The Marvel Legends Thor: Love & Thunder products hit stores on the 26th of April 2022, timed to land just after the first teaser trailer for the July 2022 movie. All seven figures in the wave, and the BAF, were taken from the movie and included updates for several returning characters.
This review is written ahead of the movie release and is done so only with the information to hand via the packaging of each figure and the teaser trailer from late April 2022. I will update these reviews once the film has been released. This review may contain minor spoilers but only in the context of any information provided on the package or visually on the figure.
The Love & Thunder figures follow the usual design principles for Marvel Legends and are of course not yet subject to the plastic-free packaging so still feature a figure window. The Love & Thunder logo sits under the window and beneath this is the character's name.
Thor is listed as Ravager Thor indicating his position within the Guardians (Asgardians) of the Galaxy and the Ravagers following the events of Avengers: Endgame. The side art shows Thor in this Ravagers outfit and the same image is shown on the back of the box along with the usual BAF checklist and a very very short, and non-spoilery piece of text that simply reads
"Thor wields the mighty Stormbreaker against a terrifying new foe."
Ravager Thor is an entirely new pinless figure and does appear to be more in proportion to the other MCU figure's height wise coming in just a touch over 6.75 inches tall. He features a white T-shirt that is printed with a tree emblem over a pink & red geomatical circular design. There are nine cream dots within the image indicating this is a representation of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Over this Thor is wearing a sleeveless jacket and this is cast in its own base colour and painted with black on the collar and pockets as well as some silver stud on the reverse. The black coverage is not great in places the red base can still be seen and the edges are a little sloppy. This jacket could be removed with some playing around allowing you to display Thor simply in his vest?
The outfit is finished with blue trousers, held in place by a brown belt with an ornate painted gold buckle. There are then knee-high black boots which have a wrapped design sculpted up the shins and this is painted over with a light brown tan colour.
Thor's head is also a new sculpt and features the photo-real print application to enhance the sculpt further with realistic eyes, beard, and shading around the prominent facial features. This gives it a good likeness to Chris Hemsworth and on par certainly with a couple of the previous releases like the Endgame Final Battle Thor. The hair is well coloured also and sculpted to sit to one side of his face and then either side of his shoulders - this does create a slight floating hair effect on the left-hand side in particular as the head is posed.
The whole costume is accurate to Ravager Thor's on-screen appearance and I am reliably told the head works well with older Thor figures for an updated look, particularly on the Infinity War Thor which did always struggle slightly in terms of the Hemsworth likeness.
Thor comes with Stormbreaker, and this is the same accessory as included with Endgame Final Battle Thor but repainted now for the standard look with the brown wooden colour handle and silver axe head. The head sports two silver tones that are used to give further definition to the weapon with a gunmetal finish across much of the axe-head, but with a brighter silver used as an edging colour and on prominent parts. Stormbreaker fits into either of Thor's hands.
No other parts are included for Thor and he feels a little light in terms of not featuring at least another pair of hands?
Articulation across the new pinless body remains extensive with 19 points of articulation in total. The knees and elbows remain double-jointed and this is particularly useful for the arms and for posing Thor with Stormbreaker and in more detailed battle poses. There is a lot of movement in the chest joint which does allow crouching poses - but this does cover up the vest design, and also doesn't quite work with the head which is the most restricted joint due to the hairpiece.
Thor stands perfectly well under most poses with a solid pair of ankle rockers that are aligned for a perfectly flat stance.
I do like the new Ravager Thor look for Thor as an MCU character, especially considering in the last 10 years or so his armour and cape have not changed enormously and the only not armoured variant of Thor we've had is the unworthy Thor from Endgame in his dressing gown.
The figure is a very good recreation of the new Ravager Thor look and is really well executed. The colours are bright colours, and the vest design is impressive and assuming it is using the photo-real print app opens up plenty of other avenues for clothing designs. The pinless bodies make a huge difference to the overall look of any figure, and more so here with the exposed arms no longer showing the visible peg whole around the elbow.
Certainly, another strong Marvel Legends release from Hasbro and another release from an upcoming movie that does not seem to be impacted by the design process using early or concept artwork.
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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...