Apparently I missed the news entirely on Hasbro’s Marvel Super Hero Mashers line. I knew nothing about these guys until I stumbled across them at my local TRU a couple weeks ago. Ever since the inception of Xevoz I’ve felt that customizability could be a very big part in the future of action figures, so these Masher figures interested me right away.
The line seems to come in three different price points. The cheapest is about ten dollars and includes the figure and maybe an accessory. Next up is about twelve to fifteen dollars, which includes a figure with more accessories and or armor. Last is the most expensive, twenty dollars gets you a figure with enough accessories/armor to cover most of the body and action or electronic feature. I decided to test out the cheapest level since I didn’t know how I’d like them, and Doom is one of my favorite characters.
All the figures in the line have been given a simplified, almost animated style. Sculpted details like muscles and armor plating exist, but they’ve been downplayed as just general shapes. One thing I definitely like is that the line seems to have a few different “buck” bodies so far. Doom is a bigger figure overall, standing a bit taller and with wider shoulders. Spidey seems to be one of the shorter figures in the line with the thin body style that’s appropriate for the character.
Spidey’s sculpt is pretty smooth all around. He did get a new left hand for web shooting, but his most detailed areas seem to be the accessory ports, which have been sculpted to look a bit like armor attachments. One of the things that intrigued me about this figure is the lack of black spider lines on his costume. They’d definitely clutter up the simple look Hasbro was going for, which I don’t have a problem with. It’s just odd seeing him without that very prominent piece of his costume. Kinda makes him look like he’s half way to being the Scarlet Spider.
Doom has a bit more love in his sculpting, although I have a feeling these parts are being reused from another armored character. The head’s all his own though, and I think they did a pretty good job of capturing his look in an extreme way. He’s got the classic hood and armored face, but the sculpt is asymmetrical. One eyebrow is raised in crazy looking anger, while his chin/lower lip is crooked and jutting out a bit like he’s about to go off on the next person who gets in his way.
As with sculpt, the paint is pretty basic also. I mentioned that Spidey’s lines are already missing, but they did keep his spider symbols on both front and back of his costume. Aside from the white and black eyes, the figure also received blue in the appropriate places.
Doom is a little more advanced. The figure is mostly molded in the proper colors, but there are a few places like his belt, shoulders, and cape clasps that got some attention. His mask is also painted in silver with glowing red eyes, which only makes him look crazier. Continue to page 2…
these look cool though, compared to the stylized, but not really stylized new DC line. shame about the durability though, that was what concerned me and held me back from trying a couple of these myself… wanted to read some reviews first. 😉 thanks vault, you took a bullet for me.
these guys could really use a bicep swivel
These are nice, but I don’t think they are for me. But Xevoz! I miss them terribly. Huge fan. Huge. I have a mess of sets stored from when Kay Bee and a few other places clearanced them off in mass.
I was interested in these at first because they sort of resembled G.I. Joe Sigma 6, a line I liked while many hated.
I also was interested after seeing the bigger sets (Iron Man and Wolverine) and the fact that they came with unmasked head options, but I still couldn’t bite. I’m still tempted even after this review, but I’m going to wait and see if this line even is going to go beyond what has been shown so far.
If they were to make females in this line it would make for some very interesting combinations.
I saw this pop up in Warshington Target, a case of each price point, then WM had 3-4 cases of the $10 series, and I think a case of the $15? no $20-24 Wolvies there, that I recall.
Then again, I spent every day since NY in a drugged/frozen fog, so my memory is sketchy. (still not sure how I drove 40m to take a shower, or when I stopped at WM for a pillow and throw? and I only recall stopping at a McD to rest up on way back!)
I did grab a Hawkeye to check them out as a “basic” figure, but haven’t opened it yet. That Doom does look a bit like the IM figures (basic, Patriot, and WM?), so there’s likely intentional cost-saving measures there. I didn’t even look over the Spidey, Cap, IMs, Hulk, and Doom figures, but did glance over the Wolvie set. LOTS of accessories and armor as you said. I don’t recall anything stating “electronic”?
for figures where the whole gimmick is changing parts they need a few more joints. Your pants joke would work a whole lot better if they separated at the waist.
Out here in northern California land, I found the 3 mid-range figures Hulk, Thor, Iron Patriot) at TRU right before xmas on a ‘buy two get one free’ sale. I begged off the Iron Man and Wolverine mainly because I didn’t want to drop $20 each on them, and that IM’s entire torso is molded in translucent plastic with a ‘light-up’ feature, which turns me off. If it was a solid painted torso with just the ARC reactor lighting up, I might have bit to have to ‘core’ avengers. Wolvie had some light-claw armor piece… meh.
Earlier this month, I saw the $10 figures at Target, and lo and behold they all had coupons attached to them to get $2 off one, $5 off two, and $8 off three. So I picked up Cap, Spidey, and Doom. I’d recommend if you are interested in these, find them on sale! They look neat lined up on my shelf, but I have to agree with the joint quality – the pegs on the swappable parts are extremely stiff and so much weight is put the peg – and the pose ability seems more limited that I had expected, even though I didn’t expect a lot. All my figures do the splits to some degree as if their bodies are a little too heavy for their leg joints. I had to struggle to get Mjolnir into Thor’s hand, and it does not fit at all if you want to have him holding it by the strap.
These seem to be in a weird spot for action figures. Aimed at kids with lots of pointless plug-in action features and hilarious launching missiles, the stylization and character selection seems slightly more aimed at collectors. Like why is Doom in there and not Loki or the Red Skull like we’ve seen in recent Marvel media? Iron Patriot I can see as “the latest hotness” but I’d rather have had Iron Man at that level of figure, with a War Machine at the deluxe level with tons of overblown attachments. And maybe it’s just me, but I feel like there’s a couple subtle nods to the old Secret Wars line. Look at Doom without his cape or no web-lines Spidey.
Still, I like these figures, I just wish they were a little more quality and a better, more PVC like plastic. I don’t see myself swapping around their parts a lot simply for fear of breaking the pegs. A shame, because you can do some cool stuff like give someone “Hulk Hands” which I’ve always thought would be a hilarious actual hero concept or put Doom’s cape on IM like in that one Exiles storyline. I might pick up Hawkeye, maybe, especially if they come out with a Black Widow, and I wouldn’t turn it down if someone like gave me the Iron Man, but I don’t know if this Mashers line will go any farther. Big Bad Toy store lists as yet unseen figures, at least one with a vehicle. Hopefully we’ll see a couple more villains and a female character before this line fades into novelty.
ramble ramble, I have a cold, but that’s my nickel. Oh yeah, Xevoz! Big part of my picking these up, and Phil Reed at Battlegrip where I saw them first mentioned.
Okay so I checked and it’s Spiderman vs. Doc Ock and Hulk vs. Loki in upcoming two-packs and Cap with a vehicle plus Iron Man with a vehicle. I’m curious to see how they do Doc Ock’s tentacles, and if any of the figures will be significant variant costumes. Here’s hoping they make it to a Wave 2 if only to see some female characters.
I like ’em so far! Got the 20 dollar Iron Man first, and I’m impressed with all the accessories for the price (and the size of the figure). Once I found Dr. Doom I snapped him RIGHT up, cause a man’s gotta have his Doom fix. Can’t wait to get some more and get a little crazy.
I will agree that the connectors don’t feel…up to the task of time and use. We’ll see!