Marvel Legends Avengers:
Captain America Review (Thanos Series)

NoisyDvL5

“Whatever happens tomorrow you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.” – Abraham Erskine to Cap, Captain America: The First Avenger.

I’ve always loved Captain America, but I really love Movie Cap. The movies easily make him my favorite Avenger. Both Cap movies are fantastic and he’s great in Avengers to boot. The characterization is so spot on to me that it immediately reminds me that DC has no chance of getting Superman right – the folks behind that movie don’t understand Supes like the Marvel folks get Cap. The writing and acting just have him nailed down. He’s probably the character I’m most looking forward to seeing this weekend.

The only thing I don’t love about Cap through all these movies? The costume. Hawkeye & Black Widow lean spy. Thor can coast on otherworldly opulence. Iron Man’s got it easy. Hulk’s got it easier. But Cap? They’ve really struggled to get the red, white, & blue on screen. The “Golden Age” costume was okay, but it was really bulky and stuck out in the fight scenes (the Rescue Outfit rocked though). The modern Avengers costume is… just best not talked about. I do love the Stealth suit from Cap2, but I still needed that classic fix.

With Age of Ultron, I think they have it. The new iteration really just takes that winning stealth suit design and puts some of the colors back into it. It looks great in the trailers. If I can swing the Hot Toy… well, I’ll swing it and I’ve already snatched up the Marvel Legend (a little too quickly actually, but we’ll get to that).

The figure is mostly a reuse of the Stealth Strike suit released in the Mandroid wave. It doesn’t matter, because it works. The only piece Hasbro needed to readdress was the torso and they did that by giving it an all-new sculpt. Again, I don’t know how accurate that makes the gloves or the boots, but I don’t think I’ll get that hung up on noticing if there is a minor inaccuracy after I’ve seen the film.

The only thing on the sculpt I don’t like is the head. Now that we’ve got most of the Avengers figures looking like their on-screen counterparts, I was hoping for Cap to get an update. Tony’s open mask head could be better, but it does look like him. Black Widow & Hawkeye are spot on. The new Hulk is good and Thor is recognizable. But Cap? I’m just not seeing it. Masked or unmasked. And, yes, these are the exact same heads from the Stealth versions, so it’s really just unfortunate they didn’t prioritize better noggins. Continue to Page 2…

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10 thoughts on “Marvel Legends Avengers:
Captain America Review (Thanos Series)”

  1. I still have to go with WW2 as best movie Cap figure.(original release, not TWS re-release that also suffered from glop face.) Stealth I didn’t care for, but it grew on me. This one…you don’t even notice the new red detailing in the film. I find it distracting/detracting on the figure, tho. it’ just too …busy, I guess? They really need to follow the KISS method: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

    also, I <3 Veronica.
    the name also makes complete sense if you think about it. 😉

    1. I hate the WWII figures, not just the Legends version but also the smaller ones released for the First Avenger line. Proportionally, they’re so awkward they look almost like little kids wearing patriotic snowsuits than the armoured super-soldier from the films. Really, the only good figure version of the costume, from a proportional/aesthetic POV is the “rocket grenade” iteration from the previous Avengers series.

  2. I have to figure that Hasbro wasn’t able to get Chris Evans’ likeness rights for (or maybe didn’t think they were important enough to get). That’s the only explanation for how off the face is on the unmasked head.

    1. I always thought the ML “Cmdr Rogers” the Stealth suit is based on looked more like Michael Cudlitz. Compare that head to his character on Southland, John Cooper, the likeness is uncanny. (and also why I pester Mike to play USAgent! LOL)

  3. Was never really a Cap fan prior to the movies — but I may pick this figure up if I come across it. Like JamesLynch said, I think it must be a lack of likeness rights. Thinking about it, aksde from the toys I haven’t really seen any “unmasked” Cap merch floating around.

    1. It’s bad speculation resolved by a Google search. They have his likeness rights. He & Downey have both mentioned that’s part of the deal and that they don’t get a cut from giving it up.

  4. My favorite bit about the “Avengers” Cap costume no one likes? Coulson said he helped design it.

    See what happens when you give the fanboys control?

  5. Great review. I like the figure but I would only be interested in buying comic costume figures, not movie costumes.

  6. I don’t understand why nobody likes the first Avengers costume. That one’s my favorite by far. This one is ok but too busy and I don’t like the exposed ears & fingers, WWII is cool but way too obviously padded out, and I hated the stealth suit. I wish they wouldn’t have gone intentionally costumey with the classic suit. Instead of having the attitude of “that looks silly, we need to make a costume that pays homage to it,” they should have thought “this costume has gone virtually unchanged for over 70 years so it obviously works, let’s figure out how to translate thst onscreen.” Basically, if they can make Spider-Man’s costume work perfectly on film, I find there to be no excuse for them to not nail anyone else.

    The figure does look pretty good though, minus the face.

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