With the arrival of the HasLab Galactus, Hasbro has perfectly timed its latest Retro Fantastic Four Firelord cardboard figure. Another member of a long list of former heralds of Galactus, Firelord is one of the most fearsome and popular thanks to his classic look and easy-to-understand power.
Ironically, Firelord was on my short list of Heralds of Galactus for being the first person Jean Gray fought when she became Phoenix in X-Men. My first exposure to Firelord was not in Silver Surfer or Fantastic Four, but in Uncanny X-Men, so I’m probably looking forward to seeing him fight Phoenix more than anything else.
It’s time to see if this Fire Lord figure sparks or if it’ll just blow out on me.
Wrap: Firelord sports the vintage reproduction of the old Fantastic Four line. It features the original packaging logo with the Fantasticar team and a dark blue fading to a lighter blue. I really like the yellow logo with a red drop shadow and the action shot of Firelord ready for battle.
His biography is not spectacular, but good. I wish Hasbro would include the other FF figures as a tribute to cross-selling.
Resemblance: Firelord looks awesome. His head sculpt is perfect with the translucent flame material and stern expression. He really doesn’t look like someone you’d want to cross paths with, because he doesn’t look like someone who is remotely interested in playing games or wasting his time.
The rest of the detailed work on the figure is left to painting.
I don’t necessarily hate it, although it does tend to make her look a bit plain, without sculpted details for her top and shorts in particular.
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Ladder: Hasbro chose to go with the Sunfire dollar for Firelord.
This makes sense on one hand because he has butterfly shoulders which would be very useful for a character like Firelord, but it’s somewhat undersized for a character as massive as Thor and Hercules.
This is one of those deals where Firelord was as tall as whoever drew him so he could be Thor’s height in one comic and then average height in another. For example, Firelord didn’t look that massive while fighting Phoenix.
Yet in character form, he looks noticeably puny next to Thor and Hercules. Considering his semi-frequent team-ups with Thor, he’ll be way too short. He fares better next to Silver Surfer, Super Skrull and Quasar.
Paint: Firelord has all the hard to paint colors with orange, red, yellow and white. Fortunately, there were no issues with bleeding or overspray.
This figure has remarkably crisp paintwork considering the lighter colors don’t always provide the best coverage with either paint application.
I was very impressed with how the paint surrounded her eyes, with the darker reds helping to highlight the eyes.
Joint: The advantage of the Sunfire mold is that it is a very fluid mold allowing for gentle installation. There’s not much out of reach and you can strike some really dynamic poses with it.
This is ideal for a character like Firelord, who likes ranged attacks and needs to look cool while holding and channeling his cosmic power.
Fire Lord has:
- neck
- articulated shoulders
- butterfly shoulders
- biceps
- elbow (double joint)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- size
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double jointed)
- ankle
Accessories: Firelord comes with his most obvious accessory: his flaming cosmic staff. It’s made of a translucent material, perfect for catching light.
He also has gripping hands to hold the stick. Flying hands would have also been nice for him since there aren’t many other accessory options to justify this price.
It’s worth it? Firelord usually costs $25. Luckily, I waited until the Hasbro Pulse sale to get it at a much more reasonable 25% off.
Hasbro is in a tough spot because their figures aren’t worth $25 for this license and it’s more of a case of waiting for sales to end rather than jumping straight in when new releases come out.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Firelord’s smaller scale is the biggest blow to an otherwise excellent version of one of Galactus’ most popular ex-heralds.
Where to get it? Online is the best route for Firelord. Amazon and Entertainment Earth are probably the easiest options.
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