I'm a fan of Marvel toys, obviously: despite their increasing number of shortcomings, I recognize that Marvel Legends is still, more than 20 years after its introduction, one of the greatest toylines around. But regardless, this is the most excited I've been for a Marvel figure in some time!
The once mutant-hunting Hound from a dark alternate future, Phoenix (Rachel Summers), teams up with fellow former X-Men to stop Mojo's Warwolves.
Rachel was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #141, the first part of the "Days of Future Past" story. But there she was just "Rachel," no "Summers" to be found. It was pretty obvious who she was meant to be - as a redheaded telepath/telekinetic who would have been born a few years after Franklin Richards, it wasn't hard to figure out who her mother (and consequently, who her father) must have been - but the story never explicitly stated it. She time-travelled to the present day from her future, and ended up getting captured by Mojo, only escaping back to reality the same day the X-Men sacrificed themselves in Dallas. Considering the dimensional malarkey that event entailed, is it possible something that happened there made it possible for her to break free and get home? Could be!
There's been a Rachel Marvel Legend before, though you'd be forgiven for forgetting it: it was right after Hasbro took over the license from ToyBiz, and was in the costume she was wearing at the time, which strove to honor her mother. Was even used for her mother, too! But that is far, far from her most well-known look, so this is a needed update. Her Excalibur costume was a full red leather body suit
with rows of small metal spikes around her throat, down the outsides of her arms, and down the center of her chest. Now, normally the only way to do that would be to make new molds, but you know how much Hasbro hates to do that... which is why it's so surprising that they did! The 44 spikes (four around each wrist, six up each arm, four across each shoulder, six at the neck, and 10 down her middle) are sculpted and molded, meaning every one of those parts had to be new! The underlying sculpt is pre-existing, but it still would have required tooling new molds for this toy. How about that! To be comic-accurate, she should technically have high heels rather than flats - Kitty even comments on them in the story, noting how impractical they are, and how envious she is of Rachel's ability to walk in them.
In her first appearance, Rachel just had the sort of fuzzy buzz-cut
victims in internment camps often have, because that's what she was. The books showed it groing out at a natural rate, eventually turning into sort of an Annie Lennox flattop with a rat tail in the back - high fashion, kid! That's preserved here, though the color of the hair is browner than you'd expect: do you think they were trying to split the difference between Jean and Scott's shades? Because that is definitely not how it was shown in the books.
Before being sent to the camp, Rachel was forced to serve as a Hound, using her psychic ability to track other mutants, something that was
understandably traumatic for her. Part of the process of brainwashing her to do that involved giving her tattoos or scars, jagged black lines radiating out from the center of her face. She still has them now, she just uses her abilities to make everyone who looks at her not see them. The mask slips sometimes, when she's particularly stressed or caught off guard, so the figure includes a second head, identical in sculpt but with flaming yellow eyes and her markings painted on. Since her costume is just plain red (save for those tiny silver spikes), any additional bit of color can help.
While Jean only ever showed her Phoenix abilities with big, flashy birds of fire from time to time, Rachel was more subtle,
but more constant: she'd often just have fiery wings trailing off her arms, something this figure can duplicate thanks to the inclusion of two mew flame pieces that fit over her wrists. They're translucent, and fade from red to yellow, and are two unique sculpts rather than being identical copies. They reach down farther than her feet, so if you want her to be simply standing with her arms down, you'll have to find a rooftop she can pose on.
Being an older body, she doesn't have any of the extra articulation Hasbro has introduced recently - no pec hinges, no ab crunch, just the usual swivel/hinge ankles, double-hinge knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips,
balljoint chest, swivel hinge wrists (on both the open hands and the fists) double-hinged elbos, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, a hinged neck, and balljointed head. You will want to be careful moving her, because those little spikes are sharp! Her rat tail does bump up against the neck if you tip her head back, but it's soft and flexible enough to not be a problem. Since the wings are just held on by the presence of the hands, they can turn about the forearms with no trouble. Yes, even with the spikes there.
This is another series without a Build-A-Figure, which must be a request from Walmart, because they've carried this series and the last, but not the next one with the Executioner BAF. So instead, we get a semi in-scale comic as an accessory, a tab of plastic to throw in a drawer and forget forever. Phoenix's is Excalibur #1, probably because that's got a clearer shot of the team than their actual first issue (released as a "special edition" six months prior) did.
I honestly never expected Hasbro to make Phoenix in a regular series - the need to remold her entire upper body to accommodate those spikes seemed beyond their capabilities these days, so I thought our best hope was a deluxe box set reusing the big firebird base and possibly including Widget to really complete the team. They could totally reuse these molds to make a "Hound" Rachel, wearing black instead of red, and with no fire parts. Maybe pair her with Ahab in a two-pack? In any case, I was thrilled when this figure was announced, and pleasantly surprised to find her in person at the store. Grabbed her immediately, in fact! Way to exceed our expectations, Hasbro.
-- 12/22/25
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