Today I’m wrapping up my look at Hot Toys’ Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier. Yesterday I checked out the figure itself and today we’re checking out his accessories. Bucky was a walking arsenal in the film and that fact is wonderfully reflected in the satisfying number of weapons that Hot Toys bundled with this figure. About the only thing more impressive than all this guy’s killing implements is that he can either hold or carry just about everything he comes with all at once! Actually scratch that, if you put one of his big guns in each hand he can carry it all! I freaking love that! As much as I dig combat knives, even in Sixth-Scale figures they tend to be rather small and difficult for me to photograph with any effect, so let’s get the cutlery out of the way first!
Winter Soldier comes with no fewer than three combat knives. He stores two of them in horizontal sheathes on the back of his belt and the third has a scabbard positioned just in front of the gun holsters on his right thigh. The ones on his back are an identical pair and he can hold them quite well in his special knife hands. They’re fine little sculpts, but I don’t think they’re meant to resemble the one he used prominantly in the film in his battle with Cap. The third one is a really tiny all-black stiletto with a ringed pommel. I’m glad they included it, but I don’t think it’ll spend much time out of the sheath. It’s just so small, and while he can hold it fine, it’s pretty hard to make out that he’s holding anything at all.
Moving on to the firearms, we’ll start small and work our way up. If you have three combat knives, you might as well carry three pistols right? RIGHT? Of course! Two of Bucky’s pistols are stowed on his right thigh holster and the third on his left. The holsters are the open type where the guns just clip into place and I’m a big fan of these. Not only do they let you admire the guns on the figure when they’re not being held, but they’re a lot less delicate than the full holsters. Plus, they look bloody damn convenient for a quick draw scenerio. On the downside the left holster does not do a great job of securing the weapon. When I’m handling the figure, I find it best to just remove it and prevent having it fall off.
First you have the COP 357. This little guy is a 4-shot .357 Magnum, which I imagine would be a nice friend to have when you’re all out of options. Derringers are famous for being last resort hold-out weapons or easy to conceal for personal protection, but this isn’t even the smallest pistol in Bucky’s arsenal…
Nope, that would be the TEC-38. There are Derringers and then there are Derringers! This one is a cute little two-barrel .38 from the 80’s, possibly picked up when HYDRA thawed him for an earlier mission? I don’t know, but I love it. Both of the Derringers are pretty much just static pieces, but that’s fine. They’re nicely painted and too small for me to expect any articulation or features.
Last up for the pistols is a SIG-Sauer P226, which is probably what comes out before falling back on the Derringers. This gun is the one that likes to fall out of the holster when I’m posing the figure, while the two smaller pistols stay put. The slide action works and the clip is removable, although it does have a habit of dropping out of the gun when handling it.
Next, we have the Skorpion sub-machine pistol, which clips onto the back of his shoulder rig. I know absolutely nothing about this weapon. It has a hinged breaking action and the slide action works. The clip may be designed to come out, but mine is in there pretty good so I don’t want to force it. When you break apart the receiver you can see a teeny painted cartridge in the clip. I’m actually not a big fan of this one. In real life it may be an excellent firearm, but it seems really undersized and unimpressive as a display piece. I think I’ll likely leave this one on his back most of the time. It looks good back there.
Moving on to the BIG GUNS… I believe Bucky’s assault rifle is an M4A1 with a grenade launcher mounted under the barrel. He also comes with a pair of grenade rounds, which fit into the loops provided onto his belt. You can pump the grenade launcher and the rifle has a collapsing stock, which is a very cool feature. As far as Sixth-Scale weaponry goes, this one is a really beautiful piece.
And finally we come to Winter Soldier’s specialty disc-grenade launcher. It’s a showpiece from the film as the scene where he used it to blow up Fury’s SUV was prominent in the trailer. I think I remember reading that this weapon is a custom job from a real mine launcher, but either way it’s one nasty looking piece of hardware. Hot Toys did an exceptionally nice job on this one. The detail is downright amazing and he looks great holding it.
With all these fantastic weapons, I feel bad about complaining about something being missing, but I will anyway. The 140mm grenade launcher was pretty prominent in the street fighting between Bucky and Cap. It’s a great weapon and I sure would have liked to get it, athough I’ll concede that it probably wouldn’t have fit in the box with all the other stuff crammed in there. I’m really not holding the fact that it’s missing against this release. There’s just too much great stuff in the box for that. I’m sure these have been made for some other Sixth-Scale figure out there and I do believe I’m going to have to try to hunt one down.
Winter Soldier retailed at just under $240 and he’s still available through Sideshow and most other Hot Toys resellers. It’s no secret that Hot Toys prices have been jumping up quite a bit, hell I mention it in just about every Hot Toys feature I write, but if you allow for inflation and all that jazz, I don’t think the price on this guy is all that bad. The quality of the figure and tailoring of the costume is certainly respectable and the second head with two alternate display options is something we certainly haven’t been seeing in too many of the Marvel figures. Of course, factor in that I had to bust into another day just to feature all the weapons this guy comes with and it becomes easy to see where a lot of the money went. Despite a little room for improvement in the arm and the ridiculously stubborn head swap (which I’ll concede is really inexcusable), I’m totally satisfied with this purchase and I think I was actually more excited about him once I got him in hand than I was when I pre-ordered him. He’s certainly going to look damn fine next to my Hot Toys STRIKE Suit Cap when he arrives, hopefully in a couple of months.
FigureFan Zero 