{"id":29108,"date":"2014-08-04T01:26:37","date_gmt":"2014-08-04T06:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=29108"},"modified":"2014-08-04T01:26:37","modified_gmt":"2014-08-04T06:26:37","slug":"marvel-legends-guardians-of-the-galaxy-baf-groot-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=29108","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Legends Guardians
of the Galaxy BAF Groot Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Okay, we’re gonna try “Guardians of the Galaxy” Week. I say “try” because my computer is seemingly on it’s last legs. It’s been a good beast, but it’s eight years old and just isn’t keeping up as well as it should. It cut out right in the middle of SDCC Armchair Coverage and has only been functional sporadically since. Even now, I wonder – can I finish this review before we encounter a problem? We’ll see. Note to my readers, this is a spoiler-free review! <\/p>\n

So why Guardians of the Galaxy Week? For one, because I’ve got a whole wave of figures to get through. And two, because I loved the movie. Loved it. (There are a few nitpicks – more characterization for the villains (this is the one area Marvel movies tend to be weak), and maybe more time to flesh out the supporting cast overall. But I loved it. Nearly all the Guardians became favorite characters in a little under two hours. I bought the MLs. I want the Hot Toys. When I’m at TRU, I think about if I want any of the other merch. Surely, I’m on a GOTG high, but the movie earned it as far as I’m concerned. <\/p>\n

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Originally, when I ran across this wave of Marvel Legends, I picked up my all-time favorite character, Nova. At SDCC, Hasbro mentioned he’s one of the best selling MLs they’ve ever done. Crazy. I waited on the rest of the wave because I hadn’t seen the movie and I’ve been waffling between collecting the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the much cheaper ML scale and the much nicer HT scale. So far, I’m failing because I keep buying both. My wife wants to have a talk with me about this. <\/p>\n

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When I bought the whole wave and sat down to start reviews, I wanted to kick off with my favorite non-Nova figure even if he’s the BAF: Groot. I love Groot in the comics and he, along with Rocket, were my most anticipated characters in the movie. Even better, Groot got a great figure. <\/p>\n

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The Flora Colossus is an 100% original sculpt and the detail work is amazing as a result. I haven’t really checked it with the animation model in the movie, but nothing about him looks wrong. The upper torso and head, included with Rocket, are the highlights of the figure with a little more texturing and detail for the moss than anywhere else on the figure. I would like to see that level of detail throughout, but it doesn’t clash. The figure is a mix of hard and softer plastics depending on the amount of tendrils in any location. Sadly, this did lead to one QC issue. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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While my wife and I focused on choosing a well-painted Star-Lord, we weren’t looking at the Groot arm, it’s missing the softer insert, so my Groot just had a rectangle hole in his forearm. I’ll have to snag him a new arm off of eBay here before too long. <\/p>\n

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I especially love the head sculpt. It’s right out of the movie. It’s so well done that my only regret is that we don’t have 2-3 alternate heads that nail his other expressions, particularly the screaming, angry face featured in the first trailer (and that the HT has). <\/p>\n

The paint work is well done, but it is on the area for improvement. The green mossy paint on the torso would look great if carried over to the other limbs a little more, but that really stands is the glare! The torso and upper arms are more matte while the legs are glossy. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it does jump out at me in some poses where the legs just draw odd attention. <\/p>\n

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Articulation is mostly good, but a little mixed when it comes to Groot. Above the waist, everything is great. The ball-jointed neck has great range, the torso joint works well and the arms are loaded – ball shoulders, bicep swivels, double-hinge elbows, and ball wrists. All work and make the figure particularly expressive. From the waist down, things appear to be as great, but the figure takes a little more work. We’ve got ball hips, knees, and inverted ankles. Once you get the hang of the ankles there are some great poses, but Groot suffers from the pegs in his hip being inserted at a vertical angle instead of being horizontal. This creates an inadvertent v-crotch. Luckily, the ball knees accommodate well for this and the tree-y look hides what would look weird on a normal human leg. There are some great poses when you figure it out, but the v-crotch articulation is never intuitive. <\/p>\n

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Overall, I’m a little bummed to be missing part of the left arm, but I love this figure! He’s an impressive nine inches of sculpt and looks great backing up the team. The sculpt detail is amazing and while some better paints could really flesh that out, Hasbro got the minimum done to make him look good from the factory. The articulation is a little difficult to work with in the legs, but the poses you need are mostly in there – I like hunching him over slight and standing away from you. It looks he liked popped out of the movie. Hasbro did a great job, I think I’d love this figure even if the movie had been terrible. Thankfully, though, it’s amazing and the figure’s great. Best time ever to be a Groot fan! <\/p>\n

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For all our Marvel Reviews, check out our Review Index<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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