Marvel Legends Captain America Bucky Barnes review — Bucky Cap
Marvel managed to pull off the unthinkable and credibly bring back Bucky Barnes. Not only that, but Ed Brubaker penned a strong era of Bucky Cap where the sidekick became the main hero. Hasbro released Bucy Cap early on in their Marvel Legends run, which became the base body for at least 30 figures.
As we’re in the Beyond Earth’s Mightiest Avengers anniversary theme, Bucky warranted an update. Hasbro crafted the right parts together for an upgraded Bucky Cap.
Let’s see if this figure is worth placing in the center of a New Avengers lineup or needs to get shuffled off to the back of the display.
Packaging: I’m soooo over the windowless packaging, but I do like the style of this Avengers theme with the white and blue accents. It stands out against the normal black theme ML set up.
There’s a shot of the figure up front and the right side while the left features artwork from Captain America #50 from Steve Epting.
The back features an action shot of Bucky Cap and the Avengers backdrop along with an insert photo of his accessories. While there’s no bio it does look pretty nice.
Likeness: Hasbro intends for the Vulcan mold to be the one they’re going with as the new base for male figures going forward. It’s a solid buck with a well-defined musculature that isn’t too bulky and just right for an average size superhero.
And as usual, Hasbro added the necessary new elements to make the mold work for Bucky. First up is the head sculpt, which captures Bucky’s appearance as if drawn by Epting with the serious expression and prominent chin.
New parts also include the short gloves, his pouch belt that doesn’t fully wrap around his waist and buccaneer style boots that would work perfectly for a Dave Cockrum/John Byrne era Cyclops on this mold.
Paint: One of the stark differences with Bucky’s attire is his blue had a metallic sheen to it against a matte black stemming from his arms and lower waist down to his pants.
The paintwork is a spotty around the star and some of the white stripes in the torso area. Fortunately, the work around his eyes is nice and clean.
Scale: Bucky Cap was typically drawn about a half-head taller than Hawkeye and eye to eye with Iron Man in his Heroic Age armor. And he should be shorter by about half a head to Thor.
Hasbro hasn’t been as focused on scale as I’d like, but Bucky Cap seems reasonably accurate to his fellow New Avengers. I’m still waiting on a proper comic book Luke Cage.
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Articulation: The new Vulcan body has pretty smooth articulation with no real issues in terms of hitting poses. Hasbro should have come up with a better way to execute Bucky’s belt though as the sculpt breaks up when you turn Bucky’s waist.
You want any Captain America to have fluid movement with no hinderances to athletic, hard striking poses. I didn’t have any noticeable issues beyond the belt as the Vulcan mold covers all the essential movement I’d want for Bucky Cap to take on his arch-rivals.
Bucky Cap has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders (butterfly)
- elbow (double-jointed)
- wrist
- wrist hinge (up and down)
- torso
- waist
- hip
- thigh
- knee (double-jointed)
- shin
- ankle
Accessories: I complain about the shoddy amount of accessories, but Bucky Cap actually had a decent amount.
He’s got a knife with a decently detailed hilt.
He’s also got a handgun that’s a bit more hi-tech than what he normally carried. It seems like the pistol included with the more recent Winter Soldier is a more fitting handgun choice.
It’s a weird choice, but I definitely have handgun options for Bucky.
Bucky Cap also has swappable hands with an alternate left fist and right fist.
Finally, he’s got the trademark shield. It’s nice and big with a clean paint job with the reds and whites.
Worth it? Bucky Cap is a Walmart exclusive and fortunately they didn’t go crazy with the pricing for this exclusive. He was the standard Marvel Legends price at $24.99.
While I’d still argue that’s not the best price for this line at least he didn’t get an exclusive bump up. As with most Walmart exclusives, I wouldn’t bother trying to wait on a sale or clearance.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
I really like the metallic blue and the improved mold. The belt execution is a bit wonky and he could be slightly smaller, but I do like this upgraded Bucky Cap.
Where to get it? Just a few days ago Bucky Cap was available from Walmart.com, but he seems to be out of stock again. Hopefully if you missed out you can grab him later.
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