Friday, August 29, 2014

Marvel Legends Walgreens Exclusive Agent Venom action figure review

Welcome to this week's three-minute toy review! Hah I kid but this review focuses on just one figure tonight, the long awaited release of Agent Venom. If you haven't been keeping up with the comics Flash Thompson has the symbiote suit now and while he lost his lower legs during combat the symbiote creates them for him. Hasbro has come out of left field and made this a Walgreens drug store exclusive, eight Venoms per case. Yep, you won't have trouble finding him...unless you don't live near a Walgreens. He runs the standard $19.99 and sits in a nifty pre-hung display rack that's usually located near either of the toy aisle endcaps. But is he worth hunting down? Let's find out.

Right off the bat you'll find that Agent Venom's sculpt really, really shines. The headsculpt is slick with goggle-like bug eyes. Venom's base body is the Shield Agent/Steve Rogers/Drax, also being shared by the Toys R Us exclusive Magneto but you won't see much of it as its covered in some great looking armor. It's done in a bumpy organic sculpt with brand new lower arms and legs. The chest piece is intricately done as is the belt full of grenades and weaponry. There's a holster on his right leg with a non-removable gun on it as well. Venom's fingers are in a cool gnarled pose that allows him to hold different sized weapons.

Paint work comes in one shade, white on black plastic. You'll want to compare as the very fine eyeliner can be skewed and the white logo is actually a tampograph, meaning paint that's been applied with a stamp rather than sprayed on. This lends to some symbols being all crisp white and some having missed the sculpt with black specks showing through at the crevices and organic sculpt. However this doesn't actually look terrible and can fall in the way of accidental shading. Just snag a jar of Testors Model Master Acrylic white paint and you can easily touch him up. I wasn't kidding either that's it for his paint work, yet he still looks amazing.

Articulation for Agent Venom is top notch! While some of you may not want to fall back towards the ball-hips they're hardly noticable. His shoulderpads are on thin flexible strips and move out of the way. Every joint including the ab crunch has excellent range. His wrists turn at the upper forearm where the armor meets and he has side-tilt ankles. Pose him however you like, Agent Venom has great proportions and range of motion.

You're in for an accessory extravaganza here. Agent Venom's chest armor and belt are removable. He comes with four guns and a wicked looking symbiote tendril attachment on his back that can wield them. Three of the guns are Hit Monkey's so they're a bit on the small side (tho your Black Widow would benefit from them!) but not a noticeable with the tendrils holding them. The other gun is Steve Roger's and looks better in the actual figure's hand. Removable armor and a bunch of guns, that's pretty decent.

So what's the verdict on Agent Venom? You're probably reading this review on your cellphone walking through a Walgreens right now looking for him. And if you aren't, you should be. This is one awesome figure and I'm having a hard time putting him down. Even if you aren't a huge fan of this Venom customizers can always use the weapons and armor for other figures and that head is practically Spiderman Noir material. The problem is not living near or IN a country with a Walgreens. Hasbro cut out the scalpers by making the entire case Venoms tho his card shows all the other Spiderman Infinite characters as if he were a variant of the assortment. You just need to ask some friends to keep an eye out for you, he won't be hard to find. I'd plug my sponsors here but you're really only going to find him at Walgreens, tho various 3rd parties on Amazon and Ebay have him in stock at various markups if you can't stand to wait.