From the Work Bench: Marvel Infinite Captain America (Age of Ultron)

In the latest series of Marvel Legends / Infinite, we have more obscure characters like Batrog and Hellcat paired with the more familiar movie versions of Cap, Iron Man, and the Hulk. The face sculpts on these figures are pretty impressive, especially the build-a-figure Thanos. On the reverse, it looks like Hasbro selected characters that didn't require a lot of sculpting beyond the new head. The figures based on the new Avengers movie are mostly recycled parts as well. C'est la vie.

Anyway, this is concerning the movie version of Captain America.  While he does have a new chest piece, most of the rest of him is recycled from the Winter Soldier figure. This leads to some inaccuracies in the portrayal of the new suit.  But the main gripe is the paint.  The "white" in the suit was the worse, with a lot of the blue plastic showing through. So I basically repainted all of it white.

Sunday Movie: Captain America : The First Avenger

There's a lot to adore about this movie, but nothing quite as much as Stanley Tucci's beign scientist and Chris Evans's pre-steroids Steve Rogers. They provide much of the heart and pathos in the beginning of the movie that help give meaning to the second half's over the top action pieces.

To begin with, the movie is a pastiche of American movie genres. Its 1940s setting helps cement the film as an "old fashioned" film made in that era. Our hero, always a boy scout, falls in love, but is never amorous except for some double entendre featuring fondue and a passionate kiss. This is, obviously, reminiscent of films of that era, and even old Westerns.

Once we move on to the villains, powered by a MacGuffin from "Thor" (Marvel almost works too hard to keep these films interconnected), and before you know it, they are armed with distintegrator rays from 1950s sci-fi b-movies. Luckily, Captain America has and briefly uses a gadget-filled motorcycle that would make 60s spy films envious. (It also may be a nod to the television specials made in the 70s featuring Rob Brown, a colorful outfit, and a motorcycle.)

(Alan Manken wrote a catchy tune that may invoke, to some, the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers days of big musical numbers.)

Whatever the reason, Joe Johnston and gang made a hero, true to the comic books, as a courageous, well-meaning kid from Brooklyn who's always true to himself and never misses his mark. God bless Captain America.

Review: Iron Man With Vibranium Armor

Iron Man Month continues with a toy review. There's nothing new about this figure except for the paint deco. The figure is the Mark VI from the Iron Man 3-3/4" Movie Series with the shield from the Marvel Universe line. But the paint deco is really the reason to admire the figure anyway.



Iron Man is decked out in Captain America's red. white, and blue scheme. This is a nice change from the usual red and gold. He's almost certainly modeled after the What If - Civil War cover featuring a similar designed Iron Man. There's no explanation why Iron Man is like this, who is under the armor, or why you would need the shield when you have the armor.

That's because it doesn't matter. He just looks cool, thanks to the metallic paint job covering both the figure and the shield. The paint ops are overall pretty good. There's some nice detailing on the chest and arms that otherwise could have ended up looking sloppy. The paint's not perfect but very impressive due to its scale.

Since it is a recycled figure, this Iron Man shares all of the articulation of his brothers in the Movie Series. Head, mid-chest, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles. The only real disappoint is that his head doesn't move up and down.



His only accessory is Captain America's shield. Due to the metallic look, the white parts are silver instead. I am a big fan of Hasbro's design for his shield. It has elastic bands to hold the shield on the character's back, a la Captain America, and a clip to snap onto his forearm. Iron Man's arm is a shade slimmer than the clip, so the shield's a little loose, but not too loose.

Overall, it's a fun figure to own, as long as you're okay that it's made from recycled parts. It's a K-Mart exclusive with Army Green War Machine (another cool redeco) and a transparent Mark V (a disappointment). B

"Ultimate" Avengers DVD

Marvel's released an animated adaptation to "The Ultimates" (Ulitmatized Avengers, hence the title) I haven't seen it yet, but it sounds like how you'd expect it to turn out: an all-ages version of Mark Millar's story. The animation looks promising: clean, smooth, but nowhere near Hitch's detailed artwork.

Cap's Cap. Iron Man looks more Iron Manish. And Thor's looks more like He-Man without his beard. I was surprised to see one of my favs, Black Widow, to get to appear in the movie. I guess it's to smooth out that man to woman ratio on the team.

When I get to see the whole thing, I'll try to post a review.