THOR Week Reviews
Marvel Universe Thor #012

With Thor debuting in theaters this week (and another project we’ll announce soon) we’ve decided to celebrate the God of Thunder with a week dedicated to reviews of toys based on him and his supporting characters in the Marvel Universe line. For today, we’re taking a look at the single-carded Thor from Wave Seven.

If you read my reviews regularly, you know that I don’t know very much about Thor and his section of the Marvel Universe. And as such, I haven’t paid much attention to his toys. Reviewing the Frost Giant & Loki required a fair bit of research to get the back story for those characters. And, as often is the case when I find something I don’t know much about it, I wanted to learn more. My comic fandom and toy fandom are intertwined, so it’s little surprise that as I learned more about Thor’s history, Thor toys that I’d previously passed on started coming home with me.

This figure features Thor in his current look, Marvel’s “Heroic Age”. It’s a great update to his classic costume in the comics, and this figure is particularly faithful to it. When you factor in that Marvel Universe is largely a buck line that thrives on reuse, it’s great to see Thor get an entirely unique figure covered in little sculpted details. You’ll find some little detail on nearly every piece – armor scales, fabric folds, straps, seams, etc.. It’d be impressive on a 6″ figure and it’s even more so on a 4″ one.

And while the sculpted and comic accurate details make this a great looking Thor figure, the proportions of this figure were something I really appreciated too! While I haven’t been the biggest Thor fan in the past, I’ve taken notice of the various toys he’s received over the years. And a fair share of those figures didn’t quite get his “perfect godlike” physique just right. This one does. He’s wide and his limbs are appropriately bulked up, but without looking bulky. He just looks all around great, as long as you don’t look at the head too closely.

See, the only thing I don’t really like about the sculpt is the head. I’ve seen a lot of Oliver Coipel art where he draws Thor with a rather wide nose and wide set eyes. It looks perfectly fine on the page, but not so much in three dimensions. It’s right at the cusp where you can almost get used to it looking off and accept it or it could drive you crazy and really dampen your excitement for the figure. It’s a shame because the rest of the figure is so spectacularly well done that Thor ends up feeling like a hot fudge sundae with an anchovy on top.

I do like Thor’s colors. The armor is a nice greyish silver, the fabric on the tunic is a nice faded blue, and the cape a muted red. The boots have blue splotches throughout to simulate leather and that doesn’t do a very good job, but he looks okay anyway.And yet, I find myself a little disappointed. I picked him up without checking out the deco he has in the Greatest Battles 2pk with Iron Man. To be fair, this is a better purchase. I only had to spend $8 as opposed to $15 and I don’t need that particular Iron Man whatsoever, but I noticed his deco the other day and it’s kinda more awesome. The armor and discs on his tunic are more silver, the tunic a nice black, the cape a vibrant red, and the leather and gold trim are also done in nicer colors. Now, there’s nothing wrong with the deco on the figure. It’s sharp and he’s even painted really well for his size, but I guess the grass is always greener on the $15 more dollars side. Sigh. Continue to Page 2…

28 thoughts on “THOR Week Reviews
Marvel Universe Thor #012

  1. I have a handful of MU figures, and this is one of the best ones (up there with Juggernaut and Colossus). Unfortunately, the best MU still feels like a cheap toy when compared to G.I. Joe, Iron Man 2, or even Star Wars. I like the overall sculpt and paint, but you’re right that the head is bad. Mine also is plagued with loose joints, poor balance, hips that love to pop off, and plastic pegs that feel like they’ll snap if I move pose him too much.

    1. I love Juggernaut & Colossus. I bought ’em late, so I haven’t looked for a spot to review ’em, but they’re great figures.

      The Marvel figures are good, but you’re right about Joes and IM2 stuff in terms of quality.

  2. Yeah, this figure is awesome. Of course, I do love Thor so very much. I like marvel Universe, but i wish i could find them in stores, well, figures that aren’t Iron man or Wolverine. I really need a frost giant and Bill Foster Goliath, but all of the Walmarts here in the wilds of western michigan are really lame… 😛

    1. We got them everywhere that week and then I haven’t seen them since. Ironically, the Frost Giant blew out leaving poor Goliath stranded…

  3. never fear mega, i’m only a short ways away from noisy, and have access to 5 walmarts in my area… and nary a single frost giant to be had in town.

  4. Great review. I’ve had this guy for a while now and agree with pretty much everything written. It’s a great looking toy with some impressive bulk to it spoiled by poor/strange design choices on the articulation and a really bad facial sculpt. Plus the fact that he cannot stand on his own and has to lean on something ticks me off. I know many are not fans of cloth capes, and to be fair this one looks great, but the weight of all that plastic on loose ball-hips is a bad idea.

    I’ve relegated him to the very back of my MU shelf now that smaller but better made Battle-Hammer can at least stand up straight with Movie Iron Man and the small gap waiting for Movie Cap to complete my Big 3.

      1. I know what you mean, but the best examples of cloth-capery such as the original Matty Zipline Bats show that done with care they can really work great, when done as the generic Hasbro Jedi-bathrobe then they don’t.

        I put a cloth cape on my DCSH Superman and it looks fantastic AND protects the fragile ankles at the same time. It’s the bulk of plastic/rubber that becomes an issue over time….at least for me.

        1. You’re definitely right about the capes weighing the figures down, that it was the one drawback. And when they make them of a thinner, softer material – I’m always worried about the quality of the plastic…

  5. Ah, finally a review for the modern form of the Thunderer.

    I too felt a bit of annoyance when I saw the 2-pack version of this guy with the brighter paint, but I had less problem passing on him when the Bleeding Edge Iron Man came out and when I realized that the paint on Thor’s face wasn’t improved. As lackluster as the face sculpt is, I think a lot of it could have been remedied with better paint application.

    I was going to get the classic Thor paired with Enchantress, but neither figure seemed that great to me, and I saw that there was a better classic Thor sculpt coming with the Avengers pack.

    1. Paint can do crazy things for sculpts sometimes, so you’re probably right on.

      It’s really funny about the Thor in the Enchantress 2pk when compared to what the sculpt is capable of. It’s hard to believe that Ragnarok/Clor is that figure with a new head. I’m hoping that Avengers 3pk one is awesome though. I gotta have that Iron Man for sure!

  6. Me and a friend were noticeing that mine was from the early days when Thor was fetching well on e-bay and I have not had problems with the knees and his was from one of the refresh cases and his had very weak knees. I had the same problem with the comic pack one which again was later on and makes me wonder if something happened in the later production of this figure.

    Great Review BTW

    1. Zed! Great to see you over here!

      It drives me nuts to hear that the early Thors had better knees! He’s such a good figure, but I wanted to kill him a time or two during the review. Unseen changes between releases isn’t fun for anyone.

      And thanks!

      1. If it makes you feel better, the Thor I was complaining about above was an early release. I bought him along with Extremis Iron Man when they first showed up in stores, so I think it’s just hit or miss with these guys.

      2. Like I said I am not sure, I just know I haven’t had those same problems I have heard as well as I had with the Comic pack repaint. The comic pack one is really bad cause I can never stand him on his own without leaning on something. I like that paint job just a bit better than the single pack, such is life I guess.

        Oh and glad to be here BTW.

  7. Great job. This is my favorite Thor figure, but I’m looking forward to getting a Marvel Legends version!!

    1. Thanks! I’d forgotten about that the SDCC Thor is supposed to be this guy in ML scale. That should be pretty awesome!

  8. Wow – this review really makes my tiny, plastic co-writers and I wish we hadn’t left him out of our recent post. We echo U-Hawg’s sentiment and just hope that there’ll be a ML version of his new duds when the line starts up again in earnest. @NoisyDvL5 – what’s this about a SDCC exclusive? Will it be under the Marvel Legends banner?

  9. Too bad you didn’t have the MS Thor to compare. Some finally cropped up online a few months back after searching high and low, and I finally have one. Those came in and immediately sold out at my (former/satellite?) LCS. then gingernuts had the audacity to have his on display IN the store window. ggrrrr….

    I’ve been passing by a LOT of the MU line, only cherry-picking a very few characters, but I did get the Enchantress set for HER. I do wish Hasbro would have done a comic line like they did for Spidey and Iron Man…in 6″ scale. Here’s hoping we get an Asgard wave (Enchanttress, Sif, ODIN, W3, Balder, ERIC/T-strike/Thor II) in the new ML line! (Volstagg is an EASY slight retool of Blob!)

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