Tag Archives: marvel universe

Jan 13 2012

Marvel Universe: Falcon by Hasbro

I’m almost caught up on my backlog of Marvel Universe figures, as I’ve got just a few more new acquisitions to feature here. Today we’re going to check out Falcon. I’m actually kind of surprised they didn’t save Falcon for the “Comic Series” of Captain America’s movie line, but the timing of his release was still fairly on point. Honestly, I’ve never been a huge fan of the character, but I certainly don’t mind him when he makes an appearance in whatever I happen to be reading. He was definitely a challenging figure for Hasbro to tackle what with the heavy reuse in the line. Did they pull it off? Let’s see…

Standard Marvel Universe packaging. The character artwork is quite nice. A bit more gritty than some, but you get a nice shot of him flying out of the card with Redwing in tow. Falcon certainly has no trouble filling out his bubble as his wings are spread behind him, and actually detatched from the figure, along with his personalized figure stand and his little Redwing accessory. It definitely feels like you’re getting more than your average amount of plastic on this card.
Despite being a relatively newer release, Falcon’s sculpt and articulation feels dated for the line. The paint job and the wash on the figure itself also makes him feel more like one of the somewhat lesser quality comic pack figures that we were getting back in the Secret Wars series. I don’t want to rag on him too badly, though, because in overall design and appearance, I think he makes up for those vibes. Hasbro nailed the look of the character quite nicely, particularly the head sculpt, and while I do find the wash over the white parts a little cheesy, the rest of the figure’s paintwork is quite nice, particularly the deco on his chest.
I’m still pretty undecided on the wings. They’re sculpted in translucent red plastic, which makes for a very nice effect, but the way they clip into the slots on the back of his biceps is a bit questionable. When he’s just standing there, I think they look pretty good, and you can get some pretty nice poses out of him if you’re focusing on the positioning of the wings. On the other hand, putting Falcon into some pretty standard action poses makes the wings look kind of wonky and awkward. I’ll confess, I’m not sure I could have designed a better solution, though, so I’ll defer to Hasbro on this one. All in all it works, most of the time.
Redwing is a nice little sculpted piece with a clip on the bottom so that you can attach him to Falcon’s arm. The bird itself looks great, but I would have preferred the clip be turned 90 degrees. Not only would I prefer that for clipping him to Falcon’s arm, but I think it would have looked more like Redwing’s legs and feet, rather than just a giant ring clip underneath him. I’m nitpicking, I know it. For a little 3 3/4″ scale bird, he’s pretty good.
When all is said and done, I’m quite pleased with the way this figure turned out, but it does still feel like one of the earlier MU figures, rather than one of the more recent waves. Maybe Hasbro had to save some money on the body to cost out the extra plastic for the wings. Either way, it’s not a deal breaker for me. I think he’s well worth picking up as I still consider him to be a fairly iconic character and he looks damn fine on my shelf.
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.
Jan 10 2012

Marvel Universe: Doc Sampson by Hasbro

I got pretty long winded with the last couple Doctor Who features, and I thought I should try to catch my breath before diving into the Doctor Who pool again tomorrow with the first of two new Classic figure sets. So, let’s collectively take a day off from The Good Doctor while at the same time giving me a quick and easy figure to look at today. Doc Sampson should have been really easy to find, but oddly enough I didn’t come across him until I was scooping a bunch of Marvel Universe figures from one of the more recent assortments from off the pegs.

As expected, Doc comes on a standard MU card. The artwork is pretty nice, and I like the green striping used around his name on the bubble. Speaking of bubbles, Doc fills his out pretty nicely as he’s packaged in a nice wide stance with arms out. He also comes with the ubiquitous personalized figure stand.
You might expect Doc Sampson to be one of those really simple MU figures that can get by with a standard buck and some paintwork. Well, you’d be a hundred percent right. Besides his head, belt, and his boots, Doc Sampson uses a generic sculpt with black painted trousers, with red stripes, and a red painted shirt, albeit with his lightning emblem emblazoned across his chest. Keep in mind, I’m not complaining as the figure looks great and the paintwork on mine is nice and clean. The head sculpt is solid if unremarkable apart from his long sculpted green hair.
Doc Sampson also gets by with the somewhat older articulation. You get a ball jointed neck. The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. The legs feature ball jointed hips, double hinged knees and hinged ankles. He’s also got the usual ball joint in his ab. Conspicuously missing is the swivel cut in the thighs, which I happen to miss a lot when it isn’t included.
And there ya go. It’s a quick in and out kind of day today. I like Doc Sampson a lot. He’s a great 3 3/4″ representation of a character that I was anxious to get into my collection. Is he going to blow anyway away? Probably not, but I doubt anyone was really expecting him to.
Jan 3 2012

Marvel Universe: X-23 by Hasbro

It’s sad but true, every now and then a figure you really hotly anticipated turns out to be a disappointment. As is the case with my latest acquisition from Marvel Universe. There’s no doubt that I was really anxious to get X-23 into my collection. Besides just wanting the figure of the character, I was excited to see the much hyped brand new female body for the MU. Now that I have her in my hand, I’m content, but not enthralled, with the final product. Let’s see what happened…

Typical Marvel Universe card, but the character art is just weird. Its kind of a similar artsy-fartsy direction Hasbro took with Doctor Strange, but I don’t think it works as well here. As for the rest of the presentation, little X-23 doesn’t fill up the bubble all that well, even with her arms and claws held outward. She does, however, come with the standard personalized MU figure stand.
On to the figure itself. Now, to be fair, there’s some solid sculpting here. In fact, it starts out pretty great at the top and gets worse the further down you get. But before I get to the sculpt, I want to point out how disappointed I am with the plastic used on this figure. It feels soft and rubbery and a lot more like the subpar materials used for some of the Secret Wars comic pack figures. This is particularly the case with her legs, which required some gentle heating in order to get them straight.
So, from the waist up, I’m pretty happy. The head sculpt is simple but well done. It’s attractive, which is something that tends to be hit-or-miss with Hasbro and their 3 3/4″ ladies. The straight sculpted hair looks great and the paintwork on the mask, red eyes and lips is all expertly applied. I like the way her ab joint separates her painted top and her exposed mid-riff and the way the shoulders of her top are painted on works well. Her arm bracer belts are actually separately sculpted pieces, which is cool and her claws are understandably sculpted in bendy soft plastic so that kids don’t claw their eyes out with them. Ok, so far so good.
Besides the soft plastic, the legs just have preportional issues, and the fault lies in her huge boots. Here’s what happened: Instead of sculpting new legs, Hasbro sculpted a pair of faux, rubbery leg warmers for her made to look like boots and fitted them around her lower legs. The effect just doesn’t work for me and it really interferes with X-23’s otherwise lovely womanly form. Even though her upper legs are matched pretty well with her torso, taking in the whole figure creates the illusion that her top half is way too small for her bottom half. There is some slop in the silver paintwork on her legs, but its nothing worse than we’ve seen on past MU figures, so I’m not going to make a huge issue of it here.

Now in terms of poseability, there’s some great articulation on this figure. You get a ball jointed neck, arms with ball joints in the shoulders and elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs feature ball joints at the hips, double hinged knees, swivel cuts in both the thighs and above the boots, and ball joints in the ankles. The torso is lacking the usual waist swivel, but you do get the ab ball joint, which suits me pretty well.
I do not hate this figure. I don’t even dislike her. In fact, the more I fiddle about with her the more I’m digging her. She’s grown on me enough that I even considered going back and rewriting this whole feature in a more positive light. But in the end, the gripes I had when I tore the package open are still there. The proportions combined with the rubbery plastic was a shock when I got her out of the package and the fact that she was pretty highly hyped among collectors didn’t help to soften the blow. She’s without a doubt a decent pick up and a great addition to my Marvel Universe collection, but I’m very glad I didn’t wind up paying a premium for her.
Dec 27 2011

Marvel Universe: Doctor Strange by Hasbro

Its tough to wrap my mind around some of Hasbro’s choices for their Marvel Universe figures, but it seems to me that at least a couple of times in each Wave they hit a real sweet spot and produce one of the “must have” character on my list. This time around that one is Doctor Strange. I honestly didn’t expect to see him for a while, but the moment I heard he was being released, I knew I had to have him in my collection. I’ve always loved the mixing of magic and technology in both the Marvel and DC Universes. Its probably best fleshed out in the bickering between Tony Stark and Thor, but toss Stephen Strange into the mix, and you’ve got some great stuff.

Doctor Strange comes on your standard MU style card. I was pretty blown away by the character artwork Hasbro went with for this card. It has a grainy, vintage style to it that’s really at odds with the crisp and bright artwork used on just about every other MU card. The lighting effect is really cool and it makes Strange look both mysterious and even just a tad sinister. With his flowing cape, Strange fills out the bubble nicely. There’s no Secret Documents envelope anymore, but you do get the standard issue, personalized figure stand.
I am extremely happy with Hasbro’s sculpt on this figure. The head is just about perfect and the detail paintwork is just as impressive. His goatee, mustache, eyebrows, the grey in his hair, it all looks crisp and expertly applied. I’ve had my share of crummy paint apps on my MU figures, but Hasbro has been gradually improving and Strange’s head is a perfect example of that.

Strange’s body sculpt features a simple blue tunic and black pants. Both of his hands are Spider-Man webslinging hands. Now, granted the configuration kind of works to make it look like he’s casting magic, but its pretty obvious that they are what they are, recycled Spidey hands. The gold sash is sculpted to be blowing away from his body. The best part of the sculpt, is without a doubt the ornate decor on his cloak, which includes the Eye of Agamotto. The detail of the sculpt and the nice gold paintwork really make it stand out nicely.
How about that articulation? Well, Strange’s articulation is plenty solid for a 3 3/4″ figure, but Hasbro is still waffling between the new articulation stylings and the old. That’s what happens when you save money by kitbashing figures. Here’s the breakdown: You get a ball jointed neck; The arms feature ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. The legs feature universal movement at the hips, which is inhibited a bit by the tunic, hinges at the knees, swivel cuts at the top of his boots, and ball joints in the ankles. The torso includes that universal joint below the chest. All in all, not bad. His cape flows a bit away from him, so it doesn’t inhibit movement all that much, but you can easily remove it if you want to get him to maneuver a bit better.
I’ll go ahead and say that Doctor Strange is one of my favorite MU figures to be released in a little while. Sure, it helps that I love the character, but in the end its the way that Hasbro managed to capture him so perfectly that tops him out on my list. He’s colorful, brilliantly sculpted, and if you can’t get past the hands, he feels completely fresh and original. Oh yeah, if you’re a variant hunter, there is a translucent version out there, similar to what Hasbro did with Vision. I’m not a fan of the translucent ones, but if you are… happy hunting!
Dec 24 2011

Marvel Universe: Scarlet Spider by Hasbro

Stopping by with a quickie today thanks to a pile of Marvel Universe figures that I found on the pegs while doing some last minute Christmas shopping at a somewhat distant Super Target. I’m going to kick off a look at this quartet of new(ish) figures with Scarlet Spider. Now, don’t get me started on the Clone Saga. Love it, hate it… like a dead rat in the middle of your living room, its tough to ignore it. I’m firmly entrenched in the “not loving it” camp. And yet, I can’t seem to dislike the outfit in all its cheesy glory. Scarlet Spider may have his origins in the 70s, but this outfit is a jumbled cliche of everything that was wrong with comic character designs of the 90s. And yet somehow it always worked for me.

So, the thinking here was let’s take Spider-Man’s traditional outfit and make it all red. Fair enough. But wait, there’s more. Top it off with a blue sleeveless hoodie (!) with a spider emblazoned on the front and back (!!). Oh yeah. Wait, you can’t have a superhero without superfluous pouches, so let’s put a couple on Scarlet Spidey’s feet, thus inventing the Ankle Pouch(!!!). Toss in a utility belt and we’ll turn his webshooters into heavy silver bracelets. It’s a symphony of ridiculousness, and again for whatever reason I really dig it. It scratches that nostalgic itch in me from when I was going to college in the early 90s and desparately trying to hold onto my youth by reading the comics du jour.

Scarlet Spidey comes on a standard Marvel Universe card. He’s carded upside down similar to the way some previous Spider-Man variants have been packaged. Unfortunately, gone are the days of the Secret Documents envelope. You do at least get a figure stand. The character art is nothing special, but it gets the job done.
Say what you will about Scarlet Spider’s design, Hasbro executes it fairly well here in figure form. All the extras on the costume (the hoodie, the pouches, the webshooters, and the belt) are separate sculpted pieces. I’m guessing this is more about being able to reuse a standard buck, but the new tooling definitely makes the figure look more unique. The sculpted hoodie does lead to one other little problem, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
Scarlet Spider features some crazy articulation for a 3 3/4″ figure, but a little less than we usually expect from the MU line. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, and ankles. Hinges in the elbows and double-hinges in the knees, Swivels in the biceps and thighs. And the torso, well, that hoodie keeps the torso from having any articulation. He can’t even swivel at the waist. I’ll note here that coming out the package, SS’s leg popped off at the hip. Sure, it’s a ball joint and it pops right back on, but I haven’t had that problem with an MU figure before.
                   
When you come down to it, I think Scarlet Spider is going to be one of those love him or hate him figures. I wouldn’t say that MU figures are pegwarming anywhere around my parts, but based on the online prices for him, I’m thinking a lot of fans are choosing to leave him out of their collections, along with Namor. I can’t argue that there are plenty of Marvel characters who should have been included in the line way before SS here, but I’m still glad Hasbro made him, and I think they executed him really well.
Oct 19 2011

Marvel Universe: The Fantastic Four by Hasbro

I really had to fight some inner collector rage to buy this set. I already own the single carded Ben Grimm and I have the Richard Reed from the Secret Wars pack, so really HERBIE and Sue Storm were the only characters here I didn’t already have in my collection. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this was the team in matching uniforms, plus the Richard Reed is a far better figure than the Secret Wars version. I was actually halfway out of TRU when I begrudgingly decided to admit that Hasbro had suckered me out of more money, and go back and pick this set up. In the end, it was probably always going to happen just because I love The Fantastic Four so much.

This is essentially the same assortment class of set as the other MU three-packs that have been on the market. Yeah, HERBIE makes four, and while I don’t want to discard him out of hand, he’s hardly enough to bump this set into a higher tax bracket. The packaging is very nice, with a good-sized window to show off the figures against an background of cosmic rays.
Since Sue is the brand new figure here, let’s look at her first. She’s a standard MU female buck with paintwork used to distinguish her uniform. The uniform looks… dare I say… fantastic. It’s the lighter shade of blue with some nice black piping and the crisp 4 on the front. I’m particularly happy with Sue’s head sculpt and am actually surprised to say its one of the best MU females out there.
Richard Reed is a massive improvement over the Secret Wars version, and I’m not just talking about personal preference in the uniform. He’s taller and his body has a slight elongated look that almost looks like its designed to hint at his rubbery powers. Best of all his head sculpt is completely new. I was never happy with the head sculpt Hasbro gave us for the Secret Wars version, but this one works fine for me. Granted most of the comic pack figures were made on the cheap compared to the single carded figures, but these two still really show how far this line has come since it began.
The Thing is a mix of old and new sculpting from the single carded figure that I already own. From the waist up, there are some subtle differences in the paint job, but the sculpt is otherwise the same. The big difference here is with the legs as this version of Grimm is just sporting a pair of shorts , whereas the single carded has pants and boots. I do prefer the version in this pack, but I am glad that the shade of blue used for the uniforms in this set allow for either of these Thing figures to be displayed.

I’m a little disappointed in the articulation featured here, or at least for the Sue Storm and Richard Reed figures. The Thing is fine and HERBIE has a ball jointed neck, which is honestly more than I expected. Now, certainly Sue and Richard have passable poseability for 3 3/4″ scale figures, but it isn’t up to snuff with the more recent releases in MU or GI JOE. Granted, this is a value pack, so I should probably reign in my expectations and temper my disappointment.
I’m sure a lot of Marvel Universe collectors are on the fence over this one. It’s a shame that we didn’t get the FF released like this in the first place. On the bright side, the set retails for only $20. That’s not a bad deal for three MU figures plus a little bonus. Keep in mind this set also exists as a variant of the team in their brand new, white, FF style outfits, and if I ever stumble upon that one, I guess I’ll be buying it again, especially since it looks like we’re going to be getting a single carded Spider-Man in his FF costume. Cool!
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.
Sep 15 2011

Thor: Sword Spike Thor by Hasbro

Thor came out this week on Blu-Ray, and I had a great time watching it again. It also put the Marvel movie figure buying bug in me and so while I was picking up groceries at Walmart this weekend, I went a little crazy with the Thor and Captain America figures. As much as I loved Thor, I really had no intention of buying the figures, but after watching it again this week, I decided that I should at least have a movie Thor figure in my collection.

If you’ve read any of my features on the Iron Man 2 figures, than you know that I really dig Hasbro’s package designs for their Marvel movie figures. You get a picture of Thor in the upper left corner, an Avengers Assemble emblem in the right hand corner and a big bubble to show off the figure and his accessories. It’s attractive, functional and pretty much everything you could possibly want in a carded 3 3/4″ figure. The back panel shows off the figure’s gimmicks, has a little blurb about the character, and some images of other figures in the line. Not too shabby.
There are plenty of Thor’s on the pegs right now, so which one to choose when you only want to buy one? I chose the one with the least intrusive gimmick. The other Thor figures feature electronics in the hammer and less articulation, whereas Sword Spike Thor may sound like the dumbest idea for a Thor, but it takes all the gimmickry and confines it into one convenient throw-away accessory. Cool!
Back when Thor was in production, I was more than a little worried about what his modern outfit would look like, but in the end I liked his design and this figure really delivers on it well. The headsculpt bears a great likeness to actor Chris Hemsworth with some pretty complex yet precise paintwork. Not something I always expect to see in a Hasbro 3 3/4″ figure these days. I really thought I would have a problem with a Thor not wearing his iconic helmet, but I really don’t miss it that much. The body sculpt is extremely detailed from the scales on his armor sleeves to the scrollwork on his modernized chestplate. His cape is removable as it simply pegs into his back, and by removable I mean it sometimes likes to remove itself and fall off. It’s a little off putting to see Thor not as buffed out as usual, but in terms of the source material, I really have no complaints, the figure turned out great.
Thor’s articulation is great in theory, but stumbles a bit in practice. You get almost all the points we’ve come to expect from Hasbro’s modern 3 3/4″ figure bodies. As always, the neck is ball jointed. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders and elbows and swivels in the wrists. The usual bicep swivel is missing, which irks me a bit. The legs feature ball joints in the thighs, double hinges in the knees, and ball jointed ankles. Thor doesn’t swivel at the waist, but he does have that funky universal ab joint that Hasbro features in all their modern 3 3/4″ figures nowadays. I really have grown to dislike the style of ball joints Hasbro is using for the hips. They’re too difficult to work and don’t give a really effective range of motion.
How about them accessories? Well, it wouldn’t be Thor without Mjolnir, and while the sculpt lacks the scrollwork on the sides of the hammer, it still looks mighty nice. On the other hand, you have the ridiculous transforming sword with the stupid looking extra thick blade that springs open at the press of a button to reveal some kind of blue rod. I dont’ want to beat up on this too bad, because a) It’s for kids, and they might think its cool, and b) considering the scale, I’m sure Hasbro did the best they could with such a smallish accessory. Like I said earlier, I’m happy to toss the sword into the dreaded “Tote of Accessories That I Shall Never Look Upon Again!!!” Mwahahahaha!  At least it doesn’t impact on the figure at all. Oh yeah, no figure stand. Grrrr!
So yeah, toss aside his “Sword Spike” and this Thor is a great figure on just about all levels. I take some issues with his articulation, particularly those awful hip joints, but that’s something that Hasbro needs to work out across most of their modern 3 3/4″ figures. It’s not by any means a dealbreaker, just something that I think could be done better. I was hoping by now these figures would be clearancing themselves out, but I guess Hasbro and retailers were hanging on for dopes like me that suddenly want them after watching the Blu-Ray. He ran me just under eight bucks at Walmart, and hey, considering the sculpt, paint and articulation, that’s a heck of a lot better than the ten bucks I’m paying for Mattel’s Young Justice figures.