Marvel Legends SHIELD Agent vs Hydra Trooper review

I’m all about the army builders for my Marvel Legends collection. SHIELD and Hydra can never really have enough members. Especially now that I’ve redesigned my Marvel Legends collection to have a full-on SHIELD vs Hydra shelf.  To add a little more diversity, Hasbro rolled out the SHIELD Agent Trooper vs Hydra Trooper two-pack.

And in a twist, both figures are women. Thanks to the Quake/Maria Hill offering, we did have a SHIELD female trooper in the mix. Adding a female Hydra trooper that’s not Madame Viper is a nice plus. Hasbro Pulse had this set as part of the Pulse Outlet offering making it an obvious candidate for me to pick up.

Let’s see if I’m going to regret only getting one set of these army builders.

Packaging: This was one of the 2023 releases, which explains the closed box presentation. I do love the design though as it’s reminiscent of Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s post credits with the stark imagery with minimal colors.

The merging of SHIELD and Hydra is pretty cool too. Both armies are represented on either side. It’s a little odd why Hasbro opted for red for the Hydra accent color instead of green. Probably just because it looks more sinister.

The rear features the renders of both figures and their base options with the various accessories available.

Likeness: The SHIELD Agent Trooper is a direct reuse of the Maria Hill/Quake body. It’s a great mold so there’s no qualms with the reuse.

A new part is the helmet, which features a translucent red visor as opposed to a painted one like the previous SHIELD army builder.

That’s a very nice addition and provides some mystery to the agent under the helmet.

For the Hydra Trooper, it seems like the ML team re-used most of the Hill mold with an altered upper torso for the Hydra harness.

That is fully sculpted with smaller lines throughout and a button with the Hydra H.

Also, the ML team switched up the zipper to make it different from the SHIELD Agent Trooper. The Hydra Trooper’s head sculpt is fantastic.

The beady eye sockets and the slightly upturned lips forming a sneer give some great personality to a masked figure.

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Scale:  Since they mostly use the same mold, their scale isn’t that much different depending on your head choice.

They’ll be looking up at the Nick Fury and Hydra agents.

Paint: The SHIELD Agent Trooper’s shade of blue is consistent with the SHIELD army builders. She’s going to get the short end of this review as we’ve already gotten this figure. This is just providing more display options.

Hasbro wasn’t consistent with the greens or yellows for the Hydra army builders, but the Hydra Trooper doesn’t look out of place with either squad.

The yellow in the harness could have used another application or two. There’s some bleed through, but it’s more noticeable if you’re trying to find out.

While the belt is the same as the SHIELD Agent, the Hydra Trooper has an H framed in a silver box on it. The Hydra logo tampo is very clean.

Articulation:  Hasbro used the Shriek body for both figures, which was the pinnacle of Marvel Legends female figure articulation for about six months until they debuted the new Black Widow figure with hyper articulation.

Still, the double-jointed elbows and bicep joints ensure both troopers have better than average articulation.

The SHIELD Agent Trooper and Hydra Trooper have:

• neck
• shoulders
• bicep
• elbows (double-jointed)
• torso
• waist
• hips
• thighs
• knees (double-jointed)
• ankles

Accessories:  This set really shines thanks to the plethora of display options.

There are three additional portraits up for grab. Hasbro wisely painted the neck of the Maria Hill mold to make use of all the options. First up is a black portrait. She has an intense expression and has her hair pulled back in a bun.

With each of the portraits the face printing and paintwork is outstanding. There’s some traces of makeup without making it look like the agents are going clubbing after mopping up Hydra.

Next is a Latina portrait with her hair brushed and resting somewhat longer on her left side. This will probably be my main head sculpt for the agent. Finally, there’s a blond portrait. The hair is pulled up and into a ponytail.

Again, the ML team was thinking about articulation functionality with each of the head sculpts. Given Hydra’s background it doesn’t make a ton of sense to use any portraits besides the blonde option.

The cool thing is Amazon still has the Maria Hill figure available so you could still build out your SHIELD Agent Troopers and make use of all the alternate heads.

For the SHIELD agent, there’s two swappable weapons holding hands in case your agent is not ambidextrous. She also has the smaller handgun that’s standard SHIELD issue.

It’s mildly frustrating she doesn’t have a holster to house it. Lastly, she’s got the big cannon style weapon that was included in the SHIELD two-pack set.

The Hydra Trooper options include an additional set of hands, so she’s got fists and weapons holding. And she has a set of fists. She also has the smaller handgun and the SHIELD pack “shotgun” with purple charging colors.

Worth it?  This set was initially $50, which is the going rate for two Marvel Legends figures. Hasbro dropped the price to $27 as part of a Pulse Outlet sale. That was too good a price to only get one. And of course, now I’m regretting it.

Rating: 10 out of 10

This was a terrific set with an even better price tag. The display options really make for a worthwhile exclusive offering. If it comes back in stock, I’ll definitely need to grab another one.

Where to Get It? This set was a Pulse exclusive item so unless they restock you’re gonna have to resort to other options.