CAPTAIN AMERICA — SYMBOL OF TRUTH

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Sam Wilson takes the mantle of Captain America to new heights, combining the iconic shield with his signature wings versus threats near and abroad.”

So, like, not to be that guy who critiques the bios again, but, umm, I’m gonna do exactly that, because there’s an irony to this particular Sam Wilson Cap figure calling out his use of the iconic shield, when, umm, this one doesn’t?  I mean, I guess the spirit of the thing is still there, right?  Sure, let’s go with that.

Shortly after introducing Sam Wilson as the Falcon in the MCU, the comics had Steve aged up and unable to keep Captaining, so Sam stepped into the role, a move that I always found sort of amusing given that, well, you’d only just introduced people to the Falcon identity, and then you immediately took it away from him.  Steve eventually took the title back, of course, and while they had a touch of overlap, Sam went back to being Falcon again…and then he got handed the shield in the MCU.  We had a while where Steve was the only Cap in the comics, while the MCU built up Sam, but somewhere along the way, someone had the bright idea to just let them both be Captain America for a while again, and thus Sam became the Cap with the sub-title “Symbol of Truth” (Steve for his part got to use his recurrent “Sentinel of Liberty” monicker).  Steve is currently back to being the main focus Cap at the moment, but Sam hasn’t reverted to Falcon, and with a Sam Cap movie just having dropped its trailer, it’s unlikely he’ll do that any time soon.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America – Symbol of Truth is a Target-exclusive Marvel Legends release.  He’s at the deluxe price-point, and started hitting retail right around the beginning of the summer.  It seems likely he was intended to tie-in with Brave New World‘s original intended release date, much like those McDonald’s toys we got, but as a comics figure, his placement is a little less weird, especially with this effectively being Sam’s evergreen look these days.  The figure stands about 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 36 points of articulation counting the wings.  By-and-large, this figure is a re-use of the Sam Cap figure from the three-pack in 2016, which was itself a re-tool of the Marvel Now Cap.  It’s a sculpt that wasn’t without its flaws at the time, but it’s honestly not bad, and it’s held up surprisingly well given the oldest parts of it are now a decade old.  It’s still got visible pins, of course, and I’m still not sure I love the head, though I’ve warmed to it a bit more in the eight years since its first release.  The primary change-up here is the presence of the wings; they were a rather glaring omission when the original figure dropped, and time hasn’t really lessened that.  This figure gets them as one separate wing-pack piece, which plugs into the peg hole already present on the back.  They’ve got 4 point of articulation, with a swivel at the base of the pack, and a hinge actually on the wings proper.  They’re a little rudimentary, but they get the job done, and we’ve certainly seen worse wings in this line.  Cap’s color scheme is also slightly changed up.  It’s nothing drastic, with the most notable shift being the switch to a brighter blue this time around, which gives him a little more pop.  The paint is also a little cleaner this time, largely because that’s just an area where Hasbro’s improved across the board.  Cap is packed with two sets of hands, the fist/gripping combo from the original mold, plus a right grip/left open gesture from last year’s Ultimate Cap.  The glove detailing isn’t an exact match, but it’s close enough to not really throw the whole look off either.  Cap is also packed with his shield, and yes, it’s very specifically Sam’s shield, since it’s got the new design from Symbol of Truth.  It’s using the tweaked Anniversary Cap shield mold that was also included with Ultimate Cap, which is by far the best version of the shield Hasbro’s had, and the new detailing looks really nice.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: I didn’t intend to get this figure.  I had my three-pack figure, who lacked the wings, and I had the MCU figure, who didn’t, so I figured my bases were covered.  What changed?  Well, Max found two of them at Target, and texted to ask if I wanted one.  Through a comedy of errors, I didn’t get back to him in time, but he didn’t want me to miss out, so he grabbed one just in case.  Once he’d bought it, I felt it would be rude to leave him out the cost of the second one, so I figured I might as well get one.  And you know what?  I’m glad I did.  The wing pack is fun, and I’m glad to have the new shield, and, heck, I even like the new shades to the coloring.  If I’ve already got all those Steve Caps, is it really that bad to have a few extra Sams as well?  I don’t really think so.