Back again already.
From their new headquarters in the Australian Outback Storm leads the X-Men using her mutant weather-controlling abilities to combat foes opposed to Professor Xavier's dream of mutants co-existing with humans.
Remember how the last Retro Collection Storm came out, and then later had a variant version that was wearing black instead of white? I have, at times, regretted not getting the black one when I had the chance; it showed up at my local FYE (before my FYE quietly shut down sometime last year), and even if it isn't the "accepted" way her costume looked, it fits the way she looks in my mind, so I'd have been happy with her. But now I don't need to worry about it, because this new version exists!
This costume debuted in Uncanny X-Men #230, the issue right after the team kicked the Reavers out of the town they were using as a base. The origins of superhero costume changes are very seldom explained,
but this is even more questionable than usual. The X-Men were on their own in the Australian Outback, so none of their usual sources would have been available - no unstable molecules from Reed Richards, no claiming Janet Van Dyne felt like designing them something, nothing. And the Reavers seemed to be an all-male group at the time, so it's not like they'd have had a selection of women's clothing hanging in the closets. The suit just came out of nowhere, replacing the punk look and lasting until she was turned into a child.
The figure's head is the same as the previous one (even though the hair should be different - she was growing out her mohawk, so it was still
basically shaved on the sides), as are the legs, and the hand and forearms. What's actually new are the upper arms and both halves of the torso. The lightning bolt pattern running from her collar to her waist is sculpted in, rather than simpy being paint, and there are several seams giving the suit dimension as well. She's got big shoulder pads, but in a fashion sense, not an armor sense: tehy're part of the sleeve, which is why everything above the elbow needed to be a new sculpt.
The engineering of the shoulders is really impressive, though. With those big square shoulders, you'd think the articulation would get at least somewhat limited, but it doesn't: she can raise her arms horizontal, with the bulky shoulders moving into the torso smoothly and without problem. Considering some toys can't even get that right on characters with bare arms, doing it this well here is outstanding!
None of the new parts remove any existing articulation, though clearly whoever sculpted this new chest recognizes that a hinged/balljointed head works better than a barbell (at least when Hasbro is doing it - there are companies out there who do barbells well). Of course, all that giant hair means the head isn't going to be going anywhere anyway; it would have been nice if Hasbro had given her an alternate head with short hair, which she had when she briefly returned to this costume in later years. I mean, it wouldn't have been any more wrong than this existing head already is.
Like so many Storms,
this one is wearing a softgoods cape. Rather than just two thin straps, this one is more like her original poncho - except it doesn't connect to her wrists, and it has two triangular flaps rather than rounded. It's just held onto the figure by two elastic straps looped around the shoulders, so you can display her without it if you want to duplicate the many times the book's artists were in a hurry and forgot to include it.
The figure includes open hands, closed fists, and a pair of electric fingers despite, again, Storm's powers not working that way. The molding on them is pretty nice, though: the costume is done in a very dark grey, rather than pure black, and the hands are going to match that, of course; the electricity shooting out of them is clear near the fingers, but turns blue as it gets farther away, and that's a little bit cooler than just plain blue would have been.
I continue to beat the drum that the price of Marvel Legends is being artificially inflated these days, and Storm is a fine example. She's a Target exclusive, and retails for $24.99; it's important to remember that, outside of major events like Black Friday, stores do not sell things at a loss: if the store has a sale on something, they're making less profit on it than they usually do, but they're not making negative profit, correct? Well, I bought this Storm (and Wolverine, and Marvel Girl) when Target had them on sale for $18.74 - 25% off. And if Target can not-lose-money by selling these for $18.74 for a week, they can also not-lose-money by selling them for $20 the rest of the time. Capitalism is a brain disease, and the people who suffer from it are hurting you, not themselves. Retro Collection Outback Storm is good, with new parts and some smart choices in the design and engineering, but she'd be less impressive at $25.
-- 02/16/26
Who had the best Outback costume? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
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