At one point or another, everyone has remarked, “You know, D.C. should really make its own Legends line.” Well it’s tricky business because while Marvel toys have always been under one wing (first Toybiz’s, then Hasbro’s), D.C. toys have been split between Mattel and D.C. Direct. The end result is that D.C. Direct doesn’t ever put out a toy articulated enough to actually appeal to a kid and Mattel doesn’t bother catering to collectors. Of course, Legends became so popular that Mattel eventually decided to give the Legends model a shot with D.C. Superheroes.

So today I’ll compare the Marvel Legends and D.C. Superheroes toy lines point by point.

Articulation
Legends A
Superheroes C
What more defines the Marvel Legends line than the insane degree of articulation that it imbues every figure with? Clearly, articulation is the right place to start our comparison.

First of all, I think Marvel Legends occasionally goes too far. Professor X, for instance, looked pretty bad since they decided to infuse his suit with ball bearing style joints. Come on, the guy is paraplegic! I think he could have been left slightly stiff in favor of a better looking toy. Also, some of Legends’ “36 Points of Articulation!” claims are questionable. They’re definitely double counting joints that pivot since they move through two planes of motion (lateral and horizontal), which is lame.

Legends’ overkill aside, Superheroes never tops 19 points, so it’s all close-fisted heroes, which in the case of Batman, means his half dozen Batarangs only slip into a slot under his thumb, as if he’s holding a flower. Of course, Hasbro threw a few ham-fisted Legends figures at us, but they’ve since been bringing back the knuckle articulation. Legends really takes the cake with its foot articulation, which makes its toys far more pose-able than Superheroes.

Variety of Figures
Legends A+
Superheroes F
Legends absolutely demolishes Superheroes when it comes to variety. First of all, in its 18 series, Legends has reissued precisely 3 toys. Superheroes debuted its first reissues in series 3, and in its 7 series has reused 8 toys whether it’s from its own line or some sister one. Considering that Legends issues are often 8 figures (before variants) and Superheroes average just 4 per series, these stats are dismal.

Legends digs deep in Marvel cannon to bring us figures like
Toad, Taskmaster, Captain Britain and Pyro, while Superheroes just gives us Superman after Superman.

Detailing
Legends B+
Superheroes B+
While neither line approaches McFarlane toys in detailing, Legends and Superheroes are both far ahead of anything else available at Wal-Mart when it comes to the sculpting. Granted Legends have to work harder at integrating the extra articulation, but they don’t always succeed at that since a lot of figures end up with have what I like to call “Ball Bearing Shoulders.” Both lines boast deftly handled faces and fine details in belts, and guns, and boots, and muscles, and clothing folds… well you get the point: they’re tied.

Paint
Legends A-
Superheroes C+
There are two ways to bring tonality to your paints. Both involve a basecoat followed by a second, contrasting layer. The first method, the Legends choice, is to apply that topcoat and then “Wash” through it with a light solvent and scrub, revealing some of the basecoat. Washing usually results in high points exposing their base coat. The second, Superheroes technique is to “Dry Brush,” which is when the second layer is applied with a nearly dry brush of paint so that coverage isn’t complete. Dry brushing results in hairline strokes stretching over the basecoat. Either method is effective, and while it would be nice to see a company use both, once you have tooled up for one, you don’t invest in the other.

Where Legends sets itself apart from Superheroes is in how it always paints the entire toy, while Superheroes often cheaps out and uses a base color plastic for much of the figure, like blue for Superman or grey for Batman, which sounds all right until you consider the side affects, see “Plastics” below…

Plastics
Legends A
Superheroes C
The Legends line debuted with Toybiz’s very good quality plastics and hairline seams, but Hasbro upgraded the toys with hefty plastic and near invisible seams. Compared to Legends toys, Superheroes figures look like stitched up Frankenstein’s creations. The main issue is that Mattel took the shortcut of using solid colored plastics instead of painting the entire figures. Bare plastic will never be as smooth as painted figures. Besides the paint, Hasbro has clearly invested more in its moulds and materials.

Comics
Legends B+
Superheroes C
Of course Hasbro nixed our accompanying comics, which I think was a mistake, but Toybiz really set itself apart among toy producers by slipping a proper 32-page comic in with every Legends figure. Superheroes set out to copy this feature, but just try to find a toy with a comic. The toys were reissued in so many streams that the vast majority of them ended up with “Dioramas” instead of comics. Toybiz fell short with comics in Series 1 and 4, replacing them with foil posters in the last toys out the door, but it was really only in exceptional cases, as opposed to Superheroes’ widespread screw-ups.

Sister Lines
Legends A
Superheroes D
There’s really no comparing the Legends sister Icons line and its imposing, detailed, statuette-sized figures and how Superheroes slapped its name on the larger Justice League Unlimited figures. For one thing, the Legends Icons are in the same vein as their highly-detailed 6” counterparts while the Justice League Unlimited characters are inspired by a cartoon. Secondly, Icons throws us some cloth features now and then, while Justice League Unlimited Superheroes toys are just giant hunks of plastic.

Conclusion
In case you haven’t guessed yet, Legends beats out Superheroes by a wide margin, roughly an A versus a C. I guess the Marvel Legends line is a bit of an anachronism. Toybiz was an outsider in the toy industry, so it decided that instead of putting out junk, it spent a ton on developing highly-articulated, finely-detailed, well-painted figures. While Legends was a great success, which basically ensures Hasbro won’t mess with the formula, it’s just not in a dominant company like Mattel’s nature to invest like that.