{"id":13925,"date":"2011-08-12T03:40:47","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T08:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=13925"},"modified":"2011-08-12T04:17:22","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T09:17:22","slug":"marvel-universe-astral-doctor-strange-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=13925","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Universe Astral
Doctor Strange Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>If any line showcases just how great of a learning curve toy companies are capable of, it\u2019s Marvel Universe. I love my Marvel Legends, but with each new wave of Marvel Universe figures, I feel more and more pull towards the little line. The figures just keep getting better and better. <\/p>\n

I don’t normally think much about buying Marvel Legends and Marvel Universe at the same time. After Marvel Legends “ended” I condensed my collection to a tight batch of favorite characters and\/or great figures (usually or, ML always seemed to screw me when I wanted a great figure of a characted I loved), so I no longer have the near complete Legends collection I once had. That surely made it easier to buy MUs over the last few years, but with ML fighting its way back, I’m starting to feel a conflict. Take Dr. Strange here as an example.<\/p>\n

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When I found this wave at Target, I was planning on picking up both versions of Dr. Strange. Then I remembered that I have a perfectly good 6″ Dr. Strange sitting in a storage bin in the basement. And all of a sudden, it just seemed silly to buy a 4″ one. I ultimately talked myself out of it (for now), but I have to wonder about what this means for me as a Marvel collector. I don’t need to buy them all (and I don’t have the funds anyway), but do I really need to be picking and choosing between two scales? That seems odd and ill-suited for display. Take the upcoming Steve Rogers figures – soon available in both scales. I’ve been waiting impatiently for the MU, but now I think I should just buy the ML. That’s the sensible thing to do…<\/p>\n

I guess that signals how I’ll proceed. Legends over Universe. I mean, there’s some stuff I have to have (like the FA Captain Britain, the Avengers 3pk for the Thor & Iron Man, etc.), but I should probably proceed with a little more self-awareness and save some money for those MLs. It’s a weird situation and I wonder how many of you out there are in the same boat…<\/p>\n

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Anyway, I decided to split the difference. Like I said, I left the regular Strange (great figure that he is), but obviously picked up his Astral Form (& a Scarlet Spidey… yeah, I’m weak).<\/em> I was always disappointed that the Marvel Legends Strange didn’t get an astral variant and this one was done so well with the pearlized plastic instead of just plain clear. I had to have it even if I’m going to try and be a good little six-inch collector.<\/p>\n

Because of that iridescent sheen, I’m going to jump ahead to the paint section. There is the tiniest bit of paint – silver for the clasp on his cloak and for his pupils. I had thought that maybe the iridescent coloring was painted on (it would likely be if this were a Mattel toy), but it appears to be inherent to the molded plastic. It’s a total home run in my book. I’m a sucker for transparent figures (I always have been) and regardless of how my Marvel collection plays out, this version of Dr. Strange won’t be going to storage anytime soon simply because of the coloring.<\/p>\n

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Since I don’t buy every MU, I’m not completely sure what’s new and reused here, but I’m willing to bet most of the figure is new, everything above the waist for sure. The legs are your standard fare (albeit much more articulated than normal) while the rest of the figure required tooling to get the Doc’s clothing just right. I only have two issues with the sculpt. One, the figure looks great in the cape, but when it’s removed, his neck is too tall. Second, I do lament that Hasbro couldn’t\/didn’t add some sculpted detail to the tunic so that the design could be showcased even in this form, but I understanding that doing it this way will allow Hasbro to reuse this clothed torso when they need it again.<\/p>\n

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I wanted to point out that bit about the tunic right off the bat because everything else is<\/em> sculpted and detailed. The tunic is represented by two upper torso pieces and a softer plastic skirt, the sleeves are poofy right down to the tight gloves, a soft plastic sash is added for depth, and he’s sporting a unique head and hands (well, the hands could be Spidey hands, I suppose). On top of all that is the cloak of levitiation which also has its trim pattern placed directly into the sculpt and it looks great.<\/p>\n

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Typically, when you buy clear figures (and I do) you expect to miss out on a lot of detail because the clear plastic just can’t showcase it (let alone the fact that the paint does a lot of the work these days). For example, I can tell you that Dr. Strange has a great head sculpt – but I can’t really show you in any of the pictures here. But the sculpted details on the cape and the different plastics used for depth help to alleviate that problem for the most part with Doctor Strange’s costume and he’s quickly becoming one of my favorite clear figures. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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The articulation on this guy is crazy! It’s kinda funny because sensibly, he just needs to float around and be intangible. Yet his articulation affords him some serious kung fu poses. He’s got ball-joints at the head, shoulders, wrists, hips, & ankles*, swivels at the biceps, waists, thighs, & calves, hinges at the neck & elbows, double-hinged knees, and an ab crunch. Nearly every articulation point has great range and, I say this seriously, he almost moves too much. The only issue here is that I still hate the hip design that Hasbro uses. I really wish they’d use something more similar to Doctor Who or the Four Horsemen hips.<\/p>\n

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* – I wanted to give a special shout out to the ball-jointed ankles. The peg from the ankle extends into the front of the foot. This not only gives the figure a fantastic rocker ankle, but also gives good range to the traditional hinge as well. Maybe I’m overly impressed, or maybe I just miss rocker ankles on my DC figures.<\/em><\/p>\n

Doctor Strange doesn’t include any accessories, but he does have an MU stand. It’s crafted out of the same iridescent plastic and looks pretty sweet if you have the figures displayed on their stands together. I do wish he had some mystic energy attachments, but that’s neither here nor there. <\/p>\n

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Overall, while I should probably be cutting back on the MUs, this is one purchase I’m happy with. The sculpt and articulation are so great on this figure, that I really do regret leaving the painted one behind. He’s an excellent rendition of Doctor Strange with great articulation and hey – flawless paint! While I’m always going to be more into Marvel Legends and looking forward to at least cherry picking the big line (no completism for me this time around), Dr. Strange does a great job of showcasing just how far along the Marvel Universe line has come since the early figures. He’s fantastic and choosing between the lines in the future is going to be a lot more difficult than I’m making it sound here. <\/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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<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If any line showcases just how great of a learning curve toy companies are capable of, it\u2019s Marvel Universe. I love my Marvel Legends, but with each new wave of Marvel Universe figures, I feel more and more pull towards the little line. The figures just keep getting better and better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":13929,"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":[26,34,10],"tags":[1140,1139,24,2567],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/astTN.jpg?fit=50%2C50","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-3CB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12411,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12411","url_meta":{"origin":13925,"position":0},"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":12495,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12495","url_meta":{"origin":13925,"position":1},"title":"THOR Week Vault Review: Doctor Doom & Absorbing Man","date":"May 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I also found it interesting that they chose to give us a classic comic book version of Doom in a Secret Wars pack. I always thought the battle armor that he forged to take down the Beyonder had a great look. Plus it made for a really cool toy in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Universe"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12473,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12473","url_meta":{"origin":13925,"position":2},"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":124,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=124","url_meta":{"origin":13925,"position":3},"title":"It’sAllTrue Review: Marvel Universe Blade","date":"July 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18854,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=18854","url_meta":{"origin":13925,"position":4},"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":11278,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11278","url_meta":{"origin":13925,"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\/13925"}],"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=13925"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13942,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13925\/revisions\/13942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}