The first movie out of the gate is Thor (opening in the UK on 27th April 2011) and true to form, approximately a month before the release, the toys hit the shelves.
First debuted to the world's toy press at the New York Toy Fair in February the initial tranche of releases contains the first wave of the 3.75 inch figures (Thor, Odin, Loki & an Ice Giant) and an 8 inch rotocast figure of Thor which is the subject of this review.
I'm going to swiftly deal with the 3.75 inch figures first. They were, in my opinion, really insubstantial and fragile looking. Not at all what I expected from this license. It is good that Hasbro are maintaining a consistent look across all of their Marvel movie waves and I'm sure that the Captain America set will be no different but when compared to rest of the fare to tempt the toy dollars from Mom and Pop's purse they look really tiny.
In my local Toys R Us they are displayed right next to the chunky, bright figures from Brave and the Bold, same price point, different kettle of fish.
Even I, a hardcore toy collector had the full wave in my hands and put them back on the shelf...not a good sign.
But then I picked up what I truly had gone in for, the 8 inch rotocast.
This is a figure with limited POA (points of articulation) - 5 to be exact, neck, shoulders and hips but what it loses in posability it more than makes up for in sculpting.
The facial sculpt of this figure IS Chris Helmsworth as Thor.
The costume is excellently realised from the scaled arm armour all the way down to the pitting on the head of Moljnir. There are actually two separate variants of this figure. The one pictured and another issue with a 'powered up' look utilising blue translucent plastic for the head of Moljnir and the blue of Thor's jerkin.
I did notice a slight paint difference in the two with the paint on the translucent variant being 'heavier' and not as natural as the standard figure. The case ratio for these seemed to be 70/30 weighted in favour of the standard.
I find myself now wanting to pick up the previously released Iron Man Mark VI rotocast in the same scale and the 10" Incredible Hulk to really start to build up my movie Avengers in this scale. I really hope that we see a future Captain America figure in this manner.
Having dealt with the sculpting and the paint I'll now hit the all important info...the price point.
This figure costs £10.99 in Toys R Us and I was pleasantly surprised to see the same price at Forbidden Planet. I feel that this, in the modern pricing structure for toys aimed at the collectors market is certainly very reasonable and certainly much better than the asking price of £7.99 for the 3.75" line.
All in, I'm very, very happy with this figure being on my shelves and would happily give it a solid 4.5 out of 5
This figure is available at all branches of Toys R Us, Forbidden Planet and also from select dealers on Amazon in the UK. In the US it can be found at Walmart, Target, Toys R Us and all specialised Toy dealers.
Pick him up...For Asgard!!!!!!!!
No helmet?
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