This is the smelliest toy I've had in years. Remember that? When opening a new action figure had a 50/50 chance of making you pass out from concentrated plastic fumes? "New toy smell" is back! In Adam Warlock form!
In the Infinity Gauntlet saga,
the leader of the Soulworld Adam Warlock joins a group of heroes to help thwart Thanos's schemes.
There have been several Adam Warlock Marvel Legends over the years, both the movie and modern comic designs, but those were stop-gaps, at best - at last, we're back to the suit the people actually wanted, the one when he catapulted back to relevence in the '90s. Trippy, cosmic-consciousness stories were all the rage in the 1970s, but when that fad faded, Adam Warlock went with it. By killing himself. That was 1977, and he didn't appear again until 1990. And when he did, he came back with a new costume.
This costume has been made as a Legend before, but that was in 2008, so it desperately needed an update - the sculpt has held up well enough, but the paint and the choice of joints were pretty off-putting
even back then. This one uses the body you wish it wouldn't, with any new sculpting being done by fighter of his own evil future self and noted cocoon-enthusiast Paul Harding. While I'm personally glad that this costume is getting redone, my liking it doesn't immediately make it the best choice: I'm not saying they need to go back to his original 1960s Jack Kirby design, when he had a Caesar cut and a speedo, like he was Rocky Horror or something, but his 1970s costumes were... not entirely awful. And they've never had any type of figure before, from any company. Start the countdown now for when Hasbro reuses this cape, with its little skull clasp, along with bracelets and a new belt to create a Jim Sterlin Warlock.
They'd also have to retool the head slightly, since at this point Adam
Warlock was no longer in possession of the Soul Gem, and so his forehead is bare. The exasperated expression looks really nice, and unlike the 2008 figure, this one actually gets his skin color right: dude has always been orange, never anything but orange (unless he's evil, and then he's pale lavender). This is another instance where painting the body super black would have been awesome: the central part of this costume was only ever drawn as a black shape with no detailing.
Adam gets the version of this torso that has a hole in between the shoulder blades, because of his cape. At this point,
you're familiar with how capes like this mess with the articulation: the limbs can't go back, and if you bend him over it'll stick out weirdly. The figure has swivel/hinge ankles, swivel shins, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljoint hips, a swivel waist, hinged chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinge elbows (fixing the big flaw of the last one), swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, pectoral hinges, a hinged neck, and balljoint head.
As part of Marvel Legends Series 13, Adam Warlock gets one of the silly little replica comic accessories, just
like Rom did, and it's no less insipid here than it was there. These are supposedly meant to show what comic the figure is from, but in this case, we can emphatically say that is not the case: Adam Warlock has a replica of Infinity Gauntlet #1, but the figure is very explicitly not based on that issue. For one thing, Adam Warlock does not appear in Infinity Gauntlet #1. Not as himself, at any rate. And for another, the accessories give away that this is based on issue #6.
Okay, the staff with the winged bird on top could come from
any issue (and could have come from the old figure - it's not like it's drastically different, but maybe Hasbro threw out those old molds, which is why Paul Harding had to resculpt it), but after five issues of Thanos steamrolling everyone and everything that came at him, Thanos finally lost the Infinity Gauntlet, and, after a scuffle, it was claimed by Warlock in a big, memorable panel that served as the inspiration for this figure's facial sculpt. Fittingly, he comes with the Infinity Gauntlet itself, and unlike previous attempts, it's not just a hollow piece that covers the hand. No, this is a full alternate hand, with the end of the glove being a separate piece that slips onto he forearm before you plug the hand in. This is much better than permanently sculpting it on him!
It's been 17 years since this version of Adam Warlock was a Marvel Legend, so we're not going to pretend this wasn't needed. But at a pre-tariff price of $24.99, it's hard to call him "worth it." The replica comic adds no value, and as much fun as the removable Gauntlet is, that's not enough to carry the release by itself.
-- 10/27/25
What's Warlock's best costume? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
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