Hasbro Marvel Legends Infinite Giant Man Series (movie) review
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The third Captain America film, Civil War, has hit theaters and seems to be winning fans over at the box office. And Hasbro is ready with the release
of a new line of Marvel Legends Infinite figures to coincide with the film. This latest series features versions of Captain America, Iron Man and
Black Panther in their outfits from the movie as well as three other characters from Marvel Comics, all with at least some connection to Captain
America: Nick Fury, Red Guardian (the Russian counterpart to Captain America) and Nuke (a villain created in an attempt to recreate the super soldier
formula). And if you collect all six, there is a movie style Giant Man Build A Figure. Overall, it's a nice assortment of characters that manages to
stay true to central theme and a decent mix of A list characters and a few who would be lucky to be called D or E List characters.
Packaging - Captain America, Iron Man & Black Panther 6/10, others 4/10The packaging for the latest series of Marvel Legends Infinite figures is the same design as they have been using for the last few years. It shows off the figures well in the front along with the accessories and build a figure parts. The back of the packages show the figures in detail with a short description of the character in four languages. There is also images showing all of the figures in the series and the build a figure at the bottom. I've said it before, I like the simple, clean design for the movie based figures. The action poses on the back look like they could have been taken straight off a movie poster. But with the lesser known comic characters, it would be nice if there was more character information. Two sentences isn't much to go on. At the very least, throw in a link to a more detailed bio on Marvel's web site.
Sculpting - Iron Man, Nick Fury & Red Guardian 7/10 Black Panther 9/10 others 8/10The sculpting for these figures is excellent. Captain America seems to be a straight reuse of the Age of Ultron Captain America figure. That's not an issue to me since I liked that figure. Black Panther is a completely new figure and replicates the look from the movie extremely well. The texture for the outfit's material could be more pronounced though. Iron Man's newest armor is replicated well, though I think his neck is a bit too long. In the movie the armor seemed to ride quite high so very little of his neck was exposed. The three comic based characters have a slightly simpler look to them. But that seems quite appropriate for the source material. I really like Nuke thanks to all of the details for his vest and pants. Red Guardian looks fine, but he has a fairly simple costume. Nick Fury has a generic body. But they dress it up well with all of the belts and holsters. I'm not thrilled with the head sculpt though. It looks too much like a cartoon.
Paint - Red Guardian 7/10, Others 8/10The Marvel Legends Infinite line is vastly improved over the old days. All six of thes figures have well executed paint applications. There are a few very minor nit picks I can point out. Red Guardian seems to have a slight blue wash on his gloves that helps to add some shadowing. But his boots are plain, bright white. The gold stripes that come down on Iron Man's shoulders should be extended a bit further. And Nuke could use some variety for his skin tone too. But all of those issue are extremely minor compared to the kind of issue previous figures had.
Articulation - 9/10Most of the figures in this series have the usual articulation for a male Marvel Legends figure:
Accessories - Red Guardian 5/10, Captain America & Black Panther 6/10, Nuke 9/10, others 7/10Both Red Guardian and Captain America each come with just their shields. Red Guardian has the older style shield with both a wrist clip and peg on the back to store the shield on his back. Captain America has the newer style shield with actual straps on the back. It is a more elaborate design, but doesn't really allow for storage of the shield and allows the shield to flop around more on his arm. Nick Fury has two alternate heads, one a random shield operative and the other a masked Shield agent. The spare heads are great since it means Fury works very well as an army builder for your Shield forces. He also comes with a pistol as well. Iron Man comes with an alternate set of hands giving him a pair of fists and a pair of open hands to use his repulsors. They also included two blast effects that can plug into either the repulsors in his palms or the peg holes in his feet. They are a cool addition. Now they just need to revive the clear flight stands from the Toy Biz days. Black Panther has a spare, unmasked head. That is a nice addition, especially since with the unmasked head in place, you can still have Black Panther hold the other head as if it were his helmet. But the unmasked head is not a great likeness. At the very least, they didn't include his facial hair. Nuke ends up being the best equipped figure in the series. He has a large rifle, a combat knife and a spare head. The rifle is a bit unwieldy, but the combat knife is cool and can be stored in the sheath on his back. His spare head has his hair shaved off and part of his skin ripped off, revealing a metal skull. I wish that the grenades on his vest were removable. But even without them, he is well armed.
Build A Figure - Movie Giant ManSPOILER ALERT!!So if you haven't already seen the movie, during the climatic showdown at the airport, Ant Man reveals that just like the comic version of the character, he is also capable of growing in size to become Giant Man. And his giant form is the Build A Figure for this series. The costume is pretty much the same as the Ant Man movie costume. But the helmet has been redesigned. The overall design and look of Giant Man is great. But they didn't get the scale right. In the comics, Giant Man was usually limited to a height of about ten feet. And that is about the height that is represented by the build a figure. But in the movie, he grew to a far larger size, towering over the other heroes and even large aircraft. I suppose a figure of that size would have been impractical, even as a build a figure.
Value - 6/10I spent $144 for the set of six figures or $24 each. That is a bit pricey since I know that if I was willing to wait, I could have gotten them for $20 or less when they hit regular retail stores. But even at the specialty store price, they are still a decent value, especially when you get the set and the Build A Figure as well. But if you do have the patience to wait and get them at the discount retailer price, you can easily add two points to the score. If you are a fan of the Marvel Legends lines and the Captain America Civil War movie, these are a great addition to your collection for a reasonable price.
Happy Hunting:I ordered my set of figures from Big Bad Toy Store. They are also showing up at a lot of other specialty stores and on Amazon. But if the last three series are any indication, it could be another month or more before they begin showing up at Toys R Us, Target and Walmart. But they should show up in local stores eventually.
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