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 #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 #3, is a great read and is included with this 2pk.
Like the other Gigantic Battles figures, Goliath reuses a 12″ Marvel Legends Icons body. In this case, it originally belonged to Cyclops. That means there’s surely a big “X” underneath that big “G”. I don’t know why, but I think that’s funny.
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’s the new pieces that really make the figure stand out. I love the big, bulky belt and I really liked the head sculpt.
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.
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.
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.
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’ll 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.
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.
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I do agree with you that this mold needs beefier arms and they can lose that piping from Cyclops while they’re at it. Those skinny arms were the first thing I noticed in the FB pic you posted.
I managed to snag the red/blue Giant-Man from the previous wave up here in the Washington WM clearance aisle a few months back. I never saw any others at that store (STILL looking for Giant-Skrull!), so I’m presuming one of the other collectors in the area returned him? The piping isn’t as noticeable on Hank, except for the blue crotch (panty)lines, probably due to the shading and the red plastic being darker than Bill’s white plastic? It seems Bill’s panty lines are less noticeable due to the dark blue plastic? Other than that, my only complaint about Hank would be the lack of shading on the head, making it brighter than the rest of the figure. The straps on the ankles and wrists are easy to miss, too, unless you look for them.
and yes, there IS an “X” under the added belts on both figures! LOL
I hope I see these, as I’m still waiting to see ANY GL stuff (besides Imaginext at Target) after a week. koffnotholdingbreathkoff!
As for Clor/Ragnarök (auto-correct adds umlaut?) it could be worse: Thorminator/TerminaThor.
thankyew! I’ll be here until Thursday, when I go see Dave Foley!
(also, I do agree that head sculpt looks FAR better than the one with Enchantress.)
and that parting shot reminds me: we still needs Clint-Goliath from his original run and/or Avengers Forever! ’70’s men in half-shirts/harnesses FTW! (as opposed to 70yo men in half shirts and trusses! EW!)
yes, I went there! LOL
The umlaut is correct for the event, but not the name apparently. And Thorminator is awful. lol
You saw one of the earlier Battle 2pks? Lucky! I’m not sure why those ended up so poorly distributed. It’s annoying.
I scored BOTH of these new 2pks at 141/Manchester (Hwy 100) WM after seeing Foley Friday night! haven’t really had time to check them out, tho.
I almost wish I could afford to drive up into the county more often, but not when gas is near $4/gallon!
they also had the first three GL/Guardian 2pks along with other GL stuff (which is now ALL over StL County!). at least the Guardians get names (Sayd with Sinestro, forget the others, not Ganthet or Appa. one was semi-familiar, other was new to me.) MAN, but the rest of that GL line SUCKS. I *might* buy the alien Movie Masters, but that’s it. In fact, I saw Hal, Kilowog, and Rot Lop Fan (who was the ONLY one I might get later), and they all come with the SAME PIECE to “build” Parallax! wtF? 14 pieces spread among 11 figures? UGH!
Cool, I want this set but don’t feel the same value for the buck as with Loki and Frost Giant. Will probably get but waiting for now.
It’s definitely not the same value, but I think that’s more about the Frost Giant set being above and beyond awesome. LOL
Exactly, plus I was never a huge fan of Bill Foster, no offence to the Bill Foster fans, but he just never did it for me.
that last joke was great. also, kudos on weathering the storm… did you piss off the same guys sony did? 😉
I think we angered Loki… 🙂
Not to derail the thread but Green Lantern stuff is EVERYWHERE in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mattel has put together a pre-packaged ‘dump’ of the movie figs. Seen at TRU and K-mart.
Yes I bought the damn light-up Power Ring with stupid mask. Don’t judge me! 🙂
As to this two-pack, I really know nothing about these guys. I was bothered by the Fat Face Thor that Vault was singing the praises of so I have to side with Noisy on the desire for this Mecha-Thor head to be…un-roboted.
Ironically, we haven’t seen any GL stuff here.
I’m with you on passing on the 2-pack Thor, as well as the arms on Goliath. I wonder id they’d considered using the Frost Giant’s arms from the shoulders down to give him some needed muscle…and it’s a shame since that head sculpt IS a winner.
I definitely think a little mixing and matching parts was an order, but I suppose they sold Cyclops with wimpy arms too…
I’m really excited for that Avengers 3pk after seeing that he does appear to have a new head sculpt. Hopefully, he’ll be painted similar to Ragnarok here. If not, a head swap might be in order if the skin tones match…