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To the astonishment of many (including me), the HasLab Giant-Man rocketed past finding in its final day and even unlocked the Zombie Head Stretch goal, as the campaign numbers nearly doubled in the last 48 hours. But now that Marvel Legends collectors have a two foot tall figure to look forward to receiving in the future, let’s jump back to the present and review a new figure of a character -from- the future! The X-Men 97 Marvel Legends Bishop figure is now available—is this version of the X-Men’s time-traveling powerhouse worth picking up?
Bishop made his Hasbro Marvel Legends debut in the surprisingly all-star Deadpool Legends Wave 2, which gave us debut Hasbro 6” figures of Bishop, Omega Red, X-23 Wolverine and even the awesome Sauron BAF.
As that lineup wasn’t officially branded as an X-Men wave and had several “filler” Deadpool figures included in it, many fans passed and found their collections Bishop-less. But half a decade later, Lucas Bishop is on the patrol again—in the X-Men 97 Animated style!
Like all figure in this series, Bishop comes on a retro-feeling blister card that gives off an early 90s Toybiz vibe. It’s got unique character arc on the front, and I like it fine.
The back of the card shows off all the figures in the lineup, which I appreciate a lot. Hopefully we see a second wave next year with Morph, Cyclops, Jean Grey and Sunspot to fill out the roster.
From a body point of view, this 6” Bishop figure looks a lot like the previous one—except pin-less. The pin-free knees and elbows look terrific, and it’s really hard to accept ugly pinned figures after all these gorgeous seamless figures.
The shoulder pads, arm bands, wrist bands, belt, holster and bandana are all add-on parts that fit perfectly with the ideal amount of tightness. This is how well I wish every figure’s overlay bits fit.
The head is going to be the deal breaker for many fans. Rather than the more recognizable flowing long hair and bald looks for Bishop, the portrait here is a smooth animated face and spiky short hair. This head is a close match for a modern Krakoan era Bishop from the comics, but still feels weird on the 90s costume.
The face looks serious and not at all aggressive like Bishop was in basically every X-Men Animated episode in the 90s—some fans are sure to dislike this head (although I’d love to use it on a Marauders Red Bishop custom).
I was surprised to see some yellow paint blops on Bishop’s left hip, as Hasbro has gotten much, much better about paint sloppiness in the last few years. Otherwise I have no paint complaints.
However, I did complain quite a bit about the included accessories in my previous Marvel Legends X-Men 97 figure reviews, and I’m going to do so again here. Bishop comes with a medium-small gun, two alternate grasping hands… and that’s it.
Just like the Sauron Series Bishop, we get no effects pieces here, even though energy powers are Bishop’s whole schtick. Worse, Bishop’s gun is smaller than that past release, there’s no Build-A-Figure piece included this time and the price is noticeably higher.
We know Hasbro can and has easily make translucent pink effects for other characters, so I don’t see why Bishop keeps having his powers totally ignored when the necessary tooling already exists. Heck, just cast his fist in clear pink plastic for at least -something-.
The articulation set includes:
—Ball Head and Hips
—Ball-Hinge Shoulders
—Upper Torso Ab Crunch
—Swivel Waist, Biceps, Thighs and Boots
—Double-Hibged Pin-less Knees and Elbows
—Hinged Feet with Rockers
Thankfully there’s enough shoulder range of motion to get Bishop into a cool pose reaching over his shoulder to pull his gun out of the holster, because I don’t find a lot of other obvious poses for Bishop to be doing with the accessories provided beyond reaching for and holding the gun. There are the ever-essential trigger fingers as well.
My only true qualm about the articulation is that I really wanted to get this Bishop into a crouching on one knee pose, and I just could not get him to balance well at all.
Overall: Like Magneto before him, this is a lovely (but bare-bones) pin-free update to Lucas Bishop. No energy effects, no huge guns, no extra head(s)—the main body of this figure is fine, but there’s just not a lot else here. With an almost friendly-looking head, one medium sized gun, and no effects (again), this action figure is a little disappointing to me. The Sauron Series Bishop at least cost 5 bucks less and came with a piece of one of the best BAFs ever. This will suffice if you need a Bishop, but I know Hasbro can and will do an improved one in the future.