Zadzooks: Marvel Legends: X-Men ‘Build-A-Figure’ Caliban review

Thanks to the proliferation of film, comic book and cartoon characters, companies are bombarding consumers with an incredible selection of action figures. With tongue-in-cheek, let’s take a peek at some of the specimens worthy of a place in Zad’s Toy Vault.

X-Men Caliban ‘Build-A-Figure’

With the latest Marvel mutant cinematic homage on the horizon through the release of “Dark Phoenix,” Hasbro reminds fans and collectors of the X-Men’s comic book legacy with its latest line-up of 6-inch-tall Marvel Legends action figures.

The latest series includes Weapon X, Jubilee, Beast, Skullbuster, Blink, Forge, Gambit and the obligatory “Build-A-Figure” featuring a super-powered version of the mutant Caliban.

Figure profile: As a member of the soon-to-be massacred underground dwelling outcasts called the Morlocks, the emaciated, yellow bug-eyed, albino mutant Caliban existed with only the abilities to sense Homo Superiors within a limited distance.

Life changed after the fleckless humanoid accepted a position as of one of the four horsemen for the monstrous megalomaniacal and immortal X-Men foe Apocalypse.

His new master imbued him with an increased body size and super strength, and he was renamed Hellhound and eventually dubbed Death.

The reborn Caliban was tasked with finding like-minded mutants, kidnapping Cyclops and Jean Grey and unleashing punishing chaos to the enemies of Apocalypse.

Accessories: For roughly the last 15 years, Toy Biz and Hasbro’s Build-A-Figure option has given collectors a fun way to track down specific Marvel Legends’ X-Men figures and assemble a key mutant character from the Marvel universe such as a Sentinel or Onslaught.

In this case, six pieces of Caliban are packaged within six of the latest X-Men Legends action figures’ packaging. Owners will carefully extricate the pieces from the plastic casing and in under 5 minutes snap together an 8-inch-tall Caliban wearing a red-and-silvery-white, skin-tight costume and grey gauntlets.

The bone-white head sculpt sells the piece as his mouth with fanged teeth is wide open, his face scrunched up to highlight his glowing yellow eyes, and a brow gets peaked on either side to look like horns.

The figure looks plucked from the illustrative pen of Jae Lee back in 1992 and features 16 points of articulation. Also, other than his large-clawed, boney hands, he comes with no accessories.

Sounds great, but remember: To actually build him, the collectors will need to purchase six of the seven X-Men figures.

Here are some of the highlights of the collection with each liberally offering more than 18 points of articulation and a loose Caliban body part.

Weapon X (right leg): Taking its cue from the legendary Barry Windsor-Smith comic book series from 1991 (Marvel Comics Presents Nos. 72 to 84), the 5 3/4-inch-tall figure offers Logan (aka Wolverine) as he escaped the Canadian Weapon X facility, shortly after his Adamantium induction. He only wears a black bikini brief, brown strapping chest harness, helmet and various tube and tech equipment.

Specifically, this masterpiece offers a fleshy musculature with just a touch of painted-on chest, bicep and calf hair; red tubing attached to wrists and plugged into the large silvery grey helmet (with red visor); and a trio of silvery grey monitors (highlighted by a hint of green and yellow status lights) strapped to a belt at his midsection.

Of course, he also gets metal-colored claws sprung from his knuckles and, best of all, owners get a second head that features Wolverine in a full feral rage with long bushy black hair.

Jubilee (torso): Fans get an excellent version of the female pyrotechnic-blasting mutant based on artist Jim Lee’s illustrations form the 1990s X-Men comics.

That translates into almost 6-inch-tall figure with a hot pink T-shirt, jean shorts, knee-length yellow coat with rolled up sleeves, light-blue gloves and boots.

Tightly cropped black hair is complement by non-removable translucent red sunglasses, red lipstick and gold-embossed earrings.

Now get this, she comes with an extra head displaying her blowing a pink gum bubble and two extra pairs of red sunglasses to place one on the new head.

Blink (left leg): The famed teleporting mutant stands 6-inches-tall and has purple skin, dark grape-purple hair and red facial birthmarks.

Definitely a comic book version and not from the recent movie or TV show, she wears a loose green tunic with brown belt, green gauntlets, green pixie boots and a loose spiked brown choker around the neck.

She comes with a pair of soft pink rubber teleportation javelins and a pink, hard plastic portal ring bubbling up and tentacled with anticipation of her next jump.

Beast (head): A super-articulated, furry blue plastic sculpt of scientist Hank McCoy’s ferocious alter-ego stands slightly more than 7 inches tall and does not disappoint. He’s dressed in classic 1990s X-Men blue shorts and a yellow belt emblazoned with a red-and-black X-logo.

His face shows the Beast in full rage mode with mouth opened, and he comes with an extra fist and flat-palmed hand.

By the way, very patient collectors can use the flattened hand to try to get him to balance on that hand, just like in the comics. It’s an arduous task that will occasionally work, but it’s pretty impressive.

Skullbuster (right arm): A nearly 7-inch-tall reproduction of a member of the Australian cyborg assassin gang called the Reavers, this combat-ready, armed brute looks ripped from a “Mad Max” movie and sports a painted black face highlighted by white skull makeup.

Taking a 1980s design from artist and his co-creator Marc Silvestri, his outfit features a dark-green vest with bullet bandolier wrapped across his chest; spiked shoulder armor; brown kneepads and military boots; greyish silver legs; and a right arm showing his cyborg enhancements.

He comes with a large green scoped pistol that fits his holster, but a second included a Murray Reese head (another Reaver who has the same body type) really defines Hasbro’s commitment to making great Legends’ figures. It features a human face with orangish blond hair covered in a translucent helmet with a grey extended headest mic attached.

Forge (left arm): X-Men’s Native American tech genius and the guy who stopped Skullbuster comes to life in this brightly colored, slightly more than 6-inch-tall action figure.

The 1980s-inspired look, plucked from artist and co-creator John Romita Jr.’s work, presents a yellow-and-blue costume, yellow gloves, a red headband, red belt and brown boots with plastic fringe that never want to stay on the calves. He has a holster for an included pistol and also comes with a large futuristic rifle that can mount on his back. A nice touch is the ponytail and right cybernetic leg that has a blue metallic paint job.

Note: The added mutant in the series is the 6 3/4-inch-tall Gambit that does not come with a Caliban part but offers a splitting image of his 1990s comic book look. He’s dressed in a long brown coat covering a metallic pink-and-blue costume and wearing spiked hair.

The ragin’ Cajun comes with his staff, an extra outstretched hand in the motion of flinging attached plasma pink playing cards at an enemy, and a single translucent card smoldering with plasma to attach to one of the other hands.

Price: $119.94 (requires purchase of six figures at $19.99 each).

Read all about it: Caliban’s incredible transformative journey played out mainly during Marvel Comics 1992 crossover storyline X-Cutioner’s Song. A trade paperback (averaging $20 on Amazon) collects all of the key issues including Uncanny X-Men Nos. 294 to 297, X-Factor Nos. 84 to 86, X-Men Nos.14 to 16, X-Force Nos.16 to 19 and the one shot “Stryfe’s Strike File” that features the work of creators such as writers Peter David and Scott Lobdell and artists Adam Kubert, Jae Lee and Greg Capullo.

What’s it worth: No clunkers in this line-up, my finicky collectors. Without a doubt, the latest X-Men figure set blows away, by sheer detail and accessories, the recent Marvel Legends: Avengers: Endgame series that featured an Armored Thanos Build-A-Figure.

However, I’m still a bit torn by this version of Caliban. He’s big, menacing and worthy to own, but I would have preferred his older, sicklier version in which he acted as a caretaker for Professor X in the film “Logan.” That guy tugged at the heartstrings, and he is not easily forgotten.