Tag Archives: Sharon Carter

#3239: Sharon Carter

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

SHARON CARTER

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“In hiding after breaking the Sokovia Accords, Sharon Carter inevitably finds herself entangled in Sam and Bucky’s globe-trotting fight.”

Sharon Carter was introduced in the comics, rather shallowly perhaps, as a love interest for Captain America in the “modern era” of the ’60s.  She was originally the younger sister of Cap’s WW2 love interest Peggy Carter, before the sliding timeline necessitated her becoming Peggy’s niece, and eventually grand-niece.  Since Peggy is a far less present character in the comics, that allowed Sharon an opportunity to grow far beyond her role as simply love interest to Steve, making her quite an in-depth character in her own right.  When Emily Van Camp was cast as Agent 13 (who was not actually confirmed to have any relation to Peggy in her first appearance in The Winter Soldier), there was clearly a plan to carry forward much of her comics arc, but thanks to the movies deciding to make Peggy a far more fleshed out character on her own, Sharon was left without quite as much to do.  The Falcon and The Winter Soldier brought Sharon back, and gave her a new role, perhaps divergent from her comics counterpart, but nevertheless intriguing.  And, after presence in two movies and a TV show, she’s gotten a Marvel Legend!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Sharon Carter is figure 6 in the the Infinity Ultron Series of Marvel Legends.  She’s a little bit of an odd-ball in this assortment, as not only the only figure from Falcon and The Winter Soldier (largely covered in the first Disney+ assortment), but also as the only figure in the set from pre-What If…?.  She’s specifically based on her incognito look from Madripor, but given the general loose structure of her usual attire, she can kind of work in a few different settings.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 27 points of articulation.  Sharon’s articulation scheme is honestly kind of behind the times.  In fact, her whole sculpt is kind of behind the times, which is curious, because, as far as I can tell, this is the first time we’ve seen any of it.  She’s still got single universal style joints on the elbows, exposed pins at the knees, and a rather restricted ball-joint set-up at the neck and mid torso, all of which points to older sculpt.  Sharon is, of course, the oldest source material in this batch by a bit, but it still doesn’t track, because even being a year and a half removed from the rest of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier figures, they all had more modern articulation schemes.  And what’s even more confusing is how specific Sharon’s sculpt is to that one appearance in the show.  This is very clearly Sharon from when they’re all exploring the storage containers in Madripor, and the details of her outfit all directly match-up, so this is not re-used.  It’s weird.  It’s not an awful sculpt, all things considered.  The likeness on the head is a respectable match for Emily Van Camp in the role, and the detailing on her outfit is pretty solid work.  She’s perhaps a touch too skinny, especially on the legs, but it’s pretty minor.  Sharon’s color work is largely rather basic, witch mostly molded colors.  The hair and face get the most involved work, and they honestly work the best, giving her a rather lifelike appearance.  Sharon is packed with her baton, a knife, and the head of Infinity Ultron.  The baton’s a decent piece, and it seems like she’s lacking any sort of gun for licensing reasons (which happed with the other TFATWS figures), but the knife is just straight up goofy.  It’s so cartoonish and flat; it’s not like they don’t have other knife sculpts sitting around, so why they went with this, I don’t know.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Sharon was the odd-ball in this round for so many reasons.  Her reveal was held off for a surprisingly long time, given how it wasn’t tied into any spoilers or reveals like the others, and she’s two series removed from the rest of her set.  Add in that she’s got this very old-feeling sculpt, and it feels like she was maybe a sculpt that had been sitting around for a while that got moved up when something else had to get dropped?  I don’t know.  I’m happy to have a Sharon figure finally, though, so I’ll consider it a win, and even if she feels a little out of date, she’s not a bad figure at all.

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.

#1102: Agent 13 & Mercenary

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

AGENT 13 & MERCENARY

MARVEL MINIMATES

agent13merc1

One of the nice things about the Marvel movies is that their various tie-in products give us a much better coverage of some of the heroes’ supporting casts.  This is especially true of Minimates, where the multipack nature of the line allows for more than a few extra characters, who might otherwise get overlooked.  I think Captain America has perhaps faired the best of all the heroes.  The first movie got us a Peggy Carter and a few of the Howling Commandoes, the second got us the likes of Jasper Sitwell and Batroc the Leaper.  Cap’s third film, Civil War, is a bit more jam-packed with named characters, so there isn’t quite as much room for Cap’s supporting cast.  That being said, we still managed to get Agent 13, aka Sharon Carter, who is a pretty important character in the Cap mythos!  Oh, and there’s like a mercenary or something too.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Agent 13 and the Mercenary were released as part of Series 67 of Marvel Minimates, which is the second of the two Civil War-themed sets of ‘mates.  These two are one of the specialty-exclusive packs, alongside the Thunderbolt Ross and Merc set.

AGENT 13

agent13merc3I’ve been eagerly awaiting this particular ‘mate ever since the character was announced to be in Winter Soldier, so it’s nice to see her finally turn up here.  This marks Sharon Carter’s first Minimate, though some of the non-comics geeks might miss that, since she’s only referred to as Agent 13 on the box, including in her bio (which also doesn’t mention her relation to Peggy).  I guess Marvel wanted to keep that “reveal” under wraps until everyone had seen the movie.  Ah well, Agent 13 sounds cooler anyway.  The figure is a little under 2 1/2 inches tall and she has the standard 14 points of articulation.  Agent 13 uses the basic ‘mate body, with add-ons for her hair, the bottom of her jacket, the knife sheath and her two holsters.  Everything here is a re-use, with the hair coming from Peggy Carter (clever re-use there), the bottom of the coat coming from Kill Bill’s Elle, and the holsters and sheath being standard use pieces.  They’re all decently chosen parts.  I don’t remember exactly when Sharon sported this look in the movie, but it’s the one featured on all the promotional stuff and concept art, so I can’t complain.  As far as paint goes, Agent 13 is pretty standard for a ‘mate.  The details are all nice and sharp, and the face bears a passing resemblance to Emily Van Camp.  The color palette isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but it’s accurate.  Sharon includes two silver handguns, a knife, and a clear display stand.

MERCENARY

agent13merc2Ah, yes, the Mercenary.  Who could forget the Mercenary?  Most people, I’d assume, including me, at least until I re-watched the movie.  This is supposed to be one of the guys working with Crossbones at the beginning of the movie.  Why this figure was packed with Agent 13 and Ross is anyone’s guess.  The Merc is built using the standard body, with add-ons for the mask, tactical vest, belt, and holster.  The mask, belt and holster are just standard pieces, and the vest comes from Series 55’s Batroc.  The end result looks more or less like the Mercs from the movie, though the mask is more an approximation than anything.  One presumes this is due to keeping this guy within budget, which seems fine by me, especially when we’re talking about a generic army builder that’s on screen for maybe 15 minutes.  Paint-wise, this guy matches pretty well with what we saw on screen.  He’s a little dull in terms of color, but has some nice bits of “pop” like the goggles.  The level of detail is pretty impressive, especially for a no-name character.  Under the mask, there’s even a fully detailed face, with a buzzcut and everything, which both gives him some extra character, but also can work as more than one guy.  The Mercenary includes a sub-machine gun, a handgun (in a dark metal grey), and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, I got this set at the same time as Widow and Crossbones (who I’m just now realizing I didn’t mention to origin of), courtesy of my parents for my birthday.  I was really looking forward to Agent 13, and she’s a pretty solid ‘mate, even if she’s not the most exciting figure ever.  I didn’t expect a whole lot from the Mercenary, but I actually quite like how he turned out.  He’s a nice accent piece for yesterday’s Crossbones.

#0919: Sharon Carter

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

SHARON CARTER – AGENTS OF SHIELD

MARVEL LEGENDS SERIES

SharonC1

Hey look! It’s Agent Carter! No, not that Agent Carter! This is Sharon Carter, the other secret agent with the last name Carter who dated Captain America. I can understand the confusion. See, after Cap spent 20 70 years on ice, he still needed a love interest, since Peggy had gotten up there in years. So, they introduced Peggy’s sister niece, Sharon, who worked for SHIELD under the code name “Agent 13.” She’s been a fairly important part of Cap’s supporting cast since her introduction in 1966 (apart from being dead for a few years). Technically, she’s had two action figures, but one of them wasn’t actually named, so I’ll be looking at the first officially named Sharon Carter figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

SharonC2Sharon Carter is part of the third series of the Captain America Marvel Legends Series. She uses the “Agents of SHIELD” title, which she shares with the previously reviewed Mockingbird figure. It’s certainly appropriate for the character, so that’s good. The figure is a little under 6 inches tall and she has 26 points of articulation. From the neck down, Sharon is identical to last year’s Maria Hill figure, which in turn means she shares some parts with the Winter Soldier version of Black Widow. I’ll admit, the body isn’t one of my favorites. While the Widow figure was fine, the pieces used don’t gel exceptionally well with the Maria Hill parts. Also, I still don’t like the gimpy, misshapen fist for the left hand. However, I will admit that the body seems to work a little bit better for Carter than it did for Hill. Maybe it’s the coloring or maybe it’s that there’s not a real person to compare it to. It could possibly SharonC3be the new head, which seems to sit a little better on the body. It’s not super stand-out work, but the piece does a decent enough job of capturing Sharon’s look from the comics. I’m actually tempted to pick up a second figure to use as the beginnings of a classic Mockingbird. Sharon’s paintwork is decent overall, but has a few drawbacks. Some of the smaller details are a little misaligned, which is a little annoying, but the most present issue is that the whites on the arms and legs don’t match up with the torso and hips, creating an odd contrast that shouldn’t be there. Sharon comes packed with a silver version of the weird sci-fi gun that came with Red Skull (I would have preferred something a bit more normal looking, but oh well), as well as the right leg of Red Onslaught.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

After Mockingbird, Sharon was my second most-wanted character from this line-up. Currently, she’s one of the more difficult figures to find, so I had to do a bit of searching. My dad ended up finding her for me while at a small convention a few weekends ago. She’s not as strong a figure as Mockingbird or Taskmaster, but she’s reasonably well-done, and a good enough figure that I don’t feel like I wasted my money on her.