Marvel Legends Starfox & Champion of the Universe Figures Two-Pack Up for Order!

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Scratch another one off today on the Bingo card of obscure characters most fans never, ever thought would get the Marvel Legends figure treatment. It seemed like a forgone conclusion we’d eventually get Thanos’ brother at some point, but who he’s paired with is another matter: the Marvel Legends Starfox & Champion of the Universe two-pack is now up for pre-order!

“Tryco Slatterus”—what a name! Created a few months before me back in 1982, The Champion of the Universe is one of the immortal Elders of the Universe in Marvel Comics.

He might be making many collectors scratch their heads today, but he’s actually one of the better-known characters in the shockingly large roster of Elders of the Universe (behind The Collector and The Grandmaster, of course). He’s a phenomenally powerful fighter with a Klingon-like “battle” obsession.

But while Slatterus doesn’t exactly have a surplus of name recognition, he’s about to get a pretty decent accolade from Hasbro: the first comics-based Elder of the Universe action figure (no, I absolutely do not count Championpol)! While Collector and Grandmaster got MCU movie figures years ago, Champion of the Universe will kick off the “team” in comic book designs! This has to be a bit of an upset, as the vast majority of Marvel collectors may not have any idea who this dude even is.

Even so, Tryco Slatterus is getting the oversized deluxe figure treatment in this Amazon/Fan Channel exclusive set that’s up for pre-order today! And he’s coming with one of the more notable niche Avengers that’s been waiting decades for a debut 6” action figure: Starfox!

Eros of Titan, Marvel’s Starfox (Sorry, Nintendo), is one of the more controversial Avengers ever for his superhuman ability to control emotions—which he’s used to make women fall in love with him. An otherwise fun-loving and carefree character, it’s proven difficult to get past the taint of his emotional manipulations, so he’s used relatively sparingly these days (despite his cameo in the Eternals movie).

The pairing of Starfox and Champion of the Universe does make reasonable sense, as they’re both cosmic characters and they have notable interactions in the Thanos comic book series.

It’s a little weird that Starfox is somehow the “headliner” in any two-pack, but he’s necessary to fill in Avengers displays, so I suppose he functions okay as a carrot. I’d love it if Hasbro fleshed out the classic Avengers ranks with Mantis, Swordsman, Stingray, etc.

This is a pack that would be disastrous at mass retail, but I think it can fare okay as a more limited “Fan Channel Exclusive” to GameStop and online retailers. Hopefully Hasbro committed to ordering a minimal quantity of what is certain to be a niche item.

Both Starfox and The Champion of the Universe are nice-looking figures, but these just don’t be characters that are for everyone. The lack of accessories beyond swap-out fists for both definitely does not help. The $57.99 MSRP on this set absolutely won’t help either (though it’s worth noting Champion is oversized), as it may leave many collectors rolling the dice and hoping for a future sale.