We are coming up to the last of this summer’s big comic book movies so it’s time to look at Mister Red, White and Blue himself, Captain America.
Unlike the recently released Thor movie figures, we are seeing more 3.75” figures based on the Captain America comic book instead of having them almost all movie-based. On the pegs, there’s the Winter Soldier, U.S. Agent and bad guy Crossbones in addition to the dozen or more obligatory Cap variants.
As a comic book fan, I naturally made a beeline towards the figures that are based on the classic Cap. Incidentally my very first Marvel comic book was a classic Jack Kirby Captain America issue, hmmm … guess I’m showing my age
here. Anyway, first figure I picked up was the Heavy Artillery Captain America.
Now what is different about this Captain America figure from all the other 3.75” Caps that Hasbro has produced over the years? It’s the belt! Far as I know, this is the first modern Cap figure that has him with his classic, no-frills black belt. The previous modern Caps like the one in the Secret Wars series has him wearing a brown belt with little pouches around it. Yes, I know it made more practical sense but it’s not the Cap I grew up with!
Heavy Artillery Captain America comes with the obvious shield accessory; a nice shiny one also fits perfectly on the arms of the other 3.75” Marvel Universe figures. It looks pretty cool on the Iron Patriot! The other accessory is the ever-popular missile launcher. Come on, we all have seen this before; every action figure from Batman to Spidey has carried one. Point, press and shoot a long little plastic missile at the enemy figures.
There’s a fine feathered armor scale texture on Cap’s upper body just like in the current comics, but do make a closer inspection of the paint job as some figures have less smudges than others. All in all, an excellent, long overdue Captain America action figure for the comic book fan.
The next figure I made a grab for is the Heroic Age Captain America otherwise known as the Bucky a.k.a. Winter Soldier as Captain America. To tell you the truth, I was tiny bit hesitant when it came to picking up this figure, simply
because of his … er … final fate in the pages of the current Fear Itself mini-series.
Anyway Heroic Age Captain America is another pretty comic-accurate action figure, from the leaner face sculpt to the polished look of the costume. This is a well-detailed figure and would definitely look good posing next to Heavy
Artillery Cap.
He also comes with a couple more lethal weapons than Heavy Artillery Cap. There’s an automatic pistol, a dagger and … are you ready for this … throwing-star shield! Hit the centre of the shield and out pops the little plastic blades,
turning it into a shuriken or ninja’s throwing star. Don’t want to admit it but I really couldn’t stop playing with it, striking a ninja pose and throwing it at people around me! Errr … no, I wasn’t pretending to be Elektra.
So I’m really looking forward to getting the rest of the Captain America figures in this series. And with some of the other already released 3.75” Marvel Universe figures on sale, it’s only a matter of time before I’m yelling “Avengers Assemble!” at my display case.
