Tag Archives: Hot Toys

#0100: Captain America – Avengers Version

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

THE AVENGERS (HOT TOYS)

Hey look!  100 reviews!  That’s not too shabby, is it?  Like with my 50th review, I’ll be doing another “Deluxe Review.”

For those of you that don’t know, Hot Toys is a toy company based in Hong Kong who are renowned for their almost life like 1/6 scale figures.  They cater strictly to those with a large amount of money to spend on such things, as each figure costs anywhere from $200 to $300 on average.  They tend to pick up the licenses for big block buster movies, and last year they released figures from The Avengers.

Today I’ll be looking at their take on Captain America from that film.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So, like I mentioned before, this figure is based on Cap from the Avengers movie.  He was #174 in Hot Toys’ Movie Masterpiece Series.  The figure stands about 12 inches tall, and has a whole lot of articulation.  I don’t know exactly how much, as most of it is hidden by his costume.  So I’m gonna just go with a bunch.

Cap-AvengersCloseUp

THE HEAD IN QUESTION

I’ll look at the basic head here, and the extra head in the accessories section.    The basic head depicts Cap with his helmet/mask on.  The helmet appears to be a separately molded piece, but it’s not removable.    Sculpt wise, all the details look great.   I’m not sure that they’ve quite gotten Chris Evans’s likeness down, but they’ve came pretty damn close.  The helmet is pretty much a miniaturized version of the actual one from the film, with pretty much every little groove and detail included.  The under-the-helmet-hood is also well done, simulating the texture of the fabric impressively.  Paint is one of Hot Toys’ strong suits, and this figure doesn’t disappoint.  The level of detail and the lifelike quality is nothing short of amazing.  Viewed from the right angle, this figure could pass for a real person.

THE COSTUME IN QUESTION

This is kind of a new category for me, as the costume features few sculpted pieces and very little paint.  That isn’t to say he has no sculpted pieces.  He’s got his hands, boots, gauntlets, the chevrons on his shoulders, his belt buckle, and the star on his chest.  These are all fairly well executed, although, the boot and gauntlet sculpts may be a bit on the soft side, sculpt-wise.  All of the sculpted parts are painted quite well, with no slop or bleed over.

So, I’ve looked ate the sculpted parts, now I’ll move on to the rest of the figure’s costume, which is all cloth.  Cap’s costume is tailored specifically to fit his body, and is handled with two main pieces:  Shirt and Pants.  Most of his uniform is made from the same coarse blue fabric.  I find it’s a bit on the dark side for Cap’s look from the movie, but it isn’t too bad.  The costume is assembled from multiple layers, which really adds to the realism.

THE ACCESSORIES IN QUESTION

Cap comes with quite a hefty selection of accessories.  They are:

  • Unmasked Head
  • Pulled down Hood to display with the unmasked head
  • 7 spare hands
  • 2 shields: Regular and Battle-Damaged
  • Chitauri Arm Cannon
  • Display Stand

The alternate head is pretty good.  Once again, I’m not sure they’ve completely captured Evans, but it’s hard to tell given the choice of expression.  I don’t really know why they decided to go with an angry expression for the unmasked head, since that isn’t very characteristic of Cap in the movie, but I guess it looks okay if you’re going for more of a battle-damaged, end of the movie look.  The head switches out at the base of the neck, and does so with relative, which is nice because it means you don’t have to man handle you’re $200+ action figure.

The alternate head is complimented by a hood piece to replicate what Cap’s hood looked like when he pulled it down in the movie.  It’s pretty much just a piece of blue cloth.  It’s okay, but it has difficulty hanging properly, which can look a bit awkward.  It’s attached via two snaps that hook on the inside collar of the costume.  They’re unreliable, and don’t tend to hold well.  Overall, this is kind of an extraneous piece.  I’m glad they included it for those that want it, but it’s not something I ever plan to use.

Cap includes seven hands in addition to the relaxed pair he has on in the box.  The hands include: gripping(R and L), Pointing(R), splayed(R and L), and fists(R and L).  They’re all sculpted well, and offer a nice variety of gestures.

Cap’s most important accessories are his mighty shields.  He includes both a clean and polished one and a scuffed up, battle-worn one.  The clean one is vac-metallized, which is a decision I question, as it doesn’t really accurately depict what Cap’s shield looks like in the movies.  Also, if you’re unlucky, all to paint might start flaking off like some people have experienced, so there’s that.  I much prefer the BD shield, as I feel it looks more like the one Cap carries in the movie.

Cap also includes a Chitauri arm-cannon thing.  He takes one from one of the aliens during the movie’s climactic battle, so it fits.  It’s pretty cool, and can be plugged into Cap’s hand peg if you so desire.

Lastly, Cap includes a black display stand with his name and the Avengers logo on it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When Hot Toys announced their Avengers line, this was a figure I wasn’t going to buy.  I planned on getting the rest, and need to save the money for them.  Plus, I already had Cap from his solo film.  That should be enough for me, right?

Well, as you can see, no, it wasn’t.  I broke down and bought the figure because I really wanted that really cool Avengers set up, and First Avenger Cap just wouldn’t look right.  I’m glad I bought him in the end, but man I am such a push-over on these figures.

Cap-AvengersUnmasked

#0050: T-800

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

T-800 – BATTLE DAMAGED

TERMINATOR 2 (HOT TOYS)

Look at that!  50 reviews!  That’s pretty nifty!  Since this is review number 50, I thought I’d do something a bit different.  Today, I’ll be doing my first Hot Toys review.

For those of you that don’t know, Hot Toys is a toy company based in Hong Kong who are renowned for their almost life like 1/6 scale figures.  They cater strictly to those with a large amount of money to spend on such things, as each figure costs anywhere from $200 to $300 on average.   While many of their efforts are from more recent films, they’ve had a line of T2 figures running for a while.  I missed out on the initial T-800, but I picked up Sarah and the T-1000, and patiently awaited the release of the inevitable battle damage variant.  And now, here he is!

Given the higher level of detail present in this figure, I’ll be doing a slightly more in-depth review.  Think of it as a “deluxe review”

THE FIGURE ITSELF

This is the Battle Damaged version of the T-800 from 1990’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day.  It’s the look that Arnold Schwarzenegger sports for the last third or so of the film.  The figure was released as part of the DX or Deluxe line, which is a subset of HT’s main Movie Masterpiece Series.  The T-800 is designated DX13, noting that he’s the 13th figure in the DX line.  He stands a little over 12 inches tall, and has a whole bunch of articulation.  I don’t have an exact count, because the costume covers most of the joints.

THE HEAD IN QUESTION

T-800CloseUp

I’ll be looking at the less damaged head that he’s wearing in the package here, and the more damage head over in the accessory section.  This head depicts what Arnold looks like towards the beginning of the steel mill sequence.  So he’s not completely unscathed, but most of his face is still there.  The head is made from two distinctly separate pieces, one making up the front of his head, and the other is a large panel that makes up the back of his head, and allows access to the PERS feature.  PERS stands for “Parallel Eye Rolling System,” and it allows the figures eyes to be positioned to look a variety of directions.  It’s an okay feature, but it can be cumbersome, and its access panel leaves a seam where the two pieces of the head join.  The likeness of the sculpt is really good, easily the best Schwarzenegger likeness that HT has produced.  There’s lots of fine detail work that adds to the likeness.  Paint tends to be one of HT’s strongest suits, and this figure falls in line with their other work, looking shockingly lifelike from some angles.

THE COSTUME IN QUESTION

This is a category I don’t have the most experience with, as I’m used to looking at figures with mostly sculpted parts, and that isn’t the case here.  He’s got a handful of sculpted parts, but most of the costume is made from various cloth materials.  As far as sculpted pieces, he’s got his hands, boots, and the exposed portion of his chest, showing the endoskeleton underneath.   These pieces are all sharply sculpted, and topped off the usual HT quality paint.

The rest of the work is tailoring.  Arnold’s got leather pants with a tear in the left knee to show the endo knee, a t-shirt with a tear showing the damaged torso, a belt, and it’s all topped off by Arnold’s trusty leather jacket, shown here with a plethora of tears and bullet holes that he acquires over the course of the film.  The pants and jacket don’t look to be real leather, but real leather can be quite cumbersome at this scale, so I don’t feel it’s an issue.    The shirt is cotton, and has been died to look as though it has bloodstains, which works very well.

THE ACCESSORIES IN QUESTION

The T-800 comes with a large selection of accessories.  They are:

  • Fully damaged Head
  • Alternate left forearm to depict missing left arm
  • Spare Jacket sans lower left arm
  • 6 interchangeable hands
  • Bandoiler
  • Grenade Launcher
  • 13  Grenades (This includes the one in the grenade launcher chamber)
  • Machine Gun
  • Pistol
  • Steel Rod
  • T-1000 statue with interchangeable heads
  • Light-Up Display Stand

First up is the second head sculpt.  It looks to be the same face as on the other head, only with additional damage to depict the T-800 from the end of the film after he’s taken a severe beating at the hands of the T-1000.  Instead of two moving eyes like the other head, this one’s got one moving regular eye, and one light-up robotic eye.  The light is quite bright, and looks pretty good, but I doubt it would be practical for long term display.

The extra head is complimented by the spare left forearm and jacket, which complete the T-800’s final look from the film.  The Jacket is pretty much the same as the regular one, just with the lower portion of the left sleeve removed.  The forearm depicts the T-800’s damaged left arm, after it gets stuck in a gear at the steel mill.  The endo bits are well sculpted, and the paint makes them look appropriately bloody.  The piece swaps out, but it can take a bit of force.

The T-800 comes packaged wearing a pair of relaxed hands, but he also includes 6 additional poses.  The hands include:  Fists (R and L), Thumbs up (R), Gripping (R), and trigger finger (R and L).  The work well with the various accessories, but I really think the thumbs up in particular is cool.  It comes from a key scene, but could have easily been over looked.

The T-800 comes with his bandolier, which features slots for 12 of the 13 grenades (the last one goes in the grenade launcher).  The grenades are well sculpted and look to be proper scale.  The bandolier looks right, and has a nice amount of battle damage to match the rest of the figure.

The T-800 is armed with a grenade launcher, a pistol, a machine gun, and a steel rod.  The grenade launcher is the main attraction here, and it lives up to expectations.  It features a damaged stock, which is accurate to the movie, and can be opened and loaded with a grenade, which is a really nice touch.  The pistol has a sliding stock , a hinged lever, and a removable clip.  The machine gun should have a removable magazine, but mine was missing from the box.  I’m hoping to get a replacement.  The steel rod is … well, a steel rod, only made of plastic.  So, yeah…

The biggest accessory is the statue of the T-1000 in his liquid metal state.  It’s a rather basic sculpt, which fits, and it’s sculpted to be posed holding the T-800’s fist.  It has two different heads, one smooth and mostly featureless, the other depicting the likeness of Robert Patrick.  The Robert Patrick head is an exclusive piece to those that were able to get the exclusive version from the Sideshow website.  The whole thing is vac-metalized* to properly depict the T-1000’s chrome like finish.

Lastly, the T-800 includes a light up display stand.  It’s sculpted to look like grating from the steel mill, and has a nice metal name plate that features the film and figure name.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This guy was a gift from my parents for my 21st birthday, in July.  He arrived yesterday.  Yeah, not my parents’ fault in the slightest, as Hot Toys is notorious for announcing a release date for an item, and then not releasing said item for 4-5 months after the fact.  But, it doesn’t matter, because this guy’s worth the wait, especially now that my T2 collection is pretty much complete (aside from John Connor, and Kyle Reese, and Miles Dyson and….yeah, I have a problem).

*Vac-Metalizing is short for Vacuum Metalizing and refers to a process commonly used on toys to give them the appearance of being made of shiny metal.  The process is performed in a chamber from which the air is vacuumed out.  Metal vapor, typically made from aluminum is added and bonds which whatever is in the chamber.  And yes, it is much more important for me to know that than it is for me to know stupid math.