Ronan the Accuser, in his first appearance from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), was the 6th release of the Marvel Legends 10 years of the MCU releases in 2018. The series revisited films from the first 10 years of the MCU and gave us single, double and three packs of figures that were not released at the time of the initial movie release. Ronan the Accuser filled a considerable gap for Guardians of the Galaxy - and also (if they choose to) gives Hasbro a basis for his prequel appearance in Captain Marvel.
Packaging 5/5
The First Ten Years packaging for Marvel Legends is a thing of beauty and moves to a uniform box rather than the scalloped side of the standard releases. The base colour is black with red bordering and carries both the Marvel Studios and the Movie logo around the figure window. Down the left spine is a data card design carrying the synopsis of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.
"SENT ON A MISSION BY THANOS TO RECOVER THE MYSTICAL ENTITY KNOWN AS THE ORDB, RONAN DISCOVERS THAT THE TARGET HE SEEKS IS IN FACT AN ALL-POWERFUL INFINITY STONE. RONAN USES THE STONE TO DESTROY THE NOVA CORPS FLEET, BUT IS ULTIMATELY DESTROYED BY HIS OWN GREEN WHEN THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY TAKE THE ORB BACK AND USE IT TO ENTIRELY OBLITERATE HIM."
Round the back we have an image of the movie poster with a further text piece, this time specifically about Ronan - and unlike a lot of the MCU Legends and their non-spoilery text, this one may be short but covers some detail about Ronan and his motivation.
"An avid loyalist to the Kree whose family was killed in the Kree-Nova War, Ronan agrees to a partnership with Thanos in order to take down the Nova Corps on Xander once and for all.
The other spine of the box carries a series of images from the MCU and all of the initial ten releases can be lined up to create a larger figure montage. There is a further series of MCU panels on the inner card, this time in greyscale.
Paint & Sculpt 5/5
The sculpt for Ronan is, as I've come to expect from the First Ten Years series newly sculpted figures, excellent with a great likeness to Lee Pace and a face printed face to give both texture and shading to his face and that black face paint.
The body is also well executed, with the dark metallic armour in various shades and the red paint daubed across the chest.
Whenever I had seen Ronan in the packaging I thought he was undersized. Thankfully that was a trick of the oversized box and Ronan stands an impressive 7 inch tall.
Accessories 3/5
Ronan has a single accessory, his hammer. This seems to have been cast as two pieces. The head is good with textured sides, grooved pattern and there is even a "grain" for want of a better word in the plastic. There is a single bit of paint applied on the Power Stone, there is an attempt to show the stone glowing outward with some additional purple lines snaking out from the centre - but these don't work.
The handle of the hammer is cast in a silver plastic and has some good definition around the handle piece, but is otherwise nondescript and is also warped out of the box and difficult to straighten.
Considering the part already existed, it might have been nice to see Ronan come with the Orb containing the Power Stone too. When you look at the various parts included with the single release Red Skull vs Ronan - and at the same price - Ronan is sold a little short.
Articulation 3/5
Ronan has 19 points of articulation
Head - ball joint with pivot
Body - mid-torso T-joint and waist swivel
Arms - ball joint shoulders, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, pivot wrist
Legs - ball joint hips, thigh swivel, single joint knee, ankle rocker
The arms and torso joints work really well, and Ronan can achieve some two handed weapon stances. The legs are restricted by the skirt sections - but this is Ronan and all he really has to do is stand and look menancin. And stand well he does with all the joints coming tight and secure.
The issue is how Hasbro have tackled the neck joint. The head turns fine on the neck peg but it takes the entire hood and shoulder section with it. Of course this looks ridiculous. While hooded figures are difficult to articulate at the head I would argue no articulation would have been better than this solution which absolutely no-one will use.
Summary
Ronan is one of my favourite MCU villains to date, and I am so pleased to get him into my Legends display. The execution of the sculpt and paint is excellent on the figure, just a little lacking on the hammer.
The articulation is good, and the figure can be posed exactly how you would want to pose Ronan, there is just a very odd choice of execution on the neck joint.
I score Ronan the Accuser a solid 4 out of 5.
