Trying something different this time, I have put a rating on the opening pic of the figure. This is based on a five star system. We’ll see how it goes. Also tried adding some personal notes as to why I chose individual figures over others.
Hasbro has done it again. Two years ago they launched out nearly five waves of 25th GI Joe in the month of November-December only to cancel the line. Last year Hasbro launched 5 waves over the course of 2 months of Star Wars legacy from October to late November. Again the line was cancelled. From May until now Marvel Universe is up to 3 waves, this is also after a long standing issue with revision waves that clogged the pegs with popular but mostly acquired characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man and Wolverine. It has taken months for the revision wave to filter out and many collectors were left without options for figures like Sunfire and Warpath and especially Vision. Online stores are rushing out product while collectors attempt to find ways to keep up.
On a personal level, what is infuriating about this course of action is that Hasbro seems to know what line I am following strongest when they try this practice. I can only hope some sanity reaches the corporate offices and soon, before my credit card explodes.
Some defenders pointed to a few slow sellers like Yarna, and the whys and how’s that Hasbro felt this was a great pack in extra figure for the first five waves of Legacy. Yet it should be pointed out that it is very hard to have any waves of figures that will not have some form of pegwarmer. This EU wave is a rare exception, but I bet the repacks in this wave to fill it out will not be near as hard to find.
OK on to figures. This review is of Iron Patriot, Iron Spider-man, and Winter Soldier. Wrecker is still on the way (Not sure why he wasn’t with the rest, but that is ok cause I have a special plan for him anyway).
First up is Iron Patriot. OK confession time, I haven’t been keeping up with Marvel of late. I did read Dark Avengers #1 and I know who Iron Patriot is. I will tell the truth, I thought Dark Avengers was a rip-off of the original Thunderbolts and didn’t keep up with it. But anyway I got the idea, I got what Norman was doing in the story and I got what the writers were doing with the Iron Patriot character.
My one beef is that it was Norman Osborne. Now don’t get me wrong, I like Green Goblin. My issue is first that Norman is dead as far as I am concerned (I don’t care what the clone story said) and that even if he was alive he would still be too unstable to pull all this off. Sure he is unstable in the stories, but I mean he is a whack job beyond that. The calculating/plotting Norman just doesn’t ring with me. Oh I know people are saying “But Norman planned before.” Yes, to trap Spider-Man primarily, nothing long term, he was too looney. It would be like the Joker pulling off this same scheme, it just doesn’t ring true to the character. \
Still I have to admit, despite all those negatives I do like Iron Patriot. I sometimes try to think he is Baron Zemo or something (Yeah I know Citizen V). Still in a way he kind of fits the role Kurt Angle used to in wrestling, taking the all-American ideal and turning it on its ear. In fact I can hear the “You suck” chants when I look at him sometimes.
The figure is a repaint of Extremis (sp?) Iron Man, while I am sick of Hasbro repainting figures to death I can stick up for them on this one. After all Iron Patriot is supposed to be an Iron Man armor repainted so it works. The chest is new for the star shaped arch reactor, but otherwise the figures are Identical in molds.
Not sure how I will use this figure in my comic, but I know he is defiantly useable. This also works for me on the level that Hasbro wants an Iron Man in the line and right now we technically do have one in this wave.
Speaking of overdone characters, we have Spider-Man but this time we get the Iron Spider-Man. I never got this costume when it came out. Spider-Man in armor seems about as natural as a Hobbit in the Easterling Army (20 cool points if you get that reference). Still the armor did win me over when I got the Heroclix version in the Avengers set. Not sure what it was that won me over with that version but when I got him in a three dimensional sense I kind of liked it.
What wins me over with this figure is the simple fact that this is an iconic look to Spidey. House of M Spidey is interesting but seems somewhat unnecessary. Iron Spidey really comes across much better IMO.
His “arms” are held in place by an addition to the back, they are on ball like joints so they are moveable somewhat. Still I would have liked it if they were more moveable with some kind of joints. Even without that the figure is a perfect representation of the armor. I have to say I like it a lot.
With the reveal this week of the “Ben clone” Costume in the Spider-Man line, the only other Spidey I can think of that is necessary at this point is Spider-Man 2009. I always loved the look of the costume even though I was not much of a fan of the comic.
Iron Spidey will probably get shot or something soon though, it’s the fate of most of the Spider-man figures in my comic. It’s just a thing.
Winter Soldier is kind of an interesting character. For the longest time the joke at the comic shop was “No one in comics stays dead except Bucky.” Well guess what, he ain’t dead no more. What was really weird about his return is the fact that nearly the same time Jason Todd AKA Robin apparently returned from the dead as well. He also was a bad guy. Weirder still was both Cap and Bats died and both Jason and Bucky attempted to fill in the role for their mentors. Jason Todd’s was shot down before he really got to it though while Bucky was allowed to continue. But it was kind of spooky for a while.
As you can see this is the “long haired” variant of Winter Soldier. Some are running around the web saying he is rare. However as of this writing he seems more common than the short haired version. Although the short-haired version is what is pictured on the back of the card, this variant does not appear to be a variant at all.
I ordered my Winter Soldier through BBTS, I ordered him individually and did not attempt to get the variant. Many variants sell for much more on the second hand market, if he were truly rare I doubt BBTS would have packed him in for an individual order. There has been some conjecture on this point about some variants coming out of BBTS, but the only cases of this I have heard were involving sealed cases, not individual orders. Confused yet, well some are not grasping what I am saying on all this, that the card picture doesn’t match the figure and that this version is being labeled a variant when it seems common. The point is don’t get had by scalpers, be careful cause this might be the one on the shelf regularly.
Winter Soldier appears to be a repaint of Nick Fury (Note: I never got Nick so I am basing that off of pics from Cool Toy Review). The only difference is the cybernetic arm. I can see this arm possibly being reused for Cable (removing the star would be simple, just mold a new shoulder).
The figure has dull colors which is exactly what Winter Soldier should be. I really wanted this figure to have Cap teach Bucky yet another lesion in the lack of use of guns. I just think it’s funny when Cap tells him “Guns are for wussies.”
Overall really good figures but Hasbro need to put on the breaks and space out their waves, I would probably have gotten a whole set if it weren’t so close to the Archangel wave.