All good things must come to an end. When you find a whole wave of Marvel Legends, you open them all and then build the BAF. It’s the close to another wave, another find, another hit to the wallet. And it feels so good.
I’ve already waxed about the Marvel movies and the movie figures, so I won’t bore you with that again. Ultron is a movie figure and he isn’t on everyone’s wishlist for that simple fact. But the truth of the matter is, he’s a return to the bigger BAFs and that is a cool thing. It also helps that he’s a good sculpt. But some articulation hiccups and the lack of paint keeps him out of my Top Ten Build-A-Figures.
The sculpt itself is fantastic. All kinds of details all over. Even where there isn’t detail, like the thigh and other various places where it’s meant to be smooth, it gives off a metal vibe. He represents movie Ultron well.
But the lack of paint is really what hurts the figure overall. It’s hard to tell if the silver parts are actually painted but that doesn’t matter. A wash or drybrush, even some airbrush effects, would have put this figure over the top. Yeah, there is some red here and there that isn’t as cleanly applied as it could be, but it’s not enough. The eyes, though — they fascinate me. It’s just red with a yellow circle, but they stare into my soul.
Worse, if the parts are actually cast in silver, then it’s not consistent throughout the body. Some parts are silver, some parts are a dark gray. And that would work to add a little contrast if they the two colors were appropriately placed but it seems just haphazardly applied. From waist swivel to thigh cut it’s a dark gray. Why? Same with the forearms.
Crotch shot!
The other thing that hurts is the articulation in the hips and ankles. The hips barely swing out at all, and only go forward 45 degrees. The ankles have very little side-to-side and don’t go forward much. That means less options for dynamic posing, at least below the waist. The upper body completely works. I go through all that in my video review.
The negatives hurt, but as I said, it’s at least to be getting a good sized Build-A-Figure again. He’s pretty big. Not Galactus or Sentinel big, but those days are long gone. ::sniffle::
And really, if you’re looking for a movie Ultron for your shelf, this is the way to go. I’d really like to see this in chrome. In fact, a whole new paint job would make me completely content and forgo my articulation gripes. But I’m pretty easy going, even though I spent most of this review griping.
