Marvel Legends Mantis BAF Action Figure

Guardians of the Galaxy's Mantis

The Marvel Legend Mantis Build-A-Figure Mantis is an interesting progression in the technology injected into the toy-line. 

Personally we found Mantis to be a very refreshing addition to Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and actually prefer her innocent personality to her more stern and serious Marvel Comics personality. We're definitely looking forward to seeing her in the Avengers: Infinity War movie.

Her action figure was a bit of a bother to acquire though given that you had to purchase all 7 figures of the Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 toyline to get her. And we weren't particularly interested in most of the characters.

Happily we got her from another collector without having to go through the trouble.




Because she's a BAF figure, Mantis doesn't come with a blister card per-se. Portrayed in the movies by the very beautiful Pom Klementieff, Marvel's movie wiki goes on to say that Mantis' aliases include: "Gross Bug Lady", "Pet" and; "Flea with a purpose" (Though frankly we didn't hear her being called that in the movie).

The wiki says that Mantis is "...a young empathic woman raised by the Celestial Ego and recruited as a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Since she was a child, Mantis helped ease Ego's neurotic behavior with her powers until the Guardians of the Galaxy came to his planet. After bonding with Drax the Destroyer, she came to care for the Guardians and then allied with them to help prevent Ego from conquering the Galaxy. With her own servitude to Ego ended, she became a full-fledged member of the Guardians and accompanied them on further adventures."

Here's the comic version versus her movie version:

Yes, Mantis can kneel

WHAT'S TO LIKE ABOUT THE MARVEL LEGENDS MANTIS BAF ACTION FIGURE?

FIRST: Perhaps the biggest and most interesting thing about the Mantis is her face. Mantis' face is a rubber skin mounted on a hideous plastic base. You can actually tear her face off - why you would want to do so beggars the imagination, but to each his own.

To our knowledge, this is the first and only Marvel Legends character to involve the use of a rubber face. We're actually curious as to whether her face will deteriorate over the years given temperature conditions here in the Philippines. We have two talking Yoda's whose faces have cracked open over time and Mantis' face feels like it's made of the same material.

SECOND: Mantis' articulation is excellent. We love how she can be posed into various "Praying Mantis" Martial Arts poses. 

THIRD: And as with all the other figures in the Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy line, you gotta love the detailing that was tooled into their uniforms.

I am hideous?

WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT THE MARVEL LEGENDS MANTIS BAF ACTION FIGURE?

FIRST: Aside from our fear that one day her face will crack open to reveal a hideous green skull inside, the only other thing wrong we can see with her is how spindly her legs are. Yeah she's a "mantis" but that's just really thin.

As mentioned, the Marvel Legends Mantis Action Figure is a BAF. So aside from trawling Ebay or collector's stores for her, you can visit Amazon for the Marvel Legends Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Wave 2 series that includes: Star Lord, Death's Head, Nebula, Gamora, Adam Warlock, Rocket Raccoon and Toddler Groot that will sell for US$ 178.95 (Roughly PhP 9,305 plus shipping).

This one may legitimately call herself a mistress of the martial arts...