Marvel Legends 2012 series 2 Thunderball, Dark Wolverine, Drax figure review

Finding the Hasbro 2012 Marvel Legends series 2 is kinda tough so the reviews will be split up a bit. Here we review Thunderball from Marvel's Wrecking Crew, Dark Wolverine (Wolvie's son Dakken) and Drax. Each figure comes with a piece of Arnim Zola build-a-figure and a Tales of Arnim Zola pamphlet which describes his various exploits with other heroes/villains. Spiderman is the only one without a BAF piece and there's 3 variants in the line.

Thunderball is huge, a partial remold of Hulkling/Crossbones with a new chest, head, upper legs, and hands. There's tons of articulation in this guy and his neck/ab crunch really let him swing his wrecking ball in nice poses. He can look straight up without bending his abs either, just his neck. Paint apps are very clean and his yellow is shaded with orange but the green is solid. He comes with a nicely sculpted wrecking ball which is all new and not a reuse from the Hasbro Absorbing Man.

Sculpting is great for Piledriver as well but I remember him with bootcuffs like Captain America has. His lower legs have striations in them that don't quite match up to his smooth upper thighs but it's a minor quibble. Another muscular fellow is Drax who shares a Steve Rogers/Nick Fury body with new head, forearms, and lower legs. His sculpt is very nice and matches the source material in the comics well, not being super-buff as he once was.

Drax's paint apps are nice with clean tattoos and dark muscle shading tho it doesn't quite match up on his lower arms as it seems they were painted at a different time. He has the same articulation as Rogers but loses the lower calf swivels. Drax's organic-looking knives store in the back of his belt which is removable. A small gripe is that from the back you can see the two peg-points on his shoulders where Roger's webgear glues to.

Dakken, or 'Dark Wolverine' as they call him is unmasked and has his two claws popped. There's a masked variant but seems much harder to find. DW shares the Constrictor body with new hands, head, and lower legs. His folded-down Wolverine mask in the back looks neat and is removable if you pop his head off. Paint apps are clean with shading all over his tan sections, his tattoo very well done.

Dakken's articulation is better with the addition of toes and ankle rockers. He has spinning-meat forearms but that's a small price to pay for hinged wrists which any clawed superhero needs. A couple notes, the variant of Thunderball is Piledriver, Big Time Spiderman in green and black is also in a white/black Future Foundation suit, and there's Madam Masque/Madam Hydra. Tracking these down seems to be much harder than the first wave.

So what's the verdict? Get the figures. If you collect Marvel Legends it's worth it to hunt these down. Our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store has both sets of variant characters and you can find them at various brick and mortar stores. Beware tho, Toys r Us charges $20 followed by Walmart at $16, but Target has them for $15 if you're lucky. These are flying off the shelf and series 1 only sees Iron Man and Klaw left.