Marvel Legends Shang-Chi Mr. Hyde wave

Marvel Legends Shang-Chi Mr. Hyde wave

Shang-Chi
Xu Wenwu
Xu Xiaing
Death Dealer
Civil Warrior
Tony Stark (A.I.)
Mr. Hyde

Shang-Chi

Trained since childhood to succeed his father, young Shang-chi runs away from home and goes to America to begin a quiet life. He returns years later to stop his father from unleashing a sealed horror upon the world.

Sigh… while the head sculpt is fairly accurate, Hasbro should’ve at least given the guy a more “determined” look. His facial expression makes him look like he’s lost or something…

Heh, at first glance, I thought these were classic Kung Fu shoes.

I gotta give props to Hasbro for adding textured details to his clothes. Nice touch.

“Kung Fu grip” hands?

While not properly described or labeled (when does Hasbro ever with this line?), these alternate hands are supposed to replicate “Praying Mantis” style martial arts hands. lol, a lot of younger folk mistakenly think they’re meant to symbolize the Asian “heart” gesture with one’s thumb and index finger. Sigh…

He comes with his Bo staff weapon from the third act of the movie. The ends of the staff are tipped with dragon scales made from the ancient village of Ta Lo’s mythical protector. The scales are the only thing that can hurt the creature known as the “Dweller-in-the-Darkness”.

Xu Wenwu

Xu Wenwu is a human warlord who has lived a thousand years after discovering the Ten Rings and is the father of Shang-Chi and Xialing. He is tricked by the “Dweller-in-the-Darkness” into using the Ten Rings to free it from captivity.

A very good likeness of actor Tony Leung right here.

The Ten Rings. Ancient weapons of incredible power. Based on the movie’s opening narration, their true origin is long forgotten.

The rings are sculpted and cannot be removed from the figure.

Sigh, a shame he doesn’t have any effects parts included for the Ten Rings.

Due to his skirt design, the figure is practically immobile from the waist down.

He comes with a hook sword.

Father versus son.

Xu Xialing

Xialing is Shang-Chi’s sister. She and her brother are in possession of twin pendants which, when combined, will show Wenwu the path to their mother’s hidden village of Ta Lo.

She comes with a rope dart, which she used in the movie. The dart is made with dragon scales from Ta Lo village’s protector.

Too bad the rope dart can’t be unfurled for it to be used as a proper weapon here.

The figure comes with optional “Karate chop” hands.

Lastly, she also comes with “Praying Mantis” style hands, like her brother.

In the movie, she is never given formal training by her father and she learned martial arts from watching her brother’s training. Uhh.. I guess that’s possible..?

Death Dealer

Death Dealer is Xu Wenwu’s bodyguard. His real identity and motives are never really disclosed or explored in the film. Aside from being a bodyguard and assassin, he was also tasked with heavily training Shang-Chi from a very young age.

In the comics, his real name is Li Ching-Lin, a former MI-6 British agent who defected to work for the Shang-Chi’s father. Shang-Chi eventually exposes Li’s true allegiances and Li eventually meets his fate fighting Shang-Chi.

The figure suffers from the same problem as his boss. Sigh…

Nice logo printing on his boots, though.

He comes with an alternate left hand affixed with a throwing knife.

The figure also comes with a “knife-throwing” right hand.

With his Boss, the Mandarin (Fu Manchu?).

Civil Warrior

This is based on an alternative Captain America skin from the Marvel: Contest of Champions fighting game for mobile aps. I don’t play that game so I can’t comment much about it. A far left character choice for this wave for sure though.

The figure is a straight up redeco of the Supreme Hydra Captain America figure from a few years back.

The figure comes with a new “Arc Reactor Shield” accessory.

Unlike previous Cap figures, this time, the shield cannot be plugged into the figure’s back.

The backside of the shield sports some interesting tooling for once.

Tony Stark (A.I.)

After the events of Civil War II, Tony Stark goes into a coma. An artificial intelligence housing a copy of Tony’s consciousness is brought online to begin mentoring Riri Williams (Ironheart). Eventually the A.I. would take full control of one of Stark’s armors to lead the fight against Hydra Supreme Captain America in Secret Empire.

The figure is a redeco of the 80th Anniversary wave Classic Iron Man.

Hologram A.I. Tony Stark head.

I find it really weird why the A.I. needs a hologram “head”. Shouldn’t it just work with the helmet on 24/7?

Repulsor effects are included here as well.

After the real Tony Stark recovers from his injuries, the A.I. Tony Stark shuts down and is never heard from again in the comics.

Mr. Hyde (Gamerverse version?)

Calvin Zabo is an amoral, yet brilliant criminal biochemist obsessed with the 1886 story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He creates a “rapid hormonal change” formula that allows him to transform into his bestial persona, Mr. Hyde.

The body shares some tooling with the Mr. Fixit BAF. This figure is meant to recreate his look from the Marvel video games instead of the “hatless” look from the comics. But, I guess it’ll do, as the chances of Legends doing a proper C-Lister like Mr. Hyde after this one is almost nil.

As Mr. Hyde, Zabo’s strength and durability enhances exponentially, but he loses his higher intelligence. Created to be a powerhouse villain to fight against Thor in the comics, Hyde is actually strong enough to fight the Asgardian hero to a standstill.

Zabo must periodically ingest his formula to maintain his ability to transform at will. Occasionally, he also uses a wristwatch that pumps his transformation formula directly into his bloodstream to initiate his change if needed.

The figure comes with a big walking cane for an accessory.

I’m not 100% certain, but supposedly, this version is based on the Square Games “Avengers” game look? Hence the bowler’s hat, which he never wears in the comics.

The full wave

Admittedly, I’m not sure what Hasbro was doing with the lineup for this set. Aside from the obvious Shang-Chi movie tie-in figures, the rest of the lineup is very, very weak and seems like something the production team cobbled together at the last second just to get the Shang-Chi wave out. I like the BAF as it is a new, “never-before-done” character, but I don’t see how it ties into the movie line? The dragon protector or even the lion creature from Ta Lo village would’ve made more sense as a tie-in BAF. Strange choices here, Hasbro…

Like most of the MCU movies and Hasbro’s Marvel Legends offerings during the 2 pandemic years, this is one of the waves that fell really flat for me, so much so that I was just going to get Shang-Chi and call it a day. But, like most of the 2020-21 offerings, this line hit clearance prices really fast, so I gave in and decided to eventually pick up the set, mainly just for Mr. Hyde.

Gold