Juggernaut

How nice, they managed to get this one's name right! Cain Marko is the unstoppable Juggernaut, possessing superhuman strength and extreme durability. This line of "Gamerverse" figures is Marvel vs. Capcom in everything but name, but Juggy's first appearance in a Capcom fighting game was 1995's X-Men: Children of the Atom, where he was the sub-boss before the player would face Magneto; he also appeared later that same year as a playable character in Marvel Superheroes. He only appeared in the first MvC as a one of the "special partners" who could come in a few times per game to do tag-team moves, was playable in MvC2, and while Capcom wanted him for MvC3, Marvel told them they had to pick between Juggernaut and the Sentinel, and the evil robot won. Capcom's Katsuya Akimoto was a big fan of American comics, Marvel in particular, and was responsible for helping foster the relationship between the two companies. He also got to be involved in designing the characters, and for Juggernaut, he took inspiration from the character's appearance in Thunderstrike #2; it was Akiman who suggested they really go wild with Juggernaut, exaggerating him to ridiculous proportions. So exaggerated, in fact, that even this toy can't duplicate them fully. At more than 9⅛" tall, this Juggernaut is even larger than the Marvel Select figure! The last Legends version was six years ago, the repainted BAF, and this one unquestionably trumps that. The proportions are wider by far, with every single piece of him being expanded to look more powerful. It's still not as big as the game sprites, where a single fist was approximately the same siaze as his chest, but it absolutely gets the idea across and makes him look impressive. One of the strengths of the Select Juggernaut was the way it was sculpted with an all-over texture to make it clear he was wearing armor; the ML Build-A-Figure was entirely smooth, to maximize the potential to reuse the molds in the future. Gamerverse Juggernaut is also mostly smooth, but this is never going to be anyone but him: there are a few wrinkles stretching over the muscles, which is always a cool little detail, and the "ribbed" panel over his abdomen is fully sculpted with a line separating it from the body around it, seams in between the vertical panels that go all the way around his body, and a full texture that almost makes it look like waffle-weave cloth. Dang, that's nice stuff! Just in case Hasbro can think of any other characters who have arms this big, the armored bands on Juggernaut's biceps, forearms, and knuckles are all separate pieces that can be removed. The hands are the really surprising ones; on the closed fists, they're half-bands that fit into holes molded in where the fingers curl around, while on the alternate open hands, they're full pieces that actually go all the way around. Obviously that choice makes them look more like separate things he's wearing than just something sculpted on (because they are something he's wearing), but doing them the usual way probably would have been fine. Considering his size, Juggernaut's articulation is quite good. He has hinged toes, swivel/hinge ankles, swivel/hinge knees (handily sidestepping the "Hasbro higher-ups made Marvel get rid of shin joints" thing), swivel thighs, balljoint hips, a balljointed chest, swivel/hinge wrists, swivel/hinge elbows (which are honestly more than we need, since he also has) swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, pectoral hinges, hinged neck, and a balljointed head. Considering the rivets around the base of his helmet are meant to show that it's locked in place, I've never really understood how him turning his head is supposed to work, but hey, he's magic: that's easy enough to handwave away. This is one of the best-articulated Juggernauts ever, and can decently perform any of his moves. Surprisingly, Juggernaut gets an accessory. Since Capcom's Marvel fighting games were inspired by their success with Street Fighter, the characters' attacks were often played up with the inclusion of fancy energy effects when they happened. Like, Juggernaut wasn't really getting covered in flames when he did his Head Crush charge, but it looked cooler that way, yeah? So the toy includes a big translucent orange fireball thing. It actually looks most like the one that appears on his forehead when he does the Head Crush, but it's designed to fit on one of his fists, not his head: it replaces the armor band that goes over his fingers. Considering the "band" in the effect appears to be a separate piece that was glued into place, you have to wonder if they at one point considered making it armor-colored rather than clear orange, so it would still look like his hand was protected when using it? You know what they could have given him, though? The "broken ground" base from 20th Anniversary Hulk - make the impact effects yellow instead of green, and it'd be a perfect stand-in for the game's Earthquake punch! Shuma-Gorath was a true surprise when they announced him, because he seemed like the least likely character to warrant a Marvel Legend. Juggernaut's had plenty of toys before, but this one really is great. Expensive, but it's going to be a long time before anyone makes a better one. -- 12/29/25 What Capcom designs do you want to see Hasbro tackle? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.