Marvel Legends Nightcrawler By Hervé St.Louis Mar 11, 2006 - 11:04:00 PM

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Nightcrawler appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 published in 1973 as part of the new X-Men team sent to save the older team from Krakoa, the living island. Nightcrawler, also known as Kurt Wagner, is a German mutant with that can walk on walls, teleport and is an amazing acrobat. A deeply religious and gentle soul, he was one of the stars of the second X-Men movie from 2003. He lived his entire youth as a circus freak.

Likeness

This Nightcrawler is exactly the same as Dave Cockrum drew him way back in 1975. There have been many reinterpretations of Nightcrawler’s costume, the one Cockrum designed is the most enduring and the best for the character. Every time it is modified, it comes back. Here, Kurt Wagner’s face is handsomer than in the early Cockrum designs, as John Byrne and Alan Davis have humanized the character making him more heroic.

Sculpt

This is one of the best sculpt ever by Toybiz. Most of the articulations are well integrated within the design and the figure has a dynamic shape. Nightcrawler has curly hair and a big chin. The chin is the only part I don’t like from his face. This nightcrawler looks mean as opposed to the softer face artist like John Byrne and Alan Davis gave him. The feet look snowshoes instead of animal feet, but I guess they are meant to be posed.

Paint

The paint job is decent although the rubber torso’s red doesn’t match the abdominal. There’s some blue tint on the white areas of Nightcrawler’s costume. Some of the paint application spills over other areas too. Nightcrawler’s hairs have blue and black highlights. All the black areas of his costume are in the basic black plastic tone. Some shading would have been cool.

Scale

Nightcrawler is remarkably tall when his feet are flattened. He’s taller than Doctor Strange, shorter than Colossus and Iceman. Nightcrawler is not a short and slim acrobat, although his limbs are not buff. As all Marvel Legends action figures, Nightcrawler is in scale with other toys from this line and related lines such as the six-inch Spider-man and X-Men toys, whether they are from the movie or not.

Stability

Because of his flat feet, Nightcrawler is stable. His torso is light and his legs capable of supporting his size. The middle part of Nightcrawler’s soles, which is meant to be used as the base support if Nightcrawler is hunched like an animal, cannot support Nightcrawler’s weight easily.

Articulation

Nightcrawler has 40 articulations at the neck, the shoulders, the biceps, the elbows, the forearms, the wrists, the palms, the knuckles, the torso, the abdomen, the waist, the hips, the thighs, the knees, the calves, the ankles, the heels, the soles, the toes and the tale. His neck, shoulders and hips are ball joint articulations. His elbows and knees have double articulations. His tale has a wire inside, enabling his tale to move in any direction.

Plastic

Nightcrawler contains soft plastic, however his torso is made of rubber. The colouring of the torso doesn’t match the rest of the costume because the material is different. Using the same paint on all parts of the figure would have unified the colouring. Nightcrawler’s tale is in rubber and seems resistant enough to handle rough play.

Props

Nightcrawler comes with the lower torso that assembles the 16 inches Galactus action figure. He also comes with a comic book-size poster book filled with artwork on the character.

Packaging

Nightcrawler comes in a bubble pack with a cardboard inside. On the back of the card there is a short bio on the character and images of the other action figures from this wave. The figure is held with wires within the package. The comic book is on the front cover.

Cost

Marvel Legends action figures can retail from $8 to $100 depending on the figure. In the case of Nightcrawler, his price depends on the number of figures available in each case ordered by retailers and how much said retailers order. For example, Nightcrawler is cheaper in retail outlets than specialized action figure stores, like The Comic Book Bin’s.

Availability

Nightcrawler comes in a ratio of two per twelve in each case of Marvel Legends Series 8. As there are no variations to this figure, it is moderately available for sale. Figures sold in retail outlets are often purchased preventively by individuals who want to resell them in online auctions for exaggerated prices. In Web stores where figures are ordered in bulk, selection and prices are more stable. Nightcrawler is a popular character and this figure is much better than the X-Men II action figure that came before. Expect this figure to sell quickly.

The Nightcrawler action figure is available at the Comic Book Bin’s store.

Related articles:

Iceman
Colossus
Wolverine
X-Men II Nightcrawler
In With The X-Crowd
X-Men: The Evolution of a Revolution

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