretched versions. These longer arms do not include any joints as such save the shoulder joint, essentially reducing the overall figure articulation. However, they do include an internal wire armature and are flexible enough to bend and shape to a certain degree.
The armature and thickness of plastic won’t permit anything overly articulate, but you can shape bends and s-shapes into the arms to replicate the stretching powers. The hands on each of the elongated arms are fixed, with a gripping hand on the left and an outstretched hand on the right. While I understand that we wanted these to look stretched like the arm, it does restrict some of the posing. For example, Reed can’t stretch to punch someone without a clenched fist at the end. I wonder if there was a solution where the arm was the main piece, but the wrist joint was left at the end, allowing any of the included hands to be connected into the stretched arms.
Despite the length of the stretched arms, I have not found balance an issue when posing Mister Fantastic. His leg and ankle joints are robust enough to stand the figure in a stable position even with the outstretched arms engaged.
Mister Fantastic is the final piece in the team jigsaw for this MCU debut of the Fantastic Four and Hasbro has done a good job of replicating the onscreen suits and the actor likenesses to give us a team lineup for display that works really well all together. Mister Fantastic as a figure ticks plenty of boxes in terms of sculpt, decor, and articulation, and the outstretched ‘stretchy’ arms are a neat bonus that work relatively well, although won’t be to everyone’s taste for display purposes. After the release of this first wave, the next questions will certainly be around other variations of the characters with the space suits being a potential option. There is also a question over how H.E.R.B.I.E. might be brought into the Legends collection now an opportunity of a Build-a-Figure within this wave has not been taken.
Keep Track of all the Marvel Legends figures from Hasbro at our comprehensive
If you are reading this via a 3rd party website that is importing our newsfeed, please come and visit us directly and give us a follow on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Check out our direct news feed for more action figure news, reviews, and store reports
About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
Comments