There just isn’t enough toy talk on this site these days. November is a notoriously bad month for us; it’s like toy limbo around here. Thor 2 is playing in the theaters, and, by golly, we need some more Thor around here to support the number one movie in the theaters. I’m taking you back a few years, but not too many, to Marvel Select’s Heroic Age Thor!
Yeah, the Heroic Age. You remember — when Marvel did yet another relaunch of their heroes after completely destroying them in another Universe-changing thing … like Secret Invasion and other Brian Michael Bendis ravagings of the Marvel Universe. One good thing that came out of this 2010 reboot was J. Michael Straczynski’s Thor, a very well put together telling of Thor getting back into the myth, both real and comic, of the Asgardian Universe. I recently wrote up Thor God of Thunder and have a hankering to go back and write up Straczynski’s Thor. It is a good read.
Marvel Select got the go-ahead to release a figure based on the comic, and they did an amazing job. The figure is not without drawbacks, but debatable design choices are very limited. The figure is an amazing, if not perfect, sculpt of Thor. Hasbro would later release two versions of this Thor, the SDCC version (reviewed here) and the Return of Marvel Legends wave 1 version, that aren’t up to snuff. There’s something really sharp about the Marvel Select version and it is good eye and hand candy.
The figure has some debatable design choices, most of them are articulation-related. The figure uses elbrows and hasknees, otherwise known as ball-and-socket elbows and knees. These are a good articulation solution for some figures and, when done right, give a lot of posing possibilities. They just aren’t my favorite, and I prefer double-jointed elbows and knees when possible. The joints are designed well on Thor and do give a great range of motion — in truth, nothing to complain about. The one major debatable design choice in the articulation scheme is the lack of an ab joint, ball or hinged. Hasbro added a good ball joint, but skimped on the sculpt. Marvel Select skimped on the joint and splurged on the sculpt. I’d love to have an ab joint on this sculpt. And some ankle rockers — man, those would make this figure pop. These are just personal preferences, however. The breakdown:
hinged ankles
ball knees
ball hips
swivel waist
ball shoulders
ball elbows
swivel wrists
hinged neck
swivel head.
The paint is old school and I’ll not write gobs about it, but this is a classic ToyBiz level of paint application. It really pops and brings out the detail in the figure.
I know that Marvel Select is a 7-inch-scale action figure line, and, as such, Thor is scaled properly. But I would love this same sculpt with the ankle rockers and ab joint in a scale closer to Marvel Legends Hyperion/Sabertooth/Luke Cage. Right now he’s just too big. Even my kid said today the Marvel Legends Thor was too big! My 12-year-old pointed it out! An Hyperion-scaled Thor would be perfect. Until then, I’ll continue to display my Marvel Select Thor with my modern Marvel Legends. And you should too.
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I call this my ‘Daniel Craig’ Thor.