After close to a year since the first figures were shown at SDCC 2017, the 2018 X-Men Marvel Legends Apocalypse Series finally went up for order yesterday! Such a momentous occassion has understandably put me into an X-Men kinda mood. And so, for today’s review, let’s take a look at the X-character who’s managed to one-up Deadpool in his own series by being by far the most in-demand figure of the wave: Deadpool Marvel Legends Cable!

The Right:

While I thought the Modern Cable X-Men Legends figure released two years ago was actually a pretty fantastic action figure, I (along with everybody else in the world) was still waiting for an updated classic Cable based off his original X-Force costume.

We’ve had to wait a bit, but the most iconic costume for Nathan Summers has finally arrived in 6” Marvel Legends form! And while he isn’t purest perfection, there’s a lot to love about this toy…

Let’s begin by talking about the single thing I love the most about this Cable six inch figure: the head sculpt. We’ve had some good-looking Cable portraits over the years, but I think Hasbro has absolutely nailed it with this head.

The angry, growling expression etched on Cable’s face is wonderfully expressive and suited for the character’s gruff personality, and the translucent yellow “glowing eye” effects piece for his left eye is marvelous. This head is so much fun and a big win for Hasbro.

The way that Hasbro was able to create such a unique-looking figure without creating a 100% new mold is by utilizing an add-on costume overlay harness that attaches to the underlying body mold for Cable.

I both love and hate this harness. I’ll get to my gripes about it shortly, but on the positive side, Hasbro did a bang-up job making this add-on piece look accurate and impressive. There’s loads of paint deco and a paint wash on the harness, and the fact that it allows this Cable figure to have SEVENTEEN pouches spread out over his body is pretty hilarious.

There’s also a little “open” holster attached for ones of Cable’s pistols to fit into that holds the gun snugly and works far better than I anticipated.

And speaking of guns: Cable comes with three different guns. Someone will complain that Cable has unrealistic “Nerf” guns, but I’ve got no issue with it—he’s from the future, after all.

Deadpool Legends Cable has two different smaller guns and also a BFG. All three are cast in a silvery-blue plastic with glittery flecks in it. I would have preferred a bit of actual paint deco on them, but they don’t look so bad molded in one color, honestly.

The guns would be meaningless if Nathan couldn’t wield them, but luckily, he’s got ample articulation built-in. The BFG is still difficult to work with because of its size getting in the way, but with some work you can still get it under his armpit or nestled with both hands.

Cable’s complete articulation scheme includes:

Swivel Waist, Boots, Thighs and Biceps
Upper torso Ab Crunch
Hinged Ankles with Rockers
Ball-Jointed Hips
Double-Hinged Knees and Elbows
Swivel-Hinge Wrists
Ball-Hinge Head and Shoulders

The Wrong:

Seeing this ML Cable figure displayed at various conventions over the past year, it looked just about perfect to me. Unfortunately, this is a case where the reality doesn’t quite match up to my initial impressions.

The primary thing that drives me nuts about this figure is the way that Hasbro executed the harness with Cable’s pouches, shoulder pads, holster and so forth on it.

There’s a peg that buckles the harness up on the back, but the peg doesn’t stick tightly and gets pulled out if you try to move Cable’s upper body too much (or sometimes for no reason at all).
Once the peg comes undone, Cable’s shoulder pads are free to sag off his shoulders, which looks downright ridiculous.

Further complicating matters, the stability of Cable’s “neck pillow” add-on piece is dependent upon the shoulder pads being tightly in place. So if the shoulder pads start to come loose and slide off, the neck pillow will also begin flopping around nonstop.

I haven’t really heard anyone else complaining about these issues, but floppy/insecure add-on costume pieces are my biggest gripe with Hasbro Marvel Legends in 2018, and Cable has by far the most troublesome instance of the problem to-date for me.

I’ve got a couple other quibbles with this figure as well. One is the choice of giving Cable an open palm for his left hand. It means that he can support his huge BFG with his left hand while holding it with the right, but also renders the hand useless for doing anything else. This 6” Cable figure can’t ever dual-wield or throw a punch; we really needed an interchangeable left hand.

In addition, while the paint deco on the harness add-on piece is tremendous, Cable’s cybernetic left arm really needed a paint wash on it as well. It looks unfinished to me as-is with no paint detailing on it.

Finally—and this won’t factor into the grade for the toy at all—packing Cable one-per-case? Really, Hasbro? That’s craziness when this figure was always going to be the in-demand figure of this Marvel Legends Deadpool Series. Hopefully we see full cases of Cable offered sooner than later, because this is not a character that should have been produced in the same quantities as Paladin.

Overall: As much as I yearn to do so, I can’t award this classic Cable Marvel Legends figure the ‘A’ I had really hoped to. The open left hand is utterly useless when not supporting a big effing gun, the metal arm could really use a paint wash, and the add-on costume bits are just too cumbersome and wobbly for my tastes.

All that said, I love the look and aesthetic of this figure. This figure easily has my favorite Cable head sculpt that I’ve ever seen, and I appreciate the 17 pouches and three guns he comes packing. I think this is a very good Cable Legends figure overall, but I’m just not as enamored with it as I was the X-Men Legends Version from two years ago.

GRADE: B

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