Tag Archives: thor

Jul 27 2013

Avengers: Thor Movie Masterpiece 1:6 Scale Figure by Hot Toys

While I am most certainly not going for an entire set of Hot Toys Avengers, (sadly, my wallet won that fight) I have been cherry picking the characters I want the most. I kicked myself for not picking up the first Hot Toys Thor, but as was the case with Black Widow, sometimes taking a pass on a first effort pays off later. The Avengers Thor is said to be a huge improvement over the initial release and looking at photos of the figure online finally wore me down to the point where I threw him on Flex Pay. Four months later and the God of Thunder has shown up at my doorstep. I often do these figures in two parts, but Thor is a pretty simple, albeit spectacular, figure so I think I can probably do him justice in just one shot.

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The packaging is designed to mesh with all the Hot Toys Avengers. You get a sleeve with a B&W shot of the character’s portrait and “The Avengers” in foil lettering. The top of the box has Thor’s name in big type and the sides have his Mjolnir symbol.  Pull the sleeve off and you reveal a window box showing off the goods. It’s a very basic presentation compared to some of Hot Toys’ previous efforts. I suppose it’s fair to expect a lot of bells and whistles in the packaging for a $200 figure, but honestly the simplicity doesn’t bother me a whole hell of a lot. Besides, the $200 price point is pretty much Hot Toys’ new bottom line. Sure, I do keep the boxes for these figures, but mainly as a means of storing the extra parts and in case I ever need to put the entire figure away at some point down the road. At the very least, your Avengers boxes will look nice and uniform on the shelf if you are collecting the whole line.

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The layout of the figure in the tray should be readily familiar to anyone who has picked up one of Hot Toys products before. The figure comes partially wrapped in plastic with the extra hands and accessories flanking him on both sides. In this case, the cape is passed through a slit in the tray, which seemed to do a nice job keeping it from getting all rumpled. The personalized figure stand is placed between the legs. Everything fits into the tray snugly. It’s a good economy of space without making everything seemed cramped.

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While Thor’s appearance varied a bit throughout The Avengers, Hot Toys recreated him in his full sleeved armor. I think that was a good choice because I absolutely love the scale armor turned out for the sleeves. It’s rubbery and looks dead on to the movie outfit. They also hide the joints, which would have been the big downside of a bare armed version. I suppose you could take the sleeves off if you wanted, but I tend to follow this rule about futzing too much with my $200 figures: I don’t do it. The arms also feature bracers on his wrists, which are strapped around bright red cloth sleeves. Yes, the rubbery sleeves do inhibit the arm movement, but not much more than First Avenger Cap’s uniform shoulders did. Sure, it would be nice to pose him with Mjolnir above his head calling down the thunder, but I knew that was an issue going in, so it wasn’t really surprising or disappointing. Articulation whores will certainly take issue at this, but I think the trade off was a worthy one.

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The chest armor looks outstanding. It’s sculpted with cutouts to show the garment underneath, giving the outfit a very convincing and layered look. I am a big fan of the armor design from the movie and it’s captured really well here. The pleather trousers have stitched stripes and the boots are actually two parts. You get the ball jointed feet plugged into the ankles and the top of the boot is separate. It still looks great and serves to offer a little more poseability in the ankles than stiff boots would have allowed. The trade off is that the ankle joints require you to fiddle about a bit to get him to stand in some positions. And then there’s the cape… by Odin’s beard, I love the cape! It’s bright red fabric and the way it hangs over the shoulder armor gives it that iconic hovering look that we’re so used to seeing in Thor’s design. The back of it is tailored to hang in folded layers. I was a little concerned that the cape was going to require a whole lot of adjusting to make it look right, but it’s designed to look fine right out of the box.

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Thor’s portrait has come a long way since HT first showed him off. Early shots were a bit spotty but the final product turned out just fine and I think the likeness to Chris Hemsworth is up to their usual impeccable standards. Yes, from certain angles the mouth can look a bit derpy, but let’s face it Thor isn’t necessarily the braintrust of The Avengers team. The hair is the only minor issue I have with the figure and that’s just because sculpted hair this long tends to take away from the realism of the rest of the head sculpt. But when you consider the alternative is rooted, I’ll take the lesser of two evils. The truth is it still looks fine and it’s flexible enough so as not to inhibit the head movement too much.

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If you’re looking for an abundance of accessories, Thor will disappoint. You get a copious amount of hands (more on that in a bit)  and just two other items. But seriously, what does Thor need other than Mjolnir? It’s the one thing that was absolutely required to come with the figure and it is indeed a very nice piece. I knew the head was going to be die cast metal, but I was still surprised by how satisfyingly heavy it is. The grip on the handle is sculpted and painted and there’s a lanyard attached to the end.

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The other cool piece is the Cosmic Cube in the containment tube. Ha! That rhymes! Like Mjolnir, this is an extremely nicely crafted accessory. It’s also one that was really not necessary and so it makes for a great bonus. I had originally though this accessory came with Loki and not with Thor. Maybe it was issued with both figures, and I just missed that.

And no discussion of a Hot Toys figure would be complete without… HANDS! Seriously, does anyone actually use all these hands? Thor comes boxed with a pair of fists, but there are three additional pairs, which include two open hands, two partially open hands, two hands for holding Mjolnir. You also get an extra left hand, which seems to be designed for holding Mjolnir out at an angle. I’m not sure what that one is all about. It might be the one designed to hold half the containment tube so that Loki can hold the other. I’m not big on swapping hands. Obviously the right Mjolnir hand will stay put. The left one may vary between a fist and the open hand. You also get a couple of extra wrist posts in case you snap the ones on the figure by swapping out all these hands.

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No doubt about it, Thor is another amazing effort from Hot Toys. I always have those little twinges of trepidation when ordering these things, but whenever they show up I’m always glad I did. He looks amazing on my shelf, and I really envy the collectors that are putting together this entire team because those displays are going to be EPIC! Granted, at $200 Thor ain’t cheap. He doesn’t come with a lot of stuff, but there’s nothing conspicuously absent either. Like I said earlier, $200 is the new bottom line for Hot Toys and for the most part, the days of the $160 figures are probably over. But hell, I still think he’s well worth it. The only downside is that now I’m seriously re-considering whether I need Loki on my shelf… and he is still available at a few retailers.

Jan 3 2013

FigureFan’s Disappointments of 2012, Part 1

Ok, we’ve seen my favorites, and now it’s time to check out the turds floating in last year’s punchbowl. Again, this was tough, because I try to avoid buying things that look like they will be crap. So maybe the word turd is a little harsh in some cases. Almost nothing on this list is total crap, but everything here definitely disappointed me in some way.

TMNT Classics: Donatello by Playmates… The Classic Turtles are great figures, but they got upstaged on my “Favorites List” by the smaller modern guys in a major way. Nonetheless, Donatello represents here for one reason and one reason only, because of his mad eyes. Ok, I suppose that’s two reasons. The point is that by giving him wonky eyes, Playmates not only ruined the figure, but seriously marred the entire set. How can anyone appreciate their team of turtles on the shelf when Donny is standing there in the back looking like he got kicked in the head one too many times. It’s a crazy example of how one brush stroke can mar an otherwise excellent toy.

DC Universe All Stars: Superboy Prime… Besides turning out as a terrible looking figure, Superboy Prime earns Mattel a Disappointment Award for doing the bait-and-switch. The final product saw major changes from the pre-release images, and while that is bound to happen from time to time, the changes here made a great looking promo figure turn into a terrible release. Even worse, with hardly any brick-and-mortar stores actually carrying the DCU All Stars, I had to buy the figure online, so my disappointment wasn’t realized until I got the thing in hand and it was too late. It’s not often that I can say I regret buying a DCUC figure, but I certainly regret picking up Superboy Prime.

Marvel Legends: Extremis Iron Man… Because I only allowed each toyline to appear once in each list, this slot was a tight race between Extremis Iron Man and Future Foundation Spider-Man. In fairness, on its own this Iron Man is a fairly competent figure, but as soon as you put him up against some of the other figures in Hasbro’s new Marvel Legends line he comes up wanting. He’s too small, not terribly well articulated, and overall underwhelming. I kind of get the feeling that he was just here to fill a slot in a quick and dirty manner (that’s what she said?). And to keep the comparisons rolling, his paint and sculpting don’t even live up to many of the older, smaller and cheaper 3 ¾” Iron Man 2 figures. At least Hasbro released him in two versions, so that the crappy Stealth variant would make the regular one look better.

Duke Nukem by NECA… You’ve got to hand it to NECA, in an effort to be as accurate to the game as possible; they obviously wanted to capture the disappointment of Duke Nukem Forever in action figure form. And they did! NECA’s Duke features a solid enough sculpt, but the articulation is downright weird and the paintwork, particularly on the flesh tones, leaves a lot to be desired. And then there are the accessories. Sure, kudos for the cigar, which I promptly lost, but how can Duke come with just a handgun? Where’s his arsenal? And, no, the fact that he has feet doesn’t count as a “Mighty Boot” accessory. Duke should have come with a cool assortment of weapons, instead all he came with was disappointment.

Avengers: “Sword Spike” Thor… While most of Hasbro’s 3 ¾” Avengers figures were disappointments, this version of Thor earns a place on this list because he represented the ultimate in toy company hubris and laziness. Hasbro took what was essentially the exact same figure from the previous year, cut out most of its articulation, gave him a new shitty weapon and put him on an Avengers card. They even kept the same name, which in the new context made no sense because he now came with a halberd and not a sword. To add insult to injury, a lot of stores had this figure hanging just a few pegs away from the better articulated Thor-branded figure… on clearance! It’s the retail equivalent of Hasbro unzipping their pants, pulling out their Mjolnir and slapping us in the face with it.
Ok, that’s enough disappointment for one day. I’m going to take some Topamax and gin to level out my mood and I’ll be back tomorrow with the final five.

Apr 22 2012

Avengers: “Sword Spike” Thor by Hasbro

[Sure, I’ve been taking Sundays off lately, but this week I decided to press on with my look at the three Avengers figures I picked up this week. They’re nothing special, so I didn’t want to drag it out. Today will be Thor and then I’ll wrap it up tomorrow with Cap. That will also push this week’s MASK edition of Vintage Vault back to Tuesday. -FF]

Our second forray into Hasbro’s new 3 3/4″ Avengers figures brings us to the Lord of Asgard himself, Thor. This is another one of those “Concept Series” figures, since they seem to be the only kind I can find, and I’m still not entirely sure what the “concept” angle is all about, since ALL the figures come with those ridiculous weapons. Anyway, enough preamble, let’s see what we’ve got…
There’s the package and looking at it I find myself getting a sense of deja vous because… wait… didn’t I… yes, I did… I looked at a figure called“Sword Spike” Thor back when the Thor movie figures were out. In fact, that one was the only movie Thor figure I wound up buying. Talk about double dipping… shame on you Hasbro! The packaging is pretty much identical to the one we saw with Iron Man. The big difference is an insert in the bubble with a shot of the figure, but no “Try Me” hole on this one.
This version of Thor is essentially the exact same figure as the movie “Sword Spike” Thor only with less articulation, a sculpted helmet, and a permanently attached cape. There are some very minor coloring differences, for example the cape is brighter, but for all intents and purposes it is the same sculpt from the neck down. That having been said, it is still a great looking figure. There’s a lot of cool detail sculpted into his chest armor and even the little scales in his chainmail. The headsculpt is quite a good resemblance and I do like finally having a helmeted movie version of Thor, since I passed on the ones that came out previously. I am rather glad that Hasbro permanently attached his cape this time, as my movie Thor figure’s cape does not want to stay on for love or money. Most of the paintwork on this figure is fine, but there is some really sloppy red paintwork on the legs.
Articulation is almost the same as we saw on “Heavy Artillery” Iron Man. You get a ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders and hips. Hinges in the elbows and knees. In case you missed it, the big difference is that Thor only has hinges in the knees, rather than ball joints.
So, let’s look at “Sword Spike” Thor’s big weapon. Obviously its a… hey, wait a minute. There isn’t a sword anywhere in this package. Nope, just as you would not expect from the name, “Sword Spike” Thor comes with a big battle axe. As far as big stupid weapons go, this one isn’t all bad. I do kind of dig the gold, engraved axe head. Too bad it looks like its attached to a harpoon gun. There is a missile that shoots out of the top, which the package calls a “Launching Battle Spike” so at least there’s a spike in there somewhere, even if there is no sword. This version of Thor also comes with Mjolnir, which is essentially the same sculpt used for the movie figures.
Once again, this figure looks great, displays well, and he’s fun to play around with. The hobbled articulation at least adds a certain stability to the figure, but most collectors aren’t going to find that a worthy trade off. But here’s the real problem: If you’re holding this figure in your hand at the store, chances are  you can walk a couple of feet and find the same figure with better articulation on clearance from the Thor movie. And even if they aren’t on clearance, you’d still be getting the same figure with better articulation at the same price. This is the very reason why I wish Hasbro had varied the initial wave more. I’m very afraid that these figures are going to choke up the pegs and prevent us from getting movie versions of Hawkeye, Black Widow and Nick Fury. And even with that worry, I can’t recommend anyone run out and buy this one.
Mar 4 2012

Marvel Legends: Thor by Hasbro

I’ve got a double feature today, so I’d best get cracking. I’m starting off today with the last packaged figure in the initial wave of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends lineup. Its Thor! Thor has had no shortage of figures produced off him this past year so does this one stack up? Does it stand out? Are we all Thor’ed out? Let’s see…

Package shot… oh, hell, after a week of the same packages over and over, I’m spent. I’ve said all I’m going to say about it. The character art is ok, but everything else looks great. Thor also fills the bubble nicely even without the BAF piece. In fact…
Holy hell, this is one big, meaty hunk of plastic! Thor is not only big, he’s big enough to have been a BAF figure all by himself. In terms of pure bulk, he’s probably a smidge bigger than Terrax himself. And the sculpt? Oh, the sculpt! Those of you who saw or even picked up this figure when it was first offered at SDCC last year will not be surprised, but I was completely taken aback at just what an amazing looking figure this is. There’s a ton of detailwork in Thor’s armor, particularly all the checkering in his arms and legs. The sculpt is really well done, too, as it doesn’t hang down far enough to destablize him or to inhibit his articulation. It just blows a bit off to the side so that it looks good, but doesn’t interfere with the figure.
Once again, I have to give kudos to the team doing the head sculpts, because Thor’s noggin looks fantastic. I love the iconic winged helmet, the hair, and the stern but noble visage on his face. Beautiful!

Thor features solid articulation. You get a ball jointed neck, although the sculpted hair does inhibit his head movement, leaving it mostly just turning side to side. That extra hinge that Steve Rogers had would have been really great here. His arms feature ball joints at the shoulders and elbows, swivels in the biceps, and the wrists have swivels and hinges. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, feature double-hinges in the knees, and his ankles have swivels and hinges. Lastly, you get a ball joint in the torso.
Thor comes with just one accessory. Can you guess what it is? Sure, its Mjolnir. This is one of the better scaled versions of the mighty hammer at least in proportion to the figure. Its a good sculpt too right down to the weathering on the head and the leather wrapping on the handle.
No doubt about it, Thor ranks in as one of my favorite figures in this assortment. In fact, I’ll go ahead and say he’s tied with Steve Rogers as being my favorite. This is just a fine example of an action figure perfectly embodying everything about a character and its about as iconic as they come. I have no qualms with Hasbro releasing figures based on the movie version of Thor, lord knows I have a bunch of them, but its awesome to see them releasing so perfect a comic version on the eve of Avengers movie madness. If you’re going to buy only one of the figures in this wave… well, you’re going to miss out on a some great figures… but if so, I’d make it this Thor. He’s amazing.

I’ll be back later today to take a look at Terrax!
Jan 30 2012

Thor: 6-inch Movie Thor by Hasbro

I have mixed feelings about the Marvel Legends line coming back this year, but one of the good things about it will be once again having Marvel figures in scale (more or less) with my DC Universe Classics figures. And therein lies the appeal of some of the movie-style 6-inch figures that Hasbro has been putting out as Walmart Exclusives, as well as the Toys R Us Exclusive 6-inch Iron Man figures. I actually had no idea the Thor and Captain America 6-inchers even existed until recently, but that’s to be expected since the Walmart here doesn’t sell their own exclusives! Seriously, Hasbro, is it asking too much that you award your Exclusives to retailers that will actually have your product on their planograms?

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The packaging looks like Hank Pym took the regular 3 3/4-inch Thor movie line package and blew it up using his Pym Particles. The card art is pretty cool with Thor gazing out in the upper right hand corner and the “Avengers Assemble!” emblem across from it. The bubble takes up a big part of the cardback, and rightly so since Thor is a pretty big figure and between his cape and hammer, he fills it out pretty nicely. The bubble features the “Only at Walmart” sticker, which probably should say “Only at Some Other Walmart, but not here!” to be more accurate.
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Out of the package, Thor is one good sized hunk of figure. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the sculpt, particularly where his costume is concerned. I like the look of his movie armor and this figure captures it really well, right down to the little details in his chainmail arm armor and even some little slashes in his legs. The cape even has that cool hovering effect as it comes off his shoulders. The 3 3/4-inch movie Thor that I own has a serious issue with the cape falling off when you so much as look at the figure. Hasbro went to the extreme other direction here by making the cape a permanent fixture on the figure, which causes other problems down the road. The head sculpt isn’t bad, but it’s not quite the leap from 3 3/4 to 6-inch that it should have been. I do, however, like the fact that he’s wearing his helmet, as it gives him more of an iconic look.
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The articulation is pretty close to what we got on the smaller figures. You have a ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders and hips, double hinges in the knees and elbows, hinged ankles, and swivels in the biceps, wrists, and thighs. Thor also has a ball joint in his torso. It all sounds good, but there’s a couple of problems here. First off, his hip joints are terrible because you really can’t position them in a way that gives you a lot of upper leg movement. Seriously, Hasbro, you need to stop it with this hip design, it sucks. Secondly, that permanent cape really hinders any leg articulation you do have. What you’re left with is a figure that has plenty of articulation on paper, but practically speaking, this guy is more like a statue with great arm articulation. I could barely get him into enough poses to warrant taking more than a couple pictures.

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Thor comes with his trusty hammer, Mjolnir, which is a nice piece, but is actually missing some of the sculpted runes on the smaller figure’s version. He also has a bit of difficulty holding it just right. You’ll notice that Thor’s left hand is in a circle grip, but that’s actually because this arm is shared between this Thor and Lord of Asgard Thor, which comes with a battle axe for his off-hand. His right hand grip is sculpted a lot looser and while he can cetainly hold Mjolnir, it usually wants to slide down or out of his hand.
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I think 6-inch Thor is a decent looking figure, but he certainly comes up disappointing in other areas. He does, however, fit in pretty well with the DCUC figures, which is pretty cool if I ever want to have him team up with Wonder Woman against Ares. I picked him up online for $16 shipped. He’s certainly worth that, but I’m hoping to have better luck with Hasbro’s 6-inch movie Captain America, which, coinicidentally, we’ll be checking out tomorrow!
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.
Jan 15 2011

Marvel Secret Wars Comic Pack #11: Thor and Enchantress by Hasbro

Slowly but surely, I’m finishing off my collection of Hasbro’s Secret Wars comic packs. I think I only have two more to go after this one. Lord knows some of these packs got a little random with the figure assortments, but number eleven is a pretty straight shooting Thor theme, which also allows you to add an excellent villain to your Marvel Universe rogues gallery. Let’s take a look.

As always, I love the packaging here. In this case, you can’t see much of the comic cover, but the artwork on the bubble insert sure is nice. This pack includes the penultimate issue of the Secret Wars series, which builds up to quite the cliffhanger, but other then that doesn’t feature a whole hell of a lot of action.

The Thor figure is a nice pick up, as he’s only been released as his modern design in the Marvel Universe line and this is his more classic and iconic look. Of course, with the Thor movie’s release right around the corner, I’m willing to bet there will be a newer and better sculpt of classic Thor released, assuming Hasbro keeps with tradition and includes “comic series” figures in with the movie toys. Nevertheless, this comic pack version of Thor is a pretty solid sculpt and doesn’t really suffer from any of the quality control issues that have nagged some of the comic pack figures. I’m not 100 percent satisfied with the head sculpt, and the way his cape seems to levitate off his shoulders is a little odd, but other than that I’m pretty happy here. Mjolnir even has the tiny inscription on the side, which is pretty damn amazing.

On the flipside you have The Enchantress, and if you’ve been keeping up with The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, then you’ve seen a fair deal of her lately. I honestly avoided picking up this set because I’ve read some rather unfavorable reviews of this figure, but having her in hand, I have to say I think she turned out quite good. The head sculpt is nice and the paint apps are relatively clean. The only thing I’m going to complain about here is the odd way her waist joins with her hips. It just looks awkward. Still, all in all I’m very satisfied with her figure. Granted, Enchantress is just as likely to get a comic style release as part of the new Thor movie toys, so you may want to wait to see what’s coming.

Secret Wars pack #11 is a nice score, especially for Thor fans who just can’t wait until the movie figures start turning up, which based on early photos are looking really amazing. While the Secret Wars comic packs are fast disappearing from the shelves, you may still be able to grab some of these straggling on the pegs at your local toy aisle. I found this one for $12.99, which is a pretty solid deal for two great figures and a comic book.

Nov 4 2010

Marvel Universe: Thor (Modern Version) by Hasbro

I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge fan of Thor. It may have to do with the old cartoon they used to run when I was a kid, with that corny opening theme song. I’m pretty sure it scarred me deep down inside. At the same time, I’ve enjoyed many of his comic appearances, and I am finally starting to look forward to the upcoming movie as we continue to strike our path toward the Avengers film. I’m not sure yet whether I’ll be picking up many of Thor’s movie figures, but I do know that I’m very happy to have this Thor figure that Hasbro released in the MU series.

Yep, same packaging. Even as someone who doesn’t care a whole lot about Thor, I gotta say I love the artwork. Thor’s a pretty meaty figure and between him and his cape he takes up most of the bubble. I love the way his hammer, Mjolnir, is so prominantly mounted right beside his head.

Thor is definitely up there as being of the most detailed and complex sculpts in the MU series thus far. Every tiny bit of this figure is brimming with loving attention to detail. His hauberk shows wrinkles, his chainmail is comprised of a sculpted checkered pattern. His soft plastic cape is actually fastened by two of the huge rivets on his chest, while brown belts and straps crisscross his boots, waist and chest. The headsculpt is pretty good, although his nose seems a little too flat and broad for a perfect likeness, but his long blonde hair is reproduced in soft plastic as are the feathered wings on his helmet.

As good as the sculpt is, there’s also a lot of paintwork to back it up. Thor’s hauberk and boots appear to be a gunmetal blue with some black mixed in. The chainmail is matte silver as are the rivets in his hauberk and his helm. It might have been cool to see a high gloss, metallic silver on these parts, but the more rustic matte silver has its own charms. His belts are brown and his cape is a deep maroon. There’s also very little slop or bleeding on the paintwork.

Thor comes with a figure stand, profile card and Top Secret document. He also comes with his trusty hammer, Mjolnir, of course. The sculpt on the hammer is every bit as good as the figure. The head of the hammer is pitted and worn and the handle is sculpted with braided straps, ending in a lanyard.

Articulation? Oh yeah. You get a ball jointed neck. The arms have ball joints in the shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists and hinged elbows. The legs have ball joints in the hips, swivels in the thighs, double hinged knees and hinges and swivels in the ankles. Thor also has a ball joint in the torso and a swivel in the waist. That’s a total of 21 points of articulation. Unfortunately, the figure is a bit top heavy and he has a habit of toppling over even when he’s plugged into his stand.

Hey, even if you’re like me and a little lukewarm on Thor, it’s still hard to deny this is a really great figure all around. Besides, which, he’s essential to building your Avengers team, so you might as well get him anyway. He’s not terribly uncommon on the pegs, at least not in my area where MU figures tend to be rare finds. In fact, he’s one of the very few MU figures that I was able to track down in a store when I was looking for him, rather than have to go the online ordering route.