Marvel Legends Civil War Giant Man Series Black Panther Review

T’Challa, also known as the Black Panther joins the Disney Marvel Cinematic Universe in May’s Civil War movie.  Thus far, what we know is that he will be played by Chadwick Boseman and he sides with Iron Man, at least according to the various trailers.  He also joins the Marvel Legends universe as part of the second Captain America Civil War wave.  Thankfully, we don’t have to wait until he’s two movies in to get a figure like we did with Falcon and Scarlet Witch.

Black Panther has had two comic-based releases prior to this movie figure, and one of them is still very desirable.  Originally, in 2005 Toy Biz debuted Black Panther’s Marvel Legends figure in Marvel Legends wave 10, the Sentinel build-a-figure series.  The next update to the character would not be until Hasbro’s 2013 Rocket Raccoon build-a-figure wave.  The Hasbro update was really well done, and it is still a very desirable figure that has seen some high secondary market prices.

This release probably satisfies most of the collecting population.  T’Challa a suitable comic fill-in, so the people unwilling to pay the high price for the previous release will be happy.  Movie collectors will obviously be pleased.  And the collector like me who literally buys anything will get that endorphin release of buying a new toy.

Black Panther comes packed with an unmasked head and a Giant Man (I instinctively type Ant-Man every time and have to correct myself) leg.  The T’Challa head is nothing to write home about, but an appreciated inclusion.  The underlying sculpt is pretty solid, and a little more paint would probably do wonders to the likeness.  Mine appears to have a slightly lazy left eye.  But it is about what I expect out of a Marvel Legends movie figure’s head.  I’m willing to bet that 90% of the people that buy this will display Black Panther with the mask on.

Having not paid too much attention to the pre-Civil War news cycle, I hadn’t had a good look at Panther’s movie costume until now.  I’m impressed!  It’s a pretty standard tactical suit that most MCU characters tend to slip into, but it has a ton of underlying detail.  It’s covered in lines, patterns, and textures that seem to have transferred into the figure’s sculpt quite well.  When the mask is on he has a total of two paint colors: silver and white while the plastic is molded in black.  The painted lines are, for the most part, clean with only a few bleeds or missed areas.

The body has the typical scale and articulation scheme of any six-inch Marvel Legends figure.  However, he does have a little issue with his arms.  If you’ve ever read one of my Masters of the Universe Classics reviews, “body builder syndrome” is a recurring problem with that line.  Black Panther’s arms aren’t quite able to lay flush at his side.  I wouldn’t normally pose him like that, but that little lack of range surprised me.

I’ve been saying for a while that I think Hasbro’s biggest success with Marvel Legends is making the customers actually want the movie figures.  Sure we’ve seen a lot of Iron Man and Captain America, who are also in this wave, but Black Panther is a stand out.  He’s a great addition to the MCU roster and the figure’s design is fantastic.  He’s one of those movie figures that would be right at home in a comic based collection as well.  I think he’s going to be one of the most popular releases of this wave, easily the Spider-Gwen of this Civil War series.  Plus he brings you that much closer to building the first MCU Giant Man!

Oddly, we still can’t complete a Civil War “Team Iron Man” since Hasbro has yet to do a movie version of Vision.  I’m curious why they have skirted around this character for so long?

As I’ve mentioned in the previous Nick Fury review, these figures aren’t really out at retail yet.  I’d keep an eye on Amazon as preorders should start around April.  You don’t want to miss out on Black Panther, he’s tops!

EDIT: This wave is currently shipping by the case at Entertainment Earth!

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