Hasbro: SDCC ’15 Exclusive Ant-Man Pack

I had no memory of ordering anything when the UPS truck pulled up. But when I looked in the box I couldn’t believe it. Review samples! I love review samples!

Now, don’t get me wrong, when I saw this set on the top of the pile inside the big box I went “ooooo!” and then dug further to see if the Dr. Strange set was under it, but that wasn’t meant to be. There was the Transformers Combiner Hunters set and a G.I. Joe Kree-O box, which we’ll feature later in the week, so this is the highlight of the box for me. So thanks, Hasbro!

First off, the packaging. This is a cool box. Sure, it’s a huge Ant-Man staring back at you, but this set is all about him so I can dig it.

What I didn’t notice in the original promo shots were the antenna that swivel around. So if you’re prone to keeping your toys in their plastic prison, this is a cool feature.

But taking the figures out of the package is where it’s at. And that’s where I change my stance on whether this is a Marvel Legends or a Marvel Universe exclusive. Sure, I said before that Pym would shrink down to work sometimes, but this Hank just looks odd in a Legends display. On the other hand, the Legends Goliath would look good as slightly gianting over a Universe display. So I’m calling this a Marvel Universe exclusive.

Now, since this is a set, I’m going to keep the pictures and rambling to what is new. All the actual action figures in the set are mostly reuse, so you already know what you’re getting in terms of sculpt and articulation there. I’m going to stick to the basics.

First up is Labcoat Pym. I don’t do Universe, so I don’t know if this a standard body, but it doesn’t win me over to the MU side. It’s lanky, the hips pop off, and while I didn’t have a lot of problems getting him to stand, I couldn’t do a lot of action posing without getting peeved. He does have the Ant-Man costume on under the labcoat but you can’t remove the coat because it would leave him with white sleeves.

He does come with an interchangeable Ant-Man helmet. The missing antenna are odd, though. The holes are there, but there are no pegs, and I didn’t notice any rattling around in the package.

To complement the full-size Pym, we get a tiny classic Ant-Man. It’s similar to the movie Ant-Man we just got, but the material used here is a lot softer and rubbery.

Because of that, he can’t lock onto the ant that came with the movie version, at least on the neck. The rubbery material causes it to spring up and off. But he does sit pretty well further down the back.

You can check out Pabs’ review of both of these figures here from when it came out as a MU single without the labcoat.

The other small statue in the set is a version of Scott Lang. I don’t remember this costume, but I always welcome variations. This mini-figure is a bit taller than the classic version, and the material used here is much more stiff — more like the movie version. Best of all, he has no problem standing. Weird, I know, but he didn’t fall over at all during the whole shoot.

Giant-Man uses the Icons body, namely Cyclops. It’s easy to tell: the X-belt is hidden under the new belt. It’s easy to hide, though. This old body has a lot of outdated articulation, so it’s a little hard to get into action, but he does look good standing above the rest of the figures. I’ve gotten used to the Marvel Legends Giant-Man’s antenna sweeping back, so this one’s flat look is throwing me. I may try some heat to lay them back a little.

You can check out the X-Belt in my video review. I also give the Goliath head a go on the Grim Reaper body.

I know this isn’t fair, but try this comparison…

Maybe this one is more appropriate…

Finally, my favorite of the set: Goliath.

He features just a new head and belt, but this totally works for me. I absolutely dig this. Maybe it’s because it’s such a departure from the classic red and black, I don’t know, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the blue and yellow.

With this onslaught of Ant-Man toys, I would love to get an O’Grady and even a Pym Wasp before the hype dies down. Yeah, that’s me asking for more Ant-Man merchandise. But ideally, I would have liked to seen a new giant body, even if it was an upscaled Reaper. That would have been perfect. But all in all I like this set, some aspects more than others, and I’m not disappointed with all the Pym product lately. And by “Pym product” I not only mean the toys, but the other characters that we’ve gotten that were a product of Pym’s discoveries. Lang, Wasp, Ultron. Even the movie version.

Still, give me an Irredeemable Ant-Man.