As part of a "preview wave" of two-packs, he was one of the first! But this single-carded Marvel's Electro, fundamentally the same figure sold individually with alternate card art, came out with retail wave two. He came out a couple of years ago, and his Amazon price is starting to climb up a bit. I would say that means you should get this one sooner than later, if you're planning to go down the Kenner rabbit hole. This is a figure that shows the promise of this now-dead line's template. Hasbro took a few basic body types and made new heads, and once in a while giving us alternate hand sculpts or unique boots. Electro uses a generic thin male body and adds a swell mask as well as lightning bolt gloves. He's great.
While the figure has no accessories - and therefore, is probably kind of expensive for what he is - he's great. By giving him unique hands that capture the figure's personality and card artwork pose, Hasbro nailed this one. Sure, it's probably better than what Kenner would do in the 1980s but who cares? His hands are open with thumbs extended and the illusion of energy flying off his wrists is no slouch. While I wish he had the open-mouth toothy smiles, he looks meaner without it. He's more of a steely-gazed villain, with black and white bits painted on his eyes. They also took the same body used for Spider-Man and Iceman and added some swell paint. He's got yellow shorts, a v-bolt on his torso, plus some very nice electric trim on his pants. The yellow paint is a little sloppy - bad showmanship, but forgivable if you've got some Kenner figures with sloppy wrist paint from childhood - making this one seem more like an old toy in the legs than the arms and head.
At 3 3/4-inches tall, he gets the job done and is fun to fuss with. Getting the hands right means you can pretend he's shooting bolts at Spider-Man, which is what you would have wanted in a toy like this. You probably also would have wanted a plastic lightning bolt to throw around, but this line didn't seem to want to budget for gear. If you've read my other reviews, you know the refrain - he stands, he sits, he looks good, you're going to like him if you think this is a worthwhile action figure format.
I've been doing a (mostly) retro "Marvel Monday" every week since last November, because these are great figures and I felt it was worthwhile to put out a bunch of figure reviews for someone to some day go and see. Most of them were opened and written months ago, but some of them are still here waiting to be opened and played with as I write this. I only just opened Electro in May, after a massive deluge of Super7 ReAction Figures and some actual real old toys, and he still stands out as being an excellent little figure. Hasbro had the right idea here and I wish they existed as part of a bigger toy ecosystem for children. There's a 4-inch Epic line now and I hope it does great - but will it have the depth of the "Kenner" line? I have no idea. But I love what I've got and am still having a blast opening all of these figures, and you should check your local mall shops, comic stores, and closeout chains for clearance retro Marvel figures right now. I'm seeing a lot under $5, and even if you don't collect them all I'd recommend getting whatever you can on the cheap.
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