It’s been a relatively uneventful week thus far for Marvel toy news, but that’s well and good with me since I’ve got a mighty stack of new Marvel Legends figure reviews to catch up on! And after looking at the headliner of the X-Force series (Nightcrawler) last time, it’s time to turn attention to the other most-hyped figure in the Wendigo Series! We last saw him in the Toybiz Sentinel series 14 years ago—has Hasbro’s recently-released Marvel Legends Mr. Sinister figure managed to improve upon Toybiz’s original version…?

Mister Sinister is one of those 90s X-Men villains who always appears on peoples’ Top 10 Lists of favorite X-Villains—but rarely gets very much merchandise to his name. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Sinister toys on shelves in a store, but this summer has finally brought as a new 6” super-articulated version of the character (as well as a rockin’ new Diamond Select Gallery PVC statue that’s also arriving this summer)!

Is it worth throwing your Toybiz Sinister in a box and snapping up this new one to display instead…? Let’s take a look…

When I saw this figure at the 2019 Toy Fair in February, I was startled by the colors on the figure, with what appeared to be a dark black secondary color on the costume that was very jarring and not at all what I envisioned.

Thankfully, any potential misfire I was concerned with was just paranoia: with the final production figure in-hand, it’s clear that the “black” is a navy blue that looks accurate to modern appearances of Mister Sinister in the X-Men comic books. If you’re a 90s X-Men purist, you may still prefer Toybiz’s, however.

Hasbro invested in a lot of new tooling for this figure, and it pays off. The two-layered tassel cape looks fantastic and has the distinct look to it that fans of the character expect, and it also accurately features black on the back and red on the front of the cape. My cape had a few little nicks in the paint where the tassels got stuck together, but otherwise it looks tremendous.

While the cape surprisingly didn’t cause many problems with back-heaviness during posing, Mr. Sinister’s hard plastic shoulder pads do get in the way and inhibit overhead arm movement. Sinister isn’t exactly a ninja, so that’s not a killer for me, but your preferences may vary.

My absolute favorite thing about this figure is the head sculpt, though. I was never fully satisfied with the belligerent look on the Toybiz Sinister, but Hasbro’s sculptors have given us something totally different with a maniacally-smiling, pure malevolence look etched on the face of Nathaniel Essex. The arrogance and evil come across splendidly—love it. But if you prefer a more restrained Sinister (I don’t), you may still prefer the 2005 one.

The metal armored-looking body on this figure looks great, with the proper sculpting texture to feel authentic to the character. The forearm cuffs are actually add-on pieces, but they stay on nice and tightly.

Some folks will be disappointed that the right arm of the Wendigo Build-A-Figure is the sole accessory we get with this figure, but I’m going to give him a pass since this is a bulky figure utilizing a lot of unique tooling. Accessory-wise, I’m not sure what would make sense anyway to include besides an alternate head or perhaps some energy effects.

As for articulation, it’s excellent all-around with only the aforementioned shoulder pads being a challenge for posing. Some of the plastic used for the joints is also loose in mind, which has caused some floppiness that drives me batty. I’ll be fixing that by adding a coat of sealant to tighten up the joints, though I know some folks use glue to similar effect.

The articulation scheme includes:

• Ball-Hinge Head/Shoulders
• Ab Crunch
• Swivel Waist/Biceps/Thighs
• Double-Jointed Knees and Elbows
• Swivel-Hinge Wrists
• Hinged Ankles with Rockers

It’s kind of difficult to think up the sorts of dynamic battle poses a geneticist mastermind type of villain like Mister Sinister would be in, but I had some fun posing him nonetheless. This is more of a character I’ll personally have displayed standing around looking upward and laughing, though.

Overall: This figure was on shaky ground with me based off of my impressions of it from New York Toy Fair 2019, but now that the new Marvel Legends Sinister figure is in my hand I’m fully sold on him. The color scheme looks fantastic in person, the portrait is suitably maniacal, and the articulation and proportions are both well-done.

I wish an accessory of some kind (besides the Wendigo BAF arm) could have been included, and some of the plastic quality on my joints is a bit questionable, but otherwise this is another bonafide hit for Hasbro and a worthwhile upgrade. Very pleased!

GRADE: A-

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