General Marvel Legends

Well, crap. Guess I'm digging through my garbage can (the ONE time I throw away my waste in a timely manner). Thanks, guys.

EDIT- They sure were in my garbage can outside- glad I mentioned it on here and appreciate you all setting me straight!
I always hold my clear trays up to a light just to make sure. Neurodivergent paranoia or something.
 
Do you ever wonder how many accessories we've thrown away over the years and don't even know it? Not only that but a figure takes a shelf dive, an accessory goes flying, then the Roomba strolls along and sucks it right up.
Or all of the ones we just plain don’t notice? Did you know X23 has claws in her boots?!
 
TBS Padawan Ahsoka kept falling off the shelf for awhile and I got tired of picking her and her lightsabers up, so I left her for awhile in SPLAT position - and now I can't find her little lightsaber. Driving me nuts - it's bright green so I know I didn't vacuum it, but I have looked numerous times! I think it's under heavy furniture. :(

I just spent WAY too much time trying to track down the correct hands for figures I'm putting on Ebay.

I sold the old hideous Hasbro Elektra and one of her hands didn't make it to the buyer. I SCOURED everywhere looking for it and eventually found it tangled in the inner threads in a corner of my backpack - it had fallen out of the package somehow and gotten caught. I was so relieved and so annoyed.
 
For when you only want to be a little racist, like just around the hands, here's Fu Meh-chu!

I have to wonder how much this Mandarin was ruined by basing it on a series with art that was deeply photo-referenced, to say it tactfully. Based on the way he draws the character, Larocca must have been using a lot of images of Western people for guidance.

People paid good money for this comic, and this was the art they got:
I absolutely despise Larocca's art on this book. He also didn't contribute a single good design. When I re-read the first 25 issues of the run recently, it jumped out at me just how much the art held the book back, and the book was incredibly well received.

On the topic of his faces and to bring it back to the figures, Hasbro executed this Mandarin well.. I mean he does look JUST like the art on the back of the box. Unfortunately though, the face they used as a reference doesn't look much different than stark himself in the very same set.

Hell you can make a case this is the same person:
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I had a thought:
Unless somehow the heads are incompatible, this Mandarin is a headswap away from a 90s/modern Red Skull. I’m totally doing it.

This isn't original as I've seen others state it as well, but I'm seeing Pete Wisdom with this Mandarin figure. A head swap and some minor customization to those clawed hands maybe.....

And I agree on the primary Mandarin head. All I see when I look at is long haired Tony Stark. I can't see anything else at this point when I look at it. That won't do for me, even if it is somewhat accurate.
 
Yeah I don’t have a problem with the Mandarin heads at all. I’d basically be cool with the younger head on almost any version of the Mandarin.

It’s the ringless, clawed hands that give me the yellow-peril racism “ick”. There’s literally no reason for them to be in there, other than someone thinking they look “Asian” with the claw-nails.

Mind you: I’m glad those new hand-sculpts exist, because every step toward making classic Dracula more achievable is awesome for me, and these hands are literally perfect for that (as is the new dress-coat-with-longer-coat-over-it piece, come to that), as if they were actually sculpted for that. But for the Mandarin? WHY? And then he even has a SECOND set of ringless hands. Why does the Mandarin need two full sets of hands without rings?

Sigh, all of this is academic because I totally preordered this, because I fucking love the Mandarin and I am starved for him in Marvel Legends and in pop culture in general, but yeah this whole thing is just weird.
The young head in a vacuum is not an issue to me. It is accurate to the book they based him on. But when you choose to do the safest version of Mandarin possible, and then include those hands feels icky to me. It's a wild choice. In the two stories they're basing this Mandarin on, he never has long clawed nails like that.. Hell in Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. he doesn't have his own hands at all. Which to answer part of your question, the ringless hands I'm sure they intend for use with the older head. In that story line, he has the rings fused to his spine, but he wears gloves most of the time to cover his prosthetic hands.. Why they included 2 sets of ringless hands is a bit of a mystery though. The yellow peril hands appear new to me, so if you're gonna do it, might as well at least put the rings on them too.

I'm also mildy offended by DoS Mandarin being an after thought in this set when he pairs better with the Extremis armor than Fraction's Invincible Iron Man Mandarin does. DoS remains my favorite modern Iron Man run and deserves it's flowers.

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Gloved hands? They have those.
Robot hands? They have those too.
Coulda just dropped those in instead.
I definitely struggle with this one.
I love those claw hands.
But NOT for the Mandarin.
 
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