Or rather, the Marvel Legends wave that made me slightly rethink my stance on The Toy Hunt.
It’s no secret that I gave up the hunt a long time ago, forsaking the driving and the store employees and the other shoppers for the seemingly greener pastures of online shopping where I could look around with swipes of my mouse and preorder at my leisure. Then a wave comes along, a wave so good and so tempting that it will test the convictions of even the most strong willed. And I’ll be the first to admit, my convictions have never been accused of being that strong to begin with. Captain America Legends Infinite broke me, made me call and wander out to Target at 11:30 PM the night before Christmas Eve. And you know what? I think the hunt heightened my appreciation for these figures, figures that were great to begin with. I’m not saying I’m gassing up the truck and heading out every night, but I will admit that I now remember the jazz of a fresh toy kill out in the wild. And I’ll savor this one because I also remember that hunts rarely end this quickly. Anyway…
To start things off we’ll take a look at the main man himself. Mr. Steve Rogers.
Captain America
The good Captain is wearing his costume from the current NOW era. And I like it. It’s not often that I like changes to the Cap’s good ol’ red, white, and blue, but maybe the movies have softened my stance on that. It also helps that the figure is a damn near perfect representation of the look, straight from print to plastic. Excellent proportions and sculpt. Massive amounts of detail all over. And truthfully, none of the articulation is wasted here.
Paint is fairly clean, but as always with Hasbro, there are some minor nits. I had to choose the lesser of two evils when it came to the eyes. One was wonky-eyed and the other was REALLY wonky-eyed. The one with more bearable eyes, of course, came with a scuff on the white of the abs, but as soon as I opened him I completely forgot about that. I had to remind myself of it just now, in fact.
The other small gripe I have is it seems the left leg is slightly longer than the right. It’s easily hidden in action poses, but as soon as you go for a neutral stance, bam, it hits you like a ton of bamfs. Move it slightly outwards and I’m good to go. As far as I can tell the extra length is between the knee and the boot. I can only speak for mine though; not sure if they are all like that.
Basically, this is my new display Captain America. While I’d someday love a classic representation with these exact proportions, I think I’m good for the foreseeable future.
Baron Zemo
This is the Zemo I wanted back when we got Papa Zemo. While I do like the first one, this one blows him out of the water. If you have Bucky Cap or Black Panther or modern Hawkeye, then you know what is up with this figure — articulation and base sculpt-wise. But with smart add-ons, you barely recognize the body underneath. This is Zemo. The sculpt conveys cockiness. This figure thinks it’s superior to all your other figures. I even thought I heard him whispering to Loki about taking over my toy room.
I’m going to say the paints here are near perfect, which is easy to say since it’s really only the head and upper body, and while there is a slight bleed on the front of his manly tiara, the real low spot is the forearms between the glove and the elbow. The plastic is cast in yellow so this part had to be painted in an attempt to match the purple tint of the rest of the body. It didn’t work. What’s weird, though, is that it didn’t need to be cast in yellow as far as I can tell. The glove and upper arm seem to be two separate pieces and it seem to be a swivel that doesn’t work on mine. No idea.
The other sore spot is the loop that holds the sword. While the sword is slightly oversized, it still looks good when held. It’s when you try to sheathe the sword that the wonkiness becomes apparent. I’m not going to lie; it looks ridiculous. But its being the make it is, there is no alternative. Well, besides cutting the loop off and remounting it in some kind of free-floating position to allow it to tilt forward and back. But you’d still have the big honkin’ hilt sticking a foot out in front of him.
I’m still glad to have Zemo, though. Despite the flaws, he’s a great figure. Oh, and if you prefer to have him sans shoulder holsters, they are easily removable. You know, for that UDON Taskmaster that you’ve always wanted to make.
Red Skull
When VeeBee suggested that I split the review of this wave into two parts after I whined about waiting until the last minute, I thought to myself, “How am I going to split five figures in half to make two even reviews?” Yeah, I passed on WWII Cap. Don’t lie, most of you did too. Then it dawned me. I only have four figures and a head because I don’t count Red Skull as a full figure. I consider him good fodder. But at the $14.99 I paid for him at Target I have no problem whatsoever with this fact. I’ve paid more than that for headcasts. So really, I am not complaining one bit.
Seriously, this is a great head sculpt. It’s undeniably the Red Skull, someone we’ve been in dire need of since the line started. The original one didn’t blow my loincloth up, and the two-pack version wasn’t any better. And we also finally get the Cosmic Cube. Yeah yeah, it’s a blue cube, but it’s a vital part of Marvel lore! C’mon!
I won’t get too much into the body. You know the downfalls of it if you have Nick Fury or the Punisher, but for some reason it’s even worse here. The arms have even less movement downward towards his sides. The feet will not stay flat. It was a chore to keep him standing to take pictures, and in the ones not showing his feet I’m holding him up. I guess it makes me kinda sad because I like the look, I’m all for pants and boots and trenchcoats, but I just wish it actually functioned. And that’s all I’ll say about that.
Like I said at the top, this wave is completely worth the trouble of ground-pounding actual retail stores. Or preorder the wave from BBTS, sit back, and wait for them to come to you. I mean, how often do we get a wave of one hero and four villains, where each one (and parts of one) is worth it’s weight in Vibranium? And I haven’t even talked about the Hydra or A.I.M. soldiers yet. Soon.
