Friday, May 30, 2014

Captain America Marvel Legends Infinite: Black Widow, Winter Soldier, Mandroid action figure review

Sorry for the long delay between reviews but here's part 2 of the Marvel Legends Infinite Captain America series. This is the second (and third) wave of the figures that complete your Mandroid Build-a-Figure. Aside from Mandroid the last three figures are all movie figures which is probably why they were released later as not to spoil anything.


Sculpting for Black Widow, Cap, and Winter Soldier are brand new bodies with no re-used parts. Widow is the big draw for collectors as she completes your movie Avengers team and she's well worth the wait. Her suit looks accurate with plenty of seams, straps, buckles, and wrist stingers. Her headsculpts are attractive if not a slightly bored expression but with very nicely sculpted hair. You can definitely tell this is Johansson's likness. Black Widow has holsters but the guns are permanently sculpted there so you'll need to supply your own pistols. Both sets of hands look great, trigger and open-palm.

Captain America and Winter Soldier's sculpts are equally as detailed with some neat looking boots and suit designs sharply defined. The sculpt really works with the articulation here and any pose looks dynamic with very little gapping. Steve and Bucky's unmasked heads only barely resemble the actors they're based upon and like the Electro head from the ASM2 figures are more of a generic look. The masked heads work more for the movie look here. Bucky's cyber arm is wicked cool and Cap's alternate pointing/chop hands work for saluting, combat moves, there's a lot of posing possibilities!

When it comes to articulation these figures are absolutely gold. Widow's range of motion is great even with her single elbow joint. The long hair alt head is limited because of the sculpt but her torso joint helps with that. Her open palms aren't jointed however so she can't do the hands-flat-on-floor pose which is what I suspect they were there for. Tho heeled like Black Cat's, Black Widow's ankle joints are done better and are pretty useful tho they will take some effort to balance.

Steve and Bucky's articulation and range of motion have me overjoyed. They can reach out, lean back, forwards, side-step, and everything looks natural. Their wrists are jointed too so Cap can salute or open-palm strike. Interestingly enough these figures don't have cut calf joints, their boots are separately molded in plastic and glued on. I'm not a big fan of calf motion and the ankles give you all the motion you need here.

Paint apps are surprisingly detailed all the way around. Black Widow has multiple suit tones, straps and buckles painted galore. Winter Soldier's body has a great dark wash that brings out the detail and Captain America's suit has definition. Even Widow and Bucky's hair has a light shading wash done. Uh, Bucky shouldn't be staring into exhaust pipes of cars. What's mean to look like the eye shading is too spread out on his face and looks downright strange. Widow's SHIELD logo tampos are sharp looking as is Winter Soldier's star.

There are accessories a plenty here in this wave with everyone getting an extra head and Steve and Widow with an extra set of hands. Bucky's sniper rifle is a remold of the weapon that came with the Hydra solider but Cap's shield is a brand new sculpt...and...it's huge. The shield was either accidentally flattened out or scaled for a 7" figure because this sucker covers more than just his torso. The big letdown is that Black Widow doesn't come with any guns yet has trigger-hands to hold them. The upside is that you can complete your SHIELD Mandroid and let me tell you, this thing is a beast!

The Mandroid battle suit is a partial remold of the Iron Monger BAF with a new torso, head, and forearm weapons. The whole thing is cast in a very nice metallic silver plastic and the giant SHIELD logo on its chest looks sharp. The head is on a full ball joint but the shoulder cannon can only swivel, not tilt. Basically it's a free giant robot and who can turn those down? It has the same great range of leg articulation with a bit of elbow restriction that was present with Monger.

So what's the verdict on these last figures? They're some of the best movie Marvel Legends yet and you're going to need them to complete Mandroid. Snag them at our sponsor Big Bad Toy Store in singles or sets so you can get Black Widow at retail price or camp Amazon for deals when they restock. Either way you won't be sorry especially if you loved Captain America: Winter Soldier movie and want to recreate some of those fight scenes. Now where's our 6" Batroc?