Avengers Assemble!!!
Avengers: Age of Ultron opens this weekend and since I'm a Marvel geek I feel compelled to make a post in honour of its nerdy goodness. I even scoped out my local comic book store for the new batch of minimates so I could review something new and exciting. When I got there something strange happened. I realized I didn't want any of them.
As excited as I am about the movie, I just couldn't shell out the cash. I already have a pretty great Thor and since I'm in Canada I will probably never see the Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver exclusives. The only one I really considered was Black Window (sadly I missed her and Falcon in the Captain America 2 series) but she's packaged with Iron Man and that's the Avengers equivalent of being packaged with Wolverine.
Instead, I'm digging back into my Fanexpo loot and taking a look at the star-spangled Avenger and his eye-liner wearing pal from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
I'm not quite sure when I became a fan of Captain America. I never found his comics all that interesting. To me, he had the same problems as Superman--he was just a little too perfect to hook me. Slowly, my attitude has been changing and I really loved Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
There were some surprising character choices in this toy series. I honestly don't know who is seeking out an Agent Sitwell action figure, but to each their own. At least I got lucky and the characters I wanted were packaged together. We've seen the sliding scale of effort put into minimates and these are definitely on the high end. The first thing I noticed when opening this up was the amount of stuff in the box. Like...a crazy amount of stuff.
Who needs 4 guns? The Winter Soldier, that's who. Not only do Cap and Bucky come with extra hair and stands, we get Captain America's Shield (and hand to hold it with), a small silver gun, 2 medium sized guns, a large rifle, and 2 throwing knifes. They did not skimp on the accessories here.
Captain America comes ready in his classic costume, complete with mask, belt, and boots.The paint is a bright and bold red, white, and blue. The dark brown of the accents (belt, boots, gloves) gives it a retro feel to match the movie. The line art is great. Instead of adding bulky straps and a backpack, the details are painted for a more clean look. The crests on his shoulders are a nice touch and the costume really resembles the one from the movie. The best little details are the molded pouches on his belt and the subtle ribbing on his helmet, making the plastic look surprisingly like leather. The only nit-picky problem is that in some spots the silver accent stencil is a little off and on this figure that's easy to forgive.
The Winter Soldier's colour scheme is entirely different. He's darker and muted. The majority is a darker brown and dull grey that contrast perfectly with our hero. Instead of clean lines, his costume is made up of bulky straps, each one designed to hold a weapon. His mask fits snug (maybe a little too snug) and the details and paint are well done. I like the movement in the hair which is nearly identical on both options. The sculpt of the knive sheaths match the knifes themselves, which is a beautiful detail. Winter Soldier's stand doesn't fit perfectly but with little wiggling I can get him situated.
Without the mask, Bucky sports smudged war-paint (cough-eyeliner-cough), cold grey eyes, and stubble. They even managed to paint in Sebastian Stan's cleft chin!
Other than the rifle, each of Bucky's weapons can be attached to his costume by pegs. The holes are a little loose and it took way longer than it should have to get them all in position. Still, it's a cool detail and made for some fun pictures. Cap can hold his shield with the help of a special hand. It's also a little finicky.
I'm absolutely happy with these figures and don't see myself looking for another Captain America any time soon. Maybe after I see Ultron I'll feel differently, but right now I'm satisfied without any new avengers for awhile...in this scale... Obviously, I bought some of the Pops...and possibly a blind box or 2...
Am I crazy or do they look disappointed in me?
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