I’m way behind on my Hot Toys Features, mainly because I need to work myself up to tackling these figures on account of me still being in awe of them. Yeah even with about 20 of these beauties on my shelf they still tend to intimidate me. Anyway, today’s figure has been kicking around FigureFan Central for a while, patiently waiting his turn, so it’s long past time I gave Cap his due.
This is my third Hot Toys figure from the Winter Soldier film and I really love what they did with these package designs. Sure, it’s the same old shoebox style box with an illustrated cardboard insert over the tray, but it’s the deco that sells me on these. It’s very in line with the cool art direction seen in the credits. The front of the box features Cap in a typically heroic pose. But who am I kidding? Cap is one of my life long heroes and he would probably still look heroic to me eating a hot dog and dribbling mustard down his shirt. The back of the box features the names of some of the people who worked on the figure and all the boxes from the Winter Soldier figures look uniform when lined up on the shelf. As always, everything is collector friendly.
I’ve made it no secret that I adore this movie and that I love this particular costume design. It’s a wonderful nod to the outfit worn in the comics when Cap simply went by Steve Rogers, or just Captain, and I loved that he wore this specific costume when he was basically working as SHIELD’s lapdog, but questioning whether what he was doing was right. Up until now I’ve successfully avoided double-dipping on any one character when it comes to Hot Toys, but this was one I couldn’t resist. And oh man, did Hot Toys do a beautiful job with this costume!
As we’ll see in a little bit, this release is not heavy in extras or accessories, but that’s alright by me because they went all out on the costume. The material is a lush dark blue with a sight sheen to it in the right light and features some amazingly intricate stitching all over the place, but particularly in the abdomin and upper legs. The metallic silver star and striping across the chest contrasts beautifully with the darker material and he has some red stripes running down his sides from his underarms all the way down into his boots. You get a tiny SHIELD emblem on his right sleeve, his name badge on his left sleeve and a stylized American flag on his left shoulder. The costume fits the figure beautifully and the tailoring is top notch.
Extra bits on the costume include a shoulder rig for his shield and a leather belt with pouches and a silver belt buckle. He also has sculpted plastic guards for his knees. His hands feature sculpted finger-less gloves and his boots have sculpted belts and buckles running up to the tops. The only downside of the costume is that it is rather restrictive in the upper body, even more so than most Hot Toys figures. I’m sure if I carefully worked on it, I could get more articulation out of it, but I’m not willing to risk pulling any stitching in the top. From the waist down things are a lot more forgiving due to the slightly baggier military style cut of the trousers.
The figure includes only the masked portrait, with an unmasked available if you bought the two pack with civilian Steve Rogers. This is my second Cap from Hot Toys, with the other being from his first movie, and I’d say this one shows some marked improvement over what was already a pretty fantastic sculpt. There’s a little more definition in the facial features on this one, particularly around the mouth, but otherwise I think HT took the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” route and that’s fine by me. Of course, this version of the helmet and mask is more detailed than the “First Avenger” version and that allowed HT to strut their stuff a little more with the sculpt. There’s some great texturing under the eye-holes and there’s just the right amount of weathering on the helmet itself and the chinstrap.
Obviously, Captain America comes with his shield and in this case it’s the more muted blue and silver one designed to be a little less apparent on his “stealth missions.” The paint looks great and since it isn’t plated, it shouldn’t have the flaking problem that eventually struck a lot of our “First Avenger” Cap shields. It’s made from diecast metal and the reverse of the shield is almost identical to the previous releases, which means it looks totally authentic, but this time the straps are a little more forgiving. In fact, I find that I don’t even have to pop the hand off to get it onto his arm, which makes things a lot easier. You also get a hook, which allows you to easily hang the shield on his back. Since I have my other Cap holding his shield, I’ll likely display this one wearing it on his back.
It wouldn’t be a Hot Toys figure without a ton of hands and that’s certainly the case here. You get a total of five pairs, all with the same sculpted, fingerless gloves. Theese include: Fists, relaxed hands, grabby hands, and splayed finger hands. You also get a pointing right hand. A pair of extra wrist posts are also included just in case you snap one… or two.
The accessories are rounded out by a rather useless magnetic cuff, the one used in the elevator scene, and a little stick that lets you make adjustments to the costume. I can’t really think of anything else he needed to come with, other than maybe the thumb drive with Zola’s algorithm. The extra unmasked head would have been a nice bonus, but I can understand them withholding that to sell the two-pack.
STRIKE Cap is an excellent figure and easily lives up to my high expectations. And speaking of high… he retails at about $220, which is really starting to push the limit for me. The craftsmanship is certainly there, but he’s mighty light on the accessories when compared to figures like Falcon and Winter Soldier, which retailed for only about $10 more. I get that there’s a thing called inflation, but I find that my comfort zone for these figures is around $200, give or take ten bucks, and we seem to be getting further away from that. Price aside, if I had one other gripe about this figure it would actually be the crazy delays that it took to get to me. Despite pre-ordering him from Sideshow the day he went up for sale I was a little pissed to see online retailers getting him in stock weeks before mine even shipped from the source. Considering that there was no Sideshow exclusive for this figure, that Sideshow pre-order actually worked to my detriment, apart from getting some reward points. But not to end this Feature on a down note, I absolutely love the way this figure turned out and he looks damn great on what is now my Winter Soldier shelf, alongside Falcon and Bucky. I passed on the vintage suited Cap in this series, mainly because I’m content to let my “First Avenger” version fill that role. Now I just have to get off my ass and write up the Feature for Rocket and Groot.
FigureFan Zero 