Editor’s Note: We will be featuring the best of the toy year that was 2015 all week long. Along with some special features, each staff member has also chose the figure/they crown the best of 2015. TheManintheAnthill gets us started!
Despite critical expectations, Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man didn’t break the Marvel Universe.
In fact, it added a great deal to it. The film’s inventive humor, thoughtful characterization and overall family-friendly tone helped to lighten the grim mood established by the MCU’s previous entry, Avengers; Age of Ultron. With its look into the recent past, its universe-building plot-points (Ant-Man meets the Falcon!) and dazzling state-of-the-art special effects, Ant-Man surprised the naysayers and reassured the faithful that even crazy old Hank Pym couldn’t beach the good ship Marvel. Oh, and it added more than $350 million to Disney’s coffers. So, y’know, it did all right.
Hasbro had faith. In fact, it produced an entire Marvel Legends series with the Ant-Man imprint. The figures sold better than many expected, and Ant-Man was popular enough during this assortment’s heyday that I rarely saw him on the pegs, and demand is only going to go up on this guy.
Giving Ant-Man his own line was a big gamble, even with a movie under his belt. The general public knows jack-squat about the character other than what Garret Morris told then on Staurday Night Live all those years ago. As far as fandom goes, Hank Pym has had a checkered past and comic book collectors are not the most forgiving lot. The whole thing could have gone pear-shaped, but the line actually did okay. I’m not going to say it set the world on fire, but it didn’t have to. It just needed not to suck. The bottom line is, Ant-Man didn’t break Marvel Legends, either.
So is my choice for Best Figure of 2015 perfect? Oh, hell no. I managed to snag one of the first cases off the truck when these had just hit, but that luck came with the stiff penalty. Sure, I had Ant-Man before anybody else, but that initial batch was plagued with especially-soft plastic and my figure couldn’t stand for more than a minute without toppling over. I hear later releases were produced with a stiffer plastic and I hope to find one sometime. I’m getting tired of picking this guy up off the floor.
And then there’s the matter of the misplaced mandible. Y’see that chin-strap on Scotty up there? Well, that’s meant to be a part of the mask that covers his mouth. We know this because every image of Ant-Man with his helmet on shows it that way. So why is the figure so off-model? Well, things change between the time a movie begins and ends. There’s a chance the source material Hasbro was given pictured this sort of helmet. I mean, it makes sense — it resembles the traditional comic look and allows the actor’s mouth to be seen so we can better relate to his dialogue. That said, I can’t help but feel this thing was meant to move and cost-cutting measures lead to it being glued static. Its just a hunch, mind you, but it makes more sense than the alternative.
The toy came with some nifty pack-ins, in the form of tiny Ant-Man and Yellowjacket figurines. While they don’t do much, I can’t help but feel its the thought that counts. We were already getting a build-a-figure piece for Ultron, but Hasbro gave collectors that little something extra, which is very cool. Some might complain that this is the only Yellowjacket figure we got, but hey, there’s always Ant-Man series two, right? Keep your antennae crossed.
Despite his obvious imperfections, Ant-Man is my pick for 2015. Not because he was the best, but because he wasn’t the worst. He didn’t suck nearly as much as he could have, and that really means something. It might not to you, but it does to me.
Check out my overview of Henry Pym and everything Ant-Man here, here and here.
Discuss this article on the Fwoosh forums.
