GEEKISH PURSUITS: REVIEW: Hasbro AVENGERS Captain America

Released 2012

Hasbro releases a Cap figure worthy of THE AVENGERS

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Hasbro has come a long way since taking over the Marvel License from Toy Biz. This doesn't mean that their figures are perfect though, and many fans still debate which company did Marvel more justice.

From the package to the review

By 2012, Hasbro had relaunched MARVEL LEGENDS as well as making headway with their Thor and Iron Man (1&2) movie lines. So by the time that THE AVENGERS hit, they were ready to drop some pretty nice figures to go with it (Why they never released a 6" AVENGERS Black Widow figure is still beyond me, though).

Some of these were just figures they had released for Thor and Iron Man 2 with minor revisions, which is disappointing. These included a "Battle Damaged" repaint of their Iron Man 2 Mark VI (they never released the Mark VII), Nick Fury, their Thor figure with a new helmet-free head sculpt.

Package rear view

Beyond these cash in's though, came some nice new figures like a Jeremy Renner based Hawkeye, a really impressive Hulk and the Avengers style Captain America figure reviewed here.

SCALE and HEIGHT

Captain America: A bit taller than the average

This figure clocks in at just over 6 inches, making him slightly taller than some of the other Avengers figures. It fits more closely with Hasbro MARVEL LEGENDS figures than the older Toy Biz figures. But it's close enough to not really matter.

I wouldn't recommend it to be used with the larger scale MARVEL SELECT figures since they are in a 7 inch scale.

Sculpt

Likeness FAIL

Hasbro's sculpting team had hit their stride prior to the release of this line and comes up short in only one area: Likeness. Facially, this figure looks generic, bearing no real resemblance to Chris Evans. That caught me a bit by surprise considering how DEAD ON their Nick Fury and Hawkeye figures came out. So if that's important to you, your only real option is moving WAY up the spectrum to either NECA's 18" Inch CAP or a HOT TOYS Cap. But both of those are in an entirely different league of product.

Good Sculpting overall

That said, Hasbro's figure is film accurate both proportionally and when it comes to detail (if not, the paint apps).

Nice Material Detail

Materials are rendered to a fine level of detail and bits like the "A" on his head are sculpted rather than just being stenciled. Boots feature a nice tread pattern around the edge (though not underneath) and buckles can be found on the boots and the gloves. Also a nice (if unnecessary, thanks to the lack of a waist joint) touch, is caps belt... which is a separate piece that sits as it's own layer. This is respectable work and holds up under close examination.

Rear View

Quality Control here has also improved. Gone are the chunks of plastic literally RIPPED out of the sculpt by rough removal from the mold. That problem plagued some of their other figures as recently as Iron Man 2 (2010). Hasbro was improving their mass market production pipeline, and it showed.

Paint Apps

If modern movie based Hasbro figures have a shortcoming, it's their paint apps. They just aren't up to the spec you see on their MARVEL LEGENDS line. And this isn't to say that they are let down by sloppy work or poor execution, because that's simply not the case.

Flat Colors are used without shading or dry brushing :(

What lets these figures down is a decision on Hasbro's part to save money: they use only flat colors to block out the different areas of the figure. You simply won't find shading of any kind on this figure...ANYWHERE. And that's a shame.

Another thing you WON'T find is dry brushing, which can be used to great effect when done well. Whether Hasbro was going for a "squeaky clean" look or just "squeaky cheap", the end result is the same: No love on the dry brushing front. Unfortunate.

The broad strokes of color are pretty good. Cap is Red, White and Blue where you'd expect him to be and that's a good thing.

Silver Trim helps break up otherwise dull Paint Apps

And metallic silver accents can be found here and there to add a bit of shimmer to what otherwise is pretty dull. The "A" painted on his head doesn't line up with the sculpted "A" which kind of sucks, but his "wings" came out better.

Application is cleaner than previous Hasbro efforts with paint bleed only found when closely inspecting the figure. And the paint is applied with enough thickness to avoid the plastic underneath coming through.

The color used for Caps skin looks a bit plastic and his eyes seem to have the bare minimum amount of effort put into them. They don't have that "white dot" meant to pass for a reflective highlight. This undermines any sense of "life" in the eyes.

And finally, his shield is basic but well done, being molded from red, semi-metallic finish plastic, then painted with Blue and Silver where needed.

Articulation

If this figure is a bit weak on the Paint Apps, it tries to make up for this with excellent Articulation. And except for one thing, it succeeds.

Try THAT, Hulk!

This time out, Hasbro's figure includes not only numerous points of articulation, but a very impressive range of motion for each joint. This really is the key to a well articulated figure, and they seem to get it.

The one thing keeping Avengers Cap from being a home run here is than damned legacy issue, held over from the Iron Man Movie line.

MISSING IN ACTION: Waist Joint

AGAIN we have a Hasbro movie based figure with NO WAIST joint. This is just ludicrous. Say what you will about it interfering with the beautiful sculpt, but I'll make that trade any day. It works GREAT on Hasbro's HEROIC AGE Iron Man, and there is no excuse for it to be missing here. This has got to be a cost cutting measure. I just can't imagine any other reason for the exclusion of this joint. Fix this, and you're golden, Hasbro.

Captain POSTURE: Leaning ALL the way back

Instead you get not an ab crunch but another damned diaphragm pivot joint. This is the ONLY way to get Cap's shoulders to rotate off axis from the waist. This joint pulls double duty by accounting for all bending motion. Backward bending is MUCH improved from previous figures, but you can pretty much forget about bending Cap forwards. Apparently, he is "The Posture King".

Ready to salute

The head is mounted atop a ball hinge joint, with a really nice Range of Motion. As you'd expect, his head does rotate left and right as well as supporting looking very far up, if not too far down.

Impressive shoulder joints

His shoulders rotate and raise just like most MARVEL LEGENDS do, but raise up about 15-20 degrees farther than most other figures in this scale.

Not many figures can reach this far back

Biceps swivel nicely and elbows are double jointed, with a range of motion so great that cap can nearly reach the back of his head. IM-pressive.

Cleverly hidden at the glove line are wrist swivels, but you won't find ANY ability to flex or extend Cap's wrists (via a pivot). Normally, this would frustrate me, but since most collectors will attach Ol' Steve's shield to his forearm, this doesn't feel like as much of an issue. Then again, maybe you'd prefer to run his shield on his back and pop a pistol in his hand ala "The First Avenger"... and in that case, your options are a bit more limited than they need to be.

Both hands are pre-posed into semi-open positions. So if you were hoping for trigger hands, you'll need to look elsewhere.

PUNT!

Hip joints are ball hinges connected at a "T" intersection. This means the legs are prone to move together, though this can be easily overcome. His legs can move forward (dorsiflexion) into one hell of a goal kick, so expect a full 90+ degrees of freedom here, and he can even bust the splits sideways. Hip joints that allow for this should be standard issue on ALL Hasbro Movie and LEGENDS figures moving forward. Top it off with upper thigh swivels and the possibilities really open up. Just great stuff.

Joints like this should be standard issue for Hasbro

Knees are double jointed and collapse all the way down, only being limited by their own dimensions. And while feet can't be rotated via shin/calf swivel, this is made irrelevant thanks to those upper thigh joints.

ROCKING out

I've found rotation to be far less useful than Ankle ROCKERS anyway, which this figure features. This is Hasbro's NEW Rocker design as well, which has a crazy range of motion. The only drawback is that they get loose quick. Already, one of mine is a bit loose, and I *just* took this figure out of the package. If these ratcheted, it might help.

What this all equates to is a damned impressive figure when it comes to pose-ability, and half the fun of owning a figure is trying out new poses for your display.

Special Features

Thankfully, Hasbro didn't waste money on stupid "Action Features", preferring to spend their budget on getting the highest quality possible.

Foot Peg Holes lend useful support

One of those quality features that I always seem to call out are Foot Peg Holes, and FINALLY Hasbro seems to be listening to the fans on this. With the weak ankle Rockers, having a bit of extra support from the included stand can only help.

Accessories

This figure is pretty spartan when it comes to accessories. He includes two.

Hasbro Modular Stand with AVENGERS branding

The first is one of Hasbro's modular stands. Nice to have, but not an outright necessity.

A bit on the small side

The second is Captain America's Iconic Vibranium Shield. And I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with it: Not because it's a little on the small side, scale wise. I can look beyond that. But it's the STRAPS that are a bit maddening.

Messy Straps

The idea is great on paper: Make it so the shield can be worn on either Cap's arm OR on his back. Sounds good. But this is accomplished via two long plastic straps that you have wrap into a loop two times (each) if you want to affix the shield to his arm. Since the Straps are plastic, they easily fold over on them selves and get generally mangled when doing this. It's do-able, but kind of a pain in the ass.

Other versions

To my knowledge, Hasbro produced no Variant of this figure. Figma is rumored to be producing Avenger's figures, but those are said to be in a different scale.

Size Comparison

A bit taller than Spidey

I've shown Cap next to Hasbro's own Symbiote Spiderman Figure.

Opinion, Value and VERDICT

My money is on Captain Britain

Hasbro is providing pretty great Value for money with their figures these days. Since you won't find these at retail anymore, trades or ebay are probably your cheapest path to ownership. Currently one can be yours in the package for about $20 and that ain't bad.

Closing thoughts