Hit Monkey (Marvel Legends)
Today I finally get to review the character that actually caused me to bite into the Marvel Legends apple this year, the one and only Hit Monkey.
So, while Build-A-Figures are no longer a new thing, I must say that it is the one marketing ploy that I really enjoy when done properly. There are a few things that Hasbro did differently this time though, starting with the size of the finished character.
As you may recall, the reason behind the entire BAF scheme was to be able to offer collectors characters that were too large to be sold in the regular size packaging, thus we’d often get these large figures split in 4 to 6 pieces, spread among the characters that composed any given wave of figures.
Hit Monkey, on the other hand, is a rather small character in the Marvel Legends scale. The upside is that his pieces are offered as pack-ins on just three characters from the same wave, which by the way share almost the same level of popularity and in turn translates into a fairly consistent level of availability for all the pieces needed to complete the BAF.
Hit Monkey comes distributed like this: torso and legs are packaged with the Red She-Hulk, the arms and pistols came with Hyperion and the head, along with a pair of HK MP5’s were packaged with Protector.
On a side note, these three characters are supposed to have variants, so if you were to chase those too, you’d end up with a pair of Hit Monkeys. It’d be nice if the monkey head packaged with the Iron Fist variant had also a different expression, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Assembly is pretty straightforward, since one just has to attach the head and arms in place. The head connects via a spherical peg joint and the arms snap into place at the shoulders, although since these are fairly thin pieces you may want to check the alignment before pushing them in to avoid bending the pegs.
Hit Monkey is basically a Japanese Snow Macaque dressed in a black suit. Think Men In Black, but in monkey. The figure is very nicely sculpted and is about the same mass as an action figure in the 3.75-in. scale, although his body proportions are clearly those of a simian. The torso jacket is a separate rubber piece, but once the arms are in it is no longer possible to remove it.
Hit Monkey’s head is sculpted with sunglasses on and a fairly fierce grimace, which is good but all the same makes me wish for an optional head with a less violent demeanor.
Hit Monkey is not as articulated as the larger 6-in. Marvel Legends figures, since he is a uniquely sculpted character, but despite this it still has quite an impressive array of joints, consisting of:
• Hinged peg neck.
• Pegged hinge shoulders.
• Pegged hinge elbows.
• Pegged hinge wrists.
• Swivel waist.
• Pegged hinge hips.
• Upper thigh swivels.
• Hinged knees
• Pegged hinge ankles.
• Rocker feet.
Although Hit Monkey has no double-jointed anything, given the size of the completed figure I actually like the amount of articulation it has. One other thing I like about the size of Hit Monkey is that he can use accessories from a lot of different lines.
And speaking of accessories, Hit Monkey comes quite well equipped with a couple of black 9mm. Glocks and a pair of Heckler & Koch MP5’s. Although Hit Monkey can grab easily all of his weapons, it is rather obvious that the hands were sculpted primarily for the pistols, as the grip tends to looks rather loose when holding the submachine guns.
None of the weapons has any paint on them whatsoever, and there is not a lot also on Hit Monkey, but what little there is, is reasonably well applied. The pink hue given to the face seems a bit too intense, in my opinion, and the hairline is not exactly neat, but since Hit Monkey seems about to pop a vein in rage, I guess the overall color is not very off the mark.
The rest of the suit is simply the color of the black plastic it is made from, but hands and feet were painted in a glossy black paint that helps to sell the idea that the monkey is wearing gloves on both hands and feet. The shirt is simply white with a turquoise necktie, which goes to show monkeys know nothing about fashion.
I found Hit Monkey to be a quirky, fun action figure, and I find that I don’t mind all that much that the new tendencies regarding bonus figures skew toward the smaller side of things.
Errex Score: 92/100
Category: Featured, Marvel, Toy Reviews
About the Author (Author Profile)
I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
If he wasn’t a BAF, I’d want him enough to get him.
Monkeys in toy form are always fun 😉