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It’s another slow Marvel toy news day as we tick down the clock to the end of 2019, so let’s dip pack into the cache of figures needing reviews again! This time, let’s have a look at the final figure I needed to review from the X-Men Legends Caliban Series. Believe it or not, this Marvel Legends Forge figure (who’s available online now at a decent discount) isn’t Hasbro’s first attempt at the character—they did him themselves a decade ago in this same costume! Is the second time for the Maker the charm…?
When I bought the original Toybiz Forge 5” figure in the vintage X-Men toy line as a kiddo around two and a half decades ago, I really didn’t have much background or connection with the character beyond “that’s a neat quick draw action” and “that translucent leg is really badass” (although I didn’t swear as a kid, so not precisely in those words).
By the time Marvel Legends came about in the early 2000s, I had a better understanding of the character from reading X-Men and X-Factor comics, but Toybiz never gave him the 6” treatment. And when Hasbro finally did do a 6” Forge Legends figure in 2009 (as part of a two-pack with Wolverine), I thought that toy was pretty, well… bad. The proportions felt wildly off and I thought both heads ended up looking like caricatures.
Thankfully, on the second time around I think Hasbro has finally done justice to the X-Men’s resident inventor.
Forge is captured here in what is easily his most recognizable look: the generic yellow and blue X-Men costume worn throughout many issues of X-Men and X-Factor in the 1990s. This character has had several other costumes, but this is legit the most iconic one and probably the only one we ever need in toy form.
But even though Forge doesn’t have the most elaborate costume around, Hasbro still needed to attach seven (!!!) add-on pieces overlaid onto the mold to recreate his costume: two upper boots with tassels, a red X-logo belt, a right leg holster, yellow glove forearms and webgear straps over his shoulders.
The gloves and webbing are both seamlessly added on and look natural as can be, as does the red belt (which is ever so slightly loose, but not enough to irritate me). The holster and upper boots are more problematic, as they slide down and flop out of place for too easily on my Forge. I’m going to have to do some slight modifications to keep them in place.
Even so, I think all these add-ones are highly successful: this is Forge exactly as I envision him in my mind, with the costume executed in a fashion that looks and feels more authentic than Hasbro’s first interpretation from ten years ago.
Likewise, while we only get one head this time instead of the two the two-pack Forge came with, the likeness is a vast improvement. This time out, Forge doesn’t look like a pissed-off killer, but a serious and contemplative man instead. The headband and ponytail are picture-perfect as well—this is the head sculpt for this character I’ve been waiting for.
We get a rifle and a pistol that can be tightly held with trigger finger at ready as accessories. The guns are a fine choice for extras and look okay in the grey-silver plastic they’re molded in, although I’d have liked some paint deco on them to help make the details pop.
Likewise, I think Forge’s boots and cybernetic leg would have benefited a lot from a paint wash. They look alright as-is, but he feels a wee bit too “clean” to me.
Forge’s articulation scheme isn’t inhibited in any way, and is exactly what we’d expect from a modern male Marvel Legends humanoid figure:
- Ball-Hinged Head and Shoulders
- Upper Torso Ab Crunch
- Double-Hinged Knees and Elbows
- Swivel Waist, Biceps, Thighs and Boots
- Ball Hips
- Hinged Ankles with Rockers
While butterfly swivels on the shoulders would have added slightly more range of notion for gun-slinging poses, the articulation present is the usual level of outstanding and beyond what most collectors will need for a non-acrobatic character like Forge.
Overall: Although he’s far from being the flashiest or most visually exciting member of the X-Men around, I think Hasbro has done an overall impressive job of bringing a rather generic-looking superhero to life with this action figure. The common paint bleed issues with yellow and blue X-Men figures are totally absent here, and the portrait is easily the best and most recognizable ever done for the character.
Hasbro made excellent use of seven (!) costume add-on pieces for this figure, but the upper boots and holster are too loose and unstable for my liking. I think a paint wash on the time, cybernetic leg and boots would have also gone a long way in making this figure feel less plain.
Overall, though, I think this is a monumental improvement on the original Marvel Legends Forge figure, and is coming at a swell time to display alongside the rest of the 90s X-Factor lineup. Not Hasbro’s finest figure of the year, but a solid release nonetheless.