At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Thor left Earth with the Guardians of the Galaxy - or was it the Asgardians of the Galaxy - and it is this journey with Star-Lord and the crew that will carry forward into 2022's Thor: Love & Thunder.
This review is written ahead of the movie release and is done so only with the information to hand via the packaging of each figure and the teaser trailer from late April 2022. I will update these reviews once the film has been released. This review may contain minor spoilers but only in the context of any information provided on the package or visually on the figure.
The Love & Thunder Star-Lord uses the standard Legends box with no specific accent colour and rather a strong use of the blue through red scheme we see in the movie logo from the box front. The two side panels carry a mirror image of Star-Lord's latest look, and this is repeated again on the reverse. Beneath this is the checklist for the Korg BAF and to the side of the image is the standard background text that does not provide too much info as you would expect from a figure released 3-months ahead of the movie itself.
"Peter Quill and the Guardians of the Galaxy return, teaming up with friends new and old to defend the galaxy from a dangerous new enemy."
Star-Lord's overall look for Thor: Love & Thunder - as we have seen so far in the teaser - is relatively consistent with his outfit from the previous Guardians movies, and from Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Peter is wearing his long coat, cast in a deep red and painted with a blue feature down one side - a colour that looks more muted on screen. Under this is a rubberised vest piece which seems to be what he is wearing during the latter part of the teaser as he addresses the Guardians, this is also cast in red and painted with a darker red panel and gold zip and clasps.
The arms feature armoured panels, coloured in gold, at the shoulders, and around the wrist area. While the legs are a plain brown with two-tone brown painted boots with a silver clasp. The costume is finished with a further rubberised piece that acts as a strap going from his right shoulder down to his left hip. It is painted with silver clasp details but doesn't seem to have any real purpose?
The paintwork, as applied over the base colours, is neat across the figure. The only area I can't work out is the shoulder panels as I don't know if the red showing through is a weathering attempt, or if the paint was too thin to cover properly?
The likeness for this new Star-Lord has come in for some criticism both on the release of the promo images and then in hand, although in hand it is certainly better than the original promo's made it look.
Chris Pratt hasn't had a great Star-Lord sculpt to date across his various MCU figures - and Mattel also found it difficult for their Jurassic World Amber Collection line. Like other collectors & reviewers, I can't quite put my finger on why this one doesn't quite work. From certain angles, it is absolutely nailed on Chris Pratt - particularly from the side - but from other angles, less so. I would say the sideburns to beard are perhaps too heavy, in the trailer you can see the sideburns are thicker and then the hair is thinner for the beard - whereas the head sculpt has both the same with no transition between the two. The hair too is too neat and the forehead area quite large.
The face uses the photo-real decor to add the now standard level of realism to the eyes and this is applied well and without any concerns.
The Love & Thunder Star-Lord does use the older Guardians of the Galaxy 2 Peter Quill figure as a base. The legs and torso are direct re-use, with the new vest put over the original t-shirt. The coat is new, as are the arms of the figure which are pinless while the legs remain visible with pins at the knees. These two layers of rubber coats on the torso of Star-Lord may work against him and make him look a little too bulky
The head is of course new, but the neck joint is the same so that does mean your Peter Quill figures can all accept the new head, or you can add the older heads to this new tweaked body.
Whether he uses it in the movie or not, the figure does feel like it needs the helmeted head as an accessory. Nearly all previous releases of Quill have included it, with the exception of the 2017 figure from the Mantis BAF wave.
What we do get is the same pair of Quad Blasters as the 2017 releases. These are cast in grey but this is not a metallic finish and the overall paint apps have been diminished since 2017 and now only get two panels of what is meant to be gold on the main body of either barrel. These remain slightly oversized, although the size choice may be deliberate so the hands can grip them in the same way Peter uses them in the MCU.
They fit into either hand and Star-Lord does feature trigger hands on both left and right. When the blasters are not in use they can be holstered, in a fashion, using the pegs that are still present on the re-used 2017 legs. The fit is quite snug once the trigger of the blaster is lined up with the peg, but as these are quite large they will push out the line of the coat a little bit.
We would count up articulation on Star-Lord as 19 points of articulation, although in reality, the new vest piece renders the t-joint in the torso useless. The arms are pinless as mentioned earlier, and feature a full range of motion. The legs are pinned, but the pins themselves are not easily visible under the tails of the coat. While the legs can do everything you would want them to do, any posing outside of standing is not really possible due to the coat.
Star-Lord stands well in most poses and the joints are all secure, ratcheted where needed for added stability, and work with the aesthetics of the figure in most cases.
Looking at the short scenes in the Thor: Love & Thunder teaser, the new Marvel Legends Star-Lord is a good match for what we are going to get on the screen, therefore, avoiding one of the usual complaints with Marvel Legends pre-release movie waves in terms of accuracy. You could argue the blue of the coat is too bright, and there is the likeness issue which is certainly not fantastic - but is still probably the best Chris Pratt head to date, at least from certain angles.
An alternative helmeted head would have been a nice addition, as would the usual level of paint apps to the Quad Blasters which now look quite cheap.
The figure articulates and poses well enough, and like all team building figures - he looks the part once posed with other characters such as Groot and Ravager Thor from the same wave. We are guaranteed a new Star-Lord Legends next year anyway for GOTG3 so this is a little bit of a stop-gap, and only time will tell if Star-Lord's role in Love & Thunder warrants this figure or if there were other key characters that may have been more worthy in this advance release slot.
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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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