Series: McFarlane's Sports Picks, NHL Legends, 2

Craftsmanship: 6.0 / 10.0

- Detail not up to par with previous releases

- Facial features not particularly accurate

- My Beliveau figure arrived broken

Playability: 2.0 / 10.0

- If you can play with these figures, you are either autistic or a genius

- Almost no useful joints for reposing

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Jean Beliveau (left); Wayne Gretzky (center), Phil Esposito (right)

The McFarlane hockey figures easily qualify as one of my few action figure vices, if I see a figure that will annoy someone else, I’ll probably pick it up. So when I heard about the Legends series releasing some classic players, I was quick to find out who was on the list. The three figures that they sent for preview were: Wayne Gretzky #4, Jean Beliveau, and Phil Esposito.

Wayne Gretzky #4

The Great One in none other than the uniform that means the most to Canadians, the blue and orange of the Oilers. The pose is a one-legged back-hander with a little bit of a windup. The detail on the jersey, stick, and gloves are excellent. The creases and little details like the tape make it an excellent figure … except for the face. It looks close, but doesn’t quite look like Wayne.

Jean Beliveau

The Captain of the Montreal Canadiens during their reign over the NHL and holds 11 Stanley Cup rings (which is one hell of a lotta bling-bling). The figure shows Jean in the middle of a cross-over and is looking up ice while one-handing the stick. Nice pose, shows off the sort of open-ice hockey popular for that time. Detail: fair bit of paint transfer on the figure – lines bleeding on the jersey, discolorations on the socks, stick was smudged, and his right arm was missing. Well, not missing. Just broken off, and so I had to re-glue it.

Phil Esposito

One of the most prolific scorers of all time in the NHL and a darn charming talker. Phil is down low on the ice stretching out for the puck. The detail on this figure is much better than the other two – the figure looks very much like Phil Esposito. The only complaints that I have are the painted laces on the skates, some minor paint transfer on the yellow lines of the jersey back, and the painted eyes aren’t aligned which make Phil look as though he’s either suffering from a concussion or has been drinking heavily.

All in all, this part of the line of figures wasn’t up to the usual standard that we come to expect from McFarlane Toys, and I was a little disappointed with them. Not their best work, but still not terrible.

- Tazman

(June 1, 2005)

“I'm jealous of girls 'cuz they get to wear dresses.”

- Todd Flanders (The Simpsons)

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