Cable’s paint came out very well done. A lot of the pieces are molded in the appropriate colors, but there is still plenty of paint to get all the details right on the buckles, buttons, pouches, and… uh, the baby. There’s also some nice washes on Cable’s skin and robotic arm to bring out the details in those areas.
I’ve gone on record before saying that I’m not an articulation junkie. Cable’s loaded up and, it’s almost too much for me. We’ve got ball-joints at the neck, upper torso, shoulders, hips, and ankles; swivels at the biceps, wrists, waist, thighs, and calves, plus single-hinge elbows and double-hinge knees. All of the articulation works great except his hips. The joints there still feel a little blocked and like they want to spring forward a bit when you want to put Cable in an upright pose. That combined with all the joints in his legs and I occasionally get annoyed trying to get him into the poses I want.
Cable was appropriately loaded in the accessory department. In addition to the two chest plates and regulation stand, Cable includes a pistol, an energy rifle, and a spear. The pistol & rifle look like Leifeld drew them, so that’s a plus for them, but cooler still is that both of them can store on the figure. The pistol fits perfectly in the leg holster while the rifle plugs onto a notch on Cable’s back. The spear doens’t have a set place, but you can wedge it into the straps of his harness or just let him hold it. Either way, he’s ready for just about anything the universe can throw at him.
Overall, if you buy a Cable, I can’t see how you wouldn’t be happy with him. I’m a little frustrated by the hips, but the articulation in the legs will eventually get him into good poses despite their drawback. Everything else is spot on for a great figure – terrific sculpt, great paint, good amount of accessories, and, if you can find him in his initial release, the ability to customize him a bit by swapping Hope in and out. All that for the low price of $8? Sold!
Hey, look, I got through that whole review without one “hopeless” joke!
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eh… as a guy who did read a lot of marvel comics, especially the x books, in the 90’s, the guns are not really liefeldy… the pistol wouldn’t have a grip, and essentially look like a smooth tube with a trigger, and the rifle would be the size of a buick… not like a 1/18th scale buick, a real buick, like maybe a skylark, to be in scale with the figure. 🙂
ok, i kid… but only a little. i’ll probably take some flak for this, but i don’t care for this cable at all, in part due to his lack of liefeldity. the design is really nothing like liefelds, which to me, being the debut look, and the look that got all the press, should be the goal for almost every cable fig, until something more definitive comes along. and the baby really feels like they cheaped out. a tiny kid, that was actualy piece that fit in the chest pouch, rather than a head on a chest peg, just seems completely doable and they didn’t. gak! gak i say!
and final thought… why is the juggernaut tripping towards cable? shouldn’t he, is he’s lunging or running, or even walking, have one leg kind of in front of himself? i know his quads make posing tricky, but for reals, he can’t get one leg forward? and no, cable can’t do jack to the juggy on his own. he’d need help, especially if juggy had already started moving.
Except that Cable’s an omega-level telepath/telekinetic. All he’d have to do is tk Juggy’s helmet off (or blow it off. It’s not like he has any shortage of guns around) and he’d turn Jug’s brain into pudding.
eh… the force field man, the force field. cable could tk the mound of earth juggy is on and rocket the whole thing to alpha centauri if he wanted, but juggy personally? he’d have to be in the midst of a lover’s quarrel w/ cyttorak for that to work out to cable’s advantage. most the time, the folks who lay into juggy w/ the powerful blast shiz… they end up very disappointed.
See, this is why they don’t seem to have met up in the comics. LOL
I agree and disagree with you on the design choice, big man. On the few Cable figures I own (I think I own a whopping one), I prefer a bigger, bulkier Nate, but not to Liefeldian proportions. A “proper” Cable of such specs would be a brick of muscles of unknown origin and would look something like a refrigerator with pouches, tech-junk and a Levi’s symbol hidden somewhere.
Though I much prefer a more realistic-yet-muscular Cable, and this would seem to fit the bill, I just couldn’t pick this figure up. The neck length bothered me, and while that shoulder armor is by no means inaccurate, it’s just too out there.
Since I’m anticipating Hasbro’s promised, reinvigorated return to 6″ scale, a lot of these MU offerings are having a harder time sucking me in. I fell for the Apocalypse figure, and was less than pleased with that one, so I think I’m going to be a harder sell in the coming waves. This is a line that is admirably improved since its inception, but I’m a bigger figure kinda guy.
I’m trying really hard to keep that in mind… and sorta failing.
I know I’m in for that Avengers 3pk, Scarlet Spider, & Steve Rogers at least…
Oh my God, Becky, look at her pose… 😛
What’s up with his neck? That’s some serious Ralph Dibny style neck action.
Hope is kind of the worst.
It does sit a little higher than it should.
The baby is an odd thing because it’s sculpted to match the look in the comics more than it’s sculpted to be an actual baby. I almost wanted them to go with a more realistic take on Hope, but this one works.
I have this guy and he’s a very cool figure – I think it’s the fact that the head has just been sculpted to kind of perch on the neck joint rather than having a deeper cut that would alow the head to settle onto the stump more and look less “elongated” – that’s the buck system for ya!
I could give a crap about comics in the late 80’s/early 90’s, that’s where pretty much every book lost me until Morrison revied the JLA (yes, I know, different Universe) and got me back in but Cable just looks badass and like a proto-Deathlock and as such I don’t carry the hate and loathing for the character that most of fandom seems infected with. Sometimes that’s where being a Toyfan fisrt and foremost helps – you don’t have to be quite so personally invested one way or the other to recognise a cool toy when you see it. Or a bad one.
MU has improved leaps and bounds and the character selection has pulled me into collecting yet another 3.75 line against all my better judgement and acknowledged lack of willpower, and this particular wave is one of the good ones.
So….nice review.
Thanks! Morrison JLA got me back into comics. Good stuff.
Wave 13 was pretty nice. I resisted the Apocalypse, but even he was mighty tempting.
Much like Motorthing, I just started buying marvel u (despite my apprehension in starting a new line of toys) and Cable is one of the first ones I got because he is sooooo cool looking and very well articulated. I personally am glad they did not got the Liefeld route. (but to each is own) That is the look he started with and I could see them doing a Classic X Force pack base on Liefeld art later on (maybe boom boom, rictor, sunspot etc), but I think this version is a better general look for Cable. Liefeld art gets ripped all the time even today, and a figure based on that would have gotten the same result I think. He is a tad too tall for my tastes, but still cool and I hope we see this level of detail doing forward.
I could maybe see a desire for a blue/gold outfit so he could match up better with that iteration of the X-Men, but I prefer this current look over this early appearances for sure.
Darn, I couldn’t get my review without mentioning a “Hopeless” joke.
At first I didn’t care which cable I got, but when I did get him I was glad I got the hope version just for the hilarity factor.
I go back and forth on him now though, one day I like him, the next not so much, and back again. Mine had VERY loose knees and ankles though too and I think that contributes to my frustrations.
😀 I liked your review, even with the hopeless joke!
I think hopless Cable should always just be the one you end up with. I can’t imagine seeking him out just to NOT get the extra accessory of the baby. That’d be silly!
My Cyclops has loose legs. I like the figure, but it’s definitely taking away from him.
HMMM my cable has loose legs, but my cyke is just fine, weird how that happens.
Thanks for the kind words on the review BTW.
I effing need that Jean Grey costume in Marvel Legends scale goddamnit!!!!
Sorry, Cable looks great. But I had too large of a marvel legends collection to “reboot” it cause hasbro got cheap. It didn’t help that the initial MU line looked shitty. Now they’re starting to look good I want them, but its too late for me. Hopefully the fabled return of ML brings me the few characters I still want before I completely loose interest.
Sorry for the nerd rage 😛
Understandable nerd rage! MU is really getting me on the X-Men front. I want a Jim Lee X-Mean team on my shelf and they’ve “tricked” me into trying to get them in 4″. I unfortunately wasn’t paying attention and missed Gambit, but I’m buying the rest.
The dumb thing is I’ll prolly still buy some as MLs again. Sigh.
Nik, I think if this line continues to be successful, we will see re-dos of some of the early toys (like the terrible Jean Grey, so so paint job on Gladiator, etc) with better articulation and sculpts. I refuse to buy them just to complete the teams (I have wrecker, but the rest of the team pales in comparison IMHO) and will continue to cherry pick the good looking ones only. Cable, Apoc, Juggy could be a good sign of things to come or just show the hit or miss nature of this line. The Captain America movie line is a level of detail i hope spreads to MU.
Agreed the movie lines really have a lot to offer the main comic line. The next couple waves look like things are moving in the right direction.
Except for the hips… Grrr…
Great review, Noisy! Cyclops, I kinda want. Cable, I was kinda sitting on the fence on and probably falling to the side of “pass.” But now I want him, dammit, even though his body looks too long for his legs and he’s more NBA’ish than NFL-esque. MOre leifeld-sih, as dayraven says!
Oh and if you’re looking for a first look at the Avengers 3-pk, look no further than on Chase Variant! (I managed to snag a set early!) ;P