Tag Archives: Union Jack

#2812: Union Jack

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

UNION JACK

MARVEL UNIVERSE (TOY BIZ)

NOTE: This review was written before June 6th.

Union Jack is one of those characters that’s rather hard to group within the Marvel Universe.  As effectively the British equivalent to Captain America, he generally tends to get fitted in there, but in the ’90s, when Cap wasn’t quite as much of a bankable power-house, that made getting a Union Jack figure a sort of a meandering task.  Enter the world of exclusives!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Union Jack was offered as a mail-away offer in ToyFare #7, made available to order in March of 1998 and shipping out later that same year.  At this point in time, the current Union Jack, Joey Chapman, was wearing a radically different costume, but this one of course had the appeal of potentially being any of the three of them, and Joey would eventually return to it anyway, making it a solid choice.  The figure stands about 5 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  He gets everything that was standard for these figures in terms of movement, as well as getting universal joints on his shoulders.  Yay for extra movement!  Union Jack is a repaint of the Spider-Man line’s Web-Glider Spider-man.  It was a pretty basic, clean base body, so it works overall.  The only slight downside is the presence of peg holes on the outsides of the calves, the back, and the sides of the torso.  They’re generally pretty small and easy to miss, though, and ultimately worth the trade-off of everything else the body offers.  It’s nicely balanced in terms of proportions, and just works well for the character.  He also gets a soft-goods belt piece, which is a little ill-fitting and goofy, but fits with the general aesthetic of other figures in the style.  His paint work is generally pretty solid.  They’ve done a nice job of capturing the distinctive layout of the character’s costume.  Some of the edges are a little fuzzy, and he makes the usual mistake of getting the pattern of the Union Jack inaccurate, since the white border is more or less uniform on all sides.  Still, it’s not horrible for what it is.  Despite a usual lack of accessories with these figures, Union Jack does get one: his knife.  Not typically his main go-to, but it’s one of the two weapons he’s always seen carrying, and it can even be stored in his belt.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Seeing as I’ve already stated that Havok was my entry point on these exclusives, I suppose it’s fairly obvious that this was another one I didn’t get new.  He’s a relatively recent addition to my collection, picked up not too long before I started the site in 2013 (in fact, he just missed the window of me starting to look at new additions to my collection by four figures, according to my list; cut that one very close), courtesy of Cosmic Comix.  He’s a fairly basic figure, but also a rather well done one.  Probably one of the better ToyFare exclusives.

#2099: Union Jack

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

UNION JACK

MARVEL LEGENDS (HASBRO)

“Union Jack is a British operative, spy, and master of hand-to-hand combat embroiled in the world of European politics.”

If America’s got Captain America, certainly some of the other countries would have their own nationalistic equivalents, right?  Of course they would.  As it so happens, Britain’s actually got two; the more parallel-y named Captain Britain is a less direct counterpart.  That role more goes to Union Jack.  Created retroactively in the ’70s, despite his common placement among the Invaders, Captain America’s WW2-era team, Union Jack is a rare WWI-based hero.  The original Jack, Lord James Montgomery Falsworth would eventually pass the mantle onto his son Brian.  Following Brian’s untimely demise, Falsworth trained another protegee, Joseph Chapman, who has been in the role since the ’80s.  Union Jack’s got a pretty distinctive design, so he’s no stranger to action figures.  I’ll be looking at his latest today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Union Jack is figure 4 in the Hulk Series of Marvel Legends.  This is Jack’s second time as a Legend; the first was also a Hasbro release, and was also part of a series that built a Hulk figure.  However, he was from a darker period in Hasbro’s run, and is at this point over a decade old, so an update seems more than fair.  The basics of the Union Jack uniform have remained more or less the same throughout all three incarnations (apart from a period of time when Chapman was sporting a Captain Britain-looking costume), but this figure is clearly most inspired by Chapman’s ever so slightly modernized gear.  In a pinch, though, it works as any of them.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and has 32 points of articulation.  Though the original prototype was built on the 2099 body, the final product has switched him to the Bucky Cap base.  Personally, I don’t mind this so much, as I like the general aesthetics a little more on this body, but it’s too bad he missed on the extra shoulder joints.  He gets a new head, plus add-ons for the belt and wrist/ankle straps.  I really dig the new head; it really does a great job of selling that there’s a full face underneath of the mask.  I also really like the piping around the eyeholes and running down the sides.  Union Jack’s design is pretty dependent on the paint not sucking, and fortunately the figure fares pretty well in that regard.  The whites could maybe be a little more solid, but otherwise the application is all quite clean.  They also got the patterning of the Union Jack correct, which is more than can be said about the previous figure.  Union Jack is packed with a revolver and a knife, both of which are re-used parts.  In the case of the revolver, this is a little sad, as it means that Jack doesn’t get his signature Webley, and instead gets something more generic.  It serves alright in a pinch, but it’ll bug me until the end of time.  Also included is the right arm of the Hulk Build-A-Figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ve always loved Union Jack’s design, and as such I’ve always made it a point to track him down when he gets a toy.  I was very happy to see him pop back up, and I’m thrilled to be able to finally retire the older figure, who was seriously starting to show his age.  Union Jack is a rather by the numbers figure, but that doesn’t at all hinder him, and he’s definitely vying for the spot of my favorite in this line-up.

I purchased Union Jack from my sponsors over at All Time Toys.  If your looking for other Legends or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.