Welcome to another Dan's ToyBox Action Figure review. This time around, we're taking a close look at the Hasbro Marvel Legends Puff Adder BAF Wave: Baron Von Strucker. Figuring that I needed more villains on the display shelf, adding the Hydra Leader was a no-brainer.
Baron Wolfgang von Strucker is a supervillain appearing in Marvel Comic Books. A former Nazi officer, he is one of the leaders of the Hydra terrorist organization and an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, and Captain America. He has received multiple physical augmentations, which have led to him becoming virtually ageless. Each time it seems Strucker has been killed, at some point, he returns to plague the planet again, and again. Von Strucker first appeared in issue #5 of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, published in January 1964. He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Let's get ready to jump into our four categories: Accessories, Appearance, Articulation, and Affordability. After discussing each, the figure will receive an overall grade of zero to 10 ToyBoxes, with 10 being the "must add" rating. As always, these reviews are based on my opinion alone and are meant to be as objective as possible, in order to help you make the best-informed choice as to whether or not to purchase a specific figure or toy.
ACCESSORIES
Baron Von Strucker comes with Puff Adder's right leg and two translucent purple energy effects, which we've seen multiple times before, most often packed with Scarlet Witch figures. That's it... no alternate hands or fists. I'm really feeling like Hasbro is getting pretty lazy and I believe it's going to lead me to collect fewer Marvel Legends moving forward. This is disappointing, in that the purple gauntleted hand is in a grasping gesture and could have used a fist as well. Accessories score a very terrible 3 out of 10.
APPEARANCE
Let's start out with the fact that Hasbro went into the recycle bin for the body mold on this and that really sucks. At least there are some paint apps on this, which means some effort was made to create something decent looking. Starting at the top, I really like the scar and paint effects that went into the head sculpt. I'm fairly impressed with the clear monocle over his right eye and am impressed that there is no haze from the glue used. The paints are applied very cleanly, and the mouth, teeth, and eyebrows are done very well. The Hydra logo on his chest is also neat in appearance with crisp lines, thankfully. His boots and gloves are painted over the dark green plastic and, unfortunately, the yellow trim at the tops of both gloves and boots could use another coat as it's relatively transparent and the green beneath, on mine, shows through in spots. The purple gauntlet does have some nice sculpting but could benefit from some additional trim or highlight colors. The yellow belt is free floating and moves with the torso, which is good and the scarf with yellow clasp and ornamental ropes is sculpted decently with a fair amount of detail included. Overall, there is just enough good to outweigh the negatives, so I'll give Von Strucker a 7 out of 10 for aesthetics in appearance.
ARTICULATION
This old school buck has articulation we've covered ad nauseum. His head can turn easily enough, side to side, and can actually look both up and down fairly well. I thought the scarf would cause some problems, but it is just wide enough to not affect the head movement. There is, however, no head tilt. The shoulders are on pegs and can rotate a full 360 degrees as well as raising the arms out to a decent T pose. There are NO butterfly joints on this figure though. The upper bicep swivels work just fine and while both elbows and knees are pinless, they are limited to just past 90 degrees bend. The wrists swivel and hinge with ease. There is a diaphragm hinge that bends forward quite deep and tilts backward very nicely. I was pleased to see that the Hydra logo is painted fully underneath the hinge, though when tilting backward, gives the Hydra very long limbs, which are kind of comical in appearance. The waist swivel works fine and is hidden nicely by the floating belt. Sadly, the hip joints are awful. Von Strucker can reach maybe 45 degrees in splits. The legs do kick forward quite high and the upper thigh cuts work fine. As I've already mentioned the knees with the elbows, we'll move to the boot cut. It works fine and is camouflaged nicely at the top of the boot designs. The ankles have beautiful hinge and rocker action. The lack of butterfly joints, the old torso hinge and the terrible hip joints really knock this figure down a peg or two, giving him a 5 out of 10 for average articulation.
AFFORDABILITY
I found Baron Von Strucker at my local Walmart for $24.99. I'm still trying to figure out how Hasbro can price one figure with virtually no accessories the same as a figure with multiple accessories. I honestly don't feel this is worth the price, but at least it's not priced higher than the prevailing retail rate. Still though, it's a letdown to pay even this much and come away with so little. I'm going to give this figure a 6 out of 10 for affordability.
Overall, while it's always nice to add another villain, it would be nicer if a bit more effort was put into said figure. I'm rather disappointed as I feel this was a lazy entry into this wave of figures and thus deserves:
5 out of 10 ToyBoxes
And a beatdown from Captain America. Thanks so much for visiting Dan's ToyBox. We'll see you next time, but until then... GEEK OUT!!!