Marvel Legends: Sunfire (Age of Apocalypse)

Presenting: Sunfire one of the briefest X-Men ever to join the team (Has actually spent more time fighting the X-Men) and one of the hottest character re-designs to come out of the Age of Apocalypse. AOA Sunfire's design is so iconic that, if I'm right and I think I am, it is the ONLY Age of Apocalypse costume/design to make it - and remain - in the main Marvel Timeline (The 616 Dimenson) - Blink does not count and her 616 counterpart does not dress like her AOA counterpart. If rumor is to believed, AOA Sunfire - specifically his mask - was so iconic that it inspired the mask used by rival DC Comic's Kyle Rayner (Click here to compare).

AOA Sunfire was released in 2010 as a Marvel Legends exclusive at the San Diego Comics Convention. The bad news is that Hasbro did not bother building a new body for Shiro Yoshida (That's Sunfire's real name), but rather re-sculpted the existing Marvel Legend Yellowjacket body. But I do have to say that they did an incredible job.


What's to like about the AOA Sunfire?


I suppose the fact that they didn't bother simply re-sculpting one of the plethora of Human Torches is a definite plus - even if it is a re-sculpt of another figure. AOA Sunfire has 38 points of articulation. I daresay that AOA Sunfire has more flexibility than most Spiderman figures - though he's clearly a Hasbro made Marvel Legend as Hasbro hates having to articulate hands - AOA Sunfire's hands are static.  

You also have to love AOA Sunfire's detailing. The basic body is as shown, a transparent fiery yellow that's inter-spaced with what looks like blackened armor plates, christened with a white face-mask that proudly bears the rising sun of his country of origin and accentuated with flaming accouterments that denote the nature of his powers. Sidenote: If you ever find yourself playing the Marvel Role Playing Game, you'll find that Sunfire and Havok have the same powers - except Havok doesn't burst into flames nor catch fire.


The detailing of AOA Sunfire's face as a result of his mask is also exquisite. It appears that he's in a permanent frown, reflecting just how tortured Sunfire was in the Age of Apocalypse (As he  later again was in the 616 mainstream universe when Apocalypse experimented on him to a) Give him back his powers and b) Give him back his legs - but making him into his Avatar of  Famine in the process by adding light powers that stimulated the hunger senses in whoever saw him.)

Clearly he has issues.

What's NOT to like about the AOA Sunfire?

AOA and 616 Sunfire are both flyers. Most Marvel Legends have a peg-hole at the back for the translucent stands that allow us to mount flyers or the more acrobatic Marvel characters such as the Black Widow (The original one, not the new one). AOA Sunfire does not have such a peg-hole. He's being held to a peg-stand in my photographs by clay. It's an SDCC special which came in great packaging, I think it would have been great if they gave him, at the very least, a fiery base similar - but not a copy - of that used by the Marvel Legends Human Torch. 

Other than that, I have to say I love this figure and AOA Sunfire is a wonderful piece for any Marvel Legends collection. He would be a great diorama of AOA characters or X-Men Rogues or Horsemen of the Apocalypse alongside Gambit, Archangel and Wolverine.

Hopefully one day the hot-headed AOA Sunfire will take his rightful place in the ranks of the X-Men.  The 2010 SDCC AOA Sunfire is still available on Amazon for US$ 15.06 (Roughly PhP 650 plus shipping). Unfortunately Blogger seems to have removed Amazon Associates because of the introduction of the new interface so you'll have to go find it yourselves. Sorry.