The Void

The Void is the dark side of the Sentry, a creature created of chaos and dedicated to evil and malice. It is balanced by the Sentry's existence, and probably could not exist without the Sentry. Both exist in the mind of Robert Reynolds, who is barely able to hold the Void in check at the best of times. Who and/or what The Void is changes from writer to writer. Originally it was just The Sentry's dark side. Then someone decided that, no, he turned into The Void first, and then Sentry became Void's light side. Then someone said Void existed before Sentry and was in fact the angel of death who carried out the final plague of Egypt (and therefore would make him a cross-company counterpart to The Spectre). Since one of his powers seems to be rewriting reality to suit himself, maybe it's all of the above. The Void is the Build-A-Figure for Marvel Legends Series 11, which is, it must be said, not one of the stronger ML assortments ever. He's made from 10 pieces (or 12, counting extra hands), and the parts all slip together smoothly. Fully assembled, the figure is nearly 8½" tall, thanks to those things on his back, and full 9" wide. Make some room if you want this one! The plastic used to mold the figure is surprisingly soft and flexible for something translucent - that stuff is usually extra brittle, so someone must have perfected a new formula. That's pretty cool! This figure is based on a specific piece of art that appeared in the Marvel: War of Heroes card game, which depicted the character as a glowing red monster with all these weird, insectoid appendages: 10 large ones coming out of his back that looked like scorpion tails or something, a quartet of smaller ones in his chest that we like tick legs, and a bunch more circling his head. The toy copies all that as best it can - there are only eight on his back, but that's okay, because they look horrendous as is, all lumpy and gross with sharp stingers and little tendrils curling off them. The arms and legs are reused from Venom, but the upper torso is new, and the lower torso had to be remolded to accommodate the bug-arms. The figure is molded from translucent maroon plastic, to give it an unearthly, immaterial look. The only solid part is the interior of the head, molded in opaque yellow plastic and fit inside the part of the head you'll actually see. His mouth is open so you can see it, but was that dual-layer construction really necessary? Wouldn't simply painting the inside of the mouth have had the same effect? Void has four narrow eyes, arranged in stacked sets of two, and those are yellow as well. There is a problem with the figure, however, and it can't be ignored: his back-tentacle things add a lot of weight to the top half of the figure, so it becomes unbalanced very easily and wants to fall over. This is not a toy you'll be able to trust in your display without some sort of external support, be that an actual figure stand, a sturdier character holding him up, or just simply leaning against a wall. On the plus side, it's easy to take those extra arms out of his back, if you want to display him without and make the toy more stable. Like Venom, Void moves at the ankles, knees, thighs, hips, chest, wrists, elbows, biceps, shoulders, and head. He includes both fists and open hands, for a little variety in your play. The Void is an odd choice for a Build-A-Figure, lacking a set physical form as he does, but this is a wonderfully creepy monster toy that definitely did its part to up the appeal of an otherwise unremarkable Marvel Legends series. Let's face it, nobody was going to be buying Namor or Vision to complete a Puff Adder or Controller, y'know? But for a screaming purple bug man? Sure, why not, we'll take that hit. In that regard, even with a few definite flaws, The Void was a successful BAF. Power Princess | Crystar | Justice | Vision | Namorita | Namor -- 10/21/24 What's your preferred take on the Void? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.

Tweet