Marvel Legends Age of Apocalypse Sunfire

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Other

There are a few comic arcs that I really loved when I was still collecting. One of those was the Age of Apocalypse. If you're not familiar with the story, it's basically about Xavier's son travelling into the past to kill his father's archenemy; he believes that Magneto's death will ensure that his father's dream comes true. He screws this up and kills Xavier allowing Apocalypse to rise to power and re-make the Earth.

The story is dark. Lots of characters are dead, many are unrecognizable, and some are disfigured. The Sunfire character is one of those. In a battle against one of Apocalypse's minions, Nemesis, Sunfire cut loose in a blast that left both of them burned husks. Sunfire was fitted with suit to contain his raging energies and hide his disfigured face.

Sound cool? Totally. They don't make comics like that anymore. Now it's all Illuminati and Skrulls and evil twins. It's like a soap opera. bah.

When I first saw the Toyfare exclusive I was stoked. The magazine did a survey on which figure should get the 6" Marvel Legends treatment and fans chose the Age of Apocalypse Sunfire. The initial pics came out and I was wowed. The packaging pics came out and my mouth dropped. It was a set up for dissapointment if ever there was one. Yet I'm here to tell you that is NOT the case with this figure.



I bought this for P1,100 on the first day of the Christmas Toyfair at Megamall, but on the third day, it was down to P800 at some of the other vendors. I didn't have alot of space to carry my hauls that day so I opened the figure and tossed the bubble as soon as I bought it. I regret not being able to get a photo of the package, because if you'll check the pic above you'll see it's really something to look at. If I was an MOCer, this would have a place of honor on my shelf, right next to my imaginary MOC Optimash Prime.


Marvel Legends as a line has had it's share of quality control issues, but it looks as if this figure was spared the worst of it. I've seen plenty of examples and haven't seen a hint of mussed paint, switched feet, hands, thighs, etc. Paint is pretty much limited to some shadowing in the flames and the black peices of "armor". All the figures are pretty much the same so it won't be too hard to find a good one. Plus, it doesn't seem to be much of an exclusive; you won't find it in Toy Kingdom, but most of the specialty shops in Greenhills have them. This is a good thing, since any Legends collector here will tell you exclusivity is a complete buzz kill (stoopid Rulk/Giantman waves...).

The sculpt is excellent, with well rendered flames popping out of his forearms and legs, and a great big plume for his head. The whole thing is cast in a nice yellow translucent plastic to give it the whole look of a translucent containment suit. Trust me when I say he looks absolutely amazing backlit. The body itself looks like a re-tool of the Toybiz Bullseye body which isn't a bad thing since it's a great base for the most part. My only gripe is that he's pretty big in scale compared to some of the other toys. I put him next to my Ares Wave Torch and he's a full head taller. You could argue all you want that he's a guy in a suit, but he still looks like a pretty imposing dude.



Articulation is pretty much what you'd expect from Toybiz era figures, so he can dance pretty well. There's no hole for the old clear "Doop" stands that came with the old flying toys back in the day, but a little fishing line and you're all set for some zoom and boom.






Sunfire's targeted for a very specific group and most people aren't going to want to shell out a grand for him. He's not part of the regular X-men line up (even the original Sunfire isn't a regular member), nor are there a lot of other Age of Apocalypse toys to display him with. You have the AOA Wolverine, Sabertooth (both from the exclusive Giantman wave), and the Holocaust Build-A-Figure which'll cost you about P6-7,000 to complete IF it finds it's way to Philippine shores. I keep hoping Hasbro thinks to do a special Age of Apocalypse wave with Blink, Shadowcat, Colossus, Iceman, Morph, and a Nightcrawler.

It'd probably be another exclusive, too.