Hey, a review: Marvel Select Nightcrawler!

I don't do a lot of proper reviews, but thought I could take a moment for this figure. Especially since I had been waiting, I dunno, five months or so for it. But, the Marvel Select Nightcrawler is finally here!

This was sculpted by Jean St. Jean, who also did the recent Marvel Select Venom, which I think was a bigger release with extra sculpting and parts. And also came out earlier, while Nightcrawler got pushed back multiple times. Still, as Diamond Select themselves pointed out, it's not like they missed Nightcrawler day or anything. At any rate, it's nice work. He's got a relatively neutral expression, but his fangs are visible; something I'm not sure you see that often.

The articulation isn't bad: neck, shoulders, upper biceps, elbows, wrists, mid-torso, waist, hips, upper thighs, double knees, and ankles. So, like 21 points, and a bendy tail! Except, the joints don't have as much range of motion as you might get with a Marvel Legends-style figure. The red points over his shoulders are stiff, and block some poses as well. Nightcrawler can't look straight up, the mid-torso joint doesn't do much, the ankles could go a little further. But, it's more of a display piece than a straight toy, right? If you find the articulation of Marvel Legends fiddly or loose, this is more your speed.


The paint is good, but there's a lot of wash on the legs and face. It seems uneven up close, and possibly in the close-up pictures; but fine from a distance. It's also closer to the early appearances of Nightcrawler, where he was more monstrous-looking: like most X-Men and X-Women, he would get better looking as the series went on. (It's more noticeable in characters like Rogue and Psylocke, but even Wolverine got more handsome over the years. If Maggott had caught on, he would look like the Old Spice Guy by now...)

Nightcrawler supposedly gets a piece of the Danger Room base, like the ones that came with the other X-Men: Colossus, Storm, Gambit, Cyclops. He doesn't really, just the small teleporting-smoke base. It's OK. I don't use bases very often; but if you were building the Danger Room, you could be in for a disappointment. I don't have any of the others, since I'm a Nightcrawler fan, more than an X-Men fan. (I did miss a clearance Cyclops a while back, but since I hate him, it was a pass.) So, no bases, but I'm afraid I can't say how the team looks together.

Since the base is a little light, Nightcrawler feels a little short-changed. He could've used a sword, at the very least. Or a Bamf mini-figure! He's not a huge lump of plastic like some other Marvel Select figures like Thanos or the Thing or even Colossus--and Colossus still came with a Danger Room piece!

MS Nightcrawler isn't my favorite figure of his, then; but he would've had a long way to got to beat the Marvel Legends Nightcrawler. And even that isn't my imaginary ideal version: I would love to see a cheery, friendly, smiling version; either in Alan Davis or Dave Cockrum's style. Maybe even pirated out, like the cover of his first limited series.

Overall, I have to say this Nightcrawler's a B figure; good, but not great. As a fan of the character, of course I was going to buy it, and as long as the legs didn't fall off the figure right out of the package, I'd probably be just fine with it. But he's not the best figure Marvel Select has ever done, nor does it feel like they went all out with him, either.