Tag Archives: Steve Rogers

#0236: Captain America – Stealth Uniform & Brock Rumlow

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA – STEALTH UNIFORM & BROCK RUMLOW

MARVEL MINIMATES

Cap&Rumlow

You’ve read my reviews for the first two sets in the Captain America: The Winter Soldier Minimates line-up. Today’s part three. The excitement from the first two parts still remains, but I think I’ve gotten pretty good at keeping my composure. Hopefully. Anyway, I’m looking at yet another Captain America, plus SHIELD agent Brock Rumlow *SPOILER*

…one of the movie’s villains. Do they keep the excitement going? Let’s find out!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cap and Rumlow were released as part of Marvel Minimates Series 55, which was done as a tie-in to this summer’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

CAPTAIN AMERICA – STEALTH UNIFORM

CapStealthCap is built on the standard Minimate body, which means he stands about 2 ½ inches tall and features 14 points of articulation. He’s based on Cap’s stealth look from the movie, which has also been referred to as his “STRIKE Team” look. It’s what he wears during the film’s opening mission and during most of his scenes at the SHIELD headquarters, and it’s also the look seen on most of the promotional stuff for the movie. To convey this look, the figure features sculpted helmet, shoulder harness, wrist straps and belt add-ons, in addition to the base Minimate body. The wrist straps appear to be a re-use from Series 34’s 90s Cyclops, but everything else looks to be brand-new to this figure. Everything seems to be accurate to Cap’s look in the film, and there is plenty of sculpted detail work on each piece. The paint work on Cap is pretty good, though there are a few spots of error. The silver detailing of the “A” on his helmet doesn’t quite line up with the sculpted boarders and there are a few instances of underlying colors not lining up with the detail lines. Also, the wings on the sides of his helmet have been left unpainted, but this seems to be consistent across all versions of this figure. Other than that, the paint work is very nice. All the detail lines are nice and crisp, the likeness on the face presents and uncanny resemblance to Chris Evans, and some of the small details on the uniform are nothing short of amazing. Cap is accessorized with a spare hairpiece, an extra hand for holding the shield, a display stand, and, of course, his mighty shield, this time in stealth colors.

BROCK RUMLOW

RumlowRumlow is built on the same base body as Cap, which means he has the same articulation and relative height. For those of you less in the know with Cap stuff, Rumlow is a SHIELD agent destined to become the villain Crossbones, who worked as the Red Skull’s right-hand man and has been a recurring Captain America villain for many years. His figure here is based on his look in the movie, in his “pre-Crossbones” form, and specifically takes Rumlow’s look from the movie’s final act. A lot of the figures in this series take their looks from that portion of the movie, so it’s nice to see Rumlow stick with the theme. Rumlow features sculpted hair, vest, belt, and holster add-ons to aid with the look. The hair is a re-use from Series 17’s Eddie Brock, and the holsters are from Series 45’s Maria Hill. The belt might be a re-use, but it’s a bit too generic for me to tell. The vest appears to be an all-new piece. All of these parts go together well, and result in a pretty much spot on figure of the character. The paint work on Rumlow is good, but not spotless. The paint on his gloves is splotchy and the edges of his boots have very fuzzy lines, but the detail work is superb, just like the rest of the series. The vest can be removed to show the straps that he had under his vest in the movie, which is a nice touch. Rumlow is accessorized with two hand guns, a sub machine gun, his electro-shock thingy, and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, I was out of town for the release of this series. Thankfully, my dad was nice enough to get a set of them for me, which was very cool of him. I really liked Cap’s stealth suit in the movie, so I’m happy to see that it turned out well, and that it wasn’t plagued by the same paint issues as the Classic Cap. I was also happy to get Rumlow, who has been over looked by other lines based on the movie. He was a fairly important character in the movie, and the Minimate is a great representation of him. All in all, this set is more in line with Widow and Falcon, which is a good thing. I’m happy to see Diamond putting such amazing work into this line.

#0234: Captain America – Classic & Winter Soldier

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA – CLASSIC & WINTER SOLDIER

MARVEL MINIMATES

Cap&WinterSoldier

I love Minimates. That’s no secret. I also loved Captain America: The Winter Soldier (I’ve seen it six times). These are things that have been said many times on this site. So why bring them up? BECAUSE I JUST GOT THE MINIMATES FROM CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDER! Whoa, sorry about that. I’m very excited. You see, short of spending an insane amount of money on the Hot Toys figures, the Minimates are the only way to get all of the main characters in a single scale. Plus they’re Minimates! Today, I’ll be kicking off my reviews of the series with the film’s two title characters: Captain America and The Winter Soldier!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

This set was released as part of Marvel Minimates Series 55, which was a series based on the Captain America: The Winter Soldier film released this summer.

CAPTAIN AMERICA – CLASSIC

CapClassic

Cap, like just about every other Minimate, is built on the standard Minimate body. As such, he stands about 2 ½ inches tall and features 14 points of articulation. This figure depicts Cap in his “classic” costume from the movie, which is the one he wears during the last act of the film. It’s essentially his uniform from The First Avenger, but it tweaks the stripes on the abdomen, brightens the brown areas, and ditches the holster and side-arm from that film. The figure features sculpted helmet and belt add-ons to help facilitate the look. Both of these pieces appear to be new to this figure, sharply sculpted and look spot on to the movie. The paint work on this figure is a bit mixed. To Diamond’s credit, the detail line work is nothing short of amazing. All the lines are nice and sharp, and the level of detailing is just great! They’ve even succeeded in giving us a pretty great Chris Evans likeness. Unfortunately, the base paint work is not so great. The ends of his gloves are very uneven, the colors routinely go out of detail lines, and you can see that the A on the helmet is pretty far off center. Also, my Cap’s helmet has a smear of silver across the nose, which is incredibly distracting. Cap includes a spare hair piece, his mighty shield, a hand to attach the shield to, and a clear display stand.

WINTER SOLDIER

WinterSoldierUnmaskedWinter Soldier is built on the same basic body as Cap, so he has all the same stats there. He depicts the main Winter Soldier look in the film, the same one shown on all the other WS merchandise. Given its presence in most of the Soldier’s important scenes, I’ve got no complaints there. Bucky features five sculpted add-ons: Mask/Hair, shoulder gear, belt, and a holster for both legs. These pieces all look to be new to this figure, and they all seem to do an admirable job replicating Bucky’s look in the movie. The mask perhaps sits a bit too low, but it’s not so low that it ruins the figure. Bucky seems to have come out a bit better than Cap in the paint department. Like Cap, all of the detail lines are really sharp, and the work on the legs in particular is quite impressive. The Sebastian Stan likeness is much better this time than it was on Diamond’s version of Bucky from the first film. On a side note: Am I the only one that didn’t really notice the eye shadow in the movie? I saw it in one or two scenes, but it was mostly absent. Yet, every single figure has it caked on there. Fortunately, it’s handled pretty well here, nowhere near the monstrosity that was the Hasbro version. The best part of this figure is his accessory selection. He’s armed to the teeth, with a sniper rifle, two sub machine guns, a hand gun, and two knives, plus an alternate hairpiece without the mask and a clear display stand thrown in for good measure! One additional thing I might have liked to have seen is a hair piece without the goggles, to replicate his look from his first fight with Cap, but I wouldn’t want to be too greedy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This series was originally supposed to be released closer to the film’s opening weekend, but was met with a few delays. They were finally released the first week in June, while I happened to be out of town. Fortunately, my awesome dad picked them up for me the day they came out. He even brought them with him when he came to bring me home!

While I’m not quite as happy with the paint on Cap as I’d have liked, the overall work on these figures is pretty great, and Winter Soldier is at the very least the most accurate version of the character available, if not the best! I’m hopeful that the issues with Cap are more or less limited to my set, as I’d hate to see this be a widespread issue.

#0231: Arnim Zola & Captain America

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

ARNIM ZOLA & CIVIL WAR CAPTAIN AMERICA

MARVEL MINIMATES

ArnimZola&Cap ArnimZola&CapAlt2

Minimates. What more can I say. I’ve reviewed them numerous times before, and I try to think of original anecdotes about them, but there’s really only so much you can say. Still, they are the greatest toyline on the market today, so that’s a big plus. Today, I’ll be looking at Arnim Zola, a recurring Captain America foe, and Captain America himself.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These two were released as part of the 42nd series of Marvel Minimates. That particular series was meant to loosely tie-in with Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger, which were both released the same year.

ARNIM ZOLA

Arnim is presented here in his classic “face on a chest monitor” look, which is definitely the one to go with if you’re doing an Arnim Zola figure. He’s built on the usual Minimate body, so he has 14 points of articulation and stands around 2 ½ inches tall. Arnim features a uniquely sculpted camera head and torso piece, as well as reused “puffy sleeves.” The pieces work pretty well, and give a nice depiction of the character’s usual look. The paint work on the figure is all nice and clean, with no slop, bleed-over, or fuzzy lines. He also features some impressive detail work on his “torso face” which pretty much perfectly replicates Arnim’s snickering, disembodied face.

CIVIL WAR CAPTAIN AMERICA

Yes, it’s another Cap. This one has been dubbed “Civil War Captain America” but I’m not really sure why. Cap wasn’t involved with the historical American Civil War (and if he had been, I doubt he would have dressed this way) which only leaves the Marvel cross-over of the same name. However, Cap doesn’t dress like this in that story. It seems that the real inspiration for Cap was actually his incarnation on Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, where he was frequently seen wearing a similar outfit while riding around on his motorcycle. At any rate, the figure is built on the basic Minimate body like Arnim, so he’s got the usual stats. He features a sculpted helmet, jacket, belt, left hand w/ shield strap, and boots. All of the pieces have been used before, with the helmet coming from Ultimate WW2 Cap, the jacket coming from James Rhodes, the belt coming from Cap reborn, the hand coming from one of the movie Caps, and the boots coming from numerous figures. The pieces are all good pieces and work pretty nicely. The painted details aren’t bad, though I’m not the biggest fan of Cap’s face. The Avengers logo on his arm is also a nice touch. Cap includes a spare set of arms and gloves and a proper Cap mask to allow you to display him as a more basic Cap, as well as a hairpiece for all those wanting him unmasked.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got these two along with the rest of series 42 from my favorite online retailer, Luke’s Toy Store! I mostly bought the series for the Thor sets included, but I wanted this one too, mostly for Arnim. In hand, I think they’re both pretty solid ‘mates, but Cap suffers from some serious redundancy.

#0225: Captain America – Now!

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA – NOW!

MARVEL LEGENDS INFINITE SERIES

CapNow!

In my Spider-Girl review, I discussed the different reasons for buying figures. My decision to purchase the figure of today’s review is firmly planted in the “completing a Build-A-Figure” camp. I wouldn’t want my poor Mandroid figure to forever be headless, now would I? Getting that piece also meant getting this figure. In all fairness, I’ve bought worse figures for sillier reasons. Anyway, the figure is the somewhat demanding sounding Captain America – Now! Let’s see how this one turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cap was released as part of the first series of Captain America: The Winter Soldier Marvel Legends Infinite Series, and is also going to be seeing a re-release in the second set of revision cases for series two. Cap stands a bit over 6 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation. As the title indicates, Cap is based on his appearance from Marvel’s recent Marvel Now! initiative. I don’t think it has the lasting power of the classic design, but it’s not a bad design, and it is the character’s current look, so it’s nice to see it released. Cap features an all new sculpt, and it’s a pretty good one. He’s got some great texture work, and I quite like the hexagonal pattern on the torso and upper arms. For some reason, the sculpt on the face seems a bit off for Cap. I think that the chin might be a bit too short and the mouth might be a touch too big. The paint work is okay overall, but there are a few spots of noticeable slop, plus a fair bit of inconsistent application on the red stripes on his lower torso. It’s not too distracting, but it is quite noticeable with minor inspection.  Cap seems to be a bit light in the accessories department, especially compared to the rest of the line. He’s limited to his shield, which is reused from Ultimate Cap from the previous Marvel Legends line, and the Mandroid’s head, which happens to be the smallest of the Mandroid pieces as well. It leaves the figure feeling a bit light, but I suppose the figure itself does seem to have a bit more heft than the others.

CapNow!2CapNow!3

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This Cap was not amongst the figures I recently received from Big Bad Toystore. However, when I realized that I’d have all of the Mandroid pieces save the head, I figured I’d go ahead and pick him up. I ended up getting him from Amazon, at a slightly marked up price. Seems the figure’s become a bit more desirable since Series two was released. He’s not a bad figure, but he’s not my Cap. At best, he’s an amusing variant. Which isn’t the worst thing, truth be told. He’s a solid addition to a great line.

#0220: Captain America – S.T.R.I.K.E. Suit

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

CAPTAIN AMERICA – STRIKE SUIT

MARVEL LEGENDS INFINITY SERIES

CapStrikeSuit1

It’s still early into the summer movie season, but I think it’s going to be hard to topple Captain America: The Winter Soldier from its spot at the top of my list. The movie really resonated with me, and unsurprisingly, I wanted all my favorite characters from it in action figure form. I already picked up and reviewed three of the smaller scale figures, and the Minimates are still a little ways out, but the ones I was really interested in getting were Hasbro’s 6-inch scale versions, released as part of their latest incarnation of Marvel Legends. I finally managed to get a set, and today I’ll be starting my reviews off with the main man himself, Captain America! Foes who oppose the shield, you’d best prepare to yield!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cap was released as part of the second series of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier Marvel Legends Infinity Series. Man, is that a long name! He’s presented here in his S.T.R.I.K.E Team suit from The Winter Soldier. That suit is in turn based on Cap’s Commander Rodgers from the time he was Director of SHIELD for a while in the comics. The figure stands a bit over 6 inches tall and sports 32 points of articulation. The figure features an all new sculpt, and it’s a really good one at that. The body has excellent proportions, and the uniform has a great variety of textures, just the real thing. The main head sculpt (the helmeted one) is a very nice piece of work. The face isn’t spot on to Chris Evans, but it’s a decent attempt, and the helmet looks pretty much spot-on to the one featured in the movie. The figure also sports an add-on belt piece, which aids in giving the figure a bit more dimension. The paint work doesn’t quite live up to the sculpt. There are a few noticeable spots of bleed over, though there doesn’t seem to be any outright slop. There are still some nice touches, such as the American flag and “ROGERS” name tag on his left shoulder, and the SHIELD logo on his right shoulder. These could have easily been overlooked, but their inclusion really adds to the figure. Cap is quite well accessorized, with an extra unmasked head, saluting and pointing hands, his mighty shield, and the right leg to this line’s Build-A-Figure, the Mandroid. The extra head is nice, though it looks even less like Evans than the main sculpt. The extra hands add a bit of extra character, and I especially love the pointing finger. It’s got a lot of possible uses. I’ll be covering the Mandroid after the rest of the reviews are done, which just leaves the shield. It’s a well sculpted piece, but it does seem a bit large for Cap. Not too much, but still noticeable. Also, they’ve gone with the all blue look, which I suppose goes with the costume, but given that it’s only in one scene of the movie, it would have been nice to get a regularly colored version.

CapStrikeSuit2 CapStrikeSuit3 CapStrikeSuit4

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I received Cap and the rest of Series 2 from Big Bad Toystore just the other day. I’ve had the set pre-ordered for a while in order to insure I got all three of the movie related figures. Cap is a really good figure, and one of the best Captain America figures that Hasbro has produced. I’d love to see this level of detail applied to a more classic Cap design. Still, I loved this design in the movie, and I’m glad to have a top-notch figure of it in my collection.