Captain Marvel (Marvel Legends Infinite: Allfather Wave)

Captain Marvel

Series: Marvel Legends 

Company: Hasbro

Year: 2015

BACKGROUND

No, not that Captain Marvel. Rather, my Marvel Comics kick continues with yet another character I really know very little about.

In spite of sharing a name with the company the character is from, Captain Marvel is actually fairly C-list – the original iteration was probably best known as the superhero who died and actually stayed dead for more than 5 minutes. But the last couple of years there’s been a bit more emphasis on promoting the current Captain Marvel – Carol Danvers, who’s previously spent most of her career as Ms Marvel, and will apparently be getting her own film in 2018.

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

Captain Marvel is the swap figure for Scarlet Witch as part of this wave – both of them are released in identical boxes, which have been bestowed with the name “Maidens of Might”. Apparently the original concept behind these swap figures was that they would be more or less the same figure, with a few key details (like the head or paint) different. However, these two figures look to share barely any (if any) pieces between them at all. I think the hips, thighs and knees are the same, but that looks to be about it.

Sculpted with short hair, Carol has been sculpted with a sassy expression, much more Anglo-American -looking in comparison to the Eastern European Scarlet Witch. Her body looks fairly generic, with no sculpted details, aside from her sash. She's fit, with a few curves thrown in here and there. Not overly muscular – with the exception of the thighs, which look just a shade too large in comparison to everything else, to my eye. Realistically, you could probably use it for a lot of different female characters and people would say “yeah, that looks about right”. Such is the nature of parts re-use in modern toymaking. However, this shouldn’t be taken as a negative; it looks perfectly fine and doesn’t enter into the outrageous objectification that often affects women in comics.  

She’s got the following articulation:

*ball-jointed neck

*swivel-hinged shoulders

*swivel biceps

*ball-jointed torso

*swivel-hinged elbows

*swivel-hinged wrists

*ball-jointed hips

*cut thighs

*double-hinged knees

*rocker ankles

No waist joint, but this isn’t a bad thing; it would have broken the sculpt and made it look quite ugly. The shoulders were quite stiff; this is at least in part due to the relatively thick paint on them. Additionally, the ankles don’t really move from back and forth; just side to side. I suspect, though I can’t be certain that is because the feet are new and haven’t gelled properly with the existing calf/ankle piece.

She’s got flat feet, rather than heels like Wanda, but her centre of gravity is a little funny so it was still quite tricky to get her to stand. You’ll be able to do it with a bit of work, but it was a little annoying nonetheless.  

PAINT

There are some impressive little details on Carol, but they’re not immediately obvious at first glance. She’s been given buttons on the forearms of her gloves, as well as the “star and stripes” design on her chest. The stripes carry over to her shoulders, where the paint gets a little thick, though still looks good on the whole. Also, both her hairpieces look great, thanks to the wash that’s been applied.  

The yellow stripe down the centre of the costume doesn’t quite align with the chest area, but it’s not massively noticeable. There are also few spots of dark blue slop spotted around on the red, but your chances of being able to find them are probably mixed – some are in spots you just won’t be able to see while the figure’s in the box. Last but not least, the eyes on her head are a little off-centre from the sculpted detail, but as they’re both uneven it’s less of an issue.  

On the whole, the paint apps are quite impressive; in particular the sheer number of them. I assume that the money they saved on the Scarlet Witch’s very minimal paint has been spent here. The main areas to watch out for are the stripe design (mine was a little chipped in the box) and her eyes.

ACCESSORIES

Carol comes with two accessories – one is an alternate, helmeted head, as pictured above, while the other is a translucent, soft piece of pink plastic that’s presumably some kind of energy ball. It’s even got glitter moulded into it, which means I won’t be using it too often.  

The Build-A-Figure pieces are from the Allfather – head, axe and cape. They’re not of Odin, though, they’re all to go with “elderly Thor”. These will likely end up going on eBay – I doubt I’m going to be able to complete the Allfather, but if I do it will be as Odin.  

OVERALL

This is the second figure Carol has had in the last 12 months – the first was in her Ms Marvel incarnation, packed into a 3-pack with Cap and Radioactive Man. Of the two, though, this is the one I’d go for. As someone who’s not really invested in the character, this is a much better costume and more current with the comics. I don’t know if I’m going to race out and read up on her history, but she’s such a cool design I’m glad I picked this figure up.