Doctor Pym
01-10-2007, 06:10 PM
If you're reading this thread, you probably have plenty of Marvel Legends in your collection. Now that ToyBiz is out of the superhero action biz...
...how would you compare their figures with DC Direct's?
The ToyBiz Legends had some masterpieces in the line (shoddy joints aside, build-a-figure Apocalypse, the Face-Off Hulk (perfect!), and Galactus come immediately to mind), and they gave us a much better variety of Marvel characters than I'd thought possible when I first heard that the Legends were going to be mass-marketed.
http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/images/upload/mlg17.jpg
But I would have to give the edge to DC Direct.
DCD has issued a few stinkers (e.g., the Silver Age Green Arrow and Speedy, the beer-gut Red Tornado, and the ludicrously long-legged Identity Crisis figures, are prominent in their Hall of Shame.) But DC Direct have also produced a higher percentage of first-rate sculpts than ToyBiz. DCD offers a tremendous variety of characters, along with artist-specific sculpts. Better still, DC Direct doesn't overdo the articulation.
A lot of the Legends are impossible to get into natural positions... they look like marionettes, and you don't dare push too hard on the el cheapo plastic in their bowling ball shoulders and other oddly shaped joints.
Nor does DC Direct slap dirty paint washes all over its characters. Some Legends (like Cyclops) don't look "realistic"... they just look like they haven't washed their costumes in weeks.
Finally, ToyBiz's female figures look bizarre, whether it's stick-figure Sue Richards and Elektra or anorexic Scarlet Witch. Kitty Pryde is the only female figure ToyBiz produced in the Legends line that doesn't look at least a little strange. In contrast, some of DC Direct's women look great.
http://images.comicbookresources.com/solicits/dc092005/dcdirect/big/KnightfallCatwoman.jpg
I'd take a beautiful sculpt and precision paint job -- as with DCD's superb Kingdom Come figures -- over hyper-articulation any day.
Don't get me wrong... I'm delighted to have a lot of the Legends figures, including the standouts named above, and a wider variety of Avengers than I ever thought we'd see in three dimensions. I just wish ToyBiz had been able to meet the kinds of production standards that DC Direct so often does.
What do the rest of you think? Was ToyFare right to praise just about everything that the Legends line ever did, or does DCD have the edge?
...how would you compare their figures with DC Direct's?
The ToyBiz Legends had some masterpieces in the line (shoddy joints aside, build-a-figure Apocalypse, the Face-Off Hulk (perfect!), and Galactus come immediately to mind), and they gave us a much better variety of Marvel characters than I'd thought possible when I first heard that the Legends were going to be mass-marketed.
http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/images/upload/mlg17.jpg
But I would have to give the edge to DC Direct.
DCD has issued a few stinkers (e.g., the Silver Age Green Arrow and Speedy, the beer-gut Red Tornado, and the ludicrously long-legged Identity Crisis figures, are prominent in their Hall of Shame.) But DC Direct have also produced a higher percentage of first-rate sculpts than ToyBiz. DCD offers a tremendous variety of characters, along with artist-specific sculpts. Better still, DC Direct doesn't overdo the articulation.
A lot of the Legends are impossible to get into natural positions... they look like marionettes, and you don't dare push too hard on the el cheapo plastic in their bowling ball shoulders and other oddly shaped joints.
Nor does DC Direct slap dirty paint washes all over its characters. Some Legends (like Cyclops) don't look "realistic"... they just look like they haven't washed their costumes in weeks.
Finally, ToyBiz's female figures look bizarre, whether it's stick-figure Sue Richards and Elektra or anorexic Scarlet Witch. Kitty Pryde is the only female figure ToyBiz produced in the Legends line that doesn't look at least a little strange. In contrast, some of DC Direct's women look great.
http://images.comicbookresources.com/solicits/dc092005/dcdirect/big/KnightfallCatwoman.jpg
I'd take a beautiful sculpt and precision paint job -- as with DCD's superb Kingdom Come figures -- over hyper-articulation any day.
Don't get me wrong... I'm delighted to have a lot of the Legends figures, including the standouts named above, and a wider variety of Avengers than I ever thought we'd see in three dimensions. I just wish ToyBiz had been able to meet the kinds of production standards that DC Direct so often does.
What do the rest of you think? Was ToyFare right to praise just about everything that the Legends line ever did, or does DCD have the edge?