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This Christmas sure ain't very sweet.
Having accidentally gained superhuman strength and bulletproof skin from a science experiment, Luke Cage becomes a hero for hire known as Power Man.
It has been a long time since we got a Luke Cage Marvel Legend! (Or maybe that should be a "Luke Cage Power Man" Marvel Legend, since that full phrase is how the packaging consistently refers to him.) If you don't count the live-action versions, then the last one we got was in the 2013 SDCC Thunderbolts box set! [sort of --ed.] And before that, it was all the way back to ToyBiz. It seems like there should have been more, doesn't it? Luke surprisingly managed to keep his narrative importance even after Brian Michale Bendis was no longer there to personally steward him, so the lack of toys is, in retrospect, a bit of a shocker.
This figure is basically a re-do of the ML14 figure, right down to giving him black pants instead of blue. In fact, the biggest difference is that this one has fully yellow boots instead of black boots with yellow tops - a change that happened in issue #3 of his comic, by which point he was most definitely wearing blue pants. So watch for an accurate repaint sometime in the semi-immediate future - either on a Retro Collection card or in a multi-pack with some character you can't get any other way. Probably Iron Fist. Maybe someone else as well.
Luke Cage Power Man really benefits from new sculpts.
You'd expect, since Hasbro already has a pair of baggy sleeves they love to give their characters even when it means the toy ends up the wrong size, that Luke Cage Power Man would use those arms, but no - these are bigger and have softer details in the wrinkles. Where Phil Ramirez sculpted ToyBiz Luke's shirt directly onto the torso, this one has the shirt as a separate piece (presumably to up the chances of using this new mold for someone else in the future). Unfortunately, since this was all done digitally, nobody at Hasbro gave any thought to the giant gaps around the shoulders where we can see his skin through the shirt. All it would have taken to correct that would be some yellow paint apps on the torso around the joint, but no, apparently that was too much to ask on a $15 toy they're charging $25 for.
A lot of fans were hoping Paul Harding's "Marvel in the '70s" design would be the basis for this toy, but sadly no. Rather, it's based on MD Bright's character art for The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe - so it's got a good basis, but it's so emotionally neutral as to be dull. It's done professionally, but the 2006 ToyBiz one maintains the edge. We do like that his afro is slightly uneven, rather than being a perfect textured sphere: the tiny variations in the surface make it feel more like real hair than molded plastic.
Luke Cage Power Man has most of
the usual Marvel Legends articulation, but not all. The new torso only has a balljointed waist, no hinge or anything else for the chest, and the shoulders are normal swivels, without any extra pec hinges or anything. The most insulting thing has to be the lack of any sort of shin swivels; while we excused it on the No Way Home Spider-Men because of the shape of their boots, it turns out it was really just laziness, because Luke Cage Power Man is wearing these giant clompers and still can't turn his feet? Hasbro is stealing our money. One pair of alternate hands is not a substitute for sufficient movement.
The Build-A-Figure for this series is a Mindless One, and Luke Cage Power Man gets the left leg.
Getting a new sculpt is nice, and the ideas are good, but the execution is lacking. Marvel Legends are supposed to be at the vanguard of action figures, pushing things to be better, not "stick it in the back of the display and no one will notice what's wrong with it" territory. The yellows are flat, the shirt doesn't match its own sleeves, the legs are the wrong color, Hasbro chose to make a boring face and not include an alternate head, the figure's at least half an inch too tall, and the articulation proves that "shrinkflation" isn't just for food and drink anymore. This isn't a bad toy, not even an especially bad Marvel Legend, but that doesn't mean it's worth buying. Save your money for something that's made to professional standards, instead.
-- 01/29/24
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