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Here's a little something that was unexpected to ever show up in my stash, but hey, here we are.

 

I don't know the exact year, but at some point in the recent past, Bandai of America started releasing, for lack of better terms, Marvel Legends scaled and price pointed figures under the Dragon Stars line. Also like the Legends figures, each wave of figures comes with a component of another character that you naturally have to buy all to complete.

 

This figure specifically is Super Saiyan Blue Vegito (aka SSGSS Vegito), the fusion of Goku and Vegeta with I believe Vegeta taking the lead, recently superseded in terms of power by the newly (ish) minted SSGSS Gogeta who made his debut in the movie along with canon Broly.

 

From a product perspective, I can see why these figures are quite popular. Dragon Ball is one of those IPs that is universally loved globally, and while there have been some American toys in the past, there hasn't really been much from the domestic companies in the past, I'm going to say 20 years or so. S.H. Figuarts has basically been THE place to go to in recent years for articulated Dragon Ball goodness, but, lets face it, it gets expensive.

 

With the success of the Legends line, the general increase of lifestyles involving merch buying and hoarding, and the overall resurgence of the Dragon Ball brand thanks to Super, I'm guessing some genius at Bandai of America put together that a line of Dragon Ball action figures made for the non-Figuarts market might sell.

 

Lets get the obvious out of the way - these figures are no Figuarts.

 

The MSRP on a Dragon Stars figure is about $30 CAD, which is what a Marvel Legends generally costs. A Figuart, if you're lucky, will run you around $70 CAD. Naturally, at literally double the price, you're getting a much better figure in almost every single department you can think of with the exception of size, If it wasn't better, there would be some serious problems.

 

So then, how does the figure compare to your typical Legends release, represented locally by Captain Marvel?

 

Vegito comes with two pairs of hands (closed fists, clenched palms) and energy blade effect, and the right arm with fist/clenched palm of Kale, the BAF for this series. The amount of accessories contained within pretty much matches up with what you'd get from a Legends. Occasionally a Legends release will not come with any BAF parts, but that 's usually because they come with some other character specific accessory, like an extra head sculpt or something.

 

The accuracy of each product is hit and miss, with I feel the Dragon Stars release having more hits than compared to the Legends stuff I've seen, particularly those that utilize the face printing technology that's all the rage these days. However, there are improvements that Hasbro has been making and periodically checking in with their release has shown they have come a long way since Paul Rudd 1.0.. you know the one.

 

The bodies on both series generally do not meet the actual physique of the character, more likely than not the realities of sharing body parts across the board wherever possible.

 

Detailing on outfits, however, appears to be a stronger suit on the Legends side, as most Legends I've seen have very colourful (albeit painted messily) looks. But, this should probably be tempered by the realities of the source material - unless you're battle damaged your outfit isn't particularly wild in Dragon Ball. Having said that, I feel that your typical Legends figure will have more actual paint, whether it be on the outfit or on the actual body parts themselves.

 

I know Captain Marvel is excessively painted, but on Vegito it appears the only paint apps are the whites of his glove and boot cuffs, the green toe on his feet, light blue of the belt, the orange and the exposed chest muscles, the blue hair, and the gold earrings. Most of these apps are large and don't require excessive amounts of finesse to apply them.

 

Finally, there is articulation, which for most is where the money shot is. Both figures generally have the same amount and range of articulation, with the Dragon Stars having the slight advantage of a moving neck post. The figure also has a functional waist and double jointed elbows, but these could be present on a male Legends body so I can't rule either way. I can say that the Legends has double jointed knees whereas the Dragon Stars does not.

 

So while the amount of articulation is about the same, the quality of it is much better on the Legends. I found the shoulders to be rather tight, and appear to have some sort of ratcheting involved, Due to the shape of the body, range of motion for the hips is fairly limited compared to the legends, making it effectively impossible to do any lunging poses. The lack of double jointed knees also inhibits any kneeling poses that you may have planned. With Dragon Ball known for its extreme action and poses, the inability to replicate these in toy form kind of kills the love of having a Dragon Ball action figure.

 

For what it's worth, the shoulders look nicer on the Dragon Stars, but at the cost of limited articulation.

 

So in the end, much like with Legends, my position is that I get they have their place, but it's not something that I'd go for at this stage in the game, but that's because I'm a stickler accuracy and posing. But if you want have your Legends scale Hulk battle someone that's a bit more challenging than Captain America (possible with a battle power of over 9,000), then you could do far worse than this line.

Done