Marvel Legends - The Collection Begins!

I once stated that this blog would be updated every day. OK, so that wasn't 100% accurate. It's been like a week since the last post, and that's pretty far off of the original estimate. Going in to this thing, I thought: "How hard can it be to jot down a bunch of pointless crap every day?" Turns out  that it's not that easy. Truth is, I feel I've let you down, and I'd like to apologize and try to make it up. Don't get me wrong - it's still going to be pointless crap, but I need to get more of it out there, because the world obviously hungers for more and more pointless crap on a daily basis. So, without further ado, here is today's installment:

A while back, I wrote an article called How to Speak to your Action Figures. As stated there, I have a pretty good selection of toys to work with when doing toy photography. Unfortunately, a lot of them are pretty kiddie-ish, and I want something cooler. I decided that I would turn to Ebay to stock up on my 'cool' figures. Although I have a lot of  Godzilla toys and a handful of Star Wars figs, I needed some superheroes. The Marvel Legends series seems to be the best quality, and is full of tons of characters that I love. Here's what I've got so far (it's a tiny collection, but it'll grow quickly if my Ebay store sales hold out for a while or Santa is good to me.):


The Mighty Thor

He was given to me as a gift by my family. This version is from the "Giant-Man" series. Thor is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic Marvel characters, and one of my personal favorites. The Norse God of Thunder, Defender of Midgard (the Earth), longtime member of the Avengers and an all-around kick-ass long haired dude. With his trusty magic hammer Mjolnir, he can fly, create mystic portals to travel between worlds and dimensions (even through time), call lightning from the sky and thoroughly smite evil wherever evil need be smitten. Sometimes travels in the guise of Donald Blake - a skinny, wimpy doctor with a bum leg who transforms back to Thor by tapping his cane on the ground. Son of Odin, the All-Father and the Earth Goddess, Gaea. Half-brother to the treacherous Loki, God of Mischief. Thor has fought everybody from the Absorbing Man to Zeus and whooped 'em all! Except...

Beta Ray Bill

This horse-faced alien was the first being to best Thor and prove worthy of wielding Mjolnir (Thor's mystic hammer - keep up, will ya?). This explains the matching outfit that Bill wears. The enchantment written on the hammer says that "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR". So, while battling Thor on the surface of an asteroid in deep space (Thor #337 - classic issue!), he knocks Mjolnir out of Thor's hand. Sixty seconds later, Thor turns back into Dr Donald Blake and the hammer turns into Blake's walking stick. Beta Ray Bill picks up the stick and is given an instant Thor-over, cape and all. Turns out he's worthy, since he's defending his race, who are all asleep in Hyperspace or something. Odin transports Bill and Thor back to Asgard and they duke it out (Thor #338). Bill kicks Thor's butt again, and Odin decides to give Mjolnir back to Thor (he's apparently learned humility from the ordeal) and commisions the forging of a new hammer called Stormbreaker, which he gives to Beta Ray Bill to aid in his mission to save his people. From then on, he's pretty much a good guy and pops up repeatedly in Thor comics and even has a thing going with the goddess Sif, Thor's former squeeze (she doesn't seem to mind that he's literally got a face like a horse). Now you know. Although he has kind of a stupid name, he's another of my favorites. I got him from Ebay about a week ago. In the same shipment, I also got:

The Thing (in disguise!)

Ben Grimm, aka - the Ever-Lovin Blue-Eyed Thing. If you've seen the Fantastic Four movie or read any of the 1000+ comics featuring him, you know what he's all about. Experimental rocket-ship, cosmic rays, invulnerable orange rock-like skin, super strong, yadda, yadda... Not as strong as the Hulk, I hear, but he's been around a little longer and doesn't fly into berserker rages (at least not nearly as often). His whole shtick is based on the fact that he's real ugly but has a heart of gold and could rip your head off if he catches you doing something he doesn't like. Also noteable for making wisecracks in the middle of earth-shaking battles and shouting his favorite catch-phrase "it's Clobberin' Time!" just before he lays the smackdown on villains. Although I like this character, I wouldn't say he's one of my favorites. I bought the figure mainly because of his outfit. The trenchcoat, hat and sunglasses are removable and are loaded with comedic possibilities for toy photography. I think I'm going to try the coat on some other figures. I wonder how Godzilla would look with this on? He's from the Fantastic Four boxed set, but I got him seperately.

Anywho, this is just the beginning of my Marvel Legends collection, such as it is. Other figures I'd like to get are Spider-Man, Wolverine, Sasquatch (my favorite Marvel character), Captain America, Guardian (the Canadian answer to Captain America), Silver Surfer (w/Howard the Duck sidekick!) and the Hulk. There's also a cool Ghost Rider figure out there that I want (Series 7), but he's pretty rare and would cost me a lot. He does have a pretty sweet motorcycle though...

I don't think I'll bother buying any of them M.O.C. (mint on card for you laymen out there), since they're way more expensive and I'll just open the packages right away anyway. Loose figures are always  cheaper and easier to get. On the other hand, when you buy them new, you get additional pieces to build other figures, like the right leg of Galactus or the lower torso of Giant-Man. These spare parts can also be available seperately on Ebay too, so I'm not too worried about missing out on those.

I'm looking forward to 'working' with these figures. All of the above pictures were obtained from a site called ComicFigs.net. When I get some more figs (and batteries for my camera), I'll update again. I'm wanting some more of the vintage Star Wars 4" figures too, but alas, that is another tale...

May the Force be with you...