Marvel Legends: Captain America (Red Skull Onslaught BAF)

As some regular readers will know, I recently paid a visit to the good ol’ U.S.A., and had an absolutely fantastic time while I was there. It’s a wonderful country. And when you visit a new place, you should bring back a souvenir. I have two tiki mugs from my time in Hawaii, and scotch glasses from Tasmania, for instance. But America was trickier – U.S.A. shirts/mugs/pint glasses/hip flasks/flags were all in abundance, but I don’t tend to go for something so obvious. But it just didn’t feel right leaving America without buying something patriotic. And then I stumbled across this gem in Gamestop. 

But why a Captain America figure? Sure, it’s overtly American, but what makes it stand out more than any other one? Read on to discover more…

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

This is a comics-based Cap, complete with pirate boots. It’s much more spandex superhero than military tactician, and could be from virtually any Cap comic from the 1970s through to the 1990s. I’m sure the face is based on someone’s art, but I’m pretty sure it’s also reused from an earlier figure – maybe one of the Captain America: Winter Soldier waves? I only own a handful of ML figures, so I can’t pinpoint it with accuracy. More familiar readers should feel free to chime in the comments section.

Articulation is what you’d expect from an ML figure – ball-jointed and hinged neck, swivel-hinge biceps, ab crunch, double elbows, swivel-hinge wrists, cut waist, ball-jointed hips, cut thighs, souble-jointed knees, cut calves (for the boots) and rocker ankles. I believe this is slightly more than some figures get – I don’t think everyone has the double elbows, but everything else seems pretty consistent with the other ML figures I’ve bought. Some of the joints will be a little stiff at first, but if you;re careful you shouldn't have any issues. Though speaking of the double elbows – I know some people love them, but I don’t think it works as well as it should here. The forearms are cast in white, in a softer plastic than the rest of the body. I assume this is to accommodate the slightly-flared gloves, but it makes the joints a little trickier to move. I’ve also had a little of the red paint rub off on one of the gloves too, though fortunately it can be covered with the shield.    

             

ACCESSORIES

Accessories that aren’t crappy oversized missile launchers are becoming an increasingly rarity in the action figure world, so it’s nice to get some at all. There are:

*Two additional hands, including a pointing one: Cap sure does love to point, especially in the movies, so it’s a good inclusion. Jon at Preternia suggests that this is the first time a comics-based Cap has had this hand, which just seems crazy to me! Oh well; the toy industry works in mysterious ways. He's also got one that allows him to salute too, as seen at right.  

*His signature shield: Naturally. I suspect it’s more reuse from another figure, and can be clipped to his forearm or stored in the plughole on his back. Both look pretty good.

*One other accessory: which I’ll get to in just a moment…

*He also comes with a BAF piece: Onslaught’s cape. I don’t have any real desire to complete the BAF (though it does look cool) so I think this will go be going on eBay shortly.

There’s one other thing I should mention, too – I’m not sure if they’re meant to be accessories, but he does also come with two shoulder straps. They’re attached to him in the packaging, and they look really cool in place – I assumed they’d be a conjoined piece, with a strap running across the back. However, they're separate pieces, so as soon as you move him, they fall off. There doesn’t appear to be any sensible way to keep them on, short of gluing them, and then you might even manage to ruin the articulation of the shoulders in the process. It’s a bit of a misfire, which is a shame – had it worked properly it would have been a nice bit of detailing. As it is, they’ll just go in the accessories box.  

Totally useless

PAINT

Paint is very…adequate. As you can probably see in the photos, they did his eyes properly, but everything else leaves a bit to be desired – the wings, his chin, the skin lines around his mask – it could probably be fixed by someone with a dream and a paintbrush, but it does seem unusually sloppy. There was only one on the shelf, so I didn’t have multiple options to pick from – if you do, I’d suggest you weigh up some different ones before picking it up. As to the rest of him – well, Cap’s costume in the comics is all about extreme contrasts, mimicking the colours of the American flag. It works very well on the printed page, but as anyone who’s ever done any painting knows, red paint over white paint can run into some issues. I’m already mentioned some rub on one of the gloves above, but I can see this being an issue for anyone who fiddles around with the ab-crunch too much as well. I had some very (admittedly minor) chipping, so just be careful.   

THE BIG REVEAL

So, I’ve told you a lot about the figure, but I haven’t revealed the real reason I bought it. After all, it’s a pretty standard Cap figure so far, isn’t it? Well, remember I mentioned there was one another accessory? Here it is!

Possibly the best thing you'll see this year

That’s right, it’s a Capwolf head.

Many of you will no doubt be asking what the hell this is, and that’s a fair question. Well, to grossly simplify, comics were crazy in the 1990s. Marvel and DC were selling gangbusters, but younger players like Image were a real sales threat – so Marvel and DC threw everything they could to compete; the EDGIER the better. Hence why Superman died, Green Lantern became evil, Wolverine was in every Marvel (and some DC ones) and Captain America became a werewolf. CAPWOLF.  

I’ve never read the relevant issues, but I don’t need to. All I need to know is that Captain America became a werewolf. In fact, reading it would probably ruin everything – comics tend to date pretty quickly, and I strongly suspect time has not been kind to the 90s-tasticness of this concept.

Taken as a whole, the figure is not accurate to the comic – the neck looks a little thin, there’s no torn up boots or costume, and no clawed gloves. But the fact that Hasbro gave a nod to this relatively forgotten and ridiculous piece of Cap’s history in action figure form was just too good an American souvenir to pass up – and hey, I love wolves. In case you hadn’t noticed, the blog is called the Lupine Book Club. Even better, there is no reference to Capwolf on the packaging. The head just sits there in the box as an accessory, no doubt leaving many to just ponder on what it all means.

OVERALL

Thanks to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there have now been almost as many Captain America figures on the shelves as Spider-Man and Batman ones – no small accomplishment. This is a good, solid standard Cap for a kid who’s never had a figure of him before, but the true strength of the figure for more long-term collectors lies in the Capwolf head and the pointing hand accessory. With such heavy reliance on variations of Captain America (and Iron Man for that matter), Hasbro and Marvel alike are going to have to get pretty creative to hold the interest of consumers and retailers alike. Figures like this are definite steps in the right direction.   

Spider-Woman (Marvel Legends Infinite: Thanos Wave)

Series: Marvel Legends 

Year: 2015

Company: Hasbro

BACKGROUND

So, here are with Spider-Woman, another Marvel Legend. As with Captain Marvel, I’m pretty sure I’ve read virtually none of the comics that Spider-Woman appears in. Maybe an Avengers comic or two; that would be about it. But I’ve always thought her costume design was great – so simple, yet so striking. In fact, until this year it’s been essentially unchanged since it debuted in the 1970s (and the original is substantially better than the new one, too). 

Jessica Drew has had both a Marvel Legend and Marvel Select figure in the past. While both were adequate (and even pretty good on some points) at their time, they’re both showing distinct signs of age. So now we get a very welcome update.  

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

Spider-Woman has the following articulation:

*Ball-jointed neck

*Swivel-hinged shoulders

*Swivel biceps

*Swivel-hinged elbows

*Pegged wrists

*ball-jointed torso

*cut thighs

*double-hinged knees

*rocker ankles

All of it works well; some of it was a little tight straight out of the box but not unworkable. Best of all, she actually stands up properly! Not nearly as much fussing around as Captain Marvel or Scarlet Witch.

Spider-Woman uses the same base body as Captain Marvel – which I suppose makes sense seeing as they’re apparently besties in the comics. While this is good for the most part, I think it would have actually made more sense to use the “leotard”-style body that Scarlet Witch had (and swap figure Hellcat uses). It would have given her just that little bit more room for posing her legs. It wouldn’t make much of a difference on some characters, but on someone who’s meant to be as agile as Spider-Man, it seems like a bit of an oversight. It’s a little more irritating as she actually does have Scarlet Witch’s hands too. With that said, Hasbro and ToyBiz have both have a mixed history when it comes to depicting the female form so I think this is an overall good compromise.

The only new feature is her head, which captures the look of the costume quite well. Her hair is quite hard plastic, so you’re locked in to a few specific poses, but this is a common thing with female action figures in general.    

ACCESSORIES

Jessica has two different sets of arm webbing – one spread wide for a gliding look, and another set that is folded, for when she’s doing things like keeping her hands by her side. I’m not sure if it’s a perfect solution to the webbing problem, though. The old figure had cel-style plastic stuck to the arms, which seems to crack and rot over the years. This is better than that but I think softer, more flexible plastic should probably have been used.  

Some kind of energy blast would have been nice, like with Captain Marvel, but I can live without it.

Additionally, she comes with two Build-A-Figure parts – Thanos’ head and one of his arms. I’ve seen the completed figure and I’m not overly impressed (he doesn’t look big enough to me, for one thing) so I think these will just go on eBay.    

PAINT

For the most part, the paint is of a very high standard. Some of the thick black lines are a little wonky around the edges, but there’s nothing so major that it can’t be overlooked. Though there are some minor flaws (like the yellow on the belly being a little thin) everything looks pretty good from a distance and there aren’t any major problems. The only thing I think is missing is some blue highlights on the hair; currently, it’s all solid black.

Interestingly, there are a number of orange highlights on some of the yellow areas of the figure, though they don't really show up in the picture. They’re quite subtle and help break up what could otherwise appear as very flat surfaces.    

OVERALL

I’m still quite new to the Marvel Legends range, owning 4 at this point. But so far I like the series and could see myself continuing with it in the future. All that I’ve bought so far have been of roughly equal quality, and Spider-Woman continues that high standard. She may not be especially innovative in her approach, but she’s consistently well-executed and probably my favourite Marvel Legend in my limited experience so far.   

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.

Thor (Marvel Legends Infinite: Allfather Wave)

Series: Marvel Legends

Company: Hasbro

Year: 2015

BACKGROUND

I’ve never been a big fan of Marvel’s take on Thor. I was a huge fan of the Norse myths as a kid, and the Marvel portrayal of the character was just too incongruent with my understanding of the violent,  RED-HEADED Thor for me to enjoy.* A doctor with a walking stick that turns into the Norse god of thunder? No deal. Though purists may disagree, I much preferred the Ultimate version of Thor, where you weren’t sure if he was a lunatic or the real deal for most of the time, and the Ancient Aliens approach that has been taken for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Why then, are we looking at a figure of Thor which is clearly from neither of those preferred sources? Well, that’s a good question – you’ll have to read on to find out.  

SCULPT AND ARTICULATION

Well, I never said you’d have to read very far. Basically, this Thor just plain looks great – and that’s why I decided to give him a go after my positive experience with the Scarlet Witch.

This Thor heavily reuses elements from this figure. The arms are different, the helmet has been retooled and I think the cape is new, but other than that it looks to be the same, even down to the hammer. Normally I’d be annoyed by so much reuse, but the original figure was a convention exclusive back in 2011, so the odds are reasonably strong that you don’t already own one. And, as OAFE predicted, it has now been used again, in a plainer paint job. It’s taken a bit longer than perhaps was anticipated, but I suppose it’s not a massive surprise – movie Thor has cast a long shadow over any merchandise related to the character in recent years.

I initially thought he was something of a “greatest hits” figure, but closer inspection indicates the absence of a few key elements – his chest circles have been greatly scaled down, for instance. As you probably saw in the above link, the closest reference point is Olivier Coipel’s art. His redesign of the character was pretty big news when I was in my comic-collecting prime (2007), but I don’t think I ever actually read any of it. Overall though, he looks fantastic – it’s particularly impressive when you consider that most of the sculpting is now 7 years old. Plenty of figures from that era have not aged anywhere near as well.    

There are just a couple of questionable points. Though his golden locks do flow from the back of the helmet, they’re partially covered by some kind of brown cloth – the effect, when viewed from behind, is not dissimilar to one of those dorky flapped caps you probably had to wear in primary school. Asgard, it seems, is not afraid to fly in the face of fashion. My only other real irritation beyond the mullet-cap is that Thor also seems to be looking down slightly. You can’t do a lot about this, but I suppose given his massive size he’d be looking down on just about any other figure he was paired with anyway.  

Thor’s articulated in the following ways:

*ball-jointed neck

*swivel-hinged shoulders

*swivel biceps

*ball-jointed torso

*swivel-hinged elbows

*swivel-hinged wrists

*Swivel-hinged hips

*double-hinged knees

*hinged ankles

As might be expected, the shoulders are somewhat restricted by the cape and the biceps appear to be as well, particularly when you’ve got the arms sitting in a neutral position. The hips are also restricted by the “skirt” overlay. None of these are dealbreakers for me but your own mileage may vary.  

"Do you even lift, bro?"

His knee joints, calves and feet are cast in a slightly softer plastic, which feels almost like rubber. Just be careful when you’re bending them; though I didn’t have any issues it did seem like tearing might be a bit of a risk.

ACCESSORIES

Thor comes with two accessories – his iconic hammer, Mjolnir, and an enormous sword. Presumably this has been used in the comics at some point, but I haven’t seen it before. Mjolnir is cast in a slightly softer plastic than the sword, so you may have some minor issues with warping on the handle.  

For his Build-A-Figure piece, he comes with one of the Allfather’s legs -- not particularly exciting, but essential for him to stand. 

PAINT

At an initial glance, there isn’t actually a huge amount of paint on Thor – however, there’s a lot of stuff all over him. The brown on his legs and belt, little spots of silver and all the little details on his face and head, for instance. Like Scarlet Witch, he has some nice airbrushing on his cape too, which adds some additional depth. The only problem area is on his neck – it’s cast in black plastic and then painted skin colour, so there’s been some wear.  

OVERALL

Thor is a character I don’t have a lot of interest in, but this figure was able to overcome that issue. Though I don’t plan to pick up any of his comics anytime soon, I’m still quite pleased with the figure and am glad I decided to take the plunge. I do still want to complete the Allfather -- and then I could have father and son side by side.

*I should add that for whatever reason, it has never been an issue for me with Wonder Woman or Kratos and their respective (frequently questionable) portrayals of Greek mythology.

Scarlet Witch (Marvel Legends Infinite: Allfather Wave)

Scarlet Witch 

Series: Marvel Legends

Company: Hasbro

Year: 2015

In spite of having gone through a couple of different phases of action figure collecting, I’ve never bought anything from Marvel Legends, either in its ToyBiz or Hasbro iterations. This is because I really didn’t like a number of things about them when I first came across the ToyBiz range in ’03-’04. Who cared if a toy had 397594579 different points of articulation if the end result looked as ugly as sin? And who were all of these crap, no-name characters?

In hindsight, I was young, ignorant and needlessly harsh on the line. While numerous figures from those early days have not aged well, Marvel Legends was actually a really good line. Lots of original sculpts, good paint and tons of characters who’d never had figures before – not to the diorama bases and ENORMOUS Build-A-Figures. There were a lot of things the line was able to do that would probably just not be possible in today’s climate.

So, today we have my first entry into the line – Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch. Wanda has been a member of the Avengers since the 1960s, after initially debuting as a villain for the X-Men. Imbued with (somewhat vague) mutant powers that allow her to alter reality, she’s since supplemented her natural gifts with the study of arcane and occult arts. It’s kind of a lazy and overly simplistic comparison, but to put it in DC terms she has Wonder Woman’s prominence with Zatanna’s skillset.

She’s quite a prominent character in the comics world, but she’s had a more difficult time breaking through to more mainstream popularity. Last time she got a Legends figure was all the way back in 2004, and what a disaster it was. Figures like that typify why I didn’t like the line at the time. The promo art looked okay, but the finished product was dreadful. ToyBiz knew it too; it was officially cancelled at the time, though a few did manage to find their way to stores. She was then absent from the shelves until 2012, when she popped up the 3.75” Marvel Universe line, looking substantially better.

But here we are in 2015 and on the cusp of seeing her cinematic debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which probably explains why we’re now getting a new 6” version. However, this figure is much more heavily based on the comics than her appearance in the movie.

I’m not familiar enough with the character to pick out which artist’s work she’s based on, but over at OAFE they’ve indicated that she’s not based on any particular depiction of the character; rather she’s more of a “greatest hits” version, capturing the overall vibe of the character but not specific to any one iteration. To me, she looks like it’s taken a lot of cues from the 2012 Marvel Universe figure. The head is different, and you can tell the cape is newly sculpted rather than simply being sized up, but the basic look is quite similar.  

Overall, I think she looks pretty good. She hits the right notes for someone like me who has a passing familiarity with the character but isn’t familiar enough with the minutiae to find fault. My main issue from a sculpting perspective is that the tops of her boots aren’t sculpted as on the 2012 figure; rather, they’re just painted on. This is likely to do with the logistics of costing and parts re-use, but it’s a bit of a shame nonetheless.

She’s not quite perfect though. The cape is cast out of a harder plastic than you might expect, and is a little too long. Combine this with the way it’s been sculpted and it makes her teeter backwards, so getting her standing in a neutral pose was near impossible for me – though it does work well is something a little more action-y or combat ready. Invest in a stand if you want her on full-time display though. 

Wanda has the following articulation:

*Ball-jointed neck

*swivel-hinged shoulders

*swivel-hinged elbows

*ball-jointed torso

*ball-jointed hips

*cut thighs

*double-hinged knees

*rocker ankles

Her neck is very restricted by her hair and cape, as are her shoulders (particularly the left one). Some will bemoan the lack of ab-crunch, but I don’t tend to be a big fan of these from an aesthetic point of view.

PAINT

Most of her is cast in the relevant colours, so there’s not a huge amount of paint. But the paint that is there is well-done over the whole figure; her face was nicely aligned, and her hair has a great wash that hasn’t spilt over onto other areas too. She has some nice overspray on the cape too, which is a great little touch that I didn’t expect to see.

I had a couple to pick from in the store, and there’s a couple of areas to you should check prior to purchase – the bustier area and the pink/red on the thighs/boots are the potential trouble spots I noticed. However, these are pretty minor points on the whole.   

ACCESSORIES

Scarlet Witch comes with two accessories – two of her hex blasts, which can clip onto her wrists. Both are cast in reddish-pink plastic. I had a bit of a tricky time clicking them on her wrists, but it got done eventually. Just be careful that you don’t break the wrists or the hex blasts while you do it -- in fact, popping off the hands and putting them in place is probably a better option. 

She also comes with a few pieces of this wave’s Build-A-Figure – the Allfather. Specifically, she comes with the cape, Odin’s head and Gungnir, Odin’s spear. (Scarlet Witch’s swap figure, Captain Marvel, comes with an elderly Thor head and a different coloured cape, so you have your choice of who you can build).  

OVERALL

Scarlet Witch was a very satisfactory first entry into the world of Marvel Legends, and I can definitely see myself picking up a few more in the future. They’re a little pricey at retail ($35AUD – even more if you’re getting them from a speciality store!) but if you can find them on sale I think they’re worth picking up.

On a side note, I would love to collect the Allfather Build-A-Figure, but I am just not sold on most of the figures I would need to buy to get him. Thor and Captain Marvel both look fantastic. Hawkeye’s designers have done a good job of turning an unacceptable costume into something that looks pretty good…but Machine Man, Iron Fist and Sentry are tougher sells for me. I don’t think I can justify it, unless I suddenly come into some big money.