Welcome back everyone to another Dan's ToyBox Action Figure Review! Today, while out running errands, I stopped into Walgreens and was stunned and thrilled to find ONE single Hasbro Marvel Legends Walgreens Exclusive Binary Action Figure. I've missed a few, but I try to snag as many of the Walgreens Exclusives as I can find, just because they typically tend to be characters, I have an affinity for. As with a few other of the exclusives, this particular figure was one that I suspected I would have to buy online, if I wanted it bad enough. Thankfully, much to my surprise, it was sitting all alone on the shelf next to several Nova figures and a couple from the Spider-Man "No Way Home" line.
Carol Danvers is a Human/Kree hybrid who, while serving in the Air Force as security at a NASA installation was exposed to and due to her part Kree physiology was imprinted with energy from Mar-Vell's Kree Nega-Bands, transforming her on a genetic level and giving her incredible abilities. Thus, was born the superheroine Ms. Marvel. She fought alongside the Avengers and at one point, her powers and memories were absorbed by Rogue. After having her memory restored by Charles Xavier and helping the X-Men on numerous occasions, Carol was at a banquet with the X-Men onboard the Sh'iar flagship, when suddenly they were attacked and the Empress Lilandra fell comatose. Deathbird suddenly appeared taunting Lilandra and the X-Men, while proclaiming herself to be the new Empress. She then detonated a bomb, knocking the X-Men unconscious, and her Brood allies captured Carol and the X-Men to turn them into Brood host bodies. During her imprisonment, The Brood subjected Carol to an evolutionary ray that triggered the latent power of her augmented genes. Nearby, Wolverine had freed himself, discovered Carol's scent and found her. He destroyed the laboratory and freed Carol from her restraints. Carol was surprised at how energized she felt after the experiments, expecting to feel weakened or worse. Together Wolverine and Carol freed the rest of the X-Men and Lilandra and escaped the starship. While fleeing from The Brood, their vessel sustained damage, bu the power released within her manifested and Carol's mutation turned her into the cosmic powered Binary. She used her newfound powers to restart the ship's anti-matter drive, helping them escape Brood pursuit. Binary found that she gained the power of a white hole and could now generate heat, light, radiation, and access all other forms of energy along the electromagnetic spectrum on a near solar scale.
If you're a new reader, we'll take a moment to go over Dan's ToyBox Action Figure Review system. Our goal is to try to be as objective as possible to give you, the reader, the most possible information to help you make the decision on whether or not you want to buy a certain action figure. I have no sponsors, I don't get paid to do this, nor do I receive any free items or gifts for reviewing these figures. I just love the hobby and enjoy sharing my thoughts on these wonderful collectibles. Today marks the first time I'm rolling out the revamped review system! Instead of the old "Triple A" formula, we're stepping deeper into the baseball analogy and looking at the Grand Slam Rating! Accessories, Appearance, Articulation, and Affordability! The number of A's that a figure receives helps determine it's overall rating which will still be measured on the toybox scale of one to five. With that in mind, let's take a look at the Marvel Legends Walgreens Exclusive: Binary Action Figure.
Starting out with Accessories, Binary comes with two pairs of hands, one fisted, one fingers splayed, which we see commonly with the female figures. She also has two flame effects for her arms or legs, which we've seen numerous times before and two plasma/flame balls which fit nicely over her fists. I think we've seen other versions of these previously, most notably in a nice purple with the Obsidian Surfer figure, also a Walgreens Exclusive. I must confess to being somewhat surprised at the fact that Hasbro packed multiple effects pieces with the figure. I had expected to see the flame effects for her arms, but the plasma balls are a nice addition. I understand that creating figures is expensive right now, but Hasbro, if you're going to bump the retail price on us, how about making some new effects molds? These are decent enough for the figure and are molded in a very nice orange/yellow/translucent plastic but it's just "more of the same old, same old" from Hasbro. That being said, the fact that Binary does come with two sets of effects and two sets of hands is good enough to earn her an A for Accessories. Possibly the only addition that would have made it even more enticing would have been a "powered down" Carol Danvers head. I may try some substitutions and see how they look.
What sold me the most on this figure was her Appearance. The Binary figure is done quite well and the paint applications are very solid at first glance. I was impressed, looking at her in the packaging. Upon closer inspection, there was some slop on the edges of the red along her torso. What I found most interesting was the difficulty in telling which parts are the red mold and which are white. I think, to be honest, she's molded entirely in white with the exception of shoulder and hip joints. Either way, I'm impressed with the paint application. The reds are deep enough and match good enough to not detract from the look. I did notice a very slight difference where the upper thigh meets the hip joint at the cut. I even like the flame applications around her mid-thigh/mid-biceps as well. There is a hint of orange outlining the tops of the flames which is a nice way to separate the red and yellow. I was also impressed with how well the two stars on the upper left of her uniform turned out. They are very nicely defined, and I didn't see any bleed or rough edges to them. What I really like most about this figure though, is the fire sculpt for her hair. The flames splaying out behind her head give a star-like corona reminiscent of her comic book appearances. It also nicely hides the two ports in her back, which is good, since we've nothing to plug into them. This is the same translucent orange/yellow we have for all of the flame accessories for her and has a really nice effect when looked at with different lighting in the background. This also leads to a discussion of her face. While the facial expression is neutral, the dark red makes her white pupil-less eyes and the black eyebrows pop nicely. This is not a face you want glaring at you, that's for certain. If you are familiar with the character in any capacity, this figure is very easily recognizable as Binary and does her comic book counterpart great justice. Binary gets an A for Appearance, in spite of the few little gripes we had about paint application.
The Marvel Legends Walgreens Exclusive Binary Action Figure has done well through fifty percent of the rating process, scoring "A's" for both accessories and appearance. Can she round second and make it safely to third or will she even be able to get in a good sliding pose? Let's talk motion-ability, shall we. Right off the bat I have to say... if we're kind of tired of seeing the same effects molds, we really ought to be sick of seeing the same female body mold! What is wrong with giving these female figures double jointed elbows or waist rotation? The only really decent points of articulation on this figure are the head, shoulders, wrists, knees and ankles. Even with the flame hair, Binary's head can look up to a degree, turn sideways nicely, and look down pretty deeply. Her shoulders will raise out to a T pose and can rotate 360 but have no butterfly for cross body movement. She has no bicep swivel, as is typical for this female body mold and she has single jointed elbows which can bent to just about 90 degrees and offer some rotation. Both pairs of hands hinge and pivot. Her upper torso motion is limited to pivot and some side-to-side tilting. She can't really bend forward much but can arch backward fairly well. As mentioned, she has no waist pivot at all and her hips can barely do a 30 degree split. So much for flexibility. She can kick forward very high but there is virtually no backward kicking motion. Her upper thigh cuts works good enough and the double-knees bend in superbly. (Probably the best part of her articulation!) Of course, she also has that solid Marvel Legend ankle hinge and pivot which helps. Overall though, this body mold needs to be retired and as such doesn't even come close to earning her A for Articulation. Sorry Binary. You're just too static for my liking.
Well, the Grand Slam is now out of reach, can she at least close things out with a triple? The Hasbro Marvel Legends Walgreens Exclusive Binary Action Figure retails at $22.99 which is the typical retail price for Legends. Packed with multiple accessories and hands, with a dynamic paint scheme and overall nice appearance, Binary, is worth the money. In this aspect, I don't have any problem dropping the green to add her to my collection. She'll likely end up in a generic flight pose, hanging from my ceiling, but she'll look good doing it. She definitely earns the A for Affordability!
With all of this to consider, Binary's principal drawback was her relatively poor articulation, but that wasn't enough to stop me from giving her an overall rating of:
3.5 Toyboxes out of 5. Newer female body mold would be a big, big improvement for this figure. As mentioned, this is a Walgreens Exclusive, but you can find your other Marvel Legends online at stores like BBTS or at your Local Comic Shop! Thanks for checking out this review and until next time... GEEK OUT!!!!