I don’t have room to army-build. I would like to army-build. I would like to do a great many things, like buy Legos. Build giant dioramas. Pose my figures in fun & elaborate displays instead of them staring up or down at me waiting to break out in a country line dance (or do the “domino”), but I don’t have the space.
When I bought my awesome new s helving units last year, I said that I wanted my toy collection to fit on those shelves. That, with some exceptions for complete lines with less loved figures in storage, that anything beyond what fit on those shelves was probably stuff I didn’t need. I don’t want a massive collection in storage. Then I basically filled those shelves up no sweat. And then I went and bought Fortress Maximus, Castle Grayskull, and the Hot Toys Batmobile last year. Space is at a premium.
And when you’re trying to decide if you need favorite character War Machine out on display in his comic or movie form (not to mention this happens in both 6” and 4” scale, oh, and there’s that Hot Toy War Machine too…), then do I really need to make sure to have room for Dick & Harry Army Builder? The smart money says no. But then you buy two Sandtroopers. Or two Parademons. Because, hey that’s not army building, that’s symmetry.
When Captain America 2’s Marvel Legends started hitting, I made a short list – I was getting Black Widow, Baron Zemo, and two A.I.M. Agents (Kirby Symmetry, even better). Then they came out and I bought Red Skull because he had the best damn head sculpt yet. I will buy the movie Cap & Winter Soldier because the Mandroid drove me to it. And that left me not skipping several figures, but just one: the Hydra Agent. I have no really affinity for Hydra. They don’t have the cool suits. The terrorist/snake thing is a bit overplayed. They are green, there’s that. But being a DC fan, I’d take a Checkmate Agent or a Kobra Blackadder before Hydra Agents. There was just one problem though – I’m apparently not a big enough fan of $20. Or I’m just easily swayed by any little thing. Maybe both.
Cause I still bought a Hydra Agent. Hasbro made it rather easy. He’s built on what has become there standard dude buck. It’s well sculpted, free of any real oddities like past bucks, and moves great. I think the feet are a little small, but that’s about it. The Hydra Agent needed only a belt, a chest harness, and a new head to get his specifics and Hasbro went for all three. I’m not sure if any are used for previous characters, even previous Hydra Agents, but this figure looks sharp. The colors are mostly done with molded plastics and the figure looks pretty sharp overall. They make it easy to buy toys when it looks good in the package.
But, as I mentioned, the articulation is also a lot of fun. There’s a ball-jointed head, shoulders, wrists, hips, and the inverted ankles; swivels at the biceps, thighs, and boots, double-hinged elbows & knees, and the torso articulation is the classic ab crunch and waist swivel instead of anything funky. It all works great. The only knock I have on him here is that the hips pegs are again a little rickety, like Carnage. He stands fine, but then they give and the figure leans a little bit. I’m not sure what’s not quite working here, but others have reported it happening in the Carnage comments, so I’m not alone. Continue to Page 2…
I mentioned the BAF arm weapon swappage in a previous review, didn’t I? or was it in the AF Addicts page on FB?
Either way, it would allow a bit of customization for army builders, even with the Iron Monger BAF the Mandroid is built on. In fact, I just made a spare Monger with these extra Mandy arms. He does look a bit cool with those dull silver arms on the metallic blue body.
(possible base for Box? I already did him and yellow Mandroids with TB HBIM. hmmm….)
I do find it annoying that the “running change” is only 50/50 with the first half of the series. I found three fresh cases of the B wave Saturday night at WMs and it confirmed for me that it only has Skull and Zemo. WHY NOT THE ACTUAL ARMY BUILDERS???
Any chance we can talk an e-tailer into selling 2pks of AIM and Hydra for army builders, the way they did with the DCUC Parademons? still kicking myself for passing on that deal!
I do have a good half-dozen of the Brood series Hydra, I think I tried to keep the screamers and grimace heads equal? The only catch is those are more of a drab olive green, not the Kelly green seen for this figure. Maybe my lone Cap2 Hydra can be their squad commander?
(also, *those* extra arms I used on the Brood BAF body for a Brood “King” to go with the Queen. but then I wound up with a pile of those shorter legs. LOL)
and where is our Hydra Bob variant for Deadpool?? and his AIM cohort Bill??
both of those would be fun variants. Maybe Hasbro will start shipping the A case again and I can pick some more up, but I’m already plottin-er, planning to just order a case so I at least have a pair each of Hydra and AIM guys.
(still annoyed one guy on FB posted finding his EIGHTH Hydra at Target, then an hour later, posted “NINE!” sonofa–!!!)
Anyway, yeah, pretty basic figure without too much to screw up EXCEPT for the fact he’s a SHORT-PACKED ARMY BUILDER. gah.
Have one and yes is a fun fig. Another great review.
Nice review! I’m really enjoying the pics with these Cap figures. I share your frustration with the BAF parts on these guys. I don’t know how to fix the problem either, but I would have loved to have been able to vary my Mandroids. Of course, this is only going to be the an “issue” if I find a Black Widow to get his torso…
Venture Brothers totally sold me on the idea of henchmen as a viable source of humor (okay, and the first Austin Powers flick). I love this.
While my first love as far as evil organizations go will always be A.I.M (beekeeper suits and MODOK, how can they fail?), Hydra is pretty cool too and this is a great figure of their “generic” troopers. I hope one day they can put out a 4″ figure with this uniform as well, as their previous attempts were not really up to my standards.
Awesome review, great pics. 🙂
I have this guy as my Bob paired with Deadpool. The goggles may not be the right color, but they changed from yellow to white so much in the comic, it’s not that big of a deal for me for them to be red.
I think his belt’s a reuse of the ultimate Hawkeye belt.
The two AIM Agents are the new Sandtroopers
Nice review!
i don’t know how/why they did what they did w/ the BAF pieces, but i do think this is a nice play figure if you or the kids need a good generic goon to have a goodie kick the crap out of… and who doesn’t need that? if TMNT classics would give us a foot soldier with this solid a base body, i wouldn’t buy 20 of them, but i bet a lot of guys would. but i’d get one. 😉 there is something to be said for just getting a base body done right.
I would love to have two of each AIM & Hydra, BUT I’ve yet to see them in the wild. Sure there are a few of the individuals at every store, yet the army builders are gone in an instant. An employee let out at one store that they check the online prices and sell them. Wonderful. Glad some people are getting these; my toys may all end up preorders to get anything I like.
When are you doing the Captain America review?