Tag Archives: Civil War

#0927: Captain America & Crossbones

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA & CROSSBONES

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR MINIVERSE

CrossbonesCap1

Well, here it is; today’s the day of the official release of Captain America: Civil War. By the time this is posted, I’ll have already seen the movie, and hopefully I’ll have enjoyed it immensely. In honor of the film, I’ll be taking a look another set of figures from Hasbro’s smaller-scale line. I’m going full-on #TeamCap today, with the main man himself, as well as his returning foe, Crossbones.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cap and Crossbones are part of the first series of Captain America: Civil War Miniverse figures. This is one of two sets in the first series that isn’t Team Cap vs. Team Iron Man, but it’s still a versus set, and it’s probably the most sensible pairing of the bunch.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Like Vision, Cap is getting his second 2 ½-inch figure here, following the one he got from Age of Ultron. This figure stands about 2 ¾ inches tall and has 5 points of articulation. Cap’s design has changed again for Civil War (though it’s probably the most minor set of between film changes he’s gotten), and as such he’s gotten an all-new sculpt. It’s not too bad, though there are a few issues with proportions. Most notably he seems to be missing his neck, which throws off the size of his head relative to his shoulders and just makes him look a bit odd. Other than that, the sculpt’s actually quite good. There’s some great detail work on the costume, and he’s fairly accurate to the source material. He even has more normally-sized feet than the last two, which is nice to see. Cap takes a bit of a dive on the paint side of things. It’s not really the quality of what’s there (though there are some issues with application, such as the skin tone of the face going over the chinstrap of his helmet), but rather what’s not there. His legs feature not paint at all, leaving the boots and kneepads blue, and his gloves are straight brown, leaving his fingers the wrong color. The worst part is his torso, which looks alright from the front, but has all the paint rather jarringly end at the sides, leaving his back completely unpainted. Could they not spring for just a few more paint apps? On the plus side, Cap has the most extra parts of anyone in the series. He includes his shield, which is pretty nicely sized. He also gets the wonky clip-on armor in this set. If you thought Bucky’s armor was weird, wait ‘til you get a load of Cap and his…spinning bicycle wheels? Yeah, still not quite getting these.

CROSSBONES

CrossbonesCap2Crossbones is another returning character from The Winter Soldier, though this is the first time he’s actually been “Crossbones” (he was just “Rumlow” in the last film). Crossbones is a fairly prominent recurring Cap villain in the comics (where he was the right-hand man of Red Skull), but time will tell as to whether he’s as prominent in the movies. The figure’s the same height as Cap and has the same articulation as well. He has a new sculpt based on Crossbones’ new armored look from the film, which is a pretty awesome look if I do say so myself. The actual figure? Eh…he’s okay, but definitely a little wonky. Above the waist, he’s actually not too bad; he’s got decent proportions and some very nice detailing on the armor. The legs are what really throws him off. They’re oddly shaped, and lack a lot of the detailing seen on the rest of the figure. It’s almost like they came from a different figure, but I honestly can’t say what sort of figure on which they wouldn’t look out of place. Crossbones has minimal painted details, but that’s more or less appropriate for him, since he’s mostly just black and white in the film. He’s lacking any detailing for his eyes, but that’s actually pretty forgivable at this scale. The white details are actually pretty convincingly worn, which is quite impressive given the work on the rest of the figures. Crossbones includes no accessories.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting Vision and Winter Soldier from my parents, I decided to pick up a few of the other sets, including this pair. These two are definitely more movie specific that the last pair, but they feel a little less balanced than the prior set. Both figures are pretty cool overall, but both have fairly major setbacks (the paint in Cap’s case, and those wonky legs in Crossbones’). All in all, not a bad set, especially for the price, but I do hope we see Crossbones at a larger scale later.

#0926: Vision & Winter Soldier

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

VISION & WINTER SOLDIER

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR MINIVERSE

VisWS4 (2)

You guys know what’s coming out tomorrow, right? Captain America: Civil War! I must admit, I’m quite looking forward to the movie, and I’ve already got my tickets to see it later this evening. Hopefully it doesn’t disappoint!

Hasbro’s been rather steadily rolling out their various tie-in products. My main interest, as always, is the action figures. There are a couple of different scales, but the only one so far to promise a more or less complete lineup of characters from the film is their smaller 2 ½-inch line, so that’s the one I’m investing in right now. I’ll kick things off by looking at two of my favorite characters from the movie (and the comics that spawned it): Vision and the Winter Soldier.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This pair is part of the first series of Hasbro’s Captain America: Civil War Miniverse line. It would seem that Hasbro has moved away from the weird Sub-Ultron idea from the Age of Ultron line, opting instead for more straightforward two-packs, which are much preferred. I will admit that this pairing seems a bit odd, since these two aren’t known for having much of a connection, but I won’t complain.

VISION

VisWS2So, it’s hard to say how big a role Vision will play in the movie. If I had to guess, I’d say it won’t be super huge. Still, he’s the Vision, so he’ll be super awesome even if he’s only on the screen for 30 seconds. Vision’s been released in this scale before as part of the Age of Ultron line, but he was based on earlier designs, making him slightly inaccurate. Since his look hasn’t changed in Civil War, this gives Hasbro another chance at perfecting him. The figure stands 2 ¾ inches tall and has 5 points of articulation. He’s a bit taller than the last Vision, which is nice, because my main complaint on that one was how undersized he was. The figure’s sculpt is totally new, and as a whole it’s a marked improvement over the AoU version: the proportions are more balanced, the detail is sharper, the cape sits better, and he’s much closer to his onscreen counterpart’s appearance. Really, my only complaint about the sculpt are the feet, which are a bit clown-shoe-y for my taste. But hey, at least he doesn’t fall over as much. Vision’s paint is different from that of his predecessor. It’s hard to say if it’s better or worse; just different. The colors feel like a better match for the movie, but he’s missing some of the red detailing on his body, and he still doesn’t have any green on his head. Vision has no accessories, but I can’t really think of anything to include.

WINTER SOLDIER

VisWS5Winter Soldier is no doubt one of the more important characters in the movie, given that the film’s continuing the story started in the last film. Interestingly enough, Winter Soldier is presented here with his mask/goggles look from the second Cap film, which I don’t believe he’ll be sporting in the upcoming film. An unmasked Bucky is planned for Series 2, though, so I guess Hasbro just wanted to get us both looks. The figure’s the same height as Vision, which seems a little large, but whatever. His sculpt is pretty decent overall. He’s a bit more pre-posed than Vision, with his legs in sort of a mid-stride sort of pose. It’s not too out there, so I don’t mind all that much. He has the same issue of slightly large feet that Vision had, but that’s also pretty minor. On the plus side, the level of detail is pretty great, and he looks quite accurate to the source material. The paint is a little drab and simple, if I’m honest. While the sculpt has lots of really great details, the paint overlooks most of them. For the most part, he’s just molded in a dark grey, with a tiny bit of paint for things like his harness and belt. Things like his boots, kneepads, and even both of his hands are left totally unpainted. It looks okay overall, but it’s a tiny bit disappointing. Each of the sets in the Miniverse line has one set of clip-on armor, and Winter Soldier is the lucky one in this set. He has…umm…well, they look like jack hammers or something, to attach to his arms. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say he probably won’t use this contraption in the film…

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, my parents were out running errands a few weeks ago and my dad called me to ask if I wanted any of the Civil War stuff that was out. I opted for this set, since, as I mentioned in the intro, I’m pretty fond of both characters. Is this set going to re-shape the toy world? No. But they’ll certainly hold me over until these guys get more proper figures, and they’re quite a bit of fun.

VisWS4

#0913: Vision & Hawkeye

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

VISION & HAWKEYE

MARVEL MINIMATES

VisionHawkeyeCW1

Civil War is almost upon us (well, some people have already seen it. Lucky ducks…) and the tie-in product is starting to hit, though not as explosively as in prior years. Still, there’s notably more stuff then we got for Winter Soldier. As with all the recent Marvel Studios films, there are some Minimates based on the movie, and the Toys R Us assortment just started showing up. Today, I’ll be looking at two of my favorite Avengers, Vision and Hawkeye!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Vision and Hawkeye are the Toys R Us-exclusive set from the first series of Civil War Minimates (which are Series 66 of the specialty Marvel Minimates line). It’s actually fairly amusing that their packed together, since Vision and Hawkeye’s very first Minimates (from way back in Series 20) were also packed together.

VISION

VisionHawkeyeCW2With the exception of the face detailing, this Vision is the same as the Series 63 version of the character. That was a pretty nice translation of the film version of Vision, and since his design hasn’t changed between the two movies, the new figure’s pretty accurate to Civil War as well. He gets a new, more detailed face, which has a better likeness of Paul Bettany, and adds some of the detail lines that were absent from the last figure’s face. There’s actually a pretty good rationale for this almost total re-release: Vision was a specialty exclusive in the AoU assortments, meaning he was one of the two Avengers not available to TRU consumers. Now everybody gets a Vision! Vision includes both a clear display stand and a flight stand.

HAWKEYE

VisionHawkeyeCW3Of all the costumes in the first Avengers movie, Hawkeye’s was the one that most disappointed me. Hawkeye’s got one of the coolest costumes in comics, and the movie version sucked a lot of the originality out of it. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way, since Hawkeye’s gotten a slightly tweaked design in both subsequent reappearances. In AoU, he added a pretty cool coat to his look, but he still seemed to lack some of his comics counterpart’s flair. Civil War seems dead set on amending that, as it’s given Hawkeye possibly his coolest look yet, taking major cues from his West Coast Avengers/Heroic Age design. This ‘mate replicates that design. He has add-on pieces for his hair, quiver, and holster. All of these parts are re-used pieces (being mostly fairly generic parts), but they certainly fit what we’ve seen of Hawkeye’s look so far. Hawkeye’s paintwork is pretty impressive, with a whole ton of great detail work on his uniform, giving him a lot of dimension. His colors also pop; I think this is my favorite shade of purple that I’ve seen on a movie Hawkeye. The likeness on the face bears a resemblance to Jeremy Renner, but I think the Winter Ops Hawkeye still has the closest resemblance. Hawkeye includes a bow, three arrows, a pistol, and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I came across this set at my local TRU. Shocking, right? For whatever reason, this was the set I was most looking forward to in this series. Vision’s essentially a re-release, but the minor changes go a long way, at least for me, and I prefer this one to the AoU version. The new Hawkeye design is pretty strong, and it translates quite nicely to the ‘mate aesthetic, resulting in what is probably the best MCU version of the character so far. This set might be easy to overlook, but it’s definitely one I’m glad I got.