Having opened and reviewed all the figures in the Marvel Legends 2021 Super-Villians wave, I have completed building that wave’s BAF–Xemnu.
In my long list of Hulk foes I want Hasbro to make, I will admit Xemnu wasn’t on that list. That doesn’t mean I am not excited for him, though. I’m glad Hasbro is going deeper into the roster of Marvel characters–even to this one whose first appearance was in 1960 before the 616 officially started!
Xemnu is a large figure, which I always prefer with BAFs. Being a large, hairy creature this figure reuses a lot of parts from the Sasquatch BAF, so the two are about equal in size. Due to this reuse, he does not have pinless arms and legs like many figures in the wave sported.
Also, Xemnu has no interchangeable hands. You get a right fist and a left open hand. Having a second pair of hands would be a nice upgrade for this figure, but I’m pretty happy with what we got.
An especially nice detail is the control panel contained in the palm of Xemnu’s open hand. This is the only indication of the character’s cybernetic makeup and helps distinguish him from just being a Sasquatch redux.
The best part of Xemnu may be the new head with glowing red eyes and a silver dome. The dome reminds me of a Viking helmet without the horns. The face looks menacing, which is a trick given there’s no mouth, only scowling eyes and an overall shape that denotes ill intent.
The entire figure has a blue wash over the white plastic “fur”, which also extends to the head. It’s a bit too blue in parts but I’d prefer that to just plain, white plastic.
His giant silver belt piece does limit the posing of the figure, but I’d rather have the giant belt than be able to bend the figure much at the waist.
Overall, I wish Xemnu had some upgrades over the previous times his parts were used in a figure but I’m just glad to get this classic Jack Kirby creation in plastic form. He looks great breaking up the monotony of green and gray muscle on my Hulk shelf.
