Tag Archives: Marvel Select

#0262: Winter Soldier

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

WINTER SOLDIER

MARVEL SELECT

WintersoldierSelect

On the Fourth of July, I took a look at Diamond Select Toys’ Marvel Select line’s version of Captain America. I wouldn’t want Cap to be lonely, so how about giving him a buddy. And who better than Cap’s bestest friend ever, Bucky Barnes! Okay, actually it’s Winter Soldier, but they’re actually the same person (umm….spoilers?). Anyway, Marvel Select just got a comic version of Winter Soldier, released to tie-in with this summer’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Let’s see how the figure turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Winter Soldier is a Disney Store exclusive from the Marvel Select line, released in early 2014. The figure stands about 7 inches tall and features 29 points of articulation. I believe he’s meant to be based on the Soldier’s most recent look, which is an amalgam of his original comic look and his look in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The figure features an all-new sculpt, and a pretty good one at that. Right off the bat, it’s a more consistent sculpt than a lot of previous Select figures, like Captain America for example. It’s not a perfect sculpt; the chin is perhaps a bit too large, and the arms are a little gangly. Other than that, it’s a great piece of work. The Soldier’s costume allows for lots of textures in the different types of material used in the uniform, and the sculpt handles them all very nicely. The move to a new style of hip joint is probably the greatest thing about the figure, especially looking at the direction of the line as a whole. The new joint is similar to those seen on a DC Universe Classics figure, and it allows for a better range of movement without interrupting the sculpt. I do wish the range of motion was a little bit better on the ankles, but they aren’t terrible. The paint work is pretty decent. There’s no real occurrence of slop or bleed over, and there’s a lot of nice texture work that really accents the sculpt well. Winter Soldier features a nice assortment of accessories, which include a sniper rifle, a handgun, a submachine gun with a strap, a crate with Russian markings, and a stand made to look like a section of wall and floor. The crate in particular is quite impressive, just due to the impressive amount of details present on almost every side.

WinterSoldierSelect2WinterSoldierSelect3WinterSoldierCrate

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up Winter Soldier from the Disney Store at the local mall. I was there to take care of a few other things and my friend Tim wanted to stop in the Disney Store to look at the new Guardians of the Galaxy Nerf stuff, which he had spied through the window. While he was looking at those, I happened across the store’s Marvel Select display. I had seen pictures of this guy online, but hadn’t thought much about it. I’m at best a moderate fan of Winter Soldier. Before this year I didn’t even own a single figure of him. But, seeing the figure in person was enough to sway me. I’m definitely glad I decided to get him; he’s probably one of the best figures the Marvel Select line has to offer, and he’s just a pretty great toy in general!

WinterSoldierSelectComparison

#0256: Captain America

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL SELECT

CaptainAmerica

Happy Fourth of July everybody! For most of my non-American readers it’s just a day in July, but for those of us in the US, it’s a day in July where we grill stuff and then watch stuff explode! Oh, and something about independence or some such. I think they might have mentioned it once in school, but I wasn’t paying attention.

Anyway, what better way is there to celebrate an American holiday than with the Sentinel of Liberty himself, Captain America!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cap was released as one of the first Marvel Select figures offered through the Disney Store, following Disney’s purchase of Marvel. He was released along with an assortment of other Avengers figures, some being re-releases of earlier figures and some being all new. To date, I believe Cap is the only of the figures in that group not to see a release elsewhere, though there’s still time. Cap stands about 7 inches tall and features 25 points of articulation. The figure features a brand new sculpt, which is of…varying quality. For the most part, it’s good. It’s based on artist John Cassidy’s depiction of the character, which is a great starting point. The upper body is all good, with great scale details on his upper torso, and some wonderful detail work in the folds on his sleeves and gloves. The head isn’t perfect, but it’s actually pretty good. Aside from the eyes being a little bit too big, it looks great. The biggest issue with the sculpt is the legs, or more importantly, the hip joints. I’m not sure what they were going for, but they sit too low, and distract from the flow of the sculpt without offering much in the way of articulation. I essence, it’s a total fail. It’s especially disappointing given the great sculpted work and range of articulation elsewhere on the figure. It’s almost like they ran out of time and had to rush to finish. For the most part, the paint work is in line with the better parts of the sculpt. Aside from some slightly off paint on his eyes, the paint looks really great. They’ve even added some nice texturing to bring out all of the sculpt’s little details. Cap includes his mighty shield and a stand based on Cassidy’s cover to Captain America Volume 4 Issue 6, which is a nice touch. My only issue is the way the shield connects to Cap’s arm, which is haphazard at best.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After getting bitten pretty seriously by the Marvel Select bug with the Disney Store Exclusive Hawkeye and Black Widow, I came across Captain America at my local Disney Store. He was marked down a few dollars and he looked like a pretty decent version of Cap, so I decided I might as well get him. As fate would have it, he was even more marked down than I thought, so I got him for quite a deal. All in all, he’s probably one of the better basic Captain America figures to see release in the last few years, even with a few minor issues.

CaptainAmericaAlt

#0069: Storm

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

STORM

MARVEL SELECT

Yesterday, I looked at Wolverine from the Marvel Select line.  Today, I’ll be looking at one of his teammates, Storm.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Storm was released in the last year of the line.  As with everyone else in the line, she’s not part of a specific series. Instead, she was released solo.  Storm is presented here in her original costume.   It’s nice to see this costume, as it’s not used as often as it should be in my opinion.  Storm stands about 7 inches tall, and has 17 points of articulation.  She’s definitely got one of the better female sculpts I’ve looked at on the site.  It’s pretty well proportioned, and does a fair job of living up to her comic book counterpart’s looks.  She’s not as Cockrum influenced as Wolverine, instead going a bit more generic, but she still looks appropriate for the character, so I can’t complain.  The paint is all nice and cleanly applied, with no slop or fuzziness.  I really like the choice of shiny finish for the black parts, as it makes them stand out well.  They’ve opted to use gold for the traditionally yellow parts, which adds an air of regality to her, which works nicely.  Storm includes a small display stand and a corner of the Danger Room.  It’s got several parts, and has a great geometric look to it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Storm was picked up at the same time as the Select Wolverine, also at my local comic book store’s end of the year sale.  I’d actually been wanting to pick this figure up for a while, and I was glad to find it at a slightly lower price.  I don’t have many Storm figures in my collection, so I was very glad to add this one.  She’s not just a good Storm figure, but a good action figure in general.

#0068: Wolverine

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

WOLVERINE

MARVEL SELECT

It’s honestly surprising how few Wolverine figures I’ve reviewed so far, given how many I own.  Anyway, this is another Marvel Select review, based on the aforementioned Wolverine.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Wolverine was released a few years ago as part of the Marvel Select line.  Like all the others in the line, he’s not part of a “series”, but rather, he was released on his own.  Wolverine is based on his look from his early appearances in X-Men in the late 70s.  Specifically, he looks to be based on Dave Cockrum’s interpretation of the character.  He stands about 6 ½ inches tall, giving him the proper stature of an early Wolverine, and he has 17 points of articulation.  The sculpt is handled well.  He’s a tad bit skinny, but not too bad.  The head in particular is great, because it’s spot on to Cockrum’s take on the character.  I also like that the claws are handled better than on most Wolverine figures, and have a nice unique look to them.  The paint is done well, particularly the yellow parts, because yellow can look hideous in some cases, but they’ve added a nice wash to it to bring out the sculpt.  Wolverine is topped off with a display stand, depicting a chunk of scenery from what appears to be Weapon X, which is appropriate to the character.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this guy from my comic book store’s annual end of the year sale.  I’m not the biggest fan of Wolverine, but I love the early Claremont/Cockrum run on X-Men, so I was super excited to get a Wolverine based on that time period.  He’s definitely one of the best Wolverine’s out there, and my favorite in my collection.

#0066: War Machine

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

WAR MACHINE

MARVEL SELECT

Today, I’ll be taking a look at another figure from the Marvel Select line.  This time around, it’s from the small assortment of figures released in the line to coincide with the release of Iron Man 3 this past summer.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

War Machine was released as part of the Iron Man 3 subset of the Marvel Select line.  Like the rest of the Marvel Select line, they don’t have specific “series”.  They tend to just be released on their own, or in pairs.  This figure is of course based on the War Machine 2.0 look from the *Tie-In comics to the* Summer Blockbuster Iron Man 3.  Yeah, despite it’s presence throughout the tie-in toys, the actual War Machine paint scheme is only in the lead-in comic, and makes no actual appearance in the film.  And yet this is the main release figure, and the Iron Patriot is the store exclusive.  Bleh. The figure stands roughly 7 inches tall, and has 26 points of articulation.  The sculpt is accurate to the suit design from the movie, although it’s a bit thin in the waist area.  All the details are nicely done, but some of the armor details are slightly soft.  The paint is adequate.  It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just a bit bland.  It’s lots and lots of greys and silvers.  War Machine comes with a stand that resembles a stall from the hall of armor, and an alternate head sans faceplate, so you can see Rhodey’s face.  The stand is nice, but it takes up a lot of space.  The extra head is cool, and the Don Cheadle likeness is pretty good, although I feel like his skin tone is a tad light for Cheadle, and the eyes are a bit on the wonky side.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Yeah, so right off the bat, this is a figure that ties into a movie where the look presented doesn’t appear in the film.  I like the sculpt, but I think with the more exciting Iron Patriot paint scheme, this figure would pop a lot more.  They actually did make an Iron Patriot from this sculpt, but it was a Disney Store exclusive, and is difficult to find.  And this figure was $12.  At $12, this figure is pretty good.

#0062: Silver Surfer

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

SILVER SURFER                   

MARVEL SELECT

Previously, I’ve taken a look at a few odd figures from DC Direct, a company that produced DC Comics figures meant to be sold directly through comic book shops.  This allowed them to do story specific looks and some of the more obscure characters.  With that company’s success, Marvel wanted to get in on some of the action, so they licensed Diamond Select Toys to do a line of “specialty” figures of their characters.  It took a while, and some of the early figures weren’t so great, but their line, Marvel Select, has started to pick up some decent coverage, and put out some very nice figures.  They just recently put out a Silver Surfer figure, which I’ll be taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

As I said above, Silver Surfer was just released.  Marvel Select doesn’t use the typical “series” structure that many other lines use, instead releasing the figures one at a time.  Surfer’s not exactly a character with a huge variety of looks, having just the one, but this figure appears to be based on Surfer’s more classic 70s-80s look.  He stands roughly 7 inches tall and has 22 points of articulation.  Surfer’s sculpt is simplistic, but that’s not a bad thing in his case.  That’s also not to say there’s no detail work.  In particular, I like that they went the extra mile to put wrinkles on the waist, denoting the shorts that the Surfer was typically shown wearing until the 90s or so.  The head has a great look of calmness that characterizes the Surfer very well.  If I have one complaint about the sculpt, it’s that the abs are perhaps a bit too defined to match the rest of the figure’s aesthetic.  Surfer comes armed with a fair number of accessories.  He’s got his trusty Surf Board, a spare set of hands, to hand-blast pieces, the Infinity Gauntlet, and a display stand made to look like the Surfer is hovering over a rocky surface.  The board is well done, with nice clean line work.  It suffers from the common problem of figures of the Surfer in that it has to have foot pegs to hold him in place.  The hands are only minor variation, he’s got the flatter hands for basic “surfing” poses, and a pair where the fingers are slightly curled to allow the energy blasts to fit properly.   The Infinity Gauntlet is a cool add-in.  You have to remove the Surfer’s hand to put it on, and it doesn’t have a peg or anything, so it just kind of has to be wedged on just right.  It looks cool, though I don’t know of a time when the Surfer actually had it in his possession.  The stand is interesting.  It has a blue swooshing effect that the board slides into, but it also has foot prints and a foot peg to allow the Surfer to stand directly on the rocky surface.  It’s nice in theory, but there’s no way to remove the swoosh effect, leaving it looking a bit odd.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This guy was picked up from my favorite online store, Luke’s Toy Store, during their Black Friday sale.  I had been wanting the figure, but wasn’t sure about paying full price.  Luke’s had it for $16, which was good enough for me.  I’m a moderate fan of the Surfer, and I’m glad to see a decent figure of him.  It’s not perfect, but it’s much better than a lot of his recent figures!