Marvel Legends 20th Anniversary Captain America review

It’s crazy to believe it’s been 20 years since the debut of Toy Biz’s Marvel Legends. I still vividly remember the excitement of going down the aisle at Ames and grabbing Iron Man, Captain America and Hulk for $7.99. So maybe price wise it does feel like it’s been 20 years…

Hasbro went down the nostalgia train with this 20th Anniversary line. I’ve taken a look at Iron Man, Hulk and Toad so now it’s time to wrap it up with the one and only most prominent member of the Avengers himself — Captain America.

The price tag held me back on grabbing this guy at first, but I got a surprise delivery with this figure, so I’m thrilled to take a look at what a lot of collectors are calling the definitive take on Cap so far.

Let’s see if that’s the case and this is a figure worth saluting.

Packaging: Hasbro did a nice job replicating that classic Toy Biz packaging here. Thankfully there’s no plastic clamshell surrounding the entire package so I don’t have to risk cutting my fingers freeing Cap from the plastic prison.

The back includes a solid write up of the history of the Marvel Legends line and how it all started with the original four of Cap, Iron Man, Hulk and Toad.

Likeness:  Hasbro created its new Cap mold with the Alex Ross Marvel 80th anniversary figure. This one is essentially a repaint with a new head and new hip parts. I’m not sure why they opted to swap the hip piece since it already had the folds from the pants while this one has that area much smoother.

The 80th Anniversary figure featured sculpted chain mail. along the upper chest and shoulders. This time Cap doesn’t have a seam along his cowl piece, but the A is still sculpted just as prominently.

I consider Mike Zeck to be the definitive Captain America artist (beyond George Perez who’s take on just about any character becomes my favorite look) so I wish the mask eye holes were a little larger.

Hasbro also sculpted the stripes on the torso. The gloves and boots are reused from the 80th Captain America figure but are fitting reuses.

Paint: Hasbro has toyed around over the years with various interpretations of Cap’s. Some colorists give his outfit a dark, navy shade of blue while others go with a rich basic blue. Others go the vintage comic book colors with a lighter shade of blue a la Superman. The most classic comic accurate color Cap was the retro version. This one is a rich blue that works fine as an all-era color.

In a switch from previous Cap figures, Hasbro experimented with a cell shading type effect on the red portions of his outfit with a darker red type blend that’s not quite a wash. It’s most noticeable in the stripes, which looks a little odd although it captures more of a comic book style look. There’s some random red marks, which is likely unavoidable since it’s a red and white combination.

The white star is pretty good. It might have needed just one more hit of white paint to smooth it out, but the paintjob is solid. I’ve already mentioned I wish the eye slots for the mask were bigger, so his cowl doesn’t come right up to his eyes.

My final nitpick is the lack of black highlights around the A. This was a shadow effect done in the comics, but it’s similar to Batman in that’s how I associate that look. Without it, there looks like something’s missing.

Scale: Cap is basically the idealized regular human so it’s fine for him to stand taller than most of the other Avengers with the exception of Thor and Iron Man. He should be eye to eye with Wonder Man and Hawkeye.

Articulation: Cap’s articulation is superb. The 80th body was really fun to maneuver and try out various poses.

While there’s some subtle tweaks to the body, it remains just as poseable and fun to pull off signature Captain America stances and poses.

From shield-slinging, to punching, lunging, etc. this figure doesn’t have any problem achieving what you’d expect from Cap.

Captain America has:

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

 

Accessories: Captain America has a pretty generous allotment of accessories as covering essentially everything we’d need from a classic Cap with the exception of an alternate head sculpt with the black highlights in his cowl like the comic appearance.

First up, he’s got a set of fingers spread out hands to simulate Cap throwing his shield. He also has a pointing left hand and a saluting/chopping right hand.

He also comes with a harness for his shield.

These fit smoothly along his shoulders and have great detailing from the leather-like texture and holes for Cap to have the shield slung along his back securely.

Now let’s tackle the most controversial aspect of the set — the holey shield. Hasbro decided to try a new idea out and sculpted holes in the shield in order to hold various energy, first, slash effects. It’s a cool idea as it allows for some nice variety with Cap action scenes.

The downside is Hasbro didn’t include a clean shield. Sure, most people have Captain America shields to spare, but for a premium price that’s not something that should be omitted.

As far as the effect pieces, there’s some fun additions. There’s three translucent yellow with white highlights bullet impact effects. These are a very cool inclusion and plug into the shield.

Next is an energy wave/claw slashing effect piece with the same yellow translucent base and white highlights. This will make for fun re-enactment of the classic Captain America Annual #8 cover.

Finally, there’s a blue energy crackle that is gradually spreading along the shield. The translucent blue looks very cool here as well.

This time Cap has an unmasked Steve Rogers head sculpt. This was done by Paul Harding, who’s done some tremendous 70s-style head sculpts for the Marvel Legends line.

To go along with the unmasked look, there’s a separate piece with the cowl down complete with the ear wings. That’s a nice touch and something some companies might skimp on.

Like I said, Cap isn’t struggling for accessories like some of his wave mates. Oh yeah, there’s also the mini-comic stand with the rear showing a mock-up of the actual plastic base Toy Biz used for its first Cap Marvel Legends figure.

Worth it?  Cap was $32, but he’s the hardest of this wave to get now so basically, it’s good luck getting him for under $55. That’s a tough price point, but I’m assuming at some point Hasbro will re-release him with lighter blue colors and maybe that darkened A in the cowl.

Rating: 9.8 out of 10

Grab a clean shield from one of your other Cap figures and you’ll have the definitive Captain America figure… for now. There’s a few ways Hasbro can improve on this one and you know it won’t be but so long before they put that out.

Where to get it?  At this point your best bet is resellers from Amazon, but that’s probably not the cheapest option.

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