Tag Archives: Black Widow

Toy Review: Marvel Legends | Mandroid

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s review is the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier Mandroid Build-a-Figure (BAF). This is the whole reason I bought all the other figures in the line. Perhaps not the whole reason, but it’s a pretty big reason. This figure is really cool.

snapshot-581

Figures in the Series

Figure Details

Check out this quick video of the Mandoid coming together

Articulation – ★★★★☆

This is a big, bulky figure, which is what I like in a Build-a-Figure. So the articulation you’d expect would be a little lacking. There are some issues, but for the most part, the issues are very minor.

Total POA’s = 27

  • Arms – There are 5 joints per arm.
    • Shoulders: Ball Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge Joint. I really like both of these joints. They are well done and give Mandroid a lot of range of motion. The one thing I don’t like is that they actually limited how high his shoulders can rise through the joint itself. The sculpt of the figure could have gone higher as there is no interference. Had there been a bicep joint, this wouldn’t have mattered. Note, there is no bicep joint which would have been helpful.
    • Elbow: A single Pin/Hinge joint as well as a Peg Joint at the top of the elbow. The bend is pretty limited due to the bulk of the figure, but it’s not really a major detractor from this figure. You’re still going to get him into a lot of really cool shots. He’s not a punching type of figure so he’s not a close range fighter.
    • Wrist: Peg Joint but there’s little to no motion there. It’s nice to have, but they really didn’t need to put it there. The tiny nuanced angles you get aren’t that great.
  • Legs – There are 7 joints in each leg/hip/ankle area.
    • Hips: T-Jointed Ball Joint provides a lot of forward and even more backward motion. This allows you to get your Mandroid into some really nice action poses. For a large bulky figure, this is really amazing.
    • Thigh: Peg Joint that fits right over the ball at the hips really nicely. Great range of motion.
    • Knees: Double Pin/Hinge joints in the knees allows for about a 90 degree bend. Nothing more expected here.
    • Ankles: Each ankle has 3 joints. Peg Joint at the top of the ball in the ankle. There is a Pin/Hinge joint as well and an ankle rocker. They really went all out on this one.
  • Body – There is one joint in the body area. I believe this is a double ball joint in the torso just above the waist. This joint provides really good ab crunch for a robot as well as backward motion. I like the waist twist you get as well and there is a little bit of side to side motion as well. Very well done.
  • Head: A single Ball Joint that might have been ok, except the fit is so tight and the had sits so low, once you get the head on, it’s really hard to get your fingers in there to move the head. This is the biggest negative of the figure.

NOTE: The machine gun mounted on Mandroids shoulder can twist from side to side.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mold – ★★★★★

I love this figure. The sculpt work is so well done. This thing has so many nice little details. It’s really a beautifully sculpted figure. The only issue really is how they did the head and head articulation.

I really like the weapons on his arms. They are really cool.

Paint – ★★☆☆☆

What paint? With such a great sculpt of this figure, a great coat of paint would really go a long way to complete this figure. They really didn’t do anything. Yes, there are some yellow/gold accents on the weapons and the eye visor has the same yellow, otherwise the only paint I can see is the S.H.I.E.L.D. emblem on the chest. It’s nicely done, but looks a hair out of place due to the lack of paint everywhere else.

It seems Hasbro was trying to save some money on paint apps on this figure. It’s a real shame because even an ok paint job would have really made this thing one of their top BAF’s.

Accessories – ★★★★☆

When it comes to a Build-a-Figure, I don’t really expect much for accessories, but if you do get some, that’s even better. I sort of consider the shoulder mounted machine gun to be a bit of an accessory. Since you can take it off and display the figure without it. I really like the look of this gun. It’s simple yet looks nice. A little more paint would have been nice, but it’s still really nice.

Packaging – ★★★★☆

This figure comes as individual pieces you assemble from all the other figures in the line. I like the packaging from this line, so this guy gets a 4 star rating.

Overall Rating – ★★★★☆

This figure is really cool. A better paint job would have put him at 5 stars, but he’s still worth getting. There’s plenty of really cool figures in the wave that I recommend building this figure yourself rather than going on Ebay to find it complete.

Do you have any of these figures? If so, do you have a review to share? Please share in the comments or link to your review.

Toy Review: Marvel Legends | Marvel Now! Captain America

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s review is the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier Marvel Now! Captain America. I’ll be up front an honest right now. I really didn’t want to buy this figure, but I really needed the head BAF piece to build the Mandoid figure. Am I glad I bought it? Let’s take a look and see.

snapshot-575

Figures in the Series

Figure Details

Articulation – ★★★★☆

The Marvel Now Captain America has a pretty standard set of articulation points. I’d say it’s run of the mill, with no major deficiencies. There are some high points, and one or two low. Let’s take a look.

Total POA’s = 31

  • Arms – There are 7 joints per arm.
    • Shoulders: Ball Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge Joint that is really hindered a lot by the shoulder sculpt. Cap can’t really move his arm out to the height of his shoulder which is pretty bad. The joints are really tight too. The right shoulder feels like I’m going to break it when I go to move it.
    • Bicep: Peg Joint which is nicely molded to follow the natural bicep look. No standard cut joint and this makes it look much more realistic.
    • Elbow: Double Pin/Hinge joints but the joint at the bicep literally does nothing. It cannot move to the first ratcheted click, so they could have saved some money and done away with that joint. He doesn’t need it anyway. With the single joint that does work, he can still bend his arm more than 90 degrees which is good enough for me.
    • Wrist: Peg Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge joint. Both operate very well and were nice and tight.
  • Legs – There are 7 joints in each leg/hip/ankle area.
    • Hips: T-Jointed Ball Joint provides a good forward kick motion and backwards is hindered by the sculpt but not too badly.
    • Thigh: Peg Joint with a standard cut joint. There are some continuity issues with the mold of the leg and this joint, but the paint app as you’ll read later is nonexistent so you probably won’t notice this at all.
    • Knees: Double Pin/Hinge joints in the knees allows for a really good bend in the knee. The calf muscles are sculpted a bit larger so his range of motion is limited, but nothing detrimental to posing in my opinion.
    • Shin: Peg Joint with a standard cut joint at the top of the boot. This is a functional joint, but many don’t feel a joint here is anatomically correct or necessary. I’d lean that way as well, at least, if you have the Thigh and/or ankle pivot which this figure has both.
    • Ankles: Each ankle has 2 joints. Pin/Hinge Joints that allow for excellent backward motion and decent forward motion. The ankle rocker is a nice addition as well.
  • Body – There is one joint in the body area. This is a Pin/Hinge joint similar to the Hyperion body mold though I don’t believe this figure is using that mold. This is one of the better POA’s on this figure as you get a good ab crunch as well as a good backwards motion. The biggest issue here is you do get paint wear as the joint is tighter so it rubs. There is no waist joint, which would have been nice.
  • Head: A single Ball Joint and a Pin/Hinge disc that provides great up and down, side to side, but pretty much no tilt.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mold – ★★★★☆

I actually like the sculpt of this figure. It’s by no means my favorite or even cracking my top 10, but it’s pretty good. It gives Cap some build so it’s evident he’s muscular, but not overly. There are nice details in the chest in which his costume has the scales we’ve come to love.

As noted in the articulation section, the ab crunch does pose a danger to the paint application. Too much motion in that joint will wear away the paint, which is a bummer. Overall, this is a solidly sculpted figure.

Paint – ★★☆☆☆

Paint is where this figure fails. Yeah, it’s Red, White, and Blue with some skin color for the lower face portion, but there is little to no shading. The really nice sculpt work they did with details and straps and whatnot are not accented and taken advantage of through the paint app. The paint that is there, as noted, is wearing off in some areas, and is thin in others.

They did do a good job on his face. I’ll give them that, but otherwise, they took what could have been a really nice figure, and forgot to finish it.

Accessories – ★★★☆☆

The Marvel Now Captain America comes with one accessory, the shield. The shield is nice enough. It has a slightly different mechanism for Cap to hold his shield as it is a wrist clip. I’m not a huge fan of that, but it works. The cool part about it is it’s on a hinge so you can folder that over and a peg is exposed that you can then mount the shield on Caps back.

This is pretty cool, except they didn’t paint the inside of the shield. It’s all red. I would have preferred a silver or at least multiple colors or something. The front of the shield is really well done, however. The red has a really nice sparkle to it.

Packaging – ★★★★☆

Standard Marvel Legends Infinite Series packaging which is great.

Overall Rating – ★★★☆☆

This is a decent figure, but not really a must have. If nothing else, you’ll need to get it to complete your Mandroid BAF, but you probably already have a few Captain America figures in your collection already so perhaps you’ll wanna skip this one and simply find the head on Ebay. It’s up to you.

Do you have any of these figures? If so, do you have a review to share? Please share in the comments or link to your review.

Toy Review: Marvel Legends | Red Skull

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s review is the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier Agents of Hydra – Red Skull. I was really excited to get this figure, unfortunately, the best part about him is the head sculpt. Let’s take a closer look to see why.

snapshot-470

Figures in the Series

Figure Details

Articulation – ★☆☆☆☆

The articulation is really bad on this figure. Some is due to the sculpt and some issues are due to the poor overall design of the figure. Let’s dig a little deeper and see why.

Total POA’s = 31

  • Arms – There are 7 joints per arm.
    • Shoulders: Ball Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge Joint that allows for a pretty limited amount of upward motion due both to the trench coat but also the sculpt of the shoulders. Not good. It’s also nearly impossible to get his arms to go all the way down as they are hindered by the coat again.
    • Bicep: Pin/Hinge joint allows for good rotation at the bottom of the shoulder ball joint. No issues here, though the mold of the joint is a little flimsy looking and there’s a large gap.
    • Elbow: Double Pin/Hinge joints that allow for a full bend at the elbow. Much appreciated considering all the other shortcomings.
    • Wrist: Peg Joint and a Pin/Hinge joint. Pretty good motion even with the jacket cuffs.
  • Legs – There are 7 joints in each leg/hip/ankle area.
    • Hips: Y-Jointed Ball Joint which is limited in forward and backward. Forward you get a little more motion than backward, but this is pretty bad. Outward splits is good until you go to turn the thigh swivel back to get the knee joints back to normal. The mold at the top of the leg forces you to reduce his splits considerably.
    • Thigh: Peg Joint. As noted in the Hips section. The sculpt of the hip swivel impedes the motion considerably. It is also quite difficult to get it moved back.
    • Knees: Double Pin/Hinge joints in the knees allows for a decent amount of bend in the knees, though more would have been helpful.
    • Ankles: Each ankle has 2 joints. Pin/Hinge Joints that allow for an acceptable backward motion as well as forward. There is a Peg Joint as well but no ankle rocker. This figure really needs an ankle rocker.
  • Body – There is one joint in the body area. I believe this is a double ball joint in the torso just below the breast line of the figure. This joint is not well hidden and seems to lean to the figures right mostly. There is a really big gap as well and gives little to no range of motion. The backwards motion is slightly better, but the trench coat reduces that.
  • Head: A single Ball Joint which surprisingly provides a lot of up and down motion. You get the standard side to side but almost no tilt. There is a Pin/Hinge disc joint which helps a lot.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mold – ★★★☆☆

I’m really torn on this figure. I want to reduce it’s rating by one star but I also really want to increase it by one, so it sits at 3. There are some really awesome parts to the sculpt of this figure. Mostly in the head sculpt. This is a really awesome head. Hasbro did an amazing job there. I also really like the look of the trench coat, but I wish parts of it were a softer rubber/plastic. It really does get in the way of articulation way too much. Supposedly you can remove it, but I think he’d look really dumb without it.

The rest of the figure has some positives as the detail work is very nice. I like the pants and boots. The arms, however, seem far too long. Something is off either in the forearm length or something. Another thing weird about the sculpt of this figure is he has two usable holsters, but only one pistol that can use the two holsters. His second gun will not fit into either holster, so that’s pretty lame.

Paint – ★★★☆☆

The paint application on the head alone should have given this guy 4 stars, but the rest of the figure is really lacking paint. There’s some, but I would have loved to see a little more. The paint work they did do is very clean from what I can see, so I’m happy there. The actual details they did paint like the belt buckle and strap buckles look really good. I just wish there was something on the trench coat.

Accessories – ★★★★☆

Red Skull comes with 2 pistols. A regular handgun that fits into either of his holsters which is red with a little black and then another pistol that looks to be some strange type of gun that may shoot something other than bullets. I like this second gun more than the first. The first on is far too small. When you try to put it into Skull’s hand his hand dwarfs the gun so it looks a little odd, but I’ve gotten over that because I keep it in his holster. The fact we get the two guns is pretty nice considering we don’t always get even one accessory.

The final accessory we get with Red Skull is a Tessaract cube. This, though very simple, is really cool and I’m so glad I have it. It’s a translucent bluish green colored cube and if you’re at all up on the comics or Marvel movies, you’ll appreciate how a plastic cube can be awesome. You can even get the figure to hold the cube pretty well, which is a really nice surprise.

Packaging – ★★★★☆

Standard Marvel Legends Infinite Series packaging which is great.

Overall Rating – ★★★☆☆

Overall I had to give this figure a 3 of 5. Again, I feel I wish I could drop it a star, but also increase it a star. I do think this is a must have figure for your collection, even if there are better ones out there, namely for the head sculpt. The head sculpt alone makes all the other issues worth it. Just don’t expect it to be the most fun figure to pose, or look at from the shoulders down.

Do you have any of these figures? If so, do you have a review to share? Please share in the comments or link to your review.

Toy Review: Marvel Legends | WW2 Captain America

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s review is the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier WW2 Captain America. There are three Caps in this series, so I wasn’t too excited about any of them, but this one looked pretty cool, but as far as I can see, it’s a retool of a previous Captain America Hasbro released but the shoulders are not as good on this figure. Let’s take a closer look.

snapshot-498

Figures in the Series

Figure Details

Articulation – ★★★★☆

The articulation on this figure is pretty good. The only thing I don’t like are the missing ankle rockers and the Y-Joint hips. Other than that, this figure has really nice articulation

Total POA’s = 30

  • Arms – There are 7 joints per arm.
    • Shoulders: Ball Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge Joint that provides a pretty good amount of upward motion in the shoulder, though the weird shoulder sculpt does hinder it a bit.
    • Bicep: Peg Joint provides standard rotation.
    • Elbow: Double Pin/Hinge joints allow for a full bend in the elbows which is awesome for posing.
    • Wrist: Peg Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge joint. The sculpt does hinder the hand from moving up a little, but nothing too horrible.
  • Legs – There are 7 joints in each leg/hip/ankle area.
    • Hips: Y-Joint allows a decent amount of forward motion, but pretty much no backward motion. Outward motion is quite good, but you have to rotate the Y-Joints which can be a bit difficult to do and then harder to get them back.
    • Thigh: Peg Joint which is a standard cut joint. This joint can cause some odd looks because of the sculpt, but there isn’t any major paint that causes issues due to the rotation which is good.
    • Knees: Double Pin/Hinge joints in the knees but they don’t allow for as much bend as I would have liked. I also feel the knee caps are a little small for this figure and can look a little odd.
    • Ankles: Each ankle has 2 joints. Pin/Hinge Joints with little forward or backward motion. A Peg Joint allows you to rotate the foot but no ankle rocker which I would have rather had.
  • Body – There is one joint in the body area. I believe this is a double ball joint in the torso just below the breast line of the figure. It’s very well hidden and quite effective. Not as much for an ab crunch for for a back arch it’s quite nice. There’s pretty good side to side as well.
  • Head: A single Ball Joint allows for really good up and down motion.This is probably the best part of the articulation of this figure. There is also a disc Pin/Hinge joint which greatly assists in this awesome articulation.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mold – ★★★★☆

The sculpt of this figure is pretty nice. Aside from the really ugly shoulder joints, this figure looks really nice. There’s a lot of detailed sculpt work that makes this figure pop. The texturing throughout the figure is really nice. I have little, to no complaints beyond the shoulder sculpt. There are some issues that cause the articulation some problems, but the primary one in the ankles isn’t horrible considering some other figures we’ve seen.

Paint – ★★★★☆

The paint is also a really solid look. Some don’t like the paint on this figure as they think it looks like they missed paint or that it’s dirty, I think that’s what it should have been. This is WWII Cap, but in today’s world. If he’s wearing his old uniform, it should look old and dirty. There’s plenty of detail in the paint apps. There are some definite sloppy spots on the figure, but from a slight distance, you’re not even going to notice.

The biggest complaint, and it seems to be a trend with Hasbro, there is pretty much no paint on his boots. Why can’t they ever paint the boots on these figures. Just paint the buckles or something. They painted the belt buckle and some of the other straps on his torso, why skip the boots? I know they have to keep cost at a minimum and paint isn’t free, but that would have really made this figure awesome, and since there are about a million Captain America figures out there, this just proves to be a bit lazy.

Accessories – ★★★★☆

Cap comes with his shield and a pistol. The shield is nice, though mine is warped out of the package and won’t really unwarp for me, so that’s a bummer. The pistol is nice enough, but a little bland. I would have preferred an older, perhaps WW2 style pistol too.

Packaging – ★★★★☆

Standard Marvel Legends Infinite Series packaging which is great.

Overall Rating – ★★★★☆

Overall this is a pretty solid figure. The paint app and the sculpt are what really brought this figure up as the articulation was just run of the mill and I don’t care for the Y-Joints they are using. If you’re a Cap fan (and who isn’t at least a little) then this isn’t a bad pickup. If you’re just looking to complete the Mandroid BAF then you can skip this figure as it comes with no BAF parts which I think is dumb that he’s even in this wave. Why not just hold him for another wave since he’s just a repaint anyway for the most part.

Do you have any of these figures? If so, do you have a review to share? Please share in the comments or link to your review.

Toy Review: Marvel Legends | A.I.M. Soldier

Posted on by
1

Today’s review is the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier Soldiers of A.I.M. – A.I.M. Soldier. This figure is awesome. I knew it’d be awesome before I ordered, but as I did this review, I found this figure so much better.

snapshot-464

Figures in the Series

Figure Details

Articulation – ★★★★★

The articulation on this figure is incredible. Overall, it’s not that it has that awesome of joints compared to other figures, but the joints it has really work well with the sculpt of this figure. This figure is really fun to pose.

Total POA’s = 30

  • Arms – There are 7 joints per arm.
    • Shoulders: Ball Joint and Pin/Hinge Joint provides tons of motion which gives the ability to make some nice natural poses with the figures gun.
    • Bicep: Good 360 rotation with a Peg Joint.
    • Elbow: Double Pin/Hinge joint provides a great amount of bend in the arm.
    • Wrist: Peg Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge Joint.
  • Legs – There are 6 joints in each leg/hip/ankle area.
    • Hips: T-Joint Ball Joint allows a decent amount of forward motion, but almost no backwards motion, though this isn’t too detrimental. Not a lot of outward motion, but again, that is not so bad either.
    • Thigh: Peg Joint which is a standard cut joint. I like this joint and it is well hidden via the sculpt of the figure.
    • Knees: Double Pin/Hinge joints in the knees provides a great bend in the knee. Nearly a full bend in the knee.
    • Ankles: Each ankle has 2 joints. Pin/Hinge Joints with great forward and backward motion. There is also a really strong ankle rocker.
  • Body – There are 2 joints in the torso.
    • Torso: Pin/Hinge Joint provides really good forward ab crunch and even has a really good back arch.
    • Waist: Peg Joint, but is hindered by the belt quite a bit, but if you’re careful you can get it to go.
  • Head: Ball Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge disc joint. The range of motion is limited a bit due to the collar sculpt, but you can still get his head to move up and down enough to get him into some really nice poses.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mold – ★★★★★

I love the sculpt of this figure. Everything about it is awesome. There’s detail and texture all over this figure. In the end, however, the head sculpt is the best part of this figure. It captures the A.I.M. solider helmet/hat from the comics so well, and the texture they used is amazing. The eye panels are sculpted which makes the figure feel valuable.

The other sculpt feature I really like are his boots. I like the pointy boots. It reminds me of a doctor I had who wore really expensive pointy Italian dress shoes no matter what he was wearing.

There’s a really nice shoulder strap that has some well sculpted flash bangs or tear gas bombs. Some nice little pockets etc. Everything about this figure is just so nice.

The only negative I can see is the head on my figure comes off really easy, but that’s not even that big of a deal.

Paint – ★★★★☆

There isn’t much paint on the figure. They sculpted most of the figure in either yellow or black plastic it seems so the paint work is limited. They do have some nice accents painted like the buttons on his sleeves. They painted tear gas pins silver as well as the buttons on the pockets on the shoulder harness. There could have been a little paint on the boots for the straps, that’s the only downside I see to the paint.

Accessories – ★★★★☆

The soldier comes with a really cool yellow and black rifle. The sculpt detail is really cool. The gun definately looks like a custom made gun that A.I.M. might have designed. There’s even a really cool A.I.M. logo in blue painted on the butt of the gun.

Packaging – ★★★★☆

Standard Marvel Legends Infinite Series packaging which is great.

Overall Rating – ★★★★★

I love this figure. As you can see, this figure might be one of my favorites. I really like villains, and this is a great villain figure. Yes, the A.I.M. soldiers are anonymous dopes, but that’s fine. There’s pretty much nothing bad about this figure, except how expensive it has become. I’d love to build an army of these guys for my collection, but I don’t have the money to be able to do something like that. This figure is a must have. You have got to get this figure.

Do you have any of these figures? If so, do you have a review to share? Please share in the comments or link to your review.

Toy Review: Marvel Legends | Baron Zemo

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s review is the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier Soldiers of A.I.M. – Baron Zemo. I don’t know anything about the character, but the figure is really cool. Technically, I didn’t need to get him to complete my Mandroid Build-a-Figure as I could have just gone with the A.I.M. Soldier, but this figure really looked cool so I had to get him.

snapshot-450

Figures in the Series

Figure Details

Articulation – ★★★★☆

This figure has a ton of points of articulation and they are almost all really useful. This figure would have gotten 5 stars had it not been for the skirt thing which impedes some of his articulation a little, but not much.

Total POA’s = 34

  • Arms – There are a whopping 8 joints per arm.
    • Shoulders: Ball Joint and a Pin/Hinge Joint which allows Zemo to raise his arms up above his shoulder a little which is really nice.
    • Bicep: Peg Joint allows 360 degree rotation and fits nicely with the sculpt.
    • Elbow: Double Pin/Hinge joint which allows for a good bend, but the glove does hinder the articulation a bit.
    • Forearm: I wasn’t sure at first, but there is a Peg Joint at the top of the glove. Mine are very very tight, but they do move so be careful.
    • Wrist: Peg Joint and a Pin/Hinge Joint. These are pretty standard, nothing too interesting.
  • Legs – There are 7 joints in each leg/hip/ankle area.
    • Hips: T-Joint Ball Joint provides good forward and backward kick. Really good outward motion as well.
    • Thigh: Peg Joint which is a standard cut joint.
    • Knees: Double Pin/Hinge joints in the knees allows for nearly an entire bend in the knee.
    • Shin: There is a Peg Joint at the top of the boot, which is very well hidden.
    • Ankles: Each ankle has 2 joints. Pin/Hinge Joint that allow for good backward motion but the forward motion is borderline bad, but still better than some other figures. There is also a good ankle rocker.
  • Body – There are 2 torso joints on this figure.
    • Torso: Pin/Hinge Joint provides a really nice ab crunch as well as backward motion.
    • Waist: Peg Joint with full motion and is covered pretty well by the belt.
  • Head: There is a Ball Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge disc joint in the neck. There is a really awesome range of motion backward and forward. Side-to-side is great as well but pretty much no tilt.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mold – ★★★★★

I think the sculpt of this figure, which I believe is using much of the Bucky Cap sculpt is really well done. The pieces that are new to this figure really make this guy look so good. The head sculpt alone is very well done. The black lines on his face are sculpted, though they continue onto his chest as just painted lines. I’m totally ok with this as it’s really subtle.

Overall, I really just can’t find anything I don’t like about the sculpt of this figure. I don’t even mind the reused gloves and boots. I think they look great with this figure.

Paint – ★★★★☆

The paint design and application was pretty well done. There isn’t a whole lot of paint, but where they did paint, it was done pretty well. Again, the face and some of the accessory paints are very well done. I like the buckles they did which are painted silver and really look good. Very clean.

Accessories – ★★★★☆

We get two weapons with Baron Von Zemo noted below.

  • Sword
  • Pistol

Both of these accessories are pretty darn cool, but the paint could have been a little better on both. It’s pretty much without any shading or anything, though the pistol is a little better with a somewhat odd camouflage handle. The sword is nicely sculpted, though the hilt is a bit too large, but still cool.

Packaging – ★★★★☆

Standard Marvel Legends Infinite Series packaging which is great.

Overall Rating – ★★★★☆

Overall, he should be closer to 5 of 5 stars, but the paint did bring it down just a tad. This is certainly a must have figure. If you’re collecting villains especially he is a must. To me, he looks much cooler than the original Toy Biz Zemo as well.

Do you have any of these figures? If so, do you have a review to share? Please share in the comments or link to your review.

Toy Review: Marvel Legends | Movie Captain America

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s review is the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier Movie Captain America. I was unsure if I wanted to simply buy the BAF part that comes with this figure or if I should buy the figure. I’m glad I bought the figure. It’s a really good figure, even though I’m a little tired of Captain America figures at this point. This one really is a good figure.

snapshot-433

Figures in the Series

Figure Details

Articulation – ★★★★☆

Total POA’s = 32

  • Arms – There are 7 joints per arm.
    • Shoulders: Ball Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge Joint. I really like how high I can raise Caps arms and even with that, the shoulders still look pretty natural and tight.
    • Bicep: Peg Joint, which is hidden pretty well.
    • Elbow: Double Pin/Hinge joint gives you the ability to bend his arms completely which is awesome.
    • Wrist: Peg Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge joint in the wrist. The one outlier here is the alternate hand with the index finger pointing has a different angle which is a little odd at first, but functional.
  • Legs – There are 7 joints in each leg/hip/ankle area.
    • Hips: T-Joint Ball Joint allows a pretty good amount of forward motion and backward is ok, except the sculpt of the butt causes the leg to angle outward. There is very little outward motion though.
    • Thigh: Peg Joint which is a standard cut joint. Because of the sculpt and paint, using this joint definitely causes the look to be off a bit.
    • Knees: Double Pin/Hinge joints in the knees with a really good amount of bend.
    • Lower Leg: This boot swivel is a Peg Joint and is ok, though mine are really really loose.
    • Ankles: Each ankle has 2 joints. Pin/Hinge Joints that allow for decent backward motion but the forward motion is pretty poor. Pretty standard ankle rocker.
  • Body – There are 2 torso joints.
    • Torso: Pin/Hinge joint that is ratcheted and provides a really good ab crunch forward and backward is pretty good too.
    • Waist: Peg Joint allows for good motion and you can cover the joint with the belt.
  • Head: Ball Joint as well as Pin/Hinge joint. Both joints are quite good. Cap can look down a little and up quite a bit. Good side-to-side as well. Not much tilt.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mold – ★★★★☆

I really like the sculpt of this figure. There is a lot of really nice detail in Caps uniform. There are consistent details throughout the entire figure. The two heads are really well sculpted and the masked one is a dead ringer for Chris Evans from the movies.

I don’t honestly have much bad to say about the sculpt of this figure other than the shield is a little tough to get Cap to hold if you are going to use the fist hands as the smaller strap his arm goes threw is quite small. It works much better if you use the open hand for this though. The other somewhat odd thing I found was with the top of the leg where it meets the hip joint. They sculpted it a little strangely. I see what they were trying to do, by making it close a little more of the gap when Cap stands straight up, but who stands their figures all straight up? Anyway, it’s not horrible, but I believe it hinders some of the articulation.

Paint – ★★★★☆

There isn’t much, if any, shading in the paint app on this figure, but I’m not sure it’s needed too much. I really like the darker blue and the red stripes on his pants. The detail on his hands is really well done on all 4 hands we get. They also did a great job on both faces. The eyes are actually well painted, which often get crossed a bit on other figures.

I would have liked a little more paint on the boots. The straps are slightly different brown from the boot, but the buckles are also brown. Those being silver would have been great. His belt could have used a little of that silver as well.

Accessories – ★★★★☆

Cap comes with the following accessories

  • Unmasked Steve Rogers Head
  • Pointing Left Hand
  • Saluting Right Hand
  • Shield

All of these accessories are great. As I noted previously, the shield straps are a little small on the smaller one which requires you to remove the fist hands to put the shield all the way on, so I recommend using the salute hand.

The unmasked Steve Rogers head is really cool. It doesn’t look like Chris Evans, which is ok. This is my preferred head for this figure.

The salute hand is nice and allows you to do some nice formal poses. I’ve heard from other reviews that people don’t like the pointing left hand. Everyone jokes that Cap is going to be picking his nose. Yes, this hand is great for making Cap pick his nose, but it’s also nice for point at things. Might make for a very authoritative pose. Folks also complain about the joint going a different direction than normal, but I think this is great. If you’re going to point, you might actually bend your wrist the way this joint was made.

The shield is nice, but I agree with a lot of folks that it’s just a bit too large, but not a deal breaker. I like the paint work and the sculpt does give us some texture in the rings so they’re not just painted on. The star is also sculpted in as well as the little rivets on each point which is really cool. The straps on the shield could have used some more paint detail.

Packaging – ★★★★☆

Standard Marvel Legends Infinite Series packaging which is great.

Overall Rating – ★★★★☆

I actually like this figure a lot. He’s got great articulation, sculpt, and paint. Then add in some really nice accessories and this is a solid figure. If you’re on the fence about getting this figure, I’d highly recommend it.

Do you have any of these figures? If so, do you have a review to share? Please share in the comments or link to your review.

Toy Review: Marvel Legends | Movie Winter Soldier

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s review is the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier Movie Winter Soldier. I hadn’t seen the movie when I bought this figure, and I hadn’t read any of the comics related to The Winter Soldier or Bucky Barnes, so I bought it primarily because I knew I’d need it to complete the series. In the end, on it’s own, this is a pretty good figure.

snapshot-193

Figures in the Series

Figure Details

Articulation – ★★★★☆

Total POA’s = 30

  • Arms – There are 7 joints per arm.
    • Shoulders: Ball Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge Joint. The should is able to raise higher than the shoulder which is really good.
    • Bicep: Peg Joint with full 360 rotation. Well hidden.
    • Elbow: Doulbe Pin/Hinge joint allows for a pretty good bend, but it’s not able to bend completely in half which would be nice, but not horrible that it’s not there.
    • Wrist: Peg Joint and a Pin/Hinge joint, both wrist hinge joints are limited considerably due to the sculpt of the forearm.
  • Legs – There are 6 joints in each leg/hip/ankle area.
    • Hips: T-Jointed Ball Joint gives a good forward and backward motion and considerably good outward motion as well.
    • Thigh: Peg Joint, a standard cut joint. This joint, like many other figures with similar legs can be a little awkward looking depending on how the mold of the two leg pieces meets. Not a huge issue though.
    • Knees: Double Pin/Hinge joints in the knees allows a really good bend in the knees but due to the calf you’re not going to bend those knees all the way in half. The lower left knee joint on my figure is quite loose.
    • Ankles: Each ankle has 2 joints. Pin/Hinge Joints that allow for decent backward motion but the forward motion pretty poor. The ankle rocker is good.
  • Body – There are 2 body/torso joints.
    • Torso: Pin/Hinge joint with a really good ab crunch, but almost no backward motion.
    • Waist: Standard Peg Joint allows for a full 360 degree ratcheted motion. The belt helps to cover any of the joint when it’s turned.
  • Head: A single Ball Joint allows for decent forward motion of the head, but mine is really tight so it’s very hard to get it to move. The sculpt of the head prevents much if any backward motion though. Side-to-side motion is relatively unhindered by the hair. Tilt of the head is actually quite good considering the head sculpt.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mold – ★★★★☆

There is a ton of detail work in the sculpt of this figure. There’s not a smooth surface anywhere which is really cool. Everything is really well done. The sad part is nobody seems to care much for this figure beyond it being a solid figure. Anyway, it is really well done. The only downside is the head sculpt causes the head articulation to be a little limited.

I do have a gripe with the belt/holster. There’s a little knife molded into the back portion, which is not removable, but it’s just way too small. The handle alone is about half the size his knife should be. Why bother even putting i on there?

Probably my favorite detail is the knee pads. I really think that was a nice touch, and covers what would have been an ugly joint.

Paint – ★★★★☆

The paint is good, but could have been absolutely awesome if they simply painted some of the really cool sculpt details they put in. The boots have absolutely no paint, but lots of sculpt detail. The pants have tons of detail sculpt work, and pretty much no paint. The upper body got a much better paint app as there is some paint detail in the chest and the arms are very well done.

The face is well painted on the unmasked head, but I’m not a huge fan of the black splotched face paint. I get that’s what he looks like in the movie, but it just looks like someone smeared it on.

Accessories – ★★★☆☆

This figure comes with two accessories. An alternate head and a rifle. I like the alternate head so we can have a masked and unmasked head for our figure, but the gun, which is used also by the Hydra Soldier is just way too big. I know in the movie he uses a rifle that is quite large, but this is just too big. I also had the red color they painted it. I would have preferred they simply paint it a more realistic gun metal color.

Packaging – ★★★★☆

Standard Marvel Legends Infinite Series packaging which is great.

Overall Rating – ★★★★☆

Overall, this figure is a solid figure. I’m not a big fan of the character, but the figure is a really good representation of the movie Winter Solider. If you’re looking for this figure, pretty much ever retail store should still have it. I think they made about a billion of them thinking everyone was going to goob over them, but people did not so you could probably get it pretty cheap. It’s not a must have, but not a bad one to get either.

Do you have any of these figures? If so, do you have a review to share? Please share in the comments or link to your review.

Toy Review: Marvel Legends | Hydra Soldier

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s review is the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier Agents of Hydra – Hydra Soldier. This was one of the many figures I’ve been wanting for quite some time. I’d love to build myself an army of these guys so if any of you have some of these loose you’d like to sell me, post a comment and I’ll contact you (if I have money at the time of course).

snapshot-413

Figures in the Series

Figure Details

Articulation – ★★★★★

Dope! That’s how I have to describe the articulation of this figure. I’m not one to use that word, as I’m not a “Hip” person by any stretch of the definition, but if I were, I’d definitely say this figure is dope. As far as I understand it, this figure is pretty much using most of the Bucky Cap figure mold, which seems to be a pretty widely liked mold because of it’s relatively natural look and awesome articulation. Let’s get into it in a little more detail.

Total POA’s = 32

  • Arms – There are 7 joints per arm.
    • Shoulders: Ball Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge Joint which has an okay range of motion upward and his arms comfortably come down as well compared to some molds that limit how close you can get the arms to the body.
    • Bicep: Peg Joint allows for full 360 degree range of motion
    • Elbow: Double Pin/Hinge joint which gives a really good range of motion in the elbows. You can’t completely fold his arms, but it’s still quite good.
    • Wrist: Peg Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge joint. This has a pretty standard amount of motion both up and down and all the way around.
  • Legs – There are 7 joints in each leg/hip/ankle area.
    • Hips: T-Jointed Ball Joint allows for a lot of forward kick, not a lot of backward, however. I also wish he could have gotten a little more outward motion with those hips, but alas, we cannot get everything we want.
    • Thigh: Peg Joint with standard cut joint.
    • Knees: Double Pin/Hinge joints gives a really good bend, but you’re at about 110 degrees, but that’s still really good.
    • Ankles: Each ankle has 2 joints. Pin/Hinge Joints that allow for decent backward motion and finally, a figure with good forward motion as well. There is also a really good ankle rocker, which just completes this figure.
  • Body – There are 2 torso joint.
    • Torso: This is a Pin/Hinge joint which provides a really good ab crunch and pretty good backward motion.
    • Waist: Standard Peg Joint allows for a pretty good waist swivel and the joint is well hidden by the utility belt.
  • Head: A single Ball Joint and Pin/Hinge joint. This head is by far one of more posable I’ve seen in all of my figures. Both back and down there is a really good amount of motion and side-to-side is not hindered at all. There’s not much tilt, but you can use that hinge joint to get the same effect for some poses.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mold – ★★★★☆

As I mentioned earlier, a lot of people really like the mold this figure is built on. I do as well. The articulation alone makes it great. There’s also a lot of sculpt detail, but my favorite part about him is his face. I really think they sculpted the head really well. There could have been a little more detail on his boots, but that’s ok.

His utility belt and harness also have a great sculpt with lots of fun little details. I like that it’s a softer plastic/rubber for the harness so you could reshape it a little with some heat if it didn’t come out of the package just perfect.

My biggest issue is with his left hand. It’s a gripper hand which is fine, except it’s a bit too tight for the weapons he comes with, so it’s a little tough to get him to hold and support his gun in a natural looking way without potentially breaking it. So be careful here.

Paint – ★★★☆☆

There really isn’t much for paint on this guy. Overall, he’s molded in green and yellow and there’s not really any shading anywhere. It doesn’t look bad by any means, but a little shading in the yellow and perhaps a little black wash in the green might have helped a bit. The little bit of paint that is there is on his face and they did a good clean job here with the red eye which I really like and the unmasked portion of his face.

I almost forgot to mention a nice bit of paint work is the H for Hydra on the chest harness. They did a really good, clean job of this paint app.

Accessories – ★★★☆☆

The Hydra soldier comes with two giant guns. One of which is the same gun we get with The Winter Solider figure in this series and the other seems to be a newly molded gun for this figure. I prefer the latter gun as it is a much more unique gun and not quite so long. The longer gun seems scaled wrong for this figure. The coolest part about the shorter gun is the hydra painted on the top, that is really cool.

What is sorely missing with this figure is an extra set of hands. I would have loved some closed fists for some fight poses. Perhaps a left trigger finger would have been cool too.

One last thing that would have been cool would have been an unmasked alternate head. I know you’re not likely to see that, but how cool would it be to have an army of Hydra soldiers you can pose and a couple are on break with their masks off?

Packaging – ★★★★☆

Standard Marvel Legends Infinite Series packaging which is great. This is a shared box design with the Red Skull figure as they both come with the same BAF part, but they are SKU’d differently.

Overall Rating – ★★★★☆

I love this figure! He’s a great addition to my collection and a must have. He’s pretty spendy on his own, but you might be able to buy the whole wave for around retail from Big Bad Toy Store still so go check them out.

Do you have any of these figures? If so, do you have a review to share? Please share in the comments or link to your review.

Toy Review: Marvel Legends | Black Widow

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s review is the Marvel Legends Infinite Series Captain America The Winter Soldier Black Widow. I honestly didn’t really want to have to buy this figure because of the price. I’m late to the action figure collecting game so this series has since passed it’s prime for retail. There are still several figures from this wave available at Target and Walmart and other retailers, but the Black Widow figure sadly has not been. I found mine used on Ebay for more than I would have liked to have spent, but less than some have been paying.

snapshot-210

Figures in the Series

Figure Details

Articulation – ★★★☆☆

I don’t have very many female action figures, but those I do have, don’t have very good articulation. My count now stands at 3 with the addition of Black Widow (Check out my previous reviews of Harley Quinn & Gamora). This figure is the best of the 3 thus far. Let’s take a closer look.

Total POA’s = 24

  • Arms – There are 5 joints per arm.
    • Shoulders: Ball Joint as well as a Pin/Hinge Joint that allows for a decent amount of movement back and forth, as well as out. These joints are actually quite good on this figure and there are no impediments caused by the mold.
    • Elbow: A single Pin/Hinge joint as well as a Peg Joint at the top of the elbow. These joints work well together to allow for a 90 degree bend and the twist of the arm is much welcomed.
    • Wrist: Peg Joint as well but NO Pin/Hinge joint which is very disappointing. I know her hands are quite small, so that’s likely the reason for the missing joint, but I would have liked something there.
  • Legs – There are 6 joints in each leg/hip/ankle area.
    • Hips: Ball Joint allows a decent amount of forward motion, but pretty much no backward motion. The outward motion is decent though but for a female figure I would have hoped for more since the female superheros tend to be more flexible.
    • Thigh: Peg Joint which is a standard cut joint. This joint, like many other figures with similar legs can be a little awkward looking depending on how the mold of the two leg pieces meets. Not a huge issue though.
    • Knees: Double Pin/Hinge joints in the knees allows for nearly an entire bend in the knee, which allows Widow to kick her own butt.
    • Ankles: Each ankle has 2 joints. Pin/Hinge Joints that allow for decent backward motion but the forward motion is really good on this figure. There is no ankle rocker, but there is a Peg joint that you can use to turn the foot and get a fake rocker effect.
  • Body – There is one joint in the body area. I believe this is a double ball joint in the torso just below the breast line of the figure. It’s very well hidden, but not real effective aside from twisting the figure which probably should have been a waist joint instead. You can get a little bit of an ab crunch but it’s nearly nothing.
  • Head: A single Ball Joint allows for decent forward motion of the head but due to the sculpt of the hair on both heads, you’re not going to get Widow looking up. Side to side is decent with the curly hair but with the straight hair head you can’t move her head much at all.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mold – ★★★★☆

I like the sculpt of this figure. It’s not overly voluptuous and doesn’t show too much inappropriate skin which I really appreciate. The detailing on her is really well done. My favorite is the texture of her outfit as well as the hair sculpt. The details are really well done.

The couple complaints I have are that the hair was such a hard plastic that it’s harder to really get any articulation in the head because of it, but the likeness of Scarlet Johansen is spot on on both heads. The other gripe I have, and many others have had the same is the molded guns. It sure would have been nice to have gotten a gun she could have held in her gripping hands instead of the guns that are far too small and molded into the holsters.

Aside from those two things, I’m pretty happy with the figure. Hence the 4 stars.

Paint – ★★★★☆

Paint application was just as good as the mold in my opinion. It’s clean and they got a lot of the detailed mold parts accented with some paint such as the front zipper and buckle as well as the bullet wrist bracelet. I would have loved to see them pain the buckles on the molded boot straps and zippers too, which is something I think really would have made this figure stand out even more. I don’t know why they didn’t do this.

Accessories – ★★★☆☆

Black Widow comes with two sets of hands. A gripping hand for each side (which would have been great if we got some guns or batons) and some open hands for each side, which I’m still not sure what these will be good for. I guess just an at rest pose.

The BAF piece that Black Widow comes with is the torso piece of the Mandroid figure. I’m guessing this is why this figure has been harder to find as there are tons of arms and legs but not nearly as many torsos available.

Packaging – ★★★★☆

Standard Marvel Legends Infinite Series packaging which is great.

Overall Rating – ★★★★☆

Overall I’m rating this figure at 4 of 5 stars. It really should be about a 3.5, but I felt it was closer to 4 than 3 so that’s how I’m rounding it. I’m really excited to get the rest of this series so I can build my Mandroid, which is the only reason I bought this figure. As I already noted, this is the best female figure I own to date, but unless you’re a huge Black Widow fan, or need the Mandroid torso, this really isn’t a figure I think you absolutely need to have.

Do you have any of these figures? If so, do you have a review to share? Please share in the comments or link to your review.