Tag Archives: Brave New World

#3781: Red Hulk

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

RED HULK — BRAVE NEW WORLD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

In the immortal words of Harrison Ford: “What’s a Red Hulk?”  Oh, wouldn’t that be bliss?  Maybe I’m being a bit too callous there.  The MCU’s been setting the stage for Red Hulk in some fashion pretty much its whole existence, including bringing back William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross even after the rest of the Incredible Hulk cast got dropped.  Then William Hurt died, and that put using Ross again in sort of a questionable area.  But, we couldn’t *possibly* drop such an important and high-brow idea as Red Hulk, so they’ve recast Ross, with Harrison Ford taking up the part.  He’s certainly got the surly energy down.  So, of course, the best place to debut a Hulk villain is…in a Captain America movie.  Look, let’s not nitpick.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Red Hulk is the third of the three Deluxe-sized Marvel Legends that serve as the tie-in for Captain America: Brave New World.  It’s again pretty reasonable, given the sizing on this guy.  Speaking of sizing, the figure stands about 8 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Near as I can tell, this is an all-new mold, not sharing any parts in common with any of the Ruffalized Hulks.  He’s certainly got a similar ancestry, in particular feeling quite a bit like the Endgame Hulk Build-A-Figure, at least in terms of construction.  He’s obviously got the pinless joints, of course, which cleans things up, but other than that, it definitely feels like a solid, pretty by the numbers MCU-style Hulk sculpt.  There are two heads, one angry, and one less so.  They appear to be based on slightly earlier renders for the character, before the Harrison Ford resemblance got pushed up a bit more.  There are certainly elements of Ford in there, maybe a younger version, but it’s a bit more generic than it should be.  Paint it green, and I think it would look as much like Ruffalo as it does Ford.  In general, Red Hulk’s sculpt feels a touch more comic book-y than other MCU figures, something that might be further pushed by how little his design has changed between the two mediums.  In terms of color work, the figure is largely reliant on molded colors, which work well enough.  The face detailing’s clean enough, if a tad basic, and I do enjoy the chest hair as an accent, though I’m not sure how realistic it winds up being.  Red Hulk is packed with two sets of hands, in fists and open gesture.  It’s not a ton, but neither is it particularly lacking.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I largely got Red Hulk because I got the other two, and felt compelled to get the whole set.  I’m not much of a Red Hulk fan in the first place, and have always found the concept and execution rather shallow, and not really worth the time investment they tend to get.  I do like the idea of Ford as Ross, so I’m interested to see the direction they take him the movie.  The figure’s okay.  Can’t really say he’s all that thrilling or different, but he’s at the very least another way to get a Red Hulk.  For me, he’s the weakest of the set, but that’s more about personal preference, and the fact that the other two are just more technically impressive than this one.  Still, he’s solid.

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.

#3778: Falcon

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

FALCON

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“A former lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, Joaquin Torres has picked up Sam’s old wings to take on the role of Falcon.”

It’s all well and good when you move a sidekick up to the main role, but in the world of copyrights and trademarks and the like, you don’t wanna leave that sidekick title open for too long.  When Sam Wilson moved into the role of Captain America in the comics, that left the “Falcon” title wide open, leading to the introduction of Joaquin Torres, the second Falcon.  With Sam also moving up to Captain in the MCU, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier introduced Torres as a side character, who’s getting upgraded to Sam’s primary support for Brave New World.  Not so bad!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Falcon is the second deluxe tie-in Marvel Legends figure for Brave New World, who hit alongside the others at the beginning of the month.  This is Joaquin’s very first time in figure form of any sort, which is actually pretty nifty.  Movie figures don’t tend to do that as much these days.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and the core figure has 30 points of articulation.  He’s another all-new sculpt, based on his all-new film design.  Comics Joaquin is a metahuman, so his costume plays into that.  Since his MCU counterpart’s just an average guy using Sam’s old tech, he’s got a design more inspired by the sorts of designs we’ve seen with Sam previously.  That said, they keep a lot of the general design elements, and there are some call-backs to the comic Joaquin design.  It’s certainly a bit MCU-ified, but I’m not one to pull those particular designs apart as much.  The sculpt does a nice job of conveying this new look, and it’s just generally a pretty nice looking offering.  The proportions work very well, there’s good texturing work, and the likeness on both heads (with full face-mask and the mask pulled back) is a pretty strong match for actor Danny Ramirez.  Living up to his name, he’s also got a wing pack.  This one’s more similar to the Build-A-Wings from the first Sam Cap, with the three points of motion on each wing.  He’s got handles on the front of each, which is an interesting idea, but they’re really soft plastic, and he doesn’t have any proper gripping hands, so he doesn’t really hold them.  Falcon’s color scheme is decidedly different from Sam’s usual; in a callback to Sam’s original costume, it’s predominantly green.  It makes for a good contrast, and the paint work here conveys it well.  His application is pretty clean, as we’ve come to expect.  He’s benefit from some accenting, but he’s standard Legends fare.  Falcon is packed with two sets of hands (in fists and open gesture), a collapsed wing pack, and his own Redwing drone.  Like Sam, there’s no stand or anything for Redwing, so he just sort of has to sit there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I enjoyed Joaquin during Sam’s time as Cap, and I liked what we got to see of him in Falcon and The Winter Soldier, so I’m pretty excited to see more of him in the upcoming movie.  I’m also always game for a figure of a character that hasn’t gotten one before.  His design isn’t quite as unique as the comics one, but it’s also not a bad one, and I think it makes for a pretty good toy.  This guy’s just as nice as the Cap figure, and they make for quite a nice pair.

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.

#3776: Captain America – Brave New World

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA — BRAVE NEW WORLD

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“After carrying the mantle of Captain America for a few years, Sam Wilson must use his intelligence and make new allies to stop a force unlike any he’s seen before.”

Every so often, it’s good to highlight some people that like to punch Nazis.  Because Nazis need some punching.  And who better to lead the charge in Nazi punching than Captain America?  There’s a new Captain America movie coming out next month, and I sure do love Captain America movies (well, most of them; I don’t wanna talk about the 1990 one), so I’m excited.  This one is Sam Wilson’s first time headlining a film in the title role, which I do love as well.  And, there’s new toys.  I especially love that.  Here’s one of those!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is one of the three Deluxe-sized Marvel Legends releases tying into the release of Brave New World.  It’s not a bad approach, and certainly works a bit better than the Build-A-Wing approach of the prior Sam Cap.  This way, he’s a nice one-and-done offering.  At his core, the figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation. He’s got what appears to be an all-new sculpt, based on his new design for the film.  His new costume isn’t ultimately too drastic a departure from the last one when you get down to the sculpted details; a lot of the elements are the same, just recolored in such a way to more closely mimic some of the Steve Cap costume elements.  He does go a little more casual, loosing the “mask” elements that connected to his goggles, and rolling up the sleeves (a change that Carol Danvers also did in her most recent movie; I guess the Captains are all just rolling up their sleeves now).  I feel like he maybe seems a little bit too skinny for Sam, but it might just be me.  It’s got some respectable proportion balancing, though, and the likeness on the head is a very good match for Anthony Mackie.  As with the last figure, he’s also got his wings, which add an additional 8 points of articulation to the figure.  They’re a total rebuild from the last ones, adding an extra segment with an extra joint, as well as being sharper and cleaner.  I honestly thought the old ones were pretty good, but these ones just improve on them and are super awesome.  Sam gets a fair bit of painted detailing, and it all works pretty well.  It’s generally pretty clean on the application front, and the new color scheme is at the very least an obvious departure from the last one.  Sam is packed with two pairs of hands (fists and open), an extra helmeted head, an alternate folded up backpack, Redwing, and his shield.  The helmeted head is nifty, but really hard to get on the body, so I don’t see myself using it much.  Redwing appears to be the same one from the Build-A-Figure release, but has no stand or anything to mount on, so I don’t really know what to do with him.  The shield is the John Walker Cap version of the mold, so it can be mounted on either of the two backpacks, which is certainly an improvement.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

These figures snuck up on me.  Admittedly, so did the movie.  I have no real excuse for the second one, because it’s been delayed and all.  It’s on me, you guys.  I haven’t been as up on things.  I didn’t *need* this one, of course, but it’s a new Cap, and I always have a hard time saying no to those.  Ultimately, this one’s pretty darn solid.  Not perfect, but the wings alone make him worth it.

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.