Doctor Doom

What the what?! The diabolical dictator Dr. Doom plots to take his place as ruler of the world! Marvel Legends 3 is, as you know, a quick "filler" line that's really just about repaints and re-releases. Well, this figure definitely fits that bill - it's the same Victor von Doom that was released five years ago in the Fantastic Four themed ML series. You know, the one with the Ronan the Accuser BAF and the Thing that was way too small. Anyway, like we said back then, Doctor Doom was good, but it had a couple of unignorable flaws that kept it from really being great. Let's see if anything has changed. The first thing you'll notice is that the new Doom is darker - darker green cape, darker silver armor, darker brown belt, etc. It's a lot closer to the ToyBiz ML2 Doom than Hasbro's previous attempt, but that's not a bad thing. The colors look stronger, more real, and thus this toy of Doctor Doom looks less like a toy, you get it? Last time, he was a lot of unpainted plastic, just molded in the colors they wanted him to be - and while that does have its place, and it can work sometimes, it did not work for Doom. He looked plasticky, but the new release corrects that. Once you get the figure open, the next thing you'll notice about him is the sculpt. This is not just a re-release of the previous figure, it's a total retooling. The cape and tunic now have a subtle texture, like a super fine-grit sandpaper. The belt and holster look distinctly like cracked leather, and the latches that hold the pieces of his armor together are crisp enough that you can almost see the edges on the rivets. Same goes for his mask, too. How can we be sure that this is a retool, and not just a result of superiorly skilled mold techs? Because the waffling seen on the inside of his trigger finger last time is no longer here, and the only way to do that is to recut the tool. Von Doom's head also benefits from this increased level of detail. The old one wasn't bad, but this one is great! He doesn't look as "raw" as before, but rather like someone who's experienced severe burns and then healed - which is exactly what he is! There's a small cut in his lip; is that the scar that led him to hide his face behind a mask in the first place? We say it is! The figure still includes the Luger pistol that fits in his holster, but it has become the victim of budget concerns. It's still molded well, it's just lacking the brown app on the grip. That's... a little bit disappointing, but it's hardly something to worry about. You'll never even notice, since the gun will either be in his hand or in his holster. Since this is a filler series, it doesn't have a Build-A-Figure - instead, we get one of the Heroscape bases, like the Avengers and Amazing Spider-Man have. Considering that they're completely modular among all the lines, we're really liking this trend. The ML bases are darker than the ASM ones, but lack the A logo of the Avengers ones. Allegedly, there's a variant of this figure, featuring Dr. Doom in his white Future Foundation uniform, but if that's true, nobody's found one yet. Nobody. Even if you got Hasbro's previous Dr. Doom, this one is such an improvement that it's absolutely worth getting. Pretend the old one is a Doombot. A sloppy, unfinished Doombot. -- 12/03/12

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