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This Is as Close as Hasbro Can Come to DEADPOOL 2 Movie Figures (Toy Review)

When you can’t do directly movie-based toys due to a lack of cooperation between the comics company that gave you the rights and the movie studio that didn’t, what’s a toy company to do? Generally, make the closest versions from the comic that you can, with as much knowledge as you’ve gotten from trailers and preproduction info. Last year, Hasbro gave us a Rob Liefeld-esque Colossus and an Old Man Logan to try and indirectly tie in to Deadpool and Logan; they also presciently gave us Shatterstar, without knowing he’d be in the new one. For the latest Marvel Legends series inspired by Deadpool, nearly every character has a live-action equivalent, and while we’re still left hoping that one day when Fox and Disney make nice there’ll be a Zazie Beetz figure, they’ve done a pretty good job at compensating.

The classic Deadpool is based on the first  Deadpool action figure ever, originally made by Toy Biz, which is why he only comes with short swords and no guns. He uses the Spider-Man double-pec articulation, and has sculpted buns of steel with an implied skin-tight spandex outfit.

X-Force Deadpool looks more like he’s wearing a sculpted costume, and is probably part of the lineup because of the moment glimpsed in the Deadpool 2 trailer where the suit goes dark gray after being covered in soot and ash. This Deadpool comes with two katanas and two guns, one of which has an orange tip to imply it’s actually a toy in-universe. The had grips are wide enough for the guns, so they hold the swords very loosely. Those are better kept in the sheaths on his back.

Cable has a glowing eye effect, and packs both a Rob Liefeld-sized giant gun that clips to his back, and two smaller guns, one of which can be holstered at his side. He’s heaviest on the detail and packs the most bang for the buck, as he should.

So it seems a little whiny to have any issues, buuuuut…because his left hand is an open grip (to steady the bigger gun), he can’t hold the two smaller guns at the same time. I get it; costs wouldn’t allow a second interchangeable hand. But maybe the sole one there could have had a pistol grip? Like, Cable is super powered, so who’s to say he can’t lift a Liefeld gun with one hand?

Since Dafne Keen’s character in Logan was ultimately revealed to be X-23, we get a comic version of her now too, using a smaller teenager body, and the ball-jointed (rather than double-jointed) elbows Marvel Legends tend to use for women, with mixed results. And this reminds us–we’re kind of overdue for a Negasonic Teenage Warhead figure, especially since the Marvel NOW version looks more like the movie version than before.

The angle on X-23’s right wrist is indeed a little weird; it’s not clear how those claws would straight-up retract.

Domino, naturally, is the other female character, and like X-23, has a mid-torso ball joint rather than the males’ ab-crunch/waist cut combo. The hinge and ball joint on her neck allows some creative cranial tilts. (Note: the feet are not cut out of the photo as a Liefeld tribute, but to conceal the hands of a person holding them up).

Deathlok appeared on Agents of SHIELD as a great character, but a terrible visual adaptation of one of the coolest Marvel designs ever. This is one instance where everyone should be happy the toy got the comic look. He comes with a huge gun, bandolier, and smaller gun that can be holstered.

And then there’s…Paladin. A C-list character made with a kitbashed body that heavily reuses Blade parts, and can’t even properly hold his guns in his single holster (for two pistols), this is a filler figure, but perhaps a fun one if that happens to be your favorite character. And hey, he might show up on the Daredevil Netflix series eventually. Otherwise, you’ll mainly want him to complete the Sasquatch build-a-figure, which each figure except classic Deadpool comes with a part of.

Mainly associated with Alpha Flight, Sasquatch was on the cover of Deadpool #1 back in 1997, and Bigfoot is a favorite obsession of Liefeld’s–he faked illness to stay home from church as a child so he could watch the Six Million Dollar Man fight the mythical primate. What’s most surprising about Sasquatch is that I fully expected him to reuse parts from Man-Thing, since Man-Thing’s forearms and thighs seemed deliberately vaguely sculpted to read as vines or hair. But no. While they were clearly designed by the same person(s), each sculpt is wholly different.

X-Force were heavily inspired by G.I. Joes in their design–that’s where the idea for all the pouches and big guns came from–and it’s maybe no surprise that collectively, this Deadpool Marvel Legends wave looks not unlike a 6-inch Joe squadron.

But if you want to use them to play Deadpool 2, you can come pretty near.

Another Deadpool wave is coming this fall that will include the comic version of his X-Men trainee outfit, but we may have to wait another movie for Negasonic.

Will you be picking up all or some of these? Let me know in comments.

Images: Luke Y. Thompson

Luke Y. Thompson is Nerdists’s weekend editor and resident toy scholar. Talk plastic to him on Twitter or Facebook.

Deadpool and Cable are everywhere.

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