Toy Review – Hot Toys “Deadpool & Wolverine” Wolverine Sixth Scale Figure
As one of the most popular comic book characters ever, Wolverine's gotten a ton of figures through the years, to say the least, but there's still something rather special about the existence of the Wolverine (Deluxe Edition) Sixth Scale Figure by Hot Toys, which is available now on Sideshow. And while it took quite awhile for it to finally ship, given the movie it's derived from came out in the summer of 2024, I was very pleased to finally have this figure arrive recently, especially seeing how well it turned out.
Wolverine alone is iconic. Hugh Jackman's movie version of Wolverine is iconic. But until Deadpool & Wolverine, we'd never seen Jackman dressed in anything resembling the character's comic book costume. So as a lifelong Marvel fan, it still makes an impression that we finally got Jackman in this costume at all, much less that there's such a lifelike sixth scale version of it on my shelf.
This is truly a stellar figure in most regards, offering a surprising and impressive amount of variety in terms of how you can change up his look, including making him even more closely resemble his comic book counterpart than the movie did. That's because you can pose this figure with the torn off sleeves he had in the final act of the film, but still wearing his shoulder armor - the one notable part of his most familiar comic look that the movie didn't retain. I suspect that's because in real life, when you need your actor be able to have plenty of movement for action scenes, but still want those shoulder pieces to stay in place lest they look odd, it becomes very tricky.
And in fact, even on this figure it becomes tricky. The shoulder pieces hold in place via magnets, but if you change the pose of Wolverine's arms, you will almost always end up causing there to be a visible gap between the armor and the figure's outfit.
That's quickly fixable fortunately, via changing up the placement of those magnets and shouldn't be a problem unless you've got a kid actually actively playing with this figure (which you shouldn't do, because man, this is way too pricey for that!). So yeah, I suspect there were good reasons they didn't use this exact look in the movie, but regardless, we now have this figure able to even more closely look like Wolverine's stepped right out of the comics, and it's pretty much perfect. Because by comparison, take a look at that photo below, where he's sporting his exact look from the big fight against the Deadpool Corps in Deadpool & Wolverine. He still looks good, absolutely, but come on... That dude could use some snazzy shoulder gear!
Not only does this Wolverine include both a masked head and an unmasked head (complete with a terrific Hugh Jackman likeness, which has moveable eyes), but the masked portrait contains three different lower face pieces, so you can alter his expression - and make Logan even more feral and full berserker rage-ready if you wish.
Wolverine's not one to typically use weapons -- beyond his own retractable claws, that is -- so he doesn't have much in the way of what you might call accessories. But the fact that you can swap out so much of the figure for alternate parts more than makes up for this. Beyond the usual variations in hand poses, there are battle-damaged variations for both his shoulder and wrist armor, while you can also swap between both clothed or bare arms. And there's a battle-damaged chest armor piece too, though more on that below.
The details along the costume are superb, including on his gloves, complete with the metal "sheathes" his claws emerge from.
You wanna get hyper specific with his look, then you can. Hey, why can't he have been in sort of scrap where just one of his sleeves got torn off? Who's to say it has to be both sleeves!?
The more I saw how many possibilities this figure had, the more impressed I was, and in many regards, this is one of the very best Hot Toys figures I've ever seen... except for when you turn him around. Because there he has one annoying issue. The idea of swapping out the chest armor is awesome - the bullet holes and scratches are great touches that look excellent and definitely allows for more variation. However, the execution of how they pulled off the ability to swap between these two pieces has a major downside. Because... look at those weird flaps sticking out on the side of his back!
Like what exactly is going on there?! I mean, I know what's going on - because the piece is removable, they didn't make it as form fitting in the back as the front, allowing it to more easily be removed without damaging the figure. But it just looks wrong, because the padding on the movie costume, though in the same shape, didn't extend out like that. Why would Wolverine have this weird flap of fabric coming off the sides of his shirt?
Yes, putting it on the back vs. the front was inarguably the right call, since he'll be posed from the front on most collector's shelves and few would notice this element without a closer examination. But it still feels off, especially for such a high end, high priced item like this. What makes Hot Toys figures so cool is the accuracy to what's on screen and the back of Wolverine's shirt sure ain't screen accurate.
But even if I just ranted about it a bunch, is this a deal breaker? I'd say no. Because this figure truly is exquisite otherwise. Hugh Jackman in that costume was Wolverine come to life like never before and this Hot Toys release is an amazing representation of that. Below, you've got this new Wolverine Hot Toys figure alongside his new BFF, Deadpool & Wolverine Hot Toys Deadpool, with the two looking like they stepped right off the screen together.
I also checked out how this new Wolverine Hot Toys figure looked alongside the one other one I have, from X-Men: Days of Future Past. I still dig that figure, but wow does the new one show how likenesses on these figures has gotten even better in the past decade. Also, it's funny that Hugh Jackman was always so much taller than Wolverine in the comics, but this new figure is even slightly taller than the one from the past. Also also, it's funny to remember when the closest we could get to Wolverine's comic book costume in a movie was his undershirt being orange and blue-grey in order to kinda-sorta evoke his yellow and blue comics roots.
You can currently purchase the Wolverine (Deluxe Edition) Sixth Scale Figure by Hot Toys at Sideshow for $340.00 which is, well, really freaking expensive. But I think it's a truly spectacular creation if you've been wanting a high end Hugh Jackman Wolverine figure, especially one looking this close to his comic roots - even taking into account that flaw with how the suit's swappable padding sits on the back.
I have zero doubt Hugh Jackman will play Wolverine again by the time Avengers: Secret Wars comes out (come on, they're not bringing back all of his old X-Men costars in Avengers: Doomsday but then not him again). Which means more Hot Toys figures will be coming for this guy, beyond all the different Wolverine variants we're already getting from just Deadpool & Wolverine. Will one of them offer an even cooler looking, comics-derived alternative? It's certainly possible! For now though, I am very happy to finally have the ol' yellow and blue on my shelf.