Tag Archives: Arnim Zola

#1975: Arnim Zola & Hydra Supreme

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

ARNIM ZOLA & HYDRA SUPREME

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A clandestine ally of Hydra, Supreme Leader Captain America reveals his true allegiances and joins forces with Arnim Zola to bring Hydra to a position of dominant world power.”

Hey, you know what I just haven’t reviewed enough of recently?  Marvel Legends.  They’re just so scarce around these parts.  Oh, no, wait, they’re the other thing.  Abundant.  Very abundant.  Well, they’re about to get moreso, because, hey, more Marvel Legends.  Today, I’m swinging on over to the Hydra side of things, with a look at head scientist Arnim Zola, alongside the Cosmic-Cube-altered Hydra Supreme version of Captain America.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Arnim and Hydra Supreme were released back in January as the “Hail Hydra” set, the latest Marvel Legends two-pack.  It’s technically an EE-exclusive, but can also be gotten through a number of other retailers, since EE does wholesale and all.  The two figures are both inspired by 2017’s Secret Empire event.

ARNIM ZOLA

A fairly classic Cap villain, Arnim is a fairly prominent fixture, both in the comics and the movies.  He’s also not a stranger to Legends, having been a Build-A-Figure shortly after the Return of Marvel Legends line began.  This release is largely a re-release of that one, with a few minor tweaks.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and has 27 points of articulation.  The sculpt is largely a re-use of the Build-A-Figure, but he gets a new head (resembling his slightly more streamlined appearance from recent years), as well as swapping out his puffy-sleeved arms for Colossus’ more conventionally armored ones, all resulting in an ever so slightly more modernized take on Zola.  While some of the articulation is a little stiffer than more modern releases, he’s still pretty suitably posable, certainly posable enough for a character like Arnim.  The paintwork is another change between the two Arnims.  Where the first one went for a bolder, brighter, more comics-inspired palette, this one again angles more for a modern take, with a darker, metallic appearance.  Even the face is more modern, with a more intense, cackling expression.  Admittedly, I think I prefer the color scheme and face of the prior figure, but this one’s certainly not bad.  Arnim is packed with a small device of some sort, as well as the more boxy head from the original release.

HYDRA SUPREME

The Hydra Supreme is like the standard Hydra, but with tomatoes and sour cream.  At least, it is when you play by Taco Bell rules.  Specific Hydra rules may be *slightly* different.  But I like to hope that the indoctrination of Steve Rogers included adding extra toppings to him.  And maybe giving him a nice Baja Blast, as well.  This figure depicts the Cosmic-Cube-ified Steve Rogers from the very end of Secret Empire, when he’s given up the heroic patriot charade entirely.  The figure stands 6 1/2 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  At first glance, he appears to be be an all-new sculpt, but he actually has a sizeable amount of re-use.  His arms and lower legs are from Taskmaster, and his hands are from the Bleeding Edge armor Iron Man.  That leaves the head, torso, and upper legs as new pieces.  The end result is quite a cohesive looking figure, who is also quite accurate to the source material.  Since he’s drawn from Bucky Cap-based pieces, he’s perhaps a little smaller than Steve should be, but, admittedly, it doesn’t seem too far removed from how he was depicted in the comics.  Maybe being evil is a good weight loss program. His colors are decidedly on the Hydra end of the spectrum, as they were in the book.  It’s certainly a different look for the character.  Hydra Supreme is packed with a unique shield, based on his design from the comics.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I hadn’t gotten back into Legends yet when Zola was a BaF, so I never did get him built.  I was happy to see him offered up again here, since he’s a pretty important piece of the mythos.  Arnim’s a decent figure in his own right, but the surprise hit for me is definitely the Hydra Supreme, who’s just a really fun figure.  I’m hoping we might get to see him recolored as a Civil Warrior down the line.

#0231: Arnim Zola & Captain America

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

ARNIM ZOLA & CIVIL WAR CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL MINIMATES

ArnimZola&Cap ArnimZola&CapAlt2

Minimates. What more can I say. I’ve reviewed them numerous times before, and I try to think of original anecdotes about them, but there’s really only so much you can say. Still, they are the greatest toyline on the market today, so that’s a big plus. Today, I’ll be looking at Arnim Zola, a recurring Captain America foe, and Captain America himself.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two were released as part of the 42nd series of Marvel Minimates. That particular series was meant to loosely tie-in with Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, which were both released the same year.

ARNIM ZOLA

Arnim is presented here in his classic “face on a chest monitor” look, which is definitely the one to go with if you’re doing an Arnim Zola figure. He’s built on the usual Minimate body, so he has 14 points of articulation and stands around 2 ½ inches tall. Arnim features a uniquely sculpted camera head and torso piece, as well as reused “puffy sleeves.” The pieces work pretty well, and give a nice depiction of the character’s usual look. The paint work on the figure is all nice and clean, with no slop, bleed-over, or fuzzy lines. He also features some impressive detail work on his “torso face” which pretty much perfectly replicates Arnim’s snickering, disembodied face.

CIVIL WAR CAPTAIN AMERICA

Yes, it’s another Cap. This one has been dubbed “Civil War Captain America” but I’m not really sure why. Cap wasn’t involved with the historical American Civil War (and if he had been, I doubt he would have dressed this way) which only leaves the Marvel cross-over of the same name. However, Cap doesn’t dress like this in that story. It seems that the real inspiration for Cap was actually his incarnation on Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, where he was frequently seen wearing a similar outfit while riding around on his motorcycle. At any rate, the figure is built on the basic Minimate body like Arnim, so he’s got the usual stats. He features a sculpted helmet, jacket, belt, left hand w/ shield strap, and boots. All of the pieces have been used before, with the helmet coming from Ultimate WW2 Cap, the jacket coming from James Rhodes, the belt coming from Cap reborn, the hand coming from one of the movie Caps, and the boots coming from numerous figures. The pieces are all good pieces and work pretty nicely. The painted details aren’t bad, though I’m not the biggest fan of Cap’s face. The Avengers logo on his arm is also a nice touch. Cap includes a spare set of arms and gloves and a proper Cap mask to allow you to display him as a more basic Cap, as well as a hairpiece for all those wanting him unmasked.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got these two along with the rest of series 42 from my favorite online retailer, Luke’s Toy Store! I mostly bought the series for the Thor sets included, but I wanted this one too, mostly for Arnim. In hand, I think they’re both pretty solid ‘mates, but Cap suffers from some serious redundancy.