Toy Review: Hasbro’s Eternals Marvel Legends Figures

Love the Eternals movie, or like it less; this isn’t a piece about cinema quality. Here, the focus stays on the toys, which Hasbro basically made a year ago. Images leaked online ever since, and now they’re finally here in stores. And for a movie wave of Marvel Legends, they’re somewhat unprecedented. Because the film introduces ten new major characters, we have one wave of entirely movie-based, original sculpted figures, seven in all. Collect them to build an eighth, get nine and ten as retail exclusives, and add one oversized enemy figure, and that’s the Eternals Marvel Legends wave. No comics-based characters, and no apparent shared body parts. Plus nearly every character features metallic paint.

The Eternals themselves as generic figures may not appeal to kids as much — they’re just people in shiny robes, without any cool battle gear. But for collectors, the shiny outfits and intricate costume details make this maybe the best Marvel Legends movie wave yet. Especially since it’s the only one in recent memory not to force movie fans to buy at least one unrelated comic figure to build the extra essential character. And toys are a great way to learn new character names. Certainly, that’s how the first generation of Star Wars fans learned, for example, what Dengar and Nien Nunb were called.

Technically, only six of the seven need be acquired to build Gilgamesh. Ikaris, the most traditionally superheroic in style, comes not with bonus parts of his pal, but an extra head with laser eyes. And unlike a Cyclops figure with typical beams, his laser eye effect manifests in a sort of geometrical emanating ray pattern. It’s more like a Jack Kirby rendering than any manifestation of it onscreen. At two per case, Ikaris will be the most common figure on pegs as well.

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Thena, a Target exclusive, also excludes anyone else’s parts, instead coming with extra weapons. But while her likeness to Angelina Jolie works, she falls victim to “Hasbro didn’t see a finished special effects cut” syndrome. Her weapons look generic, rather than the “3-D printed out of thin air gold lattice” style seen onscreen. Gilgamesh also suffers from this — it might have been nice to see him with an energy punch effect. Maybe an add-on accessory kit can come later.

Also, Thena’s outfit has a pearlescent effect rather than metallic. Other exceptions include Gilgamesh, who’s just mildly shiny, and Druig, who’s glossy black. They’ll still stand out from other Marvel Legends, but maybe not quite as much as the more metal Ikaris, Sersi, Sprite, Phastos, and Kingo.

The ninth figure, Ajak (Salma Hayek) remained unavailable at press time. A Walmart exclusive, she arrived in some physical stores already, but online preorders expect to fulfill in December.

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Figure ten, however, is a masterpiece. And significantly cooler than his film counterpart. Kro, in his final evolved form as a humanoid Deviant, gets maybe 2-3 scenes as such, and he’s an obvious digital effect. The figure does an excellent job of making a tangible plastic figure look like CG, somehow.

With purple and green iridescence, he’s colored like a Japanese beetle, unlike the darker version in the film. The forearms can swap out regular hands for essence-draining tendrils that help him evolve from the quadruped creature he portrays for most of the movie’s runtime.

The sculpt detail and paint here are impeccable. Though one wonders if he’d even have gotten a figure if the Hasbro folks had seen the finished film. In comics, Kro more resembled a purple Hellboy, and had an affair with Thena. Onscreen, they fight…briefly.

Phastos and Sersi get longer-than-life necks, which can look weird or natural depending on the pose.

Likenesses overall seem very good. Kingo may seem a tad exaggerated at first, with his eyes looking extra white and slightly cartoonish. But up close, the resemblance looks dead-on. Not quite as dead-on? His finger blasts, which bend easily, but can be swapped out for regular hands.

Now that this level of detail can be manifested in mass-marketed figures, there’s really no excuse for less. Hasbro may have more resources than most, but they didn’t up the price on these over the normal $22.99, despite all-individual sculpts and detailed face scans. The larger Kro goes for $31.99, generally. (There’s also a better than average chance Kro was directly made from the digital effects model, as many movie-based Transformers toys are). Cynics, one might say, should eat Kro.

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Entertainment Earth still has cases of eight (two Ikaris) for $183.99. As of this writing, Target still has Thena in stock. Walmart online still has Ajak waiting for next month. Kro still shows up at Hasbro Pulse and other outlets. (Entertainment Earth is an affiliate partner with Superhero Hype. This site may earn fees based on purchases through site links.)

The smart thing in making Thena and Ajak separate from the rest of the wave is that they’re played by the most famous actresses, and may have crossover appeal. With the rest, consumers probably will want either all, or none.

Except maybe Kro, who, again, just looks cool as hell. Minor role onscreen notwithstanding.

Take a closer look at all the figures in our gallery below. Then tells us your favorites in comments below.

Recommended Reading: The Eternals by Jack Kirby Vol. 1

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