Tag Archives: Scott Lang

#3413: Astonishing Ant-Man

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

ASTONSIHING ANT-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Attempting to save his daughter’s life, ex-criminal Scott Lang steals technology imbued with Pym Particles. Gaining the ability to shrink to the size of an insect, Scott becomes an unexpected Super Hero as Ant-Man”

Alright, I may have wrapped up the Cassie Lang Series of Marvel Legends last week, but that doesn’t mean I’m done with the cool Ant-Man goodness *just* yet!  In 1979, with the Ant-Man identity three names back for Hank Pym, the guise was assumed by Scott Lang, who used it to save his daughter Cassie’s life.  Scott would take on the title officially until his demise during “Avengers Disassembled” in 2004, and would reclaim it following his 2012 resurrection in Avengers: Children’s Crusade, allowing him to again be the main Ant-Man when it came time for the MCU incarnation to make his debut.  Obviously, Scott’s gotten quite a bit of toy love in the last few years, but classic Scott Lang figures are still something of a rarity, which makes today’s offering extra cool!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Astonishing Ant-Man is a Target-exclusive Marvel Legends release.  He hit roughly around the same time as the Cassie Lang Series, which had him timed out to loosely coincide with the home media release of Quantumania.  This is our second classic style Ant-Man under Hasbro, and our third Legends version overall, counting the old Toy Biz release.  Technically, it’s also a one and one for Scott Lang sporting the gear, since the Retro Card Ant-Man Hasbro put out was actually Hank, going by the eye color.  Yes, I brought up the eye color.  Deal with it.  The figure stands about 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  He’s using the ANAD 2099 body as his base this time around.  It means he’s still got visible pins on the elbows and knees, which is a bit of a bummer, but I do feel like the build is a much better fit for both Scott and Hank than the Pizza Spidey body was.  Ant-Man gets a new head and belt piece to finish off the look.  The head is just a beautiful piece of work, through and through.  The helmet is a separate, non-removable piece, and it’s honestly never looked better in Legends form.  They always get something slightly off, but not this time.  It’s clean, it’s sleek, and it’s sharp.  The only downside is how the antenna are easily bent out of shape, but a little bit of heating, straightening, and cooling does wonders for him.  Under the helmet, we get a new facial sculpt, which can honestly work alright for either of the two Ant-Men, but is ever so slightly leaning towards Scott, as it should be.  His new belt is very similar to the one used on Retro Ant-Man and Black Ant, but it’s sized correctly to the new base body, and is also much more sharply detailed.  Ant-Man’s color work is very bright, very bold, and very clean.  The paint work on this one is especially sharp, and it really sells the overall look.  They’ve also made sure to give Scott his proper blue eyes, so that you know who’s who.  Ant-Man is packed with two sets of hands, one open, one in fists.  It’s light.  I won’t lie.  But, honestly, Ant-Man’s always light when it comes to Legends.  I think maybe an unmasked head, or even yet another release of that same pack-in mini Ant-Man might make me feel better, but the hands aren’t terrible.  At least he’s not just stuck with fists again.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Retro Ant-Man was, at best, always just kind of a placeholder for a better figure.  Black Ant as fine on his own, but he’s not classic Ant-Man, and repainting him in classic Ant-Man colors doesn’t magically fix that.  So, he was fine, but he was never really a star piece for me.  That said, this figure, much like his Toy Biz Walmart-exclusive counterpart, is a figure I didn’t realize I needed as much as I did.  Thankfully, Max was able to hook me up with one without much fuss, allowing me to get him in hand and realize that he is, in fact, the best classic Ant-Man figure out there by a very large margin.

#3393: Ant-Man

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

ANT-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“While he occasionally dons the Ant-Man suit to promote his new autobiography, Scott Lang has put his super hero days behind him to bond with his daughter, Cassie.”

Remember when people could just, like, enjoy movies for what they are and not have to just tear every little thing apart? Me either. Well, earlier this year, we got our third Ant-Man film, Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. It was officially the worst Marvel movie ever, taking the title fromLove & Thunder, which took the title from Eternals, which took it from Captain Marvel, maybe? I don’t know. Look, guys, I’m gonna level with you all on this one: Quantumania is hardly the worst Marvel movie. It’s not even close. Some of you haven’t seen the 1990 Captain America, and it really shows, okay? I promise, if the MCU puts out a worse product than that, I’ll let you all know.  In the mean time, let’s talk about something that’s *not* the 1990 Captain America, and also doesn’t make me want to blow my brains out:  Quantumania!  Or, more specifically, it’s version of Ant-Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ant-Man is the one non-Build-A-Figure-piece-bearing figure in the Cassie Lang Series of Marvel Legends, which is the tie-in assortment for Quantumania.  Due to schedule shifts for the movie, the tie-in assortment wound up trailing the film release by about 2 1/2 months, hitting retail in that April-May window.  Not exactly striking while the iron was hot, but they at least got out before the movie switched over to streaming.  Scott’s gotten some sort of upgrade to his suit for most of his cinematic appearances, and Quantumania keeps that trend going.  It’s another batch of smaller adjustments adding up to a fairly similar looking design, at least at first glance.  This one’s a little more segmented on the red parts, as well as further downplaying the silver a bit more, and is also just generally a bit more streamlined than his prior looks.  I for one am most excited about him finally getting the black circle on his chest, which has been missing from the previous designs.  Ant-Man needs his black circle chest, you guys.  The figure stands a little shy of 6 1/4 inches tall (making him the shortest of the MCU Ant-Man Legends figures) and he has 29 points of articulation.  The last few MCU Ant-Men have had slightly more stilted movement, but this guy actually gets a pretty solid articulation set-up.  There’s still a little bit of restriction on that mid-torso joint, but it’s not bad.  I particularly like the range on the neck joint.  Ant-Man gets an all-new sculpt, and it’s definitely my favorite MCU Ant-Man sculpt to date.  It’s actually pretty spot-on to the film design, in contrast with the concept work for the first film and Civil War figures, and the scaling relative to other figures feels a bit more on point this time around.  I was also very thrilled to see that Scott finally got transparent lenses on a 6-inch figure.  I was really bummed that the AM&TW figure just got the painted ones, and this one winds up looking really good.  It just adds so much to the figure.  The color work on this guy is pretty decently rendered.  His paint drops a few of the smaller silver details, but really only where they’re outlining something else that’s already painted.  The detailing is all sharply handled, and he gets all of the main design elements, with nothing major getting skipped over this time.  He’s packed with two sets of hands, in fists and a pointing/open gesture combo, as well as an unmasked head.  I like the extra hands.  I’m not much of a fan of the unmasked sculpt.  The renders looked okay, but it seems like something happened to the mold during manufacturing, because the face and hair don’t look like they’ve gone together the right way.  It’s also a little large compared to the helmeted head.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t really think much of this guy when the figures were shown off, and was really only interested in this assortment’s Build-A-Figure.  I had the last Ant-Man, and I figured that was good enough.  However, I got the opportunity to mess with the whole set for review purposes, and discovered that I actually really, really liked this guy.  The unmasked head’s kind of a dud, but all of the unmasked Rudd heads kind of have been.  This guy is by far the best MCU Ant-Man release, though, so I’m opting to upgrade to this one for my main collection.

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.

#1777: Ant-Man & Stinger

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

ANT-MAN & STINGER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Both powered by Pym Particles and able to shrink to the size of an ant, Scott and Cassie Lang have more in common than a family name.”

Though still not quite one of Marvel’s top-tier heroes, there’s no denying that Ant-Man’s gotten a bit more prominent in recent years.  Having two movies under your belt will do that sort of thing for you.  It also translates to a greater action figure presence, but it’s only just recently translated to a better presence for the character’s comics incarnation.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Ant-Man and Stinger were *supposed* to be a TRU-exclusive two-pack, but…well, we all know what happened there.  Had all gone according to plan, it would have been released to coincide with the release of Ant-Man & The Wasp, but, again, we know what happened there.  Ultimately, it was handed off to Entertainment Earth, who took most of the planned TRU-exclusives.

ANT-MAN

It sure has been a while since we got a comics-styled Scott Lang.  The last one was back during the Toy Biz days (and was, in fact, the first Legends Ant-Man).  This one gives us Scott in his most recent costume, from Astonishing Ant-Man.  It’s a nice melding of his prior costumes, and also has a number of elements in common with the movie designs, so I’m definitely a fan.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  He’s built on the 2099 body, which is really shaping up to be a favorite of mine.  It’s definitely a good match for how Scott’s classically been depicted.  He actually gets a sizable selection of new parts, which includes his head, torso, pelvis, and knees.  The head is a good match for recent depictions of Scott, and includes one of the least silly-looking takes on his helmet in action figure form.  The other pieces add in the armored elements of the costume, which is an improvement over the painted work from prior figures in the line.  Most impressively, his lower torso is also a new piece, just to give him some slight wrinkles at the base of his belt.  Very true to the way this suit is usually depicted, and a really fun little character detail that could have easily been overlooked.  Scott’s paintwork is pretty standard fair for the line.  The colors have a nice contrast and the red in particular is bright and eye-catching.  There’s a little bit of slop on my figure’s shoulders, but nothing super major.  Ant-Man includes no accessories, which is a slight let-down.  An unmasked head would have really been nice.

STINGER

Cassie Lang has never gotten a Legends release before.  She’s gotten one prior figure, which was also in her Stinger identity, although that one was her MC2-incarnation, whereas this figure’s clearly meant to be her more recent turn as Stinger from the main universe.  While I’m happy to finally add Cassie to my Legends collection, and I understand Stinger is her current incarnation, there’s definitely a frustration on my part that after waiting a decade to round out my Young Avengers display, I finally get a Cassie figure, and she’s not in her Stature costume.  Alas, I’ll just have to live with it.  Stinger stands 5 3/4 inches tall and she has 33 points of articulation.  The figure is built on the teen female body, which is not only a pretty decent body, but also a good fit for how Cassie tends to be depicted.  She gets a new head and a slightly tweaked upper torso, and also makes use of the Wasp’s wings.  The head is a solid piece of work, and we get a nice, crisp sculpt on the helmet.  The torso is pretty much just the basic piece, but with the appropriate ports for the wings.  Stinger only has two wings, rather than Wasp’s usual four, so these ones are just the main ones, with the secondary wing pieces removed.  Obviously, it’s an accuracy thing, but it does mean she’s just got empty peg holes where the secondary wings would have plugged in.  That’s sort of frustrating.  Cassie’s paintwork is overall pretty decent, but there’s a slight issue with the purple on the thighs not really matching the rest of the suit.  Don’t do light over dark, guys! Like her father, Cassie doesn’t include any accessories.  Given that she has far less unique pieces, this is even more frustrating.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was definitely interested in this set when it was shown off, since I quite like Cassie, and I’ve been hoping for a decent update to Scott for a little while.  Scott’s definitely the star here, being a fun costume choice, and a solid set of new pieces on one of Hasbro’s strongest base bodies.  I would have definitely preferred if Cassie had been Stature instead, but I suppose that would be better served to a BaF release at some point down the road.  As is this figure is a decent, if slightly flawed stand-in.

Since Toys R Us obviously wasn’t a viable option, I instead grabbed this set from my friends over at All Time Toys.  If you’d like one of your own, it’s still in-stock here.  And, if you’re looking for other toys, both old and new, please also check out All Time’s full eBay store front, and take a look at their webstore at alltimetoys.com.

#1669: Ant-Man

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

ANT-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Scott Lang suits up as Ant-Man with a specialized suit engineered by Pym Technologies that lets him blast into any battle, big or small.”

Ant-Man was a film that sure took its sweet time making its way to the big screen, but its sequel, Ant-Man & Wasp seems to have had a much easier time of it, being released just three years after its predecessor, and without any notable production issues.  Like the first film, it would appear this sequel will be serving as a little bit of a breather, following the much heavier Avengers: Infinity War.  The first time around, Ant-Man got its own series of Legends, which hung around for a bit.  This time, Hasbro’s rolled the Infinity War and Ant-Man & Wasp figures into one more generically “Avengers” themed assortment, which seems like a pretty smart move.  Up first, the guy who’s name is first in the title, Ant-Man!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ant-Man is part of the Cull Obsidian Series of Marvel Legends.  Though the theme is more Infinity War, the first Ant-Man assortment had Ultron as the Build-A-Figure, so Ant-Man being part of an assortment that builds an Avengers foe isn’t without precedent.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  This Ant-Man gets an all-new sculpt, based on his design from the upcoming film.  It appears that Ant-Man’s suit has been tweaked yet again, giving us something that’s sort of a midway point between his solo and Civil War designs.  It’s definitely my favorite of the the three we’ve gotten so far, and seems to preserve even more of the classic comics design than we’ve seen in previous costumes.  Unlike both Ant-Man and Giant-Man, this figure appears to actually be pretty darn close to the final film design, at least from what we’ve seen in the trailers.  At the very least, the helmet’s quite accurate, which is a tremendous improvement over the first figure.  His body also lacks the overall scrawniness of the Giant-Man figure, which is another plus.  Even without comparing it to the prior figures, the texturing, the layering, and the overall proportions of the sculpt are just really strong, and make it a definite standout.  If I have one complaint, it’s that I miss the visible eyes from the Giant-Man figure.  That would have added an extra kick to this already strong sculpt.  The paint work on this guy is also pretty strong.  The costume has a lot more red this time around, which I certainly prefer to all that black from the first design.  The application is all pretty solid, with only minimal bleed over.  I’m not super crazy about the swirly molded silver plastic on the helmet, but fortunately, all the other silvers are painted.  Ant-Man is packed with an extra, unmasked Scott Lang head.  It has a decent likeness of Paul Rudd, but that grin is definitely more caricature than realism.  I mean, I prefer it to another bland expression, and I’m glad Hasbro tried something different, but I’m going to be keeping this one helmeted.  Also included is the leg of the Build-A-Figure Cull Obsidian.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I made the most of it at the time, I was always a little let-down by the first film’s figure of its main character.  Sure, it’s not a terrible figure by any stretch, but there are more than a few inaccuracies.  Hasbro was just in a very different place when that figure was released, and this guy definitely shows that.  I didn’t know quite what to expect from this guy, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I got him in-hand.  A stand-out figure in an already very strong line-up.  If not for Black Knight’s presence in this series, I think Ant-Man could have been top-dog.

Ant-Man was purchased from my sponsors over at All Time Toys.  You can visit them in person on Main Street in Ellicott City, MD, or you can view their sizable online catalogue via their online store or their eBay store front!

#1103: Ant-Man & Falcon

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

ANT-MAN & FALCON

MARVEL MINIMATES

antmanfalconmm1

There are a lot of different standout characters in Civil War.  For a great number of people, it was Spider-Man, and for an almost equal number it was Black Panther.  Me personally?  Vision and Scarlet Witch all the way.  There was also a pretty sizable contingent of people whose favorite bits centered around Paul Rudd’s (Gi)Ant-Man, who made the most of his screen-time.  As such, it’s not a huge surprise to see the character turn up amongst DST’s offerings for the film.  Alongside him, my favorite character from the last Captain America film (as well as one of my favorite parts of the Ant-Man film), Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Ant-Man and Falcon are the second TRU-exclusive set for Civil War, and were released alongside Series 67 of the main line (meaning the hit in late July/early August).  It’s easily one of the better pairings we’ve gotten so far.

ANT-MAN

antmanfalconmm11Like so many characters before him, Ant-Man was one of those MCU characters who’s costume changed just enough from one movie to the next to warrant a new figure (hey, at least he’s more different than Vision).  I myself never got the basic Ant-Man from his solo movie (bad me), so this guy was actually pretty cool to get, and I can’t deny that the new design is pretty sharp.  The figure is built on the basic ‘mate body, and as such stands a little under 2 1/2 inches tall and has 14 points of articulation.  He has one add-on piece for his helmet.  It’s new to this particular figure and is a pretty faithful recreation of the helmet he was sporting in the movie.  The paintwork on Ant-Man is nice and sharp, detailing all of the various bits of his costume, and overall looking pretty accurate to the source material.  That’s especially refreshing with regards to the helmet, since none of the Ant-Man movie merch got his helmet down right.  Ant-Man includes a spare hairpiece for displaying Scott sans helmet, as well as a clear display stand.

FALCON

antmanfalconmm10As cool as I think Falcon’s comic book costume is, it’s understandably a little hard to adapt to real life.  So, it wasn’t much of a surprise that he was sporting more or less real-world fatigues in The Winter Soldier.  That being said, it wasn’t the most exciting design.  Over the course of his cinematic appearances, his uniform has slowly evolved into something a bit more akin to his comics appearance.  His Civil War design is his most exciting yet, keeping the real world nature of the Winter Soldier design, but also adding the the color scheme from his comics incarnation.  Structurally, Falcon uses add-ons for his goggles and backpack, as well as a unique set of upper arms (with removable posable wings), and two different gloved hands.  The end result does a very nice job of converting his onscreen appearance, and improves in a number of ways on the last MCU Falcon (which was already a pretty awesome figure).  The paintwork on Falcon is decent, though not quite as clean as the work on Ant-Man.  The detail lines are all pretty sharp, and the colors are nice and bright.  The only real downside is the sloppiness on some of the basic color work, mostly on the shoulders.  The overall look is pretty cool, though.  Falcon includes a handgun (why just the one is a little baffling, since he always has two in the film), Redwing, two different styles of flight stands (one for him, one for Redwing), and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I grabbed this set while out and about looking for those pesky X-Men Legends at various TRU’s.  I was actually quite happy to find it, since these are two of my favorite characters from the movies (and the comics, truth be told).  Ant-Man is a pretty solid addition to the roster of Ant-Men, though he may not be the most exciting ‘mate to people who have the last two ‘mates.  Falcon is a really nice improvement over the last MCU Falcon, and even more welcome since that one’s a bit hard to find now.   Probably one of best sets to come out of the Civil War Minimates. 

#1019: Giant-Man

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

GIANT-MAN

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

GiantManCW1

Huzzah!  We’ve made it to the final part of Giant-Man Week!  It’s time for the literal big guy himself, Giant-Man.  Giant-Man was probably one of Civil War’s worst kept secrets, thanks to both this figure and the Airport Battle Lego set.  It’s not like it was a huge shock or anything, and the actual moment from the film was hardly diminished by knowing ahead of time.  Anyway, Giant-Man is (pardon the pun) one of the bigger things to come out of Civil War, and as such, he’s found his way into quite a good bit of merchandise.  However, this is the first proper movie Giant-Man action figure, so let’s see how he turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

GiantManCW2Giant-Man is the build-a-figure for the Giant-Man Series of Marvel Legends.  I know, who would have seen that coming?  He’s obviously based on his appearance in Captain America: Civil War, specifically the airport scene.  The figure stands 10 inches tall and he has 30 points of articulation.  Giant-Man is another all-new sculpt.  It’s pretty decent work, with a slight caveat.  The figure offers a decent approximation of his design from the movie, but, like with the Ant-Man figures from the solo movie, this guy kind of misses the smaller details. Well, not misses, so much. All the details are there, but they’re sort of out of place. It’s not a bad look at all, just slightly inaccurate. But hey, this is what happens when you keep a main character’s look under wraps for so long.  It’s certainly not a bad sculpt, though.  There’s a lot of really great texturing on his suit, and he’s got nice, balanced proportions.  I particularly like the use of a separate piece for the faceplate, which allows for Scott’s eyes to be seen beneath the lenses.  It’s a really cool look.  Giant-Man’s paintwork is pretty solidly done.  The colors are all good matches for the movie, and everything is nice and cleanly applied.  The silver could, maybe, be a little brighter, but it looks fine as is.  As an accessory himself, Giant-Man doesn’t include any extras of his own, though I can’t really think of much you could give him.  Maybe a chunk of plane?

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a build-a-figure, Giant-Man is the result of a few weeks of searching for all the figures in this series.  I think he may be one of my favorite B-a-Fs in a a long time.  In general, this whole series was really strong.  The line-up seemed a little odd at first, but almost all of the figures are top-notch work, especially in terms of paint! Which has been one of Hasbro’s problem areas.

GiantManCW4

#0979: Ant-Man & Winter Soldier

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

ANT-MAN & WINTER SOLDIER

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR – MINIVERSE

AntMan&WS1

Wow, it’s been two whole months since Civil War hit theatres. Consequently, that also means it’s been about a month and a half since I saw Civil War. That doesn’t seem right. I might have to fix that. In the meantime, how about a nice Civil War-themed review? Yeah, that’ll be cool. Today, let’s stick firmly on the #TeamCap side, with Ant-Man and Winter Soldier!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Ant-Man and Winter Soldier are one of the two-packs in the second series of Hasbro’s current Captain America: Civil War Miniverse line, which just started hitting stores not too long ago. They’re yet another somewhat odd pairing, since Scott and Bucky don’t really spend much time interacting, but oh well.

ANT-MAN

AntMan&WS2Both Guardians and Age of Ultron got their own 2 ½ inch lines, but poor Ant-Man was not so lucky. Which is kinda weird, since he’s the character who it makes the sense to have available in lots of different scales (especially smaller ones). But it’s okay, because he’s got a 2 ½ inch figure now! This figure stands just over 2 ½ inches tall and he has the same 5 points of articulation as any other figure in this line. Ant-Man is based on his slightly tweaked design from Civil War, which wasn’t a bad look. I can’t really say I like or dislike this look more than his last one, since they’re ultimately pretty similar. His sculpt does a pretty nice job of capturing the design from the movie, and he has quite a lot of very sharp detail work. He’s one of the more pre-posed figures from the line, with a rather wide stance and his arms slightly angled from his side. I’m not sure exactly what look they were going for, but it’s not as odd as some of the pre-posed figures I’ve gotten over the years. The Miniverse line is generally a bit light on the painted details, which can prove a problem for those with more intricate designs, such as Ant-Man’s. That being said, this is one of the few figures in the line not to lose too many painted details. Sure, there’s still a few silver accents here and there missing, but most of the important stuff is there. Of the two figures in this set, Ant-Man is the one that gets the weird armor thing. On the plus side, it seems the armor’s main purpose is to make Ant-Man a bit larger, to simulate his Giant-Man look, making it the first of these armor sets not to be totally useless.

WINTER SOLDIER

AntMan&WS3This is the second Winter Soldier we’ve gotten from this line of figures, but this is the first one to actually be based on his look from Civil War. Like Ant-Man, this guy stands a little over 2 ½ inches tall and has 5 points of articulation. Surprisingly enough, this figure doesn’t share any parts with his Series 1 counterpart. His sculpt is quite well-handled, with lots of excellent detailing. The likeness isn’t a spot-on Sebastian Stan, but at this scale it’s good enough. Also, as with many of the figures in the line, the feet are a bit large, but the proportions are otherwise pretty good. Bucky has a much more subdued pose than most of the line, which is actually kind of nice to see. The paintwork here is pretty simple, being limited to the head, torso, and left arm, but the application is nice and clean, and he looks about right for the movie design. Winter Soldier has no accessories, but if all he was gonna get was more goofy armor, I’m not really going to complain.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up these two from Target. They were the only new set the store had in stock, which means I missed out on the Scarlet Witch set, but hey, this is a decent consolation. Unlike a lot of the other sets from this line, where there’s one good figure and one iffy figure, this set contains two pretty solid additions to the line. Definitely glad I got them!

#0825: SDCC Ant-Man Minimates

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

SHRINKING ANT-MAN, SHRINKING YELLOW JACKET, ANT-HONY, & SCOTT LANG

MARVEL MINIMATES

AntManSDCC1

Ant-Man seems to be that movie I keep forgetting when looking back on 2015. It’s a shame, really, because I actually enjoyed the film immensely, and thought it was a highlight of the summer. But, I keep forgetting about it. For instance, there were two sets of Marvel Minimates based on the film, both of which have been readily available since November, and I’ve only picked up one. Furthermore, I’ve had said set since November and not yet gotten around to reviewing it. Today I fix that.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These four were one of the SDCC exclusive items this year, offered via a partnership between DST and Action Figure Xpress. This set is meant to accent the main specialty release set… which I don’t have. Oh well.

SHRINKING ANT-MAN

AntManSDCC2As the main character, it’s only natural for Ant-Man to get one or two variants. That said, the suit maintains a pretty standard look throughout the entirety of the film, so coming up with a compellingly different version of the character can be a little difficult. Enter the “shrinking” variant, which is certainly different. Structurally, he’s the same as the normal Ant-Man. He uses the standard Minimate body, so he stands about 2 ½ inches tall and has 14 points of articulation. He has add-ons for his helmet and belt. They’re decent enough matches for the film designs; the helmet is a little off, but that’s true of all the figures for the movie, since the mask was changed somewhat last minute. Regardless, the pieces look pretty great. The paintwork is kind of the key thing with this figure. He’s (mostly) molded in clear plastic. The torso of the figure has some white detail lines, outlining a few different Ant-Men, each smaller than the last, to make it look like he’s shrinking. The effect works well enough, but you do really have to view him head-on to get it to look right. Under the helmet, instead of Scott Lang (like on the regular release) it’s a younger Hank Pym. The likeness is pretty fantastic, and I love that we actually got a young Hank Pym. Ant-Man includes a hairpiece (re-used from BSG’s Apollo), a normally painted torso piece, a slab of rock, a smaller ‘mate painted up in Ant-Man’s basic colors, an effect base, and a basic display stand, made up like a giant penny.

SHRINKING YELLOWJACKET

AntManSDCC3If you have two main characters with shrinking abilities, it’s not really fair to give just one of them a figure replicating the shrinking feature. So, here’s shrinking Yellowjacket. Like Ant-Man, he’s structurally the same as his normal release version. He’s got add-ons for his helmet and harness/extra legs. These are pretty decent parts, but I don’t feel they’re as strong as Ant-Man’s, and I do wish the legs were actually poseable. Still, they work well enough, and he certainly looks the part. His paint is handled very similarly to Ant-Man’s, with the necessary changes for the differences in character designs. Under the helmet is Darren Cross. His expression is a bit more angry than the regular version, so there’s a bit of variety there. The face doesn’t really look much like Cross in the movie, especially the stubble, which just seems to be too heavy. Yellowjacket includes a normally painted torso, a slab of rock, a smaller ‘mate in black and gold, a flying stand, and a display base painted like a bottle cap.

ANT-HONY

AntManSDCC5Scott’s ant buddy Ant-Hony was definitely a surprisingly enjoyable character, and who would have thought he’d actually get three whole figures? I certainly expecting the ‘mate, though. Ant-Hony follows the lead of ‘mates such as the Brood drone, moving away from the standard Minimate build. Ant-Hony uses the head and arms (three sets of them, actually) of the basic ‘mate, along with the six-armed torso piece, which has been used a few times before. The figure also uses the little nubby feet pieces from the Brood, wings from the Wasp, and all-new pieces for the top of the head and his lower half. The end result is a slightly odd looking figure, but it approximates an ant’s shape fairly well. The paint is mostly just the same dark brown, but he does also have detailing for his eyes. Ant-Hony comes packed with a flight stand.

SCOTT LANG

AntManSDCC4Civilian variants are fairly commonplace with movie ‘mates, so getting a basic Scott in this set is to be expected, especially since he’s not the one in the Ant-Man suit. He’s based on the look he sports when breaking into Pym’s mansion early in the film, which is easily the most distinct of his non-costumed looks. The figure is entirely reliant on re-used parts, with the hat from Punisher: Warzone’s Looney Bin Jim and the coat from Big Bang Theory’s Leonard. The parts are both pretty generic, but they certainly work well to capture Scott’s look from the film. Scott’s paint is pretty straightforward; it’s mostly just a bunch of dark blues (which is film accurate). There’s not an overabundance of detail work on the body, but the waist of his pants has a bit of line work. His face is actually a really great likeness of Paul Rudd, and I love that he’s got the little bandages on his brow. Scott includes an extra hair piece, a spare set of short-sleeved arms, ungloved hands, a backpack, and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As noted several times before on this site, I didn’t go to SDCC 2015. So, I had to wait for this set to show up elsewhere. Specifically, I waited for it to come into stock at Luke’s Toy Store, my preferred Minimate retailer. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from this set, but I was pleasantly surprised by every ‘mate contained. Definitely a worthy purchase.

#0702: Ant-Man

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

ANT-MAN

MARVEL SELECT

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Ant-Man was a cool movie. After things went pretty colossal with Age of Ultron, it was kind of refreshing to move back to a smaller scale.  And who better to move back a smaller scale with than Ant-Man, dude who shrinks. That seems downright ingenious. As the latest smash-hit of the Marvel Universe, Ant-Man has found himself privy to more than a few action figures, including Diamond Selects non-Minimates line, Marvel Select.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

AntManMS4As noted above, this Ant-Man is a part of the Marvel Select line. There are two different versions of this figure available: a basic one, with just the helmeted head, offered at specialty stores, and one with both helmeted and un-helmented heads, offered exclusively through the Disney Store. I’ve got the Disney exclusive version, because I felt the need to own a tiny Paul Rudd. Just go with it. The figure stands a little over 7 inches tall and has 30 points of articulation. Ant-Man is, obviously, based on his movie appearance, though, like pretty much all of the other movie Ant-Men, he’s based on slightly out of date promotional artwork. This means that a few of the details on the face of the mask are a little bit out of place compared to the final design. Because of this, the figure feels slightly unfinished, or at least the helmet does. However, this is hardly DST’s fault, and at least they didn’t give us the weird half mask thing that Hasbro did. The rest of the sculpt is a bit closer to the final look, and it’s quite nicely handled. There’s plenty of texturing on the suit and the various metal parts look appropriately machined. Due to the interchangeability of the head, the hoses in the back have a tendency to pop out of place, which is really annoying, but ultimately not very noticeable. This figure definitely has the best paint we’ve seen so far on a movie Ant-Man, which is definitely cool. Everything’s pretty cleanly handled, and the gradation on the red parts looks quite good. He also exhibits a greater deal of smaller detailing, especially on the sliver parts, than other Ant-Men. All in all, very solid work. The figure includes the previously mentioned un-helmeted head, as well as three pairs of hands (fists, open gesture, and relaxed), and a miniature version of himself. The extra head isn’t spot-on, but it has a decent Paul Rudd likeness, which is really only held back by somewhat below par paintwork. It’s not terrible, but it could be a little better. The hands swap out easily enough, and are definitely a step up from the other Ant-Men with their permanently splayed hands. Mini Ant-Man is, obviously, not as detailed as his larger counterpart, but he’s got a decent level of detail and looks pretty good.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Ant-Man at the same time as Sunday’s Hulkbuster Iron Man. He was another purchase courtesy of my always amazing parents. When all the various Ant-Man stuff was announced, this was the figure I wanted the most. In the end, he’s definitely the best of the currently available Ant-Men, which isn’t a small (heh!) feat.

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#0680: Ant-Man Boxed Set

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

GIANT-MAN, GOLIATH, & HANK PYM

MARVEL’s ANT-MAN

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Marvel is definitely pushing Ant-Man pretty hard right now. The movie was a resounding success, in spite of all the negative press that seemed to be surrounding it, he’s joined the cast of the Avengers Assemble cartoon, and he’s headlining one of the best solo comics the company is currently publishing. Things are definitely looking up for the bug-sized hero. Marvel licensee Hasbro has been joining in on the fun, and two of their San Diego ComiCon exclusives this year were based around Ant-Man. Today, I’ll be looking at what I feel is the more impressive of the two exclusives.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Giant-Man, Goliath, and Hank Pym (along with two smaller Ant-Men) make up an Ant-Man-themed boxed set, released this year at SDCC. The set was also available after the convention on Hasbro’s online store, which is how I got mine.

GIANT-MAN

AntManSet2Hey! Haven’t I already looked at this guy? Well, sort of. Yes, this figure uses the same costume design as the Ant-Man Marvel Legends Infinite Series Giant-Man. However, unlike that figure, this one lives up to the name-sake a bit better. The figure is 12 inches tall, making him twice the height of the Infinite Series version, and he has 32 points of articulation. The figure is built on Marvel Legends Icons Cyclops body, which was previously used for the Marvel Universe Gigantic Battles Goliath and Bill Foster figures. It’s a body that was good at the time it was created, and was still pretty serviceable when it was used for Gigantic Battles, but has started to look pretty dated in recent years. The proportions and sculpted details are still okay (though he does look a little underfed), but the range of motion on the joints is rather restricted. In addition, the body has a lot of sculpted details that are specific to Cyclops, and thereby look out of place on Giant-Man. In the case of seams and the like, it’s easy to overlook them, but the straps/buckles on the wrists and the clear outline of the boots on the calves are quite distracting. It doesn’t seem too unreasonable to want Hasbro to at least retool those particular pieces. Giant-Man does get a unique head and an add-on for his belt. The head is pretty decently sculpted, though, for some reason, the antennae look sillier here than they did on the smaller figure. The belt is decent enough, but it seems a little bulky, especially compared to the painted on belt of the MLIS figure. The paint on this figure is pretty decent, aside from the obvious issues with sculpted details not lining up with the costume. The black sections are slightly glossy, and incredibly sharp at the edges, which is nice to see. One minor issue: the two black lines emanating from the circle on his chest end at the shoulder joints, instead of continuing around the shoulders like they should.  Giant-Man includes no accessories of his own.

GOLIATH

AntManSet3Moving downward on the scale chart, we get to my personal favorite figure from the set, Goliath. He’s based on Hank Pym’s first costume for his third identity. Confused? That’s okay. Most people are. This figure ends up being the most unique of those offered in the set, mostly due to his color-scheme. The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation. He’s based on the ML Infinite Series Bucky Cap body, just like the single release Giant-Man. The body’s a pretty great base for a lot of characters, and it fits Hank rather nicely. Goliath gets a new head sculpt; it’s a little on the soft side as far as details go, but it’s pretty good overall. It’s a nice, classic hero-style head, and it isn’t too struck with the level of same-ness we’ve seen on a lot of Hasbro’s male heads in this scale. The figure also gets a new add-on piece for his belt, which is a little bit loose, but pretty well sculpted. While I like this figure a lot, oh boy did he get hit with some seriously messy paint. The colors are pretty nicely chosen, but the flesh tones are really thick and goopy, and the yellow has been applied too thinly in many areas, causing the blue of the plastic to bleed through. He’s also got some random scratches of blue on both forearms, where the glove paint has chipped. Viewed as a whole, the figure is alright, but he would have been a lot nicer if the paint had been even a little bit better. Like Giant-Man, Goliath has no accessories of his own.

HANK PYM

AntManSet5Moving down the scale chart again, we find our way to another version of Hank Pym, as well as our first actual Ant-Man figure in a set with Ant-Man plastered all over it. Hank’s presented here in his Ant-Man costume, but with a lab coat over top of it, which is a look that Hank’s been known to sport rather frequently, when he’s in an inventing mood. It’s an important look that’s largely been absent from toy form. The figure is about 4 inches tall and has 22 points of articulation. Structurally, Hank is very similar to the Ant-Man figure from last year. He uses the torso, legs, and feet from the basic skinny male body. It’s kind of an outdated body, but I guess it’s at least consistent with the last Ant-Man. He also has the arms and hands from the AIM Agent/Ghost Rider body, which are good for the AntManSet7looser sleeves, but are a little too long for the body. For the lab coat, he re-uses the add-on piece from G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra The Doctor figure, which isn’t a perfect fit for the body, but it isn’t too far off. The head appears to be a new piece, though it’s generic enough that it could potentially be a re-use. It’s an okay sculpt, but it seems a bit too angry for Hank. The paintwork on the figure is pretty decent. The actual Ant-Man costume is identical to the regular Ant-Man, which is good, I guess. It would be nice if the lab coat were more detailed than just straight white, but oh well. Hank gets the only actual accessory in the set: an alt helmeted head. It’s exactly the same as the normal Ant-Man’s head.

ANT-MEN

AntManSet8Last up, it’s the two mini Ant-Men, who are really more accessories than outright figures. The larger of the two is based on Scott Lang’s Ant-Man costume from the 00s. It’s definitely a more modern design, but I like the enclosed nature. The figure AntMan2stands about an inch and a half tall and features no articulation. He’s got a unique sculpt, and he’s actually pretty nicely detailed for such a small figure. The paintwork is also pretty decent, with three different colors and no visible slop. The smaller Ant-Man is once again based on the classic Ant-Man design. It’s actually just the same smaller Ant-Man as was included with the Avengers Infinite Ant-Man. It’s under an inch tall and is, predictably, pretty light on the details.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, as noted above, I picked this set up after the con from Hasbro Toy Shop. I detailed the ordeal in my Book of the Vishanti review, so I won’t go into that again. Ultimately, I have to admit I’m a little underwhelmed by this particular set. Giant-Man and Hank Pym are both held back by outdated bodies, and Goliath has some rather annoying paint issues. The Scott Lang figure is kinda neat, I guess, but I’d have preferred to get a larger scale version. All-in-all, I certainly don’t feel like this is a bad set, and I don’t regret purchasing them, but they just seem a bit off.

AntManSet4