{"id":12535,"date":"2011-05-07T06:38:15","date_gmt":"2011-05-07T11:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12535"},"modified":"2011-05-07T06:38:37","modified_gmt":"2011-05-07T11:38:37","slug":"thor-week-reviews-marvel-universe-goliath-thor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12535","title":{"rendered":"THOR Week Reviews
Marvel Universe Goliath & Thor"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> This was supposed to be up Friday, but we had a technical issue here at IAT. Some internet hiccup altered some files and made the site partially inaccessible, broke some site features, and shutdown our forum outright. It was two days I won’t soon forget. Anyway, I’m here now with my last Thor Week Review.<\/p>\n

It really feels like just a few weeks ago that I saw the first advertisement for the Gigantic Battles line. It was the Iron Man & Goliath that really caught my attention. Not only was I impressed that Hasbro was going to offer figures in this scale, but I really wanted that particular 2pk. It never came here. Vault says he saw it once, but I think he was dreaming. I quietly forgot about Gigantic Battles, only remembering to take note of new ones as I was updating our MU Checklist<\/a>. Fast forward a year-and-a-half, and here we are with the second wave. Having missed the first wave entirely, I thought I’d be able to pass on both sets. Well, that didn’t happen. The Frost Giant 2pk<\/a> caught my attention immediately. He was too cool to pass on. I held out on Goliath a little longer, but I ultimately gave in. It was partially because of the Thor figure and partially because of Bill Foster’s great head sculpt. <\/p>\n

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I called this the Thor figure justnow because that’s what the packaging says. It’s a little more complicated than that. Thor was absent for Marvel’s Civil War<\/em>, but Tony Stark saw fit to rectify that. Along with Reed Richards and Hank “Skrull” Pym, he cloned Thor from a strand of the god’s hair. What he couldn’t grow, he built, which resulted in a cyborg\/clone of Thor that Stark could send into battle whenever he saw fit. Things didn’t go well (& why would they, a clone\/cyborg of a thunder god? Really, Tony?), and replacement Thor here, in his first appearance, killed Goliath. It was a major turning point in Civil War<\/em> and it gave Hasbro a great idea for a 2pk.<\/p>\n

Anyway, fans would dub him Clor. Fans like to do cute things like that, but Marvel stepped in and officially named him Ragnarok. Either way, Hasbro cut the difference and kept it simple. The box is labeled Thor and, as a buyer, you just shouldn’t ask questions about his robot face apparently. For the rest of the review, I’m going to stick with Ragnarok. He is wrapping up Thor week after all.<\/p>\n

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Below the neck, Thor is entirely the same figure from the Secret Wars 2pk that Vault just reviewed<\/a>, but he’s so much better. I’ll cover most of why in the paint section, but for the sculpt, the improvement is all in the one new piece: the head. Vault gave a positive opinion on the Secret Wars head sculpt, but I don’t like it as much as he did. It looks off to me; just too squat, wide. Ragnarok’s head sculpt is killer though.<\/p>\n

DC Direct had a lot of good sculpts over the years, but in 2005 they produced my favorite (at the time) Superman head sculpt. It looked fantastic. There was only one problem, it was for the Composite Superman<\/a> (scroll down to May). It made for a great Composite Superman, but it also made me really wish I had a Superman head to match it. The exact same thing is true here. I love Ragnarok’s head sculpt, the circuitry side is well detailed for the scale. It looks great. But the regular side is also done well. So well, that I wish I had a full version for my regular Thor. I have my fingers crossed that the new head sculpt in that Avengers 3pk<\/a> will be what I’m looking for.<\/p>\n

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The rest of the differences between Secret Wars Thor and this version are all in the paints and molded colors. The black is darker, the silver brighter, the flesh tone more realistic, and the bright yellows switched to gold or muted tones. I don’t think any two parts are the same color and I like the choices on Ragnarok in each instance. He looks fantastic. Better still, I had no paint issues with Ragnarok. Even the intricate details on his face came out great. <\/p>\n

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Articulation is the old standard for the line with the addition if a waist joint. The only articulation I wish it had were the two-part ball joint for the neck (but the figure has decent range without it) and the thigh cuts found on newer figures. If he had those, he’d be perfect. Ragnarok does feature ball-joints at the head, upper torso, shoulders, hips, and ankles, swivels at the biceps, waist, and wrists, single-hinge elbows, and double-hinge knees.<\/p>\n

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Thor also includes a darker repaint of Mjolnir. It’s a cool accessory, but it feels a little more flimsy than the one in the Secret Wars 2pk. It’s painted better here, so you\u2019ll still want this one out of the two. I should also point out that Ragnarok’s cape is made of a more pliable plastic. It’s still cumbersome and prevents deep poses, but it’s easier to manage here than it was on the Secret Wars Thor. Continue to Goliath…<\/a><\/p>\n

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I didn’t really know much about Bill Foster before he died and I’m not exactly sure how important of a character he was before his death. He appears early on in the Avengers comic (Avengers<\/em> #32 – 1966) and it’s not until almost a decade later when he learns the secret to Pym Particles and becomes Black Goliath (1975). Over the years, he would lose and regain his powers here and there and change his nom de guerre a few times including a stint as Giant-Man and most recently as just plain Goliath. It was as just plain Goliath, and in this particular version of his costume, that he appeared and challenged Thor (not knowing he was about to face Ragnarok) and was murdered by the clone\/cyborg for his trouble. His unfortunate demise aside, the issue in which he dies, Civil War<\/em> #3, is a great read and is included with this 2pk.<\/p>\n

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Like the other Gigantic Battles figures, Goliath reuses a 12″ Marvel Legends Icons body. In this case, it originally belonged to Cyclops<\/a>. That means there’s surely a big “X” underneath that big “G”. I don\u2019t know why, but I think that\u2019s funny.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if Cyclops’ slender build was the right way to go. I mean, Foster is a scientist and that may not scream bulk, but this body just seems too scrawny for a giant. He doesn’t look wrong, but just off enough to be annoying. If the arms were a little meatier and the legs a little shorter, I think I’d enjoy this figure quite a bit more. Also, Goliath isn’t supposed to have that tubing running through his suit. It doesn’t look bad or even out of place, but it’s not supposed to be there. That said, it\u2019s the new pieces that really make the figure stand out. I love the big, bulky belt and I really liked the head sculpt.<\/p>\n

The head, in fact, was what sold me on the figure in the store. It’s a great sculpt. It looks realistic with a great determined expression. <\/p>\n

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The paint on Goliath is decent, but it could be better. There was one each at three nearest Wal-Marts and I drove around to all three to compare paint (Ironically, the Frost Giant had sold out at all three locations, let the toy companies sort out the demographics on that one). This guy was the best of the three by far and you can see in the photo above that the paint on his collar is still rather fuzzy. The rest of the figure is more or less molded in the right colors, so if that line were as sharp as it should be, I’d probably be saying he had great paint. The rest of the paintwork is fine, airbrushing for depth and the little details on the symbol and his head. I do like that the eye slits are silver. He looks really cool in low light when those eyes are piercing through the darkness at you.<\/p>\n

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The articulation is pretty good too. He has a ball-jointed head with some tilt and I love that. He also include ball-joints at the shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles, swivels at the biceps, waist, thighs, and calves, double-hinges at the elbows and knees, and the ab-crunch. They all work well, but some of them are ratcheted and extra, extra tight. I feel like I might snap his twig-like arms off when I’m posing them and I still haven’t quite figured out the right arrangement on those ball hips to get him to stand level. His left hip likes to sit up higher than his right hip.<\/p>\n

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Overall, this is a good 2pk, it’s just not as good a 2pk as its casemate, Loki & the Frost Giant. Bill Foster has two new nicely sculpted pieces, but the reuse of the Cyclops buck makes him a tad off. If you turn his biceps inward, you can give them some extra width (the ol’ DCUC ladies’ fix). Then, pose him in the back of a display to take advantage of his height and you\u2019ll block his legs. Those two things will help blend the figure into your setup better. Despite those nitpicks, he’s still fun to pose and play with and you can never have too many appropriately scaled oversize figures in your collection.<\/P><\/p>\n

Ragnarok is fun to own too. He makes better use of the Thor mold than the original and the head sculpt is killer. We need someone to put together a “Dramatic Ragnarok” video in the same style as that Dramatic Prairie Dog clip from a few years ago. The new head looks great and the better colors make you long for a better regular Thor in your collection too. Right now, this 2pk may be getting left behind in favor of the Frost Giant, but I don’t think any MU Collection would be complete without these two.<\/p>\n

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

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The was supposed to be up Friday, but we had a technical issue here at IAT. Some internet hiccup altered php files and made the site was partially inaccessible, broke some site features, and shutdown our forum outright. It was two days I won’t soon forget. Anyway, I’m here now with my last Thor Week Review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":12536,"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":[26,34,414],"tags":[1011,1010,1013,1012,24,2567,1009,888],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/golTN.jpg?fit=50%2C50","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-3gb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12473,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12473","url_meta":{"origin":12535,"position":0},"title":"THOR Week Reviews Marvel Universe Thor #012","date":"May 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":12535,"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":12327,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12327","url_meta":{"origin":12535,"position":2},"title":"Marvel Universe Reviews Loki & the Savage Frost Giant","date":"April 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I had little intention of buying the Frost Giant. He looked cool at SDCC , but I generally only buy Marvel Universe figures of characters I know & like. And yet when Vault called me late last week to tell me the newest Gigantic Battles had shown up at Wal-Mart,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Universe"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12527,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12527","url_meta":{"origin":12535,"position":3},"title":"THOR Week Vault Review: Secret Wars Thor & Enchantress","date":"May 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My last review of the week is the Thor and Enchantress Secret Wars two-pack. Like the Doom two-pack, this was the first chance for Marvel Universe fans to pick up a Thor figure, not to mention an Enchantress. On paper this two-pack seemed promising, but sadly, the plastic reality wasn\u2019t\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Universe"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12411,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12411","url_meta":{"origin":12535,"position":4},"title":"Marvel Universe Checklist Updated","date":"April 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Our Marvel Universe Visual Checklist has been updated with the latest news, images, and links. We've added the newest images from Hasbro and a handful of review links to our 2011 page while the Captain America & Thor movie pages have been updated with the latest release information respectively. Continue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Universe"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12563,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12563","url_meta":{"origin":12535,"position":5},"title":"Shameless Plug: Check out my new blog, The Daily Thor!","date":"May 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This announcement was supposed to come at the end of Thor Week, but some technical glitches here at IAT really threw me, Vault, and the rest of the gang for a loop this weekend! Now that we have everything in working order, I'd like to invite all of you to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Daily Thor"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12535"}],"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=12535"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12547,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12535\/revisions\/12547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}