This is quite possibly the greatest Thor action figure ever made — in 4-inch scale. I was gonna say any scale, but Marvel Select clearly has the win on the 6- to 7-inch-scaled Thor figure. I recently reviewed his older brother and spoke about his greatness. The same holds true for this 4-inch little bugger. Oh, and I couldn’t find his hammer so I borrowed another …
We need to be honest. ToyBiz was experimenting at the time with smaller-scaled figures, and they were taking their 6-inch stuff and passing it through a magic shrinking ray that was producing almost perfect versions of their larger figures in this smaller scale. But they made some decisions that cost some points in the ol’ quality section.
They used a ball-socket peg system that we can find on current figures today. Hell, even 6-inch lines like Marvel Legends and Star Wars Black Series are using the barbell system on hips. The only problem was this system wasn’t perfected at the time ToyBiz ran their attempt, and the result is very loose, sometimes hip-popping looseness. Thor is actually an example of a figure without this problem, and it makes him one of the better Showdown figures ever made (Thing being the best).
However, this figure gets nailed hard on some production choices. The discs on the abs and waist are super hard, there is no flex to them like their larger brother, and, as a result, you get zero movement from these joints. The hips don’t have much forward movement, and the abs don’t really crunch. And it kills me. This figure blows away any classic Thor that Hasbro produced, and is the Thor that my son displays on his Avengers shelf.
As mentioned, there is a ton of articulation and it is all very stable. There is a ton of fun to be had with this figure as you have him beat the hell out of other Showdown and Marvel Universe figures. Here is the breakdown:
hinged toes
rocker ankles
hinged ankles
shin swivels
double knees
ball hips
swivel waist
hinged ab
ball shoulders
swivel biceps
hinged elbows
swivel forearms
hinged wrists
articulated fingers
hinged neck
swivel head
I mentioned that 6-inch Thor’s arms came out funky, and if you look at Showdown’s arms, you can see what they should have come out looking like. Not terribly different, but a little wider, thicker, and less… wrinkly. As mentioned, this is a good figure and worth hunting down.
You can still find this figure on
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