“Hey…Hey! Watch the feathers”
Howard the Duck’s MCU debut came during the post-credits scene in Guardians of the Galaxy where he was being held by The Collector. This iteration of Howard would then go on to feature in the first season of Marvel’s What If?, with appearances in episodes 2 and 7 wearing the same suit and tie as seen in Guardians. He would go on to appear again in Season 2 of the show, but it was this Season 1 look that brought Howard his first Marvel Legends appearance.
Howard the Duck was a release in the second full Disney+ wave of 2022 that also featured other characters from What If? alongside others from Loki and WandaVision. The wave featured a Khonshu build-a-figure from Moon Night, and was also one of the first waves to feature plastic-free packaging which removed the visible window, and the contents are shown via illustrative artwork only - which also saw the BAF checklist move from its traditional card back position to the left-hand side spine.
Howard is as you would expect a smaller figure compared to our usual 6-inch Marvel Legends, and he stands to just above the waist height of a standard figure. He is designed to be wearing his orange/brown suit seen in Guardians but with an emphasis on the animated look from What If? The suit features little decor other than a painted belt, painted shirt collar and tie, and a handful of buttons on Howard’s waistcoat. His feet are of course duck feet in bright orange with grey ‘toenails’. The hands are a white finish with three fingers and a thumb, but no obvious feathered texture.
Howard’s head sculpt also uses the slightly off-white ‘duck down’ colouring and here the animated styling is more apparent with more exaggeration to his features including the slight ‘quiff’ of hair/feathers pointing out from under his trilby hat. The hat is an interesting choice considering he doesn’t wear one during his What If? Scenes - this may have been an early concept that Hasbro ran with, but that never made it to screen. There is no significant decor application to the head other than the black dot eyes and Howard’s bright orange duckbill.
Howard has really been sold short on articulation with just 10 points of limited articulation. While he is a smaller build, there is no attempt to articulate the legs at all - with a fixed lower body and just some rotation where the feet plug into the trousers. The upper torso fairs slightly better with shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints for the arms as well as a torso ball joint, and neck joint. This restricts Howard to relatively limited poses with his arms and we don’t even get any additional hands to make those gestures more emotive.
Howard features no accessories at all, we even miss out on the cocktail glass we see him swigging at the end of Guardians. Hasbro has tried to add some ‘value for money’ by including an additional What If? Character accessory in the shape of Scott Lang’s head and jar from the Zombies episode of Season 1. The Scott Lang head is created in the same way a standard Legends head would be with skin tone plastic, additional hair piece, and some level of photo-realistic printing - although the style of the head is certainly animated in terms of proportions and styling.
Scott’s head is fixed into a grey circular base as seen in the Zombies episode, and this is then covered by a clear plastic bell jar that connects to the base and encases the head. There is of course little you can do with a zero articulated head in a jar other than have him on display. This would likely be best served along with the Zombie What If? figures and Zombie-Slayer Spider-Man considering there is no real connection here with Howard the Duck.
The fact we have a Howard the Duck Marvel Legends is pretty impressive, but there have been significant shortcuts taken to bring him to market - particularly on articulation and accessories. The hatted head is also a strange choice considering what we see in Howard’s episodes and is most likely taken from concept art - another opportunity was missed here in not including a different head option either uncharted or even with a varied expression. Instead, we get an alternative (of sorts) Scott Lang head and this feels like an afterthought and has limited value, not even offering an option to be swapped with another full Ant-Man figure to create the What If? version of Scott - which would have been an interesting bonus. This one is probably one for die-hard Howard the Duck fans in the main as well as those who wish to complete the Khonshu BAF.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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