Tag Archives: thanos

Feb 15 2021

Marvel Legends: Deluxe Thanos by Hasbro

Hello, fellow Toycoholics! It’s Marvel Monday again, and while I had planned to keep pressing on with the Strong Guy Wave this week, a new version of The Mad Titan arrived and I thought I had better give the big guy priority. In other words, I’m just really excited to open him up! Obviously Thanos needs no introduction, and I believe this is the third comic version of him to hit the modern Marvel Legends line, with the first one being a Build-A-Figure from a wave released around 2015. That figure was later re-issued with some tweaks and extra bits as a Walmart Exclusive Deluxe, and now we get what is essentially a new figure. I skipped out on the second release, because it was so similar to one I already had, but this one looked too good to resist.

The packaging is certainly nice! So nice, I may be tempted to keep it. You get a fairly large window box with The Infinity Gauntlet title plastered on the front, the Infinity Stones spread across the top panel, and some fantastic character art on the back and side panels. There’s even an illustrated cardboard backer behind the tray depicting Thanos’ throne, although there’s so much plastic crammed into this box, it’s hard to make it out until you open it. Since I already reviewed the BAF version of Thanos, I’ll focus on doing some comparisons throughout. So let’s open this baby up, and make it snappy!

So, straightaway, this is a much cleaner and more classic look for Thanos than the previous ones, and I dig that a lot. He’s roughly the same height as the 2015 BAF, but he comes off as being a wee bit chunkier to me, a lot of which has to do with the hands and feet. The body is more rounded and organic than the sharper and more angular buck of the previous release. BAF Thanos looked like he was wearing some kind of cybernetic armor. Here, he’s just got a tunic and body suit, which is a lighter and more vibrant shade of blue. Gone are all those techno bits, and what detail there is consists mostly in his ripped musculature. Here, Thanos is wearing a some beefy and shiny gold boots and gloves, as opposed to the duller wrist bracers and ankle cuffs on BAF Thanos. Instead of the dull techno girdle on the previous release, here he as some gold trim on his tunic, as well as a plain and simple gold belt and a gold stripe running up the middle of his tunic.

Thanos’ golden gorget has a bit of a swirly pattern in the plastic and is sculpted to match the musculature in the buck. It’s more tight fitting around the neck and it stays in place, as opposed to the BAF’s which tended to flop all over the place. I really dig the painted gold straps that run under the arms. In addition to the simpler, cleaner look on this figure, I just can’t say enough things about the coloring on this figure. The lighter blue and the shinier gold really make the figure pop beautifully, like he’s jumping right out of a comic panel, as opposed to the dark blue and dull matte gold on the BAF. This is just an absolutely gorgeous figure!

The head that comes on the figure features a very similar helmet to the older BAF. The ear discs are a little bigger, there are some other minor variations in the brow ridges, but overall they’re a pretty close match. The paint on my figure’s head could be neater, particularly where the gold is concerned. It’s not something that’s too noticeable with the naked eye when and the figure in hand, but it becomes quite apparent in close up shots.  The portrait itself is excellent, with a slightly darker purple skin and plenty of crags and lines in the face. Here, Thanos’ mouth is agape, but he’s still showing plenty of teeth. He’s got a turnip nose, and black pits for eyes with tiny bright blue irises, that almost glow under the right light. Here, I’m a little less inclined to call the newer version an absolute winner, as I still really like the previous portrait. I’ll call it a toss up. If you are after swapping the heads, I find that it’s not a very good fit, but you can probably make it work, more or less.

You also get the optional King Thanos head, which is a pretty cool bonus, but not one that I’m likely to display him with. I really dig the high crown and it looks fantastic when matched with the gold gorget. This future Thanos’ face is a little more craggy and gnarled, and he offers a broad smile with just a narrow slit of teeth visible. The beard is the real showpiece here. The sculpted white hair looks amazing, as it snakes downward toward the middle of his chest. I’d like to pick up a pack of those NECA head stands so I can at least display this noggin beside the figure.

My biggest complaint about the previous BAF Thanos was that it didn’t come with an Infinity Gauntlet, but we get two versions of it with this figure, and that’s awesome! One is sculpted as a grasping hand, and the other is poised to make the snap that was heard around the Universe.

If you can’t tell, I absolutely adore this figure! My initial plan was to take a pass on this Thanos, because my Marvel Legends collection is getting so far out of hand. It takes up more space than almost any other facet of my collection and so I really need to start thinking twice about double-dipping on characters. But I am so damn glad that I took a closer look at the release and decided to buy him. Marvel Legends is one of my favorite action figure lines to collect, so when I say how absolutely delighted I was opening this purple bastard, that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s just that clean and colorful and stunningly iconic look that makes me feel like a kid again and makes me want to bust open some short boxes and start thumbing through my funnybooks. This figure is just a little bit of magic captured in plastic form, and it’s a perfect example of why I love collecting this line so much. I Predict this guy is going to be a resident of my desk for quite a while before he gets moved to the shelf.

Sep 7 2020

Avengers Endgame: Thanos Sixth-Scale Figure by Hot Toys

Since I’m between waves of Marvel Legends, I’m going to divert my attention elsewhere on this Marvel Monday, and shift the spotlight to Hot Toys! Wow, it’s been a while since I reviewed a Hot Toys Marvel figure. I still have a few more Marvel Hot Toys to review, a few on pre-order, but my confidence in the future of the MCU has been waning, and I have a feeling that my days of collecting Hot Toys Marvel may be drawing to a close. It makes me a little sad, but my wallet very happy. Speaking of which, let’s take a look at The Mad Titan himself, who recently snapped his fingers and made half my toy budget for the month disappear! I passed on Hot Toys Thanos twice before. The Guardians of the Galaxy version with the throne looked great, but it was also a little small and I didn’t have the scratch for it back then. It was a shame because it’s the only Hot Toys release from that film that I didn’t buy. Next came the Infinity War version, and that was an easy pass because his costume was just so boring that I couldn’t justify the price tag. This armored up Endgame one was obviously the one I was waiting for!

Big Boi’s come in Big Boxes! If you’ve been with me for some previous Hot Toys reviews, you may know that I don’t think much of their packaging. They usually have pretty artwork, but the cardboard is super flimsy and they’re little more than window boxes with sleeves around them. I just think the price I’m paying warrants something a little more impressive. Hell, I don’t even keep most of these boxes anymore, because they take up too much space for what they are. That’s pretty much true for Thanos here, but I will admit the size itself is impressive! Thankfully, Thanos comes out of the box with most of his armor on and pretty much ready to go!

And here he is looking absolutely superb! Thanos not only towers above my other Hot Toys (well, except for The Hulk), but he’s also a hefty mo-fo with a lot of girth. Everything about this guy feels substantial. The figure depicts past Thanos who followed The Avengers back to future Earth in full battle gear. Yes, this could also pass for Thanos in the very beginning of Infinity War, and I’ll come back to that idea eventually. Hot Toys did a beautiful job on his armor, which is comprised of golden plastic plates over more flexible and textured black plastic. I was happy to see that it’s not sculpted as part of the figure itself, but an actual suit. I’m not sure if they did this to reuse the previous Thanos body, or just to be awesome, but it adds so much to the figure’s complexity. He even has cloth pants under his leg armor. The gold plate pieces are exquisitely painted, giving off a look that is so convincing, it’s almost surprising to touch it and feel that it’s just lightweight plastic. These pieces feature some panel lines, as well as a number of nicks and scrapes acquired in past battles, giving the suit a very lived in look. There are also some tarnished spots in the paint to make it look well weathered. Hot Toys didn’t go too nuts with these effects, as they sure wanted to sell a proper battle damaged version of this figure too, but what’s here is just enough to make it look like the armor has been well used. I also really dig the copper colored pieces on his chest, just to mix things up a bit.

Despite being worn, the bulk of the armor is permanently attached to the figure, but the right arm bracer can come off. The left can’t, but more on that later. The bicep pieces are held on by the straps and friction and they stay in place quite well. There’s a decent amount of clearance in the shoulders, so the arms can be posed without me being too worried about scraping or breaking these pieces. But as with most Hot Toys, you just don’t want to try to get the arms raised much higher than the shoulders. The arms are covered with a rubbery skin, quite similar to what we saw on The Hulk. It looks great, but I’m not terribly keen on how the skin folds at the elbows when the arms are flexed. It just looks a bit too much like what it is, rubber covering an articualted arm. I think I might have preferred that they went with regular exposed elbow joints here. Then again, if he’s in a pose with his arms fairly straight, it does look much better with the seamless joints. It’s a compromise. And while on the subject of articulation, I’ll give credit to the ratcheting joints they designed for him. This is a hefty figure, but he has no troubles standing on his own and his joints tend to stay where you put them. You can use Thanos’ joints to tweak some cool poses, but nothing too extreme. Of course, that’s usually the case for most Hot Toys.

I’m not sure if the regular portrait is recycled from the Infinity War figure, but whatever the case, it’s everything I would expect from Hot Toys these days. Seeing as how they have all but perfected capturing actor likenesses with remarkable realism, a CG version of Josh Brolin is probably no great shakes for them. Still, I don’t want to take away from how amazing it turned out. The purple skin tone looks great and matches the arms perfectly. If you get in really close you can make out all sorts of little creases and natural looking textures in the skin. His well-defined facial features are recreated flawlessly here as is his giant ball sack of a chin. The deep set eyes also have that wonderful spark of life that only the best paint in the industry can convey. Of course, you do get the visible jointing between the head and neck, but it’s mostly apparent when the portrait is viewed from the back or side, and it’s to be expected. The head is attached via a balljoint, and it is easily popped off to swap it out with the second portrait.

Here we have angry and defiant Thanos, and it is a powerful portrait indeed. Thanos bears his titanic teeth in a grimace of rage. I often imagine that it’s far more difficult to convey emotion in these portraits, but you wouldn’t know it from how well this turned out. The sculpting and paint on his teeth is truly amazing. It’s going to be a tough call to decide which portrait to display on the figure regularly. Chances are it will be the first, but only because I plan on displaying him in a fairly neutral position. Nevertheless, I’ll likely be changing it up fairly often. Hot Toys really needs to follow in the path of NECA Toys and release some kind of display method for extra heads. I usually just wind up resting them on the display stands.

Thanos also comes with his helmet, which fits easily onto either portrait. I was very afraid that this was going to be a tight fit and would risk damaging the paint every time I wanted to put it on or remove it, but I’m happy to say that’s not the case. It looks like a form-fitting piece, but it doesn’t feel like it’s rubbing much when it goes on. Heck, it fits so well that I could be convinced it was part of the head sculpt if I didn’t know better. Once again, the gold paint here is exquisite and the weathering is especially well done, with lots of little scrapes and some pitting. The helmet presents another dilemma on whether to display with it on or not. Right now, I have the figure holding the helmet in his left hand. And that brings me to hands!

You can’t buy a Hot Toys figure and not expect to get a bunch of hands. Thanos comes with no less than four sets. You get fists, relaxed hands, graspy hands, and accessory holding hands. These attach via some pretty chunky ball joints, and they are a real breeze to get on and off. I have my share of Hot Toys figures that don’t get their hands changed out often because they are difficult to get off, or I’m afraid I’m going to snap the wrist pegs, but the benefit of having a big figure like this is the hands are a lot easier to work with. The fists work really well with the more expressive portrait.

Thanos’ big accessory is his double-bladed sword, and it is indeed an intimidating weapon! When held vertically it’s taller than the figure and Hot Toys did a great job with this design. The blades have deeply etched designs on the flats of the blade and if you look really closely you can not only see a faint damascus pattern in the blade, but also the marks on the edges where it has been sharpened. That level of detail really blows me away.

As amazing as the sword looks, it’s rather deceptive when picked up, mainly because it’s so incredibly light. I really feel like they should have done something to beef this up a big, particularly with how tight the grip is. Maybe they could have made the the framing pieces on the backs of the blades die-cast. Unlike everything else about this figure, I felt like I needed to be super cautious when putting the sword into his hand. Indeed, I’ll likely leave the hand attached to the sword from now on. It feels like a good idea would have been to have the sword split apart in the middle of the grip, so you could pass one end through the top of his hand and the other through the bottom and peg them together.

The last accessory included in the box is the Infinity Gauntlet, which is something of an anachronism, since this version of Thanos never had it. Nonetheless, Hot Toys had it made for the Infinity War Thanos, and it’s cool that they threw it into the box here, as it can transform this version of Thanos into the one from the beginning of Infinity War, so long as you’re willing to overlook the fact that all the Infinity Stones are present. Accurate or not, I will be displaying him with the Gauntlet, just because it looks so damn cool. This piece is attached by pulling the left arm off at the joint where the bracer starts and plugging in the Gauntlet. Like everything with this figure, it goes on easy-peasy. There is a light up feature included, but it’s disappointingly dim. Maybe the batteries I got aren’t at full strength, but it really wasn’t worth the effort of showing it off. In addition to rotating at the arm, the gauntlet has a ball joint at the wrist, which also allows you to pull off the fist and replace it with an articulated Gauntlet.

The articulation here includes double hings in the fingers and a rotation in the thumb. It’s not quite good enough to get his fingers into a snapping position, but I like the added articulation a lot. In the case of both Gauntlets, the gold finish is quite luxurious and it’s given a deeper and richer finish than the armor, making it look newer. The sculpted details look great, as do the individual Stones. And since the electronics are in the lower portion of the Gauntlet, the articulated hand shares the same light up feature as the fist.

Finally, Thanos comes with a figure stand, which is similar to the regular Hot Toys bases, only a lot bigger. And yet it feels like it’s not quite big enough. In a moderate stance, Thanos’ feet hang over the edges of the stand. But it still works just fine. The base has a colorful image of the Avengers logo disappearing into dust and the logo proper closer to the front. The base has a nameplate on the front as well. I like the way it looks a lot, but I’m a little surprised they didn’t go for some kind of diorama base like they did for The Hulk.

Sometimes patience pays off and that was certainly the case here. I really wanted a Hot Toys Thanos in my collection, but the Infinity War outfit just didn’t do anything for me, especially not at such a titanic price. This guy, however checks all the boxes. He’s huge and imposing and he comes all decked out in his battle gear. Plus, the inclusion of the Infinity Gauntlet was a wonderful bonus. He’s a commanding presence on my shelf, and I had to rework a whole bunch of my Hot Toys collection to find room for him. Still, he was worth the effort, as well as the $415 price tag! With the exception of the Marvel Hot Toys that I have on pre-order, this could very well be the last MCU figure I purchase, so it was pretty cool that it was such a great figure!