“As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted…” – Jack Paar
I’m back in the saddle today with a new review. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do for my first gig back. I have a couple ideas for a Truetorial or two. I figured I should start with a review. And while I have Hydron pics taken during my uh, exile, I decided to go with Captain America instead. We watched the new movie over the weekend. I won’t spoil anything here, other than to say it was fabulous. I loved it. And I’m not just saying that because Cap is one of my favorite Marvel characters. The movie is just good. A few plot contrivances here or there, but I was so entertained, I didn’t care. I also have to applaud the folks behind the movie for the trailers – they did a great job reorganizing the movie in unexpected ways. It’s a silly thing, but I appreciated even that attention to detail. Man, I need more toys from it.
Luckily, I already have some. As evidenced by my Black Widow review, I have run across Wave 2. I only had funds for the Widow or the Winter Soldier and wisely chose to bring the Widow home, so I’m still short on the Winter Soldier, but I’ll score him soon enough. I was lucky though, the third figure from that wave hung around long enough for me to go back and snag it: Captain America in I guess what we’re calling a Stealth S.T.R.I.K.E. suit, though the toy makes no attempt at doing so.
Honestly, it’s probably good they don’t. Otherwise this figure would be called Marvel Legends: Captain America: The Winter Solider: Infinite Series: Stealth S.T.R.I.K.E. Suit Captain America. Whew. I’m tired just typing all that. I better start diving into this review before I get too far gone. I hope you’ll pardon me as I get my review legs back. Uh, forgive me if it goes astray?
While I will end up finishing the Mandroid, and I do love this particular iteration of Cap’s costume (love the comic version too), I first bought this figure because I want a good Movie Cap on my ML shelf. The Avengers Cap just doesn’t work ultimately. I loved that Avengers line, but the figures succeed at varying degrees. Cap was the low point (if you overlook that they skipped Black Widow). It’s not entirely Hasbro’s fault – the Marvel Film folks can’t quite figure out what to do with Cap’s costume and the first figure just might have been doomed from the start. Maybe if Hasbro had executed the articulation and details better, they could’ve done something, but it just didn’t work out.
The new film uses a couple costumes, but the Stealth Strike suit figure will probably be the defining look, for that film at least. It looks fantastic and it gave Hasbro a leg up this go round. Even better, they almost nailed it.
The figure appears to be a 100% sculpt. It reuses nothing from the previous Cap, but I’m not totally up on all my ML parts. I’m pretty sure it has to be original though because all the details seem to be just right top to bottom. It’s light years ahead of the Avengers release, and looking at Cap and Black Widow, I can only hope Hasbro keeps operating at the level. The sculpt on the body is fantastic and integrates really well with the articulation which I’ll cover in a minute. Oh, I do have to point out some weird things going on at the collar. The neck is a seperate piece and attaches to the collar, but there is some leftovers from the render or something that made it to the mold stage. Oops.
The only thing about the sculpt I don’t like is the head. Which isn’t to say it’s bad – I actually love the sculpt itself. I prefer the included unmasked head because the helmeted head suffers from the being mold blue with the face painted – that just doesn’t look as good anymore – while the unmasked is molded in flesh tone. Both heads are technically great, and they look like Cap.
But they don’t look like Chris Evans. I almost might catch him in there somewhere, but I’m starting to wonder if they have his actual likeness rights? Black Widow is amazingly spot-on, so why can’t Hasbro do that well here? I still love the figure, but it could be that much better if they just got a great likeness on the two noggins. Continue to Page 2…
Hopefully, my photography skills will come back with practice. LOL
And better jokes. 😉
If the jokes got better then it wouldn’t be an IAT review!
As fun as always.
Not a fan of this costume and not liking the masked head, but I wanted a complete Mandroid (or 2), so he had to be purchased.
I didn’t think the unmasked head looked much like Evans until I put it on the body and something clicked for me, and I do think he looks better this way. I still think it needs more red. tempted to paint one set of stripes, at least. He’s still growing on me.
I am glad they gave us another set of hands, if only to make up for the lack of accessories in the WW2 Cap, which I do realize is the previous movie’s WM exclusive re-released…with a poorer paint job, IMO. So this guy is the best of the THREE Caps we got in this line, for me.
Not sure about the shield. We get no explanation in the movie as to why the colors change, and it just got annoying to see it magically “click” onto his back, repeatedly. as for this one, didn’t they have a ML Cap who had arm straps for his shield, but also some fold down clip to insert into his back? Not sure why they don’t reuse that idea for all the Caps they’ve been pushing out the last few years?
btw, Winter Soldier is still up on HTS. try and see if Friend14 code still works? Widow sold out immediately, of course. He’s worth it.
(except for the unmasked Goth eye shadow, but he makes a decent base for a movie-style Cable, as we aren’t getting him or any DoFP figures.)
RE: The shield attaching to his back, in the film I noticed that at times it made a metallic “CLANG!” sound when he slapped it on his back. Could be there’s a super-magnet in the buckle thing on the back of the shoulder straps that holds the shield in place on his back. It would be strong enough to hold it when he’s out jumping around and stuff but not so strong that Cap, with his super strength, couldn’t remove it easily. Just a thought.
But yeah that’s the only thing that’s bumming me slightly about this figure. I have the set of 5 of Wave 2 preordered from BBTS. At $25 a pop its pricier than I’d like but it beats the hell out of running around town being disappointed at not finding these anywhere.
yeah, esp when the nearest store that carries anything is 30m away. I jumped on that HTS sale the other week, then got flack for blowing money. I’m not the one who decided to move to BFE, not that she realizes how much she spends on gas or anything….but I digress.
and totally agree on that back magnet “clank”.
I feel like buying this fig just for the finger pointing Hand .. AWESOME !
Noisy if you still need a Winter Soldier there a couple just hanging around here they been there for about 2 wks you will just need to wait on shipping from Korea
Welcome back, you Rickrolling fool! I start to see more and more how different other collectors look at the same figure. I actually really like the Evans likeness on the unmasked head – admittedly it’d look better with a little more shading in his blond hair.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but the new shield with this figure looks a bit big – comparing it with past figures, it’s actually quite a bit bigger. It doesn’t bother me, I just don’t know the reason. As for the attachment points, I may be the only guy to miss the elastic straps on the Face-Off figure (still my favorite classic Cap).
I can’t blame you for wanting the Hot Toys version of this costume, that’s some craftsmanship. As for the final costume from the first movie, I wish Hasbro would re-do it. It’s tiny, narrow-shouldered and not to the level of these awesome new ones.
Okay why is Duke in a Cap suit? What? I can’t be the only one seeing it.
LOL only because the first “Ultimate Cap” (WW2) had me repaint him into my first 6″ Joe, then it started to snowball from there after seeing numerous others making ML Joes.
i wonder if this cap’s got enough hip motion to give the black widow a thorough rogering?
man, that mandroid looks cool as hell… building it will be a giant pain though. i wonder, given the number of relatively cheap mandroids on ebay from chinese sellers, if the extra mandroid parts will see lots of placement on that body? honestly, i’ve considered it myself, given that i don’t intend to get the entire cap collection to build the whole thing myself
…wow. That was…trashy.
hey, that was a dirty, naughty sex joke interlaced with a well executed and subtle play on words… you don’t get this stuff just anywhere! and i’m giving it away!
You don’t get it just anywhere because intelligent people recognize sexism and don’t abide it; but then, you’ve demonstrated you can’t even do an internet search, so I shouldn’t be surprised when you behave like an idiot.
Lighten up, Francis.
Don’t like it, don’t read it. Don’t like getting called out for your stupid shit, get educated.
I keep.waiting on a new stock up at my local that is cheaper than $20. Still a lone Marvel Now cap hanging around their. Also.awaiting spidey figs. Which Cap would work out of these three for a Cataclysm #4 cover remake?
Wish I woulda popped on this when saw but its always when not shopping for me. XP Still not seen any female figs in either line as well. Black Cat and Widow would be a great pair to buy at once.
Wow, that’s the first time I’ve seen Black Widow look good with the Winter Soldier hair. It’s all in the angles.
I ordered the Stealth Suit a while back and received a figure with one incredibly loose boot swivel and ankle. But I’m not one to waste, as I imagine they just chuck those figures upon return, so I stuck with it, hoping super glue would help. It didn’t. So now he just stands on the shelf, too loose to really enjoy. So it stung a little bit when I happened upon gobs of these guys the other day at Target — and on sale!
I’d skipped the Black Widow review – I avoid movie figures – so I hadn’t processed that Hasbro has started including additional hands.
This is one of the reasons I’ve started picking up Japanese toys, specifically Figma, Super Robot Chogokin, and S.H. Figuarts. Now, I’m really excited to see whether they start doing this for comic-based figures. I might have to re-evaluate my dimming interest in Marvel Legends (due to classic designs being relegated to build-a-figures and “running changes,” so I generally can’t buy what I want.)
SQUEE!
I’ve thought about picking this figure up if I saw it but I think I’ll probably just wait for the Marvel Select version. I like the regular version of the shield better anyway.
I don’t think anyone other than Hot Toys has done a really good Evans likeness but it looks like Hasbro didn’t even try.
Found one in the wild just about two weeks ago – really dig this guy. Not too bugged about the likeness (or lack thereof) as it just means it can work with my comic character display as well as with other movie figures. Its certainly the pick of the Cap figures in the current line, but I honestly think its the best movie Cap overall, as well.
Since Mattel has wussed out with DC figures (those new 4 inch things? Wow, terrible. Way to 1986, guys), I fear I must turn my Eye of Ire ™ upon Hasbro.
He looks pretty good, but it’s SUPER ANNOYING about the packout. And the price.
Hasbro might well consider that Marvel sees these movies as ONE BIG THING and get off their corporate butts, we need the Falcon, we need Agent Coulson, blah blah blah. And not one to a case. We need the missing Avengers figures, we need Iron Man 3 figures. Black Widow needs her pistols. Cap needs a shield that clips to his shoulders.
All these things need to be done.
We need the ARMY BUILDERS packed more than once in three different case assortment!
see? This. And Hasbro’s web store should ENCOURAGE this. Case of 6 AIM minions for a discounted price. Maybe sans BAF piece and including some goofy science weapon thing.
Tell me they couldn’t sell a goodly amount of SW Stormtroopers (Black series) in case lots.
Toys at retail are all but dead now. Rumor has it both Target and WalMart will be shrinking their Toy sections about 20% this coming Christmas. Toys R Us is a heartbeat from bankruptcy. The companies HAVE to start thinking outside of their collective box.
Here! Here!
Since I come from a part of the world (the Philippines) that’s probably at the low end of Hasbro’s distribution chain, I can sympathize with fellow toy collectors/buyers who can’t find the figures they want (although a part of me still wonders, “Wow, there’s also an action figure shortage in the U.S.? How did that happen?”). It really is frustrating.
To be fair to Hasbro, though, I did see the Marvel Now and First Avenger Captain Americas, along with Baron Zemo and the AIM Soldier, appear a month or so before CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER was released here (which was on March 26). They didn’t last all that long at the mall nearest where I live (there are more collectors around here than I thought) and restocking the pegs will likely take a while.
As someone or another said, life is like that sometimes.