After years of dealing with second-rate figure lines for Marvel Comics from Toy Biz, it finally looks like Toy Biz has caught on with what collectors want - a highly detailed and highly poseable figure line based on the older, more established characters from Marvel's Universe. In their Marvel Legends line, they've focused on making smaller lines of 6 inch figures that have a high level of poseability, detail and quality built in. Each figure comes with a base and a comic book (all of which are reprints of older comics featuring the character).

Series One includes a very monstrous Hulk, Iron Man (with removable faceplate), Captain America and the Toad (I don't know how the Toad ranks as first series material). Series Two has a Fantastic Four theme with The Thing, Human Torch, Dr. Doom and Prince Namor. Series Three includes Wolverine, Thor, Ghost Rider, Magneto and the movie version of Daredevil. Along with the main lines are a number of variants, including a Doombot version of Dr. Doom, The Thing with trenchcoat, Iron Man in stealth armor and other variants of the Human Torch, Iron Man and the Hulk.

Each of the figures feature around 30 points of articulation (give or take) and have a great level of detail. Fortunately, they look pretty close to the comic renditions they're based on and the craftsmanship is solid enough that the toys can even be played with. In this series, Toy Biz has managed to make up for years of second-rate flimsy figures that failed to even come close in terms of quality to McFarlane and the recent DC Direct line.

I will say that with the Marvel Legends line, both Marvel and Toy Biz seem to be getting serious about the collectible market, rather than just churning out stuff to make a quick buck. Putting out small volume (in terms of series size) lines allows them to slowly build what looks to be the best Marvel line of figures to date. Hopefully, this will succeed and they'll be able to branch out to other classic characters, like other Avengers, older X-Men and even Mr. Fantastic.

If you want more info, check out Marvel's site.

- - Kinderfeld