Monday, March 17, 2014

Captain America Marvel Legends Infinite: Hydra/AIM Soldier, Baron Zemo, Marvel Now Cap figure review


Marvel Legends is officially dead, all hail Marvel Legends Infinite! According to Hasbro the 'Marvel Legends' series will no longer ship as a stand-alone line. Instead they will be released as movie tie-in lines that will feature both movie characters as well as comic versions related to the movie. Case in point, the Captain America Legends line out now. It's working out quite well and we're getting a slew of new characters along with variants. Here we look at the AIM and Hydra soldiers, Marvel Now Captain America, and Baron Zemo. The build-a-figure is the SHIELD Mandroid, an armored robot looking thing which will be covered as a separate figure in part 2 of this review.

We start off with the AIM Soldier, an excellent brand new sculpt that's actually going to be the base body of a future comic Starlord figure. The unpainted stars on the gloves and buttons down the front are a dead giveaway. The body has lots of leathery detail, folds, and creases. AIM Soldier's headsculpt is what we've been waiting for, the Beekeeper look! It looks awesome moving around at the inset collar. The boots are molded separately in black and attached to the lower knees which is a nice touch. Add the classic AIM belt and you have a great looking figure.

The Hydra Agent uses the familiar medium build body and this works great for him. A new headsculpt looks far more menacing than the last Hydra Agent and his gear is removable as well leaving you with a perfect base body for customizing (tho you probably won't want to, he's only one per case). Baron Zemo shares the same general body using the US Agent mold with a new headsculpt, holsters and belt. Both bodies are excellent in design and proportion for the characters they're used for. Zemo's head is brand new and has awesome looking sculpted seams running down it.

The Marvel Now Captain America is a completely new sculpt from head to toe and is filled with detail like the honeycomb pattern on his armor and armor straps along his lower arms/legs.The right hand is a sculpted fist so he won't be holding anything but his left hand can. I'm a big fan of the headsculpt and the belt, tho his upper torso nicks the top of the belt when you turn his waist. Other than that his sculpt is great.

Articulation for the AIM soldier is top notch with a huge range of motion in all the limbs. There is a bit of a gap in the shoulder but it allows clearance for the raised sections of the shoulders not to rub. Side-swivel boots make for great running poses and the head motion allows him to look around in lots of direction thanks to a high set ball joint inside. The Hydra Agent's articulation has been covered many times before with the basic medium body build and needless to say is perfect with no issues.

Baron Zemo shares the same body as the Hydra Soldier and has the same excellent range of motion. The loincloth isn't hindering (it can be removed too) and he can even sit if you work with it a bit. However the sword gets in the way if you tuck it in the front sheathing. Instead put his gun in there and slip the sword behind his back webgear strap 'Blade style' for an easier time. Captain America's articulation is wonderful with one small exception, his biceps are so large the upper hinge joint barely moves at all, acting like a single hinge instead of a double. Other than that he can leap, dive, and crouch like anyone else.


Paint apps are clean through the whole wave thankfully. The AIM soldier is primarily cast in yellow and black plastic and the Hydea Soldier in green and yellow. There's some orange shading on Hydra but none on AIM tho he doesn't suffer from it. Zemo sports great paint work with orange shading, linework on his mask and chest, even his accessories are fully painted! Cap A has nice bright colors without any shading but there's enough breaks in the design to look detailed. A bit of an issue tho, his ab crunch is so flush to the hinge the paint can scrape off if you're not careful. Same with the grey under his arms, there's almost no clearance against the shoulder socket. A bit of carving with an X-acto knife can fix this, just be careful.

Accessories are plentiful here! Cap gets his standard folding clip-peg shield which is cast in a nice metallic red plastic and stores on his back. He also comes with a piece of the Mandroid, as does everyone. Hydra agent has removable webgear/belt and two brand new weapons, a crazy looking long-rifle and large ray gun. Both sport great paint apps and the Hydra symbol! AIM Soldier has similar weapons that are new designs and sport the AIM logo/colors along with a removable bandoleer. They're great and could be repainted to work with anyone. Zemo comes with a leopard-handled pistol, hard plastic broadsword, and removable webgear. The pistols aren't removable from their holsters, tho they do sport two emblazoned 'Z's.

So what's the verdict on these figures? If you're a Marvel Legends collector or even an Avengers fan you can't pass up these 'army builder' troops. Captain America's new mold and Zemo's modern look are great additions. You'll have trouble finding these in stores as they're one per case aside from Cap so your best bet is to head over to our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store and snag a set. Alternately you can camp Amazon and try to catch them when they're restocked or purchase your favorites separately.

There are 'variants' too, Red Skull and Baron Zemo being stand-ins for the AIM and Hydra goons and both have Mandroid Arm parts but ship in the same assortment. The second wave will contain the last three figures needed to make Mandroid, movie Black Widow (one per case), Winter Soldier, and Steve Rogers. This wave only has Red Skull and Zemo in it. The third and perhaps final assortment contains Black Widow (two per case so don't pay scalper prices), Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers, and the Marvel Now Captain America. Hasbro spread it out so you'll get an equal number of Mandroid heads, torsos, and limbs, just not in the same wave.