Toy Review: X-Men Age of Apocalypse Marvel Legends Give Us Some Sugar

While Marvel Studios, and the rest of the world, waits and waits and waits for new movies to come out, the toy lines survive by mining by classic comic arcs. Age of Apocalypse, the alternate-history X-Men storyline in which Apocalypse rules the world, has seen toy lines before, but not in the modern Marvel Legends era. Our friends at Entertainment Earth, who have the whole set of seven for $165.99 and free US shipping, provided a set for review. And while you may find individual figures still in stores, the whole wave is a must this time, featuring as it does the large and grotesque Sugar Man as the build-a-figure. Usually in a Marvel Legends wave, there’s one stand-alone figure, but in this case one really does have to buy all seven to get every sweet BAF part. And who doesn’t want a demonic Humpty Dumpty with extra arms?

Sugar Man is large, detailed, and fantastic; one of the best build-a-figures in a long time. But what’s good about this wave is it doesn’t seem to sacrifice quality on the other figures just to make room for him. Typically in such waves, Hasbro will package a small female figure made of reused parts along with the biggest part of the BAF. And yes, Jean Grey comes with Sugar Man’s head and chest. But she actually has a sculpted jacket and a not a bunch of loose-hanging belts on a generic body like so many others. Yes, she’s small, and probably only truly worth the price for those collecting Sugar Man. But on her own, she looks like what ’80s movies thought cool future female bounty hunters might look like. Now, Hasbro, please come up with some new female hands in a pose other than “spell-casting.”

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Morph is the only one who feels recycled, using generic boy parts and a cape that awkwardly hovers above his shoulders, clearly not made to fit him. On the plus side, his expressive, cartoony face brings joy.

X-Man does not resemble Norm Macdonald, as his Toy Biz figure infamously did. But he looks good in uniform, and uses a version of the glowing eye effect that the last comic-based Cable utilized well.

Sunfire also recycles parts, but making them clear transforms them. Translucent figures rarely fail to bring the fun. And a few sculpted-on flames make all the difference.

Weapon X utilizes the same base body as all recent Wolverine figures, with some modifications. No cuffs on the boots, for one, and an amputated left hand, for another. (The claws on the right hand are unusually staggered, like he’s fanning them out a bit.) Two “stubs” can be attached to the left — one smooth, the other clawed. The smooth one fits better. The figure suffers slightly from a common recent Hasbro Marvel issue of too-long neck posts, but hunch him forward and it hides well enough. Up close, he looks like a constipated Robert Pattinson in a fright wig.

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Dark Beast of course uses Beast body parts where appropriate, but has a new Captain Jack Sparrow headsculpt, and shiny metallic shorts. Both his default hands are “holding,” but he comes with an additional open hand and fist. He is the least necessary to build Sugar Man, as he only comes with the mallet…but arguably the coolest figure in the wave.

Finally, Wild Child uses a smaller, slimmer teenager body we don’t often see, combined with a headsculpt that looks like WWE Hall of Famer Edge. The chain makes a nice accessory and can wrap around his right arm in a way that gives it a dynamic look while standing still.

So where’s Apocalypse in all this? Since his look in the comic arc wasn’t as drastically different as some, his figure comes as a partial resculpt of the previous Apocalypse build-a-figure, sold separately on an oversized card. Sure, he seemed the obvious choice for this wave, but the sheer off-the-wallness of Sugar Man, brilliantly executed, proved the right call.

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Sugar Man himself features mostly standard ML articulation, with double-hinge elbows and disc-and-pin ball-jointed knees. No movement on the mouth or head, and his waist is a cut joint. But the rocker ankles matter the most here. He’s a top-heavy figure, and finding the sweet spot on those relatively little legs makes the difference between him staying on the shelf and taking a dive.

Check out more images in our gallery below. Does this particular Age of Apocalypse build-a-figure sweeten the deal for you? Let us know in comments.

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