Review, sort of: Marvel Legends Nova, Wal-Mart Exclusive:

When was this figure first announced? When was it supposed to come out? The January 2008 cover-dated issue of Toyfare refers to the wave as Marvel Legends Series 4, upcoming for January 2008, and a picture of Nova is shown...as part of series 3, the Brood Wave. Oops. But the bigger oops was the non-release of the figures, and to date no one seems positive who was to blame. Hasbro said for some time that Wal-Mart had the figures, and it was up to them to release them; and Wal-Mart said nothing.

Nova and the rest of this wave of figures (we'll call it the Nemesis wave, after the Build-a-figure, which we'll get into later) finally appeared at some online vendors a few months ago, and arrived in their intended home aisles at Wal-Mart the week of Comic-Con. So, after over a year and a half of waiting, haunting the toy aisles and website forums for a glimpse of the toys, how does Nova stack up?

Well...I don't want to call Nova an outright disappointment, since that wouldn't be fair for a couple of reasons; but I wanted to be more excited about the first Marvel Legend I've purchased in months. Since this is from a retailer-exclusive wave, typically some (if not all) the figures will be repaints or have more reuse of parts than a "regular" wave. (Not that I have a huge problem with that, although I never noticed Marvel Legend reuse to the extent of DC Universe Classic figures.)

Although on the package Nova is pictured in his current, pointier costume; this figure is more of a classic, 70's Carmine Infantino-style version. But not exactly: classic Nova had a yellow-stripe down the side of his pants, and slightly raised shoulder-points. His red helmet star was flat as well; and on the figure it's three-dimensional and seems huge. Like, it would be in his field of vision huge. Or, Nova's always looking down because that thing is heavy, huge.

On the other hand, huge or no, at least the star is a sculpted element; because his belt and everything else are only painted. The belt wasn't perfect, but the chest emblem looks nice.

Nova has the typical Marvel Legend articulation, with one problem: he was known as "the human rocket," but he can't quite nail the flying pose since he can't look up!

In the comics, Iron Man was nicknamed 'Shellhead,' but Nova was 'Buckethead' long before the guitarist was. His trademark helmet doesn't come off, which you can't really expect from an exclusive wave, and in all likelihood would've been mighty hard to pull off without the helmet being flimsy or his unmasked head looking too small or his eyes not lining up right or any of a dozen other possible problems. Still...the effort would've been something. Nova's not big on weapons or anything, so without a helmet, he doesn't get an accessory other than the leg of "Nemesis." The character was "Holocaust" in the comics, but just like his first action figure, he gets renamed for sale in stores. I am planning on getting Black Bolt and Tigra for sure, if I find them, so maybe we can get a better look at Nemesis later.

At best, Nova's a C, B- of an action figure; the B- if you're a fan of the character that can live with the not-quite classic, not-quite new look of this toy. And he is a character I've personally never had an action figure of, so that does give him a few points from me. I can't help but think he might have been a better figure two years ago, though...