Marvel Legends (Terrax Wave)
Steve Rogers Review

NoisyDvL5

With Marvel Legends returning, a new Cap figure was as inevitable as the Thor & Iron Man that we’ve already reviewed. I was pretty happy when I found out Hasbro had elected to do a recent look for Steve, when he wasn’t Captain America, but rather Steve Rogers, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D..

Just a heads up, this review is for the variant figure, but the change here is just with the accessories and not the figure itself. While Steve’s sporting this look, Bucky’s busy using Cap’s regular shield. In turn, Steve pulled his old electro-shield out of mothballs. While it can’t replace the iconic metal shield, I always enjoyed the electro-shield. I was happy to see it in Secret Avengers and Steve Rogers: Super Solider, two books that got me back into reading Captain America comics.

Long story short, Hasbro gave the regular Steve figure the traditional “metal” shield, while the variant ended up with my coveted electro-shield. Lucky, for me the variant case hasn’t been that difficult to come across (I’m actually still hunting the non-variant blue Ghost Rider, even though I’ve seen the orange once twice). On that note, we’ve got Klaw & Constrictor reviews in the pike, and we’ve previously reviewed Hope, Thor, and Iron Man & his variant. Not bad considering that I was only planning on buying this very Steve Rogers figure before I ran across them in the wild (oops…).

If you’re not familiar with Steve in this look, then you’ve been missing out on some cool Marvel comics (and remember, I’m usually a DC fan first and foremost). Everyone thought Steve was dead and Bucky had taken up the mantle. When Steve returned a couple years ago – he didn’t want his old job back, opting to leave Bucky in the role while he took over as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.. This figure represents his look from that time period up until just recently, when the crappy inevitability of comics took hold and the status quo resumed.

The figure reuses a buck that Hasbro had made standard over the last couple years with use as various S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents, including Fury himself, but, if I recall correctly, I think this is actually a Toy Biz buck – the Face off Punisher maybe? Steve does get a few new details to get the sculpt of his costume right like the head, lower arms, and lower legs. Some soft plastic pieces for the belt and chest harness help to finish off the key details. I should mention that Steve should have some type of detail to this costume, not an armored one so much, but like a “weave” or some type of detail to show that’s it isn’t just spandex. Not a big issue for me, but I did want to point it out.

I have to laugh a bit and be disappointed by the chest harness. It looks kinda silly because the straps around the shoulders have no connection between them. There’s no strap along the back, no holsters for the guns, it’s almost as if they’re just they’re for decoration – like Steve is wearing child-size belts around his shoulders. The thing is though – that’s not a flaw with the figure! I hadn’t been paying attention, but that how he was depicted in (at least some of the) comics. I never noticed how silly it was until I saw it in three dimensions. I like the look from the front, but seriously those straps need a purpose… it’s buggin’ me now.

Ironically, the MU figure (review here) added a strap between them to make it more sensible, but no holsters. And I get the holsters thing, the arms would eternally be stuck out to the sides, but I do wish there was a spot to stow the guns nonetheless.

Like his little counterpart, Steve has new gloved hands, the gaiters for his legs, and the belts. It’s funny seeing them together and seeing just how good Hasbro has gotten over the years, this version of Steve received a top notch MU and ML in consecutive years. Though putting them side-by-side does reveal one shortcoming I hadn’t really noticed about the ML on his own, he’s way too dark. The “super soldier” costume is depicted as blue in the comics, but it looks almost black on the figure.

My favorite part of the sculpt is the head though. I think it looks like Steve as much as any figure can look like a guy drawn by so many different iconic artists. I love the details and the expression. There is the issue of its size – is it too big? I do think it’s a little on the large size, but action figures tend to be pinheaded, so I think our perception is skewed a bit. Honestly, I like the side of the head, but I think the body could stand to be a little brawnier. Not-Cap is supposed to be at the peak of human perfection, so I think his build should be a little more Superman and a little less Flash.

In any case, when it comes to the subject of if the head is too big or not, I’m just going to stand him next to the new ML Thor because everything looks smaller next to him.

The paint on the figure was sharp. The stripes on the arms and legs are clean, the head is great, but there is a little scratch on the symbol. When I wasn’t sure if the variants would be rare, and really wanting the electro-shield, I grabbed this figure despite the scratch. I had intended to exchange him if the chance arose. Then, as he sat here – I kinda decided that the whole thing was just silly. Yes, I still think QC is important and yes I did pay $18 for this guy, but it’s a little scratch and I’m probably going to scratch him up plenty more during my time with him, so I opened him up without a second though. The scratch hasn’t bothered me a bit and if starts too, I’ll whip out some paints. Continue to Page 2

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59 thoughts on “Marvel Legends (Terrax Wave)
Steve Rogers Review”

  6. Loved that Jab at the big red buzzsaw! Where is my Bat-Dick Grayson… Had to add the Grayson cause it sounds wrong if I don’t…

    1. LOL It annoys me to no end that neither DC nor Mattel took the opportunity to get us the ‘modern’ dynamic duo before the stupidity of comics resurfaced. I still want ’em though, so hopefully Mattel will get around to it. DCD looks cooked at this point.

  7. I saw a blue ghost rider the other day. I can go check again and see if it’s still there if you’re interested. I have to go looking for a regular Iron Man anyway since the coin flip I took with BBTS got me the Stealth version.

  8. Great review, thanks. The Iron Man review and this has me thinking pretty hard about picking up some new figures to keep Jack Russell company. Hasbro really needs to fit him into MU so I can stop buying six inch figures.

    I have a kind of off-topic question though, and it is in contradiction to the above. I’m not really into mystical superheroes, so what’s the deal with Ghost Rider? Why is he blue and so royal looking? Did they do something stupid to his power levels again?

    1. It’s Dan Ketch’s “new look”. I think he’s King of Hell or something in a mini not too long ago.

      1. It was actually Ketch’s design when he was unwittingly working for renegade angel (are there any other kinds in comics?) Zadkiel, and was essentially a bad guy. Upon becoming good again (or as good as Ghost Riders ever are) he switched to a more bikery trenchcoat look.

  9. man, i;’m getting seriously jealous… i’m trying to hold off doing the hard hunt till the tax return hits, but i’m hoping the orange GR will as available when i’m on the hunt as you seem to be finding it noisy. the blue is cool but orange is the standard man…

    i like this steve, tough, like you, i’m baffled by the liefeldian shoulder straps. weird. we do indeed need a new moon knight. and apparently, a new valkyrie… that’s definitely one of the low points for HML… she was just crap.

    as for steve’s build… man, i watch a lot of MMA. it amazes me to no end the differences in build in guys in the same weight class… there are guys fighting at 180 lbs that don’t look like they could weigh more than 165, and conversely, there are dudes you’d swear look 200 lbs easily. the human body is a strange macroverse my friend… some guys are huge and ripped at “peak physical condition” others are long and lanky, some guys are flabby, others are shredded and veinated… all at the same weight. to me, the build looks fine, and i think the head does too… some guys just have bigger heads, and in the fight game, those guys tend to be extremely hard to knock out.

    1. I think this version has blue as the norm, but I hear ya. I’m starting to hear that the variants aren’t really intended to be chases, so hopefully they’ll be plentiful. If you’re lucky you can hold out until WM and TGT get these in for $13-15.

      I wanted to put together that Secret Avengers pic and then I was all “ewww” when I saw them together.

      I always laugh at some critiques of art and sculpt because of just how varied and twisted the body can look. There are times I’ll see someone sitting or standing in a certain position and laugh because, if an artist drew it that way, folks would question their understanding of anatomy. Steve might violate the ‘ideal’ here, but as you say, there’s plenty of room for variation. I do wish he had a wider torso, but I’m okay with the figure as is.

    1. Mattel really dropped the ball on some easy A-list variants. Fortunately, the new line appears to be all about A-list variants so there is hope (and sadistic shapeshifters who appear in 20 some odd panels…).

  11. I think the straps are so that when you put the shield on his back it looks like backpack straps you know?

      1. Great point! I think I’ll stick with that, but Steve really didn’t carry the metal shield much (if at all) with this outfit. You actually see him running around quite a bit in Super-Solider with the straps around his shoulders and nothing in between across his back.

  12. Nice review but what’s up with the scale on this wave? Iron Man is tiny compared to Steve and looks like a little kid next to Thor! Hope this isn’t going to be on ongoing issue.

    1. I’m not sure where scale is exactly to be honest. In one of the next reviews, I’ll whip out the height chart, but I’m just not sure what Hasbro is aiming for.

  13. Great review, i have the variant myself and it’s a great figure; it quickly became one of my favs.

    One thing Noisy: There is a difference in the bodies of the variants, and you even unintentionally brought it up: Regular Steve has the same deco as the Universe figure (blue and dark brown) and the Variant is black and light brown.

    Personally, i like the Variant.

    1. Thanks for letting me know! I saw the comparison pic posted below and I’ll need to update the article. Seeing the non-variant though, my point stands – I need more blue! LOL

  14. BTW, the variant is different other than the shield. The regular one’s costume is a lighter shade of blue.

    Still need the variant for myself, but I picked up the regular one because I am an IMPATIENT FOOL.

    <3 Steve

    1. Also, I hope wave 2’s US Agent gets modern Steve cap retool/repaint because I can’t find an affordable Face-Off Cap for sh*t.

      1. The US Agent is so mangosteening awesome.

        And Faceoff Cap is a pricey piece indeed. I found that at an out of the way Walmart in Connecticut while visiting my future wife!

  15. Pingback: Marvel Legends (Terrax Wave) Steve Rogers Review | Toys Are Cool

  16. I got two Steve variants from TRU.com, so I agree with you on the seeming rarity of the “regular” figures over the variants. Even the video reviews I saw had the variants of Steve and GR. I only mention them because you complained about net getting the shoulder star. The video reviewer had to twist his shoulders around so it looked right and he obviously didn’t realize this right away. Mine came with one shoulder turned. Now imagine if they had applied the star on the wrong side of the shoulder? People would be 8!tching up a storm on QC.

    Seeing the three “Caps” together reminds me that Braddock’s head was too big for his body, and they should never have used that body to begin with for a character who’s supposed to be around 6’6″! (esp when Sentry used it in the same wave!) I also can’t help but think Steve’s legs would be perfect for an updated/2011 Braddock, too.

    Another thing I noticed was that MU Steve and ML Steve comb to different sides. wtf? LOL That said, I can’t help but think that this likeness was based on Michael Cudlitz (Band of Brothers, SouthLAnd). Give him an LAPD badge and shades and he’s a dead ringer for Cooper!

    Hunter Knight posted a link (via Jin Saotome?) the other day on how to check the Target stock for ML, which showed all but one store having them in StL area for me. It claimed Washington had them, but there wasn’t even a space for them when I went to check. (They also didn’t have DCUC w20 programmed in and apparently got a case with 2x Hal, but neither Arrow?)

    One last thing: the odd distribution of Terrax pieces. GR gets two arms, while Hope gets his head and axe? I guess that’s better than the F4 Ronan, where Doom only got his cape! lol

    1. I know! Steve’s variant seems to be better covered! I too had to pop the shoulder around (after initially thinking they really screwed the paint up on that shoulder), so great point on the shoulder being painted on the inside.

      I hate that Captain Britain. One of my all-time favorite Marvel characters and Toy Biz put out a crappy figure. That happened a lot actually – War Machine, Jim Lee Rogue, Wonder Man – even Hasbro got in on the act with a crappy Nova & Valkyrie

      (yes, I have weird Marvel tastes)

    2. I don’t remember the DCUC20 case assortments anymore, but there were like four versions, each had some figures missing, so you might have run into one of those.

      1. If I had to guess I think both have the same color base but the regular version has a blue highlight applies to a large majority of it. I like the darker brows a bit better to I think.

        1. I don’t know anything about this version of Steve Rogers other than what I’ve read in toy reviews. I’ve never read any of the books, and have never had a particular affinity towards Captain America. Nevertheless, I love this figure. So much that I actually got both versions. I preferred the look of the regular figure, but wanted to comic-accurate translucent shield.
          I’m such a cherry-picker in all other toy lines, and have never been a ML collector; so Hasbro can be proud that they put out what appears to be a rather generic figure, but that I thought was so good that I bought two.

      1. It might have been, if I had ever seen it in a store. 🙂

        That’s the problem of course. If the locals don’t get it in, I’ll never know it existed. Altho I seem to recall a Punisher figure that seemed to look about the same.

        but of course I’m picky. If I get Classic Nick, I gotta have Dum-Dum and the other SHIELD agents, and a big pile of Hydra agents for them to fight. 🙂

  19. I’m surprised you didn’t mention scale as a significant issue with this figure (although I know you did with Iron Man). You’ve got a number of pictures in this article that show that the scale of these figures is really, really out of whack, not just with ToyBiz Marvel Legends, but within this wave. Hope – the teenaged girl – is larger than Klaw!

    I know Thor is large, but is he really supposed to be an entire head taller than Captain America? And I didn’t realize how grossly out of scale Iron Man looks until I saw him in these shots.

    Aesthetically, on their own, I think I like these figures more than most individual DCUC figures, but as a group, DCUC figures just display together much better, and I’m much happier with it as a line.

    Don’t get me wrong; I’m impressed with the quality of Steve as an individual figure, and the face sculpt is essentially perfect. I’m disappointed that Terrax is a build-a-figure, since he’d be an instant buy for me, but I just don’t want much in the way of modern Marvel figures, even though I’m loving modern Marvel comics.

    1. With the decline of DCUC (only the club, two Batman Legacy figures, and the eventual first wave of “All-Stars” in the pipeline) I have been considering the new Marvel Legends (though I haven’t seen them out in the wild yet) but the scale issues as a whole wave are amazingly awful. Klaw and Iron Man seem like they don’t even belong. I know Thor is tall too, but when brought up to “full size” it seems like this Thor would be huge and Iron Man would barely crack 5’7″.

      1. It hasn’t bothered me all that much in person, other than my wanting a teenage buck for Hope and Iron Man to be bulky, but Adam’s right – as a whole it can make for an odd assortment.

    2. I’m still trying to sort out the scale, so I haven’t felt comfortable talking about it. While taking the pics, some times Cap would seem too big and other times not.

      Hope is definitely too big – she’s using the adult female buck instead of a proper teenage one. Iron Man seems undersized because the armor should add to his height. Klaw is bigger than that pic shows, but he is on the small size. There’s so much reuse that I’m not sure if Hasbro is trying for scale or what.

      I’m with you on the DCUC front though, I love the SP aesthetic that the line shares overall instead of this hodgepodge of reuse. I like the movement here, but the DCs look better together.

      Terrax is really foreign to me, but I’m enjoying building him so far…

  20. I think Steve looks kinda like a very serious Mickey Mantle.

    Must get out there and find some of these figures.

  22. Steve kinda looks like John Cena with a shaggy ‘do to me. Weird.

    I dig the figure. I’m going to seriously limit my MLs this time around and I doubt Steve will make the cut, but it won’t be because he ain’t cool. Dig it, bro.

    1. I want to limit my MLs… time will tell if I’m successful. I gotta get Arnim Zola, and the wave 3 sneaks are looking good. I think I’m in trouble…

  23. Disappointed with those hips preferred a hinged-ball joint than this one. Plus Toy Biz ML8 Cap has stars in his shoulders and it turned out okay… Plus it annoys me that the MU version looks better than this ML version – whats up with that!??!?

    Those aside, this figure is okay…

  24. I love the fact that we got this costume in Marvel Vs Capcom 3 he looks great slinging his shield around. They have a Red Cap with a giant star on his chest, So many strange versions of him in that game. I haven’t really read anything by Marvel in almost 3 yrs. These new figures look awesome, and If i find them at T or WM i’ll be picking them up and getting rid of the figures i dont want.

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