{"id":32428,"date":"2016-02-07T00:42:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-07T06:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=32428"},"modified":"2016-02-07T13:49:08","modified_gmt":"2016-02-07T19:49:08","slug":"absorbing-man-week-marvel-legends-baf-absorbing-man-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=32428","title":{"rendered":"Absorbing Man Week!
Marvel Legends BAF Absorbing Man Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> “I’m Crusher Creel! They call me the Absorbing Man! I guess ya can see why!”<\/em><\/strong> – Carl “Crusher” Creel, the Absorbing Man (You can see why). <\/p>\n

So three days ago I started this review with the setence “The universe has been fighting my success this week.” There had been some… unplanned events, big stress at work, and then the site went down. And stayed down. For three days. All the gobbedlygook is fixed up now. I guess I just wasn’t meant to get 8 reviews done in 5 days! But alas, we’re still making it in the calendar week, at least if you figure the week starts on Mondays. On to the Absorbing Man… <\/p>\n

Much like some other characters I\u2019ve reviewed this week, I can\u2019t tell you exactly when I started following the Absorbing Man. I\u2019ve just always kind of known about him, enjoyed his pretty cool super power, and could never get a good figure of him. Toy Biz did get to him back in the Hulk Classics days but he was impossibly rare (don\u2019t even talk to me about Dragon Man, that wound is fresh). He was a more modern take with the orange pants and a Hulk arm which was pretty cool, but he was in the tail end wave of a doomed line and well, you know how that goes. Toy Biz tried to rectify it with their Spidey 2-packs a little while later, but that two-pack ended up in the tail end wave of a doomed line and well… you know how that goes.<\/p>\n

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Hasbro got in on the action in their Fin Fang Foom line. He wasn\u2019t impossible, but Hasbro hadn\u2019t quite figured it out yet. I liked his brick leg, but not much else about that figure. So I waited and waited \u2013 seriously being a fan of Thor villains is akin to liking girl characters. The toy companies don\u2019t always have your back. Luckily, Hasbro has been on fire with the ladies & with the Thor big bads. I mean, I\u2019m still waiting on Loki, Enchantress, Grey Gargoyle, Mr. Hyde\u2026 you get the idea, but an upswing is an upswing. And, 51 years after he debuted, Absorbing Man has a great figure, even if he\u2019s a Spider-Man BAF. <\/p>\n

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The first thing you might notice about ol\u2019 Crusher Creel is his size. Yes, Hasbro has decided to upscale Thor\u2019s whole life. His figures are huge. His villains are huge. Valkyrie was huge. It\u2019s just a thing, Asgardians are now seven and a half feet tall and if a human has to fight them, they\u2019re apparent seven and a half feet tall too. At least that\u2019s true for the Wrecking Crew & Absorbing Man; poor Radioactive Man got the short end of the stick there. The good news for Crusher is that he can totally be this big. He could be as big or you or I if he touched something massive enough and absorbed its properties. So making him big enough to go toe-to-toe with the giant Thor\u2019s we\u2019ve been getting? Perfect. <\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t know the specifics here on the reuse, but I\u2019m guessing some Terrax parts are at play based on the size and the old ball-jointed hip design. Everything works fine even if the old hips are giving me Toy Biz flashbacks. The buck body has some new bits like the belt, the lower pant legs, and prison issue boots to finish off his iconic look just fine. He is missing nipples, but we won\u2019t hold that against him, or hold anything against him for that matter. That\u2019s how trouble starts. <\/p>\n

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Up top is of course his new noggin\u2019. I love & hate it. I\u2019ve always thought his uneven cone head was weird, so I don\u2019t like it, but the toy absolutely nails it and I love that. His face sculpt is spot on to me too. I mean, he looks like he\u2019s seen something really disconcerting and he just doesn\u2019t know what to make of it, but that makes sense given the character. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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If you bought the entire wave, you do get some fun alternate parts too, crucial for any good Absorbing Man figure. In his basic configuration you have the normal head, normal left arm, and I figure the steel right arm. Extra figures net you a wood right arm and a stony left arm. The stone arm has an extra layer of thought put into it as the stone creeps all the way up to his shoulder and matches up with the alternate screaming head which features a full-on stone visage on the left have of his face. All these are plenty cool and actually serve as a reminder that I\u2019d probably buy a completely stone, metal, or whatever version of this same figure. That would rock. <\/p>\n

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With of the parts being older, the articulation is a little different, but a lot of familiar areas: ball-joints at the neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, and inverted ankles; swivels at the biceps, waist, & thighs, double-hinge knees, single-hinge elbows, and the ab crunch. Everything works pretty well, but some areas could be better. The double barbell in the neck is a little limiting and the feet, despite having the awesome inverted joint, are partially blocked by the pants. If only Crusher tucked his pants leg into his boots. <\/p>\n

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The one miss here? The accessory. It\u2019s that same damn wrecking ball. Again. We already got this a couple times with the wrecking crew \u2013 and actually painted, no less. It\u2019s just in cast grey plastic here and is probably the worst we\u2019ve seen it. I don\u2019t mind him having it \u2013 he needs it\u2019s incorporated in his powers since he was holding it when he drank the potion and gained his powers, but Hasbro just needed to make a better one than slapping this one in there. I\u2019ve decided to thrown in Thunderball\u2019s for him on the shelf though because it matches his arm better than his own unpainted version. <\/p>\n

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Overall, Absorbing Man is a great BAF right out of the gate for this year and he\u2019ll be tough to beat. There are a few things I\u2019d like better \u2013 different hips and the belt glued down, but the visual is there with quality articulation and as I always say that\u2019s what makes a toy. He looks great on the shelf, he\u2019s fun to play with, and he\u2019s easily worth snapping up the whole wave (with plenty of great figures on its own) to get. The more classic Thor villains Hasbro does, and does this well, the happier I\u2019ll be. <\/p>\n

Alright! Looks like we made it! Absorbing Man Week is on the books! Now since Hasbro shows outright disdain for my wallet, it\u2019s already time for Red Onslaught Week! We won\u2019t do that next week, we\u2019ve got something else planned, but check back after Toy Fair for that theme week! Thank you for being patient with the outages and checking out all the reviews. I’m off to take a bunch of Star Wars pictures!<\/p>\n

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

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<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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