For now, Thursdays are the province of Thor to help promote IAT’s new sister site, TheDailyThor.Com. This Thursday, I’m taking a look at a movie figure you probably aren’t seeing in stores: the 8″ rotocast Destroyer. It’s not the greatest figure to write about it, but it’ll look good on the shelf.
I haven’t caught up to the Destroyer in my daily Thor readings just yet (his first appearance looks to be about three weeks away), but the Destroyer has a fairly basic premise. It’s an enchanted suit of armor forged by Odin to battle the Celestials, though the time between its creation and intended use is rather lengthy. The armor is more often seen being utilized by someone to beat the crap out of Thor. This secondary use, beating the crap out of Thor, also comes into play during the feature film which this figure is based on.
This figure’s success rests almost entirely on its sculpt and, fittingly, that’s the best part of the figure. It’s a great recreation of the movie design which itself isn’t too different from the comics that inspired it. He’s appropriately massive and hulking and, perhaps most importantly, looks like he could kick Thor’s ass.
There’s not much paint here, but what is here is well done. The Destroyer is cast in a nice gun metal silver with some black wash to bring out the details. It’s overly concentrated in some areas, but I see those as some scuffing/damage from his most recent exploits. The only issue I had with the paint is more about how he’s packaged. He’s in an open box, so he’s susceptible to the elements. I had a few scuff marks in the paint on my Destroyer, but they didn’t really show up in the pictures, so I can’t complain too much. There are two other issues though…
The first problem with the figure is the scale. He clocks in at 8″ and while the Destroyer can be different sizes – at his biggest, the corresponding figure would have to be 111ft tall to be in scale with the 4″ line – he’s generally just a little bigger than Thor. Basically, if you wanted this guy to go with your 4″ line, I wouldn’t stop you, but I’m thinking ahead to the (hopefully) eventual 6″ movie Thor for this guy.
But here’s the big drawback: articulation. I imagine some of my loyal readers are questioning my judgment on picking up a guy with just 5 POA. For the most part, I agree with them. While he has a nice aesthetic quality, he’s particularly lacking in the articulation department. Just a little more would’ve gone a long way too – ball shoulders, just about anything on the legs, a waist… but nada. Just swivel shoulders, a t-crotch, and a ball-jointed head.
So why did I buy him? Mostly because he looks cool and fun. And sometimes, it’s fun to just buy a neat looking toy and not worry about the sticking points. Plus, I knew going in that he was a $10 toy aimed at the younger generation, not some $40 “adult collectible, so there really wasn’t much disappointment about his lack of articulation on my end. I did pay a little more for him ($12.99 at Amazon) because he’s only available online at the moment. Anyway, if you’re a big Destroyer fan, trying to learn about Thor through the comics and toys like me, or if you have some younger kids that you want to give a cool looking toy that they can bash into their other cool toys, this guy might be for you.
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That same figure would sell on Mattycollector for $30. :p
I got one for my kids, and they don’t like him because he’s not articulated. They much more prefer the ML one. Hopefully we’ll see a new one in the 6″ movie line.
I think the toy companies are missing the boat by not recognizing how kids have evolved. I mean they’re fully intergrated and interfaced with video games by the age of six. Do you really think they’re going to be satisfied with a plastic statue? These days posing is part of playing.
I’ve been waiting on wave two to come out and been on the lookout for some Cap ones too. My kids are three and five and love the bigger toys. I’d love to be able to get them some DC ones.
Thanks for the Amazon tip! My son loves the Thor and I’ve been looking for this guy everywhere!
I think collectors get to wrapped up in articulation and overlook gems like this one. All the Hasbro merchandise I’ve picked up for my grandkids has been well received. I haven’t bought anything thor related, but I think they’d like this guy. He could go with their Iron Men at least.
and really, to an enterprising customizer w/ even a little skill, this bad ass is just ACHING for some chop and insert articulation. pick up a spare SMC scorpion and you can add double elbows and knees, ball shoulders and hips, and a waist for little more than 10 extra bucks and an afternoon.
Jin Saotome is working on that right now. He’s had some WIP pics up on his Twitter feed, and so far, it looks AMAZING.
This figure is awesome! I don’t play with my toys so articulation is not incredibly important to me. I’m grabbin this guy for sure if I see him.
You didn’t mention in your review whether you saw the movie or not, but from my memory and the pics online, this figure seems to be really close to movie scale, maybe even intended to be exact. I think it’s going to be very popular with collectors for that reason. The 4″ Destroyers aren’t any more in correct scale than the 4″ Iron Monger was in the Iron Man 2 line. Check the video at this link for a clip from the Destroyer fight in the movie to see the scale.
http://www.beyondhollywood.com/new-thor-clip-featuring-the-warriors-three-vs-the-destroyer/
I didn’t know this toy was out there but now I’m gonna track it down. Looks to me like a great vinyl Destroyer, and I can live with limited articulation.
Yeah, in the movie, it’s a good 12 or 15 Feet tall, so I’d say it might actually be a little short for the 4″ Scale.
Loved the Movie, love the character but dagnabbit I can’t buy this damn thing and make Hasblo think I want figures with 5 POA – no matter how cool he looks. And he does.
They should at least has released Him as a deluxe and given him another inch or so on the 4″ version like they’ve done withe the deluxe Frosty. But then Hasbro should have had way more confidence and done a lot of things with this Movie – over here in the UK it’s a pretty safe bet I WONT be seeing series 2 of the basic line and of course that’s a lot of the characters I really want. Ebay again I guess……
We know that the Marvel Legend’s Destroyer has more articulation, that’s a plus for it, but talking about size and look, did you think that these Thor’s movie Destroyer will look better in a display of Marvel Legends??