Spider-Man Retro 2026 Wave with Cardiac, Owl & Hypno Hustler

The Cardiac I POed from Amazon is delayed indefinitely. I got a copy from Pulse, but that one’s staying carded for now. Cardiac is the only one from this wave I haven’t opened yet.
 
Just as often not.

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Well, since the current Inverness cape is part of a long trenchcoat mold, I'd take Mastermind with that look, since I think its less likely they sculpt a separate short coat with inverness cape just for that character.

As it is they can throw the head they included with the Hellfire Club set on a suited body with the arms and coat from Owl and call it done with no new tooling. Hasbro always likes the no new tooling figures...
 
Silly anecdote: yesterday, I'm in the kitchen fixin' dindins and my wife (aka my very own Jane Goodall) was in the living room checking out and fiddling with the small group of recent additions to the ML collection that are still standing on the entertainment center when she says...
"What's the name of the angry clown guy with the cotton candy?"
I looked over and she was holding Cardiac. I audibly snorted.
And now I can't help but think, 'how can someone be so angry when they're at the circus and have themselves a majestic wad of blue raspberry cotton candy?'


But seriously, before anyone asks, yes, of course I responded to her question with the standard "Keep your dirty mitts off my Legends!"
 
Beamish said:
Hypno-Hustler is absolutely wonderful. He's hanging out with Cold Slither and Disco Dazzler right now.

Cardiac looks good, but something is off. I can't quite put my finger on it.
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HA! I got HH today and my instant thought was "I know they don't belong together, but he'd go great with Dazzler!" I also just looked up the price of Cold Slither before posting here. Great minds think alike! And yes, HH is way better than he has any right to be.

It's Cardiac's nose, imo, even though I don't have him yet.
 
First figure arrivals of the year are Owl, Uncanny Spider-Man, and Spider-Venom. All shipped separately but delivered by the same driver. Sometimes I just don't ask why. It's funny, I've never thought about it before but I kinda feel like I should be deliberate picking which one I open first as my first figure of the year. (Miguel will be here in a few days.)

I skipped Hypno Hustler and Cardiac because I'm totally unfamiliar with the characters, but sounds like they might be fun enough to pick up? Any recommended arcs to read for either dude I should start with?
 
Finally opened Owlsy. He's fine for me, though if I find a bow, I'll replace his scarf. I did instantly glue in his claws and blue-tac the Owl to his shoulder.
 
I brought Cardiac home yesterday, my first figure purchase of the year. I've typed this up before but Cardiac was one of my few ML wants, he first appeared at the same time I started reading Spider-Man comics, he and I came onto the scene at the same time. I really like his look.

This figure is pretty incredible and frustrating at the same time. I really, really like him except for two very Hasbro like issues.

His sculpt in great and it's all new. This is a case where they could have gotten away with reuse---his collar could have been an overlay that plugs in, his EKG lines would could have been tampoed on, but they sculpted everything in. There's going to be no reuse for this figure. Not only is it all-new, but it's a good, comic book-y silhouette, proportions are great. The energy globe (though it comes off looking like a lollypop) is accurate to his unique-looking power signature. His hands are hinged the right way (up/down hinge).

Now to the frustration:
His head is sculpted as good as the rest of him with sculpted-in line work and mean expression........EXCEPT, Cardiac is never drawn with a nose when his mask is on! The sculptors would have had to have seen all the reference art, all of which have him with no nose, and said, "I'm going to put a nose on him anyway." We'd rather have accuracy at $30.
He has no waist articulation. I've said it before, the fans are the only ones talking about Marvel Legends with ball-hinge waist articulation (like GI Joe, like Star Wars) but the Hasbro Marvel Legends team isn't having it. OK, fine, hold out on that now-standard form of articulation for another 5 years. How about ANY waist articulation? Nope. I read someone's post saying it was probably to keep the EKG lines from being broken up. No, they didn't do that for the benefit of the aesthetic. The lines on the torso of every figure get broken up by the articulation. Cardiac could have gotten so much more range of movement with the torso and waist articulation. This is going to be our only Cardiac figure and they could have really knocked this guy out of the part had they not Hasbroed.

I said a lot about two things but I overall really like this guy. Makes me want to go back and read my Erik Larsen and Mark Bagley early Cardiac issues.
 
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I don’t know who sculpted Cardiac, but it feels like another example of a sculptor interpreting the Legends “House Style” and adding some realism to the profile to give him a nose. And if so, they interpreted wrong because it appears to be a pretty consistent critique of the figure.
 
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