Toy Review: Marvel Legends The Infinity Saga Collection, Part One

With the success of the MCU tenth anniversary and Marvel Comics 80th anniversary lines at delivering previously unmade movie characters, Hasbro has kept it up with The Infinity Saga Marvel Legends. Like the previous deluxe boxed figures, it consists of ten items with premium deco and accessories, at the upsale price of $26.49 per regular-sized figure, plus some oversized items costing more. Presumably they will find a way to brand even more if this works out, as it’s bringing some real fan-favorites to the table.

As we’ll see, it’s also exposing some surprising inconsistencies. Most Superhero Hype toy reviews are based on samples sent directly from the company. But in this case, we purchased five of the ten items ourselves to check out. Herewith, a look at Surtur, Odin, Obadiah Stane with Iron Monger, Captain Marvel with Rescue, and Iron Man vs. Thanos.

The other five are MCU Quicksilver, Iron Man, Happy Hogan with Iron Man, Endgame Thor, and Infinity War Captain America. A less visually interesting bunch overall.

RELATED: Toy Review: Zack Snyder’s Justice League Darkseid and Steppenwolf

Surtur is the sort of character Hasbro would not have made at all twenty years ago. Recall that Toy Biz couldn’t make a Lord of the Rings Balrog because Walmart refused to sell a flaming demon. But now Marvel has its own version of that concept, and he’s on Target shelves, as well as major online retailers. (Note: This review contains links to Entertainment Earth, who are affiliate partners with Superhero Hype. SHH may earn fees from purchases made through these links.)

Anyway, Thor’s Ragnarok opponent stands around 13 inches tall, costs $52.99, and is made entirely of translucent plastic. He’s mildly sticky to the touch at first, which unfortunately could get worse over time. That said, the deco is fantastic, and speaking of the f-word, this body could easily see re-use for a 12-inch Johnny Storm if need be. Articulation wise, he differs from a standard ML figure only in having a mid-torso ball joint and an ab crunch. Though that mid-torso one is one of those “clicky” joints that always feels scarily like it might break. So far, so good. And the horns have some flex, so they won’t easily break.

He may appear gigantic, but Surtur can work as a regular human-sized demon next to other 12-inch figures too. If that’s your thing. He comes with a massive sword, and alternate right open hand and left fist.

RELATED: Toy Review: NECA’s The Boys Series 1 Homelander and Starlight

The next biggest figure is Iron Monger, who towers over his human counterpart Obadiah at around 9 inches. As a nifty custom feature, he includes different gun barrel effects, including smoke, a flame blast, or a firing-and-blast effect. The shoulder pads are held by separate pistons to allow for arm movement. And while it doesn’t open up for Obadiah to get inside…it does sport a universal neck peg, so Obadiah’s head can swap out with the mask. On his regular body, Obadiah features an ARC reactor he can hold, and an opening suitcase that absolutely does not hold the ARC reactor inside.

Still, ever since Hasbro announced an Obdadiah, fans have considered another head swap. It is Jeff Bridges, after all, so why not put his head on “Lebowski” Thor? Well, turns out the scales aren’t quite perfect there. Perhaps that’s just, like, our opinion, man. But it’s a good likeness of the actor.

Scale issues also come into play with the Iron Man who comes with Thanos in a $62.99 two-pack. Actual Robert Downey Jr. likenesses come few and far between with Hasbro, usually only in premium sets. So since we get two, it might be nice to use an extra one on a different figure. Alas, that doesn’t work out so easily.

Hence the additional neck peg created for this Iron Man LXXXV. It’s mostly a repaint of the previous carded version, but with a new upper torso to allow for the new neck.

RELATED: Toy Review: Mattel SDCC 2021 Comic-Con@Home Exclusives

Even if he were bald, that human head would be bigger than the helmet head. It’s a proportion cheat, big-time:

Thanos comes with multiple heads, only one of which is totally new — the “dusted” head disintegrating after Tony’s snap. The others included are the build-a-figure armored head, build-a-figure smiling head, and Amazon boxed set grim face. His armor sports other modifications from the BAF — a new skirt, a missing shoulder pad, and damaged chest armor that also appears ready to get dusted.

The Stark gauntlet hand includes a fist with all the gems, and a snapping hand with none of them. Good attention to detail there. The helicopter blade is also all-new.

Tony includes a snap hand, as well as repulsor hands for the blast effects. He also can equip with an energy blaster and shield.

Another actor whose likeness only comes in deluxe packs is Gwyneth Paltrow. Rescue comes with two new heads for her, but the prior MCU 10th head (right) arguably still looks best. On the new ones, however, eyeshadow appears to make all the difference. That half-masked head fits the least well on the neck peg in our version.

Rescue features a construction that is tremendously difficult to guess, so that’s what reviews like this are for. She includes two backpacks, just like the single-carded version. One feature on the “open” version that some may never have noticed is the lower gray panels that lift up.

Okay, so step one is to pop those panels off. And then you can pop in the bonus floating shields via the balls on the end of the translucent rods. Like so.

A buyer might never figure that construction out normally. But both floating shields feature fold out panels, and make Rescue look far more formidable. It’s worth doing.

RELATED: Toy Review: Marvel Legends Disney Plus Wave 1 Figures

Rescue also includes repulsor blasts, but no hands to hold them. With a flight stand they will go into her foot peg holes, of course.

Captain Marvel comes in the same package — an Amazon exclusive — in her Endgame outfit. Compared to her previous figure, there’s hardly any metallic paint, with brighter, more comic-book colors. She also has a waist sash that looks like it may inspire Kamala Khan later. The new color scheme makes the body look more different than it actually is.

Carol comes with multiple hands and a Stark gauntlet. To fit that on her requires popping off a hand, and that makes her arm looks a little short. On the other hand, doing that with a male figure like Odin feels closer to the right length.

Speaking of Odin, his two heads look so similar as to be barely distinguishable. In closeup photography, the facial expression differences become more clear.

The helmet, which casual viewers may not have realized sports both Loki horns and Thor wings, fits both heads. The other major accessory is his staff, and he also has a bonus right fist and left open hand.

RELATED: Toy Review: Spawn Figures Are Back, Bigger Than Before

While many of the figures in this collection do reuse existing parts, there’s a whole lot of new, and many key characters in this set. Surtur and Iron Monger in particular seemed like real longshots at one point, and indicate that the line can really go anywhere. The Iron Man and Rescue feature much-needed upgrades. But the exposure of the lack of consistent scale, vis-a-vis the potential headswaps, is a bummer. At least they look great on the bodies they belong to.

Check out many more images in the gallery below.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. This affiliate advertising program also provides a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.