CAPTAIN AMERICA — STEALTH

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Injected with an experimental Super-Soldier Serum, Steve Rogers has the peak potential of strength, endurance, and dexterity.”

It’s become a surprisingly recurrent thing for Captain America to wear a stealth variant of his regular uniform, just across the board.  I guess there’s just an innate desire to take him out of the bright colors, and perhaps remove him just a touch from being too overly patriotic.  Or maybe it’s just because black is cool, and we like getting cool things, and I’m reading too much into what is at its core a very simple way of getting another use out of a Captain America mold.  That seems to have been the primary motivation between today’s figure.  Does it work out?  Let’s jump in and find out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Stealth Captain America is the final single release figure in the Joe Fixit Series of Marvel Legends.  He’s another game-inspired figure, like yesterday’s Iron Man.  His purpose is fairly cut and dry, I suppose: re-use the standard Gamerverse Cap molds again.  That he does, which means, like that figure, he stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  It’s honestly not a terrible sculpt.  Obviously, it’s going to be rather informed by your personal preferences on the game’s main Cap design.  But, as an adaptation of that design, and just as a figure in general, it’s certainly a solid offering.  The first big difference here is the color work.  The standard look already subdued the usual Cap color scheme, but this one takes things even further, subduing to purely black and white…well, black and rather light grey.  It’s honestly not a bad look, and it’s even got a bit more pop to it than the standard colors.  It honestly feels a little more suited to this particular sculpt, and has sort of a US Agent feel to it, which honestly gives a bit more of a practical purpose, at least as far as my collection is concerned.  It’s worth noting that the application of the paint is also a little better here than it was on the standard version.  That figure wasn’t bad, but notably his face paint was a little bit grey.  This time it’s a little more lively, which looks far better.  It’s a little sloppy on the edges of the mask, but otherwise looks pretty solid.  The area where this figure really improves things from the last one is the accessories.  Standard Cap had his shield and literally nothing else.  This one gets that same shield, plus two sets of hands this time (one gripping, the other fists, giving us two complete sets of the one and one pair from the prior figure), an unmasked head, and the left arm of Joe Fixit.  In my review of the standard figure, I lamented that he didn’t come with an extra head or hands, so them being here certainly helps.  It also helps that I really like the unmasked head.  It’s not quite scaled correctly to the body, but it looks really good on the 80th Cap, so that’s probably where mine will end up staying.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I wasn’t quite as against the last Cap as some collectors, but I could certainly see his shortcomings.  When another Cap was confirmed for this line-up, even I was less than thrilled, especially with it being something that feels like such a lazy repaint.  Ultimately, this figure is better than the last one in every facet, and is honestly just a pretty fun figure in his own right.  The biggest issue, is that he retroactively makes the last one even more pointless than he already was.  These two figures definitely should have been condensed into one.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this guy to review.  If you’re looking for Marvel Legends, or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.