CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL FIGHTING ARMOR (SENTINEL)

Isn’t it funny that so very many of the import figures I look at here on the site are Captain Americas?  I mean, a notable swath of the Figuarts here on the site are Cap, but I didn’t want to just leave it all to Bandai.  There’s plenty of other companies out there, looking to get in on the action, right?  A company  I haven’t yet looked into here on the site is Sentinel, who have gotten into the Marvel license with a couple of lines in the last few years.  Their more wide-reaching line is their Fighting Armor one, which asks that oh so rarely asked question of “what if the Marvel heroes had armor?”  That never comes up, right?  Okay, it does, but on the plus side, the answer is usually something along the lines of “it would be very awesome”.  I’ve explored this question twice before on Captain America, but I certainly won’t let that stop me from giving it yet another shot!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is figure 3 in the Marvel Fighting Armor line from Sentinel.  The figure stands 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 42 points of articulation.  Compared to, say, a Figuart, the articulation is certainly a lot more straight forward.  It’s not quite as simple as a Legends figure, though; it sort of falls in between.  There’s a degree of moving panels around for proper range of motion, but it feels like it has a good flow about it.  Cap’s sculpt appears to be unique, at least for the most part.  I don’t have any of the others, of course, so I can’t say for certain.  It’s a solid set-up.  He’s got a new design, made to fit in with the rest of Sentinel’s in-house looks for the Fighting Armor figures.  It takes the classic Cap design, with a bit of the Marvel Now design thrown in, and armorizes it, but notably in a different fashion than, say, the Tech-On Cap.  The whole thing is very sleek and clean, which I love.  It also just feels very intrinsically Captain America, which I also love.  His construction uses a little bit of die-cast metal.  It appears to be largely confined to the core of the figure, and mostly serves to give him a reasonable heft when you pick him up.  I don’t mind that so much.  Cap’s color work is dialed into the traditional Cap fare, being very heavy on the red, white, and blue, albeit mostly metallic.  He’s got a flat shade in place of the white, though, which breaks things up pretty well.  Cap is packed with three sets of hands, in fists, gripping, and open gesture, as well as an armorized version of his Shield, and a standard display stand.  The shield’s got a kind of interesting way of attaching; there’s like this whole arm on it, which swings in and out relative to how you want it to be attached, be it his back, or either of his hands.  It’s an interesting idea, but the joints are a little loose on mine, so it flaps down a lot.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was aware of the Fighting Armor figures, but I hadn’t jumped in just because the figures are all pretty pricey, and I just wasn’t sure.  But, when a bunch of them landed in front of me, and there was a Cap in the mix, it felt like the best time to jump in.  And also I was weak.  Look, cool Captain America, okay?  I’m just a man!  I’m glad I got the chance to snag him, because he’s an immensely fun figure, and a neat alternate take on the armored Cap idea!

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.