For decades, Red Skull was verboten as far as action figures went. Collectors were told by the toy industry that the character’s ties to Nazi Germany simply made him too controversial for retail. Then, in 1998, ToyBiz quietly issued the Red Skull in their Sneak Attack Spider-Man line. In spite of the industry’s concern, there was no controversy. A few years later, ToyBiz revisited Der Rote Schädel for its new Marvel Legends line.
Red Skull was released as the Marvel Legends series five “chase” figure. His intentional rarity was compounded by the line’s early distribution problems and opportunistic scalpers who were happy to ask a 500 percent markup for the figure on the secondary market. While not as desirable as the series six Deadpool, the Red Skull was still a feather in the cap for your average collector back in those hazy days of 2003.
The Red Skull uses the Marvel Legends series four movie Daredevil as its base, inheriting all of its flaws in the process. The original figure suffered from archaic peg-style articulation, which left the Skull with considerably less mobility than his Marvel Legends brethren.
Compared to the well-hewn, fluid form of series one Captain America, the Red Skull is stiff and awkward; the jacket overlay and the single-jointed elbows and knees only add to his blocky, undynamic quality.
Fortunately, the head proves to be the figure’s saving grace. Sculpted by Phil Ramirez, it does a great job of capturing the Skull’s angsty expression without being too artist-specific. You can see aspects of Kirby, Buscema, and Byrne in the rendering, but no one style overtakes the others.
Ramirez combined elements of each artist’s work to produce a head that’s immediately recognizable. It’s clear at a glance this isn’t just some random skinless dude, this is the Red Skull. It works as both a modern or classic version of the character, with only the military uniform tying it to any particular time period.
The uniform is accomplished with workman-like efficiency. The jacket overlay disguises the reuse of the movie Daredevil body, but its thick rubber can’t hold detail the way harder plastic can and ends up looking “soft.” While the figure was given newly sculpted arms to match the jacket, they don’t do much to help the Skull’s overall appearance.
From the shoulder down the arms are undersized and atrophied-looking. I get that he’s wearing a jacket, but these are hardly the guns you’d expect on Germany’s super soldier. He also has dainty lady hands more suited to Lovey Howell than the ubermensch. It all looks a bit odd.
A holster is attached to the figure’s right leg without the benefit of any sort of belt or straps. As bad as that looks, it can’t distract from the large chuck of missing plastic on the jacket where the holster was meant to go.
Sigh. I’m not sure who the genius was that came up with this whole problem/solution, but I hope after this little fiasco they were put in charge of bagging the comics the figures came with instead of engineering them.
The red paint on the head was applied recklessly and it shows. It was just slopped on, making the Skull look more like a candied apple than an arch villain. My figure has a bare spot in the wash on top of his head — someone may have touched it before the paint was dry. I swear I see a thumbprint.
The gold paint used for the uniform’s piping is thick and sloppy. I could forgive ToyBiz if one of the jacket’s buttons hadn’t been missed entirely. I would have gladly lost the random green and gold triangle on the left sleeve to have all of the figure’s sculpted details painted. Little flaws like this add up, and the Skull already has enough problems.
Skull is a throwback when it comes to articulation. All of the joints are pegged, aside from his hinged rocker ankles. He moves at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees, boot-tops, and ankles. The limited articulation ensures the figure can’t really do much but stand there and salute. That’s fine for a vanilla display, but collectors were looking for a Skull that could scrap with Cap. This guy clearly wasn’t it.
The Skull came with his trademark Luger pistol, an officer’s cap, and a detailed base. While his hat was new, the gun was borrowed from Doctor Doom and the base inherited from Captain America. A consumer could certainly feel justified in thinking they got their $8 worth with the Skull, warts and all. Considering the fact that the recent Marvel Legends Infinites Red Skull is also just a new head on a reused body but costs north of $20, it makes you realize how good we had it then.
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