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When Hasbro ran their poll to see what three figures fans wanted as Marvel Legends, we actively discouraged people from voting for Deadpool. Why? Because it was a waste of a vote. There was never any way Hasbro wasn't going to make him, no matter who won. Better to use your vote to control who "Character #4" would be, than to vote like a monkey for the thing we already knew was coming.
Deadpool has never been much of a team player, which is why the X-Men are a perfect fit for him. They've got a bunch of different teams running around, so he can pick and choose. Most of them end up ditching their teams and going off on solo adventures every couple of weeks, too. Some of them even seem to have more than one adventure at a time! Warpath is the perfect guy to follow around - he's a moody loner with a talent for finding fights, which is exactly the sort of interaction at which Deadpool excels. Hopefully, Warpath won't mind a little company.
Deadpool was originally made into a Marvel Legend
back in ML6, the single rarest series the toyline ever had. He remains one of the most valuable expensive figures in the line, because he never made it into any other ToyBiz lines and is, of course, a hugely popular character among the fandom. He's one of those rare figures that actually sells for more loose than his original retail cost, which should give you an idea of how scarce he is.
ML6 Deadpool was a repaint of Daredevil, so no surprise this version gets a reused body, as well. His isn't Daredevil, but that old standby, Bullseye. Yeah, again. Gotta admit, that's rather disappointing. We take Mattel to task all the time for reusing DCUC bodies, so we're not going to let Hasbro slide, either. We wait all this time for new 6" figures, and all they can give us is the same body we've seen over and over? Lame.
That said, there's some solace to be taken. First of all, this is the Hasbro variant of the Bullseye body, which
is the best "generic" body on the market today, at least in terms of articulation. With swivel/hinge joints at the ankles, hips, wrists, biceps and neck, double-hinges at the knees and elbows, swivels at the thighs, waist and biceps, and hinges for the torso and shoulders/pecs, this is the articulation scheme all other toys should aspire to. The Hasbro body also means the Hasbro groin, that stupidly oversized mold. At least Deadpool's belt covers the flaw. The hands, shins and forearms come from Union Jack, though you'd hardly know it.
Most of the body is reused, but he does get some new pieces, and they're all great. Obviously the feet are new, because they have some pretty
distinctive straps. The head is very "McGuinnessy," with the square jawline and the little "nipple flap" on the back of the mask. However, it looks too big on this slender body: Ed McG always drew Wade big. Honestly, the old Deadpool head was a bit too small - the two would be perfect if you could swap them. Still, there's no denying how awesome the sculpt on that head is, with raised seams and small wrinkles in the cloth. Excellent, excellent work.
The figure isn't as loaded down with accessories as previous efforts, but he's close. We already mentioned the new
belt, which is all big brown pouches with a Deadpool-face buckle, and has a silver harness going up the chest. There's a separate holster on his right thigh, held on merely by friction, and his choker is a separate piece, as well. Nick Fury's pistol and AR-M9F show up again, as do the Hand ninjas' swords. The rifle gets some cute Deadpool graffiti on the side, and the swords have purpose-designed scabbards that plug nicely into the harness. Hell of a set of accessories!
Warpath is one of those X-Characters who
started out as a villain. His older brother John was Thunderbird, the guy who died on the new X-Men's second mission because he didn't really bring anything unique to the team. He was strong, but not as strong as Colossus, and he was a jerk, but not as much of a jerk as Wolverine, so they offed him. Anyway, James blamed Professor X for his brother's death and came seeking revenge, eventually joining Emma Frost's Hellions. He was a decent guy, but didn't actually join the good guys until Cable recruited him for the burgeoning X-Force.
Warpath has the same powers as his brother: strength, speed, enhanced senses... basically, he's Apache Superman (without the flying or the laser vision). [No, it turns out he can fly. --ed.] He originally just wore a version of his brother's costume, but this version is in his modern X-Force uniform - that's Wolverine's X-Force, not Cable's. You know, the black and silver stealth suits.
The majority of this figure is a repaint
of the Hulkling body, which is good, since he's meant to be a huge guy. The arms were molded in black plastic and then painted, which means there are dark lines visible in the elbow and forearm joints, but better that than the mis-matched fleshtone on Crossbones' arms. His torso is new, though: you'll recall that Hulkling's vest left a very specific pattern on the chest, and it's absent here, so that's a plus.
Warpath's head is new, as well, and it has a very nice sculpt. His hair is long enough to just reach his shoulders, but it doesn't restrict the movement at all. The face has a definite "indian" feel, and not just because the paint they chose for it has a slightly reddish tint - the actual facial structure has recognizable Native American features behind that small domino mask.
The silver used on the figure's costume has a slight blue tint, and the black of the costume has dark grey highlights. The fleshtone
paint on his arms doesn't quite come all the way down to his gloves the way it should. He moves at the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, forearms, chest, waist, hips, thighs, knees, ankles and toes. There are no wrist hinges, nor swivels in the shins, but I think we can do without, here. He has separate straps at the top of his boots and a belt with pouches only on the left side. The rear of the belt has storage space for his two large knives (which are new sculpts, not reused from Mack, though that's what people expected).
Two of the three sets in this fourth series
of ML two-packs have a variant, with Valkyrie and Hulk being the odd one out. Deadpool and Warpath's variants are both distinctly different, colorful versions of the characters (which beats out the Black Widow/Winter Soldier set, where only Natasha really gets repainted). For instance, Warpath uses the same paint masks as the "normal" version, but instead of black and silver, he's red and blue. Yes, it's closer to his original "Thunderbird" outfit, but the particular pattern is actually more recent: it's Billy Tan's design, seen from the "Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire" storyline through World War Hulk and "Messiah Complex." I have to admit, as an avowed Liefeld sympathizer, I kinda wish we'd gotten the shoulder pads costume. Yes, it's ridiculous, but come on, what's so bad about a little ridiculosity every now and then?
Deadpool is wearing his blue and yellow X-Men uniform.
This one first appeared in Cable & Deadpool #8, when Cable had taken over the world or something, and the X-Men needed Deadpool's help to break into his base. Wade was unconscious at the time, so as a joke, Beast and Wolverine dressed him in a spare X-Uniform and bet on how he'd react when he woke up - whether he'd freak out, or just blindly accept the idea that he was part of the team. Spoiler: Beast lost the bet. Anyway, the costume they gave him isn't immediately recognizable, but with the blue body and yellow stripes, it looks like they repurposed one of Cyclops's extra suits (they must have fired up the Star Trek-style replicators to get him the mask, though). Each case of figures has six two-packs: the variants are evenly packed, but they're still hard to find.
Warpath is a wonderful figure, right up there with the best (and biggest) of the Marvel Legends. Deadpool being 90% repaint
is slightly disappointing, but understandable. Still, if you already have the ML6 version, this isn't a necessary upgrade - you can be happy with your earlier purchase. The worst thing about this set is the price: it varies from store to store, but TRU is asking $25 - $33 for each two-pack, which is way too much. The last series was only $19.99, so in half a year the price has jumped by up to a third? That's not cool. It's almost understandable (not acceptable, but understandable) when you're getting a mold that used to be a BAF, but we're still getting ripped off. Both the figures in this set are good, but are they really $15 good?
-- 11/14/10
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