REVIEW: Marvel Universe's Warpath (X-Men Costume Variant)

Warpath (X-Men Costume Variant) | Produced by Hasbro | Released January 2011

As a boy, James Proudstar idolized his older brother the X-MAN known as THUNDERBIRD. When his brother was killed, Proudstar swore to follow in his footsteps, and took on the mantle of the hero. His relationship with the X-MEN has been uneasy at times, but over the years he has come to terms with his brother's death, and become an invaluable member of the team.

Following-on from the previously-Reviewed Ms Marvel variant, today it's the turn of Warpath in his X-Men costume.

X-Force vs X-Men

The original Warpath figure was released as part of Series 2's first Wave and featured the hero in his black and silver X-Force costume. This is the costume seen on the packaging and is set to be included in the upcoming X-Force Team pack (along with an X-Force Wolverine and Deadpool.)

Earlier this year, Hasbro released a new ''secret'' wave of figures, featuring variant costumes. As previously mentioned, this wave includes Ms Marvel and Daredevil in new costumes, plus today's subject, Warpath in his X-Men costume.

Packaging

The figure comes in  the usual, single-carded Marvel packaging. The figure is visible within the blister-pack and mounted on a retaining tray, through which his limbs are pushed to keep him in-place. As a result, he has slightly bent legs and his daggers - which are very rubbery - come out of the pack with a definite curving to them. I do wish Hasbro would use a better system to hold the figures in their cases.

The cover illustration and rear photo both show Warpath in his X-Force costume and the figure's ID Number - 003 - is the same as that used by the original release.

As with all Marvel Universe single-carded figures the packaging must be torn/cut to open.

Warpath
Let's take a closer look at the figure.

Sculpt-wise it's a little mixed, with some very nice touches and some not so good work. The details on his muscles - and especially his hands - are outstanding with veins and tendons being visible upon close inspection. The rest of his costume is only so-so, though. One particularly bad point are his ''boots'' which appear more like shoes with a matching pants hem, rather than connected costume pieces. The fact that the feet are cast in coloured plastic and his pants are painted (and the tones don't match) doesn't do anything to dis-spell this, either...

The head sculpt is nice, especially as his hair appears in individual locks, rather than a single mass, something that's seen all too often in figures at this scale and his ears have enough detail to convey the impression of real ears without being overly complex.

One nice touch is he has what I initially took to be a fanny-pack/bum bag on his belt. It turns-out this is a dagger sheath, although it's sadly only capable of housing one blade. I'm not familiar with the character enough to say if this is correct or not.

Speaking of the daggers, these Bowie-style knives he carries are nicely produced but not so well designed. Getting them to stay in his hands is a real problem, as they're simply too-small. Or his hands are too large. Either way, it doesn't work-out too well.

Warpath's articulation is fine, although he does lack a waist-joint. The other joints are a little on the looser scale of what I'd prefer but they're tight enough to hold a pose. The only other oddity about his sculpt is that his feet sockets/stand don't fit too well and - as a result - he sometimes falls over in some poses.

Paint-wise, my Warpath has some issues. Firstly, as mentioned, his feet and lower-leg colours don't match-up. Secondly the details on his costume are poorly applied in a few places, with his left shoulder and both leg-stripes suffering from messy edges and unevenly-applied paint (resulting in some areas where the dark blue underneath is visible.) His hair is also poorly-painted, with the strands over his face lacking any paint. Unless his mutant power is that he has a tentacle that hangs from his hairline... It's a shame, because the sculpt of the hair is actually nice and it's too bad the paint-application missed it.

On the plus-side, the washes on his muscles are nicely-applied though and really help define the detail. The costume is also quite eye-catching, with it's dark blue with gold and red details.

Overall then, there are no real surprises with Warpath and - unless he's your first Marvel Universe figure - I doubt there'll be anything here you haven't already seen in the line.

Extras

Warpath includes his own stand, HAMMER File and twin combat knives, both of which are a little too flexible for my liking, although it's clearly a safety concession, given that a harder plastic could well prove dangerous to children.

Final Thoughts

I'm not sure if I'm just becoming jaded with the Marvel Universe releases or if they're just not very exciting at the moment, but Warpath is another number-maker-upper. There's nothing really wrong with him but there's also not really much to recommend him either. 

His knives, which should have been one of his key USPs are actually kind of lame, being made from a bendy plastic that comes out of the box warped, thanks to the poorly-designed retaining case. And they don't fit in his hands very well, either. It's a missed opportunity to include a nice accessory and give Warpath a unique look but it just doesn't really work too-well.

The sculpt has some nice details on the hands and arms and I like the knife sheath on his belt. The head is also nicely produced and the hair is especially well-modeled. But beyond that the rest of the figure will leave you feeling indifferent.

I like that Hasbro has released this variant ''wave'', as I did miss-out on the original Warpath (I actually put him back on the shelves and uttered the Words A Collector Should Never Say - i.e. ''I'll get that another time...'') but I'd prefer to see them concentrate a little more on distributing the harder-to-find figures like Thanos.

Maybe with a bit more attention to detail this would have been a nicer figure, but as it stands, it's merely another OK addition to the line.

Scores

Sculpt	B
Paint	B
Articulation	B
Production Quality	C
Final Score	C

Image Gallery