Tag Archives: Hot Toys

#3267: Steve Rogers & The Hydra Stomper

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

STEVE ROGERS & THE HYDRA STOMPER

MARVEL STUDIOS WHAT IF…? (HOT TOYS)

“Who does Peggy Carter call in for backup when she needs it? Steve Rogers, of course. In this universe, Peggy Carter jumps into action with a number of familiar faces, but even she might need some help defeating the enemy. Calling in air support, she certainly doesn’t expect Steve to come swooping in – in a Hydra Stomper suit.”

Prepare for more formula breaking, as I interlude with yet another Hot Toys review outside of a monumental number!  I seem to be doing this far too frequently, don’t I?  It’s gonna make the monumental reviews not so special.  Ah, I don’t really care that much, honestly.  I just want to review the toys.  It’s kind of the whole purpose of the site, right?

In my last Hot Toys review, I was discussing my adherence to just Captain America stuff, and how that played into some alternate universe characters, specifically when What If…? is on the table.  While What If…? is a show I had generally mixed feelings about, I absolutely loved its first episode, “What If…Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?”  I’ve already got the HT Captain Carter, so there’s only one proper way to follow-up: The Hydra Stomper!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Steve Rogers and The Hydra Stomper is a deluxe set of figures from Hot Toys’ Television Masterpiece Series, where it’s numbered TMS060, placing it just after Peggy in the numbering.  This marks the third What If…? offering from Hot Toys.  Like Peggy, this set stuck pretty close to its original anticipated release date of the end of 2022/beginning of 2023, though it did stick to the earlier end of the window.  There are two releases of the Hydra Stomper available; just the Stomper on its own is available as part of the Power Pose Series, and then there’s this set, which adds in the full pilot Steve Rogers figure to the mix.  Clearly, there was no way I was just doing the Stomper when there’s also a Steve available, right?  Right.

Steve is technically the actual “figure” here as classified by HT and Sideshow (to the point of being the one with an actual classic HT-style box), so I’ll kick things off with a look at him first.  The figure stands just over 11 inches tall and has over 30 points of articulation.  Steve’s head sculpt, much like the Captain Carter figure, is an animation-inspired piece, rather than shifting him to a realistic style like a lot of Hot Toys offerings.  As with the Peggy sculpt, there’s still a degree of an Evans likeness present here (albeit, the shrunken down and skinny Evans likeness from early in The First Avenger), so you can tell who it’s supposed to be.  It’s a good match for the design as seen in the show, and it’s nice, clean, and slick.  The paint work emphasizes the animated look further, while still maintaining the usual high Hot Toys standards.

Steve’s outfit is generally pretty simple (which is true to the show), being a rather standard loose-fitting jumpsuit.  There’s an underlying shirt, albeit without any sleeves.  You won’t notice, of course, since the suit’s not designed to be removed.  Further tailored items include some harness straps and a removable back pack.  There’s also a sculpted buckle for his belt, as well as a pair of feet that look like boots.  Under the outfit, he’s got a rather small and scrawny base body, matching well with his pre-serum build.  It’s a rather nicely articulated base body, which makes for easy posing.

Steve gets a rather modest selection of extras, with three sets of hands (L and R relaxed, L and R pointing, L gripping, and R flat), and a display stand that matches with the one included with Peggy.

Moving past the Steve Rogers figure, let’s take a look at the thing that takes up the vast majority of the package space here: The Hydra Stomper!  The figure stands a little over 22 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation.  On its own, the suit is part of Hot Toys’ Power Pose Series, which is their way of releasing Iron Man armors at a cheaper price by cutting back on articulation in order to simplify the engineering.  As such, this figure only gets movement where it absolutely *needs* it, rather than just sort of all the places it naturally would.  All things said, the posability is still better than I’d expected.  In particular, the fully articulated fingers are really impressive.  The only area that’s truly restricted is the lower half, but on the plus side, it does keep him very stable on his feet.  His sculpt is, as expected, quite impressive.  It’s very clean and sharp, and a spitting image of the design as seen in the show.  The figure is designed to allow Steve to actually sit inside; it’s a bit tricky to get him in there, and he’s a little cramped, but it’s cool to have the option. There are light up features worked into the eyes and the torso, both of which are battery operated independently from each other.  The Hydra Stomper is packed with a flight stand, which affixes to the belt line of the figure.  It holds him rather securely horizontally, allowing for a more stable point for Peggy to hold onto the back like in the episode.  It’s a little tricky to get it all properly posed and secure, but it’s fun that the option is there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I mentioned in the Captain Carter review, this episode was by far my favorite of What If…?, and I was honestly already kinda sold on these even before seeing the show.  The Hydra Stomper design is just one that really works for me, and as soon as I saw this figure, complete with the Steve Rogers, I was sold on getting this set and the Captain Carter.  Since I got Peggy from Jason at All Time as a Christmas gift, this sort of became my Christmas gift to myself, I suppose.  It’s huge, it’s impressive, and it’s just a whole lot of fun.  And I’ve even made shelf space for it already, so I don’t even have that whole thing looming over me!

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this set to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#3261: Captain Carter

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

CAPTAIN CARTER

MARVEL STUDIOS WHAT IF…? (HOT TOYS)

Greetings and welcome to a brand-new year, faithful readers!  Today’s important thing is the official kick off the post-Christmas reviews.  Very fancy stuff.  Notably, I’m also breaking formula, and totally writing a review of a Hot Toy, but not on a big review number.  Look, I’ve got a new Hot Toy, and I don’t really feel like waiting over 200 reviews to get to it, okay?  When last I was discussing Hot Toys, I had two different Captain America reviews, and indicated that was kind of the path I’d be sticking to for Hot Toys going forward.  Today’s focus sticks with that, more or less, albeit in a sort of an alternate universe capacity.  Yes, straight from 2021’s What If…?, I’m taking a look at a very fancy version of Captain Carter, Margaret “Peggy” Carter’s super soldier alter-ego!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain Carter is the second figure in the What If…? component of Hot Toys’ Television Masterpiece Series, which is their “small screen” equivalent to their longer running Movie Masterpiece Series.  She’s figure TMS059, placing her right between Zombie Hunter Spidey and the Hydra Stomper.  It’s a nice little stretch of What If…? figures there.  Peggy stuck pretty much spot-on to her original release date of fourth quarter 2022, hitting back in early November.  Captain Carter is based on her WW2-era outfit from her debut episode, which is definitely the more distinctive of her two looks (it also pairs well with the upcoming Hydra Stomper).  The figure stands about 11 3/4 inches tall and she has over 30 points of articulation.

Captain Carter’s head sculpt marks a change for the usual Hot Toys stylings.  They most often got for hyper realism, even when adapting non-realistic designs (as highlighted by the Clone Wars characters in their larger Star Wars line), but the What If…? figures are instead sticking closer to their actual animation models.  This appears to possibly be a licensing thing, since the Legends figures were the same way.  Whatever the case, the spot where this is most evident is the head sculpt.  The sculpt is much smoother and streamlined than your typical Hot Toys head, but it’s nevertheless a really strong likeness of the character as she appears in the show.  It’s still got a respectable likeness of Hayley Atwell, making her fairly easily recognizable.  She includes two different pieces for the back of her hair, allowing for either a relaxed hang, or something a bit more dynamic.  They’re both attached via magnets, so they swap out and hold in place pretty nicely.  They also both work really well for their respective looks, and add a nice bit of variety to what you can do with the figure. As with the sculpting, Captain Carter’s paint work is a bit different from the usual, with something a little cleaner and bolder.  The application’s still really strong, and she’s got enough realism to her that she doesn’t stand out too much from other figures Hot Toys has done.

The bulk of Captain Carter’s costume is a single piece jumpsuit, in contrast to the usual two-piece set-up we’ve seen on the Captain Americas.  That said, she’s still got that layered look like the Caps have, so as to properly recreate all the cool little details of the costume.  On mine, the mid-torso stripes do seem *just* a tad off-center, just careful posing makes them look just fine.  The suit is topped off with a shoulder harness, a belt, and boots, which are all plastic add-on parts.  Like the more recent Captain Americas, the boots use a two-piece construction, so that the ankles can still properly move.  The belt and harness just being plastic is a slight step-down from the cloth construction on the other Caps, but it also tracks a bit better with her more animated appearance.

Peggy’s underlying base body is a rather basic one, which seems to go more for function over form.  It’s a fairly standard female base body, albeit one that’s a little taller than the usual.  It’s generally a pretty good match for Peggy as seen in the episode, although, if I’m honest, I do feel like she’s still perhaps a bit too short for her appearance in the show.  Likewise, her shoulders seem a little narrower.  Beyond that, though, it does work okay.  The posability is pretty decent, especially in the arms.  The hips are a bit restricted, but that’s more about the costume design than the actual body.

Captain Carter gets a pretty decent selection of extras, covering all of the basics for what she’s got in her episode.  Included are:

  • 7 hands
  • Shield
  • Hanger for shield
  • Sword
  • Handgun
  • Display stand

The hands included are two fists, two gripping, two relaxed, and a right hand with trigger finger.  The shield is smaller than Steve’s (which is either accurate or not, since it’s scale fluctuated depending on the shot), but it’s still similar to his in construction and detailing.  The straps can unhook just like Steve’s, and there’s a hook for hanging it on her back.  The sword is based on the one she grabs during the first episode’s climactic battle, and it’s nice and sharply detailed.  The handgun is a little simpler than other HT weapons, which I’ll admit I was just a tad bummed by, but it’s not going to get much use by me anyway.  Her display stand goes with the hexagonal shape, with a printed design based on the What If…? branding, as well as her name on the front.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Captain Carter episode of What If…? is far and away my favorite of the show’s first season.  I’ve been very excited for all of the tie-in stuff for it.  While I’m keeping it lighter on the HT side still, I’ve got that soft spot for the Captain America-related stuff, and I’ve honestly been wanting an HT Peggy of some form since The First Avenger.  Now, you’ll notice that I said this figure was kicking off the post-Christmas stuff.  I got this one courtesy of All Time’s owner Jason, who gave her to me as a very generous Christmas gift.  She’s pretty awesome, and I’ve very excited to pair her off with the Hydra Stomper figure!

#3000: Captain America – Infinity War

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (HOT TOYS)

In a turn of events that I suppose is all rather fitting, today, the last day of 2021, also marks my 3000th review here at the site.  Pretty crazy, huh?  I never really foresaw myself making it quite this far, and yet, here I am.  3000 is a very big number, and a bigger number than the the total quantity of figures I had in my collection when I started this thing.  Moreover, I’ve made it all the way to the end of 2021, a journey that I would very much be underselling with the description “turbulent.”  A lot’s happened, and it has not been easy.  But I’m here.  And I’ve got a thing to review.  And I suppose that’s the most important thing in the moment.  So, let’s jump back to 2018, back to the throws of Avengers: Infinity War, specifically Captain America and his rather disheveled look from his own rather turbulent year.  Fitting, I suppose.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America is part of the Infinity War tie-in component of Hot Toys’ Movie Masterpiece Series, where he’s figure MMS 481, which made him the sixth of the IW tie-in figures.  The figure arrived not too long after the film’s release, hitting in the fall of 2018.  There were two releases of him, a standard and a “Movie Promo Edition” which was a Sideshow-exclusive in the US.  The difference between the two comes down to a few accessories; the figure proper remains the same.  This Cap is based on his Nomad appearance from the film, which is of course the only look he actually has in Infinity War, so I guess that makes sense.  The figure stands about 12 1/2 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

While most Caps these days include multiple heads, this release only has the one.  It makes some degree of sense, since he doesn’t have the helmeted look in the film, so I suppose he only needs the one head.  It’s only the one facial expression, but that’s not uncommon for unmasked heads from Hot Toys.  This one does live up to Hot Toys’ usual penchant for very lifelike sculpts.  It sports a pretty spot-on likeness of Evans in the film, at least facially.  The hair is perhaps a little bit too orderly for proper film accuracy, but it’s not too far off, and it’s certainly closer than either Hasbro or Bandai’s attempts were.  It avoids the seam at the sides of the head that the Endgame release had, but trades it out for a rather noticeable join at the back of the head where the longer hair attaches.  It’s still not the worst thing, but at this price point, you do hope for a little better.  At the very least, the paint work topping it all off is really good, up to Hot Toys’ typical standards for face paint, with a very lifelike quality to the whole thing.

In Infinity War, Cap is, at least canonically, supposed to still be wearing the suit he had in Civil War, having had not time on the run between films to swap out.  In actuality, there are a few changes to the suit beyond just the expected wear and tear of being on the run, but they’re generally minor.  In terms of how the suit works on the figure, it’s pretty similar to the Endgame figure, being two main parts, with a lot of layers attached.  As with that figure, this one’s belt sets perhaps a little low, but it’s otherwise a well-tailored outfit that works well with the underlying body of the figure and captures the look of the outfit seen in the film quite nicely.

The underlying base body appears to be the same one used for Endgame Cap, which was a good fit for Evans’ build for the character, as well as doing a good job of balancing aesthetics and functionality.  As with that figure, the movement of the base body is somewhat impeded by the nature of the suit design, which does have some notable restrictions at the hips and shoulders.  Still, there’s plenty of movement to be had, and he can get some pretty solid range on most of the joints.

When it comes to accessories, Cap gets quite a few, including:

  • 8 hands
  • 2 Wakandan shields
  • Outrider corpse
  • Corvus Glaive’s Spear
  • Proxima Midnight’s staff
  • Display stand

The hands include a pair of fists, a pair of gripping, a pair of relaxed gesture, and a right pointing/left open gesture combo.  They give all the important needs for posing and working with the included accessories, and also do a good job of capturing the look of his gloves from the movie.  They’re a little tricky to swap out, but not impossibly so.  The two Wakandan shields are designed for specifically right and left sides, and are able to be fully collapsed or extended, which is certainly nice engineering.  The display stand is the same style as we saw on the Endgame figure.  I dig the hexagonal shape.  And that’s all of the standard release stuff.  The exclusive also adds a fallen Outrider corpse piece to sit atop the stand (along with a printed piece which looks like dirt ground), as well as both Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight’s weapons.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed out on the standard release of this guy when he came into All Time.  I mean, not really missed out, I suppose, since he was in stock, and I just dragged my feet on him, because I wasn’t sure I wanted to jump back into Hot Toys.  Once the Endgame release truly broke me on that, I regretted passing on this guy, so he went on my list of figures I was definitely planning to snag should they get traded in.  As luck would have it, this guy wound up getting traded in within about a week of me getting the Endgame version, which was a solid thematic thing.  He’s the best version of this design available to be sure, and he’s honestly the version of Cap that most reflected my personal mind state as I navigated the last year. A little broken, a little lost, and his resolve a little shaken.  But he’s still him deep down.  A fitting send off to the year.

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.

#2842: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

AVENGERS: ENDGAME (HOT TOYS)

These days, I pretty much exclusively save my Hot Toys reviews for monumental numbers, but I’ve gotten to the point now where anything less than 500 doesn’t seem worth it, so it’s literally less than one a year.  Despite my last one being not even a whole year ago, when I crossed the 2500 mark, I’ve actually picked up a new one that warrants reviewing, and I don’t particularly want to wait seven months to review him, just to get the numbers to line up right.  If he’d actually come out when he was *supposed* to, I would have been golden, but nooooooooo….  So, anyway, I’m breaking the structure.  I know, you’re all so broken up about it, right?  Let’s jump back to 2019, when the world sucked a great deal less, and discuss the culmination of a decade’s worth of movies in Avengers: Endgame, and, more specifically, Captain America!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain America was released as part of the Endgame component of Hot Toys’ core Movie Masterpiece Series, where he’s figure 536.  He winds up being the sixth release of the Endgame figures, though he was originally meant to be a little bit earlier.  His initial release date was projected for June of 2020, but he wound up being about a year later than expected, making him so far the most delayed of the Endgame figures.  Presumably, the need to add some more final battle-specific parts contributed to this at least a little bit, but there was also that whole pandemic thing going on, which I’m sure did not help.  He’s finally here, though, and that’s the thing that matters the most of all.  Cap is based on his all-new super suit from the movie, which places him as a specifically third-act version of the character, which is really where he gets his best look, so I’m all about it.  It’s definitely Chris Evans’ Cap at his Cap-iest.  The figure stands about 12 1/2 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

As is the norm for masked characters, Cap is packed with two different heads for this release.  The first is a helmeted look, which is a quite nicely layered sculpt that looks like he’s actually got a separate helmet and everything.  For this head, they’ve given him an extra joint at the base of the jaw, for some extra mobility.  It works pretty well, but does result in a slightly noticeable seam at the back.  It’s certainly an improvement from earlier versions of such designs, though, which is good.  The head has a solid likeness of Chris Evans under the helmet, showcasing an improvement even on the already really good likenesses of the older Caps.  Much like the DX12 Batman, the helmeted head has three different mouth plates that you can swap out for different expressions.  The standard is fairly neutral, and has the most versatility, but he’s also got one with the mouth slightly opened, and one with the teeth firmly gritted and bared, which is perfect for the more intense battle poses.  The plates are attached with magnets, and can take a little bit of doing to place, but stay nicely once set, and swap out without too much trouble.  It certainly works a bit better than the straight up pegs that were on Batman.  The paint work on the head is up to the usual HT standards, with a very lifelike appearance for the face, and some really nice wear and tear detailing on the helmet.  The second head gives us a proper un-helmeted look for Steve.  Originally, the photos showed the same unmasked head that was included with the Winter Soldier, Age of Ultron, and Civil War releases, but prior to release, Hot Toys replaced it with an all-new sculpt that more accurately depicts Evans as seen in Endgame.  It’s a very strong sculpt, with a really impressive likeness, perhaps even better than the one on the helmeted head.  Unlike the helmeted head, this one doesn’t have the extra joint.  It makes for slightly less posability, but looks better aesthetically, and given his more composed appearance, it’s not really meant for crazy poses anyway.  The only real downside to this sculpt is that there’s a rather noticeable seam on the sides of the head.  Fortunately, it’s not too bad when not directly lit, but at this price point, you would hope for it to be just a little bit better.

Cap’s new suit for Endgame‘s final battle was a fairly strong point for the movie.  It’s kind of indicative of the MCU movies as a whole,   taking various elements that worked previously, and rolling them all into one slightly more perfected, more direct comics-directly adapted final product.  It looks really cool, and it just really works.  It’s construction is also a bit more involved than earlier designs, as well, which is reflected in its translation here.  His underlying “body suit” is two distinct pieces, a shirt and pants.  The pants have some molded knee pads glued in place, and the shirt has plastic plating for his chest and shoulders, as well as a sculpted insignia at the center.  Beyond that, the detailing is down to tailoring, which looks pretty solid for this scale.  Some of the stitching is a little bit larger than it should be, but, of course, there’s only so much that can be done about that.  The base suit is topped off by his harness, belt, and boots.  The harness is largely cloth, as you would expect, and is again a well-tailored translation of the design seen in he film.  The belt sits a little bit low, but overall looks alright, and is attached permanently to the suit.  The boots are sculpted, but unlike earlier sculpted boots, which sacrificed articulation for the sake of aesthetics, these ones are jointed at the ankles, allowing for much better options when posing.  It’s definitely a much appreciated improvement for me.

Cap’s underlying body captures Evans’ proportions pretty nicely and is one of the more basic ones, which prioritizes function over form.  After the first few Caps placed him on slightly less articulated muscle bodies, I do appreciate one that’s more cleanly designed for posing.  The nature of his costume design does impede some of the movement ever so slightly.  For the most part, the upper torso fares alright in terms of range, though the shoulders are a little tight for some poses.  The pants are rather restricting, especially at the hips, but with some slight shifting, it’s workable.  He just won’t be getting into any deep lunges or anything.

In addition to getting the previously mentioned extra head and mouth plates, Cap gets a rather extensive selection of other extras for a whole ton of options for display.  Included are:

  • 7 hands
  • 2 shields
  • Mjolnir
  • Compass
  • Empty helmet
  • Display stand

The hands include fists, gripping, pointing (right), open gesture (right), and loose grip (left).  They pretty much cover all of the needed options for posing, and look suitably realistic, including some solid detail work on his gloves.  They also swap out pretty easily, considering my prior experiences with Hot Toys.  The two shields give you both standard (if a bit scuffed), and damaged, which also includes the broken shards, which I certainly wasn’t expecting.  The shields also include a piece that can swap out for one of the straps, which allows you to hang one of them on his back.  Mjolnir is similar in styling to the one included with Thor, but this time around the top is plastic, rather than metal.  While it doesn’t have that same impressive heft, it also won’t leave his wrist joint all floppy and loose after a few months posed holding it aloft.  The compass is properly hinged, and even has the small photo of Peggy in it, as seen in the movie.  The helmet matches the helmeted head, minus the head, of course, and can be held when he’s using the unmasked head.  The stand swaps out the old basic oval design for a hexagonal design featuring a design based on the movie branding.  It does its job well, and has a rather clean design, which works pretty well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Completing the first Avengers line-up was really my last hurrah for Hot Toys collecting, and I’ve not really been keeping up with it since.  However, when I walked out of the theater after seeing Endgame, I pretty much wanted this Cap design in any form I could get.  I placed my order for this guy as soon as he was available.  It’s been quite a long wait for him, given he was supposed to be slated for last year, but I was certainly okay with being patient.  Ultimately, this figure wound up as part of my path to figuring out my new normal, since he finally shipped just a week after Jess’s passing.  It’s weird, I suppose, but maybe sort of fitting, since I had moved past Hot Toys collecting when she and I started dating.  It was definitely weird not getting to experience this one with a companion, but I’m starting to find my footing on what I like purely for me.  I do like this figure.  I took me a little bit of time to get back into enjoying a Hot Toys figure the same way I used to, but he’s a good re-entry into the style.  I’m not jumping back into these full force, but I am going to keep up with my Captain America chronology at the very least.

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.

#2500: Hawkeye

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

HAWKEYE

AVENGERS (HOT TOYS)

Wow, can you believe I’ve written 2500 of these reviews?  I mean, you probably can.  The numbers are right there, at the top of the reviews and all.  I’ve given total accountability here.  So, you know, you shouldn’t be surprised.  I mean, I am, but it’s my site; I’m allowed.  Well, 2500 feels like a monumental enough review for me to dig out another of my higher-end figures, so why not chip away a little more at my rather impressive Hot Toys Avengers collection.  I’ve looked at a good chunk of the first film’s line-up, but today I’m taking another step towards completion with Hawkeye!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Hawkeye was released as part of Hot Toys’ core Movie Masterpiece Series, numbered at 172.  He’s the third of the Avengers-branded figures, following Nick Fury and the quick re-hash Iron Man Mk VI.  Given that he’s really the most basic of the core team, it’s not a huge shock.  He wound up as one of the first to actually make it to release as well, getting to collectors in the fall of 2012.  The figure stands 11 3/4 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

Hot Toys usually puts their star work into the actor’s portraits on the head sculpts, and they’ve turned in some really impressive likenesses.  Hawkeye’s not a bad effort, but he’s not one of their best either.  There’s definitely a lot of Jeremy Renner in there, but it’s not quite as spot on as their work tends to be.  I think it’s the eyes that really throw things off, because putting the sunglasses on helps the likeness a bit.  I think they might be a touch too close together.  Later Hawkeyes from HT would get the Renner likeness down just a bit better, but this one wasn’t a terrible attempt by any means.  The paint work is still up to the usual HT standards, meaning he’s really damn lifelike.

As is the usual set-up, Hawkeye’s costume is a mixed-media affair.  The actual suit is a tailored piece, made from a number of layered pieces.  It works out pretty well, but ultimately isn’t quite as slick as some of the other suits they’ve done.  There’s a lot more in the way of faux zippers and straps, and it just looks slightly more cosplay than usual for HT.  For me, the biggest hang up, though, is the front of the tunic.  The two sides of it are meant to hook onto the brim of his pants, in order to hold things a bit tighter, but can be removed to allow for slightly better posability.  The trouble is that the hooks just don’t really hold very well, so it just tends to pop loose a lot.  The boots are solid sculpted pieces, which is fairly normal for the line, but not the most posable choice.  Still, they do look pretty nice.  Hawkeye’s got his quiver, which is a plastic piece, and even has the rotating arrangement of arrow heads at the base like in the film.  Connecting the quiver to the rest of the costume proved a bit of a challenge for HT, so they ended up including two options.  The first is a small plastic clip, which connects to the back of the quiver and slots into the center of his back, leaving a more seamless join.  This is technically more film accurate, but ultimately isn’t as secure, and tends to droop over time.  The second option’s a cloth strap.  It’s pretty basic, but it works, even if it’s not quite as film accurate.

Hawkeye’s underlying body is one of the muscle bodies.  Given the exposed arms, this makes sense from an aesthetic standpoint, but is sadly a little limiting from a posing stand point, given the lessened range on the elbows and shoulders.  It makes getting decent archery poses out of this figure a little tricky.  You can definitely still manage some good ones, but there’s a lot more careful posing involved.  Otherwise, it’s a well proportioned body for the character, so I can at least get behind that.

Hawkeye’s accessory complement is definitely an impressive one, especially given his lower price-point at the time of his release.  He gets:

  • 6 hands
  • 2 bows
  • 16 arrows
  • 11 specialized arrow heads
  • Sunglasses
  • Display stand

The hands come in relaxed and gripping on the right side, and relaxed, pointing, and two different arrow-drawing hands for the left.  The only downside to the hands is that the standard arrow-draw hand has the fingers all molded as one solid piece, requiring some slight modifying if you want him properly holding the arrow.  The two bows are effectively the same, with one difference: one has a string and the other doesn’t.  This allows for the unstrung one to make use of the joints on the mold, allowing it to be collapsed like in the movie.  The arrows are all without heads, allowing the specialized ones to be swapped out in the movie.  The one real downside to them, though, is that you have to manually feed them into the quiver, which is a real pain, and hard to get just right.  The sunglasses are, of course, an artifact of promotional images, since he doesn’t actually wear them in the film, but it’s still cool to get them, and they look pretty snazzy.  The stand is another basic oval stand, but it’s at least consistent with the rest of the Avengers figures.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It was Hawkeye that swayed me into actually getting on board with the HT Avengers line-up, but it wasn’t when he was solicited.  No, it was instead when he sold out on Sideshow’s site, and I realized that if I really wanted these figures, I would need to jump on them early.  Fortunately, I was able to jump on the waitlist for this guy and get him without too much trouble.  Ultimately, he’s not as impressive as other HT figures.  I do still like him a lot, though, and he does go well with the rest of the set, so he’s certainly got that going for him.

#2000: Batman

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

BATMAN

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (HOT TOYS)

Did you see the number?  Did you see it?  Yes, you read it correctly faithful reader, today marks my 2000th review on this here site.  That’s…well, that’s a lot.  It honestly doesn’t feel all that long ago that I reviewed Rescue Cap for my 1000th, and, like that review, this one marks the departure of a consistent player around these parts.   Goodbye starting numeral 1, and welcome starting numeral 2.  Now, review #0001 was a Batman figure, so I suppose it’s only appropriate that #2000 should be another Batman.  There are, of course, two notable differences.  Firstly, as with most of my monumental reviews, this one comes from the high-end world of Hot Toys.  Secondly, where that prior figure was based on Batman Forever, this one is instead from the Nolan films.  Which were the most modern take on the character when I got this guy, but, alas, not the case anymore.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Batman was figure DX12 in Hot Toys’ Movie Masterpiece Series.  This marks my second look at a DX figure, following up the Battle-Damaged T-800 from all the way back in review #0050.  As I noted there, the DX line are an even more high-end subset of the Movie Masterpiece Series, focusing more on tentpole characters and giving them a larger variety of accessories and features.  This was the third time Batman got a DX release, and it was designed to pair off with the DX11 Dark Knight Joker.  Of course, seeing as this figure hit in 2012, he ended up pulling a bit of double duty.  He’s officially branded The Dark Knight Rises, and is meant to go with that subset of figures.  However, it’s the same costume in both movies, with only a very minor difference between them, allowing HT to tie him in with the Joker figure as well (and, in fact, this figure’s presence in the DX11’s solicitation shots let us know he was coming before we got an official confirmation).  The figure stands just shy of 12 inches tall and has over 30 points of articulation.

Batman was sporting two different head sculpts for this release.  The first is his masked appearance, which is, for the most part, a slightly simpler sculpt than we tend to see from Hot Toys.  This is film accurate, of course, since it’s replicating his smooth-plated helmet from the movie.  Prior TDK Batmen had some troubles with getting the helmet’s shape right, but it’s pretty darn spot-on here.  The head is designed with quite a bit of versatility in mind.  Firstly, since he’s a DX figure, he features PERS aka the “Parallel Eye Rolling System,” which allows for his eyes to be repositioned as you see fit.  It works a little differently here than it did with the T-800; the head is more easily removable, so the mechanism is accessed more directly, and requires a special tool.  I find I prefer this layout, since it means the head doesn’t have any odd seams.  Furthering the versatility are three interchangeable faceplates, with calm, scowling, and angry options.  All three have decent likenesses of Christian Bale, and they replicate his expressions from the film well enough, though they can certainly look goofy in some poses.  One last notable point about the head is its connection to the neck.  Rather than the usual ball-joint, it’s connected with a magnet, presumably to make for easier removal for accessing the features.  Ultimately, it feels a little gimmicky, and makes his head fall of a little more than I’d like.  The second head is an unmasked appearance, and it’s my favorite of the two.  It’s definitely the best unmasked Bale HT put out, and matches the sort of intense stare that Bale always had in the films.  It also features a removable collar piece, should you wish to use this head somewhere other than on the Batman suit.

Said Bat-suit was a major selling point of this particular release.  Prior versions of this design had used a molded rubber body suit, which limited the posabilty, resulted in softer detailing, and didn’t exactly hold up all that well over time (to say nothing of the DX02’s issues of weeping plastic caused by an unforeseen chemical reaction).  For this figure, the suit was built in a more film accurate fashion, using more rigid plastic armored parts glued in place on a cloth body suit.  It’s still not going anywhere near super posable or anything, but the look is definitely more accurate, and it’s certainly held up a lot better over time…well, at least in the seven years that I’ve had it.

As a DX release, Batman is pretty heavily packed with extras.  In addition to the two heads and extra mouth plates, he includes the following:

  • 6 hands
  • Grapnel gun
  • Transformable sticky bomb gun
  • Light-up electronic gun
  • 2 Belts
  • 2 batarangs
  • 2 mini mines
  • Connector for the Batpod
  • Light-up display stand

The hands come in fists, gripping, and a open/batarang holding combo.  They swap out okay, but it can get a little tricky to pop them back on.  The assortment of weaponry make for some nice specific call-backs to the film, but I personally haven’t gotten much use out of anything but the batarangs.  The sticky bomb gun is magnetic, allowing for it to be attached to the equally magnetic second belt…which would be super handy if the second belt on mine could actually be opened and placed on the figure.  Oh well.  The stand’s a pretty impressive piece, being modeled on the concrete steps where he faces off against Bane towards the end of the film.  The lights are a little gimmicky, but the overall appearance is nice.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

It was the Dark Knight versions of Joker and Two-Face that got me into Hot Toys collecting in the first place, but for a while I had no Batman to go with them, because I was just never than impressed by the available Batmen.  However, this one’s announcement, alongside Bane and Catwoman from the same movie, was right as I was getting into the HT thing pretty bigh, and that was enough to get me on board, and fill out my display a bit.  Ultimately, I think this guy makes for a wicked display piece, but he’s not a figure you want to pick up and handle all that much.  Taking him down from the shelf for this review was enough to really remind me of that.  Still, there’s no denying he was HT’s best Bale Batman.

#1750: Agent Phil Coulson

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

AGENT PHIL COULSON

AVENGERS (HOT TOYS)

So, about this monumental reviews business, you know, where I do the “deluxe” reviews of the high-end stuff?  When I started them, I was doing them every 50 reviews, which was far too frequent, so I bumped that up to every 100.  Well, right around the night before I had to write #1500, I decided 100 had gotten to be too frequent as well.  And so, as I noted in review #1600, I’m now doing them every 250.  Isn’t that nice?  For me it is.  Alright, let’s get back into the swing of things!

<beat>

Wow, it’s been another 250 reviews?  Who could have forseen this coming?  Well, at this point, me, because I know I’m not stopping any time soon.  In honor of another 250 under my belt, let’s have a look at another one of my high-end Hot Toys figures, shall we?  Slowly but surely, I’m making my way through the crown jewel of said Hot Toys collection: namely, my Avengers figures.  Today, I continue that, taking a look at one of my personal favorites, Agent Phil Coulson!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Coulson was released as part of Hot Toys’ main Movie Masterpiece Series, where he was figure 189.  While most of the Avengers figures stuck together in their numbering, Coulson was a later solicitation, so he’s smack dab between Catwoman from The Dark Knight Rises and the Scar Predator from Alien vs Predator.  What an assortment.  Coulson is meant to be based on his appearance in Avengers specifically, but he can just as easily work for his appearances in Iron Man, Thor, or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., making him quite a versatile figure.  The figure stands 11 3/4 inches tall and has over 30 points of articulation.

Really, the key piece to a figure like this, is the head sculpt, since without it, he’s just a generic suit.  Fortunately, Coulson got one of the best head sculpts to come out of the Avengers sub-set of figures.  There’s absolutely no denying who this guy is meant to be; he’s the spitting image of Clark Gregg.  But, of course, it’s not just about the likeness; it’s also about how lifelike the figure looks.  Some of the other Avengers figures were a little lighter on the texturing and the like, but fortunately that’s not the case with Coulson, who really does look like he stepped right after the movie.  His paintwork is up to the usual Hot Toys standard, which only furthers the lifelike nature of the sculpt.

Coulson’s sporting his standard-issue government agent black suit, with a dress shirt and a tie to go with it.  While not the most spectacularly tailored suit Hot Toys ever put out, it’s certainly a marked improvement over the likes of the Two-Face figure from just a few years prior.  I think my biggest complaint isn’t the suit itself, but actually the tie, which is a little bit on the short side, resulting in a somewhat goofy look.  In addition, his suit doesn’t have any buttons for closing it, so there’s no option to hide the shortness of the tie, at least not in any sort fixed fashion.  Still, that’s a rather minor issue.  On the opposite end of things, there are his shoes.  They’re fully sculpted feet, as is the usual Hot Toys fashion, and they’re just really, really nice looking.  Finally, there are the little touches that bring the whole thing together, which includes his Level 7 access badge and his wrist watch, both of which are quite a bit of fun.

Coulson’s accessories are a fun selection of movie specific extras.  He includes:

  • 5 hands
  • sunglasses
  • earpiece
  • cellphone
  • walkie talkie
  • handgun
  • Destroyer gun
  • filefolder
  • Captain America trading cards
  • Display stand

He has a pair of relaxed hands, a pair of gripped hands, and a hand specifically designed for holding either the file folder or the trading cards.

The sunglasses sit well on the face, in a decent enough fashion that you might not realize they were a separate piece at first glance.  I also appreciate that they’re actually semi-transparent, as they should be.  Similarly, the earpiece fits snugly into the right ear, and looks like it belongs there.  The cellphone and walkie talkie give him another two communication options, if that’s what you’re looking for.

The handgun’s a pretty nice piece as well.  It’s got a moving slide and a removable clip, which makes it fun to mess with.

The prize piece is definitely the Destroyer gun, Coulson’s signature weapon from his final moments in Avengers.  It’s well-scaled, a solid recreation of the design from the movie, and it even lights up! …or at least it did.  In the 5 years since I got it, the batteries in mine seem to have gone up.  Oh well.

The file folder and cards are both paper goods.  The folder is a little bit of a let down, since there’s noting inside of it, and it doesn’t open like a real folder, but it’s still a nice little bonus.  The cards are definitely a lot of fun, and I’m glad they weren’t over looked.

Lastly, there’s the display stand.  It’s just a basic oval stand, with the Avengers logo and Coulson’s name printed on the placard.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Coulson was the figure I was most excited for from this whole subset.  It was the strong hinting at his release from Hot Toys that actually got me on-board for the whole Avengers set-up, since it was, at the time, the only way to get a Coulson figure to go with the rest of the team.  Though he’s just a fairly average guy, the figure’s definitely one of Hot Toys’ stronger efforts, and it’s the cool accessories that give him that extra edge.

#1500: The Joker

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

JOKER

THE DARK KNIGHT (HOT TOYS)

And another hundred reviews have passed.  Would you believe I only barely remember writing #1400?  It’s been a real whirlwind of a year, let me tell you.  As is the case with all of my “monumental” reviews, I’ll be taking a look at a higher end item, courtesy of out friends at Hot Toys.  These reviews are frequently from the MCU, which makes up a sizable portion of my Hot Toys collection, but today I’m flipping over to their distinguished competition and taking a look at another figure from the widely successful The Dark Knight (which, coincidentally, was released the same summer that the MCU was launched with Iron Man).  So, without further ado, here’s The Joker!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Joker was released as part of Hot Toys’ long-running Movie Masterpiece Series line.  He was entry 68 in the line, placing him between the Original Costume Batman and the Tumbler.  He and both surrounding releases are, of course, from The Dark Knight, and this Joker represents the character as he looks for the majority of the film’s run time…more or less.  I’ll get to that. Joker stands about 11 3/4 inches tall and has over 30 points of articulation.

First up, let’s look at the headsculpt.  Right up front, this is the weakest part of the figure.  It’s not that it’s a *bad* sculpt, necessarily, but more that it’s highly inaccurate.  Look at that head.  Does it look at all like Heath Ledger?  No it does not, and that’s what makes reviewing it difficult.  See, it’s still a very strong, realistic sculpt, on par with HT’s best from a purely technical standpoint.  He totally looks like a real dude, just not the real dude who played the part in the movie.  Quite frankly, the sculpt isn’t even a half bad Joker.  I actually quite like it.  But it’s not Heath Ledger.  Even the paint sort of follows this trend.  It’s good technically, but for a Dark Knight Joker, it’s a little too clean and consistent.  If I had a guess, I’d say this whole head was largely assembled with early materials that didn’t quite represent Joker’s final look.

Joker’s outfit is made up of a shirt, tie, vest, pants, socks, sport coat, and over coat, as well as a pair of sculpted shoes.  The overcoat is probably the weakest piece.  Like the head, it’s not bad, just a little inaccurate.  It’s got the same basic look, but the specifics are a little off.  The rest of the parts are fairly decent, accurate, and generally well-tailored to the body.  His vest is a bit hard to keep closed, due to some iffy velcro.  I think snaps might have been better.  It’s worth noting that the belt is actually a superfluous piece, since he doesn’t have one in the movie, but you can remove it easily enough, and then there’s no issue.  The prints on the shirt and pants are quite impressive, and I particularly like the funky socks, a detail that most will never see.

Older HT offerings were a bit lighter than later ones.  Joker is one of the lightest in my entire collection, but he does still include two pairs of hands (one set for poses and one set for holding accessories), a deck of 13 unique Joker cards, a switch blade, and a standard black display stand with his same and the movie’s logo.  It’s not a huge selection, but it covers the basics.  Later releases offered other just about any extras you could want for a Dark Knight Joker, so there are options out there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Joker has the distinction of being my very first Hot Toys figure, and easily one of the most difficult times I’ve had acquiring one of them.  I asked for him for Christmas the year they were released, and my parents ordered him, nut he just kept getting pushed back over and over, to the paint that I just gave up completely and ended up asking for a couple of Sideshow Star Wars figures instead.  I tried again the next year, and I finally got him that time, thus beginning my lengthy obsession with Hot Toys figures.  This figure’s started showing his age, especially in light of later Joker figures, but I still really like him, and except him for what he is.

#1400: Sarah Connor

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

SARAH CONNOR

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (HOT TOYS)

Oooeeee, look at that.  1400 reviews.  Another hundred down.  Seeming like less of a milestone these days, but I’m noting it nonetheless.  I’m noting it the usual way, with a deluxe review of one of my higher-end figures.  Today, I turn back to the film that kicked off the milestone reviews, Terminator 2.  So far, I’ve looked at both the terminator and the protector from the film, but I haven’t yet looked at one of the franchise’s central characters, Sarah Connor.  So, uhh, come with me if you want to…read this review?  …Doesn’t have the same ring, does it?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Sarah was released as figure 119 in Hot Toys’ Movie Masterpiece Series, placing her between Inglorious Basterds’ Aldo Raine and Iron Man 2’s War Machine numerically.  Not as themed as other releases, but the T2 figures were all pretty scattered.  This figure is based on Sarah’s “terminator” look from around the film’s mid-point, when she goes to kill Miles Dyson.  It’s really her most distinct look, and definitely my favorite.  Sarah stands roughly 11 inches tall and she’s got 28 points of articulation.

Let’s start things off by looking at Sarah’s head sculpt.  While heads are usually one of HT’s stronger suits, this one’s not one of their best offerings.  The prototype actually looked pretty good, but it seems something was lost in the manufacturing process.  It’s far from a terrible sculpt, of course.  The resemblance to Linda Hamilton is passing; it’s not spot-on, but it’s decent enough that you can tell who it is.  I think it’s the hair that’s throwing it off.  While I’m definitely a fan of the hair being sculpted, rather than rooted, and the overall shaping and detailing is pretty solid.  The biggest issue is with the bangs, which are just a little too short; they really should be getting closer to her eyes, and I think that throws off the likeness.  The bangs actually swap out, and there’s another pair that’s parted and closer to the head.  It doesn’t really improve the likeness, but it does allow for the addition of the included hat.  The paintwork on the head is generally up to the usual HT quality.  The only real flaw is the color of the hair, which is a touch too dark for Hamilton.  It’s not that far off, though, so it’s pretty minor, all things considered.

Sarah’s costume is made up of four main pieces.  She’s got a shirt, pants, a tactical vest, and a belt.  All of the pieces are very well tailored to the figure.  The vest in particular is really cool.  All of the pockets open and the the clasps all work like they’re supposed to.  There’s also a pair of sculpted boots, which are very nicely sculpted, and well scaled to the figure.  She’s also got a watch and a wristband, which are mostly there to hide the wrist joints on the arms.  They do that job well, and add some extra character to the figure as well.

The underlying body is largely unique to Sarah.  The arms in particular are unique; they’re armatures with a rubber coating over them.  They actually look quite a bit like Hamilton’s arms from the film, and she’s even got her scar on the left shoulder.  The rest of the body is decent, but could be a little more tailored to the figure.  The shoulder’s are definitely too narrow, and the neck is a little thin, which makes the head look really large comparatively.  Once again, nothing too terrible, but it’s definitely a little off.

Sarah’s accessories are definitely this figure’s strongest suit.  She includes:

  • 6 hands
  • Hat
  • Sunglasses
  • Shotgun
  • Assault Rifle
  • Handgun
  • Knife
  • Display stand

She’s got the basic relaxed hands, as well as a right trigger finger hand, a left gripping hand, a a right cigarette holding hand (with removable cigarette!), and a right hand for holding her knife.  They’re all very nicely sculpted and quite realistic looking.  They’re a little hard to swap the first time, but once you swap them a few times, they go alright.

The hat works in conjunction with the alternate bangs piece.  It’s cloth, and a little oversized, but it’s generally a pretty nice piece.  Just, whatever you do, don’t leave it on for long periods of time.  It’ll stain her forehead!

The sunglasses are very definitely my favorite piece.  They’re just amazingly detailed, perfectly scaled, and sit amazingly well on the figure’s face.  I wish I looked this good in sunglasses.

The shotgun, assault rifle, and handgun are close runners up to the glasses.  They all have a number of moving pieces and all of the details that you’d see on the full scale weapons.  The shotgun has a folding stock, as well as five removable rounds.  The assault rifle includes a removable scope, rail, and silencer, allowing for a few different looks.  The handgun has a removable clip, and the clip even has a removable bullet at the very top, which seems like it’s asking to be lost.

The knife is a key piece to the film, so it’s great that it was included here.  Like the other weapons, it’s very well scaled and detailed.  It includes a sheath, which feels a little cheap and quick by comparison, but it’s nice to have the option of putting the knife away, I guess.

Lastly, there’s the display stand.  It’s the same basic oval stand we’ve seen a number of times before.  It gets the job done, and it looks pretty decent, so that’s good.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Sarah is a very early Hot Toys figure for me.  I believe she was my third.  She’s also got the notoriety of being the very first Hot Toys figure I bought for myself.  I ordered her off of Amazon, in anticipation of getting the T-1000 figure later that year.  She’s not a perfect figure, and is definitely the weakest of my three T2 figures, but she’s still a pretty darn fun figure in her own right, and she completes one of my favorite sets of HT figures.

#1300: Loki

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

LOKI

AVENGERS (HOT TOYS)

Would you look at that?  Seems I’ve made it another hundred reviews.  As I noted in my Thor review, I’m honestly getting to the point where 100 reviews isn’t that much of a milestone.  This particular review will mark the thirteenth time I’ve done it.  Still, it’s worth noting it, right?

In honor of getting though another hundred of these things, I’ll be doing another of my milestone deluxe reviews, focusing on one of my higher end figures.  Like almost all of my high-end reviews, today’s figure is from Hot Toys, and is yet another figure from their impressive Marvel Cinematic Universe subset of offerings.  For the last monumental review, I looked at Thor, and today I’ll be following up on that with a look at his mischievous brother, Loki!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Loki is figure 176 in Hot Toys’ Movie Masterpiece Series, directly following the Avengers version of his brother and immediately preceding the Dark Knight Rises re-release of the Batpod.  The figure hit around May of 2013, a full year after the release of the film he was featured in.  As with Thor, Loki is based on his appearance in 2012’s Avengers, specifically his fully armored appearance, seen during the film’s big climactic battle.  Initially, Loki was to be done in his armored look from 2011’s Thor, and a finished prototype even showed up a few places, but in an effort of finish out the Avengers set and be a bit more timely, he was re-fitted into his later costume.  It’s for the best, really, since I think his Avengers look is his best to date, and a more fitting adaptation of his comics design.  Loki stands a little over 12 inches tall and he has “over 30 points of articulation” according to the Sideshow solicitation for him.

Loki’s head was the source of some strife amongst fans and Hot Toys.  There was a debate about how exactly his helmet should be handled.  The final solution was a removable helmet, which not everyone was thrilled with, due largely to the necessary compromises for both the head and the helmet.  The head did actually turn out pretty well.  The Hiddleston likeness is one of HT’s best, at least as far as the face is concerned.  The compromises, of course, really come into play with the hair, which ends up a little matted down to the head.  Admittedly, Loki’s hair in the movie doesn’t have a ton of volume, but it’s still a little more present than what we see here.  It’s still very well sculpted, and quite realistic, but it’s undeniably sculpted to sit best under the helmet.  He’s not really designed with an un-helmeted appearance in mind.  Which, if I’m honest, results in a bit of disappointment when you finally get the helmet placed on the head, which is no easy feat, let me tell you.  It’s two pieces that pop apart; the bottom is supposed to slide up under the head and the top goes over top and then you snap the two pieces back together.  I’ve never been able to get a perfect fit, and the difficulty involved means that you really aren’t going to be taking it off a lot. This whole two piece construction is meant to give the helmet a tighter fit (which is also true of the actual film prop as well), but due to the scale, it’s still noticeably thicker than Loki’s helmet from the film.  To be fair, it’s mostly only an issue when viewing the figure head-on; in profile or even three-quarter view, it looks pretty good.  The detailing on the helmet is the usual HT-quality, of course, which is nice.  Ultimately, it’s far from terrible, but I just really feel the figure would have benefited from two separate heads to depict him with and without the helmet (especially since in the movie the helmet just magically appears on his head; we don’t see him carrying it around or anything).  The paint on both items is up to the usual HT standards; the face is incredibly lifelike, and the helmet looks suitably weathered.

Loki’s outfit is something of a mixed media effort, though not quire so much as Thor.  Most of the base clothing is actual cloth, with plastic boots and armor plates.  The plastic bits are all exquisitely sculpted, and the cloth sections are generally pretty well tailored.  The coat(s) sit really nicely, and I really love the way the cape hands.  Easily the best cloth cape I’ve ever seen.  My one real complaint is the weird bead things that line the edges of the coats.  In the movie, they look to be a zipper or something, but this figure uses these needs that look like those things that banks use to make sure you don’t steal their pens.  It’s not bad from far away, but looks rather hokey when you get up close.  I’m not sure why they were handled this way, rather than the way most zippers are handled at this scale.  I mean, they don’t ruin the figure, but they do just look weird.

Loki includes the following accessories:

  • 11 interchangeable hands
  • 2 versions of this scepter
  • 2 daggers
  • Shackles
  • Muzzle
  • Display stand

The hands come in relaxed (R and L), fists (R and L), dagger holding (R and L), gripping (R and L), gesture (R and L), and larger gesture (L).  All of them are very nicely sculpted and they suit the character.  They swap out pretty easily, but there’s an extra set of wrist pegs as well, just in case something goes wrong.

The scepter comes in both short and long configurations, which is nice, I guess, but in this get-up, he really only needs the larger one.  Still, both are very nicely sculpted, and it’s nice to have the option.

The daggers are both the same piece, and are just as well sculpted as the scepters.  They don’t get much use in the film, but they’re still a cool extra to have.

The shackles and muzzle allow for Loki’s look from the final scene of the movie, when he and Thor go back to Asgard.  It’s nice that they included them, and they allow him to pair up nicely with Thor and the contained Tesseract.  Technically, like the short scepter, they don’t really go with this costume, but the inclusion’s still nice.

Then there’s the stand, which is the same basic stand we’ve seen over and over again.  There’s a logo for Avengers and Loki’s name is on the front.  It helps him not fall down.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When the Thor version of Loki was first announced I was really excited, because I really like Hiddleston as Loki, and was bummed he wasn’t one of the first two released.  When that figure was re-worked into this one, I was initially uncertain about getting it, but ultimately decided he still looked cool enough that I’d kick myself if i didn’t get him.  In the ensuing months between pre-ordering him from Sideshow and his release, I grew to like the Avengers design even more, and I’m ultimately pretty happy that this is the one they went with.  The figure is not without his issues, but I think he’s still one of the coolest HT figures in my collection.  He’s just hard not to love.