{"id":11531,"date":"2011-02-03T05:25:05","date_gmt":"2011-02-03T11:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11531"},"modified":"2011-02-03T06:07:08","modified_gmt":"2011-02-03T12:07:08","slug":"marvel-universe-reviews-thanos-captain-marvel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11531","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Universe Reviews
Thanos & Captain Marvel"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> I’ve avoided buying too many Marvel Universe figures for one reason or another over the last couple years. I bought a few at first, but they didn’t win me over. Lately though, the line has been getting harder and harder to resist. In the last couple weeks, I’ve picked up a few more and been much happier with the figures. <\/p>\n

I think it’s a mixture of things that is drawing me back to Marvel Universe. Character selection is surely a factor. I love parts of Marvel, but having learned to read with DC Comics I have more affinity for some of DC’s third and fourth tier characters than I do for some of the big guns at Marvel. My Marvel likes are somewhat eccentric, so many of the early MU figures were ones that I a) didn’t really care about or b) received bad figures and so I either passed or purchased a wanted character and was disappointed with the final product.<\/p>\n

* – I always feel like I have the worst luck with Marvel figures of my favorite characters. Marvel Legends of War Machine, Nova, Rogue, and Captain Britain were all eagerly awaited disappointments. And then Marvel Universe got me with Moon Knight, Blade, Ms Marvel, and a few others.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even though I wasn’t buying, I did notice that the figures seemed to be improving as Hasbro went along. And then, they got me. The character selection started getting around to the parts of the Marvel Universe I’m interested in. In this case, outer space.<\/p>\n

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Thanos is an ugly duckling that’s obsessed with death. And I don’t mean the concept of death. Shortly after he was exiled from his home planet (he was a big, ugly purple dude with bad intentions on a peaceful planet of beautiful people), Thanos met Death. It appeared to him as a beautiful woman and he promptly fell head over heels for her. He didn’t seek to gain her affection with the usual chocolates and flowers – this was Death afterall – so he set himself to killing half the universe (Aww, you shouldn’t have!”<\/em>). He tried his best with Cosmic Cubes, Soul Gems, & the Infinity Gauntlet, but pesky heroes like Captain Marvel & Adam Warlock always managed to thwart him. <\/p>\n

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Thanos started showing up in stores back in October apparently, but trying telling that to my local stores \u2013 I just ran across him a couple weeks ago. I’m not up on MU case assortments, so I don’t know if I got a late case or a revision, but either way I was happy to find him on the pegs. He jumps out at you because he’s barely contained in the package. He’s an inch taller than a standard figure, but he’s also twice as wide.<\/p>\n

His sculpt is built around the buck used for Juggernaut, but it works perfectly for the figure. Plus, he’s got all the right unique pieces – new head, two new tunic pieces, forearms\/gloves, and boot tops. He does reuse Juggy’s feet, but I think its fine. A universe destroyer should have good treads after all. All the new pieces are spot-on with the little details and trim. I especially love the head sculpt. He’s sneering at me disapprovingly just like he should.<\/p>\n

Thanos also sports another extra piece – the Infinity Gauntlet! This was a perfect addition for him, it looks good, and it swaps out with his regular glove with ease. Pretty cool.<\/p>\n

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The paint works hard to help make the figure even better. The figure is molded in his classic blue color with a heavy wash that darkens his costume and draws attention to the sculpted details. Combined with the bright, shiny gold used for the trim, boots, and gloves, and I don’t know how any Marvel fan could leave this guy at the store.<\/p>\n

There is a little bit of slop here and there; mostly gold specks where they shouldn’t be, but nothing major. His face also has some decent paintwork with the small gold details, eyes, and open mouth.<\/p>\n

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Once I got him open, it was his articulation that really made me feel good about the purchase. I knew I wanted him for how he was going to look on my shelf, but I was really impressed by how well he moves. I haven’t been a big fan of the MU articulation overall – I can’t stand the Surfer that came with my Galactus for example, but Thanos features more articulation than any of the figures I bought back when: ball joints at the neck, shoulders, and hips, swivels at the bicep, forearms, thighs, and boots, double hinges on the knees, and single hinges on the elbows and ankles. The bottom of his tunic blocks the articulation a bit, but he’s still got great poseability. It’s really fun for such a bulky figure. Continue to Captain Marvel…<\/a><\/p>\n

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I admit that when I think of Captain Marvel, I picture a magic word, a bolt of lightning, and one of the cooler DC superheroes. But when it comes to toys I always have to call that guy Shazam because of this other<\/em> Captain Marvel. You gotta be careful about letting those trademarks lapse.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not terribly familiar with this (original) version of Captain Marvel. A creation of comic legends Stan Lee & Gene Colan, Mar-Vell was an alien soldier sent to spy on Earth. He became a superhero reluctantly, but after a few adventures he did that thing protagonist spies tend to do, switch allegiances. He book never really sold very well, getting two revamps and a costume change in short order, but Marvel kept publishing him. If nothing else, it ensured they kept the trademark to the name Captain Marvel.<\/p>\n

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His most notable story just might be his death in 1982. Published as Marvel’s first graphic novel, The Death of Captain Marvel<\/em> depicted Mar-Vell discovering that he’d contracted cancer from exposure to a nerve gas years before. The book featured other heroes of the Marvel Universe paying their last respects and ferried Mar-Vell into the afterlife. A place where he\u2019s more or less stayed for my entire life.<\/p>\n

I don’t have a lot of Marvel figures, but I’m going to guess that Captain Marvel is reusing someone’s body. There’s really nothing remarkable here on the body itself aside from a new nitpicks. His left forearm and hand are slightly oversized compared to the rest of him and the biceps interfere with the chest, leaving Mar-Vell unable to put his arms down to his sides. The other thing is he just looks oddly proportioned, particularly from the side. I’m not sure quite what’s wrong there, but it looks off.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The head sculpt is what really makes the figure Captain Marvel and I’m fairly certain he has most perfectly coiffed hair in the entire line.<\/p>\n

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I really appreciated the subdued colors on the figure. I know these muted tones might not be the most popular choice with long time Captain Marvel fans, but I think they contrast great with the painted-on bands and symbol. Marvel’s head is molded yellow and painted. It came out nicely this way, but I did get some uneven paint lines on the edge of his cowl and the paint on the eyes slits makes him seem a little sad. He’s dead though, so maybe that’s fitting.<\/p>\n

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Articulation is really the one place where I wasn’t that happy with the figure. He gives me flashbacks to the figures I bought back in 2009. The head is decent as a one-piece ball joint, but the two-piece joints used on some of the newer figures makes it feel more lacking than normal. The arms are articulated well with ball shoulders, swivels at the bicep & wrist, and hinge elbows. They move well, but they\u2019d better if they could go into a neutral pose at his sides. The upper chest articulation has good range, but I still wish there was a traditional waist joint on the figure (the prototype used for the packaging picture has one). I don\u2019t know how much movement it would add, but it\u2019d make me feel better.<\/p>\n

My real problem with him is his legs. I’m not a fan of the way the ball joints are seated in the hips and the lack of any swivels above the ankle really limit the figure in my eyes. Newer MU figures have thigh cuts and I’m looking forward to picking up more figures like that and less like this. I am hoping for a few redos on the newer bucks, but Captain Marvel isn’t one of them. The double knee and the ball-jointed ankles let him get into a few decent enough poses and the rest of the figure is nice enough that I can overlook his legs. <\/p>\n

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Both Thanos and Captain Marvel included the regular black Marvel stand with white lettering for the name and their figure number. Thanos, as a 2010 figure, also included his “Hammer File”. The 2011 figures, like Captain Marvel, no longer include those.<\/p>\n

I like Captain Marvel enough, but he got really outshined by Thanos. Both figures feature decent sculpting, but the details on Thanos outshine Captain Marvel (Marvel could’ve really used sculpted Nega-Bands) for this review. Paint was pretty decent on both figures, but the newer articulation on Thanos again bested Captain Marvel. This might be the only time that Thanos ever beats Mar-Vell. <\/p>\n

Overall, I’m pretty satisfied with my new Marvel Universe figures. It really feels like that Hasbro is on the right track, but I’m still conflicted with how many I’ll buy with the return of Legends imminent. One thing is for certain though, I’m really excited to see MU get into the cosmic section of the Marvel Universe with Thanos, Mar-Vell, Galactus, etc. They can’t do enough of those characters. Bring on Starlord, Gamora, Nova, Drax, and heck, I’d buy a Rocket Raccoon for sure. <\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

For more Marvel Universe reviews, check out our
Marvel Universe Collector’s Guide<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve avoided buying too many Marvel Universe figures for one reason or another over the last couple years. I bought a few at first, but they didn’t win me over. Lately though, the line has been getting harder and harder to resist. In the last couple weeks, I’ve picked up a few more and been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":11532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[26,47,10],"tags":[376,24,2567,886],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/thaTN.jpg?fit=50%2C50","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-2ZZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18854,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=18854","url_meta":{"origin":11531,"position":0},"title":"Marvel Universe Two-Packs: Thanos vs Adam Warlock Review","date":"May 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night I remembered that I run a toy review website. Between a business trip to Kansas City and a quick jaunt to Texas for the eclipse (and a bunch of work in-between), IAT\u2019s been light on my updates the last two weeks. Let\u2019s fix that with a Marvel Universe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Universe"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11555,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11555","url_meta":{"origin":11531,"position":1},"title":"Marvel Universe Checklist Updates, Cap & Thor Pages Added","date":"February 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"New pages for the Captain America & Thor movie lines have been added to the Marvel Universe Resource. The Iron Man 2 and Spider-Man pages have been updated with the latest wave information. And a Two-Packs section has been added to the 2011 page. Images have been added for most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Universe"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30913,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=30913","url_meta":{"origin":11531,"position":2},"title":"Marvel Legends Thanos Series: Thanos Review","date":"April 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12100,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12100","url_meta":{"origin":11531,"position":3},"title":"Marvel Universe Reviews Vision & Dark Ms. Marvel","date":"March 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I've only recently started getting into the Marvel Universe line by picking & choosing a few figures here and there. It doesn't seem like there's been much new recently, but Hasbro has been keeping things interesting by refreshing a few older figures with new pieces or new decos, so I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Universe"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18923,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=18923","url_meta":{"origin":11531,"position":4},"title":"Marvel Universe Two-Packs: Gambit vs Mr. Sinister Review","date":"May 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As I mentioned in my last Marvel Universe 2pk Review, the space characters and the 90s X-Men are my two weak spots when it comes to resisting Marvel Universe figures. That means, as sure I picked up Thanos & Adam Warlock, I just had to buy Gambit and Mr. Sinister\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Universe"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11278,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11278","url_meta":{"origin":11531,"position":5},"title":"Updates to the Marvel Universe Checklist","date":"January 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"As promised, we've got a massive update to our Marvel Universe Visual Checklist. It's been revised, updated, expanded, overhauled... I'd go on, but I don't want to have to get out the thesaurus. Suffice to say, it was well past time for Hasbro's Marvel line to get the same treatment\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11531"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11545,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531\/revisions\/11545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}