CIVIL WAR CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL MINIMATES

“Steve Rogers has fallen into a clash with both his government and his friends over the Super Human Registration Act – a battle that will end with his surrender, arrest and ultimately, his assassination.”

Wow, spoilers much?  I mean, yeah, okay, the story is, like, 16 years old and all, but it wasn’t 16 years old then!  …Okay, yeah, Cap’s death was reported by every major news organization the day it happened.  But still!  While it was touted as a big deal in the comics at the time, there was very little in the way of toy coverage for Civil War when it hit, or even very soon after.  The first true tie-in was a Minimates set, which hit more than a year later, in April of 2008.  Marvel was just about to be on the upswing again, and DST was aiming to capitalize on that.  The set covered some of the story’s major players, including the leaders of the two respective sides.  And you know that means a Captain America for your boy Ethan.  Let’s check that one out.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Civil War Captain America is one-quarter of the Marvel Minimates Civil War boxed set, which was released April 21, 2008, as an Action Figure Xpress-exclusive offering.  This was Cap’s sixth time as a Minimate, and his second time getting some variation on “Battle-Damaged”.  The figure is built on the post-C3 ‘mate body, and stands about 2 1/4 inches tall, with 12 points of articulation, thanks to the boot pieces.  Cap got add-on pieces for his mask, belt, gloves, and boots, a noted upgrade from the just mask and gloves set-up of the prior versions.  The gloves are the same flared pieces used on the prior Caps, but everything else was all new.  The mask piece is unique to this one, and depicts Cap’s torn up mask from the end of Civil War‘s final battle.  It’s a really nice offering, with a surprising amount of detailing.  His belt and boots were new here, but would be quickly put into service as standard parts for the character going forward.  The boots, in fact, would become the standard Marvel Minimates flared boot pieces.  I never liked them quite as much as the DC Minimates equivalent piece, but they still got the job done.  Cap’s paint work is quite impressive.  He gets the full scale-mail detailing on the torso, plus plenty of damage detailing all around.  There’s quite a lot going on.  This set was one of the first for Marvel to really dive into alternate parts for different looks, so Cap was quite well accessorized.  He got his shield, a pair of handcuffs, two alternate flesh-tone hands, and an alternate hair piece (repurposed from Biff Tannen).  The shield gets quite a bit of very impressive detailing on the front, and is hampered only slightly by the fact that it’s one of the very few times they used the modified shield mount that has to stay at the base of the wrist and can’t move up the arm.  He can at least swap out for one of the ungloved hands to make the whole thing work better, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m *not* a fan of Civil War, so I wasn’t actively hunting down any of the merch from it at the time, but I’ve always liked the look of this Cap in particular.  I just didn’t really want a whole boxed set just for him.  Thankfully, I was able to snag a loose one as part of the very large collection of Minimates that came into All Time back in 2019.  He’s a pretty darn cool ‘mate, even removed from the source material.

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