Thor (Lord of Asgard)

This is a goddamn fantastic figure.

For years I'd been using the Thor figure from Toy Biz's 1997 6" scale Avengers toy line to augment my Marvel Legends collection, but you know what? That figure has a ridiculously tiny waist. Still, I wasn't about to get another standard Thor, so it was fortuitous that Hasbro came out with this figure. A cool-looking figure at that, and I knew the instant I saw press photos of it that I wanted to get one.

This figure (from the Hasbro wave 2 Blob series) depicts Thor as he appeared during Dan Jurgens' lengthy run on the character's series earlier this decade. The gist of Jurgens' tenure is Thor took his father Odin's place as the ruler of Asgard and subsequently extended his dominion over plain old Earth. I hear it's pretty good, although I'm not sure if any of the issues are available in trade paperback form.

While many of the early Hasbro Marvel Legends figures were lackluster (see: Banshee), Thor emerged as a clear highlight of the line. First off, he's massive: bulky and imposing, but not out of scale. The detailing is superb and the articluation is sensible. This Thor comes with a removable heavy cape and not one but two awesome weapons: his standard armament the enchanted hammer Mjolnir (which he can actually hold by the handle) as well as a big battle axe. Best of all, it looks utterly fantastic standing on a shelf, popping out in any display.

The only thing close to a major flaw with this figure is the color, which is a bit flat. But when that's all there is to complain about, it's a sure sign that someone did something right with this toy.