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Sentinels being giant freaking killer robots is a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to merch, as every X-Men fan wants one or more—but, well, they’re -giant- freaking robots. And “giant” in the collectibles world is often synonymous with “expensive”. But Hasbro has a clever solution to that accessibility roadblock in their bag of tricks: the low-priced, low-detailed and low-articulated Marvel Titan Hero Series of oversized figures! And so, for the first time in decades, you can order a foot-tall-plus Sentinel for under 30 bucks! Is the X-Men 97 Sentinel Titan Hero figure the value-priced mutant-hunting robot army-builders have been dreaming of?
I’m old enough to remember when Toybiz released the first-ever Sentinel toy way back in 1994 as part of their 5”-scale X-Men figures line—and I can comfortably say that Hasbro’s 2023 14” version beats the 1994 14” version. Spoilers.
That said, trumping a 29-year-old predecessor doesn’t exactly fast-track an action figure for the hall of fame. Let’s take a closer look at what Hasbro has created for us with a review of the mew Hasbro Sentinel Titan Hero figure…
If you’ve been collecting the last few year, you won’t be too surprised by the packaging for this Sentinel, which is all cardboard and features the upper body of the robot exposed to the touch and the rest of the figure obscured by the box.
No one will accuse me of being the biggest proponent of plastic-free packaging, but I think it works pretty fine in this instance. I like the colorful box art of the X-Men ‘97 team lineup on the front and a squad of Sentinels on the back. The Sentinel is held in the actual cardboard insert with twist-ties that are so easy to remove that my half-blind self has no memory of doing so. Easy peasy.
Once you get it out of the box, the Sentinel stands just about 14” tall (as advertised), and can stand up stably unassisted with very few issues. As I primarily collect only 6” figures these days, I set the Sentinel up with my 6” X-Men Legends for photos. It can continue to stand tall, even hoisting up another figure or having one perched onto its back. Nice and sturdy—just as you’d hope.
Value-priced or not, these Sentinels look sweet next to 6” X-Men figures, and there’s no jarring aesthetic contrast despite the Sentinel being a Titan Hero.
There’s a limited amount of sculpted and painted details on the Sentinel, but it looks true to the animated design and the details I would expect to see are all present.
What is a frustration about this figure, however, is the articulation scheme, consisting of:
—Ball-Jointed Head
—Swivel-Hinge Arms
—Swivel-Hinge Legs
Yes, this is a 5 points of articulation figure (9 if you count the hinges separately). The joints unfortunately don’t all have an equal range of motion, with the vertical movement of the head extremely inhibited and the legs unable to go backwards (at all).
Further disappointing is that, despite the art on the box back, this Sentinel only has a grasping hand and a fist—no palm blasts allowed.
Having zero accessories and minimal articulation really lessens the fun you can have with this figure, even if you can afford a few because of the rock-bottom price. I can’t help but wonder if there was any way at all to give this figure an extra hand and/or knee and elbow joints without increasing the price more than like 10 bucks. I think the added play potential would have really helped the sales of multiples of this figure.
Overall: if this was an $80-$100 Marvel Legends figure, I’d be scoring this a solid ‘F’. It’s not. As a huge $25-ish army builder, I think this Titan Hero Sentinel is fine. It’s affordable enough for many fans to buy 3-5 for backgrounds and dioramas, but unexceptional enough that fans with Haslab Sentinels aren’t likely to give this a second glance. The detailing, price and articulation would fit right in with 90s Toybiz X-Men figures, but I still think it’s fun to have one of these Sentinels interact with modern Marvel Legends action figures.