This was supposed to be up Friday, but we had a technical issue here at IAT. Some internet hiccup altered some files and made the site partially inaccessible, broke some site features, and shutdown our forum outright. It was two days I won’t soon forget. Anyway, I’m here now with my last Thor Week Review.
It really feels like just a few weeks ago that I saw the first advertisement for the Gigantic Battles line. It was the Iron Man & Goliath that really caught my attention. Not only was I impressed that Hasbro was going to offer figures in this scale, but I really wanted that particular 2pk. It never came here. Vault says he saw it once, but I think he was dreaming. I quietly forgot about Gigantic Battles, only remembering to take note of new ones as I was updating our MU Checklist. Fast forward a year-and-a-half, and here we are with the second wave. Having missed the first wave entirely, I thought I’d be able to pass on both sets. Well, that didn’t happen. The Frost Giant 2pk caught my attention immediately. He was too cool to pass on. I held out on Goliath a little longer, but I ultimately gave in. It was partially because of the Thor figure and partially because of Bill Foster’s great head sculpt.
I called this the Thor figure justnow because that’s what the packaging says. It’s a little more complicated than that. Thor was absent for Marvel’s Civil War, but Tony Stark saw fit to rectify that. Along with Reed Richards and Hank “Skrull” Pym, he cloned Thor from a strand of the god’s hair. What he couldn’t grow, he built, which resulted in a cyborg/clone of Thor that Stark could send into battle whenever he saw fit. Things didn’t go well (& why would they, a clone/cyborg of a thunder god? Really, Tony?), and replacement Thor here, in his first appearance, killed Goliath. It was a major turning point in Civil War and it gave Hasbro a great idea for a 2pk.
Anyway, fans would dub him Clor. Fans like to do cute things like that, but Marvel stepped in and officially named him Ragnarok. Either way, Hasbro cut the difference and kept it simple. The box is labeled Thor and, as a buyer, you just shouldn’t ask questions about his robot face apparently. For the rest of the review, I’m going to stick with Ragnarok. He is wrapping up Thor week after all.
Below the neck, Thor is entirely the same figure from the Secret Wars 2pk that Vault just reviewed, but he’s so much better. I’ll cover most of why in the paint section, but for the sculpt, the improvement is all in the one new piece: the head. Vault gave a positive opinion on the Secret Wars head sculpt, but I don’t like it as much as he did. It looks off to me; just too squat, wide. Ragnarok’s head sculpt is killer though.
DC Direct had a lot of good sculpts over the years, but in 2005 they produced my favorite (at the time) Superman head sculpt. It looked fantastic. There was only one problem, it was for the Composite Superman (scroll down to May). It made for a great Composite Superman, but it also made me really wish I had a Superman head to match it. The exact same thing is true here. I love Ragnarok’s head sculpt, the circuitry side is well detailed for the scale. It looks great. But the regular side is also done well. So well, that I wish I had a full version for my regular Thor. I have my fingers crossed that the new head sculpt in that Avengers 3pk will be what I’m looking for.
The rest of the differences between Secret Wars Thor and this version are all in the paints and molded colors. The black is darker, the silver brighter, the flesh tone more realistic, and the bright yellows switched to gold or muted tones. I don’t think any two parts are the same color and I like the choices on Ragnarok in each instance. He looks fantastic. Better still, I had no paint issues with Ragnarok. Even the intricate details on his face came out great.
Articulation is the old standard for the line with the addition if a waist joint. The only articulation I wish it had were the two-part ball joint for the neck (but the figure has decent range without it) and the thigh cuts found on newer figures. If he had those, he’d be perfect. Ragnarok does feature ball-joints at the head, upper torso, shoulders, hips, and ankles, swivels at the biceps, waist, and wrists, single-hinge elbows, and double-hinge knees.
Thor also includes a darker repaint of Mjolnir. It’s a cool accessory, but it feels a little more flimsy than the one in the Secret Wars 2pk. It’s painted better here, so you’ll still want this one out of the two. I should also point out that Ragnarok’s cape is made of a more pliable plastic. It’s still cumbersome and prevents deep poses, but it’s easier to manage here than it was on the Secret Wars Thor. Continue to Goliath…
I do agree with you that this mold needs beefier arms and they can lose that piping from Cyclops while they’re at it. Those skinny arms were the first thing I noticed in the FB pic you posted.
I managed to snag the red/blue Giant-Man from the previous wave up here in the Washington WM clearance aisle a few months back. I never saw any others at that store (STILL looking for Giant-Skrull!), so I’m presuming one of the other collectors in the area returned him? The piping isn’t as noticeable on Hank, except for the blue crotch (panty)lines, probably due to the shading and the red plastic being darker than Bill’s white plastic? It seems Bill’s panty lines are less noticeable due to the dark blue plastic? Other than that, my only complaint about Hank would be the lack of shading on the head, making it brighter than the rest of the figure. The straps on the ankles and wrists are easy to miss, too, unless you look for them.
and yes, there IS an “X” under the added belts on both figures! LOL
I hope I see these, as I’m still waiting to see ANY GL stuff (besides Imaginext at Target) after a week. koffnotholdingbreathkoff!
As for Clor/Ragnarök (auto-correct adds umlaut?) it could be worse: Thorminator/TerminaThor.
thankyew! I’ll be here until Thursday, when I go see Dave Foley!
(also, I do agree that head sculpt looks FAR better than the one with Enchantress.)
and that parting shot reminds me: we still needs Clint-Goliath from his original run and/or Avengers Forever! ’70’s men in half-shirts/harnesses FTW! (as opposed to 70yo men in half shirts and trusses! EW!)
yes, I went there! LOL
The umlaut is correct for the event, but not the name apparently. And Thorminator is awful. lol
You saw one of the earlier Battle 2pks? Lucky! I’m not sure why those ended up so poorly distributed. It’s annoying.
I scored BOTH of these new 2pks at 141/Manchester (Hwy 100) WM after seeing Foley Friday night! haven’t really had time to check them out, tho.
I almost wish I could afford to drive up into the county more often, but not when gas is near $4/gallon!
they also had the first three GL/Guardian 2pks along with other GL stuff (which is now ALL over StL County!). at least the Guardians get names (Sayd with Sinestro, forget the others, not Ganthet or Appa. one was semi-familiar, other was new to me.) MAN, but the rest of that GL line SUCKS. I *might* buy the alien Movie Masters, but that’s it. In fact, I saw Hal, Kilowog, and Rot Lop Fan (who was the ONLY one I might get later), and they all come with the SAME PIECE to “build” Parallax! wtF? 14 pieces spread among 11 figures? UGH!
Cool, I want this set but don’t feel the same value for the buck as with Loki and Frost Giant. Will probably get but waiting for now.
It’s definitely not the same value, but I think that’s more about the Frost Giant set being above and beyond awesome. LOL
Exactly, plus I was never a huge fan of Bill Foster, no offence to the Bill Foster fans, but he just never did it for me.
that last joke was great. also, kudos on weathering the storm… did you piss off the same guys sony did? 😉
I think we angered Loki… 🙂
Not to derail the thread but Green Lantern stuff is EVERYWHERE in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mattel has put together a pre-packaged ‘dump’ of the movie figs. Seen at TRU and K-mart.
Yes I bought the damn light-up Power Ring with stupid mask. Don’t judge me! 🙂
As to this two-pack, I really know nothing about these guys. I was bothered by the Fat Face Thor that Vault was singing the praises of so I have to side with Noisy on the desire for this Mecha-Thor head to be…un-roboted.
Ironically, we haven’t seen any GL stuff here.
I’m with you on passing on the 2-pack Thor, as well as the arms on Goliath. I wonder id they’d considered using the Frost Giant’s arms from the shoulders down to give him some needed muscle…and it’s a shame since that head sculpt IS a winner.
I definitely think a little mixing and matching parts was an order, but I suppose they sold Cyclops with wimpy arms too…
I’m really excited for that Avengers 3pk after seeing that he does appear to have a new head sculpt. Hopefully, he’ll be painted similar to Ragnarok here. If not, a head swap might be in order if the skin tones match…