With a vast multitude (and ever-growing) number of action figures in Hasbro’s popular Marvel Legends line, here are our picks for the top fifteen ranked.
Marvel Legends began plastic life in the year 2002, under the now-defunct manufacturer Toy Biz. In 2007, though, Hasbro acquired the Marvel toy license.
Those early Legends made under Hasbro’s supervision were… well, they weren’t great, and they even stepped back from the six-inch scale in favor of smaller figures for a time.
Today, the Legends team seems to fire on all cylinders, continuously adding new innovations to the figures (such as PhotoReal face printing and pinless joints) and the line’s output of product feels higher than ever.
The 15 Best Marvel Legends: Ranked
As with any ranking, the entries chosen and the order they are put in are highly subjective. Sometimes, one’s favorite person, place, or thing might be placed in an unsatisfactory spot, or could even be absent entirely.
That having been said, here are The Direct’s Top 15 Marvel Legends figures from the modern era of Hasbro’s line ranked.
15.) Retro Beast
Good ol’ Dr. McCoy (Not the one from Star Trek) is well-represented here with a nicely articulated and well-sculpted body. Retro Beast comes with a really solid amount of accessories, including some scientific-looking bottles, and an alternate angry head sculpt. The X-Men character also features a rare foray into soft goods on Marvel Legends’ part, coming with a fabric lab coat.
14.) Doctor Strange (Walmart Exclusive)
Not only does Doctor Strange come packed with two alternate head sculpts and the Wand of Watoomb, but he also arrives decked out in a billowing Cloak of Levitation. There’s just something so darn comic-booky about this figure. It seems to relish in that classic 60s and 70s Marvel Comics goodness.
13.) MCU Ant-Man (Ant-Man and the Wasp)
A fine offering on its own, this Ant-Man figure punches far above its weight with that fantastic alternate head featuring a Paul Rudd likeness that perfectly captures the actor’s quirky, goofy personality. He looks about ready to show a Mac & Me clip on Conan for the 20th time.
12.) MODOK (Deluxe)
Strongly divisive movie portrayals aside, this Mechanical Organism Designed Only for Killing (MODOK) is pure comics. His little baby legs and arms are fully articulated and he even includes a swappable faceplate with a different expression.
11.) Retro Storm
This Storm figure takes a lot of cues from Jim Lee’s X-Men run from the early 90s as well as X-Men: The Animated Series. The cape arm flap things are fabric, so as to not hinder articulation. And while most remember Ororo wearing white in that era, many will agree that the black just looks cooler.
10.) Spider-Man (Renew Your Vows 2-pack)
The crème de la crème Marvel Legends Spider-Man is packed with all the articulation a collector would need (toe joints!) to do whatever a spider can. The three sets of hand and unmasked Peter Parker head sculpt are just the icing on the cake. Pete was offered in a two-pack with Mary Jane Watson’s Spinneret from the Renew Your Vows comic arc.
9.) Silver Surfer
This Walgreens exclusive Herald of Galactus and ally to the Fantastic Four has a sleek finish intended to represent the Silver Surfer’s all-chrome body. He also comes with an effect piece standing in for the Power Cosmic and his signature surfboard so he can ride the interstellar waves. Gnarly!
8.) Nightcrawler
Hailing from 2019’s Wendigo Build-a-Figure wave, Nightcrawler looks ready to BAMF onto collectors’ display shelves. This popular action figure includes not two, but three head sculpts, plus Kurt’s cutlass sword for a wide variety of posing options.
7.) MCU Captain America (Avengers: Endgame)
While arguably upstaged by the recent repaint of this Captain America figure offered in a two-pack with Sam Wilson, the original release shines very nearly as bright, buoyed by the inclusion of Thor’s hammer Mjölnir to recreate the memorable, nay, iconic scene from Avengers: Endgame in which Steve picks up the weapon to clobber Thanos.
6.) Stilt-Man
Stilt-Man serves as the lone Build-a-Figure on this list and boy, is it a doozy. The Daredevil villain is smaller than the line’s average BAF, but what Hasbro did that was so clever was include segments of his extendible stilt-legs as a separate set of pieces. This meant that collectors can make Stilt-Man as absurdly tall as they wish.
5.) Daredevil
This figure of Matt Murdock was built on the same base body as the Renew Your Vows Spider-Man, which means that it’s very well articulated to replicate all of the Man Without Fear’s incredible acrobatics. He also includes his billy club, but some crafty fans have opted to cut off the plastic cable and replace it with flexible wiring for added enjoyment.
4.) Spiral
The Legends Spiral is a marvel (get it?) of action figure engineering. All six of her arms are indeed fully articulated whilst also maintaining torso poseability, something that the earlier six-armed Spider-Man couldn’t boast.
3.) Hulk (80th Anniversary of Marvel)
The gamma-irradiated Jade Giant was packed in a set that also included a Wolverine figure in the costume from his first comic book appearance. This Hulk figure stands at a very appropriate larger height to tower over the rest of one’s display and even includes a tattered shirt to drape over his shoulders for that Lou Ferrigno flair.
2.) Dr. Doom
Kneel before Doom! He has no time to be reduced to a simple plaything! But if he did, he’d probably be impressed by this figure’s sharp detailing that recreates his iconic, classic look which no movie has managed to capture yet for whatever reason…
1.) War Machine
And finally, the 2020 Deluxe War Machine takes home the top prize. Rhodes includes more weaponry than one can shake a stick at, plus an alternate, un-helmeted head and two blast effects to simulate the armor in flight.
