Jeffrey K. Lyles' Movie Files

Ok. You’ve seen “Marvel’s The Avengers.” Maybe even twice or three times like me. You’ve picked up a couple comics, but now the kids want to bring a bit more of that awesome Avengers goodness home or you want something new to add to your desk at work, so now I’ll see if the Avengers movie series from Hasbro are the mightiest summer action figures or belong in the bottom dollar discount bin.

“Packing it in”

Decked out in a nice eye-catching blue with a big Avengers logo and images of Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Captain America (Hawkeye and Black Widow get no love at all) there’s no confusing this for some random bootleg tie-in.

“You have chosen … wisely”

Since making eight figures would be boring, Hasbro keeps things interesting with several variants of the main characters. The package lets you know which specific version of the character you’re getting.

Hasbro put numbers on the left side of the package so you know which figure you’re getting. I picked up figures 8 (Gamma Smash Hulk), 9 (Shock Strike Thor), 10 (Shield Launcher Captain America), 11 (Iron Man Fusion Armor Mark VII) and 12 (Cosmic Spear Loki) so there’s some earlier to grab from their earlier looks in the film like a Mark VI Iron Man [the one with the triangle center] or Thor with his arms showing instead of full Asgardian armor. Figures 8-12 are how the characters appeared in the final battle if you’re curious.

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?”

Thor easily wins the lookalike contest as his figure most closely resembles Chris Hemsworth, the actor playing Thor. I didn’t see much of Chris Evans or Tom Hiddleston in Captain America or Loki.

In a nice touch to the actual size differences of the actors, Captain America and Iron Man are about the same height while Loki is  slightly taller yet shorter than Thor who has to look up to Hulk.

“I like to move it, move it”

All the figures have a great range of movement, but none can turn at the waist – an odd area to leave out. Still you can pose them in a number of poses with what you have here. Only Hulk has an “action feature” as his Gamma Smash clicks his arms up to smash them down. It’s fairly harmless though and doesn’t mess up the rest of his posing.

“It’s all about how you accessorize”

Hulk gives you absolutely nothing but more plastic and heft than the others. He’s taller and bulkier so that counts for something.

Shock Strike Thor gets two two versions of his hammer. One is the standard removable one while another is encased in see-thru blue “glop” (as my Dad called it during the photo shoot) in an attempt to simulate Thor calling down lighting. He has a separate launcher piece that the lightning hammer goes into and shoots out so Thor looks like he has a cannon shooting his hammer. And it weighs his arm down so that kinda defeats the whole purpose of a shock strike, doesn’t it?

Iron Man gets a spinning pinwheel of “fusion power.” Of the added accessories, his is actually fun and clips to his arm without weighing him down.

Captain America’s shield launcher has a nice range and shoots out pretty far. This is the “you’ll shoot your eye out” accessory as it packs a nice punch.  He also comes with a more standard shield and pistol.

Loki comes with his main weapon from the film – his spear – and a two-sided axe that doesn’t snap out nearly as much as the packaging implies.

“Will they hold up?”

These figures are on a 3 3/4 scale. For parents in their 30s, that’s about the same size as GI Joes or Star Wars figures. The plastic is a bit softer so parts easily breaking off shouldn’t be an issue. Save Cap’s handgun, most of the accessories are big enough you won’t have to worry about losing them quickly or breaking them.

“Love don’t cost a thing”

Toys R Us is charging $9.99 for these, but currently are running a special with a free figure with a purchase over $30 on Avengers figure. That wouldn’t be hard to do at all. You may find them for a few cents cheaper elsewhere, but factor in gas and it may be a wash.

“That’s a wrap folks”

Hasbro isn’t giving these figures away, but they’re very solid movie tie-in figures for fans of the film. Thor is probably the best of the bunch, but Hulk is a fun figure you won’t want to put down. If you can only grab two or three, I’d recommend Hulk, Thor and Loki. There’s a maskless Captain America for those who prefer that look for him and Iron Man is bound to have 20 different figures.

*All pictures were done by my awesome Dad, Ricardo Lyles, and I purchased them all for this review.