The Cobie Smulders-based Maria Hill action figure is available as part of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends Agents of Shield 3-Pack being sold exclusively through Toys R Us. The 3-pack features Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, and Maria Hill. RoboKillah already gave us an excellent review of Coulson, and we’ll get Nick Fury out this week as well. Amazingly we’ve never covered any of the Samuel Jackson/Ultimates Nick Furies.
On to Robin Scherbatsky, I mean Maria Hill. Poor Cobie, she’ll be forever Robin. I was sharing a beer with VeeBee a while back and he kept referring to Maria as that girl from How I Met Your Mother. Kinda makes me want the rest of the How I Met Your Mother cast made in action figure form. Who doesn’t want a Marshall and Lilly? OK, enough about Cobie and Robin and How I Met Your Mother. It’s time now to tackle Maria Hill.
Hill is actually a new character in the Marvel Universe, created in 2005 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch. Yes, another character that Bendis created. I guess he’s not all bad. After the events of Marvel’s 2000s Secret Wars, S.H.I.E.L.D. needed a new Director, and Hill was the character created to fill the role. In the comics she’s become a huge part of the Marvel Universe, still leading S.H.I.E.L.D. and making tough, often grey decisions that affect the status quo of the Marvel Universe.
Her instant stardom in the comics led to a recurring role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She’s been in three of the Marvel Movies: The Avengers, Winter Soldier, and Age of Ultron, as well as popping in and out of Agents of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on television. Cobie’s done a great job portraying Hill, although the character hasn’t had a ton of screen time. But there was enough screen time that she’s made it into the toy aisles in a pretty decent 3-pack.
This isn’t the first Maria Hill action figure made, we did get two versions of her comic look in a twice-released 2-pack (read themanintheanthill’s review of the repaint here). But this is the first one released based on the movie version. It’s a great figure with a ton of articulation and looks sharp. This figure is not a direct repaint of the Captain America: The Winter Soldier Black Widow action figure. The hips, waist, abs, chest, and head all are new. The thighs on down, as well as the hands, are the same, however.
The newly sculpted parts look great, but the legs are bit skinny from the mid-thigh and down. That does add a realistic look to the figure, moving it away from “comic book” proportions. The new waist/ab/chest sections are also really sharp, and I love the look for generic S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers, so customizers should be loving this. The head sculpt is fantastic, while the paint doesn’t make it pop, this is Cobie. It’s a great sculpt and I’m wondering how it would look on one of the comic bodies.
The articulation is the same as the previously reviewed Black Widow. She can get into a lot of poses and is pretty fun hand candy. However, with all this great articulation, Hasbro continues to release figures in high heels, making these female figures tough to stand and pose. All this great articulation is packed into these figures and they can’t stay up for very long without falling over. I know that comic women go around in high heels (the impracticality of that has been covered quite a bit), and that the action figures are replicating that look, but, seriously, these figures will fall over just by looking at them. Get rid of the heels and give our women some flats! Here is the breakdown:
Ball-jointed head
Pegged shoulders
Single-jointed, swivel elbows
Swivel wrists
Ab crunch/swivel
Ball hips
Cut thigh
Double-jointed knees
Ankle rockers/swivels
Maria comes with zero accessories, while her male counterparts come with two guns (Fury) or a cannon (Coulson). What the hell? The boys get to play with weapons but the girls don’t? I’m surprised they didn’t pack her with a Barbie doll. Yeah, Hill got the short end of the deal here, but I guess we should just be happy they made her.
Snarkism aside, I really like this figure and I am super happy that Hasbro found a way to get her released. Yes, there are some improvements that I’d like to see, like flat-heeled shoes and more accessories, but there is nothing that should keep you from picking up this set (or multiples) for your collection. She looks pretty sharp in the comic and movie displays.
This set is still available at:
