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Ah, Omega Red. Now he brings back memories. Omega Red is one of those characters that makes me feel old when he shows up in a line like Marvel Legends, because I remember when he first showed up in comics. In fact, I'm pretty sure I still have his first appearance (X-Men #4) somewhere in a box in the garage. However, I suppose that's no big feat when characters like X-23 show up in the Legends line. Anyway...
The Russian mutant Arkady Rossovich was transformed into a "super soldier" by the KGB, but he could not control his abilities and was placed into suspended animation. Recovered by agents of the ninja clan the Hand, Omega Red soon clashed with the X-Men, particularly Wolverine. Omega Red secretes an airborne toxin from his body that kills those in his immediate vicinity. Also, in his arms are long coils made of carbonadium, an alloy similar to adamantium.
From a design standpoint, Omega Red is Jim Lee product through-and-through, and looks like a lot of over-the-top characters from comics in the early '90s: he's got white skin, oversized shoulder pads, a goofy ponytail, and funky boots with spiked kneepads. This figure does a pretty good job of representing Arkady in a 3D medium, although it's not quite perfect.
His headsculpt is nice, with an appropriate snarl complete with those weird metal cheeks. His lion's mane of hair is done pretty nicely, though the ponytail shoots out at a strange angle. It's articulated though, so that's a bonus. His shoulder pads, straps and belt are all a separate piece that fits over a standard muscley torso.
His arms feature holes in the forearms for his carbonadium tentacles to stick in, although in the comics they emanated from his palms. On a figure with this much articulation, I doubt his palms would support the cumbersome coils, which are re-used from the coils that come packaged with the Sentinel, which is incidentally the "build-a-figure" in this ML wave.
The coils have the requisite bendy wires running through them to allow for repositioning and, eventually, snapping. With the big shoulder pads, Red's legs seem kind of thin, but they're actually in proportion with his body sans pads. The knees are kind of goofy though; as lame as they were in the comics, his kneepads were nowhere near as wide and flattened as they are in the figure. They look like they belong in a cheap sci-fi flick from the '70s or something. The rest of the boots aren't much better.
The paint isn't bad, but it's also nothing to be proud of. The definition between the red and the silver on his shoulder pads is fuzzy in places, and though his skin has a nice grey wash, there are some big random white spots that show through on his arms and face. There's also a bit of red overspray on the silver part of his right boot. Otherwise, the figure's paint is decent, and though there are some specific areas that could be better, there aren't any glaring paint errors and the overall look is pretty nice. Oh, and one more thing: his trademark red "omega" symbol is painted on his gauntlets, but sculpted on his stylish headband.
In addition to his ponytail and bendy coils, Arkady is articulated with a balljointed neck, hinged laterals, balljointed shoulders, double-hinged elbows, hinged wrists, hinged knuckles, a torso hinge, a peg waist, balljointed hips, peg thighs, double-hinged knees, peg shins, and ankle hinges as well as another ankle joint that allows for side-to-side motion to help with keeping the figure flat on its feet. There's no forearm or wrist peg due to the tentacles, and this limits posing beyond the elbows somewhat. Other than that, he's got pretty much everything you can ask for.
Omega Red comes with his tentacles, a copy of X-Men #7, and a clear display stand to aid in posing. This stand has been updated to be more durable than the ones that came with the likes of Deadpool and Ultimate Captain America, but I'd be a little cautious when posing Red in, say, a jumping pose or something else that's difficult to balance because he's one hefty figure. Some collectors have complained that Red is way too tall, so I decided to peruse the included comic to try and get an idea of scale. It's not as easy as it may seem, since there's a lot of tight action in close quarters, but it definitely seems like Red is meant to be much taller than your average X-Man. In one panel he towers behind Matsuo, one of the men responsible for resurrecting Arkady, and I assume Matsuo is meant to be of average height. Still, while not as bulky, the figure is as tall as the likes of Juggernaut and Apocalypse, two of the largest Marvel Legends figures.
His final accessory is part of the "Build-a-Figure" mentioned above. Omega Red comes with a piece of the mutant-hunting Sentinel robot, as does every figure in the 10th wave of Marvel Legends. Red gets the abdomen, crotch and hips of the Sentinel. It features a peg waist and balljointed hips, with attachments for the legs and chest. Red's piece is shared with Mystique, so if your goal is to build the Sentinel, you get two choices of figures to accompany your robot torso. Personally, I'd go with Omega Red. However, ultimately all this figure does is make me realize how much a Marvel Legends Maverick is needed.
What big, kewl '90s creation looks dumbest today? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
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