Chameleon holds the unique distinction of being Spider-Man’s very first villain. Considering the ease of his outfit and OG status, it seems a little funny it’s taken so long to get a Marvel Legends Chameleon figure. But Hasbro has done a good job of making long term holdouts worth the wait. Let’s see if that’s the case with Cham.
Packaging: This is the old Spider-Man Marvel Legends wave setup that lacks the personalized portraits along the side. As he shares the packaging with his half-brother Kraven, Chameleon has a fairly generic write up that works for both characters.
On the plus side everything is visible making for an easy view if anything has been swapped.
Likeness: Chameleon had a pretty funky mask that just exudes evil. This is not the kind of guy you’d trust in your house alone. Chameleon has the standard suit body, which is just fine for him. It’s not like he wore some costume.
That incredible masked head sculpt that looks straight from the pages of Steve Ditko’s art, makes him stand out more than enough anyway. The suit has a nice tailored fit and makes for a perfect blank suit body for civilians/goons.
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Scale: Chameleon is a tad smaller than average height. That makes sense as he’s not super powered. I like having some figures that are shorter than the norm when it’s called for and he fits the bill.
Paint: Most of the paintwork is done on the mask. Hasbro went with a blue gray wash. I’m not totally sold on it as it’s almost too much, but breaking up the flat white was a good call. The rest of the figure is cast in the respective colors so no dangers of paint sprays or slop here.
Articulation: This updated suit body has great poseability. This isn’t the clunky, mannequin suit body used on Toy Biz’s Professor X or Matt Murdock. He doesn’t need to be all that dynamic beyond aiming the gun, but he looks snazzy in any pose.
My figure’s right foot is somewhat fused. It didn’t hinder him standing and I’m sure a hot bath will free it up, but I didn’t adjust it to show how he came out of the package.
Chameleon has:
neck
ball-jointed shoulders
bicep
elbow (double jointed)
wrist
wrist hinge
waist
hip
thigh
knee (double jointed)
ankle
Accessories: Chameleon is loaded and is easily one of the best value figures in any Spider-Man wave. First he comes with his trademark pistol. It’s cast in grey, but has a lot of sculpted details.
There’s another blaster that I assume is to be used for Chameleon, but could also work for the other options. It’s a nice size and there’s some red paint to simulate an energy effect. The barrel underneath is almost removable.
But the major selling point is the two additional heads of J. Jonah Jameson and Hammerhead.
That essentially gives you three characters in one. JJJ has a sensational ripped from the comics head sculpt. His expression is perfect for chewing out Parker or coming up with his latest Spider-Man conspiracy.
The Spider-Man movie JJJ figure sports the more iconic look than the suit body so I might do a swap there. The only knock with him is the left eyebrow isn’t painted properly.
Hammerhead has a great focused expression. He looks ready to start charging after Spider-Man. I’ve always considered him wider than this suit body and more of a fan of pinstripe suits, but I appreciate the options. There’s some stray paint on my figure’s head.
Hasbro also helps accommodate him with his Tommy Gun.
And if you needed anything more, Chameleon also comes with the left arm of the Build a Figure Rhino.
Worth it? Thanks to his display flexibility, Chameleon isn’t cheap these days. The best option is to hopefully get lucky and find him under $30 on the secondary market.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
This was a really fun figure and a clever way to get two additional figures our provided you have some blank suit body figures lying around.
Where to get it? Amazon or eBay are the best options now.