Yep, same packaging. Even as someone who doesn’t care a whole lot about Thor, I gotta say I love the artwork. Thor’s a pretty meaty figure and between him and his cape he takes up most of the bubble. I love the way his hammer, Mjolnir, is so prominantly mounted right beside his head.

Thor is definitely up there as being of the most detailed and complex sculpts in the MU series thus far. Every tiny bit of this figure is brimming with loving attention to detail. His hauberk shows wrinkles, his chainmail is comprised of a sculpted checkered pattern. His soft plastic cape is actually fastened by two of the huge rivets on his chest, while brown belts and straps crisscross his boots, waist and chest. The headsculpt is pretty good, although his nose seems a little too flat and broad for a perfect likeness, but his long blonde hair is reproduced in soft plastic as are the feathered wings on his helmet.

As good as the sculpt is, there’s also a lot of paintwork to back it up. Thor’s hauberk and boots appear to be a gunmetal blue with some black mixed in. The chainmail is matte silver as are the rivets in his hauberk and his helm. It might have been cool to see a high gloss, metallic silver on these parts, but the more rustic matte silver has its own charms. His belts are brown and his cape is a deep maroon. There’s also very little slop or bleeding on the paintwork.

Thor comes with a figure stand, profile card and Top Secret document. He also comes with his trusty hammer, Mjolnir, of course. The sculpt on the hammer is every bit as good as the figure. The head of the hammer is pitted and worn and the handle is sculpted with braided straps, ending in a lanyard.

Articulation? Oh yeah. You get a ball jointed neck. The arms have ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. The legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinged knees and hinges and swivels in the ankles. Thor also has a ball joint in the torso and a swivel in the waist. That’s a total of 21 points of articulation. Unfortunately, the figure is a bit top heavy and he has a habit of toppling over even when he’s plugged into his stand.

Hey, even if you’re like me and a little lukewarm on Thor, it’s still hard to deny this is a really great figure all around. Besides, which, he’s essential to building your Avengers team, so you might as well get him anyway. He’s not terribly uncommon on the pegs, at least not in my area where MU figures tend to be rare finds. In fact, he’s one of the very few MU figures that I was able to track down in a store when I was looking for him, rather than have to go the online ordering route.