The Marvel Legends 80th Anniversary Grandmaster and Korg 2-Pack is sneakily making its way to retail shelves. As of right now, not many online retailers apart from ebay and amazon are boasting any in stock 2-packs. We’ll update when the regular channels post these figures for order, though!
My quick unsolicited advice: wait for the distribution machine to catch up and grab this release at retail prices or better.
Giveaway:
We are giving a Marvel Legends Grandmaster and Korg two-pack away to one lucky winner in connection with this review publishing! Just comment on either the Youtube video below or on this blog post with the name of an obscure Marvel character. Entries will close 7/12/2019 and we will randomly draw the winner on Monday, 7/15/2019. No purchase necessary to enter. Free shipping of the prize within the United States. International winners agree to pay the difference in shipping. Good luck!
Review:
Ok, on to business: Video Review and in-hand picture gallery below!
Packaging:
We’re all used to the Marvel Legends two-pack window box packaging and this release provides no surprises. There is a general black matte background that the spot-glossed logos are set over, a bright Thor: Ragnarok logo, and nice big pictures of Grandmaster and Korg on the sides of the box (see video, sorry no picture). One nit-pick: Grandmaster’s picture isn’t as high resolution as the rest of the images on the box. It’s not so noticeable in the video above, but it really is noticeable in hand. The packaging is collector friendly. Slit one piece of tape over the side flap and you’re into a plastic tray without any additional ripping, tearing, or other sordid destruction necessary to get to your figures.
Sculpt:
Korg:
Korg is sculpted in all grey-blue plastic with parts cast in a bronze metallic plastic. The details are all nice and every inch of the figure has been given the uneven rock treatment. I never thought I’d say Hasbro nailed a rock alien likeness, but here they did. I’m also not going to go through all the painstaking time to pick apart the differences between this 1/12 plastic Korg and the CGI Korg from the movie. Suffice to say, it looks like Korg! He’s also a big boy of a figure! Hefty, too. Nowhere near as big as the Molten Man build-a-figure and somewhere smaller than a Hulk figure. Still, slightly bigger than your normal run of the mill Legends. No balance issues here, though.
Grandmaster:
There could be more detail on Grandmaster’s lower half, but the accuracy of the Goldblum head and the fine detailing on the robe allow me to give the plain pants a pass. Fancy sandals too! Goldblum’s nose might be slightly off on this sculpt, but I’m no Goldblum expert. (I do know Goldblum plays jazz regularly in an LA-based jazz band, though. How about that!?)
Articulation:
Korg:
Korg has a ball and swivel neck. Ball and swivel shoulder, with double-swivel elbows, and ball and swivel wrist joint. A ball-jointed upper torso that is slightly constricted by his leather cummerbund. He has a full 360 degree rotation on his waist as well. He has double ball joints at the hip, bisected thigh, double swivel on the knee, and a ball and swivel on the ankle which is slightly restricted by the shin guards. All-in-all, the articulation you expect from a Legends figure. I was impressed with how little Korg is restricted by his bulky rock exterior, however.
Grandmaster:
Grandmaster has all the articulation of Korg, except strangely there’s only a single swivel joint elbow on his left arm.
Paint Appliction:
Korg:
Not much paint application here. There are flashes of gold on small details which seem to hit the mark without smudging or bleeding outside the lines, beady little black eyes that are painted dead on, and red markings from the contest of champions. What little is here is applied well.
Grandmaster:
The face-printing gives a great Goldblum impression as long as you don’t apply a microscope. You end up getting that impressionist painting dot-matrix look if you get too close. But, you’ll rarely, in practical terms, ever get that close or take a picture that close. Small areas where red accents don’t meet the end of the area being painted, and there could have been more careful attention paid to making the individual blue nails painted more clearly distinct from each other, but nothing too serious.
Accessories:
Both:
Here is where the two-pack falls short. I don’t know what the rationale was. Maybe because Korg is so big, using so much plastic, Hasbro felt ok going light on the accessories. The fact is, the set only comes with Grandmaster’s zappy-zap stick, and Korg’s bam-bam club. If you want a pile of blue goo, you need to get the SDCC Grandmaster/Collector two-pack. In light of the info released about upcoming two-packs it just seems like Hasbro could have done more. I mean, no Miek? In the coming weeks and months we get Hela and Skurge with three head sculpts, two assault rifles, an axe, a mjolnir hand; we get First Avenger Cap and Peggy Carter with pistols, knives, rifles, helmets, goggles; and the list keeps going. This doesn’t seem like all the bang Hasbro could have given for the buck.
In the end, what is offered in this early “80th anniversary” branded two-pack is executed well. There’s a slight stumble in the graphic design department with Grandmaster’s pixelated box art, but the major missed opportunity is a lack of accessories. When this two-pack is more readily available at retail prices, it’s a justifiable purchase. However, at exorbitant prices from eBay and Amazon scalpers, you need to exercise some patience and wait for your opportune chance to own this release at retail price.
And now, what you call came here for, Trooper Goldblum!
More later!
