Hot Toys Captain America: Civil War Falcon figure review

I managed to show an unusual amount of patience when figure purchases are concerned for Falcon. While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Anthony Mackie’s take on Sam Wilson, his attire in Captain America: The Winter Soldier was uninspired. That prompted me to hold out for the next version, which debuted in Avengers: Age of Ultron. This was a rare case where a little patience paid off.

Like Black Panther, Hot Toys’ Falcon ver. 2 figure was a Day 1 pre-order. Barring an Avengers: Infinity War version with a white vest, this will be the only Hot Toys Falcon I’ll need.

Packaging: I didn’t know Hot Toys had this level of packaging creativity in them. The comic book inspired wraparound is a really snazzy presentation and major improvement over the usual dull packaging.

I like the packaging so much I’m strongly considering the War Machine and Black Widow figures. Ok, that’s not the only reason I’m teetering on them, but that sounded good.

Likeness: My wife and I had a long debate over this one. I definitely see the Anthony Mackie likeness. She didn’t. For me, a great likeness has me spouting off dialogue as soon as I pick them up. Falcon was a big winner in that regard.

Even in lower light, Mackie’s features show up really well suggesting it’s not just the paintwork getting the job done here. Hot Toys gets the likeness dead-on about 90 percent of the time and Falcon definitely is in that category.

Scale: Falcon uses the regular size base body. That makes sense as Falcon isn’t as broad as Captain America even with his flight suit. I’m impressed by how closely the figure matches the actual height difference of Mackie and co-star Chris Evans. Mackie is about a half head shorter than Evans and that’s captured perfectly here.

Paint: As usual not a whole lot of paint necessary thanks to the outfit. The paintjob is the usual incredibly detailed work from Hot Toys. You’d expect that from a hand-painted product, but the slight skin blemishes, shading of the goatee and hairline really make the figure look sharp.

With the camera zoomed in, I noticed a slight discoloration under the left nostril like some tiny thread got painted on by accident. It’s not the kind of thing I’d notice without really peering up close to the figure but it’s surprising that wasn’t caught.

Outfit: The outfit has a real authentic flight suit look modified for superhero action. I love having the Hot Toys figures as they’re great in showcasing all the minor details in the costume design. I never noticed the front of Falcon’s vest/chest piece has wings.

The gauntlets reflect a mild amount of use. It’s little details like this that give the Hot Toys figures a real-world look. Along the waist is a belt with some extra clips. Makes sense as Falcon doesn’t have anywhere else to place them. The metallic pieces on the armor all have a nice sheen to give them that extra pop.

Articulation: The only downside to this nice looking outfit is it restricts the movement somewhat. You can get the outstretched arms gun aiming pose, but it does take some maneuvering.

Keep in mind Falcon’s standard articulation probably isn’t the selling point for most collectors. He needs to have great in-flight poseability and Falcon is real solid in that category.

Falcon has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• bicep
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee (double-jointed)
• ankle

Accessories: While some of his peers in this series have been sparse on the accessory front, Falcon gets everything you’d need. Falcon comes with four pairs of hands: fists, relaxed hands, weapon holding and wings holding.

Falcon also has his flight backpack. You’ll only need to plug that in once. It fits in sorta wonky with clips that affix to the base. Once you’ve found the secure spot, it holds in place with no problem.

Additionally, he comes with a sub-machine gun and another for his left forearm. The sub-machine gun tends to fall over too easily, but it plugs in without much effort. Falcon has a pair of removable googles that slide off and on smoothly. His Civil War stand is wider than the others to help support his weight and for his most fun accessory.

It wouldn’t be Falcon if his little buddy Redwing drone wasn’t around for the party to ambush Iron Man. Redwing’s wings and nose fold in fully spread wings with articulation. That’s a neat touch and thanks to the clear stand, Redwing can be posed in flight with Falcon.

To help in firefights, Falcon has two pistols. They fit in the weapon holding hands great and I appreciate having trigger fingers.

But the big reason I was excited about this figure was the wings and man, do they deliver. The wings plug into the backpack sides. Pull those slots out carefully as that’s the main thing holding the wings in place and you don’t want them to get loose on you.

The wings are amazing. They’re wide, massive and have a nice heft without toppling Falcon over every five seconds. I actually didn’t have to worry about him being too top heavy, a testament to the smart figure engineering of the Hot Toys figures.

The wings have three sections providing some form of articulation and they can move slightly up and down. And with the stand, you can get really creative with flight poses.

I would have loved for the wings to have the Archangel fold so Falcon could use them as a shield, but we get the important movement from them.

Worth it? At $235, Falcon is slightly higher than the average Hot Toys figure. Factoring in the wings, it’s not hard to see where those extra $15 dollars went so the value seems fair.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

With a bit more streamlined articulation, this would have easily nabbed a 10. It’s an outstanding figure and really limits the need for another Falcon figure.

Where to get it? Currently Falcon is on the Sideshow Collectibles’ wait list. In my experience that isn’t the last chance to get a figure from Sideshow. Just sign up and your odds are pretty good to have your order go through. But the sooner the better.