Review : Marvel Legends Thor BAF, Avengers Endgame

Mephitsu
Dec 18, 2019
4 min read

The 3rd wave of Marvel Legends Avengers Endgame figures for 2019 saw the wave entirely dedicated to MCU figures. It brought us 6 MCU figures from Endgame and also from Infinity War and Civil War. The figures came with parts that would make up the BAF of Thor, as seen in Endgame in his dressing gown from his self-inflicted exile in New Asgard.

Assembly 4/5

After collecting the full wave you will have a total of 9 pieces, which includes two head options, an alternative left hand and Stormbreaker.

Like all BAF's, assembly is a push and click affair and each part slots neatly into position with a small degree of force. As always I found the thigh joints the toughest part as they are the largest peg and you are manoeuvring them around the dressing gown.

Paint & Sculpt 3/5

The figure comes with a brand new head sculpt for Thor with the fuller beard and longer straggly hair. Essentially you get the same head sculpt twice, with the second head having a pair of black cast sunglasses glued on top. These glasses are very poorly positioned on my figure with one arm of the glasses glued above the left ear and the other side glued under the right ear - leaving them crooked on the nose. I had to heat up the glue and then detach the and re position.

The head uses face print technology and is a good likeness for Hemsworth. It includes the scar across the right eye courtesy of Hela as well as more natural eyes and shading around the nose and mouth.

The body is made up of a blue hoodie which is cast in the blue plastic with no paint apps. It does include sculpted laces and the front pocket. The lower legs are the baggy pyjama type bottoms, although the pattern is very thick and uses three colours only and is not as intricate as the pattern used on screen. They would have benefited from some toning down of the colours, particularly the blue and black. Over this all sits the red dressing gown, again cast int he base red colour with a small paint application at the shoulders with some blue trim.

The figure is wearing finger-less gloves which are sculpted with the fabric texture. The colour is too similar to flesh tone that you don't see the transition and the variation of colour could be better. The overall body shape is good compared to the onscreen appearance and "bulk" added to Hemwsorth for this version of Thor. I do not however subscribe to some of the descriptive used for this BAF figure in some circles.

Accessories 3/5

Within the BAF parts collected you will find a couple of additional parts for your Thor figure. Firstly we have an alternative left hand, containing the Quantum Suit wrist device. This is not particularly well painted with some paint bleed on the black of the device into the glove colour underneath. The hand swaps in and out without concern and the fit it snug into the wrist.

The inclusion is welcomed as it represents Thor as we see him during the Time Heist on Asgard - it would have been quite easy for Hasbro to leave it out.

The second accessory is Stormbreaker. The interesting and frustrating part here is that this is not the Stormbreaker we got with the Infinity War Thor - a cast that already existed and didn't have a great deal wrong with it.

What we have here is a marginally smaller Stormbreaker with much less detail. We've lost a lot for the wood effect detail in the shaft, and the vine wraps for the grip have also vanished. The painting is much lighter and less accurate, with silver painted over the brown on the wrapping around the blade.

Why such a choice to sculpt a new Stormbreaker was made is beyond me, but it is a shame to get the version we do knowing a far superior version exists.

Articulation 3/5

Thor has a total of 16 points of articulation.

The knees are downgraded from the usual double joint to a single rotating joint and the ankle rockers are locked in a little by the trousers. With this and the length of the dressing gown the lower articulation is limited to standing options only.

Head : ball joint pivot neck

Body : torso ball joint

Arms : ball joint shoulder, bicep swivel, double joint elbow, wrist pivot

Legs : ball joint hips, thigh swivel, single joint rotating knee, ankle rocker

The upper joint in the torso offers some rotation but not much lean. The head too is restricted by the hair and the hood of the hoodie and while it can turn the ability to look up and down is not so much restricted, but when done it looks a touch off as the hair splays out and the head sticks out forward.

The arms are fully mobile and the double joint elbows and the bicep swivel tucked away under the dressing gown are quite extensive in their range, including two handed swinging poses for Stormbreaker - and I love the ability the figure has of resting the axe on his shoulder.

Summary

This is a neat version of Thor for those who like to have variants of the main characters, although many would argue the final battle armoured Thor would have been a better version (I think this is incoming anyway in some form).

The figure hits just above average in most areas. Paint is OK, but not spectacular. Sculpt is good but has issues. Stormbreaker is an inferior version to the previous release. And articulation is not as good as other BAF figures - with the knee's downgraded to single joints rather than the more usual doubles.