Welcome back to another Dan's ToyBox review. This time we're looking at the Marvel Legends X-Men Bonebreaker Build a Figure Wave: Havok action figure. When this figure was released, I was pretty excited to add him to my collection as I realized... I did NOT have Alex Summers in plastic form. I never bought the Havok/Polaris two pack, nor did I ever get the previous version of the character, so this was a pretty cool add for me.
Alex Summers, younger brother to the X-Men's long-time leader, Scott Summers, aka Cyclops, is considered an Alpha Level Mutant. He possesses the ability to absorb ambient cosmic energy into his bodily cells and regenerate it as plasma. His ability to control the power is not entirely reliable unless he is wearing the special containment suit devised to help direct this power. Havok's body continually absorbs cosmic radiation and when he reaches capacity, the excess radiation is emitted and then re-absorbed. If Havok is called upon to unleash of all his available energy, it takes him about 16 ½ hours to recharge to its peak level unless he is exposed to and absorbs a large amount of energy at one time. He can absorb cosmic energies from his environment (i.e., starlight, x-rays, and gamma radiation) and store them within his body cells, metabolizing the energy in order to generate plasma waves that super-heat and disintegrate objects or create concussion bursts. He and his brother Scott are immune to each other's powers and at one time Karl Lykos, also known as the villain Sauron, theorized that Havok had the potential to be even more powerful than Cyclops. Havok first appeared in the pages of X-Men #54, published in January 1969, created by Arnold Drake and Don Heck.
As regular readers know, Dan's ToyBox bases our reviews on Accessories, Appearance, Articulation, and Affordability. These categories, combined, give us an overall grade of zero to five toyboxes, which in turn is designed to help you determine if this is a figure you want to add. As always, these reviews are simply my opinion and I merely hope you find them helpful as you invest in building your own action figure collections. Let's get into it!
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ACCESSORIES
Havok is packed with three plasma blast effects, which mimic his signature power look. I believe this is the first time we've seen these accessories with a Marvel Legends figure as I cannot recall having seen them before. Havok also comes with 2 pieces of the Bonebreaker BAF. While I really like the translucent blue concentric ring effects, I'm disappointed that Havok only comes with fists. It would have been nice to have at least one alternate hand to go with the figure. That being said, the power effects are a nice change of pace. The smaller pair can fit around his wrists, just pop the fists off, slide his forearms through the holes and reattach his hands and the effect look good. The larger one has a peg, which ports easily into the hole in his back. The lack of extra hands though makes Havok look perpetually frustrated and the lack of another head with a screaming face is rather disappointing as well. Sorry Havok, though the power effects are new, they aren't enough to give you a grade for accessories.
Images © Dan's ToyBox 2022
APPEARANCE
The Hasbro Marvel Legends Havok is interesting in that it's basically entirely molded in back with a decent head sculpt and minimal, yet effective paint apps. The gray pieces on his hood/mask are sculpted nicely and sit well on the figure and the red piece in the center is cleanly applied. His eyebrows are painted blonde and the blue apps on his eyes are applied evenly. His lips have a hint of tone to them to differentiate them from the rest of his skin and look good. The white design with the blue concentric circles on his chest is also very clean and the "glowing" look for the blue is a very nice illusion of power emanating from that piece. Aside from that, the entire body is molded in black, which is fine for the costume but maybe could have used some highlights on the musculature. This is a very simplistic figure and generally I've always hailed the elegance in simplicity, but without any additional paint enhancement, we're really just holding a chunk of black plastic. Perhaps I'm reaching? Maybe, but I'm thinking a hint of blue wash over the figure makes the muscles pop more and gives us the illusion of built-up power inside, ready to burst forth. I mean... it's good enough, I suppose, but I think it could be better. That being said, I'll be generous and give it an A- for appearance simply because what is applied is clean and looks good. Just a touch more effort would have pushed this to a better score.
Images © Dan's ToyBox 2022
♫"All the single Havoks, All the single Havoks... if you liked it then you shoulda put a plasma ring on it... oh oh oh... oh oh oh... ♫
ARTICULATION
Oh Marvel Legends, how your articulation never fails to meet our expectations. This body mold has been used so frequently that we are totally familiar with how it works. The head is on a peg hinge and can look up very far, down very well and turn easily. There is some tilt, but it's so minimal as to be nearly unnoticeable. The shoulders raise to just beyond a T pose and rotate a full 360 degrees. The butterfly joints work nicely, allowing the arms to rotate back very far and across the front for cross body punches reasonably nice. The upper bicep swivel works well enough, and the double-jointed elbows bend in beyond 90 degrees. The wrists hinge and pivot with ease and pop out nicely in order to add the power effects. There is a single upper diaphragm hinge which bends backward and crunches forward decently, but the exposed sculpting is lackluster and when bent backward, gives Havok a bit of a "pot belly." The waist pivot works well, but when turned too far exposes the flat areas which look terrible. His legs will actually split reasonably well, which is a nice surprise and can kick forward quite high. The upper thigh cut works well and the double-jointed knees can bend enough to bring his heels to his back. There is a poorly disguised boot cut for pivot and the generous ankle hinge and pivot we love from Hasbro. There is really nothing surprising here and as such, earns Havok an A for Articulation, simply for working as we expect him to.
Images © Dan's ToyBox 2022
AFFORDABILITY
We snagged our Havok online at Amazon for the retail price of $24.99, which was marked down to $22.69. The base price though is consistent with what I've seen the figure marked at in local stores such as Walmart and Target, so I'm happy with that. I also don't intend to finish this wave, so the two BAF pieces will actually get worked into my dioramas, which is nice. As far as value is concerned... the fact that this figure is selling at the base retail of $24.99 is a good thing because he's definitely NOT worth paying any more than that. To be honest, he'd be better marked at $22.99 if anything. I'll give him an A- though for affordability simply because he's not too overpriced for what we get.
Overall, Havok isn't a terrible figure, nor is he a great one. If you need a classic suit Havok, he's definitely a good-looking addition to any X-Men display and if you can get him under the $24 price mark, I say grab one. With that in mind, Havok gets:
2.75 TOYBOXES OUT OF 5
He's just a bit above average, but not so much that you ought to run out and grab one ASAP. Thank you so much for stopping by Dan's ToyBox and as always, until next time... GEEK OUT!!!