Toy Review: XMO Wolverine with Jacket

X-men Origins: Wolverine with Jacket

I’ve got mixed feelings about the 3.75″ scale. While I loved Hasbro’s Gigantic Battles idea, there isn’t a lot of application of scale with the Marvel Universe series. We’re looking at wave 8 and 9 this year and so far we haven’t gotten any of those playsets or vehicles everyone was so hyped about when the line was first announced. We’ll get a 19″ Galactus later this year, but if they’re thinking 1 big figure every 5 waves, that’s pretty boring. Plus who can afford to drop the cash that thing will cost? We’re looking at another Millenium Falcon here. Plus quality has been an issue for these as much as it has been for every other line. For every Iron Man figure or Hawkeye we get a 2-pack Thor. The whole thing seems mostly miss as opposed to hit. According to Hasbro, when their people started the Universe series they were all used to the 6″ scale, so things were a little off. I’m guessing this is why we got the “big head” punisher and Daredevil. However, we still had “No-Neck Grey” in wave 6 at the end of last year.

Right along side the Marvel Universe line, we got another 3.75″ scale line to coincide with the Wolverine solo movie. “What?” you ask, “Wolverine? That was MONTHS ago!”. Sure it was. I never bought any of the figures because who wants to have 20 tiny wolverine figures in his collection?

The line retailed here for Php 500.00 or so, roughly $10.00. More than a GI Joe anyway. The only ones that anyone bought were the transluscent Iceman and the Cyclops with his Astonishing X-Men costume which were almost as hard to come by as a City Strike Snake Eyes. All those Wolverine and Sabertooths have been languishing on the pegs since the day they were shelved.

Let’s face it, the movie wasn’t that great from a fan perspective, and it wasn’t something that had a whole lot of appeal to kids. Who wanted a Wolverine in his lumberjack costume from the film, complete with an axe? or a Wolverine in a covert ops suit? The yellow and brown costumes might have sold if it was easier to find one with decent paint. The supporting characters were better, with the aforementioned X-Men, a Maverick, and a couple of comic Deadpools. Those were the ones that people bought.

As a collector, I think it would have been more succesful if Hasbro had focused more on the comic series rather than just have it as a filler. I mean he’s got a rogues gallery, too. How about a Patch figure? Or some Jim Lee Hand Ninjas? Reavers? Silver Samurai? Cyber even! Make ONE Wolverine figure (or two, one in movie, one in the comic costume), make it the DEFINITIVE Wolverine figure, repaint as needed, and then have the other characters as support.

But enough ranting. I did finally buy one of the single pack figures when they finally went on clearance, the “Wolverine with Jacket” from wave 3.

The thing that really saddens me about crappy toys is that they’ll eventually go on sale and the distributors, realizing that importing certain lines is a losing game, will stop importing it. This is usually right around the time when the toy company will get it’s act together and come out with something like the Colossus that is part of wave 4. Wonderful.

The “Wolverine with Jacket” is the more “movie accurate” figure from the line that I’ve seen. We’ve got the comic Wolvies and the Logan in a wifebeater, plus the Logan-with-cowboy-hat-and-jacket-on-a-motorcycle deluxe set that came out. This one has the jacket Hugh Jackman was wearing in the film and a vague (very vague - we’re talking barely there - but then it’s 3.75″ scale) likeness to the actor.

It’s a nice figure, and it comes with two accessories. A second pair of clawed hands. Nice, Hasbro. 2 pairs of clawed hands. Here’s your facepalm. One of the pairs is open in a sort relaxed pose, one with clenched fists that are turned inward (so he looks right when he’s doing that RAWR!!! pose he always does). The relaxed pair looks like it’s supposed to hold a gun, but… no gun. Besides, he’s Wolverine. He’s got claws. It would have been better if we got gesturing hands with the sheathed claws so he could be Ordinary-joe-Logan or a cigar smoking head. Wouldn’t that be nice.

But no. We got 2 pairs of clawed hands.

The reason I got this was so that I can upgrade my old Superhero Showdown Beserker Wolverine. I like the look of his head much better. Personally, I always thought of Logan (or “James” as he’s apparently named now) as an ugly, ornery cuss. I’ve got nothing against Jackman, I enjoyed quite a few of his movies, but let’s face it, he’s a pretty, pretty man. The old head looks much more like I imagine him in the comic.

Unfortunately, the socket of the old SHS toys is too small to accomodate the newer Universe and X-Men Origins: Wolverine figures, so it was a no go from the start. I don’t have a rotary sander so I couldn’t grind out the interior of the ball to make it fit.

Luckily though, I had the Astonishing Costume Wolverine from the 2-Pack with Colossus. That head is similar to the SHS one and I hated the hunchback sculpt of the figure anyway. I promptly swapped them out and voila! A nice new non-canon-but-oh-so-ugly-and-ornery-looking-Logan-with-Jacket.

If you’re thinking of going one further and removing the jacket to get a nice wifebeater Logan, too bad. The figure sports those sculpted sleeves that so many jacketed toys do these days. It looks a lot better than that premium cloth jacketed Wolverine, but it means you can’t take off the extra layer.

To sum up, if you see this one for the Php 250.00 clearance price, I’d suggest getting it. It’s a decent figure (ignore my rants), with some great articulation. The original head isn’t really bad at all, sort of a younger version. At 50% off, that’s a pretty good deal.

You’ll need to hurry though. Of all the pegwarmers that were out there when the sale hit, this one seems to be the one dissappearing the fastest.