Marvel Legends Commander Rogers review – BAF Totally Awesome Hulk wave

Following Dark Reign, Marvel Comics’ Heroic Age got off to a pretty good start. One of my favorite titles during Marvel’s Heroic Age was Secret Avengers. Commander Rogers led a squad of longtime Avengers on some pretty fun missions. As Hasbro has been knocking out all the numerous Captain America outfits, the Commander Rogers look was quickly rising up the ranks of attires I wanted to see for Marvel Legends.

With the Totally Awesome Hulk wave, I’m finally getting my wish. Of course, now that’s making me look over the existing Secret Avengers and plotting out which characters still need to get added to the team/get updated versions.

Let’s see if Commander Rogers is deserving of attention or if he should get busted to latrine duty.

Packaging:  Commander Rogers is one of the last few holdouts of figures using Hasbro’s ill-advised closed packaging setup. This one isn’t terrible thanks to the heroic pose chosen for the front and the Mike Deodato art on the front and side.

On the left side, Hasbro highlighted the piece of the Build-A-Figure Totally Awesome Hulk that comes with each figure.

The back looks slighter than usual since C.R. doesn’t have an abundance of accessories.

Likeness:  Not looking to take the steam out of Bucky’s run as Captain America, Steve Rogers decided he needed a new outfit to help protect the free world.

This outfit is basically the inspiration for the MCU Captain America: The Winter Soldier stealth suit with a bit more comic book flourishes. It’s one of my favorite Cap outfits with its simplicity and overall smooth look.

He’s got a harness around his shoulders and a belt with a comic accurate buckle and holster. The holster was poorly designed as it should be big enough to actually hold a pistol. C.R. wasn’t shy about using extra hardware into battle.

Commander Rogers does not have a mold with pinless joints, which only ever bothers me for characters with pins that are a different color than that particularly part of the outfit. Think Spider-Man and… Commander Rogers. Sigh.

His head sculpt is pretty decent. This doesn’t look like a Deodato Commander Rogers, who drew a classic Steve Rogers. The ML version has an intense head sculpt like he’s slightly pissed off. The hairline seems like it could be pushed down tighter to fit into the sculpted grooves better, but it’s not the kind of issue I’d go out of my way to try and fix.

MORE:

• McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Black Lightning review
• G.I. Joe Classified Series Vypra review
• Image Comics reviews 2/21/24 – Cobra Commander #2, G.I. Joe #304
• Marvel Legends action figure reviews

Paint:  You know the color scheme of the Stealth Suit. It’s just like the movie version with a navy/midnight blue and white stripes and a star in a circle on the chest and outside shoulders.

White is a color companies need to realize requires more paint to look right applied over a darker base body. The white lining looks faint with bleed through all over the figure. Is it worth trying to touch up? Depending on the quality of your painting skills.

This wasn’t a shocking issue as that’s the norm. At least the linework is sharp throughout the figure even the white paneling along the arms and the stripes along his legs.

Scale:  Different costume, same guy. He’s about the same height as the 80th Anniversary/20th Anniversary Cap mold with the additional height coming from the taller boots. It’s not egregious and it certainly looks like the same guy though with some angles the head sculpt seems a bit too big.

Articulation: Commander Rogers is all in the action so his Marvel Legends figure needs to be up to handling the articulation workload.

That’s no problem as this mold — mostly the Grim Reaper buck — can hit all sorts of essential Captain America battle strike poses.

Commander Rogers has:

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

Accessories: Commander Rogers is remarkably light on accessories even for a line where that’s increasingly becoming more of the norm. As far as his accessories, he only comes with his energy generated shield. It’s done in a clear plastic with a light, transparent red and blue. The clip attachment somewhat spoils the illusion, but there wasn’t another way to make that look better.

This is a cool accessory though and will be useful for team shots with the Busiek/Perez-era Avengers.

But that’s it for Rogers. It was surprising Hasbro didn’t include alternate hands — grasping, open or chop hands. This is where the value of these figures is starting to go south especially with the price increase.

The only other accessory is the head of the Build-A-Figure Totally Awesome Hulk. Useful if you’re building Hulk not so much if you’re not.

Worth it?  Like many recent waves that hit retail, Commander Rogers reached clearance quick, and I missed him before he vanished from the shelves. Thankfully, I was able to take advantage of the Black Friday Pulse sale to get him for about $17. Not a bad price for a Marvel Legends figure these days.

Rating: 9 out of 10

I’m being harsher on this figure than I’d like largely due to the use of pins that disrupt the outfit, the inconsistent white stripe paints and the underwhelming accessories.

Where to get it?  I got Commander Rogers from Hasbro Pulse. You can also order him from Amazon and Entertainment Earth.

As an Amazon and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.