This Thanos has a lot going for it. First, the sculpt is great. The new costume has a lot of fun little details and they’re well captured here. I especially like the armored plates down his spine on the back of the figure. I did end up with problem on his right leg – the boot cuff is glued on upside down, so I’m going to have to fix that. But I like the overall modern suit just fine.
The paint is kinda on par with the old Marvel Select figure. I like that one, but it seemed almost impossible to find one that didn’t have smears and smudges in the gold paint. With this Thanos, it was kinda the same problem. Most notably on the head sculpts. Ultimately, I wanted a good Hellcat & a good Spider-Woman. With Thanos being a figure I might sell, that meant I was willing to take a not so perfect head. And, man, I really did. The one in the pictures is the better of the two, but that left eye is a little droopy. Still, he had the best teeth and the best gold on his mask, even if it isn’t as great as I would like. Still, having had the smudged MS for so long, I’m used to accepting less than perfect paint on my Thanos figures. Thani?
And articulation is about the same too. This Thanos should be better articulated. He’s got ball-joints at the neck, shoulders, wrists, and ankles; swivels at the biceps, waist, thighs, & boots, hinges at the elbows, double hinges at the knees, and the ab crunch. The costume details seriously get in the way though.
The skirt does block the hips something fierce. The sculpted butt and perhaps the bulks of the hips are also contributing factors, but it’s amazing how little movement you can get out of those hips. Which of course impede the entire leg. The arms also suffer from the single-hinge elbow not being able to deal with the bulk. The forearm guards interfere with the ball-wrists and while the large collar/chest armor doesn’t block the shoulders, it is only because it pops off instead. That’s not really less annoying. You can get good poses out of him, but compared to some of Hasbro’s recent releases, it’s underwhelming.
Thanos was the BAF for this wave (Avengers Wave 2), so he included no accessories. Not even a gauntlet…
Overall, the jury is still out for me on this one. Much like the previous MS version, the visual is the main appeal here. He looks great. The paint work could be a little better and that QC on the boot do bug me a bit, but I like the overall figure. It would be easier if one of the two had really standout articulation, so I guess it just comes down to wanting a massive, cool-but-out-of-scale classic Thanos or this more in-scale modern version. I’ll have to give it some time because I’m not really sure. Heck, it might even come down to the fact that I could sell this one for a lot more than the old MS. It’s that up in the air.
For all our Marvel Reviews, check out our Review Index.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Marvel Select for the win!!!
Check his right leg to see if his calf/shin is facing the wrong way. If it is, do a 180 with it and rotate the foot back to the front. This seems to be a common problem with Thanos. I took mine apart to fix it only to realize this.
I always had the impression that Thanos'(and Darkseid’s) “skirt” was actually a long tunic, with the belt over it for stylistic reasons. Not liking this “tech-y” look that seems to have infected Marvel Cosmic with Annihilation, but you can see the section on the waist piece that should be blue around the hips.
altho, tbh, I haven’t read any Annihilation comics, so I may be wrong. Last I saw, he was wearing a white toga?
paint slop seems to be rampant on this wave. I ordered two cases from HTS and… yikes.
One more reason to keep the MS on the shelf and chalk this up to…fodder? what’s the story on his “son”, Thane(?) aka Marvel’s Grayven? maybe a stand-in for him?
I also made it up into StL county this past wkd and saw the wave was somewhat plentiful either for or despite that BOGO1/2 sale that just ended. Most of the figures I saw had similar paint slop.
In fact, it was discussed in a ML FB page today that the two ladies should have had a variant head (closed mouth) and Infinity Gauntlet instead of sharing the same pieces.
I don’t know if you’re going to try and give a full wave review or not, but my quick rundown:
Hellcat- I’ve heard rumors she MIGHT be appearing on Netflix’s “AKA Jessica Jones”? (NOT Rosario/Night Nurse!) pretty decent figure, and great base for FIRESTAR, or maybe an updated Tigra? body is mostly yellow plastic, but the lower legs and a few other bits that aren’t have weak yellow paint, so it stands out.
Spider-Woman – needed a do-over from ToyBiz, and this fills it nicely. not a fan of either set of the (easily lost!) wings, and again, the same complaint about the thin yellow paint.
Batroc – another “debut” comic version of an MCU character, this being the Winter Soldier merc early in the movie. Decent figure for a medium male buck, but he just screams “French Wolvie!” and continues the metallic purple plastic that Hasbro apparently got a deal on? LOL I know there are more muscular bucks out there, right now, Batroc just seems to have hit when those molds were already ear marked for other figures, so he has to make due with what was available? sacre bleu!
Hulk – seems to be a fairly new sculpt over the previous movie version? Best of the bunch, imo, after ladies, but how much could they mess up on when all that really needed painting was the head and pants?
AoU Cap – yet another unnecessary “tweak” to Cap’s uniform, which tbh, I wasn’t feeling on TWS, so a few extra details here aren’t impressing me that much. seems to be a pretty faithful rendiiton of a costume we’ve barely seen. maybe that will change in a few weeks? the movie “Cmdr Rogers” suit I didn’t care for and now think it’s the best after the WW2 suit.
IM mk43-? not sure of the actual numbering, but pretty much a redeco of mk42 from IM3. only selling point is the “open mask” head…which blocks half the face and is really pointy.
I think we need a really good UNmasked RDJ head, as seen in that new AoU 5pk set, which hit ebay without advance warning (like the new MS Hawkguy/pizza dog set), and now seems to be a Disney Store exclusive?
IM=Bleeding Edge in bright comic colors+RDJ head
Hulk= Valkyrie 2pk Hulk? some slight tweaks?
Ultron= “chrome” IM3 redeco
Cap= um…not really sure how he’s different?
Thor= Now!/RoML in new deco.
news broke with an ebay sale a few days ago and good pics are still filtering in, including one pic that wasn’t ‘shopped to hide the “Disney Exclusive” bubble in top right corner of box. Several people thought it was a custom box/hoax, but a few more sales have popped up to confirm it IS real.
now about the other recent ML waves….
(and TF combiners…! Stunticons, YES! Aerialbots, meh.)
Keep the MS one. Not a fan of this new one so much.
I do not like this Thanos, I hate his decoration, Marvel Select wins!!
As the MS one is hard to get here. (Dunno.where all my LCS MSs vanished to asbhe had a bunch. All DC now) will gobwith this but yes would love a Legends Classic Thanos. Can’t remake the DC vs. Marvel card without that. Yes I am having a Darkseid vs. Thanos fight happening on my shelf. I saw the wave once triple upped and no.$$$ to spend but now BAMF gone. Da fuq and same with the Hobgoblin wave.
Marvel Select for the win, man! Infinity Gauntlet extra hand and Mistress Death not to mention the larger size… Now, I’m gonna play Marvel Superheroes!
Great review as always! I really like this figure. I never got the MS Thanos because of the whole scale thing, so this was a figure I’d been hoping to see for a while. I’m usually a lot more of a classic costume fan, but I kinda dig Thanos’s new threads. I just wish he had the Infinity Gauntlet! (Even if it’s not technically accurate)
No kind words for that winning smile? The expression is what I love the most, he just looks so HAPPY at being so EVIL!
That expression is a huge selling factor to me.
That and the scale, but you’re so right when you describe the MS and the ML as “massive, cool-but-out-of-scale classic Thanos or this more in-scale modern version”
I’m not sure yet either, but I may want to pick this one up. The big ol’ MS one is not really doing it for me.
The new one looks fantastic holding the cosmic cube that came with Red Skull.
MS is my Thanos on the villains shelf. The new one is fun to pose towering above all fallen MCU heroes figs.
Thwipp!