Bandai released Captain America as part of their 2015 S.H. Figuarts Avengers: Age of Ultron action figure line. Cap was released with Iron Man Mark 45, Thor, and Hulk. They are amazing figures and well worth every penny. Cap is so good that if I could recast my figure of the year vote, it would be for him.
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Cap gets an upgrade to the World War 2 suit that was seen in Captain America: First Avenger and later in the movie Captain America: Winter Soldier. The World War 2 suit was great, and this is a great upgrade to that suit, unlike the Avengers suit. Speaking of, S.H. Figuarts needs to make the World War 2 Cap suit. This suit will get a small upgrade for Captain America: Civil War coming out in May, which is great as it means that Cap finally has an iconic movie look that they can do minor tweaks to.
Bandai’s figure does a really good job of capturing the suit. I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison of the actual movie suit and the figure, but there is enough in my memory banks that registers this figure as being pretty spot-on. There are some areas where the sculpt is soft, meaning that there isn’t a lot of detailed sculpting. The lack of surface texture on the figure can leave it looking soft in some areas. The head is a bit on the small side; it could use some of Hasbro’s head-oversizing engineering, but it doesn’t look bad and it fits with Iron Man and Hulk. The shoulder pads are amazing — they look good and really pop; the articulation build into them makes them fun to move around.
Hasbro released their version of this figure, but it never lived up to the expectation that I had for it. The S.H. Figuarts version is much better, not perfect, but clearly a better figure. It’s the shoulders and upper body of the Hasbro figure that really stands out as being weak, and the S.H. Figuarts Cap really nails those. Bigger chest, wider shoulders, better armoring — an all-around improvement in most areas. I’ll give Hasbro props for having better-sculpted legs since the Bandai version gets a little tubular and could benefit from a tad more sculpting.
The articulation is a blast. One can easily get lost in S.H. Figuarts super-posable scheme, and their engineering is top notch. There can be stiffness and joints are known to break, but this figure has not posed any problems. He’s been thrown into every pose imaginable and has held up. Cap features the Bandai hinged crotch, allowing for the thighs to be pulled down for more range of motion. As mentioned before, the shoulders have a great range of motion, as does the chest. The head is a little inhibited and it needs a bit of the backward movement to look up into the sky.
The paint, or coloring, is great. The blue really screams “military blue” and is pretty dark. It’s a great contrast to the white and red on the costume. The figure is molded in blue with the white and red being painted on. The paint apps are solid and they stayed within the lines. The boots look to be painted as well. The shield is the real winner in the paint department. Bandai nailed it. Without a doubt, the best Cap shield to date.
There is a ton of accessories, standard for S.H. Figuarts. Multiple hands allow the figure to be posed in a number of scenarios. There are two heads, normal and screaming. The screaming head is great for action poses. There are extra eyes that can be swapped out (they seem to be looking different directions). Finally, there are a ton of accessories for the shield allowing for storage on the back, on the arm, or to be held in a throwing position. One can even put the thrown shield on a Bandai stand for flying purposes.
This is an excellent figure. It’s well made and a ton of fun to play with. It’s definitely a figure that any collector should have on their shelves.
