Tag Archives: captain america

Jan 31 2012

Captain America: 6-inch Movie Captain America by Hasbro

Ok, so last time we looked at the 6-inch Movie Thor. He was a nice enough figure, but ultimately a little disappointing because of his limited articulation. Let’s see if we make out better with Captain America…

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Just like 6-inch Thor, this Cap figure’s packaging looks just like the carded 3 3/4-inch The First Avenger figures. There’s Hank Pym at work with his Pym Particles, again! I loved the movie packaging for the smaller Cap movie figures and it looks great here as well. Cap is packaged with his shield and pistol in hand and his machine gun off to the side. He really fills out the bubble nicely. Speaking of bubbles, there’s no “Walmart Exclusive” sticker on this bubble, but I’m pretty sure this was one too.
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Overall, I was pretty happy with Thor’s sculpt, but Captain America blows him away with the sheer amount of detail on his outfit. Every little crinkle, rumple and quilted texture is sculpted in wonderful detail here. I think the figure would have been better served with a less glossy look, but Cap’s outfit still looks amazing here. The sculpt also includes a working hoslter, which is always a nice touch in my book. I can’t say the head sculpt is terribly spot on, it seems rather soft, but its definitely serviceable.
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Unlike Movie Thor who could basically just stand there and look majestic, this 6-inch Cap has a buttload of articulation. You get a ball jointed neck, ball joints in the shoulders and hips, double hinges in the elbows and knees, hinges in the ankles, swivels in the biceps, wrists, and thighs, and that funky ball joint in the upper torso. I’m still not terribly pleased with the type of hip joints used here, but I’ll admit they work much better than Thor’s. Thankfully, Cap has no cape to interfere with his articulation, so this is one really poseable figure. He’s loads of fun to pick up and pose and that’s a big part of what I’m looking for in my action figures. I could barely come up with a few different snaps of Thor, but with Cap here, I couldn’t stop myself. I just kept shooting!
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Captain America comes with three accessories. His weapons include a Thompson Sub Machinegun and a .45 Automatic. The Thompson is a really nice sculpt and he looks great holding it. Plus, thanks to his excellent articulation, Cap can actually hold it in both hands for some great looking poses. The pistol is the weakest of the accessories. I don’t care for the sculpt too much as the trigger guard is overly circular and it’s bright silver. Still, it’s never a bad thing to have a spare gun and it can fit into his holster.
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And last but not least, you get Cap’s trusty shield. It’s cast in a rather soft plastic, but that doesn’t really hurt it much. Unlike the smaller Cap figures, this shield actually has the straps for his arm rather than just a peg and clip. Its a more authentic setup and the detailing on the reverse side looks mighty nice,  but sadly there’s no way to attach it to his back.
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So one gripe I have isn’t so much one with Cap himself, but when you put the two figures together (Cap and Thor) you find there’s quite a big difference in sizes. I realize that Thor is a big guy, and he should be bigger than Cap, but I don’t think he should be this much bigger. At the same time, when you take Cap and put him next to a DC Universe Classics figure he comes up pretty short too. That’s why I’m pointing to Cap’s size over Thors.
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I picked up Cap online for about $16 shipped, which is just about right for this class of figure. I don’t know how Cap is going to stack up to the upcoming Marvel Legends figures, but on his own, I think he’s an amazing figure. Great sculpt, great articulation, nice assortment of accessories, what more can you ask for, folks? If the 3 3/4-inch figures aren’t your thing, or you’re just looking for something bigger, this is a great figure for your collection.
Jan 24 2012

The First Avenger: Captain America Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys, Part 2

Alrighty then, let’s check out the Hot Toys treatment of Captain America: The First Avengers. We’ve already covered the packaging, and now the figure’s out let’s go ahead and start with the head.

I really dig the final head sculpt. Yes, I’ve seen plenty of complaints about how it doesn’t quite look like Chris Evans. Honestly, I think it looks pretty close. Hot Toys tends to either nail it perfectly or get that, “hmmm… close, but there’s something not quite right about it” vibe. Granted, he’s wearing a mask and that may go a long way to conceal the resemblance, but there’s something about the mouth that just ties the likeness together for me. I seem to be in the minority here, but so long as it looks good to me, that’s all that matters, right? Apart from that, the helmet and mask is excellent and while its all part of the headsculpt, it definitely has a 3D look to it as if you could unbuckle the chin strap and take it off. The paint apps for the “A” and his wings are all crisp and clean. I’ll go with a baseball metaphor here, since we’re on an American theme, and say that the head may not be a Homerun, but its definitely a Triple.
The costume itself, on the other hand, now that’s a homerun. Granted, it helps if you love the movie costume as much as I do, and the way its executed here is just plain awesome. Cap’s duds have an uncanny vintage WWII look to them, particularly in the quilting on the shoulders and the use of grey cloth instead of pure white for the arms and mid section. The stitching is all beautifully done and the outfit fits the figure extremely well. The metal rank pip on his collar is a really nice touch too. His gloves and boots are all sculpted plastic, and simulate the look of leather very nicely.
Besides his belt, Cap has straps on his biceps, holding the quilted shoulder flaps down and a low slung pistol holster for his automatic, that includes a thigh strap. He also has the aforementioned shoulder strap that is packaged off the figure, and a “Y” harness on his back that is actually part of the costume itself and culminates in a metal catch, which is where the clip is used to hang his shield. The faux leather strapping on the figure is all extremely delicate, particularly the super thin shoulder strap. You have to be really careful slipping it onto him and I really felt like I was going to pull it apart. The pistol holster is the same way, which is why you won’t see the pistol pictured anywhere else in this feature. It took me forever to get it in there and fasten the flap, and I probably won’t be removing it ever again.
Captain comes with no less than seven extra hands, most of which I will never ever use. Popping the hands off is easy, but getting the new ones on is a little frustrating. I’m not going to criticize Hot Toys’ decision to include a lot of variety here. Variety is always good. But I’m happy with just using the hands designed to hold his goodies. I may swap out his gun with something else from time to time, but he’s always going to be standing on my shelf holding his shield.
And speaking of guns and the shield, let’s talk accessories. Here’s where Cap comes up a little light. Don’t get me wrong, comes with everything you would expect, but it still feels rather light compared to the inventories of some of the other Hot Toys figures. The shield is absolutely fantastic, and fairly complex. Its made of plastic, but thanks to the shiny lacquer finish you wouldn’t know that unless you touched it. The paintwork is absolutely gorgeous. The reverse has two straps, one that fits around his forearm and the other that threads through one of his gripping hands. It’s rather tricky getting it in place, especially because the straps are so thin and delicate, and the catch is so tiny, but once he’s got it on his arm, it stays on great and looks amazing. There’s also a simple hook that allows you to hang it on his back. It’s a lot of work to swap out the shield from back to arm, though, so I probably won’t be doing it a lot, although you can actually hang it on his back without going through all the trouble of removng the hand from the strap.
Besides the shield, Cap comes with two weapons. I already touched on the automatic pistol, which is a very nice sculpt, but feels a little undersized to me, which is another reason I’m happy to keep it in the holster. I have a fair share of WWII era weapons in the 1:6 scale, so I will likely use a different .45 automatic pistol if I ever want to display him with one. It’s not a big issue, but when you’re paying this much for a figure, you shouldn’t have to swap in a better weapon. The Thompson machine gun, on the other hand is excellent and even includes a removable clip and just looks outstanding, whether in his hand or slung over his shoulder. That said, I may wind up displaying him with an M1 Garand or a Grease Gun.
You also get the personalized display stand. It’s pretty simple and serviceable, so don’t expect any kind of environment or diorama base. The post has a little wire cradle that the figure rests on between its legs and it does a fine job of holding him up.
Cap’s articulation is perfectly fine from the chest down, but the arms are somewhat restricted at the shoulders. The arms are only designed to rise up to 90-degrees and the instructions specifically point out that trying to get more motion out of them may damage the figure. My Cap’s arms actually don’t quite make it to 90-degrees, and I’m not about to force it to try to get that extra one or two degrees out of them. I suspect the joint was limited so as not to tear the snug stitching on his shoulders. I can still get Cap into most of the poses I want to, so I’m not overly concerned about this issue, but let’s face it, when people buy a 1:6 scale figure at this price point (or even less), they are usually expecting optimal articulation and you just aren’t getting it with Cap here.
In the end, Cap’s certainly got a few issues, but I knew about all of them coming in to the purchase. I loved this figure from the moment I got him out of the box and after spending a week fiddling about with him and putting him into different displays I still love it to death. He looks amazing on display and really the only thing I would have liked to see would have been a better sidearm. I picked up this figure through the fine folks at Big Bad Toy Store for about $170 shipped. That puts it at the lower end of Hot Toys product price range. You get a great figure for that price, and while I can’t think of much I would have added, accessory whores used to a gaggle of goodies with their figures may feel a little disappointed.
Jan 23 2012

The First Avenger: Captain America Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys, Part 1

You need only look back at the barren wasteland of content in November to see how busy I was at work toward the end of last year. Well, by the end of the year all that hard work started paying off, and I mean quite literally. In that higher tax bracket sense of the words. Besides some heavily padded paychecks, I was promoted and bumped up a significant paygrade. As a result, I wanted to take some of that fun money and splurge this year on something a little pricier than I usually buy and at the same time start getting in on a new line of figures that I’ve previously avoided for budgetary purposes. Hot Toys is going to be one of those outlets. And while I’m not prepared to start digging into the older figures because they have a habit of getting so prohibitively expensive, there are a number on the market right now that I plan on picking up.

For my first figure, I thought it appropriate to go with Captain America, despite some issues I knew ahead of time that existed with the figure. I did a lot of research on this guy before buying and ultimately decided that he looked so good, I was willing to live with the issues. I’ve just always loved Cap to pieces and while there were certainly some things about the movie I would have done differently, one thing that I wouldn’t have changed at all was Cap’s final appearance. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunities to pick up Thor and Iron Man from Hot Toys when The Avengers movie comes out, but Cap’s outfit is going to change quite a bit, and I really wanted him in his WWII-era costume. So let’s take a look and see what Hot Toys did with it. I’m going to start out today by just checking out the packaging and then I’ll try to be back tomorrow with a look at the figure itself.
Cap comes in a nice sized box emblazoned with his shield deco on the front and a whole lot of production information on the back. It looks like you’re about to start reading the credits from the movie, but its actually all the damn people who worked on this figure and its pretty impressive. You get a shot of the figure’s prototype on the back of the box and some assorted stills on the sides. The box is about as tall as you would expect from a 1:6 scale figure, but it’s a hell of a lot deeper. The design is like a shoebox, where you just lift the top off to get at the goods inside. Overall the outer packaging is attractive and sturdy, but possibly not as flashy as one might expect from a figure in this price range.
While in concept, the packaging is pretty simple, there’s a whole bunch of layers and stuff at work here. There is a tray tucked under the top cover that contains Cap’s gear. You get his iconic shield, an automatic pistol, a Thompson machine gun, a clip to hold his shield on his back, and his shoulder strap with pouches.
Next you have to lift out a cardstock poster of the figure to reveal the tray holding the figure, the stand, and his array of no less than seven replacement hands. You also get a baggie of replacement pegs for the hands and feet and a folded instruction sheet. There’s a cover over that, and another cover over that, and plastic over the hands and head. It takes some time to get through all this, but its nice to know he comes well protected and its cool how my anticipation was building the whole time.
I’m usually not a big packaging whore, as a fair number of my toys just get taken out and the package gets thrown away, but as a rule I keep my 1:6 scale figures in their packages. This is usually the case because they have a lot of extra accessories to keep track of and to help keep their soft goods clean when they aren’t out on display. Granted, Cap here will likely spend more time on my shelf than in his box, but there’s plenty of extras to keep track of, so this box is obviously a keeper for me.

 

Tomorrow, I’ll be back for Part 2 and we’ll actually dig in and start looking at the figure itself!
Jan 12 2012

Captain America: Captain Britain (Comic Series) by Hasbro

I’ve surprised myself with how many of the Captain America movie figures I actually wound up buying. I was nowhere a completist, but I went in expecting to just buy a couple and I came out with more like six or seven. It’s a fantastic line that, despite being littered with the usual “hero in different climate battlegear” nonsense managed to add some excellent additions to the 3 3/4″ ranks of the Marvel universe. Today I’m going to check out Captain Britain. He was on my list of figures to buy from the Marvel Univese line, but when I saw this version from Cap’s movie line, I opted to get it instead. Why? Because he’s purdy.

Speaking of purdy, the Captain America packaging sure is nice. Too bad I won’t be seeing it much more, since I’m just about done with cherry picking this line. You’ll note on the package that this figure is from the “Comic Series” so no, you didn’t fall asleep during the part of the movie that Captain Britain turned up in. It’s worth noting that nearly all the figures I bought from Cap’s movie line were part of the “Comic Series.” Anyway, Captain Britain is mounted in the bubble standing beside his accessories, one of which is awesome and the other was thrown out the moment I was done taking pictures. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s check out the figure.
Yep, Captain Britain has one sexy paintjob. The white is done in a regular matte finish, but the blue and the red are the same style of lush reflective car lacquer that Hasbro likes to use for the Iron Man armors. Damn, he’s shiny. Now, I do have to note that the paintjob on my figure does have its share of issues, particularly where the white tends to bleed into the other colors, but its mostly in out of the way spots and unless you look really close it doesn’t hurt the figure’s aesthetics all that much.
Articulation? If you have any of the Cap movie figures, you’ve got a good idea what to expect. The head is ball jointed, although you really don’t get a lot of movement apart from side to side. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and elbows, and have swivels at the biceps and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the ankles and knees, and have swivels in the upper thighs. You also get the ball jointed ab.
How about those accessories? You get the awesome Excalibur sword. Getting Excalibur in a 3 3/4″ scale sculpt practically pays for the figure right there. It really looks great and isn’t all bendy and warped like you might expect. The other accessory is a horribly shitty firing missile that I’m pretty sure is just a repainted Iron Man missile. It’s crap, but at least you can throw it away and forget about it.
Captain Britain is one of those figures that just looked so snazzy, I was sold on him as soon as I saw him hanging on the peg. Does it mean I’m going to pass on the Marvel Universe one? Probably not, but having him definitely pushed that figure down the chain quite a bit for me. I just love the way this guy turned out on pretty much every level. Now I just need to finally pick up Super Combat Cap and I’ll be able to put this line of figures to bed.
Sep 21 2011

Captain America: Hydra Armored Soldier (Movie Series) by Hasbro

I’ve only got time for a quickie today, which works out pretty well since I just so happen to have a new Captain America figure to check out that won’t take me too long. If you’ve been hunting this line, there’s a good chance you’re having the same problem we all had with the Iron Man 2 figures: Lots of variations of the main man himself, in this case Cap, and not a lot of the baddies. I was actually amazed to find one of these Hydra soldiers hanging on the pegs in plain sight, since not only is he one of the more uncommon figures in the line, but I’m guessing some people out there have got to be army building him.

We’ve seen this packaging twice before when looking at Red Skull and Battlefield Cap, but I’ll say it again, I really love Hasbro’s Marvel movie packaging. You get a big illustrated picture of Cap dominating the card and the little Avengers Assemble emblem on the other corner. The bubble is pretty big, and a good portion of the real estate is used to house the Hydra soldier’s terrible gimmicky oversized weapons. You’ll note that this is one of those figures that Hasbro had to add the name “Marvel” to, presumeably over copyright issues, which makes me wonder who else out there owns the name Hydra Armored Soldier. Hmm.
Honestly, I’m somewhat underwhelmed by this guy. For a so-called “armored” soldier, he really isn’t. He’s just a guy in a uniform and tunic with some web gear. I don’t have any particular complaint about him other than he just looks kinda drab and boring. The head sculpt is rather unique, though, thanks to his distinctive looking helmet, but there’s not a lot else to say about him. The body features a good amount of sculpted detail and he even has a tiny Hydra patch painted on his sleeve and little “H”s on his boots. I’m guessing that belt looking thing coming out of his backpack along his right arm is supposed to be belt fed ammo, but I can’t be sure about that. So, basically, this guy is just some poor minimum wage schmuck that Cap can hit in the teeth with his shield. He’s ok looking, but nothing special.
The Hydra Soldier has every bit of articulation we’ve come to expect from Hasbro’s modern 3 3/4″ figures, including those terrible ball jointed hips. Have I mentioned recently how much I hate these hip joints, Hasbro? I really hate these hip joints, Hasbro.
I’m a little more decisive in my take on this figure’s weapons: They suck. He comes with a repack of the huge missile launcher we got bundled with Red Skull, and another equally huge and ungainly weapon. Hasbro screwed the pooch on this one. He should have at least been bundled with some kind of assault rifle.
Every hero needs legions of nondescript cannon fodder and that’s exactly what we get with the Hydra Armored Soldier. I don’t like him well enough to want to army build him, and that’s probably a good thing because I doubt I’ll ever see many more on the pegs anyway. Maybe I could see picking up one more to flank my Red Skull as guards, but that’s it. He’s not a bad figure by any means, and I suppose he could add a little diversity to your GI JOE’s if you want to mix things up a bit. As with all the Cap movie figures, he runs around $7-$8 depending on where you pick them up and that’s not a bad deal.
Sep 19 2011

Captain America: Battlefield Cap (Comic Series) by Hasbro

It pains me greatly that I never got around to seeing Captain America in the theaters. What can I say? I’m always drinking working so I just never got a chance and before I knew it, it was gone. But, hey, that’s what my BD Player and huge TV are for. Nonetheless, watching Thor again this week got me craving some new Marvel movie stuff and that included a bunch of Captain America figures. I was mainly going to cherry pick this line for characters other than Cap, but when I saw this version, I just couldn’t resist.

I’ll reiterate what I said about the packaging for the Thor figure review. The movie Marvel cards are pretty sweet and I like Captain America’s the best. You get an image of Cap up in the left corner and the Avengers Assemble icon over in the right. Cap is carded with both his weapons displayed and his shield beside him. The best thing I can say about any carded figure is that I was sorry to rip him open. I might actually pick up an extra of this guy to hang carded on my wall. He really does look that great in the package.
Battlefield Cap is out of the package and… damn. He’s an amazing sculpt. Sure, he’s basically a standard modern Hasbro 3 3/4″ body, but his entire suit is textured, and there’s a ton of little details like the treads on his boots and the flap and buttons on his tunic.  The pounches are sculpted and even the star on his chest is sculpted on rather than just a tampo or paint app. His web gear is a separate, removable piece, with a working holster, sculpted ammo pouches and canteen. Nice! The head sculpt is nice, with a grey mask/hood and his blue combat helmet is removable. This figure would be a Triple-A slam dunk, if it weren’t for how soft the plastic in his legs is. It’s not a dealbreaker for me, since everything else about Cap is amazing, but it is annoyingly soft.
The paintwork is just as good as the sculpt. He’s mostly blue with some red trim and green and brown on his boots and the red and white striping on his mid section. I’m most impressed by the fact that every single one of the little buttons and buckles on him is painted silver. There’s no slop or bleeding either. Nice!
Articulation is standard modern 3 3/4″ Hasbro with a few nice surprises. Cap’s neck is ball jointed. His arms are ball jointed in the shoulders, hinged at the elbows, there are swivels in the biceps, and even ball joints in the wrists. His legs have those annoyingly awkward ball joints in the hips, double hinged knees, swivels at the tops of his boots, and his ankles feature both regular hinges, and lateral rockers to keep his feet flat at wide stances. His torso features that standard Hasbro ab ball joint.
Cap’s accessories include an automatic pistol, a Thompson machine gun and his trusty shield. The shield clips onto his wrist, but also has a peg that allows him to store it onto his back. You can even tuck his Thompson into his web gear strap and store it on his back and the pistol fits into his holster.
In a line that is stuffed with predictably awful variations on poor Cap, this Battlefield version stands out as being an absolutely amazing figure. Seriously, stand him next to the likes of whatever Desert or Arctic flavor Cap figure from the line you want and tell me he really looks like he’s some kind of special exclusive stand alone release. Sculpt, paint, accessories, articulation: This figure hits all the points dead on and suffers only from some unfortunate use of soft plastic in the legs. I picked him up for just under eight bucks, and what a deal it was. He won’t satisfy anyone looking for a standard Cap to stand in with your Avengers, but if you’re a fan of Steve Rogers, you really should have this one on your shelf.
Jul 21 2011

Marvel Universe: Bucky by Hasbro

In case you haven’t noticed Captain America is all the rage these days, what with the movie coming out and the pegs in the toy asisles adorned with figures from the new movie. I only have one of Cap’s movie figures, Red Skull, but as expected there’s some overlap between Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line and the line of figures based on the new movie. This allows me to be topical while checking out Bucky, one of those Marvel Universe figures that I never got around to looking at here on FigureFan. So let’s see how the MU version of Cap’s stalwart comrade in arms turned out.

Bucky comes on the standard MU packaging. His assortment is part of the Dark Reign style releases with HAMMER themed packages, as opposed to the SHIELD logo. Bucky’s artwork is pretty good and dominates the upper portion of the card. The figure comes posed with one of his Tommy Guns in his hand. As always the presentation here is solid and despite being an opener, I sure wouldn’t mind having a second run of some of these figures carded to hang on my wall.

Overall I’m happy with Hasbro’s sculpt, although there are a few nits to pick. The detail on Bucky’s tunic is good and includes the sculpted brass buttons on the front, his high collar, and his belt with pouches. The head sculpt isn’t one of MU’s better examples, but it does work. I’m trying to remind myself that this is a somewhat earlier figure. The hair is decently sculpted and the mask looks fine, but I would have liked it if the rest of the face sculpt wasn’t so soft. One complaint I do have, however, is the figure looks rather top heavy and the belt looks kind of chunky. Bucky is by no means a bad looking figure, but proportionally he just looks a little off.

You get standard MU style male articulation. This includes universal movement in the shoulders, hinged elbows and swivels in the biceps and wrists. He has universal movement in the hips, double hinged knees, and hinged ankles. His neck is ball jointed and he has universal movement in the waist.
Bucky comes with a fair amount of goodies. You get his Secret Documents, his personalized display stand and not one, but two Thompson submachine guns. I really like the guns. Yeah, they’re a little oversized, but the sculpts are excellent. I may even do a little paintwork on the socks if I get really bored one day. I was surprised that Hasbro included two of the guns with the figure, and he can hold them nicely in both hands. Chances are, though, one of these babies will go into my GI Joes’ armory.

No doubt, Bucky is a great and necessary addition to the MU lineup, especially for us Cap fans. I haven’t seen a Bucky figure in the new Captain America line yet, so it’s hard to say whether it will be an improvement on this figure or just a straight on repack. Either way, chances are I’ll settle for this one as the Bucky for my Marvel 3 3/4″ collection.

May 23 2011

Captain America: Red Skull (Movie Series) by Hasbro

I’m pretty psyched up for the Captain America movie, but I don’t plan on buying many of the figures. I will, however, be picking up some of the Comic Series as well as figures that fill holes in my Marvel Universe collection and Red Skull is obviously one of those holes. It’s certainly possible that Hasbro will be giving Skull the Comic Series treatment in the near future, but this movie version is plenty cool and I since I forsee that very soon the pegs being clogged with the ten million different variations of Captain America, I figured I better grab Red Skull while I can.

 

I can’t say there are any big surprises to be had in the package design, but then again, I have to admit it looks quite nice. You get artwork of Cap himself making up a good portion of the card, along with the Avengers Assemble emblem showing off Iron Man and Thor. Ant Man? Hulk? Who’s that? Yeah. Anyway. The bubble shows off the figure very nicely along with his accessories. The back panel of the card shows a photo of the figure, a short bio blurb and some of the other figures in the line.

The sculpt used here looks really top notch. Granted, the movie isn’t out yet and I still haven’t seen any stills of the character in the movie, but as far as the figure is concerned I like what I see. Besides, which, I got this guy to go with my MU figures, not for his role in the Marvel movieverse. Either way the head looks great and the paint apps are very well done. Red Skull’s uniform is wonderfully detailed, although the plastic tunic unfortunately interferes with his upper leg articulation, reducing the joints to being almost useless. It’s a bit of a shame since the rest of him sports the same excellent articulation seen in the Marvel Universe line, right down to his double hinged knees. Hey, Hasbro… what’s up with the number on his boot?

Red Skull comes with a few accessories. You get the Cosmic Cube, a pistol, and a huge firing missile launcher. The Cube is pretty nicely done for such a small accessory and is cast entirely in translucent blue plastic. He can even hold it fairly well in his hand. The missile launcher is the throwaway piece that we’ve come to expect from Hasbro’s 3 3/4″ figures. It’s goofy and awkward and it can go into my tote filled with all the other ones I have from Rise of Cobra to Iron Man 2.

I’m still waiting to see if a Comic Series version of Red Skull comes out in this line, but for now I’m perfectly happy with this figure. Whether it be Iron Man or Thor or now Captain America, Hasbro has been giving the Marvel Movie figures their all. I’ll admit, it’s too bad that these lines are littered with so many ridiculous variants of the heroes. It made sense in the Iron Man lines, but it’s uncalled for in the Thor and Captain America lines. Still, I’m happy to take what I want and leave the rest.

Nov 2 2010

Marvel Universe: Captain America and Classic Captain America by Hasbro

Pretty soon Captain America will get his turn at the Hollywood spotlight and we can expect to see the pegs packed with all new Cap figures. Fortunately, fans don’t have to wait that long, because Hasbro has already delivered two amazing Captain America figures in their Marvel Universe lineup: There’s the modern era version and his classic counterpart. Oh, man, do I love these figures.

Modern Cap is simply fantastic. The sculpt is just about dead on perfect. The head is complete with sculpted A and his ears exposed through the hood. The chest of his uniform is nicely  textured and Cap even has little pouches on his gauntlets and laced boots. His belt looks to be a separate piece but its sculpted in place with ammo pouches and a canteen. No doubt about it, plenty of love went into the details of this sculpt.

The paintwork on my figure is nearly immaculate. What a profound difference from the shoddy paint on yesterday’s Ms. Marvel figure. The star on his chest and the A on his hood are both razor sharp, as are the red and white stripes on his stomach. Both his legs and his boots feature some extra brush work to add some depth to the paint. Particularly impressive is the sharp paintwork on the shield, which is also just about perfect. Even his boot laces are painted.

The shield can be clipped onto Cap’s arm and it also has two elastic straps so it can be worn on his back.

Classic Cap reuses some parts, but there’s plenty new here to show Hasbro went the extra mile. Obviously, the head sculpt is completely new, with the hood enclosing the ears and featuring the tiny wings on the sides. The torso is mostly the same, although the star on the chest is bigger and his belt is completely resculpted. The legs and arms are mostly the same, but with brand new sculpts for the gauntlets and boots.

The coloring on Classic Cap is a more washed out than the modern version and the reds are closer to maroon. The shield is the old style “heater” type with a peaked top and the paint apps are razor sharp. In fact, the only issue with the paint on this figure is a little bit of bleeding around the edges of his mask.
In addition to his shield, Classic Cap came with a figure stand, which the Modern Cap lacked. Both figures came with the usual Top Secret portfolio with collector card and papers.

Both figures have a slick 22 points of articulation. Their necks are ball jointed. The arms have ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and forearms and hinged elbows. The torso features a swivel and a ball joint. The legs have ball joints in the hips, double hinged knees and swivels at the boots along with hinges and swivels in the ankles.

As excited I am to pick up the new movie figure that Hasbro will no doubt be releasing, these two figures are really all the Captain America I need. They’re both homeruns, whether you prefer the classic or the modern or just have to have both. Either way, these are two really exceptional figures in the MU lineup.