Before we get to the review, I want to apologize for how late this article is today.  I had planned to post it some time this morning, but those intentions went awry.  Better late than never though, so here’s Tuesday’s Captain America: The First Avenger review: The deluxe Fortress Assault Mission Captain America!

As far as I know, Fortress Cap isn’t based on any particular version of Captain America from the comics, although he looks like he could be.  This deluxe figure’s body armor looks like modified riot gear and kind of gives Cap the look of a Marvel Universe’s version of Gangbuster.  (As a fan of Gangbuster, I’m totally OK with this.)  I can picture in my mind Cap donning a costume like this to take on an entire mob of supervillains singlehandedly.

The other cool thing about this armor is that it makes Steve look so different that this figure doesn’t even have to be Captain America at all. As a kid, I know I would have made this guy some sort of Super Riot Trooper, giving him his own name and origin that probably wouldn’t have had much to do with Captain America. He could just be a tough-as-nails supervillain warden who takes care of prison uprisings all by himself.

The body armor itself has a great sculpt with plenty of raised armor plates, straps, and even rivets.  The helmet fits on him perfectly without giving him a giant head, which is always nice.  When you take the helmet off, his head isn’t too small for his body either, which is even better.

One thing I didn’t like about the chest armor is how difficult it is to remove it. When the armor is in place the lower half wraps around his torso and snaps closed under his right arm. Instead of wrapping entirely around, they should have added a second snap underneath his left arm. As it is, you have to wrestle with his limited articulation while trying to coax the armor over his neck/head and arm at the same time. It’s not impossible, but it is much more annoying than it should be.

The Cap figure underneath the armor is based on the Ulimates figure from the regular line with the segmented dark grays to his shirt while the lower half features a new deco altogether. He also has US Agents utility belt, this time in black.

One of the interesting things about his figure is that he has a much older face sculpt than I was expecting. When Noisy brought him over, I had expected him to be based on the regular Cap, but the Ultimate Cap as a base gives him a square jaw and more stern expression. He looks more like a grizzled war vet and that plays into the Armor nicely. The advantage of the Ultimates version is there’s no wings to get in the way of the helmet. I don’t really miss them, and he looks better with the helmet on anyway.

The paint apps on Fortress Cap are pretty good.  There are a few black bars on his armor that are slightly crooked, but aside from that he turned out much better than US Agent.  The only point of concern is those darned elbows again.  Like US Agents, they were molded red and painted white.  Mine hasn’t begun to chip yet, so the paint may be more durable here.  But that doesn’t mean this won’t be a problem down the line. Continue to page 2…