Strike Mission Wolverine

Part of the fun of any movie-based toyline is watching the fans react like they've never seen a movie-based toyline ever in their lives. "Mattel's making a Deathstroke in the Dark Knight line? OMG, Deathstroke must be in Dark Knight!" No, you pinhead, that's just a filler figure, designed to pad the line. Ough. Sometimes, though, it's hard to tell. Before he was Wolverine, before he was Weapon X, he was just Logan. Soldier, adventurer, thief, brawler, hero, and fugitive, he wandered the world looking for places to use his talents. Though he is now a man without a past, his history stretches back more than a century. Strike Mission Wolverine is part of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine line, and although it's labelled as part of the "Comic Series" - meaning it, like Deadpool, is based on the comics rather than the film - it's not like this particular look is so tied to the comics that we couldn't have seen it in the movie, you know? People may have been idiots to think Deadpool would wear his comic costume, but it's not like we're talking about the yellow clown suit here or anything. This figure shows Wolverine Logan in his Team X days, so he's basically kitted out like a little SWAT team member: blue uniform, black gloves, boots and armor, and a ton of grey straps and pouches all over the place. The level of detail on this tiny figure is impressive, even by Hasbro standards. His body armor looks like a separate item worn over his jumpsuit and held in place by the straps. There's a small gun sculpted into a holster on his chest, and he even has pockets on his pants. Rather than six individual claws, Logan's adamantium pig-stickers are molded as part of his hands, solid pieces with indentations between them painted black to sell the illusion that they're separate. One part of the sculpt that isn't pretty is the face - but in this case, that's a good thing. Logan's not a good-looking guy, by any stretch of the imagination. He's most often described as looking like a neanderthal, not like Hugh Jackman. So the unpleasant, growly face you'll see below his (non-removable) helmet is right on the mark. His black sideburns poke out around the grey chinstrap, and the goggles on the forehead have silver rims. Unlike X-Force Wolverine, this version isn't too tall. He stands just over 3¾" tall, making him appropriately shrimpy next to all the other Marvel Universe characters. He moves at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, torso, hips, thighs, knees and ankles, so he's got enough joints to accommodate pretty much any spy pose you want. Strike Mission Wolverine's only accessory is a pistol, designed to fit in the holster on his hip. Strike Mission Wolverine is a nice figure, even if it really doesn't have anything to do with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. We did get to see him running around doing Team X-type stuff, although it wasn't exactly in this gear. But hey, if you've got Maverick, you can put together a little comic reunion tour. When the new line gets us an Omega Red, they'll even have someone to fight. -- 07/13/09

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