Now, one thing I didn’t like about the paint is the shoulders. Hasbro didn’t get the costume details right here, the lines just end with no star adorning the shoulder. I do miss the costume detail, but it’s surely got more to do with the range of the ball-joint on the swivel (which is excellent). Getting that star paint op over that particular joint probably wouldn’t have turned out well.
Similarly, the articulation/paint causes another minor nitpick at the forearm, the lower piece is molded fleshtone and painted to match, but the paint doesn’t extend to the interior of the joint and looks weird in some poses.
Articulation is exceptionally nice for the figure. The swivel/ball-joint on the new ML heads is fantastic and really opens up the expressiveness of the figure. I still prefer the unfettered SP aesthetic of my DCUCs, but the neck articulation here makes me jealous! There’s also ball shoulders, hips and ankles; swivels at the biceps, mid-forearm, waist, and thighs; double hinges at the elbows and knees, and an ab crunch to top things off. The figure moves in just about every way I want it to, my only complaint being that I want true rocker ankles or the new “peg in the foot articulation” that Terrax is sporting.
Steve includes three accessories: two guns and the electro-shield. The guns are cool and he looks great posing with both, but I detest that he has nowhere to stow them when not in use, particularly when the opportunity is there with the shoulder belts or the actual belt.
And now that electro-shield! Yeah, it’s just the regular shield molded clear, but I had to have it. (I had to have it for the MU Steve too, but I missed that Ultimate Gift Set – why you gotta do me like that, Wal-Mart?).
The electro-shield looks great, even with the molded details on the underside showing through. It completes the look of this figure in my eyes and I’m super happy to have it in toy form. Since the shield is the regular one redecoed, it also features a hinge on the back that switches from wrist clip to a peg, which lets Steve stow it on his back. That doesn’t look as cool with the electro-shield, but if you have the regular version, I imagine it’s pretty spiffy.
Overall, can you tell I’m ecstatic about this figure? I still feel dumb for buying it in two scales, but what are ya gonna do? There’s sstill some room for improvement here, a brighter shade of blue and Hasbro would be smart to add a new brawny torso to this male buck, but I still think Steve came out pretty great. In fact, I have to say the return of ML has been great, I mean, I was only planning on buying this one figure and now I’ve got Terrax built except for arms! (It doesn’t hurt that Hasbro is bring ML back with a vengeance just as Mattel has put their DC 6″ line into disarray).
I know some folks may not be as excited for more modern Marvel looks in the line, but we’ve already got a great Cap (though the scale on the new MLs appears to be a wee bit larger) and mixing in newer looks and characters along with the Klaws and Constrictors keeps folks like me hooked along with the more Marvel-inclined fan. Course, can I be really called less-inclined to buy Marvel toys at this point? I bought the whole first wave, or will when I can find that darn blue Ghost Rider….
For more Marvel reviews, check out our Review Index.
And, as is becoming the norm on these ML reviews, bonus pics that didn’t make it into the review:
We still need a white Moon Knight, a better cat Beast, and a better Nova…
Another shot of the shield:
And I don’t know what I was doing here. LOL:
Getting a real strong John Romita, Jr. vibe from the headsculpt.
I can see it now that you mention it.
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…
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.
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.
Saw your notes on Facebook, thanks for checking!
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?
It’s Dan Ketch’s “new look”. I think he’s King of Hell or something in a mini not too long ago.
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.
Thanks guys! I’ll have to read up on all that for the eventual review. GR is a character I like, but have never really read.
Thanks, Bray. I’m still struggling with stopping MU to buy ML… grr!
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.
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.
That Batman shot really depresses me that we have yet to receive a DG Batman. Grrr.
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…).
I think the straps are so that when you put the shield on his back it looks like backpack straps you know?
agreed
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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!
Thanks for the catch! I was barely able to pass up the regular version…
Ok, I got both. Regular Steve, in addition to being a lighter blue also has a much darker brown for belt and stuff.
http://i1106.photobucket.com/albums/h378/T16skyhopp/cd6d37ec.jpg
I think I prefer the regulars colors with the variant shield. If I find someone interested in the variant colors with the regular shield I might sell it. I do like the regular shield and he looks great with it but the continuity bugs me 😛
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
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)
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.
Regular and Variant Rogers are actually different, here’s a picture:
Thanks for the pic and the correction!
It looks like even the regular one is still too dark for me though. LOL
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.
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.
Give me a classic Nick Fury like this and I’ll Make Mine Marvel. 🙂
Was the Nick Fury from a year or to back not classic enough? (It used this body)
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. 🙂
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.
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″.
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.
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…
I think Steve looks kinda like a very serious Mickey Mantle.
Must get out there and find some of these figures.
LOL. I can drive over to Commerce and see if anyone recognizes him. 🙂
Those pics are outstanding as always, same goes for the review. Great work, Noisy.
Thanks, Clutch!
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.
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…
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…
The MU version is pretty sweet.
How would you have wanted the hips to be done differently? I’ll have to check on the ML8 Cap… hmmm…
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.
That sounds cool. I’ll have to check out the alternate decos in the game.
That energy shield looks great!
I loved it. Glad to finally have one!
Could we get a pic of the shield on his back?