CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL SELECT (DIAMOND SELECT TOYS)

Fun FiQ Fact #0086: Captain America makes up 1/8 of all of the Marvel Select reviews here on the site.

You know, I don’t really jump on Marvel Select that much, especially in more recent years, with the crazy onslaught of Marvel Legends product.  I’m not *entirely* out of the line, though, and there are certainly still figures that can pull me back in.  Like, you know, a solid take on a character I love.  Take, for instance, Captain America, who’s no stranger to Marvel Select, and was in fact one of the earliest characters to join the line.  And here he is once more.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is a recent addition to DST’s Marvel Select line, hitting retail just in the last month or so.  He’s a “classic” Cap, the second Cap to be explicitly so in the line.  It’s been a bit since we’ve gotten one, though.  The figure stands 7 1/4 inches tall and he has  34 points of articulation.  Cap is honestly pretty remarkably articulated for a Select figure.  He gets a solid range of motion and a pretty nicely handled articulation set-up.  I’m not 100% how well the articulation is going to hold up over time, as a few of the joints are already a little loose, but for now, it’s a good posing set-up.  Cap’s sculpt is all-new, and it’s a very nice one.  The general vibe of it seems to lean the heaviest into an ’80s Cap design, just based on the more exact details of the costume.  The proportions are a much more natural set-up than prior Select Caps, and there’s less weirdness with the working in of the articulation.  My figure does have one weird quirk, which is that his right bicep is assembled backwards.  It looks a little off, but thankfully doesn’t mess up the articulation too badly.  The standard masked head sculpt is fun; it’s got more of that ’80s Cap vibe, which I definitely dig here.  He’s serious, but not too crazily so.  The paint work on this figure is appropriately patriotic.  Th application is generally pretty clean, the linework is without too much slop, and there’s even some cool accenting on the red sections of the gloves and boots, to make them look like they’re made from a textured material.  I quite like the dark shading on the mask; it gives me Mego vibes and I’m a big fan of that.  One of the coolest aspects of this release is the accessory set-up.  At his core, Cap is a classic take on the character, and gets a standard shield and seven hands (a pair of fists, a pair of flat, a pair of gripping, and a right pointing).  He also gets a larger belt and shoulder harness, for the purposes of modernizing his look a bit.  The shield’s handle is removable, so that it can be placed on his back using the harness.  He’s also got an unmasked head, which is a solid match for the face under the mask, and a corresponding pulled down version of his hood.  And, if you’re not a fan of modern or classic Cap, he also gets an alternate Golden Age-style Cap head, and a proper badge-style shield to match it, granting him a third major look.  That’s a lot of Cap coverage!

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

I may not be big on Select these days, but this guy’s interested me since the prototype was shown off.  I heard good word of mouth on him, and got the chance to see him in person while picking up my comics from Cosmic Comix, which was more than enough to sell me on him.  He’s a ton of fun, and certainly the most fun I’ve had with a Select release.  I’m very, very happy with how he turned out.